Minor Prophet; Jonah | The Relentless Mercy of God

Well, hello, everybody. Hello. Is anybody in the house of Jesus today? That's what I want to know. Right on. Good. Thank you. Thank you for being here at all of our locations. Those that are joining us online, those that are in the county jails, we welcome you. Can you all put your hands together? Let's welcome everybody that are joining us today. Thank you for being here. My name is Bernard. I have the privilege of serving as the campus pastor here at Lakewood Ranch. And I want to first give honor to God and thankful for his goodness and his grace in my life. And I'm also thankful for my pastor, the lead pastor of Bayside Community Church, Pastor Randy. I believe him and Amy, they're the best people on this side of heaven as far as pastors are concerned. And I'm thankful for them and for the privilege I have to serve with them. And this week, we are kicking off a new series. I'm going to be, it's called the Minor Prophets. And so I'm inviting you as a church, as we go through these Minor Prophets, that you follow along with us. There is a reading plan that if you tap the sticker there on the seat back in front of you, it'll take you to that reading plan. Or you can go to our website and have access to it. But we get to read through these Minor Prophets that we're going to be talking about. Now today, I'm going to be talking about Jonah. Everybody say Jonah. Jonah. So I'm going to talk about Jonah. And now Jonah, I'm going to preach today from the whole book of Jonah, the whole book. Now, we might be here for a while, but I'm going to get to it. I'm going to talk about Jonah, and I'm going to break it down. So I want to help us to understand something. Today, I'm going to teach it. I'm going to break it down. But you have permission. I want you to know, because I'm going to say some things that's going to hit you. It's going to be some stuff you're going to be like, oh, I felt that. You felt that? No, he didn't just say that. Or you're going to be like, amen. Oh, that's good. Say that again. Whatever the case may be, preach, preach, preach. I'm going to teach it. I'm going to break it down and let God speak to us, because there's a lot in this book called Jonah. Are you all ready? Good. Let me pray. Father, thank you for your grace. I need you. And I'm asking that you give me the words to say, that you would open our ears, our hearts to receive what you are speaking to us. May we be transformed as we encounter your truth into the sons and daughters

that you have created and redeemed us to be. Remove every hindrance and every distraction. Be glorified today in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever heard God make something so crystal clear to you, but you act like you didn't get the email? You know what I'm saying? It's like God talks to you. You knew what he said. You knew what you were supposed to do. You know what obedience looks like, yet somehow you ended up just as far in the opposite direction as you knew that you were supposed to go. What's interesting about that is this is Jonah. This is the picture of Jonah. Jonah was that guy. And a lot of times when you talk about Jonah, everybody thinks about the fish that swallowed Jonah. Well, this isn't just about a fish. The story of Jonah is about a heart, the heart of Jonah and the heart of God. Now, the heart of Jonah, it's a resistant heart, a religious heart, a bitter heart, a heart that can preach for God but still not love what God loves. This is Jonah. And if we were honest, we would say that today that Jonah, this book of Jonah is just as relevant and it still hits us today because it's not just his story, it's our story. And some of us, we run from God. Some of us are in a storm right now because of that. Some of us are in a season that feels like we're in the belly of a fish. And some of us are outwardly obeying but we're still inwardly wrestling. And this is what I want you to know today is that you can run from God's assignment but you cannot outrun God's mercy. Should I say it again? I will. I'll break it down. You can run from God's assignment but you can't outrun God's mercy. The title of my message today is The Relentless Mercy of God. So, we're going to lay out the book of Jonah. They're going to put something on the screen that kind of gives you... But Jonah was a prophet. He was the son of Amittai. He was from Gathepher, which is a town in Galilee near Nazareth. His name actually means dove, but ironically, he's anything but peaceful in this story, which is crazy. He was, the book of Jonah is, he was considered one of the minor prophets. Now, it's not minor because it's less important.

It's minor because it's shorter in length. It only has four chapters. There's 48 verses in this whole book, and there's 1,328 words. Now, my sermon has more words than that, almost three times that. That's why we're gonna be here for a while. So anyways. Yet, it carries one of the biggest messages in the scripture. In this book, we hear God's mercy. We hear human resistance. We hear repentance, and we hear God's heart for the nation. And here's one of the things that I want you guys to know that although it's a minor prophet, it carries a major message. And this happened around the eighth century under King Jeroboam, which is the Assyrian rule. They were the regime that was ruling at the time. And in that, I wanna show you, tell you kind of the story. So God speaks to Jonah, and he tells him, I want you to go to Nineveh. And I want you to go to Nineveh and deliver my message to them. Now, Jonah gets, he goes to Joppa, which is near, it's Tel Aviv, it's present-day Tel Aviv in Israel. And he gets on a ship and goes the total opposite direction. I don't ever put this map on the screen. I want you to see this. Because Nineveh was not that far from Joppa.

