JONAH | Week 3 | Sermon

Here we go. Hey, a number of years ago, my wife and I, we went to Boston because we were gonna visit, one of her friends she grew up with married a a a player that was on the the Patriots.

And so they lived just outside of Boston. We're in New York. So we decided to do a little road trip and see them. And we got in there early in the day into Boston, and we decided we're gonna sight see before we drove

to to the friend's house. And there was I liked it. I Boston wanted to see Boston because it's a of history. I love history. So we're driving around. We did stuff like, hey, where's that bar that's the outside of the cheers show and stuff like that. Drove to find Harvard. But it was very frustrating

because I grew up where we know how to build streets. And Boston was built where all the streets were meant for horses. And so they're not big. They they make no sense. It's like you took a bowl of spaghetti, threw it on the ground and go, that's our road system. And and and they're not patient people in Boston.

And and and this was before the phone could tell you where to go. You had to just look something up. I've never been there. I'm looking up an address. I had to pull out an old school map and grid, and then try to write myself some directions

and figure out how to get there. At the same time, you're on a horse cart with street, and you got people yelling and screaming at you. It wasn't pleasant. I was getting frustrated. I didn't I was already getting an attitude.

And one of the last places, one of the things I really wanted to see was the Boston Tea Party ship.

And and I so I get the address. I'm looking at it on this Harbor Way Street. We drive down. I know it's on the water. So well, there's the water. I'm obviously in the right area. And you start driving around and it got so confusing. I followed this Harbor Way. It's like, alright. I got to 1200 Harbor Way, a little 800. You look at the little numbers that you have to back then, you had to actually look at the street signs, and they have those little numbers under them that's telling you if you're going in the right direction.

And I'm like, getting there, getting there. All of sudden, I run into a total dead end. I'm like, I only need a 100 more.

It's it's that building should be the Boston Tea Party ship. And I get confused and I look and I go, okay. Well, now it's a harbor and a Harbor Way. Go, here's another harbor. Okay. And just I go around, I'm driving around. I'm getting really mad right now. And then finally, I come to this this this why weird intersection.

And I look up because I'm totally lost now. And and and I look up and I am at the convergence of Harbor Way, Harbor Way, and Harbor Way. Now they're just evil. They're like, we're gonna make no sense out of our roads, and we're gonna give them all the same name. And I'm like, grid system.

I'm used to that. And I guess, I was so frustrated. I look over to the right on one of the Harbor Ways, and right over there, I see an on ramp onto a freeway. It's the freeway I know I need to be on to go to the friend's house, and it's the on ramp going the right direction I need to go. See, I'm like, that's it.

No more Boston Tea Party ship. I don't care. I wish England won the revolutionary war right now. Because maybe the English people wouldn't have done this. And then I've been to London, and I know they would have left it the same.

But I just go get on this on. It goes up and over this lip of the harbor, and my wife looks down and goes, hey, look. There's the Boston Tea Party ship. I looked at it. It's right there. Right there. I could see it. But I didn't care anymore. I was so close, but I didn't care. I was mad. I was angry. I got in the vicinity,

but I didn't taste the victory at all. That my friends is the cautionary tale of the book of Jonah.

That is the end. That is the summary. That's where it all led. And that's what we're looking at. We've been looking the last few weeks at the story of this prophet that was called by God. And and he'd love believed in God. And he called him to go to this this place in Assyria, the Ninevite, the city of Nineveh,

to to preach a message to them. And he went the opposite way. And I told you, again, you think it's because he's afraid because Assyrians were horrible people and all the stuff. And that's we're gonna find out. If you did not look ahead and spoiler alert, we're gonna see why he didn't do it.

And and what we're gonna find out is this story ends with him frustrated. Even though he does do what God said, he got into the vicinity of what God called, but he never got the victory.

And that's what we're gonna look at today. The big idea for this last part is we need to live in the victory, not the vicinity of God's call. And I think many of us in this room, this is describing where your walk with God has been maybe forever.

And it's why you're frustrated a lot. And that's why when I have to challenge us to actually trust God, you struggle with it and you might even get mad at me. And it's because when you just get into the vicinity, but you don't go all in, you don't experience the victory, and then you're frustrated.

