Gateway Church Live | “Fish Tales” by Pastor Josh Morris | September 11

[Music] [Music] [Music] hey how you doing gateway church hope you're glad to be together in this house today whether you're here in person or if you join us online or part of our gateway gatherings i believe god's gonna do some amazing things in our midst i don't know how you walked in today but i believe as we enter into his presence god's going to encourage us we serve a good good father psalms 100 says let's give thanks and praise his name for he is good so let's declare his goodness over our lives today amen come on let's worship [Music] are you ready to worship come on lift up in this room thank you jesus [Music] is [Music] yes i am [Music] while i was a slave to sin jesus died for me [Music] yes [Music] is [Music] [Music] i i am [Music] i am [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's a place [Applause] [Music] [Music] yes i am now lift your voices in this room if you're free indeed come on lift your voice in this room every free son and every free daughter i don't care what the week has been like you are free because who the son set free somebody lift those hands with me if you don't mind i thank you that i'm [Music] free i'm free i'm so glad to be free in your presence in your presence together come on man [Music] i am [Music] as i am [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes i [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] yes i am [Applause] [Music] we're grateful for your presence and we are your children and we are free to return praise and worship to you because you're good somebody shout god you're good you're so good you're so good who you are you are you are i love you lord oh your mercy never fails me and all my days i've been held in your head from the moment that i wake up [Music] of god [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] i love your voice [Music] [Music] [Music] i know you are [Applause] [Music] for my uh [Music] [Laughter] [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] every breath that i am [Music] i will sing i will sing i will sing of the goodness of god [Music] [Applause] can we just take a moment and just breathe in the reality of god's incredible presence and when you breathe that out you know what you can exhale you exhale a song breathe out of worship come on begin to say something in this atmosphere return to god in this moment the praise that he deserves and you know why you're doing it because you're breathing in this goodness every breath you take is the goodness of god preserving you and bringing every promise to pass and bringing you closer to the miracle to the healing to the provision to everything come on somebody lift up worship in this room because something is activating in your praise and in your worship the goodness of god is connecting with your worship and it's exploding in miracles and signs and wonders and favor and blessing and healing and provision someone lifts your voice thank you for your goodness [Music] [Music] is pursuing my heart your goodness oh goodness [Music] is [Applause] is [Music] surely goodness and mercy will follow me surely your goodness and mercy will follow me surely your goodness and mercy that's the word come on sure i'm declaring it your goodness and mercy come on declare the word follow me yeah surely [Music] your mercy will follow me follow me cause you're a good good friend it's who you are it's who you are [Music] it's who i am [Music] it's [Music] come on church lift it up you are [Music] you are [Music] two you're perfect to use [Music] [Music] love you god [Music] walking around [Music] me [Music] waiting for change to come knowing the battle [Music] yet [Music] is [Music] this is [Music] is [Music] again oh jesus [Music] [Music] your praises my heart [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] this is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] and i believe [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] thank you jesus you're gonna do it again we believe it in the name of jesus by faith you are able to do the impossible and we thank you for your presence in jesus name now would you take a moment and greet some folks around you welcome to gateway church [Music] oh [Music] we understand that there has been a plane crash on the southern tip of manhattan you're looking at the uh world trade center we understand that a plane we're just tuning in right now you're looking at a live picture [Music] [Music] new day crisp dawn you did not know blue skies would turn to ash flames glow two towers once proud in tandem sway and mar the memory of this day terror all watch in disbelief as calls unanswered give way to grief rushed stairs black smoke they could not see before unknown now heroes be hear bells they told each name spoke clear white rose whose birth do you hold dear two pools reflect what would they say of dreams cut short that fateful day [Music] new day bright dawn let hatred cease united hearts give way to peace up from the ground where ash once lay hope rises up in full array this new day we want to take a moment today to remember the tragedy that happened 20 years ago on 9 11 and the many lives that were lost that day and not just that day even in the aftermath of that day the lives that were lost and there's families all across the country all across the world that are remembering their loved ones that are lost today and so we want to take a moment to pray for those families but first if you would just join me we want to take a moment of silence as we honor and remember those lives that were lost lord we just lift up the families today that have suffered much loss over 20 years ago on 9 11 the loved ones that they lost and the ones that we've lost in the aftermath of that day and lord we just ask that you the prince of peace would be near to them lord that whether they know you or not lord they would feel your nearness they would feel the comfort of your holy spirit today in jesus name amen amen you know that was a dark day but there was actually bright moments throughout that day and those bright moments were brave men and women that ran into the face of darkness to serve those in need and so we also today want to take a moment to honor our first responders and so today if you're a first responder would you stand up if you're a policeman a fireman an emt if you serve in the medical industry yes please stand up let's honor them today [Music] we're so grateful for you and your service if you would stretch your hand out to them we want to pray a