Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, Christ Church.
[00:00:02] It's good to see you today.
[00:00:05] If you are a guest with us today and we haven't had the chance to meet, my name's Chet and I would love to meet you and shake your hand.
[00:00:13] But hey, I want to just celebrate a couple cool things. Number one, it was such a joy to celebrate Easter with you.
[00:00:22] And it was cool. We had over 800 people in our Easter services. Yeah.
[00:00:30] Which is, you know, that's a record.
[00:00:33] And I'm just so thankful for that. You know, one of the really cool things, by the way, that's a lot of people to get through this facility here.
[00:00:44] But I'm so thankful that as we are in this season of.
[00:00:48] Oh, boy.
[00:00:50] Yeah, maybe bring me down a little bit too.
[00:00:53] I want to be able to yell at these people and not be self conscious.
[00:00:58] But Easter, as we're in the season of transition, you know, that's always a tough time in a church. And it's so encouraging to see our church continue to grow and God to bring people. So I'm just thankful for that. I just want to acknowledge that. And I'm thankful for you and your prayers and your service and your heart. So what a joy. Yeah. So thank you for that.
[00:01:27] The second thing is I want to give you a building update.
[00:01:32] So I know many of you are wondering about that. So here's where we're at.
[00:01:37] We got one permit approved.
[00:01:41] We'll celebrate the small things. We've got about four or five more that need to be approved, but they all are in process, so that's good.
[00:01:52] So we're waiting on that. We also, we need a new appraisal for our loan to close. So we got one. It didn't come in where we need to. We felt it was pretty bogus. So we gotta get another one. So that's gonna take a few weeks as well.
[00:02:07] So, you know, here's what I believe God wants to show us in this process, is that we can't do any of it without him and that ultimately all of it is to his glory. And so as we hit these stumbling blocks, I want to encourage us. Would you just be praying for these things specifically in the coming days until we get there? Church, we are close, but we need to pray our way through this. You with me on this?
[00:02:38] So if you love our church and you're committed to our church, would you just be praying every day for those things?
[00:02:46] Because we don't wanna waste any of these nice days that are coming our day. We wanna get started, get rolling and get to this next phase. So we're getting there, church, but let's keep praying our way forward. Sound good?
[00:02:58] Okay, well, let me pray for it right now.
[00:03:01] Father, I thank you so much for, Lord, the blessings that you have poured on our church family. We give you honor and praise and glory.
[00:03:11] Father, I pray as Lord, you've called us and you've opened the doors, and, Father, you've provided for us in this building project every step of the way. Father, bless us to get these permits all lined up.
[00:03:24] Bless our appraisal, make it go fast.
[00:03:29] And, Lord, we pray that this all could get started soon, Lord, and we could see the joy of it, and we could give you glory.
[00:03:38] And people from the north, the east, the west, and the south would see your good work and honor you. And, Lord, we pray we could be your hands and feet in this community.
[00:03:48] So bless us in this, Lord, glorify your name, Work through us and for us, we ask this in the great name of Jesus.
[00:03:56] Amen.
[00:03:59] Well, today we are starting a new sermon series on the book of Jonah, which is an amazing book. This is gonna be a fun series.
[00:04:09] And Jonah is an Old Testament book, and it's a short one, and it's a Old Testament prophet. And we're gonna talk about these themes in this book that I think are so incredibly relevant and helpful. I know. When you say the word Jonah, what does everybody think? Whale. Whale? Yeah. Whale's not even in the book. It's a great fish.
[00:04:30] I believe it was a walleye, personally, but, you know. But we don't know. But that's what you think of. But unfortunately, there is so much to this book.
[00:04:41] It is unbelievable how powerful it is. So I'm excited to go through this with you. And when I was thinking about this, I've been reading this interesting book called Running Down a Dream by Bill Gurley. And Bill Gurley is this really successful venture capitalist. He's like, all these crazy tech companies that we use all the time. He started, like, half of them or helped fund and start them. He's just kind of had an amazing run as a VC and done really well. And so he gave a commencement speech at the University of Texas about how to have a meaningful career. And the speech was so well received that people were like, you got to make this into a book. Like, this is really, really good stuff here. And so he did. And that's what this book, Running Down a Dream, is. It's about how to find a career that is meaningful and, like, deeply satisfying, because, you know, a lot of Us, we've all maybe been in roles that we're like, I don't like this.