And that's where a lot of us sit. What does that mean? What does that look like? Well, what all I'm gonna do is I just wanna read the last two chapters of Jonah. They're not really long. And then walk that out and show how that's exactly what happens with Jonah. So Jonah chapter three.

Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time. He's been whale vomited, fish vomited up onto the the shore. And he speaks to him again. This is where we ended last week. Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and deliver the message I've given you. This time Jonah obeyed the Lord's command and he went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. On the day that he entered the city, he shouted to the crowds,

forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed. The people of Nineveh believed God's message. And from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast

and put on burlap to show their sorrow. That's weird. He goes into this wicked city, says a one line sentence. Basically, he preached a sermon where he just walked out and said the big idea. It's like he walked in and said, don't live in the vicinity,

live in the victory of God's call. They said, we get it. We get it. We're so sorry, God. We're gonna do it. That's pretty awesome. I've never experienced that.

Anyways, and look what his message was. You got forty days. I'm talking about a throat punch. His one line message is in forty days, God's destroying you all. You think I say some tough things? That's pretty brutal. I would never say that. You have forty five days.

Maybe forty six. Depends. We'll see how the sermon ends. Sorry.

Where am I? Okay. Verse six, when the king of Nineveh heard that Jonah what he was saying, he stepped down from his throne, took off his royal robes, he dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city. No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks may eat or drink anything at all. People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning. I don't know what it look like on an animal, garments of mourning. Although in our society, you guys get the picture.

You dress up your dogs and cats and beagles and whatever else. And everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.

When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction that he had threatened. So now in chapter four. This change of plans greatly upset Jonah. Wait. What? He preaches a one line message, a 120,000 people and their dressed up animals

all put their faith in God, and he's angry. Why?

So he complained to the Lord about it. Didn't I say before I left home that you would do this? There it is. You got me there it is. Like, there was a conversation. This is a good movie script. He had another conversation with God that it didn't show us. Now at the last episode, the cliffhangers, it goes back and shows you that. He goes back and says, this is exactly what I told you, God, And that's why I ran the opposite way. I knew you were gonna do this.

That is why I ran to Tarshish. I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people, so just kill me now. I'd rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will and will not happen. What?

I knew that you were a loving God. I knew you cared about people. And I knew if I went and give them this message and they turn to you, I knew you would forgive them and love them. And how dare you use me to do that? I'd rather be dead right now. Be you know why? Because you made my words not true, which were actually God's words. But he's like, I told them they're gonna die in forty days, and now you're not gonna do it.

You made me look stupid. Crazy, isn't it? The Lord replied, is it right for you to be angry about this? Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city. It's it's interesting that he asked him that. He doesn't really say anything. Because as he went out to the east side of the city

and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen into the city. I I was like, I'm gonna wait and see. Are they gonna really are you gonna destroy them or not? And the Lord God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there. And soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head, shading him from the sun. This eased his discomfort and Jonah was very grateful for the plant.

But also got arranged for a worm. The next morning at dawn, the worm ate through the stem of the plant so it withered away. And the sun grew hot and he planted them in Phoenix, Arizona during the non soon time of July. And it was twenty three straight days of over a 122.

No. It says, gotta arrange for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his tail. He grew faint and wished to die. We can feel like that. We understand that. Says then Jonah jumped in his pool, but it was at 94 degrees already also. It was terrible. No.

No. He said death is certainly better than living like this. So now he's mad again. He's like, I'd rather die than live like this. Then God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry because the plant died? He says, yes. Even angry enough to die.

And then the Lord said, you feel sorry about the plant though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than a 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city? And then it ends.

The book just ends. Credit start rolling. Last thing he said was animals, so Sarah McLaughlin song comes on as the credits are rolling.

What in the world? That's a weird story, isn't it?

It's just a weird story. It's a cautionary tale. And if in a minute, I'm gonna explain some of this. You're And gonna find out that's not a weird story. That's describing all of us at any given point in our life. But it's directly describing many of us in this room right now.

You see, I said in the beginning that Jonah is the only book of of a prophet in the Old Testament that actually the story is about the prophet.

And you think, oh, cool. Because Jonah was cool. He gets his own story. No. This is one of those, like, midweek ABC scare the teenager type of movies like thing. It's like it's a cautionary tale. The only reason it's about him is because he blows it. It's a warning.

