Latest / Bayside Davis Podcast / Jonah | Jonah 3:1-4

Transcript

Jonah | Jonah 3:1-4 · Bayside Davis Podcast

0:09
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever wondered what is the spiritually healthy way to respond to God when you fall, when you fail, when you do something like Jonah did, and you know that God told you to do something, but you directly and thoughtfully and volitionally choose to do the opposite thing that God told you to do.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: How are we supposed to recover?
0:44
SPEAKER_00: How are we supposed to respond to God when we fall, when we fail, when we mess up, when we do the opposite of what God told us to do?
0:57
SPEAKER_00: I believe that the story of Jonah illustrates this so importantly and vividly, how somebody like a prophet, a famous, effective prophet of God, how he responds to God in the midst of his own fall, his own failure, his own disappointing God, running away from God, doing what God said not to do.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: And in our text this morning, we're only going to go through four verses, and uh, I got a lot to go through in four verses.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: So strap on your seatbelt.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: In these first four verses in Jonah chapter three, we see this beautiful response, this redemptive response to God as Jonah gets back on track.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: And in these four verses, there's two movements.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Movement number one, number one, you can write this down in your notes.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: If you're a note-taker, write it down.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a note-taker, write it down anyways.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: Number one, Jonah called again, verses one and two.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: Jonah's called again.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: God calls Jonah in chapter one, and now God calls Jonah a second time in chapter three.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: Notice what the scripture says.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: Now flip in your Bible to chapter one, where we see the first time that Jonah was called, in Jonah 1 verse 1.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: It says in Jonah 1, verse 1, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amitai, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: And you guys know, you've been following along.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: We've been tracking on this journey.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: We've been enveloped in this narrative.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: You know that God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, which was an arch enemy of Israel, one of the most wicked nations in human history.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: They did so many atrocities to so many different people groups.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: And Jonah was like, I am not going to Nineveh.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm going in the opposite direction.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to do what you're calling me to do, God.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: This is too hard.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: This is too difficult.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: There's too much emotions that are contrary to this people, this nation, this place that you're calling me to go.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not going to do what you're calling me to do, God.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: So now, as Jonah goes through this narrative and he rebels against God and God hurls a wind on the ocean, he goes into a boat the opposite direction of Nineveh.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: He literally, Nineveh's this way, he goes this way.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: He gets on a boat, the boat gets in a storm, he jumps overboard, he gets swallowed by a fish, he gets vomited up on dry land.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: If you've missed any of that, you can listen to any of our podcasts on Spotify or Apple.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Now they're all on video.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: He gets spit up on dry land, then verse 1, chapter 3.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Think of the people in the Bible.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Second chances are everywhere.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Abraham lied about not being married to Sarah out of fear.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Yet God still established him as the father, the forefather of the nation of Israel, many nations, and fulfilled his covenant promise through Isaac.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: Everything God said, what happened in his life, happened despite his own failures.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Moses.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: Moses killed an Egyptian taskmaster who was beating a Hebrew slave, yet God still called him to lead Israel out of Egypt.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: David.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: David had an affair with Bathsheba, yet God forgave him when he repented and continued to use him as king.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Peter, the great preacher and evangelist in the early church, he denied that he knew or followed Jesus, yet Jesus restored him and commissioned him to be the leader of leaders in the early church and shepherd his sheep.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Jonah resisted God's call to preach to the arch enemy of Israel, yet God gave him a second chance to deliver the message to Nineveh.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this: Jonah is back where he began before he ran from the Lord.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: That's what will happen to all of us.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: When we run from the presence of the Lord, we just end up back where we began.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Running from God is never worth it.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: But here's the good news: God is a God of second and third and fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth and ninth and tenth and twentieth and a hundredth and a thousandth, depending on how old you are and how long you've been following Jesus, and two thousand and so on and so on, chances.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: That's good news, isn't it?
6:30
SPEAKER_00: You guys are so quiet in here.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong today?
