JONAH | Week 2 | Sermon

didn't want me to yell at you anymore. So now you get to get to the service where you get thanked instead of yelled at. Good job. That's awesome. But but you know what's not awesome is I I I had to get some blood drawn on Friday as a follow-up to to some physical I had about six weeks ago.

And and what happened six weeks ago is I get this blood drawn. And and, you know, back my last was everything was fine. But, I always feared this day would come because I used to be a trainer. I got all this information. I I work out, but I I joke, but I'm not joking. I would work out to support my eating habit.

And and and and and I knew in the back of my mind, it doesn't work that way. You can't just overcompensate for poor eating. You can overcompensate for too many calories, but I'm not I mean, my diet was not just about calories. It was about what I ate. You know? And and and and so I found some

I got the blood work back before three days before my doctor's appointment to follow-up. I know how to read this stuff. I know what it's saying, and it it was some some scary things. It was some some in my my family history is there's potential for diabetes

and all that stuff. And I'm looking at these numbers and they all add up to what they call metabolic syndrome starting to happen. And that's a combination of stuff that leads to diabetes, that leads to heart disease. My my inflammatory

marker of, like, you have inflammation in your body was two and a half times what it should be. And and it's like and and and, you know, what's funny is I gotta wait three days to talk to the doctor about, but I already knew what I needed to what it was I knew what was coming.

I I knew what I needed to do. I knew what was gonna happen. I knew the conversation. I knew it was gonna be there, and I and it's just it was a choice. Like, I knew I just wasn't gonna do up until this point.

And so when I went to the doctor, knew. Was like, you did you do how many people you don't wanna go into that moment? It's like, it's bad enough when it's gonna be bad, but it's bad enough when you know it's bad and you know that you caused the bad.

It's 100% on you. And and you don't even need to get coached. Like, she's like, she's like, hey, you're fine. She's like, well, you know, you you take care of yourself, so you can't I go, no. It's it's I know what this is. And she's like, well, what do you eat? And I started describing. And she goes, you know, there's things called the anti inflammatory diet.

You could write a book called the inflammatory Diet. You know, it's bad when your doctor tells you that.

And it's like, you gotta eat more of your foods food, man. That's what you need to start doing. And so I and I sat there in this moment of I know I'm getting busted. I know I'm in trouble in a sense. But the reality is it's not even about that. My doctor cares about my health. And I care about my health too.

So how come for years have I tried to just eat what I wanted to eat and not try to make these healthy choices and somehow thought I can overcompensate by doing more of this so I can look the other way on that? And I had that moment of a decision to make, to reflect and go, what am I gonna do about this?

That's really the story of Jonah and that's a story with us when it comes to our spiritual fitness. Our walk with God when he calls us to stuff is like many of us have struggled with listening to God on how to like have a healthy spiritual diet. How do I really

need to be living my life? And God's called us to some things. And a lot of us, we don't. We run like Jonah did. We he was served God. He knew the God's word. He knew he knew what he was doing. And yet, when it came to something that wasn't comfortable to him, he ran the other way. And that's what a lot of us do. We we won't fully surrender to God. And a lot of us sit in church, they go, but I do this, and I do this, and I do this. And what we're saying is we're trying to have this conversation that we're we're trying to overcompensate. Well, if I do more of this, God, I don't have to listen to you on this.

And just like by eating, that doesn't work. You can't overcompensate. You can't say, well, God, I'm gonna give you more of my time because I'm not gonna give you any of my money.

I'm gonna give my my spouse a little bit more of it. I'm gonna work extra hard and provide more money, but I'm not gonna have the emotional support. I'm making up for my lack of emotional support to the family by providing more stuff. It doesn't work that way. And so Jonah ran even though he knew God.

And many of us are running. And here's the thing though, God will discipline us.

And that's what we're gonna talk about today. He's gonna come into these moments and he's gonna discipline. Discipline is not to get even. Discipline is not to get you back, but to get you to come back. Discipline is about redirection.

