SPEAKER_01: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, thank you that you came to save the hellbound man and the hellbound woman.
SPEAKER_02: That's who we are by nature.
SPEAKER_02: We're not by nature your children.
SPEAKER_02: We are by nature your enemies, and we deserve hell.
SPEAKER_02: That's a happy Mother's Day thought there, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But that is the truth.
SPEAKER_02: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: It's why we sing the gospel here, we say the gospel, we celebrate the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Because the gospel tells us that the same power that you use to raise Christ from the dead, you use to raise us from being spiritually dead, spiritually incapable of doing anything to change our life.
SPEAKER_02: It's why you came to save hellbound men like me who deserve it.
SPEAKER_02: I do not deserve forgiveness, I do not deserve heaven, I do not deserve purpose or peace or life, and yet I got all those things, as did every believer in this room.
SPEAKER_02: And so, Lord, you didn't come to play a part in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: We are here to play a part in your life, to represent who you are and how you are.
SPEAKER_02: And so, Holy Spirit, as we begin a new book of the Bible, give us eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church today.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for what it's going to do to us today.
SPEAKER_02: We were grateful.
SPEAKER_02: So, Holy Spirit, illuminate it now.
SPEAKER_02: We ask in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_02: And you can have a see.
SPEAKER_02: If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: The book of Jonah, if you're visiting today, we preach through books of the Bible, not like religious history lectures, but it's like life-giving truth.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we do a New Testament book, then we do an Old Testament book.
SPEAKER_02: We just finished the book of Acts a while back, and now we're gonna do the old the Old Testament book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: Jonah, kind of towards the back of the Old Testament, uh, you know, but right before you get to the people with the funny names like Malachi and things like that.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I want to talk to you this morning about the motivating power of God's nature.
SPEAKER_02: The motivating power of God's nature.
SPEAKER_02: Sounds kind of nerdy, and I'll unpack it as we go, uh, but there's there's a motivation for the Christian life that you do not understand nor experience until you understand what God's really like.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I mean by his nature.
SPEAKER_02: But let me give you a couple of introductory thoughts.
SPEAKER_02: I like to do this anytime we begin a new book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Some introductory thoughts about the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: This is not in the list, but it should be.
SPEAKER_02: And I just want to say this the book of Jonah is about more than a big fish.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of people are like, oh yeah, Jonah got swallowed by a whale and he lived in there three days.
SPEAKER_02: He lit a candle and read his Bible and hung out until the whale kind of pooped him back up on the beach.
SPEAKER_02: Not so much, but we'll get to that a couple Sundays from now.
SPEAKER_02: Uh but let me give you three things about the book of, just as an introduction to the book as a whole.
SPEAKER_02: It's only four chapters.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you could read the book of Jonah every day.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna be in it for the next seven Sundays, okay?
SPEAKER_02: You could read every day a whole book of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: People say, What did you do today?
SPEAKER_02: Well, I read an Old Testament book in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Be like, wow, that's impressive.
SPEAKER_02: Uh but here's a couple things, just kind of a framework.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, Jonah is a prophetic narrative.
SPEAKER_02: Basically, it tells the story of this prophet named Jonah, who is not like other prophets, because prophets in the Old Testament they hear the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: God tells them this is what I want you to do, and they do it.
SPEAKER_02: Jonah is not that way.
SPEAKER_02: He's guilty of nationalism.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we hear nowadays a lot of talking about Christian nationalism.
SPEAKER_02: Jonah believed in Christian nationalism.
SPEAKER_02: He believed that God loves Israel and nobody else.
SPEAKER_02: Israel is good, all the other nations were bad.
SPEAKER_02: So God tells him to go to a place called Nineveh, and he's like, I don't want to go.
SPEAKER_02: Those are bad people, okay?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_02: I they deserve what they're gonna get, unlike me.
SPEAKER_02: So he's nationalistic, he's petty, he's peevish, he's disobedient to what he knows God is telling him to do.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he hears clearly what God says, and he turns around and does the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_02: Reminds you of anybody?
SPEAKER_02: Here's the second thing about the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: It's not an allegory.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just put my cards on the table.
SPEAKER_02: I do not believe the book of, I believe it's literal, I think it's true, I don't think it's some story, some allegory, some figure of speech that God uses and teach us a moral lesson.
SPEAKER_02: I think it's actually really happened.
SPEAKER_02: I believe the events in the book actually happened.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I believe most people have been taught wrongly about the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the last introductory statement.
SPEAKER_02: It there's a throughout the book, there's this symbolic use of geography and climate uh to kind of mirror what is happening.
SPEAKER_02: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: Symbolic use of geography and climate.
SPEAKER_02: When he receives the word of the Lord, he's on dry land, everything is good.
SPEAKER_02: But when he disobeys and runs, he's typically on the storm-toss sea.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to see a modern-day equivalent of it, there was a sequel, there was a movie called The Equalizer, and then they made The Equalizer 2, where Denzel had to smoke some more fools.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, in the movie The Equalizer 2, one of the things that happens, if you've ever seen it, is the weather gets more intense as the plot develops.
SPEAKER_02: It's raining, it's kind of sprinkling, and then the wind's blowing.
SPEAKER_02: It's a big climactic scene at the very end.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it is like a hurricane is blowing in.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, if you've never seen uh The Equalizer, Equalizer 2, maybe there's a fun Mother's Day activity right there.
SPEAKER_02: Just have the kids all in the room.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because here's the best line in Equalizer 2.
