Fresh Start Sunday

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Hey, Evangel. Steve here in Bethel, Alaska. I want to give you an update and say a huge thank you for what you're giving and your contributions, your investment have made possible here in Bethel this last year. All right, so follow me. ♪♪♪ All right, so front entryway. As we come into the building, you turn right, or turn left, excuse me, and this is going to be the sanctuary for services. There'll also be a basketball hoop up in here for youth to be able to enjoy this building as a space in which they can come and connect with each other. And over here, we have the Fellowship Hall. Actually, right now, we have all of our teachers from the region are here for a region-wide conference this weekend, as this has been a weekend of equipping, launching into the year and ministry ahead. Follow me over here. This is going to be three different bathrooms, a utility closet, a children's ministry wing, and then we'll go upstairs. Up here is going to be a training space for all of our trainees, as well as our church offices.

And on the other side of the building, we have an apartment and short-term missionary housing. We're actually able to, we're going to be able to house 18 people at a time in this building, which will be an incredible resource for the missionaries on the ground when they come through as well as short-term missions teams that will use this space to be able to house while they go out and do short-term mission work all through Western Alaska. So I want to say again, thank you for your investment. We could not do this without our partners. God bless you guys, and thank you for being what, a part of what God is doing to change Western Alaska. We want to take a minute and give our extreme thanks to everybody at Evangel. I want to start off with Pastor Josh. When you came in a couple years ago for that podcast interview, it sparked the vision for starting a campus church in here. When he walked around, he could see the shame on men's faces in this place because they kept looking down. That's something that really stuck with me because it's something I've struggled with. With Evangel coming in, that shame has brought our chins up and our faces up because hope in this place can be dangerous. But when these men come in here, they speak hope into our lives through Jesus. What God is actually doing for me in my life

is softening my heart and having me look beyond my own circumstances and focus more on the men that are around me and watching how God is working in their lives as well and allowing Him to use me as an instrument of righteousness. I have found hope and purpose in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have felt the strong call to ministry in my life and find purpose teaching the Word of God and speaking life into other brothers in here. And even though I'm here in prison today, I've never felt freer than I am right now. In 2026, God led us to the theme of being the church and building the church, which we believe is a divine call to really the purity of what God created His church, each one of us, to be and to be participants actively in that. Yeah, we know that being a part of the church is not something that we actively spectate, but we are active participants in. It means that we are ambassadors for Christ Jesus everywhere that we go. In being the church, it means that we're full of His Spirit, that He's leading and He's guiding us, not just individually, but as a people. And in building the church, we know that God has equipped each one of us with our time that He's given us here on earth, the talent that He's placed within us or the gifts He's given you,

and the treasure that He's entrusted us with, with stewardship. And so we take each one of those things and we actively advance the kingdom forward. We push back darkness so light may spread. in our towns, our region, and our state. Yeah, if we're going to be the Church and build the Church, it means that we have to be empowered by God's Spirit. It means that Christ has to be the head of His Church. It means that we say yes when He asks us to be obedient to Him. Yes when He opens doors. It's not us making opportunities on our own, but being His Church and building the Church as He leads us as a people. So this year, let's together return to the foundation of who we are called to be. A Church that is alive, active, and advancing. In being the Church, we embody the love of Christ. And in building the Church, we advance His Kingdom forcefully together. Being the Church, it's not a service or a building. It's His people coming together as one body. Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it. First, you must be what He has called you to be. Do what He's called you to do. Then, we build. Together, a place where others call home. To know Jesus, find freedom, and build His Kingdom. Being the Church, building the Church. Now, go be the Church. Hey, come on. Can we thank God for what He's been doing, for all that we believe He's going to do in the future?

