Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Auburn Community Church. We're so excited you guys made it into the building today. It's so, so good to spend another day in the house of God together. Let's go ahead and stand up.
We're going to go into a quick time of community. So say hello to a few people around you that you don't know, and then we're going to worship together in just a few minutes. Right, before we go into our first song of the gathering, I'd love to just take the opportunity for us to all just settle into where we are right now. to just take a deep breath together, to set our hearts on the things above, to get our minds off of anything that we carried into the room today. So I'd love to read a psalm over our time together, and then we're going to worship God.
This comes from Psalm 86, verse 5. You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, Lord. Listen to my cry for mercy.
When I am in distress, I call to you because you answer me. Among the gods, there is none like you, Lord. No deeds can compare with yours. All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord. They will bring glory to your name.
For you are great and do marvelous deeds. You alone are God. Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness. Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name.
I love that part. I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart. I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your love towards me. You have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead. He's so worthy of our songs today. Let's sing this out together.
A thousand generations are falling down in worship to sing the song of ages to them. And all who've gone before us, and all who will believe, will sing the song of ages to the Lamb. As we lift up His name. Your name is...
Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. All thrones and dominions.
All powers and positions Your name stands above them all And the angels cry Holy, all creation cries Holy, you are lifted high Holy, holy for me Will he be forgiven? And if you've been redeemed, sing the song forever to the Lamb. And if you walk in freedom, and if you bear his name, sing the song forever to the Lamb. Oh, we'll sing this song forever and may be. And the angels cry, holy, all creation cries.
Holy, you have lifted high. All creation cries, Holy, You are lifted high, Holy, You're holy forever. People sing, hear people sing.
Holy to the King of Kings Holy, you will always be Holy, holy forever Sing to the hope we have in Jesus, when your heart is ready to break. Cause you got empty hands and worn out faith. And when it feels like prayers have gone to waste.
And the promise seems so far away One eyes up Lift up your eyes There's hope on the horizon Oh, look to Christ His kingdom is arriving So give Him glory in the waiting, and hold on to hope. In the space between now and not yet This song you sing you won't forget Because a broken heart's not laid to rest If it's an alibi, it's a jar of grace To lift up your eyes Hope on the horizon, yes it is. To Christ, kingdom is arriving.
It's the Lord, it's Jesus, the Lord, the Lord, the Alphys is the Lord to the Colossus, the Lord is with us, the light and the pain and the joy. It's just a normal, normal, normal, normal, yeah It's all common Open your heart, give Him your heart, and trust, won't you trust Him again? Deep in the night, the poor rise to hallelujah And know that you're not alone Yeah, you run with me now, hallelujah to God So far the horizon, to Christ, His kingdom is right, so give glory. I want to know, give the glory, meaning, I want to know, as Jesus, you know, you know. Jesus, will you just proclaim?
The space, not all together, the saints gathered together in community to worship your name, God. We proclaim that you are worthy, God. We recognize that you hold everything in your hand, God.
And we can trust you with our lives, Father. God, we pray that if there's anyone now within the sound of my voice that is holding on to something that they're not trusting you with, God, we just open our hands, God. We say we believe that your ways are better, we believe your ways are higher, we believe that you love us, we believe that your ways are good.
God, it's in these times when we come together, we can encourage one another with your word. God, we can hear from you, God, corporately, Father, and hear what you have to say, God. So will you speak now to us, God?
Will we open your word and receive all that you have, God? And will we be good soil to receive, God? Will you give us soft hearts, Father, for the person who has no idea why they're here right now? Will you speak directly to us, to them?
And will we not be so focused on who else we think needs to hear the word, God, but will we receive what we need to hear, God? Will we look inward, God, and we say, Come, Holy Spirit, have your way in me, Father, as we are here? year, God, for one reason, to worship you and hear from you. Will you come and move now?
In Jesus'name, amen. Amen. You can have a seat right where you're at, at all of our locations and here at 2200 Hamilton Road.
If you're in the lobby or an overflow, welcome to church. It is an early morning in this venue right now, but the people of God have come ready to worship the name of Jesus. And I'm fired up about some of the truths that we've been singing so far as our Shine kids are leaving to go study the word of God. And wherever you are joining us from, from whatever it took to get you to be a part of this moment. I love that we were just singing about God.
gathering your strength and fixing your eyes on Jesus, that the kingdom is arriving. There is hope on the horizon. And when you take a second on a Sunday to say, I'm going to set my vision toward the one who's on the throne, God starts to stir up hope where there used to be despair. There starts to be joy where there might have been a lot of anxiety and fear and worry.
And we're hoping and praying that the Holy Spirit does that on a mass scale today. So from where... wherever you're joining us from.
If you're new, my name is Miles Fidel. So grateful that you came to be a part of ACC. If you're here from out of town, welcome. This is a special, special moment to be gathering in the house of God. And every week we worship through the bringing of tithes and offerings.
This is just our grateful opportunity to say, God, you've entrusted me with finances. I wanna invest into the kingdom of God. And if you believe in what God is doing in and through this church, you can do that here, but you can do that in so many different places.
All that we ask is that you give us that you are faithful with what God has entrusted to you and you give cheerfully and joyfully. On top of that, I wanna let you know, next Sunday, we're back, same schedule, 8, 10, 12 here, 8.30, 10.30 over at 323 Airport Road with Sunday Night Church at 5.30. The Sunday Night Church moments have been impactful and tonight is gonna be like an old school Sunday Night Church where I'm gonna have like a follow-up message to my sermon this morning.
And so whether you're joining us online or you're just coming back to be in the building tonight, thank y'all for- being excited about those moments together. Our team has gotten such... good feedback from that. And then two weeks from now, we got church at home.