But as you can see, Tarsus is a lot further than what God told him to go. He was going the complete opposite direction. Now, here's what's interesting. Nineveh is today's modern Mosul, Iraq. Tarsus is Spain, I mean, miles apart. But this is where he was getting ready to go. This is where he's gonna go as far from where God wants him to go. Now, what's interesting, if you're familiar with Mosul, Iraq, Mosul, Iraq was the place that was in the news for being one of the headquarters of ISIS. There was, it's a brutal place, a lot of bloodshed, a lot of just crazy stuff. Well, what's really interesting about the violence and things that's in Mosul, it was also happening in Nineveh back then. So think about this for a moment. That the spirit of violence, brutality, all of that was happening in this time of Nineveh, in Jonah's time. And so when God is telling him to go, he's not wanting to go because he doesn't want anything to do with all of this violence and all this crazy stuff. So I thought it was very interesting that what we put off that it's a man problem, this was happening way back then. It tells me that it's a spiritual problem, that there is a power and a prince of the air that continues, I mean, the people of Nineveh

were so brutal and so violent. When you look up the history of the things that were going on in that city, I mean, stuff that I can't even imagine in my own mind and some of the movies that portray terrible violence, these are the things that were happening at that time. And so he's trying to go as far away from that city as possible. He wanted God to bring judgment on Nineveh. And so God has to deal with him. God sends an interruption. He sends what I call a divine appointment. That divine appointment looked like a storm. It looked like a fish. There was a plant, a worm, this east wind that came out of nowhere. God is not just working in sermons and miracles, but he was working in weather patterns, in sea creatures, in shade, in discomfort, and in interruption. Now, here's a powerful thing. Now, this is a big idea I want you to hear. God's provision often shows up as interruption. You're like, wait a minute. What you talking about, Willis? All right, look. God's provision can often show up as interruption. Jonah, what Jonah called an inconvenience, God called it mercy. So these four chapters in this book,

chapter one, there's four powerful movements that I'm gonna hit today. So the first in chapter one is running from God. Chapter two, running to God. Chapter three, running with God. And then chapter four. or a run-in with God. So y'all ready? All right, let's walk through this. Here we go. Point number one, running from God always leads to disruption. Running from God always leads to disruption. Now in Jonah chapter one, verse one through three, it says this, 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. Pay attention to that. God knows where wickedness is. It comes up to him and it says in verse three, but Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. 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. Now this is how it all starts. He's running, God tells him to go east, he's going west, which tells me something that sometimes our rebellion isn't loud, sometimes it's directional.

Meaning God speaks but we're not gonna make a big noise about it, we're just gonna do that total opposite. You're not cussing, you're not wiling out, you're just moving opposite of what God has asked you to do. And some of us know exactly what that feels like. God says to forgive and instead, you grow bitter. God says to trust and instead, you start to control. God says to serve and instead, you go hiding. God says to stay and instead, we go running. Listen, Jonah's running but he's not fleeing geography, he's fleeing his call. He's running from the voice of God. And what I think is very interesting about this, he's basically saying I quit. I don't want this assignment, I don't want this responsibility, I don't believe in it, I don't wanna carry your heart to these people, God. He wasn't just changing locations, he was actually changing his vocation, he was trying to. But here's the point, you can run from God but you cannot outrun his grace. You can run from God but you can't outrun his grace. God ends up sending this storm to get his attention in verse four, chapter one, it says, then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose 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 lay and fell into a deep sleep and the captain went to him and said, can you, how can you sleep? Get up and call on your God. I think that's interesting. Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish. Now I wanna go back here for a second because verse five says, all of the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God. Now they weren't crying out to Yahweh, they were crying out to whatever God that they worshiped at the time. And so then they go to Jonah who's sleeping in the bottom of the ship and they're like, yo, why don't you cry out to your God? Maybe your God will answer. Now the Bible says that the Lord sent this storm. Now I don't want us to miss that. The storm wasn't random, it's not accidental. It wasn't just bad luck. The Lord sent the storm. Now here's what's interesting. It means that sometimes the trouble in our life is not proof that God left you but it's proof that God is pursuing you. Shh. Man, right there. Sometimes we think that the trouble in our life is God left us.