[00:05:44] This is not meaningful to me. Right. You know, we know this. This is kind of a challenging thing in life to figure this out. So it's a really cool book. And one of the. The big themes is he's saying a meaningful career means you have to really embrace the grind that hard. Things that are meaningful, they don't come easy.
[00:06:06] There's a grind element to them. And so he says the way you embrace the grind is your work has to be meaningful enough and interesting enough. It has to stimulate enough curiosity in you that you'll keep coming back to it again and again and again with energy. And so you'll keep running it down. It's a grind, but you'll run it down. And I love that phrase, running down a dream. I think it's cool. And when we look at the book of Jonah, we're gonna see a lot of running going on.
[00:06:40] We're gonna see Jonah absolutely running away from God, but we're gonna see God running him down with his mercy. And these dynamics are so powerful and so relevant, and I think that they are essential for us to understand today. So we're gonna begin in Jonah, chapter one.
[00:07:02] And I'm gonna read to you the beginning of this book. It says this.
[00:07:07] Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitti, saying, arise. Go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.
[00:07:25] But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
[00:07:31] He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fair, went down into it to go with him to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
[00:07:41] But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea.
[00:07:45] And there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
[00:07:50] Then the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his God. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and laid down and was fast asleep.
[00:08:06] So the captain came and said to him, what do you mean? You, sleeper, arise. Call out to your God. Perhaps that God will give a thought to us that we may not perish.
[00:08:18] Now, this story, it goes quick.
[00:08:21] We kind of get right into the meat of it, just in a few sentences. But I want to just kind of slow us down and think through this a little bit. And as we see the story of Jonah, we're gonna see a guy who I think we could classify as reluctant and stubborn.
[00:08:40] Do you know any stubborn people in your life?
[00:08:45] Yeah, I didn't think so.
[00:08:47] I knew this was a church. There's no stubbornness.
[00:08:50] Do you ever look in the mirror and see a stubborn person looking back at you?
[00:08:56] Yeah, I didn't think so. We're gonna talk about self awareness next week.
[00:09:02] But the story of Jonah, we are gonna see this theme of incredible spiritual reluctance. That's a nice way to say it.
[00:09:12] We're gonna see this man who is fleeing the presence of God.
[00:09:18] He's running. Not to him, he's running away from him.
[00:09:23] And it's easy to look at Jonah and just be like, gosh, what a knucklehead.
[00:09:29] But here's what the story is for. It's for you and me.
[00:09:34] Cause we're all Jonah at some times in our life. Amen.
[00:09:38] We all what this story teaches us, the dynamics, these are all real dynamics in our lives in this book is a gift to us. See, there's part of me that hates this book because I see myself in it, and I'm like, oh, gosh, is it really that ugly and miserable and it is.
[00:10:01] And I see that part of me that just, you know, wants to drag his feet as God calls me to do something or just say, okay, can I just, you know, pretend that I don't know this or see this? You know, it's kind of like, I can't see you, God, so you can't see me.
[00:10:18] That game doesn't work, by the way.
[00:10:21] So that part is always confronting and challenging. But yet the book is a gift because it shows us the pain of going in that direction. But it also shows us, man, God has a better path and an easier path, and we can learn it and we can go on it. And so that's what we're going to talk about in this series.
[00:10:42] Now this book begins. And Jonah, we learn, is a prophet. And this is sort of a very important role in ancient Israel. Jonah's not mentioned much in the rest of the scripture. He is in the Book of Kings. And he's talked about as a prophet that served during this Israelite king named King Jeroboam II.