Just like that moment in the doctor's office, it was a discipline moment because I needed self discipline. And so I could look at those tests and look at the numbers and look at what the doctor said to me and look at it as a terrible thing. It was a tough moment. Or I could look at it as a grace

and it gave me a chance to reflect and make a decision on what am I gonna do with what am I gonna do about this? Am I gonna continue in the chaos? Am I gonna continue towards the destruction? Or am I gonna make a choice?

And and that's what's happening in the book of Jonah. And what we're gonna see today is that we look at him, he's now been swallowed by a big fish. And he starts talking to God. And we're gonna see that what God did that big fish is not God trying to take him out. If you want him dead, he'd already be dead.

And what we're gonna see is God will put us in those moments, those belly of the big fish moments in our life. And here's the big idea. God's discipline is a grace, not a grudge. It's a grace, not a grudge. And if you were in the minute moment of maybe God's trying to discipline you, you're stuck in a dark, lonely,

stuck place. You feel like, why am I stuck here? This is scary. What's going on? Does God even care about me? The answer is yes. He loves you very much and you're probably in this moment because you're running from him and you're diving into chaos and he's going to do this to you to give you a chance to think about it. And that's what I want to look at today. What does it mean for this to be a grace? What does it mean that when God is disciplining your life when he's trying to get your attention when he's trying to get you to turn around? What does that mean? And we're gonna see it in Jonah chapter two. And I just want to read the whole chapter here and go into a couple verses of chapter three and then point out three things that that we need to apply that happened with Jonah in this story to understanding how this works. How does God's discipline work as a grace in our life,

not a grudge?

So chapter two verse one. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the inside the fish.

He said, cried out to the Lord in my great trouble and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead and the Lord you heard me. You threw me into the ocean depths and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me. I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. Then I said, oh Lord, you have driven me from your presence yet I will look once more towards your holy temple. I sank beneath the waves

and the waters closed over around me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. Some of you people go to a spa to have that happen, but this not the same thing. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth whose gates locked shut forever. But you, oh Lord my God,

snatched me from the jaws of death. As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord, and my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy temple.

Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God's mercies, but I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord alone. Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach. Fish vomit. Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time.

Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and deliver the message I have given you. This time Jonah obeyed the Lord's command and went to Nineveh, a city so large it took three days to see it all.

So there you go. So he's been thrown into the water. He's about to drown, swallowed by a fish, and now he's sitting in there and he talks to God.

Looking at what happened there and how he prayed, you're gonna see that most of us see like a big fish story like this is kind of like one of these things like see God scared him. God was like being mean to him. No. God was

rescuing him first and foremost. That's the first point. If you understand what's going on here that big fish moment was not a punishment. It wasn't God out to get him. It wasn't him holding a grudge. I'm getting even with you. It was a discipline moment where first and foremost he was rescuing him because God's discipline is a grace that brings us back, not a grudge that pays us back.

Because when you read that and he's talking to his prayer about what just happened, here's a good question. At what point when the sailors tossed him into the ocean did the fish swallow him?

Did you catch it by what he's saying in there? See, I've always a lot of us, we hear these stories, we imagine that that that they they picked them up, they threw them over, but it's like one of those nature shows where the shark jumps up out of the water or the or orca and just gets that seal mid air. You thought they tossed him and he's like, and then went down. No. He's describing drowning.

He was in that water, in that storm, I get it, which he chose. Just throw me in. He chose to go into the chaos without talking to God.

And then God sends this fish. So he was actually about to go. He's describing going under. He's trying fighting. What he's describing is I fought in the water, and now I'm sinking. And I'm going under, and I am drowning. That's when he was swallowed. God stopped him from dying.

But why does he wait? Why did he do it that way? It's really similar to how they teach lifeguards at the beach. And and and when you go out in the ocean, especially if someone's bigger than you, and you see someone flailing around and they're stuck and they're still above water, but they're just fighting and panicking.