And that's why it just ends. We don't know what Jonah does. Because it's really supposed to be saying to you and me, and what are you gonna do about this? What are you gonna do about this? Are you just gonna get in the vicinity of God's call

instead of the victory? Because here's what happens. When you when you get in the vicinity of the victory, you end up acting like Jonah. You end up sulking in the vicinity instead of celebrating in the victory.

And and that's what a lot of it. We sit here and you say, so when we're challenged to really go all in and go where God wants us to go, some of you as believers say, I'm not gonna do that. You get mad at me when I say we need to build a building and I want you guys to give to it, or we need people to serve. Or the the the the the a lot of you are here from the Sunday 09:45 crowd, good job. You listen to me. They wouldn't leave the service. Well, this last week, the service behind in front of both had almost a thousand people, and the one in the middle only had 700. It used to have 1,400 and then really small. It worked.

And we immediately had a bunch of new families.

But if you just get in the vicinity and you kinda follow God, when you're challenged to do something, you get angry. Just like Jonah. And so that's kind of what happened here. And that's really kinda lesson. It's like, see, he knew. The reason he ran is he knew what God would do. And that's not what he wanted.

You see, he was actually afraid, not of the Ninevites. He's afraid they actually would repent. He's afraid that God would actually rescue them. And he didn't like them. He didn't want to. Why? He said it right here. He didn't want his words to be untrue. And he didn't care about the Ninevites or their pets.

He just didn't care. So when when I talk about we need to

we need to be not just in the vicinity of God's call, but live in the victory. What what does that mean? What does it mean? What separates victory from vicinity? Because I know you're thinking, okay, well what does that look like? What do you mean by that? Well, we can see from the story kinda kinda what it means. Is it it means simply this, what separates victory from vicinity?

The heart. The heart. The bottom line of this whole story, the whole answer is the heart of the problem is a problem of the heart. If you follow God and even try to do what he says and do the things he says,

and and and you don't get to the victory, it's because you're only in the vicinity. And the reason is there's a heart issue. There's a heart issue. In other words, you could even do what God says and be like Jonah.

And when you end up like that, it's because you got in the vicinity. You did it. You're sitting there. But instead of celebrating, you're sulking. You're upset. You're not happy. And it's because there's something wrong in the heart. And the biggest thing in the heart is you might be the hands of God,

but you have to engage the heart of God. If you don't care about what God cares about, if you think and really what that means is, is your relationship with God really a relationship or is it a transaction? Is it transactional? Is it I serve God

so I can get the result I want? Because that's what Jonah was doing. Hey, I did what you wanted, and now you're not giving me the result I expected. And so you're more concerned with the result you wanted than the relationship God was offering.

And that's why it like, look, he went back. He actually God, in his sulking, gave him shade. He still gave him grace. He still blessed him. And then God took it away. That's discipline. He goes, I wanna remind you of something. And now he's angry at God.

You see, that's what a lot of us do. When we get in the vicinity, you have this transaction relationship. I I do this. I do that. Don't expect me to do this. And then we have this attitude, and then God still gives us shade. And you think it's because you're so good, and then God takes it away. Now you're angry at God. Hey, what's the deal, God?

I did the thing. Why are you not giving me the thing?

And instead of celebrating that, like he said, didn't you care about a 120,000 people not being destroyed coming in? Because God cares about people. We care about ourselves. That's really what this story is addressing. So even if you do the things God wants in other words, Jonah believed in God, but he refused to believe God.

Does that make sense? Oh, trip. Jonah believed in God, but he refused to believe God. What that means is, look, he told the people on the boat the first

believe in the one true God. But still was running for God. Then he gets here. He says, this God's gonna destroy you. And then he's mad. And he actually now we find out he talked to God before he left. I know what you're gonna do. I told you that. I didn't want you to do that. I'm mad that you did that, and I'm leaving. I believe in you, but I'm just not gonna believe you. Know what he's really saying is? I believe in you, but I don't believe your plan.

I don't believe you actually care about me

as much as I care about me. I don't trust you. Is when you say you believe in God, but you don't believe God, you can say I believe in him, but you don't actually trust him. And if you go back and read your bibles, and you've been reading like this, that's exactly what got Adam and Eve in trouble that put us all in this mess.

The enemy Satan, the serpent did not try to make them not believe in God. They already knew him. What he did do is don't believe him.

