1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:04,120 Welcome to Heaven Earth Church. 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:06,040 My name is Ross Stackhouse. 3 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:09,040 I'm the founding pastor of Heaven Earth Church. 4 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:13,280 From the beginning, our heart was to be a church for people who 5 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:15,040 don't fit neatly into church. 6 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:19,200 Our heart is to meet people where they are, to learn their stories, 7 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:20,720 to honor their stories. 8 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:23,840 Because in every human story is God's story. 9 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:27,840 In this podcast, you'll hear more about the people who now call 10 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:29,400 Heaven Earth Church home. 11 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:33,420 Their stories, in many cases of misfits who are discovering or 12 00:00:33,420 --> 00:00:34,700 rediscovering faith. 13 00:00:34,860 --> 00:00:38,140 If you want to know more about us, you can go to heavenorthchurch.org 14 00:00:38,620 --> 00:00:41,660 Otherwise, we invite you now into the story. 15 00:00:42,300 --> 00:00:43,180 Hello, good people. 16 00:00:43,180 --> 00:00:47,900 Brad Miller here, the producer of the Heaven Earth Church podcast. 17 00:00:48,300 --> 00:00:51,940 One of the main benefits of being a part of the Heaven Earth 18 00:00:51,940 --> 00:00:57,980 Church community is our Sunday morning conversations taught by founding 19 00:00:57,980 --> 00:01:00,220 pastor Ross Stackhouse. 20 00:01:00,220 --> 00:01:04,900 You can watch and participate in the Sunday morning conversation 21 00:01:05,460 --> 00:01:13,940 this Sunday morning, 9:30am Eastern time at YouTube.com heavenerthchurch. 22 00:01:14,980 --> 00:01:19,860 The audio version of the Sunday morning conversation is available 23 00:01:19,860 --> 00:01:24,500 here on the podcast, which you can find at Apple Podcasts, Spotify 24 00:01:25,180 --> 00:01:31,780 and on the website, which is heavenearthchurch.org now here is 25 00:01:31,780 --> 00:01:36,540 Heaven Earth Church Pastor Ross Stackhouse with the message 26 00:01:36,540 --> 00:01:40,860 the Weirdness of the Bible from the series Finding the Bible 27 00:01:41,260 --> 00:01:43,020 to be Holy Again. 28 00:01:43,820 --> 00:01:52,550 Lord, will you light the path before us, Ignite a fire within us, 29 00:01:55,510 --> 00:01:59,990 the holy fire of your spirit, in the name of Jesus. 30 00:02:01,110 --> 00:02:01,750 Amen. 31 00:02:03,350 --> 00:02:12,310 Okay, so we're going to start with a little bit of a fun game to 32 00:02:12,950 --> 00:02:14,150 get your mind going. 33 00:02:14,150 --> 00:02:14,790 This is. 34 00:02:15,430 --> 00:02:18,740 Is this in the Bible really or not? 35 00:02:18,980 --> 00:02:19,620 Okay. 36 00:02:20,580 --> 00:02:21,380 Your favorite game. 37 00:02:21,380 --> 00:02:22,980 I know that you love this game. 38 00:02:23,380 --> 00:02:27,660 Okay, I got to get to the, I got the slides a little bit out of 39 00:02:27,660 --> 00:02:28,300 order, so. 40 00:02:28,300 --> 00:02:29,460 Okay, here we go. 41 00:02:32,819 --> 00:02:36,420 First off this one, let us know in the comments. 42 00:02:37,060 --> 00:02:39,140 In the Bible, not in the Bible. 43 00:02:40,500 --> 00:02:42,540 I'll explain to you why I'm doing this in a minute. 44 00:02:42,540 --> 00:02:45,220 So on that day, the Lord will take a great sword, harsh and mighty, 45 00:02:45,220 --> 00:02:48,810 and will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan, the writhing 46 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:51,520 serpent, and will kill the dragon that is in the sea. 47 00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:54,400 Come on, people, let me know. 48 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:57,360 In the Bible, not in the Bible. 49 00:03:03,920 --> 00:03:07,800 I, I, I should see some yeses and nos. 50 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:10,720 Okay, we got a vote for not in the Bible from Christie. 51 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:12,240 We got a yes and a. 52 00:03:14,490 --> 00:03:15,530 Keep them coming, guys. 53 00:03:18,090 --> 00:03:19,850 We got three yeses and a no. 54 00:03:20,570 --> 00:03:21,050 Don't. 55 00:03:21,050 --> 00:03:22,970 Don't let groupthink influence you. 56 00:03:24,410 --> 00:03:25,850 Don't let it influence you. 57 00:03:26,090 --> 00:03:28,170 If you think it's not, say it's not. 58 00:03:29,450 --> 00:03:30,090 Stay strong. 59 00:03:30,170 --> 00:03:30,810 Christy. 60 00:03:35,210 --> 00:03:36,090 In the Bible. 61 00:03:36,970 --> 00:03:38,970 Sounds like Revelation to me. 62 00:03:39,210 --> 00:03:42,290 Angela says, I can see that. 63 00:03:43,570 --> 00:03:52,530 Yes, this one is in the Bible. 64 00:03:54,130 --> 00:03:56,690 500 points to all the people who said yes. 65 00:03:57,490 --> 00:04:01,250 You can redeem your points at a date to be named later. 66 00:04:02,370 --> 00:04:04,610 It is in the Bible in Isaiah. 67 00:04:09,260 --> 00:04:10,860 Isaiah 27:1. 68 00:04:11,340 --> 00:04:12,300 All right, next one. 69 00:04:12,300 --> 00:04:12,860 You ready? 70 00:04:12,860 --> 00:04:13,500 Here we go. 71 00:04:14,700 --> 00:04:17,380 In those days, the sky was emerald and the sea was crimson. 72 00:04:17,380 --> 00:04:19,460 The earth was ruled by demons and ghouls. 73 00:04:19,460 --> 00:04:22,180 No human or animal could survive if not for the provision 74 00:04:22,180 --> 00:04:24,940 of the Lord in the Bible. 75 00:04:25,340 --> 00:04:26,260 Not in the Bible. 76 00:04:26,260 --> 00:04:26,860 Let's see. 77 00:04:33,890 --> 00:04:35,330 No cheating, by the way, either. 78 00:04:36,210 --> 00:04:37,170 We've got a no. 79 00:04:38,610 --> 00:04:39,170 Hmm. 80 00:04:40,450 --> 00:04:41,330 Keep them coming. 81 00:04:41,330 --> 00:04:42,130 Yes or no? 82 00:04:46,450 --> 00:04:46,890 Yes. 83 00:04:46,890 --> 00:04:48,770 Love that song by Josh Garrels. 84 00:04:49,730 --> 00:04:50,490 Not in. 85 00:04:50,490 --> 00:04:51,650 We've got a Not in. 86 00:04:51,650 --> 00:04:52,610 We've got no's. 87 00:04:52,610 --> 00:04:53,490 Not in the Bible. 88 00:04:55,890 --> 00:04:56,690 Ooh, Nick. 89 00:04:56,850 --> 00:04:58,850 See, we're going to highlight Nick. 90 00:04:59,470 --> 00:05:00,430 Nick is. 91 00:05:01,550 --> 00:05:03,630 Nick is actually choosing middle ground. 92 00:05:04,350 --> 00:05:04,630 So. 93 00:05:04,630 --> 00:05:05,790 Nick, this is cheating. 94 00:05:05,950 --> 00:05:06,870 No, I'm kidding. 95 00:05:06,870 --> 00:05:07,870 I appreciate this. 96 00:05:08,030 --> 00:05:10,350 He's saying it sounds like Book of Enoch stuff. 97 00:05:10,350 --> 00:05:12,750 Enoch is in something called the Apocrypha. 98 00:05:12,990 --> 00:05:15,870 So it's in some Christian canons of the Bible. 99 00:05:16,270 --> 00:05:19,710 For example, Catholic Bible, not Protestant. 100 00:05:20,750 --> 00:05:22,110 Not, not, not. 101 00:05:23,230 --> 00:05:24,910 It is not in the Bible. 