Dismissive, Reluctant, Interested, or Involved?

Good morning, 121. Why don't you guys stand up and let's praise the Lord this morning. Let's do it. Thanks. ♪ Don't wait for me ♪ ♪ It's a narrow road that leads to life ♪ ♪ But I wanna be honored ♪ ♪ It's a narrow road but the mercy's wide ♪ ♪ Cause you're good on your promise ♪ ♪ I'll take you at your word ♪ ♪ You said it, I believe it ♪ ♪ I've seen how good it works ♪ ♪ If you started, you're completed ♪ ♪ I'll take you at your word ♪ ♪ Kings come and the chaos fell in line ♪ ♪ And I know, cause I've seen it in my life ♪ Come on, let's sing. ♪ It's a narrow road that leads to life ♪ ♪ But I wanna be on it ♪ ♪ Oh, it's a narrow road, the tide is high ♪ Put your part in the water. We sing. ♪ I'll take you at your word ♪ ♪ If you said it, I'll believe it ♪ ♪ I've seen how good it works ♪ ♪ If you started, you're completed ♪ ♪ I'll take you at your word ♪ ♪ If you said it, I'll believe it ♪ ♪ I've seen how good it works ♪

♪ If you started, you're completed ♪ ♪ I'll take you at your word ♪ Oh, we love you, Lord. We praise you, Father. Here we go, you said your love. You said your heart will never forget or forsake me. You said I'm safe, you called me yours. You said my future's full of your hope. You never fail, so I know that you'll never fail. Come on, do we believe that this morning? Come on, sing it in faith. You said your grace is always enough. You said your heart will never forget or forsake me. You said I'm safe, you called me yours. You said my future's full of your hope. Oh, you never fail, I know that you'll never fail me. You never fail me, I'll take you at your word. Come on, sing it out. ♪ If you said it, I'll believe it ♪ ♪ I've seen how good it works ♪ ♪ If you started, you're completed ♪ ♪ I'll take you at your word ♪ ♪ If you said it, I'll believe it ♪ ♪ I've seen how good it works ♪ ♪ If you started, you're completed ♪ ♪ I'll take you at your word ♪ ♪ If you said it, I'll believe it ♪ ♪ I've seen how good it works ♪ ♪ If you started, you're completed ♪ Amen.

Good morning, everybody. Would you turn to your neighbor and say hi, greet each other, and we'll get right back. All right, let's continue to sing and worship the Lord. Oh, we look to you, Jesus, the King of our life. There was a moment when the lights went out, when death had claimed its victory, the King of love. The King of love had given up his life, the darkest day in history. There on a cross they made for sinners, for every curse is blood atoned. One final breath and it was finished, but not the ends we could have known, we sing. For the earth began to shake and the veil was torn. What sacrifice was made as the heavens roared. Oh, we sing all hail King Jesus, all hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail King Jesus, all hail Savior of the world. Yes, He is. He's our Savior. His name is Jesus. It's who we're here for today. Come on. There was a moment when the sky lit up, a flash of light would break it through. Oh, when all was lost, He crossed eternity. The King of life was on the move. For in a dark old tomb where our Lord was laid, one miraculous breath. Come on. It was forever changed. All hail. All hail King Jesus. Lift your voice. All hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail King Jesus.

All hail Savior of the world. All hail King Jesus. All hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail King Jesus. All hail Savior of the world. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh. Come on, let every knee. Let every knee come down before the King of kings. Let every tongue confess it is Lord. Lift up your shout. Let us join with all of heaven. We sing holy. Yeah. Singing holy. We're singing holy. Yeah. Singing holy. Holy praise to Jesus. Together. All hail King Jesus All hail the Lord of heaven and earth All hail King Jesus All hail the Saviour of the world Thank you Lord Let us say thank you We fix our eyes on you Jesus And thank you Sing enthroned in glory

Enthroned in glory My Saviour King Your loving kindness has welcomed me Though I'm unworthy of majesty You wrap the lowly in loyalty And I will lay my crowns down at your feet Cause you are worthy, you're holy And I will give my life as an offering You are worthy, so worthy Lord Thank you Oh you are worthy Lord Seeking at your altar Seeking at your altar To seek your face Broken and poured out without restraint Oh and full abandoned before my King Here I surrender my everything And I will lay my crowns down at your feet Oh you're holy, you are holy And holy and I will give my life as an offering You are worthy, so worthy And I will lay my crowns down at your feet Oh you are holy, so holy And I will give you my life as an offering You are worthy, so worthy Lord Yes you are worthy, so worthy Lord Yes you are Oh you're worthy and holy Lord We lay it down at your feet Everything we have to offer you

