June 4, 2025 • 19 mins
Our exploration of the book of Jonah reveals important truths about missions and our often-reluctant hearts toward sharing the gospel.
• God calls us out of our comfort zones to reach the lost.
• Jonah knew God was merciful but didn't want that mercy extended to Nineveh.
• Christians today often retreat into isolation or political arguments rather than gospel sharing.
• The gospel remains the same regardless of who we're sharing with.
• We don't need perfect answers to every question when witnessing.
• Our testimonies can open doors even in brief encounters.
• God looks at eternal souls while we focus on temporal differences.
• True forgiveness is a distinctive of Christianity worth sharing.
• Compassion for the lost should transcend cultural and political differences.
Read the book of Jonah and join us for our next episode where we'll continue exploring Jonah's relationship with God and the Ninevites.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Simply Edifies podcast.
Our goal is to encourage womenas we navigate the messiness of
life through biblical studies,personal stories and practical
tips that bolster our walk withJesus daily.
Thank you for joining us in ourepisode today.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello and welcome.
Today we are going to talk alittle bit about Jonah.
In our last episode we'vementioned, we are going to start
talking a little bit aboutmissions and it might be a
little strange to start withJonah talking about missions.
(00:38):
Usually people go to the GreatCommission, right to the great
mission, right.
But I think jonah gives us agood example of what the
majority of us are like when itcomes to missions.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Sadly, um, I was gonna say I don't, I don't like
that, but also probably trueyeah just in the first two
verses of the book of jonah.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It says now the word of the lord came to jonah, the
son of amittaya, saying arise,go to nineveh, that great city,
and cry against it, for thewickedness has come up before me
.
So basically, it's it's Godgiving Jonah the great
commission, the commission thatwe were giving, going into all
(01:30):
the world and preach the gospel.
It says arise and go to Nineveh.
Jonah's being called to comeout from his normal daily
programming and reorient himselfto God's will.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And something to be noted, too, is he was in
ministry.
He was already doing the thingsthat he was supposed to do.
He was a prophet.
He could have easily said am Inot doing enough?
I'm busy doing what you'vecalled me to do.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I have my ministry here in Israel preaching to your
people and taking care of thethings that I need to do.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I have my.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I have my ministry here in Israel, preaching to
your people and taking care ofthe things that I need to do
here.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, I'm doing, I'm doing stuff for you and that's
not.
You know, that wasn't reallyhis argument, but I think that a
lot of us kind of rest on our,our busyness.
Um, oh, I go to church and I,you know, do all the things.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Don't call me up higher or harder to harder
things right or or things thatare just uncomfortable in a lot
of ways.
And you know, we don't knowJonah's backstory.
We don't know why he was soopposed to Nineveh.
I mean, obviously Nineveh was avery wicked city, it was a
gentile city.
So there are those two thingsthat just off the bat, we could
(02:52):
look at and be like, well, hedidn't want to go because of you
know, them being gentiles orwhatever we.
We don't know if he had personalissues with the Ninevites, like
if they had done something tohis family or anything
personally.
But that's really not important, because when God calls us to
(03:13):
go, it doesn't matter ourbackstory, it doesn't matter our
history, and oftentimes, whenGod calls us to witness to
people who are close to us, whowe do have a history with, we
are a little bit moreintimidated to share the gospel.
I don't know if that's true foryou, but I find people that you
(03:35):
kind of already have anestablished relationship with
there's a little bit more atstake when you are witnessing to
them.
If they reject the gospel, it'slike they're rejecting you and
that relationship could bebroken.
So we feel that it's a littlebit harder.
Anyhow, just as an added sidenote there too as well, you know
(03:56):
, we don't know the exactreasons why he was completely so
opposed to going to Nineveh.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
There was something.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
There was something that made him yeah, and we often
are just called to douncomfortable things, regardless
of where we're at, what we'vegot going on already, and
whether we want to do it or not,and when we look at the book of
Jonah, you know we could say,well, the book of Jonah is about
Jonah and, or the whale, orNineveh, or you know the story
(04:25):
and how all of it happened, butreally it's not about any of
that.
Really those are just the partsof the story that show us God
and his dealings with nationsand his dealings with individual
men.
So when we take a step back andlook at the book as a whole,
that's important to remember.
(04:46):
God was in control of thisentire situation the entire time
and he knew exactly what wasgoing to happen from the
beginning.
