Extraordinary

Jonah Jonah 4:1-11

Darrin Patrick
August 24, 2014
Keywords mission, self-righteousness, comfort, compassion, repentance
Note: This sermon has been edited for readability
2014 Copyright The Journey

Well I want to encourage you to go a little deeper with us. We've got some resources here at
this website. It's a chance for you to go deeper. It's a chance for you to think beyond the
weekend about how to engage God with the scripture. So there are some wonderful resources
on there for you. Take advantage of them.
Next week, were going to talk about the history of The Journey. If you're new to the church. If
you're just checking it out, this would be a great opportunity for you to learn where we came
from. In September, we turn 11 years old, just to give you some perspective. Gods done some
cool stuff, so I'm going to talk about that. Then on September 7th, we're going to kick our fall
series where we talk about the most popular and well-known sermon in the history of the
worldthe Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 6, and 7. We're calling it Jesus Uncut.
We're going to take Jesus' words for themselves. There's a popular movement going around
with some people saying that we should only pay attention to the red letterswhat Jesus
saidas if that's safer and a little bit more tolerant. It's actually not when you see what he said.
So prepare to be challenged, prepare to be encouraged. We're going to do that. I want to
encourage you to start reading the Sermon on MountMathew 5, 6, and 7ahead of time.
That will help you get ready. We're going to have a good time.
This is the last week of our series Extraordinary. We've literally gone through 14 Old Testament
characters. So if you're new with us, here is what we've done this summer. We have taken all of
these characters and we have seen that God has worked in them and through them despite
them. They're not really heroes. They're not really rock stars. They're just ordinary people like
us who God did extraordinary things throughnot because of their ability, but because of their
availability. That's what God wants, is our availability. Maybe no character in the whole Old
Testament embodies this idea more than Jonah. So Ill give you the story of Jonah.
Jonah is the story that teaches us that you can run from God but you can't outrun God. You can
run, but when God wants you he'll get you. Jonah was the prophet. He was called to speak to
his people, Israel. God says, I appreciate what you've done, but now I'm going to send you to
Israel's enemies. So you're going to go on foreign soil. It's basically like into going into a terrorist
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cell. You might die but you're going to go speak. Jonah says, That'd be awesome. No, I'm not
going to do it. God sends a fish to pick him out of the sea. He had been thrown into the sea,
the fish vomits him up, and finally Jonah gets it and he goes and preaches the gospel to his
country's enemies.
Got it? All right, let's pray. We're done. No, I'm just kidding.
Here's why, because there's all these awesome movements in the book. Youve got running,
and you've got fleeing, and you've got sleeping, and you've got swimming, and then you've got
vomiting, you've got these characters, there's really this racist prophet, you've got these cussing
sailors, you've got this perfect storm, you've got a hungry fish, all of these things make this
awesome story called Jonah happen.
So as you get into the book, you always look for keywords when you're studying the Bible
because most of the time there are those. One of the keywords in Jonah is this word great, it's
the word gadol in Hebrew. So we have a great city. We have a great storm. We have a great
fish. Maybe most importantly we have a great God, who is literally working in and through all of
these crazy events.
If you're going to talk about God, it's helpful to understand this verse. Maybe one of the most
important verses that you can put in your heart and understand. Its Psalm 115, verse 3. Psalm
115:3 says, The LORD is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. Now if you can just
remember that, that makes sense of almost everything in the Bible, and almost everything in
your life. What we tend to do when we go to the Bible is we start with ourselves. We start with
us, who we are, and then what we must do. When we do that we make a terrible mistake,
because that's not what the Bible is about. The Bible is not about you. The Bible is about God,
who He is, and what He has done. This verse helps us understand that the Bible is about God.
Now we see this all throughout the book of Jonah. Another keyword is the word appointed. It's
an accounting term which means that basically you give out so much money and that's the
amount. In other words the control is made by the bank teller who says this much money you
can have and no more. So God does all of this appointing. In chapter 1, he appoints a fish. Then
we're going to read in chapter 4, he appoints a plant. Then he appoints a worm. Then he
appoints the scorching heat. God is the one appointing. God is the one who's sovereign.
