JONAH - The Problem with Love

and I'm excited about where we are today so if you got your scriptures with you we're in Jonah chapter 4 if you don't I want to read it to you it's a short chapter I'm gonna read you Jonah chapter 4 and it's gonna be weird and then we'll pray and jump into it this morning so Jonah chapter 4 beginning in verse 1 says this but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and it was angry and he prayed to the Lord and said O Lord is this not what I said when I was yet in my own country that is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish for I knew that you're a gracious God and merciful slow to anger abounding in steadfast love and relented 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 went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there he said 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 shade over his head to give save him from his discomfort so Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant but when the dawn came the next day God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered and 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 he said it's 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 he did not labor nor did you make it grow which came into being in a night and perished in the night should I not pity Nineveh the great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and all so much cattle let me pray for us Lord I want to thank you for the good news today God that your grace is alive and active in the hearts and lives of people we are not just two people listening to stories of what God did long ago we are people living under the grace of God active even now in the world taking people who are in some of our minds way too far gone and bringing them home bringing peace to the chaotic bringing safety to the disturbed bringing hope to those who are grieving and feel lost thank you God that your grace is alive not just out there in the world and not just in a book but alive right now in the Howard theatre and in US and so God move as we look at your word help us see what you want us to see help us understand it God what it is you think about and what it is you care about and God I pray it would affect what we think about and more than anything what we care about today and I want to ask you guys if you're willing for you to take a second and ask him say lord please teach me today and then if you would please pray for me that the Lord would use me and I'd be helpful to you well father we love you and we trust you use this time and we pray that in Jesus name Amen well we're wrapping up a series today on the revolutionary love of God and we've been looking at it through the Book of Jonah and something really weird is gonna happen in Jonah chapter 4 and we read it you saw it in verse 1 where it says but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry now we're gonna talk in a minute about what displeased Jonah but what's weird is that we're at the end of the Book of Jonah and Jonah subset you go what's he doing this is chapter 4 of a four chapter book this is the happily ever after section this is the ride off into the sunset you're not supposed to have words like displeased or words like angry this is where everything's supposed to be happy Jonah haven't you ever been to summer camp I don't know if you grew up going to camp I did told stories before my camp we're a little bit weird they didn't have all the stuff here camps maybe had like ropes courses and friendship things like that our camps were really weird we would be on college campuses in the backwoods of Mississippi just kind of all hanging out people drinking 40s playing poker climbing buildings carrying knives it was strange but on the last night of camp man everyone would get saved there would be this powerful spiritual moment and a powerful emotional moment and as the band played and as the speaker spoke everyone would start crying and we would have this incredible emotional experience people are surrendering their lives to God and weeping and huggin each other and they're in the midst of that moment they would always put a mic in front of us we'd have open mic night and people would get up there and they would have these experience of God moving in power and they wanted to try to explain it and and some of them would I get there and be like man I just got saved tonight you were like I think he got saved last year in the year before that and it was like it's not really how it works but okay he's feeling it my favorite were the kids that didn't even really understand they just knew something was happening in the room so they start crying to get him good my grandma they're like ok somebody help him I mean that's how it's awesome but on and on they would but for most of us we had this powerful moment with Jesus and as we got up in front of people we're trying to articulate how our lives were never gonna be the same and it was interesting cuz guys yep then they'd be like guys I just he's changed my life I will never struggle again like I just think I'm gonna be pure and holy in every way for the rest of my life and the rest of its life he's right it's been such a good week here and on and on we would feel that the gods moved in us and so we were just gonna leave camping and just soar home and suddenly love everybody and sprinkle Jesus dust on all our former enemies and and never struggle again we would just tell these great stories of how we were all gonna be changed and so I remember it was so weird the year where one kid got up there and he got on the mic and he got up there and he was like guys I want you to know I've been coming to this camp every single summer he said I believe Jesus changes lives I believe he's changed mine but every time I talk about how everything's gonna change and I go home and I still struggle and so I'm not despairing I'm not giving up hope I just know when I go home there's some things there and it's gonna be hard and I just wanted to say it's gonna be hard he walked off and we were all like what are you to me this is the end of camp you're supposed to be talking about how to