Keep Coming Back

Well, we experienced a milestone in our family just a little while ago.

Our oldest son Nathan graduated from high school and now is in Phoenix, Arizona, attending Grand Canyon University.

Which means I'm old.

Finally in the old crowd.

I got a college kiddo.

That's crazy.

It's wild because just a couple of months ago, and for the last almost 19 years, well, Nathan's been in our life.

And we went from a household of four plus a cockoo named Ziggy to a household of three with a cockapoo named Ziggy.

And apparently, to cope with the loss of Nathan being around every day, Alison, my wife, bought a porch goose named Gail that is now a part of our family.

Everybody say hi, Gail.

Gail's got different clothes for the different seasons.

She's in football gear these days.

I don't know.

I just go with it, okay, guys?

It just happened.

She bought it while I was away.

But anyway.

If in three years, if all things go according to plan, uh our youngest son, Brady, will also graduate from high school and go to the next point, which is college or university.

And I don't know what other things will be in our life at that time.

I'm old, but I'm not too old to remember.

I remember the good old, I remember graduating from high school.

Miller North, 2001 grad, and he mustang alumni.

Okay, apparently I didn't do a good job of witnessing um during my high school years, because there's nobody here and maybe nobody there.

And I graduated and then I went to Concordia University, Wisconsin, where along the way I picked up Allison, who also, like Gail, changes clothes with the seasons.

And we graduated together.

And then we moved to St.

Louis, where for five years I attended cemetery.

Sorry, I mean seminary.

Man, always happens.

But I just remember graduating high school and even graduating college, and I was like, this is fine, but it I don't know, it's okay.

Because like I'm I'm just going to the next school.

But I do remember graduating from seminary, feeling like, that's great.

Now I'm done.

Now I'm really graduated.

22 years of education.

I'm graduated.

It's with that imagery that I want to look back into today's conversation.

Because sometimes, like even graduating seminary, I like to get into conversations about how do we effectively form pastors in our denomination.

And there's lots of different opinions about how do we do that well.

One of the sentiments, though, that I don't think anybody says, but it kind of comes off that way, is that once you attend a residential seminary program or go or essentially go somewhere to learn for a period of years, that like you're done.

And we all know, not just pastors, but in your career, like you may graduate from school and going to classes and reading books and hearing lectures, but you don't ever really graduate from learning, do you?

Because that's true for ministry, as for your career as well, is that much of your formation is your continued learning, your on-the-job experience.

And so as we enter back into Sinners Anonymous, we're in a six-week series where we're going through two things the 12 steps made popular by Alcoholics Anonymous for how to find freedom in your life from the things that, well, hold you down.

We said that, yeah, not everybody's an alcoholic and not everybody is addicted, but we are all biblically sinful.

And the 12 steps, they came out of the Bible.

And John Ortbrook says, the church had them and it's time the church gets them back.

He's not saying that we steal them, he's saying we can all have them.

And so we've been looking at this as potentially a way of life and steps that have helped millions upon millions upon millions of people find freedom, and saying maybe it's true for us as sinners as well.

And we've been looking through the book of Jonah, working through the entire book of Jonah.

And so today we get to steps 10 and 11 and enter into Jonah chapter 4.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

My main point today, though, is this you don't graduate from grace.

Keep coming back.

Everybody say, keep coming back.

We've made great progress.

Progress, not perfection in our series.

Jonah's made progress.

We've made progress.

And it sure looks like where we ended in Jonah 4.

Today ought to be the day that is the finale week where Jonah gets his diploma.

But, oh man, it gets deep quick.

So here's where we've been so far, week one.

We looked at step one.

And we looked in Jonah's life, and he admitted he was powerless.

The storm was his fault.

He was running away from God.

And we summed up step one in two words.

I can't.

We then looked at steps two and three.

We said, I'm powerless.

I can't get past my sin.

I can't manage my way or control my way or even grit my way through it.

But I know a higher power that has help for me.

Jesus can.

So I surrender.

Week three, we looked at, well, surrender is great as a decision, but what does that really look like?

It's a process that involves steps and starts with looking inside, examining our wrongs, and then actually confessing that.

And so we said, look inside, tell the truth.

Last week we did a lot of work and we looked through steps six through nine.