102 00:05:24,910 --> 00:05:26,030 I just made this up. 103 00:05:29,780 --> 00:05:32,900 I'll bet you if I would have left ghouls out, some of you would 104 00:05:32,900 --> 00:05:35,860 have been like, I think it's in there. 105 00:05:36,580 --> 00:05:37,620 All right, next. 106 00:05:39,380 --> 00:05:42,660 Then the Lord opened the donkey's mouth and it said to Balaam, 107 00:05:42,660 --> 00:05:46,660 what have I done to you that you've beaten me these three times? 108 00:05:48,820 --> 00:05:51,580 Don't let your friends sway you one way or the other. 109 00:05:51,580 --> 00:05:52,820 Is this in the Bible or not? 110 00:05:57,990 --> 00:05:59,270 In the Bible or not? 111 00:05:59,270 --> 00:06:00,230 We've got a yes. 112 00:06:02,630 --> 00:06:04,150 We've got a couple of yeses. 113 00:06:04,870 --> 00:06:06,150 Yes in the Bible. 114 00:06:08,710 --> 00:06:09,510 Not in. 115 00:06:09,510 --> 00:06:10,630 From Joey Ott. 116 00:06:14,310 --> 00:06:15,310 Yes in the Bible. 117 00:06:15,310 --> 00:06:16,070 In the Bible. 118 00:06:17,270 --> 00:06:18,150 Keep them coming. 119 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:23,080 What do you think? 120 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:23,800 Is it in there? 121 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:24,560 We got another. 122 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:33,200 Yes, Of course it's in the Bible. 123 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:36,560 It's in numbers, chapter 22. 124 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:39,400 Talking animals. 125 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:43,360 It's a thing in the Bible, especially in the first five books. 126 00:06:44,890 --> 00:06:49,050 You got a talking serpent in the beginning of Genesis. 127 00:06:49,050 --> 00:06:50,970 You got a talking donkey here. 128 00:06:52,330 --> 00:06:55,450 I swear this will make sense in a minute. 129 00:06:55,450 --> 00:06:56,730 Well, I guess I shouldn't say that. 130 00:06:56,730 --> 00:06:58,730 I believe it will make sense in a minute. 131 00:06:58,970 --> 00:07:04,650 Lastly, meanwhile, the Lord provided a great fish to swallow. 132 00:07:04,650 --> 00:07:05,090 Jonah. 133 00:07:05,090 --> 00:07:07,810 Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. 134 00:07:07,810 --> 00:07:09,290 All right, I'm going to give this one away. 135 00:07:10,130 --> 00:07:13,970 I think you all know this one is in. 136 00:07:13,970 --> 00:07:15,570 And this is where we're going today. 137 00:07:18,610 --> 00:07:23,490 This is where I want to spend most of our time is in that story 138 00:07:23,570 --> 00:07:31,450 today because we've been in a series called Finding the Bible to 139 00:07:31,450 --> 00:07:32,130 Be Holy Again. 140 00:07:34,370 --> 00:07:37,090 Benny, my cat is meowing because he's excited. 141 00:07:41,550 --> 00:07:41,870 You see? 142 00:07:41,870 --> 00:07:42,510 He's so excited. 143 00:07:42,510 --> 00:07:43,230 Can you hear him? 144 00:07:43,310 --> 00:07:44,510 Do you want to see Benny? 145 00:07:46,270 --> 00:07:48,190 Benny's joining us for worship today. 146 00:07:48,190 --> 00:07:49,310 Say hello to the people. 147 00:07:50,350 --> 00:07:52,190 His full name is Benedictus. 148 00:07:54,350 --> 00:07:55,350 Say hello to the people. 149 00:07:55,350 --> 00:07:55,910 Benny. 150 00:07:55,910 --> 00:07:56,350 Hi. 151 00:07:59,310 --> 00:07:59,950 Okay. 152 00:08:01,470 --> 00:08:02,270 Star of the show. 153 00:08:02,270 --> 00:08:03,550 You guys don't want to hear anything else from me. 154 00:08:03,550 --> 00:08:04,510 You just want to see Benny. 155 00:08:05,190 --> 00:08:08,870 We're talking particularly today, about what do we do about 156 00:08:09,830 --> 00:08:11,430 the weirdness of the Bible. 157 00:08:12,230 --> 00:08:14,630 And if you're like, ross, the Bible is weird. 158 00:08:15,030 --> 00:08:16,230 I don't think so. 159 00:08:16,390 --> 00:08:20,509 I'm just telling you, you dig into it enough, you're gonna come 160 00:08:20,509 --> 00:08:23,590 across some weirdness, like talking animals. 161 00:08:23,910 --> 00:08:29,750 There are many things that, when I think of weirdness that come 162 00:08:29,750 --> 00:08:30,190 to mind. 163 00:08:30,190 --> 00:08:31,910 For example, genealogies. 164 00:08:32,579 --> 00:08:34,739 There's so much genealogy in the Bible. 165 00:08:35,299 --> 00:08:38,019 This person begat this person and begat this person. 166 00:08:38,499 --> 00:08:39,059 Huh? 167 00:08:39,539 --> 00:08:41,819 Speaking of genealogies, there's accounts where people. 168 00:08:41,819 --> 00:08:45,059 It says they live to be 900 and some years old. 169 00:08:45,619 --> 00:08:48,739 Methuselah got real old. 170 00:08:50,179 --> 00:08:54,459 What the violence, especially in the Old Testament, that's attributed 171 00:08:54,459 --> 00:08:55,139 to God. 172 00:08:56,419 --> 00:08:57,699 What do we do about that? 173 00:08:58,500 --> 00:09:00,940 There's so much stuff that we could talk about when we're talking 174 00:09:00,940 --> 00:09:05,300 about, like encountering God through the Bible or trying to find 175 00:09:05,300 --> 00:09:06,820 those scriptures to be holy. 176 00:09:07,220 --> 00:09:08,980 And how do we do that when it's weird? 177 00:09:09,220 --> 00:09:12,980 But today I want to focus on these stories, like the one in Jonah. 178 00:09:12,980 --> 00:09:17,340 And I think as we go through this, it will help you to find God's 179 00:09:17,340 --> 00:09:20,820 heart through the scriptures, especially when you encounter that 180 00:09:20,820 --> 00:09:26,170 strangeness, like the supernatural, like the miraculous. 181 00:09:26,170 --> 00:09:28,890 Jesus does a lot of miracles did, you know? 182 00:09:29,770 --> 00:09:33,810 And maybe sometimes you read that and you're like, gosh, deep 183 00:09:33,810 --> 00:09:35,610 down you don't know what to do with it. 184 00:09:36,570 --> 00:09:39,170 So like I said, again, I think what we talk about today will help 185 00:09:39,170 --> 00:09:42,570 you to experience or find the Bible to be holy again. 186 00:09:42,570 --> 00:09:46,090 And I want to say something really quick, as an aside, actually, 187 00:09:46,090 --> 00:09:46,890 it's really important. 188 00:09:47,610 --> 00:09:51,140 We're not in this series, but finding the Bible to be holy again, 189 00:09:51,780 --> 00:09:54,260 just so we can find the Bible to be holy again. 190 00:09:55,860 --> 00:09:58,260 We want to find the Bible to be holy again. 191 00:09:58,420 --> 00:10:04,940 We wanted to rediscover its power and its beauty so that we find 192 00:10:04,940 --> 00:10:06,180 God's heart through it. 193 00:10:06,500 --> 00:10:08,420 And we're shaped by God's heart. 194 00:10:09,860 --> 00:10:12,580 We need it and our world needs it. 195 00:10:14,740 --> 00:10:16,500 The events of yesterday, I think. 196 00:10:16,990 --> 00:10:18,270 I think reveal that. 197 00:10:22,510 --> 00:10:24,270 I hope this doesn't take it off track. 198 00:10:24,270 --> 00:10:25,710 But it's important to say this. 199 00:10:28,190 --> 00:10:33,950 We may all have different feelings about the state of immigration 200 00:10:33,950 --> 00:10:37,030 in our country politically. 201 00:10:37,030 --> 00:10:39,150 We may have a different mindset and approach. 202 00:10:41,070 --> 00:10:43,990 You may be there like, you may be out there thinking, the Democrats 203 00:10:43,990 --> 00:10:45,430 have really screwed up immigration. 