SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the City Covenant Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We are a warm, welcoming church located in downtown Spokane, dedicated to practicing the way of Jesus in the heart of the city.
SPEAKER_00: Please join us as we dive into the Word of God together.
SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, welcome.
SPEAKER_01: Great to see everybody.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we are starting out a new series.
SPEAKER_01: If I have not met you, I'm glad to meet you.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Asher.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the um the lead pastor here at City Covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Um, some of you guys are new.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new, we're especially pumped you're here.
SPEAKER_01: Um, hey, happy Father's Day.
SPEAKER_01: That brings a lot of mixed feelings for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01: Um, a couple years ago, um, we had this family, they've never been to church, like uh the whole family hadn't been to church before.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we advite if we invited these folks to church and it happened to be Father's Day, right?
SPEAKER_01: And two of the kids, um, their dad was completely out of the picture, and I think like literally the two kids like wept through like 75 minutes of church of just feeling like, oh my gosh, I just really, really miss my dad, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so we have, I think, um, and for me growing up, you know, I didn't grow up with a dad, and so that's that far end, right, of the Father's Day spectrum, and then the other folks are just really amped.
SPEAKER_01: And so anywhere you you fit in this, you know, it's Father's Day.
SPEAKER_01: And you know it's funny, we're doing this series on prayer.
SPEAKER_01: One of our sermons we're gonna speak um on the Lord's Prayer and the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Really, it feels like a miss right now to me that we didn't do that one today, but it's too late.
SPEAKER_01: It's too late.
SPEAKER_01: So we're looking at Jonah 1.
SPEAKER_01: We're looking at Jonah 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: So you can turn your pew Bibles there, and it's in page 795.
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's in just so you know, if this is some knowledge you have or don't have, Jonah is one of what's called the minor prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, there's the major prophets and the minor prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Um, when Jonah is called um one of the minor prophets, just you know, it's not because he's less significant.
SPEAKER_01: The books are literally shorter and smaller.
SPEAKER_01: That's all minor means, right?
SPEAKER_01: You've got the minor prophets that are shorter, the major prophets that are bigger.
SPEAKER_01: So you've got like Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, major prophets, right?
SPEAKER_01: Minor prophets, smaller books.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_01: This is a really incredible story.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna be looking at these incredible stories like um Jonah throughout the summer and learn how to pray in the midst of a lot of different experiences.
SPEAKER_01: Um, next week, our our good friend Sylvia Dilworth is gonna be preaching in Ephesians 3, right?
SPEAKER_01: And learning how to pray um through the midst of that.
SPEAKER_01: And so you're definitely gonna want to be here next week.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm actually gonna be out of town.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be down in Phoenix, Arizona.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you guys know about this, some of you guys don't.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm getting in our denomination, our denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church, um, which is a mouthful for me, having gone to speech therapy for a long time, but um, the evangelical covenant is real big on like formal ordination.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in a as a Pentecostal, you know, as Pentecostals, people aren't interested in in ordination.
SPEAKER_01: We're just like, oh, I was ordained by the Holy Spirit when I was 11, right?
SPEAKER_01: I experienced a call back then, I was ordained back then.
SPEAKER_01: And and then you've got like on the far other side, right?
SPEAKER_01: You've got some churches that um, you know, ordination is a really, really long, drawn-out process.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and you got to move somewhere else to go to seminary and all that.
SPEAKER_01: The covenant is kind of in the middle.
SPEAKER_01: So just so you know, some of you guys are even wondering wait, hold on, this guy's been preaching this long is and isn't ordained, you know, has been serving communion.
SPEAKER_01: Did it work?
SPEAKER_01: Did it count?
SPEAKER_01: So here's what we do in the cov that I really, really like.
SPEAKER_01: It's this middle area where we look because we have a lot of church plants and we have a it's we're really multi-ethnic.
SPEAKER_01: So we also have a lot of churches that come into the covenant that maybe their pastors have really limited education.
SPEAKER_01: And so what's amazing about the covenant is they say, hey, if your congregation understands you to be their pastor, in the covenant, we see you as their pastor.
SPEAKER_01: So when we came in, um, I don't think maybe I hadn't finished, I forget now actually.
SPEAKER_01: I don't remember if I had finished my master's in theology or not.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I was close to it.
SPEAKER_01: And anyway, so the Cov said, you know, here's what we can do.
SPEAKER_01: We have something before you get a formal long-term ordination, and it's a license.
SPEAKER_01: And you can only, you know, do you can only be a pastor at this location.
SPEAKER_01: So I've been licensed for the last like nine years through the covenant.
SPEAKER_01: And um anyway, so in the midst of you know, planting and then COVID and all that, it's taken a little while longer to get ordained, you know, than maybe the covenant would have liked.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so they said, you need to come down to Phoenix, we're gonna ordain you.
SPEAKER_01: You know, so anyway, I'll be there next week.
SPEAKER_01: So I won't be here.