Cause you're worthy We'll sing this together And holy, holy, holy is the Lamb upon the throne Joy with all of heaven in the everlasting song we'll sing And holy, holy, holy is the Lamb upon the throne We join with all of heaven in the everlasting Come on we'll sing this together And holy, holy, holy is the Lamb upon the throne We join with all of heaven in the everlasting song we'll sing And holy, holy, holy is the Lamb upon the throne We join with all of heaven in the everlasting song ♪ Oh, and I will lay my crowns down at Your feet ♪ ♪ Sing, cause You are holy, You are holy, so holy ♪ ♪ And I will give my life as an offertory ♪ ♪ Cause You are worthy, so worthy, and I will sing ♪ ♪ Lay my crowns down at Your feet ♪ ♪ You are holy, so holy, and I will give my life as an offertory ♪ ♪ You are worthy, so worthy, and I will sing ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, Jesus, yes You are, yes You are ♪ Sing this. ♪ And I will lay my crowns down at Your feet ♪ ♪ You are holy, holy, and I will give my life as an offertory ♪ ♪ You are worthy, so worthy, Lord ♪ ♪ We look to You, Jesus, we look to You, Jesus ♪ ♪ You are worthy, Jesus ♪ ♪ And turn Your eyes upon Jesus, look fully upon Him ♪ ♪ And His wonderful face ♪ ♪ And the things of earth will grow strangely dimmed ♪ ♪ In the light of His glory and grace ♪ Can we look to Him and sing that together?

♪ And turn Your eyes upon Jesus, look fully upon Him ♪ ♪ And His wonderful face ♪ ♪ And the things of earth will grow strangely dimmed ♪ ♪ In the light of His glory and grace ♪ One last time, we sing. ♪ And turn Your eyes upon Jesus, look fully upon Him ♪ ♪ And His wonderful face ♪ ♪ And the things of earth will grow strangely dimmed ♪ ♪ In the light of His glory and grace ♪ Amen. I'm gonna read some scripture, and then I'm gonna have a time for us to kind of read together also on the screen. But before that, I just kind of wanna sit here in this moment as we just got done singing, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty. We sang it in the song, All Hail King Jesus. We sang it again in Crowns Down. And then we sang, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah has a encounter with the Lord. And it says that he looks and he saw the Lord on His throne, high and lifted up. And he saw that the angels and the seraphim were singing, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord. All the earth is full of His glory. And so right now, like as we were singing about the revelation of the cross, that's another place Jesus is high and lifted up. And I just kind of wanna lean into a few things that Isaiah did.

And one of the things was that he says, woe is me for I am lost, for I am lost. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. So the presence of the Lord and when he gazes upon the Lord, it draws and it compels him to repent and calls him to lay down at his feet and to just lay his life down and everything. And I think in this moment, it's a great moment for us to do that as well. And then later on, the voice of the Lord says, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah responds, Here I am, send me. And that verse is really sweet, because recently we had an active and the kids memorized that verse and they repeated it with each other, like constantly throughout the whole week. And I think that's that's something that we could all grab onto, too. And I just want us as we sing this next song, this next song is called Available. It's a new song. And I just want us to think about, are we available for the Lord? And as we sing this next song, I just want to ask of you to just reflect on that, whether that draws you to repentance or that draws you to to just soak in the words that we're seeing, but also search your heart. Am I available or am I too busy? Am I available or do I have other things to worry about in my life? Or is Jesus truly seated on the throne? So let's sing this next song together as we think about that. Oh, as the road may seem, I'll follow where your spirit leads, broken as my life may be, I will give you every piece. I hear you call, I am available. I say, yes, Lord, I am available. Here I am with open hands, counting on your grace again, and less of me and more of you, Lord, I just want to see you move. I hear you call, I am available. I say, yes, Lord, I am available. I hear you call, I am available. I say, yes, Lord, I am available. I hear you call, I am available. I say, yes, Lord, I am available. Here I am, here I am. You can have it all. You can have it all. Here I am, here I am. You can have it all. Sing you can have it all. Here I am. Here I am, Lord. You can have it all. You can have it all. Here I am. Here I am, Lord. You can have it all. You can have it all. Here I am. Here I am, Lord. You can have it all. Everything. Here I am. Here I am. You can have it all. You can have it all. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We're

