Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Ticked Off to the Bitter End │Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Ticked Off to the Bitter End │Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: I had a fascinating conversation with one of the ladies
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Speaker 1: who works in our sole care ministry before our first
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Speaker 1: service started today. She was expressing gratitude for the opportunity
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Speaker 1: to serve there and gave her an opportunity to meet
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Speaker 1: with different people following our worship service, as they feel
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Speaker 1: free to come in and pray or to talk with
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Speaker 1: individuals about some issue or concern that they're dealing with.
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Speaker 1: This particular lady, who was very troubled, sort of burst
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Speaker 1: in the room and the two of them were alone
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Speaker 1: and the lady who had just left our meeting in
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Speaker 1: the It happened to be this the worship service, the
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Speaker 1: second of the two morning worship service. Her opening words were,
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Speaker 1: I am Jonah. I am just like Jonah. I am
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Speaker 1: just like Jonah. And these tears were just streaming down
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Speaker 1: her face when she realized that what we had been presenting,
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Speaker 1: this from this book that bears Jonah's name, revealed the
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Speaker 1: truth of her own struggles, and she described herself as selfish,
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Speaker 1: self serving, sometimes arrogant. I was moved over the story
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Speaker 1: because of the honesty of that kind of response. You see,
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Speaker 1: the Lord has preserved his word to make us aware
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Speaker 1: of who he is, and then by way of reflection
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Speaker 1: on that of who we are. And the beautiful thing
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Speaker 1: about scripture is that there there is nothing like it.
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Speaker 1: Only God's word is alive and active, and sharp as
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Speaker 1: a razor edged sword, able to pierce right into the
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Speaker 1: soul of a human heart. The poet wrote, to whom
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Speaker 1: have we Lord, but thee soul thirst to satisfy exhaustless spring.
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Speaker 1: The water's free, all other streams are dry. Never take
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Speaker 1: for granted the privilege of the Bible in your own language.
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Speaker 1: We turn to it regularly, and I often do in
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Speaker 1: my study, almost on tiptoe, realizing what a privilege it
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Speaker 1: is to work with the living lines of scripture. I
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Speaker 1: speak today, I realize to some of you who will
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Speaker 1: find yourself feeling just like Jonah. So be aware. It's
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Speaker 1: not just for you, It's for us, myself included. It'll
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Speaker 1: reveal who God is and also who we are. I'll
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Speaker 1: be reading from the fourth chapter of this book of Jonah,
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Speaker 1: the last several verses, but we're not through. We'll have
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Speaker 1: one more message next week on lessons learned from a
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Speaker 1: stubborn preacher, which certainly was Jonah. But I'll be reading
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Speaker 1: for you today Jonah, chapter four, verses five through eleven,
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Speaker 1: from the New Living Translation. And once you find the passage,
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Speaker 1: please stand with one another for the reading of God's word.
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Speaker 1: Remember all other streams are dry Jonah four, verse five.
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Speaker 1: Then Jonah went out to the east side of the
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Speaker 1: city and made a shelter to sit under as he
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Speaker 1: waited to see what would happen to the city. And
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Speaker 1: the Lord God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there,
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Speaker 1: and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head,
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Speaker 1: shading him from the sun. This eased his discomfort, and
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Speaker 1: Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But God also
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Speaker 1: arranged for a worm. The next morning had dawned, the
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Speaker 1: worm ate through the stem of the plant so that
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Speaker 1: it withered away, And as the sun grew hot, God
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Speaker 1: arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah.
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Speaker 1: The sun beat down on his head until he grew
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Speaker 1: faint and wished to die. Death is certainly better than
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Speaker 1: living like this, he exclaimed. Then God said to Jonah,
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Speaker 1: is it right for you to be angry because the
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Speaker 1: plant died? Yes, Jonah retorted, even angry enough to die.
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Speaker 1: Then the Lord said, you feel sorry about the plant,
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Speaker 1: though you did nothing to put it there. It came
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Speaker 1: quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than one
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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand people living in spiritual darkness. The
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Speaker 1: Hebrew adds the line people who do not know their
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Speaker 1: right hand from their left, not to mention all the animals.
