1 00:00:00,049 --> 00:00:02,009 . Joshua Kehler: Alright, if you have your Bibles, turn to 2 00:00:02,039 --> 00:00:04,229 Jonah chapter 2 this morning. 3 00:00:04,229 --> 00:00:06,769 we're going to begin in verse 17 of chapter one. 4 00:00:07,769 --> 00:00:10,929 And it says, I love this story. 5 00:00:11,749 --> 00:00:16,209 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. 6 00:00:17,009 --> 00:00:21,019 And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 7 00:00:22,824 --> 00:00:23,924 It's chapter two, verse one. 8 00:00:23,954 --> 00:00:29,234 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God from the belly of the fish saying, I 9 00:00:29,234 --> 00:00:34,324 called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me out of the belly of 10 00:00:34,324 --> 00:00:39,704 Sheol, I cried and you heard my voice for you cast me into the deep into the heart 11 00:00:39,704 --> 00:00:41,744 of the seas and the flood surrounded me. 12 00:00:42,214 --> 00:00:44,934 All your waves and your billows passed over me. 13 00:00:45,529 --> 00:00:49,099 Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall 14 00:00:49,119 --> 00:00:51,389 again look upon your holy temple. 15 00:00:51,829 --> 00:00:55,509 The waters closed in over me to take my life, the deep surrounded me, 16 00:00:55,519 --> 00:00:57,029 weeds were wrapped about my head. 17 00:00:57,439 --> 00:01:00,449 At the roots of the mountains I went down to the land whose 18 00:01:00,449 --> 00:01:02,459 bars close upon me forever. 19 00:01:03,239 --> 00:01:07,269 Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 20 00:01:07,999 --> 00:01:12,469 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer 21 00:01:12,469 --> 00:01:15,029 came to you and your holy temple. 22 00:01:15,809 --> 00:01:21,019 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 23 00:01:21,529 --> 00:01:24,619 But I, with a voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to 24 00:01:24,619 --> 00:01:26,939 you what I have vowed I will pay. 25 00:01:27,429 --> 00:01:30,999 Salvation belongs to the Lord. 26 00:01:31,829 --> 00:01:39,199 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah up upon the dry land. 27 00:01:39,664 --> 00:01:42,314 This is the word of the Lord. 28 00:01:43,314 --> 00:01:46,253 Father, we thank you for this amazing story of your 29 00:01:46,314 --> 00:01:48,124 unrelenting grace in our lives. 30 00:01:49,464 --> 00:01:56,764 We thank you for your constant rescue and your enduring patience as 31 00:01:56,774 --> 00:02:06,144 we slowly, like through quicksand, grasp your holiness and your love and 32 00:02:06,144 --> 00:02:08,334 your everlasting grace in our lives. 33 00:02:09,294 --> 00:02:15,474 Thank you that our standing is not based on us this morning, but based on you. 34 00:02:16,784 --> 00:02:22,424 That we are favored, not because we earned your blessing, but because you 35 00:02:22,424 --> 00:02:27,204 blessed us because Jesus was favorable and obeyed perfectly on our behalf. 36 00:02:27,204 --> 00:02:30,674 So Lord, capture our hearts, shock us by this story. 37 00:02:30,864 --> 00:02:31,784 It's insane. 38 00:02:31,924 --> 00:02:36,994 And Lord, just change us from one degree of splendor to the next this morning. 39 00:02:37,564 --> 00:02:40,074 In your mighty name, Lord, we thank you for your church. 40 00:02:40,504 --> 00:02:43,704 Thank you that you save in all different kinds of ways. 41 00:02:44,894 --> 00:02:50,084 And Lord, a thousand different people have a thousand different stories of 42 00:02:50,084 --> 00:02:53,894 how you rescued them, but we all have one thing in common and we all say this 43 00:02:53,904 --> 00:02:57,014 morning, salvation belongs to the Lord. 44 00:02:58,244 --> 00:03:02,724 That is all our story, that it was you from beginning to end who did it. 45 00:03:03,664 --> 00:03:04,524 Thank you, Jesus. 46 00:03:04,534 --> 00:03:05,164 We are saved. 47 00:03:05,164 --> 00:03:05,944 We are set free. 48 00:03:06,154 --> 00:03:09,434 We have been brought from death to life. 49 00:03:10,434 --> 00:03:13,624 So we love you and thank you and praise you. 50 00:03:14,554 --> 00:03:17,034 Bless our brothers and sisters who gather all over the city, 51 00:03:17,034 --> 00:03:18,274 all over the Central Valley. 52 00:03:18,584 --> 00:03:20,024 Be close to them this morning. 53 00:03:20,384 --> 00:03:22,154 May they know your grace and love. 54 00:03:22,484 --> 00:03:24,474 In Jesus name, Amen. 55 00:03:24,874 --> 00:03:25,484 Amen. 56 00:03:27,624 --> 00:03:32,204 Francis Thompson, the poet said, and you might recognize this line. 57 00:03:33,674 --> 00:03:37,534 The hound of heaven has one mission. 58 00:03:38,774 --> 00:03:44,103 And that is to track you down, to magnificently defeat 59 00:03:44,103 --> 00:03:46,494 you, and to bring you home. 60 00:03:48,409 --> 00:03:55,289 Thompson would write in that poem about his own story, I fled him, down the 61 00:03:55,289 --> 00:04:00,559 nights and down the days, I fled him, down the arches of the years, I fled 62 00:04:00,559 --> 00:04:06,219 him, down the labyrinth ways of my own mind, and in the midst of tears, I hid 63 00:04:06,219 --> 00:04:09,759 from him, an under running laughter. 64 00:04:11,529 --> 00:04:13,019 Thompson fled God. 65 00:04:13,069 --> 00:04:20,379 as is so true of our story, but God, hounding him from heaven, gave long 66 00:04:20,409 --> 00:04:29,979 pursuit, as he would write, with strong feet that followed after him, and didn't 67 00:04:29,979 --> 00:04:33,049 stop? You have magnificently defeated me. 68 00:04:33,049 --> 00:04:38,649 Is that not like the best description In my own will, in my pride, 69 00:04:38,819 --> 00:04:44,049 in my arrogance, in my sin, in my bigotry, you've defeated me. 70 00:04:44,829 --> 00:04:51,919 The story of Jonah shows us that we can run, we can always run, but we can 71 00:04:51,919 --> 00:04:53,829 never hide from His love and grace. 72 00:04:54,759 --> 00:04:55,629 Sure, yeah, run. 73 00:04:55,649 --> 00:04:59,639 go to Tarshish, but you can never hide from His love and grace. 74 00:05:00,749 --> 00:05:06,019 In Hebrews 4 16 it says, Let us then with confidence draw near 75 00:05:06,019 --> 00:05:12,849 to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace. 76 00:05:12,849 --> 00:05:16,009 It's there, but we discover it. 77 00:05:16,754 --> 00:05:22,204 Grace and help in the time of need to draw to him and confidence and boldness. 78 00:05:22,434 --> 00:05:26,144 So today I want to look at this section chapter two and three parts. 79 00:05:26,494 --> 00:05:30,624 I just, I had read that quote and I just think it breaks this chapter up perfectly. 80 00:05:30,924 --> 00:05:33,634 The Hound of Heaven has one mission, point one. 81 00:05:34,054 --> 00:05:37,084 Point two, to track you down and magnificently defeat you. 82 00:05:37,534 --> 00:05:40,864 And point three, to bring you home. 83 00:05:40,974 --> 00:05:41,894 To bring you home. 84 00:05:42,354 --> 00:05:44,175 Point one, The Hound of Heaven has one mission. 85 00:05:44,183 --> 00:05:46,644 A little background for us in this book of Jonah. 86 00:05:47,164 --> 00:05:48,544 Jonah's a weird book. 87 00:05:49,299 --> 00:05:55,879 All the other prophets opened the same way, and God spoke to or through Amos, 88 00:05:55,879 --> 00:06:01,229 or, God spoke to the prophet, and they gave the words of God to the nation. 89 00:06:01,709 --> 00:06:06,199 But this story opens the same way, and yet Jonah is a narrative. 90 00:06:06,209 --> 00:06:09,069 It's a story, that, we are told. 91 00:06:09,709 --> 00:06:14,049 And Jonah represents the people of God, and we realize that 92 00:06:14,059 --> 00:06:17,679 he is not the best person. 93 00:06:18,819 --> 00:06:19,339 That... 94 00:06:20,464 --> 00:06:22,694 Everything in this book is upside down and extreme. 95 00:06:22,694 --> 00:06:23,684 It's a great fish. 96 00:06:23,684 --> 00:06:24,674 It's a great storm. 97 00:06:24,674 --> 00:06:30,004 It's a great, you know, everything is heightened It's a great city that 98 00:06:30,004 --> 00:06:36,384 Nineveh is And this book is being aimed to critiquing the tendency in 99 00:06:36,384 --> 00:06:42,084 God's people towards being judgmental, towards being prideful, towards being 100 00:06:42,384 --> 00:06:48,324 arrogant, towards being thinking that oh, we get grace, but they don't. 101 00:06:48,794 --> 00:06:53,584 That oh, we get God's forgiveness, but those people, they don't deserve it. 102 00:06:54,149 --> 00:06:56,209 And it's a critique on that. 103 00:06:56,859 --> 00:07:00,739 These stories have become so familiar that they can wash over us. 104 00:07:01,209 --> 00:07:05,209 And we have to see it with new eyes, like we're reading it for the first time. 105 00:07:05,209 --> 00:07:08,639 It's a storied version of the gospel, it's a shocking display of God's grace. 106 00:07:09,404 --> 00:07:15,034 Like, it's a story of God's man, God's person, you know, being sent, and he's 107 00:07:15,034 --> 00:07:20,354 like, No, God, screw you, I'm going away, and then everything goes to hell 108 00:07:20,354 --> 00:07:24,664 around him, like people are gonna die around him, and he's like, throw me 109 00:07:24,684 --> 00:07:26,704 in, and he gets thrown into the sea. 110 00:07:26,884 --> 00:07:29,864 And then he's like, finally, I'm done with this call. 111 00:07:29,894 --> 00:07:34,214 And then a fish swallows him and we'll just see how it goes on and on and on. 112 00:07:34,514 --> 00:07:37,714 And one at the end, I just want to draw our attention to the 113 00:07:37,714 --> 00:07:39,664 fact, well, I'll just do it now. 114 00:07:39,664 --> 00:07:40,714 I had this at the end. 115 00:07:42,069 --> 00:07:43,739 We get this whole chapter two. 116 00:07:43,749 --> 00:07:45,679 He's like, I've found your grace, God. 117 00:07:45,889 --> 00:07:47,749 Salvation belongs to you. 118 00:07:47,919 --> 00:07:51,509 this whole wrestle for three days, and he's spit out on the ground. 119 00:07:51,769 --> 00:07:54,909 It says in chapter three that Nineveh, was a great city. 120 00:07:54,909 --> 00:07:57,558 It took three Jonah preaches for? 121 00:07:58,229 --> 00:07:58,799 One day. 122 00:07:59,799 --> 00:08:01,979 So he's like, you know what? 123 00:08:03,289 --> 00:08:04,149 That's good enough. 124 00:08:04,859 --> 00:08:07,559 And then he goes and he sits and he waits for God's judgment to come. 125 00:08:08,684 --> 00:08:11,294 And so God obliterates Jonah, right? 126 00:08:11,334 --> 00:08:12,314 God wipes him off. 127 00:08:12,524 --> 00:08:15,144 God's like, I'm done with you, Jonah, you hard hearted person. 128 00:08:15,144 --> 00:08:15,944 I sent a whale. 129 00:08:16,134 --> 00:08:16,914 I sent a storm. 130 00:08:16,914 --> 00:08:17,544 I sent all this. 131 00:08:17,544 --> 00:08:18,484 I'm done with you, Jonah. 132 00:08:19,894 --> 00:08:20,174 No. 133 00:08:21,174 --> 00:08:22,224 He keeps going after him. 134 00:08:24,184 --> 00:08:26,574 Because here's the story of Jonah. 135 00:08:27,994 --> 00:08:30,424 It's not ultimately about the rescue of Nineveh. 136 00:08:30,614 --> 00:08:31,604 That happens. 137 00:08:32,484 --> 00:08:34,284 But ultimately it's the rescue of Jonah. 138 00:08:35,713 --> 00:08:37,854 It's the rescue of you and me. 139 00:08:39,399 --> 00:08:42,129 And so, Jonah represents these people. 140 00:08:42,429 --> 00:08:44,979 So Jonah sent and warned Nineveh of their evil. 141 00:08:44,989 --> 00:08:47,559 And these people were evil, you guys. 142 00:08:48,289 --> 00:08:49,239 We talked about it in Stockton. 143 00:08:49,239 --> 00:08:49,959 I'll be brief. 144 00:08:49,979 --> 00:08:54,149 But they would, were the cruelest people in history up to that moment. 