Shift: Out of the Fish | Part 3

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

It is a uh it's a really special, really special joy to get to be here with you all and to be here with my son.

And uh I love Teresa and I, that's my wife.

We love, this is our home church, and I do travel quite a bit, but whenever I'm in town, this is where we are.

So if you open your Bibles to Jonah, uh we're gonna look at uh chapter two.

But before we do, I just want to, as you get there, or open your phone, because it's not gonna be in your bulletin this week, you'll find that I put a little bit too many notes and there wasn't room.

But this is my three by five card.

And um in week number one, uh we talked about shift and how God actually allows storms to come into our life, and at times even we learn causes storms into our life to shift our focus, shift our our life, our mindset.

Uh sometimes our our our careers, our relationships, so that we get the more that he really wants us to have.

And uh, as Ryan was teaching, he he said, Here, I want you to write this prayer down.

So I did.

Heavenly Father, would you give me an opportunity to share with someone in some way about you today?

And I was sitting in the back, actually, I have a few back problems, so I was sitting on the cement.

And I uh I prayed that.

And then Ryan said, I want you to write down the name of I I can't remember whether it was three people or four people.

And uh, I've always been a bit of an overachiever.

Actually, there's a there's a network of people right around where I live, and I have lived there, I guess, for uh almost 12 years.

And we have taken food and we have invited them to things, and we have loved them in the best way that we can.

But as Ryan was sharing, what I realized was down deep in my heart, I didn't really care about my neighbors the way God cares about them.

I mean, there was sort of this moment, you know, he was talking about Jonah and his hypocrisy that, you know, he's this leader that is called by God and he's a prophet and he's taking God's word everywhere, but God says go to Nineveh, and he goes, No.

And I just thought, you know, pretty hypocritical, you know.

I I was I was with Ryan, like, yeah, what a hypocrite Jonah was.

And then as he prayed and asked us to do this, it was like, wow, Chip, but you got a lot of Jonah in you.

Um and so I I wrote uh names down and I've prayed for him every single day since week one.

And it really is interesting how when you shift and you, and I've, you know, I I told God I was, I mean, I'm sorry.

It's not like I've neglected them or I haven't shared or haven't done this, but they're not on my heart the way they were on God's heart.

And so um I've prayed for him every single day, and uh it's amazing.

Stuff started happening.

So uh the one guy that I really like, he's around the corner or so, and uh uh I've seen him on the golf course, and you know, just has neighbors out, and and out of the blue, he's he's doing this charity event to help some other people.

And it's uh I think it's a little boy that died early, and he got to know the family, and he was literally orchestrating this charity event and had something to do with golf, and I couldn't go, but I wanted to contribute.

So because I'd been praying for him every day, it was not like should I?

I just wrote a check and I said, But I'm not available on that day.

And so he calls me and says, Um, would you do me a favor?

I I said, Well, sure.

He said, Um, you know, the the woman that that lost her son um and all this happened, she's a woman of faith.

And you know, you gave me that book that you wrote on why I believe.

Do you think you could give her one or maybe something different?

And I thought, here I've been for how many years?

And out of the blue, or so is my experience, as I prayed for him and God shifted my focus, and then afterward he says, Hey, you know, since you can't make that event, how about you and I drive down to that golf course and we'll spend the day together.

God allows storms in our lives to shift our focus and our life onto the more that we were made for.

And so in Jonah's case, what we find is uh I can really identify he's a little hard-headed.

If you'll excuse me, I want to get my three by five card back in here so I don't lose it.

And so uh, you know, you you we know the story, right?

He gets thrown in by the sailors, and Jonah uh we'll pick it up in verse 17.

In the Hebrew Bible, actually, verse 17 is chapter 2, verse 1.

Isaiah 2:1

And so let's let's follow it together.

So Jonah, the sailors, they're all praying, they've sacrificed to God.

Jonah runs away from God, and these, you know, pagan sailors, they start praying to the one true God, and they offer sacrifices, and you know, it's like, okay, you know, hey, please forgive us.

But, you know, one, ready, guys, two, three, and they throw him in, and then of course Jonah's like, this is I'm done.

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah.

And Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the tri fish.

Now I now imagine, and we've done enough research and we've got two or three sort of historical examples.

But let's let's go there for just a minute.

Okay?

It's a huge animal, whale, grapefish, something.