If you swim up and you get close and and you see them acting that way, they say, don't go right to them right away. You know why? If they're in that panicky mood, so they'll take you down too. They say, you wait until they got no fight left in them. Then they'll let you save them. That's

what God did. You're still fighting this, man, and I need you to see something. You're gonna die if I don't do this. So then he did it. But now he's in a smelly, dark, seaweed infested belly of a fish, which isn't a pleasant place. He can't go anywhere. He can't do anything. It's like he's stuck. It's dark. He's alone.

But he's been rescued. He's not dead. How about you?

Do you realize that the moment if you're in one of those dark stuck places and in our life, maybe we're not in the belly of a fish, but we are in a belly of a fish in our life right now. You're like, okay. I'm not dead. But God what is going on and you think that this is a punishment or you think there's something weird going on and you're like it's more of those places. I'm in a dark stuck place.

Why can't I get past this moment? Why can't I get? And then you start to think that it's a punishment and it's really God rescuing you. Why? Because he sat you in this moment to give you the second point a time for reflection.

That's what it really is. It's a moment of reflect in other words that Belly Of The Fish was a private sanctuary with the Lord for Jonah.

And those moments where we seem stuck in the dark, like, why is alright. I'm not dead, but why is God leaving me in the dark? Why am I alone? Why do I feel, like, confined? Why do I feel like I can't get the past this in a way? Why do I feel like I can't bust out here? Why do I feel that I can't do this? Well, you're you're thinking wrong. You're thinking I gotta get out of this moment when really you need to lean into this moment.

It's a chance to reflect. What does sanctuary mean? Sanctuary literally means a place where you encounter God. Well, you know what? The whole time the storm's happened, the whole time he knew what he was doing, he he figured it out finally. We saw last week that this is from God and my own disobedience,

and he still doesn't talk to God. Right? He he'd rather die. He gets thrown. He dives into the chaos, as we said. And now he can't now he's not he can't even get himself killed now. Even though it's a dark, scary place, he's stuck. And there he is. God rescued him. Now he's all alone with just him and God.

And the voices in him of his sin, of the of of of of his fear, of his fame, or the potential for shame, all these other voices become quieter, faint sounds.

But the voice of God becomes louder and becomes clearer.

In other words, it gives him a chance to reflect. And what's interesting is true reflection requires God's word. When you read his prayer, if you haven't if you know, little Bible tidbit here. When you read what he writes, he is actually quoting Psalms like five six times in

this prayer. He's literally praying back God's word, which he knew. He's like me in the doctor's office. I already know what's going on here. And now he starts talking to God and he's reflecting on it. What does it mean to him? What he's praying to God is God's word reflected back. Reflection requires God's word.

That's why we need to be in God's word. That's why you should be in God's word during the week. That's why you need to know because if you're going to reflect many of us, you're stuck in that belly of the fish moment and you're not reflecting, you're fighting it still Or even if you're trying to lean into it, you don't even know how to reflect on it because you don't know God's word, which is probably why you ran in the first place because you don't know God well enough so you don't trust him.

But if you're gonna reflect, it's not to be whiny. It's not to be be honest with God. But you gotta know God's word to reflect. Because what he did is he gave him the ultimate time out. See, we're God's children's. Right? We still give time outs. If any parents, you probably have used time outs.

And and, you know, like because it's effective. A time out is you just gotta go sit a kid alone, explain, hey. Here's what happened. You need to think about this. And then you put them in the time at and you're just the fact of sitting still is is like a belly of a fish to them. They think it's the worst thing that could ever happen to them. And and and and you ever watch that? They fight it. You don't even do it very long. Like, Jonah was there in three days. You like, you give him a few minutes, but you'll give him as long as it takes. Like, if they fight it, it's gonna be this long. They're alright. It's gonna be longer. It's gonna be longer. That's what we I watched my my my daughter and my son-in-law do that with my my my grandson.