But sometimes we have to go through a storm to realize our need for God and that he's actually pursuing us. It's actually the mercy of God because why? God said he will use the things that are bad in our life to turn it for good for us. So the storm was not God rejecting Jonah. The storm was God refusing to let him go. Look, if his word won't lead you, or should I say, if you won't let his word lead you, his storm will redirect you. I told you I was gonna, mm, yeah, mm, okay. Just bear with me. We ain't even started yet, all right? Here we go. Listen, the storm is not your enemy. It's actually redirection. That's the love and mercy of God. Now what I love. about God, he's not going to allow the storm to overtake you. You just have to respond to him. Parents, you know how this is. You have a child that's headed in the wrong direction, they're about to make the wrong choice and do something that's destructive. And because you love them, you interrupt them, right? You stop them, you confront them, you restrict them. And from the child's perspective, it feels harsh. But from your perspective, it's mercy. It's wisdom.

A door, a closed door can actually be the mercy of God. A storm can actually be his mercy. An interruption can be his mercy. I don't know about you, but I've heard different times, and this has even happened in my life, where I get frustrated because I get delayed from one thing, and just a few minutes later, there was a car accident that would have been me if I had left at the time I was going to leave. That's probably happened to us multiple different times in different ways. But we have no idea, we're all frustrated about the delay, but it's actually the mercy of God. Are you with me? Now, here's another key insight. Disobedience is never private. Jonah's issue started with him and God. But then Jonah gets on a boat, and now the sailors are in danger because of his disobedience. Ayee! So here's the word. Private disobedience creates public consequences. Private disobedience creates public consequences. You cannot drag people into the atmosphere of your rebellion and think that they're not gonna feel it. Parents, your hidden rebellion affects your home. Leaders, your hidden rebellion affects the team. Spouses, your hidden rebellion affects the marriage. Jonah gets on this boat, and suddenly, innocent people are caught up in his drama. Because disobedience never has private consequences.

What's interesting, too, in this story is that the pagans are praying while the prophet is sleeping. Right? The people that don't even know God, they're out there crying, they're praying, they're praying, they're praying, they're praying. Jonah is in the bottom of the boat sleeping. Do you know of somebody else who was in the bottom of the boat sleeping during a storm? Jesus, right? It's interesting that the people who don't know Yahweh, they're crying out. But here, Jonah's knocked out, which makes me think that some church people or some followers of Christ are so spiritually sleepy that unbelievers look more awake than they do. Oh, I don't know. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Let me just camp there for a second. God will use, and it's in the scriptures he did, he actually used a donkey to get somebody's attention because they were totally unaware that an angel was in the road. You wanna talk about spiritually not awake, that he will use a non-believer, an animal, a donkey. I won't tell you the other name of the donkey. To speak, to say, hey, can't you see there's an angel in the road? Stop hitting me.

God can use pagans to get your attention. My God. So here's some contrasts, some comparisons. Jonah slept in a storm. He slept in disobedience, but Jesus slept in a storm with authority. Jonah slept because it was avoidance, but Jesus slept because it was confidence. One man slept because he was out of God's will, and the other slept because God ruled the winds and the waves. So my question is, is where are you running from God? Who is being affected by your disobedience? So that's point one. Point two, chapter two, running to God begins with surrender. Running to God begins with surrender. So Jonah finally gets to this place of surrender, and in verse 11, it says, 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? Then Jonah says, pick me up and throw me into the sea, he replied, and it will become calm. Now, I've been on a cruise ship, and I stay away from the rail, because that is one of my, you know, that's one of those fears that, you know, in the middle of the ocean, just be out there and the ship's gone, bye. You want to talk about terrifying, but he's like throw me over. This is how bad