204 00:10:45,430 --> 00:10:46,750 They got us into this mess. 205 00:10:48,090 --> 00:10:51,290 Or you might be thinking, man, it's the Republicans who are just 206 00:10:51,290 --> 00:10:51,690 being. 207 00:10:51,930 --> 00:10:53,930 They're just terrible, awful, evil. 208 00:10:55,450 --> 00:10:58,410 Right now, I'm not so concerned about siding with one or 209 00:10:58,410 --> 00:11:02,530 the other, but I hope we can agree that what is happening in our 210 00:11:02,530 --> 00:11:11,250 country with ICE and what is happening with citizens of our country, 211 00:11:11,250 --> 00:11:14,090 but also people who aren't citizens, who are being treated without 212 00:11:14,090 --> 00:11:19,130 due process, people are being treated violently and obviously people 213 00:11:19,130 --> 00:11:20,090 who have been killed. 214 00:11:22,970 --> 00:11:23,930 It's evil. 215 00:11:25,050 --> 00:11:27,290 And we want to find the Bible to be holy again. 216 00:11:27,530 --> 00:11:29,370 We want to find God's heart through it. 217 00:11:29,770 --> 00:11:32,730 So God teaches us the difference between good and evil. 218 00:11:32,810 --> 00:11:35,890 Because one of the traps that we get into as human beings is that 219 00:11:35,890 --> 00:11:38,250 we wake up sometimes and we assume we know. 220 00:11:39,290 --> 00:11:43,930 But right now, in these times and at all times, we need God's help, 221 00:11:44,810 --> 00:11:49,930 God's spirit to teach us what is good and what is evil. 222 00:11:50,730 --> 00:11:57,290 And so that we do what God tells Jonah to do. 223 00:12:00,170 --> 00:12:06,010 When you look at how Jonah begins. 224 00:12:07,050 --> 00:12:08,650 So we'll get there in just a minute. 225 00:12:11,260 --> 00:12:11,820 Look right here. 226 00:12:11,820 --> 00:12:12,380 Whoops. 227 00:12:15,420 --> 00:12:16,220 Look right here. 228 00:12:17,660 --> 00:12:21,220 It says, the Lord's word came to Jonah, Amittai's son. 229 00:12:21,220 --> 00:12:23,740 Get up and go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it. 230 00:12:23,820 --> 00:12:25,900 For their evil has come to my attention. 231 00:12:27,500 --> 00:12:31,220 One of the things that we do as God's people is God will send 232 00:12:31,220 --> 00:12:34,460 us to cry out against the evil that is running rampant in the world. 233 00:12:36,660 --> 00:12:37,780 And I know this, guys. 234 00:12:37,780 --> 00:12:39,820 What I saw in a video about what. 235 00:12:39,820 --> 00:12:42,380 What's been happening in Minneapolis and stories there, but 236 00:12:42,380 --> 00:12:44,100 really what's been happening all around. 237 00:12:44,500 --> 00:12:47,220 What I've been doing to have. 238 00:12:47,300 --> 00:12:50,380 I've been a part of prayer vigils and protests outside of Miami 239 00:12:50,380 --> 00:12:53,860 Correctional Facility near Kokomo, because I'm. 240 00:12:53,860 --> 00:12:56,500 We're not hearing about just. 241 00:12:56,740 --> 00:12:59,380 We're hearing firsthand accounts about how people are being 242 00:12:59,380 --> 00:13:01,790 treated in this atmosphere. 243 00:13:02,270 --> 00:13:04,670 And so we need to seek. 244 00:13:04,670 --> 00:13:09,190 To seek the scriptures to discover God's heart, to find the 245 00:13:09,190 --> 00:13:12,710 scriptures to be holy again so that we can be strengthened in our 246 00:13:12,710 --> 00:13:14,990 awareness about what is good and what is evil. 247 00:13:15,230 --> 00:13:19,590 And we can also be encouraged, made brave to cry out against the 248 00:13:19,590 --> 00:13:20,910 evil that we see in the world. 249 00:13:22,110 --> 00:13:25,230 So, okay, that was a bit of an aside, but it's really important 250 00:13:25,390 --> 00:13:28,510 because every time we come together, guys, right, we bring our 251 00:13:28,510 --> 00:13:31,550 personal stuff and we bring the events into the world. 252 00:13:31,550 --> 00:13:33,910 And I don't want to act like those are compartmentalized because 253 00:13:33,910 --> 00:13:34,430 they're not. 254 00:13:35,470 --> 00:13:38,830 Alright, really quick, here's what I want to show you. 255 00:13:40,270 --> 00:13:46,910 Ironically, today there's an awesome image from the Bible Project 256 00:13:46,990 --> 00:13:48,190 on the story of Jonah. 257 00:13:48,190 --> 00:13:51,390 Bible Project is an amazing resource if you want to want help 258 00:13:51,390 --> 00:13:52,630 to find the Bible to be holy. 259 00:13:52,630 --> 00:13:55,350 Again, I can't recommend a resource any more than the Bible 260 00:13:55,350 --> 00:13:55,710 Project. 261 00:13:57,030 --> 00:13:59,030 So here's what we're going to find today. 262 00:13:59,510 --> 00:14:04,030 Ironically, in this story about a guy named Jonah who gets 263 00:14:04,030 --> 00:14:07,230 swallowed by a fish, that's really not the most important thing 264 00:14:07,230 --> 00:14:07,990 that happens. 265 00:14:08,550 --> 00:14:09,590 It really isn't. 266 00:14:10,470 --> 00:14:11,710 It feels like it. 267 00:14:11,710 --> 00:14:15,950 Perhaps maybe because of how we've heard about it, but really, 268 00:14:15,950 --> 00:14:21,510 if we dig into, if we chew on the scriptures slowly, we'll find 269 00:14:21,510 --> 00:14:24,430 that a lot of the heart of this message of Jonah is about how 270 00:14:24,430 --> 00:14:26,320 God does not play fair favorites. 271 00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:30,800 God is paying attention to all people and cares for all the nations. 272 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:34,800 God is graceful to each person for the sake of the whole world. 273 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:39,400 And God is addressing the evil that is destroying the world and 274 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:40,080 God's people. 275 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:44,080 And finally, God is asking us to love people like God does. 276 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:50,160 When I think about, like what I gather from Jonah, that's it. 277 00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:51,760 So I want to talk to you about that. 278 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,110 We're going to get to that, but also about the Bible itself. 279 00:14:56,870 --> 00:15:00,470 I want to tell you that we can have a very high view of Scripture 280 00:15:01,350 --> 00:15:04,950 without having the view that has become normal in recent history 281 00:15:04,950 --> 00:15:06,390 in our neck of the woods. 282 00:15:06,790 --> 00:15:08,310 We're going to talk more about that. 283 00:15:10,070 --> 00:15:14,190 You can let the Bible be authoritative in your life as Emily 284 00:15:14,190 --> 00:15:15,670 beared witness to last week. 285 00:15:16,710 --> 00:15:21,310 You can believe that God's breath is in each writing, as I talked 286 00:15:21,310 --> 00:15:26,810 about in week one of the series, and give up and let go of 287 00:15:26,810 --> 00:15:29,330 questions like is the Bible infallible? 288 00:15:29,330 --> 00:15:30,610 Is it inerrant? 289 00:15:30,850 --> 00:15:32,210 Is it all literal? 290 00:15:32,770 --> 00:15:36,890 We can release obsession over that which has become an obsession 291 00:15:36,890 --> 00:15:39,210 in our recent time in our neck of the woods. 292 00:15:39,210 --> 00:15:43,410 We can have a very high view of Scripture without having the view 293 00:15:43,410 --> 00:15:45,570 that has become normal in recent history in our neck of the 294 00:15:45,570 --> 00:15:45,970 woods. 