145 00:08:54,199 --> 00:08:55,869 they would skin people alive. 146 00:08:56,539 --> 00:08:58,379 And then they would bury them up to their neck. 147 00:08:58,399 --> 00:09:00,889 And then they would nail their tongues into the ground so that 148 00:09:00,889 --> 00:09:02,489 they would slowly die of thirst. 149 00:09:03,584 --> 00:09:08,764 They would make families carry the heads of the patriarch of the family on poles 150 00:09:09,034 --> 00:09:11,374 and do some crazy parade through the city. 151 00:09:11,644 --> 00:09:14,294 It was a way to show, don't mess with us. 152 00:09:14,534 --> 00:09:16,414 Very cruel and they boasted about it. 153 00:09:16,434 --> 00:09:18,274 They boasted about rape and pillaging. 154 00:09:18,634 --> 00:09:24,374 And the nation of Israel, the northern tribes are directly to the west. 155 00:09:24,374 --> 00:09:29,784 And so they were the first to encounter Nineveh when they went on the war path. 156 00:09:30,784 --> 00:09:34,224 So in verse one and two, Jonah's told to go to Nineveh and Jonah doesn't do it. 157 00:09:34,534 --> 00:09:36,534 In fact, he went in the complete opposite direction. 158 00:09:36,534 --> 00:09:40,624 You can't, in fact, get any further opposite than the city of Tarshish. 159 00:09:40,964 --> 00:09:46,984 biblical scholars say it's literally the last known port of the known world. 160 00:09:48,135 --> 00:09:50,025 The rest was open water at that point. 161 00:09:50,875 --> 00:09:52,825 So he literally, God's like, go. 162 00:09:52,835 --> 00:09:57,155 He's like, no, I'm going the furthest possible way a human can go away 163 00:09:57,155 --> 00:09:59,205 from what you called me to do. 164 00:09:59,215 --> 00:09:59,745 Why? 165 00:09:59,765 --> 00:10:02,835 A lot of people think it was fear, right? 166 00:10:02,885 --> 00:10:07,755 man, you send a guy in to, you know, a natural enemy of a people, 167 00:10:07,755 --> 00:10:10,495 and you say, hey, you guys are bad, God's gonna judge you, and they're 168 00:10:10,495 --> 00:10:11,925 like, oh, is that what you think? 169 00:10:12,925 --> 00:10:15,715 When we find out that's not really his issue, that he was afraid 170 00:10:15,715 --> 00:10:16,875 that they were going to kill him. 171 00:10:17,965 --> 00:10:20,565 He had a problem with the job, but a greater problem with 172 00:10:20,565 --> 00:10:22,575 the one who gave him the job. 173 00:10:23,695 --> 00:10:25,405 He knew God's mercy was great. 174 00:10:26,405 --> 00:10:30,374 He would have won if he knew God was going to fry these fiends, right? 175 00:10:31,175 --> 00:10:32,895 Nothing would make Jonah happier. 176 00:10:33,125 --> 00:10:36,425 If Jonah's sworn enemies were obliterated, he would have gotten a 177 00:10:36,685 --> 00:10:38,985 first row seat to watch it happen. 178 00:10:38,985 --> 00:10:41,165 And in fact, that's what he thinks is going to happen. 179 00:10:42,610 --> 00:10:45,270 Jonah knows if he preaches God's word to them that they 180 00:10:45,270 --> 00:10:47,930 may actually repent and believe. 181 00:10:48,110 --> 00:10:53,030 And if they do that, God will do the very thing which angers Jonah the most. 182 00:10:54,030 --> 00:10:55,240 God will actually forgive them. 183 00:10:56,240 --> 00:11:00,199 In his audacious, scandalous love, he will let them off scot free. 184 00:11:00,529 --> 00:11:05,360 And Jonah can't stomach kind of grace. 185 00:11:07,020 --> 00:11:07,800 In fact, he says that. 186 00:11:08,555 --> 00:11:11,295 In chapter four, I knew you were compassionate. 187 00:11:11,875 --> 00:11:13,155 I knew you were gracious. 188 00:11:13,275 --> 00:11:14,925 I knew you were forgiving. 189 00:11:15,095 --> 00:11:16,675 I knew this was going to happen. 190 00:11:17,934 --> 00:11:20,884 We find out that Jonah appears somewhere else in the Old Testament, 191 00:11:20,915 --> 00:11:24,925 and as he's getting started, he's called to prophesy to Jeroboam II, 192 00:11:24,934 --> 00:11:30,005 who was a very wicked king, that God was going to expand his borders. 193 00:11:30,885 --> 00:11:34,935 Jonah was sent to preach a message of grace to a wicked 194 00:11:34,945 --> 00:11:37,145 king, and guess what happened? 195 00:11:38,395 --> 00:11:43,104 God expanded his borders, and God blessed this wicked king. 196 00:11:44,250 --> 00:11:48,260 And he lived a regular, long life. 197 00:11:49,970 --> 00:11:52,930 And there's something in Jonah that goes, That is just not right. 198 00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:57,360 And he mistook God's patience as giving them time to repent. 199 00:11:58,405 --> 00:12:03,145 And it's not just saying an okay in their sin, but Jonah here, he's called to preach 200 00:12:03,145 --> 00:12:07,105 this message of grace and he's done it before and he's seen the fallout from it. 201 00:12:07,275 --> 00:12:11,224 And so now he's called to go, okay, it's one thing to go to your people 202 00:12:11,955 --> 00:12:13,545 and preach to Jeroboam the second. 203 00:12:13,884 --> 00:12:17,645 It's one thing to go and, you know, preach to a king who's blood of 204 00:12:17,645 --> 00:12:19,085 your blood and flesh of your flesh. 205 00:12:19,085 --> 00:12:22,145 And it's one thing to say, okay, God's being compassionate to us. 206 00:12:22,145 --> 00:12:23,485 We are his covenant people. 207 00:12:23,675 --> 00:12:26,795 It's another thing to your hated enemy to say, I want you to go 208 00:12:26,795 --> 00:12:28,405 and preach that message to them. 209 00:12:29,405 --> 00:12:30,575 And that's where Jonah's line is. 210 00:12:30,585 --> 00:12:33,725 He's like, no, there's no way I'm not going to do it. 211 00:12:35,165 --> 00:12:38,435 Jonah didn't run because he was afraid the mission would fail. 212 00:12:39,355 --> 00:12:40,905 He was afraid the mission would succeed. 213 00:12:42,665 --> 00:12:43,315 And this is the best. 214 00:12:43,315 --> 00:12:45,765 This is one of our lines that we say from this study. 215 00:12:46,025 --> 00:12:48,205 He cannot trust God to be unmerciful. 216 00:12:49,205 --> 00:12:52,034 He cannot trust God to be unmerciful. 217 00:12:53,505 --> 00:12:56,685 And one of the hardest things about God to be honest is his willingness to 218 00:12:56,685 --> 00:13:01,825 forgive and love and restore those who I have decided deserve the exact opposite. 219 00:13:02,825 --> 00:13:04,415 And that happens to us as Christians! 220 00:13:05,815 --> 00:13:07,175 That's like, crazy. 221 00:13:07,175 --> 00:13:08,355 Do you ever read 1st John? 222 00:13:08,355 --> 00:13:09,925 I'm reading through 1st John right now. 223 00:13:10,265 --> 00:13:10,695 Whoosh! 224 00:13:11,695 --> 00:13:12,445 It's gnarly! 225 00:13:12,475 --> 00:13:13,665 There's no, like, gray. 226 00:13:13,675 --> 00:13:18,514 He's not like, Hey, if you say you love God, but you don't like 227 00:13:18,515 --> 00:13:22,404 your brother because they did this, you know, to you, It's good. 228 00:13:23,724 --> 00:13:28,855 He's like, Now if you say you walk in me, and other people are saved 229 00:13:28,865 --> 00:13:30,425 by my grace and they walk in me. 230 00:13:31,610 --> 00:13:34,220 And you say you're saved by my grace and you walk in me, then 231 00:13:34,220 --> 00:13:35,190 we've got to walk together. 232 00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:37,610 There's no other way. 233 00:13:38,610 --> 00:13:38,800 Hoo! 234 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:39,874 hoo! 235 00:13:40,874 --> 00:13:46,554 The ultimate object of God's rescue isn't ultimately Nineveh in this story. 236 00:13:46,724 --> 00:13:48,534 It's Jonah, and it's us. 237 00:13:48,984 --> 00:13:50,694 The Jewish people, this is so awesome. 238 00:13:50,984 --> 00:13:52,184 We shared this with Stockton. 239 00:13:52,244 --> 00:13:55,314 On Yom Kippur, every year, read the book of Jonah. 240 00:13:55,844 --> 00:14:00,354 And they say together in unison, I am Jonah. 241 00:14:02,334 --> 00:14:07,354 Every year on the day of atonement, they read the book of Jonah and 242 00:14:07,354 --> 00:14:09,754 they say together, I am Jonah. 243 00:14:10,224 --> 00:14:11,034 Might be a good habit. 244 00:14:11,044 --> 00:14:11,444 Why? 245 00:14:11,564 --> 00:14:13,234 A rabbi said two reasons. 246 00:14:13,234 --> 00:14:16,524 He said to remind themselves of the tendency to think God's 247 00:14:16,525 --> 00:14:18,604 love and grace is just for them. 248 00:14:19,374 --> 00:14:22,444 That the blood sacrifice is only for them. 249 00:14:23,454 --> 00:14:27,334 And not open to others and second to remind them of God's relentless 250 00:14:27,334 --> 00:14:30,864 pursuit to bring them back to that humble, grateful relationship with 251 00:14:30,864 --> 00:14:33,404 himself, despite arrogance and pride. 252 00:14:34,284 --> 00:14:37,034 And so they say they read that story on the day of atonement, 253 00:14:37,034 --> 00:14:41,114 on the day of that sacrifice, on the day of Passover to remind 254 00:14:41,114 --> 00:14:43,604 themselves, I'm so similar to Jonah. 255 00:14:45,074 --> 00:14:46,794 The Hound of Heaven's one mission. 256 00:14:48,164 --> 00:14:51,384 What's next in Jonah's story is by far our biggest shock yet. 257 00:14:53,019 --> 00:14:57,539 As an amazed John Calvin wrote, The event is recorded as though 258 00:14:57,579 --> 00:14:59,129 it were an ordinary thing. 259 00:14:59,859 --> 00:15:03,789 You know, he's reading this story and you're like, And you imagine, right? 260 00:15:05,229 --> 00:15:06,889 Jonah is in the storm. 261 00:15:07,754 --> 00:15:09,514 And he's with these pagan sailors. 262 00:15:09,744 --> 00:15:10,964 And this is in chapter one. 263 00:15:11,314 --> 00:15:12,974 And the pagan sailors, he's asleep on the boat. 264 00:15:12,984 --> 00:15:14,544 He keeps going down, down further. 265 00:15:14,544 --> 00:15:16,414 He, you know, goes down to Joppa. 266 00:15:16,434 --> 00:15:17,884 Then he's gonna go down to Tarshish. 267 00:15:17,924 --> 00:15:19,074 Then he goes down to the boat. 268 00:15:19,094 --> 00:15:20,584 Then he goes down into a great sleep. 269 00:15:20,734 --> 00:15:22,734 Very beautifully written story. 270 00:15:23,204 --> 00:15:25,074 And then, the sailors are running around. 271 00:15:25,074 --> 00:15:26,414 And they're like, what is this storm called? 272 00:15:26,454 --> 00:15:27,644 And they're praying to their gods. 273 00:15:27,644 --> 00:15:28,644 They're praying to their idols. 274 00:15:28,644 --> 00:15:29,614 They're carved images. 275 00:15:29,964 --> 00:15:31,534 And they're like, they're not doing anything. 276 00:15:31,819 --> 00:15:35,389 And so then they cast lots and they're like, wow, it's this guy Jonah. 277 00:15:35,389 --> 00:15:36,489 They wake him up, wake up. 278 00:15:36,489 --> 00:15:37,799 Oh, you sleep or what's going on? 279 00:15:37,799 --> 00:15:39,959 He's like, yeah, I ran from God, the God who made the 280 00:15:39,959 --> 00:15:42,329 heavens, the earth and the sea. 281 00:15:42,349 --> 00:15:44,569 And they're like, do you hear yourself? 282 00:15:45,489 --> 00:15:47,709 You're running from the God who made the sea. 283 00:15:49,369 --> 00:15:53,589 And so he's like, yeah, I disobeyed throw me over. 284 00:15:54,214 --> 00:15:55,144 And, everything will be good. 285 00:15:55,144 --> 00:15:57,104 They're like, no, we're not gonna have your blood on our hands. 286 00:15:57,314 --> 00:15:57,884 These pagans. 287 00:15:58,174 --> 00:16:01,124 So they begin throwing all their cargo off their ship, their livelihood. 288 00:16:01,124 --> 00:16:01,944 They're doing everything. 289 00:16:02,224 --> 00:16:05,974 And it literally says narratively, the ship was thinking about breaking apart. 290 00:16:05,984 --> 00:16:07,824 Like the ship itself is a character. 