[00:11:05] This would have been roughly, like 650 years before the time of Jesus, so very ancient times. But Jonah, we know, is a prophet. And as a prophet, they would get called by God to do things, to do important things and to bring important messages and to be part of God's mouthpiece and direction and wisdom and insight to. To the rest of the world. And so this is what Jonah had done. And we know from Kings that he had done that before, that this wasn't the first time God had asked him to do something.
[00:11:47] And like Jonah, one thing we have to recognize just off the bat is that just like God entrusts important work with people like Jonah, he entrusts important work with people like you and me too.
[00:12:02] Now, we're not a prophet like Jonah, but we still have a role to play in this world.
[00:12:07] God still is gonna tap each one of us on the shoulder and say, son or daughter, I have work for you to do here. And it's important, and it matters.
[00:12:19] And one of the things that I have found to be true in my own experience is that God trusts you with harder and harder things.
[00:12:30] As you walk with him, the work tends to get more stretching and require more faith and courage than the work before it builds, because that's how God builds our souls. You with me on this church?
[00:12:47] I remember when I was a younger man and God was at work in my life, and Christ had come into my life and saved me and put me on a new direction. And I remember I had this opportunity to give a sermon in our youth group at the time. And that time, I was. It wasn't that long ago. I was still a youth.
[00:13:13] I don't know why that's funny to you.
[00:13:16] And anyway, and so I prepared. But I'll tell you what, church. I was deathly nervous to do that.
[00:13:23] Like, it stretched me so much, I thought I was gonna die. I was so nervous. I still get nervous every time, but not to that level. You with me? And then, you know, God opened up opportunities, and I was young, man, I was like, man, is God calling me into ministry as, like, a path of my career?
[00:13:45] And took that step.
[00:13:47] And then the Lord opened up this opportunity to start West Campus.
[00:13:53] Amen.
[00:13:56] And, man, that was bigger than anything I had done. Stretch me. Continues to stretch me to this day, by the way.
[00:14:04] But my point is that the way God's calling works in our life is he keeps escalating the challenge of it.
[00:14:12] And each step is almost as hard as the last one, because God made meets us in that challenge zone of where we are and where he wants us to be. And it's always gonna be stretching. You with me on this.
[00:14:27] And each step is gonna take faith and courage, just like the last step took. You might be like, well, the last step's not too bad now. Yeah. But now the Lord's got this step for you. You with me? And God entrusts very important work to us. And Jonah, from what we know, had said yes up until this one.
[00:14:49] He's like, ah, I'm not sure about that.
[00:14:51] Now, it's interesting that we learn that Jonah's name so many times in the Old Testament.
[00:14:58] Names carry a lot of meaning to them. And Jonah's name means dove.
[00:15:04] Isn't that kind of interesting?
[00:15:06] And dove sort of tends to represent innocence and peace and that sort of thing in the pages of scripture. And so I just think it's sort of ironic that here's this man named Dove, and God calls him, and he calls him.
[00:15:37] Amen. Oh, there we go.
[00:15:45] We're good. What was I saying? Where are we at? Are we in the New Testament or Old Testament?
[00:15:50] So Jonah's name names dub. Now, Jonah was sent to this ancient world superpower called Assyria.
[00:15:59] Now, at the time of Jonah, Assyria was this absolutely brutal superpower. When you read about the history of Assyria, not only did they dominate the world through military conquest, but they were brutal in how they did it, the way that they hurt people and enslaved and all this kind of thing. And you could just read about like, this was a messed up place. Nineveh was the capital city. Interestingly enough, you can still find ruins of Nineveh today.
[00:16:33] It's right outside Mosul, Iraq.
[00:16:37] So not an easy or safe place to get to. But there actually are ancient ruins from Nineveh, which I think is kind of pretty fascinating stuff. And so Jonah the dove was called to this violent, brutal place. I just find that interesting. And it kind of reminds me that God, his calling on your life, it's going to be unique the way God is going to use you and wants to use you. It may not make sense to us on the surface, but his wisdom is beyond what we can see and what we can know. And the things that he's called us to, he uniquely prepares us for.