Actually, in Hebrew, it's a sea monster.

It's this and it's slimy and it's dark.

And there's oxygen and you can breathe.

But I just can't imagine.

And so he's he's sort of drifting down through the water, and notice God appoints his direction, his sovereignty.

And and notice what I want you to notice as I read this, listen, listen like someone who's been in this yicky, terrible place, and yet realizing, hey, I didn't die, listen for this contrast.

Jonah says or speaks or prays or cries, and then listen for how the response is.

Because as we read this, I want you to know that when you blow it and when I blow it, and when we feel hopeless and like, you know, we don't deserve anything, we've done exactly the opposite of God's called us to do.

I want you to catch this.

I called out of my distress to the Lord.

And in your Bible, you might write underline, He answered me.

I cried for help from the depths of Sheol.

That's a Hebrew word from death.

I just cried, I mean, I've got no hope.

He heard my voice.

He still has a little bit of a reframing life, which we all do when we're running from God.

For you cast me into the deep.

Did God cast him into the deep?

Or is he in the deep because of decisions that he made?

Hey, I don't know.

Have you ever done this?

I've done this a lot, like you know sort of what's right to do, and you don't do it, and you turn away from God, and he says, that's not a good relationship, or that's not a good decision, or those circumstances are dangerous.

And so you go ahead and do it, and then you get in a jam, and then you do this.

Boy God, how could you let this happen?

That's where he's at.

But he's gonna get his perspective in a minute.

Into the heart of the sea, and the current engulfed me.

Imagine him, he's floating down.

All your breakers and billows passed over me.

So, he's thinking, I'm gonna respond.

So I said, I have been expelled from your sight.

He's in this moment.

You said to do this, this is what I did.

I'm an actual willful shaking my fist rebellion.

So I have been expelled from your sight.

Nevertheless, circle that word in your Bible.

Nevertheless, I will look again toward the holy temple.

In the Hebrew mindset at that time, that's where you pray.

That would be God's presence.

He goes, I'm out of your sight, I don't deserve anything, but nevertheless, I'm gonna look again.

So, you know, it's like, I don't deserve this.

I'm going down, I know I'm gonna die, but I'm gonna shoot up a prayer.

The waters encompassed me to the point of death.

The great deep engulfed me.

You're getting these verbs encompassed, engulfed, billows pass over me.

The weeds wrapped around my head.

It's pretty graphic.

I descended to the roots of the mountains.

In other words, he's actually hit the bottom, not only of the sea, but of his life.

The earth with its bars around me forever.

This is I am done.

And he understands I am done because of my choices and my rebellion and what I've done.

And then here's another big contrast.

You might circle this, because the first big one was, nevertheless, I know I don't deserve it.

And this is, but you have brought my life from the pit.

Oh Yahweh, my God, while I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you into your holy temple.

And he's just having this moment where uh this is written in a very clear poetic Hebrew form.

If you would study uh the Psalms, there's called Lament Psalms, and there's Thanksgiving Psalms, and they have a very clear pattern, and he's recounting every moment of what he went through, and he's created this pattern of an introduction, and then this distress, and then this calling out to God, and this deliverance, and then followed by thanksgiving.

But he's at this point where uh I don't deserve any of this.

And then I love it.

He goes, Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness, and he's incriminating himself.

His vain idol was, my will, my way, my perspective.

And now he's like, you know, it's just like how you prayed earlier.

He's got palms up inside of a dark, smelly, slimy environment.

And he says, But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.

That which I have vowed, going to Nineveh, I will pay.

And then here's the great line that you just put a squiggly line under it, put a box around it.

Salvation is from the Lord.

It's this great moment.

In the context here, he's not looking at when we say salvation, we think justification.

I I turned from my sin, I prayed to receive Christ, but the word salvation literally means to be delivered, to be delivered out of something.

And so the author here is letting us know Jonah is delivered out of this, but it's it's thematic.

The Ninevehites are going to be delivered.

The sailors were delivered.

Salvation comes from God and God alone.

It's one of the great themes of the book.

Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up from the dry land.

Uh, put a circle around vomited.

It's a really key word, and we're gonna come back to it.

And by the way, when you think vomited, I I read a guy, he's actually a friend and he's a scholar, and he did all this word study on vomit.

And uh he said, uh puke, regurgitate.