he did not want to go to Nineveh. He was, to him, being thrown into the ocean and dying was a better option. And so, I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you. Instead, the men did their best to roll back to land. I'm sure they were like, you crazy, I ain't throwing you over. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the Lord. Now, I think this is interesting, because at first they were praying to their God, and when there was no answer, they began to cry out to Yahweh, the God, right? The only one God, right? They began to cry out to Jonah's God, 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 please. 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 God. They go from praying to pagan gods to now worshiping the only true God, after they threw the man overboard. Get that? I don't know. And it says, they made mouths of them. Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah gets thrown overboard. Now, I want you guys to get something correct. First, I want you to understand this. The fish is not the main thing. It wasn't punishment. The fish was preservation. Jonah thinks it's the end, but God says, nope, I'm keeping you alive. The fish didn't swallow Jonah to end him. It swallowed him to save him. And I think it's interesting because people ask me, hey, you like fishing? I always say, no, I like catching, okay? I like catching. I like eating fish too, but I like catching, getting out there and just doing the fishing part of it. First of all, you're out there in the sun. I don't need any more sun. You know what I'm saying? I look all natural, baby. You know what I'm saying? So I like catching. But when a man catches a fish, it's normal. But when a fish catches a man, now that's big news. You know what I'm saying? Here's the truth. The fish didn't come to destroy Jonah. It came to preserve his future. What Jonah saw as confinement, God actually saw it as formation. Jonah's trying to get away from it. Sometimes, some of us, we might be in a season right now like Jonah being in the belly of this whale where it feels tight,

where it's dark. You feel limited, restricted, afraid, and you've been calling it an attack. But maybe it's not an attack. Maybe it is a formation period. Maybe God is using what you think is going to destroy you to actually make you stronger, to actually launch you and propel you into purpose. Sometimes, God removes your options because he's trying to recover your attention. Sometimes, he does. He will remove your options so that he can recover your attention. So then Jonah begins to pray like many of us do. We're in a desperate situation, and now we call on God. In chapter 2, verse 1 and 2, it says, 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. He prayed not while he was on the shore and not on the ship, not in the easy moment, but in the belly of the whale. And it's amazing how many of us will wait until things get so unbearable to try to have a connection with God. And we'll say things like, Lord, if you could just get me out of this, I will. Blank, blank, blank. Anybody ever prayed that prayer? Don't lift your hand. Don't lift your hand. Don't lift that. Don't lift that. I'm just playing. We all did, right? We've all prayed that. Lord, just get me out of this. So here's what's really sobering. He still ran. And this is what I understand about this. He's a man of God. There's a call in his life which tells me exposure to biblical truth does not guarantee obedience. We're all hearing biblical truth today, but some of us will leave here and still not obey God. You can know scripture and still resist surrender. You can quote the Bible and still have an unsurrendered heart. You can even preach to others and still be fighting God yourself. Man. So then Jonah in verse six of chapter two, 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. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord,

and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will make good. I will say salvation comes from the Lord, and the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Now, the one part of this verse, in verse eight, he says, those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love. What was Jonah's idol? It wasn't a golden calf. It wasn't Baal. It wasn't Asherah. You know what it was? It was Jonah's own will. His idol was his power of choice. His will was his idol. He wanted his preference rather than God's purpose. So here's the truth. Anything that you put above God's will will become an idol, even your opinion, your comfort, your offense, and your bitterness. You can idolize all of those things, because it's your will over his. Now, we know that God said not to have any other gods before him. An idol isn't just,

it's not just something you bow to. It's something you refuse to surrender. For some people, it might be money. For some, it might be image. For some, it might be control. And for some, it might be the right to stay offended. That becomes your idol. And when you cling to your idol, you're not choosing something else. You're walking away from the mercy of God. So Jonah, I love the contrast between Jonah and Jesus. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days because of his disobedience, and Jesus was in the heart of the earth for three days because of our disobedience. Jonah was preserved so that he can finish his mission, and Jesus was raised so he can complete salvation for all of us. Jonah pointed to Jesus, but Jesus is actually the better Jonah in Jesus' name, amen. So what idol is God exposing in us? And have you been around truth without truly surrendering to it? So here's number three. Running with God requires obedience. Running with God requires obedience. In Jonah three, verse one, it says this. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Everybody say a second time. Come on, say it again, say a second time.

Thank God for the second time, right? Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim the message I give you. Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh was a very large city. It took three days to go through it. But Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city, proclaiming, 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown. The Ninevites believed God, a fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. Now, check this out. God comes to him, this is the cool part. He comes to him for the second. He says, Jonah, I'm gonna give you another opportunity. Why is that? Because we serve a God of a second chance. We serve a God who has a second word. We serve a God who has a second opportunity. We serve a God who has a second moment of grace for us. And somebody needs to hear this. You may have failed the first time, but if you're still breathing, God is not finished. Right? So Jonah ends up obeying. And this massive city, it's violent, it's brutal, it's proud, there's all kind of things, it's pagan. And Jonah's sermon is not exactly warm and fuzzy. He tells them, he said, y'all about to get destroyed.

