What if I Became Nineveh

Great to see everybody this morning.

Can we start with a word of prayer?

Father, thank you for your family that we get to gather with this morning and thank you for just the freedom that we have to be able to gather like this.

Lord, let the gospel prick our hearts this morning so that we can influence others around us.

And Holy Spirit, just help us with that as we go throughout our weeks and all the people we encounter that need your love, and it's in your name we pray, amen, amen.

He is my everything.

He is my all.

He is my everything, both great and small.

He is my everything, both great and small.

He gave his life for me, made everything new.

He is this Jesus you talk about every day.

He is my Savior.

He set me free.

Now listen while I tell you what he means to me.

He is my everything.

He is my all.

He is my everything, both great and small.

He gave His life for me, made everything new.

He is my everything.

Now.

How about you?

He is my everything Now.

How about you?

He's there each morning to start the day, jesus is with me, no matter what comes my way.

He's my Redeemer.

He set me free.

Now listen while I tell you what he means to me.

He is my everything.

He is my all.

He is my everything, both great and small.

He gave his life for me, made everything new.

He is my everything.

Now, how about you?

My life is in you, lord my strength is in you, lord.

My hope is in you, lord, my strength Is in you, lord, my hope Is in you, lord, in you, it's in you.

My life Is in you, lord, my strength Is in you, lord.

My hope Is in you, lord, in you, it's in you.

My life Is in you, lord, my strength is in you, lord, my hope is in you, lord, in you, it's in you.

My life is in you, lord, my strength is in you, lord, my hope is in you, lord, in you, it's in you, lord, my hope Is in you, lord, in you, it's in you.

I will praise you with all of my life.

I will praise you with all of my strength, With all of my life, with all of my strength.

All of my hope is in you.

My life is in you, lord, my strength is in you, lord, my hope is in you, lord, and you is in you, lord, in you, it's in you.

My life is in you, lord, my strength is in you, lord, my hope is in you, lord, in you, it's in you.

In you, it's in you.

In you, it's in you in you Amen.

Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me and that Thou bidst me come to Thee.

O Lamb of God, I come.

I come just as I am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blood, to Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot.

O Lamb of God, I come, I come, come.

I come broken to be mended.

I come wounded to be healed.

I come desperate to be rescued.

I come empty to be filled.

I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb, and I welcome with open arms.

Praise God, just as I am, just as I am, I would be lost, mercy and grace, my freedom bought, and now to glory in your cross.

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

I come broken to be mended.

I come wounded to be healed.

I come desperate to be rescued.

I come empty to be filled.

I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb, and I'm welcome with open arms.

Praise God just as I am.

I come broken to be mended.

I come wounded to be mended.

I come wounded to be healed.

I come desperate to be rescued.

I come empty to be filled.

I come guilty to be pardoned.

I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb and I'm welcome with open arms.

Praise God, just as I am Praise.

God just as I am.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Today's reading comes from jonah 4, verses 1 and 2.

Jonah 4:1

This change of plans greatly upset jonah and he became very angry, so he complained about it to the lord all right, we'll go ahead and get started this morning with the word of prayer.

Dear god, we thank you for this day.

God, we thank you for this time together.

God, we thank you for an opportunity, uh, to get together to praise you and to worship you.

Uh, god, we're thankful for for this past week with Vacation Bible School and thankful for all those kids coming and God hopefully being pointed towards you.

God, we thank you for everything you do for us.

God, open up our hearts and our ears to the things that you want us to hear this morning.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

All right, this morning we're going to go ahead and get started, and this morning, as we kind of get started, I want you to think about if you could go back in history, or go back in just a little bit of time and attend or experience any event.

What would that event be for you?

What would you want to go back and be a part of?

I'm going to give you a few seconds to think about that, as I share with you one of the experiences I wish I would get to go back and be in attendance to 2013 National League Wild Card Game.

Ridiculous A sold-out PNC arena.

It was a blackout.

They were in Cueto's head so much that he dropped the ball.

And then the very next pitch, russell Martin hits a home run.

Would have loved to have been a part of that, watched it on TV, had cold chills watching it.

One of my buddies was there, said the place was shaking.

He said the stadium was shaking.