Got two grandsons, a four year old and a 10 old. And

my four year old is like he he's he we call him Sour Patch because he's either sweet or he's sour. It's like and he is all boy. I mean, I I I I I and and his brother is too. He's only 10 old. It's crazy. They're thinking, I don't think they wanna have more kids right now. They're gonna have get a little older because they are energy,

and they are nuts, and they're so sweet, and then they're not. And and and so the four year old doesn't know how to play. He's great until when he gets tired or gets weird, he gets ornery.

And he gets mean and he like starts like playing really rough with his 10 old brother. Go, you can't jump off the couch and super fly, snook a body slam your 10 old brother. That's dangerous.

And and then you think, oh, poor little sweet Ollie's like always smiling, but he's there's a glint in his eye. He realized Phoenix was asleep on the couch the other day when they spent the night, and and and he was out cold. And and Ollie like crawls over to him all smiling, stands up on on the edge of the couch, looks at his brother and he goes,

whack. Whack. And I think what he thought was, here's my chance. I'm smaller and outnumbered. My battle tactic needs to be element of surprise. Catch you asleep like George Washington when he crossed the Delaware.

I will cross this river in the middle of the night on Christmas and kill you while you're sleeping. That's what he was doing. And I'm like, wow. This is crazy. Well, when Phoenix acts rambunctious, they'll go, hey. You need some time alone.

There's we even have a place in our house in the other room, a couch that backed in the corner, and he sits in the corner in this couch. He knows where it is. And so you'll go put him in there. And I go, alright. You're gonna be in here for three minutes. And and you tell him you're gonna want to reflect reflect on your words, the words of the parent.

These are the words you need to reflect on. And you give him the time. It's crazy how often he he sits there for a while, walks back out, he's changed. He's repentant. He goes and apologizes. Sorry, Ollie. Sorry, Lollie. Now ten minutes later, might be right back over there. But

that's what this is and God will do that. It's called discipline because you're not having self discipline.

See some of us think this moment is a grudge that God has

and you're mad at God about it. But you don't want to face where you're not listening to him and the reason you're mad at God, you're like, why would he do this? Because I do this and this and this and this you're overcompensating like I did with exercise and you think if I do this, I don't have to do that.

And just like if you're a parent you understand that's not true. And we need to get alone and think about it. But you know what? Why wait till God puts you in those moments because when God does it, it's it's gonna be more aggressive because he has to be. I watched

as my wife kinda came back and told me what happened. He's sitting there, Phoenix, and and you know, he he was just being a little bit crazy, but nothing that got put in. And all a he goes and he walked into the corner in the room and sat down. And and and my wife always says to you, what are you doing? He goes, I

just need a little time out.

And he sat there for like five minutes and then came back in and he was totally different.

He's like, that's what having time with God is. It's you choose the time out to reflect on God's word. You choose the time out to think about where your life is. You choose to take the blood work and sit with the doctor and talk about what's really going on and what decision do I need to make. That's a choice, and it goes way better when you choose it yourself. And here's what's funny. Most of us won't do that. Yet a four year old has figured out how to do that.

Now he has got my DNA DNA in him, so he is a lot smarter than all of you guys. You see that that kid's even saying amen. He's like, listen to that guy. He's smart. I speak baby. It's a chance to reflect. It's rescue reflection, but then just what Phoenix does

in a child in a time out, what it's supposed to result in is repentance. And that's what happens in in in this moment with his prayer. Jonah's prayer specifically is a prayer a repentant prayer. And and if you look at it, it's basically gives us the model the steps on how to talk to God in your big fish belly moments.

This is how do I talk to him. And there's four things he does. There's four things he does that we need to apply to. So invert wording it towards what we need to do is the first thing we need to do is I acknowledge the connection

between God's discipline and my disobedience. Confess. The first thing you need is not make excuses, not talk about the overcome, not get frustrated with God, but sit there and acknowledge the fact that I know I'm in this moment because of what I'm doing

or not doing. The fact that I'm disobeying. I'm not going where God wants me to go. That's what he says in verse three and four. Look what he says. He goes, I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble and he answered me. I called out to you from the land of the dead and Lord you heard me. Then verse three, and you threw me you threw me into the ocean depths and I sank down to the heart of the sea.