keep the spiritual high going that's what we used to say to each other which is always a little bit weird to you know reference drug use as a way to talk about intimacy with God but we'd all do it how do we keep the high going or because that's right and you're like god man you're killing the high and he didn't sound at all I camp but you know what's weird is is he sounded like the Bible and what's weird about this moment is the Book of Jonah in and I'm among the people who think Jonah wrote this how else would we get these stories right but it's interesting cuz I read a lot of biographies and biographies a lot of them the people who write them whoever the right and I'm about are their heroes and so basically they're just they're just describing Jesus just at a different era is they're trying to describe some guys they're like it's basically Jesus but during the Civil War or like Jesus and Europe in the 40s and they're just all these books are by how this person was just sinless and perfect but if you read autobiographies sometimes or people are more in touch with the fact that that things aren't always great and they're not always that great and here in the book of johna if you've not been with us Jonah has an amazing experience with God and do I think you can have amazing experiences with God in moments like this yes I'm not downplaying camp I think God can move powerfully emotionally and powerfully spiritual in your life in events I think some of you that's gonna happen today but what's amazing about Jonah's he has an amazing experience with God and then he leaves an incredible ministry moment in Genesis chapter 3 I'm seeing a whole nation come to repentance and that should be the story and then I led him unto repentance credits roll right but Jonah includes chapter 4 were after all that he's struggling and I think he does that because God loves you and God loves me and the reality is even though you might know God there's still struggle we're all gonna struggle and so here you get in Genesis chapter 4 and Jonah is still struggling even with the grace of God changing him even with the grace of God using him to change other people he'll still struggle and so will you right and so this morning is about I think our greatest struggle and you see it in verse 1 it says but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry now the big question is what displeased Jonah and that but gives you an indication it's a contrast from what just came before something happened and a made Jonah upset and you got to look back to the verses before that it was when after Jonah had told Nineveh you guys are off course and God is gonna judge you when Jonah declared that to Nineveh they began to repent in in Jonah chapter 3 verse 8 the King declares let man and beast be covered with sackcloth which was a sign of mourning and let them call out mightily to God let everyone turn from his evil way from the violence that his hands who knows God may turn and relent from his fierce anger so that we may not perish and when God saw what they did how they turned from their evil way God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them and he did not do it but it displeased Jonah and he was angry so what made Jonah angry the repentance of Nineveh and God's relent I'm bringing them calamity now we talked about this if you've been journeying with us the Book of Jonah is written with a lot of poetry and it's Whitnall with a lot of humor and Hebrew humor is about wordplay and you get word play here basically there's a word in Hebrew that's the word bad and it can be used in a lot of ways it can be used about moral bad it can be used about something bad happen to you like a calamity or it can be used like I feel bad like I don't like something and it plays with that in this text because it uses that same word to describe the nineveh's were doing something was bad God was going to bring judgment on them which is bad and then it says Jonah here that he felt bad and so they messed with it there Nineveh repented they're bad so God didn't do bad to them and that made Nineveh he felt Oh Jonah feel like that was bad but what was weird is when you want to emphasize something in Hebrew you don't have a word like exceedingly or very you just repeat a word so literally Nineveh repented of its bad so God relented of his bad and Jonah thought that was bad bad Jonah didn't like that God was forgiving them and you realized not just in here you guys that was the problem from the very beginning of Jonah in verse 2 it says 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're a gracious God and merciful and 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 live what's Jonah saying he's telling you why he ran in the first place when God said go preach to Nineveh he ran the opposite direction it wasn't because he was scared of public speaking it wasn't because he felt he was bad at evangelism it's because he hated the Ninevites and he didn't want God's mercy to go to them and so he went and preached judgment and when they heard that you're wrong they repented and God forgave and gentles like I knew you were gonna do it I knew you were gonna forgive him I knew you were like that and I'm so mad right cuz Jonah wanted grace for himself but not grace for them and so God asks him do you do well to be angry he calls God's grace bad and Jonah says is your anger good and what's interesting is Jonah doesn't answer it just storms off which makes him think yeah yeah I think it is now what's Jonah's issue with the Ninevites is he just a full-blown racist kind of but it's a bit more nuanced than that there's more going on in there than just that why does he hate the Ninevites well if you look at Jonah you'll see if you look back in history he's probably gotten in of us past and men of his future in view because in the not too far past Nineveh which is the capital of Assyria the nation of Assyria had had taken captive Jonah's people and they had secured tribute from them and securing tribute isn't like we win now you pay his taxes it's we win and we walk into your villages and we take whatever we want we take your food we take