Think of the the smell, think of he said vomit means vomit.

And he said uh it's uh a unique word used in the Old Testament.

There's a handful of times where God talks about what he vomits and why, and we'll get there in a minute, but I just don't want you to miss that.

What's the big idea?

I mean, in other words, Jonah, we just heard his prayer, right?

I'm running away from God, a storm comes, I get thrown in the ocean, I'm beyond hope, I cry out for help.

Here's the big idea.

God deliver let's say delivers us together.

Ready?

God from the storms to reveal his mercy and to position us to fulfill the more that we're made for.

I don't care what you've done, I don't care where you are, I don't care how far away you feel from God, I don't care if the storms are circumstantial or relational or COVID-related, I don't care whether it has to do with work or job, whether it's something that you would look back and say, I gotta own this, or it's what other people did to you, or circumstances out of your control.

God longs for you to do what Jonah did.

Think of the verbs I cried out, I prayed, I remembered, I asked, in the midst of the bottom, it's oh God, please.

And notice he says, God delivers us from storms to reveal his mercy.

It's interesting.

There's a classic Old Testament passage that says God delights to show mercy.

I mean, think of things that you delight in.

Think of things that like I love to do this, or I'm so attracted to do it, or it's such a joy whenever I get to.

Whenever our God, who created all that there is, who spoke the galaxies into existence, and the triune God who sent God the Son to come and die in our place and rise from the dead, pay for our sins, when he sees us blowing it and when we're hurting and when we're struggling, he finds delight to forgive you, to restore you, to put his arm around you, to take you back to where you longed to be.

But he doesn't do it just so that you experience his mercy.

He delights to deliver us often from ourselves, to reveal his mercy that this is what he's like, but to position you, to position you to get your focus off yourself and on to the more that you were made for, the better, the higher, the calling and the purpose.

And so as I looked at this, I I tried to uh spend some time and come up with some, maybe that's exactly what was happening then.

How do we understand this for us?

And the context from chapter one and chapter four is this Jonah's disobedience and despair were birthed out of fear that God's agenda might be different than his desires, right?

Wasn't that it?

I mean, he was afraid, like, I don't want to go to Nineveh.

Why?

We learn in chapter four as it opens up, he says to God, see, you're gonna learn a little bit later.

I don't, Ryan, I don't want to get the cat out of the bag.

But a little pretell here, he actually will go, he will actually preach, and most wicked people that we have any record of in ancient history are the Ninevehites.

I mean, that first week, what Ryan described and how they were and the stuff they did.

I've done some research myself.

It's it's so appalling, it's so evil.

It makes stuff that Hitler did look like child's play.

It's it's so inhumane, so wicked.

And God forgives them.

And Jonah goes, the reason I fled because I understood he's got good theology.

You're this merciful God, no matter where people are at.

If they ever repent, if they ever genuinely turn, if they ever ask, see, I knew you would do this.

And so it's very, he's logical.

Jonah's logic is God is merciful, therefore I'm not gonna go to Nineveh.

Second, Jonah's desire is for God's justice for the Ninevites, right?

It's like, God, I don't I don't want to go preach truth.

What if they respond?

And Jonah also knows he's got a uh a prophecy in the back of his mind that about 30 years later that the Lord is going to uh bring about judgment to Israel.

And so, you know, he's like us, he thinks it through.

Now let's say if I don't go and they don't repent, that's the group that is supposed to come later, which they did in 722 BC.

This is written about 760 BC.

And so Jonah's really logical, it really makes sense to him.

God has this plan, but I know better.

My desires, my purposes, my outcomes are better.

And so Jonah's action reveal tribalism over lordship.

See, at the end of the day, Jonah says, the Israelites and my people, my group, are more important than God's agenda because I know better.

Anybody seen any of this in our life in the last couple years?

I think personally, I don't the ugliness I've seen inside the church during this pandemic probably breaks my heart as much or more than anything I've ever seen.

And it's tribalism.

And it could be nationalism, but I mean, inside the church, there's people that don't talk to each other anymore.

They have said things and done things because someone voted blue state and someone voted red state.

Someone said masks are for everyone, and someone said no mask at all.

Someone said, This is my position on viruses, well, this is my position on viruses, and I mean it has been unbelievable.

And instead of Jesus, instead of what's God's plan, instead of, we may have differences politically.

