“The Purpose Driven Church” – Fellowship – John 13:34-35

Ok, I have some easy questions for you.  No trick questions this time, I promise.  What is this?  (sprinkler, straight edge, come-along, thumb drive, etc.)  What is it used for?   Can it be used for anything else?  What happens if it is not used for its intended purpose?  It doesn’t work very well, does it?

And it’s not that big of a deal if I use a sprinkler wrong.  If I try to use a come-along to wash my car or use a thumb drive to cook a steak, it won’t work but there is no serious harm done, right?  I’ll look stupid but we are all used to that.  But for other things, if they are used incorrectly, it can cause real problems.  A gun or a knife comes to mind pretty quickly.  If I use a machete to put my contacts in, I’m going to have real problems.

Well, the church is the same way.  God has purposes for His church and if it is not used for those purposes then there will be serious problems.  Or if it is used for the wrong purpose there will be problems.  Can you think of any ways the church has been used in the past that have caused problems?  What if a church is used as ONLY a place to fellowship?  We might as well go to the country club, right?

So, how important is fellowship to a church?  Well, while it is vitally important to a church we have to keep all of the purposes of the church in balance.  Like so many other things in our lives, balance is the key to an effective church.  We saw last week that one of the purposes of the church was worship.  That’s not all a church is for though, of course, and so today we look at the second purpose that drives our church.  The purpose of fellowship.

What do you think of when I say “fellowship”?  We have a Fellowship Hall over there and often times we get together and have fun, eat stuff and play games.  Do you think it pleases God when we play “Spoons” over there on Sunday nights?  I think so.  Especially when I win.  J

But there is much more to fellowship than just having fun and playing games.  And true fellowship only happens when we really LOVE each other.  And I think that is why our fellowship at this church is so fun and yet so powerful and meaningful.  We really do love each other and it shows in our fellowship.

Jesus often talked about how we are to love.  He is, in fact, our model for loving others.  And if anybody knew that; if anybody really saw, knew and felt the love of Jesus, it was the apostle John.  All through John’s writings, he describes himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved.  And while it is clear that the love of Jesus was communicated to all the disciples and to all people, John was especially sensitive to it and was very familiar with it and therefore made it a common theme in his writings.

Look at John 13:34 and 35.  If you didn’t bring your own Bible, most of you can turn to page ???  in the Bible in front of you.  Jesus knew His physical time on earth was short and He wanted them to know His great love for them.  And He does that by washing their feet and then fellowshipping with them over a meal, which is known as the Last Supper.  Let’s look at John 13:34, 35.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Three sentences.  Three commands to “Love one another.”  Must be pretty important but why would Jesus start by saying this was a new command?  They had heard that they were supposed to love each other since Moses said it in Leviticus.  How is this new?

It is new because never before have they been told to love like Jesus loved and He loved differently than anybody else.  The Bible says that what Jesus did was called “koinonia”.  We would translate that Greek word into “fellowship” but it originally had so much more to it than how we use the word “fellowship”.  This is the kind of fellowship that the first church had in Acts 2:42 where it says they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship.

There are levels of this kind of fellowship.  And I want us to see 4 different levels going from the shallowest to the deepest.  There was the fellowship of sharing together, the fellowship of standing together, the fellowship of serving together and the fellowship of suffering together.

They fellowshipped by sharing together.  That is the first level of sharing and all of us are familiar with this.  We are all here this morning.  And that is what we are supposed to do.  We share our lives together.  And at the very least we are to share our worship times together.  Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

What’s one of the first things we are taught to do as little kids?  We learn to share.  And that is what we do as a church.  We share our lives together.  It’s part of why we have Praise and Prayer Time every Sunday morning.  We want to share the good and the bad things that are happening in each other’s lives.  And when you aren’t here, our fellowship suffers.  You can’t share if you’re not together.

In this world, we can have hundreds of friends on Facebook and any number of acquaintances but how many people do you really share your life with?  God knew we needed each other and so He created us with the urge to be together.  And being together means making the time.  Even one hour a week is not really enough.  It’s a start but that’s why we meet on Sunday nights and Wednesdays as well.  The more time we spend together, the more of our lives we share and the better our church lives out its purpose.

And sharing our lives together in fellowship leads to standing together as well.  Ephesians 2:19 says, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of His household.”  Do you know what God’s household is?  It’s the church.  It’s not the church building but the people who make up the church.  And when you stand together as members of His church you fellowship and the church lives out its purpose.

I am hesitant to tell you this for fear that you will make more out of it than you should but when I’m not with my church family, I don’t like people to touch me.  At all.  I’m serious.  At church I love to hug and touch and be friendly like that.  I’m sensitive to other people and don’t hug people until I know they want to.  But outside the church, I don’t want strangers to touch me.