So exciting. I want to say hello to you today. My name is Dylan. If we haven't met before, I'm one of our pastors on staff, and I'm honored to have the opportunity to share with you for a few moments today. Again, I want to echo just the welcome to our first Sunday of 2026. And as you've heard, and as you've seen, we call this Fresh Start. And as you've heard, and as you've seen, we call this Fresh Start Sunday. Of course, in part because it's the beginning of a new year, but also because we recognize and celebrate the fresh start that many people have received in Jesus, reflected in the imagery of their baptism in water. It's a visible declaration of the reality that for those who have become followers of Jesus, the old life marked by sin and shame is gone, and a new life in the resurrection life of Jesus has begun for them. And I just want to say that today for the non-Christian who may see that, it is an invitation, not simply to the waters of baptism, but to the living water who is Jesus, the only one who can satisfy the deep thirsts and longings of the human soul for us today. For the church, the people of God in Christ, it is a reminder of what Jesus has done for each and every one of us. It's a stirring of the waters of our own baptism in either recent or distant memory. Even as I was watching on the front row of the baptisms today, I was reminded of my own baptism in the Caribbean Sea

on a reach trip many, many years ago. And that's not the story that I'm sharing with you today, however, but I do want to share one that similarly points to the compassionate grace and mercy of God involving another man in another sea at another time. And so today together, we're going to dive actually into the story of Jonah, which I'm so excited for. It's a fairly well-known biblical account from the Old Testament, though the details of it are probably not as popularized as the headline, man swallowed by giant fish or whale, depending on your news outlet that you're going to. And even when we read the story, I feel like one of the surface level questions that comes up, well, was it a whale or was it a fish? What species was it? I know for me as a kid, I was actually really, I had this huge obsession with sharks. I even had a baby shark encased in formaldehyde in a glass jar in my room. You know, nothing says sweet dreams like that. And don't think I'm weird because the entire world a few years ago became obsessed with baby shark. I was just there first. I was early to the party and I loved sharks. As a kid, I probably would have tried to reason that it must've been a whale shark that swallowed Jonah because it's the biggest species of shark. And it's got whale and a fish in its name. It seems like it would fit the bill, right?

That's probably how I would have answered the question as a kid. And even in reality, there are much larger creatures in the ocean even today. And who knows what species were swimming around back then, but also that's not even the point that we're focusing on. It was big, it had a mouth and a tail and we'll leave it at that, okay? Because this strange event really isn't even the main focus of this account. And Jonah is really a short book of the Bible. It's only four chapters long. I love books like that. And we're going to cover actually pretty much the entire book. thing together today, either by reading or summarization, because I want us to see deeper into some of what the story as a whole is telling us. And so we're gonna jump right into some scripture. This is the inspired word of God, starting in Jonah 1.1, and we're going to read quite a bit, and I'm gonna give some summarization parts, and we're gonna get all the way through chapter four. And so buckle up, we're not reading the whole, I'm summarizing some of it, okay? But we're gonna read a good amount, and so just get ready, stick with me, just keep on swimming, okay? Are you ready? Here we go, Jonah 1.1, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai.

Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me. So for context, the Ninevites are neighboring enemies of God's people in the Old Testament. It says, but Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed to Tarshish. So Nineveh is east, Jonah starts heading west. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm rose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own God. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship, but Jonah had gone below deck, where he laid down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, how can you sleep? Get up and call on your God. Maybe he will notice, take notice of us so that we will not perish. Then the sailors said to each other, come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity. They cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do?

Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? He answered, I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, I worship Yahweh, the God of heaven, who made the sea and dry land. This terrified them, and they asked, what have you done? They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had already told them so. The sea was getting rougher and rougher, so they asked him, what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us? Pick me up and throw me into the sea, he replied, and it will become calm. I know that this is my fault, and that this great storm has come upon, that this great storm has come upon you. Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. They don't wanna go straight to throwing Jonah overboard, but they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the Lord, please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased. Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this, the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah,

and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And then verse one of chapter two, from inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God. He said, in my distress, I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me. All your waves and breakers swept over me. Jonah goes on in this psalm-like prayer to God, and the rest of chapter two is the rest of this prayer, and it ends with him actually being spit out alive by this huge sea creature. The NIV translation actually says that it vomited him onto dry land. Doesn't that sound nice? And then in chapter three, Jonah finally, but still reluctantly, goes to Nineveh. He's smelling like bad sushi, and he goes to the city, and he delivers the warning that God is going to overthrow the city because of the people's wickedness. And in what may actually feel like this really sudden twist in the plot, what happens is that all of these people in this city full of wicked and evil practices, they actually heed the warning.

