Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E18 | Everyday Eurasia | Jeremy Height

Transcript

S1-E18 | Everyday Eurasia | Jeremy Height · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  Hello and welcome to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Faith for Every Day. Each day we are on a journey
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  with Jesus in our churches, our homes, our workplaces and in so
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  many different places around the world.
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  Is it? Beautiful that no matter where
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  we are, we can walk with Him every single day.
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  Jesus is the one who connects us all and stands at the very
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  center of our lives day after day.
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  Through this podcast, you'll hear voices from across the
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  region sharing devotionals that reminds us of God's presence in
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  our everyday moments today. We will join Jeremy Heights.
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  The Heights began surfing in 2024 as.
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  Global. Missionaries in Croatia, Jeremy.
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  And Rito. Are surfing on the Central
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  Europe fields along with their three children, Zane, Ruby and
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  Kafia. As Field Finance Coordinator, we
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  do serves and resources the local churches and districts
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  across the dozen countries on the Central Europe fields.
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  Jeremy serves. As the Nazarene country leader
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  for Croatia and serves with local church and compassionated
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  ministries, today we will think about Jonah.
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  Jonah chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. But it displeased Jonah
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  exceedingly, and he was angry, and he prayed to the Lord and
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  said, Oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my
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  country? That is why I made haste to flee
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  to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful,
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  slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting
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  from disaster. I have recently been drawn back
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  to the beauty and the importance of the story of Jonah.
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  It's not a long story, right? It's 4 chapters in total in my
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  Bible. It barely covers a full 2 pages.
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  And yet it has so much depth to it, so much truth to it, so much
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  sarcasm and humor as well, that we can sometimes miss it if
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  we've grown up in the church and heard the story time and time
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  again as a child and then youth and as an adult.
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  But there is a lot that the author is seeking to teach us
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  and tell us across the centuries.
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  In Jonah, we can learn about ourselves, about our God, and
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  about our relationship with that God.
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  In Jonah we find a prophet who is supposed to be a good
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  follower of God, and yet he isn't.
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  He doesn't want to love his enemies.
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  He tries to run away from God. He literally says that God is
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  the God of the land and the sea, and he tries to outrun that God
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  on the sea. After a giant fish reroutes him,
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  he goes and gives one of the shortest and least effort
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  possible sermons that I think I've ever heard.
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  It doesn't seem like you really wants the people of Nineveh to
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  repent and become followers of God, and perhaps for good
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  reason. They had hurt his people,
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  perhaps his family. The Ninevites were known for
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  being terrible in war and battle.
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  And so then we get to the beginning of chapter 4, and
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  Jonah is angry because God has relented.
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  When the people of Nineveh repented, God changed the
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  outcome of their story. And Jonah says, see God, This is
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  why I didn't want to come. I knew that you were gracious
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  and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
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  What I don't want us to miss here is Jonah is quoting God's
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  own words back at God back in the book of Exodus chapter 34.
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  God is having a conversation with Moses, and God describes
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  who God is, what his character is, His DNA.
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  And God says that he's gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and
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  abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness.
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  That is who our God is. In fact, if you were to take
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  that phrase, you would find that it is the most quoted phrase in
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  the Bible by other parts of the Bible.
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  No other phrase in the Bible is repeated more than these words
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  from Exodus chapter 34 describing who God is.
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  It's as if God doesn't wants to make sure that we don't miss
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  this point, that God is gracious and loving.
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  Jonah seemed to miss the point here.
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  He struggles to obey God in a way that the the the giant fish
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  and the animals who were told also repented in Nineveh.
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  They got on with the story. They understood who God was.
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  But I think for us today it is a good word.
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  It is a true word that God is for you, that God loves you,
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  that God is gracious and merciful and slow to anger and
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  abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness.
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  And this is true for you and for those that you will interact
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  with today at work, in your neighborhood, in your local
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  coffee shop, at your school. You are loved and so are your
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  neighbors, even the ones that you don't always get along with.
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  So from Jonah, we can be reminded of God's love for us
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  and the call to share that love and what we say and what we do
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  with our neighbors around us. Go out and live and share that
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  love with others today. Thank you for listening to the
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  everyday Eurasia podcast, Inspiring Fate for everyday.
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  For more Everyday stories, subscribe on this podcast
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  channel, follow our socials, Facebook and Instagram, or our
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  newsletter snapshots. For our newsletter and further
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  information about the Eurasia region, visit our website,
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  eurasiaregion.org.