Running from Grace
Series: MISSION MONTH
Speaker: James Barnett
Date: 12th May 2019
00:00:00 --> 00:00:07 There's a man sitting here worried that he has sinned too much.
00:00:07 --> 00:00:15 A woman sitting here worried her hidden sin will be revealed and God will not love her anymore.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:21 There's a person here worried that God doesn't love them because they can't love themselves.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:22 They have no reason.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:28 There's a child in kids' church who's unsure how God the Father could love them.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:35 They're unsure how God the Father will treat them because of how their own father treats them.
00:00:36 --> 00:00:43 There's a parent angry with themselves because they were not patient or gentle or loving with their children.
00:00:44 --> 00:00:52 There's a man and a woman exhausted from pushing themselves to obey God because they're scared that he doesn't love them.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:56 These are all hypothetical people.
00:00:56 --> 00:01:09 And yet, they are all us, ordinary people, that feel like they're sinking down to rock bottom, trying to earn, to deserve and to be worth God's favor.
00:01:10 --> 00:01:15 What each of them desperately need to know is God's grace.
00:01:15 --> 00:01:33 Jonah is one of those people.
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 He is jealous of God's grace and love.
00:01:37 --> 00:01:42 He doesn't want any other city like Nineveh to have God's grace and love.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:50 He has made God into his own version of God who will only show grace and mercy to those whom Jonah decides.
00:01:51 --> 00:01:59 So when God sends Jonah to preach to Nineveh, he runs, even on a ship heading in the opposite direction.
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 God sends a storm and Jonah is thrown overboard.
00:02:03 --> 00:02:08 His life is sacrificed for the lives of the sailors.
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12 Jonah isn't that different to us.
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 He too needs God's grace and love.
00:02:17 --> 00:02:23 It just takes him being thrown into the ocean, down to rock bottom, to realize that.
00:02:24 --> 00:02:29 What is it going to take us to realize that we need God's grace?
00:02:29 --> 00:02:33 As we come to God's word this morning, let me pray for us.
00:02:33 --> 00:02:39 Heavenly Father, as we come before you today, we come before you in desperate need.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:42 Help us to know your grace.
00:02:43 --> 00:02:43 Amen.
00:02:44 --> 00:02:51 Jonah was thrown into the ocean at his insistence in the middle of this divine storm.
00:02:52 --> 00:02:58 He was sacrificed so that the lives of the sailors might continue, so that they might live.
00:02:58 --> 00:03:03 And it's likely that he was thrown into the ocean, fully expecting to die.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 Because who would expect what God did next?
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 Have a look at verse 17 of chapter 1.
00:03:10 --> 00:03:14 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah.
00:03:14 --> 00:03:18 And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 Often when we think of the book of Jonah, we think of that big fish.
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 The fish only gets three verses though.
00:03:26 --> 00:03:28 He's just a bit part player.
00:03:29 --> 00:03:38 The book of Jonah really is a book about Jonah seeing God's grace and mercy and Nineveh and God's grace and mercy.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:48 It takes going down to the depths of the ocean in the belly of a fish for Jonah to know God's grace personally.
00:03:48 --> 00:03:55 Ever since God told Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh, he has done the exact opposite.
00:03:56 --> 00:03:58 Jonah has been going down the whole time.
00:03:58 --> 00:04:00 He went down to Joppa.
00:04:01 --> 00:04:02 Down to the ship.
00:04:02 --> 00:04:03 Down into the ship.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 And now he's gone even further down.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 He's metaphorically gone down to hell itself.
00:04:11 --> 00:04:33 Jonah is going down to the depths.
00:04:33 --> 00:04:39 And all of this imagery presents a picture of a watery grave.
00:04:39 --> 00:04:44 He was as good as dead until God sent that big fish.
00:04:45 --> 00:04:46 But for how long?
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 How long was he going to survive?
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 It was only a temporary salvation.
00:04:52 --> 00:04:56 It's a radical mercy by God that he's alive even in the belly of the fish.
00:04:56 --> 00:05:00 But he's going to need another act of God to save him.
00:05:01 --> 00:05:06 That would only come when he was all the way down to the bottom.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:08 The rock bottom.