Just one of those moments where you wish you were there.

So I want you to think about that for a few seconds.

I'm going to run through a list of things that I wish I could have been a part of.

But what experiences or what part of history do you wish, man?

I wish I would have gotten to experience that firsthand.

Imagine being there the first time they discovered and created a fire.

Think about how crazy that would have been right.

The time they actually spark and a flame starts, think about how crazy that would have been.

I was thinking about that.

Think about when the telephone finally worked right.

Or we were talking in teen class, the light bulb when it finally turned on.

Think about the excitement that would have been in the room, the joy that would have been in the room.

And so just kind of think about those things.

I think it was September 25th.

I think was the first time the Chicago Cubs played at home following 9-11.

And Sammy Sosa comes out running around with the American flag and then into the game he comes up to bat, hits a home run.

The crowd goes wild.

Somehow he acquires an American flag and he runs the bases carrying the American flag.

And think about that moment.

You watch that highlight.

Think about what it would have been like to be there 9-11,.

I was in third grade when that happened.

I was sitting in music class.

Isn't it crazy how you remember little things.

I mean in third grade, you're what?

Seven, eight years old Remember that moment.

I remember and I remember 9-11.

I remember afterwards just the sense of unity in our country, the sense of pride in our country, and to be at that moment when Sammy Sosa ran the bases would have been kind of one of those neat moments.

To be a part of Ohio State Buckeye fans remember when Zeke pretty much ran away with it against Alabama.

Finally he said oh yeah, I was in college, I think.

When this happened.

I remember like running down the road, just celebrating.

We were just running, it was so cool, we finally beat the SEC team, and that kind of moment right there.

I would have loved to have been at the back of the end zone watching him run right to it, right the energy and the feel of the room.

And then, of course, you have to have a Bible answer.

One of my stories that I would have loved to have been a part of is the feeding of the 5,000.

I would love to have just been in the crowd right To have tasted maybe the bread and the fish.

I wonder if it tasted really good, you know, to see how it actually happened, to watch the disciples' reaction, because you know they had to be frazzled when they just kept passing and they just kept going.

So those are the moments I want you to think about and hopefully maybe you could write a couple down there on your outline as you go through.

What part of history or what Bible story do you wish you could be a part of?

Today we're going to be in Jonah, chapter 4.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

If you were here a couple weeks ago, we started in Jonah, chapter 3.

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

And we kind of talked about the idea of who is, or what is, your.

Nineveh, jonah was asked by God to go to Nineveh and to preach against the way that they're living.

Nineveh we talked a few weeks ago was a wicked place.

They were doing a lot of evil things and were just kind of violent.

And God went to Jonah and said Jonah, you're going to be the guy that goes to Nineveh, you're going to be the one to deliver the message.

And we know through VBS and the VeggieTales that when God asked Jonah to go, jonah did what he ran right, he ran and ran away.

And then God puts him in the belly of a fish and kind of has a come-to-Jesus moment where he's praying.

And then God puts him in the belly of a fish and kind of has a come to Jesus moment where he's praying and praising God for how good he is.

And then God looks at him again and says, okay, now it's time to go to your Nineveh, to go to your place and to share God's message with them.

And so he finally goes to Nineveh.

That's what we talked about a few weeks ago in Jonah 3.

He goes to Nineveh.

That's what we talked about a few weeks ago in Jonah 3.

He goes to Nineveh.

He shares the message with a group of people that he didn't want to share a message with, but he shares it with them anyway and an unbelievable thing happens.

As he shares the message that God wanted him to deliver, the people of Nineveh have a change, they repent.

We read a couple weeks ago that the king even declared that all will turn towards God, that all will fast and pray to God, that God would have a change of heart over the decision that he had made to basically wipe out Nineveh.

And as you get through the end of Jonah chapter 3, you read that God changes his mind, that God prevails in a way that only God could and is a good and merciful, loving God.

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

And he decides that he's not going to wipe out the city of Nineveh, but instead he's going to leave it.

But then that leads to Jonah chapter 4, and Jonah chapter 4 is kind of a crazy turn of events because Jonah has finally done it.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention Jonah 4 · chapter mention

After the long process of running, the long process of being scared, of being afraid, he goes to the city of Nineveh and starts a revival through God.

