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We started a brand new series last week called God's Mercy in
My Mess. If we're, we're actually
exploring the book of Jonah, exploring the book of Jonah.
And one of the things I want to just tell you just so that we're
all on the same page, just so that we can all dive in together
this morning is it's really interesting how a book of the
Bible and how an event or a narrative is mostly known and
remembered as a, as a man being swallowed by a fish, right?
But one of the things that we're going to find out, we started
finding out last week and we're going to find out throughout
this series, is this really, this book is not really about a
fish. It's really about freedom.
It's really about a freedom that God offers to, to you and I, But
in order to actually step into that freedom and to live out
that freedom, then we've got to embrace a, a, a main point or
what we call the, the big idea of this entire series.
So if you're taking notes with us, I'd encourage you just jot
this down. The main idea of this entire
series is God's mercy is bigger than my mess.
God's mercy is is greater than my mess.
It doesn't matter. Like I said last week, and I'll
keep coming back and reminding us of this, that that promise
right there, that truth right there, it, it does not have an
exception clause. There's no fine print to that.
So you may be in here for the very first time or you may be
joining us for the very first time and you've walked a lot of
dead end streets. You may have made a lot of
mistakes along your way. Welcome.
God's mercy is greater than your mess.
And you may be here with us this morning to where you grew up in
church and you know that you're not perfect, but you've, but,
but for the most part, you've tried to walk in accordance
with, with, with God's word. And you tried to be virtuous and
you tried to be moral. But you know, one of the things
that, that kind of haunts all of us are our past mistakes.
The, the, the sins that we, that, that we, that we commit.
It's either the, the things that we did that God tells us not to
do or the things that we didn't do that God tells us to do.
And those kind of linger. And we're, we're sitting there
thinking, we keep holding on to those, whether those happened
last night or last year or last decade.
Here's the, here's the, the hope that Jonah is going to teach us
is God's mercy is always greater than my mess.
God's mercy is always greater than my mess.
But for us to really like again, step into that and kind of
understand that I think one of the things that really fights
that we end up fighting against when we want to believe this,
but we just have a hard time believing that one of the things
that we end up fighting against are, are holding on to some lies
that we commonly believe in this series.
We're going to be starting last week and on into today and on
into the weeks to come. We're going to be looking at
some lies that we commonly believe that we need to like,
expose as lies and set down so that we can really examine the
truths that God has for us and pick those truths up.
One of the greatest lies and one of the greatest misconceptions
and one of the greatest points of confusion, I think when it
comes to our personal walk with Jesus, Our, our, our spiritual
walk is how God communicates to us how, how God, how God gets
our attention or does God want to get our attention?
And you know, if you're with us in the room or with us online,
we're used to things like always trying to get our attention,
right. So if you're a young mom, like
you are probably so sick and tired of hearing mom, mom, mom,
mom and like that little that, that, that tap right?
Or, or if you're, if you're an employee and you're your
employer and you're responsible for, for a big team, you're
probably tired of, of the notifications going off on your
phone and the various questions and texts that you get just
demanding answers. Or if you're a driver, we're,
we're all aware of that progression of, of our car or
truck or van trying to get our attention that that starts with
a dash light. We're like, hmm, that's
interesting. I probably should look into that
to I think I'll just turn my radio up a little bit to then
that light on the dash turns into a weird sound that your
car, truck or van makes and you're like, that sounds not
good. I think I'll just turn my radio
up louder. And then the next progression is
you find yourself strand stranded on the side of the road
broken down and you're getting towed to, to, to my buddy shot
Jeremy Sexton just over here beside Riverbend Church at
Sexton Automotive because your car, your truck or your van
broke down, right. And all the while you can look
back in hindsight and you can see where the warning signs were
there. You can see how your automobile
was trying to get your attention.
And there there was a diagnostic.
There was something that was, that was kind of pinging saying,
Hey, something's not right. You need to get, you need to
look at this. And, and the longer you put that
off, the, the, the more those warning signs become evident.
Have you ever thought that God getting our attention works kind
of the same way? You ever thought that God
getting our attention kind of works the same way?
Let me show you something. If you're taking notes with us
and this will kind of pave the way for where we're going this
morning back in Jonah chapter 1. I think that God really goes for
our attention, tries to get our attention in one of three ways,
broad categories. If you're taking notes with us,
here's the first one. I think it usually starts with a
whisper. I think it usually starts with a
whisper. And when I say like God
whispering, I don't necessarily mean like that audible voice.