We may have differences about viruses, we may have differences about masks, we may have all kinds of differences, but what's God's big agenda and isn't our lordship to him and what he wants us to do?

So wouldn't we treat one another with respect and humility and understanding and say, I wondered, maybe there's a bigger thing than our deal, our tribe?

Well, we're this group.

We think, we think this is how everything racially needs to be taken care of.

Well, we think this is the only way to do it.

Well, we gave to this group, or you gave to that group, tribalism, tribalism, tribalism.

Our group, our way, our age, old or young, our ethnicity, our program, our view of scripture.

All these little tribes saying, We know best.

That was Jonah's sin.

What I believe God wants for Israel and the people that I'm concerned about matter than the sovereign God of the universe and his purposes that are bigger.

Jonah's deliverance was birthed in his faith that God is merciful, even to those who willfully reject him.

Notice I put some verses from his prayer.

Jonah's near-death experience, what?

He's in distress.

Jonah's prayers and cries for help, he gets delivered.

Jonah's response is this psalm of thanksgiving.

What I want you to know, and this is so critical for us, Jonah has good theology, doesn't he?

He believes the truth.

God is merciful.

Since God is merciful, I don't want to do what he tells me to do because I hate those people.

Um has me uh doing a lot of travel around the world.

Just before the pandemic, I was in China seven times.

And we do training of pastors, especially in rural areas, and then uh maybe three times in the Middle East in that season.

And um we did one event where uh a gathering of about 150 leaders from the Middle East came together and uh they were able to get out because we were in a neutral country, and believers from Iran, Iraq, all kinds of Middle East countries, uh a young doctor from Yemen who there was a contract on out her to kill her because of in this war that those countries are having using Yemen, uh, she developed a network of small groups really walking with the Lord.

And one one of the biggest takeaways I got from being with those people is their view of suffering and God's big picture instead of our own.

I'll never forget a uh a pastor, he was a house church pastor in China, and I had a chance to eat with him, and we were getting to know one another, and he talked about his uh he was on a sort of a traveling evangelistic campaign somewhere throughout China, and the church met in his home and they moved things around.

And the authorities came, the wife said, No, no, no, no, I'm the pastor, I'm the only one, and the people.

Left and they they beat her to a pulp for two or three days and he came back, found his wife.

It was telling this story, and in my and in my gut, in my tribalism, it was, I'll tell you what, someone ever did that to my wife, Teresa, I would lose my faith.

I'll tell you what.

I mean, I would I would right and I'm thinking that, and then he leans over with his eyes watery and says, Can you imagine that God would ever count us worthy to suffer for him like that?

And I was, I mean, I was too embarrassed to say anything out of that.

I had a lot of thoughts in my mind, but that one never came to my mind.

Do you see his perspective?

Eternity.

His perspective?

God's agenda.

His perspective, of course, we're going to suffer in a fallen world where there's sinful people who do wicked things, and God will use them.

We have sounded like the early apostles in one of the trainings there in the Middle East.

Uh one of the groups that had come had done some other training.

And the leader of it was telling me, um, he said, You know what?

The believers from Ass Ask me from Iran.

By the way, the fastest growing church in the world right now is in Iran.

They said, Thank you for this training.

We we don't have much access to good teaching.

Before we go back to our country, would you teach us to die well?

Would you teach us to die well?

Do you get it?

It's not my agenda, it's not my country, it's not my group, it's not my ethnicity, it's not my young, it's not my old.

It's what does God want?

Shift.

What does God want for my life?

Shift away from my culture, my desires, my this is the way it's gotta be.

This is what's happening in this passage.

And if you look at it casually, it seems like, you know, Jonah is a bit of a, you know, he gets it, right?

Uh first time I studied this passage, I thought, yeah, it's pretty, pretty, uh, pretty good.

Uh you'll notice the little chart that I gave you.

Uh Jonah, you talk about he knew God's word, but he didn't quite apply it.

Uh notice in chapter two, uh, the verses on the left side, and each one of the phrases that come out, I I can give you word for, he he didn't come up with a single original word in that prayer.

All the different psalms that he quotes.

Now, by the way, I I before we get too down on Jonah, I don't know about you, but when I pray, I would cheer like in the midst of my distress, God bring to my mind, remember the psalms were sung.