only one for you to move by. You can have my yes, Lord. You can have my yes, Lord. Here's me how you want to, Lord. Oh, thank you, Lord. Come on, we'll sing this together. I hear. Sing it, I hear. I hear you call. I am available. I say, yes, Lord. I am available. Yes, Lord, we're here, God. As we just sang, Lord, I pray that that would be true in our hearts, God, that we would be available to you, Lord. We would be open to you, God, to hear from you. Lord, we trust you. We trust you, Father. Lord, I pray today that your gospel would shine through this morning, Lord. Even as we were singing through the words that we were singing, but also, God, as as the word is preached this morning, God, I just pray that we would be able to see you, Lord. And as we do, God, I just ask that you would teach us Lord, that you would that you would call us to repentance, Lord, that you would just make us aware of you and of ourselves, God, and in our life and which order those things should fall in, God. And Lord, I just pray that you are the center of everything, God. And that would be the posture of our life. We ask all of this in your name, Jesus. Amen. Maybe see you. Thank you. Love with justice and body grace. And no sooner does the gospel call us into community than the gospel sends us out. And by the way, New York is a city that never stops moving. So New York needs a church that is moving, not just keeping pace with it, but moving alongside it, serving and renewing it. No single church could ever do this alone. Just like the boundless diversity expressed in every avenue and block, in every brownstone, New York needs all kinds of churches. It needs a movement of churches, expanded as the

spirit moves in people, in ways that are uncontained and spontaneous. Sociologists will say human organizations exist along a spectrum. The one end, we have institutions. At the other end, movements. Institutions are hard to change. Movements are dynamic. Institutions are top-down. Movements are bottom-up. An institution is united by rules and the movement is united by common vision. The vision of the New York Project is the entire city of New York. renewed by the gospel. It's the gospel that moves, that's breathing life and movement into our city, compelling us to put aside our own interests for something larger and shared. That's a movement that extends across all kinds of institutions, denominations, and churches. There is a gospel movement in New York and it is gaining momentum. Now, what are we going to do with this momentum? We can be part of it. We can be part of it. We can be part of that. We can be part of that. History is happening in New York. Now is not the time to sit still. Now is the time to move. Our mission moments have been really powerful over the last six months, just giving exposure to the things that God is allowing us to be a part of.

And hopefully along the way, there'll be something that'll stir your heart to be a part of it as well. And I want us to think this morning how we can all be part of that kind of movement. If you'll turn in your Bibles to Jonah chapter three. If you have your Bibles, it'll be about two thirds of the way through. It's four chapters long, little challenge to find. If not, use your table of contents. If you don't have a Bible, then we would encourage you to just track along with the scripture on the screen. I've been so encouraged this past week when I think about movements, or literally the last 10 days since I've been back from the sabbatical and hearing just so many stories of people who are actively talking about Jesus and sharing their faith with other people. And then people coming to faith and through Christ through that kind of sharing. One dad that I was with, he's a friend of mine, he was telling me about his son who is about to be a senior in high school. And he was a part of a trip that we just did to New York City and being a part of that movement that's going on in New York City, specifically for us in Brooklyn.

And as he was talking about his son, there was opportunities there to share the gospel. But his son is working a summer job. And in that summer job, he's had the opportunity to meet a Muslim teenager. And he's had a real heart to be able to talk about Jesus with him. And just recently, he was able to walk through the gospel to talk about what it means to be a follower of Christ. Now it's interesting response of that Muslim teenager. And we'll think about that in just a few minutes in that response. But I love the boldness of our teenagers today to bring the message of Christ to those that God has put in their path. And as we look at Jonah chapter three, then we also see the opportunity of what it looks like to share that message of Jesus with other people, even people perhaps that we do not like. Jonah was a prophet of God. If you haven't been here, you're not familiar with this story, brief overview before we land in chapter three. Jonah is a prophet of God. God has asked him, actually assigned him to go to Nineveh. It's a city of 120,000 people, which in that day would have been a large and great city. And in that city, he wanted Jonah to bring a message that he would have for him to deliver to them. Jonah dismisses it.

He does not like that idea. He hates the people in Nineveh. He does not like God's assignment. He flees. He ends up in a storm on a ship. He gets thrown overboard. The sea is calmed. He finds himself in the belly of a great fish. Actually, the lowest point you could probably go in that moment. And it was actually that low place that God brought him through in a place of rescue. That's often what he does with us today. But what we wanna note about that is that God, if he does have an assignment for us, and we refuse that assignment in disobedience, he will discipline us. He will do the things to bring us to the place that we are actively in on what he wants us to be a part of. In Hebrews 12, we're told that God disciplines those whom he loves. He disciplines his children. A parent is not a loving parent who does not discipline their children along the way that is the right way. If we just let them go off here, that is not loving our kids. God is the same as a father. He loves us and he will discipline us.