your kid if I want your kid take your wife take your stuff and you live off what we let you live off of and so it's an extreme and dignity and Nineveh was the capital of Assyria the people who had humiliated Jonah's people so there was some baggage for Jonah with these people I don't like these people and there were other prophets in Jonah's day like Amos who warned the people of Israel if you persist in disobedience God's going to send us into exile beyond Damascus or Hosea said Assyria will rule over us they said God is going to judge us through the Assyrians so Jonah's looking and said the Assyrians hurt me in the past they're going to hurt me in the future I don't like the Assyrians you want me to go preach the message of grace to them I don't want to do it and such as defend Jonah it would be kind of like you know if you were in a concentration camp and you got out of it and God said hey I want you to go preach my mercy to the Nazis I don't do that or if you were a black man growing up in Mississippi in the 50s and 60s and beaten by racists and God says now I want you to go minister to the Klan someone do that or someone murders your family and God says you go love that person off of my gray stone I don't want to do that and so Jonah looks and says god I liked your grace for me but I don't want your grace for them they're the vents god I don't like the vents grace for me judgment for them love for me punish them right and that's Jonah's issue what's Jonah's issue his problem is with love and our problem is with love now some of you may hear that you're like Ben I don't have problems love I love everybody right I don't know Jonah's problem is Jonah needs to check himself right god is love I'm love we all love each other well that's great you don't have any enemies Ben I mean there's some people at work that I can't stand being around don't like him and secretly hope fail in life but but I don't hate anybody what's interesting the PR firm Weber shanwick releases a report annually on civility in America and the data is in on us that recently 9 and 10 Americans have said the American culture is increasingly less civil and lack of kindness has reached epidemic proportion there's an ugliness on the rise in America and what is it it's a lack of civility towards us and you hear it in political discourse I don't just debate your ideas I attack you you see it online what is Twitter now it's just people searching to be offended and then attacking the offender right and wanting to destroy him right and that destroying that incivility can become hostility now so fast so when that long ago a dentist went hunting in Africa and shot a lion that was named Cecil now my defending shooting lions named Cecil no but what happened next to him was interesting as Dennis decided to go shot a lion named Cecil people didn't like that you shouldn't shoot lions you should have done it and you go okay that's a that's a good conversation half of this man but what happened is as the conversation started going online people began to hate on this guy they begin to make fun of him publicly then he started receiving death threats Peter put out a message that said that that we hope you get hanged others then began to post his home address online and he had to run and incivility became hostility very fast I heard on the news not that long ago there was a debate about debt reduction a debate about debt reduction and one commentator said about the people on the other side of the debate I wish they were all effing dead debt reduction I wish they're all dead that's an increase in incivility right and yet we live in a world that does that we have a TV that Stokes the flames of it right why does the news cycle so often churn up outrage because we buy outrage we like outrage there's something in us that likes an us-versus-them I like to us as I don't like the demonstrate and the world continues to push us that way and let's divide Republican versus Democrat conservative versus liberal LGBT versus evangelical CrossFit against normal people country music lovers versus those with taste and on and on it goes [Applause] and in none of that am I saying these issues don't matter and then none of that am I saying we shouldn't have healthy debate in and I'm not saying we shouldn't disagree with each other but I'm saying under the disagreement becomes I don't like you and I want you to go away I want you to go away online I want you to go politically socially maybe physically I want you gone I don't like you and so before we judge Jonah too harshly we got to look at us there's something in us that just doesn't like other people right and it's dangerous I like God's grace for me I don't like God's grace for them right and God asked them do you do well to be angry and Jonah thinks yes why because righteous indignation taste yes we love it we love to be right and then to stand up on high beneath those who are wrong to tell them you're wrong you disgust me banished from my sight right there's something wonderful about it tastes great right and so we love those songs right another song about bad blood Taylor Swift we'll all by it right because I like grace for me I don't want grace for them I like God to love me I don't want God to love them right you know what's so weird about it is for Jonah has issues not doctrinal it's not theological Jonah quotes verbatim the Old Testament about God being gracious and merciful slow to anger abounding in steadfast love that's what God's like he's I knew you were like that and I don't like that but all through this book what have we been looking at there's a tendency in us to run from the leadership of God and there's a tendency in God to chase us and interrupt our self-destructive behavior and we love that about him when it involves us or people we like and so Jonah sings about the grace of God that will come and get him while he's drowning in Genesis chapter 2 but when that same grace is shown to them he calls it bad right and God calls him on it and it's funny when we look at that we're meant to laugh at Jonah that's how the text is written why because it's weird it's weird that Jonah who