SPEAKER_01: So and um don't don't worry, I've got a registry on Amazon.
SPEAKER_01: You can look on there.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: Wait for wait for October for Pastor Appreciation Month, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Um, but gifts are always appreciated, and compliments, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so here's what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, that was not about Jonah, that's just extra.
SPEAKER_01: Um Jonah, we're gonna read for part of Jonah 1.
SPEAKER_01: It's Jonah 1, 1 through 6.
SPEAKER_01: Then we'll read just verse 17, it's the whale part, and then 2, 1 through 9, or through 1 through 10, sorry.
SPEAKER_01: So if you'll read with me, we're gonna read and then we'll pray, and then we'll we're gonna look at this whole text.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jonah says The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai.
SPEAKER_01: Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.
SPEAKER_01: But Jonah ran away from the Lord, and he headed for Tarshish.
SPEAKER_01: He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port.
SPEAKER_01: After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
SPEAKER_01: All the sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own God.
SPEAKER_01: And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
SPEAKER_01: But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and he fell into a deep sleep.
SPEAKER_01: The captain went to him and said, How can you sleep?
SPEAKER_01: Get up and call on your God.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse 17, the Lord Oh, this is after Jonah's in the ocean.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: And now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
SPEAKER_01: He said, In my distress, I called to the Lord, and he answered me.
SPEAKER_01: From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help, and you listened to my cry.
SPEAKER_01: You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me.
SPEAKER_01: All your waves and breakers swept over me.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Have I been banished from your sight?
SPEAKER_01: Yet I will look again toward your holy temple.
SPEAKER_01: The engulfing waters threatened me.
SPEAKER_01: The deep surrounded me.
SPEAKER_01: Seaweed was wrapped around my head.
SPEAKER_01: To the roots of the mountains I sank down.
SPEAKER_01: The earth beneath barred me in forever.
SPEAKER_01: But you, Lord my God, you brought my life up from the pit.
SPEAKER_01: When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
SPEAKER_01: Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them.
SPEAKER_01: But I, with shouts of grateful praise, I will sacrifice to you.
SPEAKER_01: What I have vowed, I will make good.
SPEAKER_01: I will say, salvation comes from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, this is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father in heaven, um, thank you for your prophet Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: This really broken person who, even though he had an incredible call on his life, didn't live into it through through a lot of his life.
SPEAKER_01: Um, he ran the other way.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, let this be an encouragement to us that have run a long ways away and help us to know that you're always calling us back.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, for those of us who maybe we think we're not like Jonah, Lord, help us today to even see those spots in our hearts that are Jonah-like.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us to be people of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: People that don't just leave you um on the recesses, on the margins of our lives, but Lord, allow you to come into the deep center of it so that you would change everything about us.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, that you'd transform us and our lives would be renewed and restored.
SPEAKER_01: And God, ultimately, ultimately, in all of this, Lord, would you would you point us toward Jesus and help us to become more like him?
SPEAKER_01: We pray this all in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Um, okay, guys.
SPEAKER_01: So let's do this.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at a little bit of background, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at background.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna look at kind of Jonah one for the background, just so you know what's happening in the story.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna see these three movements after we look at Jonah in the background.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna see this pain that Jonah experiences, right?
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look and see this moment of desperation and failure that he experiences and ultimately God's deliverance, right?
SPEAKER_01: God's response to his prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look.
SPEAKER_01: So God calls Nineveh, or excuse me, calls Jonah to Nineveh.
SPEAKER_01: God has put this incredible call on Jonah's life, right?
SPEAKER_01: And and as Jonah has this incredible call on his life, God says, go to Nineveh.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you guys, you you wonder the geography, where is he at, right?
SPEAKER_01: So Jonah's from this little inland town, just you know, this little inland town about 50 miles away.
SPEAKER_01: Remember how he said he went to this port called Joppa?
SPEAKER_01: So God says, go to Nineveh, and where Nineveh is, is about 600 miles inland from the coast of the Mediterranean, right?
SPEAKER_01: So it's where like Mosul, Iraq is now.
SPEAKER_01: It's like right in between, I think it's halfway between like the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta go a long, long ways.
SPEAKER_01: So Jonah, um, in very disobedient fashion, does the exact opposite, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so some of you guys know this stuff, and but I'm gonna tell you anyway, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Um, because not everyone knows.
SPEAKER_01: And so so here's what he does.
SPEAKER_01: He could have walked from his house to Nineveh in about a month, but instead, he goes about 50 or 60 miles to this area that the Bible calls Japa, that now is called Jaffa, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's where Tel Aviv is, and it's one of it was an ancient major Mediterranean port.
SPEAKER_01: He gets on a ship that goes to Tarshish.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know exactly where Tarshish is, but we think it's probably in Spain.
SPEAKER_01: It's about it's really here's what the author is saying.
SPEAKER_01: He went as far as he could get from going to Nineveh.
SPEAKER_01: He was really good at disobeying God.