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Come on now.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: We got one person in the front row.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Nico, let's go.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: God is a God of second chances.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: You might have come in here and you're like, yeah, that's me, Wesley.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: I am in the midst of a fall, a failure, a disappointment, a rebellion against God.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: And God wants to speak to you today that I am a God of second chances.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens here.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, Go to the great city of Nineveh.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about this?
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Reading the story of Jonah.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Had the story of Jonah by this time that he goes to Nineveh, had it traveled around?
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Was there a story that was viral in the time of Jonah?
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Like social media viral?
7:34
SPEAKER_00: Like everybody kind of heard about this guy who got swallowed by a great fish.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: It vomited on dry land.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Word must have spread.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: He probably was bleached by the fish's gastric juices.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: He looked like nobody else.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: And he just shows up in this city, and people are like, oh yeah, we've heard about this guy.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: And we know it's him by the way he looks.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Just bleached, albino, just unique.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: Like that's Jonah.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: And he he's called a second time to go to this great city of Nineveh.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Now we talked about this before.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Nineveh in the ancient world, the Assyrian Empire, the most powerful empire at this time.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: Nineveh was a great city.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: Like New York City.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have been there?
8:28
SPEAKER_00: Great city.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: I love New York.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: London, how many of you have been there?
8:31
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: London's a great city.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: Tokyo, great city.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have been to Tokyo?
8:36
SPEAKER_00: I haven't been there, but I do want to go.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: Is Tokyo a great city?
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Copenhagen, Denmark, how many of you have been there?
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: A great city.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: LA, how many of you been to LA?
8:51
SPEAKER_00: A decent city.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Toronto, how many of you been to Toronto?
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Is that a good city?
9:00
SPEAKER_00: No, not a great city.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: A bad city.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said no.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Is it a good city?
9:07
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's a great city because you said it, I believe it.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have been to Rome?
9:12
SPEAKER_00: Rome! A great city?
9:15
SPEAKER_00: A great city.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have been to Mexico City?
9:21
SPEAKER_00: Great city?
9:22
SPEAKER_00: Great city.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: He said, go to this great city.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: It was a great city in history.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: It was actually founded by Noah's great-grandson Nimrod in Genesis chapter 10.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: It was a great city in size.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: They say that the circumference of the city with its suburbs was about 60 miles.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: It was a great city in population, approximately, a lot of scholars believe around 600,000 people lived there.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: And in the ancient world, that was a massive city.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: So he says, go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I gave you.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: Can we pause here for a second?
10:05
SPEAKER_00: This is really, really important.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: This is important in Jonah's day.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: This is important in our day.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: This is important in every cultural moment in history.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: God says, preach to it the message I give you.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: We should talk about this for a second.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: In every generation, it is so essential that whoever is teaching the Bible in that generation, whoever is called to be a prophet, a pastor, a preacher, whatever it is in biblical history, that we preach the message God gives to us.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: That's the only message that is spiritually meaningful in any community of God's people.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: And I just think this is so important that there's this center in the message that God has given us that we have to proclaim over and over and over again.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what Paul said.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1 and 2, Paul writes, This then is how you ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries of God that He has revealed.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: Any preacher, any Bible study leader, any person who shares the message of Jesus, you are a steward of the message of Scripture, and it is your job not to be fancy.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: It is your job not to add to it, it is your job not to try to make it relevant.