ran away from God and was saved by God should now get mad that other people who are far from God are being saved that's weird Jonah you should be on board with what God's doing Jonah if the grace of God has touched you you should touch others with the grace of God or like we saying earlier if it's the very breath of God in my lungs that I should pour out his praise to other people right if you know grace you show grace if you've been touched by the love of God you should extend the love of God if his love loved you while you were yet enemies you should even love your enemies not just the people you like everyone loves the people they like your love is supposed to break past those boundaries Jesus broke in while you were his enemy and loved you and changed you so you are meant to do the same and love your enemy and pray that God would use it to change them and to not do that to taste of the grace of God and to not extend the grace of God to not do that is weird he hasn't had an afternoon nap for years well this is just the biggest day of his life I don't have thank you oh you just did that wonderful lunch oh wow I do like to cook uh he'll take some coffee won't you yes please decaffeinated of course yes really yeah yeah he's here I'll tell him okay thanks bye bye Superman that was my friend Dave there's been an accident on the old river bridge a trailer truck crash to the barrier rail it's hanging off the side of the bridge and the drive is still in a cab oh I'm sorry I hate to make you rush off well there's no rush it's a bridge oh it's okay I always get there on time come on this relax a little no it's unusual finding a good-looking girl like you alone like this it's not right it's weird you Superman the father saved you from certain destruction and in that rescue you were imbued with powers far beyond those of mortal men the most natural thing for you to do is use him to save others you should be getting that guy out of the cab on the old river bridge not creepily hitting on a girl you're Superman and that's the point you've been touched by the very son of God father God forgave you and didn't just forgive you adopted you and his family and named you a son of God you have his very breath in your lungs you have His grace coursing through your veins you are a child of God and while we were enemies Christ died for us and so when we have enemies we sacrifice for them that's the most natural thing to do in light of the gospel right and so what Jonah's doing is weird and when we pray for God to hurt destroy dismiss get rid or we are any different about the them's we are far from the heart of God and it's weird too God loves messed up people and if you walk with God he will always aim you towards loving them right and I'll tell you how God will pull it out for you a lot of times he'll do it by touching on your darling sins that's what I call them the ones that you love right so I remember I had a little nephew and a really sweet kid I mean just a very proper one of those kids that's old for his age you don't mean like when he was like 4 he would wear like pleated Dockers and like tuck his collared shirt in and be like hello cousin how are you I'm like look you know it's just crazy but he's so polite and his dad was telling his story man he's just the sweetest kid and he said I wanted to teach him about money and so I gave him some money he's like I gave him like it was something crazy like $100 and he said Ben I gave it to him and it was the funniest thing like as soon as he got it he was like yes yes all right and he said when I handed to him I was like all right man so we're gonna we're gonna give some we're gonna save some he's like and then you know christmas is coming up so I thought you would use some of your money to buy gifts for your family whom you love and he said it was a crazy thing as I said that him he was like no no no mine no he was like yeah that's how you use money like it's entrusted to you you can use it to buy gifts for your family and he said his face was just so downcast he said in a moment he was like do we have any gift wrapping paper yeah all right can I have some do we have any tape sure so he said he walked over to my desk and took a half used pencil wrapped it up in some paper taped it and wrote for mommy on top of it I grabbed an eraser put it there wrapped it for right and on he went and you realize oh man I love my family right till they try to touch my money right and then I don't love them right and that's how God will deal with us you go man I love everybody what's it's it's easy to love everyone generally but when God starts to get to specifics but Jonah let's talk about the Ninevites that's when it's like whoa you know and when he starts tapping on us to love people is to not view pornography because studies are showing that it doesn't just exploit the people who are on the screen but it damages the people on the other side of it too so if I really love people I don't participate in a system that's damaging to to women and girls but if I want to watch it what am I saying well I want to watch them because it satisfies me and I love me more than I love them we're meant to honor our parents forgive our parents love and cherish them but if they hurt us I mean it's forgiving I feel better that I'm angry and I'm Marshall and preserve resentment because it makes me feel strong but that means you love you more than you love them right loving humanity means I don't spend all of my income on toys and things that make me happy it means what I look around the people around me in my city my heart breaks for their needs and I meet them and when I don't do that with my finances I say to the world it's because I love me more than I love you our greatest problem is with love we are Jonah right and here's the interesting thing what does God do with the people like that God has blessed you with life and breath and everything else and for you to take all the gifts of God and to not use them to bless the people he loves what's gonna do with you what's he gonna do to Jonah they say hey Jonah come here buddy come here man I told him I told him II love these people