SPEAKER_01: He was committed to it, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so he got on a boat and tried to get literally almost to the Atlantic Ocean, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's in the Mediterranean, tries to get a couple thousands and miles away.
SPEAKER_01: And you look and say, well, why did he do that, right?
SPEAKER_01: What was happening?
SPEAKER_01: And we'll we'll talk because what's interesting is it um the Bible says Nineveh was a great city.
SPEAKER_01: So why does God want him to go to this great city?
SPEAKER_01: And why does Jonah not want to, right?
SPEAKER_01: For one, the let's talk about the great city and then we'll talk about why Jonah didn't want to.
SPEAKER_01: The reason it's called the Great City, you could have great cities for a lot of reasons, right?
SPEAKER_01: You could look and say, oh, it's a beautiful city.
SPEAKER_01: You know, let's say, like Edinburgh or um last year or a couple years ago, sorry, when I was on sabbatical, our family went to Sevilla.
SPEAKER_01: They say it's the most beautiful city in Europe.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, it's also the hottest city in Europe.
SPEAKER_01: It's very, very hot in the summer.
SPEAKER_01: And you need to drink a lot of water.
SPEAKER_01: But you can go to these beautiful cities.
SPEAKER_01: Is that what made Nineveh great?
SPEAKER_01: No, it wasn't that.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't because it was beautiful, right?
SPEAKER_01: You look and say, was it beautiful because it had, or was it great because it had um great universities?
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't it for Nineveh.
SPEAKER_01: It was ultimately Nineveh was considered great.
SPEAKER_01: The word that's being used here for great is really, really big.
SPEAKER_01: It had 120,000 people in it, which in the ancient world is just this massive city that is important.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: It's not even because it wasn't even just so important, just because it was the capital of Assyria.
SPEAKER_01: It was really, really important because God sees it important as it is important because it's full of people that God adores.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So Nineveh being so large, God has a heart for it, right?
SPEAKER_01: And and this is what we realize, guys, here at City Covenant is that God has this heart to care for the cities of the world, right?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God wants the cities of the world to be oriented around him, that they might have a right relationship with him and know him and come to flourishing, right?
SPEAKER_01: And that that everyone all across the globe would have this single-hearted devotion to Jesus Christ as King in every city, right?
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing, even for us here as Americans in 2026, right?
SPEAKER_01: Um, we're not concerned about whether those cities are our allies or not, right?
SPEAKER_01: In God's economy, that's not God's big question mark.
SPEAKER_01: Nineveh was not an ally of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it was as far opposite of an ally as possible.
SPEAKER_01: So what we see is if God's heart was for Nineveh, and God's heart was to see Nineveh repent and turn toward the Lord, then what we know in the same way as today, God's heart is for revival to break out in Moscow and in St.
SPEAKER_01: Petersburg, Russia, right?
SPEAKER_01: God's heart is for the great city of Tehran, that there would be an outpouring of and an experience of the good news of Jesus Christ because of its greatness.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: God's heart is that is for Caracas, Venezuela, right?
SPEAKER_01: That there would be a renewal of the gospel, right?
SPEAKER_01: And that they would turn toward the name of Jesus Christ, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because of the greatness of these cities, right?
SPEAKER_01: Not because they're necessarily our allies, but maybe at times for the exact because they're the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because what God is doing is God is doing in the world, is He's taking people in the gospel that are our natural enemies and making natural enemies friends.
SPEAKER_01: What's amazing about the gospel of Jesus Christ is God is not just in the habit of taking people that are like you and making you friends.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That that wouldn't be, that wouldn't seem to take anything supernatural, would it?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You find people like you, you're gonna find some affinity.
SPEAKER_01: What's incredible about the gospel and what's supernatural is when God takes natural enemies and makes them friends.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So that is what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: God is calling Jonah to go to Nineveh because Nineveh is a city of people who God adamantly adores.
SPEAKER_01: And you look and say, okay, but but why?
SPEAKER_01: Why doesn't he why doesn't he do it?
SPEAKER_01: Why why doesn't he go?
SPEAKER_01: Was he scared or something?
SPEAKER_01: You know, was that why?
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's the thing there's probably two reasons, and it's probably a combination of both.
SPEAKER_01: One is this that um he's probably scared.
SPEAKER_01: The Assyrians did horrible things to people.
SPEAKER_01: They were like highly skilled in torturing people and doing horrible things to them.
SPEAKER_01: They were known for when they took over countries and nations, right, and people groups of doing awful things to them.
SPEAKER_01: So that they would do things, for instance, they would cut off one arm, but not the right hand.
SPEAKER_01: They would leave the right hand of their victims so that so that in mockery they could shake that person's hand.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Ninevites did.
SPEAKER_01: They would they would stretch them out, pulling every limb in different directions.
SPEAKER_01: They would skin their captors and display it on their city walls.
SPEAKER_01: And these people, these were brutal, hideous what they did.
SPEAKER_01: So you look and say, was he just scared that if he went them, went there to Nineveh, they might do that to him?