blessing over them we want to honor them but we know that they continue day after day to run in to darkness for us and to run into difficulty and so we want to pray a hedge of protection over them so lord today lord we thank you for every brave man and woman who serves us who serves our communities lord we ask for your protection to be upon them lord we ask you even in this moment lord that they would feel your presence upon them you would give them strength and grace lord we ask for your protection to be upon them and their families and we bless them today in jesus name amen can we give it up for them again we're so grateful for you [Music] hey everyone we're so glad that you're joining us whether you're with us online or in person here are a few things that you need to know a lot of great things are happening at gateway here are a few ways you can get involved right now to check out all that's going on visit gatewaypeople.com also you can follow us on social media and join your campus facebook group if you'd like to give today you can visit gatewaypeople.com and click on the gift tab use our mobile app or give it any one of the offering boxes at any of our campuses we have so many amazing opportunities for you to grow connect and be encouraged for more information visit us at connectcentral or text connect to 71010 we're so glad you're joining us thanks for being here today [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] welcome to growth path so good to see you guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'm going to start a series called the seven churches of revelation they have to do with every generation in all times and they have to do with us and even though john penned them they are the words of jesus and it's jesus's message to us today [Music] [Applause] all right [Music] welcome welcome welcome uh to gateway church welcome to those of you that are watching at every campus uh every gathering and watching online today and welcome to you here at the south lake campus i'm honored to be back speaking to you i want to give you a quick update on my dad uh as he mentioned a couple weeks ago uh he preached through it but he had uh he lifted something heavy and ended up tearing a muscle in his uh what's this thing called right here uh hamstring and thank you and this is a rough start already guys i can't remember hamstring so uh uh so he pulled a muscle in his hamstring and uh it it swelled up really bad bled uh internally and then all that blood uh trickled down to his feet uh which then caused the nerves to inflame uh it's a really hard medical term to say i think the abbreviation is rsd or something like that and so uh his foot swelled up and it caused the nerves to go crazy he described it as like as if your basement and your house is flooding and uh your house starts uh banging against the walls trying to get your attention like just a a a a significant amount of pain in his leg uh and so you know you hear pull pulled hamstring and you think like okay you know that's uh that's a pretty simple thing um i'm gonna show you some pictures we debated i just met with everyone back there because uh well number one i don't want to faint in front of you so it's not bloody or anything like that but if you're squeamish at all you might not want to look at this but i just want to give you an idea of what actually is going on in his foot so this first picture is when it really started to swell get ready here it is it swelled up really bad turned black and blue here's the next picture is kind of a progression of that and then here's a picture that he took yesterday and you can see that the swelling has gone down significantly but it almost looks like he has a sunburn and that's because of the inflamed nerves that are going on he's on some medicine that is going to relieve uh the pressure on those nerves and has already caused the swelling to go down so he's keeping his leg propped up and uh and so he's doing great though recovering uh and so he's feeling great and we'll be back next week uh to start that series that we just heard about which is the seven churches of revelation he told me a little bit about it he's been uh spending a lot of time sitting in bed you know keeping his feet propped up and uh what does a preacher do when he's got nothing else to do is study a lot so you are going i was like so excited to hear what he's going to talk about you're definitely going to want to hear this message and that series starts uh next week so make sure that you're here for that we would love for you to be a part of that and then uh let me just give you a quick update as well dad mentioned this a couple weeks ago my family and i we have been living for about the last year in amarillo texas and we just over the last couple weeks moved back here to the area we're excited about that it's been great it's been a good move god has worked out all the plans it was very quick and so we had to rush to get the kids into a school and find a rental house around here so that we could move in on time for them to go to school we put them into a christian school here in the area and they're doing great and loving that and hannah my wife accepted a job at an organization called embrace grace many of you will know that name because it was birthed right out of gateway church started from a small group right here and now has grown to be a ministry that impacts people all over the country and it is literally her dream job it is her favorite thing in the world and she's doing such great work if you don't know about embrace grace they help uh mothers who find themselves in unexpected pregnancies and do not have a support system around them and so it's a it's a very important work something that i'm very passionate about and i'll tell you a little bit more about it actually a little bit later but uh hannah's doing great and enjoying that my daughter's 11 she's here on the front row and she's the funniest person i've ever met i was thinking about taking her to improv and see if they let her do a couple minutes of stand up because she has me in stitches every day she's so funny uh grady is 14 he is fully 14. he is fully a teenager uh and that means that uh you know uh he smells bad sometimes you know um he acts like a teenager i i got permission to share this uh from him i i he's here with his friend judah and uh i i recently from you know judah came up to amarillo and hung out with us there for a little while and so i drove from amarillo back here to drop judah off and we were gonna spend some time in town and that's