295 00:15:48,130 --> 00:15:52,010 So I want to show you how to do that today. 296 00:15:52,010 --> 00:15:53,530 That's what we talked about recently. 297 00:15:54,090 --> 00:15:57,410 So first, let's do this one thing that we always want to keep 298 00:15:57,410 --> 00:15:59,250 in mind before we jump into Jonah. 299 00:15:59,250 --> 00:16:04,890 Okay, for a minute we said the three rules of real estate are location, 300 00:16:04,890 --> 00:16:05,850 location, location. 301 00:16:06,170 --> 00:16:11,930 The three rules of engaging scripture context, context, context. 302 00:16:13,610 --> 00:16:17,680 So the old approach that I'm saying, hey, I invite you to let 303 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:18,280 go of it. 304 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:22,440 Maybe you inherited this in faith and also part of the Bible, 305 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:24,040 that certainty is the goal. 306 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:29,280 And the question to ask is, what is the exact right thing to 307 00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:30,680 think this passage means? 308 00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:36,040 It's like, there's one right thing to think that this passage 309 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,600 means, and we got to go get to that. 310 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:44,570 I want to invite you instead to this new approach of approaching 311 00:16:44,570 --> 00:16:50,370 it with humility, curiosity, and a desire for discovering God's 312 00:16:50,370 --> 00:16:50,610 heart. 313 00:16:51,570 --> 00:16:55,530 With your primary question being, what is God trying to say 314 00:16:55,530 --> 00:17:03,850 to us through the Bible after we've wrestled with it, we've asked 315 00:17:03,850 --> 00:17:06,450 our questions, we've asked God. 316 00:17:06,450 --> 00:17:08,330 God, you're saying this in the Bible. 317 00:17:08,330 --> 00:17:09,490 Is that really your heart? 318 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:13,680 An example of, like, why context matters so much is Revelation. 319 00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:15,680 For the record, it's not Revelations. 320 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:19,840 It's the Revelation of John or the Apocalypse of John. 321 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:24,960 That book, to me, is the most misunderstood book in the Bible, 322 00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:27,120 and it's largely because of context. 323 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:30,720 You don't have to know all the context of the Bible. 324 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,830 What was happening in the time before it was written was what's 325 00:17:35,830 --> 00:17:37,070 happening in the Bible. 326 00:17:37,390 --> 00:17:38,590 You don't have to know all that. 327 00:17:38,590 --> 00:17:41,510 But I do think it's important to assume that there's a lot you 328 00:17:41,510 --> 00:17:42,350 don't know yet. 329 00:17:44,590 --> 00:17:47,950 Revelation is one of those books that, like, it's ultimately 330 00:17:47,950 --> 00:17:48,670 a letter. 331 00:17:48,670 --> 00:17:50,670 It belongs in the genre of letters. 332 00:17:51,150 --> 00:17:55,390 And it was an encoded letter that a guy by the name of John sent 333 00:17:55,390 --> 00:17:56,430 to some churches. 334 00:17:56,670 --> 00:18:00,390 In a time when it was really hard to follow Jesus, it was illegal 335 00:18:00,390 --> 00:18:05,360 to do so, and he sort of wrote some of it in code so the message 336 00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:09,920 would get through and maybe it wouldn't bring people to peril, including 337 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:10,480 himself. 338 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:16,320 For example, the number 666, what does that number mean? 339 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:18,720 It's in Revelation. 340 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,160 If you wondered, where does that number, that preoccupation, 341 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,320 that obsession with 666, where does it come from? 342 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:26,640 The book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible. 343 00:18:29,470 --> 00:18:30,350 666. 344 00:18:30,430 --> 00:18:31,870 It means Satan, right? 345 00:18:33,390 --> 00:18:33,950 Yeah. 346 00:18:35,870 --> 00:18:37,150 We all agree on that, right? 347 00:18:37,870 --> 00:18:40,750 Means Satan, No? 348 00:18:41,710 --> 00:18:42,270 Nope. 349 00:18:44,510 --> 00:18:50,390 It is well established that one of the things that happens in 350 00:18:50,390 --> 00:18:53,630 the Bible is a fancy word I'm going to teach you called numerology. 351 00:18:54,030 --> 00:18:59,950 It happens all over the Bible where numbers correspond to letters. 352 00:19:00,430 --> 00:19:06,670 And it is well established from biblical scholars that 666 equals 353 00:19:07,070 --> 00:19:08,270 in numerology. 354 00:19:08,590 --> 00:19:11,310 Nero the Emperor. 355 00:19:11,390 --> 00:19:11,950 Nero. 356 00:19:12,990 --> 00:19:16,470 The evil person that the writer has in mind in this story 357 00:19:16,470 --> 00:19:20,710 is Nero the Emperor. 358 00:19:20,710 --> 00:19:23,070 Nero was being awful to Christians. 359 00:19:23,070 --> 00:19:26,350 He set fires in Rome because he wasn't getting his way. 360 00:19:26,350 --> 00:19:27,190 This is what we. 361 00:19:27,190 --> 00:19:27,940 That's what scholars. 362 00:19:28,010 --> 00:19:28,650 Scholars tell us. 363 00:19:28,730 --> 00:19:31,690 And he blamed the fires on Christians who then suffered a lot 364 00:19:31,690 --> 00:19:32,570 of persecution. 365 00:19:33,850 --> 00:19:38,770 When is the writer of John or of Revelation writing shortly after 366 00:19:38,770 --> 00:19:39,530 those events? 367 00:19:40,970 --> 00:19:42,490 666 is Nero. 368 00:19:42,810 --> 00:19:44,930 I'm just telling you that context really matters. 369 00:19:44,930 --> 00:19:48,810 You don't have to know it all, but, hey, approach it with humility, 370 00:19:48,810 --> 00:19:52,490 curiosity, and a desire to know more, to discover more. 371 00:19:52,570 --> 00:19:55,050 All right, we're not talking about Revelation today, Ross. 372 00:19:55,050 --> 00:19:56,050 We're talking about Jonah. 373 00:19:56,050 --> 00:19:57,130 Let's go through it real quick. 374 00:19:57,750 --> 00:19:58,470 You with me? 375 00:19:59,430 --> 00:20:04,750 Okay, here are the questions that the prophets context for Jonah. 376 00:20:04,750 --> 00:20:07,510 Jonah is one of the prophets, and it's in a section of the Old 377 00:20:07,510 --> 00:20:08,150 Testament. 378 00:20:08,870 --> 00:20:12,430 Prophets are writing in a time where everything has gone wrong for 379 00:20:12,430 --> 00:20:13,110 God's people. 380 00:20:15,110 --> 00:20:19,230 They're writing specifically when Israel got destroyed, the north 381 00:20:19,230 --> 00:20:24,180 and the south got destroyed by two really powerful empires who had 382 00:20:24,180 --> 00:20:26,620 a tendency towards evil, especially the Assyrians. 