Like, first of all, I think number one, that would be a lot
easier to heed, right #2 that probably scared the daylights
out of us. Like in the still of night, you
just hear a whisper, right? I, I don't mean that like
audible whisper. What, what I mean is it's just
kind of that, that internal tug, that pull.
You ever sat in a you ever sat in a service?
Have you ever been at home like you ever you ever been reading
your Bible or spending time in prayer and there's just kind of
a tug on your heart. Some people would call it a Holy
Spirit nudge to where like if you've surrendered your life to
Jesus and you have the Holy Spirit living in you, it's that
Holy Spirit that is is kind of nudging your heart in a
direction. It's almost that like still
small voice. It's almost that whisper.
It's that whisper that, that, that, that seemingly speaks to
the to the innermost part of you.
That's like, man, what are you doing when you're, when you're
right there and you're about to click on a, on a site that you
know you have no business clicking on?
Or is that is that whisper is that still small voice that
seemingly whispers to your soul, to your heart, to your mind,
Hey, you know, you need to go apologize right after you.
You've lost your cool or you spoke to somebody in anger or
out of frustration or, or or maybe it's that that still small
voice of whisper that says, hey, why don't you pray for him?
Why don't you pray for her? Why, why don't you pray for,
for, for them when you're woken up in the middle of the night
and you're just really wrestling and grappling with some, with
some anger and some hurt and some unforgiveness and some
bitterness against somebody who legitimately but deeply wounded
you? Or, or how about that?
How about this? How about that, that, that nudge
of like, hey, you need to go talk to him.
You go talk to her. Now here, here's the thing about
a Holy Spirit whisper and a Holy Spirit nudge.
For me at least, they're a lot easier to heed and to listen to
when God is warning me not to do something.
But in a lot of times there, it's harder for me to accept
when I feel that God is, is calling me to do something.
I'll give you, I'll give you an example several weeks ago,
probably a couple months ago, actually a couple months ago, I
was, I was visiting somebody in, in the hospital and I came, I
came out in the waiting area. There was a woman, she was just
double over crying. So, you know, the godly pastor I
am, I, I looked at her and I just kept walking and thought,
hope somebody comes and prays with her.
And then I've got really convicted.
And I just felt that like Holy Spirit, like nudge, like, hey,
you need to go, like talk to her.
And I thought, this is going to make an awesome sermon story
because this woman is going to get saved.
She's going to come to church. She's probably an incredible
vocalist. You know, this is going to be
the start of something awesome. So I go over and I said, hey,
ma'am. And she looks up at me.
I said, hey, can I pray with you?
And she said sure. So I just, I just pray with her.
And I said, is there anything that I can do to help you?
And I'm expecting her to just kind of pour out her life story
to me. And instead, she looks at me and
she says no. And I go, all right.
And I get on the elevator. Now, here's the thing.
I tell that story and you may sit there and go, why are you
telling me that? Like, that doesn't really sound
like a win. Here's what I would tell you if
you're in the room or with us online.
I don't know what God did with that.
I just knew that I was obedient to doing what God told me to do.
And listen, it was that one time that I was obedient.
I'm not telling you about the eight times that I just kept
walking and got on the elevator. You ever felt that whisper or
that Holy Spirit nudge or heard that that gentle whisper from
God? Here's the thing about whispers
or nudges. You've got to be close enough to
hear them, right? Because like all whispers or
nudges, they're very easy to ignore or to explain away.
So it is possible for us to ignore or to explain away a Holy
Spirit whisper. And when we do, God is faithful.
He, he doesn't give up on us. But here's here's who we become
in those moments when we just blow past those Holy Spirit
whispers. We become the fool like Solomon
writes about in Proverbs 12. He says the fool, the way of a
fool is right in his own eyes. But a wise man listens to advice
when I sit there and go, God, this doesn't make sense to me.
I'm afraid I'm going to like an idiot or I try to justify my
temptations or my sins. Then I'm being wise in my own
sight and and Solomon through through through the Holy Spirit.
Solomon writes and God's word tells me that when that happens,
I'm a fool. And listen.
Even though we can really play the part of a fool so often
ignore the whisper, God is always still faithful.
He doesn't give up trying to get our attention, but he does move
from a whisper to the second way that he tries to get our
attention. He moves to what I would call a
sense of weightiness. It's a sense of weightiness.