That's what he did with Jonah. That brings us then to chapter three. And in chapter three, Jonah gets another opportunity. Now, if it's okay today, I want to be as kind as I can be. And I also know that sometimes when I talk about this. topic people don't receive me well, as I learned in an airplane conversation where I completely shut down a conversation after an hour and a half and I asked this question. So I know that I'm not always easy on these kinds of things. But I figure that you're at 121 because you're willing to be challenged in your faith. And what I'd like to do today is not hurt your feelings, I'd just like for us to really dig deep within our own hearts. I don't want you to think about your neighbor, I don't want to think about somebody else in your family, I don't want you to think about your friends, at least on the first part. I just want to talk to you as if we were in a coffee shop and we could just have a really cool conversation, direct is okay, I don't have to be so careful with my words, you'll be fine, we're just working through it. Is that okay, can we do that? We're gonna do it anyway, so I hope it works for you. But here's the question I want to ask. Are you a dismissive person, a reluctant person, an interested person, or an involved person when it comes to talking to people about Jesus with words? I'm not asking today, do you have an amazing servant heart?

We have incredible servant hearted people at 121. We have incredibly bold people speaking about Jesus at 121, I just want us to build on that today. But think about those four words today, by the time we're done tethered to Jonah three from the scripture, how would you describe yourself today? Dismissive, reluctant, interested, or involved? The first thing we'll spend some time on, the first four verses, and that is to pass on the message. And when we think about passing on the message of Jesus Christ, is that something where you find yourself dismissive, reluctant, you're interested, you're trying to figure it out, or you're involved in it, verse one. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, aren't we glad for second chances? This week, I was at a spot, I was in a setting with a person that I didn't know, and actually, I didn't know one, I didn't know the other. And the one that I knew, I thought God was saying to me, this is how I want you to encourage him or challenge him, and I didn't do it. A few minutes later, we ended up in a different spot together, and I had that opportunity. I'm so grateful that God gives us second chances when we miss it the first time. So if we go back to Jonah chapter one, verses one through three, it's almost verbatim the first three chapters, first three verses in chapter three, except that this time,

instead of fleeing God's presence, Jonah goes to where he wants him to go. So there's a second chance, we're grateful for that. Verse two, this is what God says to Jonah. Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation which I'm going to tell you. And let's linger here for a little bit on what he was told to do. Arise, go. If you've been here for the last six months or the last few months, you know that we anchored ourselves in Matthew 28, verse 19. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There's more around that on either side, but I want us to fixate on go. The assignment is to go. It's for all the disciples of Jesus. A disciple is a learner or a follower. So today, if you would say that you are a follower of Jesus, then you are a disciple. And you have the same assignment that everybody else does. Each of us has this assignment, to go and to make disciples. That word go can be a specific, here's where you go, just like this assignment for Jonah. Jonah is to go to Nineveh. He knows exactly where he's to go.

It also carries with it the idea of as you're going. And all of us are as we are going. And as we're going, there's something that God would have us to say. One part of our travel, I was on an airplane with a young lady and we sat both like aisle seats. So we end up on either aisle and then we have at least one or two on the left or the right of us to be able to see if God has opportunity there. And I was telling this young lady, she's a believer. And I was asking her, because I've had this on my mind all through my sabbatical, about how we share our faith with other people. I said, what would it take for you to boldly talk about Jesus with other people? Again, I'm not talking about are you a Christian or not a Christian? Are you serving or not? I'm talking about using words with the gospel. Jesus died, God raised him from the dead. Do you believe it? Love it. Involved, I'll go ahead and give you. that tag today. I asked her that question, I said, what would it take to be more bold? And she said, for my personality to change. I said, I love it. I've never heard that one before. That was a new one.

She said, I'm an introvert. She said, it's not comfortable for me. Let me encourage you today. God made you exactly how he wanted to make you. Introvert, extrovert, ambivert, picket. He made you the way he made you, and he has people for you, that he has entrusted to you. I'm not for everybody. You're not for everybody, but you're for somebody, and God has that for all of us. So who are those people? It doesn't matter about personality. God will work through your personality. So we need to lay that one aside and lean in to what God has for us as we go. That we're a sent people. It's okay, by the way, if it's uncomfortable. It's okay sometimes if we think the assignment is unreasonable, that it's to people we don't like, or it's to people that might have hurt us, or hurt someone near us, or it's to people we like. Whatever it is, we go with the assignment that God has. 2 Corinthians 12, 9 says this. My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Power is perfected in weakness.