And amazingly, as Jonah went back into Nineveh to preach a message, a message that was only five Hebrew words, the Ninevehes responded and were the positive example of steps six through nine, which we summarize this way: humble yourselves and repair what you can.

The Ninevites, these nasty Ninevites, began to change.

And so today, again, those three words, which we'll look specifically into what steps 10 and 11 are, but those three words keep coming back.

Keep coming back.

So this ought to be diploma ceremony time for Jonah.

Everything worked, right?

Jonah obeyed God, he got a second chance.

It's a really cool second chance story.

He went, he preached a message, and the people responded in the way that God wanted them to respond.

And so I would think Jonah, he's gonna cry out.

I would think Jonah's gonna cry out with words of praise.

Wouldn't you?

Like job description 1A of a prophet is to preach, and expected outcome that hardly ever happened was the people actually listen to what you say.

They don't.

You got to preach even when they don't respond.

Preach even when the people are looking at you like you're crazy.

And in this case, Jonah preached and the people responded.

And so you would expect Jonah to say, Wow, God, thank you.

Thank you for the journey.

It was pretty wild and crazy.

Don't need to do it again, but grateful I went on it to learn some things.

And thank you for using me as a vessel to bring a harsh word.

But God, the people actually responded.

How cool! I'm a vessel for you.

That's what you would expect.

Because people didn't listen to prophets very much.

It was a hard profession.

They did, but that's not what Jonah said.

Here we go, Jonah 4, verse 1.

Jonah 4:1

But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong.

And he became angry.

What?

You're angry?

Come on, man.

I would kill for results like that.

You're angry?

And the Hebrew implies not just uh a little anger, but he's hot, extremely angry, and we see that in verse 2.

He he prayed to the Lord, and you gotta read this with some tone.

Isn't this what I what I said, Lord?

Isn't this what I said when I was still at home when you called me?

This is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish in the first place.

And here's why, God, because I knew it.

I knew it, God.

I knew you were gracious and compassionate.

I knew that you were slow to anger and you were abounding in love.

I knew that you were a God who relents from sending calamity.

I knew it, God.

Like he's crying out about all these positive characteristics about God.

People cry out against me, but not against positive characteristics.

Nobody's walking around saying, Man, that's Zach.

Ah, he's just so loving and kind and handsome.

You didn't have to laugh that loud.

People at Northwest didn't laugh.

Thank you.

Probably did.

Like he's he's complaining about all these positive characteristics about God.

Are you kidding me?

And wow.

This is probably a verse we should have known when we started chapter one.

Because if you had a Sunday school version of the story of Jonah, then you might have been taught that the reason Jonah didn't go to Nineveh is because he was afraid for his life.

Right?

Because the Ninevehes were nasty and they were against the northern kingdom of Israel, and they were torturous, and you don't mess with Nineveh.

And so Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh because Jonah was afraid that, I don't know, he might have been destroyed.

And actually, we see in this verse the real reason that Jonah didn't go to Nineveh.

And I would argue it is not because he feared God, but because, listen to this, he had great faith in God.

Whoa.

Now that's a totally different way of thinking about Jonah.

I'm fleeing not because I'm afraid I'm gonna get destroyed.

I'm afraid that if I go there, you're actually gonna be the God that I know you to be.

And these Nineveh, they've been on me.

They've been on us for decades.

They won't relent, man.

And so the last thing I want is for you to give these jokers a break.

It's not fair.

And that's why I'm not going, because I hate the Nineveh.

And I have faith in you.

Wow.

That's totally different from the way we teach it.

And again, if you just want to see how angry he was, the next verse shows you.

Verse 3.

Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.

I'd rather be caught dead than to see them truly live with your favor.

You can't get more down on the inside.

He's been down on the outside already, but he's still got a lot of work to do.

And in his depression and in his suicidal thoughts, I love how God responds.

Verse 4.

But the Lord replied, Is it right for you to be angry?

That's it.

And we're gonna sit with that today.

We're gonna pick up the rest of the story next week.

I mean, I still got a lot more, but that's a story we're gonna pause right there.

Is it right for you to be angry?

Hey, bud.

You sure?

You're the guy that's gonna be angry?

You see what I did for you, Jonah?

Is it right for you to be angry?