So you might say, well, whydidn't he just ask somebody who
was going to do it without aproblem?
Because and we wouldn't knowthe exact reason why but really
(05:07):
God chooses who he will to dohis will and he gives us
opportunities and chances tofollow that.
And even when we mess up andmake mistakes, he is still
willing to use us, and this is agreat picture of that right.
And then, as far as Nineveh isconcerned, I'm going to read
(05:28):
Jeremiah 18, 7 and 8.
At what instant I shall speakconcerning a nation and
concerning a kingdom to plug itup and to pull it down and to
destroy it.
If that nation against whom Ihave pronounced turn from their
evil, I will repent of the evilthat I thought to do unto them.
So this is just showing thatGod is a merciful God.
(05:52):
Right, nineveh was a wickedcity, and you can read more
about Nineveh and the wickedthings that it did in Nehemiah
as a whole.
When it comes to nations, wecan look at history and we can
be like, well, why did thisnation survive and why did this
nation, why did God let thesepeople, you know, go so long?
And it shows us the mercy ofGod and his compassion, and
(06:19):
Jonah knew that.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, he knew that he was merciful, that's why he
didn't want to go, like I mean,that's what he says later on and
he we're fine, we're fine withaccepting god's mercy for us,
right?
Um, he pulled up, you know,later on he like shows jonah so
much mercy and just letting himlive and yet you know he didn't
(06:45):
want mercy showed upon peoplethat he deemed unworthy of it,
right?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
and jonah is kind of a I would say kind of, is a nice
way of putting it kind ofdepressed person.
I mean he really definitelysomething going on with him, for
sure like he doesn't care if helives or dies in any of this
story, which is interesting tome, because the way that he acts
(07:13):
like what?
When he's on the ship, he'slike, oh, just throw me into the
sea, I don't care, whatever notfunny but it is kind of a weird
response.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
There's no like begging for mercy or for his
life.
He's just like yeah, I hadn'treally thought about that before
, probably overboard, okay, likehe's just I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
He's kind of a weird kind of guy, I would think.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So I don't know that this.
I don't think we really knowfor sure who wrote the book of
Jonah, but I have heard peoplesay that possibly Jonah wrote
the book of Jonah Right, whichis very interesting to think
about because he definitely doesnot paint himself in a?
pleasant light.
No, if that is the case, um,which it's just, it is
(08:01):
interesting that he's such agloomy character, um, and he
really doesn't have anyredeeming.
There's not really a singlepoint in the story where he says
or does anything redeeming orum that, like you know, makes
him a better person.
(08:22):
But there's no like characterarc.
It doesn't change who he is, hejust kind of stays at one point
.
He's kind of like well, fine,I'm here, I guess I gotta do it
right it doesn't actually likeshow a heart heart change, or he
probably could have done with alittle bit of a personality
change.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yes, it is comforting that God does use us, all
personality quirks and all yesfor sure so, going back to, kind
of, our first point, I guess,is that when God calls us to go,
we set up the obstacles and theroadblocks and stuff.
And you know I'm not we'retalking about missions.
But we all know that missionsdoesn't have to be on a foreign
(09:01):
field in Africa.
Missions is, and always hasbeen, at home first.
But that's not where it stopsin Christianity today.
We have a mindset that is not arise and go, it is not go into
all the world, it is be, youknow, at home, even if the, if
(09:22):
there is evangelism, it'sevangelism at home.
Right, missions has reallytaken a backseat in a lot of
churches today, if there is anyseat.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Well, we talked about this when we talked about our
kind of the home study likemovement.
It was been quite a while ago,but we kind of talked about how
there's the us versus themmentality, even set inside of
churches, and so you see allthese what would be labeled as
like child wife accounts, wherepeople are, you know, staying at
home and raising their babies,but they're also kind of like
(09:55):
pulling in, having their, theirlittle world that is completely
within their control and Ithere's parts of that that I
love like I, I love gardening, Ilove like having food that
we've made for ourselves, allthat kind of stuff.
But when it starts to become usversus them me and my world
only they can all just figurethings out on their own that
(10:19):
leeches over into our evangelismand our missions, right?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
And we also, along that same line, have going back
to the fact that the Nineviteswere Gentiles.
We're talking about completelydifferent lifestyles, completely
different, um, governmentsystems, completely different
laws and all of this stuff.