It's actually a good place to be when we know we're weak at something that God has for us. It forces me to depend on Him, and for Him to do the work, and for God to work in and through me regardless of my personality. And Paul says something pretty remarkable in that verse. He says, most gladly therefore, I would rather boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. When's the last time that we just boasted before God, I am not any good at this. The very thing you've asked me to do, I'm not good at. I'm weak at this. And you know what, I'm thankful today, because the only way it's going to happen is through the power of Christ in me. And then He gets the glory for what goes on. So we think about going. I received a newsletter a few days ago from one of our global workers. He's stationed over in the Middle East, and then he goes to different places in Africa, other places in the Middle East to equip and train pastors so that they can more effectively share the gospel and equip and train other pastors. He's doing a remarkable job. And in the newsletter, it was urgent because one of those places where they'd done any equipping,

that pastor and his wife and seven church members were recently arrested for doing things that were in opposition to the government, and the things they were doing were talking about Jesus crucified and risen. This is his assignment. Sometimes the assignment is hard. Sometimes it has tough consequences that go with it. When we think about going and we think about proclaiming what it is that God would have us to proclaim, we think about what that message is. What is the message to proclaim? Well, what's he saying in verse three? Proclaim it to the proclamation, which I'm going to tell you. So we don't have to come up with this. We don't have to come up with something to say. We can do exactly what Paul did in 1 Corinthians 15, verses three through five. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas then to the twelve. Paul was simply passing on what had been delivered to him. And if you know Jesus today, the message that somebody passed on to you is that Jesus Christ died for you,

God raised him from the dead, and you must have believed it, and then you received forgiveness of sins. That's the core. We're just passing on what it is that has been passed on to us. And again, just to encourage you for however you might think about your ability or lack of ability, when we think of Paul, we tend to think, this guy, it was just easy for him. He just knocked it out wherever he went. But in 1 Corinthians 2, one through five, he said, when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. How often we think about Paul trembling and being afraid when he comes and he speaks the gospel to people. And he said, my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and the power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. People are changed when the power of God rests on their heart and changes them,

not when we cleverly come up with a way to say something. We pass on the message. We'll see it in a minute, but somebody said in the early service that Timothy Keller wrote a book, I think called The Prodigal Prophet. Someone else passed that on to me this week. And he said, when we see what Jonah said, it's like the worst gospel proclamation you've ever heard in your life. And yet people turn. So it's the power of God that changes the heart and we simply bring the message. Verse three, so Jonah arose, went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. This time he goes. Now I'm sure he didn't enjoy the consequences of the first time when he disobeyed. That had to be somewhat of a motivation for him, but we see an obedience this time to do exactly what it is that God wants him to do. We don't see God shaming him, even though Jonah had dismissed God, yet we see that he is moving him into the assignment he has for him. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days walk. It was an important city to God. The city of New York, all eight million people, they matter to God.

Every person in the city matters. Every person in the cities in which we live in this area matter to God. God loved this city. There are 120,000 people, a large city of the day. That three days walk perhaps means that it would take about that long to walk through Nineveh and proclaim the message. Verse four, then Jonah began to go through the city, one day's walk. So this is the first day and this is the message that he cries out. Yet 40 days in Nineveh will be overthrown. That's it. That's all we have recorded. You've got 40 days and then the city is going to be overthrown. That's the message. Now we don't love it when we think about preachers who yell about hell and destruction and damnation. We don't have to yell about it, but that is the reality apart from Christ. The message from Jonah to the Ninevites that God gave him is 40 days and then the city will be overthrown. That word overthrown is an interesting word in Hebrew. That's what the Old Testament is written in. It's in Hebrew. It carries with it two ideas. The first idea is that of destruction

and they would have understood when they heard Jonah that he was talking about them being destroyed by his God. Overthrown. It's the same word that's used with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter 19. It's also the Hebrew word that's used when Samuel is installing Saul as the next king and the word that's used is this. It says that Saul will become a changed man. That word changed is this same Hebrew word that is to destroy. It can also mean that someone can be overthrown and changed from the way they are into something else. So they know inherently when they hear this message that there's actually the possibility of change and to be spared from the destruction that God is bringing their way. So passing on the message. Jonah does it this time. Was he dismissive this time? No. Was he reluctant? Probably. Was he interested? I don't know. Was he involved? Yes, he was, but probably with a reluctant heart. We'll see more of that in chapter four. Bottom line, the message was delivered. On Monday morning, this was one of many conversations

I've had in the last several days. Somebody in the church called me and they said, hey, do you remember about 10 years ago when we were doing a discipling group together as a small group of men and you had us write down the names of people that were in our spheres of influence that don't know Christ. And he said, in the first two or three that I wrote, I met with one of those guys today, and it was such a good reminder to me to keep writing the names of people that God has put in my sphere so that I can pray for them, that they might come to know Jesus and I might get opportunity to share that with them. And that reminded me as we were talking of a book by Oscar Thompson called Concentric Circles of Concern. I've shared this often, and I just found it to be a really helpful way to think about, in your world, you've been given a sphere of people, probably hundreds, by the way, when you look at it like this. The first circle is yourself. And that's one of the things today we wanna make sure is, I'm talking to people on one side that know Jesus, and are you passing on the message? On the other side, have you responded to the message?

