July 18, 2025 • 48 mins
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Caleb Churchill talks about What's In Your Backpack- Grace
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UNKNOWN (00:00):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
Hello and welcome to the Westside Church's special
podcast.
If you would go ahead and openyour Bible to the book of Jonah.
And that's where we're going tobe this evening.
Good to see all of you here.
Great to see a lot of youngpeople here.
Appreciate everybody making thetime to be together to open up
God's Word.
Appreciate all of you who havebeen praying for this gathering.
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Appreciate all of you who haveattended.
It wouldn't mean much if nobodyshowed up.
So I'm glad you're here.
Hope you'll open your Bible tothe book of Jonah.
That's right back there in thatpart of the Bible we don't use
very often.
But I know you know the story,so get your Bible there if you
would.
And I know many of you are herecoming off of camp.
This is a little reunion.
You're getting to see some ofyour friends.
You're getting to be back andmaybe look for that camp crush
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you had this year while you werethere.
You know, that's kind of why wedo these things, right?
You know, at least that's how Idid it when I was in high
school.
But...
Some of y'all already know, weused to sing at Texas camp back
when I was a camp friend,thinking bridal.
And it just takes a week, andall of a sudden you think you're
going to get married, and thenall you know, like a week, two
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weeks, three weeks, maybe youforget it all.
But hey, at least we're here.
I want to encourage you.
Maybe you've got plans for theweekend.
You're trying to talk to thatspecial somebody.
You're trying to just hang outwith the bros just for a little
bit.
Put on those noise-cancelingheadphones that our brother just
told us about, and let's listenfor one more hour to the Word of
God.
Look with me at the book ofJonah chapter one.
(01:29):
I want to talk to you aboutgrace tonight.
And if you're already there,we're going to start reading in
chapter one and verse numberone.
Here's what we're going to do.
Three things tonight I want todo with you.
I want to first look at thedesperate need for God's grace.
Secondly, I want us to look atthe depth of God's grace.
And then thirdly, I want us totalk a little bit about our
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response to God's grace.
We're going to be mostly in thebook of Jonah.
So go ahead and get there if youcan.
And let's read together Jonahchapter 1 and verse number 3.
Verse number 1, 1 through 3.
The word of the Lord came toJonah, son of Amittai, go to the
great city of Nineveh and preachagainst it because its
wickedness has come up beforeme.
But Jonah ran away from the Lordand headed for Tarshish.
(02:17):
He went down to Joppa where hefound a ship bound for that port
and after paying the fare, hewent aboard and sailed for
Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Jonah was a prophet.
He prophesied during the time ofKing Jeroboam in 2 Kings chapter
14.
This is not the only place weknow about him.
You can read 2 Kings 14 sometimeon your own and you can find out
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a little bit more about Jonah.
It was a relatively peacefultime in Israel at the time,
though spiritually it was a timewhere the land of Israel was
spiritually bankrupt.
This was a horrible time.
And so God is calling Jonah notonly to preach to Israel, but
also to preach to the otherwicked nations around,
specifically And when God saysgo, Jonah says no.
(03:06):
Jonah says no.
And he runs the oppositedirection.
I'm not great with geography.
I did teach it for a few yearsin seventh grade.
But hey, this is all you need toknow about this.
God tells Jonah to go this wayand Jonah goes that way as far
as he could go and as fast as hecould.
And I just want you to thinkabout the audacity that this man
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has to try to run away from God.
Have you ever tried to outrunsomebody?
Have you ever tried to outrunsomebody who's way faster than
you?
Not a good decision, is it?
Not a good decision.
In fact, think about this.
This is not a very smart guy.
The book of Psalms tells us inPsalm 139, where can I flee from
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your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, youare there.
If I make my bed in the depths,you are there.
If I rise on the wings of thedawn, if I settle on the far
side of the sea, even there,your hand will guide me.
Your right hand will hold mefast.
If I say, surely the darknesswill hide me and the light will
become night around me, even thedarkness will not be dark to
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you.
The night will shine like theday, for darkness is as light to
you.
Do you know what that's saying?
It doesn't matter how high yougo.
It doesn't matter how low yougo.
It doesn't matter how light itis, how dark it is.
God can see everywhere.
You can't get away from God.
You can run, but you can't hide.
God knows everywhere.
(04:29):
God sees everything.
So what is Jonah doing?
Why would Jonah run away fromthe Lord?
This is not only audacious, it'salso stupid.
Jonah was not a smart guy.
I mean, of all the prophets, hemay be the dumbest one of all.
This is not the only dumb thingwe're going to see him do.
But I want you to think with mefor a second about why would a
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prophet of God, who's called byGod to go and deliver a message,
why would he be so dumb?
To run away.
And there are some reasons.
Before you judge Jonah tooharshly, often when people are
running away, the answer isfear.
UNKNOWN (05:07):
Fear.
SPEAKER_00 (05:08):
He's afraid.
And before you call Jonah acoward, let me tell you just a
little bit about the people thatGod was calling him to go and
preach to.
Assyria was a rough, evil,terroristic state.
This was a place, one Assyrianking, he bragged about this.
He said he conquered a city thatresisted them and he said, I
flayed as many nobles as hadrebelled against me and draped
(05:30):
their skins over a pile ofcorpses.
Some I spread out within thepile.
Some I hung on stakes upon thethe pile i've laid many right
through of my land and drapedtheir skins over the walls how
does that sound to have as aking that you're supposed to go
and tell repent how many of youare ready to go preach to the
king of assyria how about thishe said i cut off the heads of
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their fighters and build a towerbefore their city i burnt their
adolescent boys and girls I cutoff some of their arms and
hands.
I cut off of others their nosesand ears and extremities.
I gouged out the eyes of manytroops.
I made one pile of the livingand one of the heads.
And I hung their heads on treesaround the city.
(06:16):
So before we start judging Jonahtoo hard, just think about who
God is calling this man to goand preach to.
And I don't know how many of uswould be willing to say, hey,
You know, Isaiah, when the Lordcalls him, who will go and
preach?
Here am I, send me.
Who's ready to say that?
I'll go preach to them.
You know, imagine if God calledyou today to go to Iran to
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preach the gospel.
We're not that popular.
If you're an American, you'renot that popular in Iran right
now.
Imagine if God called you to goto Russia.
Are you ready and willing tosign up and go?
Jonah was not.
And Jonah fled from the Lord.
Look at verse 4 and read with medown through the end of the
chapter.
Then the Lord sent a great windon the sea and such a violent
storm arose that the shipthreatened to break up.
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And all the sailors were afraidand each cried out to his own
God.
And they threw the cargo intothe sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deckwhere he lay down and fell into
a deep sleep.
And the captain went to him andhe said, how can you sleep?
Get up! Call on your God! MaybeHe will take notice of us that
we will not perish.
And then the sailors said toeach other, Come, let's cast
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lots to find out who'sresponsible for this calamity.
So they cast the lots, and ofcourse, the lot fell to Jonah.
So they asked him, Tell us,who's responsible for making all
this trouble for us?
What kind of work do you do?
Where do you come from?
What is your country?
From what people are you?
They want to know all theanswers to every question.
And he answered, I'm a Hebrew.
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I worship the Lord, the God ofheaven, who made the sea and the
dry land.
And this terrified them.
And they asked, what have youdone?
They knew he was running awayfrom the Lord because he'd
already told them so.
Verse 11, the sea was gettingrougher and rougher.
So they asked him, what shouldwe do to you to make the sea
calm down for us?
Pick me up and throw me into thesea, he replied.
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And it will become calm.
I know that this is my faultthat this great storm has come
upon you.
Instead, the men did their bestto roll back to land.
But they could not, for the seagrew even wilder than before.
And then they cried out to theLord, Please, Lord, do not let
us die for taking this man'slife.
Don't hold us accountable forkilling an innocent man.
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For you, Lord, have done as youpleased.
And they took Jonah and theythrew him overboard.
And the raging sea grew calm.
And at this, the men greatlyfeared the Lord, and they
offered a sacrifice to the Lordand made vows to Him.
Jonah learned a really importantlesson.
You can run from God, but youcan't outrun him.
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You can run from God, but youcan't hide.
And you know what?
Sin always brings a storm.
Don't misunderstand what I'msaying here.
I'm not saying that every stormin life is a result of your sin.
That's not what I'm saying.
What I am saying is that sinalways brings a storm.
And God, in his grace, bringsthe storm to Jonah to wake him.
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Jonah up.
This storm was meant to be awake up call for Jonah in the
form of a violent storm.
But Jonah slept right throughit.
Did you catch that?
While everyone else in the boatis begging God and whatever God
they call out to, they'rebegging God for mercy.
Jonah is sleeping.
(09:27):
Have you ever slept rightthrough your alarm?
This morning, we were supposedto leave at 5.30 in the morning.
There was supposed to be a caboutside.
I had to take a plane from NewYork.
I had to get there by 6 so wecould take the plane at 7.30 to
get here.
I was supposed to wake up at 5o'clock.
For whatever reason, I didn'thear the alarm.
5.18 I woke up.
I still hadn't packed.
I had 12 minutes to take ashower, pack my stuff, and get
over here.
And here I am.
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You ever slept through youralarm?
You know what's great about God?
God gives him multiple alarmshere.
He not only sends the storm, buthe also sends the pagans to
preach to Jonah.
Did you notice this?
Jonah's teaching us somethingreally important.
You know, sometimes the peopleof the world, the pagans, are
more godly than the religiouspeople.
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Did you know that?
Sometimes people out in theworld are more godly than the
people who are in church.
And that's the case here.
While he's sleeping, what arethey doing?
They're praying.
While Jonah's thinking onlyabout himself, they're thinking
about each other.
While Jonah isn't telling themto call on the name of the Lord,
they're telling him, get up andcall on the name of your God.
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What in the world?
Sometimes the pagans are morerighteous than the righteous
ones.
They're more ready to call onJonah's God than he is.
God sent the prophet to pointthe pagans back to him.
But ironically, it's the paganswho are pointing the prophet
back to God.
They are more religious, moregodly than even him.
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And even when they find out thatJonah is the cause of the storm,
even then in that moment, theydon't assume they can kill him.
Did you notice that?
They're reverent towards God.
They're looking for another way.
They're rowing harder andharder, hoping that they can
just find the right way to getback to shore.
But actually the storm justgetting worse and worse and
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worse.