If you go to a counselor, at some point they'll say something like feelings are real, but they're not always, you know what the word?

They're not always true or right.

Jonah's got real feelings.

And I think it's amazing that in the midst of these feelings, which are real, maybe not true or right, that God asks him a question.

It's actually the character and nature of our God.

That he asks us questions.

It's what Jesus did so masterfully in the Gospels.

When he was asked a question, he would very rarely respond with a statement, but he would ask a question back.

And I think the point of God asking a question and taking time with Jonah is this.

God doesn't rush the process.

God doesn't rush the process.

If you're in a coaching relationship, one of the things they teach you as a coach is to ask questions.

And let's be real, probably the reason you are a coach is because you know some answers.

And sometimes it's really tempting that when you're coaching somebody, you're like, I wish I could just tell them the answer and we could just get on with this, but you gotta slow down and ask the questions so that they can process it for themselves.

I find it highly annoying, which is why I'm not a great coach.

And also, by the way, what I have found in a couple of the relationships where I've, for whatever reason, been a coach is sometimes I thought I knew the answer, but as I slowed down and allowed them to process, I've realized that I wasn't right with my answer.

It's pretty humbling at times.

It's a process.

And as we look at our life and we look at the sin that we've got ourselves wrapped up into and what's been of our past, and of course, the good news that all of us are forgiven in the name of Jesus and by the blood that he shed.

It's a beautiful thing that we ought to celebrate God's done that for us.

But living a holy life, getting past our sin, becoming free from the throngs of sin is a journey, not a destination.

It's a process.

And it's okay if it takes time to make progress, not a perfection.

God doesn't rush the process.

It's good.

So as we look where we've been, steps one through nine, if we're honest, have really been about discovering what life has been, uh, the mess that I've made, and hopefully doing all that we are able, when wise and appropriate, to make as much as we can humanly right.

Steps 10 and 11 are a shift forward.

They're a shift to what can we do now?

Steps one through nine, good things to do to deal with the stuff we've done.

Steps 10 through 11, is there anything I can do now that can help me in the process?

So step 10 is this.

Let's read it together.

Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, we promptly admitted it.

I like the two words there, continued and promptly.

Because some of you might be like, Zach, didn't we do this already?

I'm like, yes, this was step four and step five.

Now they've condensed it into one step because hopefully we're getting better.

Continued and promptly.

But I did that already.

I know.

And you have grace from above and celebration on doing everything you can to make it right.

But what do we do in the future?

Continued and promptly.

This is a journey, it's a process.

And so as we think about steps 10 and 11, I want to I want us to think about healthy habits.

In the journey, on the process, what are healthy habits that we can put into our life so that we can be a continued and promptly sort of person so that it carries on.

So it's not a one-time thing.

Continued.

Over and over.

I like the word promptly too, because I maybe you're like me at times where somebody can do something really small, and rather than deal with it, I stuff it and I keep it to myself.

And rather than talking about it in a healthy way, I just keep stuffing things that finally, maybe you can't relate because you're looking at me like I'm crazy.

Something really small happens and it's like an eruption.

And it's like, is it the small thing that happened?

No.

It's all the stuff that we didn't promptly take care of that's now coming out because of a small thing.

And there have been times when after processing, after the explosion, after it went on for way too long, that either I personally thought or shared with the person on the other side, like, why did we wait years to process through that?

It wasn't that big of a deal to begin with.

And gosh, we would be so much healthier and stronger if we'd have just taken care of that.

Continued and promptly.

So a couple of habits that might help with continued and promptly.

First is have a one.

Have a one.

In recovery communities, this is a sponsor.

In the church world, sometimes this person may be called a mentor or an accountability partner or an ally.

But it's one person that you regularly check in with to talk about life.

And also, in addition to the regular check-ins, you've got permission on both sides that 24-7 we can come into each other's life and we're there for them.

Have a one that you can share the last one percent with.

Pastor Matt Chandler says to be 99% known is to be unknown.

Have a one.

Have somebody that you're able to talk with.

Because as we said last week, the opposite of addiction is not sobriety.

The opposite of addiction is what?

Connection.

It's being connected.

And so don't just connect with one, but I would also, second habit, choose church.

Choose church.

Choose to be a part of church.