That's the message God sent him to tell them. And I think it's just interesting because he tells them that and they all go, oh God, I'm sorry, and they repent. But Nineveh did not worship Yahweh. They had another God that they worship, which I thought was really interesting about this. So I wanna help us with this, you gotta understand this. This Assyrian regime in Nineveh, they worship a God called Dagon. Dagon, the word D-A in that language means fish. He was a fish God. And the picture of Dagon was half man, half fish. And he had a counterpart, which female, which her name was Nanshe. She was off. also a fish god, and this is the gods that they worship in this city of Nineveh. So think about this, because I'm like, how in the world do they just turn and repent from him saying you're about to be destroyed in 40 days? How does that happen? It's because God used a fish to throw him up onto land. This dude gets thrown up by a fish and starts walking, and he's like, y'all gonna be destroyed in 40 days. I would repent too, right? God uses the very thing that they were worshiping for his glory because he cared for people so much that he was not gonna allow darkness to keep his message of love and hope coming to them.

My God, that is the relentless mercy of God, that he would use a fish god. Can you imagine, they worship a fish god, and this dude comes out of a fish. You will be destroyed in 40 days. Wow. The bigger miracle is not that a fish could hold a man, but that God can soften the heart of a whole city. God, listen, God can do more with our imperfect obedience than you think. Jonah's heart was not even fully right. His message was short, his compassion was weak, but yet God moved, and that means that the power is not in our perfection. The power is in God. Some people get stuck waiting until they feel ready, until they're fully healed or until they can fully articulate or can operate fully without fear, but God often works through trembling obedience. God's not waiting on your perfection, family. He's waiting on your yes. Now, what's interesting, water in the Bible reflects the spirit, the spirit of God, it's like water. And this vessel, we are the vessel, God pours his spirit into us, but there's something wrong with this vessel, it's imperfect. It's still holding water, but it's leaking, it's cracked, it's broken.

And it reminds me of us, that in our imperfection, we can still hold his spirit and still be used to outpour and pour God's spirit into the culture around us. God pours his spirit in us, I don't have to be perfect, I'm flawed, I'm cracked, I'm wounded, you don't understand how bad I am, but yet God says you can still contain my spirit enough to be poured out on a generation around you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus uses Jonah to help us to understand the really important thing. In verse 38 it says, then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, Teacher we want to see a sign from you, and he reversed, a wicked and adulterous generation asked for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and now something greater is here. Man, where's God giving you a second chance? Are you waiting to feel ready before obeying? Could God use your imperfect yes right now? Here's the last point I want to make. There's a run in with God that actually reveals your heart. A run in with God reveals your heart. And in Jonah chapter four, Jonah, it says in verse one, but to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry, 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 to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sin and calamity. 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? That I would save an entire city? Why are you angry? So Jonah goes out and he's pouting. Jonah was not afraid that God would judge Nineveh, he was afraid that God would forgive Nineveh. That's why he ran. He knew that God was gracious. He knew that he was merciful. See, Jonah had good theology, but he had a bad heart.

You can be doctrinally. right and spiritually wrong. You can know the character of God and still resent the way he uses it. You can rejoice in mercy when it comes to you and resent it when it goes to your enemy. Ooh. That is Jonah and that could be us. It's easy to ask God for grace when we fail but it's harder to celebrate grace when the person we dislike gets it too. We love forgiveness in first person. Lord, forgive me. But we struggle with forgiveness in third person. Forgive them too. That was Jonah's problem. So he's out there complaining. He's in the desert. He's just burning up and so God causes a plant to grow to give him shade. Jonah gets happy. He's all thankful for the shade. And then overnight, the next night he causes a worm to come and destroy that plant. And now he's mad again. And God confronts him. And it says in verse 10 of chapter four. But the Lord said, you have been concerned about this plant though you did not tend it or make it grow.

It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for this great city of Nineveh in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and also many animals. God is saying in this scripture right here, not only did he care for the people, but he cared for the animals. I used to get mad because I'd be like, man, people care more about their animals than they do for people. Well, that's the heart of God. He loves it all. He loves all his creation. Come on, somebody. So he gives him this opportunity. Listen, the plant comforted Jonah, but the worm that came to kill the plant actually revealed Jonah's heart. He was mad because of God's relentless mercy. It's interesting, it reminds me of us that when our comfort gets touched, it reveals our heart. When our comfort gets touched, our heart gets revealed. You lose your parking spot, you get an attitude for you can come in church. Your schedule gets jacked up, yeah, you get upset. You don't get the seat that you want. Your heart gets revealed. And suddenly, what's in you starts talking. This is Jonah.