291 00:16:08,274 --> 00:16:12,534 The ship is like, I can't even bear this guy. 292 00:16:13,324 --> 00:16:14,444 I think I'm done with him. 293 00:16:15,249 --> 00:16:20,019 Like, I've been shaped, I've been cut, I've been planked, I've been oiled, I've 294 00:16:20,019 --> 00:16:24,489 been, built and put for a purpose, and I play my purpose, and the ship itself is 295 00:16:24,489 --> 00:16:25,874 like, this guy won't play his purpose. 296 00:16:25,874 --> 00:16:34,864 People, even to his himself as a prophet, idolatry was the source of his own sin. 297 00:16:35,814 --> 00:16:40,464 He thought it would be better to disobey and hold on to the things that he loved 298 00:16:40,644 --> 00:16:42,414 than to obey God and hold on to God. 299 00:16:42,834 --> 00:16:46,674 He valued what he loved his life, his identity, his racial hatred. 300 00:16:47,624 --> 00:16:52,324 Now he realizes that has kept him from the one great source of life and fulfillment 301 00:16:52,324 --> 00:16:56,774 and peace and joy, and so you've got this beautiful thing that he says. 302 00:16:57,464 --> 00:17:02,274 Oh, it's not just them who commit idolatry, it's me. 303 00:17:02,974 --> 00:17:06,864 It's me, and that's the sin underneath every other sin. 304 00:17:06,864 --> 00:17:10,904 What is idolatry except making something more important than God? 305 00:17:11,434 --> 00:17:13,344 And remember, that could be good things. 306 00:17:13,354 --> 00:17:14,334 That's not just the... 307 00:17:14,689 --> 00:17:18,638 the hissing and booing, that's not just the, like, the scandalous prodigal son 308 00:17:18,638 --> 00:17:22,148 who went out and spent his life on a faraway living, sleeping with this person. 309 00:17:22,519 --> 00:17:27,709 It's the older brother, who's on the property, but will never go into 310 00:17:27,709 --> 00:17:30,429 the feast, saying, I've earned this. 311 00:17:30,679 --> 00:17:32,189 I know the way that the world should work. 312 00:17:32,209 --> 00:17:35,549 I want to prove my, I want, this is how I see the world. 313 00:17:36,619 --> 00:17:38,299 And I'm gonna, I'm gonna live that way. 314 00:17:38,519 --> 00:17:42,129 Idolatry, is anything that is more valuable to us? 315 00:17:42,159 --> 00:17:47,549 Is there anything in our lives that if we lost it, we would feel 316 00:17:47,659 --> 00:17:49,469 that life wouldn't be the same? 317 00:17:50,589 --> 00:17:51,439 Like, worth living? 318 00:17:51,509 --> 00:17:54,829 Like, I'm not talking about loss, and loss is terrible, and 319 00:17:54,829 --> 00:17:58,949 it's like, we roar at the curse. 320 00:17:58,959 --> 00:18:00,699 We roar at the curse of death. 321 00:18:00,699 --> 00:18:01,559 It's horrific. 322 00:18:01,559 --> 00:18:02,719 It's not the way it's supposed to be. 323 00:18:03,309 --> 00:18:06,009 But is there something that if you looked at in your life and 324 00:18:06,009 --> 00:18:07,319 you're like, If I lost this... 325 00:18:08,184 --> 00:18:09,174 My life would be over. 326 00:18:10,174 --> 00:18:16,244 I've had that I've had that and there's so much bondage to that 327 00:18:16,284 --> 00:18:17,484 because what are you doing? 328 00:18:18,704 --> 00:18:22,334 If you get it you find it's not fulfilling and there's like such 329 00:18:22,334 --> 00:18:26,174 depression and discouragement or maybe you feel like well Maybe there's 330 00:18:26,174 --> 00:18:29,894 another level so you keep trying or maybe you get it and now you've got to 331 00:18:29,894 --> 00:18:33,964 keep it and now you're a competition But it's a life of slavery as Bible 332 00:18:34,004 --> 00:18:36,714 says Idolatry is the life of slavery. 333 00:18:37,924 --> 00:18:44,214 And so those who cling to worthless idols run away from God's grace for them. 334 00:18:44,714 --> 00:18:47,654 So this amazing thing happens to Jonah. 335 00:18:47,944 --> 00:18:50,004 So we ask, what do you want more than God? 336 00:18:50,654 --> 00:18:54,184 One of the Hebrew words for worship or related to worship is Gloria Kavod. 337 00:18:54,234 --> 00:18:54,854 We talk about this. 338 00:18:54,864 --> 00:18:55,744 It means weight. 339 00:18:56,784 --> 00:18:59,394 What do you give more weight to in your life than God? 340 00:18:59,584 --> 00:19:01,524 Is it the opinions of people? 341 00:19:02,374 --> 00:19:04,884 That happens if you seek their approval. 342 00:19:05,344 --> 00:19:08,574 Like, what you think of me matters more than what God thinks of me. 343 00:19:08,604 --> 00:19:11,864 That's a struggle, that I'm giving glory to that over glory to God. 344 00:19:12,664 --> 00:19:16,564 Is it, am I giving weight to the control that I can have in this life? 345 00:19:16,884 --> 00:19:21,604 You know, that I can juggle, you know, 10, 000 plates and keep them all in the air. 346 00:19:22,984 --> 00:19:24,674 And then when they all come crashing down. 347 00:19:25,454 --> 00:19:28,514 Or is it, can I sit back and can I give weight to the fact that God 348 00:19:28,514 --> 00:19:29,944 is sovereign sitting on His throne? 349 00:19:30,334 --> 00:19:33,524 And that he's good and that he's marshalling every atom in the universe 350 00:19:33,994 --> 00:19:37,654 to bring about the furtherance of that glory in my good and my joy. 351 00:19:38,654 --> 00:19:43,384 Here's what Martin Luther wrote, he said, To whatever we look for any 352 00:19:43,394 --> 00:19:49,249 good thing, and for refuge in every need, That is what is meant by God. 353 00:19:50,329 --> 00:19:54,509 To whatever you give your heart and entrust your being, that, 354 00:19:54,509 --> 00:19:57,069 I say, is really your God. 355 00:19:58,929 --> 00:20:04,069 And so Jonah came to the place and he's like, Oh, I haven't been 356 00:20:04,069 --> 00:20:07,149 grabbing hold of your grace because I've been holding on to my own life. 357 00:20:08,209 --> 00:20:13,949 I haven't been grabbing on and like drinking that 180 proof cocktail of 358 00:20:13,949 --> 00:20:20,249 your amazing grace because my hands are filled with worthless things. 359 00:20:21,494 --> 00:20:24,094 And he realizes that, and he lets go. 360 00:20:25,194 --> 00:20:26,364 Bring us home, verse 9. 361 00:20:27,034 --> 00:20:27,804 And this is so awesome. 362 00:20:28,414 --> 00:20:32,944 But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you what 363 00:20:32,944 --> 00:20:34,604 I have vowed I will make good. 364 00:20:34,654 --> 00:20:38,574 I will say salvation comes from the Lord. 365 00:20:40,574 --> 00:20:41,414 Guess where he is? 366 00:20:42,984 --> 00:20:43,964 Is he out on the land? 367 00:20:44,964 --> 00:20:45,724 He's in the belly. 368 00:20:46,724 --> 00:20:47,904 That is the deliverance. 369 00:20:48,904 --> 00:20:51,784 Isn't that so much more transcendent than a change in circumstances? 370 00:20:52,654 --> 00:20:54,554 Isn't that what, like, God is after in us? 371 00:20:54,564 --> 00:20:56,754 Isn't that, like, he's still... 372 00:20:58,174 --> 00:21:05,124 He's pushing octopus beaks out of the way, having the gastric juices 373 00:21:05,124 --> 00:21:06,914 on him, and he begins to worship. 374 00:21:07,914 --> 00:21:09,084 He doesn't know if he's getting out. 375 00:21:09,684 --> 00:21:14,284 This isn't an arm bar to get God to do what he wants, he says, I get 376 00:21:14,284 --> 00:21:16,774 it, salvation belongs to the Lord. 377 00:21:17,924 --> 00:21:18,644 It's up to you. 378 00:21:19,824 --> 00:21:22,964 In fact, This is such a pivotal place in the Bible. 379 00:21:22,974 --> 00:21:27,814 Scholars say this is the entire theme of the Bible right there summed up. 380 00:21:28,394 --> 00:21:31,134 It is the most concise theme of the entire Bible. 381 00:21:31,194 --> 00:21:32,784 People say this is the crux, right? 382 00:21:32,854 --> 00:21:38,304 not in, it's like the hinge that, you know, the Bible is all about. 383 00:21:38,314 --> 00:21:40,974 Salvation belongs to the Lord. 384 00:21:41,294 --> 00:21:42,634 This is the message of the whole Bible. 385 00:21:42,634 --> 00:21:43,794 There's three kinds of people. 386 00:21:44,814 --> 00:21:46,034 Irreligious, religious, Christians. 387 00:21:47,034 --> 00:21:48,084 Those who've been born again. 388 00:21:49,254 --> 00:21:50,184 Those who've been saved. 389 00:21:50,234 --> 00:21:54,414 irreligious and religious people are very similar, more similar than we think. 390 00:21:54,984 --> 00:21:59,244 We think that, you know, the irreligious are like, you know, I don't want anything 391 00:21:59,294 --> 00:22:03,554 with God, I'm making up my own morality, I'm making up my own way, but it's a 392 00:22:03,554 --> 00:22:06,014 way that they keep themselves from God. 393 00:22:06,644 --> 00:22:07,704 Like the prodigal son. 394 00:22:08,864 --> 00:22:12,944 The religious, they say, I will obey God. 395 00:22:13,599 --> 00:22:16,309 I'll do everything that he says, and I'll be good enough, and I'll 396 00:22:16,309 --> 00:22:18,649 make myself acceptable to him, but guess what they're doing? 397 00:22:19,099 --> 00:22:20,759 They're keeping their distance from God. 398 00:22:20,839 --> 00:22:25,619 There's never that desperation and that plea that has to come about, as 399 00:22:25,619 --> 00:22:32,374 a Christian, that has to come where you're like, Holy Christ, where Christ 400 00:22:32,374 --> 00:22:35,654 wakes up your heart and you're like, I need Jesus, I need him, I have no 401 00:22:35,664 --> 00:22:38,264 hope in God of the world except Jesus. 402 00:22:38,264 --> 00:22:42,894 Like, that has to happen, that desperate coming to that end, that, 403 00:22:43,094 --> 00:22:48,854 that place of like, I need rescue, I can't save myself, like, I'm hopeless 404 00:22:48,854 --> 00:22:50,224 without God of the world, wait! 405 00:22:50,774 --> 00:22:51,414 Wait, I can't. 406 00:22:52,004 --> 00:22:53,674 Can you, like, think about it. 407 00:22:53,764 --> 00:22:54,844 You're in the belly. 408 00:22:55,264 --> 00:22:56,314 Can you steer the fish? 409 00:22:56,314 --> 00:22:57,304 Can you grab the whale? 410 00:22:57,304 --> 00:22:58,264 Can you steer him up? 411 00:22:58,264 --> 00:23:01,634 Can you swim out from the depths and hold your breath long enough? 412 00:23:01,904 --> 00:23:03,714 Can you kill the beast from within? 413 00:23:03,874 --> 00:23:05,424 You're doomed! 414 00:23:05,784 --> 00:23:10,344 You're in a tomb that is keeping you alive enough to find grace. 415 00:23:10,989 --> 00:23:12,559 That is like my story. 416 00:23:12,559 --> 00:23:15,869 I'm in a tomb long enough to discover God's grace. 417 00:23:16,129 --> 00:23:18,869 Like, salvation is of the Lord. 418 00:23:19,039 --> 00:23:22,059 And what's beautiful about that is he gets to pick who he saves. 419 00:23:22,529 --> 00:23:25,429 If it's all him and he does it from beginning to end, then guess what? 420 00:23:25,439 --> 00:23:29,279 I can't be mad at the Ninevites if he decides that he wants to give the 421 00:23:29,279 --> 00:23:30,649 same grace to them that he gave to me. 422 00:23:31,649 --> 00:23:38,079 I can't be mad at my brother who slighted me because God washed him in the blood. 423 00:23:38,529 --> 00:23:40,049 He's his blood brought bride. 424 00:23:40,049 --> 00:23:41,109 I can't! 425 00:23:42,109 --> 00:23:45,639 Salvation belongs to the Lord. 426 00:23:45,639 --> 00:23:48,109 It comes from the Lord. 427 00:23:49,139 --> 00:23:52,049 Religious people believe salvation belongs to themselves. 428 00:23:52,579 --> 00:23:55,079 Irreligious people don't believe they need salvation. 429 00:23:55,149 --> 00:23:57,899 Gospel people understand salvation belongs to the Lord. 430 00:23:58,899 --> 00:23:59,999 What is grace? 431 00:24:00,999 --> 00:24:02,949 As Gospel Tom says, it's demerited favor. 432 00:24:02,949 --> 00:24:03,749 undeserved. 433 00:24:04,749 --> 00:24:07,069 It's a gift by an unobligated giver. 