about a five hour drive and uh for no less than two weeks my car smelled like a boy's locker room after that uh and so we're making the drive and i was already stressed out i like to keep my truck really clean and these these dudes had whole meals i don't know if they had a microwave back there they were making like microwave meals and stuff they were eating constantly and the trash was flying everywhere the drinks were spilling everywhere and uh then soon enough they said hey can we pull over and stop at a gas station and so i said yeah sure i'm thinking they have to go to the bathroom because they've been eating and drinking like crazy we get to the gas station and they just start loading up on snacks like they were already hungry again so they're just like a bottomless pit and so they they come out with all these snacks and you know some like okay well let's let's buy all these snacks you know we get back in the car we're not two more hours down the road they're like hey can we stop with the gas room like finally they do have to go to the bathroom we stopped they just wanted more food that was it they just that was the entire trip uh it was an expensive trip for me i took out a small loan i got a really good interest rate it was fine that's all they do is eat just constantly that's all they do and uh so the other day you know um grady was outside playing basketball with his friends and he came in and you know he's 14 and he he walked in and it was so sweet because he like sat right next to me and he wrapped his arm around me and he laid his head on my shoulder and he kind of snuggled with me you know and that doesn't always happen when when a kid is 14 years old you know they start to maybe kind of pull themselves away from you and so you want to cherish those moments you know and so i'm hugging him and i'm i'm sitting there thinking how can i get out of this without scarring him emotionally for life because he was outside playing basketball and wore his hoodie and it was 100 degrees outside i felt like i was snuggling with a smelly nuclear reactor you know like that's that was what i had next to me you know and so uh that that's just the stage of life that we're in him and his friends came in from playing basketball they literally elevated the the temperature in the entire house just by walking in and so we're just dealing with all the teenager things but they're loving school and loving being back here in the area and so that's an update on our life my primary responsibility now here at gateway is to teach and preach and so i'm so excited about that this is my favorite place in the world to preach and uh and this is my my dream job as well so we're just so glad to be back here and uh serving on on the team again so i want to talk to you about uh something that's uh talked about really really commonly in church really often this is talked about all the time uh joe pastor jelani i know last weekend was a holiday weekend if you didn't get a chance to see that message hopefully you watch it online but go back and watch it it was incredible and he talked about forgiveness and this is going to be somewhat of a follow-up to that this pertains some of the elements of forgiveness and i titled the message today fish tales and again we're going to talk about a really popular subject in church and that is the story of jonah well it's popular in kids church i'll say that maybe not so much in adult services i can't think of the last time i heard an entire message on jonah and uh and and so we're gonna dive in and it's an important text and so it's important for us to pay attention to it it's not a kid's story it's far too complicated for it to be a kid's story there's far too many layers there's far too many messages that are found in the story of jonah so it's fine for us to to kind of boil that down and teach the kids that but growing up in church as a pastor's kid it was a story that i heard a million times over the lesson of it was something very similar which was don't disobey god or you'll get eaten by a whale and so uh that was it that's what i thought the depth of that entire story was all about and it turns out there's so much more than that and in fact uh we often associate it we say jonah and the whale that's often what we say uh you know sometimes you you if you even mention that we're jonah if i say like uh to friends i'm gonna preach about jonah this weekend let's say you mean joan and the whale and it's like you know we should realize that the book of jonah is four chapters long and the portion about the fish is one verse it's two sentences the story is not about the fish we should also point out that whale is never mentioned in the scriptures about jonah it's not a whale it says the great fish it would be just as accurate to call it a sea monster as it would be to call it a whale because we don't know it was just a really great fish great because he was cool or great because he was huge i have no idea it was just a great fish that's all that we know from the bible but the story is not about the fish it's about so much more than that and honestly i did struggle with this story for for for many years i i grew up hearing the story and even when i was a kid i was like uh are you sure are you sure that's what happened jonah lived inside the belly of the whale for for three days and three nights and he wrote this elegant poem while he was in there i'm not sure what he wrote on or how he how he was able to speak this very eloquent prayer and i struggled with it and as adult as an adult it got worse and worse and people weren't addressing the story of jonah and so uh i started to question it now uh that didn't go very well for me like me uh going like i'm not so sure um i immediately was met with backlash it was not a subject that was okay to talk about and uh and that sort of sent me a way to to have a moment with god and say god you you gotta tell me am i uh am i being a bad person for questioning this story am i being a bad person for needing more information and more context about this and so i just i i had had a particularly difficult conversation i went home and i prayed and i said god you gotta you gotta tell me is this okay for me to do i'll never forget god said do your worst and in all of my conversations with other people around me when i had brought up the struggle that i was experiencing i was met with what i would call fear and insecurity don't question those things that's a dangerous path don't do that don't do that just believe that's what i was told over and over again just