Nineveh was the largest city at the time.

Over 120,000 people lived there and now they all are turning and praising, worshiping God.

Think about what that moment would have been like for the whole city to turn to God.

That's one of those moments where I would have loved to have been there right For the whole city to turn to God.

That's one of those moments where I would have loved to have been there, right?

You think about the moments in our history when there's been God movements.

I think it was in the 70s and the 80s.

There was the Jesus movement Out on the west coast where people were turning to Jesus.

There was a great revival in the 70's and 80's in the West Coast.

They made a movie about it, the Jesus Movement.

Maybe you've watched it.

And then last year, on February 8th, on a college campus where they meet regularly for a 50 minute chapel, they met for chapel and 16 days later they were still meeting there in the chapel in Asbury, kentucky.

It was estimated that over 50,000 people visited and descended on or came to Kentucky, to Asbury, where they have two stoplights.

So they got us beat.

So they got us beat.

But 50,000 people charged Asbury Kentucky to the college campus because there was a movement, because God was moving in that moment.

I remember reading through and watching it on social media and just seeing day after day that it was still continuing.

It was still happening.

It was still happening.

Wouldn't it have been cool to be a student on that campus.

Wouldn't it have been cool to be a Christian on that campus when that started?

You're looking around at your fellow students that a few days ago didn't want to be in chapel and here they are willingly now.

Wouldn't that have been really cool.

A moment that's kind of the moment I feel like Jonah is in, but we read his response In Jonah, chapter 4, verse 1, it says this change of plans.

Jonah 4:1

So God, changing his mind, greatly upset Jonah and he became very angry and he complained about it.

People were flooding to God.

How could you be upset?

Well, I think it's because it didn't look like Jonah expected it to.

It wasn't the group of people that Jonah thought would flood to God.

And that happens when God is moved in our history.

When God is moved, people question those movements.

As cool as the revival in Kentucky was a year ago.

There was doubters.

There was people questioning the authenticity of the people changing.

There was people worried about how that was going to happen, how it was taking place.

There was people that about how that was going to happen, how it was taking place.

There was people that were uncomfortable with it.

There was divisions between old and new.

As we read Jonah 4, we discover a lot about where Jonah was actually at in this moment.

The brutal truth is, as we read this, is Jonah didn't really want the city of Nineveh to find God, and maybe we can relate to that a little more than we want to.

So this morning we're going to take some time to look at why was Jonah so angry?

God had given him a message.

He delivered the message God had moved and we read that Jonah is just at a loss.

He delivered the message God had moved and we read that Jonah is just at a loss.

He's just angry.

And it actually tells us why he's angry, and we're going to be there in Jonah chapter 4 this morning.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

But the first thing that we learn about Jonah I want to go back to that real quick we do learn a couple positive things from Jonah.

Jonah was angry, he was frustrated With who God?

Did he keep it in?

Did he just continue to dwell on that?

He vented.

We all need to vent sometimes, right, because if you don't vent, you just told it in, right, and then it just builds up and eventually it just comes out or you just become so bitter you start hating people or situations.

And so one thing that we do learn from Jonah as a positive, because as we continue on it's going to sound very negative.

I don't want it to be.

Hopefully it doesn't at the end.

But one thing we do learn from Jonah is that we can be brutally honest with God.

God can handle it Okay, and that's what Jonah does.

He's just brutally honest with him here in a few minutes and tells him he's upset.

And so why is Jonah angry?

Number one he knew better.

Jonah thought he knew better.

In Jonah chapter 1, when God addresses Jonah and says go to Nineveh, we don't get to read much about the conversation that takes place.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

All we read is that Jonah just decides to run.

But in Jonah chapter 4, as we read through this, we get a little bit more information about what that conversation kind of looked like.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

And this is what he says.

He says Didn't I say before I left home that you would do this Lord?

So Jonah, before he even ran away the first time, had a conversation with God, saying I don't want to go because I know what you're going to do.

Yet God carried out His plan anyway.

And so Jonah is frustrated because God carried out His plan.

Jonah thought he knew better.

Jonah thought and believed that the people of Nineveh deserved to be punished and deserved that judgment.