That is going to be an individual gathering specifically aimed at preparing you as a Christ follower for the election that's coming up. It's about a month before one of our pastors, Tyler Miller, is going to be giving the message. And it's all about how do I navigate the political tensions that exist in our day as a believer in Jesus. So we always encourage you, gather with your community group, grab brunch together.
love doing it at the beginning of October because usually that's like a beautiful weekend and it's an incredible opportunity to experience church differently. Last thing I want to say before we bring the word, you know, I know the last month has been insane here in Auburn. Our team has never felt so much stress attached to Sundays and just how we pulled this off and I know that there are hundreds of you that didn't get a seat in this building.
I know that there are people at 323 Airport Road at the 8 30 at the 10 30 right now who are like, man, I'd love to be here. it if you had a building where we could all gather together and so would we but what i'm more grateful for is how much you and our volunteers and our staff and our interns have all come together and just made the best out of this gift god has given us and i say gift because sometimes gifts can be wrapped as burdens and we need to see it as god is pouring out his spirit in a special way in our day and we're navigating challenges and as we do that we need to stay grateful for the cross of Jesus and we need to let that gratitude be indicative in how we treat other people. I heard some stories last week that are just not us as a church.
Stuff, stress happening in the parking lot, stuff happening on the way here, people arguing with volunteers and staff member about where they can go and can't go. And I just, I feel like the stress of pulling off church has just hit a boiling point. Because it's one thing if it happens one week, but when it's every week and then it's all these new people who come in and out of town for football season, I know it's been a lot.
And I just want to say as your leader, we need to do a better job of making sure the compassionate patience of God is clearly being expressed and exposed to the world through the way we treat each other. And that starts with me as your pastor and even some of the stress and tension that I think y'all have felt for me from the stage is like, man, this is, you can. can tell that they are stressed out and that's not okay that y'all feel that from us up here.
So from the top down, I just want to say, man, let's move forward in joy. Let's stay grateful for what God is doing in our day. And let's trust that God's going to open the right doors over time.
Amen. Anybody with me on that at 8am? Anybody excited about all that God's doing?
All right. Let me pray. Then we'll open the word of God. Heavenly father, thank you for this moment.
I pray in Jesus name that you would fill me to preach the word that you you have planted in my spirit for this moment. I thank you that I get to preach this story from the Bible today. Part of me just can't stop smiling that this story is actually real and I get to represent the God of the universe as the truth of your word is heralded from the pulpit of our church.
What a blessing. What an opportunity. And God, what a moment.
You know every story of every man, woman, guy, or girl who's about to hear this sermon. And somehow, in real time, you can download timeless truths to comfort the afflicted, to convict the comfortable. God, I pray that we would all be willing to look inward at what you need to change and transform. that we wouldn't spend this sermon thinking about our friend that needs to hear this truth or a family member or worse yet a spouse god would we be so intent on holy spirit would you form christ in me and remove every idol that competes for the worship of your name god only you can do that fill me now with your word from on high in jesus name amen Well, most of you know we've been in the book of Jonah for the last two weeks.
It's a four-chapter short book of the Old Testament that tells the entire narrative of Scripture in a short story. And I don't know about you, I can't get enough. of Jonah.
I have been personally so fed by the richness that comes from this story. We gave it the subtitle, Running from God, Pursued by Mercy, because that's the marker that happens from chapters one through four. It happens for Jonah, who's who's actually a prophet of God, who hears a message from God saying, go and preach to the great city of Nineveh. And he runs in the opposite direction.
Now mark this down. This is the only moment in the Old Testament where a prophet from Israel is specifically told, go and preach to a group of people that is not God's people. This is not the chosen people of God, family of Father Abraham.
Jesus has not arrived on the scene yet, so through his blood, all nations can be invited into the family of God. So Jonah gets a unique assignment, not just to go preach outside of his group of people, but to go preach to the most vile and violent and evil people on the earth. When you think Ninevites, don't think, oh, this group of people who desperately needs the gospel.
Think Nazis. That's what you need to be thinking of, because that's how they treated the world around them, and that's how they treated other people. Actually, most of the time, they were a lot worse than the Nazis, if you look through history. So when Jonah gets this call, he's like, absolutely not. I'm running in the opposite direction.
We read the story of how God orchestrates events, including a storm and a fish, to pursue Jonah with the mercy of God. But at the same time, God is pursuing this self- righteous hypocrite, he's also pursuing these sinful rebels, which in chapter one are the sailors. And now where we're going to get to go today in chapter three, it's going to be the evil Ninevites themselves.
And they're going to... discover what Jonah learned in chapter two. We talked about how he got swallowed by a fish and it was the mercy of God because he was drowning, called to God for help, lives in the belly of a fish three days, spit out on the very shores where he boarded the ship in the first place to run from God. God's mercy pursued Jonah, but now God's mercy is going to pursue the evil Ninevites and they're going to find out what Jonah just found out.
And here's where we're going today. They're going to find out, like I hope you do, you cannot hide from God. You can only hide in God. You cannot hide from the God who made you.
You could make your bed in the depths, like David says. You could turn your whole life into a show to try to fool everyone else around you. You could, spiritually speaking, make everything externally look like you got it all together. But the one person who you will never be able to fool with that game, and the one... who you will never be able to remove yourself from his vision and from his intention, is the God who formed you in the first place.
You can't hide from God, Jonah. It doesn't matter if you go to Tarshish. It doesn't matter if you're drowning in the Mediterranean Sea and you're a million miles from where you should be.
God finds Jonah. And it also doesn't matter if you're the most evil, vile group of people on planet Earth. The heart of God is going out and he's bringing an invitation. And the invitation is this.
