What up Crossing Nation, I'm so excited to be able to spend
today with you and I want to welcome those of you joining at
all of our different locations, those of you watching online and
those of you who are part of our crossing inside family.
I also want to welcome all of you who are new here.
Now when I say new here, I'm thinking of three groups of
people. There are some of you who this
is your first time at the crossing and we are so excited
that you are here. There are some of you who this
is your first time in a long time and we are so glad that you
are back. And then the third group are
those of you who you've been here for a while, but you have
not let us know that you are here.
You come in late, you leave early, you sneak around, you
haven't said hi, you avoid us in the lobby.
And we want you to know we are so glad that you are here as
well. And we would love to invite all
three groups to swing by the New Here booth at the end of our
service. The new Here booth in all of our
lobbies is a great next step for you to discover what God has for
you. And as a church, we want to come
around you and celebrate and encourage every step you take.
So would you take some time today to swing by the New Here
booth? And while you guys are thinking
about that, I want to let make sure all of you are aware about
what is going to be happening next weekend as a church.
Actually, the whole world who loves Jesus will be doing this.
But next weekend we will be celebrating Easter as a church.
And every year at Easter, we have an incredible privilege and
incredible responsibility because they're going to be lots
and lots of people who will be coming to our church and giving
God a second chance, Jesus a second chance, church a second
chance. And our hope and our prayer is
that every person that shows up will take at least one step to
beginning an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And if you're one of the people who want to join us in making
this region the hardest place on planet earth to get to hell
from, there are a couple of things that you can do next
weekend as we celebrate Easter. The first thing that I'm asking
you guys to do is to do the best thing you can do, which is pray.
There have been some of you who've been a part of the 3:00
PM club praying for our Weaver location to reach 300 people
regularly on a weekend. I would like for the next week
you to add an additional prayer at the 3:00 PM slot and would
you be praying for 15,000 people to join us in person at one of
our physical locations? Since 3:00 PM is 1500 military
time, we are praying for 300 people and Weaver at 315,000
people at 1500 and I would love to have you join us in those
prayers. The second thing you guys can do
is you can come early. When you come early, you give
other people a chance and plenty of time to get their kids
checked in to get connected in the lobby.
It also helps if you show up early, if you sit towards the
front so that the people who are coming for the first time or
people who are coming late don't have to do the walk of shame all
the way to the front. Do you guys want to make that
walk? Nobody wants to make that walk.
So how about you come early, sit towards the front so that way
people who show up late have an opportunity to get a great seat
in the back without being a distraction or feeling a bunch
of people looking at them. In order for you to come early,
you're going to need to know our service times.
And if you go on our website, if you look at the QR code or if
you listen to your campus pastor, whoever's doing the
dismissal at all of our different locations, at the end
of the service, you will hear your service times.
We're going to be having 42 in person services with an
additional 6 online services for a grand total of 48 services on
Easter weekend. And if you want to be super
spiritual, like you get a sun room in heaven when you get
there, like you get an extra room, here's what I want you to
do as long as it doesn't get in the way of you inviting
somebody. Would you prioritize any of the
services that are not the last two services at your location if
your location has more than four services?
So if you take the two last two service times, those are
typically the number one attended spots for people who
are giving God a chance or church a chance.
And if you're sitting there, it might be difficult for them to
sit there because they don't want to sit on your lap and you
don't want them to sit on their on your lap.
So if you can, do your best to prioritize the other services as
long as it doesn't interfere with you inviting somebody.
Third thing you can do, would you please park far away?
By parking far away, you're giving people who show up for
the first time and people who show up late the best possible
experience. I have a rule.
I don't want anybody to show up at our church for the first time
and have a longer walk to the church than I do.
This is one of the ways that we are others focused.
This is one of the ways that we love our neighbor.
So many of you guys did this for Super Bowl weekend.
And I was so incredibly proud of you.
And I'm asking you to consider doing it again.
And #4 and this is like the second most important thing.
If number one is prayer. The most second most important
thing is would you bring somebody?
