Why Do We Keep Repeating The Same Mistakes? | Marcus Mecum | 7 Hills Church

jonah chapter 3 and i'm really reading jonah chapter 4 but i'm going to touch on how uh what kind of sets jonah off here when god saw that they did and how they turn from their evil ways he relented and did not bring on them the destruction that he had threatened but for jonah this seemed very wrong and so he became angry and he prayed to the lord isn't this what i said lord when i was still at home this is what i tried to forestall by fleeing tarshish i knew that you were a gracious and compassionate god slow to anger abounding in love a god who relents from sending calamine and calamity now lord take my life for it's better for me to die than to live and so the lord replied is it right for you to be angry i can't wait to talk about that one is it right for you to be angry and jonah had gone out and sat down in a place east of the city and he made for himself a shelter he sat down in the shade and he waited to see what would happen to the city then the lord provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over jonah to give shade for his head an ease to his discomfort and jonah was very happy about the plant we don't know exactly what kind of plant it was but he's very happy about the plant i mean look at it what are you thinking i mean he's very happy about the plant i mean i'm like jonah's high is what i'm thinking but at dawn the next day god provided a worm so maybe some tequila mixed in i don't know what's happening here but he chewed i shouldn't know that much about stuff i shouldn't know that i've never had one but i have heard that there's worms in is it tequila am i right was that right oh look at that but at dawn the next day god provided a worm which chewed up the plant i got to get right here and so it withered when the sun rose got provided to scorching east wind and the sun blazed on jonah's head so he grew faint and he wanted to die and he said it would be better for me to die than to live and god said to jonah is it right for you to be angry about the plant and he said i'm so angry i wish i were dead i'm so angry i wish i were dead but the lord said to him you've been concerned about this plant though you did not tend it or make it grow it sprang up and died overnight and should i not have concern for the great city of nineveh in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left in other words they are lost i wanna talk to you about why we keep making the same mistakes over and over and over is there anybody here that would be willing to admit that you have some mistakes that are on repeat that that maybe at this point you've learned to justify which is just a lie but do we not have the tendency to be on this merry-go-round of wrong decision after wrong decision after wrong decision and maybe maybe it's not you but maybe you know someone and you look at their life and you're like i i do not understand how it is that they keep making that same mistake over and over again they just got out of one bad relationship how everyone is telling them this is a bad relationship too but they're they go from wrong relationship to wrong relationship to wrong relationship they go from this job to that job to that job to that job and it's always the past job it's always well they don't do they in this church and that church and that church and that church and it's always but they just are on repeat on repeat over and over again the same mistake the last chapter of jonah is insight into why we keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again now we would know that that means that jonah has already run from god he has already been thrown into the stormy waters he's already been swallowed by the well he spent three days in the belly of the fish this is already over it's already done he's been vomited up onto dry ground he's walked for three days through the city of nineveh preaching to the city so he's doing everything that he was supposed to do but verse 2 tells us of chapter 4 that he's really not changed much from the initial reason he ran he's not really evolved he's not he's not he's he's done some surface things i mean who wouldn't after they spent three days in the belly of a whale and then god let you survive that you're going to change some things but he doesn't really go deep in his change and so now we're in chapter four all of this is in our rear view mirror and now jonah is repeating the exact same mistake that put him in the belly of that fish in the first place c.s lewis says there are two kinds of people those who say to god thy will be done and to those whom god says all right then have it your way so this is god's final lesson to jonah and he's going to take his time uh we know that god's providing a leafy plant to grow it's going to grow large enough to provide shade for jonah then god's going to send a worm and the worm is going to chew at the plant and eventually the plant will wither and die after this event takes place god is going to preach his final sermon to jonah and i want us to look at this part of the story and look at three quick reasons why we repeat the same mistakes over and over number one jonah refused to fire the liar the bible says god provided the plan so god not only speaks to us through the scriptures he not only speaks to us through