SPEAKER_02: Denzel meets the bad guys and he says, I'm gonna kill everyone, and in a very calm voice, I'm gonna kill every one of you.
SPEAKER_02: And my only regret is I'm only gonna get to do it once.
SPEAKER_02: And I just thought, I want to say that to somebody before I die.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And so the Bible, I mean, people picked up on this.
SPEAKER_02: And the guy, the director, he's like, Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: It's like in the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: I wanted to see that when things got intense, the weather increased.
SPEAKER_02: And so I was like, okay, so this is what you see.
SPEAKER_02: There's a symbolic use of geography and climbing, okay?
SPEAKER_02: So let me read.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna read the first four verses of the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: We'll be in it for the next four chapters.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna preach seven sermons from the book of Jonah, because I want us to go slow and just understand all that God is saying.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Jonah chapter one, verse one.
SPEAKER_02: Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for the evil has come up before me.
SPEAKER_02: But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: He went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was threatened to break up.
SPEAKER_02: And we'll just stop right there.
SPEAKER_02: Four verses.
SPEAKER_02: This is how dense and nourishing the Bible is.
SPEAKER_02: I want to I want to point to six things in four verses, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Uh, under the banner of this is the motivating power of God's nature.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, you will, there's a motivation that you find when you understand who God is and what God is like that you don't find in any anywhere else, in anything else, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Here's the first thing we see in the word that hearing the word of the Lord comes with a responsibility.
SPEAKER_02: Hearing the word of the Lord, the book begins, and by the way, it's the only book in the Bible, older New Testament, that starts off with this.
SPEAKER_02: Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: The central figure in the book of Jonah is not a great fish, a whale, whatever you call it.
SPEAKER_02: It's not Jonah, it's the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: God begins and ends with this because this is the most central and important thing.
SPEAKER_02: And when you hear, now he says, you know, the word of the Lord, it's not a reference to the Bible, as much as it refers to something God has decreed that is going to come to pass, and he entrusted to an individual.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: The word of the Lord in this context is not a reference to the Bible, but it refers to something that God has decreed this is going to come to pass.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm going to entrust this to an individual, this prophet Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Now, it's God saying, I have I have a specific message for a specific people, for a specific reason, and I've entrusted all of this to this specific person, all right?
SPEAKER_02: Now, I say all that to say uh about Jonah and the word of the Lord to say this to you and I this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Most of your life will be influenced and informed by how you respond to what you know God is calling you to do.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: Your life, most of your life, will be most greatly informed and influenced by how you respond to what you know God is calling you to do.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: So first thing I want you to see that hearing the word of the Lord comes with a responsibility.
SPEAKER_02: Now, that's Jonah hearing the word of the Lord in way back in the eighth century.
SPEAKER_02: It's you sitting in this room this morning, hearing the Bible taught, comes with a great responsibility.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, here's the second thing we see in the text.
SPEAKER_02: God sees things as they are and as they will be.
SPEAKER_02: Mom, hold on to this, put a star by this, because moms do this better than anybody in the world.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Where do you get that?
SPEAKER_02: It's that next sign.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Now the word of the Lord, verse one, came to Jonah, the son of Amitai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it.
SPEAKER_02: For the evil has come before me.
SPEAKER_02: Let me back up.
SPEAKER_02: Arise, go to Nineveh.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what I mean when I say God sees things as they are, and He sees them as they will one day be.
SPEAKER_02: When He says this phrase, go to Nineveh, that great city.
SPEAKER_02: Now, here's the thing about Nineveh that you need to understand.
SPEAKER_02: Two things that God knew that is not inherent in the text.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, Nineveh at the time is not a great city, okay?
SPEAKER_02: It is a very violent city.
SPEAKER_02: They are known for the way they punish people, and they punish people severely.
SPEAKER_02: I'll show you that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_02: But I just want to say when God says go to that great city, people are like, What?
SPEAKER_02: No, not Nineveh is like probably the third ranked city in this country, okay?
SPEAKER_02: But only in God's economy is how God was going to use it one day.
SPEAKER_02: God knew two things.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, that Nineveh would eventually become the capital of Assyria.
SPEAKER_02: Now, let me ground this in every day because some of you are like, Nineveh, what do you mean, Assyria?
SPEAKER_02: It's not the capital, but it would eventually become the capital.
SPEAKER_02: Think of this.
SPEAKER_02: Twenty years ago, there was a little sleepy community on the west of uh of Sugarland out here called Fulsher.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: You tracking with me now?
SPEAKER_02: It's not sleepy anymore.
SPEAKER_02: I remember we used to go, we had friends that lived out there.
SPEAKER_02: We go see them, there were longhorn cattle in the pastures.
SPEAKER_02: You could just, I mean, it's nothing now.
SPEAKER_02: There's houses everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: And they're building more, okay?
SPEAKER_02: It's funny, somebody said to me the other day, man, we're getting out of here.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to, and they name some city.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, eventually, Sugarland will connect with that.
SPEAKER_02: It's just gonna just keep building and going that way.
SPEAKER_02: 20 years ago, 25 years ago, that's what Folcher was like.
SPEAKER_02: Not so much today, okay?
SPEAKER_02: That's what Nineveh was like.
SPEAKER_02: But God saw God, God is one of the only people that can see things, God and mothers who see things as they are, but also he can see them as they're going to one day be.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the other thing that God saw.
SPEAKER_02: He saw that Nineveh would eventually become the capital of Assyria.
SPEAKER_02: And secondly, God knew how he would use Assyria to discipline his own people.