The mighty waters engulfed me. I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. Then I said, oh, Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more towards your holy temple. You see what the first thing he did? The first thing he did is when he called out to God, he's like, hey, I get it.

I'm in this moment to think about why I'm not listening to you. You're never gonna get what you're never gonna get through those waiting places, those stuck places, those moments if you keep fighting God and say it's unfair or you just think, okay, God's just getting me back. This is just punishment.

You have to understand this is a moment to acknowledge that I'm in this moment and God put me in this moment to give me a time out. First thing you got to do, confess. Starts with confession. Then what happens next?

What verse four finished with. I turn my eyes back to God. He says, I'll turn my eyes to the holy temple. What that means is you look to God. You don't look to your problem. You don't look to your answer. You don't look to your frustration. You look to God. And really, we know from the New Testament what it means to turn our eyes to God. We fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. It says in Hebrews. It says, hey, don't let anything

when you're running this race, if you're gonna be repentant, if you're gonna go where God wants you to go and have real victory,

what he's saying is you need to throw off everything that hinders, it says in Hebrews. That's the the things that slow you down. It doesn't call it sin. It just says it slows you down. But what I was really trying to say is if you keep letting these things distract you and slow you down, eventually, one of something's gonna trip you. And that's the

sin that entangles now. So I need to make the choice of great instead of just good in order to not get slowed down so I get tripped up by sin and I disobey. And he goes, and how do you do that? He says, by keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus.

And then he says how what that means. He goes, fixed on him, the author and prodigy your faith, who who bore the shame of the cross to die for you. So he's like, fix a on God's love. Look to Jesus and his love. Look to God's love for you. You see, a lot of you last week, I I was pretty throat punchy.

And some of you always hear what I'm not saying. I didn't say God's saying do this or else. He's he's saying you're gonna miss out. And what he's really saying is, if you don't wanna listen to me, you do not understand my love for you. You don't understand how much I love you, and you don't trust.

Because if you understood how much I love you, you would know I am God, you're not. I know more of your situation than you do. If you understand God's love, God understands you better than you do. God loves you more than you can love yourself. So when you think I need this, not that God, we're being little kids

that doesn't understand. He knows more. And it usually is a trust issue because I don't understand how he loves. That's why he says fix your eyes on the cross. Look to Jesus and go, man, if he's gonna die for you even though we ran from him, maybe I should listen to what he says I should do with my life since he made me.

And that's what I need to look to him again. Look to his love. In other words, what a lot of you thought you hear whenever you hear this tough message of we need to repent, we need to look to the Lord. What you hear is I have to do this for God's love. No. That's legalism and that will always fail. What it's saying is

do this from his love. Don't live for it. That's a wait. And that'll get you frustrated in these well moments because you're not gonna wanna really understand. You're like, oh, fine. So I got and and and you care. God's not gonna let me have what I want. He's just punishing me. He's just that's not what's happening.

He loves you and you need to surrender to that. Because not only he loves you enough not just to rescue you from death and eternity. He loves you enough to rescue from the life you're gonna run after. That's not gonna get you what he built you to have. And so you need to lean into that.

