1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,840 Good morning. 2 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:01,680 Good morning. 3 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:06,680 My name is Brad Burford, and I've been at Village 4 00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:08,880 since before it was Village. 5 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:13,880 Yeah, so anyway, I'm also on the Board of Servant Leaders, 6 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:21,800 and so if you have any questions about what's going on 7 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:24,000 around here, let me know. 8 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:29,000 Today's scripture reading is from Jonah chapter one. 9 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:35,000 The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai. 10 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,000 Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh, 11 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:40,000 and preach against it, because their evil 12 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,000 has come up before me. 13 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord's presence. 14 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,000 He went down to Jabba and found a ship going to Tarshish. 15 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:55,000 He paid the fare and went down into it to go with him 16 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,000 to Tarshish from the Lord's presence. 17 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:01,000 But the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea, 18 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,000 and such a great storm arose on the sea 19 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,000 that the ship threatened to break apart. 20 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:10,000 The sailors were afraid and each cried out to his God. 21 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:12,000 They threw the ship's cargo into the sea 22 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:13,000 to lighten the load. 23 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:16,000 Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part 24 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:18,000 of the vessel and had stretched out 25 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,000 and fallen into a deep sleep. 26 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:23,000 The captain approached him and said, 27 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,000 what are you doing sound asleep? 28 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,000 Get up, call to your God. 29 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:31,000 Maybe this God will consider us and we won't perish. 30 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,000 Come on, the sailors said to each other, 31 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:36,000 let's cast lots, then we'll know who is to blame 32 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:38,000 for this trouble we're in. 33 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:42,000 So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah. 34 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:44,000 Then they said to him, tell us, 35 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,000 who is to blame for this trouble we're in? 36 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:50,000 What is your business and where are you from? 37 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000 What is your country? 38 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,000 And what people are you from? 39 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,000 He answered them, I'm a Hebrew. 40 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,000 I worship the Lord God of the heavens 41 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,000 who made the sea and the dry land. 42 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,000 Then the men were seized by a great fear 43 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,000 and said to him, what have you done? 44 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,000 The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord's presence 45 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,000 because he had told them. 46 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,000 So they said to him, what should we do to you 47 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,000 so that the sea will calm down for us? 48 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:19,000 For the sea was getting worse and worse. 49 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,000 He answered them, pick me up and throw me into the sea 50 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,000 so that it will calm down for you. 51 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:27,000 For I know that I'm to blame for this great storm 52 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,000 that is against you. 53 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:33,000 Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, 54 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,000 but they couldn't because the sea was raging 55 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,000 against them more and more. 56 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,000 So they called out to the Lord, please Lord, 57 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,000 don't let us perish because of this man's life 58 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,000 and don't charge us with his innocent blood. 59 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000 For you Lord have done just as you pleased. 60 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,000 Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea 61 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,000 and the sea stopped raging. 62 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,000 The men were seized by great fear of the Lord 63 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:01,000 and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 64 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:05,000 The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah 65 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,000 and Jonah was in the belly of the fish 66 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,000 for three days and three nights. 67 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:16,000 This is God's word. 68 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,000 Well this morning we are embarking on a four week journey 69 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,000 through the book of Jonah. 70 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:26,000 How many of you are acquainted with the story of Jonah 71 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:28,000 or what we just read there? 72 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:29,000 Yeah, yeah. 73 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,000 So if I said Jonah and the, who could finish it? 74 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,000 Whale or big fish or whatever you want to call it, right? 75 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,000 So Jonah, it's like the quintessential kids' story, 76 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:41,000 Bible story, right? 