434 00:24:08,974 --> 00:24:09,944 Do you ever think about it? 435 00:24:11,264 --> 00:24:12,784 I get too familiar with grace. 436 00:24:14,074 --> 00:24:18,764 If you give a gift to your child, and your child is rebellious and you still 437 00:24:18,764 --> 00:24:22,244 give them a gift, and he's hateful to you, but you still take care of them, 438 00:24:22,784 --> 00:24:26,994 they are an undeserving recipient, but you're still an obligated giver. 439 00:24:26,994 --> 00:24:33,064 You're supposed to take care of your kids, On the other hand, if you got 440 00:24:33,064 --> 00:24:36,514 together and, you know, it's your co worker's birthday, and you're like, got 441 00:24:36,514 --> 00:24:39,974 a gift for them of appreciation just because you love them and they're super 442 00:24:39,974 --> 00:24:45,888 helpful, That might be an unobligated gift, but they are a deserving recipient. 443 00:24:46,888 --> 00:24:48,478 It's when both are true. 444 00:24:49,478 --> 00:24:53,928 Like, have you ever had a bad neighbor who's just an absolute jerk? 445 00:24:55,258 --> 00:24:56,258 They're rude. 446 00:24:56,728 --> 00:25:03,678 They call the cops on you, because for crazy reasons, they purposely 447 00:25:03,688 --> 00:25:05,658 dump their leaves into your yard. 448 00:25:07,383 --> 00:25:12,143 And on and on, there's animosity, mean looks, flip you off. 449 00:25:12,173 --> 00:25:14,803 It's just this tension that's always there. 450 00:25:16,613 --> 00:25:18,103 But you find out that they're sick, 451 00:25:19,103 --> 00:25:20,283 and you go and take care of them. 452 00:25:22,093 --> 00:25:25,653 And they're still resentful, and you keep taking care of them. 453 00:25:26,333 --> 00:25:29,273 And they can't work, so you pay their bills, so that they can keep 454 00:25:29,273 --> 00:25:30,983 the lights on and heat in the home. 455 00:25:31,363 --> 00:25:34,683 And you do their yard, and you don't throw the leaves in. 456 00:25:35,633 --> 00:25:39,633 That's an unobligated giver to an undeserving recipient. 457 00:25:40,483 --> 00:25:41,703 And that's the grace of God. 458 00:25:42,703 --> 00:25:44,133 We are both those things. 459 00:25:44,783 --> 00:25:46,113 We are both those things. 460 00:25:46,833 --> 00:25:50,543 When we were dead, when we were rebels, Christ died. 461 00:25:51,533 --> 00:25:53,063 We didn't deserve God's grace. 462 00:25:54,063 --> 00:25:56,013 He wasn't obligated to give it to us. 463 00:25:57,113 --> 00:26:02,633 His holiness would be satisfied to cast us out into the lake of sea. 464 00:26:03,543 --> 00:26:04,473 Or, the lake of fire. 465 00:26:04,523 --> 00:26:05,163 Lake of the sea. 466 00:26:05,483 --> 00:26:06,233 Sea of Galilee. 467 00:26:07,233 --> 00:26:08,333 But He's rich in mercy. 468 00:26:09,333 --> 00:26:10,503 And He's rich in grace. 469 00:26:11,603 --> 00:26:16,113 And where sin did abound, His grace hyper abounded. 470 00:26:17,783 --> 00:26:18,513 And He keeps giving it. 471 00:26:19,873 --> 00:26:22,623 Super amount and it never stops and it will never tap. 472 00:26:23,623 --> 00:26:26,473 You know how you watch the coffee pot, the water go down and you're 473 00:26:26,473 --> 00:26:27,613 like, okay, I can get a cup now. 474 00:26:27,633 --> 00:26:30,803 Cause now it's not too strong, but it's not too weak. 475 00:26:31,993 --> 00:26:33,573 You can watch his grace. 476 00:26:34,203 --> 00:26:37,963 And it never moves never decreases, never runs out, never empties. 477 00:26:37,973 --> 00:26:41,373 It's just always infinite to you. 478 00:26:42,373 --> 00:26:46,583 God getting you to a place where we can see that is often the 479 00:26:46,583 --> 00:26:48,063 storm in the whale that he sends. 480 00:26:49,333 --> 00:26:52,043 But not only see it, but feel it and understand it. 481 00:26:52,043 --> 00:26:54,473 It can be a pretty painful process. 482 00:26:55,483 --> 00:26:59,343 No joke will feel like somebody is doing surgery on you and forgot the anesthesia. 483 00:27:00,343 --> 00:27:02,783 I mean, that's, is, remember, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C. 484 00:27:02,783 --> 00:27:02,933 S. 485 00:27:02,933 --> 00:27:05,123 Lewis writes about Edmund, is it, I think? 486 00:27:05,553 --> 00:27:08,563 Who's like a dragon now, because he, lusted after gold. 487 00:27:08,913 --> 00:27:10,223 And Aslan comes in, C. 488 00:27:10,223 --> 00:27:10,293 A. 489 00:27:10,293 --> 00:27:10,323 R. 490 00:27:10,323 --> 00:27:10,333 E. 491 00:27:10,333 --> 00:27:14,673 where he is, and he begins to tear, with his claws, the dragon skin from him. 492 00:27:15,473 --> 00:27:17,903 He says, it was so painful, I wanted him to stop. 493 00:27:17,913 --> 00:27:21,363 But, like, underneath, he was like, the flesh of a baby. 494 00:27:22,358 --> 00:27:23,518 God does that in our lives. 495 00:27:23,518 --> 00:27:28,128 He wants, again, not angrily to take away our freedom and strip 496 00:27:28,128 --> 00:27:31,428 us of that, but to affectionately set us free from our slavery that 497 00:27:31,428 --> 00:27:33,468 we're still often addicted to. 498 00:27:35,158 --> 00:27:40,858 Charles Wesley, in his remarkable hymn, said, And can it be that I should gain? 499 00:27:40,878 --> 00:27:44,958 And here he describes his own conversion and essentially that of every sinner. 500 00:27:45,888 --> 00:27:50,488 He said, Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. 501 00:27:51,068 --> 00:27:53,368 Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. 502 00:27:53,398 --> 00:27:54,138 I woke. 503 00:27:55,183 --> 00:28:02,353 The dungeon flamed with light, My chains fell off, my heart was free, I 504 00:28:02,353 --> 00:28:04,493 rose, went forth, and followed Thee. 505 00:28:05,803 --> 00:28:10,373 And that's the freedom offered to all and made available to all by God's relentless 506 00:28:10,383 --> 00:28:13,083 pursuit through the storm of Jesus Christ. 507 00:28:13,933 --> 00:28:17,483 For just as Jonah in Matthew 12, 40 says was three days and three 508 00:28:17,483 --> 00:28:20,043 nights, this is Jesus talking in the belly of the great fish. 509 00:28:20,373 --> 00:28:24,583 So the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 510 00:28:26,053 --> 00:28:29,253 Both in Jonah in the New Testament, three days and three nights reflects the 511 00:28:29,253 --> 00:28:32,943 idiom from Hebrew culture which counted any portion of the day as a full day. 512 00:28:33,603 --> 00:28:36,353 Jonah may have been inside the fish for the same length of time as Jesus 513 00:28:36,353 --> 00:28:37,553 was buried in the heart of the earth. 514 00:28:38,058 --> 00:28:41,768 for an evening and all the next day and a few hours the next but Jonah's 515 00:28:41,768 --> 00:28:45,458 foreshadowing of the burial and resurrection of Jesus was so strong 516 00:28:45,468 --> 00:28:50,618 that Paul would declare how Jesus was buried in 1st Corinthians 15 4 and was 517 00:28:50,618 --> 00:28:56,258 raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures in accordance with 518 00:28:56,258 --> 00:29:00,888 which scriptures only twice in the Old Testament is this three day element 519 00:29:00,898 --> 00:29:05,988 prophesied here in Jonah's story and less clearly in Hosea which was written 520 00:29:05,988 --> 00:29:10,828 just a generation after Jonah's time in ministry and In Hosea, a passage, 521 00:29:10,878 --> 00:29:14,488 God's people say collectively, and this is beautiful, a beautiful pairing. 522 00:29:14,828 --> 00:29:20,978 On the third day, he will raise us up that we may live before him in Hosea 6 2. 523 00:29:21,558 --> 00:29:25,428 Taking together Hosea's prophecy along with the statement of Jesus, we again 524 00:29:25,428 --> 00:29:29,628 see the significance of Jonah's life intertwined not only with Christ, Emmaus, 525 00:29:30,628 --> 00:29:36,028 Would cite Jonah's story while he interpreted to them and all the 526 00:29:36,028 --> 00:29:39,068 scriptures the things concerning himself. 527 00:29:39,508 --> 00:29:40,968 Luke 24, 27. 528 00:29:41,348 --> 00:29:43,488 I'm sure they talked about the story of Jonah and they're like, What? 529 00:29:44,048 --> 00:29:44,758 Mind blown! 530 00:29:44,758 --> 00:29:45,758 That's crazy! 531 00:29:46,018 --> 00:29:49,718 Later that night, when Jesus met with a large group of disciples, He would 532 00:29:49,718 --> 00:29:53,888 likely refer to Jonah once more as He opened their minds to understanding 533 00:29:53,888 --> 00:29:57,278 the Scriptures and declared to them that everything written about Me in 534 00:29:57,278 --> 00:29:58,998 the Law of Moses must be fulfilled. 535 00:29:59,228 --> 00:30:01,538 Luke 24, 44 45. 536 00:30:01,818 --> 00:30:03,348 They'd be like, That's in Jonah?! 537 00:30:04,958 --> 00:30:04,988 What? 538 00:30:04,988 --> 00:30:05,998 It was there the whole time. 539 00:30:05,998 --> 00:30:07,508 It was in front of her eyes. 540 00:30:07,798 --> 00:30:07,848 What? 541 00:30:08,368 --> 00:30:08,948 I'm blown. 542 00:30:09,368 --> 00:30:12,148 The guys on the road to Emmaus, they like run seven miles. 543 00:30:12,498 --> 00:30:14,598 They're like, did our hearts not burn within us? 544 00:30:14,598 --> 00:30:19,718 That's a, what Jesus declared in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. 545 00:30:20,608 --> 00:30:23,098 Jonah's story, he would say, is about me. 546 00:30:23,688 --> 00:30:27,198 When Jonah was feeling death's approach in the depths of the sea, he had evidence. 547 00:30:27,763 --> 00:30:31,233 of a typically limited Old Testament understanding of the afterlife when 548 00:30:31,233 --> 00:30:37,763 he instinctively spoke of sinking into Sheol, a place of death, and 549 00:30:37,763 --> 00:30:40,093 the land whose bars closed upon me. 550 00:30:41,303 --> 00:30:42,433 But we know better. 551 00:30:43,213 --> 00:30:45,843 For our Savior Christ Jesus not only abolished death... 552 00:30:46,398 --> 00:30:50,578 But also brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 553 00:30:50,858 --> 00:30:52,318 Second Timothy 110. 554 00:30:52,558 --> 00:30:56,408 Christ's resurrection made clear forever by our true and thrilling 555 00:30:56,408 --> 00:31:00,778 hope of eternal life which is ours for the taking all by faith. 556 00:31:01,118 --> 00:31:02,928 Jesus is the greater Jonah. 557 00:31:03,923 --> 00:31:10,293 Jonah was cast out into the sea because he ran from God, because he hated people. 558 00:31:10,723 --> 00:31:16,113 The greater Jonah was sent by God to a people that hated him, and he kept 559 00:31:16,113 --> 00:31:18,113 running after them and towards them. 560 00:31:18,413 --> 00:31:21,413 The storm in the whole Bible represents chaos. 561 00:31:21,413 --> 00:31:26,158 It represents wrath that represents judgment and here these pagan soldiers 562 00:31:26,158 --> 00:31:30,228 are standing on the deck they have no idea they're they're praying to false 563 00:31:30,248 --> 00:31:34,688 gods and jonah says throw me in and i'll be calm and part of it is to run 564 00:31:34,688 --> 00:31:40,598 away from his calling to go into the place of death not because he cared but 565 00:31:40,598 --> 00:31:46,543 because he didn't want to go And yet the greater Jonah, Jesus said, throw me 566 00:31:46,543 --> 00:31:48,823 into the sea, into that place of wrath. 567 00:31:49,053 --> 00:31:53,353 And as he was thrown in, the sea was stilled, the wrath settled forever. 568 00:31:53,463 --> 00:31:56,291 That that there is therefore now no condemnation to those 569 00:31:56,291 --> 00:31:57,431 who are in Christ Jesus. 570 00:31:57,481 --> 00:32:01,781 that it's gone, it's obliterated, it's been stilled, that he went down 571 00:32:01,961 --> 00:32:06,111 into the depths, the bars closed to him in Sheol, the place of death. 