And so they cast lots and theyfound out that Jonah was the
cause of the storm.
You ever had somebody tell yousomething that you didn't think
was important at the time, butthey forgot to tell you some
really important details thatlater on you find out and then
you realize, wow, that waspretty important.
I didn't think it was important,but it was actually important.
Jonah had already told them whenhe got on the ship that he was
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running from the Lord.
But here's the deal.
Back in those days, most peoplethought that gods were
territorial.
So as long as he got out of landand, you know, he's okay.
What Jonah failed to mention wasthat the God that he's running
from is the God of the heavenand the God of the earth, the
God of the sea.
So what is the problem here?
God is chasing him down.
And they find out that he's introuble.
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It seems when they first toldhim this, they didn't raise the
alarm bells with them initially.
But the truth is that once theyrealized this was the God of
heaven and earth, they realizedthey were in trouble.
What's crazy here, though, to meis, did you notice this?
Rather than choose at thismoment to repent, and for Jonah,
when they say, what have youdone?
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And they say, what should we dowith you?
Rather than Jonah say, hey, youknow what?
Man, I was wrong to do this.
This whole storm is all myfault.
I'm so sorry.
I know I didn't do this early.
I was sleeping, but now let'spray.
And he starts crying out to Godin that moment.
You know what Jonah does?
Jonah says, nah, throw meoverboard.
Throw me overboard.
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Jonah would rather die than dowhat God has asked him to do.
Jonah would rather be throwninto the depths of the sea than
obey the Lord and do exactlywhat the Lord wanted him to do.
Jonah had sunk so deep in themuck and the mire of sin and
rebellion that he'd given up notonly on God, but he'd given up
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even on himself.
Have you ever been there?
You ever gotten so deep in sinthat not only did you think, I
don't know that God would everwant to save me, I'm not sure
God could save me, but I don'tthink I could ever be pleasing
to God again.
You ever felt like that?
I can tell you I've been there,and it's a dark place.
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Some of you can relate to this.
There have been times where I'vesunk so low into sin that you
begin to wonder, and I begin towonder, there's no way I'm ever
getting out of this.
And even when I've given up onme, you know what's amazing
about God?
As long as there is breath inour lungs, God has not yet given
up on him.
Jonah chooses to die, but Godhas not given up on him yet.
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And so in chapter 1 and verse12, we see what is Jonah's only
good act here.
Every decision he makes here isbad except for this one.
In Jonah 1 and chapter 1 andverse 12, for the first time in
the story, it appears that Jonahbegins to think about somebody
else besides himself.
And he realizes they're about todie for him when he should be
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the one dying for them.
And so he says, throw me in.
And after doing everything theycan to avoid it, they toss him
overboard and they cry out forGod's grace.
That God would show them grace.
That he would not hold this sinagainst them.
That he would not hold themaccountable for this.
Knowing that it was the Lord whohas done what has pleased him.
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And as soon as they throw himoverboard, the sea is calm.
I want you to think about it.
If you were one of those paganson that boat, you think you
became a believer that day?
You best believe they becamebelievers that day.
Those people feared the Lord.
They offered sacrifices to theLord.
They made vows to the Lord.
These people, because of Jonah,have become believers in God.
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And you know what?
This teaches us something reallyimportant.
You know what?
You are a vessel for God'sgrace.
And God will use you for Hisglory, whether by your obedience
or even by your disobedience.
Did you check that out?
God's using Jonah, even whenhe's stubborn and disobedient,
to bring people an opportunityto turn away from their sins and
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fear the one true God and knowHim.
Isn't that amazing?
You are a vessel and God willuse you for His glory.
God's going to use you for Hisglory either way.
But you get to choose whether ornot you will be a vessel of
obedience.
and submission to God's will, orwhether or not you will be a
vessel of disobedience.
The sacrifice that Jonah makesto go into the sea actually
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brings about the salvation ofthe people on board.
The people in the ship survivebecause Jonah goes in the depths
of the sea.
And the sea grows calm, and theyhave an opportunity to turn to
the one true God.
Now, let me just pause here fora second and ask you, does this
remind you of any other storiesin the Bible?
You know, there's a crazy stormon the water.
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There's like people in a boat.
Everybody's afraid.
Everybody's crying out for help.
And then somebody's sleeping.
Does this remind you of anystories in the Bible?
Sounds a little bit like anotherstory we read about in Mark 4,
doesn't it?
This sounds like a story ofJesus.
In the boat, there's a storm.
Others are afraid of the death.
The sleeping prophet gets wokenup and he's rebuked.
What are you doing sleeping?
The storm is miraculouslycalmed.
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The companions are rescued.
And the men in the boats aremore afraid after the storm than
they even were in the storm.
But there's one difference.
In Jonah, the prophet is throwninto the deep, satisfying God's
wrath.
so that others are safe from it.
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While in Mark, Jesus is not,right?
Maybe we'll come back to that ina little bit.
God overcomes even evil withgood.
Isn't that the story here?
God overcomes even evil withgood.
Jonah fled to avoid being usedby God as a vessel to the
pagans, but he finds himself,whether willing or unwilling,
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being used by God as a vessel tothe pagans.
And I want you to notice justhow deep God's grace is.
Read with me, if you would,Jonah chapter 1 and verse 17.
And I'm going to read all theway down to chapter 2 and verse
10.
And I want you to ask yourselfthis question as we read.
At what point does Jonah finallyturn from his wicked ways and
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his stubborn rebellion andfinally repent?
At what point does Jonah turnfrom his wicked ways and repent?
Look at what it says.
Jonah 1 verse 17.
Now the Lord provided a hugefish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah
was in the belly of the fishthree days and three nights.
And from inside the fish, Jonahprayed to the Lord is God.
And he said, toward your holytemple the engulfing waters
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threatened me the deepsurrounded me seaweed was
wrapped around my head to theroots of the mountains i sank
down the earth beneath barred mein forever but you lord my god
brought me brought my life upfrom the pit when my life was
abbing away let me read thatagain when my life was abbing
away i remembered you lord andmy prayer rose to you Verse 8.
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I don't know about you, maybesomebody in here is a great
swimmer.
I am not.
I can swim, but I can't swimwell.
And I have two great fears inlife.
One is turbulence on a plane,and two is drowning in water.
Those are the two great fears inmy life.
You know, I could go all overthe world, I'm not afraid,
whatever, but if I'm on a planeand there's serious turbulence,
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the fear of falling out of thesky is a major fear for me.
And the other one is drowning.
I don't know about you, but ifI'm Jonah, And I start to
realize that I'm the cause ofthe storm.
And I start to realize thateverything that we're doing to
get back to shore is notworking.
And I start to realize that theyare about to throw me in the
deep.
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It's at that moment that I'mcrying out to God.
God, please, I'm sorry.
I'll go to Nineveh.
Whatever you want, I'll do it.
I am not going in that sea.
But let me ask you this.
When they grabbed Jonah andstarted to throw him overboard,
did Jonah pray then?
UNKNOWN (19:51):
No.
SPEAKER_00 (19:53):
Read it again.
Notice this.
Notice here.
He's hurled into the heart ofthe sea and he does not repent.
He's covered up by the waves.
I don't know if you ever swamdeep in a pool, but you know how
you get deeper and deeper in thepool and the weight is just
heavy of the water on you isheavy.
He's hurled in the heart of thesea and he doesn't repent.
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He's covered by the waves and hedoesn't repent.
He's surrounded by the deep.
and he doesn't repent.
He's got seaweed wrapped allaround his head and he still
doesn't repent.
He sinks down to the roots ofthe mountains and he does not
repent.
And the Bible says that it's notuntil his life is ebbing away
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when he's on his last breath, hecries out to the Lord.
And I just want to pause hereand ask you a question.
If you were God in this moment,what would you do?
What would you do?
I can tell you what I would do.
This is a stubborn child.
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This is a rebellious child.
The Lord didn't give him onechance to repent.
He gave him about 20.
He's given him so many chancesto turn around and say, I'm
sorry, I'll go do.
But this man is stubborn to thebottom of the sea.
Stubborn.
He is rebelling against God,unwilling to do what God wants
him to do.
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I can tell you, if I was God, Ican tell you exactly what I'd
do.
I'd say, hey, bro, too late.
You should have done that a longtime ago.
You should have done that whenyou hit the water.
You should have done that beforeyou hit the water.
What is wrong with you, man?
How stupid can you be?
You wait till your last breath.
You've waited too long.
I was sinking deep in sin, farfrom the peaceful shore, buried
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deeply stained within, sinkingto rise no more.
But the master of the sea heardmy despairing cry and from the
waters lifted me, now safe andI.
Deeper than the ocean and widerthan the sea is the grace of the
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Savior for sinners like me.
Amen.
This is the beauty of our God.
Now, God doesn't lift Jonah outof the water right away.
He actually sends a fish.
The fish actually is God'ssalvation for Jonah.
God provides a huge fish toswallow Jonah.
And Jonah was in the belly ofthe fish three days and three
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nights.
Now, to me, that sounds like along time to be inside the belly
of a fish.
I'm a little bit claustrophobic.
I don't like being in tightspaces.
I don't know how big this fishis, but that doesn't sound like
a good place to be.
Three days and three nights.
I'm assuming here God didn'ttell him, hey, after three days
and three nights, you're gettingout of here.
Like, how long is he going to bein here?
If I was him, I'd go crazy.
This is nuts.
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But God gives him the fish andleaves him there to think about
himself.
And what I love about this iswhile he's in the fish, he
starts praying.
He realizes that God has rescuedhim from death, at least thus
far, and he begins to pray andhe begins to make vows to God.
God sends a fish who swallowshim up for three days and three
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nights.
He sits inside the fish notknowing where he's going until
God in his amazing grace makesthis fish, get the picture here,
makes this fish vomit him up ondry land.
And then God calls him again andsends him to Nineveh.
I want you to notice somethinghere.
Jonah in the story so far hasplayed the part of the prodigal
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son.
Consider with me for a secondthat God has entrusted him with
his most valuable treasure, hisword.
And yet rather than using thattreasure as God, as the father
intended him to use it, what hashe done?
He ran off to the far country touse it how he wanted, to
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squander it.
He runs away.
And yet even then, he didn'treturn to his father.
It wasn't until the storm came.
It wasn't until the famine came.
It wasn't until, remember in thestory of the prodigal son?