77 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:44,000 It's got all of the elements you want in a great 78 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,000 maybe Disney short movie or something, right? 79 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:51,000 It's got grandeur, it's got thrill, it's got suspense 80 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,000 but that does present a problem actually to us 81 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,000 as we go to study Jonah this morning 82 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,000 and then over the next few weeks 83 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:02,000 because the book of Jonah is actually quite a bit 84 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:06,000 more sophisticated and more insightful of a story 85 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,000 than we might have gathered in Sunday school. 86 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:14,000 The truth is Jonah is not a kids' story at all. 87 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,000 In fact, most kids' stories about Jonah leave out 88 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,000 some pretty important parts of the story 89 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:23,000 and the parts that they do focus on oftentimes 90 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:27,000 will oversimplify or attenuate or make the whole thing 91 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:31,000 into a moralized tale about doing good. 92 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:37,000 It is a story and a book like none other in the Bible. 93 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:42,000 And the fish, which is the center of the star, right? 94 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:44,000 It's actually not about the fish. 95 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:50,000 Like all other scripture, like the Bible, 96 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:52,000 the book of Jonah is about God. 97 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:58,000 Scripture is all about revealing to us God, 98 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:01,000 his character, how he acts in the world 99 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:04,000 and what his purpose is and ultimately scripture 100 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,000 is about leading us to Jesus. 101 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,000 And opening our eyes to see what God is doing 102 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,000 in Christ and accomplishing through this world 103 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:15,000 or in this world. 104 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:22,000 All scripture is about God and his character 105 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:23,000 and how he acts. 106 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:27,000 This book, it's not about entertainment. 107 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,000 It's not a moral reference book. 108 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,000 It's not a personal devotional story. 109 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,000 The Bible is a revelation of God 110 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:40,000 and that is no different here in the case 111 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:41,000 of the book of Jonah. 112 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:47,000 God is revealing who he is to us through this story. 113 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:50,000 And so that's the eyes, that's the filter, 114 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:52,000 that's the binoculars or whatever, 115 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:57,000 the glasses we have to put on to see what's going on here. 116 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,000 This story is full of wit, it's full of irony, 117 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:03,000 it's full of sarcasm. 118 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,000 The book of Jonah is kind of a sort of ancient 119 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,000 Hebrew satire. 120 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,000 It is written in such a way that it consistently 121 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,000 has people acting contrary to how you might expect 122 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:15,000 them to act. 123 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:20,000 Everything is blown up and gigantic in proportion. 124 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:23,000 In fact, the word in Hebrew that we translate great 125 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:28,000 is used 15 times in 48 verses. 126 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:31,000 All of Jonah is a very short book. 127 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:33,000 If you're studying Acts with us, a men's or women's 128 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:36,000 Bible study, there are chapters in Acts 129 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:40,000 that are longer than Jonah, at least in verses. 130 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:44,000 And the central human character in this story of Jonah 131 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:47,000 is a man named Jonah and is actually more, 132 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:50,000 Jonah is more of a representative character. 133 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:56,000 He stands in representing the covenant people of God, 134 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:58,000 representing the people of God. 135 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:00,000 God's called out ones, his chosen ones. 136 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,000 And it's through those people, God's chosen people, 137 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:06,000 that we see throughout the Bible that he is wanting 138 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:09,000 to move through and act through them to bring grace 139 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,000 and mercy to this world by bringing a message of repentance 140 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:17,000 to the lost and a call to repentance to those who walk 141 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,000 in wickedness and evil. 142 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:25,000 But we find out that Jonah is a horrible, 143 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:27,000 morally defective person. 144 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:28,000 Full of hatred. 145 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,000 And just when you think you can write him off 146 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:37,000 as hopelessly flawed and begin to exalt yourself 147 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:41,000 as spiritually superior, the writer will have you 148 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:45,000 right where he wants you in order to expose your own heart. 