383 00:20:28,940 --> 00:20:32,300 Jonah is writing, or Jonah is one of the prophets. 384 00:20:32,700 --> 00:20:36,940 Who's asking questions like this in the midst of this destruction? 385 00:20:37,500 --> 00:20:39,020 So everything has gone wrong. 386 00:20:39,100 --> 00:20:42,620 The prophets are asking, how are we favored by God? 387 00:20:44,060 --> 00:20:45,660 And this was allowed to happen. 388 00:20:47,340 --> 00:20:49,380 How can God still be the almighty God? 389 00:20:49,380 --> 00:20:50,660 We've come to believe God is. 390 00:20:50,660 --> 00:20:52,300 And this evil is allowed to prevail. 391 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:56,840 Is there a chance that we're just as evil as all the people we've 392 00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:57,760 been calling evil? 393 00:20:57,760 --> 00:20:59,200 The prophets will wonder that. 394 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:02,480 And what does God have in store for us now? 395 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:06,160 And also what does God have in store for our enemies? 396 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:09,360 This is the backdrop of Jonah. 397 00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:12,400 I'm going to walk you through it. 398 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:14,880 We're going to lean into the weirdness together. 399 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:19,250 And I want to show you how you can work through weirdness in the 400 00:21:19,250 --> 00:21:22,890 Bible and find it to be holy, helpful. 401 00:21:23,930 --> 00:21:27,970 All right, we already went through this. 402 00:21:27,970 --> 00:21:29,250 Let's walk through this together. 403 00:21:29,250 --> 00:21:29,770 Okay. 404 00:21:29,850 --> 00:21:31,090 This is Jonah, chapter one. 405 00:21:31,090 --> 00:21:32,650 I'm going to walk through it quickly with you. 406 00:21:34,330 --> 00:21:35,130 Benny's in. 407 00:21:35,130 --> 00:21:36,090 Benny's excited. 408 00:21:38,250 --> 00:21:40,850 The Lord's word came to Jonah, Amittai's son. 409 00:21:40,850 --> 00:21:44,010 Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it 410 00:21:44,010 --> 00:21:45,690 for their evil has come to my attention. 411 00:21:46,500 --> 00:21:47,380 What's Nineveh? 412 00:21:47,700 --> 00:21:51,060 Nineveh is the capital city of the Assyrian empire. 413 00:21:52,100 --> 00:21:53,740 Remember what I just told you about context. 414 00:21:53,740 --> 00:21:57,380 The Assyrians utterly destroyed the northern kingdom of 415 00:21:57,380 --> 00:22:01,700 Israel in 722 BC did evil things to God's people. 416 00:22:05,300 --> 00:22:07,300 So Jonah got up to flee. 417 00:22:07,300 --> 00:22:10,580 Basically, Jonah, God said, go there, Jonah. 418 00:22:11,550 --> 00:22:15,910 Jonah said, I'm going to flee as quickly as possible in the opposite 419 00:22:15,910 --> 00:22:16,430 direction. 420 00:22:18,030 --> 00:22:18,910 I'M out of here. 421 00:22:20,590 --> 00:22:24,430 One of the things, like, if we're listening again, this is how 422 00:22:24,510 --> 00:22:28,670 I want to teach you right now, a better way I think of engaging 423 00:22:28,670 --> 00:22:29,470 the scriptures. 424 00:22:31,150 --> 00:22:33,790 Instead of saying, like, what exactly does this mean? 425 00:22:34,270 --> 00:22:40,100 And pursue certainty, approach it with like, humility, curiosity 426 00:22:41,060 --> 00:22:42,980 and a desire to discover God's heart. 427 00:22:42,980 --> 00:22:46,180 So, like, chew on it like good food. 428 00:22:47,140 --> 00:22:49,140 Don't woof it down like fast food. 429 00:22:50,180 --> 00:22:51,060 Chew on it. 430 00:22:52,180 --> 00:22:55,420 Be still with it if you have to. 431 00:22:55,420 --> 00:22:58,060 If you're a person who struggles with attention, listen 432 00:22:58,060 --> 00:22:58,980 to it as you walk. 433 00:22:58,980 --> 00:23:00,980 But listen to it, like, attentively. 434 00:23:05,420 --> 00:23:08,820 If we do that already in this first thing, we can gather a couple 435 00:23:08,820 --> 00:23:09,180 things. 436 00:23:09,980 --> 00:23:12,300 God is paying attention to evil. 437 00:23:13,580 --> 00:23:16,020 We may think like God is far off not paying attention. 438 00:23:16,020 --> 00:23:17,660 God is paying attention to evil. 439 00:23:19,020 --> 00:23:20,380 God has his eyes on it. 440 00:23:20,459 --> 00:23:24,780 He has his eyes not just on God's people, but on God's enemies. 441 00:23:25,020 --> 00:23:27,500 Or, excuse me, on the enemies of God's people. 442 00:23:28,460 --> 00:23:29,660 Already we can hear that. 443 00:23:30,540 --> 00:23:33,340 And a question that this is going to raise from the start is 444 00:23:33,340 --> 00:23:34,180 you're going to see in this. 445 00:23:34,180 --> 00:23:35,820 The Bible Project points this out. 446 00:23:36,390 --> 00:23:39,510 The people in this story that you would expect to do this, maybe 447 00:23:39,510 --> 00:23:41,510 the righteous thing, they don't. 448 00:23:41,590 --> 00:23:44,910 The people you would expect to do this thing over here, the unrighteous 449 00:23:44,910 --> 00:23:47,350 thing, they do the opposite. 450 00:23:48,710 --> 00:23:52,029 So sometimes we can't fit people into these nice, like, righteous, 451 00:23:52,029 --> 00:23:53,270 wicked categories, right? 452 00:23:53,990 --> 00:23:56,550 Although we want to because it makes us feel safer. 453 00:23:56,870 --> 00:23:58,670 Us and them makes us feel safer. 454 00:23:58,670 --> 00:24:01,190 It's not true, but it makes us feel better. 455 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:05,440 The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea so that there was a 456 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:06,560 great storm on the sea. 457 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:07,840 Let's stop there. 458 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:11,120 Sometimes when we read the Bible, sometimes people have walked 459 00:24:11,120 --> 00:24:14,000 away and saying, oh, okay, well, that means that God causes 460 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:15,200 natural disasters. 461 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:17,520 Well, hold on. 462 00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:19,680 Is that what it says? 463 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:26,200 No, it says, in this story, in this instance, God hurled a great 464 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:27,100 wind upon the sea. 465 00:24:28,210 --> 00:24:29,170 We can't walk away. 466 00:24:30,290 --> 00:24:31,890 That's also the part of humility. 467 00:24:32,130 --> 00:24:36,770 We can't walk away with a conclusion and be really confident 468 00:24:36,770 --> 00:24:37,330 about it. 469 00:24:40,770 --> 00:24:41,970 That's being arrogant. 470 00:24:42,370 --> 00:24:45,490 We got to slow down and think about our assumptions and conclusions. 471 00:24:46,530 --> 00:24:49,410 It breaks out this great storm. 472 00:24:50,370 --> 00:24:54,570 The sailors important characters here, they each cry out 473 00:24:54,570 --> 00:24:55,490 to their own God. 474 00:24:57,010 --> 00:24:58,050 They're being superstition. 475 00:24:58,050 --> 00:25:00,370 It's like, bill, can you pray to your God? 476 00:25:01,490 --> 00:25:02,930 Bob, you pray to yours. 