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Speaker 1: Shouldn't I have compassion for such a great city. Abow
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Speaker 1: with me as we pray today, our Father, as we
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Speaker 1: spend just these few moments in your living word, May
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Speaker 1: we be as open as the lady who acknowledged I
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Speaker 1: am Jonah, just like Jonah. May you speak to us
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Speaker 1: in such a way that you crowd out all other thoughts,
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Speaker 1: you silence all other voices, and you make insignificant all
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Speaker 1: other events of this day, so that we realize you
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Speaker 1: really mean what you say, because you have written it
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Speaker 1: in such a way that it penetrates. It digs deep
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Speaker 1: within our souls, cutting down to where no surgeon's scalpel
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Speaker 1: could ever reach, revealing the thoughts and intentions of our
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Speaker 1: innermost thoughts and heart. Thank you, Father for your spirit's work.
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Speaker 1: You take charge of the truth and drive it home.
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Speaker 1: May I be just as open as that woman was
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Speaker 1: and May we all realize you're talking about us, though
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Speaker 1: you wrote these things centuries ago. We have our occupations,
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Speaker 1: and we are grateful for them. We thank you for
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Speaker 1: the salaries we earn, and from the money we make
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Speaker 1: we give, and we're learning to be even more generous.
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Speaker 1: You teach us even that use our gifts today, which
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Speaker 1: we give joyfully and generously, for the greater cause of Christ.
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Speaker 1: And may this act of giving help even further to
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Speaker 1: draw us away from ourselves and into the lives of
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Speaker 1: those we will never meet, who live in places we
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Speaker 1: will never go, so that their lives will be changed
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Speaker 1: from a lifestyle we would never know. We commit to you,
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Speaker 1: our Father, these things in prayer, and these gifts that
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Speaker 1: we give in the name of Jesus the Immanuel God.
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Speaker 2: With us.
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Speaker 1: And all God's people said, Amen, you may be seated.
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Speaker 1: Jonah was the most successful evangelist ever recorded in the Bible.
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Speaker 1: That surprises most people, but no one can compare the
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Speaker 1: numbers of converts in a really a three day campaign
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Speaker 1: to the numbers that Jonah could name. However, he was
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Speaker 1: also the weirdest evangelist in all the recorded scriptures. His
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Speaker 1: was the only revival where the evangelists needed more follow
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Speaker 1: up than the converts needed. What a piece of work
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Speaker 1: he was. If there was ever an example in the
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Speaker 1: Bible of God's message being delivered effectively by one who
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Speaker 1: didn't want to deliver it, it is Jonah. And by
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Speaker 1: the way, he never did get the vision that God
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Speaker 1: had who according to what Peter has written, he's not
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Speaker 1: willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come
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Speaker 1: to repentance. Jonah believed just the opposite when it came
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Speaker 1: to the gentile Ninevites. He was not willing that any
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Speaker 1: of the Nnovites would live, not even one, but that
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Speaker 1: all of them would perish. The reason he was a racist.
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Speaker 1: He was a prejudiced, selfish prophet from the very start.
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Speaker 1: From the get go, he did not want to be
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Speaker 1: seen anywhere around the gentile city of Ninevah. But thankfully
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Speaker 1: God's love and mercy was far greater than Jonah's hatred
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Speaker 1: and prejudice, and God had his way. He knew what
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Speaker 1: he was about. What happened made Jonah so angry he
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Speaker 1: begged to die more than once. You will read in
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Speaker 1: chapter four in verse three, just kill me now. This
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Speaker 1: is after the people had begun to change their hearts.
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Speaker 1: This is after God has said, I'll lift the ban
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Speaker 1: on these people. I will not bring a chaos over
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Speaker 1: them and upon them. I will in fact bless them
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Speaker 1: and forgive them. It was more than Jonah could stand
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Speaker 1: to hear that. And the Lord said to him, is
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Speaker 1: it right for you to be angry? Jonah? And you'll
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Speaker 1: remember from our time in that passage last time. Jonah
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Speaker 1: doesn't answer. He doesn't have an answer. He realizes when
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Speaker 1: he's asked that question that he simply kicked off. He's
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Speaker 1: simply angry about the whole thing. God may have changed
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Speaker 1: his mind, but let me assure you Jonah has not.
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Speaker 1: And of all things, when he makes the prediction that
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Speaker 1: in forty days, if they don't change, God will bring
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Speaker 1: a judgment upon them, they were willing to believe the warning,
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Speaker 1: and they changed. Jonah decided to build a little lean to.
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Speaker 1: We would call it a shelter, according to verse five.