149 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,000 In order that you might make much of what God is 150 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:53,000 or who God is and what God is doing and make little 151 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:56,000 of your own self-centered, self-conceited, 152 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:59,000 own self-centered, righteous superiority. 153 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:03,000 As one scholar put it, this story, the story of Jonah, 154 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:06,000 is aimed at exposing the worst tendencies 155 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:09,000 that tend to form inside of God's covenant people, 156 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:14,000 which are pride, hard-heartedness, judgmentalism, 157 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:20,000 tribalism, single-mindedness, and an inability to grow 158 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:26,000 and change and let God's grace actually surprise you. 159 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:29,000 And explore the boundaries of what you thought 160 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:31,000 was possible in this world. 161 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:34,000 That's what this story is all about. 162 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:39,000 My hope is that we are all surprised by God's grace 163 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:41,000 over the next four weeks. 164 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:44,000 Today will be a bit of background. 165 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:47,000 We read the whole chapter because in context 166 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,000 we need to see it, but today we are probably not 167 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,000 going to get beyond the first three verses. 168 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:56,000 The first verse reads, the word of the Lord came 169 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:00,000 to Jonah, son of Amittai. 170 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:03,000 And verse one begins in a way that would cue 171 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,000 an attentive Bible reader, and hopefully we're all 172 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:07,000 attentive Bible readers, and if you're not, 173 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,000 I'll do a plug here. 174 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,000 We have a Bible reading program that we're on as a church. 175 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:15,000 We post every day on social media the scriptures 176 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:18,000 that we're studying together as well as there's a chart 177 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,000 out there at the Welcome Center you can pick up 178 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,000 and you can join at any point in time 179 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:23,000 because we're not stopping. 180 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,000 When we get to the end we're starting over again. 181 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:27,000 So you can start today to read your Bible. 182 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:30,000 And any attentive Bible reader who comes to the story 183 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:35,000 of Jonah would be cued that they are about to read 184 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:37,000 a book of prophecy. 185 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:40,000 With this opening line, the word of the Lord came 186 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:42,000 to Jonah, son of Amittai. 187 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:46,000 They would go, okay, I'm about to read a book of prophecy. 188 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:49,000 It's a very common opening verse for a book of prophecy 189 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,000 where the word of God would be revealed to a prophet 190 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:55,000 and a prophet not being a fortune teller or some voodoo 191 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:59,000 worker, but merely a messenger of what God's perspective 192 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:00,000 is on something. 193 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:03,000 That's what a prophet is. 194 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:05,000 And they'd be tasked to deliver that message either 195 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:09,000 in writing or to go to a place and preach that message 196 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:12,000 to bring God's perspective to the scene. 197 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:18,000 But this first verse in Jonah chapter one is the only part 198 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,000 that is similar to other books of prophecy. 199 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,000 From here on it gets really interesting. 200 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:31,000 It is a book about a prophet that only contains 201 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:35,000 in the Hebrew about five words of prophecy 202 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:37,000 out of all 48 verses. 203 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,000 The word of the Lord comes to a prophet. 204 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:44,000 And so here we have Jonah, son of Amittai. 205 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:50,000 And already if you and I were able to read the Hebrew, 206 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:55,000 which I have to rely on other scholars to do that for me, 207 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:57,000 but if we were and we were reading along in our 208 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,000 Hebrew Bibles here, after this first line, 209 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,000 if we knew the story of Jonah already as most of us do 210 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:07,000 from our childhood, we would begin to laugh. 211 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:11,000 We would find this very funny, this first line. 212 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:14,000 Because in Hebrew a lot of the names that were given 213 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:17,000 to people had significance and meaning. 214 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,000 And so you were not just saying someone's proper name, 215 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:23,000 you were saying something about them or something that was 216 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:25,000 tagged to them or attached to them. 217 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:29,000 And what you have here in this opening line of Jonah is 218 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:34,000 Jonah, which means dove in Hebrew, dove. 219 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:38,000 And Amittai, which means faithfulness. 220 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:42,000 And so you have a story that centers on a human character, 221 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:47,000 a prophet, whose name is Dove and he's the son of faithfulness. 