This is God's family.

We're a part of the body of Christ.

And we come together as a large group.

And then also our church offers connect groups, which are smaller groups.

That what do they do?

They get together to talk about life and to ask questions and answer the hard questions in life and process things together.

And we need connection in our life.

Connection to one another.

So we have a one, but we also have a group, maybe a small group and a large group.

And it's really important that we have that because we need the good news that these groups can provide that no matter how hard the world gets, how challenging your life is, what questions you may be going through at this time, that you've got at least the hardest question already answered by the blood and grace of Jesus.

Amen?

We need that.

And there are more forces competing with that time than ever before.

Protect it.

Get around the shocking good news of Jesus as often as you can.

It is the best choice for you.

It is the best choice for your marriage.

It is the best choice as a parent for your kids to hear Jesus over and over and over and over and over again.

In the process, have a one and choose church.

I heard a story of a woman that is 60 years sober.

I don't know what the chip looks like for 60 years, but I hope it's like, I don't know, gold plated or something.

Like real gold.

And this woman, 60 years in, attends a meeting every single day.

And we would be like, I don't know if you need to do that.

And she'd be like, I wouldn't be sober if I don't.

Because the opposite of addiction is connection.

You want to get past and work through sin, you got to be connected with others around you.

It is the ones that have had an encounter with God, which I'm not saying is unreal or fake.

But the ones that have the encounter with God and say things like, I'm healed, I'm good, other people may need a sponsor, may need community, may need a meeting, may need to go to church.

I I don't need to.

And they're the ones that are Ones that fall the hardest.

Someone in church sent me an email a couple of weeks ago around one of these sermons, and he's in recovery, and he said, he said this.

He said, when it comes to the steps, it doesn't work if you don't work it.

Keep coming back.

It works.

Some of you are like, well, Zach, I tried to do those things, and I had a one and that person kind of betrayed me.

Or I tried to connect group, small group, and well, I didn't really gel with the group.

So I'm just writing the whole thing off.

Or I came to church for a few weeks and my life is still just as messy, maybe even messier than when I came.

And so I tried.

I tried.

The positive way they say it in recovery communities is it works if you work it.

Keep working.

You're worth it.

It works if you work it.

Keep working.

You're worth it.

And then we move to step 11.

Step 11, if we read this together, says the following.

Step 11?

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Now there's a lot there.

There's a lot there.

Step 10, if we're going to summarize, really asks us to continue and promptly pay attention to what's happening in us and largely surrounded with and by community.

Whereas step 11 asks us to pay attention to the God who is with me.

Healthy habits for step 10 or having community and connection in our life.

Healthy habits for step 11.

Well, step 11 says through what?

Prayer and meditation.

Prayer and meditation.

That we have conscious contact.

We don't use that phrase very often in the church.

Conscious contact just simply means an aware, uh, a constant awareness of God, of a higher power.

In our case, Jesus.

They were constantly aware.

How?

Through prayer and meditation.

For as much of a fool as Jonah is in Jonah's book, he does one thing right.

What is it?

He prays.

This is actually the second time.

Verse 2 says he prayed to the Lord.

Now it was that whiny complainy prayer.

It was an immature prayer, but he he prayed.

He prayed.

And so for as much grief as we give Jonah, at least, Jonah is praying and bringing what he has to God.

Sometimes we feel like we need to kind of button up a little bit before we approach God and that our life's got to kind of look in order, but God isn't worried about how you look.

He's not worried about how you feel.

Prayer is not pretending.

Prayer really is relationship, it's how we connect with God.

One of my favorite sermons that I ever heard preached was actually from a former King of Kings pastor here named Dan Weber.

And he preached on a sermon on Psalm 88, which is the darkest psalm in all of the Psalms.

It really depicts where Jonah's at.

Depressed, suicidal.

And Psalm 88 does not resolve, like so many of the other dark psalms, that at least at the end say, But I'll praise the Lord.

It's typically the Psalm, but this one doesn't.

It ends in darkness.

It ends, not resolved.

And actually, we're going to see in Jonah 4, this story ends the same way next week.

But what I loved about the sermon was the illustration he gave.

He gave the image of picture God as a father who has a three-year-old daughter.