It's it's when when we blow past, when we blow past the the
whisper, then the Holy Spirit has a way of like weighing
really heavy on our lives. It's that, it's that deep pull
to where, you know, it's almost the voice of God saying, you
know, that you shouldn't be here.
It's that deep sense of conviction.
It's that deep pull to where you can almost sense God telling
you, hey, why are you going back to what I set you free from?
It's that deep pull of, hey, why, why are you getting into
that relationship? It's that deep sense of
conviction. There is that weightiness.
And here's where I would tell you is if the whisper of God is
almost like a stop sign, the weightiness of God that he lays
on our hearts and and on our spirit is almost like a flashing
Rd. sign. But just like we can blow right
past a stop sign, we can also blow right past a flashing Rd.
sign too, can't we? When that happens again, I'm
reminded of what Solomon tells us in Proverbs 27.
He says the prudent or other translations say the wise sees
danger and hides himself. But the simple other
translations say the fool. Fool goes on and suffers for it.
You know, God will allow us to blow past the the stop sign and
the flashing Rd. sign. But all the while we're we're,
we're being foolish. But he's still trying to get our
attention. And even after doing that,
blowing past the whisper, blowing past the weightiness,
God still pursues us. God's still trying to chase us
down and getting our attention. And this time he does it with
what I call a wake up call. It's a wake up call.
A wake up call is an undeniable is an undeniable thing that God
allows to happen to us that either puts us on our back or
drives us to our knees that He is trying desperately to get our
attention. A wake up call can can come in
the form of of a mental or an emotional breakdown.
A wake up call can come in the form of of a of a family or a
marital or or some type of a friendship crisis.
A wake up call can come in the form of of of of really a
financial crisis or vocational crisis.
A wake up call. We'll we'll call a wake up call.
We'll call them storms. God will send storms into our
lives to try to get our attention.
And as we're going to see in just a moment in Jonah chapter
1, he did it in the 8th century BC with Jonah, and he still does
it in 2026 here with us now. And we're going to see the
motivation behind why God does it.
But we need to understand that there is a lie that is so easy
for us to accept that we've got to reject.
We've got to drag it into the light, we've got to expose it,
and we've got to say this is not a truth from God.
Here's the law that so often our culture either says out loud or
lives, and maybe you've thought this yourself.
Here it is. God loves me too much to allow
anything bad to happen to me. God loves me too much to allow
anything bad to happen to me. And what we're about to do going
through Jonah chapter 1 is we're going to expose that lie.
And we're going to see not only why that is a lie, but we're
also going to see the truth that God wants us to know, a truth
that can actually set us free this morning.
So if you have a Bible with you, I invite you to find Jonah
chapter one with me, Jonah chapter 1.
And we're going to be picking it up in verse 4.
And as you're making your way there, Jonah chapter one, verse
four, let me kind of give you some context, especially if
you're new to the series. Jonah was a prophet, was a, was
a prophet of God. A prophet in the Old Testament
means that he was God's chosen mouthpiece, that God would tell
Jonah what to tell the people. And Jonah was faithful in his
job in his office as the as the prophet of God.
He served God faithfully in the 8th century BC.
And we're able to first introduce to this guy by the
name of Jonah back in the book of Second Kings chapter 18 or
chapter 14, Second Kings chapter 14.
And we see God or Jonah faithfully serving God.
But when we get to the book of Jonah, we see that God actually
gives Jonah a call. Jonah, I want you to travel to
Nineveh, which is modern day Mosul, Iraq.
But more importantly to Jonah, it was the capital city of the
Assyrian Empire. And if you weren't with us last
week, I would encourage you to go back.
Listen to where we where we talked about the Assyrian Empire
last weekend and just how cruel and how just absolutely
disgusting they were and how brutal this people called the
Assyrians were. Jonah did not want to go to
Nineveh, partly out of nationalism, partly out of
racism, but I think mostly out of the fact that he could not
fathom that God could ever show grace or mercy to such an
undeserving and such an evil people.
So Jonah, instead of travelling 500 miles east to Nineveh, went
down to the seaport, A seaport called Joppa, hopped on a ship
heading towards 2500 miles West to a city called or to a land
called Tarshish, which is modern day Spain.
And it's while Jonah is on the ship, they've already set out
from the harbor. He's already told God.
God, I'm not going. I don't want to go.
I'm going to get on a ship. I want to go beyond your reach.
