SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to the follow-up.
SPEAKER_02: We have the preaching pastors from this past weekend, which is Jack and Adam and I, we got to talk about Jonah chapter two and three.
SPEAKER_02: I'm really enjoying the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: It's been really good.
SPEAKER_02: For this week, we're right in the middle of the book, the two middle champ chapters.
SPEAKER_02: What was it that if you had one thing to take away, what would it be from this?
SPEAKER_00: Mine's mine is kind of the overlap of scripture and life, and that the path is never pretty.
SPEAKER_00: It just isn't.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's no way you end up in the bottom of the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: And I I love how he says, at the root of the mountains.
SPEAKER_00: You know, so you're you're down at the base.
SPEAKER_00: And he and he makes the point God is the one who threw me in those waters.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who brought me into this place.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So he's not blaming anyone else.
SPEAKER_00: He he understands where the storyline's coming from.
SPEAKER_00: He's meant to run one way.
SPEAKER_00: That very thing not only brought him back the other way, but uh we all probably hit on this, it was his calling card, like knowing the storyline and how Nineveh had an idolatry and a worship of everything that came from the sea.
SPEAKER_00: God used all of it.
SPEAKER_00: And then to be thrown up, I think is the word that it used in the translation we use, right?
SPEAKER_00: Vomited.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, is there anything graceful?
SPEAKER_00: Have you this I don't know of a single graceful vomiter on the planet?
SPEAKER_00: Like it's just not a pretty thing.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it's all part of the script that God says, here's how I'm gonna write the story.
SPEAKER_00: And I just I read through two, and you kind of get a peek into Jonah's heart and preparing for the Nineveh and the and the Nineveh respond better than Israel did to the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Nineveh, 40 days, we're gonna tighten it up.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I there was a lot there for me at a heart level and at a very practical level and a real life level.
SPEAKER_00: And last thing, how many of us are story and the gross, the the vomiting up part is the piece that people connect with and go, if you can do it, so can I.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: If you can make it, so can I.
SPEAKER_00: If you can be faithful through that, so could I.
SPEAKER_00: So that that for me was just a big win.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And being reminded that I don't obey on the first try either many times.
SPEAKER_00: That was a painful reminder, but a real thing.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So good.
SPEAKER_01: I think I think right along with that, Jack, I think for me, just kind of the unexpected responses that we see throughout the book.
SPEAKER_01: Like for Jonah, who we would think should know better as a prophet of God, as a proclaimed man of God, who is the one that rebels from God, disobeys God, goes the other direction from God.
SPEAKER_01: And yet the unexpected responses of the sailors that end up making vows to God and worship the Ninevites, that you guys both really tapped into like what they were known for and the cruelty and just how barbaric uh it was, and them uh responding to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So again, the incredible mercy of God and the need for us that claim to have received it to remain humble in that, to celebrate it, and to live according to it, because that's where throughout Jonah we see where even while he claimed to have it and want to proclaim it, we see that he was really still very short-sighted.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I talked about Jonah's birth mercy being really small versus God's mercy, which is really big.
SPEAKER_02: Um, that was one of the pieces.
SPEAKER_02: But I thought, you know, in this passage, when we think about it from like the Sunday school perspective, when we were growing up, we think that the punishment often is is the fish.
SPEAKER_02: And we think, oh man, the the bad thing that happened to Jonah was that he got swallowed by a fish.
SPEAKER_02: When in reality, the bad thing that happens to Jonah is that he gets tossed in the sea.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: And I talked about in in mine how how basically the God's people viewed the the ocean or the sea.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: They would see it as you know, chaos, as something where monsters live, all of those things.
SPEAKER_02: And so the fish is actually God's rescue.
SPEAKER_02: And so one of the things that I touched on, I want to get your thought on it, is like I talked about how sometimes God's mercy seems fishy.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Very good.
SPEAKER_02: And so I just I love that concept because the rescue isn't maybe what Jonah expected, but it is how God rescues him and delivers him to Nineveh, right?
SPEAKER_02: So I guess what are what are your thoughts on those, on that, on that aspect?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I I think that's so correct, Bill.