SPEAKER_01: That's that seems reasonable.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's part of it.
SPEAKER_01: Another part of it is there's this part that if you read the whole book, which is not very long, it's like four chapters, so you can get there right after church.
SPEAKER_01: What you'll find out is Jonah didn't want them to repent.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Jonah in the last chapter is upset with God because fast forward the Ninevites do repent.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Oh, Lord, I this is exactly why I didn't want to come here.
SPEAKER_01: I knew that you are gracious and slow to anger, and you would bring them to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: This is the worst thing.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I tried to go to Tarshish.
SPEAKER_01: So what we see is actually there's a certain element for him of like a nationalist pride where these people are so bad, they're not like him and being on the good team.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't want the folks on the bad team to join the good team.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't want it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So there's two things, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's fearful of his own life, and also he ultimately doesn't want them to repent.
SPEAKER_01: But he has this incredible calling on his life to do what God's called him to do, and what we see in the midst of it is he does the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, most of us would kill for the the clarity of purpose that Jonah had.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, as you walk through your days, as you walk through your life, if if you knew crystal clear, God, this is what you have for me today, most of us would look and say, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I I know my direction, I know what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: This requires virtually no trust.
SPEAKER_01: I just do what he says to him for me to do.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah takes that and does the opposite with it, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so uh he you know, he he ignores it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and and then here he is, he's in deep rebellion, deep sin, and he's sleeping in the bottom of a boat, experiencing this deep peace.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just tell you before we get in too far, some of us make this mistake that we say, well, you know, I prayed about it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I know it doesn't look like I'm doing what the Lord would have me to do, but I prayed about it, and I'm feeling incredible peace about what you know, my choice that I made.
SPEAKER_01: So did Jonah! He's sleeping through a storm, like the ocean is assaulting him, right?
SPEAKER_01: God, the literally the language is like God threw a javelin, like God threw a storm at him to get his attention, and he's just saying, I just I knew it was the right thing to do, but I just felt incredible peace about it.
SPEAKER_01: No, you've got to measure your choices in life based on what God has actually said, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jonah doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is Jonah is sleeping through the middle of the storm, and I mean, this guy, he is running away from God.
SPEAKER_01: He thinks he can escape God, but you know, Jonah is foolish, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jonah functions like this, like little toddler who's running away from his parents, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're in a parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: This kid's running across the parking lot, trying to run away from his parents.
SPEAKER_01: He never can.
SPEAKER_01: He's not fast enough, he's not big enough, he's not equipped, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so here comes God running after Jonah to wake him up.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And what's amazing is God actually uses these sailors, people that have nothing to do with Yahweh, to wake him up.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, guys, God is going to use people that are not God's people in your life to speak truth.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Years ago, I had this good, good friend, some of you guys have heard about this guy before, um, wonderful Christian guy, was probably going down a tough road for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: He really liked this girl named Allison.
SPEAKER_01: And he had told me, we were at UW together.
SPEAKER_01: This guy talked about Allison all the time.
SPEAKER_01: You know, my buddy was such a serious believer, and Allison was so seriously not a believer, right?
SPEAKER_01: And at one point, you know what Allison did?
SPEAKER_01: Um, he just pursues and pursues and pursues Allison until one day.
SPEAKER_01: And she says, wait, hold on.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Hold on.
SPEAKER_01: I've read about people like you.
SPEAKER_01: You can't marry non-Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you can't even marry non-Christians, you probably shouldn't be dating non-Christians.
SPEAKER_01: This is like this total pagan, right?
SPEAKER_01: She just looks and says, It doesn't make sense for us to date, right?
SPEAKER_01: You're not following your own Christian like ethics here, your own Christian guidance.
SPEAKER_01: I have no interest in Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: You do.
SPEAKER_01: We don't we don't have any fit, you know, we don't fit together.
SPEAKER_01: It took this non-Christian girl to actually speak God's truth to him, right?
SPEAKER_01: To wake him up.
SPEAKER_01: That's what happens sometimes in life.
SPEAKER_01: You you never know how you're gonna hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in your life at a particular moment.
SPEAKER_01: These sailors are in the midst of absolute terror, and what do they do?
SPEAKER_01: Jonah's not spiritually sensitive.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't think anything's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: He's sleeping.
SPEAKER_01: These folks say, This is a mess.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to pray.
SPEAKER_01: They pull this like MC hammer, we gotta pray to make it today moment, and they just say, There's no way we're gonna make it without God's help.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah's like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I think we're alright.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna make it through the storm.
SPEAKER_01: And they say, No, we need to pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He he thinks he's got it under control, right?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing: there's these two stories, they're both twin stories in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Two guys in a boat.
SPEAKER_01: They're both sleeping through a storm on the boat.
SPEAKER_01: One of them understood their identity really well, one of them didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Jonah is sleeping in the midst of a boat or in the midst of a storm.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't fearful.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is sleeping in the middle of a storm on a boat, also wasn't fearful for two totally different reasons.