And what I love about Jesus comparing himself to Jonah, Jonah sat outside the city hoping judgment would fall. Jesus stood over Jerusalem and he wept. Jonah wanted his enemies destroyed and Jesus died for his enemies. Jonah said, I would rather see them die than be spared and Jesus said, I will die so that they can be spared. This is the gospel. Jonah is just a shadow, but Jesus is the fulfillment. Jonah is the resistant messenger, but Jesus is the surrendered son. Jonah ran from the people that he hated, but Jesus came for the people who hated him. We serve a God that says it's not merely, don't just run from me because you can't outrun me. My grace is pursuing you. My love is pursuing you. I know that it feels like a storm. I know that you feel like you're in the belly of the whale. I don't know what your situation is, but I want you to know I can use it because I have a purpose for your life. I'm with you. God is merciful. He was merciful to the sailors. He was merciful to the rebellious prophet. He was merciful to the Ninevites. He's merciful in storms. He's merciful, and he cares about your heart.

So here's the truth. Some of us need to stop running from God. Some of us need to cry out to God. Some of us need to walk with God in simple obedience, and some of us need to run in with God so that he can deal what's really in us, because here's the deal. You can pay the price to run, or you can surrender for free. You can pay the price to run, or you can surrender for free. Would you bow your heads with me? Father, what are you saying to us through this message? Some of us might be running from, some might be running to, some are running with, and some may be running in with you. But I'm asking that, Lord, in this moment, that your grace would be oh so sufficient for us Surrender all, so that we can become all that you've created and redeemed us to be. Thank you for your grace. Now maybe you're here and you've never made a decision to surrender your life. I wanna extend that invitation today, just to say yes. Surrender your life to him. Allow him to be your Lord and your Savior. If you'd like to make that decision today, I'm gonna ask you on the count of three just to lift your hand. One, two, three.

Lift your hand all over this room. You're saying yes to Jesus. You just wanna surrender your life to him. Allow him to be your Lord and Savior. Thank you. I appreciate that online. You can make that indication. You can put your hands down. If you lifted your hand or desire to lift your hand, we're all gonna say this simple prayer together with you as an affirmation of the decision that you just made in your heart. Everybody say these words after me. Father God, I believe Jesus died for me and that he rose again. So I make a choice to surrender my life. I invite you now to be my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus' name, and everybody said amen. Come on, can we give God praise? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you made that decision, I wanna tell you,

you don't have to walk this life alone. We wanna walk with you. Your next step would be water baptism and we can help you take that step. Our prayer team's gonna be here in a few moments. They'll pray with you about anything. Let them know that you wanna get water baptized or stop at our Connect Center and let them know and our team will come alongside you. Would you stand with me? I wanna pray a blessing over you and I hope that today God spoke to your heart and you received something. I told you it was gonna be interesting. How many of you didn't know that much about Jonah as you do now, right? I mean, it was a cute story when I was a kid. Hey, he got swallowed by a fish, yeah. It's loaded though. I tried to do the best I could to get through the whole book in a 30-minute session, but I do believe that God spoke to us in his relentless mercy. I am so thankful for his relentless mercy. I am. I'm so thankful. So turn your palms towards heaven and I just wanna speak this before I pray over you. If you find yourself in a storm, I just speak peace right now over you

and I want you to hear that God is with you in the storm. Look for him because he's where the calm and where the peace is. Maybe you're in the belly of a fish. You feel like you are just totally in this dark place. You are not alone. God is with you. Do not fear. Do not be shaken. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he turn his face towards you and be gracious to you. May he smile upon you and bring you peace. May he show you strength, and may he bless you with love and favor, rest, strength, courage, hope and love. I pray that in your life, nothing will be missing, nothing broken. I pray that you and your family would be protected physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally, that no weapon formed against you would be able to prosper. And that this week, may the relentless mercy of God be revealed to you and through you, and perform the miracles that you were destined for. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. Hey, God bless you guys, we love you so much. If you're a guest here, I'd love to meet you. I'm gonna be right over here, come and say hi. Have a great week, everybody.