Would you think right now who are some people that are close
to me that are far from God? Would you think there's some
people that you love, that you no need Jesus, that maybe might
be going through a difficult season and you have no idea what
God can do with a simple invite? Too many times we say no for
people instead of giving them a chance to say yes.
Who are two groups of people? Maybe it's two family members.
Maybe it's some brothers and sisters.
Who are two people that you can reach out with this simple
invite? Would you come and sit with me?
If you've been reading your Bible, you know that God can do
an awful lot with just a little bit of faith.
So who are you going to invite in faith?
Let me pray for us, Heavenly Father, I'm asking that you
would do a mighty work in our church and helping to make this
region the hardest place on planet earth to get the hell
from on Easter weekend. God, we want to lift you up.
We want to glorify your name. We want to thank you for all
that you've done and all that you're doing, but we also want
to be about your mission. So would you go before us?
Give us clarity about who you want us to invite, who you want
us to bring, and the courage to step, step into those moments.
And your name I pray. Amen.
Well, today we are wrapping up our series called Jonah with the
tagline The Unusual Path of Grace.
And if you've missed any of the series or you're wanting to
catch up, or maybe there's a friend that you know that could
really appreciate one of the particular messages, you can hop
on one Crossing and all of those different platforms and it will
give you access to the messages. Now let's just kind of recap the
story because it takes a lot of twists and turns.
It begins with God telling Jonah to go and preach to the people
in Nineveh. This was a major problem for
Jonah because Jonah was a Jew. He was a part of the people of
God and the Ninevites were not. They were other than they were
different than in fact, the people of Nineveh were horrible
people. They were known for their cruel
and savage dealings with people, particularly the Israelite
people, the people of God. So what does Jonah do?
What is the man of God, the prophet of God, the preacher of
his day do? Instead of going 500 miles in
the direction that God called him, he hops on a boat and set
sail for 2500 miles in the opposite direction of where God
told him to go. So what does God do?
God sends a storm and it affects the boat, and it messes with the
boat so bad that the sailors who are on the boat go from not
believing in God to believing in him.
And they beg for the storm to stop.
And Jonah says, hey, the only way for this storm to stop is if
you pick me up and throw me overboard.
Jonah doesn't volunteer to jump overboard.
He says, you're going to pick me up.
You're going to have to 1/2 throw me over.
And they go, we don't want to do it.
We don't want to do it. We just became believers in God.
The first thing we want to do is not kill a guy.
But they eventually are. Do exactly what they're told and
they throw Jonah into the sea. As soon as they do, the storm
stops, the waters become calm, and then Jonah sinks to the
bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. And before he takes his last
breath, God provides a huge fish to swallow him and keeps Jonah,
the prophet of God, in his belly for three days and three nights.
While Jonah is in the belly of the fish, he realizes that he
has officially hit rock bottom. And he goes, you know what?
I'm actually going to do what God told me to do.
So God gives Jonah a second chance and the fish vomits Jonah
up on to dry land. So then Jonah makes the 500 mile
journey to Nineveh and he preaches that if you don't turn
to God in 40 days you will be destroyed.
The people hear this message and they repent.
Everyone repented from the least to the greatest, from the common
servant all the way to the king. Everyone repented.
And chapter 3 ends with these words.
Jonah chapter 3, verse 10. When God saw what they did and
how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not
bring on them the destruction He had threatened.
Can I tell you something? God loves repentance.
God loves it when people recognize their own
shortcomings, failures, and sins caused by selfishness, pride,
and a rebellious spirit. Psalm 51 verse 17 states that
the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and
contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise.
God loves repentant people. If you want to make some noise
in heaven, you know all you have to do.
You just have to repent. Look what it says in Luke
chapter 15 verse 7. I tell you, in the same way
there will be more rejoicing in heaven over 1 Sinner who
repents, then over 99 persons who do not need to repent.
When you and I, when we acknowledge our sins, guess what
the angels in heaven do? The angels start the wave.
When you and I, when we humble ourselves, recognize our need
for a Savior, repent of our ways, the angels start like
painting their chest. They get fired up.
Heaven loves it when people turn to God.