SPEAKER_01: And I think oftentimes we look at all the catastrophe of the storm, the catastrophe of the fish, but now realizing that it would have been more catastrophic for Jonah had he been settled in Tarshish.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Like, but everything would have seemed peaceful and it could have been great, but that would have been worse because he was disobeying God in the midst of that.
SPEAKER_01: And rewarded for it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if he can settle in comfortably.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_01: If he would have thought, hey, I'm I'm better off and I got away with it.
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
SPEAKER_02: That's that's profound, actually.
SPEAKER_01: And so yeah, just that that reminder of, you know, I think for us, the best thing that we could have happen at times is to be swallowed up is consequences or circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Ryan made the point last week in chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: Jonah may have been trying to off himself.
SPEAKER_00: Like I, instead of turning the boat around and taking me, uh, or drop me off at the next port, just throw me in the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what I think.
SPEAKER_00: And I I read a couple of commentaries that said that.
SPEAKER_00: So that fish was actually a saving grace.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that saved his life because there's more purpose ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Like there was something bigger still in store.
SPEAKER_01: Because it wasn't really until we get his account in chapter two from within the fish that he's crying out to God.
SPEAKER_01: You get no indicator in chapter one that he was actually joining those other sailors in crying out to his God.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And it's amazing to think in chapter two as well that you a lot of people will read it and they'll go, oh, this is Jonah finally like relenting to God.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: And he does say he will obey at the end.
SPEAKER_02: But it's not, it's really not a like, it's not a it it looks like a psalm essentially, but it's not a psalm of repentance.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: It's a psalm of thanksgiving that God has saved him.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: Which I think that's really interesting.
SPEAKER_02: Like his theology is really good, but we know from chapter four, which we're gonna be doing this week, right that his heart's not there yet in terms of like having the heart that God has for the Ninevehites.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that kind of crazy?
SPEAKER_00: First of all, I love chapter two is the mercy and grace of God to an individual.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter three is the mercy and grace of God to a nation.
SPEAKER_00: So you kind of are a people group.
SPEAKER_00: So you kind of see it spell out.
SPEAKER_00: So chapter four, in my mind, and I don't want to give too much away for who's speaking this week, but I kind of have you kind of get this group hug in mind, like, oh, we're all right with Jesus now.
SPEAKER_00: Let's have a Pepsi and do a picnic or something, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But there's almost a flip of heart.
SPEAKER_00: Like the Ninevehites' hearts are right.
SPEAKER_00: The ones who were the worst.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the guy who was the religious one and sent on mission from the Lord is the one who still has to fight the junk that's inside him.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So well, in in that, just the reminder that you can have really good theology in saying those things, but if it's not shaping your attitude and your conduct, like it falls short.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not the fault of the theology, it's that it hasn't yet really permeated your heart to really make that difference.
SPEAKER_01: It's true.
SPEAKER_02: Mercy for me, not for thee.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
SPEAKER_02: There you go.
SPEAKER_02: Um one of the other points that we all pointed out in this is that after Jonah gets vomited, which I love, I love that word for some reason.
SPEAKER_02: But he gets vomited on shore, um, God gives him the call again.
SPEAKER_02: And if you look at the call, the original call, and you look at the call that he gets, it's almost identical.
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
SPEAKER_02: And so what what do you think that is trying to teach us?
SPEAKER_02: Like as you guys talked about it in your sermons, what what how did that take shape?
SPEAKER_00: I went from the aspect of you know, you strike out, it doesn't mean you're sent to the miners.
SPEAKER_00: God gave him another chance, he got another at bat, and he's faithful this time.
SPEAKER_00: And I love exactly what you pointed out.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like he restarts the book.
SPEAKER_00: Let's tear out chapter one and two, or especially chapter one, where you wouldn't listen.
SPEAKER_00: And let's start the chapter over again, the book over again.
SPEAKER_00: We see the same thing with with Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_00: You know, after the garden experience with Cain and Abel, it's all it's almost like a startover with with Seth.
SPEAKER_00: So it's you see you see generationally, or whatever it is in scripture, once again, and I'm learning this still too.
SPEAKER_00: We don't always get it right on the first time, but that doesn't mean God fires us.
SPEAKER_00: There's still the second chance, the calling is still there.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I love the passage in the New Testament, seek the Lord while he may be found.