572 00:32:06,631 --> 00:32:10,421 But that he took the keys out of the fangs of death and he rose in 573 00:32:10,421 --> 00:32:13,851 victory and he stomped on the head of the serpent and he rose that third 574 00:32:13,861 --> 00:32:19,041 day and he came and he preached good news to a people, not reluctantly, 575 00:32:20,041 --> 00:32:23,771 but passionately to his enemies. 576 00:32:24,566 --> 00:32:27,556 to the Gentiles, to the people who didn't want anything to do with him. 577 00:32:28,206 --> 00:32:31,846 And he showed himself for 40 days and he said, there's a bigger world here. 578 00:32:32,116 --> 00:32:34,996 Let's get these guys sent out and let's tell people about the 579 00:32:34,996 --> 00:32:37,396 grace of God all over the world. 580 00:32:38,156 --> 00:32:40,086 And he said, guys, you guys can't do this on their own. 581 00:32:40,086 --> 00:32:43,276 So I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit himself to come live inside of you. 582 00:32:43,926 --> 00:32:47,276 In the resurrected life, he made a way where the Holy Spirit doesn't 583 00:32:47,276 --> 00:32:52,366 just come upon us, but comes into us in that regenerated heart. 584 00:32:53,716 --> 00:32:57,176 And then we start to look like Christ, as we abide in Christ, 585 00:32:57,516 --> 00:33:02,196 and we obey Him because we love Him, because He first loved us. 586 00:33:03,521 --> 00:33:07,431 He's not after our obedience, he's after a whole new kind of obedience, 587 00:33:07,431 --> 00:33:11,951 a whole new kind of life, a kind that, like, desires him, and wants to make him 588 00:33:11,951 --> 00:33:17,331 known, that cares about his glory, that cares about his name being hallowed, 589 00:33:17,361 --> 00:33:19,231 that wants to see him, in hallowed. 590 00:33:19,801 --> 00:33:23,341 Spread and the good news spread wherever we are 591 00:33:24,341 --> 00:33:28,611 being put into the belly of the whale can coerce your obedience. 592 00:33:29,461 --> 00:33:33,331 Seeing Jesus went into the real belly of the whale is what creates 593 00:33:33,336 --> 00:33:34,621 desire in your heart for him. 594 00:33:35,081 --> 00:33:37,931 That's the gospel stirring our affections. 595 00:33:38,651 --> 00:33:44,806 So we should say like on Yom Kippur, I am Jonah and be warned 596 00:33:45,286 --> 00:33:46,406 that those tendencies are in me. 597 00:33:47,811 --> 00:33:54,781 You should see in Jesus, though, that he's the greater Jonah and worship. 598 00:33:55,781 --> 00:34:00,501 And that's not the end of the story, because again, Jonah gets up and he's... 599 00:34:01,051 --> 00:34:03,141 Right back to his old ways, and so we'll keep going. 600 00:34:03,561 --> 00:34:04,101 Let's pray. 601 00:34:04,611 --> 00:34:09,501 Father, we thank you for, your unending, relentless grace in our lives. 602 00:34:10,501 --> 00:34:12,110 You're not obligated, 603 00:34:13,110 --> 00:34:14,190 and yet you give. 604 00:34:16,001 --> 00:34:19,210 We're not deserving, and yet you never stop. 605 00:34:20,210 --> 00:34:21,411 Melt our hearts, Lord. 606 00:34:22,411 --> 00:34:24,911 Man, you took the only storm that could really take us out. 607 00:34:25,911 --> 00:34:30,581 That's the only one that could really do us in, was facing up to your wrath, was 608 00:34:30,581 --> 00:34:32,561 facing up to that chaos and that judgment. 609 00:34:33,561 --> 00:34:36,161 And you were thrown in so that, Lord, I might be rescued. 610 00:34:37,516 --> 00:34:39,936 So that I might find you like those pagan sailors. 611 00:34:41,446 --> 00:34:45,346 So Lord, keep going after us. 612 00:34:45,406 --> 00:34:47,356 Be stronger than our apathy. 613 00:34:48,356 --> 00:34:50,926 Be stronger than our pretended strength. 614 00:34:51,926 --> 00:34:53,505 We just declare you are good. 615 00:34:54,505 --> 00:34:59,156 When we think of Jonah, he kept mentioning the temple over and over and 616 00:35:00,156 --> 00:35:03,816 the way he saw your grace is that the temple was the Ark of 617 00:35:03,816 --> 00:35:06,146 the Covenant that held the law. 618 00:35:07,146 --> 00:35:11,756 That was the standard to which you held the whole nation. 619 00:35:13,396 --> 00:35:16,771 One he had fallen short of, but that Covering on the ark 620 00:35:16,771 --> 00:35:17,991 was called the mercy seed, 621 00:35:18,991 --> 00:35:23,661 and he could rejoice because it was sprinkled in the blood of another 622 00:35:24,661 --> 00:35:29,261 that satisfied the demands of the law that he had fallen short of. 623 00:35:30,941 --> 00:35:35,271 So us too, Lord, we like Jonah. 624 00:35:36,526 --> 00:35:41,716 See that you are the great temple that you fulfilled the demands of the law that 625 00:35:41,726 --> 00:35:44,926 you were the substitute a life for a life. 626 00:35:45,346 --> 00:35:50,986 So remember that right now fuel our worship as we Worship the God 627 00:35:50,996 --> 00:35:55,626 the transcendent one that I am The uncaused cause took on human 628 00:35:55,626 --> 00:35:58,056 flesh so that it might be broken 629 00:35:59,056 --> 00:36:05,646 the bloodshed So there would be no condemnation so that we could say 630 00:36:06,406 --> 00:36:12,841 for those who are in Christ Jesus Salvation belongs to the Lord. 631 00:36:13,341 --> 00:36:14,661 In Jesus name, Amen. 632 00:36:15,661 --> 00:36:16,611 I think I'm done. 633 00:36:17,601 --> 00:36:19,521 Kind of crazy, kind of an amazing story. 634 00:36:20,081 --> 00:36:23,991 And, so finally they're like, Lord, don't lay this, blood on our hands. 635 00:36:24,011 --> 00:36:28,041 They cast Jonah overboard, and it says it's still as glass. 636 00:36:28,091 --> 00:36:30,061 The sea, the storm goes away. 637 00:36:31,061 --> 00:36:33,151 And the sailors immediately fall down, these pagans, and 638 00:36:33,181 --> 00:36:34,911 they begin to worship Yahweh. 639 00:36:36,596 --> 00:36:39,226 And they say, we're going to make vows and we're going to make sacrifices. 640 00:36:39,606 --> 00:36:43,416 maybe one of the things they decided to cast off their boat is these little 641 00:36:43,456 --> 00:36:47,176 idols that they carved that were powerless in the face of the storm. 642 00:36:47,486 --> 00:36:50,646 And they say, okay, we're going to worship you. 643 00:36:51,716 --> 00:36:53,926 And I think Jonah, who knows, he hits the water. 644 00:36:54,936 --> 00:36:57,446 Was it a sign of self sacrifice? 645 00:36:57,506 --> 00:36:59,646 maybe he's like, you know, I can't let other people. 646 00:36:59,996 --> 00:37:04,216 But I also think, in a way, it's his furthest way to run yet. 647 00:37:05,156 --> 00:37:08,666 He's like, he could have said, Let's go back to Joppa. 648 00:37:09,236 --> 00:37:10,576 I've got a mission to do. 649 00:37:10,926 --> 00:37:13,666 Could they have turned the boat around and all of a sudden the storm stilled? 650 00:37:15,176 --> 00:37:16,596 But he's like, throwing me into the water. 651 00:37:16,596 --> 00:37:18,186 And so he gets thrown into the water. 652 00:37:18,906 --> 00:37:22,196 And I think, maybe he's sitting there, and he's like, Oh wow, it worked. 653 00:37:22,826 --> 00:37:26,306 And then he's like, Alright guys, maybe you can take me, you know, And all of 654 00:37:26,306 --> 00:37:29,456 a sudden this fish, you see this fin come out of the water, And you're like, 655 00:37:29,956 --> 00:37:31,786 And the sailors are like, Oh my gosh! 656 00:37:31,976 --> 00:37:33,926 And this fish just swallows him whole. 657 00:37:34,136 --> 00:37:35,396 God appointed a fish. 658 00:37:36,646 --> 00:37:38,776 That's where we pick up in chapter 1, verse 17. 659 00:37:38,776 --> 00:37:41,296 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. 660 00:37:41,346 --> 00:37:45,416 There's a character in the novel, Moby Dick, who thought about Jonah a lot. 661 00:37:45,426 --> 00:37:48,586 He was the preacher in the story, and he said, his name was Maple, and he 662 00:37:48,606 --> 00:37:54,006 said, And now behold Jonah, taken up as an anchor and dropped into the sea. 663 00:37:55,716 --> 00:37:59,326 And to say at least this would be an awful experience, to be 664 00:37:59,326 --> 00:38:00,646 swallowed by a creature, right? 665 00:38:02,296 --> 00:38:03,576 People have tried to figure this out. 666 00:38:03,596 --> 00:38:04,586 The temperature would have been... 667 00:38:04,876 --> 00:38:08,636 108 to 150 degrees the whole time, or 115 degrees the whole time, he 668 00:38:08,636 --> 00:38:11,746 couldn't move his arm, gastric juices that would have continually washed 669 00:38:11,746 --> 00:38:14,246 over him, bleaching his skin white. 670 00:38:15,906 --> 00:38:19,016 I mean, you think about the smell, you've got, you know, octopus 671 00:38:19,056 --> 00:38:22,736 beaks, you know, that you're rolling against, and all kinds of stuff. 672 00:38:23,431 --> 00:38:26,801 The smell would be like an outhouse in an overcrowded construction site. 673 00:38:26,961 --> 00:38:31,871 What was it like for Jonah inside there? 674 00:38:32,701 --> 00:38:34,281 Mostly it's unimaginable. 675 00:38:34,621 --> 00:38:38,881 What we can envision realistically is terrifying and repulsive to say the least. 676 00:38:39,831 --> 00:38:43,911 But giving us an insider's take on how to survive three days and 677 00:38:43,911 --> 00:38:46,871 three nights in the fish's belly is not where the story is heading. 678 00:38:47,791 --> 00:38:49,191 It's not the purpose of the story. 679 00:38:49,511 --> 00:38:51,961 The focus isn't Jonah and the fish, and that's one of the things 680 00:38:51,961 --> 00:38:54,381 we get wrong, and all our kids stories about Jonah get wrong. 681 00:38:54,601 --> 00:38:55,821 They focus on the fish! 682 00:38:57,691 --> 00:38:59,071 That's not the story. 683 00:39:00,391 --> 00:39:03,921 But, the story is Jonah and God. 684 00:39:05,166 --> 00:39:10,046 It isn't about mere physical survival, it's about spiritual revival. 685 00:39:11,206 --> 00:39:11,466 C. 686 00:39:11,466 --> 00:39:11,616 S. 687 00:39:11,646 --> 00:39:16,546 Lewis reminded us in Surprised by Joy, The hardness of God is kinder 688 00:39:16,546 --> 00:39:24,156 than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation. 689 00:39:25,156 --> 00:39:29,336 We read in Psalm 103, 13, As the father shows compassion to his 690 00:39:29,336 --> 00:39:31,486 children, so the Lord shows compassion. 691 00:39:31,866 --> 00:39:35,306 To those who fear him. 692 00:39:36,826 --> 00:39:42,296 Chapter 2, verse 1, Then, you gotta underline that word, then, it's amazing. 693 00:39:42,736 --> 00:39:45,686 Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish. 694 00:39:45,696 --> 00:39:46,856 Why underline then? 695 00:39:47,206 --> 00:39:49,296 Because what does chapter 1, verse 17 say? 696 00:39:49,296 --> 00:39:52,436 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and he's there three 697 00:39:52,436 --> 00:39:55,596 days and three nights in the belly. 698 00:39:55,911 --> 00:39:57,021 Of the fish. 699 00:39:58,911 --> 00:40:02,308 Then after Jonah had been there three days, he prayed. 700 00:40:02,364 --> 00:40:03,354 It's a long time. 701 00:40:03,398 --> 00:40:05,768 I have done a 48 hour Halo two party. 702 00:40:05,818 --> 00:40:08,788 and I did it for youth group and I thought 48 hours. 703 00:40:08,793 --> 00:40:09,268 That's not bad. 704 00:40:09,268 --> 00:40:10,258 That's like two nights. 705 00:40:10,498 --> 00:40:12,358 No, that's 48 hours. 706 00:40:12,358 --> 00:40:12,359 Yes. 707 00:40:13,359 --> 00:40:16,179 to try to stay up and to try to be engaged and try to play. 708 00:40:17,209 --> 00:40:19,889 And it was long for the kids too, and it was so hot in the house. 709 00:40:19,889 --> 00:40:23,199 We had like, 10 Xboxes set up, projectors, and this was back in the 710 00:40:23,199 --> 00:40:24,519 day, we networked them all together. 