DEC 31 2017 | Jonah 1

Sea Change Church · "Jonah 1" · Harry Wilson · December 31, 2017
Jonah 1
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Welcome again. As was said, my name's Harry. I'm the youth pastor here on staff, and I'm so thankful you guys joined us on the very last Sunday of the year. How cool is that? And so this Sunday, I was thinking about this message and what we do, and I thought we'd just do something a little different. Back in the times of the apostles and Jesus's day, they would often read longer lengths of scripture as part of their teaching.

And so as we enter into a new period, I thought we'd hearken back to some of the old. And so we're going to begin to read a full book of the Bible to end this year strong as a church family. So if we can all turn to Leviticus, just kidding. We're going to read the book of Jonah. It's one of my favorite books. It's a comedy or a satire. So if we've had a long, rocky year, this could be a positive, high note to end on.

And so with that, I just want to encourage you to follow along behind a peer behind me with the scripture, or you can open up your NIVs in front of you. Or if you prefer, you can also flip open your phone. There's no judgment for it. And you can go ahead and follow along there. So whichever way you prefer, I'm going to invite our first reader up to begin Jonah chapter one.

Jonah chapter one. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And he went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare, and he went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on that sea, so that the ship threatened to be broken up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his God. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship, and had lain down and was fast asleep.

So the captain came to him and said, what do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your God. Perhaps that God will give a thought to us, that we may not perish. And they said to one another, come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us.

What is your occupation, and from where do you come? What is your country, and of what people are you? And he said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, what is this that you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

Then they said to him, what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, pick me up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for you. For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

Therefore, they called out to the Lord. O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah, and they hurled him into the sea. And the sea ceased from its raging. And then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and they made vows.

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Thank you, Carol, also known as Grandma. I feel like I can't ever picture a time that you weren't Grandma. I think you're like a forever Grandma, right? You've never not been a Grandma? Good. Good. good. In the Scripture. So we have, first, Jonah getting approached by God, given this commission to go preach to Nineveh, preach against Nineveh, the Scripture actually says.

And he gets this commission, and Jonah has a very intense reaction to this. So much so that he's a prophet of Israel, and he believes that he's able to flee from the presence of the Lord. He gets to the point where he's ready to die instead of go to Nineveh. And so the question is, why? Why does Jonah have this intense reaction to God's commission on his life?

And we have to look back at 2 Kings chapter 17. We see that Israel has split up into two parts, two kingdoms. And Assyria comes in and completely wipes out and dominates half of one of the kingdoms of Israel. And sends them into exile. And Nineveh is the capital of Assyria. And so that's why Jonah, that's his people. That's why he holds so much anger.

He's harboring all this anger towards Nineveh. The very capital of the place that came and destroyed and sent his people into exile. And so Jonah has a very intense response. He responds to God by attempting to flee. And so in your notes, this first bullet that I want us to carry forward is that the way in which we choose to respond to God will set the trajectory and theme for our life.

It will become our internal anthem. And let's go ahead. We'll read these notes. These two kind of go together. We as a people are always looking for a pattern, creating a rhythm, or developing habits. The rhythms of life we create have a direct effect on our spiritual well-being. And so Jonah's response to God sets a rhythm of life for him. He actually begins a both spiritual and metaphorical and physical, I would say, a literal downward spiral.

We see Jonah get this commission from God. And then he goes down to Joppa to get on a boat to flee as far south as he can from Nineveh, which would be Tarshish. So he goes down to Joppa to get on a boat to go down to Tarshish, to then go down to the bottom of the boat to sleep. And then when he's thrown overboard, he goes down into the depths of the ocean, swallowed by a whale, down into the stomach of a whale.

And we see this literal downward spiral for Jonah, all because of the way in which he's responded to God in his life. I want us to just carry that forward as we think deeper about that. We don't see his rhythm of life change until he addresses the internal anthem that he's been living. And that doesn't happen for all of chapter one. It happens in chapter two, a very simple chapter.