00:05:08 --> 00:05:13 Until he couldn't be lifted up by his own sense of self-sufficiency.
00:05:14 --> 00:05:18 But instead when he could depend on God's saving grace.
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 Because there was a fatal flaw in his character.
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 And it got him sent to rock bottom.
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 So that his complete failure could be seen.
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 So that he could begin to change.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:36 Now there are different types of rock bottom experiences in life.
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 I'm going to try and describe two of them.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 There's two different kinds of rock bottom experiences I think we can have.
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 There are absolute rock bottoms.
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 And there are crisis induced rock bottoms.
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 Let me try and explain these two.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:56 Absolute rock bottoms are when a person.
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 Because of an action or an act has lost everything.
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 Here Jonah he's in the belly of a fish.
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 He has lost absolutely everything.
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 And from this position of rock bottom.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:10 He cries out in desperation.
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 Because all he has is God at this point.
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 He is unable to solve his situation.
00:06:16 --> 00:06:17 Verse 5.
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 The engulfing waters threatened me.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:20 The deep surrounded me.
00:06:20 --> 00:06:23 Seaweed was wrapped around my head.
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27 He is down in the depths.
00:06:28 --> 00:06:29 He may as well be dead.
00:06:30 --> 00:06:31 This truly is a crisis.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 This truly is rock bottom.
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 You may have experienced this.
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 You may have seen someone experience this.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:47 It's the type of rock bottom that you see when someone has gone bankrupt.
00:06:47 --> 00:06:48 They have nothing left.
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 When someone has gone to jail.
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 When someone is convicted of a crime.
00:06:53 --> 00:06:58 It's like Job in the Old Testament who lost everything he had.
00:06:58 --> 00:07:05 That's the first type of rock bottom that we can see.
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 The rock bottom where everything is gone.
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 There's another type of rock bottom.
00:07:11 --> 00:07:12 Which is...
00:07:12 --> 00:07:15 I'm going to describe it as crisis-induced rock bottom.
00:07:15 --> 00:07:22 It's where a crisis causes the bottom of our life to go out.
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 It's a crisis that comes when maybe there's a health scare.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 When there's a diagnosis of cancer.
00:07:29 --> 00:07:30 And you still have family.
00:07:30 --> 00:07:31 You still have friends around.
00:07:32 --> 00:07:35 But you have that feeling of hitting rock bottom.
00:07:35 --> 00:07:38 Maybe when a family member dies.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 And you're confronted with your own mortality.
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 Maybe when your sin is revealed publicly.
00:07:45 --> 00:07:48 It's that moment that you just want everything to change.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:49 You want to put your head in the sand.
00:07:49 --> 00:07:50 You just want to run.
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 That moment of crisis.
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 So there's two different types of rock bottom.
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 The rock bottom when everything is gone.
00:07:58 --> 00:08:02 And the rock bottom when we're just confronted with the reality of life.
00:08:02 --> 00:08:03 And we need to flee.
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 They're different.
00:08:05 --> 00:08:10 But what is unique is that it leads us to say something has to change.
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 Jonah's rock bottom moment.
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 It's different to Job's rock bottom moment.
00:08:16 --> 00:08:21 It's different to the Apostle Paul's rock bottom moment when he was confronted with Jesus.
00:08:22 --> 00:08:29 We all have different experiences of what our rock bottom is.
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 And we can experience different levels of crisis.
00:08:33 --> 00:08:35 High and low throughout our lives.
00:08:36 --> 00:08:42 What is important is not what kind of crisis or rock bottom that we have in our life.
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 It's not important how big it is.
00:08:45 --> 00:08:52 The most important thing is how do we respond when our life is down in the dumps.
00:08:52 --> 00:08:53 When our life is in crisis.
00:08:53 --> 00:08:59 Getting out of rock bottom might be something that we try and fix ourselves.
00:08:59 --> 00:09:00 There's a health scare.
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 And so it's new fad diet.
00:09:04 --> 00:09:05 It's exercise.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:11 All done in an attempt to not hit that crisis again.
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 It's a grasping for control.
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 You know, I was scared before and I don't want to be scared again.
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 So I'm going to take control of the situation.