It wasn't until life got reallyhard and no one gave him
anything that life got sodesperate that he came to his
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senses.
And he finally remembered hisfather.
And when he looked toward thefather and began that journey
back home, the father ran to himand rescued him.
And isn't that the story ofJonah?
Stubborn, rebellious.
It wasn't until he hit thebottom of the sea and his life
was ebbing away that finally hecomes to his senses.
He cries out to God.
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And isn't this an amazing God?
Oh, the depth and the riches ofGod's grace that even from the
bottom of the sea he wouldlisten to the cries of his
people who would turn from theirwicked ways and seek him with
their whole heart.
God gives an even greater grace.
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You know what it is?
Look at Jonah chapter 3 andverses 1 to 10.
The word of the Lord came toJonah a second time.
Go to the great city of Ninevehand proclaim to it the message I
give you.
God gives him even greatergrace.
You know what he gives him?
A second chance.
A second chance to go and dowhat God has asked him to do.
And this time Jonah obeys.
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Took him some hard lessons.
Maybe not feeling as great as hewas before.
But this time, Jonah obeys.
He goes.
This time, Jonah goes.
And he preaches.
40 days and Nineveh will beoverthrown.
Remember what we learned aboutNineveh.
And imagine you showing up, anIsraelite, to this place.
You're a foreigner.
You're a stranger.
You're an immigrant.
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You're not welcome.
And you're going to come inhere.
You're going to preach thatmessage?
40 days?
And this city is going to beoverthrown?
What do you think the responsewould be?
Forty days in Nineveh will beoverthrown.
And Yahweh, with an army of oneman, brings the greatest city in
the world to its knees with thatsimple message.
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The Ninevites believed in God.
A fast was proclaimed.
The whole city is wearingsackcloth.
The king takes off his royalrobes.
He's covering himself withsackcloth.
He's sitting in the dust.
Even the animals are covered insackcloth.
I don't know if you guys do thishere in New York.
Sometimes people dress up theirdogs in clothes.
I don't know if you guys haveseen that before.
But imagine this.
You're going through a city of120,000 people.
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And not only that many people,but all the animals, every one
of them is wearing clothes.
But it's sackcloth and ashes.
Because The whole city isfasting.
The city is trying to make achange.
And they're trying to make itquick before they get destroyed.
The king sends out aproclamation to the whole city.
And he says, don't let people oranimals taste anything.
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Let them all be covered insackcloth.
Let everyone urgently call onGod.
Let them give up their evil waysand their violence.
And who knows?
God may yet relent.
How could this happen?
Jonah preaches 40 days.
And then it will be overthrown.
And all it takes is that.
And bam! I don't know if youguys see this stuff happening in
(27:02):
downtown Dallas, but it's prettycommon in Brooklyn for you to
see on the street people streetpreaching.
And they'll come up.
Some of them will have a sign.
They'll say, hey, you know, 40days and Brooklyn's going to be
overthrown.
You know, this whole city'scoming down.
You're going to be destroyed.
That day of the Lord is coming.
And you know what most people dowhen they come and say that?
We just walk by on the otherside.
You know, even me sometimes.
You just walk by, you know,like...
(27:24):
I didn't really think much ofit.
I do fear God.
I know the Lord's coming back,but I didn't think much about
it.
How does this Israelite preacherfrom a foreign land come to this
city, preach a simple messagelike that, and the whole city
repent with just like a 10-wordsermon?
Maybe Jesus gives us a clue inLuke chapter 11 and verse 30.
(27:45):
And before I read that, let mepreface what I'm about to say
here with this.
I've never spent three days andthree nights in the belly of a
fish.
I have very little experience inthe belly of a fish.
However, I have gone fishing.
I have fished before.
(28:07):
And one time, I caught a fish.
One time.
We pulled the fish out.
And we took it home to filletit.
We were going to eat the thing,and it was like bulging.
And so we started to cut itopen, and at first we're like,
maybe the fish is pregnant.
Like, why is it sticking outlike that?
Well, we opened the fish up, andinside of it is a whole big
(28:27):
crawdad that it had eaten.
Except when I saw the crawdad,the crawdad was no longer the
color that it normally...
It was like bleached, likewhite.
And I was like, what in theworld is going on?
Now...
What I'm saying here is notspecifically what the Bible
says, but I do wonder aboutthis.
Though I have very littleexperience in the belly of a
(28:48):
fish, I do wonder, afterspending three days and three
nights in the belly of a fish,what do you come out looking
like?
Do you think this man lookedlike he did before?
Or do you think maybe somethingwas changed about his
appearance?
Can you imagine that?
He had that sun-kissed skin, buthe comes out bleached white?
Like, that's crazy! And then hegoes to Nineveh and he starts to
(29:10):
preach and he says, 40 days andthis city is going to be
overthrown.
And imagine some guy walks up tohim and says, bro, what happened
to you, bro?
And he starts to say, you're notgoing to believe this, but I got
swallowed by a fish.
And I spent three days and threenights in the belly of a fish.
Now, I don't know if that's howthe story went, but I do know
this.
Jesus says in Luke chapter 11and verse 30 that Jonah became a
(29:33):
sign to the Ninevites.
Now, I don't know exactly whatthat means.
I don't know if he lookeddifferent.
I don't know if word got back.
Somebody was on the shore whenthe fish vomits up a man and
they're like, what in the world?
And they passed the word back toNineveh?
I don't know how this worked,but somehow, some way, Jonah has
become a sign to the Ninevitesso that the whole city repents.
(29:57):
And you might think this storyhas a happy ending, right?
This is amazing.
Jonah repented and God savedhim.
And now all of Nineveh hasrepented.
And this story is going to endwell, right?
Look at chapter 3 and verse 10.
When God saw what they did andhow they turned from their evil
(30:18):
ways, He relented and did notbring on them the destruction
that He had threatened.
I want to tell you this tonight.
I don't care what you've done.
Probably most of you have notskinned A huge number of people
and put them in piles and drapedthem over the wall, right?
You may have done some badthings.
(30:38):
I don't know if anybody in heredone that But you know what our
god is so deep in his grace Thateven people who've done the
unthinkable Are not so far gonethat they could not experience
his love if they turn from hiswicked ways You know what that
(30:59):
tells me You're not a lostcause.
You may feel like you reallyscrewed it up.
You may feel like you've alreadymade mistakes that have wrecked
your life and you don't know ifyou could ever recover.
But the story of Nineveh showsthat there is hope for us yet,
that we can still be saved by anamazing God who has amazing
(31:20):
grace.
And that should be the end ofthe story.
And what a beautiful ending itwould be.
But in Jonah 4 and verse 1, thetext says, but to Jonah, this
seemed very wrong.
And he became angry and heprayed to the Lord.
Isn't this what I said, Lord,when I was still at home?
That is what I tried toforestall by fleeing the
(31:42):
Tarshish.
I knew that you are a graciousand compassionate God, slow to
anger, abounding in love, a Godwho relents from sin and
calamity.
Now, Lord, take away my life.
For it's better for me to diethan to live.
But the Lord replied, Is itright for you to be angry?
(32:05):
I want you to think about thatquestion.
Do you see what's happeninghere?
We're learning something hereabout Jonah that we didn't
recognize at the beginning ofthe story.
And that is that it's not justJonah being afraid of Nineveh
that led him not to go there.
I do think he was afraid.
But it's not just that he wasafraid.
Jonah...
hated Nineveh these were wickedpeople who had come to oppress
(32:30):
the people of God Jonah hatedthis nation Jonah did not want
this nation to experience God'sgrace but do you see the irony
here do you see what I'm seeingdo you understand the question
that God is asking him do youhave a right to be angry think
about this A man who was deep atthe bottom of the sea with
(32:51):
seaweed wrapped around his head,his life ebbing away, and he
cries out and God sends a fishto save his life.
Does he have a right to tell Godwho he should show his grace to?
Does he?
Does he have a right to beangry?
Do we have a right to be angry?
(33:12):
Understand what God is trying toteach Jonah here.
Should not the God who extendedHis deep, amazing grace to him,
when He sank deep in sin to thebottom of the sea, should He not
also extend it to this greatnation of Nineveh?
Though they were deep in themuck and the mire of sin
(33:33):
themselves.
Jonah realized what we did not.
That God was actually callinghim not on a mission to destroy
Nineveh, But to say, Nineveh,that our God is a God of amazing
grace.
And you see here is, this is, ifyou didn't get anything so far,
(33:57):
I just want you to hold on tothis one thought.
This is the main point ofeverything we've been working
towards tonight in this lesson.
When you receive deep, amazinggrace from God, what should that
produce in you?
Grace received should produce agrace that is extended to
(34:22):
others.
Do you see that?
Because God has given you somuch amazing grace, you know
what you should give others?
Amazing grace.
The grace that God has given youis not a grace that God expects
you to receive and to hold toyourself, but something that you
(34:42):
should share with others.
We are called by God.
to be conduits of his grace, notdecaying cul-de-sacs.
You know what a cul-de-sac is?
We don't have a lot of those inBrooklyn, but I've seen a few
here.
You know what a cul-de-sac is?
It's where you drive in andthere's just a circle and it's a
dead end.
When God gives you grace, hedoesn't give it to you simply so
(35:05):
that you can have it and rejoicein it and give thanks for it and
just hold it all to yourself.
God gives you grace so that youcan extend it to others who are
in need.
That's what God wanted fromJonah.
God had given him amazing graceand God just wanted him to share
that grace with the people ofNineveh.
(35:27):
But Jonah wanted no part of it.
And you see what we're noticinghere?
We are gracious toward othersbecause God has been gracious
towards us.
When we come to recognize thedepth and the riches of God's
amazing grace toward us, Nothingwill be able to stop you from
(35:48):
sharing that same grace with theworld around you.
That's the way it works.
God's grace provokes grace.
Grace received provokes graceextended.
Freely we have received,therefore freely also we give.
I want to talk to you for asecond, though, about our
(36:08):
response to grace.
Why is grace so hard for us?
Why is it so difficult for us toextend grace to others when we
all know that we have needed itourselves?
Why is it so hard for us toshare that same grace with
others that God has shared withus?
(36:28):
Let me give you a couple ofreasons.
One, we forget who we are and weforget where we came from.
Did you notice this?
In the first half of the story,Jonah plays the part of the
prodigal son.
But did you notice what'shappening in chapters 3 and 4?