And with that, let's invite the next reader so we can read chapter two. Jonah chapter two. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me. And out of the belly of Shoal I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the hearts of the seas, and the flood surrounded me.

All of your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over me to take my life. Then the deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you and to your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. And I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice you what I have vowed I will pay. Salvations belong to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Thank you, Kayleen. And so chapter 2, we actually, there's really no action happening in chapter 2. What happens is Jonah addresses the internal rhythms of his life. For this time, first time in this story, he changes his anthem. He switches to prayer. He goes and he's hit total rock bottom. And he actually prays this prayer of thanksgiving and gratitude.

That he thanks God for always being with him. He prays this prayer of gratitude. But unfortunately for Jonah's story, he has to wait till he's swallowed by the belly of a whale till he turns to prayer. And sometimes it's like that for us. We wait until we hit a rock bottom, and then we address our anthem. Then we turn to prayer. Then we turn to scripture.

Then we go to our pastor and say, I need help. But what would it look like in our life as we go about our new year if we're including God in prayer and scripture in the rhythms of life that we live on a daily basis? What would that look like? So often we wait until we've hit a rock bottom spot. It was similar for me in my life. I was roughly 19, 20 years old.

I had a time in my life that I'd put God on a far back burner. And we decided to kind of take my life by my hands, my reins. And I went on my own downward spiral. I wouldn't say it was, I was not swallowed by a whale. It was not quite nearly as bad as Jonah's downward spiral. But I had my own things going on that I was consumed. And I was in a really hard place, a place where I felt trapped.

And I was actually watching one of my favorite bands one day play this concert. And I was looking out at the crowds of people and everyone singing in unison. And I looked at what they created. And I thought, wow, God, I want to create something. And so for the first time I changed my anthem, I turned to prayer. And I asked God, help me to create.

I want to create something like that. And I think in my selfish human mind, I pictured myself in a rock band, like getting to create something cool like that, right? That's what I pictured. I pictured myself on stage just rocking out. God gave my wife those gifts, not me, unfortunately. But I prayed this prayer of wanting to create. And about two weeks later, I got a call from Pastor Adam Stattmiller.

And he started to invite me out to coffee. And this was strange because I did not attend this church. My grandmother attended the church. And my mom attended the church. But I maybe came here on a Christmas Eve service every once in a while. And Adam called me and we started to get coffee. And eventually it led to me, God opening a door for me to be the middle school pastor here.

And eventually the youth pastor. And so it all started with a prayer of asking God to create. What do you want to create in your new year? I'd advise you, based on my experience, to ask God. What do you want to create for 2018? Go to God first. And let's not wait until we hit this rock bottom place. New Year's is a time where we really think about our and focus on new goals, right?

We make New Year's resolutions. And we set these goals of weight loss. Set goals of saving more money. Of making more money. We set all these different goals for New Year's. And none of those things are bad things. But when we put too much weight on those things. That those are the things that have to change. That's what was wrong in 2017. And I'm going to fix these things and my 2018 is going to be right.

It's easy to miss the internal rhythms of the way we're living. That sometimes those internal rhythms need to be addressed. What do I mean by that? I mean, what's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Is it checking your cell phone and flipping through the news? What's that internal rhythm? How's our prayer life? Or what's the DNA of our thought life?

What are the thoughts that consume us that we spend our time daydreaming about? What's the culture of your home? Sometimes it's these internal rhythms. These daily rhythms of life that we live. That need to be addressed before we address the needing to lose the weight. Or needing to save the money. Those are good things. But often those aren't the things, the main things that we need to address when we look out into a new year.

As I was preparing this message, I called Dr. David Levy. Because he's somebody who I know has set kind of a culture for his home very purposely. He's a great example of that. He's helping out with the kids right now today. And he set this culture for his home. And so I asked him about it. And I said, what's the biggest thing? What do you do to set a culture for your home?