SPEAKER_02: This is why I've said this a long time ago, I just repeat every once in a while.
SPEAKER_02: He's not just a God of instrumentation, he's a God of orchestration.
SPEAKER_02: He is orchestrating events because later on in 722 BC, he raises up a nation called Assyria.
SPEAKER_02: Nineveh is the capital of Assyria.
SPEAKER_02: Right now, and it's not what it's going to one day be.
SPEAKER_02: But God raises up the country, the nation of Assyria to punish his people.
SPEAKER_02: And I would submit to you on this first day that we jump into the book of the little Old Testament book of Jonah that God knows what he's doing all along.
SPEAKER_02: And he rescues and redeems, and he sends a man to preach the gospel to this to this depraved city.
SPEAKER_02: And you say, No, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: It was not what is it one day going to be?
SPEAKER_02: No, it was very violent.
SPEAKER_02: The city, the Assyrians were known for their brutal violence, and they would commemorate their violence.
SPEAKER_02: They would not do something brutal and go, we didn't do that.
SPEAKER_02: No, they had artists.
SPEAKER_02: I brought you a representation of what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_02: They had artists.
SPEAKER_02: This is a bronze plaque on the wall of the city, and it shows them cutting people's feet off.
SPEAKER_02: And back up on the right, look away, small children, are the heads of people.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you're riding into the city and you see this on uh this is like a billboard.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Nineveh.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is in Jonah's mind.
SPEAKER_02: Take that down.
SPEAKER_02: There's small children here.
SPEAKER_02: Uh now you're welcome, parents.
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh, Nineveh bad, Sugarland good.
SPEAKER_02: Uh no, this is what they were known for.
SPEAKER_02: And this is this is why I say God sees things as they are, and as they will one day be.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody could look and go, oh my gosh, Nineveh, it's the city of blood.
SPEAKER_02: Those people are bloodthirsty and crazy.
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't go there for anything.
SPEAKER_02: Now, here's something you need to understand about God.
SPEAKER_02: Now, let me just say this.
SPEAKER_02: Moms, when I say see things, God and mothers can see things as they are, and as they're going to one day be.
SPEAKER_02: Moms, if you have a prodigal, if you have a kid that's off the reservation or not living like you know they are capable of living, there may be people in your life that are coaching you up on what you should do and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just say this.
SPEAKER_02: As a mom, you have this great Christ-like capacity to see them as they are, but also as they're going to one day be.
SPEAKER_02: Now, you you gotta you gotta do both.
SPEAKER_02: You gotta see them, you gotta be honest and say, this is not your bright, shining moment.
SPEAKER_02: I love you, I'm your mom, I'm never gonna stop believing in you.
SPEAKER_02: But what gives you hope is you see who they are, but you also see them as they can one day be.
SPEAKER_02: If that makes sense to anybody besides me, say amen.
SPEAKER_02: And so sometimes people come to you and they're like, hey, you need that, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02: Like, I used to coach my mom on how to discipline my brothers.
SPEAKER_02: And I would say things like, Mom, you just don't understand.
SPEAKER_02: And my mom would look at me.
SPEAKER_02: My mom smoked back then and she was like, Are you done?
SPEAKER_02: Uh, my youngest, who was on probation in the eighth grade.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02: Because self-righteousness is a disease that everyone catches at some point in your life.
SPEAKER_02: And when I got my act together, I looked down my self-righteous nose at my brother, is kind of like, Why can't you guys do good?
SPEAKER_02: Can't you see how you're hurting our mother?
SPEAKER_02: If you loved our mother, would you do this?
SPEAKER_02: And my mom was like, I'll be their mother, you be their brother.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Okay, mom, here's what I didn't understand back then.
SPEAKER_02: My mom saw my brothers, it's who they are, but also she saw who they could be.
SPEAKER_02: Now, by the grace of God, one of them has come there.
SPEAKER_02: One of them's got to that place.
SPEAKER_02: The other one's kind of still on the journey.
SPEAKER_02: And you say, Well, what's that like?
SPEAKER_02: I see him as he is.
SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't lie to myself and say, Oh, it's not what he's like, but I also pray for him as he can one day be.
SPEAKER_02: This, if you're not careful, if you just see people as they are, you pray at them.
SPEAKER_02: If you see them as they can one day be, you pray for them.
SPEAKER_02: There's a big difference.
SPEAKER_02: You should ask your kids.
SPEAKER_02: If you've got a prodigal, ask your kid, hey, do you feel like I pray at you or for you?
SPEAKER_02: And then don't try to edit their answer.
SPEAKER_02: Because you may not like their answer.
SPEAKER_02: You you don't just pray at them, you pray for them, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Now, here's something you need to understand about God.
SPEAKER_02: He acts in the now to get us ready for the then.
SPEAKER_02: You ever sin and wonder why God doesn't strike you down right there on the spot?
SPEAKER_02: Say amen.
SPEAKER_02: There's a few real sinners in here.
SPEAKER_02: Let me ask that again.
SPEAKER_02: You ever sin, you ever like Jonah, you have something you know it's wrong?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you didn't know what your mama didn't have to tell you it's wrong, your daddy don't have to tell you it's wrong, your boyfriend, spouse didn't tell you it's wrong.
SPEAKER_02: You know in your bones that it's wrong.
SPEAKER_02: You get there's a party who's like, I'm gonna do it anyway, okay?