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Speaker 1: And he got under the shelter to break the hot,
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Speaker 1: searing rays of the Syrian sun as it beat on him.
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Speaker 1: And he sat on the east side of the city
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Speaker 1: and stared.
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Speaker 2: At the city, tapping his foot, waiting, hoping.
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Speaker 1: That maybe their repentance would go thin, and maybe they
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Speaker 1: would just turn and reveal that that repentance was a hoax. Nope,
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Speaker 1: was not to be. So Jonah decides, I'll simply get alone.
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Speaker 1: It's as if Jonah is hanging a huge do not
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Speaker 1: disturb sign on the on the opening of that little shelter.
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Speaker 1: Just leave me alone, all of you nnophtes and you God,
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Speaker 1: just leave me alone. And there he sits in this
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Speaker 1: tiny handmade shelter, just to be silent and sullen, as
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Speaker 1: he sulks. Before I go further, I have to say
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Speaker 1: something about isolation. And part of the reason is we
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Speaker 1: continue to be shocked as a nation when there are
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Speaker 1: mass killings, and we should be how heartbreaking that someone
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Speaker 1: would break into a synagogue and randomly killed whoever the
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Speaker 1: bullet may hit, and after being captured make this statement,
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Speaker 1: all of them should die no remorse whatsoever. Interestingly, the
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Speaker 1: man has been isolated. When you check, you will find
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Speaker 1: that most who carry out such horrible acts against humanity
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Speaker 1: often have been living isolated lives. They're not involved in
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Speaker 1: a healthy social relationship with others. They are certainly not
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Speaker 1: accountable to a group of people who are there to
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Speaker 1: help them realize that they're twisted in their thinking. They're alone,
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Speaker 1: all alone, and from that alone comes the isolationists twisted thinking.
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Speaker 1: It's not original with me. Years ago, professor of psychology
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Speaker 1: at Stanford University named Philip Zimbardo wrote an article in
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Speaker 1: Psychology Today titled the Age of Indifference. In that penetrating article,
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Speaker 1: he puts his finger on the dangers of isolation. I
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Speaker 1: quote just just a few lines from Zimbardo quote, I
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Speaker 1: know of no more potent killer than isolation. There is
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Speaker 1: no more destructive influence on physical and mental health than
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Speaker 1: the isolation of you from me and us from them.
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Speaker 1: It has been shown to be a central agent in
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Speaker 1: the esiology. The word means origin or cause in the
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Speaker 1: ethiology of depression, paranoia, schizophrenia, rape, suicide, mass murder, and
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Speaker 1: a wide variety of disease.
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Speaker 3: States close quote what a statement. It isn't healthy that
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Speaker 3: he gets alone.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 1: This is not referring to being alone to recharge one's
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Speaker 1: battery or to pull away from a constant activity of
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Speaker 1: life so that you could get yourself done together. This
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Speaker 1: is an aloneness that says, get out of my life.
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Speaker 1: This is the this is the last stage of Jonah's
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Speaker 1: spouting his twisted desire is now to distance himself from
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Speaker 1: all that's happened. He goes east of the city and
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Speaker 1: sits down and stares alone with his private thoughts. Still
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Speaker 1: seething over God's decision to change his plan from catastrophe
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Speaker 1: and annihilation to divine blessing, Jonah settles into his man
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Speaker 1: made shelter, succumbing to total selfishness. Now, then, the beautiful
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Speaker 1: part of the story is that even when he finds
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Speaker 1: his profit in this state of mind, God graciously and
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Speaker 1: sovereignly moves in to woo him back. In fact, I
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Speaker 1: found it interesting that Martin Luther makes the statement God
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Speaker 1: begins to play with Jonah as a mother will play
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Speaker 1: with her distressed child in order to cheer him. I
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Speaker 1: don't know that I agree with Luther that God is
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Speaker 1: playing with Jonah, though I understand what he means by that.
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Speaker 1: God tries. There's one maneuver after another to get Jonah
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Speaker 1: to come back, to turn around, stop the staring and
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Speaker 1: this fitful isolation, and to talk with him and to
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Speaker 1: reason with him. One of the prophet's rights. Come now,
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Speaker 1: let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins
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Speaker 1: be a scarlet. They shall be as white as snow.
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Speaker 1: Let's reason with our God. Jonah is in an unreasonable state.