222 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:50,000 And this prophet Dove, son of faithfulness, 223 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:53,000 will act in a complete opposite. 224 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:58,000 Again, this is that idea that is Hebrew satire. 225 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:03,000 This overblown character will act in a way that is completely 226 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:06,000 the furthest away from the gentleness of a dove 227 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:08,000 or the faithfulness of God. 228 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:15,000 Jonah is a real historical figure, but as we look at that 229 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:19,000 from there, there's kind of two orthodox views that develop. 230 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:22,000 And they emerge from that, the nature in the book of Jonah. 231 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:26,000 One says that the retelling of Jonah is actual events 232 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:30,000 that took place in actual time like a historical narrative. 233 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:32,000 We're just getting the history. 234 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:35,000 One says that it's the historical narrative, 235 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:37,000 and then there's another, 236 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:40,000 orthodox scholars believe this as well, 237 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:44,000 that this is more of a parable, a story that's been crafted, 238 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:48,000 that's been borrows from real people in real places 239 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,000 who elicit a certain feeling among the audience 240 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:55,000 in order that they might present a deeper story, 241 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,000 a hidden meaning that can be discerned as you reflect 242 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:01,000 and reread and meditate on this story. 243 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:05,000 Jonah was a real person. 244 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,000 He's recorded in Second Kings in a historical narrative 245 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:12,000 for sure, and in that historical narrative in Second Kings, 246 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:15,000 we find that he's ministering during the reign 247 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:19,000 of Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom of Israel. 248 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:23,000 And Jeroboam II was a wicked king who did evil 249 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:25,000 in the sight of God. 250 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:28,000 And the one reference we have to Jonah outside of this book 251 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:32,000 that bears his name is that he's prophesying favorable 252 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:35,000 expansion to the northern kingdom. 253 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:39,000 The kingdom will expand and gain territory. 254 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:43,000 And by this time, the people of God in Israel 255 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:45,000 have already gone through a really great tragedy, 256 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:48,000 and that is that the first king that bared the name Jeroboam, 257 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,000 he's ministering during Jeroboam II, 258 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:53,000 but the first king that had that name, well, 259 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:58,000 he basically began a civil war and split the tribes in half. 260 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:02,000 Split Israel into a northern and a southern kingdom 261 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:04,000 of the southern kingdom of Judah. 262 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,000 And both Jeroboam I and II are wicked in God's sight, 263 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,000 and the faithful people of God in Israel 264 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:13,000 would have not cared much for a prophet 265 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:16,000 who says favorable things about either one of them. 266 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:21,000 And so when Jonah's on the scene prophesying expansion, 267 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:24,000 regardless of your view of whether this is historical narrative 268 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:27,000 or a narrative parable, the central figure in this story 269 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:30,000 would not have been liked or loved at all. 270 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:37,000 In fact, his favorable prophecy is eventually overturned 271 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:40,000 in a contemporary prophet named Amos. 272 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:44,000 He, so Jonah prophesies expansion 273 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:46,000 for the kingdom of Jeroboam. 274 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:49,000 Jeroboam's wickedness results in God coming to Amos 275 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:53,000 and saying to deliver a message of prophecy that says, 276 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,000 all that you gained, all that you were given, 277 00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:57,000 will be taken from you now. 278 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:58,000 And who will be taken from? 279 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:03,000 The Assyrians, the very ones that Jonah is invited 280 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,000 to go declare a message of repentance to. 281 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,000 Verse two says, get up, get up. 282 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:16,000 Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, 283 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:20,000 because their evil has come up before me. 284 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:27,000 And here we see this kind of kingly language of God. 285 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,000 God is represented as a king in his court 286 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:35,000 and a king of the world, and he's looking at his realm 287 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:38,000 and the wickedness, the news of the wickedness of Nineveh 288 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:40,000 has come up before him. 289 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:43,000 And Nineveh is the capital city of the Assyrian empire, 290 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:46,000 and they are unmatched in the ancient world 291 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:51,000 and their brutality, unmatched in their oppressive violence. 