I was at a restaurant one time and the waitress put her hand on my shoulder and kind of left it there a little too long as she took our order.  And I asked her nicely not to do that.  She kind of laughed awkwardly but left her hand there.  I said, “No, I’m serious.  Never touch me.”  She didn’t mean anything by it.  I knew that.  But I wanted to say, “Look, we are not sharing.  We are not fellowshipping.  You’re bringing me tea.  Don’t touch me.”

Blame it on trust issues or whatever but when I’m with my church family, it’s totally different.  We stand together for the things we believe in.  We have meaningful things in common.  I know that you love me and care for me and that you would stick up for me if I were in trouble.  Yes, please hug me!  I need it!

People who say they are Christians but don’t go to church are like a soldier without an army or a football player without a team.  And if you’re a believer and not a member of a church, you are an orphan.  Church membership is important.  It unites you with like-minded and equally imperfect people who will stand with you as you share life together.

Another important reason to be a member of a church is the message it sends to outsiders.  If somebody comes in our church and there are no members, it doesn’t matter how great the fellowship is, they are going to think something is wrong here.  Romans 12:5 says, “so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”  Don’t deprive the rest of the body by not being here and being a member standing together with other members. 1 Peter 2:17 says to “love the family of believers”.  And we do that by standing together and sharing our lives together.

Come talk to me after the sermon at the invitation and I will tell you what it means to be a member here at Christ Fellowship.  And once you are a member then that level of fellowship or koinonia gets a little deeper.  I told you that in the Greek that word means more than just getting together and having a good time.  It also involves working together as in a partnership.  It means that for the church to really live out its purpose that we fellowship by serving together.

Have you ever seen veterans of WWII get together?  They served together for 2-3 years and yet 70 years later they still keep in touch.  Why?  Because they served together.  They worked together.  They risked things together.  They built bonds together that will last a lifetime.  1 Corinthians 3:9 says, “We are co-workers in God’s service.”  People who are in military service do great things.  How much more important though is it to be in God’s service?

The Bible talks a lot about the church being a body.  It often compares it to the human body in that every person is different and has a different role to play.  Ephesians 4:16 says, “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”  You may not think you are very important around here but think about losing any part of your body.

If you lost your little toe there would be problems, right?  Or “Oh, it’s just my left hand.  I have another one.”  “I can do without that ligament…that knuckle…that brain cell.”  No.  Every person is important.  Especially in a smaller church like this.  We have a responsibility to each other, not to mention a calling from God and a command from Jesus Himself.  When Jesus said to “Love one another” we do that and prove that by serving together.

I want to tell you something now that is just from me.  It’s not biblical, just my advice.  And I have learned not to tell it to people individually because they can take it wrong but I will tell all of you:  don’t feel like just because you have volunteered to do something that you now have to do it until you are dead and buried.  Don’t get burned out on it.  First, it may not be your calling.  In a smaller church there are things that have to be done that get done by people who are not necessarily called to do them.  And that is great!  We appreciate that!  And it has to be that way.

But if you continue doing something that you don’t want to do, you don’t do it as well as you should and you don’t give somebody else a chance to do something that they maybe gifted and passionate about.  1 Peter 4:10 says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”  That means everybody has a gift and everybody should be using that gift in God’s service and in His household.

There are any number of reasons why people don’t serve in the church.  Some people mistakenly think they don’t have any gifts.  Some people can’t find how their gift is appropriate.  And some people are just lazy.  Our church has been blessed to have people who see that a job needs to be done and so they step in and do that job, even if it’s not necessarily what God has called them to do.  And they do it until that person comes along.  And that’s the way a church lives out its purpose.

We live out our purpose by sharing together, standing together and serving together.  And when that happens, through love, that fellowship gets deeper and deeper and then finally we see that that fellowship; that koinonia turns to fellowship through suffering.  When Jesus told us to love one another in John 13, He was within hours of modeling that to the extreme on the cross.  He says in just a couple of chapters later in John 15 that, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

Most of us will never have to do that for our friends in its most literal sense but all of us will be required to do it in one way or another.  This is the deepest level of fellowship and the level that requires the most from us.  Because we are a body, sometimes the body gets hurt.  Sometimes the body gets sick.  Sometimes the body gets scared or tired and it is up to the rest of the body to care for that one.

And do you know what I believe is the number one reason why members of the body of Jesus don’t get the help they need?  It’s not because people don’t care.  Not at all.  It’s because they don’t know.  Pride gets in the way and keeps people from sharing their hurts, fears and hang-ups and so the rest of the body doesn’t know until it’s too late.  People think they are the only one who suffers from the deadly disease of worry and so they draw away from the body instead of doing what they should do and move closer.