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Speaker 1: So what does God do? You have your penhandy. Look
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Speaker 1: at the text that we're looking at Jonah chapter four.
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Speaker 1: You'll find three things that God arranges, or your bible
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Speaker 1: may read He appoints. You will see them right in
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Speaker 1: the text. Verse six, God arranged for a leafy plant.
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Speaker 1: Your bible may read a gourd. Verse six, He arranged
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Speaker 1: for the plant. How comforting of God to do that.
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Speaker 1: I'll come back to it in a moment. Look at
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Speaker 1: verse seven. God also arranged for a worm. This is
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Speaker 1: an old cut worm that would come and and and
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Speaker 1: eat into the stem of the plant and kill it.
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Speaker 1: I'll get to that in a moment. And third, you
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Speaker 1: will notice verse eight. As the sun grew hot, God
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Speaker 1: arranged there's the third time. God appointed a scorching east
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Speaker 1: wind to blow across that blistering sands of the desert
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Speaker 1: east of Neneveh. On top of the rays of the sun.
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Speaker 1: We now have the hot wind. You see the growing intensity.
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Speaker 1: You see the acceleration of God's plan. That's how God
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Speaker 1: sovereignly were. He begins with a comforting maneuver. Look at
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Speaker 1: what he does. Back to verse six, he arranged for
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Speaker 1: a leafy plant to grow there. God didn't have to
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Speaker 1: do that. Could have left him alone in the shelter
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Speaker 1: and turned his back on him and ignored him. God
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Speaker 1: is no isolationist. No, not on your life. God brought
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Speaker 1: some comfort. How patient of the Lord to do that.
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Speaker 1: He he arranged for a plant. It grew quickly and
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Speaker 1: spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head, shading him from
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Speaker 1: the sun. This eased Jodah's discom Look at that, and
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Speaker 1: Jonah was very grateful for the plant. Finally he's grateful
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Speaker 1: for something he hasn't been yet. So finally he's grateful,
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Speaker 1: at least for the plant. You know, Jonah's so negative.
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Speaker 1: He reminds me of the joke I read about some
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Speaker 1: time ago where there was this farmer who had a
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Speaker 1: neighbor that was the most negative neighbor you could ever
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Speaker 1: live next door to you. No matter what he did,
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Speaker 1: the neighbor fussed, had complained, argued about this, groused about that,
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Speaker 1: And this neighbor was determined to win him over. So
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Speaker 1: he got a brilliant idea. He bought this incredible dog,
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Speaker 1: wonder dog that could walk on water her. Okay, So
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Speaker 1: he says to his neighbor, he's gonna go duck hunting
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Speaker 1: once you come with me. Sure, we'll probably both die
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Speaker 1: before we get back. Neighbors say, no, no, you, we're
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Speaker 1: gonna have a great time. Come on, get in, puts
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Speaker 1: his dog in the boat with him, and they go
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Speaker 1: out and they're sitting in the blind boom boom boom
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Speaker 1: whether they shoot the ducks, and tells his dog go
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Speaker 1: get them. Dog walks across the water, comes back with
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Speaker 1: the ducks dry as it can be, and the neighbor
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Speaker 1: says he can't swim, Kenny, no matter what, No matter what,
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Speaker 1: he's gonna fuss. That's Jonah, except for when he's got
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Speaker 1: a little comfort. And now he's grateful for the plant,
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Speaker 1: the soulless plant. He's greatful at least for the shade.
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Speaker 1: I hadn't planned on the cutworm. But Godhead, God Remember,
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Speaker 1: is at work on Jonah. The plant is just part
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Speaker 1: of the process. By the way, before I get too
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Speaker 1: deep in this, he's at work on you and me
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Speaker 1: as well. And he begins very graciously, almost innocuously, to
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Speaker 1: soften us, to comfort us to get our attention. But
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Speaker 1: he realizes that Jonah is not grateful for God. He's
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Speaker 1: grateful for the plant. So the Lord ratchets up the
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Speaker 1: plan and he sends along a worm. And what do
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Speaker 1: we read? He arranged for a worm. And the next
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Speaker 1: morning at dawn, God starts early, doesn't he? The worm
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Speaker 1: ate through the stem of the plant so that it
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Speaker 1: withered away. There goes the shade. And if that isn't enough,
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Speaker 1: notice he tightens the screws even tighter. When the sun
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Speaker 1: grew hot, got arranged for a scorching east wind to
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Speaker 1: blow on Jonah. God moves in mysterious ways. I don't
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Speaker 1: know what the leaves and the worm and the wind
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Speaker 1: are in your life. I wouldn't pretend to know, but
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Speaker 1: I know this, He moves in mysterious ways. His wonders
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Speaker 1: to perform. He plants his footstep on the sea and
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Speaker 1: rides up on the storm. Deep and unfathable minds and
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Speaker 1: never failing skilled, he works together his bright design and
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Speaker 1: carries out his sovereign will. He's at work in your life.