292 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:54,000 They are known for defeating their enemies, 293 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,000 they're really well known for defeating their enemies, 294 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:58,000 and then when they defeat their enemies, 295 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:00,000 they're really well known for taking the leaders 296 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:04,000 of their enemies and fileting the skin from their body 297 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:08,000 as a public display of their conquering. 298 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,000 And among many of the other captives 299 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:12,000 who they have no business or they have no interest 300 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,000 in taking with them off into captivity, 301 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:19,000 they would regularly cut off both of their legs 302 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:22,000 and one of their arms and leave one arm 303 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,000 so that as the troops were filing out of the city, 304 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:27,000 they could shake each one of their hands 305 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,000 as they died in their pool of blood. 306 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:32,000 This is the treachery, this is the violence 307 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:35,000 of the nation of Assyria. 308 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:38,000 This is what rises before God, 309 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:41,000 the cries of oppression and violence and brutality. 310 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:47,000 Anyone who was allowed to live would be deported 311 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:51,000 back to Assyria to live out their lives as slaves. 312 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,000 Assyria was an enemy of Israel, 313 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:58,000 and therefore they were despised and hated by all. 314 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:02,000 Here's the answer, Jewish Virtual Library part. 315 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:07,000 Bonus material. 316 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:12,000 Thanks, Brad. 317 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,000 We'll get you your mic next time, hold it up to it. 318 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,000 Assyria, this enemy of Israel, is hated and despised 319 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:26,000 and God is aware of their wickedness and oppression. 320 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:28,000 And so what does God do? 321 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:32,000 He sends Dov, son of faithfulness, 322 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:36,000 to go and preach a message of repentance. 323 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:40,000 Jonah, son of faithfulness, go, preach this message, 324 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,000 preach against their wickedness. 325 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:45,000 And we know later on in this story 326 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:49,000 that Jonah knows all along God's intention or God's heart. 327 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:51,000 And that's one of the reasons he doesn't wanna go. 328 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:53,000 And that is God is merciful and compassionate 329 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,000 and he wants to have compassion on them 330 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,000 if they would but turn. 331 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:01,000 But you can imagine at this stage in the story, 332 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:06,000 if God came to you, let's say it's 1941, 333 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:09,000 and God comes to Lanny and says, 334 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:13,000 Lanny, I want you to go and preach to the Third Reich. 335 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:16,000 You're gonna stand in front of Hitler himself 336 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,000 and you're gonna call him to repentance. 337 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:21,000 You think Lanny's eager to get down the road 338 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,000 and head on over to Nazi Germany? 339 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,000 No, not at all. 340 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,000 So there's a human element to this 341 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:34,000 of the most brutal, vicious nation in the world 342 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:36,000 at the time and the stories that come from that. 343 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,000 And you're telling me to go stand in their presence 344 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:40,000 and tell them that they're sinful, wicked, 345 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:42,000 and they need to repent to a God 346 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:46,000 that they've never heard of and they don't worship? 347 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,000 Craziness. 348 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:52,000 But God says, get up and go. 349 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,000 Get up and go. 350 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,000 And so what does Jonah do? 351 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:02,000 It says he got up and ran. 352 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:06,000 He got up and ran. 353 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:07,000 The exact opposite direction. 354 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,000 Nate, go ahead and put up that graphic really quick. 355 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:15,000 He ran as far as he could go away. 356 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:18,000 Now if you know about, like, 357 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,000 if you read some histories on shipping 358 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,000 and how they explored the waters, 359 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:24,000 you know that the Strait of Gibraltar 360 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:27,000 was kind of this end-all for a long time. 361 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:28,000 And while we have ancient stories 362 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:31,000 of possible exploration outside of that, 363 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:33,000 it wasn't until the times of, you know, 364 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:35,000 Christopher Columbus where they're still, 365 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:36,000 they're still starting to make their way 366 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:41,000 down the African coast to the left here past Tarshish. 