00:09:20 --> 00:09:22 It's that I'm going to pull myself up by the bootstraps.
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 I don't know if you have boots that have straps.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:29 But it's that idea of I'm going to take control and everything's going to be okay.
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 I'm going to work really hard.
00:09:31 --> 00:09:36 But the reality is in life, there is always another crisis coming.
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 There will always be something in the future.
00:09:39 --> 00:09:42 Whether it's another global financial crisis.
00:09:43 --> 00:09:47 Whether it's going to be a severe storm that damages a house or a property.
00:09:48 --> 00:09:48 You lose your job.
00:09:49 --> 00:09:52 You recover from one health scare only to be hit by another.
00:09:53 --> 00:09:59 Something will always come along to remind us that we are not in control.
00:09:59 --> 00:10:06 Our moment of rock bottom, our biggest moment of rock bottom hit in 2011.
00:10:07 --> 00:10:10 Alyssa and I had lost our first pregnancy.
00:10:10 --> 00:10:11 We lost our first baby.
00:10:12 --> 00:10:15 It was utter grief.
00:10:17 --> 00:10:20 We didn't know why we'd lost this little baby.
00:10:20 --> 00:10:24 And we spent days in tears.
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 Unsure why God had let this happen.
00:10:27 --> 00:10:31 I was at Moore College studying to be a pastor.
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 And there was a part of me that cried out,
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 God, I'm doing everything to serve you.
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 I'm studying so I can become a pastor.
00:10:39 --> 00:10:40 Where is your blessing?
00:10:41 --> 00:10:42 Why has this happened?
00:10:44 --> 00:10:49 That rock bottom moment sent us to God in prayer.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:50 confused?
00:10:51 --> 00:10:51 Angry?
00:10:53 --> 00:10:54 We had many questions.
00:10:56 --> 00:11:02 When we got pregnant a second time with Isaac, we were terrified.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:05 What is going to happen?
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 Is the same thing going to happen again?
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 Are we going to make it to full term this time?
00:11:10 --> 00:11:15 And we realized that in life we are not in control.
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 Only God is in control.
00:11:18 --> 00:11:21 And all we had was to depend upon God.
00:11:22 --> 00:11:28 That rock bottom moment sent us to God in prayer and dependence.
00:11:28 --> 00:11:32 That even though his love is unearned, undeserved,
00:11:32 --> 00:11:36 he still chooses to show us grace and love.
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 Love to one such as us.
00:11:38 --> 00:11:45 Let me encourage you not to miss out on a rock bottom moment in your life.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:51 God might be using it to give you an opportunity to draw closer to him.
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 Not to depend upon yourself.
00:11:58 --> 00:12:01 Some of us here right now might be in a crisis moment.
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 We might be in a rock bottom.
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06 Where it feels like you're stuck.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 All seems lost.
00:12:08 --> 00:12:12 Life is crippling like it was for Jonah.
00:12:13 --> 00:12:14 Let me encourage you.
00:12:14 --> 00:12:20 Come to our Heavenly Father in prayer as one who loves and shows his grace to us.
00:12:21 --> 00:12:24 We must hand over these moments to God to actively say,
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 God, I am fearful.
00:12:26 --> 00:12:27 I am terrified.
00:12:27 --> 00:12:29 I don't know what is going to happen.
00:12:29 --> 00:12:31 I don't know what's going to come from this.
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34 I don't know what tomorrow is going to look like, let alone the next hour.
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 But you are in control.
00:12:38 --> 00:12:42 And regardless of what happens, you have shown your love to me at the cross.
00:12:44 --> 00:12:48 Now, if we don't, we just risk these crisis moments, just rocking the boat.
00:12:48 --> 00:12:49 It'll send us down.
00:12:49 --> 00:12:50 We'll recover.
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 We'll hit rock bottom again.
00:12:52 --> 00:12:57 Instead of depending upon God.
00:12:58 --> 00:13:02 For Jonah to be brought up out of this situation, he needed help.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:09 Being cast down to rock bottom doesn't necessarily bring Jonah closer to God.
00:13:09 --> 00:13:14 But it gives him an opportunity now that everything has been silenced.