This is where we pick it up in Jonah chapter one, verse 4, it
says, But the Lord, while they were on the sea, the Lord hurled
a great wind upon the sea and there was a mighty Tempest on
the sea so that the ship threatened to break up.
Then the Mariners, something really important for you to know
is these weren't just casual boaters.
These weren't the guys that like had sweaters tied around their
necks and they had wives named Muffy, all right?
These were like hardened fishermen that they had been in
the midst of storms before. That's important for us to know
because when they get panicked, you know, it's a huge storm.
All right, So there was a mighty Tempest on the sea so that the
ship threatened to break up. Then the Mariners were afraid
and each cried out to his God and they hurled the cargo that
was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.
But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had
lain down and was fast asleep. For this reason, I don't have
historical evidence, but based off of this verse, I think that
Jonah's last name was Wallace because Wallace's or the plural
is Walla. We can.
We can sleep anywhere. It's a gift from God.
But Jonah, he'd gone down, he'd gone to sleep.
The captain of the ship came and said to him, what do you mean?
You sleeper, arise, call out to your God.
Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not
perish. And they said to one another,
come, let us cast lots, or basically draw straws that we
may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.
So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
Then they said to Jonah, Tell us on whose account this evil has
come upon us. What's your occupation and where
do you come from? What's your country?
And if what people argue and he said to them, notice like the
question, we're not going to spend a whole lot of time here.
Notice the first question they asked, what's your occupation?
What does he answer? He answers his race, his
ethnicity. Not going to spend a lot of time
there. But we see here the first, the
first vestiges of Jonah's nationalism and racism against
these Mariners that were not a part of his ethnicity or
nationality. What is your country and what
people are you? And he said, I'm a Hebrew, and I
fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the
dry land. Therefore the men were
exceedingly afraid and said to him, What is this that you have
done? For the men knew that he was
fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
And then they said to him, What shall we do to you, that the sea
may quiet down for us? For the sea grew more and more
tempestuous. Jonah said to them, pick me up
and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for
you. For I know it is because of me
that this great Tempest has come upon you.
Verse 13, there's a lot between verse 13, verse 12 and 13, it
goes something like this. The Mariners are looking at each
other and go, hey, if it's this dude that's causing this storm
to come on us and his God is that mad at us, at him and mad
at us, how much more mad is he going to be at us for throwing
this guy overboard, right? So as a resort, as a result, as
a result, result, as a result, I can say tempestuous, but not
result. Verse 13.
Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but
they could not for the sea grew more and more tempestuous
against them. In other words, like, uh, uh, we
ain't throwing this guy overboard.
Therefore, finally, they called out to the Lord.
O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on
US innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased
you. In other words, God, we're going
to throw them overboard. Don't hold us responsible.
So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the
sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord
exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made
vows. Verse 17, probably the most well
known passage or verse in Jonah. And the Lord appointed a great
fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the
fish 3 days and three nights. Next week, we're going to pick
up right there at verse 17, and we're going to talk a little bit
more about that and really the overall grace of rock bottom.
But this morning, even though there's so much that we could
that we could lean into in this passage that we just read, I
think there's just several things that we should know.
Just overarching it. It's not in your notes, but I
think it's very clear to us just by reading a little bit of of
the book of Jonah together that because Jonah ignored the voice
of God on the shore, God got Jonah's attention on the sea.
And even though there's so much that we can unpack from this,
from this one passage and we could spend like 3 weeks on this
one passage, which we're not going to do, I want to kind of
dive into probably what the mindset of Jonah was when he got
on that ship to begin with. You see, I think that Jonah,
Jonah was he, he wasn't green, he wasn't raw.
He wasn't new to this whole prophet thing.
As a matter of fact, Jonah had been faithfully serving God for
years, been the faithful mouthpiece of God leading,
helping lead the people of God for years.
And, and I think it was that track record that kind of
entered into Jonah's mind thinking, hey, God, I think I've
earned the right to cash in some some prophetic equity here.
I think I've earned the right to kind of say, yeah, I don't want
to do that. I think that Jonah, after
serving God faithfully for years, he probably made the
excuse of God. I've gone everywhere in Israel
and I've told you, I've told the people exactly what you wanted
me to tell them. Got to know that you're calling
me to go to Nineveh and preach this message against them.
I just, I just don't want to. And God, honestly, in the, in
the grand scheme of things, is it really that big of a deal?