Right, and God didn't tellJonah to go to Nineveh and
(10:45):
preach about their badgovernment, or right, you know
he?
He said repent, right, that's,you know, essentially, the
gospel is repent and believe inGod, and so sometimes we can get
caught up in all of thesesocial issues, and so it's kind
of the one extreme is like theisolation.
(11:07):
Right, we're going to just takecare of me and mine, go to
church and minister to the savedbelievers and stay home and
take care of me and mine.
The isolation.
Or like the politicization wherewe like politics warriors, and
(11:29):
we're preaching against politics.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Right, we get those two extremes and that's where I
feel like just my personal takeon jonah.
Again, my personal take is thatI feel like that was more of
jonah's thing.
Like these people are different.
I don't like what they standfor, I don't like who they are.
I I don't like their history.
I don't want to see God forgivethem and I think that that if
(11:54):
we really sat in and thoughtabout our lack of compassion
towards people who are not likeus, I think that you might have
to face some of that same, youknow, is your heart.
Is that where my heart is?
Do I want God?
Do I don't want God to show thesame kind of mercy towards
others that he's shown to me?
(12:15):
Right, which is really awful tothink about, but sometimes our
actions speak louder than ourwords, right?
And what are you doing to reachpeople that don't look and talk
and act like you?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Right.
So there's just some things tobe cautious of in our mindsets
that we can see kind of a littlebit in Jonah's mindset, right
Like he's he's just clearlyuncompassionate towards the lost
.
And I don't think we'd comeright out and say it ourselves.
But our lives and our choices,they say it for us.
(12:48):
We do not care enough to comeout of our bubbles to present
the gospel to those around us,whether it be fear or just a
general lack of knowledge on howto, it is our responsibility to
learn the gospel so we canshare the gospel.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
So when it's the excuse of, well, I just don't
know how to, um, that's reallynot a good excuse and a lot of
times we'll say I know that I'vefallen into this trap of being
like, well, I don't know how toshare the gospel to that
particular person and theirparticular belief system or
(13:31):
politics or lifestyle orwhatever, but the gospel is the
gospel is the gospel.
And so, yeah, there are somethings that are helpful to know.
Questions you might get askedby a, um, a certain religion
let's say they're from adifferent religion.
You might.
There might be questions theyhave that are helpful to have
answers for.
But ultimately, if you knowGod's word, what he says about
(13:53):
salvation, that's what we'rerequired to know.
That's what we're told to know.
The Bible says to know, to havean answer about the hope that
lies within you.
You don't have to have acounter argument for every
potential argument.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Right, don't fall back on that crutch like well, I
don't know what to say I wasjust talking with someone
actually last week who wassaying that there was a lady and
that had started coming to abible study that she was
attending and she wasn't savedbut through the bible study, my
friends, well, I don't have allthose answers, but we can figure
(14:30):
that out or whatever type ofthing.
And it wasn't even like aboutquestions that the other person
was asking directly, but just ingeneral how my friend responded
with that like I'm not sure,but we can find it, just that
she.
She told her later on like shedid end up getting saved and she
said that was one of the thingsthat kind of helped me to
(14:53):
realize I didn't need to knowall of the answers before.
I just had faith and believedand got saved.
Sometimes, when we are sharingthe gospel, to say I'm not
exactly sure right now, but wecan figure it out, like to have
(15:16):
that kind of spirit, is not bad,it's good.
And also, when it comes tosharing the gospel and things,
it's more about having a mindsetof eternity with us instead of
the here and the now, um, andand that's what can we can also
pull out from some of the thingswith jonah is god's looking at
these souls in their eternaldestination and jonah's looking
(15:41):
at their here and now and hishere and now, um, and we can do
the same thing.
We can get caught up in thehere and now very easily, so
maybe something that could helpus.
We're going to wrap it up forright now, but, um, we'll
probably revisit jonah in thefuture here, but for this week
(16:03):
and what our responsibility iswith the gospel, maybe we take a
few minutes and we evaluate howam I doing with going out of
isolation to share the gospel?
Do I just care about me andmine?
Is that what my actions show?
And or am I, like a politicalpreacher, right?
(16:28):
Am I preaching againstpolitical issues but not sharing
the gospel, the truth of thegospel, and am I watering down
the gospel with my politicalarguments and not being as
effective in how I present thegospel of Christ to other people
because I'm getting sidetrackedwith these other issues?