Amos syrup right is that what he does no God is not gonna give up on Jonah and he's not gonna give up on you God loves you right where you are and he loves you too much to let you stay there so His grace will come to you at your lowest and draw you to himself and then His grace will go to other enemies too and he will invite you to go with him to love them right God's not gonna give up on Jonah he's gonna keep teaching Jonah and he's gonna do it using visual aids let's watch so verse 5 it says Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there and he said under the shade till he could see what would become of the city now the rest of the chapter God's gonna go to work on Jonah alright and as he goes to work on him Jonah is still pulling for judgment right so he goes out to watch the city and like maybe God will change his mind come on massive destruction right like he wants Nineveh to go away right and verse 6 it says now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade over his head to save him from his discomfort and Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant now some of us this is where you might feel a divergence from the Bible you're like I've never felt exceedingly glad about a plant I don't know what that's it's the Bible being weird again well this is the Middle East it's like 100 degrees out there so if you were out there and God let a plant grow over you your head give you some shade you'd be loving on that plant right we don't know what that feels like now but in a couple weeks we'll all be like ooh thank you God it's like a ficus moves in that we can sit under he loves this plant but if you can't understand that love of the plant just think about your own life what we would call creature comforts something in your life that just makes you feel good you love for some of you it's your technology your computer your gaming system your laptop your whatever you wouldn't say it out loud maybe to everybody but you feel that like the world's going crazy life's hard but if I can just get right here whoo-hoo I got the latest one and it moves fast I can download and go and I can swipe and I can do and you just love having the latest computer some of you maybe it's your car that your car makes you feel happy the world can be going crazy but everything's right when you get in that vehicle because it's an amazing ride right others of you it's your wardrobe let you go you know what that guy may have got a promotion and I didn't that guy maybe we did better in that meeting but all these guys look like scrubs and but I know what's going on and as soon as you get dressed in the mirror you just look at me and yuck it's good to be the king all right you just walk out no one like I'm gonna if everything else goes wrong I know I look better than these people right or maybe it's your looks that you know that you're like I may hate all these people they may hate me back but I'm just better-looking than you it's like that old quote from Winston Churchill you know he's a heavy drinker and his lady was making fun of him and she said Winston you're drunk and he said yes but you're ugly and tomorrow I will be sober right I'm not advocating that kind of talk but some of you you may be like that you're like if everything else goes bad at least I'm the prettiest one in the circle and you can't deny that right or maybe you're more like Winston be like hey they may be prettier me but I'm smarter than all y'all my weights too fast and I feel good about that right we all got little things in our life that make us feel good right Jonas is this plant it's nice verse 7 but when Dawn came the next day God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered interesting thing when Jonah runs from God in Genesis chapter Jonah chapter 1 God sends a great storm and a great fish to get Jonah here as Jonah's running again God sends a little plant and a little world worm why because he's got the whole world in his hands right from great fish the little worms and God will use all of it to help his people have a heart that beats like his right all of creation is his and he's gonna bend it to help us he loves you right where you are and he loves you too much to let you stay there so he appoints a worm to eat that plant and it does and the funny thing is in the book too everything responds to the promptings of God faster than the man of God you see that God tells the wind to blow and it blows he tells the fish to eat and it will eat and vomit on command he tells a plant to grow and it grows he tells a worm to eat the worms like yes sir all right and it gets after it the person who's always resisting God is a guy that grew up in church right and it's meant to embarrass us that sometimes those of us who claim to be the most religious can be the most resistant to God right it's meant to shameless and so here God gives him a plant that he loves and then God takes away the plant computer smashed wardrobe burned down right car wrecked it's over right funnier guy comes to the office cuter girl enters the social circle the world's ending right and then it gets worse and verse 8 when the Sun rose got to put in a scorching east wind and the Sun beat down on the head of Jonas that he was faint and he asked that he might die and said it's better for me to die than to win Liv Jonah is a victim his buddy the ficus died he doesn't want to go on and God asks him is it good to be angry about the plant do you do well to be angry about the plant yes I do well to be angry angry enough to die God's got him you pity the plant for which you did not labor or did you make it grow came into being in tonight perished in the night should I not care about Nineveh the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who don't know their right hand from their left and also many cattle see God showed compassion for nineveh jonah had none so god gives him something to love and he says do you have pity compassion same word on the plant yeah okay so we found some compassion in you you got some so Jonah let me ask you some questions you pity a plant when a worm destroyed it should I not pity people that are being