And I think that Jonah probably thought, hey, God, God will
probably just let this slide. For as many times as I've been
faithful to God, I think he'll probably just let this slide.
I wonder how many times maybe we haven't said that out loud, but
we've thought that when we've really sensed that God's calling
us to, to step into action in a certain way.
Maybe it's a whisper, maybe it's a weightiness, maybe it's a wake
up call. We thought, hey, God, we don't
say it like this because we feel guilty, but hey, God, I, I've
done so much for you. I've really been faithful.
I attend church regularly. I bring people with me.
I give, I serve God. I just can you just let it
slide. I don't want to go have that
awkward conversation. I don't, I don't want to.
If you're in a, if you're in a situation that you want so badly
to leave, maybe that work situation, but God's calling you
to stay like God, I don't, I don't want to stay God, I'm
going to, I'm going to leave and, and hopefully you'll bless
that and hopefully you'll just let it slide.
Or you know that maybe you and your family, you, you've gotten,
you've gotten really comfortable where you are and God's calling
you into a, into a new season, or maybe God's calling you to
take a new step of obedience and you're sitting there going God,
I don't, I don't want to. Hopefully God will just let this
slide a little bit and in the back of our minds is that lie
kind of reverberating in our heads.
Hey, God loves me way too much to allow anything bad to happen
to me. I think that Jonah probably
thought that too. I think that Jonah probably went
to sleep in the in the bottom of the ship thinking that.
So if the lie is God loves me too much to allow anything to
happen to me, what's the truth? Here's the truth.
I want to get you a jot down this morning.
God knows that I will find an experience, real and lasting
fulfillment only when my life is lined up with His will.
Think about this. God knows you, God created you.
He knows what makes you tick. Listen, God didn't send that
storm because He hated Jonah. God sent that storm to get
Jonah's attention because Jonah had already blown past the, the
whispers and the, and the weightiness and, and Jonah
needed a wake up call. God, God didn't send the storm
because he hated Jonah. God didn't send the storm
because he was frustrated with Jonah and thought that he had
something to prove like God's sitting in heaven going, I'll
show him, I'll show Jonah he wasn't doing that.
God sent that storm because check this out.
God knew Jonah better than Jonah knew Jonah.
That means that God knew what would.
The only thing that would lead to lasting fulfillment, real and
lasting fulfillment in Jonah's life is for Jonah to line his
life up in accordance and in a direct alignment with God's
will. God also knew.
Check this out. God also knew, as we'll discover
later on in weeks to come, there's still a lot of work to
be done in the heart and the mind and the soul of Jonah.
And by the way, that work to be done, it would not be done on a
beach in Tarshish. It had to be done and it would
be done on a hillside outside of Nineveh.
So God did not throw that storm at Jonah because He hated Jonah.
He threw the storm at Jonah because He loved Jonah.
It was a way to get Jonah back in alignment with God's will for
Jonah. The same thing is true for us.
The storms that He allows into our lives, those wake up calls
that He allows, He doesn't bring them into our lives because He
hates us. He doesn't bring them into our
lives because He doesn't like us.
He doesn't bring them into our lives because God feels that He
has something to prove to us. He brings them into our lives as
a wake up call. Because God knows you better
than you know you, and God knows me better than I know me.
And here's what the here's what God knows.
God knows that the only way that you and I will ever experience
and find real and lasting fulfillment is to be in
alignment with His will. Real fulfillment as in not
having the hooks of guilt, shame, or inauthenticity or
regret attached to it. Lasting fulfilment as in it
won't fade. Let me kind of summarize
everything that I just said. The life that you have always
been looking for can only be found in a life that is in
alignment and lives in accordance with God's will, His
words, and His way for you. He doesn't bring these wake up
calls in our lives because He hates us.
He brings them because He loves us.
I think that sometimes many of us, we can probably look back
over the course of our lives and we can go.
I can now see that that's true. I can now see that that's true.
My guess is some some of us are online or in the room with us
that you sit there and go. I know exactly what you're
talking about. God had to rock my world to get
my attention, to drive me back to Him.
And it wasn't because I thought that at the moment, it's because
he didn't like me. I now know it's because he loved
me. And we can, we can praise God
for that. But if that's your story, if you
have examples of that in your life, I think that we could
probably all sit there and go, here's the thing, God worked all
that for the good. But if Ben, if I'm being really,
really honest, those storms are really unnecessary.