[00:17:25] And we're going to see that. I'm going to give you a little spoiler when Jonah actually listens.
[00:17:30] He is widely successful in this challenging work because God knows what he's doing. He knows that he's sending him for a reason to that place. And the things God calls you and I to do, there's a reason for it.
[00:17:48] And our life experiences and our personalities and our wiring and our gifting, none of that is accidental in this life.
[00:18:00] What God has for you and me today, Church, he has uniquely and intricately prepared us for it you with me on this?
[00:18:09] Even though you might not see it right off the bat, but nonetheless, it is there.
[00:18:16] And so Jonah hears this call, and God says, go to Nineveh, to that great city and call out against it.
[00:18:27] Further evil has come up before me.
[00:18:31] Now, I just want to point this out to you.
[00:18:34] God calls Jonah to go to this evil place and these evil people and bring the reality and presence of God to them.
[00:18:47] Now, I just think that's significant for us to think about for a moment.
[00:18:53] Cause what it means is God is looking for servants that he can send to reach people who are hard to reach.
[00:19:05] Now you're gonna see that God's ultimate purpose in sending Jonah is to bring his mercy to Nineveh.
[00:19:15] You see, that's what happens again. Sorry, spoiler alert. But you can read the whole book of Jonah in, like three or four minutes. It is not long, so you can catch up on it this week.
[00:19:26] But what I want you to see is God. Part of God's strategy to bring good in this world is for his people to go to those places that are dark and to bring his light.
[00:19:41] And when I think about us as a church, that resonates with me so much.
[00:19:46] I want to be the type of church that God can say, hey, I'm going to send some difficult people your way.
[00:19:53] I'm going to send some broken people your way.
[00:19:56] And so far, church, he has no just, I love you, but we're all messed up in here. Amen.
[00:20:05] And that's what it means to be people called by God, that he calls us to God and to reach those and to care and to love. And the Lord looks at Jonah and says, man, I want you to be the tip of my spear right here.
[00:20:22] And I believe he's still calling us to do that. And then we see Jonah gets this call and he turns it down.
[00:20:34] God says, their evil has come up to me.
[00:20:38] Here's my plan. Jonah, you're my plan. Jonah says, I'm out.
[00:20:44] No, thanks.
[00:20:46] Look for someone else.
[00:20:48] There's a great quote by the British statesman Edmund Burke. He says this. The only triumph of evil is when good men do nothing.
[00:20:59] The only triumph of evil is when good men do nothing. Nothing.
[00:21:05] Church. That's the only way evil gets ground is not because it's stronger than the light, because the light doesn't show up. That's it.
[00:21:17] That's the only reason evil advances. Because whenever God's people shows up, guess who shows up with them? God himself.
[00:21:31] And if he is for us, who can be against Us. You with me. And the only way we lose ground is when we just phone it in and we don't show up. And God taps us on the shoulder and says, hey, son, daughter, I have work for you to do. And we're like, nah, not doing it.
[00:21:53] Because this is God's plan to bring his light and goodness through the world.
[00:22:00] Could God do it without us? For sure. Does God do it sometimes without us? Absolutely. But this is how God wants to do it. You with me on this, church?
[00:22:10] And he has given each of us a role to play. So Jonah gets this incredible call, and here's just what I want you to see today. You and I will get a similar call.
[00:22:21] It won't be to go to Nineveh, but the Lord might call us to say, hey, reach out to that person.
[00:22:29] Hey, son or daughter. Go this way, not that way.
[00:22:35] Hey, step up, apologize. The Lord is gonna call on us in some way to do good and to bring his light.
[00:22:46] And we have to decide how we will respond.
[00:22:49] Now, here's what we see with Jonah. Jonah gets this call, and get this. He goes. So it's kind of interesting if you look at this just, like, from a directional point of view. So Nineveh is, like, northeast, and Joppa is, like, southwest.
[00:23:08] So, like, the Lord's calling him this way. He's going the exact opposite way.
[00:23:13] Like, nope, I'm not even going anywhere. Anywhere in that general direction.