preaching he not only speaks to us through ways that are churchy if you will god speaks to us through the stars he speaks to us through the birds his eye is on the sparrow is what the bible teaches he watches over you and i he speaks through fiery furnaces through lions dens through troubles through enemies through crosses remember jesus is hanging there on the cross and he's still preaching to you and i he's preaching to us about forgiveness he's preaching to us about caring for people that are far from god he's preaching to us about loving our family he's hanging on a cross but yet through that he's teaching us now god is going to teach jonah and he's going to teach him not through sitting in a church service but he's going to teach him through a plant and a worm and this is is part of how god teaches people he doesn't just teach us in the way we think for example moses is on the backside of the desert he's running from god and he walks upon a bush that's burning and is not consumed and then god starts to speak out of the flame of that bush and begins to tell moses to go back and to do what he's called him to do and it was a plant that god used to speak to moses we would know it was aaron's rod that budded that that for example told pharaoh that god was the greatest of all gods remember aaron threw the rod down and the rod swallowed all the other surf it turned into a serpent and swallowed all the other serpents we would know that that rod that was a dead stick a dead branch of an almond tree went into the presence of god and came out with a fully butted almond fruit on it and so god spoke to his people through aaron's rod that butted jesus said it like this i'm divine you're the branches and so out of 390 000 plant species on our planet it's clear that the creator uses creation to communicate now god is going to take jonah and he's going to preach to him through a plant and a worm now the plant the bible says brings ease and comfort and shade to jonah again the bible says that jonah is very happy with the plant he's angry at god he's angry at nineveh but he's happy with the plant he's happy with the shade he's happy with ease he's happy with the comfort in life and this is really what most of us want we want that plant religion like we want god to give us ease shade and comfort and we know this by basic stats stats this is not an attack by the way it's just a stat that 20 of the people do 80 of the work this is a a staff that runs true in this church it runs true in every organization you could imagine twenty percent of the people carry eighty percent of the burden and this is not because twenty percent of the people are wealthier or less busy or have more time across all economic statuses across all kinds of different schedules and plans twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the work the other eighty percent they set back and they believe someone owes them life owes them the church owes them the government owes them god definitely owes them and what does he owe them he owes them that plant religion give me ease give me shade and give me comfort that's what i want i want that plant religion and so god shows up to jonah who's enjoying the ease he's enjoying the shade and the comfort and he says is it right for you to be angry remember he's angry because god is full of grace he's angry because god is compassionate he's upset because god is slow to anger and abounding in love and god says to him is it right for you to be angry let me translate it for you jonah you were in the middle of the ocean during a storm i provided a well after 72 hours of being in the belly of that well you finally get humble enough to cry out to me you want another chance you want me to give you another opportunity you survive you go through nineveh now you're sitting back under the shade of this plant enjoying ease and comfort and god says to jonah okay is it right for you to be angry after all i've done after all i've brought you through is it right for you to be angry but this is a image of that plant religion we want to live angry and love comfort he wants an entire city to be destroyed but he wants to be comfortable in his personal life god's gone to extremes for jonah he's gone through storms and oceans he's used whales now he's using plants and he's using worms all to help jonah change but jonah doesn't want to change jonah is unwilling to take an honest look at himself jonah is unwilling to make any adjustments and so god shows up and he holds up the mirror and imagine the reflection in the mirror jonah's kicked back he's got the shade he's got the comfort he's got the ease but he's so angry at nineveh god's like is this is this let me get this right the ocean you were thrown overboard let me get this right in the middle of a storm the belly of a well let me let me get this right now i've provided this plant and you're still angry how is it that i could do all that for you and now you're sitting in your little comfortable place of ease but you're still wishing destruction upon other people why are you angry why are you doing what you're doing really let me ask you this are you being honest with yourself that's what god's asking jonah jonah are you being honest with yourself which is a great question to ask yourself is am i being honest with myself and then maybe add to that really am