477 00:25:03,090 --> 00:25:06,730 Jim, you pray to yours, and we'll have our bases covered. 478 00:25:06,730 --> 00:25:07,490 We'll be all right. 479 00:25:12,210 --> 00:25:13,570 But what's Jonah doing? 480 00:25:13,890 --> 00:25:15,010 Is Jonah praying? 481 00:25:16,530 --> 00:25:18,530 No, he's sleeping. 482 00:25:20,060 --> 00:25:24,780 Isn't there another story later in the Bible of a Great storm 483 00:25:25,180 --> 00:25:28,060 on a boat and somebody sleeping. 484 00:25:30,220 --> 00:25:30,780 Mmm. 485 00:25:31,580 --> 00:25:33,820 That's the other thing that we keep talking about, like, having 486 00:25:33,820 --> 00:25:35,419 a big picture view of the Bible. 487 00:25:35,500 --> 00:25:38,620 You may not be able to hold it all together, but in Jesus story, 488 00:25:39,260 --> 00:25:42,740 there's a moment where there's a storm and Jesus is in a boat with 489 00:25:42,740 --> 00:25:44,460 his disciples, and he's asleep. 490 00:25:44,620 --> 00:25:49,000 And so again, the Bible is, like, giving us some moments where 491 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:55,080 it's saying, like, hey, will Jesus be like Jonah, or will he be 492 00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:57,800 more like something else? 493 00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:00,280 Hint, something else. 494 00:26:02,120 --> 00:26:07,400 Jesus will tell us to love our enemies, whereas Jonah wants to flee 495 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:07,960 from enemies. 496 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:09,880 Jesus will go closer to his enemies. 497 00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:13,400 The Bible can do that for us if we lean into it. 498 00:26:14,810 --> 00:26:17,530 The ship's officer is like, how are you sleeping, dude? 499 00:26:19,930 --> 00:26:22,090 They do this thing, weirdness in the Bible. 500 00:26:22,090 --> 00:26:24,610 They, like, basically throw dice to figure out who's to blame 501 00:26:24,610 --> 00:26:25,450 for this storm. 502 00:26:26,810 --> 00:26:27,930 There's some weirdness. 503 00:26:30,170 --> 00:26:33,010 We'll move past something for now the lot falls on Jonah, and they 504 00:26:33,010 --> 00:26:36,170 go to him and they say, hey, tell us, since you're the cause of 505 00:26:36,170 --> 00:26:38,930 this evil happening to us, what do you do? 506 00:26:38,930 --> 00:26:39,850 And where are you from? 507 00:26:40,980 --> 00:26:41,940 This is kind of funny. 508 00:26:41,940 --> 00:26:43,140 PT Talked about this. 509 00:26:43,220 --> 00:26:44,500 There's a bit of humor here. 510 00:26:44,500 --> 00:26:45,460 It's like, wait a minute. 511 00:26:45,460 --> 00:26:48,140 These sailors didn't think to interview Jonah before they brought 512 00:26:48,140 --> 00:26:48,820 him under the boat. 513 00:26:48,820 --> 00:26:50,580 Now they want to know, like, where are you from? 514 00:26:50,580 --> 00:26:51,460 Who's your daddy? 515 00:26:54,740 --> 00:26:58,180 And he says to them, like, I'm a Hebrew. 516 00:26:59,860 --> 00:27:03,580 I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the 517 00:27:03,580 --> 00:27:04,180 dry land. 518 00:27:04,500 --> 00:27:08,170 It's kind of like, that's interesting, because a little bit 519 00:27:08,170 --> 00:27:10,530 ago, it doesn't seem like your actions line up with that. 520 00:27:10,930 --> 00:27:11,810 Let's keep going. 521 00:27:12,450 --> 00:27:13,970 They were terrified, these sailors. 522 00:27:13,970 --> 00:27:16,770 Like, what have you done, you moron? 523 00:27:18,050 --> 00:27:19,490 What are we supposed to do? 524 00:27:22,450 --> 00:27:24,930 He said, pick me up and toss me into the sea. 525 00:27:26,370 --> 00:27:31,570 I know it's my fault that this great storm has come to you. 526 00:27:33,980 --> 00:27:34,700 Now watch this. 527 00:27:35,740 --> 00:27:37,180 Watch what these sailors do. 528 00:27:38,860 --> 00:27:41,300 They couldn't manage it because the sea continued to rage 529 00:27:41,300 --> 00:27:41,740 against them. 530 00:27:41,740 --> 00:27:44,020 So they called on the Lord, saying, please, Lord. 531 00:27:44,020 --> 00:27:47,500 Now their attention, all of their tension, they were Jim, Bob, 532 00:27:48,060 --> 00:27:49,780 Bill, praying, each to their own God. 533 00:27:49,780 --> 00:27:52,620 Now all of their focus is to the one God. 534 00:27:54,140 --> 00:27:56,940 Lord, don't let us perish on account of this man's life, and don't 535 00:27:56,940 --> 00:27:58,220 blame us for innocent blood. 536 00:28:00,130 --> 00:28:02,050 Look at that statement of faith that they make. 537 00:28:03,890 --> 00:28:07,330 The people you expect to do maybe the wicked thing or the wrong 538 00:28:07,330 --> 00:28:07,650 thing. 539 00:28:07,810 --> 00:28:09,490 In this story, they turn. 540 00:28:10,370 --> 00:28:12,130 That's a huge theme in this story. 541 00:28:12,130 --> 00:28:15,370 It's like, God is Calling you to this, will you turn and go toward 542 00:28:15,370 --> 00:28:15,650 it? 543 00:28:16,450 --> 00:28:20,810 We can hear that if we chew on the Scripture, if we lean in and 544 00:28:20,810 --> 00:28:26,360 walk slowly with it, the guy who's the godly guy, he turns in 545 00:28:26,360 --> 00:28:27,440 the wrong direction. 546 00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:30,960 The folks who are like the pagans, they turn in the right direction. 547 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:34,000 Anybody, Jesus demonstrates this. 548 00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:39,680 Anybody can turn toward the Lord's heart and be enlightened, 549 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:44,480 inspired, empowered, will Jonah. 550 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:48,880 Jonah gets tossed into the sea. 551 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:53,520 These men worship the Lord with profound reverence. 552 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:57,120 Again, the question, who's going to worship the Lord with profound 553 00:28:57,120 --> 00:28:57,680 reverence? 554 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:02,440 All the prophets ask that, and Jonah's story is one of them. 555 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,800 Like, who's going to actually profoundly worship the Lord? 556 00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,240 And a lot of the prophets will say, when we mean worship the Lord, 557 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:11,960 we don't mean just going to the synagogue or the temple and making 558 00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:13,520 sacrifices to the Lord. 559 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:17,360 How you treat your neighbor is an act of worship. 560 00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:19,280 And we've been failing the mark on that. 561 00:29:20,490 --> 00:29:21,930 This story is in line with that. 562 00:29:23,050 --> 00:29:30,290 Lastly, finally, meanwhile, the Lord provided a great fish to 563 00:29:30,290 --> 00:29:31,690 swallow Jonah. 564 00:29:32,650 --> 00:29:37,050 Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. 