Keep running and experience judgment or come into my loving embrace and hide and find rest for your soul. You cannot hide from God. And some of y'all need that sober reality and realization today because your whole life is a mirage to try to fool everyone around you, including yourself.
And you can fool yourself. You can't fool him. But you know what you can do because he's so compassionate and gracious?
you can hide in him. You can draw near to him. So if the banner is running from God, pursued by mercy, the question today is, what do I do if I've been running from God in my own way?
the mercy of God pursues me and he moves and the spirit reveals Christ and I'm convicted and I'm aware of the fact that I need to change. You want to know what you do? You do.
And this is the overarching message of Jonah. This one thing that scripture calls you to do, repent. You turn.
You know, when Jesus preached the gospel, he didn't start with a three-point sermon about a prayer you need to pray and eternal fire insurance. When Jesus preached the gospel, he started with one word, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. And that word repent has been butchered. And many of you hear that and you're allergic to it because you go, I hear someone on Tumor's Corner with a megaphone trying to make me repent. And that's not what I want you to have in mind.
The word repent, it simply means, wow, that was really real in this room. I don't know if it was real anywhere else, but everybody in here knows exactly what I'm talking about apparently. That word repent means to turn, but more than changing your ways, I've heard it said changing your mind, which is what it means, but in reality the best meaning is changing the inner you, particularly in regards to accepting the will of God. Repenting is about conformity to the will of God in your life, in the world, in the human story. So to run from God is to rebel in your own way against the intentions and the heart and the motives and the story of God.
And to repent is to go, fine. We got to go your way. I don't want this. I want what you have for my life. I want what you have for humanity.
I want your truth. I want your ways to repent is inwardly nothing changing necessarily on the outside about circumstances, but on the inside going, I'm going to totally do a 180 shift in how I'm experiencing life and reorient my inner self to say yes to whatever God is revealing to me. So here's what's crazy about this moment.
That word repent means thousands of different things to thousands of different people today. There's different things that y'all need to turn from, and there's different ways you need to turn toward God. but the united call of God across ACC today.
And it's not just the call of God in the story of the Ninevites who repented. It's the call of Jesus when he showed up on planet earth. Stop doing this your way.
I promise you my way's better. I promise you my way's more fulfilling. And it's not just like conformity to a guy who thinks he's right. He is right and he is truthful, but more than he is truthful, he is good.
He is loving. He is purposeful. He is peace.
He is freedom. He is everything that the human story is longing for in a person. So the message today from wherever you are is repent and turn to Christ.
And just as soon as you think, no, I. can't because dot dot dot all of our objections are done away with when we see the glories of Jonah chapter 3 did you bring your Bible this morning if you have your Bible hold it up hold it up high need a huge Bible drill hold it up turn with me to Jonah chapter 3. Jonah chapter 3. We're going to begin in verse 1. We've been saying through these chapters that we don't want to read Jonah like a children's book that we heard about in vacation Bible school or rehash a story that we thought we knew before. We want to look at Jonah with fresh eyes and a blank slate, but we want to look at it through the lens of a mirror. The purpose is not, hey, let's look through the window of history at what happened to this crazy prophet named Jonah who got swallowed by a fish.
No, that's not the goal. The goal is, hold up, the story of Jonah is the story of me. And where are the issues of this story exposing and speaking to real things in my life and in my story? Where we left off last week, Jonah is vomited onto dry land after his famous prayer in Jonah chapter 2. You can find both of those previous two sermons on...
YouTube or on our podcast, but we're going to start in Jonah chapter three, verse one. If you're there, say I'm there. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
Now you can stop right there and preach a whole series of sermons. Wait a second. The prophet who didn't like what God asked him to do and ran in the opposite direction. The prophet who, even when God sent a storm, rebelled against God by saying, no, I'm not turning around and going to Nineveh. Throw me off the ship.
I'd rather drown than obey God. That's what he was doing. That one gets a second chance. Yeah, our God is a God of second chances.
Even more than that, our God is a God of another chance. Jonah gets a second try and the whole narrative restarts in verse 2. Here it is. Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you. Now I love this. Jonah has repented and the message from God has not changed.
It's word for word what it was in chapter 1. Some of y'all think when God asks you to do something bold that you can put it off for a while and appease your conscience and then you return to God and he'll have a new ask and a new call for you. You know when you when you run from God and you hide from God in a lot of ways you put your relationship with God and your calling on pause and so you come in and out of communion with him but then you come back to him and you think he's not going to ask you to give up what he was asking you to give up originally and you're just stuck on pause until you actually submit and obey to what he originally revealed. Miles, make that make sense for me.
God's still saying break up. God's still saying move on. God's still saying get help. God's still saying reconcile. And a lot of our arm wrestling matches with God are us waiting for him to change his mind about things that he knows until you come into conformity of his will about that, nothing's changing.
So the message is, you know, same plan. I know that was crazy with the storm and we had a moment in the belly of a fish, but the word is the same. You're going to Nineveh, bro. And then in verse three, everything changes. I love this.
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord. and went to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh was a very large city. It took three days to go through it.
Keep in mind, Nineveh was about a one-month journey from Joppa, where we believe Jonah was dropped off by the fish. I say dropped off, he was vomited. And so he's got a one-month journey, and then a three-day journey into the city.
But as I'm reading this, I was just projecting into the narrative. Jonah obeys the second time around. But what if he didn't?
How long do you think the book of Jonah would be if he like this time he didn't get on a ship going that way this time he grabbed a donkey and went this way like how many more stories of the complicated story of Jonah might be present because knowing our God. who's slow to anger and abounding in compassionate mercy, I think the story would have just kept going of Jonah trying to blaze his own trail and God pursuing him and going, no matter what, you're going to do what I told you to do. And some of you, that's exactly the way you're living.
your life. You're thinking, if Jonah gets a second chance, I'll get a second chance. I'll just put off following Jesus until I have to, until my life is in a season where it's more convenient for me. And I just want you to know this.