SPEAKER_02: And then after you do it, you're like, I don't know why God didn't strike me dead.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_02: Well, here's why, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Listen very carefully.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not minimizing sin, I'm magnifying the nature of God, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Here's what God acts in the now to get you ready for the then.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe, maybe he's seeing now through the lens of then.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying that sin's not a big deal.
SPEAKER_02: I'm saying this.
SPEAKER_02: God knows that you won't always struggle with this sin.
SPEAKER_02: He knows this will not always be a part of your life.
SPEAKER_02: Said differently, he's seeing now through the lens of them.
SPEAKER_02: What you have to do is not mistake patience for indifference.
SPEAKER_02: Don't mistake patience.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is patient with you, not willing that any should suffer.
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't mean that he's indifferent.
SPEAKER_02: I've had people say to me over and over in my office when they say, Yeah, here's where I'm, I'm just, dude, I'm living sin.
SPEAKER_02: It's blatant, I know it's wrong, but nothing bad has happened yet.
SPEAKER_02: And I just say, you know, the only word I heard in that sentence was yet.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Again, you say, Well, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking that God sees things as they are and as they will be.
SPEAKER_02: That's the great thing about God.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the third thing I want you to see from the text.
SPEAKER_02: God can be patient in the in response to evil.
SPEAKER_02: God can be patient in response to evil.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: For their evil has come up before me.
SPEAKER_02: Their evil has come up before me.
SPEAKER_02: And I was standing in a business about four days ago, uh, and and I was renting space for a climate-controlled storage unit to put my kids' stuff in because a 21-year-old girl's got a lot of stuff and it don't fit in my house.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just like, I'm gonna get a storage.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm standing there talking to the lady, and she goes, Well, you need this many months, and I'll give you one month free.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, that's great.
SPEAKER_02: And then she said, It's this much.
SPEAKER_02: And I just was joking.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Man, these women are expensive.
SPEAKER_02: And the man behind the counter said, That's why I only date men.
SPEAKER_02: And there I was, he's four feet away.
SPEAKER_02: And I pointed my finger at him and I said, It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
SPEAKER_02: I tell you what.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, I was just like, that explains the pants you're wearing.
SPEAKER_02: Because he had these knickers on, had little bows on the side of them.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, dude, do they sell men's pants when you got those?
SPEAKER_02: Watch it, buddy.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and so the next day, I'm loading stuff into the common control storage unit.
SPEAKER_02: I rented, and guess who's in the hallway with me?
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Hey man, I didn't get your name yesterday.
SPEAKER_02: And he told me his name.
SPEAKER_02: I told him my name, and I said, I don't know if you're meaningfully connected to a church, but I pastored the church right down the street.
SPEAKER_02: I just wanted you to know you'd be welcome.
SPEAKER_02: And we're shaking hands, and he's looking at me like, you ever shake hands with somebody you can feel them trying to get away?
SPEAKER_02: And I just kind of squeezed his hand and I said, I thought you liked holding hands with men.
SPEAKER_02: Not yours.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, he said, then he said to me, again, it gets better.
SPEAKER_02: He said to me, Well, I'll send my wife.
SPEAKER_02: She's a real sinner.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, your wife?
SPEAKER_02: How have you worked that deal out?
SPEAKER_02: Your wife would be welcome because there's real sinners at my church.
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Really?
SPEAKER_02: I said, Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Live every Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: I want to get one of those signs with a yellow arrow that points and just put on it real live sinners every Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: But the elders won't let me.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, So your church is full of sinners.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: Some are redeemed, some are still on the way.
SPEAKER_02: And the look on his face said, That's enough of this.
SPEAKER_02: And he grabbed himself and walked off.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: See you later.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Nice to meet you.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Nice to meet you.
SPEAKER_02: You see, it's one thing to say God can be patient in response to evil, but if you claim to know God, you have to be patient in response to evil as well.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, all sexual behavior outside the context of marriage, heterosexual or homosexual, is evil in the eyes of God.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not piloting the homosexual community.
SPEAKER_02: If you're heterosexual and you're and you're committing sexual sin, that's evil as well.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just saying, God can be patient in the presence of evil.
SPEAKER_02: He's not like an alcoholic stepdad who flies off the handle anytime we make a mistake.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, this is how the Bible describes God in the 103rd Psalm.
SPEAKER_02: It says the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_02: He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
SPEAKER_02: He does not deal with us according to our sins.
SPEAKER_02: And let me just stop right there.
SPEAKER_02: That line that says, Nor will he keep his anger forever.
SPEAKER_02: You should hear that and ask yourself, are you keeping anger in you for somebody right now as you sit in this room?
SPEAKER_02: Because that's not Christ-like.
SPEAKER_02: Not at all.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says of God, the person, the only person who really has the right to be angry at every all of us for the rest of eternity, the Bible says, He will not keep his anger forever.
SPEAKER_02: He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
SPEAKER_02: For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him.
SPEAKER_02: As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
SPEAKER_02: As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: And so I just want to point out there evils come up before him, he doesn't fall off the handle.
SPEAKER_02: What?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: Because God can be very patient, very patient in the presence in response to evil.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the fourth thing I want you to see in the text.
SPEAKER_02: There's nowhere you can go to get away from God.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 3, this is where I just chuckle when I read this.
SPEAKER_02: It says, But Jonah rose to flee from Tarshus from the presence of the Lord, like God lived in Tarshus.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm leaving Tarshish.
SPEAKER_02: You can't get me.
SPEAKER_02: Then he says this from the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshus, and so he paid the fare and went down into it to go with him to Tarshus away from the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I just want to say, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, maybe just a little bit, and just say, there's nowhere you can go to get away from God.