Those storms were really unnecessary in, in, In other
words, if I just, if I could have just heeded the whisper of
God, if I could have just given in and surrendered to that sense
of weightiness that the Holy Spirit laid on me, it wouldn't
have been necessary for God to issue the wake up call in my
life. You see, there's some lessons
and many lessons, I think, that we only learn clearly by
hindsight, right? So here's the question for us.
How do we live in such a way that we can avoid unnecessary
storms in our lives? Another way of saying that, how
can we practically reject the lie and embrace the truth?
I think there's three steps that you and I have to commit to #1
again, taking notes with us. I have to carry the weight of
knowing that my actions and inactions will always affect the
people around me. I have to carry that weight just
like Jonah's actions and inactions most definitely
affected the lives of every sailor on that ship.
Mom, dad, grandparent, parent, figure, leader.
Your actions or inactions will have a direct effect on the
people in your home, just like Jonah's actions and in actions
had an effect on the people on that boat threatened their very
lives. Our our actions and in actions,
what we do with the promptings of God will always have an
effect on the people that we work with and the people that
we're closest to. Think of it this way, the
greater your sphere of influence, the more people that
you know and the more people that count on you, the greater
the fallout. That's heavy, isn't it?
And I think that we live in a day and an age to where when we
start to send something, get really heavy, we always look to
immediately try to offload it and to lighten it.
I don't think that God wants us to offload it or lighten it just
yet, because I think that God wants us to carry that weight
and to carry that heaviness, knowing that it will drive us to
do one of three things. It will drive us to either adopt
an overall spirit of passivity to where we choose just not to
care, or adopt A spirit of paralysis to where we're scared
to death of making a choice because we're afraid that we're
going to make the wrong choice. Or carrying that weight and
responsibility will drive us to our knees in prayer going, God,
this is way too big for me. This is way too heavy for me.
God, I need your guidance. But we've got to carry that
weight. What you do and what I do, what
I don't do and what you don't do, it will affect the people
around us. Whether we adopt A spirit of
passivity, paralysis or prayer. Make no mistake about it, the
people closest to us and in our circles and spheres of
influence, they will be affected by that decision.
Second way that we reject the line and embrace the truth is
understanding that my main priority has to be pursuing and
walking in God's will for my life.
My main priority. You want to know what a a word
that I think is a weird word in the English language?
Priorities. Priorities like the plural of
priority. It's almost like we've forgotten
what a priority is. You see, many of us, we, we, we
carry multiple responsibilities, but we can only have one main
priority at any given moment in time.
Here's what I would tell you. Our main priority has to be in
alignment with God. Listen, I, I, I tell people this
all the time. First and foremost, if I'm good
with God and I'm good with my wife and I'm good with the with
the authority that God has placed around me and over me,
I'm good in that order. If I'm good with God, it's got
to start with God. I'm good with my wife and I'm
good. With the authority that God has
placed around me, I'm good. You can have multiple
responsibilities all at once. You can only have one main
priority at one time. That main priority has to be an
all out pursuit. God, I want to make sure that
I'm good with you. I want to make sure that my life
lines up with what You have for me, that I'm walking in
obedience in accordance with Your will and Your Word and Your
ways. For my life.
It's got to be the main thing, and for that reason is when my
life is in alignment with God, all other areas of life have a
way of falling into order. When anything is over that
priority with God, all other life will be chaotic.
For that reason, it has to be God's will over my way every day
of the week. God's will over my way every day
of the week. The third way that we reject the
law and embrace the truth is I need to regularly thank God for
loving me too much to leave me alone.
Some of some of us are sitting here this morning in the room
and online and there may be a deep sense of conviction there
there, there may be that whisper that's starting to morph into a
weightiness. Or maybe you've ignored that
weightiness and it's it's morphed into a wake up call and
you're like, I wish God would just leave me alone.
Listen, you need to thank God for loving you too much to leave
you alone. You need to thank God for loving
you too much for to leave you alone.
When is the last time that we have just simply thanked God for
loving us? Not as the preamble to a prayer,
not as the precursor for asking God to do something for us, but
God, thank you so much for loving me that you choose not
just to leave me the way that you found me.
God, thank you. You see, I believe that every
single one of us in the room, every single one of us outside
this room, every single one of us online, every single person
listening to this message now, every single person that will be
listening to this message 2 years from now.
I believe God is speaking either in the way of a, of a whisper or
wait or wake up call. But the ball's in our court.
Like here's the question, what are you going to do with that?