SPEAKER_01: One of them really understood their identity, one of them didn't.
SPEAKER_01: One of them understood submission to the Lord, one of them didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Jonah is sleeping on the boat because he doesn't actually understand his limits.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is sleeping.
SPEAKER_01: Through the storm in the middle of the boat, because he understands he has no limits because of his identity with the Father, right?
SPEAKER_01: One of them woke up and was thrown into the sea.
SPEAKER_01: One of them woke up and calmed the sea.
SPEAKER_01: And do you see the twin of this story?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: This is why we always say here at City Covenant, as we read through the Old Testament, right?
SPEAKER_01: As we read through Scripture, we see that it's all pointing toward that big narrative arc of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ is the center of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Every story points toward him.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we see here.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus is like the great Jonah, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's a better Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus calms the storm.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah here is thrown into the storm.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens?
SPEAKER_01: He he's he's in the water.
SPEAKER_01: And then the thing happens that we all think Jonah's about, but it's not.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm just gonna tell you this now.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to get hung up on the fish.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about the fish.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, almost all commentators will tell you the fish is just like it's the setting of the story.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it is, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's not supposed to be what it's really about.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the word here for fish, we don't know, it's fish, whale, whatever it is, you know, locked us monster, it's like floated down from Scotland, got him.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's just uh some weird aquatic animal, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's in Hebrew, it's not even the word for fish.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: So what's funny is do you notice that it's written?
SPEAKER_01: They don't seem to talk spectacularly about the fish.
SPEAKER_01: It just happens to be like, oh yeah, Jonah was gonna die, and God saved him through this one particular vehicle of a fish.
SPEAKER_01: And then they all kind of move on.
SPEAKER_01: And then it's like it's like on a pla in a play, it's just it's just the setting in which the play is done.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: And so, so that we can see Jonah praying.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens is Jonah says in verse 3, God, you cast me into the deep.
SPEAKER_01: Here, he has finally reached his limit.
SPEAKER_01: He knows he was far from where God wanted him.
SPEAKER_01: He was really far, he is in deep suffering, deep pain.
SPEAKER_01: He knows it's by himself because of what he's done.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing, guys.
SPEAKER_01: There's all types of ways of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: There's all types of reasons for it.
SPEAKER_01: And in all of them, you have to be aware of this in our prayer that God still cares, that God still hears.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, in there's a part, I mean, what's amazing about Jonah's prayer is you would be tempted to think theologically, if you didn't have stories like Jonah, you would be tempted to think that when you are this far from God, you best not pray.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's not gonna hear you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That I mean, that feels kind of reasonable, right?
SPEAKER_01: If you just look at like religion in general and you say, if there is a God and I'm doing everything away from God possible, I, you know, there's no sense in praying.
SPEAKER_01: I know how far I am from God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't pray.
SPEAKER_01: Except Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah shows us, like, oh, in the midst of that, God still hears.
SPEAKER_01: He's suffering, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because of his own choices.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people suffer because of their choices.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people suffer because of the choices of others, right?
SPEAKER_01: Some suffer in sickness because of a broken world, right?
SPEAKER_01: Some suffer, you know, just because it's it's snowing so much.
SPEAKER_01: And they they really thought spring was coming, so they didn't wear the right shoes.
SPEAKER_01: All right, people, we suffer for all types of different reasons, but what we have to know scripturally is that God is there and with us in the midst of it.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, for Jonah, we did we know it, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's his poor choices for sure.
SPEAKER_01: Why was he in the deep?
SPEAKER_01: Because he ran to Joppa and got on a boat.
SPEAKER_01: He did the exact opposite of what God told him to do here.
SPEAKER_01: So why specifically does he find himself in the water?
SPEAKER_01: Because when things were really horrible, it was actually Jonah's idea that they threw him off the boat.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we always are asking this question of the why behind suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, I'm just gonna like fast forward through the why of suffering and know that throughout scripture, oftentimes we almost never do we understand the why, right?
SPEAKER_01: In John 9, do you remember there's this guy who was born blind?
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Jesus, you know, it's Jesus and his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Why was this guy born blind?
SPEAKER_01: You guys remember this story?
SPEAKER_01: This is one of the amazing stories of the gospels.
SPEAKER_01: And the his disciples asked, Jesus, was it because he did something real bad?
SPEAKER_01: Was it because he sinned?
SPEAKER_01: Was it somehow because his parents sinned and like God in his foreknowledge knew either that his parents had done something wrong, so they had to punish God had to punish them, or even in God's foreknowledge, looked and said, Hey, you will sin real bad one day, and so I'm gonna get you ahead of time, right?
SPEAKER_01: Is that what's happening?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus' disciples are asking.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, it wasn't, do you remember this?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus actually says, it was not this man or his parents that sinned that caused this.
SPEAKER_01: What's interesting is we don't know.
SPEAKER_01: There's not punctuation, right, in the Greek.