Jonah didn't want to be the man for the job.

He didn't think he fit the description and deep down inside I think he knew his heart wasn't in it.

And so he's angry.

Because Jonah has a belief that I know better than you, god.

Now, we don't want to admit that, but we do that a lot of times as well.

God, if you just do it this way, it would have ended a whole lot better.

Or you go through the trial and you go through the trial and you go through the trial and then you're like, okay, we made it through, but why couldn't you have just done it this way, right?

And so I think one of the reasons Jonah is so angry is because at the very beginning he said God, I knew you were going to do this and I had to go through it all anyway.

And he's angry?

So he knew better.

That's why he's angry.

He knew.

Second one he didn't want God to move.

So it says didn't I say before I left home that you would do this, lord?

That is why I ran to Tarshish, that's why I ran away.

Jonah tried to tell God that he didn't want to be the guy, and when God didn't listen, he ran.

He took his matters into his own hands.

He didn't want to be the guy and when God didn't listen, he ran.

He took his matters into his own hands.

He didn't want to participate in God's plan.

When we read the story of Jonah, oftentimes we read the VBS version, the Vacation Bible School version, where it's Jonah was scared so he ran.

So we read this story.

It's not that Jonah was scared to go to Nineveh because he was scared of what the people were going to do.

Jonah was scared to go to Nineveh because he was afraid of what God was going to do with the people in Nineveh, because the people of Nineveh were Jonah's enemies.

It was the Assyrians.

That was the enemy.

Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh because he didn't want the enemy to find God.

That's why he's upset.

I read that for years, thinking he's running out of fear of what was going to happen when he got to Nineveh.

But what is the truth is that he ran because he didn't want Nineveh to find God.

And it's easy to sit there and say what are you thinking, jonah?

How could you be angry?

Or how could you not want somebody to find God?

But again, we do the same thing Matthew 28,.

We get the Great Commission right and that says go into all the world and what?

Preach the Gospel.

And the idea is to preach it to who?

To all nations, to all people.

But what do we typically do?

We go to our family, say, hey, I want you to know about this Jesus guy.

Or we discover some friends and we say, hey, I want you to know about this Jesus guy.

But that person that's treated me wrong for years, nah, I'm going to Tarshish.

We can get upset with Jonah, we can get angry with Jonah, but we've all been there before.

There's people in our life that we don't want to share Jesus with, and that's why he's upset, because God is for everyone.

He continues to get upset.

He's continuing to share with God.

He said I knew that you were merciful and compassionate, god.

I knew that you were slow to be angry and I knew you were filled with unfailing love and I know that you are eager to turn back from destroying people.

Jonah's mad because God is good.

Good.

We want God to be good to me.

We want God to be good to us.

We want God to be good to Stop 9.

We want God to be good to my family.

We don't want God to be good to our enemy Right.

Think about this.

This is the guy that's praying and praising in a fish.

Just a few moments before this, he's praying and praising God.

Thank you for saving me, god.

I was sinking, god, I was in the darkest moments of my life and there you were, god.

I was in the dark, gloomy part of this world and you had your arms around me.

And when God saved him, god was good.

Jonah was happy.

He was saved right.

But when the people of Nineveh are saved, where's Jonah?

He's sulking.

He's mad Because God is good.

Now, in fairness, I do want you to understand.

I think Jonah has a great respect maybe not respect a great knowledge of who God is.

I know that you're merciful to the guilty.

I know that you're compassionate to the weak.

I know that you're compassionate to the weak.

I know that you're slow to be angry.

I know that you're rich in faithful love.

I know those things.

I know that you want to relent from sending punishment.

I know you want to give second chances, but he's still mad about it.

He was mad because God's attitude towards sinners changed.

He was fine with it when it was all about him, but the moment it became about Nineveh, he became frustrated and upset.

Last number four His reputation was hurt.

Just kill me now, lord.

I'd rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.

The only part of the message that we know that Jonah said when he went to Nineveh was that in 40 days it was going to what Be destroyed?

Just kill me now.

I'd rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.

Jonah is so angry that he's going to kill him.

His pride is so hurt because his reputation is about to be altered just a little bit, because what he said was going to happen is not going to happen, and so it's almost like he values his reputation more than he does the souls of his enemies.