believe just accept it for what it is and believe and i wept at the security of god to say do whatever you want because i'm certain that you'll still find me now people question all the time and they fall away from god but my belief is that the reason that that happens is because so often when people are questioning or struggling with something they are pushed out of the community of the church because of whatever feelings we have about those questions and so then they are left to struggle alone it's okay to wrestle with god it's okay to to to take these scriptures seriously enough to investigate them it's okay to do those things and the very best way that you can do it is to do it with god so that you have the holy spirit illuminating the scriptures to you and to do it with community in the body of christ and so often that doesn't happen we push those people out i was just talking about this to a friend of mine this week and he said that's what happened to my brother when he started asking questions the church literally ostracized him and he ended up not being a believer today and he said i'm so grieved about it we should not uh treat people poorly because they are struggling with something we should welcome them in and say let's go on a journey together with the presence of god so that we can wrestle through these stories so here's something that you need to know about the book of jonah there are theologians and scholars and hebrew scholars that uh that believe that the bible is inspired that it is true that it is god's word and uh and that it is accurate that it is it is true and and inspired by god and uh and and they will say that the story of jonah is historical it is a an historical account of a prophet jonah who we know is a historical character because we see him in other passages and we'll talk about that in a moment but they would say yes we we affirm and believe in the scriptures and so therefore jonah is a historical telling there are other scholars hebrew scholars and and and theologians and they believe the exact same thing on the first part they believe that the bible is inspired that it is holy that it is true that it is right that it is god breathed they believe all of those things and they also believe that the story of jonah is a parable using a historical character much like jesus did whenever he talked about the beggar lazarus and the rich man jesus used a historical figure lazarus the the beggar and he also tells it in the form of a parable now it doesn't really matter for this context today we will learn every lesson that we need to learn no matter which camp you fall in it's not important for us to try to decide or solve that it's more important for us to say we can leave that as a mystery but we ought to take this story seriously and say god what do you have to speak to me about this what happens so often is because it is relegated down to a kid's story we leave it pushed to the side we don't take it very seriously it would be i'm not going to do it but it would be really interesting to say how many of you are familiar with the story of jonah and see the hands and then say and how many of you have spent any exhaustive amount of time studying the book of jonah it would be far fewer hands there's no judgment to that that was my position for so many years and i relegated it to this kid's story that i learned but it didn't seem to have very much bearing on my life as an adult and so what we want to do then is take it very seriously we want to take this thing seriously and and in march i preached a series about the promised land that was partly as a result of the struggle where i wanted to go back and i wanted to find the the truth and the depth of the old testament old testament scriptures and so uh uh i'm just putting it out there that there are two camps and they they both they both believe in the whole uh the whole sanctity of the bible the god-breathed part but there are two different ways that you could look at the story of jonah again it doesn't really matter for this but as i started studying it i just read it over and over i was blessed to find great stuff by tim mackey he's a hebrew scholar so he brings light to that by being able to read it in its original hebrew context and to be able to point out the the the poetry of all of this book and the things that it's trying to tell us so uh the the the first thing that we want to talk about today is that uh the there are this is something that we can all agree on there are different literary styles used in the different books of the bible there's different authors there's just different methods of telling the story there's just different categories that they fall into the psalms fall into a more poetic approach the the book of revelation is a more prophetic book the uh the gospels are a narrative story about uh the the man jesus christ that lived on the earth the prophets traditionally take a very historical approach of laying out the exact history of what took place and they'll include lots of names and dates and titles and things like that in order to bring a precedence to the historical views that they hold and so there's all these different kind of literary styles and the book of jonah i would like to propose to you today is written in a particular style that we're not used to seeing in scripture that style is satire it is satire it is written in a way that is supposed to blow up these big proportional things and give this big dramatic funny story i believe that a hebrew audience would have laughed at this story because they would have seen the the the way that it is in the original language brings all of these things out they would have laughed at this story and so we'll talk more about why it is satire let me just go through a couple different things that they would have noticed a hebrew audience first is that the the way that it starts the entire book starts with saying that jonah is the son of ametai now jonah means dove which we associate with purity and uh amitai means faithfulness so it says jonah the dove purity the son of faithfulness and then as the story goes along they will hear that he was not quite faithful and not quite pure as the story goes along and so right from the beginning you have this this contrast drawn up and and so the book seems to be uninterested in what actually ends up happening to jonah how does he change how does his character morph and grow it does we don't get any of that stuff we don't know how he ended it doesn't seem that he ended the story very well in fact i'll just show you