711 00:40:25,319 --> 00:40:27,589 Screaming at the top of the, you know, playing Capture the 712 00:40:27,589 --> 00:40:28,689 Flag and all kinds of stuff. 713 00:40:29,069 --> 00:40:31,839 And, I just remember kids, like, walking out, just stumbling 714 00:40:31,839 --> 00:40:33,069 out, just to get some fresh air. 715 00:40:33,069 --> 00:40:35,979 Cause it's just like, Junior high musk. 716 00:40:36,009 --> 00:40:37,009 It was horrible. 717 00:40:37,059 --> 00:40:41,839 I think we had to call in a exterminator, you know, to, to tent the house after 718 00:40:41,839 --> 00:40:44,999 his death, but, you know, walking out and kids are just sleeping on the 719 00:40:44,999 --> 00:40:48,359 driveway, you know, just trying to get some sense of coolness in the night, 720 00:40:48,449 --> 00:40:52,519 you know, and I'm like, I felt like death store and that was 48 hours. 721 00:40:52,539 --> 00:40:54,299 It was the longest 48 hours of my life. 722 00:40:54,789 --> 00:40:56,239 He's in there three days, right? 723 00:40:57,239 --> 00:41:00,639 And he doesn't pray and maybe he's still trying to get out of it. 724 00:41:01,169 --> 00:41:05,209 Maybe he's like, I can feel being digested, you know, I can feel it. 725 00:41:05,209 --> 00:41:07,119 I'm going anytime, Annie, you know. 726 00:41:08,119 --> 00:41:12,299 But he comes to it, deep, deep down. 727 00:41:14,009 --> 00:41:19,579 He laid there stubborn and unmoving for three days, and this shows 728 00:41:19,609 --> 00:41:23,489 you the depth of Jonah's struggle and the struggle of his wrestle. 729 00:41:23,989 --> 00:41:24,359 What? 730 00:41:24,939 --> 00:41:27,409 With that he's scared to go and lose his life? 731 00:41:27,409 --> 00:41:30,159 No, remember his wrestle is with the goodness and the 732 00:41:30,159 --> 00:41:31,949 grace of God for his enemies. 733 00:41:33,669 --> 00:41:34,699 That's the struggle. 734 00:41:34,879 --> 00:41:40,709 Could God be kind and forgiving to those who are his enemies? 735 00:41:40,949 --> 00:41:41,809 That's his wrestle. 736 00:41:41,819 --> 00:41:43,119 God, I know you're good. 737 00:41:44,119 --> 00:41:45,449 So often it's our wrestle. 738 00:41:47,069 --> 00:41:47,839 It's my wrestle. 739 00:41:48,569 --> 00:41:51,979 It's my greatest wrestle, actually, in my sanctification, just to let you know. 740 00:41:52,999 --> 00:41:56,359 I see people and I'm like, ah, I thought my heart was better. 741 00:41:58,259 --> 00:41:59,849 And it's just exposed. 742 00:42:01,489 --> 00:42:04,149 And sometimes I see people and I'm like, oh cool, victory. 743 00:42:05,789 --> 00:42:07,079 And sometimes they dream. 744 00:42:07,604 --> 00:42:09,794 And I wrestle in my dreams. 745 00:42:09,844 --> 00:42:12,634 of all the places mentioned in the Bible where people prayed, this has 746 00:42:12,634 --> 00:42:14,564 to be the most unusual place, right? 747 00:42:16,164 --> 00:42:17,534 And finally, Jonah's desperate. 748 00:42:18,164 --> 00:42:20,994 And like most desperate people, he churns to God. 749 00:42:21,804 --> 00:42:26,024 In Psalm 34, 6, it says, In desperation, he prays like David. 750 00:42:26,084 --> 00:42:30,654 And this is what it says, This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, 751 00:42:30,884 --> 00:42:34,054 and saved him out of all his troubles. 752 00:42:34,579 --> 00:42:36,779 In desperation, he prays like Hannah. 753 00:42:37,379 --> 00:42:44,599 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly for Samuel 110. 754 00:42:45,329 --> 00:42:47,249 In desperation, he prays like Jeremiah. 755 00:42:47,559 --> 00:42:49,559 Jeremiah says, Water closed over my head. 756 00:42:49,559 --> 00:42:50,929 I said, I am lost. 757 00:42:50,929 --> 00:42:53,609 I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. 758 00:42:54,329 --> 00:42:55,459 You heard my plea. 759 00:42:56,169 --> 00:42:58,719 Do not close your ear from my help. 760 00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:01,659 Lamentations 3, 54 to 56. 761 00:43:02,084 --> 00:43:06,864 Have you guys ever been there where it's like, ugh, I'm down, I'm like, 762 00:43:07,994 --> 00:43:09,334 that's all you have at that point. 763 00:43:10,334 --> 00:43:11,804 In Desperation he prays, 764 00:43:11,854 --> 00:43:19,494 In Gethsemane, in Luke 22, 44, and being in agony, he prayed more 765 00:43:19,564 --> 00:43:26,194 earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the 766 00:43:26,194 --> 00:43:27,874 ground and ultimately he would say. 767 00:43:28,334 --> 00:43:31,124 There's any other way for man to be saved. 768 00:43:31,124 --> 00:43:36,274 Let this cup pass from my lips, but not my will, but yours be done. 769 00:43:37,714 --> 00:43:39,814 Wrestling in agony and desperation. 770 00:43:40,644 --> 00:43:46,564 In desperation, Jonah prays exactly as God wants us all to do in such times. 771 00:43:46,644 --> 00:43:47,814 James 5. 772 00:43:47,814 --> 00:43:53,034 13 says, if anyone among you is suffering, let him pray. 773 00:43:54,744 --> 00:43:58,734 Five times Jonah mentions the extreme anguish that prompted him. 774 00:44:00,484 --> 00:44:03,774 Then each time he comes back to trusting awareness of an amazing 775 00:44:03,774 --> 00:44:06,234 fact, he just can't seem to get over. 776 00:44:07,134 --> 00:44:08,944 God has heard me and is rescuing me. 777 00:44:09,984 --> 00:44:12,904 We discover a two part rhythm, don't we, in this psalm. 778 00:44:12,934 --> 00:44:15,594 Like the serf, swelling and then receding, swelling and 779 00:44:15,604 --> 00:44:16,934 then receding again and again. 780 00:44:16,934 --> 00:44:22,594 He says, my agony in God's response, my agony in God's response. 781 00:44:22,804 --> 00:44:25,684 Notice the pattern, in the first of these opening lines. 782 00:44:25,874 --> 00:44:29,014 And I want, that's such a good picture of the wrestle. 783 00:44:29,834 --> 00:44:32,334 You don't just pray and you're like, I'm good. 784 00:44:33,194 --> 00:44:37,854 Isn't so often like you pray and then like 10 seconds later, you're like, Ah, the 785 00:44:37,854 --> 00:44:42,404 agony, you know, and then you go back to it, reminding and preaching to your heart. 786 00:44:42,624 --> 00:44:48,554 It is a battle to preach to your heart, especially in the belly of the whale. 787 00:44:48,854 --> 00:44:50,534 It is a wrestle. 788 00:44:50,844 --> 00:44:54,044 You, we're going to talk about Jacob in a second, who wrestled with the angel 789 00:44:54,044 --> 00:44:57,754 of the Lord all night because Jacob was self sufficient all his life and 790 00:44:57,754 --> 00:44:58,884 he had to learn to become dependent. 791 00:44:59,884 --> 00:45:01,204 And guess how he gets blessed? 792 00:45:02,644 --> 00:45:03,434 He loses. 793 00:45:04,284 --> 00:45:05,284 He loses the battle. 794 00:45:06,284 --> 00:45:10,704 And verse 2, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me out of 795 00:45:10,704 --> 00:45:13,734 the belly of Sheol, or the place of death. 796 00:45:14,544 --> 00:45:18,714 I cried, and you heard my voice, even in the deepest, darkest place. 797 00:45:19,054 --> 00:45:22,544 Jonah 2, 3, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the 798 00:45:22,544 --> 00:45:24,564 seas, and the flood surrounded me. 799 00:45:24,614 --> 00:45:26,754 All your waves and your billows passed. 800 00:45:27,129 --> 00:45:31,479 over me, but guess who it was who cast him into the deep? 801 00:45:33,139 --> 00:45:36,789 He didn't say the sailors cast me in, he says it was you. 802 00:45:37,789 --> 00:45:42,509 Equally significant here is how Jonah says it was God, not the sailors who cast him 803 00:45:42,509 --> 00:45:44,539 into the deep, but it was God himself. 804 00:45:44,589 --> 00:45:51,749 Jonah's world may be collapsing into unimaginable calamity, but still he's 805 00:45:51,749 --> 00:45:55,899 enabled to see God is in control. 806 00:45:56,899 --> 00:46:01,899 It's so beautiful, you know, before I really got the gospel, I was 807 00:46:01,899 --> 00:46:05,769 preaching and I preached a whole sermon on, it's a psalm, I forget 808 00:46:05,769 --> 00:46:06,949 the reference, but I know the verse. 809 00:46:07,299 --> 00:46:10,799 It's those who regard iniquity in their heart, I will not hear him. 810 00:46:12,289 --> 00:46:16,699 And I preached a good law message and people were like, Oh, beep. 811 00:46:16,719 --> 00:46:18,229 They were cussing and they never cuss. 812 00:46:18,739 --> 00:46:19,289 I got him to cuss! 813 00:46:20,289 --> 00:46:23,129 Um, but just the law just boom. 814 00:46:23,879 --> 00:46:30,249 And, and then I realized, yeah, before Christ that was my case 815 00:46:30,249 --> 00:46:31,409 even as a religious person. 816 00:46:32,409 --> 00:46:33,679 Because what is iniquity? 817 00:46:35,049 --> 00:46:37,589 But something that's in our very nature when we're born. 818 00:46:39,019 --> 00:46:40,609 Sin, my mother, did conceive me. 819 00:46:40,659 --> 00:46:42,109 All have fallen short of the glory of God. 820 00:46:42,299 --> 00:46:44,199 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 821 00:46:45,889 --> 00:46:49,719 Like it was because the one who didn't regard iniquity, but was 822 00:46:49,719 --> 00:46:53,499 treated as the one who regarded iniquity, that he'll always hear me. 823 00:46:54,139 --> 00:46:58,279 And my deepest struggle, like Jonah, and the pit, and his rebellion, God is going 824 00:46:58,279 --> 00:47:00,399 after him with his relentless grace. 825 00:47:01,554 --> 00:47:04,814 Like, he was treated as the one, because that's what the holiness of God says. 826 00:47:04,814 --> 00:47:06,704 I cannot be with sin. 827 00:47:07,004 --> 00:47:08,474 I can't be in the presence of sin. 828 00:47:08,474 --> 00:47:14,094 You, my holiness is so pure, sin comes in, it's just obliterated, you know. 829 00:47:14,244 --> 00:47:15,894 And Jesus came and reversed that, right? 830 00:47:15,894 --> 00:47:20,304 In the gospels, you've got a leper who's like, God, I know you can 831 00:47:20,304 --> 00:47:22,484 make me clean if you're willing. 832 00:47:22,484 --> 00:47:24,504 And Jesus is like, wait, what? 833 00:47:25,094 --> 00:47:25,914 If I'm willing? 834 00:47:26,834 --> 00:47:29,584 Because they've been told that they're impure. 835 00:47:30,324 --> 00:47:33,264 That they'd already messed up their life, that they're too far gone, that 836 00:47:33,264 --> 00:47:36,974 the religious kids were taught by the religious leaders, by the pastors, if 837 00:47:36,974 --> 00:47:40,524 you see a leper, the godly thing you can do is pick up a rock and drive 838 00:47:40,544 --> 00:47:42,464 them further outside of the city. 839 00:47:42,694 --> 00:47:43,514 Throw rocks at them. 840 00:47:44,554 --> 00:47:47,244 And that became their understanding of who God was. 841 00:47:48,314 --> 00:47:51,834 And so when the man says, God, I know you have the power, I don't doubt that. 842 00:47:52,529 --> 00:47:54,999 What I doubt is if you're actually willing to come into contact with 843 00:47:55,999 --> 00:47:56,079 it. 844 00:47:56,079 --> 00:47:57,359 And Jesus grabs him! 845 00:47:58,039 --> 00:47:59,989 You don't do that to lepers! 846 00:48:01,139 --> 00:48:05,509 But the purity of God is so powerful, His holiness is so powerful, that it 847 00:48:05,509 --> 00:48:07,549 defeats all uncleanness and impurity. 848 00:48:07,549 --> 00:48:08,479 It reverses it! 849 00:48:09,124 --> 00:48:13,224 See, the whole concept was that impurity, you know, got dirty 850 00:48:13,224 --> 00:48:16,744 what was holy, but God's holiness is so great that it literally 851 00:48:16,744 --> 00:48:18,544 destroys and reverses the impurity. 