These are this part of this song and this part of this song and this psalm, and he had probably a huge percentage of all the psalms as a prophet memorized.

And so he's thinking, right?

He's thinking, and all the the word of God is coming to his mind, and he takes this part and this part and this part and this part, and he puts it together and he prays.

I'll tell you what, when you're in a jam, having God's word on your heart, there may be nothing more important or more valuable.

So I want to give him an A plus on that, okay?

Jonah, an A plus on getting into God's Word, hiding in your heart, and having good theology, you absolutely know God is merciful.

Here's where it gets uh a little a little tricky.

Um let's go from Jonah's world to ours.

What do we learn from Jonah?

Because and this positive, okay?

Let's not, let's not, he's like us.

I never I never want to get too down on the people in scripture because the more I study and the more honest I am, I realize there's a mirror here.

And uh it was like the first week.

Jonah's in full-time ministry.

I'm in full-time ministry.

Jonah needed a big shift.

I needed a big shift.

And by the grace of God, I came to awakening.

By the grace of God, God spoke to me.

By the grace of God, someone gave me something practical to do, and I prayed that prayer every day, and I wrote down those names.

So I'm I'm I'm glad that when I read about where they blow it, that God is merciful and understanding.

So let's go to the positive side of what we learn.

One, he knew God's character and he acted accordingly, right?

He knew God was merciful.

Since that's true, I'm gonna run.

But he also knew since God's merciful, even though I don't deserve it, I'm gonna cry out to him.

He knew God's word and he quoted it spontaneously.

By the way, I just aside, um, I'm often asked, as Ryan said, I've been in ministry 40 years, but I came to Christ when I was 18.

So it's been a lot of years.

And because of what God called me to do, I used to teach and, you know, I went to school, then I went to graduate school, and then after that I had to go to seminary.

It was like, are you kidding me?

And uh sometimes people will say, Well, what was the most valuable thing?

You know, was it education or you know, where you went to seminary, you had to learn all those languages.

And you know what I'd say to them?

Most valuable thing that ever happened in my life that has shaped my life in all the storms.

I'm thankful for all that.

I'm not dismissing it.

There was a bricklayer with a high school education who, when I went to college, came and met with me once a week.

And I wasn't a very, I was a slow starter.

Sometimes I would pretend I was asleep when he would knock on the door.

Uh the first couple years, everyone was memorizing verses.

And it was like, hey, you know, it's in the Bible, dude.

I'm not gonna memorize it.

Yeah, right.

And eventually uh I really was struggling in an area of my life, and it was a I wasn't planning to do this, but um with there was four girls to every guy on our campus.

And and think now, early 70s, sexual revolution, you could be just ugly and get lots of dates and a lot more than dates.

And I was committed at this point to be pure, to do life God's way.

And you know, my behavior uh reflected that my mind and my thoughts were just I was the most lustful Christian that I knew.

And I tried and tried and tried and tried.

I I tried, I failed so much I finally decided I don't think I could, I don't think I can be a Christian.

And uh just before I was ready to sort of give things up, I had a roommate who was going to a summer Christian training program, but before he got there, there's this thing called the topical memory system, and you had to memorize these 60 verses and have them word perfect.

And they were just on the basic things of you know, God's word and fellowship and temptation.

And he was uh a heavyweight wrestler.

Uh, and a lot of the I was in a dorm where a lot of the athletes were, and I was a point guard on the basketball team.

So we had this sort of little rivalry.

We didn't wrestle a lot, um and and but it was sort of like you know, wrestlers, you know, and you know, basketball players, and he was a brother in Christ.

He really had a great impact on my life.

So he he left the room one day, and I got his cards out, and I cut up three by five cards, and I wrote down his 60 verses.

And to spite him, this is just to spite him, I don't want to really know God's word.

To spite him, he was gonna take how many months to do it, I thought, I'm gonna do one a day, review them all every day, and then I'm gonna walk in casually when I've got 60 of them and say, Well, Bob, how are you coming on that?

You know, you lame wrestler.

And then I was gonna quote him like this.

And uh, well, I can still remember the day, uh, and I had a psychology professor that that helped me.

I was an education major and a psych major.

This guy was perhaps the most boring teacher that has ever.

I mean, he had to have tenure.

I mean, so I would sit in the back with the book up because he always took, I knew where he took the test, you could just blow off the class.