They fast, and they repent, turning away from their wickedness and turning toward God. And because of this, God relents, and he withholds his wrath. It's a happy ending, right? Jonah doesn't think so. Jonah four, verses one to four, and notice at the beginning, we don't know why Jonah flees when the Lord tells him this. We might think, well, who would want to go on that mission? It sounds like maybe those people would kill him for going. But to Jonah, the fact that these people repented and God relented, this seemed very wrong, and he became angry because, right, these are his enemies. He prayed to the Lord, isn't this what I said, Lord, I was still at home, that is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. So now Jonah's motive for running is being revealed. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. In other words, I didn't want you to forgive my enemies. And then he says, now Lord, take away my life for it is better for me to die than to live. But the Lord replied, is it right for you to be angry? In this final chapter, it finishes with God trying to reframe Jonah's perspective for him, ending on this cliffhanger as God asked Jonah, should I not be concerned for all of these people who have lost their way in this city?

And the story concludes, we don't actually get to read Jonah's response. It just ends with this question, end of story. And so really quick, just give yourselves a round of applause. You made it all the way through the book of Jonah and that wasn't so bad, yeah? So it ends with this cliffhanger and in effect, this open ending leaves us actually, as the readers of the story, holding it in our hands like a mirror, left to reflect on these questions that God asked Jonah in our own lives. Should God not be concerned even for my enemies? Aren't they too human beings made in God's image? Is there anyone who should be ineligible for God's grace? What should my response be to God's direction in my life, even when it's contrary to what I want or it's more difficult than I would like it to be? What does it look like to actually respond, not with disobedience, but with obedience? And there's so much that we could talk about, but what I'd like to do is actually draw our attention to two particular reflections from this story. And the first one is maybe primarily, but also for all of us, but primarily for those who would honestly say that they've been living separated from God, either oblivious to Him, distracted and busied by many other things or in direct opposition to Him. And you've still been separated from Him by your sin

because you've not yet received Jesus as Lord and Savior. And I wanna say today that the book of Jonah is a picture of hope, reminding us that even those who seem furthest from God are not too far for God. I love some of the reflections that we saw in the video at the beginning of this service. In fact, the book of Jonah doubles down on this. First, we encounter the sailors on the boat with Jonah. The storm comes and they're playing deity roulette, right? You pray to your God, you pray to your God. We'll try this one over here. Anything that can help us and calm this storm. And they're going to every possible deity they could find. In Jonah 1, 15 and 16, we read that then they took Jonah, right, and they threw him overboard and the raging sea grew calm. And at this, this moment, the men greatly feared the Lord and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. These men, these sailors, who only moments before were praying and crying out to other false gods, in a moment of clarity and reverence, they turn and worship the one true God. And then later, Jonah finally gets to Nineveh, which has been so full of wickedness that God's judgment is knocking at the door for them. And in Jonah 3, 6 to 10, we read what happens that when Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, he covered himself in sackcloth and sat down in the dust.

He's taking a posture of humility. And this is the proclamation he issued to Nineveh. By the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything, do not let them eat or drink, do not eat the cows and do not let the cows eat, okay? But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth, let everyone call urgently on God, let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows, God may yet relent, and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish. When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. So these men on the boat, they turn and they worship the one true God, these people in the city of wickedness repent, they fast, they turn from their ways and they turn toward God. And all of this to say that whatever your story has looked like up to this point, the very next page can be a new chapter and a fresh start for you. Maybe you've actually believe the lie that you're so bad that God couldn't reach you or use you but in fact he can. Maybe you think even if he can he wouldn't want to but in fact he does and maybe there have even been Jonah's in your life who have made you feel like you should be disqualified. People who know of God and go to church