SPEAKER_02: So at some point, you have to come to some conclusions about God.
SPEAKER_02: Whether you're here today, you say, Hey, I'm a Christian, I'm an atheist, I'm an agnostic, I'm a seeker, I'm kind of curious, I don't know about all this.
SPEAKER_02: You will have to come to some conclusions about God because there's nowhere that you can get away from him.
SPEAKER_02: Think about it like this when Jesus was getting ready to be crucified, and Pilate did not want to take responsibility.
SPEAKER_02: So he says to the crowd, I'll tell you what, I'll release a criminal.
SPEAKER_02: I got this guy here, Barabbas.
SPEAKER_02: He he this guy's pathetic, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Everybody knows he's the con man and a crook.
SPEAKER_02: He got a rabbish as long as your arm, all right?
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you want Barabbas or do you want Jesus who is called to Christ?
SPEAKER_02: I'll I'll set one of them free.
SPEAKER_02: And the crowd said, Give us Barabbas.
SPEAKER_02: Even after you make a bad decision, the wrong decision, you still have to come to some conclusions about Jesus because.
SPEAKER_02: Pilate looked at the crowd and he said, Well, what then shall I do with Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Even after you make your choice, you still have this consequence of, like, okay, what am I going to do with this whole God thing?
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't go away just because you chose something else.
SPEAKER_02: There's nowhere you can go to get away from God.
SPEAKER_02: Jonah decided to go to Tarshus.
SPEAKER_02: Why there?
SPEAKER_02: It's the most western destination he could think of.
SPEAKER_02: But also, you don't have to turn there, but Isaiah 66, the Bible describes it as a place that has not heard of God's fame or seen his glory.
SPEAKER_02: And Jonah thought, that sounds like a great place to run from God.
SPEAKER_02: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_02: When you're trying to get away from God, where do you go?
SPEAKER_02: Is it to a person or is it to a place?
SPEAKER_02: When you're trying to run and get away from God, now the Bible warns us again about this, the futility of this kind of thinking in the 139th Psalm.
SPEAKER_02: It says this, he says, O Lord, you have searched me and know me.
SPEAKER_02: You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar.
SPEAKER_02: You search out my path and my lying down, and you're acquainted with all my ways.
SPEAKER_02: Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all together.
SPEAKER_02: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_02: You hem me in behind and before.
SPEAKER_02: You lay your hand upon me.
SPEAKER_02: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
SPEAKER_02: It is high, I cannot attain it.
SPEAKER_02: Where shall I go from your spirit?
SPEAKER_02: Now he says, Hey, you know me.
SPEAKER_02: Now he turns the corner and he's like, and you know where I am.
SPEAKER_02: Where shall I go from your spirit?
SPEAKER_02: Or where shall I flee from your presence?
SPEAKER_02: If I ascend to heaven, you're there.
SPEAKER_02: If I make my bed in Sheol, the place of the dead, you are there.
SPEAKER_02: If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
SPEAKER_02: If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light uh and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you.
SPEAKER_02: The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
SPEAKER_02: There's two things I want you to take away from this passage.
SPEAKER_02: I referenced them as I was reading.
SPEAKER_02: The first part, God knows us.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, God knows where we are.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I want to just confess my own running, uh trying to run from God uh story to you very quickly.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you're new to our church, let me just say this.
SPEAKER_02: I I did not want to be a preacher.
SPEAKER_02: Uh matter of fact, it was the last thing on my mind.
SPEAKER_02: I became a Christian right after I graduated high school, and somebody asked me to teach a Bible study two weeks later.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and and I prepared and I taught, and the guy came over to me and he said, Boy, Neil, if God's got his hand on you, don't run, man.
SPEAKER_02: You need to surrender to ministry.
SPEAKER_02: And all I heard was wear polyester and be miserable the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_02: And I just thought, I don't want any part of that.
SPEAKER_02: And so I literally went home and put my Bible on the dresser, and I just said, I ain't touching that.
SPEAKER_02: And about two weeks went by, I was laying in bed one night.
SPEAKER_02: I was just missed it.
SPEAKER_02: And so I got up.
SPEAKER_02: It was about midnight, turned the light on, started reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: But I told God, hey, listen, I'll be a good church-going person, I'll tithe, I'll volunteer, but I compared what God was calling me to do with what I was seeing other people do.
SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02: Comparison is one of the things that'll get you off quicker than anything.
SPEAKER_02: And so I just, for me, and it's changed since then, but back then, for me, preachers were the phoniest people I knew.
SPEAKER_02: I was just like, man, do you live in the real world?
SPEAKER_02: Do you ever have any problems?
SPEAKER_02: They smiled all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, brother.
SPEAKER_02: And they talked like this when they got up on Sundays.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, take your Bibles and open them up to the book of John.
SPEAKER_02: That's one if you're Hispanic.
SPEAKER_02: And I wouldn't be back there just thinking, man, I can't do this.
SPEAKER_02: And so I ran.
SPEAKER_02: Here's my confession.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not glorifying it.
SPEAKER_02: I'm confessing it.
SPEAKER_02: I ran.
SPEAKER_02: This is the second time I lived in Houston because when I was 18, I came to Houston and I got a job as the personal assistant to the vice president of an insurance company.
SPEAKER_02: I handled everything from his dry cleaning to his appointments, everything, dinner, everything I scaled.
SPEAKER_02: I handled it.