I put the book up and I would review verses every day.

And I got 21 in a row down, and I remember uh coming around the library and a very attractive co-ed who was involved in the ministry, and I found as a young man and probably as an older man, uh, but lusting for people that don't walk with God is one thing, but you feel extra guilty when you lust for someone who's sweet and loves God with all their heart.

And I, you know, it's like double-double guilt.

And um, so she came around, and I was always been really attracted to her.

And I remember we talked, and I realized my only eye contact was with her eyes.

And then I remember she left, and I had a brother-sister relationship in that window, and then I started to go, and as I was walking, I realized I didn't lust at all.

In fact, wait a second, I mean, this may sound funny.

I've got 24 hours under my belt.

And then I did the 60 verses, and then I started memorizing some chapters, and then years later, I got around a guy who said, You know, you should just do some, you know, do Philippians or do James.

Here's what I'm gonna tell you.

Of all the things I have ever done in all my life, renewing my mind and memorizing scripture has been the single most powerful thing to help me walk with God, avoid temptation, hear his voice.

And there, I can't tell you how many times when I was praying, God, I don't know what to do.

Here's a verse.

And so that's an aside.

That's not this message, just as that's just you know, but but that was, hey, that was Noah.

Noah, how'd he get in this message?

Could we go for Jonah?

Notice positively, he ran to God when he felt unworthy.

That's so powerful.

When I I remember um, and I still do this to a degree, but when I really blow it, I used to think like I needed to take a two-day break from God.

I'm not gonna read, I'm not gonna pray, I'm so ugly, I knew what was right, I didn't do it, and then sort of like, okay, God, I'm kind of back.

Like, you know, I had to go to the woodshed, right?

Like, you did really bad, so you should feel really bad, so you should pay for it.

And here's the deal: God is nearer to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

He longs to meet us right where we're at.

Principle one, the Lord frequently uses moments of great darkness to drive us into the light.

Moments of great darkness to drive us into the light.

Hebrews 12, 11 says, All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful.

Yet those who have been trained by it know it is a process.

Those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Well, negatively, what do we learn from Jonah?

He was thankful, but he wasn't repentant.

His words were good, but his heart was hard.

He wanted relief, not transformation.

And where I get that is that, you know, he prayed this Thanksgiving prayer, there was something missing.

Did anyone read that prayer?

I'm sorry.

I blew it, please forgive me.

Did he ever ask God for forgiveness?

He didn't.

But by the way, the sailors, it says they offered prayer and then they made a sacrifice.

Jonah's promises.

He says, I will offer sacrifice and I will pay my vow.

Is there anywhere where we learn where he ever sacrificed?

So what he basically, what did we basically learn from Jonah is, you know, I was desperate, and here's the word.

When it says God vomited him out, there's only a couple times in the Old Testament.

One, God says, These evil people, Leviticus, can you say Leviticus with me?

Leviticus.

Uh he said, I'm going to vomit them out of this land because of their evil.

And he goes, This is the land I'm going to give you.

And then in Deuteronomy 28, he says to his own people, he says, If you worship idols and you do what these people did, I will vomit you out of the land.

And so what I want you to know is that Jonah said, Okay, I'll do what you want me to do, but his heart wasn't right.

And so it's more than just praying the right prayer.

It's more than, okay, God, I'm sorry I slept with her.

Okay, God, I lied about that.

Okay, God, and our Father who's art in heaven, how, you know, Amen.

We're good, right?

No.

No.

God's looking for the heart.

A real change of heart.

Principle number two is spiritual growth demands we confess and forsake our sin.

And here's the key word, to experience the more that we're made for.

Proverbs 28-13.

It says the one who confesses and forsakes their sin.

Experience God's blessing and his prosperity.

Well, let's uh look at that in contrast to David.

When David sinned in Psalm 51, you don't need to turn there.

Remember the beginning of his prayer against you and you only I have sinned, Lord.

And remember, he said, if there were sacrifices, if there were motions I could go through, if I could, you know, a hundred sheep or a thousand cattle or whatever, he goes, if I could get back in your good graces by earning my way there, I'd do it.

And then he says, A broken heart and a contrite spirit, oh God, you will not despise.

There's something.

Remember when Jesus says, Come into me, all that you labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

See, God is merciful.

There's something about our suffering and our hurt, but we have to come.