00:13:15 --> 00:13:16 There's nobody else talking.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:17 He can't go anywhere.
00:13:18 --> 00:13:19 Can't do anything.
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 I have no idea what he's eating at this point.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:26 He's left alone with God in the belly of that fish.
00:13:26 --> 00:13:27 He's all alone.
00:13:27 --> 00:13:28 He can't run.
00:13:29 --> 00:13:33 And in his prayer, he comes to understand and to draw closer to God.
00:13:34 --> 00:13:39 At the climax of Jonah's prayer, the thing that gets him spat out of this fish,
00:13:40 --> 00:13:46 out of the land of the dead, and back into the land of the living, is God's grace.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 It takes the whole prayer to get there.
00:13:49 --> 00:13:52 Have a look with me at verse 7.
00:13:53 --> 00:14:00 When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
00:14:00 --> 00:14:05 Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them.
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 And then in verse 9, salvation comes from the Lord.
00:14:09 --> 00:14:13 Jonah, in his rock bottom moment, remembers the Lord.
00:14:14 --> 00:14:15 He remembers who he is.
00:14:15 --> 00:14:16 He is a God of love.
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 He is a God who brings salvation.
00:14:19 --> 00:14:20 No one else.
00:14:21 --> 00:14:23 And this love is a special love.
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 It's not the love between a husband and a wife.
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 It's not the love of friends or family members.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:31 This is a totally different kind of love.
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 I know very little Hebrew.
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 I know this word.
00:14:36 --> 00:14:40 This word for God's love here is hesed or hesed.
00:14:40 --> 00:14:45 Other translations use the word steadfast love.
00:14:45 --> 00:14:49 It is a gracious love.
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 God's gracious covenant love.
00:14:52 --> 00:14:56 Where he says, I will love you despite you.
00:14:56 --> 00:15:04 It is God's gracious love where he stays faithful to us regardless of our rebellion.
00:15:04 --> 00:15:10 I will show grace to you unmerited favor even though you do not deserve it.
00:15:11 --> 00:15:15 This is a loyal love which cannot be shaken.
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18 And this is the climax of Jonah's prayer.
00:15:18 --> 00:15:23 He describes God as the one who shows love, which is a gracious love.
00:15:23 --> 00:15:25 This is God's grace.
00:15:25 --> 00:15:35 And this really is the climax because Jonah in the belly of the fish, he dwells on the God who shows grace to people like him.
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 Here at church, we often talk about God's grace.
00:15:40 --> 00:15:44 We sing songs like amazing grace.
00:15:45 --> 00:15:49 It is so important for us to know what it means.
00:15:49 --> 00:15:56 We actually need to feel it in our hearts because it's only God's grace which brings Jonah back from this rock bottom moment.
00:15:57 --> 00:16:02 And it's only going to be God's grace that pulls us from a rock bottom.
00:16:03 --> 00:16:08 It's crucially important that we know at least three things about God's grace.
00:16:08 --> 00:16:09 At least three things.
00:16:09 --> 00:16:12 First, God's grace is undeserved.
00:16:12 --> 00:16:15 Second, it is unearned.
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17 And thirdly, it is costly.
00:16:17 --> 00:16:20 Firstly, undeserved.
00:16:21 --> 00:16:25 We don't deserve anything good from God.
00:16:26 --> 00:16:27 This is really hard to hear.
00:16:28 --> 00:16:31 I find this hard to hear for myself because we have such an entitled mentality.
00:16:32 --> 00:16:35 I deserve good things to happen to me.
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 I deserve the raise, the good marks at school, the happy family.
00:16:39 --> 00:16:44 Not because I've done anything to deserve them, but it's just expectation.
00:16:44 --> 00:16:49 This makes God's offer of grace and love unnecessary.
00:16:50 --> 00:16:51 Even an insult.
00:16:51 --> 00:16:53 God, I don't need your forgiveness.
00:16:54 --> 00:16:55 I don't have any problems.
00:16:55 --> 00:16:56 I can't fix.
00:16:57 --> 00:17:01 And if your God has problems with me, well, he can come and deal with me himself.
00:17:03 --> 00:17:08 Jonah's prayer recognizes that he deserves God's punishment.