SPEAKER_01: And so we don't know if that's a period, a comma, you know, what that is.
SPEAKER_01: There's a pause though in the conversation.
SPEAKER_01: And what it seems like Jesus might be saying there, and he says, but that the glory of God might be shown, I'm gonna heal him.
SPEAKER_01: What seems like might be happening is Jesus says, I know, you all want to know.
SPEAKER_01: This is the way of humanity.
SPEAKER_01: I understand it.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't castigate them for it.
SPEAKER_01: I understand you want to know the why.
SPEAKER_01: Why is this person suffering?
SPEAKER_01: It's a wrong question.
SPEAKER_01: It's the wrong subject, it's the wrong thing to dwell on.
SPEAKER_01: What you have to know right now is regardless of why this person's suffering, that the glory of God might be shown, I'm gonna heal him right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here and I'm with him, and I'm gonna heal.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God does.
SPEAKER_01: God takes suffering and brokenness and makes it beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: It might take a really, really long, long, long time.
SPEAKER_01: Or it might be fast.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just listening to this album, new album out by this guy named Andy Squires.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you guys have heard it.
SPEAKER_01: He has this really good EP called Praise Songs, and in it, he actually, one of the lines in the song says, God, I I've gotten, I've had to get used to you not having giving me a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: This actually has taken a long time.
SPEAKER_01: It's taken a lot of patience.
SPEAKER_01: He does it better as an artist than I do.
SPEAKER_01: But listen to it, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because the thing is, sometimes God's miracles are really slow.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And here he is just suffering.
SPEAKER_01: He says, God, I need you, right?
SPEAKER_01: He has this position all of a sudden of acceptance that God is over everything.
SPEAKER_01: And that, and Jonah knows that even though he ran away from God, and the sailors tossed Jonah into the sea, that God's still present there.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 6, it says, seaweed wrapped around my body.
SPEAKER_01: I was at the foot of the mountains, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jonah is simply saying he was expressing this feeling, right, of just being in the depths of the pit, the deepest part of the ocean, right?
SPEAKER_01: As far from any human habitation and human help that he could get.
SPEAKER_01: Where there's no way he, there's no other options, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's all completely out of reach.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens?
SPEAKER_01: God sends this fish to get him.
SPEAKER_01: R.T.
SPEAKER_01: Kendall says the belly of the fish is not a happy place to live, but it's a good place to learn.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because you ask, what did he learn down there?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He he remembered the the water is chaos and that God moves things from chaos to order.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He he learns that God is God and that he isn't.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe before he he might have thought about how God is dominant over every other force in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And now he he's remembering, oh wow, God's everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: What you've got to know if you're in the midst of suffering, is God didn't leave you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You need to know that God still hears you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're suffering, if you're a long ways from God, whatever it is, God still hears.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it wild how often we need to hear that?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you would think we could hear something like that, you know, 52 weeks a year.
SPEAKER_01: Say it once a year.
SPEAKER_01: That's probably all people need, right?
SPEAKER_01: 2% of the time.
SPEAKER_01: I will tell you, this is one of the heart longings of humanity, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We need to hear this all the time.
SPEAKER_01: That God still hears.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow, we always slip into these places where we become sadly convinced that God doesn't really hear, maybe that God doesn't really love us, that God doesn't care, that God does, maybe that we even think God doesn't even know about my situation.
SPEAKER_01: Have any of you guys ever felt like that?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you felt like God knows about my situation, but he's indifferent.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've thought, you know, God doesn't understand suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And you've heard this before, but I'm just gonna remind you.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, God understands your suffering.
SPEAKER_01: What's amazing about the gospel is that God knows about your suffering, and it's why you can keep praying about it because God Himself suffered.
SPEAKER_01: That's what happened on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: God stepped so far into the human experience that he experienced our suffering.
SPEAKER_01: He heard Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: Look, it's right here in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That means he hears you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget that.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah gets absolutely desperate.
SPEAKER_01: He's got no other choices.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: He calls 911.
SPEAKER_01: I remember years ago, I was really sick all of a sudden.
SPEAKER_01: Um we were we had these folks over, and I'm gonna tell you a quick story.
SPEAKER_01: So we have these, I just had to check my watch.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a little head of time, so we're good.
SPEAKER_01: So we have these two girls over.
SPEAKER_01: I think it was when I still worked at First Press.
SPEAKER_01: And um anyway, so some of you guys are around back then.
SPEAKER_01: And anyway, we have these two girls over, and one of these gals is gonna make us delicious um food.
SPEAKER_01: Um, they're these two college girls, they're really amped to come over to our house.
SPEAKER_01: And I start what I didn't know at the time, but I get these ocular migraines.
SPEAKER_01: And um, I didn't know that's what it was, but I'm feeling worse and worse and worse.
SPEAKER_01: And uh the girls are gonna be there in about a half hour, and I let Mia know, honey, thank you so much for all the work you do as um a pastor's wife.