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Speaker 1: He's at working mind. And now that the shade is gone,
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Speaker 1: and now that the sun is hot, now that the
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Speaker 1: east wind is blowing. Maybe this will be enough to
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Speaker 1: break Jonah, because without being broken, Jonah will never surrender
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Speaker 1: his selfish ways, the plant withers away, the sun is hot,
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Speaker 1: beats on his head, and he grows faint. And what
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Speaker 1: happens he wishes to die. Death is certainly better than
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Speaker 1: living like this. Then God said to Jonah, is it
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Speaker 1: right for you to be angry about the plant? I mean, really, Jonah,
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Speaker 1: is that right? You've reduced your life to the leaves
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Speaker 1: of a plant, unless you think that that might have
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Speaker 1: done it. Jonah's response is yes, yes, even angry enough
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Speaker 1: to die. I think he shouted that in so many words,
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Speaker 1: so many ways. He's saying, you better believe it. Well,
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Speaker 1: that was enough, enough was enough. Even God's leash has
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Speaker 1: a limit, and He's reached the limit. Here's the heartbreaking reality.
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Speaker 1: At this point, Jonah isn't even thinking about the change
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Speaker 1: lives of the Ninophtes. So God once more turns there,
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Speaker 1: which was the whole purpose of getting him to come
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Speaker 1: in the first place, is that these people might be changed.
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Speaker 1: And so the Lord said, And from here on it's
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Speaker 1: a monologue. Jonah says nothing else. The book ends. If
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Speaker 1: you will with a death wish that seals Jonah's lips.
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Speaker 1: You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing
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Speaker 1: to put it there. You have compassion for the plant
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Speaker 1: though you didn't even plant it. It came quickly and
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Speaker 1: died quickly. But look, Jonah, look at the city. Look
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Speaker 1: at the smiles. Look at the change lives from the
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Speaker 1: king all the way to the peasant. Look at the
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Speaker 1: humility of these people who were once arrogant in their wickedness.
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Speaker 1: Look at this, Jonah, Look at this. What a difference,
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Speaker 1: What a change? In fact, let me say something about
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Speaker 1: the number. There's an insight here I don't want you
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Speaker 1: to miss. Nineveh has more than one hundred and twenty
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Speaker 1: thousand people. And I mentioned in the reading that the
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Speaker 1: Hebrew has the line that these are people who don't
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Speaker 1: know the right hand from their left. Now stop, if
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Speaker 1: you were sitting at your kitchen table and you are
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Speaker 1: reading your Bible at the end of Jonah, and you
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Speaker 1: come to that line, which the New American standard reads,
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Speaker 1: including that who would that refer to? Who would be
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Speaker 1: those who do not know their right hand from their left?
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Speaker 1: Small children is the only answer until they're old enough
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Speaker 1: to understand left and right, and to understand that concept
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Speaker 1: of hands doing what right and left hands do. They're young,
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Speaker 1: So let's understand one hundred and twenty thousand has reference
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Speaker 1: to little children. I agree with Charles Ririy in his
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Speaker 1: footnote in the Study Bible in the New American Standard,
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Speaker 1: where he says this has reference to children. In fact,
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Speaker 1: that puts the number of the people of Nineveh over
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Speaker 1: six hundred thousand. Six hundred thousand, not just one hundred
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Speaker 1: and twenty is the most significant revival recorded in all
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Speaker 1: the Bible. Look, Jonah, look at that. Look at all
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Speaker 1: of these people, children, younger, older, adults. And now look
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Speaker 1: at them, the change in their lives. Jonah, Look what
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Speaker 1: should we not have compassion? Not on the leaves of
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Speaker 1: a gourd, but on the lives of these once lost
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Speaker 1: souls who existed in darkness and knew nothing but that lifestyle. Jonah,
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Speaker 1: connect the dots, he doesn't. I would love to be
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Speaker 1: able to say that there exists a reliable body of literature.