Or they think they are the only one who struggles with lust or greed or pride or vanity or whatever else is hurting them and so they withdraw or just put on that plastic smile and say everything is ok when it most definitely is not.  This may not be something that should be shared during the Praise and Prayer Time but it should be shared with at least one other member of the body because that is what we are called to do.

And when one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts.  You may think you’re only a toenail but if you have ever had an ingrown toenail you know how bad it makes the whole body feel.  And not only does the body hurt when any part of it hurts, the thing that is different about the body of Christ, the church, is that we also hurt when other people hurt. 

That is part of loving one another, even people who aren’t a part of our body of believers.  Jesus said in John 13:35 that, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."  Everyone will know you are part of the body of Jesus when you show love to somebody who hasn’t, can’t or won’t show you love in return.  When we show our love to people in this community; when we suffer with them and share with them, what better way to show the love of Jesus?

And I know that this is true of all churches but I firmly believe that the purpose of Christ Fellowship deeply involves ministering to and suffering with people in our community and county who are hurting, poor and helpless.  And, yes, do you know what?  A lot of them have made bad choices all of their lives and it has led to where they are now.  But show me which part of “Love one another” excludes those people?

I don’t know about you but I have made a lot of bad choices in my life and it is only by God’s crazy amazing grace that I have anything.  And while we will always continue to stand up for what we believe and we will not be afraid to call sin “sin”, we have a command by the Savior of the universe to love and so I would rather err on the side of enabling than for someone to miss out on the love of Jesus through us and therefore miss the gates of Heaven.

I want to be known as the church that helps people.  I want to be that place where hurting, hopeless and helpless people come and find help but also find that grace and forgiveness and love that Christ gives us.  And do you know what that is going to require of us?  Yes, it is going to require time and money.  That is part of what the body of Christ is expected to give.  But it gets even deeper than that. 

Showing true love; showing real fellowship or koinonia will require us to suffer.  We will suffer when another member of the body is suffering.  We will suffer when someone outside the body is suffering.  We will share our lives.  We will stand together.  We will serve together and we will suffer together.  And through this we will live out our purpose as a church.

Thanks to Rick Warren for the rough sermon outline.

“The Purpose Driven Church” –Worship – Psalm 95

Ok, I’m going to say a word and I want you to say the first thing that comes into your mind. Whatever comes to your mind, just holler it out. “Worship”

Now, let me ask some questions. How important is it to worship that it be done in a church building? It’s absolutely NOT important, is it? Martin Luther once said, “A dairymaid can milk cows to the glory of God.” You can worship anywhere. Even churches don’t have to be in a building.

What about a preacher? Do you need a preacher to worship? Nope. Don’t have to, do you? A preacher can lead worship or contribute to the process. He can be a part of it but it’s not necessary to have a preacher.

What about music? Can you worship without music? Sure you can but at the same time, worship can be more powerful and more meaningful when music is involved. What is the right kind of music? Contemporary or traditional? If you came to worship, then either one can be worshipful.

How about prayer? Now, technically, you can worship things or people besides God but if you are going to worship God then prayer is vital. Prayer is vital to worship because worship is between you and God and that communication is called prayer. Does it have to start with, “Dear Lord” and end with “In Jesus name, Amen”? No, formal prayer is not necessary.

What about the Bible? Do we have to read from the Bible during worship? Technically no. I believe you can worship if you are on a deserted island with nobody and nothing except God and a willingness to do so but when we come together for the purpose of worship, we will always read from the Bible and have prayer. If worship consists of communicating with God, then we will pray to Him and listen to what He has to say through His Word.

Almost done with my questions. Do you believe that anybody can worship? The problem with that question is that you assume I am talking about believers. Can someone who does not have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus communicate with Him in worship? Can that person who is not born again, as Jesus said, understand what God wants if the Holy Spirit is not inside him?

I believe that non-believers can be part of the worship service. In fact, that is one of the purposes of our church; to encourage unbelievers to be part of our times of worship so they can become believers. But on their own, they have no real communication with God so they cannot worship. They can be blessed and encouraged and even feel the presence of God but true worship is done in spirit and in truth and someone who has made the choice not to accept Jesus cannot do that.

So, now that we have an overview of what worship is and what it isn’t, let’s see what it really looks like. How do we know how to do it if we don’t have a model? Well, we have models of worship all through the Bible. And that is just another reason to incorporate scripture into our worship. You can find people worshiping from Genesis to Revelation but I picked a few verses from right in the middle, from the book of Psalms.