565 00:29:39,050 --> 00:29:39,850 Chapter one. 566 00:29:44,810 --> 00:29:47,130 Do you notice what I haven't talked about so far? 567 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:58,640 What I haven't said, Especially with this last part right 568 00:29:58,640 --> 00:29:58,960 here? 569 00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:01,480 Meanwhile, the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah. 570 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:03,920 Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. 571 00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:11,840 What's missing? 572 00:30:15,530 --> 00:30:20,490 I haven't even said anything yet about do we take this literally 573 00:30:20,490 --> 00:30:20,890 or not? 574 00:30:23,210 --> 00:30:24,730 Not said one word about it. 575 00:30:29,130 --> 00:30:33,890 Here's why I say that, guys, sometimes we got questions passed 576 00:30:33,890 --> 00:30:39,690 down to us that we were told are the most important questions 577 00:30:39,690 --> 00:30:40,890 we could ask of the Bible. 578 00:30:41,650 --> 00:30:43,090 Again, is it inerrant? 579 00:30:43,090 --> 00:30:44,770 Some of you've never heard that word. 580 00:30:45,490 --> 00:30:47,170 I'm honestly happy for you. 581 00:30:47,810 --> 00:30:48,930 Is it infallible? 582 00:30:49,890 --> 00:30:52,130 Is it all literal or not literal? 583 00:30:53,970 --> 00:30:58,490 And I've been telling you, I don't see Jesus worried about those 584 00:30:58,490 --> 00:30:59,090 questions. 585 00:31:00,690 --> 00:31:04,770 I don't see Jesus or his followers wrestling with those. 586 00:31:06,860 --> 00:31:08,300 So maybe we don't have to either. 587 00:31:09,660 --> 00:31:12,620 We just traveled through Jonah, chapter one. 588 00:31:13,340 --> 00:31:18,020 And we uncovered a lot of God's breath in it by chewing on 589 00:31:18,020 --> 00:31:22,060 it slowly, being humble, curious, and seeking God's heart 590 00:31:22,060 --> 00:31:26,580 through it, without even deciding whether it's literal or 591 00:31:26,580 --> 00:31:28,780 not that this guy got swallowed by a fish. 592 00:31:31,180 --> 00:31:35,270 Now, listen, I'm not saying that it never matters whether the 593 00:31:35,270 --> 00:31:36,270 Bible's literal or not. 594 00:31:36,270 --> 00:31:36,950 Do you hear me? 595 00:31:39,110 --> 00:31:42,710 I am telling you that sometimes if we're so obsessed with 596 00:31:42,710 --> 00:31:48,390 that, we may never get to God's heart because we're so focused 597 00:31:48,390 --> 00:31:51,590 on questions that are keeping us from God's heart. 598 00:31:52,230 --> 00:31:56,310 There are genres in the Bible, parts of the Bible that I believe 599 00:31:56,310 --> 00:31:58,110 that authors meant to tell us. 600 00:31:58,110 --> 00:31:59,990 Like, this literally happened. 601 00:32:00,460 --> 00:32:02,620 Primary example, Jesus, resurrection. 602 00:32:03,340 --> 00:32:07,340 The four gospels of Jesus life are more in the genre of kind of 603 00:32:07,340 --> 00:32:10,780 history, like a biography. 604 00:32:11,180 --> 00:32:14,820 These first disciples and followers of Jesus wanted to tell 605 00:32:14,820 --> 00:32:20,860 us, we literally saw this guy crucified, and we experienced him 606 00:32:20,860 --> 00:32:23,180 fully alive after he was dead. 607 00:32:23,260 --> 00:32:25,100 We're not saying that figuratively. 608 00:32:25,260 --> 00:32:28,700 We're telling you this guy is literally the conqueror of death. 609 00:32:31,670 --> 00:32:33,670 This is a library of scriptures. 610 00:32:34,470 --> 00:32:36,190 There are different genres in it. 611 00:32:36,190 --> 00:32:39,070 The way that you read Genesis is not the way you read Jonah, is 612 00:32:39,070 --> 00:32:41,390 not the way you read the Gospels, and it's not the way you 613 00:32:41,390 --> 00:32:42,150 read Revelation. 614 00:32:42,390 --> 00:32:44,590 You might say, ross, well, then how can I do it? 615 00:32:44,590 --> 00:32:45,710 I'm just a normal person. 616 00:32:45,710 --> 00:32:47,110 I don't have all that know how. 617 00:32:47,510 --> 00:32:48,390 That's okay. 618 00:32:49,830 --> 00:32:54,150 Start with the assumption there's more that I don't know yet. 619 00:32:56,080 --> 00:33:00,240 And when you encounter weirdness like this, it's okay. 620 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:03,840 I'm going to close with some thoughts on that in a minute. 621 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:08,880 In this case, bibleproject says that this genre is satire. 622 00:33:10,399 --> 00:33:12,960 And so, like, what they mean by that is. 623 00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:19,840 I want to quote it to you directly here, if I can find it. 624 00:33:25,050 --> 00:33:26,330 Of course I can't find it. 625 00:33:26,970 --> 00:33:28,970 So anyways, we'll have to let that go. 626 00:33:29,130 --> 00:33:31,050 The point is that genre matters. 627 00:33:31,530 --> 00:33:34,890 But here, for as it relates to Jonah, let me just say this to you. 628 00:33:35,290 --> 00:33:38,810 If you take it literally, which I could get, I could give room 629 00:33:38,810 --> 00:33:41,370 for, like, I believe that there's a God who's behind the big 630 00:33:41,370 --> 00:33:41,770 bang. 631 00:33:41,770 --> 00:33:42,410 I believe that. 632 00:33:42,410 --> 00:33:47,130 I believe in our God who is behind life as we know it. 633 00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:52,320 The miracle of the holy, like, of, like, creating the universe like 634 00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:54,360 our God started it. 635 00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:55,160 I believe that. 636 00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:58,800 So is it possible that a guy could get swallowed by a fish and 637 00:33:58,800 --> 00:33:59,480 survive there? 638 00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:05,040 Yeah, if you believe this story to be literal, great. 639 00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:06,520 Don't condemn people who don't. 640 00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:12,800 I also, I could see it very figuratively, metaphorically, because 641 00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:14,360 it's in the genre of satire. 642 00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:17,480 Maybe the people who wrote this and conceived of it originally 643 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:18,040 didn't even. 644 00:34:18,399 --> 00:34:20,199 Like, they didn't even mean for it to be literal. 645 00:34:20,199 --> 00:34:23,319 They were just trying to communicate this point that prophets 646 00:34:23,319 --> 00:34:28,119 did, which is, hey, we're not just the only favored ones. 647 00:34:28,119 --> 00:34:30,159 God's paying attention to the enemies, too. 648 00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:32,719 And God's calling us to love our enemies like he does. 649 00:34:36,159 --> 00:34:39,039 If you take it figuratively, that works. 650 00:34:39,119 --> 00:34:40,639 Don't condemn people who don't. 651 00:34:42,399 --> 00:34:46,279 There are sections in the Bible that were Written with more 652 00:34:46,279 --> 00:34:47,279 literal intent. 653 00:34:47,919 --> 00:34:49,519 I'm not sure this is one of them. 654 00:34:50,159 --> 00:34:54,319 But ultimately we can find God's breath in it, we can find God's 655 00:34:54,319 --> 00:34:54,639 heart. 