i really being honest with myself because if i'm not willing to face where i actually am if i'm not willing to look in the mirror if i want to keep making excuses there's no way i'll ever make any progress in life and so this is a come to jesus moment for jonah no one else is around it's just him and god and god wants to know jonah are you being honest with yourself are you really looking at your life in an appropriate way and we need those times where we're alone we're by ourselves and god asks us the questions and we get honest with ourselves we can lie to our spouses we can lie to our friends we can lie to our church people our work colleagues but be honest enough to say to yourself i'm off something's not right be honest enough to not lie to yourself got everybody else fooled but don't fool yourself god wants jonah to fire the liar and we all have a liar on the inside of us we all have that salesman on the inside of us he's so good and you know what he does he sells us terrible ideas left and right left and right he's so convincing at telling us to do the most terrible things to make the worst decisions but god shows up and wants jonah to know you're going to have to deal with that liar you're going to have to fire that liar because god did not bankrupt heaven for you to have a plant religion he didn't bankrupt heaven so you can live angry and love comfort he didn't bankrupt heaven so you can live bitter and love comfort he didn't bankrupt heaven for you to live in any way outside of what is his highest way and just love all the ease of life so god comes to joan he says hey you're going to have to deal with this now let's notice this for just a second that god's not telling jonah that what he's gone through wasn't traumatic it's very clear that jonah went through some things these were not positive things these were things that were a real disruption to his life he probably has a right in ways to be angry to be confused to be hurting he's been through storms he's been thrown overboard by people he's been through circumstance after circumstance that he should have never survived he shouldn't be where he is he should have never made it now he's been sent to a people that are violent and oppressive and so he's alone in a strange place but yet god is taking all of these things and he's wanting to use them as a catalyst to change jonah's life he's not just trying to change nineveh he's trying to change jonah but jonah has to make the choice what kind of change is this going to produce in me is this going to cause me to grow am i going to evolve from this am i going to be stronger after i go through this or am i going to just get stuck in the grief and the anger of life god provides the plan god provides the ease the comfort god provides the shade what is this it's a space of grace it's a temporary easement it's a time for jonah to look in the mirror be honest with himself identify the liar and fire the liar why because it's the place god begins to talk to jonah about how much greatness he has for him that he has more for him than this plant religion he gave him the plan but he doesn't want jonah to be more passionate about the plant than he is him how many things are we living in god has given us the things god has given us the stuff but we're more passionate about this stuff than we are him been a couple weeks since i preached ain't got my voice muscle back it's been a how many things and instead of the things serving us we bowed our knee and we're serving the things the the plant is not evil jonah has a wrong relationship with the plant he's too attached to the plant he's he's he's so attached to the thing that's gonna wither and die away anyway but he's not attaching his life to something greater something eternal and god is there telling jonah listen life is greater than comfort what i'm calling you to is bigger than your anger it's bigger than your hurt it's bigger than your wounds it's bigger than what went wrong it's bigger than who did you wrong it's bigger than all of that and it's even bigger than the comfort you've created to try to get away from all of that all that has come as a catalyst for change all that has happened is a catalyst for change you can grow from this jonah you can be stronger because of what you've been through jonah there is a way to find purpose in what you've been through jonah but jonah refused to fire the liar the number one reason people continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over is they refuse to fire the liar number two we get stuck on the summit of mount stupid i knew you'd like that so jonah the bible says goes east of the city he builds a shelter he sets down this is the image i'm not moving i'm done i did what i was supposed to do i did the right thing i went and i preached to those people like you said so jonah's not running this time he's stuck this time same issue different form of rebellion he's learned i'm not going back into the ocean i'm not going to get on a boat i'm i'm i'm not going that way but yet he's still not changed he's decided to rebel not by running but by saying i'm not moving i'm staying right here i'm sitting right here and i'm not doing any more and so what happens god gives him a plan gives him some time to work through it aren't you thankful for that god gives us some time but then god provides