Who is Jonah now?
He's the older brother.
When the father comes and grabshis son and welcomes him home
(36:52):
when he comes back home and hethrows a feast and a huge party
and he invites and pleads withhis older son, come inside and
rejoice.
My son who is dead, he's beenfound.
He's here again.
And what did the older brothersay?
What in the world?
I ain't coming in here tocelebrate that.
I've been over here slavingaway.
(37:12):
I've been doing everything youasked.
You haven't done that for me.
Doesn't that sound a bit likeJonah?
You know what our problem is?
When we are having a hard timeextending grace to others, it's
because we forget who we are andwe forget where we came from.
We are the prodigal who issinking deep in sin.
And therefore, we need to extendthat same grace that God has
(37:35):
given to us.
Why don't the Pharisees eat withtax collectors and sinners?
Why doesn't Jonah want God toshow mercy to Nineveh?
Because Jonah had forgotten whatGod did for him.
And he'd forgotten that thatsame grace that God had given
him is what God wanted him toextend to others.
We forget who we are and wherewe came from.
Secondly, though, we have a verynarrow definition of sin and an
(37:59):
enormous amount of pride.
A very narrow definition of sinand an enormous amount of pride.
I want you to think about thisfor a second.
We are good at defining sin inways that excludes our own
faults and flaws, right?
It's easy to see sin in otherpeople.
This is why Jesus says thatthing in the Sermon on the Mount
about like, hey, you know,before you deal with the speck
(38:22):
in your brother's eye, deal withthe plank in your own eye.
I don't think that that means inevery case...
In every case, the sin is alwaysbigger in me than it is in you.
Maybe sometimes your sin isbigger than mine.
But I think the point of that isthat to me, when there's a sin
in me and there's a sin in you,to me it should look like always
that it's a plank in my eye.
(38:44):
That my sin should always bebigger.
But you know that's not the waywe work, right?
Isn't this true?
A lot of times, it's the sin ineverybody else that looks way
worse.
Everybody else is the problem.
I'm not the problem.
I got some flaws and faults, butthey're not bad.
They're just little things, youknow.
I sin every few weeks or everyfew months, but not that much,
you know.
When Isaiah comes into thepresence of God, Isaiah, he
(39:06):
wrote scripture for crying outloud.
He comes into the presence ofGod and what does he say?
Woe is me.
I am ruined.
I'm a man of unclean lips.
Who are we?
You see, our problem, we don'tappreciate God's grace because
we don't recognize how deep wewere in sin.
Some, you know, it's like achild.
When we were at the beach onetime, my sister had a, her son
(39:29):
was just a baby, and he went outand he walked off of this little
sandbar into the water and justfell flat down in the ocean.
And we were like, wait, he's introuble.
I just ran over there, grabbedhim, pulled him out.
But you know what happenssometimes?
We don't recognize how deep weare and how much trouble we're
in.
Because somebody's rescued usfrom it.
(39:49):
God rescued us from it and weare quick to forget where we
were.
We're quick to define sin inways that really don't apply to
us.
And so we forget how much gracewe need.
Let me give you one more here.
Why is grace so hard for us?
We get distracted by religiousthings from the things that
matter most to God.
(40:10):
Do you guys remember Jesussaying over and over again, he
said to the Pharisees that theywere too busy tithing and every
spice in the spice cabinet tofind the time to do justice, to
show mercy and to walkfaithfully with their God in the
ways that God desired.
It's possible.
Jonah teaches us it's possibleto be religious, but to not be
(40:33):
godly.
It's possible to be busy doingall sorts of religious things,
but to forget the things thatmatter most to God.
And we are distracted by so manythings.
Why would Jesus tell a storyabout a Levite and a priest who
pass by on the other side?
Is it not because many religiouspeople are the ones passing by
(40:55):
on the other side rather thanshowing compassion to the ones
who are in need?
How can you As a junior high, ahigh school student, how can
you, as a college student, howcan you, as a human on this
earth, extend grace?
I want you to think about this.
The mark of those who've beenimmersed in God's grace is
(41:16):
compassion.
Did you notice that's how thestory of Jonah ends?
God gives Jonah a plant, anotherobject of God's grace.
And then Jonah, again, doesn'tseem to be getting the point
here, doesn't seem to becomprehending truly God's grace.
And so God takes the plant awayto teach him another lesson.
And God takes the plant away toteach him this very important
(41:39):
lesson in which the story endsupon.
You've been concerned about thisplant, though you didn't tend to
it or make it grow.
It sprang up overnight and diedovernight.
Should I not have concern forthe great city of Nineveh in
which there are more than120,000 people who cannot tell
their right hand from their leftand also many animals?
What did God want from Jonah?
(41:59):
He wanted compassion.
And this is the mark of God'speople who've been touched by
his grace, who've been immersedin his grace.
We have compassion.
Let me ask you this.
Do you have compassion?
Do you have compassion forpeople who are not like you?
Do you have compassion forpeople who don't look like you,
(42:19):
who don't talk like you, whodon't walk like you, who don't
live like you?
Or do you show contempt forthem?
We're living in an increasinglypolarized culture.
Where we watch and we payattention to all this social
media stuff.
And you know how these socialmedia companies work.
They have specifically designedthe stuff in your feed to feed
(42:42):
you the stuff that they thinkcan hook you.
And you're just hearing one sideof the story most of the time.
And it's designed in such a way.
You know what gets people tolike.
You know what gets people tosubscribe.
You know what gets people tostay watching.
The more angry they can makeyou, the better they got you.
That's how it works.
We're living in a culture that'steaching us to have contempt for
(43:02):
the other side, whoever theother side is.
When you go back to school, howare you going to treat the
people on the other side,whatever that group is?
What's your view going to betowards them?
How are you going to talk aboutthem?
How are you going to treat thepeople who mistreat you?
What about when you get back toschool and you find out that
people have been spreadingrumors about you all summer?
(43:23):
They've been saying things aboutyou.
They've been saying things thatare not true.
They've been saying things thatare hurtful to you and they're
lies.
And then some of those peoplethat have been spreading those
rumors show up here in church.
Will you welcome them?
Would you give them a chance tohear the gospel?
Would you preach to them themessage of grace?
(43:44):
Would you want them to be saved?
When you go back to school, manyof your friends are going to
form groups and tribes.
And they're going to start tolook at other groups with
contempt, and they're going tolook down on those people over
there who look different, whotalk different, who live
different.
What about you?
Will you demonize them?
(44:04):
Will you mock them?
Will you attack them?
Or will you extend grace?
Will you show kindness, not justto the people who are cool, but
also to the people who are notcool?
Will you show compassion forpeople who are in trouble?
What about the people that hurtyou?
Will you forgive them, as Paulsays in Ephesians 4, just as
your Father has forgiven you?
(44:26):
Will you give them secondchances, just like God gave
Jonah and God has given you?
What will move me, and we'll endwith this thought, what will
move me and what will move youto become a man and woman of
God?
moved by grace filled with gracegrace provokes grace mercy
(44:49):
provokes great mercy if godgives it to us then we must
extend it to others but how welli said earlier about that story
in mark um Jonah was thrown intothe deep and Jesus wasn't.
At least that's kind of how itseemed like the story ended.
But actually, do you guysremember that Jesus said
something like this?
(45:09):
Just as Jonah spent three daysand three nights in the heart of
the sea, so also will the Son ofMan spend three days and three
nights in the heart of theearth.
Maybe he was thrown in the deep.
Actually, think about this.
Actually, have you consideredthis?
That when God said to Jonah, goto Nineveh, Jonah refused to go.
(45:31):
for fear of what might happen tohim there.
Possible suffering and death.
But Jesus, on the other hand,when the Father said go, He
chose to go.
He made up His mind to go,knowing what would happen to
Him.
Absolute, certainly, sufferingand death.
Jonah refused because he thoughtabout himself.
(45:52):
But Jesus went...
Because he thought about us.
Who for the joy set before himendured the cross, despising the
shame.
What was the joy that sent Jesusto the cross?
It certainly wasn't the idea ofhanging on a tree.
What was the joy?
It was the joy of loving you.
It was the joy of sharing hisamazing grace with you.
(46:15):
And so while we were still inthe pig pen, Jesus came down
here and he suffered and died.
Amazing grace, how sweet thesound that saved a wretch like
me.
Jesus, our older brother, didnot look on us with scornful
eyes when we were in the pig penafter squandering our lives,
(46:36):
after squandering God's wealthwith wild living.
Instead, he ran to us.
He suffered and died for uswhile we were still in the pig
pen.
We are called by God to be notonly recipients of God's grace,
but distributors of God's grace,not just dead ends.
(46:56):
So what about you?
Will you be a vessel of grace?
Will you take God's grace inyour backpack as you go back to
school in this world?
Maybe you're here tonight andyou haven't yet experienced the
grace of God.
There's no better night thantonight to become a Christian.
and to truly understand, maybefor the first time, God's grace.
(47:16):
I'll tell you this, the grace ofGod is something you can't fully
understand your first timehearing about it.
We need a second touch and athird touch and a fourth touch,
just like Jonah did.
We need to be renewed day afterday.
But here's what the Bible saysin Colossians chapter 1 and in
verse 6.
Colossians chapter 1 and inverse 6, this is what the Bible
says.
(47:40):
In the same way the gospel isbearing fruit and growing
throughout the whole world, justas it has been doing among you
since the day you heard it andtruly understood God's grace.
From the day you trulyunderstood God's grace, God's
grace begins to produce fruit inyou.
And maybe that fruit needs to beaccomplished tonight with you
dying to your sins and buryingthat old man and being raised to
(48:04):
walk in newness of life.
If that's where you need to be,then come to Jesus today.
And experience the amazing graceof God.
Maybe you're already aChristian.
And if you're already aChristian, then make it your aim
that from this day on, you willcontinue to learn about God's
grace.
Not just so that you canappreciate how great it is, but
also so that you can share itwith others.
(48:25):
If there's anything we can do tohelp you to come to the Lord or
come to seek Him morediligently, let us know as
together we stand and sing.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
Hello and welcome to the Westside Church's special
podcast.
If you would go ahead and openyour Bible to the book of Jonah.
And that's where we're going tobe this evening.
Good to see all of you here.
Great to see a lot of youngpeople here.
Appreciate everybody making thetime to be together to open up
God's Word.