When you're running from God, nothing about your life gets more serene or clear. Nothing about your life is simplified. Everything is more complicated and difficult.
You never win when you put off saying yes to the grace of God till later. And Jonah realizes this and goes, he's just, if I go that way, if I go, it's just going to. going to get crazier.
And so I'm going to obey and I'm going to go to Nineveh, even though I don't want to. And we'll find out how much he doesn't want to in chapter four. Don't miss that next week. And it says this in verse four, Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city, proclaiming 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.
The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed and all of them from the greatest to the least put on sackcloth. When Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh. He rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust. Now, this is where Jonah, in a few verses...
tells us the story, but it doesn't do justice to the weight of what's actually happening here. You have a Hebrew Jewish prophet going into the capital city of the most powerful civilization in the world, the Assyrians, and proclaiming 40 days from now this whole city will be overthrown. That word overthrown can mean destroyed.
It can also mean changed completely. In a word picture, what it means is this whole city is getting turned upside down by God. And it's happening in judgment for the way you have spread this empire and the way you treat one another.
You'll see that in a second when you see the details of their repentance. But Jonah goes into the capital city of this evil, oppressive people. And they believe God. And you just read it in Jonah 3 and you're like, oh great, another great story from the Bible. Guys, this is the only equivalent I can think to tell you that would make it make sense to you.
What you are reading on the page is if you would envision a Jewish rabbi during World War II going into Nazi Germany, into Berlin, and from the center of the city of Berlin going, 40 days from now, Nazi regime going down, Berlin turned upside down, repent before the God who created everything and all the people repenting, including the king. Think Hitler takes his swastika off and bows before the throne of a holy God. Like, that's how unlikely what you're reading actually is.
And even more so, because we have such a category in our minds for how evil the Nazi regime was. I would argue, and you can look at this up through history, the Assyrians, more evil. They not. only took pride in the spread of their empire, they took pride of how violent it was.
And I recognize that a lot of parents love to have their kids be brought in to listen to the sermon. So I want to be mindful of that, but you should Google, especially if you're a history person, what was the oppression of the Assyrian empire like back then? And you will read stories that will make it hard for you to have lunch that day. These people are evil, turning in mass, believing what's happening.
Now part of the reason why, you need to understand this historically, part of the reason why they were so open to hearing Jonah's message is because God had done some pre-work on their hearts that Jonah was not aware of. look this up historically at this time in history, the Assyrian empire started experiencing a whole host of plagues and famines and what they would call acts of God that had them paying attention to the fact that their empire was becoming fragile. so don't think, oh, random Jewish guy walks into this city, and everybody's going about their business, and everybody's just, yeah, life's good. We're the most powerful nation in the world. Who's this guy?
40 days, and we're going to be destroyed. We believe you. We're ready to bow before that God.
That's not what happened. There was a lot of things happening in their city for years and years that led to this moment to where when Moses says, or sorry, not Moses, when Jonah says, there's probably meaning behind that somewhere. Somebody needs to read about Moses, but when Jonah stands up and says, hey, 40 days, and you guys are out.
They are ready. God's always gone before the soil that he's going to cause to produce fruit. He's not banking on Jonah's five-word sermon in Hebrew. It's one of the shortest sermons you'll read to change people's hearts.
He's got them ready. to receive this message. And I've heard preachers, and I've been one of them who before have said, this is the worst sermon in the Bible. It's almost like he's trying to get them to not listen.
After doing deeper study, I actually don't think it was just five words. I think Jonah, when he's writing this, is summarizing. his message, I think Jonah faithfully preached. I think he expounded on who his God is and the opportunity that was available to repent.
Now that's debated among scholars, but I would just say from my study of it, I think it's a reach to say Jonah just stood on a box and said, hey, repent 40 days. See you guys later. Walks over here, repent 40 days.
Like I actually think he preached God's word faithfully and it had its intended consequence. Let's read verse 7 and finish it. Is this helping anybody? I think this is beautiful, just studying the word of God. This is the proclamation.
This is about the king he issued in Nineveh. By the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink, but let people and animals be covered with sackcloth.
Now, that's the third mention in Jonah 3 about sackcloth. What is that? It's a piece of... of clothing that you would put on to demonstrate mass repentance. So there were things that you did in the ancient world, particularly in the Jewish world, when something horrible happened to your family, when something bad happened and you wanted to grieve.
One of those was like tearing away your clothes because it represented, my heart is torn in half by that news. But sackcloth was representative of mass repentance. It means not only am I repenting, but y'all are and y'all are, and I don't care if it was your fault or your fault or your fault. They're putting sackcloth on their animals. Guys, we got pets involved in this level of repentance.
I'm just kidding. The animals were representative of their income. It's like literally everybody putting their money in the front and going, we're not going to spend any more money. We're not going to eat any more food.
Our animals aren't going to eat any more food. It's that level of commitment to God. And the sackcloth says, hey, we're all doing this together. The king himself puts that on and sits in the dust. Look, look what happens next.
Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Pay attention to that. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. This mass movement of repentance is happening. They're fasting.
They're praying. They're calling urgently on a God they don't really know. That's why the king says, who knows?
Maybe this God will have a heart that's bendable toward our survival. They're calling on God. They're fasting. But watch this. It says, let the people give up their evil ways and their violence.
You see that in there? That's the issue with the Assyrians. See, when you start an empire that is built by violence, violence starts to infiltrate your society from within and was destroying them from the inside out.