You've got to understand Gods sovereignty, if you're going to make sense of the holy Bible,
specifically Jonah, and you've got to understand God's compassion. These things, they don't
seem like they go together. They seem mutually exclusive, but they're not. They go absolutely
together because it pleases Godthe LORD is in heaven and He does whatever he pleasesIt
pleases God to love people. It pleases God to send his people to help other people who don't
know Him know Him. You can't love God if you don't love people.
JONAHS PREPARATION FOR MISSION
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Jonahs sent to this wicked horrible city that had gone to war multiple times against his nation
and Jonah basically says, You know what, thanks, but no thanks. If you're going to be on
mission with God, here's the deal: You're going to have to see that youre as broken as people
that God is sending you to. Our problem is that we don't believe that. We think those people
really need Jesus. Ferguson people, they really need Jesus. But what we have to see is that we
need him, that we're broken.
God shows Jonah his rebellion
The first step in this whole process of you getting on God's plan, you getting with God's
program, you getting in the center of God's will is understanding that you are a mess. We have
to get that. I'm a mess. I am defiant. I am obstinate. I am rebellious. I am resistant. This is what
God shows Jonah. He shows Jonah Jonah's own rebellion.
Now it makes sense why Jonah would be rebellious because of God's call. See, God calls him to
go to this city, this country that hates his country. They were the superpower of the day. They
were wicked. They would do horrible, horrible things to people when they would come and
conquer the nation. Up to this point, Jonah was flying the flag of surrender. God, I'll do
whatever you want me to do. You call, I go. You say jump, I say how high. That's my deal. I'm
God's prophet. I'm God's tool. I'm the embodiment of God's vision. Up until this point, he's
probably incredible moral, very faithful, totally willing to do what God wants. Then he comes to
this place and he doesn't want to do what God wants because he is rebellious.
You've got to see that about yourself. If you dont see that about yourself, you're never going to
be used by God. If you think it's always those people who are a mess, those people who are
broken, those people who have issues, those people who... you're not ever going to be used.
This is why Jonah starts the book off by calling himself the son of Amittai, which literally means
truth. He's the son of truth. They weren't just talking about his daddy who had that name. He is
telling us the truth about himself in this book. He is showing us that he is a mess.
God puts Jonah with messy people
Now, because Jonah knows he's a mess, God then puts him around messy people. This is step
two. It's quite likely that Jonahlike many Christianshad never spent time with people who
didn't believe like him, act like him, behave like him, think like him, vote like him. He had never
done it before. Christians do this. This is a terrible thing.
My friends at LifeWay Research, who do an incredible job with statistics, have seen this trend
throughout the years, and the trend is this: It is that a new Christian, within 2 years of coming
to faith, dont have any non-Christian friends. They're in 3 Bible studies, they attend 2 different
churches. They hang out in Christian bookstores with their Christian t-shirts. They just lose
contact with messy people.
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What happens isand it's very innocent because a lot of us, when we come to Christ, need to
get away from certain people, like it's not good. I know this, when I came here, there were
some people I needed to quit hanging out with. I get that. But you never are pulled out to not
go back in. But we get pulled out, and then we get comfortable, and we find people that like us,
and think like us, that help us grow and we never go back.
Jonah was guilty. The church of Corinth was guilty. Paul says to them in First Corinthians 5,
Hey, I wrote to you earlier about not associating with immoral people, in chapter 5. I didn't
mean the immoral people of this world, because if you did that, you would have to go out of
this world. God wants us as we're going to see in the Sermon of the Mount to be salt and light.
Salt was the preserver. It's not flavor as it is with us. It preserved things. That is the purpose of
the church, to be embedded, involved in the world.
But what we do is we hide from the big bad world. We create our own subculture. And then we
are surprised and shocked when Ferguson happens. Why? What in the world? Well the church
...where is the church? That's Jesus' question. What was the church doing? Or did the church
just move out like everybody else moved out and left. Where is the gospel in all of that? We
don't like messy things. We don't like messy situations.