And maybe you haven't responded yet to the message. So we're talking here about the people we would pass the message on to. So what about ourselves? Maybe we need to hear it. The second circle is our immediate family. Do you know in your family, your immediate family and relatives, do you know the ones who know Jesus or do not? Do they know your story? Have you ever verbally with words talked about how it is that Jesus is the one that changed your life? And what about you, my cousin? Or what about you, my uncle? Or what about you, my sister? What about you, whatever relative? What is your story in the way you think about Jesus? In words with them, not assumptions. Not just because they go to church in New Jersey, the Methodist church there, I don't make an assumption they're a believer. I just wanna have a conversation. Do you know Jesus or not know Jesus? Are we reluctant about that conversation, dismissive and just let it go? But what about our immediate family? Or interested, just not sure how to do it. Third circle, friends and coworkers. If I just think about the people I know in our church

that play different sports and work, that category, you have hundreds. You got 15 or 20 families per team. You have the people that are on your floor where you work. You have all kinds of people. Do you know, do they know Jesus or not? And there are so many people in our church actively sharing their faith in their business arena. It can happen in that arena. The next category and what we've been speaking of, what about your neighbors? What about your city? And what about global kinds of workers or people all over the world? And then the last category is person X. By person X, and this is what I think we often think evangelism is, and it's less of this than it is all the others. Person X is that random person you meet on an airplane. It's the random person that you see at a store that you probably never see again. That's just person X. So when we talk about that, does God have some assignments for you, for random people? He puts them in your path. Would you be interested in that? Are you already involved in that? Are you dismissive of that? That's for somebody else.

Are you reluctant about it? One of the things that God has put on my heart, the deepest, really in the last couple of years, I just don't know what to do with it yet in a different way, other than just keep talking about it and see what God does. But my concern is deepening for 60, 70, and 80-year-olds. And my question is, why do movements tend to always happen with teenagers and 20-somethings? By the way, I'm all in on that. I just wonder if we ought to add to it. The stats say, and the guy who started Lionheart, Stan Dobbs, the way he would cast vision for it, say we have a gospel shot clock, meaning statistics show that if a person doesn't come to Christ by the time they're 12 or so, they probably never will. Okay, well, we can look at that statistically, but I read my Bible, I don't see a constraint on it. So I wonder if we could chunk the stat and say, let's ditch that stat. You know where the gospel shot clock is running? On 60, 70, and 80-year-olds, because we don't have, at best, we have a third left of life. At best. Lindsey Graham this week was a good reminder, 71 years old, died unexpectedly.

At best. And 60, 70, and 80-year-olds probably mostly grew up in some kind of. church, and I would say mostly, perhaps missed the gospel. They caught church, they didn't catch Christ. But we don't know that unless we have conversation with them. What would happen if we started hearing about a movement of the gospel at Watermere? What would happen in all these 55 plus communities if people had a vision for, you know what, we're moving there so that we can bring the gospel to every 55, 65, 75, 85, whatever year old is there? What would happen if we saw movements in places like that? Whatever it is, however, whatever your age is, wherever you are, whatever stirs you. And then, I love this, our young adults had, on the other end of the spectrum, they had an organic evangelism training on Thursday night. I think it's awesome, 40 people showed up for that evangelism training, which is really cool. And then partly what they did was ask questions, they were able to ask questions. And here's a question I wanna address because I run into this quite a bit. Isn't it judging them, other people, because they don't believe the same as me? And is everyone on their own unique journey and doesn't try to share our faith imply that we think our path is superior?

Do we think we're superior because we're sharing our faith? And are we being judgmental? I've thought about that a lot since I saw the question afresh. And let's clarify what judgmental means. Judgmental means I'm critical and a fault finder. Making a judgment means I'm simply assessing what is happening. You and I do that nonstop. That's healthy to assess what's going on. I think it's the wrong question. I think we ought to ask, are we being judgmental of God who has given us the assignment to bring the message of Christ to all the nations and to anyone who does not know Jesus? Are we not actually the judgmental ones? And was Jonah not the judgmental one for refusing to go to the Ninevites who God had sent him to? So we dig deep and look at our own relationship with God and say, what's even driving the question? Took a lot of Ubers the last three months. Ran into multiple Muslim drivers in those times, others as well. But you know what, my respect for Muslims has deepened in the last three months. And don't get nervous. This is why. They have no trouble telling me what they believe. They have no trouble telling me