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: It's your job just to be faithful with the message.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And here's the ultimate thrust, heart, center of the message.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 2, verses 1 through 5.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: And so it was with me, brothers and sisters, when I came to you.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom, Paul said, as I proclaimed you the testimony about God.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: I came to you in weakness, with great fear and trembling.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: Paul is like, the message of the church, the message of Christianity, the message of Scripture is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: If a church is not preaching that message, they're missing the heart and center of Christianity.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: We have to proclaim the message of Jesus as the central message of Christianity, and we cannot drift from Jesus and the cross.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: There are so many Christian books that are amazing.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: There are so many Christian churches that are amazing.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: But if our central message is not Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we are missing the mark in Christianity.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Let me just share a little story, testimony.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Very few times in my life this happens, but once in a while there'll be a moment in my life that God speaks to me so clearly.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: And it happened about six months ago.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: God just spoke to me in this moment.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: He said, Wesley, right now, wherever you go, I want you to be an evangelist.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere you go, I want you to share the gospel.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: So whether I'm here on a Sunday morning, share the gospel.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: I teach at different conferences, taught one this month, teaching one in a couple weeks in Southern California, share the gospel.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you go, your main message right now is just whatever passage, whatever subject, make sure you get to the gospel.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, invite people to believe in Jesus.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not an evangelist.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: I planted two churches.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm so blessed that I've seen so many people come to Christ in my ministry lifetime thus far.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that that's my gift.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that I have a supernatural calling to be an evangelist.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: But in this moment, God is saying, I want you to be an evangelist.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: And everywhere I'm going, I don't, it has nothing to do with me.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: It has the fact that we are in a cultural moment where so many hearts are ready to receive Christ.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere I'm going, whether it's here, whether it's a conference, I'm teaching at DCF this next weekend, so invite your friends or Tuesday or whenever it is this next week.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Wherever it is, people are coming to Christ in droves like I've never seen before.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: In the first four weeks of our fall season, since the students are back and most of them are gone this weekend.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: There's a bunch of Christian retreats this weekend.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: 66 people have come to Jesus Christ at our church in four weekends.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: I was preaching at a conference a couple weeks ago, and I was preaching on a subject of pain and mental health and all this stuff.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, at the end of the message, I'm gonna connect it to the cross and I'm gonna invite people to raise their hand.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Half the room at the conference raised their hand.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: I was like, whatever is happening, God, there is a harvest moment.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: You and I, listen, God is doing something at this moment that is unique and special and beautiful.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Whatever God is doing, you and I have to be faithful to share the message of Jesus.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: There are so many hearts ready to receive Christ in this moment.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: And God says, proclaim the message I give you.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: The role of a prophet, the role of a pastor, the role of a preacher is this.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: We don't write the mail, we deliver the mail.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: We don't create the message, we proclaim the message already created.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Some people in church, some people in Christianity think that, you know, they they have to make the Bible relevant.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's been relevant for thousands of years.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Like the great preacher C.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: Spurgeon, who preached to 10,000 people in his early 20s in London, England, he said, I don't need to defend the Bible or make it relevant.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: I need to just let it out of its cage and do its work.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Like a lion is let out of its cage and does its work.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: Like I have, I've been doing this for a while in two universities, secular cities, that people are like, no way that God can do something in a secular university, hyper-intellectual city.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: This is my second time.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: And people are like, well, what do you do to grow a church in a city?
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Like, what is the secret sauce?
18:07
SPEAKER_00: What do you need to do that's special?