Jonah actually starts getting it right though on the ship. He's hanging out and he's speaking
truth. The sailors are like, Okay, something's causing this storm. They had a little bit of their
theology right. They start asking, Where you from? What do you do? He's like, Well, here's
the deal, I am Hebrew, he says, chapter 1, verse 9. I fear the LORD, the God of heaven who
made the sea and the dry land.
Now what is Jonah doing? Jonah is doing what every Christian should be doing. Jonah in a weird
way is acting like a missionary here. He's entering in and he's challenging. This is what we are to
do in culture. This is what we are to do with our friends. He's entering into their polytheism.
They thought there was a god for everything. They're like, Your God is causing us problems.
Our god, we were cool with our god, you brought your God's dealing here.
He's like, Well, you're kind of right. Only you don't understand that there's only one God. I'm
telling you about him. There's not multiple gods, there's one God, and this isn't about you guys,
this is about me. They're like, Okay, we received that wisdom, you're going overboard, bro.
He enters in, and yet he challenges.
Now these are the two expressions of what missionaries call contextualization. This is a
definition from Tim Keller who has a lot of good definitions: Contextualization is to give God's
answers (which people may not want) to questions they are asking in a language they can
understand. That's our task. Thats what it means to be on a mission with Jesus. That's what it
means to love our neighbors with the gospel. We give them God's answers. They may not like it,
but we do it in a way that they can understand, and we do it respectfully.

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So, what did Jonah do? He entered in. First of all, he woke up. It's helpful to be awake when
you're sharing your faith, so he woke up. He listens to their concerns. He discerns their
worldview. They think there's many gods. Then he enters in and he challenges, he speaks the
truth. He wakes up, he listens, and then he speaks up. He wakes up. He listens. And then he
speaks up. He wakes up. He listens. And then he speaks up.
That's the call to a missionary. You wake up out of your life. Man, it's not all about me. It's not
all about getting a better job and a bigger house. You mean, God, you want to use me in my
neighborhood? Like God you want to use me with my friends and my crazy family and my... Like
that's not, I don't just invite them to church and they can hear the holy man. No, no, no. Like I
can go? Like I can enter into that? I can speak with You. Yeah. Yeah, you can. This is Jonah's
call. This is our call.
Now as you begin to enter in it actually gets worse for you. Here's why, because God always
builds the missionary before he blesses the mission. God's going to do things to you as you risk.
That's not like saying, Well if I just go out there, and then everything would be fine, and then
God will leave me alone. No, no, no, no, it's just the beginning of pain, people. This is why
there are so few Christians who actually do it, because it's the beginning. Because what God has
to do, he has to build a missionary before he blesses the mission.
God exposed Jonahs self-righteousness
God begins to do things in Jonah, one of which is he exposes his self-righteousness. Now I said
this before, but it's worth repeating. Until you know how broken you really are, you're not
going to share grace with broken people. Until you know you need grace, you're not going to
share it. So God is unpeeling Jonahs heart like an onion and showing him. I say unpeeling
because it's like an onion. There are layers to this stuff, which is why you never repent of selfrighteousness, which is why you're always repenting of self-righteousness. This is why Jesus is
always hammeringwe're going to see this in the Sermon on the Mounthe's always
hammering the Pharisees, trying to get them to go deeper. He loves them. He wants them to
see the truth of their self-righteousness. So God is always doing this.
Now here is why I say all that, because Jonah got it, Jonah repented in chapter 2. Look in
chapter 2 with me. It should be on the same page of your Bible. You don't have to do that much
work. Look in chapter 2 verse 7. He's in the belly of the fish. When my life was fainting away, I
remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. What's that? We'll
get to it in verse 8, For those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast
love. Verse 9, But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I
will pay. Salvation is from the Lord.
Now you say, Well, I don't get that. Well verse 7 is kind of weird. This is one of those times
where you get there and you go, What does that mean? Let me respectfully say that if you
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are reading the Bible and never say, what does that mean? then you're not reading the Bible.
If you're not confused at times, you're not reading the Bible. There should be times when you
go, What? Why am I reading this?