SPEAKER_02: I was like the concierge at a nice hotel.
SPEAKER_02: You couldn't get to him without coming through me.
SPEAKER_02: And I was well paid.
SPEAKER_02: And I liked it.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I miss it.
SPEAKER_02: But I knew it was wrong.
SPEAKER_02: I knew this is not what God had called me to do, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Because I just knew.
SPEAKER_02: And I remember I was laying on my couch one night watching TV in my apartment, and I just said out loud, be careful what you say.
SPEAKER_02: I said, God, I'm miserable.
SPEAKER_02: I know this is wrong.
SPEAKER_02: Give me the excuse to go home.
SPEAKER_02: Two weeks later, we went and played the tennis term.
SPEAKER_02: We used to play a lot of tennis.
SPEAKER_02: We got me and my buddy got in the finals.
SPEAKER_02: And so we spent the night up in Conrose at one of those resorts up there.
SPEAKER_02: And so we went to Trinity, Texas, went kicker dancing at a place called the Sundowner.
SPEAKER_02: Now it's a cowboy church.
SPEAKER_02: And so we gave two girls a ride home, and one of them was telling me how to get to her place, and she said, Oh, turn the light right there.
SPEAKER_02: I looked up, and the light was like right there.
SPEAKER_02: So I just turned.
SPEAKER_02: What I didn't see was two guys had been deer hunting, pulled over on the side of the road to go to the bathroom, got back on the road, and in a suburban, doing about 55 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't turn their lights back on.
SPEAKER_02: They got back on the road.
SPEAKER_02: When I turned, they hit me right broadside.
SPEAKER_02: Bent the door.
SPEAKER_02: The car was just like a U.
SPEAKER_02: I came, I remember everything was white, and I felt something hitting my face that was a windshield.
SPEAKER_02: And I came to and I was standing out, and it happened in a little town called Love Lady, Texas.
SPEAKER_02: I remember I was holding on to a stop sign, and people were running, get him down, get him down.
SPEAKER_02: He's bleeding.
SPEAKER_02: People were moaning in the car.
SPEAKER_02: It was not good.
SPEAKER_02: Spent two nights in the hospital.
SPEAKER_02: A friend of mine came from East Texas to get me.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm, I said, I need to go get my coat.
SPEAKER_02: I got a nice coat in the car.
SPEAKER_02: So I go to the wreck because I'm just arrogant running from God.
SPEAKER_02: Because here's the thing: when you run from God, every day you think you're getting away with it, you get more cocky.
SPEAKER_02: And so God's like, let me just turn up the volume on who I am.
SPEAKER_02: Because you clearly do not understand my nature.
SPEAKER_02: And so I go to the wrecking yard, and this was my moment.
SPEAKER_02: This is why I'm standing on the stage before you today.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Hey, there's a car came in.
SPEAKER_02: I had my head all sewed up, and the guy's like, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Came in a couple nights, yeah, it's right over here.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, I don't know if those kids lived.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I was driving this car.
SPEAKER_02: This guy was, he had an old white beard, he was smoking those Prince Albert roll-rolling cigarettes.
SPEAKER_02: He he was about from me to that little square right there from me.
SPEAKER_02: He walked over to me and got right in my face.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Hey boy, you're alive for a reason.
SPEAKER_02: You better figure out why.
SPEAKER_02: And that was my moment.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't care about money.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't, did I tell you we were supposed to move in that Monday into a two-story, two-bedroom, uh uh townhome with a sunken jacuzzi?
SPEAKER_02: Wow, wow, wow, wow.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't care about that.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't care about that big deal we were supposed to close on Tuesday.
SPEAKER_02: And where the guy I worked for said, hey man, after this, I'll start teaching you the business.
SPEAKER_02: And with your personality, you'll be a millionaire in just a matter of time.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02: Standing in a wrecking yard with an old man blowing cigarette smoke in my face.
SPEAKER_02: I heard the voice of God come out of that man.
SPEAKER_02: And I realized in that moment, this is not the reason I'm alive.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not living the life I'm living.
SPEAKER_02: And so I stopped running.
SPEAKER_02: I said, take me back to my apartment.
SPEAKER_02: I need to go home.
SPEAKER_02: And I walked into my apartment, got my stuff, I left the rest of it.
SPEAKER_02: And he took me back to East Texas.
SPEAKER_02: And I walked in the first Baptist church and it was over.
SPEAKER_02: They were singing.
SPEAKER_02: Remember they used to sing the invitation hymn?
SPEAKER_02: Remember that?
SPEAKER_02: Old school church?
SPEAKER_02: They were singing the old hymn, Pastor Me Not Old Gentle Savior.
SPEAKER_02: And I just stood in the back and just bawled.
SPEAKER_02: And then I left.
SPEAKER_02: I walked out.
SPEAKER_02: Went home.
SPEAKER_02: My mom said, Oh, my mom's from Minnesota.
SPEAKER_02: She talks like this.
SPEAKER_02: She said, Oh, oh son, are you done running?
SPEAKER_02: I said, Mom, how'd you know?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I dedicated you to the Lord when you were born.
SPEAKER_02: I knew He had a call on your life.
SPEAKER_02: That would have helped, Mom.
SPEAKER_02: Just break a brother off a little bit of information.
SPEAKER_02: But she didn't.
SPEAKER_02: And I ran.
SPEAKER_02: And God said, You done?
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Yes.
SPEAKER_02: And look at me.
SPEAKER_02: It was the greatest day of my life.
SPEAKER_02: Greatest day of my life.