Appreciate all of you who havebeen praying for this gathering.
(00:26):
Appreciate all of you who haveattended.
It wouldn't mean much if nobodyshowed up.
So I'm glad you're here.
Hope you'll open your Bible tothe book of Jonah.
That's right back there in thatpart of the Bible we don't use
very often.
But I know you know the story,so get your Bible there if you
would.
And I know many of you are herecoming off of camp.
This is a little reunion.
You're getting to see some ofyour friends.
You're getting to be back andmaybe look for that camp crush
(00:48):
you had this year while you werethere.
You know, that's kind of why wedo these things, right?
You know, at least that's how Idid it when I was in high
school.
But...
Some of y'all already know, weused to sing at Texas camp back
when I was a camp friend,thinking bridal.
And it just takes a week, andall of a sudden you think you're
going to get married, and thenall you know, like a week, two
(01:08):
weeks, three weeks, maybe youforget it all.
But hey, at least we're here.
I want to encourage you.
Maybe you've got plans for theweekend.
You're trying to talk to thatspecial somebody.
You're trying to just hang outwith the bros just for a little
bit.
Put on those noise-cancelingheadphones that our brother just
told us about, and let's listenfor one more hour to the Word of
God.
Look with me at the book ofJonah chapter one.
(01:29):
I want to talk to you aboutgrace tonight.
And if you're already there,we're going to start reading in
chapter one and verse numberone.
Here's what we're going to do.
Three things tonight I want todo with you.
I want to first look at thedesperate need for God's grace.
Secondly, I want us to look atthe depth of God's grace.
And then thirdly, I want us totalk a little bit about our
(01:51):
response to God's grace.
We're going to be mostly in thebook of Jonah.
So go ahead and get there if youcan.
And let's read together Jonahchapter 1 and verse number 3.
Verse number 1, 1 through 3.
The word of the Lord came toJonah, son of Amittai, go to the
great city of Nineveh and preachagainst it because its
wickedness has come up beforeme.
But Jonah ran away from the Lordand headed for Tarshish.
(02:17):
He went down to Joppa where hefound a ship bound for that port
and after paying the fare, hewent aboard and sailed for
Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Jonah was a prophet.
He prophesied during the time ofKing Jeroboam in 2 Kings chapter
14.
This is not the only place weknow about him.
You can read 2 Kings 14 sometimeon your own and you can find out
(02:39):
a little bit more about Jonah.
It was a relatively peacefultime in Israel at the time,
though spiritually it was a timewhere the land of Israel was
spiritually bankrupt.
This was a horrible time.
And so God is calling Jonah notonly to preach to Israel, but
also to preach to the otherwicked nations around,
specifically And when God saysgo, Jonah says no.
(03:06):
Jonah says no.
And he runs the oppositedirection.
I'm not great with geography.
I did teach it for a few yearsin seventh grade.
But hey, this is all you need toknow about this.
God tells Jonah to go this wayand Jonah goes that way as far
as he could go and as fast as hecould.
And I just want you to thinkabout the audacity that this man
(03:27):
has to try to run away from God.
Have you ever tried to outrunsomebody?
Have you ever tried to outrunsomebody who's way faster than
you?
Not a good decision, is it?
Not a good decision.
In fact, think about this.
This is not a very smart guy.
The book of Psalms tells us inPsalm 139, where can I flee from
(03:48):
your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, youare there.
If I make my bed in the depths,you are there.
If I rise on the wings of thedawn, if I settle on the far
side of the sea, even there,your hand will guide me.
Your right hand will hold mefast.
If I say, surely the darknesswill hide me and the light will
become night around me, even thedarkness will not be dark to
(04:09):
you.
The night will shine like theday, for darkness is as light to
you.
Do you know what that's saying?
It doesn't matter how high yougo.
It doesn't matter how low yougo.
It doesn't matter how light itis, how dark it is.
God can see everywhere.
You can't get away from God.
You can run, but you can't hide.
God knows everywhere.
(04:29):
God sees everything.
So what is Jonah doing?
Why would Jonah run away fromthe Lord?
This is not only audacious, it'salso stupid.
Jonah was not a smart guy.
I mean, of all the prophets, hemay be the dumbest one of all.
This is not the only dumb thingwe're going to see him do.
But I want you to think with mefor a second about why would a
(04:53):
prophet of God, who's called byGod to go and deliver a message,
why would he be so dumb?
To run away.
And there are some reasons.
Before you judge Jonah tooharshly, often when people are
running away, the answer isfear.
UNKNOWN (05:07):
Fear.
SPEAKER_00 (05:08):
He's afraid.
And before you call Jonah acoward, let me tell you just a
little bit about the people thatGod was calling him to go and
preach to.
Assyria was a rough, evil,terroristic state.
This was a place, one Assyrianking, he bragged about this.
He said he conquered a city thatresisted them and he said, I
flayed as many nobles as hadrebelled against me and draped
(05:30):
their skins over a pile ofcorpses.
Some I spread out within thepile.
Some I hung on stakes upon thethe pile i've laid many right
through of my land and drapedtheir skins over the walls how
does that sound to have as aking that you're supposed to go
and tell repent how many of youare ready to go preach to the
king of assyria how about thishe said i cut off the heads of
(05:53):
their fighters and build a towerbefore their city i burnt their
adolescent boys and girls I cutoff some of their arms and
hands.
I cut off of others their nosesand ears and extremities.
I gouged out the eyes of manytroops.
I made one pile of the livingand one of the heads.
And I hung their heads on treesaround the city.
(06:16):
So before we start judging Jonahtoo hard, just think about who
God is calling this man to goand preach to.
And I don't know how many of uswould be willing to say, hey,
You know, Isaiah, when the Lordcalls him, who will go and
preach?
Here am I, send me.
Who's ready to say that?
I'll go preach to them.
You know, imagine if God calledyou today to go to Iran to
(06:36):
preach the gospel.
We're not that popular.
If you're an American, you'renot that popular in Iran right
now.
Imagine if God called you to goto Russia.
Are you ready and willing tosign up and go?
Jonah was not.
And Jonah fled from the Lord.
Look at verse 4 and read with medown through the end of the
chapter.
Then the Lord sent a great windon the sea and such a violent
storm arose that the shipthreatened to break up.
(06:58):
And all the sailors were afraidand each cried out to his own
God.
And they threw the cargo intothe sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deckwhere he lay down and fell into
a deep sleep.
And the captain went to him andhe said, how can you sleep?
Get up! Call on your God! MaybeHe will take notice of us that
we will not perish.
And then the sailors said toeach other, Come, let's cast
(07:20):
lots to find out who'sresponsible for this calamity.
So they cast the lots, and ofcourse, the lot fell to Jonah.
So they asked him, Tell us,who's responsible for making all
this trouble for us?
What kind of work do you do?
Where do you come from?
What is your country?
From what people are you?
They want to know all theanswers to every question.
And he answered, I'm a Hebrew.
(07:40):
I worship the Lord, the God ofheaven, who made the sea and the
dry land.
And this terrified them.
And they asked, what have youdone?
They knew he was running awayfrom the Lord because he'd
already told them so.
Verse 11, the sea was gettingrougher and rougher.
So they asked him, what shouldwe do to you to make the sea
calm down for us?
Pick me up and throw me into thesea, he replied.
(08:01):
And it will become calm.
I know that this is my faultthat this great storm has come
upon you.
Instead, the men did their bestto roll back to land.
But they could not, for the seagrew even wilder than before.
And then they cried out to theLord, Please, Lord, do not let
us die for taking this man'slife.
Don't hold us accountable forkilling an innocent man.
(08:23):
For you, Lord, have done as youpleased.
And they took Jonah and theythrew him overboard.
And the raging sea grew calm.
And at this, the men greatlyfeared the Lord, and they
offered a sacrifice to the Lordand made vows to Him.
Jonah learned a really importantlesson.
You can run from God, but youcan't outrun him.
(08:45):
You can run from God, but youcan't hide.
And you know what?
Sin always brings a storm.
Don't misunderstand what I'msaying here.
I'm not saying that every stormin life is a result of your sin.
That's not what I'm saying.
What I am saying is that sinalways brings a storm.
And God, in his grace, bringsthe storm to Jonah to wake him.
(09:07):
Jonah up.
This storm was meant to be awake up call for Jonah in the
form of a violent storm.
But Jonah slept right throughit.
Did you catch that?
While everyone else in the boatis begging God and whatever God
they call out to, they'rebegging God for mercy.
Jonah is sleeping.
(09:27):
Have you ever slept rightthrough your alarm?
This morning, we were supposedto leave at 5.30 in the morning.
There was supposed to be a caboutside.
I had to take a plane from NewYork.
I had to get there by 6 so wecould take the plane at 7.30 to
get here.
I was supposed to wake up at 5o'clock.
For whatever reason, I didn'thear the alarm.
5.18 I woke up.
I still hadn't packed.
I had 12 minutes to take ashower, pack my stuff, and get
over here.
And here I am.
(09:51):
You ever slept through youralarm?
You know what's great about God?
God gives him multiple alarmshere.
He not only sends the storm, buthe also sends the pagans to
preach to Jonah.
Did you notice this?
Jonah's teaching us somethingreally important.
You know, sometimes the peopleof the world, the pagans, are
more godly than the religiouspeople.
(10:11):
Did you know that?
Sometimes people out in theworld are more godly than the
people who are in church.
And that's the case here.
While he's sleeping, what arethey doing?
They're praying.
While Jonah's thinking onlyabout himself, they're thinking
about each other.
While Jonah isn't telling themto call on the name of the Lord,
they're telling him, get up andcall on the name of your God.
(10:32):
What in the world?
Sometimes the pagans are morerighteous than the righteous
ones.
They're more ready to call onJonah's God than he is.
God sent the prophet to pointthe pagans back to him.
But ironically, it's the paganswho are pointing the prophet
back to God.
They are more religious, moregodly than even him.
(10:55):
And even when they find out thatJonah is the cause of the storm,
even then in that moment, theydon't assume they can kill him.
Did you notice that?
They're reverent towards God.
They're looking for another way.
They're rowing harder andharder, hoping that they can
just find the right way to getback to shore.
But actually the storm justgetting worse and worse and
(11:17):
worse.
And so they cast lots and theyfound out that Jonah was the
cause of the storm.
You ever had somebody tell yousomething that you didn't think
was important at the time, butthey forgot to tell you some
really important details thatlater on you find out and then
you realize, wow, that waspretty important.