367 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:44,000 So you have Jonah who says, I'm out of here. 368 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:47,000 I could go 500 miles that way to Nineveh 369 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,000 or I could go 2,500 miles that way 370 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:51,000 and I could go to the end of the known world 371 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:54,000 and get away and I'm out of here. 372 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:58,000 He literally goes to what we would call 10 buck two. 373 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:01,000 The furthest you can get. 374 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:06,000 Jonah, God says get up. 375 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:08,000 And so the verse actually says Jonah got up. 376 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,000 Same word, Jonah got up 377 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:13,000 and did the opposite of what God said. 378 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,000 The cry, and here's some, 379 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:19,000 here's some interesting little Bible tidbits. 380 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,000 The Bible, this passage in throughout Jonah, 381 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:25,000 it says that the cry of oppression goes up to God, right? 382 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,000 So cries go up to God. 383 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,000 And so he tells his people to get up and do something. 384 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,000 And in the image of the Bible, right, 385 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,000 elsewhere in the Bible we see that prayers go up to God, 386 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,000 right, and what do the godly people of Israel do 387 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:42,000 when they're ready to worship God? 388 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:46,000 They go up to the temple in Jerusalem. 389 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,000 They go up. 390 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,000 Up is the right direction they're supposed to be moving. 391 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:54,000 They get up and they go. 392 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:59,000 But here Jonah gets up and runs. 393 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:01,000 And where does he run? 394 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:05,000 It says he goes down to Joppa. 395 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,000 He doesn't go up, he goes down to Joppa. 396 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:12,000 And after he secures his fare on the ship, what does he do? 397 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,000 He goes down into the ship. 398 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,000 And later in the story we'll see 399 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:24,000 that he goes down 400 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:29,000 again and again to the, he goes to the bottom of the ship, 401 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:33,000 and it says that he goes into a deep sleep. 402 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:37,000 A deep sleep. 403 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:41,000 And later he will go into the depths of the water 404 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:44,000 and into a great fish where he'll spend three days 405 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,000 and three nights, right, 406 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:51,000 which in ancient Near Eastern thought was actually the time 407 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:54,000 it took to travel to the underworld. 408 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,000 Three days and three nights. 409 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:03,000 And so it's basically saying Jonah was good as dead. 410 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:04,000 To death. 411 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:07,000 Down, down, down. 412 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:08,000 The cries go up. 413 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:09,000 God says get up. 414 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:10,000 God says go. 415 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:14,000 And Jonah goes down, down, and further down. 416 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:18,000 Jonah's first step in rebellion is the beginning of a down 417 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:21,000 world's word spiral. 418 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,000 Down, down, and further down. 419 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:28,000 Did Jonah think he could run away from God's presence? 420 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:30,000 It says that he went away from God's presence, 421 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:33,000 but did he think he could escape it? 422 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:37,000 Did he think that God was like all those other terrestrial 423 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:40,000 deities that had kind of boundary lines 424 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:43,000 and they wouldn't move beyond them? 425 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:45,000 For sure he did not. 426 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:47,000 He certainly studied the Torah. 427 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:51,000 He certainly understood who God was. 428 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:55,000 If he had even heard something in the sentiment of Psalm 139, 429 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:59,000 he would hear that where can I go to escape your spirit? 430 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:03,000 Where can I flee from your presence? 431 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,000 If I go up to heaven, you are there. 432 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:08,000 If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 433 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,000 If I fly on the wings of the dawn or settle down on the 434 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:16,000 westernmost horizon, even there, your hand will lead me. 435 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,000 Your hand will hold on to me. 436 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,000 Surely the darkness will hide. 437 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,000 If I say surely the darkness will hide me and the light 438 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,000 around me will be night, even the darkness will be 439 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:28,000 not dark to you, is not dark to you. 440 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:30,000 The night shines like the day. 441 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,000 Darkness and light alike are to you. 442 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:41,000 It's most certainly that he did not think he could 443 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:46,000 escape God's presence, God's providential rule, 444 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:48,000 his sovereignty. 