this is the very last scripture of the fourth book of jonah which is the last book or the last chapter of jonah and this is what it says uh it's verse 11 it says and should not i pity nineveh this is god talking that great city in which there are more than and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also much cattle there's no more that's it that's how the book ends no redeeming character qualities in jonah no surprise ending there no jonah saying i repent god and this is what i'm going to do from now on that's how it ends and in case you have never spent very much time reading the story of jonah uh god seems to be really concerned with the cattle it ends with cattle it's the last word of the scripture and i don't know if you know this or not but when the the people of nineveh did confess and give their lives to god um the cattle did too i'm not kidding you go back and look at it uh the the the cattle repented and fasted they fasted the cattle stopped eating and that in and of itself is a miracle i have never seen a cow in my life that is doing anything other than eating that's all they do that's what cattle do they eat all the time i like to be outdoors sometimes i go out early in the morning or late at night and i'll be driving through like country roads and my headlights hit a bunch of cows and uh they're still eating it's the middle of the night that's all they do i'm like do you sleep do you do anything else they eat all the time but in the book of jonah god is really concerned with the cattle so much so that they fasted prayed they wore sackcloth i don't know it's a wild story i'm telling you the satire is heavy in this story it should make us laugh it should be fun and funny for us to listen to this story and there's a reason why we're gonna get there okay so uh jonah never learns his lesson even even when he does obey he does the bare minimum that god asked him to do there's no redeeming moment where he learns his lesson and changes or anything like that everything in the story is upside down jonah the prophet uh he disobeys all the time he does the wrong thing over and over again in this story and yet everyone who is painted as the big bad enemy of the story they always surrender to god immediately immediately for example when uh jonah is in the boat with pagan sailors this is where he gets thrown overboard and then after that swallowed by a a great fish in that story they ask him who what god do you serve and this is his response it's in jonah chapter 1 verse 9. it says 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 so the sailors are in a really bad storm a very bad storm and they're afraid that they're gonna die and so they cast lots and they figure out that jonah is the reason why they are in this predicament so they go to jonah and they say what god do you serve and he says i serve the god that made this very ocean right here he also made the dry land that we would all like to be on right now that was his response does it seem like jonah was fearful of god in that moment when they were like hey what should we do exactly then to make your god stop trying to kill us he was like uh you know we could go back to nineveh where i'm supposed to go you know what just throw me overboard i'd rather die i'm good just throw me overboard that'll that that should solve the problem this is not a god-fearing person in this moment the story is supposed to draw attention to that that the man of god is not acting the way that he is supposed to so within what do these pagan sailors do well then that's found in jonah chapter 1 verse 15 it says so they picked up jonah and hurled him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging then the men feared the lord exceedingly a true fear and they offered a sacrifice to the lord and made vows the story is supposed to point out to us that the people who are supposed to do the right thing are not doing it and the people who are supposed to do the wrong thing are turning from their wicked ways and doing the right thing we're supposed to see this giant contrast in all of this and recognize this and see what is going on what is happening in this flipped upside down world and so in hebrew the poetry of all of this is so strong jonah is supposed to go to nineveh but instead he goes down to joppa instead he goes down into the the sea and gets in the boat he goes down into the the bottom level of the boat he lays down to go to sleep and then he's hurled down into the ocean all of this poetic language is located here in this story he goes drifts down to the bottom of the sea it says he ends up in the roots of the mountains that seaweed wraps around his head and he ends up at the bottom of the earth and he gets barred underneath the earth and he ends up in sheol and then the fish scoops him up and brings him up rising up to dry land to the place where he's supposed to be bringing him back to the the calling that god has asked for him he he he cries out uh in in in this moment of desperation for god to save him and so he's restored back to the opportunity to be able to fulfill the calling that god has on his life and it carries that form or that ark it brings us through uh pointing all of this out when he was supposed to go east to go to nineveh he had straight west in fact i'll show you a map so that we can get a better idea of this israel is just a little bit north it's not on this map but israel is just a little bit north of joppa and he's supposed to go over to nineveh which is east you can see where nineveh is and uh instead he goes straight towards tarshish now once you pass that that is a vast ocean this was in essence the edge of the known world for them this was as far west as he could possibly go for you flat earthers there must be like a wall of ice on the other side of that i don't know but they could not go past that okay they couldn't do it so that he's going as far west as he could possibly go and there is nineveh there 550 miles inland my favorite thing especially in some of the kids books that talk about uh the story of jonah and the great fish is that uh sometimes a lesson i've even heard it adults talk about this sometimes the lesson that is pointed out is uh that uh god used the great fish to bring jonah to his actual destination which makes me wonder how that fish could walk 550 miles inland to nineveh we don't know where he ended up we don't know but he had a quite a journey from there still to make it to nineveh but the point of the story is telling us that everything that he's supposed to do he's doing the opposite of