On Wednesday nights, we are going through the Purpose Driven Life book written by Rick Warren. It’s not too late to join us for that. But I thought it would be appropriate to look at what it means to be a purpose driven church at the same time. In his book, Pastor Warren writes that the first purpose of our lives is for God’s pleasure. Is it any different for a church?

A church is just a group of individuals so if the first purpose of our individual lives is to bring pleasure to God, then that should be the first purpose of a church as well. And one of the ways we bring pleasure to God as a church is simply to worship God. So let’s look at what worship really consists of as we look at Psalm 95. Again, I encourage you to follow along in the Bible as we read. If you didn’t bring yours, there is a copy in the back of the pew in front of you. Just turn to page 426 in most of those Bibles and follow along silently as I read out loud.

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.

³ For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

⁶ Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
⁷ for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice,
⁸ “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
⁹ where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

The Psalms are full of worship. Almost every one conveys some aspect of worship about it. But not all of them are happy. And when we worship, we are not always going to be happy. In Job chapter 1, Job gets word that everything he has is now gone including his 10 children and all of his possessions. And the very first thing Job does is to fall to the ground in worship.

I’ll tell you what. I was going to make a point here about how sometimes we might not want to sing happy tunes when we are not happy. And so I grabbed a hymn book and flipped through there trying to find a song we might sing when we are happy. And I was trying to think of songs like “Glorious Day” or “10,000 Reasons” that are upbeat but when I got to looking, I realized that all of those songs would be appropriate to sing no matter how we feel because our worship shouldn’t be based on how we feel or how good our circumstances are at the time.

Remember? Worship is not about you at all. That’s why the psalmist starts out here saying “let us shout for joy.” We can have joy in any circumstance. Even Job had joy because he knew this life was not all that there is. He knew this life was a wisp of smoke and that because he had a relationship with God, he could spend eternity in Heaven. If worship was based on happiness, we would be doing good to have 2 people here this morning.

The psalmist tells us here to sing for joy to the Lord and to shout out loud. Now, I wanted to know exactly what the psalmist meant here by “shout out loud” and so I looked it up. In the original Hebrew do you know what that means? It means ***shout***out loud***!

It means even when this life is hard and things are going wrong and the world is collapsing around you, and it’s not fair and it’s not right that you are to shout with joy, out loud to the Rock of our salvation; to the One who is the strong ground of our confidence; the basis of our hope; our security. In the New Testament and for us today that Rock is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:4 says, “They drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” He is the Rock on which the church and all believers are built.

We are literally to shout as if we were yelling at a thief, going to war or after a great victory. That is really what we are told to do here in this scripture. You yell when your team scores on TV. How much more should we shout aloud for the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ? Thank you Lord for your grace! Thank you Lord for your mercy and your forgiveness and your love!

I don’t care how bad of a day you are having; true worship will include voicing your joy for what God has done. It’s not about wanting others to see how holy we are or drawing attention to ourselves or becoming a distraction. But true worship will come from your heart and out of your mouth as a joyful noise.

In verses 3-5 the psalmist shifts his focus to acknowledging just Who God is and why we should worship Him. These verses could be summed up by saying, “Who better to worship the Creator than the created?”

Five years ago, I took a trip up to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Montana. How many of you have ever been there? How would you describe it? For me, it was almost like being on another planet at times. Some of the stuff they have up there…we don’t have around here. You can just be driving through that huge park and see bubbling pools of sulphuric waxy acid that is boiling hot and colored in pinks, yellows, blues and reds.

There are geysers and volcanoes, all bringing up liquids or semi-liquids that used to be thousands of feet underground but are now part of the surface. Then there are towering mountains with snow on them year round. The Tetons, just south of there, have the most jagged peaks and the air is so clear that it looks like if you could put your hand up on top of those mountains you would cut yourself. And all of it is just overwhelming in its beauty.

Look at verse 4 again. “In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.” The psalmist had never been to Yellowstone, I’m pretty sure. I doubt if he had ever seen the earth’s core or even the top of a mountain. But he had reason to know that God is great and worthy to be praised; that He is the King above all man-made gods. And so he worshiped Him. He acknowledged God for Who He is and what He has done.

In Mark chapter 4, Jesus falls asleep in the boat after a long day of teaching. It says that a storm came up and all the disciples were afraid and they woke up Jesus and it says that Jesus rebuked the winds and told the waves to be quiet and then it was completely calm. The disciples looked at each other and were terrified and asked, “Who is this? Even the winds and waves obey Him?”