445 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,000 It's actually more likely that this was a term that 446 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,000 was used for a courtier. 447 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:58,000 This was someone who served in the courts of a royal. 448 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,000 He served God. 449 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,000 He listened. 450 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,000 He was there when God spoke and he was to act. 451 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:06,000 That's what he was to do. 452 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:10,000 That was the job of the prophet, to hear God's 453 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:14,000 perspective and to deliver it. 454 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:17,000 And he says, I'm abdicating my calling. 455 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:21,000 I'm leaving the presence of God. 456 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,000 Basically, I quit. 457 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,000 No thank you. 458 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,000 Find someone else. 459 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,000 Disobedience. 460 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:34,000 He received a command, a call, and he's disobeying. 461 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:38,000 And that's where we're gonna go ahead and park for a 462 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:42,000 minute before we conclude this morning. 463 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,000 As I said, we weren't gonna get very far into it, 464 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,000 but more of an introduction. 465 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:51,000 Our relationship with the idea of obedience is 466 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:55,000 probably a mixed bag of thoughts and feelings. 467 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:59,000 Obedience probably isn't the most positive trait 468 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,000 extolled in our culture. 469 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:05,000 In some places maybe and other places not. 470 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:08,000 In fact, a lot of people, and maybe even you, have a 471 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,000 view of God that is something like this. 472 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:16,000 He is an arbitrary dictator commanding people to do 473 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:21,000 this or that, and he's always borderline angry, 474 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:27,000 volatile, and picking fights. 475 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:28,000 And what does he demand? 476 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:31,000 He demands absolute total and complete submission. 477 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,000 No questions, no comments, no complaints. 478 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:37,000 That's God. 479 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,000 And a lot of us probably picked that up from 480 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:45,000 authority figures in our lives and how we were treated 481 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,000 and what was demanded of us. 482 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:52,000 But consider what God is actually doing here in Jonah. 483 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:56,000 Consider not your own projection onto the story, 484 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:00,000 but what is actually taking place. 485 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:04,000 God is sending his servant, a representative of his 486 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:08,000 covenant people, his treasured possession, the 487 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,000 people that he has chosen to reveal himself through 488 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,000 his word, through the law, and through the temple 489 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,000 worship and the priesthood, a place that he's chosen 490 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:20,000 to reveal himself to them to go preach against the 491 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:26,000 evil that is prevalent in another society. 492 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,000 And that evil is destroying that other society from 493 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,000 within. 494 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:34,000 That evil is leading them to ultimate ruin, and God is 495 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,000 sending one of his dear covenant children to go make 496 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:45,000 an appeal to them, to turn from their wickedness. 497 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,000 And Jonah knows, he says it later, he knows that God 498 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:52,000 is looking actually to show his great mercy to them. 499 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,000 He knows it, that in their repentance he is going to 500 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,000 offer grace. 501 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,000 Jonah's call to obedience isn't some arbitrary 502 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:05,000 dictator's power trip, but an invitation for Jonah 503 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:11,000 to participate in the bigger story of grace. 504 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:16,000 Jonah has too small of a vision for his life. 505 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:21,000 He sees self-preservation, he sees tribalism and 506 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:25,000 comfort as the vision for the good life, and he's 507 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:27,000 going to protect that, even if that means running to 508 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,000 Timbuktu. 509 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:36,000 And God is inviting him into a bigger, riskier, but 510 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:42,000 grace saturated story that would place Jonah in what 511 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:48,000 God is doing in this world. 512 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,000 It's not just Jonah living out his own small little 513 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:53,000 world. 514 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,000 And I think this is where the rubber meets the road 515 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,000 for us. 516 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:05,000 We are often too content with our small little world. 