And he said, the very first thing that comes to mind is Sabbath. Every Friday, he said, I take a Sabbath. I take a full 24-hour day of rest. I unplug my phone. I don't check my email. Turn my computer off. I don't do any work. I take a Sabbath. And this Sabbath can interrupt this busy work week we all have. We all have these busy weeks, especially Christmas time.

It gets crazy. These busy work weeks we live. And a Sabbath can kind of interrupt this busy rhythm of life that we're living in. And can give you time of rest with God. And so he said there's a couple things about it that he would share. He said one, that at first, he would start. He encourages people if they want to start a Sabbath and haven't taken a full Sabbath.

To start where they're at. Start with an hour. Start with two hours. Start exactly where you're at. Sometimes it's difficult to just jump to a 24-hour Sabbath. He also said that to be aware that it can be kind of depressing at first. He said when he first started taking a Sabbath, it was kind of difficult. It was kind of depressing. Because our body is withdrawing from the constant stimulation of the life we live.

We have the stimulation of our phones. The stimulation of work. The stimulation of always checking our email. And we're under this constant stimulation. So when we have to stop, rest, be silent, and hear from God. Be fully present with the people we're with. And with God. That can become kind of depressing. It can kind of slow us down and we withdraw a little bit.

And so that's something he wanted to warn us. And these are the types of things that we need to address in our new year. What's the rhythms of life that we're living that we need to address? Does Sabbath need to become a part of your rhythm of life? With that, what's happened in this story so far? Jonah's been disobedient. He's run away from God.

He's been swallowed up by this whale. He's now at a point where he's been vomited out onto the beach. I think this is a great picture of God's sense of humor, this story. We see that. We would love to picture Jonah ascending out of the whale. And landing on a hammock on the beach. That would be a much better picture for us. But unfortunately, we get that he's vomited out.

And the Hebrew word for that is actually more descriptive than our own word. We won't get into the details of that. But it is more descriptive. And so we can't change it, even though we might like to picture him just ascending from the whale. I love that Jonah has fled from God to the point where he's willing to die. And he's jumped into the ocean.

And God has basically called a whale Uber to pick him up and take him right where he needs to be. And vomits him right out onto the beach at Nineveh. And so now he's on the beach. And it comes time. And God's going to approach him. And we're going to see what happens next in this story. Let's invite our third reader up. Hi. Chapter 3. Jonah goes to Nineveh.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. Sorry. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey.

And he called out, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation, and published through Nineveh.

By the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent, and turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.

When God saw what they did, and how they turned from the evil way, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it. Thank you, Lily. And so what's funny about this story, is we now have Jonah on the beach. He receives a commission from God, and God says, Hey, Jonah, this has been a really tough time. You haven't done well with this commission.

It's been a little rough, so why don't we start with a city that you don't hate so much. Maybe we'll start with a smaller city, and it'll be a little easier, and we'll kind of build our way up. That's not what God says, right? God gives him the exact same commission that he gave him in the very beginning of the book. Jonah has gone through a lot to the point where he's willing to die, and God says, arise, go to Nineveh, and preach against it.

God does not lower the bar for Jonah in any way. He does not lower his standards for Jonah in any way, because God intimately knows who Jonah is, what he wants for him, and what he's capable of. And so for Jonah's sake, he's not going to give him any less. And I wrote in your notes that Jesus is the standard that we are all expected. Sorry, Jesus is a standard that none of us can meet, yet God is not lowering the bar.

God sent his perfect son to live a perfect life for us and set the standard of what it means to be fully human, what it means to be fully alive, what it means to be in full communion with God. That's the standard, and he's not lowering the bar for our sake. Now, we can't reach it. We will fall short, and that's why we have this loving, gracious God that extends a hand when we do fall short.

But he doesn't lower the bar. We're called to seek out in righteousness, seek out holiness, seek out God, make God part of our internal rhythm of our everyday life. That's what it means to be a Christian, to be a little Christ, to follow in God, to be like Christ. He doesn't lower that bar for our sake. Jesus is the standard, and we're going to fail.