What are you going to do with God's whisper or the wait or the
wake up call? One question before we come to a
close this morning. This is a question, a private
question for you. How is God pursuing you right
now? How's God pursuing you right
now? Can I ask you a question?
Like is there that gentle whisper?
Maybe maybe you heard it yesterday or last night or this
morning. Maybe there's that like gentle
whisper to your, to your heart, to your soul, to your mind this
morning to where you know God's calling you to some step of
obedience. Maybe that gentle whisper you,
you've blown past that. You realize that you've blown
past it. There's just that tug.
I can't tell you how many church services I sat in and I knew
that there was a wait and I've shared this story multiple times
that wait for me for so long, for so many years was I needed
to be obedient and following Jesus in baptism, believers
baptism. There there's a there's an
there's an old church adage or or phrase called like I'm just
going to white knuckle it. Back when a lot of churches had
pews, you'd stand up, you'd put your hand on the back of the
Pew, your knuckles turn white and you're like, I I ain't I
ain't letting go. It was that, wait, I wonder if
there's some of us in here this morning that there's that deep
weight, there's that deep sense of conviction.
It's not a hey, man, what are you doing?
It's more of a hey, you know that you shouldn't be going
there. You know that you shouldn't be
getting in that relationship. Or maybe this morning you find
yourself in a in a storm and you realize that storm's a wake up
call. It's not because God hates you.
It's actually because God loves you and he's trying to draw you
back to him. As we talked about last week,
not all storms are the result of sin at all, but every every sin
has a storm attached to it. So I'm wondering what step of
obedience you need to take this morning.
I'm also wondering, is there anything that you need to
confess before God, anything that you just need to let go and
say, Hey, God, I blew past the whisper.
I blew past the weight. God, the the the storm that I am
in right now. It is of my own doing.
It is of my is a consequence of my own sin.
God, would you forgive me of that sin and would you deliver
me? And the Bible is very, very
clear that He is faithful and just to forgive us when we ask
him, but you've got to ask him. So a question for you to ponder
this morning as we go into a time of response.
How is God speaking to me? What is God directing my heart
to do? What step of action is He
directing me to take? This morning?
In just a moment, I'm going to pray over us.
We'll stay and be able to worship God again through song.
But really, this time that we're about to step into is really an
invitation for you to respond, to respond either to that
whisper, that sense of weightiness, or that wake up
call. Listen, God brought you here
this morning. It's not by coincidence or
happenstance that we're talking about this.
God brought you here this morning because He loves you and
because he desires good for you and he has great plans for you.
If you find yourself this morning running from God, stop
running. Turn back to him.
You're not going to find judgement.
You're going to find welcome arm.
Welcome to ARMS. So whatever God's calling you to do, be
faithful to do that. God, we love you and God, we ask
that you would search the depths of us this morning.
God, for some of us, the fact that you have been trying to get
our attention. God, for some of us that's a
foreign concept. For some of us, that's a very
familiar concept. For some of us, that's a
frightening thought. For others, that's a comforting
thought. God, whatever that spectrum may
be in this room and online. God, I pray that you would
remind us that it is all out of your love for us.
God would you just provide freedom in our lives and provide
a sense of surrender in our hearts to where we would give
you full out permission to go to the very depths of us to search
us and to know us? God, would you reveal to us if
we do not truly have a relationship with you, God,
would you make that very known to us?
God would that be would you send your Holy Spirit to to
absolutely tug at our hearts this morning to the point to
where we're faithful and we're obedient to stepping forward and
surrendering our lives to you, God.
If there's any sin in our lives, God, by us giving you
permission, your Holy Spirit, permission to go into the deep
parts of us, God, would you expose that sin in our lives,
not to condemn us, but to cause it to rise to the surface so
that we can hand it over to you and acknowledge it as sin and
ask for your forgiveness? God, for some of us, would you?
We reawaken within us a sensitivity to hear your
whisper, God, a courage and a boldness to heed your
weightiness, God. And if we've been running from
you in the wake up call that you've brought on our lives,
God, that we would stop running and turn towards you, God.
Whatever you want to do in and through us this morning in our
lives, God, we always know that it is for the best, but we have
a responsibility to respond in obedience and boldness.
So God, I pray that you would grant that freedom for us.
Break down any walls of hesitation, fear or pride.
God, our main desire and goal is to be good with you this
morning. And it's in Jesus name that we
pray. Amen.
Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.
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