He made him believe this lie that says, God's holding out on you. You really can't do what he said because what he's telling you to do will make you suffer, and you won't truly be happy. And you need to go take that fruit and take it for yourself. You need to go make it happen.

And that's what we do. That's what sin is. That's why we get angry when God says, here, I want you to engage in this, and I want you to put your money and your time into this. And then we get mad. Well, I put my did this and I did that. God, I'm not gonna do this. Because what you're saying is, I need that, and I don't I believe in you. I come to church. I sing. I I love that you died on the cross for me.

But I believe I need my money more than you. I need to do what you want me to do with it. I need my time to do with it what I want more than you want me. And what we're really saying is, I won't be truly happy if I do what you say.

And then even if you do it, if you keep the attitude like Jonah is like, he didn't wanna do it, but he got forced so he did it. And he still wasn't happy even though there was a great victory. How about you? Is that where you're at? See, in the heart, and what that really means is

the problem with our heart is when we believe lies. We can believe in God, but then we believe lies about God. And we believe lies about ourself. I can't do that because I need it.

And when we believe the lie, our I can't do this because I don't have. I can't

I can't be a part of this victory because I don't have. I can't serve because I don't have. You realize that the true heart of the nature is you're believing this lie about yourself and God. What you're really, really saying is, I won't do this because I have to have this.

And that is why you miss the victory even if you do this right thing. You see, lot of you think you're hearing what I'm not saying and that's what you get mad at. Because when you live this way long enough time, a lot of you like, oh, I know what you're talking about. I've done that. I've went all in. I've given. I'm not

saying force yourself to do the good thing and keep the bad attitude. I'm saying deal with the attitude. Deal with the real issue. And the issue isn't you don't have enough money, you don't have enough time, you don't have to do what God does, is you don't trust his heart enough and you're believing a lie. Deal with that.

Then you can walk in obedience, and you'll experience the peace, the joy, the contentment, and you'll you'll discover that God's plan was the best plan all along. And he enjoy he lets us be a part of his victory. Because think about it. Did Jonah really change the heart of a 120,000 people?

If it wasn't for a movement of the God, you know God moved in their heart. He planned it all along. He was gonna because if you walk into the foreign that hates you anyways and doesn't like you, and you say, you're all gonna die in forty days. That's usually a way to get killed.

You know what's funny is he believed God enough that he wasn't worried. He knew he probably wasn't gonna die. He was mad that they weren't gonna die. And and and and and so the problem is he knew that God did that.

So God calls us to do something. We might think, well, what I can give isn't much or what I do isn't much. Right? God is the one that uses it.

He's the one that does something. When we do it, we're the one that gets to be a part of the victory. If you do it the wrong attitude or you don't do it with our you're missing out. It's not leaning into God's call, especially when you don't think you have the power to do it, is the perfect time to understand

and deal with those fears. See, God asking us to participate is actually a gift to us to speak truth to a lie.

We can speak truth lies. See the the the the how do you how do you even do that? Well, the Bible says we take every thought captive. Ever read that passage? You ever thought, what does that mean? You start to have a thought and you'll, oh, shut up thought. I mean, how do you take a thought captive?

Sounds like herding cats, doesn't it? Especially with some of your brains. You got crazy cat brains. Now you can't force yourself to think a certain way. You can't prevent a thought. That's why it says take it captive. The thought actually happens. But how you take a thought captive is through the word of God. You speak truth

to that thought. You speak truth to the lie. I will actually do it out loud sometimes if I'm really wrestling with something. I will wrestle, and then I will say out loud, Bill, that's a lie. Don't need to take a captives. I do not need to let go down the road and follow that lie.

See, we try to control feelings. We try to say, I need to make myself not feel that anymore. I need to stop feeling because when I don't feel it, I'll go. No. Capture the thought. The feelings will eventually follow. But you can ignore the feeling. But you do need to address the thought.

And that is why I keep continually saying, if you're a believer that's not reading your word all the time, you can't capture thoughts because you're not sitting in the truth. You don't have the language to speak to the lie.

And then when you hear me say it, and you hadn't thought about that way, you've listened to the lies and the fears so long, suddenly, I'm the bad guy. I'm not the bad guy.

I'm the one that loves you.

And I'm just telling you what God said I'm supposed to tell you.