those things he's going it the opposite of everywhere that he's supposed to go and then finally he makes it to nineveh and he's supposed to preach to them and and and he doesn't want to be there it's pretty obvious that he doesn't want to be there and so uh he he preaches a five-word sermon for one day uh in in english it's uh like seven or eight words uh in in essence what he said is forty days and nineveh shall be overthrown but in hebrew it's five words he preaches a five word sermon this is kind of what it looked like him walking through town gone you're gonna die you're gonna die 40 days you're gonna die oh you're definitely gonna die 40 days you're gonna die you're gonna die 40 days 40 days you're going down anybody notice anything that's missing from that sermon well god maybe like god told him to go there you think maybe he could mention like yeah god the god i serve yahweh you know he he's coming for you no none of those things 40 days you're going to die that was his message now jonah walks around for one day in this city and he says 40 days and you're going to die you'll be overthrown are they how are they to know that it was an another army that was coming was it god we have no idea everything is backwards in this story jonah never even uh meets the the king of nineveh uh instead word just makes it up to the king of nineveh so i want you to imagine for just a moment that the king of nineveh is meeting with his advisors and uh they go um yeah king um something weird happened yesterday we need to tell you about it um there was this guy and uh i totally get that we're the greatest empire that the world has ever seen to to date uh but this guy he walked around town and uh he said we were going to be overthrown and the king says oh well uh was he a prophet uh you know he didn't say uh he just said we were going to be overthrown well did he look presentable did he look like uh did he look like a good dude is that what he looked like well he uh gonna be honest with you on this he's he smelled like he lived inside of a fish he was very disheveled he was wearing seaweed for clothing we don't know why um and he smelled awful and uh and he said he said 40 days we'd be overthrown and the king of nineveh was like guys this sounds serious this is a big deal um what i'd like you to do is tell every single person that they need to fast stop eating food no food no water they need to fast and they need to wear sackcloth and someone's like what hold on you talking about wearing burlap that really uncomfortable stuff you know it chafes right you know we don't want to do that you're right you get that he's like no no i know we got to take this seriously i want you to wear sackcloth and we're going to fast and this is this is how we're going to deal with this and they go cool king is that is that everything and he goes uh you know what just to be safe i'm just throwing this out there just just an idea let's have all the animals do it too sorry what you want the animals to stop eating and and how do we enforce that i'm sorry what do you want to do and he's like no this this guy's terrifying he's a fish person we don't know what's going on let's just do it all right make the animal stop eating that's what's going to happen today okay and then they do it and jonah leaves the city and he goes out and he sets up a little booth for himself and he sits and he watches safely outside of the city's headquarters let me tell you what this is this this this idea of of him coming out of here and he walks in and he gives them the bare amount of information possible and then he leaves the city and he sets up a booth why so that he can watch what's gonna happen this is called prophetic sabotage he did not want nineveh to be saved he did not want them to experience the grace of god so he walks around and he gives the bare minimum message of judgment but he never shows the love of god and then he sits outside the city and it's my belief that he was sitting there waiting for god to come and destroy them i'm going to watch this i'm going to watch it happen and every time we tell people about the judgment of god or the fact that he hates wickedness in the world but we don't show them the love of god we commit prophetic sabotage every time we point out what someone is doing wrong without showing them the love of god it is prophetic sabotage it is i hope you pay for the things that you have done and i refuse to tell you about the grace of god that he is pursuing you every day every night that he wants to be with you that he desires you that he loves you more than anybody else loves you in the world that is prophetic sabotage and so jonah sits outside watches and waits for destruction to come it's understandable actually if you look at it why jonah would feel that way let me tell you about the assyrians the assyrians occupied nineveh but they also occupied they were the the largest empire of that time they occupied massive amounts of area all uh encompassing parts of egypt uh into what is today iraq uh nineveh is uh located in mosul in iraq and uh and in fact uh isis recently destroyed many of the remains of the city of nineveh we had amazing remains of the city of nineveh and it was recently destroyed by isis and so they encompassed this in this huge swath of land they were a giant empire and they had taken over 10 of the 12 tribes of israel and you want to know what they did whenever they would take over a new land they were brilliant people today still study how the assyrians accomplished the military feats that they accomplished and what they did because they were such amazing warriors and they were so prolific at going in and conquering a place and taking it over and one of the things that they would do is that they would take jewish people after they would uh uh take over a jewish city they would take jewish people and i'm gonna try not to be too descriptive but they would impale them on a sharp stick and then stick that stick in the ground leaving the body hanging up so that as jewish people would enter the city they would remember what it looks like when you go against the assyrians when they conquered a city they would take all the leaders of that city and they would tie them up by their hands and their feet and they had developed a method where they could skin them alive that would keep them alive for as long as possible and the whole city would have to watch it happen can we understand a little bit now why jonah might not want to go to nineveh can we understand a little bit the adultness of this story and so jonah