When I was in college, my first translation project was in Hebrew. It was translating the book of
Jonah. I remember going through and going, What does it mean the holy temple? Well, I
think what he's talking aboutmany scholars have backed this upstudy it for yourself to
make sure I'm not deluded, but he's talking about the holy of holies. He's talking specifically
about the Ark of the Covenant, he's talking about this thing called the mercy seat on this Ark
that had in it, Aarons rod that budded and the Ten Commandments.
I think what he's saying, you make sure I'm not a heretic, but you study, I think what he's saying
is, I saw, I focused in right there on this reality of God's law. I saw for the first time, maybe in a
real way that I need God's grace because I have failed to keep God's law. I knew those
Ninevites. I knew they needed it. I knew my own crazy nation needed it. I knew Ferguson
needed it but I, no, no, no, I needed it, I have failed, I have sinned.
But above that law was the mercy seat where the offering would happen once a year on Yom
Kippur by the high priest. That offering remitted the sins of the people for a year in the temple.
So he saw his imperfection, he saw his failure, but he saw God's mercy above. So he got it. He
got it. It's not about his commitment to God, it's about God's commitment to him.
Like he got it, but he didn't get it. Can I get a witness? I mean he got it, but he didn't get it. He
repented on one layer, on one level. But this thing was so deep in him. And so God is
hammering away, hammering away, trying to get to the root of this self-righteousness that's
keeping Jonah from the mission. You say, Well, how do you know he got it? Because in verse
9 he says, Salvation is from the LORD.
Edmund Clowney was a great theologian, died about ten years ago, said this was the central
verse of the Bible. Take all the other verses of the Bible away, and you want to understand the
Bible, Jonah 2:9, Salvation is from the LORD. You understand that, everything makes sense. I
can't earn my salvation. I can't save myself. It's from the Lord. He's the initiator. And Jonah got
it, but he didn't get it.
Grace is really hard to understand. I mean there's multiple ways that the scripture speaks of
it. Let me speak of one way of understanding grace. Grace is really an undeserved gift from an
un-obligated giver.
Let me give you 3 examples to confuse you further. Hopefully it'll help you and me:
You're the parent of a rebellious child. You know how you know if you're a parent of a
rebellious child, you're a parent. But this particular rebellious child has just gotten their license.
You wouldnt let them have their own car, like a good parent shouldn't. That's just a little for
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free, but they steal the car and they go and they're going to go rob a liquor store. But they don't
know how to use the car right so they drive through the glass of the liquor store, and you are
called by the police. Now what do you do?
Well you got to love them. It's your kid. That's one of those deals where the parents are going,
Well, your son, and, No, it's your son. But no it's yours, it's your kid. So you love them, but
question, are they deserving of your love and mercy at that point? I don't think so. I don't think
so. You're obligated morally and legally, but they're undeserving.
Next one. You're in a small group with a great small group leader, which is true throughout the
church, we have great leaders. No perfect leaders, no perfect groups. So if youre like, I want
the perfect biblical community, never come back to this church, because you're going to be
disappointed. We're a mess. Every group is messy, every group. Well, I'm going to change
groups. What? The problem is you're bringing yourself, number one.
But you're in a great group and you have a great leader. Everybody is so thankful because this
leader takes time, coffee, phone calls, texts, doesn't just give the Bible lesson and go deal with
it. Like he's in, she's in. So group decides, You know what, our leader is always reading and
always carrying around books, and they've hurt their back. Let's buy them an iPad. I mean the
newest supped-up version of the iPad. Let's justthey have all their books on the Kindle app,
and it's a computer, it'll just help their ministry and bless them. That would be awesome. So
the group gets together and buys the iPad.
Now, is the leader deserving? Are there any small group leaders? If you're a small group you
should say, yes, absolutely, yes. Is the group obligated? No.
Okay, rebellious teenager parents responding to that, that's not grace.
Small group, that's not grace.
Grace is this. You live in an apartment. It's very small and has very thin walls. My wife and Is
first apartment literally I could sit in the chair. We got this old broken lazy-boy. I could sit in the
chair and almost touch all the walls in the living room, that's how small. The walls between the
apartments were like 2 pieces of paneling put together. Remember the 70s paneling too, like
that old brown. That was ours. So you could hear everything.