We're going to fall short, but ultimately, it's not about performance. It's not about performance, and we'll see that with what Jonah does next. Jonah decides to, all right, he's going to follow in the commission that God has given him. God says, go preach against Nineveh. He's fine. He's going. He's following God's footsteps. Jonah, as far as we know, he's stepping into the climax of his story.

He's, this is the first, this is the second time, actually, in the Bible that Jonah appears. He appears another time in the books of Kings. But as far as what's written about him, this is the most he's ever done for God. He's stepping into the climax of his story, going into this great city, ready to preach against it. He's being used by God in a dramatic way.

And he steps in, and he preaches possibly the worst sermon of all time. He says what? That is just five words in the Hebrew. Jonah walks in, in the midst of his calling, and says five words. And there's no mention of God's grace. No mention of God's mercy. No mention of his love. No mention of his forgiveness. No mention of God. And there's actually no mention of repentance.

There's no instruction for these people. But ultimately, it's not about performance. It's about walking in the will of God. Because what do we see happen? We see an entire wicked city repent. Put sackcloth on their heads. And call out to the one true living God. It's not about our performance. And so often, when it comes to these New Year's times, we're thinking about new year, new me.

Like, I gotta get this better. I gotta get this right. I'm gonna be the best me I've ever been. And that's cool. But it's not about our performance. It's not about being our absolute best. It's about walking in the will of God's life. In the rhythms of God's life. Of what God has for us. Of prayer. Of worship. That's what it's about. Not about being the best.

Not about being our absolute best. And we can get so caught up in that. Thank you, Pastor Adam. I will. And so with that, we're gonna see that Jonah goes in. We see this entire city, entire city repent, call out to God. And we're gonna get to see what Jonah's response is to that. Let's go ahead and invite our fourth reader up. My beautiful wife. Chapter four.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, Oh, Lord, is this not what I said when I was yet in my country? That's why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And relenting from disaster. Therefore now, oh Lord, please take my life from me.

For it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord says, Do you do well to be angry? Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade. Till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah. That it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort.

So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind. And the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die. And said, It is better for me to die than to live.

But God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the plant? And he said, Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said, You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also much cattle?

This last chapter is just such a cool picture of God's total caring, loving grace. So much to the point where he mentions the cattle, the last word he mentions cattle. And that he actually puts together an object lesson for Jonah to try to show him why he would care so much about these people, that he would want to actually try to save them from a disaster.

It's just such a picture of God's mercy, of God's grace, that he enters into a dialogue with Jonah. And Jonah's holding on to this anger. And all God says is, How's that going for you? Do you do well to be angry? And so if we're holding on to something, if we have something that we need to let go of into this new year, maybe God is asking you, How's that going for you?

Do you do well to be angry? How's it going? That's all he says. And so ultimately, God has the last word in this story. We don't get to see exactly how Jonah responds. The last word in this story is by God. And ultimately, it's a reflection then for us. It's for us to take and reflect. How are we responding to the call and response relationship when it comes to God?

How are we responding to the dialogue of God in our life? What do those prayers look like? And in your notes, I said, If we act obediently, we may avoid the belly of Sheol. Which is what Jonah refers to in the whale. It's another way of saying hell. And even more importantly, we can enjoy the blessings and celebrations that come along with the adventure.

And so Jonah misses out because his will, his desires are not in line with God's desires. He misses out on celebration, on adventure. He misses out. He's lived an amazing story. He goes into a city, says five words, and an entire city repents. But he doesn't get to enjoy the blessing, the celebration of that. Because he's not in tune with the will of God.

He's not living a life as far as rhythm of God's will in his life. He doesn't want the same way. He might have walked in that will for that moment. But it's not lining up with his desires. And so an important prayer for us to pray is, God, align my will and my desires with your desires. I want to give, I want to open my hands up for this new year.

We all have so many things we want to happen. And if we go into it with closed fists, like this is exactly what has to happen. We might miss out, actually. But if we open our hands and say, God, your will be done. Let me live a life to the fullest with you. Then, then we can see God work in our life. And so I want to read this quote by Eugene Peterson.