00:17:08 --> 00:17:12 In verse 3, he describes who is responsible for this situation.
00:17:13 --> 00:17:19 To God, he says, you hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas.
00:17:20 --> 00:17:23 Jonah understood that he was the guilty one.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:25 And it was God who punished him.
00:17:26 --> 00:17:30 And it was right because he didn't deserve anything good from God.
00:17:30 --> 00:17:36 Like Jonah, to understand God's grace, we must understand we don't deserve it.
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38 It is totally unmerited.
00:17:40 --> 00:17:44 Now, second, we must know that we cannot earn God's grace.
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 Again, this is hard for us to hear.
00:17:47 --> 00:17:54 How many of us like admitting that we can't do things on our own?
00:17:54 --> 00:17:59 To be told, you can't earn God's grace.
00:17:59 --> 00:18:00 It almost sounds like a challenge.
00:18:01 --> 00:18:01 Really?
00:18:03 --> 00:18:04 Haven't you met me?
00:18:04 --> 00:18:05 I'm a real hard worker.
00:18:06 --> 00:18:07 I can earn God's grace.
00:18:08 --> 00:18:08 I can do that.
00:18:08 --> 00:18:10 I've earned everything else in my life.
00:18:10 --> 00:18:11 I'm a professional.
00:18:11 --> 00:18:12 I've got everything great.
00:18:12 --> 00:18:13 I can earn that.
00:18:13 --> 00:18:14 I can do that.
00:18:14 --> 00:18:14 That's fine.
00:18:14 --> 00:18:15 That's a great challenge.
00:18:17 --> 00:18:18 I'm going to read my Bible and pray every day.
00:18:19 --> 00:18:21 And then he'll have to do what I ask.
00:18:22 --> 00:18:25 We saw from Jonah, he thought he could be self-sufficient from God.
00:18:25 --> 00:18:29 He thought he could run from God and have his own version of God.
00:18:30 --> 00:18:33 But he ended up at the bottom of the ocean in the belly of a fish.
00:18:34 --> 00:18:36 Totally helpless.
00:18:37 --> 00:18:40 Even if he managed to pry open that fish's mouth and get out,
00:18:40 --> 00:18:42 he was just going to be somewhere far worse.
00:18:44 --> 00:18:45 Eaten by something far worse.
00:18:47 --> 00:18:50 He had not earned any of God's grace.
00:18:50 --> 00:18:53 Rather, Jonah had only earned punishment.
00:18:54 --> 00:18:58 God's grace is there once we realize that we don't deserve it.
00:18:58 --> 00:19:02 But also how much we depend on it as an unearned gift.
00:19:03 --> 00:19:07 And for God to show grace to us, it cost him something.
00:19:08 --> 00:19:11 God's grace to us is very costly.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:17 Twice, Jonah mentions God's holy temple in verse 4 and verse 7.
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19 He says he looks to the holy temple.
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 It's not heaven that he looks to.
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 It's not specifically to God.
00:19:25 --> 00:19:30 It's something about God's temple which draws his eye.
00:19:31 --> 00:19:35 Because it's in God's temple that God has promised to dwell.
00:19:35 --> 00:19:39 If you imagine God's temple that was built,
00:19:39 --> 00:19:43 there was a number of different levels that you could go into.
00:19:43 --> 00:19:48 And the high priest is the only one that could go into the holy of holies,
00:19:49 --> 00:19:53 the central place in the temple.
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55 He could only go in there once a year.
00:19:55 --> 00:19:58 And he could only go in there with the blood of an animal.
00:19:59 --> 00:20:03 He could only go in there with the blood of an animal or his blood would be shed.
00:20:04 --> 00:20:07 And in the center of the temple was the Ark of the Covenant.
00:20:07 --> 00:20:10 This big gold box which had the Ten Commandments.
00:20:11 --> 00:20:18 And on top of the Ark of the Covenant was this big slab of gold called the mercy seat.
00:20:20 --> 00:20:24 And it's on this seat that blood was sprinkled.
00:20:25 --> 00:20:31 And it was to show that Israel's sins were paid for by the blood of someone else.