18:08
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, nothing.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: Just preach Jesus and teach the Bible.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: We try to be God or make God relevant.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: God's already relevant.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: You're not coming here for me.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: You're not coming here to see me dance.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: You're not coming here to see me act.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: You're coming here because you need God in your life.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: And we just have to be faithful to that.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: The messenger is not special.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: The messenger is not powerful.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: The message is special and the message is powerful.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that more people would rely on God than try to rely on themselves in ministry.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Notice what happens next.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Proclaim to the message, proclaim to it the message I give you.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: Then we see the second movement.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: Verses three and four.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: Jonah obeys God.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: This is beautiful.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Here's this runaway prophet, this one who literally was going in the opposite direction that God told him, and now we see his heart re-engaged in following God's word to him.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, Jonah, this is beautiful.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: Jonah, in verses 1 and 2, Jonah knew God's word, but it wasn't until Jonah chapter 3, verse 3, that Jonah actually obeyed God's word.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference between just knowing God's word and knowing God's word and obeying God's word.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in our life we have these disconnects, these gaps, and we all have them.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: So don't feel like you're alone.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: Where we know a scripture or we know a biblical truth or we know the will of God, and then our actions and our decisions to actually obey that word sometimes are out of alignment.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: So Jonah was out of alignment for two chapters.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: And because God is a God of second chances, now Jonah obeys God's word.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, definitions are important, and I think sometimes, like when people come to church, we all assume that everybody knows all the words that we share in church.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: But here's the reality: not everybody knows the definition or explanation of every Christian word that comes to church.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: So let me offer you two different definitions of obedience.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Number one, obedience is aligning our lives to God's design.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: Obedience is aligning our lives to God's design.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: It's like obedience is basically bridging the gap between life in a sinful, broken world and life in the Garden of Eden that was flourishing because it was aligned with God's design.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: A second way that you could put this, and very similar in idea, is that obedience is trusting God's will for our lives.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: It's trusting God's.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: If God tells us to do something, if there's something in the scriptures, even if we emotionally don't understand, even if our logic is warring against it, that we trust God's will through his word in our life.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, can I give you a freebie this morning?
21:52
SPEAKER_00: This will cost you nothing.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: What is God's will?
21:56
SPEAKER_00: God's will is God's word, and God's word is.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Is God's will.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Some of us we're looking for this mystical, mysterious answer, and it's like follow the word of God, and as you follow that and trust him, he will unveil his beautiful plans for your life.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: And this is a life of faith.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: There's not a mystery.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: God has clearly conveyed his will for our life.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus, this gap between knowing and obeying.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus gave us a picture.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: He gave us an illustration of the importance of this in Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 through 28, when he writes, or he says, Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: The rain came down, the steam, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundations on the rock.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: But everyone who hears the words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: The gaps between what we believe and what we live, over time, more and more should be shored up.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: That more and more our life looks like trusting Jesus.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: That after a decade, our obedience, our alignment with God looks a little closer to the scriptures.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: After two decades, a little closer, after three decades, a little closer, after four decades, the test of maturity, the test of spiritual growth is that year after year, decade after decade, we follow the Lord a little more closely.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: We trust the Lord a little more.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: And that's what God wants to do in our life, just as he's doing in the life of Jonah.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see something here.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: It says, Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: This implies that this time Jonah didn't hesitate.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: God had pursued Jonah in his disobedience, saved his life from death, and now Jonah is ready to do what God called him to do.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: There's the idea of obedience, and there's also the idea of the spirit of obedience.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Some people can obey God and begrudgingly.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that, but I'm going to because I'm a Christian.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Some people obey God with the proper spirit of obedience.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: That is this.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: God, I joyfully obey you.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: God, I am glad to follow you.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: God, you know what is best for my life, and I trust you.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: God, you have the best plans for my life, even when I don't understand it, and I'm going to follow you.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: The spirit of obedience is so important.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Warren Rearsby wrote something that I just love.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: You might want to write this down.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you, and the power of God cannot use you.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: That is the story of Jonah.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God can't keep you, and the power of God can't use you.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: So now that we see that Jonah obeys God and he is not hesitating, what is the proper response to returning to God when we fall?
26:09
SPEAKER_00: Four things.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Write them down.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Grab your phones.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss these four things.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: What is the proper response as a follower of Jesus, as a believer in God, as somebody who is living as a disciple, a son or daughter of God, a disciple of Jesus Christ.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: What is the response that we need to have to return to God when we do what Jonah did?
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Four things.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: You ready for these?
26:38
SPEAKER_00: Number one, amen.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Say amen if you're ready.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: Number one, confidently approach God.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Confidently approach God.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: Which wars against what we really feel at the time.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: When you fail like Jonah, when I fail like Jonah, and we all do, we don't go to God and we're like, oh yeah, Lord, I'm real confident.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: But did you know?