Turn your eyes back to him. And then as you turn your eyes back to him, I need I thank God for his grace. This is where the attitude this is where the thing you gotta look at what's really happening here. If you look at verse six, he says, I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth

whose gates locked shut forever. This is God. Put him in this moment. But you, oh Lord my God, snatch me from the jaws of death. He's thanking God for what's happening now. He's thanking him. But here's what's funny is he says you snatched me. If you got swallowed by a giant fish and you're stuck in the ocean, wouldn't you

how does he know he's not gonna die? He's not out of the fish yet. So why is he thanking God for saving him? Because he's not stupid. He goes, this doesn't happen every day. That's why a lot of people don't wanna believe this story really happened. It's because it's a miraculous thing. That word for fish,

the way they describe it, sounds like a supernatural. Like, it's not a real normal fish. It's something God sent. And and so he's understanding. He's like, I should be dead, but I'm not. And now I'm in this moment, which is not pleasant, but it's out of the ordinary. Therefore, God still has a purpose for my life.

He loved me that much that even though I said no to his plan right to his face and ran away, he didn't come to kill me. He came to save me and I'm gonna thank him for that. Back to his love. That's what we need to do. And then finally,

the last piece of repentance is what true repentance is. I returned to God's call on my life. Verse nine, he says, and I will fulfill all my vows. What he was saying is, I'll go to Nineveh, which is interesting because in chapter three, he says,

or right at the end of that verse 10, the end of chapter two, he says, then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out of the out of the beach. So basically he says, if I really do repent to God, I got to turn all around and I got to get back on the path.

It is interesting though. When did that happen? Like, when did he get spit out of the whale? The second he said, I'll go back to the path. I'll do what you told me to do. And then here's an interesting question. How ironic that right when he said that, the fish was already at the beach in Assyrian waters?

Did it take three days for the fish to get there? Or did it take Jonah three days to get there? I believe the fish was already there, right by the beach.

God was just waiting for him to repent.

Some of you are stuck and you keep fighting, and God's just waiting for you to repent, and then you'll see the light. But you got to choose repentance, and that last step is repentance is to come go

back to the path see a lot of us and we've learned this. I've done this you've done this that many people they think this is what it means in church. Some people preach it wrong. You think repentance and turning to the Lord just means I'm sorry for what I did and I'm going to stop doing the bad thing.

That's part of it. But you don't just stop doing this. You got to start doing what he originally told you to. You gotta get back. I can't just sit there and go, okay. I'm eating bad. It's killing me. I'm gonna stop eating bad, but I'm not gonna start eating good.

I'm just gonna not eat. Or I'll eat only slightly good. I'll I'll eat just a little bit good. I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll sit there and I'll eat a whole pizza, but I'll have a salad with it.

I'm it's like and we do this a lot. We we we don't fully turn around. Where did he send them back to? What he originally told them to do.

And and so what happens is and and and really what we're gonna see next week, don't miss next week, the the final is I'm gonna go more into this, so I'm not gonna spend a lot of time now is when we don't fully repent, what we do is we turn almost around and we go towards the vicinity of God's call for our life. We don't get all the way there. We just get to the vicinity.

Here's the problem. We'll see this next week. Jonah is a perfect example. He's a cautionary tale because here he repented.

But then as he went back, he only ends up at the vicinity of God's call. He obeys exactly what God says, but the there you'll you'll can read it for yourself. We'll see it next week. But he gets to the vicinity, and what we're gonna see is when you only get to the vicinity of God's call, but not actually all the way in,

you never see the victory of God's call. You end up frustrated.

You end up mad. You end up selfish. You end up complaining that you're not comfortable. You end up complaining when God takes your comfort. Your attitude is bad, even though you did what he said. And that's where a lot of you are. That's where when I have these throat punchy service like, guys, if you're a Christian, you come to the church, you should be serving, you should be giving, you should be doing these things, and you get angry with me because you're like, I've done that. I've tried that, you're mad at me because I wouldn't do this. Well, at all the stuff I did over here. You're still overcompensating,

and you're only in the vicinity of God's call. So you're not experiencing peace, the joy, the grace, because you don't really have the heart of God. You're just doing the things he's told you to do. And when you don't have that, you don't get the victory. So it's frustrating. In other words, repentance without obedience

leads to failure every single time.