852 00:48:19,544 --> 00:48:22,764 And that's what God does with us, but crazily, and we'll get to this, like, 853 00:48:22,764 --> 00:48:27,934 the cost, the Son of God himself had to be regarded as the one who had iniquity. 854 00:48:28,184 --> 00:48:30,624 When he says from the cross, my God, why have you forsaken me? 855 00:48:30,794 --> 00:48:32,344 He's like, God, you don't hear me! 856 00:48:32,424 --> 00:48:35,484 When I'm calling out to you, it's the psalm fulfilled! 857 00:48:36,484 --> 00:48:38,014 So that we could forever be heard. 858 00:48:39,229 --> 00:48:42,219 Because he's covered us in his blood and his blood is effectual. 859 00:48:43,009 --> 00:48:47,229 His blood is like, destroys every spot and blemish. 860 00:48:47,649 --> 00:48:50,449 Like for all time, obliterates it for all time. 861 00:48:51,539 --> 00:48:52,509 And, yeah. 862 00:48:53,019 --> 00:48:53,889 It's beautiful! 863 00:48:54,219 --> 00:48:55,819 That's why he says we open with that. 864 00:48:56,049 --> 00:48:59,489 Like, we can come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain help in the time of need. 865 00:48:59,739 --> 00:49:04,779 We don't have to come over here on our own and say, Okay, I really want 866 00:49:04,779 --> 00:49:05,989 your grace, but, have I done this? 867 00:49:06,309 --> 00:49:07,619 He says come and get help! 868 00:49:08,659 --> 00:49:09,679 Come and find help! 869 00:49:09,739 --> 00:49:11,009 Come and find the grace you need! 870 00:49:11,524 --> 00:49:12,214 Fix yourself. 871 00:49:12,454 --> 00:49:13,654 You can't kill yourself. 872 00:49:13,844 --> 00:49:17,264 Remember, Christianity and growth and spiritual maturity isn't 873 00:49:17,264 --> 00:49:18,554 going from strength to strength. 874 00:49:18,594 --> 00:49:20,124 It's going from strength to weakness. 875 00:49:20,704 --> 00:49:24,154 It's realizing how much more dependent on God's grace I 876 00:49:24,154 --> 00:49:25,694 am every moment of every day. 877 00:49:25,694 --> 00:49:28,114 I think a mature Christian is one who finds themselves 878 00:49:28,584 --> 00:49:30,264 daily at the throne of grace. 879 00:49:31,354 --> 00:49:34,054 And if they can't get there that morning, they have friends who 880 00:49:34,054 --> 00:49:36,064 will throne into the throne. 881 00:49:37,174 --> 00:49:38,214 Those are good friends. 882 00:49:39,444 --> 00:49:41,014 That's preaching the gospel to your friends. 883 00:49:42,064 --> 00:49:43,234 It's utterly beautiful. 884 00:49:43,714 --> 00:49:44,684 It's what this story's about. 885 00:49:44,684 --> 00:49:45,764 It's why it's crazy. 886 00:49:45,774 --> 00:49:46,764 It's why I wanted to read it. 887 00:49:46,794 --> 00:49:50,714 I wanted us to like, have our hearts like rocked by his grace again. 888 00:49:51,784 --> 00:49:53,494 Jonah's the worst. 889 00:49:55,144 --> 00:49:57,424 Jonah doesn't repent even at the end of the book and he gets a 890 00:49:57,424 --> 00:50:00,324 book of the Bible named after him. 891 00:50:00,864 --> 00:50:01,884 Who does that? 892 00:50:03,344 --> 00:50:04,324 Jonah's me. 893 00:50:06,309 --> 00:50:08,979 And there's nothing in here that, like, God's, like, God just 894 00:50:08,979 --> 00:50:11,159 keeps patiently showing them. 895 00:50:11,909 --> 00:50:13,629 God keeps patiently... 896 00:50:13,929 --> 00:50:15,919 I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you another object lesson. 897 00:50:15,969 --> 00:50:16,429 The whale? 898 00:50:16,429 --> 00:50:18,409 I thought that was a big wake up call for you, Jonah. 899 00:50:18,599 --> 00:50:19,719 Now I'm gonna give you a plant. 900 00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:20,859 from whale to houseplant. 901 00:50:20,879 --> 00:50:22,799 This story's hilarious! 902 00:50:22,849 --> 00:50:27,349 And, just, he just keeps going after and after Jonah's heart to rescue. 903 00:50:27,579 --> 00:50:30,289 And man, does he not do that in all of our lives. 904 00:50:30,659 --> 00:50:33,049 And just the beautiful thing of Grace is that he's so 905 00:50:33,049 --> 00:50:34,539 patient, and he knows our story. 906 00:50:34,539 --> 00:50:35,979 He knows we're so slow to get it. 907 00:50:36,639 --> 00:50:38,169 He knows we take so much time. 908 00:50:38,654 --> 00:50:41,814 He knows that often, he sends storms and he sends whales, and we're 909 00:50:41,814 --> 00:50:43,974 like, Finally, I've conquered! 910 00:50:44,304 --> 00:50:46,504 Finally, my marriage is good now! 911 00:50:46,784 --> 00:50:50,494 And then the next week, we're like, I think my marriage is over. 912 00:50:50,534 --> 00:50:55,964 I don't know, you know, it's like, He's so, so, so patient. 913 00:50:57,934 --> 00:51:01,864 But Jonah sees that it's God, and guys, this is so beautiful. 914 00:51:02,864 --> 00:51:09,694 Because he tracks us down, no matter where we are, to magnificently defeat us. 915 00:51:10,694 --> 00:51:12,964 He's so self assured. 916 00:51:13,619 --> 00:51:14,919 He's like, stubborn. 917 00:51:15,529 --> 00:51:16,679 He's so hard hearted. 918 00:51:16,689 --> 00:51:18,899 He's so just, like, this is the way. 919 00:51:19,569 --> 00:51:20,879 Like he's a Mandalorian. 920 00:51:21,879 --> 00:51:25,749 where do we realize, where do we most often find God's grace? 921 00:51:26,289 --> 00:51:27,759 It's there, just so you know. 922 00:51:28,649 --> 00:51:29,959 Where do we most often find it? 923 00:51:30,959 --> 00:51:34,679 When do we realize we have it and then draw on it once again? 924 00:51:35,504 --> 00:51:37,144 It's when we think we've lost it. 925 00:51:37,464 --> 00:51:38,794 It's when we're at the bottom. 926 00:51:38,794 --> 00:51:42,084 It's when we're like, Oh yeah, His grace. 927 00:51:42,414 --> 00:51:43,864 Have you ever lost your glasses? 928 00:51:43,904 --> 00:51:46,414 For me, this is how I lose my glasses. 929 00:51:47,244 --> 00:51:48,924 Babe, have you seen my glasses? 930 00:51:49,284 --> 00:51:51,894 And I can't see, so I can't find them and I start to panic. 931 00:51:51,894 --> 00:51:52,704 I've got to go to work. 932 00:51:52,704 --> 00:51:54,474 Like, where are my glasses? 933 00:51:54,794 --> 00:51:55,454 I have them. 934 00:51:55,774 --> 00:51:57,654 I'm just not seeing very good without them. 935 00:51:58,374 --> 00:51:59,254 God's grace. 936 00:51:59,334 --> 00:52:00,114 They're there. 937 00:52:00,404 --> 00:52:00,914 It's there. 938 00:52:00,914 --> 00:52:02,594 It's never, He never pulls it away. 939 00:52:03,254 --> 00:52:09,734 But so often it's in that moment of depth, at the bottom, that's 940 00:52:09,734 --> 00:52:11,234 where we discover it once again. 941 00:52:12,284 --> 00:52:15,284 That's where we realize, oh yeah, you're God, I'm not. 942 00:52:15,644 --> 00:52:17,254 Oh yeah, your ways are higher than my ways. 943 00:52:17,334 --> 00:52:19,254 Oh yeah, you are in control. 944 00:52:19,254 --> 00:52:21,014 Oh yeah, you're good all the time. 945 00:52:21,064 --> 00:52:24,074 God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. 946 00:52:24,074 --> 00:52:27,494 This verb is used several times in the book as when God appointed a plant 947 00:52:27,504 --> 00:52:29,714 to grow and then die in chapter one. 948 00:52:30,064 --> 00:52:34,434 In each case, God orchestrated a circumstance in history to teach Jonah 949 00:52:34,434 --> 00:52:36,494 something he desperately needed to know. 950 00:52:36,824 --> 00:52:39,254 We would call this, a severe mercy. 951 00:52:40,254 --> 00:52:44,954 The great fish is a perfect example of such a severe mercy. 952 00:52:46,044 --> 00:52:49,804 Now, on the one hand, obviously the fish saved Jonah's life by swallowing him. 953 00:52:49,824 --> 00:52:50,574 On the other hand... 954 00:52:51,134 --> 00:52:52,684 He's still in a watery prison. 955 00:52:53,844 --> 00:52:55,884 He was still sinking to the bottom of the world. 956 00:52:56,604 --> 00:53:00,324 As he said, the roots of the mountains have, like, wrapped 957 00:53:00,324 --> 00:53:01,884 themselves around my head. 958 00:53:02,294 --> 00:53:03,257 Far from help. 959 00:53:03,287 --> 00:53:06,847 Remember the text has been depicting Jonah as descending, going down to 960 00:53:06,847 --> 00:53:09,517 Joppa, down to the ship, down to the depths of the ship, and then now 961 00:53:09,517 --> 00:53:13,197 finally he goes even further down into the very depths of the ocean. 962 00:53:13,817 --> 00:53:17,437 But not until he was all the way down that he comes to the 963 00:53:17,457 --> 00:53:19,067 end of his self sufficiency. 964 00:53:19,117 --> 00:53:20,547 I wish I could learn another way. 965 00:53:20,937 --> 00:53:22,597 I feel like God's sanctification. 966 00:53:22,677 --> 00:53:28,357 This is totally not true, but, One is like, the easy way, and there's like 967 00:53:28,367 --> 00:53:32,867 one person in it, and one is like the hard way, and everybody else is 968 00:53:32,867 --> 00:53:35,477 in it, we're like, Who's that guy? 969 00:53:35,477 --> 00:53:37,457 Why, doesn't he know this is the line to be in? 970 00:53:37,827 --> 00:53:38,357 I don't know. 971 00:53:39,827 --> 00:53:40,637 For me, 972 00:53:41,637 --> 00:53:46,757 the very things that I've held on to, that's things I would not let go of. 973 00:53:48,497 --> 00:53:52,997 God brought a storm, and then a fish to swallow me, so that I'd let go of them. 974 00:53:53,997 --> 00:53:58,857 Because the point, another point in the book of Jonah isn't that God is angry. 975 00:53:59,277 --> 00:54:01,147 And trying to take away his freedom. 976 00:54:02,227 --> 00:54:04,787 He's trying to set Jonah free from his slavery to idols. 977 00:54:06,377 --> 00:54:12,797 Affectionately, like that father who pursues with compassion his son. 978 00:54:14,307 --> 00:54:17,617 So Jonah's descending, it's not till he's all the way down that he comes 979 00:54:17,617 --> 00:54:19,027 to the end of his self sufficiency. 980 00:54:19,257 --> 00:54:23,097 these are critical, are a critical juncture in the development of 981 00:54:23,097 --> 00:54:27,417 our dependence on Jesus and rescue from our pretended strength. 982 00:54:28,417 --> 00:54:29,987 Two ways to the belly of the beast. 983 00:54:30,972 --> 00:54:32,942 There's probably more but I want to highlight two. 984 00:54:33,262 --> 00:54:34,942 I asked to be thrown into the sea. 985 00:54:35,942 --> 00:54:36,432 Jacob. 986 00:54:37,852 --> 00:54:42,442 Jacob was not prepared to lead the family of God until he had been forced 987 00:54:42,452 --> 00:54:47,632 to flee from his home, experienced years of mistreatment at the hands of 988 00:54:47,632 --> 00:54:52,892 his father in law, and faced what he thought was a violent encounter with an 989 00:54:52,892 --> 00:54:55,062 aggressive brother, his brother Esau. 990 00:54:55,632 --> 00:55:00,962 It was only then that Jacob, In that desperate place, who ran all his 991 00:55:00,962 --> 00:55:04,622 life, met with God face to face. 992 00:55:04,622 --> 00:55:06,012 That's in Genesis 32. 993 00:55:07,432 --> 00:55:10,632 And he wrestles all night with the angel of the Lord. 994 00:55:11,632 --> 00:55:13,282 And he's blessed through losing. 995 00:55:13,652 --> 00:55:14,652 What was his blessing? 996 00:55:15,652 --> 00:55:16,642 Two fold. 997 00:55:17,642 --> 00:55:19,832 He got a limp for the rest of his life. 998 00:55:20,832 --> 00:55:24,822 And I love, because as he's blessing, his kids at the end of Genesis, 999 00:55:25,132 --> 00:55:26,862 he's leaning on his staff, right? 1000 00:55:28,212 --> 00:55:29,842 He had to lean on it the rest of his life. 1001 00:55:30,602 --> 00:55:31,402 He learned, right? 1002 00:55:31,529 --> 00:55:32,709 The second blessing 1003 00:55:33,709 --> 00:55:34,749 is he got a new identity. 1004 00:55:36,359 --> 00:55:37,159 He got a new name. 1005 00:55:38,729 --> 00:55:42,729 Jacob means Conard as teal catcher, thief, supplanter. 