When people realize that God's way is the best way, the pep
band starts to roar. Heaven loves it.
God loves it when people repent of their sins and turn to Him.
Real quick question, Minnie Devo, when was the last time you
started a party in heaven with your repentance?
It happens to us. We get so used to just doing
ourselves and doing things the way we like to do it and seeing
all the problems in other people.
When was the last time you opened up your Bible, looked at
it and said, you know what? This is something I need to
change God. I'm sorry, God, I need to change
God. I don't want to be like this
anymore. When you find yourself in that
spot, I want you to know two things.
God loves it and heaven celebrates it.
Jonah chapter 4 verses one through 4 as we begin the end of
the book. But to Jonah this seemed very
wrong and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord.
Isn't this what I said? Lord, when I was still at home?
That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarsus.
I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to
anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending
calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life,
for it is better for me to die than to live.
But the Lord replied, Is it right for you to be angry?
Like I said, this story is full of surprises.
It's one twist that leads to another twist.
You have God going after the evil people.
You have the man of God running from God.
You have the sailors choosing to follow God and caring for the
safety of the prophet of God, while the prophet of God does
not care about what God cares about or about the salvation of
the sailors or about the salvation of the people in
Nineveh. Then you have a fish swallowing
the prophet, and the storm becomes calm.
Then the prophet gets a second chance and goes and preaches the
sermon. Then you get the next surprise,
the bad people realize how bad they are and they surprise
everybody and they turn to God. And now to our surprise, the
preacher of God is mad that the people listened to his sermon
and were spared. This thing just doesn't stop
giving. It's just one liner after a
next. As soon as you feel like you
figure out the story, it takes a hard right turn.
Now I'll at least want to like this is like a pet peeve of
mine. So I'm going to just, you know,
if you want to tune me out, tune me out.
But I, I've mentioned this a couple times and this is a great
illustration to mention it again.
I sometimes hear critics of Christianity and critics of the
Bible talk about how do we reconcile the God of the Old
Testament with the God of the New Testament?
They make claims that like, the God of the Old Testament is full
of wrath and the God of the New Testament is just full of grace.
It's almost as if God has some kind of personality disorder and
he gets professional help. Between Malachi and Matthew,
however, that does not seem to be how the people of the Old
Testament viewed God. It's worth noting that
compassion shows up 68 times in the Old Testament and only 14 in
the New Testament. Mercy.
Well, it shows up 71 times in the Old Testament and 55 times
in the New Testament. Gracious.
Well, it shows up 40 times in the Old Testament, five times in
the New Testament. Jonah, he actually lived in the
Old Testament and he did not want to go preach to his enemies
because he had a fundamental belief that God was in his own
words. I knew that you are a gracious
and compassionate God. Slow to anger, abounding in
love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
Before you allow some critic living in 2000s to make claims
about a God from the 700 BCS, maybe we should let the people
who lived in 700 BC tell us about what God was like in 700
BC. Jonah knew something.
Jonah knew that God had a heart for people to be saved and to
experience life with him. And you can't read this story
and wonder what was so wrong in Jonah's heart that made him so
upset at the grace of God. And before you throw stones, we
may have more in common with Jonah than we want to admit.
You see, Jonah knew that God was a God of grace.
He just wanted it for him and not for his enemies.
You and I, if we were honest, we have a hard time being others
focused. Let me explain.
Oh, we don't have a problem with people making good money as long
as they don't make more than you.
We don't have a problem with somebody getting a nice car as
long as they're a nice car is not nicer than your car.
We don't have a problem with people going on a nice vacation
as long as their nice vacation is not as nice as your nice
vacation. We don't have a problem with
somebody having a good marriage as long as our marriage is
better. We don't have a problem with
having with you having a baby as long as we get pregnant first.
We don't have a problem with there being a church for
everyone, as long as the everyone's are only the someones
that we agree with, the someones we've prayed for, the someones
that we have invited. But what happens when your
prayers collide with somebody else's prayers, and that someone
that they're praying for, that God answers their prayer, just
so happens to be your enemy? Who is the person in your life
that you don't want to experience God's grace?