I didn't think it was important,but it was actually important.
Jonah had already told them whenhe got on the ship that he was
(11:39):
running from the Lord.
But here's the deal.
Back in those days, most peoplethought that gods were
territorial.
So as long as he got out of landand, you know, he's okay.
What Jonah failed to mention wasthat the God that he's running
from is the God of the heavenand the God of the earth, the
God of the sea.
So what is the problem here?
God is chasing him down.
And they find out that he's introuble.
(12:04):
It seems when they first toldhim this, they didn't raise the
alarm bells with them initially.
But the truth is that once theyrealized this was the God of
heaven and earth, they realizedthey were in trouble.
What's crazy here, though, to meis, did you notice this?
Rather than choose at thismoment to repent, and for Jonah,
when they say, what have youdone?
(12:26):
And they say, what should we dowith you?
Rather than Jonah say, hey, youknow what?
Man, I was wrong to do this.
This whole storm is all myfault.
I'm so sorry.
I know I didn't do this early.
I was sleeping, but now let'spray.
And he starts crying out to Godin that moment.
You know what Jonah does?
Jonah says, nah, throw meoverboard.
Throw me overboard.
(12:46):
Jonah would rather die than dowhat God has asked him to do.
Jonah would rather be throwninto the depths of the sea than
obey the Lord and do exactlywhat the Lord wanted him to do.
Jonah had sunk so deep in themuck and the mire of sin and
rebellion that he'd given up notonly on God, but he'd given up
(13:08):
even on himself.
Have you ever been there?
You ever gotten so deep in sinthat not only did you think, I
don't know that God would everwant to save me, I'm not sure
God could save me, but I don'tthink I could ever be pleasing
to God again.
You ever felt like that?
I can tell you I've been there,and it's a dark place.
(13:30):
Some of you can relate to this.
There have been times where I'vesunk so low into sin that you
begin to wonder, and I begin towonder, there's no way I'm ever
getting out of this.
And even when I've given up onme, you know what's amazing
about God?
As long as there is breath inour lungs, God has not yet given
up on him.
Jonah chooses to die, but Godhas not given up on him yet.
(13:56):
And so in chapter 1 and verse12, we see what is Jonah's only
good act here.
Every decision he makes here isbad except for this one.
In Jonah 1 and chapter 1 andverse 12, for the first time in
the story, it appears that Jonahbegins to think about somebody
else besides himself.
And he realizes they're about todie for him when he should be
(14:16):
the one dying for them.
And so he says, throw me in.
And after doing everything theycan to avoid it, they toss him
overboard and they cry out forGod's grace.
That God would show them grace.
That he would not hold this sinagainst them.
That he would not hold themaccountable for this.
Knowing that it was the Lord whohas done what has pleased him.
(14:40):
And as soon as they throw himoverboard, the sea is calm.
I want you to think about it.
If you were one of those paganson that boat, you think you
became a believer that day?
You best believe they becamebelievers that day.
Those people feared the Lord.
They offered sacrifices to theLord.
They made vows to the Lord.
These people, because of Jonah,have become believers in God.
(15:01):
And you know what?
This teaches us something reallyimportant.
You know what?
You are a vessel for God'sgrace.
And God will use you for Hisglory, whether by your obedience
or even by your disobedience.
Did you check that out?
God's using Jonah, even whenhe's stubborn and disobedient,
to bring people an opportunityto turn away from their sins and
(15:24):
fear the one true God and knowHim.
Isn't that amazing?
You are a vessel and God willuse you for His glory.
God's going to use you for Hisglory either way.
But you get to choose whether ornot you will be a vessel of
obedience.
and submission to God's will, orwhether or not you will be a
vessel of disobedience.
The sacrifice that Jonah makesto go into the sea actually
(15:46):
brings about the salvation ofthe people on board.
The people in the ship survivebecause Jonah goes in the depths
of the sea.
And the sea grows calm, and theyhave an opportunity to turn to
the one true God.
Now, let me just pause here fora second and ask you, does this
remind you of any other storiesin the Bible?
You know, there's a crazy stormon the water.
(16:06):
There's like people in a boat.
Everybody's afraid.
Everybody's crying out for help.
And then somebody's sleeping.
Does this remind you of anystories in the Bible?
Sounds a little bit like anotherstory we read about in Mark 4,
doesn't it?
This sounds like a story ofJesus.
In the boat, there's a storm.
Others are afraid of the death.
The sleeping prophet gets wokenup and he's rebuked.
What are you doing sleeping?
The storm is miraculouslycalmed.
(16:28):
The companions are rescued.
And the men in the boats aremore afraid after the storm than
they even were in the storm.
But there's one difference.
In Jonah, the prophet is throwninto the deep, satisfying God's
wrath.
so that others are safe from it.
(16:48):
While in Mark, Jesus is not,right?
Maybe we'll come back to that ina little bit.
God overcomes even evil withgood.
Isn't that the story here?
God overcomes even evil withgood.
Jonah fled to avoid being usedby God as a vessel to the
pagans, but he finds himself,whether willing or unwilling,
(17:12):
being used by God as a vessel tothe pagans.
And I want you to notice justhow deep God's grace is.
Read with me, if you would,Jonah chapter 1 and verse 17.
And I'm going to read all theway down to chapter 2 and verse
10.
And I want you to ask yourselfthis question as we read.
At what point does Jonah finallyturn from his wicked ways and
(17:36):
his stubborn rebellion andfinally repent?
At what point does Jonah turnfrom his wicked ways and repent?
Look at what it says.
Jonah 1 verse 17.
Now the Lord provided a hugefish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah
was in the belly of the fishthree days and three nights.
And from inside the fish, Jonahprayed to the Lord is God.
And he said, toward your holytemple the engulfing waters
(18:17):
threatened me the deepsurrounded me seaweed was
wrapped around my head to theroots of the mountains i sank
down the earth beneath barred mein forever but you lord my god
brought me brought my life upfrom the pit when my life was
abbing away let me read thatagain when my life was abbing
away i remembered you lord andmy prayer rose to you Verse 8.
(18:58):
I don't know about you, maybesomebody in here is a great
swimmer.
I am not.
I can swim, but I can't swimwell.
And I have two great fears inlife.
One is turbulence on a plane,and two is drowning in water.
Those are the two great fears inmy life.
You know, I could go all overthe world, I'm not afraid,
whatever, but if I'm on a planeand there's serious turbulence,
(19:18):
the fear of falling out of thesky is a major fear for me.
And the other one is drowning.
I don't know about you, but ifI'm Jonah, And I start to
realize that I'm the cause ofthe storm.
And I start to realize thateverything that we're doing to
get back to shore is notworking.
And I start to realize that theyare about to throw me in the
deep.
(19:38):
It's at that moment that I'mcrying out to God.
God, please, I'm sorry.
I'll go to Nineveh.
Whatever you want, I'll do it.
I am not going in that sea.
But let me ask you this.
When they grabbed Jonah andstarted to throw him overboard,
did Jonah pray then?
UNKNOWN (19:51):
No.
SPEAKER_00 (19:53):
Read it again.
Notice this.
Notice here.
He's hurled into the heart ofthe sea and he does not repent.
He's covered up by the waves.
I don't know if you ever swamdeep in a pool, but you know how
you get deeper and deeper in thepool and the weight is just
heavy of the water on you isheavy.
He's hurled in the heart of thesea and he doesn't repent.
(20:13):
He's covered by the waves and hedoesn't repent.
He's surrounded by the deep.
and he doesn't repent.
He's got seaweed wrapped allaround his head and he still
doesn't repent.
He sinks down to the roots ofthe mountains and he does not
repent.
And the Bible says that it's notuntil his life is ebbing away
(20:35):
when he's on his last breath, hecries out to the Lord.
And I just want to pause hereand ask you a question.
If you were God in this moment,what would you do?
What would you do?
I can tell you what I would do.
This is a stubborn child.
(20:55):
This is a rebellious child.
The Lord didn't give him onechance to repent.
He gave him about 20.
He's given him so many chancesto turn around and say, I'm
sorry, I'll go do.
But this man is stubborn to thebottom of the sea.
Stubborn.
He is rebelling against God,unwilling to do what God wants
him to do.
(21:15):
I can tell you, if I was God, Ican tell you exactly what I'd
do.
I'd say, hey, bro, too late.
You should have done that a longtime ago.
You should have done that whenyou hit the water.
You should have done that beforeyou hit the water.
What is wrong with you, man?
How stupid can you be?
You wait till your last breath.
You've waited too long.
I was sinking deep in sin, farfrom the peaceful shore, buried
(21:40):
deeply stained within, sinkingto rise no more.
But the master of the sea heardmy despairing cry and from the
waters lifted me, now safe andI.
Deeper than the ocean and widerthan the sea is the grace of the
(22:01):
Savior for sinners like me.
Amen.
This is the beauty of our God.
Now, God doesn't lift Jonah outof the water right away.
He actually sends a fish.
The fish actually is God'ssalvation for Jonah.
God provides a huge fish toswallow Jonah.
And Jonah was in the belly ofthe fish three days and three
(22:23):
nights.
Now, to me, that sounds like along time to be inside the belly
of a fish.
I'm a little bit claustrophobic.
I don't like being in tightspaces.
I don't know how big this fishis, but that doesn't sound like
a good place to be.
Three days and three nights.
I'm assuming here God didn'ttell him, hey, after three days
and three nights, you're gettingout of here.
Like, how long is he going to bein here?
If I was him, I'd go crazy.
This is nuts.
(22:43):
But God gives him the fish andleaves him there to think about
himself.
And what I love about this iswhile he's in the fish, he
starts praying.
He realizes that God has rescuedhim from death, at least thus
far, and he begins to pray andhe begins to make vows to God.
God sends a fish who swallowshim up for three days and three
(23:05):
nights.
He sits inside the fish notknowing where he's going until
God in his amazing grace makesthis fish, get the picture here,
makes this fish vomit him up ondry land.
And then God calls him again andsends him to Nineveh.
I want you to notice somethinghere.
Jonah in the story so far hasplayed the part of the prodigal
(23:28):
son.
Consider with me for a secondthat God has entrusted him with
his most valuable treasure, hisword.
And yet rather than using thattreasure as God, as the father
intended him to use it, what hashe done?