656 00:34:55,199 --> 00:34:58,239 And when we get to some weirdness, you know what we can do? 657 00:34:58,959 --> 00:35:02,759 We can simply turn a prayer to God and say, God, help me know what 658 00:35:02,759 --> 00:35:04,399 to think about this weird part. 659 00:35:05,359 --> 00:35:08,279 If we come to a violent part in the scriptures attributed to God, 660 00:35:08,279 --> 00:35:11,370 we can say, God, is this really your heart? 661 00:35:13,690 --> 00:35:15,130 Is this really who you are? 662 00:35:17,450 --> 00:35:21,570 I'm going to get to the end here, the four points that I have, 663 00:35:21,570 --> 00:35:26,970 and then I'm going to turn it back to Emily and Adam as it relates 664 00:35:27,210 --> 00:35:31,650 to weirdness in the Bible. 665 00:35:31,650 --> 00:35:34,730 First of all, expect weirdness. 666 00:35:35,620 --> 00:35:40,700 There are talking donkeys, talking serpents, genealogies, people 667 00:35:40,700 --> 00:35:44,020 living to be 900 miracles. 668 00:35:44,580 --> 00:35:47,060 There is weirdness all over the place in the Bible. 669 00:35:47,380 --> 00:35:49,140 First of all, we should expect it. 670 00:35:50,180 --> 00:35:53,380 This is a library of scriptures with many different genres, 671 00:35:53,780 --> 00:35:56,580 capturing events that span centuries. 672 00:35:58,180 --> 00:36:00,740 I've said this before, there's going to be a time in the future 673 00:36:00,740 --> 00:36:05,770 when people are going to go, wait a minute, people carried little 674 00:36:05,770 --> 00:36:07,170 computers around all the time. 675 00:36:08,610 --> 00:36:09,730 How weird is that? 676 00:36:11,410 --> 00:36:14,930 Expect weirdness, but also notice it and go deeper with it. 677 00:36:14,930 --> 00:36:18,169 Like I just said, if you come across a part that's violent and 678 00:36:18,169 --> 00:36:20,490 it's attributed to God, you don't have to go, well, God must 679 00:36:20,490 --> 00:36:21,010 be violent. 680 00:36:21,010 --> 00:36:23,090 No, you can say, God, is that really your heart? 681 00:36:23,650 --> 00:36:25,090 You can discuss it with friends. 682 00:36:26,450 --> 00:36:29,330 Secondly, as I just said, approach the Bible as a library, 683 00:36:29,330 --> 00:36:32,000 an ocean of writings with God's breath in in them. 684 00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:35,680 There are parts of the ocean, beautiful snorkeling. 685 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:38,320 You can be just on the surface and see beauty. 686 00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:43,040 There are parts of the Bible that are deep, dark, cold, scary. 687 00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:44,640 You need help. 688 00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:53,240 Thirdly, pursue the big picture knowing that you will never 689 00:36:53,240 --> 00:36:54,520 see it fully in this life. 690 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:58,940 I gave an example in week one of this series about the story of 691 00:36:59,340 --> 00:36:59,860 Noah. 692 00:36:59,860 --> 00:37:02,580 Something written at the beginning of the Bible and something 693 00:37:02,580 --> 00:37:05,980 in Peter that connects to the story of Noah that's at the end of 694 00:37:05,980 --> 00:37:06,460 the Bible. 695 00:37:06,940 --> 00:37:08,940 Try to see more of the big picture. 696 00:37:09,100 --> 00:37:13,020 If you were to look at this picture, don't just read the Bible 697 00:37:13,099 --> 00:37:15,420 and look at, just appreciate the details. 698 00:37:15,420 --> 00:37:21,940 Yes, this actually is just one square of an entire ceiling of the 699 00:37:21,940 --> 00:37:24,380 Sistine Chapel that Michelangelo painted. 700 00:37:25,060 --> 00:37:29,100 Sometimes as Christians in our neck of the woods, we got hyper focused 701 00:37:29,100 --> 00:37:31,940 on a detail and took it out of the big picture. 702 00:37:32,820 --> 00:37:35,940 We want to see the big picture and see God's heart in it. 703 00:37:35,940 --> 00:37:39,300 Finally, keep Jesus, the word of God in the center. 704 00:37:40,100 --> 00:37:43,300 John 1 says that Jesus is the word of God made flesh. 705 00:37:44,180 --> 00:37:48,900 So for us Christians, the Word of God is ultimately Jesus. 706 00:37:49,460 --> 00:37:52,820 He's like the library of scriptures in a living, breathing 707 00:37:52,820 --> 00:37:53,460 human person. 708 00:37:54,570 --> 00:37:57,170 For us at Heaven Earth Church, this is in our beliefs narrative. 709 00:37:57,170 --> 00:38:00,570 The center of Christianity is a person and his name is Jesus Christ. 710 00:38:01,130 --> 00:38:04,930 So any conclusion that we draw about the Bible, it better make sense 711 00:38:04,930 --> 00:38:05,610 with his life. 712 00:38:06,250 --> 00:38:10,290 If we conclude that God is violent and has bloodlust, we better 713 00:38:10,290 --> 00:38:13,130 look at Jesus who is not willing to spill blood except his 714 00:38:13,130 --> 00:38:13,450 own. 715 00:38:14,650 --> 00:38:16,970 So expect weirdness. 716 00:38:16,970 --> 00:38:18,290 Approach it as a library. 717 00:38:18,290 --> 00:38:19,530 Pursue the big picture. 718 00:38:20,340 --> 00:38:21,700 Keep Jesus at the center. 719 00:38:24,020 --> 00:38:24,740 I'm done. 720 00:38:26,100 --> 00:38:27,300 Benny, we good? 721 00:38:29,380 --> 00:38:30,340 Oh, he's asleep. 722 00:38:30,340 --> 00:38:31,300 I put him to sleep. 723 00:38:31,300 --> 00:38:32,100 Daggone it. 724 00:38:34,340 --> 00:38:38,820 Thank you for participating in the conversation happening at Heaven 725 00:38:38,820 --> 00:38:39,940 Earth Church. 726 00:38:40,420 --> 00:38:45,790 Your next opportunity to do so live is this Sunday morning, 9:38am 727 00:38:46,750 --> 00:38:51,310 Eastern Time, either at the main campus at 309 East Main in Whiteland, 728 00:38:51,310 --> 00:38:55,310 Indiana or online at YouTube Live. 729 00:38:55,710 --> 00:39:03,750 That's@YouTube.com heavenerthchurch the audio podcast 730 00:39:03,750 --> 00:39:09,230 is always available at Apple Podcast and on Spotify. 731 00:39:09,710 --> 00:39:14,040 You can help others find out about the Heaven Earth Church podcast 732 00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:19,200 by going to Apple Podcasts and or Spotify and leaving a five star 733 00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:20,840 rating in your review. 734 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,560 Instructions on how to do just that and links are in the show notes. 735 00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:31,800 You can always find out more by going to the church website heavenearthchurch.org 736 00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:32,640 we. 737 00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:34,760 Want to thank you for spending time with us today. 738 00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:38,350 My name is Ross Stackhouse, the pastor to Heaven Earth Church, 739 00:39:38,750 --> 00:39:41,990 and you may think out there that your story is over, but in fact 740 00:39:41,990 --> 00:39:45,150 your faith story may just be beginning. 741 00:39:45,390 --> 00:39:48,230 If you want more information about our church or you're interested 742 00:39:48,230 --> 00:39:52,270 in a next step, you can go to heavenearthchurch.org Otherwise, 743 00:39:52,270 --> 00:39:55,470 we look forward to being with you next time at the Heaven Earth 744 00:39:55,470 --> 00:39:56,510 Church Podcast.