Who's your Nineveh? Who's Is it your boss?
Is it your employee? Is it your ex?
Is it your bully? Is it your abuser?
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see that person
through the prayers of their mother?
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see them
through the prayers of their Father?
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see them with
God's heart beating in your chest?
We serve a God who is others focused.
Now I'm going to unpack some like old school stuff from the
Old Testament and try and make it make sense in the New
Testament and then try and make it sense make sense in your
day-to-day living today. So hang with me.
God always has cared about the others.
Now, the New Testament view of other has always been
complicated. On the one hand, you've heard me
talk about this, about being uncommon, that Christians are
supposed to be a city on a hill, a lamp on a stand, light of the
world. We're supposed to be different.
We're not supposed to be Incognito.
We're supposed to be on full display.
Well, this goes all the way back to the Old Testament, when
you're reading weird things in the Old Testament about what to
wear and not and what not to wear, what to eat and what not
to eat. All of this was designed to
create a distinction between the people of God and the people who
were not the people. Of God.
That's why Leviticus goes out of its way and says, hey, like
don't eat different kinds of or don't wear different kinds of
material that's woven together with different clothes.
There's a Israelite, a Jewish, a people of God, a way to dress,
and there's a people who are not the people of God, who are not
following God way to dress. And they're supposed to be a
different when it comes to animals, there's clean and
unclean animals. The reason why there's clean
animals is because the clean animals, they walk right and
they eat right like a good Jew, like a good person of God would.
And then there's unclean animals who don't walk right, who don't
eat right, who are not the people of God.
That's why when you Fast forward from the Old Testament,
Leviticus all the way to Acts chapter 10, where Peter has the
vision telling him to eat unclean animals, he immediately
understands that this has something to do with the Jew
Gentile distinction with the people of God and the people who
are not the people of God yet distinction.
And so while the Old Testament goes out of its way
distinguishing between Israelite and non Israelite, it refuses to
dehumanize the other. It goes out of its way to say
that the foreigner residing among you must be treated as
native born. It says love them as you love
yourself because you were once a foreigner in Egypt.
It is this paradox that the Torah says make sure that you
look different, but remember you're the same.
And the worst atrocities that have ever happened in human
history and in your life happen when you stop seeing as when you
stop seeing the other person as the same as you, when you see
them as other, but you don't realize that they are the same.
For example, Jonah's attitude toward the Ninevites.
He saw them as other, but he did not see them as the same.
He is on a warpath hoping to watch his enemies burn, Sodom
and Gomorrah style. It's because they checked all of
the boxes to be seen as an enemy other.
When you're reading the story of Jonah, who do you have the most
in common with? The Ninevites or Jonah?
This is not about you showing allegiance to some kind of home
team, but do you have a humble and teachable heart?
When you think through the last four chapters, which group of
people had the humble, teachable heart?
It was never Jonah. The sailors, the others, Yeah,
they turned to God. The Ninevites, the horrible,
rotten, despicable people. Guess what they did?
They turn to God. In this story, Jesus is showing,
hey, people who have nothing in common with me can be saved by
me with a humble and teachable heart.
And people who know plenty about me and have been following me
can miss out on what I'm trying to do, can be the enemy of what
I'm trying to do. This happens with Jesus.
You remember Jesus, he shows up in the New Testament, and he's
dealing with the religious leaders of his day.
And guess who the religious leaders are like the religious
leaders are like Jonah. And you know what these guys
ended up doing? These religious elites, these
religious leaders, Yeah, you remember?
They were the ones who plotted to kill him and at the same time
all the down and outers of 1st century Palestine.
Guess what they did? They got it.
They had a humble and teachable heart.
That's why Jesus has these words to say.
He traces his ministry all the way back to the story of Jonah.
Jonah, when he says this, the men of Nineveh will stand up at
the judgement with this generation, this 1st century
generation, and condemn it. For they repented at the
preaching of Jonah. And now something greater than
Jonah is here. Jesus is showing up and he goes,
look man, all the people who are supposed to get it don't, and
all the people that you think don't deserve it get it.