And God asks him a question.

He vents all this time and then God says is it right for you to be angry?

Is it right for you?

You're all upset, jonah, you're all mad, you're all angry.

Is it right for you to be angry Now?

This is a question that we probably should ask ourselves about every day.

Right when life doesn't go my way.

Is it right for me to be angry?

Now?

God does something here.

God gives us the first object lesson, I think, in history ever recorded, because if you know the rest of the story, we're going to look at it in just a second but God starts an object lesson for Jonah to try to get his attention.

Jonah, you've missed it.

You've missed what this is all about and who's in control.

So I'm going to give you this object lesson Now.

You've seen object lessons before.

Woody does object lessons all the time.

I do object lessons all the time.

If you've been a part of the youth group, you've seen object lessons.

An object lesson is just simply using something as a physical object or a visual aid to teach a lesson.

So I got five bucks here because I have three kids.

That's all I got.

When I've seen this object lesson done before, it's with like a 20 or a 100, but I got three kids.

How much is this worth?

Ten cents, rigo says it's worth what?

Five dollars?

If I take it to the store I can buy.

How much stuff I can buy five dollars worth?

Because the United States has determined that this piece of paper here, or whatever it's made out of is worth five dollars.

Okay, no matter what, it's valued at $5.

So if I crumble it up, how much is it worth?

Still worth about?

Do you still want it?

Yeah, okay, right, you can get two chicken nuggets with that right now.

Okay, so if I crumble this up, it's still worth $5.

If I put it on the ground and I have muddy shoes on and I step on it and it's covered in mud, how much does it work?

$5.

You would still want it, right, because you can still get your two chicken nuggets.

Right, if I take it and spit on it, which I'm not going to do, if I spit on it, or, better yet, if I take it to my kid's pew and rub it through all the sprinkles and snack that's in the pew, how much is it worth?

It's still worth $5, right, because someone has deemed it as being worth $5.

The value of it is $5.

And so the object lesson is, if you haven't caught on, is that God always sees you as valuable.

It doesn't matter how much sin and how much damage the world has caused in your life.

When God still sees you, you're still valuable.

Right, that's an object lesson.

There you go.

Here's five bucks.

The next one you've seen Woody do this one.

I'm just stealing this one from Woody.

The next one you've seen Woody do this one.

I'm just stealing this one from Woody.

Okay, you've got a piece of paper here, right?

Imagine, on this piece of paper we'd go through and we'd write all your sins on that piece of paper.

Some of us would need a little bit more than just this piece of paper.

We're going to write all of our sins on it, right.

But then when we're baptized into Christ right, you've seen Woody do this before what.

But then when we're baptized into Christ right, you've seen Woody do this before what?

Do you see Jesus?

Right, you see the Gospel, you see Jesus, okay, and so that's an object lesson.

That's a simple thing.

That's what God is about to do here with Jonah.

He's about to just give him an object lesson, something just real simple for him to understand, so that he can grasp the idea of what God is trying to do here.

So we're going to walk through this real quick.

You'll notice on your outline you have two boxes.

We're going back to art class.

Folks, here's what I want you to do as I read this next part of the story.

I want you to draw this, what this would look like.

Okay, just something to do something different.

Change it up a little bit.

Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city.

And then the Lord, god, arranged for a leafy plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head, shading him from the sun.

This eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant.

So go ahead, get that pen and draw out that scene.

Jonah leaves the city, he goes to the east side of the city, he starts to build his own shelter and he's waiting there to see what's going to happen next.

Now God has already changed his mind, right on the city of Nineveh, and so I do think that Jonah is still going out there hoping to see what's going to happen next.

Notice, this is his response to God's question are you right to be angry?

Jonah just leaves.

He goes to set up his shelter.

As he's building his shelter, it's obviously not good enough, because then God arranged for a leafy plant.

Let me see those leafy plants, hold those up, show and tell folks.

Nice, nice, rigo, that's real good.

I like the sun with the waves.

You got there, nice.

That's a leafy plant right there.

I like it Very good.

So God arranges for there to be this plant Right.

And the purpose of this plant is to give what Shade For the comfort of who?