the worm read it god provided the worm too and it chewed up the plant the very thing that made jonas so happy is gone and now god starts to preach the sermon to him god says to jonah jonah why are you so angry about the loss in your life why are you so angry about that thing that made you so happy why are you so upset that now it's gone so jonah says to god i'm so angry i wish i were dead every one of us have things that scare us hurt us fail us sadden us even anger us what is your i'm so i'm so blank i wish i were dead i'm so blank i wish the marriage was dead i'm so blank i wish i could just go ahead and just call it quits in this area of my life maybe it's i'm so lonely maybe it's i'm such a failure maybe it's i'm so sad i'm so afraid i'm so ashamed for jonah it was i'm so angry but what is your i'm so that it keeps getting worse and worse and worse to where you're even devaluing the time that you have on the planet you're wasting away your days and maybe you're not saying i'm suicidal or maybe you are but you're saying to yourself it's not worth it it's not worth it i'm done giving i'm done i'm done putting myself out there i'm i'm done i'm done putting any effort into things i'm done jonah says i'm so angry i wish i was dead why because he lost something that made him happy he lost something that he wanted maybe you've lost your career maybe you've lost the marriage maybe you've lost a loved one in this last season and i'm not here to in any way say that you should not grieve and you should not have the time to to work through the loss of hope or the loss of confidence but you cannot ignore the worm what is the worm the worm is the thing that eats away what god provided you know how many people let the worm devour all kinds of other things god's provided because of one area of their life they're not happy about now now the worms eating all these other things over this one thing for jonah the worm represented his anger for you it's whatever you're i'm so i'm so i'm so hurt i'm so i'm so offended i'm so i'm so discouraged i'm so disappointed and the worm shows up and it chews up the plant worms in the bible represent finality in acts 12 23 herod did not give praise to god and the bible says he was eaten by worms and he died look at what herod's worm was it was he wanted all the glory he wanted all the attention all the credit he did not want to give any to god and that was his worm in the old testament god sent manna every single morning to the children of israel to provide for them to bless them to sustain them to give them what they needed to make it and god says one thing i do not want you to go hoard the manna up don't go store it up but some people went out they grabbed it they were afraid god's not gonna provide tomorrow we're not really sure god's gonna do it again we you know he's done it before but we're not sure if he's done it again so what do they do they go they hoard it up in the those that manna turned into maggots sending us a message that for some of us our worm is we cannot get over the fact that we doubt god will provide again he's provided up until this point but we start to pull it in and that was the children of israel's worm hell is described as the place where the worm never dies think about that the finality of what the worm represents and yes hell is a real place but let's stop a second let's think about the intangibles that we know about referring to hell we know about the tangibles in heaven right what are we praying we pray on earth as it is in heaven we're praying for peace we're praying for joy we're praying for healing right we're praying for everything that heaven is to show up here on a chaotic planet but there are intangibles to hells too and those intangibles just like you can pray as it is on in heaven let it be on earth you can also attract on earth as it is in hell and you know what hell is like living your life where the worm never dies the thing that's eating you up on the inside never dies the anger the resentment the hostility never dies and maybe it gets so bad you think to yourself i wish i was dead that my friend is hell on earth and jonah is living in that kind of a hell he's stuck wishing what happened never happened he stuck longing for a time before the trauma he's stuck believing that he's alone that no one understands cs lewis says pain is god's megaphone to a deaf world i like that we don't have to stay stuck on the summit of mount stupid you can kill the worm there is a way that no worm can survive there's one thing that you can do and no worm can survive this and it's to do what jonah did not do ask god some questions let me tell you what that is it's called humility because if you look at the picture god's asking all kinds of questions and joan is making all kinds of statements joan is full of statements what what are his statements it seems like what god is doing is wrong that's that's how jonah thinks he's god's teacher but god is the student he asks questions no worm can survive humility the willingness to not make statements to god but to ask god questions maybe asking a question like this god what is the wisest thing for me to do long term i know i'm hurting i know i'm angry i know i'm upset and i know my immediate response is this but what is the wisest thing for me to do long term jonah did the right thing three