He ran off to the far country touse it how he wanted, to
(23:48):
squander it.
He runs away.
And yet even then, he didn'treturn to his father.
It wasn't until the storm came.
It wasn't until the famine came.
It wasn't until, remember in thestory of the prodigal son?
It wasn't until life got reallyhard and no one gave him
anything that life got sodesperate that he came to his
(24:10):
senses.
And he finally remembered hisfather.
And when he looked toward thefather and began that journey
back home, the father ran to himand rescued him.
And isn't that the story ofJonah?
Stubborn, rebellious.
It wasn't until he hit thebottom of the sea and his life
was ebbing away that finally hecomes to his senses.
He cries out to God.
(24:30):
And isn't this an amazing God?
Oh, the depth and the riches ofGod's grace that even from the
bottom of the sea he wouldlisten to the cries of his
people who would turn from theirwicked ways and seek him with
their whole heart.
God gives an even greater grace.
(24:50):
You know what it is?
Look at Jonah chapter 3 andverses 1 to 10.
The word of the Lord came toJonah a second time.
Go to the great city of Ninevehand proclaim to it the message I
give you.
God gives him even greatergrace.
You know what he gives him?
A second chance.
A second chance to go and dowhat God has asked him to do.
And this time Jonah obeys.
(25:13):
Took him some hard lessons.
Maybe not feeling as great as hewas before.
But this time, Jonah obeys.
He goes.
This time, Jonah goes.
And he preaches.
40 days and Nineveh will beoverthrown.
Remember what we learned aboutNineveh.
And imagine you showing up, anIsraelite, to this place.
You're a foreigner.
You're a stranger.
You're an immigrant.
(25:34):
You're not welcome.
And you're going to come inhere.
You're going to preach thatmessage?
40 days?
And this city is going to beoverthrown?
What do you think the responsewould be?
Forty days in Nineveh will beoverthrown.
And Yahweh, with an army of oneman, brings the greatest city in
the world to its knees with thatsimple message.
(25:55):
The Ninevites believed in God.
A fast was proclaimed.
The whole city is wearingsackcloth.
The king takes off his royalrobes.
He's covering himself withsackcloth.
He's sitting in the dust.
Even the animals are covered insackcloth.
I don't know if you guys do thishere in New York.
Sometimes people dress up theirdogs in clothes.
I don't know if you guys haveseen that before.
But imagine this.
You're going through a city of120,000 people.
(26:18):
And not only that many people,but all the animals, every one
of them is wearing clothes.
But it's sackcloth and ashes.
Because The whole city isfasting.
The city is trying to make achange.
And they're trying to make itquick before they get destroyed.
The king sends out aproclamation to the whole city.
And he says, don't let people oranimals taste anything.
(26:39):
Let them all be covered insackcloth.
Let everyone urgently call onGod.
Let them give up their evil waysand their violence.
And who knows?
God may yet relent.
How could this happen?
Jonah preaches 40 days.
And then it will be overthrown.
And all it takes is that.
And bam! I don't know if youguys see this stuff happening in
(27:02):
downtown Dallas, but it's prettycommon in Brooklyn for you to
see on the street people streetpreaching.
And they'll come up.
Some of them will have a sign.
They'll say, hey, you know, 40days and Brooklyn's going to be
overthrown.
You know, this whole city'scoming down.
You're going to be destroyed.
That day of the Lord is coming.
And you know what most people dowhen they come and say that?
We just walk by on the otherside.
You know, even me sometimes.
You just walk by, you know,like...
(27:24):
I didn't really think much ofit.
I do fear God.
I know the Lord's coming back,but I didn't think much about
it.
How does this Israelite preacherfrom a foreign land come to this
city, preach a simple messagelike that, and the whole city
repent with just like a 10-wordsermon?
Maybe Jesus gives us a clue inLuke chapter 11 and verse 30.
(27:45):
And before I read that, let mepreface what I'm about to say
here with this.
I've never spent three days andthree nights in the belly of a
fish.
I have very little experience inthe belly of a fish.
However, I have gone fishing.
I have fished before.
(28:07):
And one time, I caught a fish.
One time.
We pulled the fish out.
And we took it home to filletit.
We were going to eat the thing,and it was like bulging.
And so we started to cut itopen, and at first we're like,
maybe the fish is pregnant.
Like, why is it sticking outlike that?
Well, we opened the fish up, andinside of it is a whole big
(28:27):
crawdad that it had eaten.
Except when I saw the crawdad,the crawdad was no longer the
color that it normally...
It was like bleached, likewhite.
And I was like, what in theworld is going on?
Now...
What I'm saying here is notspecifically what the Bible
says, but I do wonder aboutthis.
Though I have very littleexperience in the belly of a
(28:48):
fish, I do wonder, afterspending three days and three
nights in the belly of a fish,what do you come out looking
like?
Do you think this man lookedlike he did before?
Or do you think maybe somethingwas changed about his
appearance?
Can you imagine that?
He had that sun-kissed skin, buthe comes out bleached white?
Like, that's crazy! And then hegoes to Nineveh and he starts to
(29:10):
preach and he says, 40 days andthis city is going to be
overthrown.
And imagine some guy walks up tohim and says, bro, what happened
to you, bro?
And he starts to say, you're notgoing to believe this, but I got
swallowed by a fish.
And I spent three days and threenights in the belly of a fish.
Now, I don't know if that's howthe story went, but I do know
this.
Jesus says in Luke chapter 11and verse 30 that Jonah became a
(29:33):
sign to the Ninevites.
Now, I don't know exactly whatthat means.
I don't know if he lookeddifferent.
I don't know if word got back.
Somebody was on the shore whenthe fish vomits up a man and
they're like, what in the world?
And they passed the word back toNineveh?
I don't know how this worked,but somehow, some way, Jonah has
become a sign to the Ninevitesso that the whole city repents.
(29:57):
And you might think this storyhas a happy ending, right?
This is amazing.
Jonah repented and God savedhim.
And now all of Nineveh hasrepented.
And this story is going to endwell, right?
Look at chapter 3 and verse 10.
When God saw what they did andhow they turned from their evil
(30:18):
ways, He relented and did notbring on them the destruction
that He had threatened.
I want to tell you this tonight.
I don't care what you've done.
Probably most of you have notskinned A huge number of people
and put them in piles and drapedthem over the wall, right?
You may have done some badthings.
(30:38):
I don't know if anybody in heredone that But you know what our
god is so deep in his grace Thateven people who've done the
unthinkable Are not so far gonethat they could not experience
his love if they turn from hiswicked ways You know what that
(30:59):
tells me You're not a lostcause.
You may feel like you reallyscrewed it up.
You may feel like you've alreadymade mistakes that have wrecked
your life and you don't know ifyou could ever recover.
But the story of Nineveh showsthat there is hope for us yet,
that we can still be saved by anamazing God who has amazing
(31:20):
grace.
And that should be the end ofthe story.
And what a beautiful ending itwould be.
But in Jonah 4 and verse 1, thetext says, but to Jonah, this
seemed very wrong.
And he became angry and heprayed to the Lord.
Isn't this what I said, Lord,when I was still at home?
That is what I tried toforestall by fleeing the
(31:42):
Tarshish.
I knew that you are a graciousand compassionate God, slow to
anger, abounding in love, a Godwho relents from sin and
calamity.
Now, Lord, take away my life.
For it's better for me to diethan to live.
But the Lord replied, Is itright for you to be angry?
(32:05):
I want you to think about thatquestion.
Do you see what's happeninghere?
We're learning something hereabout Jonah that we didn't
recognize at the beginning ofthe story.
And that is that it's not justJonah being afraid of Nineveh
that led him not to go there.
I do think he was afraid.
But it's not just that he wasafraid.
Jonah...
hated Nineveh these were wickedpeople who had come to oppress
(32:30):
the people of God Jonah hatedthis nation Jonah did not want
this nation to experience God'sgrace but do you see the irony
here do you see what I'm seeingdo you understand the question
that God is asking him do youhave a right to be angry think
about this A man who was deep atthe bottom of the sea with
(32:51):
seaweed wrapped around his head,his life ebbing away, and he
cries out and God sends a fishto save his life.
Does he have a right to tell Godwho he should show his grace to?
Does he?
Does he have a right to beangry?
Do we have a right to be angry?
(33:12):
Understand what God is trying toteach Jonah here.
Should not the God who extendedHis deep, amazing grace to him,
when He sank deep in sin to thebottom of the sea, should He not
also extend it to this greatnation of Nineveh?
Though they were deep in themuck and the mire of sin
(33:33):
themselves.
Jonah realized what we did not.
That God was actually callinghim not on a mission to destroy
Nineveh, But to say, Nineveh,that our God is a God of amazing
grace.
And you see here is, this is, ifyou didn't get anything so far,
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I just want you to hold on tothis one thought.
This is the main point ofeverything we've been working
towards tonight in this lesson.
When you receive deep, amazinggrace from God, what should that
produce in you?
Grace received should produce agrace that is extended to
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others.
Do you see that?
Because God has given you somuch amazing grace, you know
what you should give others?
Amazing grace.
The grace that God has given youis not a grace that God expects
you to receive and to hold toyourself, but something that you
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should share with others.
We are called by God.
to be conduits of his grace, notdecaying cul-de-sacs.
You know what a cul-de-sac is?
We don't have a lot of those inBrooklyn, but I've seen a few
here.
You know what a cul-de-sac is?
It's where you drive in andthere's just a circle and it's a
dead end.
When God gives you grace, hedoesn't give it to you simply so
(35:05):
that you can have it and rejoicein it and give thanks for it and
just hold it all to yourself.
God gives you grace so that youcan extend it to others who are
in need.
That's what God wanted fromJonah.
God had given him amazing graceand God just wanted him to share
that grace with the people ofNineveh.
(35:27):
But Jonah wanted no part of it.
And you see what we're noticinghere?
We are gracious toward othersbecause God has been gracious
towards us.
When we come to recognize thedepth and the riches of God's
amazing grace toward us, Nothingwill be able to stop you from
(35:48):
sharing that same grace with theworld around you.
That's the way it works.
God's grace provokes grace.
Grace received provokes graceextended.
Freely we have received,therefore freely also we give.
I want to talk to you for asecond, though, about our
(36:08):
response to grace.
Why is grace so hard for us?
Why is it so difficult for us toextend grace to others when we
all know that we have needed itourselves?