See, they thought they could just impose their will against all these other nations and cut off limbs and do all this disgusting stuff to the people. But then when they became the most powerful nation in the world, they couldn't handle the violence that was happening between each other. If you read about Assyrian history, were very oppressive against the middle class and the poor. The poor were very violent toward the rich because they felt like, well, we got nothing we can do except hurt them in the most secret ways. And the middle class was basically doing both.
They were doing everything they could to oppress the poor and they were doing everything they could to harm the rich because they were jealous of them. Apparently, the way you build an empire becomes the reality of that empire. And the same is true about your business and the same is true about your family. You build a family on fake external show for people to think things about you. Watch how flims...
the relational dynamics are from within over time. You build a business on unethical practices. Watch what happens when you make a lot and your partner suddenly steals it from you. See, the thing that builds it becomes the reality you got to live with.
And now what has built the Assyrian empire is destroying them from within. So the thing they're repenting of is their very violence against one another. And verse 10 tells us when God, this is Yahweh, the God of Israel, saw what they they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented.
There it is. If you want Jonah 3 in a sentence, when the Ninevites repented, God relented. That's good preaching.
And then they're given a second chance. And here's what I want you to see from this passage. If everybody could look up here, because I'm about to give you something that's a cover to cover biblical principle that if you don't understand well, you're going to wrestle with a lot more than Jonah chapter 3. Jonah chapter 3 is a real-time example of what I would call sovereign contingency. Okay, sovereign contingency holds on to two realities, that God is sovereign and in total control of the story, and God invites human beings in real moments to contingently respond to what he's revealing through his word. So when you read Jonah 3, one of the observations you will make if you read it deeply is, wait, Jonah's a prophet.
What do prophets do? They preach about the future. And Jonah prophesied that in 40 days, Nineveh would be destroyed. But 40 days later, Nineveh was not destroyed because God relented of the anger he was going to pour out because the people repented.
So which one is it? Is Jonah a false prophet because I thought he was obeying God? No. Prophecy functions differently depending on the purpose of the individual prophecy. There are different types of prophecy, by the way.
There's apocalyptic prophecy. It's like. like visions into the future.
A lot of those that are in the book of Revelation, the book of Daniel, there's prophetic warnings that are intended. That's what this is. They're intended to create a real response in the people.
And then there's prophetic signs that have people paying attention like the days of Jesus, when he does something that is explicitly talked about, like his birth in Bethlehem to a virgin and a million other things. So prophecy functions differently. This prophecy is a prophetic warning, which means the purpose of what Jonah is saying is not to predict the future. He's not a fortune teller. He's not there to go.
go, I just happen to have this secret knowledge that 40 days from now, you guys are going to be gone. Watch. I'm a true prophet.
I promise. Watch. No, the function of this prophecy isn't intended to tell the future.
The function is to invite the people to create a new future because here's what's going to happen if you don't change. And for so many of you, you don't see the word of God like this. You don't see it as an invitation to be responded to in the here and now. You see it as something fixed and static and stuck and it is what it is regardless of what I do. No, the word of God reveals a relational God whose heart is bent by the cries of his people.
God is moved by your prayers. He's moved by your songs. What you decide, what you choose to do in response to what God reveals on a daily basis matters. And 40 days and Nineveh will be overturned.
That wasn't Jonah going, regardless of what you do, this is what's going to happen. So enjoy your next 40 days before he blows you up like Sodom and Gomorrah. No, that would be really, that's kind of indicative of Jonah's heart, by the way.
When you read Jonah 4 of what was going on in the inside, it was God going, this is what's going to happen if you don't change. I am a gracious and compassionate God, and I am inviting you into something more if you change. One of the other things you'll discover when you read the Bible from cover to cover is God expects us to make decisions about how much we harden or soften our hearts to what his word is revealing. God actually tells you that you are called to take responsibility for how you respond to the word. I'll give you an example.
Last week I was a little bit discouraged. Part of it was I was tired and I was sad because I just preached a funeral the day before along with another. other pastor on our staff and it was a heavy day but I felt like with y'all and through a screen I don't know if this makes sense but in the spiritual realm if you've been following Jesus for a while you'll know what I'm talking about I felt like there was there was a wall and and the wall between what I was preaching from the word and how you guys were responding, not like out loud, but on a spiritual level, that wall was your hardness of heart.
I felt people's resistance to making their lives about the eternal story of God and rather making it about self. I felt the wrestling match that existed in this room and through screens. And part of me gets discouraged when I sense that, but part of me wants to come back to a truth that God revealed to me a couple of years ago from the parable of the sower, which is this. It is not.
The preacher's responsibility to manage the orientation of the hearer. It is the hearer's responsibility to either soften or harden their heart to what God is revealing in real time. I read the parable of the sower. And that's like a preacher's go-to to take the pressure off themselves.
Because they're like, listen, there's good soil. There's soil on rocky ground. There's soil in the path that gets snatched up.
And you can't really control. There's soil in thorns. And some of it's going to produce good fruit. Some of it's going to fall away.
Some of it will be choked out at the end of the day. God's word is going to do what God's word is going to do. But I preached the parable of the sower to you guys a couple years ago. And what did we find in Luke chapter 8? It was, hold up, at the end of the parable of the sower, Jesus says, Be careful then.
How you listen. The message of the parable of the sower isn't, this will land where it'll land. It's you decide as you are hearing it, which soil you want to be.
You can be the soil where the enemy snatches the word. If you're too easily distracted, you can be the soil on rocky ground. If you choose God in a futile moment of emotion, but don't build a worldview deep enough to handle suffering.
You can be the soil that's among thorns where anxiety and pleasure of sin will always choke out the greatness of what God's trying to plant in your life. But it's your choice. It's your response in a given moment to what you want to do with the word of God. But the good news is, if you choose to soften your heart and you choose to live in conformity to what the Holy Spirit is doing, God will be there and will relent of his anger, will forgive and will leave a blessing behind. I'm taking this language from another passage that's just like Jonah 3. In fact, if you're in Jonah 3, go back a few books.