[00:23:20] I'm going the exact opposite way. What is he doing? The text makes it totally clear. He's trying to run from the presence of God.
[00:23:31] Here's the bad news. If you're trying to do that, wherever you go, you are no further away from God than you are where you're at. You with me?
[00:23:42] That game, it doesn't work. And so Jonah is. Is going in the wrong direction. And here's what we're gonna see. Church. When you and I are running from God, it compromises all the decisions in our life.
[00:23:57] It compromises all of them. And we see this begin to happen with Jonah. And the question that we need to ask ourselves, and this is a hard question to ask ourselves, but we absolutely need to ask it. We need to say, all right, as I am making these decisions in my life, am I running to something, or am I running from something?
[00:24:21] Because if you're running from something, it's always gonna compromise the quality of your decisions. You with me?
[00:24:30] If you're running to something and that's bringing changes in your life, that's an awesome thing, right? It's like man, no. God's calling me this way. And that's why these changes, that. That's why this direction is going this way in my life. But when you're running from something, then it just brings a toxicity into the choices that we make. You with me on this. And so Jonah, clearly, we know he's running from something. He's trying to get away from the Lord. And then here's what happens. He goes, he. He gets a fare, he gets a ship, Gets on a ship. He's like, I'm getting out of here.
[00:25:12] And it says, and the Lord stirs up a big storm, and the sea gets out of control.
[00:25:24] Here's what this shows us.
[00:25:27] There is always a storm attached to running from God.
[00:25:32] There's always a storm.
[00:25:34] It's never the smooth sailing. We hope it is. You with me and Jonah faces the storm. And maybe here's another way to think about it.
[00:25:44] Sin never works out the way we hope it will.
[00:25:49] You got me. It's always more costly, more painful, more filled with regret than we think we right. There's some part of Jonah that thinks this is a good idea.
[00:26:01] Guess what? It's a terrible idea. You with me?
[00:26:05] But if we were to sit there and process this with him, he probably had some rationalization for it.
[00:26:12] And we do the same things in our own minds, but the more that we could just realize up front, if God's calling me here and I'm moving here, it's not gonna go the way that I hope or I want it to. You with me on this?
[00:26:25] There's a storm attached to it. But here's the worst part of this.
[00:26:31] Jonah brings others into the storm.
[00:26:36] He's on the ship, he's with a bunch of random people, but yet they are in the storm, too, because Jonah has brought it with him. You with me? And this is maybe some of the deepest struggle of all of this, is that when we run from God, it doesn't only hurt us, but it hurts those around us. Church.
[00:27:04] Because inevitably, it's going to invite dysfunction and struggle and brokenness that will not just affect us, but affect those that are near to us.
[00:27:17] And this is what we see, right? This storm came not because it was supposed to, but because of Jonah running from God. You with me and church, you know what the most dangerous thing in the world is?
[00:27:31] Is a man running from God.
[00:27:34] Because there will always be storms that follow with collateral damage. You with me on this?
[00:27:44] And brothers and sisters, let us learn from this.
[00:27:50] Let us take this to heart for our good, but also for the good of those around us. You with me?
[00:27:57] And the storm comes, and Jonah is in the middle of it. And the sailors are freaking out, and they're going to prayer.
[00:28:09] They're crying out to their God. These are not sailors that are Israelites, but they're praying to false gods. They're of other nationalities. And here's Jonah. Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship, had laid down, and was fast asleep.
[00:28:29] Do you ever get so overwhelmed? You're like, I just need to nap.
[00:28:33] Cause you're like, this is.
[00:28:36] These are anxiety naps. You know, sometimes it doesn't work cause you're too anxious. But then sometimes you're so anxious that it actually works. Anyone?
[00:28:48] All right, I guess y' all aren't really with me on that, but what is that? He's trying to escape because church. It is a torturous place to live when we know and love God and we run from Him.
[00:29:10] The most miserable person you can ever meet is the person who knows God and knows better, but is going the other direction.
[00:29:20] Because the inner conflict is overwhelming.
[00:29:27] In church.