doesn't want to go to nineveh because he doesn't want them to be able to cheaply get out of what they've done he wants them to experience the pain and the hurt that they've caused for so many other people just to put it in context it would be as if you were living in the days of hitler and nazi germany and god tells you i want you to be a prophet go into the city and they're all going to repent and i'm going to forgive them wouldn't you be just a little tempted just a little bit to be like god i'd really rather see him die could you do it could you be the messenger of grace even in the face of such evil we understand now a little bit more about why it was so difficult for jonah to go into this place i've heard it said over and over that jonah was afraid or scared to go into nineveh to preach to them but he wasn't afraid of that he didn't leave because he was afraid of nineveh he didn't go as far west as he could so that he could get away from nineveh the bible says that he went as far west as he could so that he could get away from god and so then when he goes to nineveh it's not because he's scared we saw over and over that jonah was ready to die he was begging to die there's like a million times in four chapters where he begs god to kill him and he he gets thrown overboard he wants to die that isn't the problem so let's take a look at jonah chapter 4 verse 1 and see why did jonas struggle so much to go and witness to the ninevites it says but it displeased jonah exceedingly and he was angry that god did not kill them and he prayed to the lord and said o lord is not this what i said when i was yet in my country that is 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 o lord please take my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live and the lord said do you do well to be angry jonah didn't want to go to this evil city that had murdered so many of god's people because he knew that god would show them mercy he knew for a fact that as awful and as evil as these people had been god would forgive them we sometimes if we're honest might resent the never ceasing grace of god we might sometimes remind ourselves of all the good things that we've done remind ourselves that we came to church this week that we pressed in that we pursued god and we might sometimes look at all the evil in the world and be caught up in our hatred but unwilling to share in god's grace and mercy we don't look down on jonah as much when we write it when we say it this way we don't look down on his unwillingness to go there we understand that he had been impacted deeply by the effects of the wickedness of this group of people now there are a few other signs of this story being written as a satire and and those things are are made evident in what we see that that that here jonah is struggling with all of these things and over and over jonah does the bare minimum and he does the wrong thing over and over and and the people who are supposedly evil and do all of these wrong things continue to submit to god continue to do the right thing so why then write this story as a satire the reason is because the jewish people felt that same hatred that jonah felt towards the assyrians and so the story is written as a mirror a show that everyone is familiar with that has been around for a long time is saturday night live what they do on saturday night live is it's the show of satire they exaggerate everything that's going on and taking place they exaggerate it to all of these big proportions and they're exaggerating what it what our culture looks like and we laugh and we joke about it but if you stop and you think about it for just a moment you go actually they're making fun of us and it's supposed to draw attention to how ridiculous it may be if we were to continue to go down this path the book is written in this form so that the jewish people would say how ridiculous is jonah can you believe the way that he acted wait a second would you go to the assyrians it's a mirror that reflects back to us it's a mirror that is supposed to point back to us so that we will stop for just a moment and say are we sometimes resistant to the grace of god even when it applies to the evil that we see in the world around us so jonah is a type of christ or a foreshadowing of christ but he is also a type or a foreshadowing of us and that mirror points back to us jonah is like the old testament version of the new testament story of the good samaritan because when they hear the word samaritan they think bad but instead the samaritan is good it is jesus taking the story and flipping it upside down on its head so that we will stop and think and pause and wonder what role we are supposed to take and all of these things and the end of the story drives all of this home when jonah is sitting outside the city waiting to see how they will respond waiting to see how god will respond and he's sitting at that booth as he's watching there and in jonah chapter 4 starting in verse 9 it says 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 he loves being angry he's like i'd rather die and the lord said you pity the plant now as he was as he had this booth set up a plant sprung up overnight and gave him shade from the sun and then the very next night a worm came and ate the plant and it died and so he was mad about that too and so this is what the lord is talking about 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 not i pity nineveh that great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left hand and also some cattle there's some cattle there too just so so we can remember that part the story is a masterpiece god takes jonah back to what he first said when he said my serve the god that is the god the creator of the land and the sea and and and god is saying the this creation that i have created i caused this plant i am the one that caused this plant to grow and you resent that i took it away because it was servicing your needs but now when we're talking about 120 000 people that live in this city you want me to wipe them off the face of the earth on on this day the weekend where we remember 9 11. we should just pause for just a moment and remember that as as terrible as it was and as awful as it was for so much innocent life to be lost jesus still passionately pursues the hearts of those terrorists he loves them so much and so the lesson from jonah for us to learn is that it's okay for us to share in god's anger towards wickedness but only if we will also share in his mercy towards people so uh hannah works at embrace grace i told you about that