517 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,000 We are content, maybe if you're a believer, you're 518 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,000 content with being a part of a church and coming on 519 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:17,000 Sunday morning to get your fix, to get your hit. 520 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:21,000 And then back to whatever small little world you 521 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:25,000 live in all for yourself. 522 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,000 Do you see that God's word, the word of the Lord, the 523 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,000 word of God comes to you? 524 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:35,000 The word of God is there, it comes to you through his 525 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:39,000 word. 526 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,000 And some people see that as ruining their life. 527 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:46,000 God's word came to me and he ruined my small little 528 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:49,000 me life. 529 00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,000 This life that I sketched out for myself. 530 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,000 As one pastor points out, the sad irony of Jonah 531 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:01,000 running is that he thinks he is running for his life, 532 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:06,000 but he is actually running from life. 533 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,000 I love my three boys as pastor. 534 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,000 They often get used in examples, right? 535 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,000 I'm looking at them right now. 536 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:15,000 Two of them at least. 537 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,000 And I want nothing but good for them. 538 00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:19,000 I want nothing but good. 539 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,000 I want, I don't want them to be in pain. 540 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,000 I don't like when they are depressed or they have 541 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,000 mental agony. 542 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,000 I want them to flourish. 543 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,000 I want them to abound in joy and I want them to 544 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:35,000 experience love that is rich in life giving. 545 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:38,000 And there have been times and continue to be times 546 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:42,000 where I can see that something that they want, 547 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:46,000 they want so bad, is going to work against that 548 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:49,000 vision of life that I see for them. 549 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,000 I see a vision of life for them, of flourishing, 550 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,000 and I see something that they want, and they believe 551 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,000 that it is life and they think that it's everything 552 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:00,000 to them as they've grown up. 553 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,000 And I see that it could derail, it could destroy, 554 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,000 it could steal the life they could have. 555 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,000 If they were free to indulge in it, what they believe 556 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,000 was life giving, it would actually bring them hurt 557 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:18,000 and harm and pain or worse. 558 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,000 And so I have many times had to ask for their trust 559 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:26,000 in their obedience so that I could help them avoid 560 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:31,000 the harm and they could find the good stuff in life. 561 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:33,000 And I'm imperfect. 562 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,000 I'm very flawed and fall short. 563 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:39,000 In fact, last night I had to call two of my two 564 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:42,000 younger boys in and I had to repent for something 565 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,000 and ask for their forgiveness. 566 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,000 But if that's how it works for a flawed, imperfect 567 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:52,000 father to his kids, how much more so with a perfect 568 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:57,000 all-knowing, all-wise, and all-good father in heaven? 569 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:02,000 To be a Christian, to follow Christ, is to have a 570 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,000 radical view of God's grace. 571 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,000 And it's to embark on that journey of loyal, 572 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,000 trusting obedience. 573 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:17,000 It is to let God lead you into a spacious, big, 574 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:21,000 great, and exponentially larger life than you could 575 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,000 ever dream of having. 576 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:29,000 It is to be caught up, caught up in God's work of 577 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:33,000 salvation in this world to see the most unlikely 578 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:39,000 discover his grace and love in the most unlikely 579 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:43,000 ways through you. 580 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:48,000 Don't have a small view on life, a small view that 581 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:52,000 you must protect even from God and his word and his 582 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,000 calling on your life. 583 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:59,000 Instead, run to life that is found only in relinquishing 584 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:04,000 that and finding it in God and his word. 585 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:08,000 Jonah, the book of Jonah is like a mirror. 586 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,000 And occasionally we will hold it up and we will see 587 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,000 the worst inclinations of our own heart. 588 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:18,000 But we will also see the most grace-filled invitation 589 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:21,000 from the heart of God to each one of us. 590 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,000 And I pray that we answer that invitation with, 591 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,000 yes, Lord, take me where you want me. 592 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:30,000 Use me how you will. 593 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:38,000 I'm ready to go.