Who is this? This is the One who owns the winds and the waves. And He owns them because He created them. Verse 5 says the sea is His because He created it. He made it. He is Lord and Master over it. Can’t we be as the wind and obey and can’t we acknowledge His greatness? Worship is more than just showing up for church on Sunday morning. In fact, that has little to do with true worship.

True worship will verbalize your joy and will acknowledge God’s greatness. Now look at verses 6-7. True worship will also include your submission to God. Gasp! Oh, no! He said the “s” word. Yes, verse 6 is about submission and reverence. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. I remember as a kid wondering why we bowed our heads and closed our eyes when we pray. At no other time do we ever do that.

This is why we do that. It is symbolic and yet a very real way of showing our submission to Almighty God. In the days of kings, people would come before the king and show their submission to him by getting down on their knees and closing their eyes, showing that they are completely at his mercy. The king could do anything he wanted to them and there would be no defense.

Today we do it more out of habit than in true submission. We bow our heads and close our eyes and immediately start to think about what’s for lunch or what time the game starts. And we do that because submission is the last thing we want to be a part of. We have grown up being taken advantage of when we give in to somebody. We feel we have worked too hard to give up any advantage or leverage we might have in any situation and to submit to God is going to mean He will send us to Africa to be missionaries or something.

In days of old when somebody knelt before the king I’m sure they were desperately hoping that they had caught the king in a good mood that day. They could only hope that he wasn’t drunk or angry at somebody else and was going to take it out on them by cutting off their head. But if he decided to there was nothing they could do. There was no appeal process.

Today we come in worship and symbolically bow our heads but the very heart of true worship is the submission of our hearts and minds and will to God. And we don’t have to worry about Him being in a bad mood when we come to Him. He is not demanding submission so he can be a tyrant. In fact, 1 Peter 5:6 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”

Submission to God is acknowledging that God’s ways are higher than our ways, as Isaiah said, and that we give everything we have, everything we are and everything we ever want to Him because we trust Him. And we trust Him because He has proven Himself trustworthy. He has proven Himself trustworthy from Genesis to Revelation and all through our lives as individuals and as a church.

Worship without submission is hypocrisy. It is saying one thing and doing another. And just like delayed obedience is not obedience, partial submission is not submission. If you come to God on your knees and with head bowed and eyes closed and say, “God, you can have every part of me. I submit completely to you everything in my life…except this one little habit…except this person…except this one place I go or thing I do…” That is not submission and that is not worship.

He wants every aspect of your life because He loves you and wants what is best for you and what is best for His Kingdom. Verse 7 says, “we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.” We are not peasants serving under a tyrant. We are His beloved flock waiting for the proper time for Him to exalt us. We submit to Him because we understand that He knows and is able to provide what is best for us.

True worship includes verbalizing your joy to God, acknowledging His greatness and submitting to His will for our lives. And we do this; we worship because we want to and he deserves it, not just because He commands it. And the more we know God and have a closer and closer relationship with Him through His Son Jesus, the more we want to worship; the more we want to know Him even more.

But there’s a problem.  You know that great old hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”?  There are 2 lines in there that say, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love.”  Unfortunately, that is true of all of us.  We have a tendency to wander off, to wander away from God and the worship of Him.  And when that happens, our relationship with Him starts to suffer.  It happens every single time.  It can’t help but suffer.

You can’t be away from someone and have the best relationship; the kind of relationship you could have if you were close.  And when that relationship with God starts to suffer, the other relationships in our lives start to suffer as well.  That joy that we have in the Lord gets harder and harder to find.  That peace that we once knew starts to look more and more like that stormy sea those disciples were so afraid of on that boat.

Look at verses 8, 9 and 10 again.  The author here references something that happened way back in Exodus when the Israelites had left Egypt and were wandering in the desert.  God had provided miracle after miracle for them and yet on this day they looked up and said, “Yea, but what have you done for us lately?”  They got thirsty and forgot all that God had done for them and they complained and were ready to go back into slavery.  It says their hearts were hardened. 

How crazy is that, right?  After all God had done for them and protected and provided for them in every big or little way and now they are forgetting God’s ways.  They were not verbalizing their joy.  Instead they verbalized their complaint.

They weren’t acknowledging God’s greatness.  They were questioning and doubting His provision.  And they certainly were not submitting to God’s will.  They wanted to go back where they started.  And God said He was angry with them because their hearts had gone astray.  How awful to have God angry at you!  We started out this morning talking about how to make God happy and we saw that worship was vital to making God happy.

And now we see that not worshiping is just the right way to make God angry.  And when God is angry, we as believers start to lose our joy and our peace.  So, which do you want today?  Do you want to verbalize your joy, acknowledge God’s greatness and submit to Him in worship?  Anything less is not worship and is how we start to wander off and get in trouble.