Go back to the book of Joel. Go through Obadiah and Amos, and then you'll be in the book of Joel. 2024 is the year of Bible characters that start with J at ACC.
So we got to at least mention Joel, okay? We're switching between J people every week, and every week we talk about Jesus too. So it's just, it all fits. Okay?
Joel 2 is a prophecy of warning, not against Nineveh or Assyria or Babylon. It's against Israel. And what Joel says is, he goes, listen, this locust plague that you guys have, your land is getting eaten up. That's God. And it's God about to judge you for generations of sin.
And he summarizes it in Joel chapter two, verse 11, where he says, the Lord thunders at the head of his army. His forces are beyond number and mighty is the army that obeys his command. The day of the Lord is great.
It is dreadful. Who can endure it? So this is Joel guys.
This is Joel preaching to God's people. And he's summarizing everything he said in chapter two, which is The Lord, your God, is coming at you with judgment. The day of the Lord in the Old Testament is something to be studied separately, but it's always indicative of the judgment of God being poured out for sin.
Here comes God. He's coming for you. This is not a good situation.
Sound like it's over. Sound like the prophecy is complete. Read the very next verse.
I've read it before in our church's history. Verse 12. Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart. With fasting and weeping and mourning, rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows?
He may turn and relent and leave a blessing. Behind a blessing, grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. Go back up to verse 12. As the prophet is announcing judgment, he gets interrupted by God.
God gave him the word in the first place, and it's almost like God goes, hold, stop, wait, even now. declares the Lord. Even as the judgment is on the way, even as you're guilty, even as you're separate, even as it's your fault, even now, if you will rend your heart, what does rend mean?
Tear. God's going, I don't want you to tear your garment in half to demonstrate how unhappy and grievous your sins are. I want you to tear your inner world and allow me to heal you from within.
If you will rend your heart, you need to understand that the invitation is still on the table to come. come back to God. For he is what? Gracious and compassionate.
You read the slow to anger, abounding in love. Miles, you keep saying that. Where are you getting that from?
Exodus 34. That is the most quoted passage of scripture in the Bible by the Bible. You can write that down. The most quoted passage of scripture in the Bible by the Bible is Exodus 34 about who God is. And when God reveals himself to Moses, he's like, I'm the Lord. the Lord, the Lord.
What does that mean? Yahweh, Yahweh. It's my name. And what's true about my name?
What's true about my essence? I am compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in forgiveness of sins. Guys, this is unbelievable if you let this hit you.
God does not have to be this way. He just is this way. It drives me crazy when I hear people talk about how God in the Old Testament.
is mean. People who read the Bible in passing, they're like, it just seemed like he had an anger problem in the Old Testament. And then maybe he took out all of his anger on Jesus. And then all of a sudden he's like this chill dude with Paul and John and Peter. And it's like, man, I really like God after the cross part.
Cause, cause then he kind of mellows out a little bit. No, no, no. God's the same yesterday, today and forever.
And what's true about his nature from the beginning is that his mercy outweighs his judgment. 1000 to three. God is a God of wrath, by the way.
and that's a good thing. You know you have wrath and anger toward anything that would hurt the people you love. The reason why God has wrath towards sin is because sin and Satan and every effort of darkness is out to destroy God's original intention for what he made in us, which are image bearers to be a part of his family. We want him angry towards sin.
The thing none of us planned for is the fact that when he talked about his anger for sin to Moses, he talked about how he would punish to the third generation. But when he talked about about what he would do for those who put faith in him and live according to his ways, he said, I'll bless them for a thousand generations. Your God's mercy and wrath are not two sides of the same scale.
It's a thousand to three in favor of his mercy. It's what are you saying, Miles? I'm saying it's not hard for God to forgive you. It's who he is. You do not have to come into a space like this and force yourself into feeling like God might want to be inclined toward you because of the effort of your prayer.
And you're fasting. The thing about what's happening to Nineveh. And the thing that Joel is including us in on. Is all you have to do is conform your heart back to who God already is. And you're reconnected to the one you were running from.
He's already leaned forward toward you in forgiveness. He's already offering mercy. And if following Jesus is turning away from anything that is not of Jesus. I just want to announce to our whole church today.
God is still this God. And we got Jonah's in the room, we got Ninevites in the room, we got people who, if you are honest, you are aware of the fact that you are living in ways that are offending a holy God. And the invitation today is not go back to your life before and be better. The invitation is not make false promises to God that you don't have any intention of keeping, but it'll make you feel better while you take communion.
The invitation of God is, can you, with your entire inner being, change? and shift the way you are relating to me and give me full control and authority of who you are becoming in this life. Will you surrender to Jesus?
And guys, I've been following Jesus multiple decades. I've heard so many sermons. I've sang so many songs.
I'm only 36, but I promise you it adds up, especially when you preach at a lot of youth camps. Something happened to me about a month ago when the fullness of my inner world was handed over to God. And I struggle to put words to it. I've tried with some people and I've talked about this at Sunday Night Church. But there is something about...
Ending the hiding game you are playing with God. And I mean with, it might have emotion, it might not. But like God inviting you to stop doing this your way and fully come in conformity to what he wants to do with your inner life from within.
I'm talking about your thoughts, your emotions, the inner man, the inner woman as God created them to be. And when you get to a point where you are so tired of your effort to do it your way and you go, here you go. You will discover that what God wants to do for you is not take away the life you thought you wanted as you planned it. What he wants to do for you is allow you to live this life to the fullest degree as who you are created by God.