Lets say your neighbor, this is a story, it actually didn't happen, played music really, really,
really loud all the time. Interrupted your sleep, interrupted your conversations. You complain,
complain, complain. The cops come out. They don't do anything. You're stuck with this
neighbor who just loves heavy metal, and wants you to love it too apparently.
Then one day the music stops. You're like, Thank God, they'd listen. Then you discover, no,
they're actually really sick and they don't have money to get insurance, so they just can't really
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do much. You go over there and they don't have family, and you take care of them and wait on
them hand and foot on your own free time for six months, nurse them back to health. Then, as
soon as they're healthy you go back in and they crank the music again. That's grace.
You have an undeserved gift from an un-obligated giver. Crude illustration, but that is why we
don't get grace. That is why self-righteousness takes roots in our heart and goes deep and it's
very difficult to get rid of. This is what God is asking of Jonah, to give grace. This is what God is
asking of us, to give grace.
Some of us don't think we need grace. We don't think we need to be rescued. We don't think
we need to be delivered. We'll pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps, thank you. We got this.
Other people are so condemned, they're so guilty, they're so full of shame, they can't possibly
imagine that God would love them in their messiness. Those are two ditches we fall into. And
we miss grace when we fall into them. You could be too thin in your understanding of your
need for God, and you can be too thin in your understanding of God's love and sacrifice for you.
Both of those will cause you to miss grace.
Jonah got it in chapter 2, but did he really get it? Look in chapter 4. By the way he goes to
Nineveh. He actually obeys and they repent. All these messed up people who are bound to
experience the kind of pain that they'd inflicted for eternity, all of this crazy country that had
oppressed so many, everything's changed now. The hearts of the people are totally and utterly
different. God has confirmed his word. Jonah is so excited about what God has done. He's so
encouraged that God is faithful, despite his unfaithfulness. He's so amazed that God would be
so extraordinary in this ordinary situation in his ordinary life. He's so pumped about it, isn't he?
Not quite. Verse 1, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. Keyword
exceedingly. He was really, really, really, really, really angry. I could use other words here. Just
imagine. Hes just freaked out mad. He prayed to Lord and said, Oh Lord, is this now what I
said when I was in my country? I told you so. Isn't that a funny thing to say to God, I told you
so. Gods like, Yeah, but I knew. Thanks. That is why I made haste to flee from Tarshish, for I
knew that you are a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding a steadfast love
and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, oh Lord, please, please, please take my life for me,
for it's better for me to die than to live. The Lord said, Do do well to be angry? Jonah went
out of the city and sat at the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it
in the shade, til he should see what should become of the city.
What's he doing there? Sitting up on a hill, looking down, hoping that God fries them like a
crispy piece of bacon. That's what he's doing. Maybe God, this whole thing is a test and you're
absolutely going to give those people what they deserve. That's what he's saying. I'm just going
to throw this out. I think they might be still some self-righteousness in there. I'll just, Ill submit
that to you. Do you ever think you repent of something? Do you ever think, I'm passed that.

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Then, here is Jonah, keep reading. Wait, it gets worse. Now the Lord appointed a plant. He
made it come up over Jonah, that it may be shade over his head to save him from his
discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad about the plan. He's exceedingly angry that God is
going to be compassionate on his enemies, but he's exceedingly glad because now he's got
some shade.
But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that
it withered. So does God appoints every little thing that happens? I don't know how in the
mind of God, providence, and how God lets natural things happen, I don't know all that, but
here He did. You see in my life I've had this happen. Can you tell me if God is ordaining that,
decreeing that, causing that, allowing thatwhatever language we chooseI don't know, but I
know he did here. We know the worst act of injustice in the history of the world is the cross.
What's the worst thing that ever happened? Jesus the son of God was charged as guilty. That's
the worst thing that's ever happened people. Acts 2:23 says, By the predetermined plan of
God Jesus was going to go to the cross. This is why we tell you to study. There's some stuff we
got to learn. There's some stuff we have to wrestle with. I don't know why I said, so let's keep
reading, its just for free.