but would be offended if you sat down next to them on a Sunday and if that has ever happened to you I want to say I'm sorry and also they are wrong and we are so glad that you are here because God is so very concerned with you as he desires to be and just like the men on the ship or the people in the city in a moment today you can turn from your own way and you can turn toward God. The biblical pattern is to repent this turning and surrendering to Jesus and then be baptized as we saw today to make a public declaration of that decision and while Jonah's disobedience put him in the water anyone who gives their life to Jesus their first step of obedience should be into the waters of baptism and if that's you today I want to just say practically if you're making that decision today to surrender to Jesus for the first time tell a priority member after service mark on a connect card that you want to be baptized we would love to walk with you in those next steps and the second reflection from this story for all of us today is that if God's arm is not too short to reach anyone anywhere which it isn't that also means that when you're down he can lift you up when you're down he can lift you up and when we look at Jonah specifically in the front half of this story there's this really fascinating progression that takes place and there's this movement of going down and I'm going to explain but first just a little bit of context for you for to put us into Jonah's kind of worldview for ancient Israelites as well as other ancient near eastern cultures in that area of the time there's this certain kind of cosmic geography and how they view the world that we live in they didn't have all of the same exact scientific insight that we do today about the makeup of our planet exactly how the earth moves within our solar system in relation to these other planets and celestial bodies and things like that and they see things in a very kind of vertical model in terms of divisions of the cosmos that I want to give to you really quickly to oversimplify it into three broad tiers you'd have the heavens or this realm above what would be considered divine space for even other cultures people would perceive this is where the gods are right in this realm above and then

you have the earth kind of in the middle where we find ourselves dwelling and then this kind of underworld or a realm below this realm of the dead in Hebrew the word that we read for this is shale and this is why in the Old Testament this view is why we see so often the worship of all kinds associated with mountains in our human earth space they're the places that reach highest up toward the heavens toward what is perceived as divine space they are the closest spot and so we see Moses meeting with God on Mount Sinai in the Old Testament even when there's a turning away from worshiping false gods what we often read is that God's people would destroy their high places these places of worship high on mountains and hilltops and so on and whereas the heavens are associated with this divine hope shale is frequently associated with darkness and despair see actually shale is mentioned 65 times in the Old Testament it comes up quite a bit maybe more than you would think and here's just a small sampling of some pieces of verses that bring up this concept I will go down to shale to my son morning another so that he may avoid going down to shale another but you will be brought down to shale the next her feet go down to death her steps head straight for shale another who went down to shale with their weapons of war and the last I'll give will it go down to the gates of shale and even as I read these you're probably getting the theme that shale is this place that you go down to right it's often accompanying this concept and when we look at the story of Jonah what we assume or what we would perceive is that Jonah at the beginning of the story is in his hometown this place called goth heifer it's a hilltop town with probably an elevation of a little over a thousand feet so this is where Jonah's at and then he receives the call from God and he begins to flee And it goes in this progression that he travels down to Joppa, because it's a port city, it's at sea level, right? So he literally goes down to this port city, and then he boards a ship, and then he goes down into the bottom of the boat.

And then from the boat, he is thrown down into the water by the sailors, and then he is swallowed down into the belly of the fish until finally he is carried down into the very depths of the sea. And for Jonah, it's a movement of going down and down and down until he finds himself in the depths. And that's when he cries out in his prayer, from deep in the realm of the dead, the word that is used there is from deep in shale, I called for help and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me, all your waves and breakers swept over me. You see, God allows Jonah to continue his descent, running away from him until he finally calls out to God, and God pulls him back up. Even after this, Jonah's back safe on solid ground, discontent with the result of his mission, and says, now Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live. We notice that although Jonah's physical state has been brought back from the depths, his heart is still there, isn't it? And how many of us know that the things around you can be fine, good, great even, and yet you can find yourself still in your heart, deep in despair? How many people have had the comforts and luxuries of life,

everything you could ask for, and yet still struggled in this way? And maybe the last year for you held some Jonah moments where you found yourself descending in this way, whether in your exterior life, in your physical well-being perhaps, or in your interior world, swirling with emotions, you've been down in the depths. Maybe this has come in moments because like Jonah, you've been wrestling with God's calling and purpose, or you've been running from it actually. I don't wanna spoil anything, but it was alluded to that I'm actually really excited for some of the ways that we're going to pursue living more purposefully with God in the coming months, more to come on that. But also perhaps there could be unexpected things that have happened to you, loss or disappointment, grief that you're wrestling with that feel like weight's pulling you down. Maybe even right now you feel like you're just one bad boat ride away from some kind of organic submarine taking you down into the depths. You know, I'm just praising God that there are no whales in the Missouri River. I'm not gonna fall in on my way home or something. But I wanna say to you today that if you've been down, don't despair because God can lift you up. Jonah in chapter two, verse six, we didn't read this one yet, but in his prayer,