This is from his book, The Jesus Way. And he says this. The way of Jesus cannot be imposed or mapped. It requires an active participation in the following of Jesus. As he leads us through sometimes strange and unfamiliar territory. In circumstances that become clear only in the hesitations and questionings. In the pauses and reflections. Where we engage in prayerful conversation with one another and with him.

Ultimately, what Eugene Peterson is describing here is a rhythm of life that is lived with a co-authorship with God. A co-authorship. When we offer up our future to God. We offer up our lives to God. We say here. He then gets to. He invites us to co-author back with him. To be an author of our story. And that's this rhythm of life. And it happens, as he says, in the reflections.

In the pauses. In the wrestlings. In the questions. It's good to have those dialogues. It's about those dialogues. Like invite God into the wrestling of your everyday life. Life. That's what it's about. And that's what Eugene Peterson is describing in this quote. And so as we begin to pray out. I want to take a second as we pray of just silence for us to reflect on New Year.

To pray a prayer of gratitude for the things that he gave us in 2017. We see the only time in Jonah's story is when he prays this prayer of gratitude. That's the only time anything changes. And so let's start by that. Praying this prayer of gratitude. As I was preparing the sermon, I got a ping on my phone. And I'm not subscribed to Apple News. But I guess because I have an iPhone, I am.

And it was an article. And it called 2017, the year in anxiety. And it gave a list of all the things Americans have to be anxious about. And it's not to say it hasn't been a hard year. That there hasn't been things to be difficult. But so much, that's the wrong rhythm of life. And as Adam often says, we're a church that seeks to live beyond the headlines.

Beyond the headlines. In fact, we have to manufacture our own headlines. Look to turn to God for the headlines. And that's how we're going to start this with. That's how we're starting this new year right now. As we're going to take a moment of silence. And then our prayers out. And let's just pray a prayer of gratitude and thanksgiving. For what God has given us into the new year.

Into this last year. And an excitement for what's to come to the new year. Just bow your heads with me for a second. Father, thank you that you invite us to be a part of heavenly rhythm, Lord. That you invite us to play instruments with your angels, Lord. You invite us to co-author in our story. That it's not about our performance. That where we fall short, you give us a hand.

That you are a good God. And that there are only adventures to come. We thank you for all the blessings in 2017. And we give you this new year as we go out today. Because you've sent us. In your awesome name. Amen. Amen. Good job, Harry. Woo! Solid. Solid. That's what our middle school and high school get every week. That is so good. And we're just blessed here by our...

What a great team. We had a joke with my daughter and I. She said, why is the spaghetti so good? My daughter kept asking me. And I kept saying, the secret's in the sauce. The secret's in the sauce. So my 10-year-old running around the house, she's like, the secret's in the sauce. Actually at church. Secrets in the people. And the secret's in Jesus, obviously.

But from our volunteers. First of all, I personally want to say thank you to all the volunteers who volunteered this year. From the surf church people to the people on the media team. And it really, it takes a community to make all this happen. And then also the team of your staff and your elder board. I love building teams. I don't like playing individualistic sports.

I don't like winning individually. I want to win as a team. And I love team building. And we just have a great, great team here. From the volunteers and everybody, especially the staff. Thank you, Harry. Kalina, you wore the heels. You just crushed him. That was awesome. But with that said, hey, you know, I'd throw out resolutions and repent. I think that's just a good word today.

I think it's a really good word. Resolutions are great. This is my third year. My resolution has been not to set a resolution. Just living according to values. But repenting and just saying, God, I'm just sorry. Changed my life. I repent. Hey, would you stand? We're going to sing our final song of 2017. It has been a great year on this corner of what God's done.

And in the lives of people who've seen that. After this song, I'm going to come up and give you the final blessing of the year. Then we're going to go out together. Take this world captive for the name of Jesus. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That you. Thank you. That you. ... ... And you. healing. healing. healing. healing. ... And you. but you. .. you. You.