days dripping in well vomit he preaches to nineveh but he did not do the wise thing how do we know this because he only cared about his point of view he preaches to nineveh he tells them what he thinks they need to hear he tells them god's gonna destroy you god's gonna do this to you and god's gonna do that to you but now he's in his plant religion he's in this place where he's living angry and loving comfort and he's leaving the worm alone he's letting the worm just devour the plant he's letting the worm just devour what god's provided and he's living in this angry anger because he only saw things from his point of view humility says things like i need to care about what god cares about plant religion says i do what i want how do i see it humility says i need to keep the well-being of nineveh in mind i need to keep the well-being of others in mind and you know what plant religion is it's worm food you know what the anger is you know what the bitterness is you know what the offense is you know you know what the sadness is you want to know what what all that that's plant food a lack of humility i'm sorry is worm food humility comes to god and asks questions think about what jonah probably should have asked in light of my past experiences considering my current circumstances god what would be the best and wisest thing for me to do moving forward that that would have been a good question but jonas justifying his his he says to god god listen this is what i said when i was running the first time this is why i was trying to forestall this the first time this is why i all that stuff happened the first time jonah is still making statements but plant religion always leads to regret and loss but humility will kill the worm humility listen where that begins grace enters what never hit jonah was maybe i need to change maybe i need to let all of these things change me up maybe instead of telling god what i want maybe i should ask him what he wants but instead jonah gets stuck suffering on the summit of mount stupid and he's reliving the same mistakes over and over and over again so number two the reason we keep reliving these mistakes is we get stuck in the suffering we get stuck making statements instead of asking questions and then number three and i'm done this one's going to go quick regrets remind us they don't define us jonah god says hey listen i know you love that plant i i know you cared about it and i know that in the wake of its loss you want to die you don't even see life worth living but god wants jonah to answer his question should i not care about nineveh should i not care about the hundred and twenty thousand people that are lost in nineveh and then watch it i didn't even know how i was going to finish the sermon because of this moment god drops the mic god's done talking according to what we have knowledge of god never talks to jonah again we don't get a conclusion the movie ends mid-stream jonah is the author which tells us he knows the end but he didn't want to tell us his end the tension is strategic he left it open-ended for us because what's more important than how did jonah's story end is how is my story gonna end you know at some point this season that you've been through this incident that you've been through this this circumstance that you're facing will just one day be a story that's it that's all it'll be it'll be a story you tell or a story that someone else tells you and i just decide what story do we want to tell what story do we want other people to tell and you can just step back like jonah living angry and loving comfort or you can put your hands back on the steering wheel c.s lewis says you can't go back and change the beginning but you can start where you are and change the ending if you can't tell i've been reading a lot of cs lewis lately why do most people not learn from their mistakes why do most people keep repeating the same mistakes over and over it's because they're convinced that the mistakes that they've made are someone else's fault and we live in a culture that believes the worst thing that can happen to you as you feel bad about things that you've done wrong and that's not true the worst thing is is that you don't feel bad about something that is bad about yourself no the worst thing is that i feel bad about myself no that's not the worst thing the worst thing is that you don't feel bad about yourself in an area of your life that is bad it's okay to have regrets it's okay to have things you look back on and say i wish i would have never done that i wish i would have never said that i wish that would have never happened we've all got regrets we're all going to have regrets the regrets remind us they do not define us in the end god is teaching jonah what's the most important thing it's not the plant it's not the comfort it's not the ease it's not the shade it's not your feelings it's not your anger it's not your opinions it's not your statements in the end god is telling jonah you need to have a bigger vision than just what's happening in your own life 120 000 people in nineveh are lost you know what he's trying to get joner to do jonah i need you to look at the big picture this is just a moment of your life this is a blip on the radar screen of your life let alone a blip on the radar screen of the grand picture and he's trying to help jonah