And so that's really what's going on. And Jonah, we we and and you know what? I can say this because I'm a Jonah too. I'm not standing up here in front of you all high and mighty because I'm better than you. I'm not.

I'm just the one that got called to say, hey, I'm just Jonah. I was just called to say in forty days, we're gonna do he just said, go say this. Speak my word and say this. Any life changing, it's gonna be him. I have to this has to say the same thing to me. I gotta go, man, where am I been spinning knucklehead that doesn't wanna

go all in? And I'm getting a bad attitude. Like, god, why do you take my shade away? Because if you look at that, it's really practical what what he did. He believed this lie. What was his lie? His lie was he didn't understand what it meant to be God's chosen,

which was a theme through the old testament. And and and we as the church, especially in a very blessed part of the world, in a time we've been very blessed,

we worry more about our little shade getting taken away. We more like, we don't have the political thought we had. We don't have this. We don't lose or that. We lose that. We we complain about the shade that God provided taken away, and we still don't care about the call he gave for our lives. You see,

his his lie was he thought Israel, by extension himself, was better than everyone else because God chose them. They weren't better. God just used them as an example. Matter of fact, he chose this little nation that couldn't do much because he goes, hey, when I start to bless you, it's gonna confuse the world. I actually picked you because you're nobody's,

not because you're somebody's or better. And here's the problem. Every else in this in this church is God didn't choose us because we're better than the rest of the world out there. God didn't choose you, and you didn't come to know him. And you didn't find him. He found you, by the way.

And we get arrogant. And that's what he did. He got arrogant. See, the reason he didn't care about them is he felt like I'm better than them. I I made a mistake, but I can clean up is why would you forgive them?

So he had no forgiveness in his heart, which made him unforgiving, which made him not care about what God cared about. How about you?

The reason we called this We Are Rock Point is because God called us to reach Nineveh. That's what we do.

We need the building. You know why? We got it easier than Jonah did. We don't even have to go to Nineveh. For some reason, you guys keep coming here Even when I'm yelling at you. I sit there going, forty days you're gonna die. I gotta come back. I'm gonna bring my friends.

All you knew people, you get it. I met so many families that moved off the 945. You know what sad is? Everyone I met had been here less than a month. The Ninevites aren't my problem. It's the Jonahs that are the problem. That's the problem. Ninevites are getting saved. We need more room.

It's the Jonah's that say, well, I'm not gonna help. And you know what? You keep bossing me around, and I'm a Christian. I've been coming for a long time. I serve. Why would you ask me to do that? Why'd you take my shade away? Why are you making it uncomfortable? Why are you doing this? You don't want the victory?

Anybody that's been a part of all the victories we've had around here? Anyone in this room, I've see a few out there, they're tearing up already. Every time we've had this problem, God blesses us and something amazing happens. And everyone who takes part of it that understands that's our calling, we are thankful

that we give.

And it's a gift from God, something he wants for us. He wants us to experience the victory, and he's the one that gives you the money anyways. It's not your money. And you know how it's another victory? Is when you give especially even if you think I can't I can't I can't and then you trust God, you get a double blessing.

One, he uses it and now you got to be a part of the victory and see a city come to Christ. But secondly, you stop worrying about it so much. See the problem when you don't trust God is, you always wanna get get get to have,

and you're worried about not having enough. And then when you get enough, you spend the rest of your life worried about what if I lose lose lose lose. You're never content. You ever thought about the reason God gave us these campaigns and these ideas? I mean, it's for us.

And if you think I'm just trying to do some big turn you twist your arm and be this massive fundraiser, I'll say this. This is happening whether you give or not. It's going to happen. I don't know how. God will make it work in weird ways. But you know what he does? He's invited us to have the victory.

To give us the victory, the contentment,

to have the heart of God, to be able to please him, and to help fight our own battle with thinking that money is what's gonna make you happy. The next thing will make you happy. The next stuff will make you happy. It is a blessing to be a part. So if you think I wanted it for your money, then I don't care and neither does God.

You are the one that's gonna miss out. And I desperately want you to know that my heart is, I want you to have the same joy I have. Because when I started this church, only thing I can think about is how am I gonna afford to pay for my family. I had every reason to not do this.