And when David came, God forgave.

What we tend to do is we tend to be like Jonah and we run, option A, or option B, I call Jonah the great pretender.

I prayed the prayer, I know your word, I got it, and I'm gonna go through the motions and I'm going to go do what you told me to do.

But he's not doing it because there's a change of heart.

He's not doing it because he cares about the Ninevehes.

And in week number one, what I realized was, you know, I've done some nice things for my neighbors and I've invited him to things, and I've shared Christ at different times.

But what God wanted to shift was do you care about them, Chip, the way I care about them?

Do you care about them to pray every single day for them?

And then by faith, will you expect that I show up?

People are never going to be probably as open, family members, neighbors, co-workers.

The world is a messed up place right now.

And they're vulnerable.

And you know what they're looking for?

Not someone who fits into some little niche and well, I believe in Jesus, and that's my tribe, and I feel okay with that.

They're looking for light and salt and love.

Someone like you.

And you start with your actions, and God does great things through us normal people.

Notice, what do we learn about God?

What's the big takeaways about who God really is?

We learn He's mercy, merciful to sailors, even though they worshiped idols.

Mercy to Jonah, even though he's in willful rebellion.

And he gives mercy to Nineveh, the most wicked people on the earth.

Each one of them got delivered in a different way.

I I jotted this in my notes.

It was what how God revealed himself to Moses.

He is kind and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.

And then for me, in my own words, I just for me, when I blow it, he's patient.

God is gentle.

God is ready to forgive.

He wants to forgive me.

He wants to restore me.

He's not mad at me.

You might jot uh Psalm 86, 5 in your notes in the Living Bible.

It says, Oh Lord, you are so good, so kind, so ready to forgive everyone who comes and calls on you for help.

The principle here is your view of God will determine your life.

Behavior always follows belief.

I'm the product of my thought life, you're the product of yours.

As a man or a woman, Proverbs 23:7, as a man or a woman thinks in your heart, so you will become.

Proverbs 23:7

The person sitting in your chair is the product of all the things you've been putting in your mind for the last five, ten, or fifteen years.

The books you've read, the movies, the relationships, all of it, creating this lens.

And then we act in a way that makes sense to us.

Some of it we don't even know that we believe.

Your view of God.

He is absolutely sovereign over everything.

Did you notice?

Uh He controls the sea, the fish, the wind.

He appoints the fish.

Later on, he'll he'll cause a plant to grow.

Later on, he'll he'll tell a worm to go eat the plant.

He controls, remember they they cast lots?

God controls.

That's not that wasn't chance.

He controls deities and powers.

And this is the final principle.

You will not always understand God's ways, but you can trust him for everything and everyone because his purposes cannot be thwarted.

His purposes cannot be thwarted.

There's a lot of times in my life, and I could spend a lot of hours telling you times that were dark and difficult, and I didn't understand them.

But over the years I've learned for everyone, every circumstance, an all-knowing, all-powerful God who is good.

Job says, Oh Lord, you are God.

Your purposes can't be thwarted.

I love the quote by Saint Ignatius.

He said, Sin is unwillingness to trust that what God wants for me is only for my deepest happiness.

You see, at the end of the day, Jonah flees because he thought that God's plan and purposes would not bring him what he really wanted.

And I flee and I run to different things, and you do, because down deep we have this warp view of God that he doesn't have the very best, that he's not really good.

And so the message today is he's so merciful that wherever you are, whatever you feel like, oh, how could God ever accept me?

It's because of who he is, it's not because of who you are.

This passage screams, I love you, I want to forgive, I want to restore, I want you to draw near to me, and I'll draw near to you.

And then the deeper message is, would you follow me?

Would you let go of your tribalism?

Would you let go of your view, of your desires, of what you think will make you really happy?

And could you actually believe that, you know, I did create the universe?

You think I could work this out for you?

You think I could make this, you know, how about this?

Instead of fix the relationship, God show me what it looks like for me in the relationship.

Or if it's even a good one.

Instead of fix my boss, God, would you how about whatever you whatever you want me to do to express your love to him or to her.

Lord, we are just human people in great need of your grace.

And I ask that you would give it in full measure right now.

I thank you that you understand where we're coming from.

God, if you if you deliver Jonah in his willful rebellion, I just thank you that you are so available to us.

Will you please speak?

Encourage us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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