So that's why I felt I had to preach kinda I told you last week, I said, God has put on my heart. He doesn't want to let me go. It's like it's like hey, you need to be really preaching to people that have been in church a long time. They know they're a Christian or they believe they are, but they won't fully trust God.

Well, this week he finally said, be nice.

I feel like Frodo at the end of the Lord of the Rings. It's gone, Sam. The wait is gone. In other words, I love you. God loves you. Don't just get in the vicinity. Go all the way in. And a lot of people, what does that mean? What does it look like? Because here's what it looks like. A lot of you

that come into it, you say, well, if God's loving, I go, I know I've been in church a long time. You're either overcompensating.

You're not listening to him, but yet you're still going. He's leaving me. I still feel in the dark. He's not answering like I keep praying. Should I have this job? Should I that? Should I marry this person? Should I stay? Should do you're asking all of these ancillary questions,

these ones that you think God you want an exact answer from God that is like, you don't need the exact answer to that. He's like, obey the obvious.

Obey the obvious, and you'll have plenty of clarity on the ancillary. When you obey the obvious, the others works its way out. You do it the other way around. And that's why I have to come back to these soapbox things. The obvious is we're called to go to Nineveh.

We're called to bring the gospel to the world. That's the only reason we're still here. It's why when we accept Christ, God doesn't just beam us up, Scotty. We have a mission. We are to be the church. And that's why I talk about we are to serve one another.

We are to develop a system. We are to reach out. We are to worship God. We are to grow in that. We are to put our resources, our time, and our money into that mission. We are to care about the things God cares about and go after the thing God goes about. That's what he built us for and that's what he blessed us with. When I only get in the vicinity,

I'll do some of those things, but you'll never feel the victory of it. If you just come to church here and you don't give, you don't serve, that building will not feel like anything to you, except for me bugging you to help us pay for it.

But everyone in here who's ever given to this church and you've surrendered, helped us build this, you I have just as much of the blessing. God allowed you, not me. I couldn't do it by myself. It's us. He let us do this for his glory. And you're gonna know that this is changing lives for all of eternity because you chose

to actually sacrificially and give your money the right way. And you will have the blessing, or you can just have a bad attitude about it.

And yet you're still mad. Like, is God not answering about this and this and this? He's not gonna answer you about these secondary issues if you won't even obey him on the primary ones. You're in the dark because you keep the light switch off. That's the truth.

And that's what turning her all the way around. And repentance without obedience always results in failure. So what does it mean? Like I said, don't just get in the vicinity, get to the victory. And the first step to that is you got to understand that God's discipline is his grace in your life, not a grudge.

If he was out to get you in that way, you would already be dead. You can't run from him. If he wanted you dead, you're dead. So if you're still breathing, you're in this room, God has a call on your life.

And even though you feel like you're in a dark place, you can't see the light, he's there.

Even in these moments, especially in these moments. Let me explain it this way. A guy named Leonard Sweet,

in one of his books, is talking about this very idea of how you feel like you're alone and you're trying to be brave and you're trying but it just feels like I'm I'm stuck. I'm alone. I'm in a dark place. It's scary. I can't do what God said. I can't do it. When you say you can't, you're saying God can't.

Because if you do what he asks you to do, it will work. No matter what your scenario is, it'll work. And so he describes this Native American tribe that they had this custom that when their boys reached 13, that was the age they consider them a man. So they initiate them into being a true brave in their culture.

And what they would do is they would take them out and they'd blindfold them and walk them miles away from their home into the middle of the wilderness, out in the trees, in the darkness. And right around sunset, they'd sit them down and they say, you have to stay here with this blindfold on until morning.

And then you got to come back. And that's even to say they're thinking, well, how am I going to get back? I've been blind, I don't know where I am. And go, but in the morning, you're going to come back. And then they apparently leave. And this kid, this 13 year old has to sit in the woods all by himself

all night. Can you imagine that? And I I I have been out in the woods during the daytime where I wandered and I was hiking. I go, I'm maybe a quarter mile from where I know everybody else is. And you start hearing noises and you start freaking out. You hear a snap of a twig, you know, is that cocaine bear?