[00:29:28] God loves us too much to let it abate.
[00:29:32] The Lord brought the storm. Church. Here's what we're gonna see. The Lord didn't bring the storm to punish Noah. Jonah, whoever this guy is.
[00:29:42] I heard there's a Noah in the Bible too.
[00:29:45] Something about a boat. But the Lord didn't send this storm to punish him, but to redeem him. Church.
[00:29:55] The Lord didn't send it to, you know, pile onto his bad decision, but to call him back home to himself and church. What we see is, here's Jonah.
[00:30:11] He is laying down. He's asleep.
[00:30:14] He's trying to tune it all out and get away from it all. Can you relate to what he's doing?
[00:30:21] You ever just try to tune it all out? You're just. I'm going to numb myself.
[00:30:24] I'm gonna distract myself. I'm gonna turn the noise up on everything I can in the house.
[00:30:30] I'm gonna fill my schedule and be so busy. So I don't have the chance to think about the things that I really need to think about. And what are we doing?
[00:30:41] We're trying to escape the presence of God.
[00:30:45] And we're trying to just get away from it all. And this is Jonah.
[00:30:52] But here's what we're gonna see. And this is so. This is so cool.
[00:30:56] Jonah's obviously a stubborn dude.
[00:30:59] And is it fair to say some of us are stubborn men and women, too? Is that a fair statement?
[00:31:06] And some of Us. There's more Jonah in us than we want, than we like. You know, it's a bummer, but we get it. We identify with it.
[00:31:17] And as stubborn as we can be, here's the great news of this story. As stubborn as we can be, God is even more merciful.
[00:31:29] And although our stubbornness can move us away pretty far, it cannot outpace God's mercy to you and to me. And here's what I say. Here's what I would say. Everything we have seen so far is an act of God's mercy. Jonah runs and God sends a storm. Jonah, I'm not done with you, brother.
[00:31:53] You're not getting away from me.
[00:31:56] Wherever you go, guess what? I'm there too. But not only that, the crew and then the captain.
[00:32:04] Jonah's like, I'm getting away from it all. I'm not thinking. I'm going to sleep. Don't bother me. My cabin door is locked.
[00:32:13] And then the captain comes down, and look what he says.
[00:32:18] What do you mean, you sleeper?
[00:32:21] He's baffled. Like, what is this guy doing right now? Is this real life?
[00:32:27] And he says, arise. Now, interestingly enough, that same word is the word that God said to him.
[00:32:36] Do you ever find God calling you to do something and you're trying to block it out, and then all of a sudden, someone else alludes to it? You're like, oh, man, this is Jonah right now. Arise. Call out to your God.
[00:32:49] Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish.
[00:32:57] Now, just notice the craziness of this moment.
[00:33:02] God had called Jonah to go to these people who didn't believe in God, who were pagans and far from him. God had called Jonah to go and to call them, to seek God and to turn to God.
[00:33:21] Now here is this captain that doesn't know the real God that Jonah knows. And he's telling Jonah, a prophet, a man of God, to seek God and pray.
[00:33:34] Do you see the role reversal here?
[00:33:36] Like, Jonah, that's what you are supposed to be doing. And now God is doing that to you through this captain who doesn't even really know what he's saying, but he's saying all the right things.
[00:33:50] What is that?
[00:33:51] That's the mercy of God to him.
[00:33:55] Jonah, seek your God.
[00:33:59] Quit running.
[00:34:03] Come back home to him.
[00:34:08] So, Church, what do we learn from this today?
[00:34:13] We're going to spend several weeks in this, but what do we learn today?
[00:34:17] Well, the first thing is, I want to acknowledge in my heart and in our hearts the same tendency to run from God.
[00:34:28] I want to. I want to acknowledge it and I want to confess it before the Lord and say, lord, forgive me for those times I hear your voice and I turn away.
[00:34:44] Lord, forgive me for those times where I sense your calling and I drag my feet.
[00:34:51] Lord, forgive me for that stubborn, reluctant part of my heart.