27:06
SPEAKER_00: God tells us to be confident.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16, let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence in our time of need.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: When you approach God with confidence, you do it because you understand his nature.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Jonah, he's in the belly of the great fish.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: And what does he do?
27:30
SPEAKER_00: He cries out to the Lord.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: He knew God's nature.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: We don't approach God's confidence or God's throne of grace with confidence because of our nature.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: We're fallen, we're imperfect, we fail, we mess up, sometimes we rebel.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: We do it because of God's nature.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: Because we know how God responds to us.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: Confidently approach God.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: Number two, remember that God relates to you based on grace.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: Here Jonah is.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: He jumps overboard.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: He knew he was the reason for the storm.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: He jumps overboard.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: And what does God do?
28:11
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't let him drown in the ocean.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: God saves him through a fish.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: God literally preserved and saved his life.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when we fall, we forget that God's primary relationship with us, how he orients himself to us in his character and his nature, is based on grace.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: We forget this.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you have forgotten this.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've come here this morning and you're discouraged, defeated, down on yourself.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: You've fallen, you've failed, you've dropped the ball, you've messed up, you've rebelled against God.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: You need to remember that God relates to you based on grace.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: That's what Hebrews says.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: Are you in a time of need this morning?
29:25
SPEAKER_00: Do you need God's grace?
29:28
SPEAKER_00: Do you need his mercy?
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Have you failed?
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Have you fallen?
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Have you rebelled against God?
29:36
SPEAKER_00: God wants to remind you today that He's relating to you based on grace.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Not judgment.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Not condemnation, not shame.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: He's not down on you.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: He's relating to you based on grace.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: That means you can fail and he still loves you.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: That means you can fall and he's ready to restore you.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: That means you can run the other way and he's ready to recommission you to what he called you to do in the first place.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Jonah's salvation was grace.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Number three, confess your sins.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: This was Jonah's prayer.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: He talks about idolatry in chapter two.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: He talks about leaving God's Kasset, his loyal love, his faithfulness, his covenant faithfulness.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: He confessed his sins.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: 1 John chapter 1, verse 9 says, if we confess our sins to God, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that 1 John 1, 9 means that I'm a Christian, I get saved, then I fail, and I lose my salvation, then I confess and I'm saved again.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: These are two different aspects of forgiveness.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: The forgiveness that most people are thinking about is what we would call judicial forgiveness.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: God, the perfect judge, declaring you right in his sight through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and you are permanently in his family forever and ever.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: No choice, no act of disobedience, no poor decision, no spiritual failure can cause you to lose your status in God's family.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: That is called justification.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: You are right with God.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: This is not judicial forgiveness, this is family forgiveness.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: This is relational forgiveness.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: It's like if your kid runs away, does some really dumb stuff, they're still a part of your family, but there might be a break in relational intimacy.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: The minute, the second you come to God and you say, I kind of feel far away from you, God, because I distanced myself from you.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: I made some poor decisions, I messed up, I dropped the ball, I rebelled against you like Jonah.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: The very second you say, God, I did this, I confess it to you, is the very second your intimacy with God, your connection with God, your connection to the presence of God in your life is restored.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: You're still in the family, but now you're back in that intimate connection with God again.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: This is relational forgiveness.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: We do this on a human level.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: You're still in the family, then you say, I'm sorry, mom and dad, I really messed up, I've made some poor decisions.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: Can I come back home?
32:59
SPEAKER_00: Of course you can.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you spend so much time in your head, beating yourself up.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: And all you need to do is just come to God and say, God, forgive me.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: I failed.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: I messed up.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: My anger, my poor decision, whatever it may be.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: And that's the moment that God relationally forgives us and He cleans us up from all unrighteousness.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: The picture there is that sometimes sin makes us spiritually dirty, so to speak.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: And the minute you confess, God just washes you, cleanses you, restores you in the most beautiful way.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: Confess your sin.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: Number four, get back up.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Get back up.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: Don't sit in that place of self-condemnation.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Don't sit in that place of shaming yourself over and over.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: God's not doing that.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: Jonah chapter 3, verse 3.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: He got back up.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: He obeyed God and resumed his ministry.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the Lord, Lord, you can't use me to teach that Bible study.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take a year off.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: God, you can't use me to share the gospel with people.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put myself in ministry prison for the next six months.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: No.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: Get back up.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: Go teach that Bible study.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: Get back up.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: Go share the gospel.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: Get back up.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: You're like, Wesley, where is there a scripture about getting back up?