The plant withered. When the sun arose God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun
beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked again. I mean there's some
prayers you need to pray. We're going to talk about this in the Sermon on the Mount. You need
constantly to pray. This might not be one. He wants to die. It's better for me to die than to
live.
But God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry about the plan? In other words is your
anger justified over a plant? Yes. I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. You ever talked
to God like that? You just don't think He's listening so you really just get emotional about it, like
a toddler. My youngest daughter is like, Im really, really, really mad daddy. I'm like, Honey,
one really would've done it. It see that. I get that.
The Lord said, in verse 10, you pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make
it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. What God is doing is he's
getting into the last layer here, because a lot of times, and I'm not saying always, but I think in
this story a lot of times what's underneath our self-righteousness is comfort, a love of comfort.
God imploded Jonahs comfort
So what is he doing? He's imploding this comfort. He's blowing it out from the inside out, which
is the way, its almost the only way this works. That's what this Ferguson thing did to me. I
talked about it. To be honest with you I don't want to have to deal with this stuff. I got enough
stuff going on. I'm in hot pursuit of low-maintenance hassle-free life, on my way to my version
of the American dream. I don't need this stuff. I'd rather just preach sermons, and write some

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books, and encourage pastors, and help the Cardinals win the World Series, whatever, that's
what Id like to do.
What God does in these situations and circumstances around something big like what's going
on in this tragedy in our city to the little things. God just loves to... But heres how you know:
See, when your comfort is blocked you get really exceedingly angry. This is how you know really
what your god is, what you're really giving yourself to, what you're really trusting in for your
hope, and your security, and your significance and your identity. When it's blocked, you freak
out.
This week I'm like, the last few weeks I'm like, I'm pretty angry about Ferguson. Then my
computer wouldnt turn on and I'm like, No, for real. Don't laugh. You do it too. Wait, what is
that? God's exposing my comfort. God's showing me what I'm trusting. And God's getting into
the core of my self-righteousness, that I think it's me and my good works that reconcile me to
God, not his and his good works. That's what's going on with Jonah.
Verse 10. We read verse 10, verse 11: And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which
there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left. You
know what God's doing? He's comparing the plant to the city. He's comparing Jonah's love for
the plant to His love for that city.
And the 120,000 people seems to be a reference to the fact that you got a bunch of people in
that city and he names the number who have no moral compass, who think they are mini gods,
who think they've got to prove themselves to whatever version of God they think is, who are
literally operating in all kinds of injustice because they are not understanding that there is one
who will give justice, that will bring everything to justice. So they think they got to do it on their
own. Who dont understand that God provides and so they feel like they've got to go and
conquer everything to provide for themselves, who dont understand that they don't get it.
God's grieved by that. He loves people. If you missed anything, God really loves people, God
really loves you. He really does, really, really. Really, really, really, really loves you, loves our
city, loves our world.
But here's what's interesting. He doesn't just love people directly. Look at the last verse, the
last little phrase, let's read it again verse 11, Should not I pity Nineveh, this great city, in which
there are 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much
cattle. That's one of those verses where you're reading the Bible and you're like, what? So
God's an animal lover? Do all cats I mean do all dogs go to heaven and most cats go to hell?
What's he talking about here? What is it? What's the deal? Proverbs 12:10 says, A righteous
man has regard for his beast. Certainly a reference. Is that what God is talking about? I don't
think so. I don't think so. I think what God is talking about is what cattle represented for that
kind of society, which was economic structures. You knew you were wealthy because you had a
lot of livestock. When you had a lot of livestock that meant you could feed your family and

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other families, so people would buy meat from you. That meant you could farm. It was just a
symbol of economy.
So when God's saying, Listen, if I fry that place like a crispy piece of bacon, all those, not only
do most of the people die, but their way of life is hindered. The economic structures that make
life livable are gone. So God cares about that kind of stuff. He cares about people and he
wants them to see their own sin and come to the truth. But he also cares about all the systemic
things that make society go. If that's off, he's concerned about it.