that Jesus did not die on a cross and that God did not raise him from the dead. The whole crux of the gospel for us, they don't believe. And they will tell you that. That is not being judgmental at all. That is just a fact of the matter. That is just a fact. And one of them gave me a Quran. I said, I'll take it and I'll trade you a Bible. We traded. I respect people who believe something so deeply that they wanna persuade me to believe it. If their thing is right, I want somebody that's in it to persuade me that I'm wrong. I want that. I didn't see that guy judging me. I saw him loving what he's a part of and he wanted me to know about it. If I really love and know Jesus, wouldn't I want somebody else to have the same? Pass on the message. Where would you say you sit in that category? Let's look at the back half of this. Respond with repentance is the second part. First part is as a believer, a disciple, am I passing on the message? Where do I fit in those four words? The other side is someone who's not yet responded. As someone being dismissive or reluctant or interested, but not there yet or involved in yes.

Verse five, then the people of Nineveh, they believed in God. They heard the message, they believed. Now, who would have ever thought, if you look at the history of Assyria, that the Ninevites would even flinch at this message? So often we think, well, they'll never believe it. They believe this or they believe that or they're in this. They don't like the church. We don't know unless we lay the message out for them. They believed in God. Same word as Genesis 15, six. where Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. It was brought to him that way. So they believed it. Implied in this would be repentance. They begin to repent. They called a fast, and they put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. All kinds of people in the city. It wasn't just a certain segment of people. It wasn't a certain socioeconomic group. The greatest to the least. Everybody in the city says they called a fast, and they put on sackcloth. That indicates a genuine humility and brokenness before the God of Jonah. When they put on sackcloth, that would be a coarse kind of rough material

that would be against their skin. And they would wear that as a sign of denying themselves. The ashes were a reminder to them that they're from dust and fragile and frail, and there's a dependence on God. So they're demonstrating immediately what is happening in their hearts of believing in God. Then the word reached the king of Nineveh. He arose from his throne. He laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. Verse seven, he issued a proclamation. It said, now he amps it up. He intensifies what's happening. He says, in Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let man, beast, herd, or flock. Now he gets the animals end on it. Do not let them eat or drink water. So he adds water to it. Now it's a food and a water fast. It's all the people. It's the animals. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth. And let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Now look what's happening. This is a sign of true belief. It's when we believe who God is and what he's done,

and now our hearts are turning away from those things that are wicked. And by the way, you don't just have to be a wicked, violent Ninevite to qualify as having a wicked heart. Any heart that is apart from God is a deceitful and wicked heart. Any of us are one step away from doing the very things that they were doing in Nineveh. Our hearts are deceitful. And we wanna look at the other guy and say, man, I can't believe you did that without looking at my own heart and saying, I can't believe I just did that. Both wicked, evil. What did God even say to his own people in 2 Chronicles 7, 14? And my people who are called by my name, if they will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin. After and heal their land. Repent, then we receive the forgiveness of God. God's forgiveness is not automatic. We believe Jesus Christ crucified and risen. That belief includes, what goes with it is repentance. It's what Jesus said, Mark 1, 15. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe. Repent and believe. Heart changes, we believe.

Romans 10, nine and 10, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. Believe in your heart, God has raised him from the dead. You'll be saved. For the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness. With mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. We're talking about the kind of repentance that leads us to salvation. And also as the people of God, if we know Christ, we're talking about the kind of repentance that draws us back. So today we may need to repent from being dismissive of passing on God's message. We may need to repent of being reluctant at not doing it. We may need to repent of being interested for years and never seeking out help in the things that stump us. We may need to celebrate today because we're deeply involved in bringing that message of Jesus. Verse nine, who knows? King says, God may turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we will not perish. Who knows? Maybe he'll turn. We can know for certain today. We don't have to do a who knows. We know for certain from what Jesus said that if we turn and we believe, trust Jesus, what he did on the cross in the resurrection, we know that we receive forgiveness

and we become his son or his daughter. Jesus actually draws from this story in Matthew chapter 12 in verse 41. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here, himself. We repent and believe. That friend of mine I told you about on Monday morning that called me, said, hey, you remember that list? He called me because he had breakfast with that best friend on Monday morning. And that friend just recently surrendered his life to Christ was baptized and found, yeah, it's awesome. He said, that's been 10 years of praying for him, 10 years. He said, it's just encouraged me to continue to write people's names down, to love them in that way and to pray for them and see what God does. The global worker that I mentioned in the Middle East, you know why the pastor and his wife and those seven members of the church were arrested? Because there's so many salvations and new churches started and the government doesn't like it. And the government said to them, they will take any measure to stop it. It can't be stopped. The message of Christ will not be stopped.