SPEAKER_00: And that window doesn't close just because, man, I'm having a tough time embracing it.
SPEAKER_00: Like it he'll still stay on you.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And I I saw it as, you know, God not changing the message, but the messenger.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You know, so the same, the same message goes forth, but Jonah realizes I can't get away from God.
SPEAKER_01: I can't avoid what God has told me to do.
SPEAKER_01: There's no sense in running.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's almost like, you know, you get into chapter three, that call comes to Jonah and it says, and Jonah obeyed, and it's almost like finally, Jonah, you know, and I think we each see ourselves um in that, but the fact that, hey, God has something that He's called us to do, and there are times we get distracted, there are times we are disobedient, and yet that that call remains.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's not that God says, you know, I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna change the message, I'm gonna alter the plan, I I'm still calling you to this, but now through the circumstances and everything, a bigger view of God.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and what's cool in that is God still doesn't tell them what the end game is gonna be.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't tell because uh yesterday after service, one service in particular, a couple came up and they're like, we know God is prompting us toward something.
SPEAKER_00: And they've taken two or three major steps as a couple and as a family, but we don't know yet where it's fully going.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, dude, I remember those times.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you guys have taken those steps.
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm supposed to take the step.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where it's leading, and I don't know how the end game is gonna go, but I know I'm supposed to take the step.
SPEAKER_00: Well, so I just I prayed with them after service, but I think I wonder if Jonah, like I it doesn't tell us God gave him any sneak peek, like, hey, wait till you see what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: And don't worry, they're not gonna skin you alive.
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's all gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_00: So I I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: The more I read the history of the Nineveh and Assyrians, I kind of get, I think I'd have been buying a boat ticket with Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's something in me that goes, I'll pass on this one.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: So the end, the end of our sermon really talked about um, you know, Nineveh response, essentially.
SPEAKER_02: He gives a, what is it, in Hebrew it's like a five-word sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: And so what do you like what do you take of that?
SPEAKER_02: That that he doesn't have to because I think there's a lot of irony built into the book of Jonah, and I think that's one piece is he gives this five-word word sermon.
SPEAKER_02: Why do you think how do you how can a five-word sermon be effective?
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell So for me, and this is this is cutting room floor stuff, I think the sermon was Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think the introduction is Jonah walking out of the ocean, or you know, walking the three-day journey.
SPEAKER_00: Um the introduction is this dude just walked out of the sea.
SPEAKER_00: Like, was it Oannis?
SPEAKER_00: Oanis was a sea goddess that they believe all wisdom came from the sea and was brought to mankind.
SPEAKER_00: Here comes this guy wrapped in seaweed.
SPEAKER_00: What do you think he smelled like?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a lot of cues that go, this guy's legit gone through this.
SPEAKER_00: I think that was his introduction to his message.
SPEAKER_00: So I think those five words, you got 40 days to a to a vicious and horrific people group.
SPEAKER_00: Like they understood, oh dang, judgment's not pretty.
SPEAKER_00: So I think there's a lot that went on setting the table, even for Nineveh, that those words just hit.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I I think too, there's part of it that is a reminder for Jonah that uh Jonah was called by God, and yet God is not dependent on Jonah's abilities or his ability to word things just right or just have the right arguments.
SPEAKER_01: You know, like some of those conversations you have with someone where you are so you have your arguments ready, you have your points, and you say something and they go, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And you realize you didn't even have to get to your other differences.
SPEAKER_01: And they've already forced.
SPEAKER_01: They've already agreed.
SPEAKER_01: And I think there's a reminder in this for Jonah that Jonah, be faithful to what God has called you to do.
SPEAKER_01: And God is also working behind the scenes with what he knows, that um you need to be obedient, and yet God is working in a way way beyond what you can understand.
SPEAKER_01: Because who would have ever thought that going to Nineveh, this city, three days to get across, his first day from the greatest to the least, including the king, right, is going to put on sackcloth, sit in dust, be mourning, even covering their animals.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't have thought that.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah never would have thought to that degree.
SPEAKER_01: Well, and we're going to see in chapter four his his outlook on that.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, of course.