realize it's about souls it's a about the the fact that there's something that lasts for all of eternity and that's not our plan that's not our ease that's not our comfort there's something that lasts for all of eternity and you know what that is that's a human soul and he's trying to help jonah realize i need you jonah to care about souls i need you to care about more than what you're going through i love this cs lewis said if you live for the next world you get this one in the deal but if you live only for this world you lose them both what is he saying care about nineveh care about lost people care about your community care about your nation do more than want to preach to them do more than want to make statements do more than want to just quote bible verse verses do more than just want to make a statement on facebook about how bad the world is and how god is tired of the world and realize that what god was needing from jonah was not just a preacher he was tuned in of a he was needing a man that would care about nineveh a man that would love nineveh a man that would show up and love them and serve them after he preached to them but jonah just wanted to tell them how bad they were and then set back in his comfort and hope god destroyed them let's remember that jesus gave his life for people he did not give his life for the message he is the message he gave his life for people watch this and this is what he said to us a new command i give to you that you love one another and don't stop there even as i loved you how'd he love us how do you love us bleeding and dying he never gave up the bigger vision we need to ask ourselves i know we have some regrets but they shouldn't define us they should just remind us let's make some adjustments but we have our hands on the steering wheel we do have a say in how things move forward in our lives we don't have to be i'm so angry i wish i was dead we don't have to live that way we don't have to live allowing our peace and our joy to be eaten up by anger and resentment and hostility or whatever your i'm so might be amen i love the fact that the story of jonah doesn't end we know how it ends because he doesn't tell us we know it ends positive we know it does because he didn't want to tell us he didn't want to resolve it he wanted to leave us hanging he wanted to leave us with this idea not every story ends positive you do have a choice how it ends you do have a choice what story is being told you just have to decide what kind of story a story of this happened they grew from it this happened they're stronger because of it this happened they're wiser because of it this happened they got better because of it this happened they they became a a better mom a better wife a better husband a better christian a better worker a better a better just they just became bet or this had they were great they were moving they were doing so good and then bam this happened then it's like everything at that point changed everything just like they couldn't find themselves again they couldn't get back on their feet they just they just they couldn't get over it they couldn't move on from it they let that define them no it just reminds us it doesn't define us could put our hands on our hearts i've gone too long today there in cincy put your hands on your hearts maybe you're repeating a same mistake maybe it's a bad attitude a wrong behavior would you let god lift up the mirror today of his word and would you let god ask you some some some questions today would you just say maybe just ask yourself am i being honest with myself really why am i angry really why am i hurting really and then hear what god says do you really have a right to live that way we understand you have a space of grace a time to heal we all need that the bible says there's a time to mourn there's a time to grieve there is a time for that do not be upset that you're going to need time and it may take longer than days it may take some real time depending on the level of loss you faced but listen put your hands back on the steering wheel in jesus name put your hands back on the steering wheel do not take your hands off of this thing father in jesus name we thank you where humility begins grace enters and the grace that is needed in every individual situation of each person that i'm praying for right now god we stop saying this is what i want and we're going to start saying god what do you want what do you want what do you want what can we do to serve you what can we do to honor you what can we do to express your love your grace your healing power to a lost and dying and hurting world god what can we do to allow your grace to enter the places that are irreparable any other way than us to humble ourselves and say god we acknowledge that we're off we acknowledge that we're not right and we say we need you we need you we cannot do it without you thank you god there is where grace enters there is where strength enters there's where that's where your power enters and what we could never do on our own we can do through your strength and through the power of your spirit in jesus name we all said amen

Channel: 7 Hills Church with Marcus Mecum

Views: 4,336

Keywords: Church, Religion, love, jesus, God, bible

Id: D8x_6HAgIa0

Length: 44min 26sec (2666 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 28 2021