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Speaker 1: Sure that gives us the later years of Jonah, where
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Speaker 1: he came to his senses and he realized how shortsighted
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Speaker 1: he had been in selfish and and he chained but
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Speaker 1: I have no other literary work to recommend, certainly nothing
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Speaker 1: in the Bible. In fact, interesting, the Book of Jonah
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Speaker 1: begins with the word of the Lord where he gave
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Speaker 1: his message to Jonah to get up and go to Ninevah,
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Speaker 1: and the book ends with the word of the Lord
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Speaker 1: as they are at Ninevaha and the lives have been changed.
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Speaker 1: But it ends in sort of an ellipses, just to
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Speaker 1: dot dot dot question mark. It's sort of like the
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Speaker 1: song Peggy Lee made popular. Is that all there is? Joan?
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Speaker 1: Is that all there is? You want to die because
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Speaker 1: a plant died? Let me state it lest anybody miss it.
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Speaker 1: This is the ultimate in a selfish lifestyle. This is
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Speaker 1: the individual who is proud of the license frame that
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Speaker 1: says he who dies with the most toys wins. Really,
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Speaker 1: I will not back off and just be nice and
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Speaker 1: tactful here. I'm going to be direct. It's easy in
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Speaker 1: this day and age to become that selfish. It's easy.
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Speaker 1: Just follow the direction of the majority. Plan for yourself,
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Speaker 1: live for yourself, think of yourself, work for yourself in
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Speaker 1: the sense of your plans, your future, your salary, care
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Speaker 1: a little about those who are lost, and press right
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Speaker 1: on in that lifestyle, and I will tell you, little
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Speaker 1: by little your world will revolve around sort of an
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Speaker 1: US four and no more. And I'm not too sure
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Speaker 1: about you. Three. It's all about me. How many marriages
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Speaker 1: have broken up because the mate simply did not have
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Speaker 1: room in her life or his life for one other person.
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Speaker 1: How many companies have split apart because there's no sharing here?
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Speaker 1: This is about me, this is mine. We're a selfish
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Speaker 1: body of people. Now let me end on a wonderful note.
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Speaker 1: Turned from Jonah forod to Philippians too quickly turn what
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Speaker 1: a marvelous contrast. Paul is writing to the people of Philippi,
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Speaker 1: and he turns to the ultimate example of an unselfish lifestyle,
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Speaker 1: but not before he has given this imperative verse three
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Speaker 1: of chapter two. Don't be selfish, don't try to impress others,
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Speaker 1: be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't
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Speaker 1: look out for your own interests, but take an interest
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Speaker 1: in others two, And then he turns to the ultimate illustration.
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Speaker 1: You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
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Speaker 1: I love it that. It's the word attitude. It all
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Speaker 1: starts there. Quickly transport yourself to eternity past, when there
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Speaker 1: was no earth, when there was no matter, when there
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Speaker 1: was nothing but the Godhead. And in the midst of
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Speaker 1: this eternal setting, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit
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Speaker 1: put together the plan of eternal decrees, anticipating earth that
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Speaker 1: would come and people who would populate it, and depravity
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Speaker 1: that would captivate it, and the lostness of humanity that
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Speaker 1: would populate it. And the Father and Son and Spirit agreed. However,
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Speaker 1: it occurred in that setting that the Son would lay
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Speaker 1: aside and not cling to all of the glories of
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Speaker 1: heaven and think of what they were, myriad of angels
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Speaker 1: forever at his beckon call co eternal, coexistent with the
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Speaker 1: Father and with the Spirit. Never a hint of sin
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Speaker 1: to deal with, Never an ugly caustic comment to listen to,
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Speaker 1: Never mistreatment, only harmony, only the joys of eternal glory
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Speaker 1: in eternity past. And the Son of God agrees to
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Speaker 1: leave that and to come here in our midst, and
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Speaker 1: to be born as a human being Emmanuel God with
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Speaker 1: us and become one of us apart from sin. Now
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Speaker 1: you can read on verse six, though he was God,
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Speaker 1: did not think of equality with God as something to
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Speaker 1: cling to. No selfishness whatsoever. Instead, he gave up his
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Speaker 1: divine privileges, took the humble position of a slave, and
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Speaker 1: was born as a human being. He was willing to
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Speaker 1: come and live among us, And if that wasn't enough,
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Speaker 1: when he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in
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Speaker 1: obedience to God, died a criminal's death on a cross,
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Speaker 1: the ultimate in sacrifice as opposed to selfishness. He was
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Speaker 1: willing to die, and as he hung, there was able
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Speaker 1: to say to tell us, ty, it is finished. It
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Speaker 1: is finished, And slumped in death, having paid the penalty
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Speaker 1: for the sins of the world, easy to forget where
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Speaker 1: he once was and now where he is. The beauty
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Speaker 1: of this passage is that he is the example of
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Speaker 1: how to live a life. We are given the opportunity
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Speaker 1: every day with choices. We can choose our own way,
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Speaker 1: or we can think of others. We can do what
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Speaker 1: is only best for us, or we can do with
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Speaker 1: what benefits others. Jonah chose the former, Jesus the latter.