So on this side of the repentance, would you describe yourself as dismissive when you hear the message of Jesus? Reluctant, just not sure. Lisa and I occasionally read A.W. Tozer's on the Son of God devotional. And last night was, it was interesting, it was on John 3, 16. I had that in my notes for today. But he said this, I close by reminding you also as an individual that unbelief always finds three trees behind which to hesitate and hide. Here's the three trees, somebody else, some other place, some other time. You hear the message of Jesus say, not now, another time. Or maybe somewhere else, not here. Or you're hiding behind someone else. I think that can be true. So where would you say you are today? Well, there's a last piece to this. In verse 10, we talk about relishing the mercy of God. When God saw their deeds that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them, and he did not do it. All the mercy of God. Judgment is coming on every person unless we find ourselves safe under the shadow and substance of the cross. In Habakkuk 3,2, the prophet said,

in wrath, remember mercy. God remembers mercy in the midst of the wrath that's come. And when there's change, then he changes in what he was about to do. So how would you describe yourself? Reluctant, dismissive in passing on the message, reluctant, interested. I'll show up at the training. I'll meet with you. I wanna not do this. By the way, the best way to share your faith is to just do it and mess up a lot. It's the very best way. Just get, you know way more than you think you know, and I don't know is a perfectly acceptable answer. But again, like Keller said, this was probably the worst gospel message ever, and it was full on repentance. Just somehow get out there. Jesus died for you. God raised him from the dead. You believe it. Let's go from there. Or involved and just cheer you on. So can we build on wherever you are to something next, whatever that might look like. This past week I met with a man and his wife who've just started coming to our church, and they're trying to figure out if this is where they'll be or not.

I know his mom and dad through an introduction from another family in the church, and the man I met with, he's in mid-40s. His dad passed away a few years ago, and as we were leaving, I asked him, I said, hey, what are you thinkin' about your dad these days? Like, when you think about your dad, what do you think about, what memory? And he said, you know, this is what I think about. He said, my dad would describe himself as a hell chaser until his freshman year in college. And then somebody told him about Jesus, crucified and risen, and he believed it. And his life completely changed. So much so that his roommate, who's his lifetime best friend, also trusted Jesus. And then five more guys on his dorm floor trusted Jesus because they saw it for real in him. And then later, the sister of his roommate, who was his best friend, sent him a letter thanking him for leading his brother to Jesus because his brother shared his faith with his sister, and that sister is a follower of Jesus. He did that his whole life. And then towards the end of his life, he had a really rough, kind of debilitating condition. And he knew his time was short, but he just kept doing the same thing he did his whole life. And we met him a few times.

There was not a time that we were in his presence and anybody else that was around that you were going to hear about Jesus. And he had this kind of big, commanding presence that was also just really soft and gentle. Lisa, I were talking about him the other night. She said, I always just felt so safe when we were with him. He'd just kind of hover over you, look you right in the eye, and you knew he cared about you. But this is when I want to end with what he said. And he said, this is what my dad would say in those last two years of his life. He said, I want to collect as many friends as I can so that I can tell them about Jesus. He saw a 28-year-old and a 91-year-old come to Christ in those two years, who knows however many else. And he said, you know what? If they're not interested, then that becomes between them and God, but they know. That's a contrast to me of so many people that want to collect up a few friends, and that's all we want. That is not the message and call of a follower of Jesus. It is to collect as many friends as we can and speak the life-changing message of Jesus to them. Dismissive, reluctant, interested, or involved. Thank you for letting us have this time. Father, thank you for the time. So grateful for our church, and I pray, God,

and I'm so grateful for how much of this happens, and I'm encouraged just coming out of Jonah 3 today of what happens when we bring the message and then when people receive it and repent. And so, God, I pray today any ways we need to repent that we would not be afraid of that. That's a gift you give us. We know you won't shame us for that. We know you're taking us right where we are today, and that you'll bend our hearts and move us as we move ahead and straight forward. So, God, whatever it is for somebody to build on today what it would look like to be this bold as the 18-year-old that was willing to share his faith with his Muslim friend, that we would all have that kind of faith. And that friend is interested, and we're gonna pray for him today, that that friend would ultimately come to Jesus. And then, God, I pray that if people just don't know you yet, there'd be no expectation we'd be talking about Jesus if we don't know him. So I pray today, God, that there'd be genuine salvation that would spring up in those who are far from you. And so we're grateful for your word, grateful to be challenged through our hearts today, and in all things, God, today, glory to your name. It's in Jesus' name I pray. If we can, let's just be quiet.

Just think for a moment, lock down on that word, and maybe even write it down. There's something about looking at that word that can be piercing when we put pen to paper. So what is that word that would describe you best today? And then what would it look like to move forward well under the love and mercy of God? So let's be still for just a moment.