[00:35:00] And Lord, would you help me to be responsive and to run towards you and not away from you?
[00:35:10] First thing I want to do, I want to confess my own broken heart, my own sin. I want to confess that this dynamic is in me and I need God's help. Here's the second thing we do then we go to the Lord Church. God is extending mercy after mercy and we're see it's not done.
[00:35:30] There's more mercy to come and we're going to see that in our lives too.
[00:35:37] We run from God and we fail and we fall and we turn away. But you know what? The Lord offers mercy to you and me that we can take today.
[00:35:49] I love the saying that the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago.
[00:35:54] The second best time is today.
[00:35:57] The best time to listen to God's voice is when you first hear it.
[00:36:01] But the second best time is today, right now. You with me on this?
[00:36:06] We can't undo the past, but we can start fresh today. You are you with me on this?
[00:36:12] I can't change what happened or didn't happen a year ago, a week ago, a day ago, six months ago. But I can change what I'm doing right now in this moment.
[00:36:24] And that's what this is about. I seek the Lord and I obey him.
[00:36:31] Church, what is God calling out of you today?
[00:36:36] And will you say yes to him?
[00:36:39] Maybe Lord's calling some of us to take the next step in our faith journey. Maybe God's calling us to serve.
[00:36:47] Maybe God's calling us to reconcile. Maybe God's calling us to get some new habits in our life, to leave some things behind.
[00:36:57] Here's what I believe. If you want to hear God's call on your voice, you will hear it.
[00:37:04] God doesn't play cat and mouse games.
[00:37:07] But a lot of times we play this ignorance card because we don't really wanna know it and we play these games.
[00:37:14] But I believe God speaks clearly into our lives if our heart is willing to listen and to obey and to be real with him.
[00:37:28] I had a buddy years ago in our church, he would play this song and he had a really cool voice. I don't know how to explain it, but it was like a mix of like Elton John and like a Gospel singer, if that makes any sense. It was cool.
[00:37:45] And he used to always play this song. And I am terrible at song lyrics and song names. Ashley knows this. I was like, ashley, play this song. It has the word the in it.
[00:37:57] Like, I'm gonna need a little bit more. That's all I can remember. But I really like it. I just can't. I cannot remember songs. It's something in my brain. And so I don't know what this song is called, but I knew. I know that there was a couple lines in it. And the lines he would sing, it was, come home running.
[00:38:15] His arms are open wide.
[00:38:19] His name is Jesus and he understands.
[00:38:23] And I always just loved those words. I still love those words. Today.
[00:38:28] Come home. If we're running away, we can come home today.
[00:38:34] If we're running away from God and his calling and his purpose and his plan, we can come home today.
[00:38:43] But let's not waste any more time Life is too short Tomorrow's not guaranteed.
[00:38:50] Come home. His arms are open. You will find a merciful savior. Church. Do you deserve it? No. Do I deserve it? No. But that's what you will find.
[00:39:00] You will find a merciful savior.
[00:39:03] And he understands. He gets you.
[00:39:07] He gets me. Let's go to him.
[00:39:10] Pray with me.
[00:39:17] Lord, I thank you so much that you are a God who, though we run from you, and though we turn from you, and though we struggle and stumble and delay in a thousand ways, you still, Lord, wake up in the morning and say, I have fresh reserves of mercy to give you.
[00:39:47] Father, today is a new morning, which means there is new mercy for each of us here today.
[00:39:54] Would you bless us with it?
[00:39:57] Could we see the goodness of your heart, the power of your love, the wisdom of your purpose?
[00:40:05] And would you give us a heart to run to you?
[00:40:13] Father, I just pray for my brothers and sisters. Maybe we've been running for a long time in the wrong direction.
[00:40:20] It has caused a lot of problems and pain. Help us to see, Lord, the foolishness of it, the ugliness of it.
[00:40:29] But help us also to see your forgiveness, your grace and a future that you invite us to today.
[00:40:38] And give us a heart to move towards it.
[00:40:41] Bless us in this, Lord, through Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray. Amen.