torn apart on the inside you pity a plant that she didn't cause to grow these are people I made and so if you're sitting here and going man you're calling us to love our enemies I don't want to do that Ben you don't understand the baggage of that yeah we're meant to be people who've received the love of God and extend the love of God love embraced becomes love extended those who know grace show grace you know how am I gonna do that God's gonna give them the ways in this passage how do we actually do that cuz I know what it is to be frustrated about people when I first started ministry to college students I know I came in and ministering to college students and I was leading this ministry on the campus of Texas A&M students would gather in this arena and we would lead worship and I remember a student scheduled a meeting with me and I sat down with a student at a coffee shop and he said hey man I want you to know I lead a ministry that promotes unity among Christian organizations on campus I said dude that's awesome he said yeah and we have a unity event coming up and I said that's great he said yeah and it's gonna be all week long so Tuesday nights when your deal meets we're gonna commandeer that and I'm gonna bring in a speaker and bring in a band and we're gonna lead your organization sounds like say what well you can't do that like I have a board of directors that I answer to you're like 19 like I'm not handing the keys over to you to the ministry I run I can't do that man like I have an obligation and I remember he looked at me in that moment he goes well look I don't want to have to compete against you but I will and everybody said that I was like here you you think you are you know something I didn't say something like that that would have been rude I just said something about right I walked out I was like oh man I got a punish this kid right and I remember I had the sense in that moment to call my board of directors and I was like this is what this kid's gonna do he's gonna burn us down we gotta get to him first cut him out at the knees I'm like how do we do this and I'm her one of my board members was like just just cancel the meeting that night it's like what he's like just cancel let him run his thing in the week and you'll be back next week and the week after that weekend for that I was like cancelled but then he would win you know I called another one he was like I think he's just pray for that kid pray for God to move in his heart and I was like pray what for judgment pray that God would crush his dreams but they're on there like no you gotta love this kid and I was like I don't want to let them I want to punish him but then the irony struck me I'm a college minister and here's a college kid but I'm like yeah but not you did you threaten me right how do I love that kid it was easy to love all these kids how do I love that guy you find compassion when you consider that they're made in the image of God that's how that's how that's the first way Jonah you pity a plant I pity people people are made in the image of God that means every man and every human being you see at your office or on the streets was made by God and for God they have his image stamped on them so God's country is not out in the wilderness God's country is in the city because more things look like God here than out there because there's more people here people are made in the image of God so if someone is saying something crazy being mean being rude and needs to be sequestered and prison or whatever just out whatever someone's doing whether they're saying something helpful or destructive whatever there's still a dignity to them because they're made in God's image and to love God the best way to love them is to love them you want to love me love my kids you want to love me love my kids it'd be weird if you came to me or like been dude I think you're so cool I want to be buddies with you man I want to be friends I just said you and I connect I want to be friends with you I've gotta be honest I can't stand your daughter man just what every time I look at her get her out of here right what am I gonna say yeah that's cool man she does gonna suck you know like no there's no separation even if she's being a little crazy she's still my baby and you for you to love her even when she is being difficult is to show how great your love is for me right so I'm not justifying the behavior of Nineveh God's not either nor might just find the behavior of anybody that's rude to you but I'm saying but you can find compassion when you consider they're made in God's image persons made by God he says Joanie are pity in a plant but people are greater than things people are greater than things so when you see that person and they said something me and or done something crazy and all you want to do is see them banished from your sight remember but God made them they're made in His image you pity the plant that rose up overnight and perished overnight nineveh's been around since Genesis 10 should I not have compassion on Nineveh the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who don't know the difference from their right in their left hand commentators divided on that some people think he's talking about children Jonah if you hate all the kids at least can you be Earl I hate all the adults can you at least love the kids of Nineveh most commentators now don't believe that's case based on the size of the city they think God is talking about the ignorance of the people there that God's not excusing their behavior but he's saying Jonah they're acting like sinners because they're sinners they're just fulfilling their job description right everybody has a tendency to run from God and that's what they're doing right and my tendency is to chase and intercept that destructive behavior so they're doing what all humanity is done why because they don't know better they're seeking for life by running from the author of life it's crazy but you can love them Jonah in that I find compassion when I see that their captives they don't know what they're doing there's like kids running around they don't know that's how Jesus could forgive