For Jonah, right.

But who provided it?

God?

Who created it?

Who's in control of it?

Who gets to decide what happens to it?

Okay, you picking up on it here?

This is an object lesson for Jonah.

Here's this plant and Jonah is just loving it, you know he's.

You know when you've been cranky and you finally just decide like, okay, I need to quit being cranky.

This is where Jonah's kind of at.

He's just kind of sitting back.

He's relaxing in this.

I envision him kicked back in the lawn chair.

Life is good in this moment.

He's kind of anticipating the city to blow up like kind of hopeful still, and he's just sitting back watching.

Here comes your second box.

But God arranged for a worm.

The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away.

And as the sun grew hot, god arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah.

The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and he wished to die.

Death is certainly better than living like this.

So go ahead and draw that out for just a second.

So he's sitting there, he's resting, things are starting to become calm.

He's coming down from that grumpiness just a little bit.

The shade is nice, the breeze feels good.

God has provided for Jonah and Jonah likes it because it was for who it was for him.

So he enjoys it.

God is good today.

Now, if God had built a dome for the city of Nineveh, jonah would probably have been pretty angry.

God is good today.

Now, if God had built a dome for the city of Nineveh, jonah would probably have been pretty angry.

We already know that.

But he's calm, he's good.

But then God sends a worm.

And what's the worm do?

It eats the plant.

When it eats the plant, it kills the plant, which means the shade goes bye-bye, which means the sun is now on Jonah's head.

And then the wind picks up and it's scorching hot and he gets cranky, like we all do when it gets hot.

We all want summer, and then we complain it's hot outside.

So then it gets hot, he gets cranky, and now he wants to what?

I'd rather die than sit here.

God, you just provided for me, but I'd rather die than have to withstand this one bump in the road.

Keep on reading, it says.

Then God said to Jonah Is it right for you to be angry?

Jonah, is that the first time he's asked that question, or the second time, second time, still trying to get it across, because the plant died?

Yes, jonah retorted, even angry enough to die.

So now he wants to.

He wishes he was dead because it's so hot, and now he's so angry, he just wants to.

He's got an attitude problem, doesn't he?

He is a cranky dude.

Then the Lord said you feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there.

It came quickly and it died quickly, but Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals.

Shouldn't I feel sorry for that city as well?

Jonah cared more for his personal comfort than he did for the people of Nineveh.

Jonah was more concerned that he was comfortable and everything felt good than he did for a bunch of lost people.

Jonah cared more for that plant than he did for the souls of Nineveh.

Jonah was so upset about Nineveh that he became Nineveh, about Nineveh that he became Nineveh.

He was so upset about the people of Nineveh that throughout the story he becomes Nineveh, and the point is simple.

We're going to wrap up here.

The whole thing comes down to this.

I think Woody said it last week Love God, love God, love people.

Now I think we can argue for a second that Jonah did love God.

He had an understanding of who God was.

He had an understanding that God was merciful.

That's why he didn't want to go to Nineveh.

He understood that God was going to show favor to them, that he was going to bless them.

He says all of that, so I do think he loved God.

But his issue was is he didn't love?

people.

He didn't care for people enough that they would get to experience God.

He wanted to hold it for himself.

It was fine and dandy when God was good, when it was for Jonah, but when it was for anybody else, he was upset.

And so what's crazy about the story of Jonah?

As you read through it?

That's the end of the story.

It ends with that object lesson, this idea of God telling Jonah it's my people, it's mine, I get to choose and I choose to love people so that they love God.

We don't get to see, at least to my understanding, what happens next with Jonah.

That's it.

Did he have a change of heart?

Did it finally click?

I don't know.

The only thing that you and I can control is where we fall into the story we talked about a couple weeks ago, that everybody has a Nineveh, that everybody has a group of people or a person in your life that you need to share God with, and many a times we hesitate.

We don't want to go because it's maybe uncomfortable or maybe because we don't care enough to share it with them.

As you read through the story of Jonah, you find out that his lack of love for people was the issue His lack of love for the world.

He didn't agree with Nineveh, so he didn't want them to know God.

They did things that he didn't care for, so he didn't want to share God with.

They made choices that they didn't agree with, so he didn't want to share God's love with.