As a believer, I can’t afford to have God angry with me.  But for non-believers; for those who don’t have that relationship with Jesus and have not admitted they are sinners and repented and asked forgiveness to God for that sin, then the Bible says there will be a horrible day of wrath coming.  Zephaniah 1 says “That day will be a day of wrath—
a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.”

And it is your choice.  God can’t make that choice for you.  I can’t do it.  Your mama can’t do it.  It has nothing to do with your church membership or even how many times you have been baptized.  Choose you this day whom you will serve.  As for me and this house, we will serve the Lord.

“Jonah’s Failure” –Jonah 4

I want to tell you what our friends at Unchained Prison Ministry were up to last weekend. They rode three hundred and something miles down towards south Texas and held a worship service in the prison down there. They had one on Friday and one on Saturday. Then they all rode home Saturday evening. Speedy said they were exhausted but had an incredible time of worship and had two men come to have a life-changing relationship with God through His Son Jesus because of it.

And we can all say “amen” to that. But let me ask you some questions. First of all, was it really worth it? I mean, really. Was it worth the time and expense to ride those Harleys nearly 700 miles round trip just to see 2 men saved? Couldn’t that time and money be spent elsewhere with more effect? Well, I’ll tell you how I feel about that. I hope you are sitting out there thinking, “Those are horrible questions, Todd!”

Because they are horrible questions, especially in a church that has as its statement of purpose that we will do whatever it takes to lead people to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus. Ok, so we all agree that what Unchained did was a great thing ordained by God, led by God, for God’s glory, right?

Now let me ask another question and I want you to just think about it. Don’t answer out loud. What if one of those two men saved was the man that killed your wife? Or what if one of those men was the man who raped your daughter? Does that change your view? The man planned, chose, premeditated something that would cause you great personal harm and overwhelming grief. Are you still glad that man received grace from God? Or does grace seem unfair to you?

With that mindset you come to understand a little of what Jonah was going through when God told him to go preach to Nineveh. Nineveh was the enemy. They had warred against Israel for years and years. They were vicious and unmerciful. They were savages. Not only that but they weren’t God’s chosen people. They didn’t even know who Abraham was much less have a part in the covenant between him and God. So when God told Jonah to go over there and preach to them, he didn’t want to because he didn’t want them to receive God’s grace. Because they were really bad people who didn’t deserve it.

In Jonah chapter 4 we see Jonah just coming out of some of God’s grace. God had provided a fish to keep Jonah from drowning and then caused the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land. And while some grace feels and smells better than others, this grace was welcome by Jonah. God had gone to great lengths to protect and provide for him and Jonah was glad for God’spreferential treatment.

We all enjoy preferential treatment, right? When I flew to Nicaragua a couple of months ago, I was in the cheap seats in the back with all the other peasants. And this was especially difficult for me because I had known what it is like to have preferential treatment and this wasn’t it. I felt like just one more head of cattle. But on my previous trip I somehow flew first class.

We still don’t know how it happened. I didn’t pay for. Didn’t ask for it. The missionary didn’t arrange it. There were plenty of cheap seats to be had but for some reason my tickets got me on board first at the front of the plane with plenty of room for my stuff. I had a big leather recliner to sit in. And when the others got on board, I was already sitting there like Donald Trump drinking a cold Dr. Pepper, wiping my face with a hot towel and enjoying a first-run movie with a flight attendant asking me if I needed anything else.

You know how long it took me to get used to that? Not long! And so, on this last trip when we are being herded into our cramped little cattle car I passed by the first class section and I see this little kid sitting in that big leather chair, I almost got mad. It’s a little kid. He doesn’t deserve to be there. He didn’t do anything to deserve that. He’ll probably sleep through most of the flight anyhow. That should be me. I need room to stretch my long legs.

And that may sound pretty silly to you but you’ve never had that first-class preferential treatment like I have! You probably don’t even deserve it either. J

Jonah chapter 4is our text today and it is at times fascinating, funny and confusing. It is unlike any other biblical book you will read. The author, who was probably Jonah, tells a fascinating story but the ending is horribly written. The last sentence is God asking Jonah a question but we never hear his answer. We don’t know much about Jonah and this book doesn’t paint him in a good light. If I was writing about me I think I would have worked on that a little more but what do I know?

As you remember, God called Jonah to go east young man and preach to Nineveh. Jonah goes west, encounters Moby Dick and decides it is better to just do what God says to do than spend any more time with him. So he goes to Nineveh and with one sentence the whole city has revival and is saved by God’s compassion for them. And Jonah is furious. He’s mad because he sees Nineveh getting that preferential treatment that they don’t even deserve. And we pick up in chapter 4 with Jonah voicing his opinion of the matter with God. Watch what happens.