on the cross forgive them father why for they know not what they do sure they knew what they do they crucified people every day they knew what that nail was about to do to his hand yes in a sense they did but spiritually and ultimately no they didn't understand and so God prayed for mercy for them while they were killing him Jesus prayed for mercy for them we can have mercy for the Ninevites in our life why because we can see their captives they just don't know so no so John Perkins grew up in Mississippi and a tough place to live as a black man decades ago he got out of there as soon as he could and he moved to the west coast and while he was out there his kid got involved in a ministry and they led his kid to Jesus John wanted to understand what was going on in his son's life so he went to this church and he accepted Christ and as he began to walk with Jesus and see the grace of God that had touched his life he realized those who know grace show grace and he said my brothers in Mississippi are suffering I need to go back there I need to go back for their sake if God came to get me I need to go in God's name and help them so he moved back and he began to work in the community there was a night where he and some of his fellow pastors were returning from an event and some police officers pulled him over and began to beat him mercilessly they put him in a jail and he said inside the jailhouse the nightmare got worse at least five deputy sheriff's and seven to twelve highway patrolmen went to work on us and he goes into detail about the horrors that they did in his book and justice for all but then John wrote this I remember their faces so twisted with hate it was like looking at white faced demons for the first time I saw what hate had done to these people do you hear what he just did these policemen were poor they saw themselves as failures the only way they knew how to find a sense of Worth was by beating us their racism made them feel like somebody but when I saw that I couldn't hate back but I could pity them I said to God that night God if you let me get out of this jail alive and I really didn't think I would he said I want to preach a gospel that will heal even these people to he said although the students who watched over me through that night or for sure I was about to die I came out alive and with a new calling my call was to preach a gospel that extended even to whites and John Perkins did co-write a book with a former Klansmen someone who was running to God into hate and the mercy of God made a hater into a lover because that's what grace does there's a tendency in us to run from God there's a tendency in God to chase and intercept our self-destructive behavior how can we do that because John Perkins could have pity I see their captives their children that don't know the right hand from their left like Andrew Young said I'm praying that God would heal their soul from the scourge of racism I don't want to see that person destroyed I want to see that person redeemed what they're doing is evil and I don't have to call it less than that but I'm asking for redemption I'm asking God to save how can God have pity on the Ninevites how can we have mercy for our enemies you see what Paul told to Timothy that their captives held captive to do the will of the devil and pray if perhaps God might grant them repentance so Elizabeth Elliott her husband was called to go minister among the akka Indians as soon as he met them they killed him on the shores murdered her family Elizabeth Elliott understood these people were ignorant they don't know what they're doing so she took up her husband's ministry and ministered to them and when they understood that her husband gave His life to tell them about the grace of God then they instantly understood that the Son of God gave His life so that they would be free and the entire village repented and came to Jesus because of the mercy of God through God is full of grace towards his enemies and praise him for it because he has grace for us and then if you walk with Him it won't be long before he turns your face towards them so I see they have the image of God on them I see that they're ignorant they don't know what they're doing and then I find compassion because I consider the cross and this is the funny part where it ends I don't know if you caught that part where it just ends with the word cattle which I think it's so funny God's like shouldn't I have grace on the great city or at least on the people who don't know what they're doing or Joan if you don't care about the people what about the animals Jonah should I spare the city just for the donkeys man think about the donkeys bud and it's meant to be silly on purpose God's looking at him and saying Jonah I was gracious to you I saved you when you ran from me you were drowning in the depths of your sin and I rescued you with that fish they're drowning in theirs should I not rescue them - Jonah joined me in that love me in that and if Jonah would cast his mind back to Jonah - it'd be a lot easier to be kind in Jonah for and if you cast your mind back to what Jesus did on that cross that while we were his enemies Christ died for us your guilt your shame the things you did to others to him he took upon himself buried the shame of it deep under the ground and rose victorious to extend love to you and mercy to you you don't have to earn his favor you don't have to earn his smile it is free he embraces you he runs for you he wants you and when you fix your minds on that and then that person the office is a jerk you go if God had that grace for me I can have that grace for them if God was kind to me I can even be kind to them God will push us to love the right things and when we do it that's when we'll join him in his mission and feel most alive Corrie ten Boom her and her family were saving Jewish people from Nazis they were discovered and imprisoned and her and her sister were in a concentration camp and she watched her sisters her sisters health with her and she watched her die Corrie survived she became an evangelist traveling the world talking about the grace of God that will forgive anybody