In your limitations, in your sin, in the parts of you that you want to hide from everyone around you, He wants to bless you by name and call you His child. Repentance is letting Him. Let Him do what He wants to do. So with whatever time we have left, that's what I want us to do as a church family.
And I realize that's hard to happen in one church gathering. But wherever the Holy Spirit might be going out and moving people to do business with God, I trust that that's being downloaded in real time, given your situation and your story. I've got two points if y'all got a little bit of time.
Are we good? Okay. You're like, we got time. Your 10 a.m. doesn't.
Okay, let's hurry up then. Number one. Be honest today.
Are you postured to receive and believe the word? Are you postured? I love that word.
It means how are you oriented? How are you aimed? Now receiving and believing are not the same thing.
Receiving means that you just recognize it was there. The Ninevites could have killed Jonah before he spoke one word. They would have been tempted to because he probably smelled like fish intestines. Okay. So they could have gone.
Wait, who are you? What are you even doing in here? No. And I know when you hear about the parable of the sower, a lot of us think, ah, yeah, sometimes I struggle.
I'm the seed among thorns and I need to fight anxiety and the pleasures of sin or I'm the seed on rocky ground. I need to deepen my faith. No, guys, most of you are the seed on the path and the enemy is snatching up 99% of what God wants to say to you on a daily basis because you're so easily distracted. You can't believe the word of God if you didn't hear what it was in the first place.
And you can't hear what it was if your life's not available. If your life doesn't have opportunities and inputs for God to actually speak to you, man, like, love you. Hang out here as long as you want to.
Follow the podcast. Like, yes, love, love that you're a part of ACC. This will not help you if you do not have opportunities for the relational father, God, who has bought a relationship with you back on the cross.
He wants to speak to you. And receiving begins with posture. I'm open. I'm listening.
The primary way you position your heart to receive from God is this discipline called solitude. And I might do a whole sermon series on this ultimately because of some things God's showing me personally. I'm relating my lack of energy with my family and my lack of patience with our staff to a lack of solitude with God.
That's what I'm personally learning right now. Solitude is my inner strength. Hearing from God personally, letting him fill me again with revelations from his word and awareness of what I look like in his sight and all that he calls me to be. I almost feel like a level of superhuman limitation when I'm in his presence because it's like I'm so aware of what's wrong with me and the fact that I'm only a human being and I embrace my limitations. But at the same time, I feel so valued and so celebrated and so championed and so anointed that I'm like, I feel so strong as I'm aware that I'm so weak.
That's what happens when you put your heart in a posture to receive what God is saying from his word. But don't stop at just reading it. Don't stop at just being aware of it. Go all the way to believing it. The Ninevites believed God.
Man, that might be the... the most shocking verse in all of Jonah who believed God, the most evil people on planet earth heard the word of the Lord and they actually believed it. And that's why when Jesus was around, do you know, he talked about this story several times in his ministry. I'll read it to you.
You don't got to turn there in Luke 11. It says, as the crowds increased, always pay attention to what Jesus does when the crowds increase. It is not, man, it's a good opportunity to build a bigger following. Let's make sure we leverage this moment. He's always trying to weed out the fake.
As the crowds increased, Jesus said, this is a wicked generation. I love that. That's a way to turn a mega church into a small church.
This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. Wait, the sign of Jonah.
Oh yeah, because Jonah came out of the fish and Jesus came out of the grave. Yes and no. Watch what Jesus says next. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also the son of man will be to this generation. So we assume what Jesus means by this is just like Jonah came out of the whale, I'm going to come out of the grave and then you'll respond in repentance.
But Jesus isn't talking about responding to Jonah coming out of the whale. He's talking about responding to Jonah's repentance. you guys want a supernatural sign that I am who I said I am.
What you need to understand is that even the Ninevites repented when they just heard what Jonah had to say. And yet someone greater than Jonah is here and you're not listening. Go down to verse 32. We'll read this together. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah.
And now something greater than Jonah is here. Jesus is talking to Israelites. He goes, hey, at the day of judgment, Nineveh will stand against you because even these evil people postured their heart to receive and believe what God was saying. But you, the super spiritual at the temple every day, surrounded by religiosity, are totally missing it.
ACC, you are not spiritually mature because of the proximity of how you spend your time. You are spiritually mature to the degree that you hear and respond to the voice of God. And I'm not talking about 10 years ago.
I'm not talking about 20 years ago. I'm talking about right now, today, in this moment. What is God revealing? September 22nd.
I only remember that because I listened to that song about the 21st night of December, and it was stuck in my head all day yesterday. On September 22nd, what is God saying, and how are you responding? If we got honest, most of us are distracted.
Many of us closed off. Many of us hardened. Some of you are literally wanting me to be quiet.
And it's not Miles. It is the Holy Spirit that is reading your mail and speaking to your soul and inviting you to repent. And your own wanting me to stop talking is indicative of the fact that your heart has become hardened and you need to stop. The men of Nineveh will stand up and go, you guys, you had the son of God.
All we had was Jonah. He wasn't good. Jesus, you guys had him and you didn't repent. God, you have this and you're not going to turn to God with more urgency.
You have these songs. You have this, all this, and you're just still going to live for self. You're just still going to self-protect? You're just still going to look at the ones who are going deeper in this church like we're weird?
The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment and go, how did you miss that? And I'm not equating my preaching with the preachers. preaching of the son of God at all. Please don't hear that.
But I am going, wake up. What's wrong is not me or this or that or him or her. It's your heart.
And when you get your heart back to that posture to receive, you go, Oh, what am I doing? You find that who God is on the other end of that is not coming at you with a sword of judgment. It's coming at you with an embrace of the father.