And for whatever reason, that three-year-old daughter had a really bad day.

Now, what a really bad day for a three-year-old daughter is, like, I don't know.

It might be that someone stole the clothes off of mom's porch goose.

It also may be something really serious because three-year-olds deal with serious stuff too.

But he gave the picture of what do you want for that three-year-old girl as a dad?

What do you want?

He said that the last thing that I would want is to know that my girls had a bad day.

And then my daughter walked up to the stairs and closed her door and locked it, and is crying and is sobbing and saying, It's not fair.

What I would want, Dan said, as a dad, is whatever she's feeling, for her to be near me.

As right or wrong, mature or immature as her feelings are, as crazy as she is, gosh, even if she's throwing a temper tantrum and bowling up her three-year-old fists and punching me in the gut.

I'm a strong dad.

I can take it.

Now I've got two teenage boys, I'm not sure that image still goes.

But you get what I'm saying.

You want your little daughter to be in your arms, to be near, to be talking and sharing what she's feeling.

So at least Jonah's doing that.

God would rather you bring your anger, even about him, to him, than run away from him.

He would rather you pray a messy, messy prayer, with tears and sobbing and frustration, even unfair things said back to him, than for you to keep going and avoiding him or giving up.

Keep coming back.

It works.

It works.

Step 11 ends with praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.

Jesus once said in John chapter 4, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

John 4 · chapter mention

Jesus is saying, what nourishes me, what fills me up, is when I get to do the work of God in this world, even if it's hard.

What's interesting is Jonah was doing the work of God, but he was not nourished like Jesus.

Rather, life was being sucked out of him.

It's a process.

Jonah's nowhere close to where he needs to be.

But in the process where he's not being nourished and life is being sucked out of him, even in doing God's will, what God is showing us is that, yes, of course, I want you to be my obedient children.

But more than your obedience, I want your heart.

And prayer is what aligns us with God and with his will.

And the more we're aligned with God and in connection with God and in relationship with God, the more we know his will, and the more our heart turns from I'm doing this thing because I have to, even if it's sucking the life out of me, to I'm doing this thing because I love God and it's nourishing and it fills me up more than anything of this world.

And that's a journey.

That's not going to happen overnight.

And God's okay with you sitting in it and asking you questions and not rushing the process.

You are always invited to come back.

And so we're coming back.

Keep coming back.

And the reason we keep coming back is because God already promised to meet you here.

You look in the story of Jonah, Jonah's not the hero for coming back to God.

God keeps coming back for Jonah.

And he'll keep coming back for you.

He is a He's a comeback God.

Not even death on a cross, being buried in a tomb could stop our God from coming back.

Keep coming back.

It works.

If you work it, keep working.

You're worth it.

You're worth it.

I don't know what you're going through.

I don't know what you're feeling this far into the series.

If you're ready for me to just move on and we can talk about something else, maybe not so serious.

Or if maybe today it was like, I'm going to try one more time.

Or maybe you're angry with God.

Maybe you're having suicidal thoughts.

Even after doing what you felt like God called you to do.

It's okay.

It's okay.

Tell me why you're feeling that way.

I'm not Russian.

We can spend as long as we need here.

I love you.

I know that you're mad about that love.

Because I'm giving it to somebody else, you don't doesn't deserve it.

Can we talk about that?

Keep coming back.

God's here.

I legitimately can't wait to next Sunday to finish this series.

I think you're gonna learn something about Jonah that's gonna blow your mind.

Also, like how cool that at all of our campuses, baptisms are happening next Sunday.

Like, what a beautiful entrance.

Jonah has been into the water and out.

His life's not over.

And we've got people that are going into the water and out next week.

At all of our campuses.

And yet, here's what I would say that's not graduation.

Not at all.

It's a start of a process.

Keep coming back.

It works.

You're worth it.

God, thank you that you're here.

That you're not afraid of anything we can bring to you.

Our passion, our cries, our tears, our stories.

None of that pushes you away.

So today we thank you that you are the comeback God.

We thank you for what that means for us eternally.

That we have a seat in heaven.

We thank you for what that means today, here, right now.

So, Lord, we bring all of our feelings to you.

And thank you that we can talk with you.

We love you, God.

It's in your name we pray, and all people from all campuses say Amen.