and she writes about one moment she was speaking in Munich in 1947 and she says as I spoke on forgiveness now keep that in mind she's in Munich Germany speaking about forgiveness she said solemn faces stared back at me not quite daring to believe the German people wondering if God could forgive them as people left in silence one man worked his way to the front and she said instantly I recognized him the beaut blue uniform the visored cap with a skull and crossbones the huge room with its harsh overhead lights the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes the shame of walking naked past this man I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin Betsy how thin you were the place was Ravens Brooke the man who was walking towards me was the guard I remembered him his face and the leather crop he would swing from his belt I was face to face with one of my captors and my blood froze he spoke a fine message Fraulein how good it is to know that as you say our sins are at the bottom of the sea he extended his hand I didn't take it she said I who wrote so glibly a forgiveness fumbled with my pocketbook rather than take that hand he continued you mentioned Ravens book in your talk I was a guard there but since then I've become a Christian I know God's forgiven me for the cruel things I did will you forgive me and he extended his hand again and as I stood there I who sins had again and again been forgiven I could not forgive Betsey died in that place it could not have been many seconds but as he stood there it seemed like hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had to do I had to do it I knew it not only as a command from God but from daily experience this is interesting she said since the end of the war I had a home in Holland for the victims of Nazi brutality those who were able to forgive their for their former enemies were able to return to the outside world and to rebuild their lives no matter the physical scars those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids it was as simple and horrible as that but as I stood there coldness clutched my heart Jesus helped me I prayed silently I can lift my hand but you must supply the feeling so woodenly and mechanically I thrust my hand into the one stretched out before me and I did an incredible thing took place the current started in my shoulder raced down my arm sprang into our joined hands and a healing warmth flooded my whole being bringing tears to my eyes I forgive you for a long moment we grasp each other's hands former guard former prisoner I'd never known the love of God so intensely as I did then even so I realized it was not my love I tried and I didn't have the power but it was the Holy Spirit of God in me recorded in Romans 5:5 the love of God has been shed abroad in the hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us that's what God's calling us to no matter how far gone you are you can be forgiven I don't care what you've done the grace of God can heal you he's making enemies into friends he's making instruments of hate and instruments of love he's making broken people whole that's what he does and if you come to him he will use you to help others experience the same and so there's two groups I want to talk to you today before we're done and the first one are those of you who've never known the grace of God the people of God the Jewish people from the Old Testament used to read this book every day on the day of atonement and after the end of that day they would cry out I am Jonah and what they meant by that is I've run from God I've been a silly little dev like Jonah and run away but I want to come home and some of you you've never known the grace of God and you're like I think I'm too far gone and maybe you're here to try to turn over a new leaf but that's not what he's looking for he is diving into the depths to come get you and draw you out that's what he's doing you put your faith in Him today and say Jesus I want you to heal me forgive me and change me and he takes rebels who run and make them revolutionaries who run with him to love and then there's others of us in here that you love him you've tasted of his grace but you're like Jonah with his plant when the plant dies you have a more emotional response than when they die what hurts your heart more is when your phone fails not when their life is failing what hurts you more is when your careers not going the way you want not when their life is perishing and God's gonna call you to love the right things and it's gonna be hard because there's some people we don't love let's just be honest there's some people that get on our nerves but God loves them and we're gonna get to the point where you go I gotta love them and I can't and we cry the same thing I am Jonah God my tendencies to run you deal with them I'm gonna go for mine but God loves him and if you love God he's gonna call you to love them and if you get on board with that he just might use you to make clansmen and to ministers of the gospel he might use you to lead former enemies and make them friends he might use you to heal a city nineveh's Jonah's enemies the Ninevites were political enemies I don't know if we can relate to that here having political enemies I don't know if that's something you've touched down with but what if you could disagree about ideas but care deeply for a person might this be a better city might we be a better people might that look crazy to the world what if we were a church like that where people came in with their guards up but as they met us guards came down and they go they left me what why did it do to their hearts to this city if we would love like that I am Jonah but thank God that God's God abounding in mercy and steadfast love towards us

Channel: Passion City Church DC

Views: 45,018

Rating: 4.9371314 out of 5

Keywords: passion city church, passion church, passion city church worship, passion city, city church, passion, passion city church sermons, Ben Stuart, Washington D.C., D.C. Church, the problem with love, Jonah, love

Id: EUbGfYEZbXk

Length: 55min 0sec (3300 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 23 2019