SPEAKER_01: Um, because right now I'm gonna need to call call in the help.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go lay down.
SPEAKER_01: Um, unfortunately, you're gonna have to carry this one.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just completely incapable of hanging out with these girls, you know?
SPEAKER_01: And so I can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: And anyway, I start feeling worse and worse and worse.
SPEAKER_01: I'm literally in our bedroom, and um, at one point I'm feeling so horrible.
SPEAKER_01: I say, um, I text Mia and I said, all it said was 911, this is an emergency.
SPEAKER_01: And Mia like runs in.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, honey, what is it?
SPEAKER_01: And I say, Oh, I just feel horrible.
SPEAKER_01: I need a, I'm feeling, I think I'm gonna throw up.
SPEAKER_01: I need, can you get a fan?
SPEAKER_01: I need a fan on my face.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I need a fan on my face.
SPEAKER_01: And also, this food, I can smell the food too much, it's making me even sicker.
SPEAKER_01: Can you put a blanket under the door?
SPEAKER_01: I was I was not in a good spot.
SPEAKER_01: I was like Jonah, right?
SPEAKER_01: And um, and so, you know, and Mia, she's you know, faithfully, you know, as a spouse, this is earlier on in our marriage.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think we had kids, so she probably would do more to help me back then, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Now she's like moved on to help our kids.
SPEAKER_01: And so, anyway, you know, she's stuffing stuff under the door so I won't smell it.
SPEAKER_01: She's got fans on my face, and I'm just in there texting away, like, help, I need help.
SPEAKER_01: I'm desperate, right?
SPEAKER_01: Unlike Jonah, it turns out I made it, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't get swallowed by a fish.
SPEAKER_01: I thought I was in worse shape than I was.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah actually got what bad shape he was in.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Jonah knew I've got no other choice.
SPEAKER_01: I'm desperate here, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's reached a point of utter life failure.
SPEAKER_01: He's in the depths of despair.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: For reasons he should be.
SPEAKER_01: He's in the belly of a fish, and he knows he got himself there.
SPEAKER_01: And God just and Jonah just says to God, help me, please, right now.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard me say this again, but or you've heard me say this before, I'm gonna say it again.
SPEAKER_01: The easiest people to pastor are former addicts.
SPEAKER_01: And it's because they have a sense of desperation for God.
SPEAKER_01: The hardest people at times in the Christian life to be friends with are folks who are spiritually middle class.
SPEAKER_01: Folks who are convinced that they have what they have because of their own hard work, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because of their own goodness, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because of what they brought to the table.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, we have to be so aware of our own Jonah-ness like that.
SPEAKER_01: We when before the fish, right?
SPEAKER_01: Where we just think that all the good stuff we have isn't because of grace, it isn't because of God's goodness, it's because we earned it, right?
SPEAKER_01: The place where our hearts are open to God is when we're completely desperate.
SPEAKER_01: And Jonah, rather than still living in self-reliance, Jonah says, Okay, God, you're God, I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put my fist down.
SPEAKER_01: The fight's over, I'm desperate.
SPEAKER_01: That this prophet, a few words, finally prayed, is this turning point in the book.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Earlier, the ship captain says, Jonah, you better pray.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say Jonah prayed.
SPEAKER_01: Did you notice that?
SPEAKER_01: He ignores it.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't pray until this moment.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Even though, even though the Lord is his God, Jonah wasn't acting like it.
SPEAKER_01: Jonah says, In the middle of the storm, God, I need you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: All of my objections have been stripped away.
SPEAKER_01: All I know, and guys, this is in there's this part of us who desperately wants to live here.
SPEAKER_01: We want to actually live in a place that says, as a Christian, all I know, Lord, is that I desperately need your help.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's where our where we want our heart posture to be, but often simultaneously, we don't want to be have to be in a bad spot to get there.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So we know though that sometimes the only places of true desperation that we get in prayer is when we are in the point of our deepest failure, like Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you, I mean, realistically, do you feel on a heart level, do you feel desperate for God?
SPEAKER_01: You know, um a handful of years ago, somebody asked, um, somebody asked, like in the covenant, they said, Hey, you guys have been doing okay as a church.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think really got it?
SPEAKER_01: What do you think to help you know your church turn the corner?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh, no idea.
SPEAKER_01: Genuinely no idea.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: We just kept trucking.
SPEAKER_01: We had some really faithful, amazing people that just kept staying with us, helped a ton.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I know, but was there any moment?
SPEAKER_01: Was there ever a moment that you kind of noticed that maybe there was this you know watershed?
SPEAKER_01: Um, and this is where you know, sometimes I'm a slow learner.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said something along the lines of, no, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I said, you know what's funny though, I'll tell you a different story.
SPEAKER_01: And literally it wasn't until this moment that I realized, oh, that was around the same time.
SPEAKER_01: I remember I was going in to the rocket bakery on First and Cedar.
SPEAKER_01: I was going in the Rocket Bakery on First and Cedar.