(16:51):
And one of the greatest thingsthat we can tell people is how
wonderful it is to be forgivenwhen we're sharing the gospel.
If you think about otherreligions, there's really not
any forgiveness involved, right?
Not a lasting forgiveness.
Your sins are gone.
Forgiveness Catholicism.
(17:13):
You have to continually ask forforgiveness and you have to
continually bring your faultsyou know, before somebody to be
forgiven or absolved or whateverit is.
Other religions, like you'reconstantly working towards that,
but with Christ we havecomplete and full forgiveness.
(17:35):
So that is something that youcan talk about rather easily.
I'm so glad that God forgave me.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
I was going to say.
I think that if you have a partof your testimony that you can
share with people, say you havea quick interaction with
somebody, cause you don't alwaysknow and we use that term like
leading someone to the Lord,kind of like it's us that's
doing it, but ultimately it'sGod and his word and his spirit,
and so, yes, like there arepeople that will absolutely sit
(18:05):
down and explain the gospel toyou and that is invaluable.
But we put a lot of pressure onourselves to like say exactly
the right thing, lead someonethrough all you know 10 verses
of the Romans road, or else it'snot good enough.
But if you have just somethingprepared, not scripted, I'm not
saying that but just somethingthat you know, that you can
(18:27):
share, like what you just said,like I'm just grateful that God
forgave me of my sins and I knowthat I have salvation, or
something to that effect, canopen the doors to a seeking
heart, or open the door tosomeone that wasn't seeking and
now you've, you know, kicked ahole in for the light to shine
(18:50):
through.
But just having like a truthabout yourself, I think that our
testimony is so hard.
Even people who don't want tohear the full gospel, are
generally going to be acceptingof hearing a part of your
testimony right because every,even, even far in the opposite
direction of what we believe,there are people who would say,
(19:13):
like follow your truth.
And so there's that open,there's a slight little bit of
open-mindedness that they shouldhave practicing what they
preach, and so, um, anyway, Ijust think that that's really
important, because I think ofall the times I have very brief
interactions with people where Ican't sit down and really open
(19:34):
my bible and share with them,but I can give them the answer
for the hope that's in me, right, yes, so if uh you're gonna
follow along with us.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Go on ahead and read the book of jonah, but I can't
give them the answer for thehope that's in me, right?
Yes, so if you're going tofollow along with us, go on
ahead and read the book of Jonah, and we'll probably do another
episode and talk a little bitmore about some things
concerning Jonah and hisrelationship with God, and also
the Ninevites.
Hello and welcome to Simply Edifies podcast.
Our goal is to encourage womenas we navigate the messiness of
life through biblical studies,personal stories and practical
tips that bolster our walk withJesus daily.
Thank you for joining us in ourepisode today.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello and welcome.
Today we are going to talk alittle bit about Jonah.
In our last episode we'vementioned, we are going to start
talking a little bit aboutmissions and it might be a
little strange to start withJonah talking about missions.
(00:38):
Usually people go to the GreatCommission, right to the great
mission, right.
But I think jonah gives us agood example of what the
majority of us are like when itcomes to missions.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Sadly, um, I was gonna say I don't, I don't like
that, but also probably trueyeah just in the first two
verses of the book of jonah.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It says now the word of the lord came to jonah, the
son of amittaya, saying arise,go to nineveh, that great city,
and cry against it, for thewickedness has come up before me
.
So basically, it's it's Godgiving Jonah the great
commission, the commission thatwe were giving, going into all
(01:30):
the world and preach the gospel.
It says arise and go to Nineveh.
Jonah's being called to comeout from his normal daily
programming and reorient himselfto God's will.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And something to be noted, too, is he was in
ministry.
He was already doing the thingsthat he was supposed to do.
He was a prophet.
He could have easily said am Inot doing enough?
I'm busy doing what you'vecalled me to do.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I have my ministry here in Israel preaching to your
people and taking care of thethings that I need to do.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I have my.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I have my ministry here in Israel, preaching to
your people and taking care ofthe things that I need to do
here.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, I'm doing, I'm doing stuff for you and that's
not.
You know, that wasn't reallyhis argument, but I think that a
lot of us kind of rest on our,our busyness.
Um, oh, I go to church and I,you know, do all the things.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Don't call me up higher or harder to harder
things right or or things thatare just uncomfortable in a lot
of ways.