SPEAKER_02: When an old man blew smoke in my face and said, You're alive for a reason.
SPEAKER_02: You better figure out why.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know God smoked Prince Albert cigarettes, but thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the fifth thing I want to say to you: disobedience is a downward journey.
SPEAKER_02: Verse three, disobedience is a downward journey, a journey.
SPEAKER_02: But Jonah, God says, by the way, he says in verse two, arise.
SPEAKER_02: Some translations say, up, up, get up, Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Arise.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 3 says, But Jonah rose to flee from Tarshus from the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshus.
SPEAKER_02: So he paid the fare and he went down into it to go with them to Tarshus away from the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And then next Sunday you'll see that he goes down into the sea.
SPEAKER_02: Here's why.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to spend a lot of time on it, but disobedience is a downward journey.
SPEAKER_02: Downward journey.
SPEAKER_02: Because here's the thing: he sets himself at odds with God's design for his life.
SPEAKER_02: Jonah sets himself at odds with God's design for his life.
SPEAKER_02: And this is the essence, beloved, of disobedience.
SPEAKER_02: It is rooted in the belief that our design for our lives is better than God's design for your life, God's plan for your life.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the last thing I want to point to in the text.
SPEAKER_02: I think this is the sixth thing.
SPEAKER_02: We'll be done this morning.
SPEAKER_02: God is sovereign over all things, and he uses everything over which he is sovereign.
SPEAKER_02: God is sovereign.
SPEAKER_02: Sovereign means he's in control.
SPEAKER_02: He has unquestioned, unchallenged authority.
SPEAKER_02: He is sovereign over all things, and he uses everything over which he is sovereign.
SPEAKER_02: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: It's verse 4.
SPEAKER_02: But the Lord, he goes to Tarshus away from the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and it was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was threatened to break up.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when the Bible says that the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, look at me.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to picture God with a javelin in his hand.
SPEAKER_02: That's how sovereign God is over the elements.
SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't fear Mother Nature, you should fear Father God, who is sovereign over all of the elements, and he uses them to accomplish his purposes.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing that God is not sovereign over, and therefore everything is at his disposal.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say this again because some of you stiff-necked people need to hear this today.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing that God is not sovereign over, and therefore everything is at his disposal.
SPEAKER_02: You play a role in what God is doing.
SPEAKER_02: God is not here to play a role in what you're doing.
SPEAKER_02: He's not here to take part, he's here to take over.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes God has to convey his nature in order to conform us to his will.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what you'll see in the book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: God conveys, he demonstrates his nature, who he is, to conform Jonah to his will, to conform the Ninevites and this entire city to his will.
SPEAKER_02: Because they they they they eventually hear what God is trying to say.
SPEAKER_02: And I just want to say this is what I mean by the motivating power of God's nature.
SPEAKER_02: God is so sovereign over all things and he uses everything over which he is sovereign.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: Let me just be real practical and I'll be done.
SPEAKER_02: You still with me say amen.
SPEAKER_02: God is sovereign over car wrecks.
SPEAKER_02: God is sovereign over a breakup.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you are gonna waste your life trying to make a relationship work that God has said, hey, I'm bigger than this.
SPEAKER_02: Stop trying to make this thing work out.
SPEAKER_02: It's not working because I don't want it to work.
SPEAKER_02: God is sovereign over a friendship ending.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: That means some friendships run their course.
SPEAKER_02: I told my girls, hey, when people show you their true colors, don't look away.
SPEAKER_02: Don't cry over that friendship.
SPEAKER_02: Don't even be sad.
SPEAKER_02: That's an answer to prayer.
SPEAKER_02: I've been praying that.
SPEAKER_02: I have.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: See, here's what I want you to think about today, okay?
SPEAKER_02: It's it's nerdy for me to say God is sovereign over all things and uses everything over which he is sovereign.
SPEAKER_02: But you think about it.
SPEAKER_02: If God is sovereign as the Bible teaches, he has ultimate authority and power and control.
SPEAKER_02: Who can challenge him?
SPEAKER_02: Do you want to put yourself in that position?
SPEAKER_02: Because he's not trying to make your life miserable, he's trying to bring your life into submission with his plan for your life.
SPEAKER_02: This is what God is doing.
SPEAKER_02: And this is very loving.
SPEAKER_02: And he will do everything, he'll use everything at your disposal.
SPEAKER_02: And so when I walked away from this career, that people are telling me, Oh man, you're gonna be wildly successful.
SPEAKER_02: I remember writing in my journal, I want to be obedient, not successful.
SPEAKER_02: I just want to be obedient.
SPEAKER_02: The success is God's responsibility.
SPEAKER_02: I just want to be faithful.
SPEAKER_02: I don't care about the world's definition of success because God used a car wreck to wake me up and say, Hey, you're done running?
SPEAKER_02: Because I got plenty more where this came from.
SPEAKER_02: Again, this is what I mean by the motivating power of God's nature.
SPEAKER_02: It's not your nature versus God's nature because that's no contest.
SPEAKER_02: It's simply this.
SPEAKER_02: Do you understand that your life finds meaning and purpose and fulfillment in the context of God's plan for your life?
SPEAKER_02: If you're like Jonah today, you can run.
SPEAKER_02: I can't I can't make you stop running.
SPEAKER_02: But I can tell you from my personal experience and from the authority of the Bible that God will just keep up in the ante until it gets your attention.
SPEAKER_02: So you just have to decide how do I want this to go?