SPEAKER_02: Of course, God's saving these people.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah, you're kind of a loser.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I call I said that he's the grumpy prophet.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Because he's too much.
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02: No, we can't give too much away from chapter four.
SPEAKER_02: I know, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
SPEAKER_02: But I mean, it it it is a good reminder to us.
SPEAKER_02: That part of it, and I didn't say this in the sermon, maybe this is more cutting room floor, but um, you know, Jonas says five words and God uses it transformationally.
SPEAKER_02: And I think sometimes, you know, as believers, we go, well, I can't say something to my coworker because I'm not gonna say the right thing, and I'm not gonna say it the right way.
SPEAKER_02: And so what if I'm the reason that they don't they don't believe?
SPEAKER_02: And here's a story of Jonah saying five words in Hebrew, and God uses it to transform an entire city that it took three days to watch.
SPEAKER_02: You know, like it's amazing.
SPEAKER_02: God can use our feeble attempts, our half-hearted attempts, to accomplish his will and his purpose.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it goes back to something you said earlier, Adam, is it's it's it's yes, I'm a firm believer in theology.
SPEAKER_00: Like, let's be grounded in scripture and in the and and a sound theology and understanding of a systematic study of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't have to unload all of that in one sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Like, boy, it's it's it's gotta be a work of the spirit, no, no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: So I think Jonah's heart being prepared is what changed the tone of the message he would bring to Nineveh.
SPEAKER_00: So I I I don't know, I the the power is not just in the word, but in what God has done, not only in the in the in the giver, but in the receiver.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: Like they were ready for it.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Well, and I think too, probably each of us can relate to those times where we've gotten off the stage after giving a sermon and just feeling like, man, I bombed that I just did not feel like I handled that well, I didn't feel like I presented that well, I didn't feel like I did my best.
SPEAKER_01: And someone comes up and says, that was exactly what I needed to hear.
SPEAKER_01: And it's so humbling because you realize in that moment that God works despite us and and yet through us, and that's for every believer, you know.
SPEAKER_01: So that's an encouragement for anyone that thinks, oh, what if I say something wrong or don't do it just right?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: God still uses it despite that.
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Are we just gonna, real quick, just acknowledge this closing song that we had this weekend, guys, with Jonah, chapter two, and rapping with Inside Out.
SPEAKER_01: Inside Out.
SPEAKER_01: I think we held back from the Charlie and I think we held back from actually saying it during the sermon, but I just I didn't want to let it go, guys.
SPEAKER_01: And here with a follow-up, I just thought it was really important.
SPEAKER_00: I think under the sea could have been a good thing, too.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think of all the work that God does.
SPEAKER_00: Under the sea.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just leave it there.
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's been a really good discussion.
SPEAKER_02: We're excited to wrap things up with Jonah chapter four.
SPEAKER_02: And then Jack, can you tell us about the next series that's coming up?
SPEAKER_00: The next series coming up is gonna be a fun one.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's designed to make us squirm.
SPEAKER_00: It's called Uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And the goal of it is to talk about some stuff that church folk usually don't want to talk about, but either we need to, we have to, or really deep down inside we want to.
SPEAKER_00: So it's going to cover most of our summer.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's gonna be what we call flip-flop series.
SPEAKER_00: So whatever campus you attend, make sure you stay there.
SPEAKER_00: If you're joining us online, uh, you'll be able to follow each teacher as they come to the Bellevue campus or whichever campus during the week.
SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, it's it's gonna be a systematic theology study, really, a systematic study of each topic that we'll bring to the table over these 12 weeks.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm excited for this summer.
SPEAKER_02: So we will be taking a break from the follow-up, but we're we're playing around with some other media things surrounding our sermons.
SPEAKER_02: So we'll see what happens this summer with that.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but thanks so much for joining us.
SPEAKER_02: And as always, we'd love to hear your comments.
SPEAKER_02: We got some like prolific commenters out there.
SPEAKER_02: Like every time we do the follow up, we got three or four people who are like, gotta get my comment in first, and I love it.
SPEAKER_02: So thank you for commenting.
SPEAKER_02: And of course, share this with other Spring Lakers.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, just another resource to go deeper in the sermon.
SPEAKER_02: We'll see you next time.