he says, to the roots of the mountains, I sank down. The earth beneath barred me in forever, but you, Lord, my God, brought my life up from the pit. And if you're a follower of Jesus today, you know he can do it because he has done it. This is the story for every one of us, that Christ has redeemed your life from the pit. He plucked you out of the realm of the dead and he placed you in a spacious place of resurrection life. This is what Jesus has done for you. And ultimately my aim today is simply this, to remind you of what Jonah knew all too well in his bones, that we serve a God who is so incredibly gracious and compassionate that he is slow to anger and abounding in love. And that in resurfacing and recapturing that vision of who God is, the depths of his grace and love, that we would be drawn closer to him, not fleeing from him like Jonah, but running to him instead. And even practically, I hope that at the beginning of a new year, standing here at a fresh start, that it would cause us that vision of God to want to be at things like the coming midweeks and to pray and to fast, not because we've resolved with the new year to do more church stuff and check the right boxes, but because we have a sense of expectation rooted in the beauty and the goodness of who God is.

That we would not out of spite for our enemies, but hope for the world, declare, I know that you are a gracious and a compassionate God. And the pinnacle of this compassionate grace that we see is a. preserved in the sacrifice of Jesus. And so as we close today in reflecting, I want you to grab the communion elements that you received on the way in. And we're gonna have the chance to receive communion as we reflect on the compassion and the grace of God embodied in the person in the sacrifice of Jesus. You see, in Matthew's gospel there's this moment where the religious leaders, as they often are, they're confronting Jesus, and they come to him asking for a sign. They wanted him to do something to create a sign, and Jesus rebukes them saying that the only sign they'll receive is the sign of Jonah, that just because you're a Christian, you're not going to receive the sign of Jonah. That just as Jonah was three days in the belly of a huge fish, so would he be in the heart of the earth before his resurrection. And then he says, now something greater than Jonah is here. And it was, and today he is, and he is here with us. Something, someone greater than Jonah. Jesus, the ultimate example of obedience and sacrificial love, the embodiment of love,

the embodiment of God's compassion and grace for us. And this is what we recognize in the elements of communion in the bread and in the juice. And so even now you can peel back that first layer and grab hold of the small piece of bread. This wafer represents Jesus' body that was broken, that endured the pain and the suffering of the cross. And you can give thanks as you take and eat together, giving thanks for the body of Christ. And below in the next layer, you'll find the juice representative of the blood of Jesus that was shed for us, the blood of the new covenant. The blood that is able and sufficient, the sacrifice that is actually able to wash away every stain of sin and shame in our own lives, past, present, and future. And so you can give thanks to Jesus for his blood that was shed as you take and you drink it right now together. And now can you pray with me? We're gonna pray and then we're gonna go into a few more moments of just giving God praise and worship, declaring the mighty name of Jesus. But let's pray right now. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for your sacrifice. Lord, thank you for your body that was broken, for your blood that was shed. Lord, thank you that even when we as people lost in our sin and shame, Lord, not any different from those people living in Nineveh, you looked upon us

with compassion. And you said, I am concerned with these people. Lord, and you set your purpose, you set your face toward creating a way back for us. And that came through your life and your death and your resurrection. And so Lord, thank you that as we reflect on the promise of the hope in you of the fresh start that we have received, that it is only because of you, Jesus, that we can, like the psalmist say, the cords of shale coiled around me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called to the Lord, I cried to my God for help. He reached down from on high and took hold of me. He drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes who were too strong for me. He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because he delighted in me. Lord, thank you that you delight in us. Would you, in your goodness and in your love, draw us near and cause us to delight in you that our eyes and our hearts and our mind, the entirety of our being would be fixed upon you as we enter into this new year, knowing that you are the one in whom we have our salvation. You are the one in whom we have our purpose. And so we're running after you, Jesus. We are running after you, Jesus.

We are running toward you, God. And we ask that you would have your way in and through us. And so right now we stand together. And again, we declare over this new year, over this fresh start, the mighty name of Jesus. We give you our hearts. We give you ourselves, God. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. Now, come on, let's worship him together one more time. ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, I pray ♪ ♪ Calling on the power of heaven ♪ ♪ I proclaim every weapon formed against me ♪ ♪ It must break in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I know all the power of fear and darkness ♪ ♪ It must go as every key to every big tree ♪ ♪ I hope in the mighty name of Jesus ♪