SPEAKER_02: What is it gonna take for me to turn my life in the direction of God's will and away from my will?
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: If you're a guest, just relax.
SPEAKER_02: We'd like to teach the Bible, and then we give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_02: Some questions come up on the screen, those are there.
SPEAKER_02: We'll use them in our community groups.
SPEAKER_02: You can take a picture and think about them, kind of pray through them this week.
SPEAKER_02: Or right now, just be still and just ask the Lord, Lord, I have my name on it.
SPEAKER_02: What do you want me to walk away from today thinking about?
SPEAKER_02: Let's just think just for a minute before we're dismissed.
SPEAKER_02: God, that's our confession this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Is that you're sovereign over us?
SPEAKER_02: You are bigger, and your plan is better.
SPEAKER_02: And that's a bitter peel for some of us to swallow because we've fallen in love with our plan for our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And yet the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: To know enough about God to fear, not be afraid, but have this deep sense of reverence and awe.
SPEAKER_02: To know enough about God and to understand your nature such that we have reverence and awe for you like we have for nobody or nothing else in this world.
SPEAKER_02: This is the beginning of wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit, so work in our lives that you make of us wise men and women.
SPEAKER_02: This is our prayer.
SPEAKER_02: We pray in Christ's name, and everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: If you're our guest today, let me say thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what brought you today.
SPEAKER_02: If your mom said, Hey, for Mother's Day, I want you to come to church with me, uh, but I want you to know you're always welcome.
SPEAKER_02: If you're not meaningfully connected to a church, I would love for you to look in and explore this church.
SPEAKER_02: You're sitting around some of the most authentic people you will ever meet.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're our guest today, all that I ask of you is you text the word welcome to that number on the screen behind me.
SPEAKER_02: It gives us a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_02: We'll shoot you a text back.
SPEAKER_02: We just want to help you take the next step in your spiritual journey, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Speaking of next steps, we have things going on in life for our church all the time.
SPEAKER_02: We make you aware of those every week by way of our video announcements.
SPEAKER_02: So check out the screens to see what's coming up.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's happening at Grankway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: The varsity is for all adults ages 60 and over.
SPEAKER_00: Come join us on May 22nd for lunch and to connect.
SPEAKER_00: At Grand Park Way, we believe you are the most experienced people and that you're still in the game.
SPEAKER_00: Register online today and invite friends.
SPEAKER_00: The event starts at 10:30 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: and the cost is$10 per person.
SPEAKER_00: This summer, we are partnering with a ministry in San Antonio called Blueprint Ministries.
SPEAKER_00: This ministry works to provide families with homes that are livable.
SPEAKER_00: Few things build stronger bonds than hard work and making an impact on people.
SPEAKER_00: This trip will do both of those, helping students work together as a team, but also being the hands and feet of Jesus to homeowners who really need their help.
SPEAKER_00: Students will learn some practical life skills to make them more self-sufficient young men and women.
SPEAKER_00: The deadline register is May 24th.
SPEAKER_00: We will be back at Mary's Promise on two dates this summer, June 3rd and August 5th.
SPEAKER_00: We volunteer to serve at their weekly Bible study where 50 to 70 children show up to read the Bible and learn about the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: With the kids still out of school, this is a great opportunity for your whole family to serve together or to grab some friends and invite them to come serve alongside you.
SPEAKER_00: Our summer book groups are a chance to digest a great book and connect with other women.
SPEAKER_00: Groups will meet all over town throughout the summer.
SPEAKER_00: Pick the book or location that works for you, or the book, and join in the dialogue and connection.
SPEAKER_00: Starting May 18th, we will be collecting food from our Brother's Keeper Outreach Center.
SPEAKER_00: The summer months are a crucial time as their food supplies often dwindle leading into this time of year.
SPEAKER_00: This is an opportunity for us to live out our core value of blessing to a local community.
SPEAKER_00: Please drop off your canned goods and non-perishable food items at the Mission Center in the lobby.
SPEAKER_00: For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors or elders at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_02: Mac and cheese is very popular.
SPEAKER_02: Basically, we want to help replenish the food pantry for my brother's keeper.
SPEAKER_02: So if you come, just bring in this, you can bring in a box or sack, you just drop it off at the mission center, which is right here behind that wall right there.
SPEAKER_02: There's a big flat screen TV.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody'll be there.
SPEAKER_02: And when it all when we get done in a month's time, they're going to come pick it up.
SPEAKER_02: Well, we was talking to them this week, and I said, How's your summer going?
SPEAKER_02: They said, it's a little thin in our food pantry.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Can we help?
SPEAKER_02: And they were like, Yes, you can.
SPEAKER_02: And so this is what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02: We want to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_02: We have four core values as a church: gospel, community, mission, and blessing.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we believe the gospel produces a community of people on the shared mission, and central to that is to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna be a blessing to a community uh right here in our city.
SPEAKER_02: My brother's keeper is over off Beechnut uh in a part of town that could use a little bit of light.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02: Say amen.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: Would I conclude our service with a smoking blessing?
SPEAKER_02: So stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_02: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_02: God is like a mother, and then he sees you for who you really are.
SPEAKER_02: But he also sees who you're gonna one day be.
SPEAKER_02: And he's patient, and he's long suffering, and he's interceding for you even now.
SPEAKER_02: Never lose sight of that.
SPEAKER_02: Translation don't give up on yourself because God's not going to.
SPEAKER_02: Depart now.
SPEAKER_02: Live in this life and fullness that only God can bring.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Bless you.