1006 00:55:43,729 --> 00:55:47,709 And he's given the name Israel, governed by God. 1007 00:55:49,439 --> 00:55:50,489 God's chosen people. 1008 00:55:51,279 --> 00:55:52,329 A whole new identity. 1009 00:55:53,229 --> 00:55:56,639 But it was through that wrestle, it was through that struggle, it was through 1010 00:55:56,909 --> 00:56:00,859 his own I'm gonna run and I'm gonna run and I'm gonna run from God I'm gonna go 1011 00:56:00,859 --> 00:56:05,149 as far and as hard as I can I'm gonna use, I'm gonna manipulate I'm gonna go 1012 00:56:05,159 --> 00:56:07,189 my way until he meets God face to face. 1013 00:56:08,674 --> 00:56:12,274 Number two, the other way to fall into the belly of the 1014 00:56:12,284 --> 00:56:14,394 beast, and this is really hard, 1015 00:56:15,394 --> 00:56:17,434 is to get thrown in by others against my will. 1016 00:56:18,434 --> 00:56:24,374 There's a story, we love it, we quote it, in Second Kings 6, 13 17, where 1017 00:56:24,824 --> 00:56:30,104 Elisha is in Dothan, and he's surrounded by this army who's gonna take him 1018 00:56:30,124 --> 00:56:34,154 captive, and Elisha's servant is freaking out, and he's like, What do we do? 1019 00:56:34,174 --> 00:56:35,194 What do we do, Elisha? 1020 00:56:35,274 --> 00:56:38,454 Like, there's an army all around us, and they've come to capture him. 1021 00:56:38,454 --> 00:56:40,074 This whole army's encircled the city. 1022 00:56:40,094 --> 00:56:42,994 and then all of a sudden this simple prayer is uttered, and God opens the 1023 00:56:42,994 --> 00:56:46,654 eyes of his serpents, and it says that he sees the hills filled with 1024 00:56:46,684 --> 00:56:51,274 chariots of fire, and the angels of the Lord of hosts way outnumbering 1025 00:56:51,504 --> 00:56:52,984 this little group of soldiers. 1026 00:56:53,084 --> 00:56:54,644 And he's like, oh, okay. 1027 00:56:55,184 --> 00:56:57,444 Dothan, this amazing place of victory, right? 1028 00:56:57,724 --> 00:56:58,944 The angels of the Lord showed up. 1029 00:56:58,944 --> 00:57:01,374 Guess where else we see Dothan in the book of the Bible. 1030 00:57:02,374 --> 00:57:04,644 It's where Joseph's thrown into the well by his brothers, 1031 00:57:05,644 --> 00:57:06,514 and there's no angels. 1032 00:57:07,239 --> 00:57:07,729 They're there. 1033 00:57:07,779 --> 00:57:08,429 He doesn't see them. 1034 00:57:10,419 --> 00:57:14,359 In fact, the only sound he hears probably at that point is his own voice 1035 00:57:14,359 --> 00:57:16,289 crying for help echoing off the well. 1036 00:57:17,289 --> 00:57:20,659 And the sting of his brother's hatred against him. 1037 00:57:21,659 --> 00:57:24,859 And he cries out, and he cries out, and there's not the kind of deliverance that 1038 00:57:24,859 --> 00:57:26,409 Elisha and his servant had that day. 1039 00:57:27,359 --> 00:57:28,809 And he's sold into slavery. 1040 00:57:29,689 --> 00:57:30,639 He's all alone. 1041 00:57:30,649 --> 00:57:31,599 He's in Egypt. 1042 00:57:31,779 --> 00:57:35,359 And he's still standing up for his covenant to God. 1043 00:57:35,369 --> 00:57:40,079 Like, He won't lay with Potiphar's wife and he stands up for what's right and 1044 00:57:40,079 --> 00:57:44,859 he does what's right in a foreign land as a young man and what happens to him? 1045 00:57:45,459 --> 00:57:46,509 He's thrown into prison. 1046 00:57:47,509 --> 00:57:51,809 And then these guys come in and they're like, Oh, we had these crazy dreams and 1047 00:57:51,809 --> 00:57:56,089 he interprets them and they come true and he says, just one thing, don't forget me. 1048 00:57:56,089 --> 00:57:59,229 And literally it says, and he forgot Joseph 1049 00:58:00,229 --> 00:58:01,229 thrown into the sea. 1050 00:58:01,869 --> 00:58:05,039 Swallowed by the beast, by the hands of somebody else. 1051 00:58:06,289 --> 00:58:11,069 There's not only the wrong we do and the consequences that we suffer from it, and 1052 00:58:11,069 --> 00:58:15,339 the wrestle that we have as God pursues us in that, but he also rescues us, and it's 1053 00:58:15,349 --> 00:58:18,799 also a pit, the wrong that's done to us. 1054 00:58:20,349 --> 00:58:21,379 But what does Joseph say? 1055 00:58:21,379 --> 00:58:22,339 What's his story? 1056 00:58:23,339 --> 00:58:27,959 He says God doesn't work despite his brothers and the evil done to him. 1057 00:58:28,959 --> 00:58:29,709 He works above it. 1058 00:58:31,209 --> 00:58:35,219 I quote this verse a lot, and I want to just read a little fuller picture of it. 1059 00:58:35,219 --> 00:58:42,639 Genesis 21, it says, But Joseph said to them, So Jacob dies, and the brothers 1060 00:58:42,649 --> 00:58:43,809 think they have a little meeting. 1061 00:58:43,809 --> 00:58:44,619 They have a powwow. 1062 00:58:46,109 --> 00:58:48,799 They're deciding whether we should form a labor union, or if we're 1063 00:58:48,809 --> 00:58:50,849 going to, you know, talk to Joseph. 1064 00:58:51,929 --> 00:58:55,579 So what happens is they say, Joseph's only being kind to us because Jacob's alive. 1065 00:58:55,599 --> 00:59:00,544 And as soon as he passes away, Joseph's gonna release the full 1066 00:59:00,554 --> 00:59:02,344 fury of his power against us. 1067 00:59:02,704 --> 00:59:04,984 So they go to him and they make up this story and they're like, Well, 1068 00:59:05,274 --> 00:59:08,234 Jacob said, you've got to be nice to us, and in honor of him, and... 1069 00:59:09,184 --> 00:59:11,884 But Joseph said to them, this is crazy. 1070 00:59:12,054 --> 00:59:13,454 Remember what they did to him. 1071 00:59:14,374 --> 00:59:15,834 He says, do not fear, 1072 00:59:16,834 --> 00:59:18,514 for am I in the place of God? 1073 00:59:19,514 --> 00:59:22,114 This little section of scripture we'll preach, this is so 1074 00:59:22,114 --> 00:59:23,484 much theology right here. 1075 00:59:24,144 --> 00:59:25,974 For how we handle people who've wounded us. 1076 00:59:26,759 --> 00:59:28,479 Number one, am I in the place of God? 1077 00:59:29,739 --> 00:59:37,179 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to 1078 00:59:37,179 --> 00:59:42,259 bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. 1079 00:59:42,719 --> 00:59:45,739 Calls out their evil, doesn't just dismiss it, doesn't say, oh, 1080 00:59:45,739 --> 00:59:47,069 nothing, water under the bridge. 1081 00:59:47,089 --> 00:59:50,899 No, he says, yeah, you did wrong, but God had a higher purpose. 1082 00:59:51,179 --> 00:59:55,089 And he is so great, and he's so good, that he can take even the evil done 1083 00:59:55,089 --> 00:59:56,899 against me and bring good out of it. 1084 00:59:57,499 --> 00:59:59,259 That is the ultimate defeat of evil. 1085 00:59:59,569 --> 01:00:03,169 And then he says, So do not fear, 1086 01:00:04,169 --> 01:00:07,829 I will pray for you and your little ones. 1087 01:00:08,829 --> 01:00:17,069 So there's care, there's practical, like, compassion, and listen, Thus he 1088 01:00:17,099 --> 01:00:20,549 comforted them and spoke kindly to them. 1089 01:00:21,549 --> 01:00:23,679 That is a good litmus test. 1090 01:00:25,049 --> 01:00:27,489 Cause he's not just like, yeah, I forgive you, I'm gonna keep my distance. 1091 01:00:28,729 --> 01:00:30,689 He's like, hey, how are you kids doing? 1092 01:00:31,539 --> 01:00:32,549 Tell me your story. 1093 01:00:32,859 --> 01:00:34,129 He's like, interested. 1094 01:00:34,129 --> 01:00:35,409 He's speaking kindly to them. 1095 01:00:35,419 --> 01:00:37,599 He's caring about their fear. 1096 01:00:37,749 --> 01:00:41,579 He's telling them, oh guys, don't be He's caring about them, 1097 01:00:41,579 --> 01:00:42,649 and they're the ones he wants. 1098 01:00:42,929 --> 01:00:44,479 That is Jesus. 1099 01:00:45,699 --> 01:00:46,899 That's what Jesus does in life. 1100 01:00:46,929 --> 01:00:48,469 That is utterly beautiful. 1101 01:00:48,599 --> 01:00:51,309 But, man, what a journey to get there. 1102 01:00:52,309 --> 01:00:54,669 How many whales to get there. 1103 01:00:55,419 --> 01:00:59,389 How many nights did Joseph cry out in the prison? 1104 01:00:59,579 --> 01:01:00,709 Have you forgotten me? 1105 01:01:01,759 --> 01:01:02,759 Where are you? 1106 01:01:04,054 --> 01:01:07,144 It's been said, you never realize that Jesus is all you need 1107 01:01:07,144 --> 01:01:08,754 until Jesus is all you have. 1108 01:01:10,754 --> 01:01:14,614 Jesus says in Matthew 10, 39, you must lose your life to find your life. 1109 01:01:15,704 --> 01:01:17,534 Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground. 1110 01:01:17,664 --> 01:01:23,114 The way up was for Joseph and for all of us first all the way down. 1111 01:01:23,754 --> 01:01:27,684 The usual place to learn the greatest secrets of God's grace is at the bottom. 1112 01:01:28,554 --> 01:01:32,644 But it's not simply being at the bottom that brings to, begins to change Jonah. 1113 01:01:33,489 --> 01:01:37,139 And this is the key, prayer at the bottom. 1114 01:01:38,349 --> 01:01:41,709 He churns his face, and he begins to pray, and he begins to wrestle. 1115 01:01:42,289 --> 01:01:45,709 It's one thing to get swallowed, and just be swallowed the rest of your life. 1116 01:01:46,329 --> 01:01:49,579 I've known people who've had an experience, and they're in a storm. 1117 01:01:49,789 --> 01:01:53,629 And they're in a storm for their soul, but they just come out bitter. 1118 01:01:53,859 --> 01:01:57,079 They come out twisted, gnarled through the experience. 1119 01:01:57,599 --> 01:01:58,829 because they don't wrestle there. 1120 01:01:58,829 --> 01:02:03,049 They don't churn their face to the Lord. 1121 01:02:04,049 --> 01:02:04,709 verse eight. 1122 01:02:05,684 --> 01:02:06,984 And this is from the NIV. 1123 01:02:07,034 --> 01:02:08,224 Translates it the best, I think. 1124 01:02:08,224 --> 01:02:12,374 Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's grace, 1125 01:02:12,434 --> 01:02:13,964 or the grace of God for them. 1126 01:02:14,774 --> 01:02:16,484 And this is the key verse in Jonah. 1127 01:02:17,104 --> 01:02:18,344 It's the 24th verse. 1128 01:02:18,413 --> 01:02:20,894 There's 24 verses before it, 23 after it. 1129 01:02:20,894 --> 01:02:22,374 It's literally right in the middle. 1130 01:02:23,084 --> 01:02:26,804 And it's the first question we have to ask is who is he talking about? 1131 01:02:27,404 --> 01:02:32,374 Those who churn from idols forfeit the grace of God that is for them. 1132 01:02:33,274 --> 01:02:36,004 You see he uses two concepts in that verse. 1133 01:02:36,134 --> 01:02:39,854 Idolatry, which makes you think immediately as the reader he's 1134 01:02:39,854 --> 01:02:42,704 talking about the pagan sailors who were praying to their little idols. 1135 01:02:43,294 --> 01:02:46,584 In chapter one they had their little idols praying for deliverance. 1136 01:02:47,979 --> 01:02:53,719 But then he also uses the covenant, word in Hebrew, Chesed, which 1137 01:02:53,719 --> 01:02:58,699 is often translated grace, or steadfast love, or loving kindness. 1138 01:02:59,079 --> 01:02:59,799 Covenant love. 1139 01:02:59,799 --> 01:03:01,679 It was God's special love for his children. 1140 01:03:02,079 --> 01:03:06,224 And Israel only thought about that kind of love in terms of themselves. 1141 01:03:07,524 --> 01:03:10,884 So you've got idolatry, which makes you think of pagan sailors or the 1142 01:03:10,884 --> 01:03:15,134 Ninevites, but then you've also got the Chesed, which makes you think Jonah is 1143 01:03:15,134 --> 01:03:19,184 talking about himself, since after all, he's the one praying for deliverance. 1144 01:03:20,344 --> 01:03:23,774 Scholars say that in that verse, something remarkable just happened. 1145 01:03:24,334 --> 01:03:27,584 Jonah has applied the sin of idolatry to all