Why is it so hard for us toshare that same grace with
others that God has shared withus?
(36:28):
Let me give you a couple ofreasons.
One, we forget who we are and weforget where we came from.
Did you notice this?
In the first half of the story,Jonah plays the part of the
prodigal son.
But did you notice what'shappening in chapters 3 and 4?
Who is Jonah now?
He's the older brother.
When the father comes and grabshis son and welcomes him home
(36:52):
when he comes back home and hethrows a feast and a huge party
and he invites and pleads withhis older son, come inside and
rejoice.
My son who is dead, he's beenfound.
He's here again.
And what did the older brothersay?
What in the world?
I ain't coming in here tocelebrate that.
I've been over here slavingaway.
(37:12):
I've been doing everything youasked.
You haven't done that for me.
Doesn't that sound a bit likeJonah?
You know what our problem is?
When we are having a hard timeextending grace to others, it's
because we forget who we are andwe forget where we came from.
We are the prodigal who issinking deep in sin.
And therefore, we need to extendthat same grace that God has
(37:35):
given to us.
Why don't the Pharisees eat withtax collectors and sinners?
Why doesn't Jonah want God toshow mercy to Nineveh?
Because Jonah had forgotten whatGod did for him.
And he'd forgotten that thatsame grace that God had given
him is what God wanted him toextend to others.
We forget who we are and wherewe came from.
Secondly, though, we have a verynarrow definition of sin and an
(37:59):
enormous amount of pride.
A very narrow definition of sinand an enormous amount of pride.
I want you to think about thisfor a second.
We are good at defining sin inways that excludes our own
faults and flaws, right?
It's easy to see sin in otherpeople.
This is why Jesus says thatthing in the Sermon on the Mount
about like, hey, you know,before you deal with the speck
(38:22):
in your brother's eye, deal withthe plank in your own eye.
I don't think that that means inevery case...
In every case, the sin is alwaysbigger in me than it is in you.
Maybe sometimes your sin isbigger than mine.
But I think the point of that isthat to me, when there's a sin
in me and there's a sin in you,to me it should look like always
that it's a plank in my eye.
(38:44):
That my sin should always bebigger.
But you know that's not the waywe work, right?
Isn't this true?
A lot of times, it's the sin ineverybody else that looks way
worse.
Everybody else is the problem.
I'm not the problem.
I got some flaws and faults, butthey're not bad.
They're just little things, youknow.
I sin every few weeks or everyfew months, but not that much,
you know.
When Isaiah comes into thepresence of God, Isaiah, he
(39:06):
wrote scripture for crying outloud.
He comes into the presence ofGod and what does he say?
Woe is me.
I am ruined.
I'm a man of unclean lips.
Who are we?
You see, our problem, we don'tappreciate God's grace because
we don't recognize how deep wewere in sin.
Some, you know, it's like achild.
When we were at the beach onetime, my sister had a, her son
(39:29):
was just a baby, and he went outand he walked off of this little
sandbar into the water and justfell flat down in the ocean.
And we were like, wait, he's introuble.
I just ran over there, grabbedhim, pulled him out.
But you know what happenssometimes?
We don't recognize how deep weare and how much trouble we're
in.
Because somebody's rescued usfrom it.
(39:49):
God rescued us from it and weare quick to forget where we
were.
We're quick to define sin inways that really don't apply to
us.
And so we forget how much gracewe need.
Let me give you one more here.
Why is grace so hard for us?
We get distracted by religiousthings from the things that
matter most to God.
(40:10):
Do you guys remember Jesussaying over and over again, he
said to the Pharisees that theywere too busy tithing and every
spice in the spice cabinet tofind the time to do justice, to
show mercy and to walkfaithfully with their God in the
ways that God desired.
It's possible.
Jonah teaches us it's possibleto be religious, but to not be
(40:33):
godly.
It's possible to be busy doingall sorts of religious things,
but to forget the things thatmatter most to God.
And we are distracted by so manythings.
Why would Jesus tell a storyabout a Levite and a priest who
pass by on the other side?
Is it not because many religiouspeople are the ones passing by
(40:55):
on the other side rather thanshowing compassion to the ones
who are in need?
How can you As a junior high, ahigh school student, how can
you, as a college student, howcan you, as a human on this
earth, extend grace?
I want you to think about this.
The mark of those who've beenimmersed in God's grace is
(41:16):
compassion.
Did you notice that's how thestory of Jonah ends?
God gives Jonah a plant, anotherobject of God's grace.
And then Jonah, again, doesn'tseem to be getting the point
here, doesn't seem to becomprehending truly God's grace.
And so God takes the plant awayto teach him another lesson.
And God takes the plant away toteach him this very important
(41:39):
lesson in which the story endsupon.
You've been concerned about thisplant, though you didn't tend to
it or make it grow.
It sprang up overnight and diedovernight.
Should I not have concern forthe great city of Nineveh in
which there are more than120,000 people who cannot tell
their right hand from their leftand also many animals?
What did God want from Jonah?
(41:59):
He wanted compassion.
And this is the mark of God'speople who've been touched by
his grace, who've been immersedin his grace.
We have compassion.
Let me ask you this.
Do you have compassion?
Do you have compassion forpeople who are not like you?
Do you have compassion forpeople who don't look like you,
(42:19):
who don't talk like you, whodon't walk like you, who don't
live like you?
Or do you show contempt forthem?
We're living in an increasinglypolarized culture.
Where we watch and we payattention to all this social
media stuff.
And you know how these socialmedia companies work.
They have specifically designedthe stuff in your feed to feed
(42:42):
you the stuff that they thinkcan hook you.
And you're just hearing one sideof the story most of the time.
And it's designed in such a way.
You know what gets people tolike.
You know what gets people tosubscribe.
You know what gets people tostay watching.
The more angry they can makeyou, the better they got you.
That's how it works.
We're living in a culture that'steaching us to have contempt for
(43:02):
the other side, whoever theother side is.
When you go back to school, howare you going to treat the
people on the other side,whatever that group is?
What's your view going to betowards them?
How are you going to talk aboutthem?
How are you going to treat thepeople who mistreat you?
What about when you get back toschool and you find out that
people have been spreadingrumors about you all summer?
(43:23):
They've been saying things aboutyou.
They've been saying things thatare not true.
They've been saying things thatare hurtful to you and they're
lies.
And then some of those peoplethat have been spreading those
rumors show up here in church.
Will you welcome them?
Would you give them a chance tohear the gospel?
Would you preach to them themessage of grace?
(43:44):
Would you want them to be saved?
When you go back to school, manyof your friends are going to
form groups and tribes.
And they're going to start tolook at other groups with
contempt, and they're going tolook down on those people over
there who look different, whotalk different, who live
different.
What about you?
Will you demonize them?
(44:04):
Will you mock them?
Will you attack them?
Or will you extend grace?
Will you show kindness, not justto the people who are cool, but
also to the people who are notcool?
Will you show compassion forpeople who are in trouble?
What about the people that hurtyou?
Will you forgive them, as Paulsays in Ephesians 4, just as
your Father has forgiven you?
(44:26):
Will you give them secondchances, just like God gave
Jonah and God has given you?
What will move me, and we'll endwith this thought, what will
move me and what will move youto become a man and woman of
God?
moved by grace filled with gracegrace provokes grace mercy
(44:49):
provokes great mercy if godgives it to us then we must
extend it to others but how welli said earlier about that story
in mark um Jonah was thrown intothe deep and Jesus wasn't.
At least that's kind of how itseemed like the story ended.
But actually, do you guysremember that Jesus said
something like this?
(45:09):
Just as Jonah spent three daysand three nights in the heart of
the sea, so also will the Son ofMan spend three days and three
nights in the heart of theearth.
Maybe he was thrown in the deep.
Actually, think about this.
Actually, have you consideredthis?
That when God said to Jonah, goto Nineveh, Jonah refused to go.
(45:31):
for fear of what might happen tohim there.
Possible suffering and death.
But Jesus, on the other hand,when the Father said go, He
chose to go.
He made up His mind to go,knowing what would happen to
Him.
Absolute, certainly, sufferingand death.
Jonah refused because he thoughtabout himself.
(45:52):
But Jesus went...
Because he thought about us.
Who for the joy set before himendured the cross, despising the
shame.
What was the joy that sent Jesusto the cross?
It certainly wasn't the idea ofhanging on a tree.
What was the joy?
It was the joy of loving you.
It was the joy of sharing hisamazing grace with you.
(46:15):
And so while we were still inthe pig pen, Jesus came down
here and he suffered and died.
Amazing grace, how sweet thesound that saved a wretch like
me.
Jesus, our older brother, didnot look on us with scornful
eyes when we were in the pig penafter squandering our lives,
(46:36):
after squandering God's wealthwith wild living.
Instead, he ran to us.
He suffered and died for uswhile we were still in the pig
pen.
We are called by God to be notonly recipients of God's grace,
but distributors of God's grace,not just dead ends.
(46:56):
So what about you?
Will you be a vessel of grace?
Will you take God's grace inyour backpack as you go back to
school in this world?
Maybe you're here tonight andyou haven't yet experienced the
grace of God.
There's no better night thantonight to become a Christian.
and to truly understand, maybefor the first time, God's grace.
(47:16):
I'll tell you this, the grace ofGod is something you can't fully
understand your first timehearing about it.
We need a second touch and athird touch and a fourth touch,
just like Jonah did.
We need to be renewed day afterday.
But here's what the Bible saysin Colossians chapter 1 and in
verse 6.
Colossians chapter 1 and inverse 6, this is what the Bible
says.
(47:40):
In the same way the gospel isbearing fruit and growing
throughout the whole world, justas it has been doing among you
since the day you heard it andtruly understood God's grace.
From the day you trulyunderstood God's grace, God's
grace begins to produce fruit inyou.
And maybe that fruit needs to beaccomplished tonight with you
dying to your sins and buryingthat old man and being raised to
(48:04):
walk in newness of life.
If that's where you need to be,then come to Jesus today.
And experience the amazing graceof God.
Maybe you're already aChristian.
And if you're already aChristian, then make it your aim
that from this day on, you willcontinue to learn about God's
grace.
Not just so that you canappreciate how great it is, but
also so that you can share itwith others.
(48:25):
If there's anything we can do tohelp you to come to the Lord or
come to seek Him morediligently, let us know as
together we stand and sing.
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