i'm gonna tell you a story super quick uh ryan and amy ford are here um and amy started this ministry and she told me a story that i asked her if i could share and it's about a young woman named brook i've changed the name and she found herself in an unexpected pregnancy and she was a wiccan she practiced witchcraft and she heard about the group embrace grace and she started going and she said right from the beginning i'm going to be honest i'm a wiccan i'm not here for religious things i am here because i want the free stuff and so they said great you can that's that's totally fine and amy was really praying for her to come to the lord so she went through the whole 12-week experience and at the end she still did not receive christ and uh they lost touch and it had been about a year or so and uh and finally brooke called amy back and she said uh that she had been feeling like god was speaking to her she'd been feeling like god i feel like maybe you're speaking to me a year after she had been through embrace grace and and god told amy you planted seeds you just wait you know and so a year later uh brook works at a gas station and she's there working and right before she goes into work she says god if you're really here and you care about me and you you you're there i need you to give me a sign she's working that day and a very nervous young man walks up to the counter he's visibly nervous and he says i don't know why i don't know what i'm doing but i feel so strongly that god told me to tell you that he sees you that he loves you and that he cares about you brooke told amy that she went home that day and she put on the tiara that they get whenever they go through embrace grace and she looked at herself in the mirror and she believed that god loved her in that moment and she accepted christ to be the lord and savior of her life that day [Music] is witchcraft evil absolutely but that young man served as a proper form of jonah on that day and showed the mercy and the love of god would you bow your heads and close your eyes for me i want to just mention something because we're talking about support for women who find themselves in unexpected pregnancies i know texas everyone knows this recently did the the heartbeat bill there are going to be many more women who don't have the support around them and it would be real easy in this moment maybe to celebrate the heartbeat bill and forget about the person that religious nature creeps in on us so easily and we as the church it's true we're called to speak up for what's right and just but to show profound and overwhelming love to the person [Music] it's also true that [Music] one in four women have had an abortion those numbers are not different in the church than they are in the world so while we may stand up for what we believe is right if that's you here today male or female and you've been affected by abortion you should know that god is obsessed with you he's madly in love with you studies show that nearly half of the women who have had abortions that when they hear the pastor speak about forgiveness they think it doesn't apply to them so let me say it again to you god is madly and passionately in love with you the reason that god hates sin because he loves the person let us not be a church that only hates sin and doesn't love the person and so lord today we pray that you would give us the strength [Music] to be the type of jonah that does what you did lord that goes out warring for what is right but giving grace to every person that we encounter may we be a people of grace and lord may the church rise up in this time to help support women who are in need of support in the times of unexpected pregnancies may we be a group of people that passionately extends the grace of god to everyone and never chooses [Music] to be upset at your never ceasing mercy so god give us the strength to be ambassadors of your grace and your mercy today we pray all these things in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit amen amen thank you so much i've loved speaking with you [Applause] [Music] last march uh every time i finished here i was driving all the way back to amarillo uh to be at the services there on sunday morning so tonight i'll be here if it's been a while since we've caught up or i've never met you i'll hang out here for a little while i love you guys be blessed have a great weekend pastor nathan is going to close us out today in the service awesome can we thank pastor josh again for that message you can stand up as we close our service today i'm going to ask our pastors and our prayer team to come forward we're going to close out the service like we do every week if there's anything going on in your life that you need prayer for whether it's you want to respond to something god spoke to you through the message or if there's a financial issue or a health issue no matter what it is we want to join our faith to yours we want to pray for you so you can go ahead and step out of your seat and come down to the front if you're in the balcony we also have prayer team up there if you've joined us on online you can text your prayer to 7 10 10 we have pastors and leaders ready to respond to you as well so anything you need prayer for go ahead and step out and come down also a few things quick things to let you know about pastor robert will be back next week starting his seven churches of revelation series that's going to be an amazing series also we have gateway conference coming up september 27th and 28th if you are a leader if you are in ministry we'd love to have you come join us you can go to gatewayconference.com to register and get more information about that and lastly if you're new here to gateway church or if you have any questions about how to get connected here we've got an area called connect central across from the cafe we've got pastors and leaders in there we'd love to meet you and answer any questions that you have let me pray for you and then you can be dismissed lord i thank you again so much for this message for this service today lord i ask so that you would continue to move upon our hearts lord that we would respond to this message lord that we be people lord like you who you brought truth and grace lord so let us walk in truth and grace to those that we that you bring around us want to speak your blessing and your protection upon everyone here in jesus mighty name amen have a blessed week [Music] you

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Length: 80min 30sec (4830 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021