Imagine being a 13 year blindfolded in the middle of nowhere. Imagine every sound what's going through your head. Imagine the weather. It's cold. What if it's raining? It it it's uncomfortable. Every time you hear the windmill, every time you hear, oh, you're like, are those wolves? How close are they?

Am I gonna live? Am I gonna survive? You feel all alone. You feel freaked out. That's where some of you are right now. You feel like you were all alone, stuck, and every sound is scaring. You're like, how can I be brave? How can I do what I'm supposed to do? How on earth am I ever gonna get through this night and then walk back? How am I gonna do that? It freaks them out.

And then those braves that make it through the night, they finally take off their their their their blindfold in the morning. And as the sunlight starts to hit their face, you know what the first thing they see is? Every single time?

They see their father about 20 feet away,

holding his bow and arrow at the ready. And they realized he stayed there all night and watched over him the entire night. They were never in danger. Not once. The father lets him go through this because I need you to understand something. To be brave

means to know that even in the darkest of night, even when you feel like you're far from home, you got family. Your father is looking out for you. Just because you're brave doesn't mean you're alone. That's the lesson. And that's what many of us need to learn

in these messages that we've been in lately and the story of Jonah. Jonah knew, but did he really know? He knew the whole time that he was alone in the dark, but he finally just pulled the blindfold off and realized, I've never been alone. This is God.

Some of you are in the middle of the dark and you're freaking out at every noise you hear. You can't I can't do this, God. I can't trust you. I'm gonna get home. Well, the reason they are able to get home is that he just walked home with his dad.

How about you?

How about you pulled the blindfold off and realize the things God's asking you to do is he's with you the whole time. Even in these discipline moments, he's right there watching you. He is rescuing you so you can reflect and then you can respond to him and turn back and walk with him towards Nineveh. What do you need to do

to turn back to the path? What has God been talking to you about? So what I wanna do as we close here is this simple. We're gonna sing a song called Waymaker because he's the one that makes the way. That's what you gotta realize.

You gotta take off that blindfold and realize the things we're asking you to do, the things that God's word says to do, the things I'm calling us to be as the church. God makes the way because he's the one that died on the cross. He made the ultimate way for us. And I need to surrender to that.

So as we start to sing this song, I'm gonna come stand right here front and center

and praise God and pray. And I'm gonna invite anyone who needs to choose that moment. You wanna take that blindfold off right now, and you wanna see God and his love standing over you and committing to going in that direction that you might not be comfortable with, that you're afraid of. Because you know what I realized with the food thing? I knew everything.

But my fear of eating different was I was convinced I will never experience joy again if I have to eat broccoli. It sounds stupid, but it's true.

And so I give up. That's where a lot of you you think if I really go where God wants me, if I give him the time, give him the money, give him the relationship, do whatever, you know, if if I choose to turn, if I choose to go back, if in my marriage, if I'm like, okay, I've been mean to my spouse, I've been a little bit rough, I I lose my temper, I'm not patient, you go, okay, you partially, you only get in the vicinity of God's call, you repent to the point, I won't yell anymore, I'll stop being grumpy.

But you don't start loving her like Christ loves the church. You go, I'm gonna stop doing the bad thing, but I'm not gonna start doing the right thing. That's what a lot of us do. There's no victory in that. No victory.

Go all the way. And so I'm gonna invite you. If that you need to talk to God about something like that, just join me down here while we sing. Come down here and just start praying, praising God. Fill up the front. Fill up the aisles. I don't care. Just do it. Make this be your I am returning to my vows moment like Jonah. This is I'm going to do this. I'm afraid, but I'm gonna do it. I'm going to trust you because I realize you've rescued me. I've reflected on what you're doing, and I'm gonna repent.

That's what repentance is. So let's have an old fashioned altar call for repentance right now. Amen? Amen. Let's sing.