Get your heart in the right place before it's too late. Number two. Are you prepared to move and act on the word? Number one is, are you postured to receive and believe?
Number two, are you prepared to move and act? Notice when Nineveh and them, when they repent, it's not a mental agreement. There's action. They got their pets wearing sackcloth.
They're leaving behind thrones. They're not eating. Now I'm not saying leave here and create a disciplined lifestyle that's pleasing to God. But I am saying, what does it look like for you to not just hear this and agree with it? but to put practices in your life that make sure the move that you make next is a move down.
I don't know what the move is for you, but the move for the king of Nineveh was a move down off the throne. The move for you today is a move down off of whatever throne you've assumed. And all we want to do at the end of this sermon is set the table for that move to be made. So at all of our locations, as quickly and as non-distracting as we can, can you get your elements out for communion? We're going to set up a moment before the throne of God.
and invite you to put into practice everything you just heard. If you're not a believer in Jesus, you can just leave that under your seat. But if you didn't get one and you want one, just raise your hand right where you're at. Our team will bring them to you quickly at all of our locations.
This is a beautiful moment. This is where we remember the body and the blood of Jesus. And what a beautiful picture of our gracious and compassionate God.
Drawing us to the throne of grace. Here's what we're gonna do. Abby and the team are gonna come out here.
Y'all can come all the way out here. Somebody can come grab this stand and we'll get this totally ready. They're gonna sing a song called Nineveh over your taking of communion.
We don't want you to sing it. We want you to take communion, let these lyrics wash over whatever business you need to do with God. This is a little bit different than what we've done typically, but we want everybody just tuning into this moment and then we'll see what God does.
Whatever repentance looks like, whatever... posturing your heart rightly looks like, whatever changes you need to make to the schedule you were planning to step into this week. That's what you need to do during this time.
So let's take these moments, these elements, Drew, if we want to take care of that, that'd be great. Let's let these elements be blessed before God to remind us that the body and the blood of Jesus are enough, and then we'll come back together. Y'all let this song wash over you. The Lord is turning toward you, compassion or calamity? Will you heed the warning for your need?
Tell down your idols, when you choose surrender, you choose survival. Call on His name, and turn from your violence. Out of the ashes, He will revive you. God have mercy.
God have mercy, I know you are a gracious God, I know you're slow to anger, but I misunderstood your love, forgive me God for a name. And you sent a wind and stirred up the ocean, but still I rebelled, my heart wasn't open. But when I prayed, you were there waiting, I made a vow to seek your salvation. Nineveh, oh Nineveh. The Lord is turning toward you Holy Spirit, help me see where there is Nineveh in me.
Turn away your wrath once more God have mercy Perfect prophet, priest, and king Christ became the reckoning In His body bore my sin Now to all who trust in Him Oh Nineveh, the Lord is turning toward you. I think God has us in a particular space where the tension is good. If you would as quietly and non-distractingly as possible, if you would just stand with me, whatever space you're in right now, watching this.
Nobody move, nobody leave. Tension is good. Tension is good.
Let me pray. Heavenly Father, I pray in Jesus'name that what your Spirit is revealing in this space, God, what we're feeling convicted of, God, what we need to change our mind about, what we need to rend our heart about, God, that we would know that your Spirit is the one who has saved us, and by the blood of Jesus, you also sustain us. So Father, I pray that we would be the people who see the signs, who see the wonders, who see what's happening, and say yes to you again, Jesus. Father, I pray we would say yes to you and you alone. God, who are we that you are mindful of us?
Who are we as sinners in desperate need of a Savior that you would save us? So God, I thank you for the example of the scriptures where the Ninevites change. God, help us change. We see our country and we mourn for it. We believe in you, Jesus.
Give us the call as a church for more. Awaken our calling, arouse our spirits, stir our bitter hearts. God, make us good soil to your word. I pray we'd leave here and know that your voice is just as powerful tomorrow morning. I pray that our time in your word would be overwhelming at times, that our emotions would be stirred again.
Father, I pray that you would call us to be like Jonah and to call the people around us into repentance as we mourn and fast and weep for them. God, we love you. We thank you. It's in Jesus'name I pray. Amen.
Amen. Amen. I think it's easy in these kind of times to immediately try to turn back to a positive spin.
In our church, we just believe from Jonah chapter 3, this posture of repentance. In fact, we're going to take it into Sunday night church tonight. If God is revealing something deeply in your soul that you need to repent of and you want to do that with somebody, that all of our spaces, Overflow, everything, we will have somebody there. So if you're in Overflow right now, if you're in the lobby right now, there will be somebody there.
If you want to take a step of repentance and pray with somebody, they're wearing red name tags, but we need to make sure that we have somebody there. We have space for everyone to leave. So you guys are dismissed. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being in this room.
If you're in this room, you can't go anywhere yet. I'm sorry. But we're going to allow overflow space to kind of clear out.
But if you're in this room right now, just give me your attention for one more second. Some of you in this room are called. And your bold step, you felt the Holy Spirit was stirring in you, was to go public with your faith. You might have been a Christian your whole life and you've never taken this step.
Baptism is that next step where you're fully immersed. And the story of Jonah has allowed us to see what it looks like for our lives to be fully immersed in Christ. And that process is long.
So I want to challenge you to sign up or talk to somebody on your way out, if that's you. But we're so thankful that we get to be a church where we go to the deep places. Psalm says, deep calls to deep.
You came to a place today where we're wanting the deep things of God to be revealed and for us to live them out. So I just believe right now that God is doing something unique and something special. So can we just give him a round of applause just as we end today?
Jesus, we love you. Jesus, we give all to you. But you are dismissed in this room now. Go and be the church. We have an exit of this space as well if you're just going straight to the parking lot over here.
Thank you again. Go and be the church.