Jonah, you love plants that comfort you more than you love cattle that feed people. He's
taking it all the way down. I mean, if we're just going to get away from people and get away
from, let's go all the way down to Oh my gosh, you don't even, you don't even distinguish
between plant life and cattle. You don't even get it, man. You're more committed to your own
comfort than to the people that need my love.
GOD SENDS US
Now an interesting observation is God ends the book saying, Should I not be moved, should I
not be compassionate. Then if you're thinking about it like Jonah told them to repent, God's
telling Jonah to repent. We've seen none of them repenting. When did Jonah repent? Who
wrote this book under inspiration of the Holy Spirit? Jonah. This is his repentance.
This is Jonah telling us the truth as he said he would in verse 1 about himself. This is the worst
period of his life. How would you like it if the worst decision and the consequences of the thing
that you don't want anybody to know about are in the Bible forever? That's Jonah. This is his
repentance, this is him preaching the gospel of grace to his own heart.
He got it finally because he wrote the book. God wants us to get it. Now you don't have to give
your worst week and be in the bible, but there are some things that God wants to do through
you. I'll just list out a few as we think about this.
God wants to exercise his compassion through you
One is this, God wants to use you to exercise compassion on other people. Now, I don't know
what that looks like. That might have something to do with Ferguson. It might just have
something to do with your neighbor. As I mentioned that thin-walled example, you probably
have somebody like that. They take up your parking place. They come in late hours. They don't
respect you. Maybe God wants to use you, maybe that family member that you avoid at family
reunions, maybe it's... I don't know who it is. Compassion, the arms of Jesus, loving people.
God wants to encourage repentance through you

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But also maybe God want to encourage repentance through you that you would actually be
used to speak the gospel. Not just live the truth of the gospel, but speak it to enter into a
worldview and to challenge it. A lot of us are good at entering in, we like to hang out at the cool
coffee shop, we've got the epic beard, we've got all of the cool music. We're hipster-licious, we
can hang, we can hang, but we never challenge. Some of you are really good at challenging, but
you never hang. Enter and challenge. If youve really entered, you will challenge eventually.
There's some relational rent to be paid for sure. But I want to encourage you, you don't have to
bring somebody to church for them to hear the truth. You can actually speak the truth. You can
actually share the gospel. You can actually tell people what Jesus' done in your life.
However, on the other sideyes andyou can bring your friends to church. Now let me tell
you, study after study after study have shown that people will come at church if their friends
invite them. It's real simple. Church growth is real simple. Churches grow when people in the
church bring their friends. Churches decline when people in the church do not bring their
friends. It's that simple. Oh, we got a hot band. We made the newspaper, a pastor wrote a
book. Baloney. It's people like you saying that to your friends, Hey, come and hear how much
God loves us, come and participate in our community, come and hang out. You can do that.
And the Sermon on the Mount, you have a great chance to invite people. You can say, Well,
I'm looking around, Darrin. Let me just look around. See many empty seats in here? We'll deal
with that. Invite them. We love to plant churches. We love for people to come on Saturday
night, where we have more seats for people. We love. We'll figure that out. You invite, we'll
figure it out.
I'll close with this. Orthodox Jews still celebrate the Feast of Purim. It started in the Old
Testament. What they do now is they will read as a part of that feast the book of Jonah. Then
all people will say after the reading, in unison, We are Jonah. We are Jonah. We love comfort
more than people. We're self-righteous. We are in trusting the righteousness of Christ. We are
deeply flawed and yet God wants to use us to help reach other people who are also deeply. We
are Jonah. I pray that we would feel the weight of that. And then we would be able to say that
together. In fact let's do that right now. Say it with me. We are Jonah. Again, we are Jonah. Let's
pray.
Father, I do pray that we would feel that weight. That we would understand that you have
called us to a life much bigger than the one we have tried to create. Help us to see though that
as you violate our comfort, as you reveal our self-righteousness, that you are safe, that you are
good, that you do whatever you please, that it pleases you for people to get your grace and to
understand your love. So Lord send us out as a church. We know there's so many good
churches in our city and we're so glad to be a part of what you're doing. But God, we are Jonah,
we ask you to send us out on a great mission, and we trust you to do that. In Jesus name,
amen.

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