SPEAKER_01: It was pouring rain that day.
SPEAKER_01: I was sitting in my car, I was going to one of many, you know, meetings that church planners do of just going and spending time with folks.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going in and having coffee with um my friend Dave, who at the time was our chair.
SPEAKER_01: And I just in there had this little moment of desperation and just realization and just realizing, and I remember praying and saying, God, I don't think our church is gonna make it.
SPEAKER_01: Just realistically, that's that's what it looks like.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I know that you care way more about churches than I do.
SPEAKER_01: This is kind of your thing.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to make it work, I think you're gonna have to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like I've kind of personally, as a pastor, I feel like I've tried everything.
SPEAKER_01: That was it.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like a special prayer.
SPEAKER_01: What's weird is I think in that moment of prayer, I think God changed something in my heart.
SPEAKER_01: Of realizing, oh, you're not gonna be able to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Of realizing, no, no, if this thing's gonna work, God's gonna have to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Without realizing it, maybe the whole time I was I was dependent on my own self.
SPEAKER_01: I thought I could do it.
SPEAKER_01: I thought I could be successful as a pastor, right?
SPEAKER_01: I thought we could be successful as a church.
SPEAKER_01: It turned out we could only be successful with God's success.
SPEAKER_01: We could only be successful if God was the one doing it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes God has to get you into the belly of a whale to get you to where he wants you to go.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's something amazing that happens when we're desperate, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because God uses desperate people for him.
SPEAKER_01: Man, guys, a desperate prayer is a good prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be sophisticated, it doesn't have to be long.
SPEAKER_01: It's just saying, God, I truly need you.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens?
SPEAKER_01: He's delivered.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I was wondering, I remember talking with my buddy Daniel about Jonah a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So Jonah's drowning, the no way out, right?
SPEAKER_01: So what was this means of saving, of delivering Jonah?
SPEAKER_01: What was it?
SPEAKER_01: It was a fish.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I know you look and say, Jonah's in a desperate spot.
SPEAKER_01: You would look and say, to move from drowning to be eaten by a fish actually feels kind of like a push.
SPEAKER_01: You're not actually that much better off, right?
SPEAKER_01: If you just got eaten by a fish, drowning feels like not that much worse.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be dead either way.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it feels like to him for a second, right?
SPEAKER_01: It feels like a lateral move.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, um, but he has this phrase in verse 6, uh, chapter 2, he says, But you brought me, you brought my life up from the pit, oh Lord, my God.
SPEAKER_01: You delivered me, you saved me.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, here's the thing you can't miss in this whole series.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is central to the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: It's everything we do, we do it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: You can't be a Christian without praying.
SPEAKER_01: You can check a box on the census form without praying, but you can't have a vibrant Christian life without prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's central.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's it's actually um it's what we're built for, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's it what it's what changes us.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's actually in talking with God, it's how we understand our our smallness.
SPEAKER_01: But but not only our smallness, but how big he is and how powerful he is.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you you know it when like when you pray, you're you're like a a baby holding your parents' hand, right?
SPEAKER_01: You just have your little hand around their finger.
SPEAKER_01: And you're actually not doing that much.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when that baby holds on to that little finger, their grip isn't actually very tight.
SPEAKER_01: But it establishes connection between the parent and the child.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And that baby knows I'm holding on to this person for dear life.
SPEAKER_01: Because I know how much I need it.
SPEAKER_01: I desperately need this per parent.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, we still need it.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, you can't be changed by him.
SPEAKER_01: You can't be in a relationship with him if you're not talking to him, if you're not listening to him.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, this is this is the vibrant Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: It's grounded, it's rooted in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we do.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that that's not that wild.
SPEAKER_01: They're not always the greatest prayers.
SPEAKER_01: You know, some of you guys, you feel like you're not very good prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you guys, you look and say, I I can't pray for an hour or two hours at a time.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guys, then start with five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: If you look and you're stuck, start look and say, guys, or you say, God, I don't know where to start.
SPEAKER_01: Do this.
SPEAKER_01: Start with the Psalms.
SPEAKER_01: Just start praying the prayers you already see in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in a place right now where you say, I'd like to pray, but I don't know how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, just start with the prayer, you know, the prayers you already see written.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay if you're not a good prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I know that sounds like a fun thing to at church, but what do you think you're like have a PhD in prayer or something?
SPEAKER_01: Just start somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Start praying.
SPEAKER_01: And then once you start praying, pray more.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_01: You get closer and closer with the Lord, and God's going to do something in your life in the midst of it.
SPEAKER_01: Because God is good and God is with you, and God hears your prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Even Jesus on the cross God heard his prayer.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_01: The Father heard the Son's prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father in heaven, we thank you that you hear our prayers.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your goodness, your kindness to us.
SPEAKER_01: We love you, God.
SPEAKER_01: In Christ's name, pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_00: Please join us in person for community worship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We are located at 512 South Bernard Street, Spokane, Washington, 99204.