And I am telling you right now, the most blessed thing I ever did was when I went all in and came out here when it made no sense. I had no money. I went from poor to poorer. And it was hard And it was difficult. And now I'm staring at all you guys. And you know what? I it is the most blessed thing ever to be able to pastor is to say, guys, I need everyone to step up because we have too much of the world coming to Christ here.

That is a blessing. And you know what? It's not just me. Every one of you that has been a part of this, you should be celebrating the same victory. God let us do this. And I want everyone to be a part of it. So yeah. We can be Jonas.

Because if we don't, you know what the result is? It's the same result that happened to Jonah. If you look at the story, there's two things. His pride caused him to care more about his success than people being saved.

He was called to give God's words, but the say the fact that he gave words that he knew God would probably change and go back on because he loves made him look like an idiot. And he wanted to be right. He was more concerned with his success than people coming to Christ. How about you?

And the second thing is because of it, he became selfish. He was concerned with comfort more than the calling. He was more concerned with sitting up on side of the hill and having shade than he was with what God called him to do. And let me let me make it really clear, and I I'm not trying to be a jerk here.

I'm asking everyone here who's a believer that this is your church to give.

I want you to be a part of victory. And some of you are thinking about, I won't have as much shade and comfort in my life if I do that.

Nineveh can go to hell.

That tells me you're believing a lie, And I don't care how many times you come to church here. I don't know how many other distraction or things you do that over compensation I talked about last week. There is something wrong with your understanding of the heart of God. Because we have a Nineveh.

I mean, you care about the Nineveh? Do you care about the gospel? Do you care about our special needs families that are coming to us in droves because no one else seems to care about them? Do you care about the high school across the street that they turn to us so much? A public school.

They've had suicides at their school, and they reach out to us and invite us to come over and counsel because they are so overwhelmed that they know that we love them.

We need more space. The families that are coming here and the kids that are coming here. The fact that we spend a lot planting other churches and that's gonna be our future. We're eventually gonna run a room here and that's gonna be the next big thing up. Here's the problem. If we keep doing this, I'm gonna keep asking.

It doesn't stop until we stop breathing. But if you understand the heart of God and you get to be victory, why do you think old great quarterbacks that win a lot don't like to retire? It's a lot of sacrifice. I mean, I know they get paid well, but there's a lot of sacrifice to do that. They like the fact that they win.

Do you wanna be a part of God's plan for victory and win? Or do we wanna be Jonas? Believe in God, but when it really comes down to it, don't believe God. And just want our pride which makes us care about our success more than people,

and our comfort which makes us selfish. We're concerned more with that than with the calling God has given us.

And here's what I'm gonna ask us to do. In a minute, we're gonna close in a song. And I'm gonna ask us to pray about this. And I'm gonna ask you to consider, are you gonna be all in? And this most specific thing I'm asking right now is to give. Let's get this done. Let's be a part of what God's allowed us to do.

But here's what I wanna say before we do that. I don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying if you have an attitude or you don't care to force yourself to do it. That's what Jonah did. What I wanna do while we sing is for you to reflect on what is the heart issue.

Before you pray about or decide to to to to make a commitment to something, I want you to pray about your heart and go, what is it that's stopping me from believing God on this? What is stopping me? What is the issue in my heart? In other words, you need to kill the spider. You're like, wait, that was a weird transition.

What do I mean by that? A guy named Carlos Whitaker wrote a book about, you know, his past dad was a pastor. He talked about people talking about clearing cobwebs, but you gotta kill spiders. You know what? I had a literal example of that in my life growing up.

You see, when when we were kids, grew up, we didn't have scorpions. We had spiders at our house. We had black widows and brown recluse. My mom was always afraid when we were little. I'm not gonna kill you, but if you're little, it could really mess you up. And we like to play in between our wall and our neighbor's wall. There was one outside, and and there was a gap like that. We'd go back there and play, and that was just spider haven. My mom was always afraid we're gonna die, or and I'm like, well, maybe I'll turn into Spider Man. But no, she was more afraid of death and dismemberment or whatever. But so we got there, but we got it was creepy. We were afraid of spiders. So we got there, and we'd knock the spider webs away and look around, but we like to play. Then we decided, you know what we should do?

We should be proactive. Let's just get rid of the spiders. Then we this is then we're gonna this is gonna be our land. We're taking it over. So we had this ingenious plan. We got rid of the spiders. We started tearing down their web. You know, get rid of their house. Well, get rid of them, man. They'll be homeless.