00:20:31 --> 00:20:38 So Jonah in the depths of the sea, totally alone,
00:20:39 --> 00:20:42 dependent on God just to live another hour,
00:20:43 --> 00:20:48 casts his eyes to the place where his sin is dealt with.
00:20:48 --> 00:20:50 The place where there is no condemnation.
00:20:51 --> 00:20:56 The place that God's loving grace is seen.
00:20:57 --> 00:21:00 But it's only through the death of another.
00:21:00 --> 00:21:07 Just like Jonah sacrificed himself so that others could live when he was thrown into the water,
00:21:08 --> 00:21:12 so too an animal was sacrificed to pay for Jonah's sins.
00:21:13 --> 00:21:17 God's grace is undeserved, unearned, and it is costly.
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21 Jonah realized this at his rock bottom.
00:21:22 --> 00:21:26 Our rock bottom could be a low one like Jonah's,
00:21:26 --> 00:21:31 or it could be a high one, a crisis where we reconsider everything in our life.
00:21:32 --> 00:21:33 For Jonah,
00:21:34 --> 00:21:42 he reminded himself of God's awesome, undeserved, unearned, and costly grace to him.
00:21:44 --> 00:21:45 We don't look to the temple.
00:21:46 --> 00:21:49 We don't have a big slab of gold here in the middle of church.
00:21:49 --> 00:21:50 We have a new symbol.
00:21:51 --> 00:21:52 We look to the cross,
00:21:53 --> 00:21:56 where the one who deserved life had it taken,
00:21:57 --> 00:22:00 so that it could be given to us who do not deserve it.
00:22:01 --> 00:22:04 He who had earned God's love by perfect obedience,
00:22:05 --> 00:22:07 gives it to us who cannot earn it.
00:22:08 --> 00:22:13 And he pays that costly price of death so that we can be free.
00:22:13 --> 00:22:18 Casting our eyes to the cross where Jesus died and bled for us
00:22:18 --> 00:22:23 is the antidote to despair when we are at rock bottom.
00:22:24 --> 00:22:28 God's grace becomes endlessly wondrous,
00:22:29 --> 00:22:32 endlessly consoling, beautiful, humbling,
00:22:32 --> 00:22:40 and uplifting when we believe and grasp onto and hold onto these three truths.
00:22:40 --> 00:22:45 That God's grace to us is undeserved,
00:22:45 --> 00:22:47 unearned, and costly.
00:22:48 --> 00:22:53 There is a risk that we run of becoming familiar with the phrase,
00:22:53 --> 00:22:54 God's grace,
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56 and that it loses all meaning to us.
00:22:57 --> 00:23:00 And we can pay lip service to God's grace.
00:23:00 --> 00:23:02 We can sing of amazing grace,
00:23:03 --> 00:23:05 but not let it penetrate our souls.
00:23:05 --> 00:23:11 A funeral I was involved in a couple of years ago
00:23:11 --> 00:23:14 of an elderly Christian woman,
00:23:14 --> 00:23:19 the family wanted the song Amazing Grace sung at her funeral.
00:23:19 --> 00:23:23 Fairly common, wonderful song, great song to sing,
00:23:24 --> 00:23:25 seems fairly normal.
00:23:26 --> 00:23:28 But one of the family members who wasn't a Christian
00:23:28 --> 00:23:31 didn't want this song to be played
00:23:31 --> 00:23:35 because it has a line,
00:23:35 --> 00:23:37 Amazing Grace,
00:23:37 --> 00:23:38 how sweet the sound,
00:23:38 --> 00:23:39 that saved a
00:23:39 --> 00:23:42 wretch.
00:23:43 --> 00:23:44 A wretch
00:23:44 --> 00:23:45 like me.
00:23:45 --> 00:23:47 And this man didn't want his mother
00:23:47 --> 00:23:49 to be referred to as a wretch
00:23:49 --> 00:23:53 because he loved her so much.
00:23:53 --> 00:23:55 He didn't get that she was a wretch
00:23:55 --> 00:23:57 and she knew it.
00:23:57 --> 00:24:01 She was a lovely Christian woman
00:24:01 --> 00:24:02 who knew that she was a wretch
00:24:02 --> 00:24:05 and she depended upon God's grace.