But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.² He prayed to the Lord,“Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

***Let me stop right there for a second. Do you hear Jonah’s tone with God? He points his bony little finger at God and accuses him of being compassionate and loving! I told you it was funny. Let’s continue.

³ Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴ But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” ⁵ Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” ⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” ¹⁰ But the Lordsaid, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. ¹¹ And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Jonah, the great evangelist, the Billy Graham of his time, walks in the west gate of Nineveh, says his one sentence and walks out the east gate. He then goes up on a hill overlooking the city and throws a huge pity party with God the only guest. He’s not the first preacher to get depressed after a great revival, nor is he the last. Elijah wanted to die also after he had called fire down from heaven.

Martin Luther and Charles Spurgeon wrote about being depressed. I even heard just this week a popular radio preacher tell how he often struggles with it especially on Sunday nights and Mondays after having great worship on Sunday morning. I can relate to a pastor I heard say one time that the hotter he burns on Sunday, the more he is charred ash on Monday. There is something physically, mentally and even spiritually exhausting about proclaiming the truth of the Word of God.

And I know that Jonah has just walked 500 miles to get to Nineveh. He probably hasn’t slept well or eaten well on this trip. He is tired. But there is something else about Jonah that we see here. I don’t know how better to describe it and it’s not anything I have read in any commentaries. But I see a type of greed or selfishness here in Jonah. It is a greed that wants all of God’s grace for himself and for his country of Israel but not for those people over there who don’t deserve it.

As if Almighty, All-powerful, All-knowing, All-loving God can only give out a certain amount of grace and then it’s all gone. Jonah not only has a skewed vision of God’s grace but also of what grace is and how it is given out. I mentioned last week that the prodigal son repented and came home and it says that his father was watching and saw him from a long way off and had compassion on him.

The father showed the prodigal son great grace. And that is a beautiful picture of how God waits for us to repent so He can show us compassion and grace. But do you remember what happened when the prodigal son’s brother came home and found everybody celebrating? In Luke 15 verse 28 it says the brother got angry and refused to join the party. He was mad that his father would show his brother grace. It was basically giving him permission to break the law.

But he, too, had a skewed vision of what grace was and how it is given out. Ironically, Jonah nails it when he complains to God about how God works. In verse 2, Jonah, being a good prophet and having read the scriptures, quotes almost exactly what Moses said in Exodus 34:6. ““The Lord, theLord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…”

That word “gracious” has the sense of “nurturing” or “bringing up” like a good parent does with a child. Have you ever thought that God gives us grace, not because He feels sorry for us, but instead because He wants us to grow and mature and to become more like Him? And so in his sovereignty and wisdom, He shows us grace when we need it. It’s not because of His pity for us or because we deserve it. If we deserved it, it wouldn’t be grace. And it is most certainly not because He is soft on sin. But like a good parent He shows grace when He knows grace will be more teachable than justice.

Illustration: Charles Spurgeon and Joseph Parker both had churches in London in the 19th century. On one occasion, Parker commented on the poor condition of children admitted to Spurgeon's orphanage. It was reported to Spurgeon however, that Parker had criticized the orphanage itself. Spurgeon blasted Parker the next week from the pulpit. The attack was printed in the newspapers and became the talk of the town. People flocked to Parker's church the next Sunday to hear his rebuttal. "I understand Dr. Spurgeon is not in his pulpit today, and this is the Sunday they use to take an offering for the orphanage. I suggest we take a love offering here instead." The crowd was delighted. The ushers had to empty the collection plates 3 times. Later that week there was a knock at Parker's study. It was Spurgeon. "You know Parker, you have practiced grace on me. You have given me not what I deserved; you have given me what I needed. Moody Monthly, December, 1983, p. 81.

God nurtures us, giving us what we need by His great grace. Jonah then goes on to “accuse” God of being slow to anger. That word literally means to be long-tempered or the opposite of short-tempered. Notice that in the last couple of chapters that Jonah wasn’t complaining about God’s long temper. Oh, no, not Mr. “Salvation is from the Lord.” Not while Jonah was in the belly of that fish praying while he had seaweed wrapped around his head. He wasn’t complaining about God’s lack of anger there, was he?

He wanted all of God’s grace and nurturing love he could get right there. So, what makes God mad? Sin, right? And what is sin? Sin is anything that displeases God. And the Bible is full of examples of people who sinned who paid dearly for making God mad. Whole families, cities and towns have been destroyed because of God’s anger at sin. And Nineveh was about to be on that list. But what happened? What keeps God from getting angry at sin and wiping people off the planet?