We are called to go into all the world and make disciples.

We're going to go into all the world and make disciples.

We're going to go into all the world and share the Gospel, the Good News.

It's for everyone.

It was for you At one point.

You were Nineveh and that message was for you, and so now it's our turn to take that message into the next Nineveh so that they can hear it too.

Let's pray, father.

God, we thank you for this morning.

God, we thank you for an opportunity to get together.

God, we're thankful for the way that you work in our life.

God.

I pray that we can be reminded this morning and this week of the way that you've worked in our life.

God.

Many of us have made mistakes, god.

We are sinners and we've messed up, but you and your love have found a way to reach us, god, and we're thankful for that.

I'm thankful for all the different stories in this room this morning of how you've worked in people's life.

But, god, I pray that we become a church that doesn't leave those stories in this building, but we take those stories of how you worked in our life and we take it to the world, and not just to the easy parts of the world where people are receptive and want to hear it.

But, god, that you will take us to our enemies.

God, that you will take us to the people that are hurting so that we can share your love with them.

God, give us the courage to know that you're in control.

God, give us the knowledge to know that you are in control.

And, god, I pray that our job and our task align with the things that you want us to do, that we can be a group of people that share the goodness of God with the world.

God, allow us to fall so in love with you that we can't hide it, that we share it to everyone we know.

God, we thank you for Jesus, god.

We thank you for his example, god, of going into the world and loving people, going to the outcasts, going to the sinner, going to the people that everyone least expected to God.

I pray that we can be like that, god, we pray for opportunities to see your love and to show your love to the people around.

So, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen.

After I wandered in darkness away, jesus, my Savior, I met.

Oh, what a tender, compassionate friend.

He met the need of my heart, shadows dispelling.

With joy, I am telling.

He made all the darkness depart.

Heaven came down and glory filled my soul when, at the cross, the Savior made me whole, made me whole, my sins were washed away and my night was turned to day.

Heaven came down and glory filled my soul, born of the Spirit with life from above into God's family divine, justified fully through Calvary's love.

O, what a standing is mine.

And the transaction so quickly was made when, as a sinner, I came, took of the offer of raising Him proper.

He saved me.

O praise His dear name.

Heaven came down and glory filled my soul when, at the cross, the Savior made me whole, my sins were washed away and my life was turned to day day.

Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.

Let's bow, lord, god, we thank you again for the blessings of the day.

We thank you, father, for your love and your mercy and your grace.

Grateful for the blessings of the day.

We thank you, father, for your love, your mercy and your grace, grateful for the message that we could hear from Josh, again the reminder of the story of Jonah.

But it's much more than a story.

It was real life and it is an example for us on how we sometimes can get distracted with your will and we get caught up in our own desires rather than yours.

So help us, as we go into this week, to live a life that glorifies you, that helps us to share the light and the message of hope and joy and peace that we can have through you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen.

Father, let your kingdom come.

Father, let your will be done.

On earth as in heaven right here in my heart.

Father, let your kingdom come.

Father, let your will be done on earth, as in heaven, right here in my heart.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us.

Forgive us as we forgive the ones who sin against us.

Forgive them and lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Let your kingdom come, Father.

Let your kingdom come, Father.

Let your will be done on earth as in heaven, right here in my heart.

Father.

Let your kingdom come, Father.

Let your will be done On earth as in heaven, Right here in my heart.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us.

Forgive us as we forgive the ones who sin against us.

Forgive them and lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Let your kingdom come.

It's yours, it's yours, all yours, all yours.

The kingdom, the power, the glory are yours.

It's yours, it's yours, all yours, all yours, forever and ever.

The kingdom is yours, it's yours, it's yours, all yours, all yours.

The kingdom, the power, the glory are yours.

The power, the glory are yours, it's yours it's yours, all yours, all yours.

Forever and ever the kingdom is yours, Father.

Let your kingdom come, Father let your will be done, father.

Let your will be done On earth as in heaven, right here in my heart.

Father, let your kingdom come.

Father, let your will be done On earth as in heaven, right here in my heart, on earth as in heaven, right here in my heart amen.

God bless you everybody.

Have a great week.

Tell somebody about jesus this week.