34:51
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 20, verse 4, verse 16.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: For though the righteous, and again, we don't always feel righteous, but we're righteous in Christ.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Maybe God is saying this morning, you've been on the sidelines for too long.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to be on the bench.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to get back in the game.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to sit and immobilize yourself because you failed.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to follow and serve and live your life for me again.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: Get back up.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: Jonah got back up and he is moving.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: Notice verse 3, we're almost done.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: Notice verse 3.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: Now Nineveh was a very large city.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm always like, we're always done, but then I find something that's really cool.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you something really cool here?
36:02
SPEAKER_00: This is the second time that you notice verse 2.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: The great city of Nineveh.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, Nineveh was a very large city.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: Can I just tell you something really cool in the Hebrew?
36:12
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew, this reads literally, the city was very great to God.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: That is the literal translation from Hebrew.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: The city was very great to God.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: I just love this because here, this rebellious prophet had decided he didn't want to preach to the city because it wasn't important to him.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: But God is like, Jonah, I want to remind you, this city is important to me.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: People might look at the city of Davis and they're like, this isn't a city of Christian revival.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: This isn't the city that's on the map for something great spiritually taking place.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a city where God is moving and saving 66 people in four weeks.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a city known for a move of God, and God's like, no, no, the city of Davis, this is a great city to God.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: Let's live like that.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: Let's be on mission like that.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: Let's believe that God is gonna do something in our generation, in our time, in this city that has never happened before because it's a great city to God.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't important to Jonah, but it was important to God.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: And notice, notice, I know I'm almost done.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: Notice.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: That if you were any sort of official visitor, that you had a three-day pass in the city.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: He could be talking about that.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: But it was such a large population, an expansive city, that it was probably the mission of the city he was focused on, that it was necessary for Jonah to preach in Nineveh for three full days to ensure that the message would be heard by the bulk of the population.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: So for three days he went and he preached 40 more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: 40.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: 40 days.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: What why 40 days?
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Why would God say 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown?
38:52
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a few suggestions because I think this is important and germane to the story.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: First, 40 days was the number of days until the destruction of the city.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: God was giving time to the people.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: Second, 40 days or 40 was a number of significance in Scripture.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Israel was 40 days in the wilderness.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was tempted for 40 days.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: Moses prayed before God in Deuteronomy 9 for 40 days.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: During the time of Noah reigned 40 days and 40 nights.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: The Jewish spies explored Cana for 40 days.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: The nation of Israel was tested in the wilderness 40 years.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: The giant Goliath taunted the army of Israel 40 days.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: This seems to be a period of waiting and testing in Scripture.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: A significant number.
39:46
SPEAKER_00: But I would suggest even more importantly that 40 days teaches us about God's patience.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: That God is patient with us.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: That 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9 is true then and it's true now.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting any to perish.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: There might be somebody in this room today and you don't know Jesus.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: You don't know that your destiny is heaven, that you're forgiven by God, that you're in a relationship with God, you've been made right with God.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: He does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: God is a patient God with us.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: And then, even more importantly, 40 days teaches us about God's redemptive heart.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: God's desire was not to destroy Nineveh, but to save Nineveh.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: And this correlates so well with the great message of Jesus in John chapter 3, verses 17 and 18.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: Let me read that first line again.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Jesus.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: God's desire is to save us, not destroy us.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: God's desire was to save Nineveh, not destroyed Nineveh.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: Forty days teaches us about God's redemptive heart.