And so we went to and we were doing this. Got it all over us. We're like, okay. This isn't efficient. We're doing it. My sister's a couple of several years older than me. She goes, I got a better idea. Let's go get the vacuum cleaner. And this is back in, like, the seventies, man. We had one of those Hoovers

that weighed, like, more than your Harley Davidson motorcycle and was unwieldy. And and and the little did have an attachment. That's what made it so fancy. Right in the front, you flip that little plate,

and it had this little attachment hose to do. But that hose was like a fire hose. I'm telling you it was like huge. So I went and I grabbed the hose. I look like a mini fireman. My sister's dragging this thing, and it's an inside vacuum. We drag it out and back. We're dragging it through the backyard

to our wall, and we go we get almost there. My dad came in the side gate, and he's like, what are you doing? And we're like, well, we're we're we're gonna get rid of the spiders. And he's he's like, what? And then my mom saw us and ran saw spider webs all over us. He's like,

you didn't get bit. Do you even get it? She's like checking us for bite marks, and and you feel sick, and all, you know, like she's going nuts. And Manaz like, what? You know, he he does you know, he's not worried about us getting bit by a spider, but he he was so confused by what we told him. Because he said, yeah. Well, how are you getting rid of the spiders? He go, we're clearing their webs out.

And he goes, what? That's not gonna get rid of the spiders. He goes, you gotta kill the spider. And we're like, what do you mean? We got rid of their house. He goes he goes, just wait. Let's go back out there tomorrow. So all the webs were gone. We waited. He actually helped us clear the rest of the webs.

We got up the next day. Later in the day, we went out there. Wow. There's spider webs were back. And you see him making them. And he looked at my sister and I, and he said, listen. You can clear spider webs all day long. And it'll look kinda clean, it'll look clear, it'll look safe, it'll look fine.

But unless you get rid of the spider, the webs will always come back. As we sing this song about the battle that belongs to the Lord, Jesus died to kill the spiders. Jesus died to make us like him. Jesus didn't die to give us a to do list and it's a don't list. He died so we can have his heart. And his heart is for people.

His heart is for his call in our life and the mission he's given us. And if you don't go after that, you got a spider in you and it is poisoning you. And the answer isn't just to force yourself. The answer isn't just to clear the webs. A lot of us have clear the web Christianity.

It's a do better, do healthy, be nice person, do this, come and do a little biz. I gotta look the part. I just you're just clearing webs so it looks nice, But the spider is still there.

And when he invites us to do something that's scary, not just to believe in him, but to believe him. And you really go all in and say, I will trust your heart, God, despite how I feel, but I want what you want. You have to deal with the spider. How is that? Jesus died. He's the one that kills the spider. You surrender to his love, and you admit that you're afraid. You admit that you're like, I don't get it, God, but I get you. And you look at what he's done for you instead of thinking I'm better than everybody out there. I'm more important than God's call. And you say, God loved me so much

that I want to love what he loves. So, Lord, take this issue. Take this lie I'm believing, and stop hiding behind the lie, and stop blaming me for talking about money. You are the one that has the spider of of being concerned with your money and your shade and your and and being okay. That's you, not me.

I'm just called to tell you Jesus died to kill that spider, and you're never gonna experience the victory. You're gonna keep having the cobwebs until you let him kill the spider. I'm inviting you to freedom. I'm inviting you to victory. I'm inviting you to experience what Jesus died for us to experience.

But kill the spider. Because there's too many times we walk down front, we have this moment, and all you did was clear out the cobwebs. And when you clear out the cobwebs, the fear doesn't change, the attitude doesn't change, and when victory does happen, you don't experience it. You get more upset.

So let's sing. And my encouragement as a person

who has spiders, and I've had to let God kill him many times or I would not still be standing here as a pastor.

Leading you all is the hardest thing I've ever done. Challenging you like this is the most difficult thing for me to do in my life.

Yet I thank God that he lets me do this.

Because I know I don't deserve to be a part of watching eternity get changed. I don't deserve to be a part of watching God save cities.

But he's invited me to.

And I don't like doing things alone.

So I'm inviting you to join me. And the only way he's gonna do it is remember that the battle belongs to the Lord and that's where victory really lies. Let's sing.