00:24:07 --> 00:24:09 Jonah has hit rock bottom
00:24:09 --> 00:24:10 in the belly of the fish
00:24:10 --> 00:24:13 and realized that God's grace is all he had.
00:24:14 --> 00:24:16 Undeserved, unearned, costly.
00:24:17 --> 00:24:18 And when he grasps this,
00:24:18 --> 00:24:21 God instructs the fish to spit him out
00:24:21 --> 00:24:23 back from the dead
00:24:23 --> 00:24:26 only by God's grace.
00:24:26 --> 00:24:29 To the man who is sitting here
00:24:29 --> 00:24:32 worried that he has sinned too much,
00:24:33 --> 00:24:35 God says in his grace,
00:24:35 --> 00:24:37 you could never have earned my grace.
00:24:38 --> 00:24:39 Take it for free.
00:24:40 --> 00:24:42 To the woman sitting here worried
00:24:42 --> 00:24:44 about her sin being revealed,
00:24:44 --> 00:24:46 God says in his grace,
00:24:46 --> 00:24:48 you do not deserve my love,
00:24:48 --> 00:24:51 but I will take away your hidden shame
00:24:51 --> 00:24:52 on the cross.
00:24:53 --> 00:24:54 Come to me.
00:24:54 --> 00:24:57 To the person worried
00:24:57 --> 00:24:59 that God doesn't love them.
00:25:00 --> 00:25:01 God says in his grace,
00:25:01 --> 00:25:02 I love you,
00:25:03 --> 00:25:06 though it costs the life of my son.
00:25:07 --> 00:25:07 Let me pray.
00:25:08 --> 00:25:09 Heavenly Father,
00:25:11 --> 00:25:13 we come before you
00:25:13 --> 00:25:15 as wretches.
00:25:15 --> 00:25:19 no reason that you should love us,
00:25:20 --> 00:25:21 but Lord,
00:25:21 --> 00:25:24 you have chosen to love us so much,
00:25:24 --> 00:25:26 even though your grace to us
00:25:26 --> 00:25:28 is undeserved,
00:25:28 --> 00:25:29 unearned,
00:25:29 --> 00:25:31 and so costly to you.
00:25:32 --> 00:25:33 Father,
00:25:33 --> 00:25:34 to us today,
00:25:34 --> 00:25:35 help us
00:25:35 --> 00:25:36 to hold
00:25:36 --> 00:25:37 onto your grace.
00:25:38 --> 00:25:38 And Father,
00:25:38 --> 00:25:40 for us here who are
00:25:40 --> 00:25:42 in a place
00:25:42 --> 00:25:43 of pain
00:25:43 --> 00:25:44 and difficulty,
00:25:44 --> 00:25:45 of
00:25:45 --> 00:25:47 rock bottom,
00:25:47 --> 00:25:48 of crisis,
00:25:48 --> 00:25:49 Lord,
00:25:50 --> 00:25:51 help us
00:25:51 --> 00:25:51 to call out
00:25:51 --> 00:25:52 to you,
00:25:52 --> 00:25:54 to put our trust
00:25:54 --> 00:25:54 in you
00:25:54 --> 00:25:55 who control
00:25:55 --> 00:25:56 all things.
00:25:57 --> 00:25:58 This we ask
00:25:58 --> 00:25:59 in the name
00:25:59 --> 00:25:59 of your son,
00:25:59 --> 00:26:00 Jesus.
00:26:00 --> 00:26:01 Amen.
00:26:01 --> 00:26:01 Amen.
00:26:01 --> 00:26:02 Amen.
00:26:02 --> 00:26:03 Amen.
00:26:03 --> 00:26:03 Amen.
00:26:03 --> 00:26:03 Amen.
00:26:03 --> 00:26:03 Amen.
00:26:03 --> 00:26:03 Amen.
00:26:03 --> 00:26:03 Amen.
00:26:03 --> 00:26:04 Amen.
00:26:04 --> 00:26:05 Amen.
00:26:05 --> 00:26:05 Amen.
00:26:05 --> 00:26:05 Amen.
00:26:05 --> 00:26:05 Amen.