We talked about it last week. Repentance brings compassion, remember? Repentance keeps God from punting us off the earth. So, all we have to do is say we are sorry to God and He shows us grace? Is that it?

Augustine was the great preacher of grace during the fourth and fifth centuries. His motto was "Love God and do as you please." Michael Horton wrote “Because we have misunderstood one of the gospel's most basic themes, Augustine's statement looks to many like a license to indulge one's sinful nature, but in reality it touches upon the motivation the Christian has for his actions. The person who has been justified by God's grace has a new, higher, and nobler motivation for holiness than the shallow, hypocritical self-righteousness or fear that seems to motivate so many religious people today.” Michael Horton, The Agony of Deceit, Moody Press, 1990, pp. 143-144.

Make no mistake. Sin angers God. He sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sin and every sin we commit is another nail in His hands and feet. He has every right to be angry at our sin. But just like Jonah said He is slow to anger when repentance is involved. Nineveh repented. The sailors on the boat Jonah was on repented. Even Jonah finally repented and did what God wanted him to do but Jonah felt he was the only one who deserved God’s grace.

Notice then in verse 2 that Jonah says God is abounding in love. His love is abounding or abundant. The picture here is just wave after wave after wave of God’s love. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever felt the waves of God’s love? Breathe. Every time you take a breath is another wave of God’s love. If anybody should be able to appreciate breathing it would be Jonah who got dumped overboard of the boat and then spent 3 days in the belly of a fish gasping for breath.

And as the waves of the ocean passed over him, even there God’s abundant love was passing over him as well. 1 Peter 5:7says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” George Muller restated it this way, “It matters to Him about you.” You know, I think I can understand how a non-believer might think that that is not God’s great love. I can understand that taking another breath for them is just one more pain; one more heartache; one more trouble. But in reality, for those unsaved, unchanged, unforgiven it is just the opposite. It is just another opportunity to confess their sins, repent and ask God for forgiveness.

And if you matter to Him and if you repent then the last part of Jonah’s accusation is true as well. He says he knew God to be a God who relents from sending calamity. The word “relent” is similar to the word “repent”. They both mean to change your mind; to go from doing one thing or going one way and to then do or go the other. And God is waiting for all of us to do just that. So, what keeps you from doing that? What keeps you from giving your life completely to Him?

Let me answer that question by closing with a story I heard told about an area preacher who was in the middle of a building campaign at his church. The building was not quite finished but he decided to go check on the progress late one Friday night. He made his way through the new hallway and checked out some new rooms, dreaming of what they would look like when they were finished. He opened one door that swung out and walked into that room and looked around.

Then he went out and pushed open a door that swung in and walked into that room. The door behind him closed and there was no light so he reached for the door knob…and it hadn’t been installed yet. His heart beat a little faster knowing it was Friday night and he could possibly be stuck there for a while. But then as his eyes grew accustomed to the dark, he sees… there is another man in the room.

His heart really starts to pound. His hands get sweaty and his mouth is very dry. He summons up all his pastoral courage and asks, “Can I help you?” But the man just stares at him. He takes a step toward the man…and the man takes a step toward him. And then he realizes he is in the men’s bathroom looking into a mirror. (Dr. Joel Gregory, 7/27/10)

I believe what Jonah was really mad about, what really caused him fear and is also what keeps people from committing their lives to Jesus is what they think is a fear of encountering God but is in reality a fear of encountering themselves. Let me say that again. Our fear of encountering God is really a fear of encountering ourselves. God is gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love.

Our problem is that we know we are going to have to change our ways and we don’t want to do that. We know that we are weak and frail and full of baggage and that we are going to fail. We know that changing our ways is going to make some people not like us or change our relationships. And that’s sometimes very true. But it’s not really God we are scared of dealing with. Nor should it be.

Nineveh heard truth from Jonah. You have heard truth from the Word of God today. It can change your life here and now and it can change your life for eternity, just like it did the Ninevites. They didn’t deserve God’s grace. You don’t deserve God’s grace. I don’t deserve God’s grace. But His grace is abundant and available to you today.

Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” You don’t have to worry about being good enough or that your baggage is going to make you fail. It’s not about you. Aren’t you glad?

Confess your sins, repent of your sins and accept God’s grace. Do it today because we don’t have the promise of God allowing us to breathe another breath.

Jonah is all about God’s grace. And sometimes God brings the storm or the fish or the scorching wind. And sometimes he brings his never-ending bucket of grace. But both are meant to bring you back to Him.