And you know, we don't knowJonah's backstory.
We don't know why he was soopposed to Nineveh.
I mean, obviously Nineveh was avery wicked city, it was a
gentile city.
So there are those two thingsthat just off the bat, we could
(02:52):
look at and be like, well, hedidn't want to go because of you
know, them being gentiles orwhatever we.
We don't know if he had personalissues with the Ninevites, like
if they had done something tohis family or anything
personally.
But that's really not important, because when God calls us to
(03:13):
go, it doesn't matter ourbackstory, it doesn't matter our
history, and oftentimes, whenGod calls us to witness to
people who are close to us, whowe do have a history with, we
are a little bit moreintimidated to share the gospel.
I don't know if that's true foryou, but I find people that you
(03:35):
kind of already have anestablished relationship with
there's a little bit more atstake when you are witnessing to
them.
If they reject the gospel, it'slike they're rejecting you and
that relationship could bebroken.
So we feel that it's a littlebit harder.
Anyhow, just as an added sidenote there too as well, you know
(03:56):
, we don't know the exactreasons why he was completely so
opposed to going to Nineveh.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
There was something.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
There was something that made him yeah, and we often
are just called to douncomfortable things, regardless
of where we're at, what we'vegot going on already, and
whether we want to do it or not,and when we look at the book of
Jonah, you know we could say,well, the book of Jonah is about
Jonah and, or the whale, orNineveh, or you know the story
(04:25):
and how all of it happened, butreally it's not about any of
that.
Really those are just the partsof the story that show us God
and his dealings with nationsand his dealings with individual
men.
So when we take a step back andlook at the book as a whole,
that's important to remember.
(04:46):
God was in control of thisentire situation the entire time
and he knew exactly what wasgoing to happen from the
beginning.
So you might say, well, whydidn't he just ask somebody who
was going to do it without aproblem?
Because and we wouldn't knowthe exact reason why but really
(05:07):
God chooses who he will to dohis will and he gives us
opportunities and chances tofollow that.
And even when we mess up andmake mistakes, he is still
willing to use us, and this is agreat picture of that right.
And then, as far as Nineveh isconcerned, I'm going to read
(05:28):
Jeremiah 18, 7 and 8.
At what instant I shall speakconcerning a nation and
concerning a kingdom to plug itup and to pull it down and to
destroy it.
If that nation against whom Ihave pronounced turn from their
evil, I will repent of the evilthat I thought to do unto them.
So this is just showing thatGod is a merciful God.
(05:52):
Right, nineveh was a wickedcity, and you can read more
about Nineveh and the wickedthings that it did in Nehemiah
as a whole.
When it comes to nations, wecan look at history and we can
be like, well, why did thisnation survive and why did this
nation, why did God let thesepeople, you know, go so long?
And it shows us the mercy ofGod and his compassion, and
(06:19):
Jonah knew that.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, he knew that he was merciful, that's why he
didn't want to go, like I mean,that's what he says later on and
he we're fine, we're fine withaccepting god's mercy for us,
right?
Um, he pulled up, you know,later on he like shows jonah so
much mercy and just letting himlive and yet you know he didn't
(06:45):
want mercy showed upon peoplethat he deemed unworthy of it,
right?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
and jonah is kind of a I would say kind of, is a nice
way of putting it kind ofdepressed person.
I mean he really definitelysomething going on with him, for
sure like he doesn't care if helives or dies in any of this
story, which is interesting tome, because the way that he acts
(07:13):
like what?
When he's on the ship, he'slike, oh, just throw me into the
sea, I don't care, whatever notfunny but it is kind of a weird
response.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
There's no like begging for mercy or for his
life.
He's just like yeah, I hadn'treally thought about that before
, probably overboard, okay, likehe's just I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
He's kind of a weird kind of guy, I would think.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So I don't know that this.
I don't think we really knowfor sure who wrote the book of
Jonah, but I have heard peoplesay that possibly Jonah wrote
the book of Jonah Right, whichis very interesting to think
about because he definitely doesnot paint himself in a?
pleasant light.
No, if that is the case, um,which it's just, it is
(08:01):
interesting that he's such agloomy character, um, and he
really doesn't have anyredeeming.
There's not really a singlepoint in the story where he says
or does anything redeeming orum that, like you know, makes
him a better person.