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Speaker 1: As a result, life revolves around the one who gave
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Speaker 1: himself that we might know eternal life. In an amazing
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Speaker 1: he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf,
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Speaker 1: that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
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Speaker 1: The lady and Thomas put it well when he said,
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Speaker 1: the life that he lived qualified him for the death
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Speaker 1: that he died, and the death that he died qualifies
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Speaker 1: us for the life that he lived. It would never
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Speaker 1: have been possible had he selfishly clung to the glories
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Speaker 1: of heaven and said I will not go. But from
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Speaker 1: the moment he became an adult human being on a
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Speaker 1: mission in his ministry, he was malign, mistreated, hated, despised,
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Speaker 1: and ultimately a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
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Speaker 1: I think it's beautiful that the Lord established for the
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Speaker 1: church a memorial to his death. It's called the Lord's Table,
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Speaker 1: where there is a little piece of pastry that reminds
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Speaker 1: us of a body that was given for us, and
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Speaker 1: a small cup of juice that is a symbol of
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Speaker 1: his blood poured out for us to cleanse us from sin.
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Speaker 1: How beautiful that he has us hold those in our hands,
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Speaker 1: and of all things, put them in our mouths and
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Speaker 1: taste them, assimilate them, so that we might truly enter
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Speaker 1: into what it means to remember his death. Until he
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Speaker 1: returns now with me. Will you please right for your sitting,
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Speaker 1: just your heads, close your eyes. I must say to
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Speaker 1: all who are hearing this today that this table is
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Speaker 1: the Lord's table. It's not this church's table. He is
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Speaker 1: the host. You're not coming to our table. We're all
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Speaker 1: coming to his table. But if you don't know the Lord,
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Speaker 1: you have no part in it. How much better for
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Speaker 1: you to receive the Lord Jesus Christ right now. Just
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Speaker 1: acknowledge your sinfulness, your selfishness, a lifestyle of pleasing yourself,
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Speaker 1: and accepting the fact that Jesus can deliver you from
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Speaker 1: that as you trust in him and him alone giveness,
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Speaker 1: and then you'll be able to eat the bread and
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Speaker 1: drink from the cup with us. If you're a believer,
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Speaker 1: make sure that you are walking in the light, even
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Speaker 1: as our Savior is in the light. Before you partake
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Speaker 1: of the bread and the cup, search your heart see
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Speaker 1: if you be in the faith. Dear Father, we thank
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Speaker 1: you for the reminder. If we've had before us during
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Speaker 1: these weeks of study, we've seen a man whose life
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Speaker 1: has revolved around himself and the experience from one miserable
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Speaker 1: event to another. Convince us Lord that that is no
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Speaker 1: way to live and release our grip on ourselves. I
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Speaker 1: pray break through. And as we taste this bread and
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Speaker 1: drink this juice, remembering our Savior's body and blood, may
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Speaker 1: we deeply give thanks for all he has done for us.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for the cross where we first saw the light,
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Speaker 1: and you delivered us from darkness. Our worship is yours,
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Speaker 1: and we pray that it will be meaningful in the
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Speaker 1: name of Jesus. Amen. The preceding message, ticked Off to
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Speaker 1: the Bitter End, was copyrighted in twenty eighteen twenty nineteen,
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Speaker 1: and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty five
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Speaker 1: by Charles Arswin Dahl Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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Speaker 1: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.