What do you do with the other? So what does Jonah do?
He throws a grade A temper tantrum.
Look at verses 5 through 9. Jonah had gone out, sat down at
a place east of the city where he made himself a shelter, sat
in its shade, and waited to see what would happen to the city.
Then the Lord God provided A leafy plant and made it grow up
over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort.
And Jonah was very happy about the plant.
But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm which chewed the
plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided
A scorching E wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that
he grew faint. He wanted to die, and he and
said it would be better for me to die than to live.
But God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about
the plant? It is, Jonah said.
I am so angry. I wish I were dead.
Jonah has entered like the two year old 3 year old temper
tantrum phase. He gets so mad at the plant and
the fact that it is dead and that the worm has eaten it that
he wants to die. His enemies have repented.
His plant is dead. I don't want to live anymore.
Do you know what God's doing now?
God, if you read the story of Jonah all over again, you'll see
all of this provision, provision, provision, provision,
provision. God provides a fish.
God provides a storm. God provides a a a a plant.
God provides a worm. God provides A scorching E wind
and heat. What's God doing?
He keeps providing a way for Jonah to turn to him.
He's trying to get Jonah to have his heart for people.
And then God uses the illustration that he had created
himself with the plant to teach something to Jonah about his
heart. Verses 10 and 11 But the Lord
said you have been concerned about this plant, though you did
not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died
overnight. And should I not have concern
for the great city of Nineveh in which there are more than
120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left
and also many animals? God is looking at Jonah and said
if only you cared for my people the way you care for this plant.
You see, Jonah did not preach to Nineveh because he had God's
heart. He preached to Nineveh out of
strict obedience. I'm going to do what you told me
to do. But God wants something more
than that. He doesn't just want blind
obedience, begrudging obedience. He wants obedience that comes
from the overflow of our heart. That was the central beef that
Jesus had with the religious elite.
You know, we already talked about this.
The ones who killed him, they would go out of their way to
obey the letter of the law, but they never once got God's love
for himself or God's people. That was actual the point of the
law in the Old Testament. It was not you better do what I
tell you to do or else. It was an invitation to allow
God's heart to change our heart. Every command in the Old
Testament flows out of a principle, and every principle
ultimately traces its way back to the character of God.
Watch this Murder is wrong because God is life.
Lying is wrong because God is truth.
Be holy because God is holy. God gave the Israelites the law
because he wanted them to become like him.
And God wants us to care about the things that he cares about
and love the things that he loves.
And one of the things that God loves our people made in his
image, people who have messed up, people who have done a bad
thing, people who have done a series of bad things, people
like me and you. And if we're not careful, we can
end up like Jonah in this story when we're OK talking about the
Me's and use of the world. But what about the others?
What about the Ninevites? What about our enemies?
The crossing, it has 12 physical locations that serve a service
area of 10,000 square miles. And in our region there are
450,000 people who do not have an intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. And some of those people, they
look like you, vote like you, make what you make, like what
you like, and some of them don't.
Some of them are against all of the things that you stand for.
Some are the people. Some of them are people that you
don't like. Some of them are the people who
have hurt you. They're your Nineveh, but while
they're your Nineveh, there's somebody else's dad.
They might be your Nineveh, but there's somebody else's son.
They're your Nineveh, but there's somebody else's mom and
somebody else's daughter. And if our hearts are being
transformed into our Father's heart, you and I have to do
something about it. And the good news is that if the
Ninevites can change, anybody can change.
If God cares about the Ninevites, he cares about them
too. And if he cares about them, we
have to care about them. And what a glorious mission that
you and I, What a beautiful message that you and I get to
share in that. For God so loved the world, and
in doing so, God loved his enemies.
And who are his enemies? Me and you.
God came after me and you, just like he went after Nineveh.
Which means that if God's love changed me, and if God's love
changed you, it means they can change the very people that you
have written off. And if that's true, you and I
must do everything in our power to make this region the hardest
place on earth to get to hell from.
Would you join me in that? We're moving to a time of
decision.