(08:22):
But there's no like characterarc.
It doesn't change who he is, hejust kind of stays at one point
.
He's kind of like well, fine,I'm here, I guess I gotta do it
right it doesn't actually likeshow a heart heart change, or he
probably could have done with alittle bit of a personality
change.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yes, it is comforting that God does use us, all
personality quirks and all yesfor sure so, going back to, kind
of, our first point, I guess,is that when God calls us to go,
we set up the obstacles and theroadblocks and stuff.
And you know I'm not we'retalking about missions.
But we all know that missionsdoesn't have to be on a foreign
(09:01):
field in Africa.
Missions is, and always hasbeen, at home first.
But that's not where it stopsin Christianity today.
We have a mindset that is not arise and go, it is not go into
all the world, it is be, youknow, at home, even if the, if
(09:22):
there is evangelism, it'sevangelism at home.
Right, missions has reallytaken a backseat in a lot of
churches today, if there is anyseat.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Well, we talked about this when we talked about our
kind of the home study likemovement.
It was been quite a while ago,but we kind of talked about how
there's the us versus themmentality, even set inside of
churches, and so you see allthese what would be labeled as
like child wife accounts, wherepeople are, you know, staying at
home and raising their babies,but they're also kind of like
(09:55):
pulling in, having their, theirlittle world that is completely
within their control and Ithere's parts of that that I
love like I, I love gardening, Ilove like having food that
we've made for ourselves, allthat kind of stuff.
But when it starts to become usversus them me and my world
only they can all just figurethings out on their own that
(10:19):
leeches over into our evangelismand our missions, right?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
And we also, along that same line, have going back
to the fact that the Nineviteswere Gentiles.
We're talking about completelydifferent lifestyles, completely
different, um, governmentsystems, completely different
laws and all of this stuff.
Right, and God didn't tellJonah to go to Nineveh and
(10:45):
preach about their badgovernment, or right, you know
he?
He said repent, right, that's,you know, essentially, the
gospel is repent and believe inGod, and so sometimes we can get
caught up in all of thesesocial issues, and so it's kind
of the one extreme is like theisolation.
(11:07):
Right, we're going to just takecare of me and mine, go to
church and minister to the savedbelievers and stay home and
take care of me and mine.
The isolation.
Or like the politicization wherewe like politics warriors, and
(11:29):
we're preaching against politics.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Right, we get those two extremes and that's where I
feel like just my personal takeon jonah.
Again, my personal take is thatI feel like that was more of
jonah's thing.
Like these people are different.
I don't like what they standfor, I don't like who they are.
I I don't like their history.
I don't want to see God forgivethem and I think that that if
(11:54):
we really sat in and thoughtabout our lack of compassion
towards people who are not likeus, I think that you might have
to face some of that same, youknow, is your heart.
Is that where my heart is?
Do I want God?
Do I don't want God to show thesame kind of mercy towards
others that he's shown to me?
(12:15):
Right, which is really awful tothink about, but sometimes our
actions speak louder than ourwords, right?
And what are you doing to reachpeople that don't look and talk
and act like you?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Right.
So there's just some things tobe cautious of in our mindsets
that we can see kind of a littlebit in Jonah's mindset, right
Like he's he's just clearlyuncompassionate towards the lost
.
And I don't think we'd comeright out and say it ourselves.
But our lives and our choices,they say it for us.
(12:48):
We do not care enough to comeout of our bubbles to present
the gospel to those around us,whether it be fear or just a
general lack of knowledge on howto, it is our responsibility to
learn the gospel so we canshare the gospel.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
So when it's the excuse of, well, I just don't
know how to, um, that's reallynot a good excuse and a lot of
times we'll say I know that I'vefallen into this trap of being
like, well, I don't know how toshare the gospel to that
particular person and theirparticular belief system or
(13:31):
politics or lifestyle orwhatever, but the gospel is the
gospel is the gospel.
And so, yeah, there are somethings that are helpful to know.
Questions you might get askedby a, um, a certain religion
let's say they're from adifferent religion.
You might.
There might be questions theyhave that are helpful to have
answers for.
But ultimately, if you knowGod's word, what he says about
(13:53):
salvation, that's what we'rerequired to know.
That's what we're told to know.
The Bible says to know, to havean answer about the hope that
lies within you.
You don't have to have acounter argument for every
potential argument.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Right, don't fall back on that crutch like well, I
don't know what to say I wasjust talking with someone
actually last week who wassaying that there was a lady and
that had started coming to abible study that she was
attending and she wasn't savedbut through the bible study, my
friends, well, I don't have allthose answers, but we can figure
(14:30):
that out or whatever type ofthing.
And it wasn't even like aboutquestions that the other person
was asking directly, but just ingeneral how my friend responded
with that like I'm not sure,but we can find it, just that
she.
She told her later on like shedid end up getting saved and she
said that was one of the thingsthat kind of helped me to
(14:53):
realize I didn't need to knowall of the answers before.
I just had faith and believedand got saved.
Sometimes, when we are sharingthe gospel, to say I'm not
exactly sure right now, but wecan figure it out, like to have
(15:16):
that kind of spirit, is not bad,it's good.
And also, when it comes tosharing the gospel and things,
it's more about having a mindsetof eternity with us instead of
the here and the now, um, andand that's what can we can also
pull out from some of the thingswith jonah is god's looking at
these souls in their eternaldestination and jonah's looking
(15:41):
at their here and now and hishere and now, um, and we can do
the same thing.
We can get caught up in thehere and now very easily, so
maybe something that could helpus.
We're going to wrap it up forright now, but, um, we'll
probably revisit jonah in thefuture here, but for this week
(16:03):
and what our responsibility iswith the gospel, maybe we take a
few minutes and we evaluate howam I doing with going out of
isolation to share the gospel?
Do I just care about me andmine?
Is that what my actions show?
And or am I, like a politicalpreacher, right?
(16:28):
Am I preaching againstpolitical issues but not sharing
the gospel, the truth of thegospel, and am I watering down
the gospel with my politicalarguments and not being as
effective in how I present thegospel of Christ to other people
because I'm getting sidetrackedwith these other issues?
(16:51):
And one of the greatest thingsthat we can tell people is how
wonderful it is to be forgivenwhen we're sharing the gospel.
If you think about otherreligions, there's really not
any forgiveness involved, right?
Not a lasting forgiveness.
Your sins are gone.
Forgiveness Catholicism.
(17:13):
You have to continually ask forforgiveness and you have to
continually bring your faultsyou know, before somebody to be
forgiven or absolved or whateverit is.
Other religions, like you'reconstantly working towards that,
but with Christ we havecomplete and full forgiveness.
(17:35):
So that is something that youcan talk about rather easily.
I'm so glad that God forgave me.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
I was going to say.
I think that if you have a partof your testimony that you can
share with people, say you havea quick interaction with
somebody, cause you don't alwaysknow and we use that term like
leading someone to the Lord,kind of like it's us that's
doing it, but ultimately it'sGod and his word and his spirit,
and so, yes, like there arepeople that will absolutely sit
(18:05):
down and explain the gospel toyou and that is invaluable.
But we put a lot of pressure onourselves to like say exactly
the right thing, lead someonethrough all you know 10 verses
of the Romans road, or else it'snot good enough.
But if you have just somethingprepared, not scripted, I'm not
saying that but just somethingthat you know, that you can
(18:27):
share, like what you just said,like I'm just grateful that God
forgave me of my sins and I knowthat I have salvation, or
something to that effect, canopen the doors to a seeking
heart, or open the door tosomeone that wasn't seeking and
now you've, you know, kicked ahole in for the light to shine
(18:50):
through.
But just having like a truthabout yourself, I think that our
testimony is so hard.
Even people who don't want tohear the full gospel, are
generally going to be acceptingof hearing a part of your
testimony right because every,even, even far in the opposite
direction of what we believe,there are people who would say,
(19:13):
like follow your truth.
And so there's that open,there's a slight little bit of
open-mindedness that they shouldhave practicing what they
preach, and so, um, anyway, Ijust think that that's really
important, because I think ofall the times I have very brief
interactions with people where Ican't sit down and really open
(19:34):
my bible and share with them,but I can give them the answer
for the hope that's in me, right, yes, so if uh you're gonna
follow along with us.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Go on ahead and read the book of jonah, but I can't
give them the answer for thehope that's in me, right?
Yes, so if you're going tofollow along with us, go on
ahead and read the book of Jonah, and we'll probably do another
episode and talk a little bitmore about some things
concerning Jonah and hisrelationship with God, and also
the Ninevites.
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