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Today's reading is from Jonah 
chapter one, three and four. 

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The word of the Lord came to 
Jonah, son of Amatai. 

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Go to the great city of Nineveh 
and preach against it, because 

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it's wickedness has come up 
before me. 

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But Jonah ran away from the Lord
and headed to Tarshish. 

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He went down to a dropper where 
he found a ship bound for that 

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port. 
Then the Lord sent a great wind,

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and such a violent storm arose 
that the ship threatened to 

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break up. 
The sea was getting rougher and 

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rougher, so the sailors asked 
Jonah, what should we do to make

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the sea calm down for us? 
Jonah replied, Pick me up and 

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throw me into the sea, and it 
will become calm. 

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I know that it is my fault. 
Then they took Jonah and threw 

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him overboard, and the raging 
sea grew calm. 

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Now the Lord provided a huge 
fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah

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was in the belly of the fish for
three days and three nights. 

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Then the word of the Lord came 
to Jonah a second time. 

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This time Jonah obeyed. 
The Ninevites believed God, all 

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of them, from the greatest to 
the least. 

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Even the king of Nineveh rose 
from his throne and took off his

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royal robes, covered himself 
with sackcloth and sat down in 

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the dust. 
When God saw what they did and 

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how they turned from their evil 
ways, he relented and did not 

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bring on them the destruction. 
But to Jonah this seemed very 

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wrong, and he became angry. 
He prayed to the Lord. 

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Isn't this what I tried to 
prevent by fleeing to Tarshish? 

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I knew that you are a gracious 
and compassionate God, slow to 

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anger and abounding in love. 
A God who relents from sending 

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calamity. 
Now, Lord, take away my life, 

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for it is better for me to die 
than to live. 

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Well done, my Sophie Sophs. 
That's my Sophie Sophs. 

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Come on. 
I don't think you've heard Jonah

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being read like that with such 
dramatic effect, am I right? 

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And the ship threatened to break
apart. 

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I love it, my baby. 
I love it. 

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So as, as you know, we are 
carrying on in the book of 

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Jonah. 
And boy, oh boy, do I have a 

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whale of a story for you. 
Come on, who's with me? 

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I'm allowed a little bit of a 
dad joke. 

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So when we look at Scripture 
words going to look at the 

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context and we're going to go 
through a little bit of the 

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context in the book of Jonah, 
who Jonah was, who were the 

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Ninevites. 
We're going to look at why did 

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he choose Tarshish? 
Seems like an odd place. 

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Where is it? 
No. 

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Is it far away? 
Is it close by? 

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And why did Jonah, Why was he a 
prophet? 

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How did he make it into the 
Bible? 

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You know, he was someone that 
kind of just heard the word of 

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the Lord and then decided to not
obey it, run away. 

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How does it how does this book 
even get into the Bible? 

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It's kind of weird. 
And then when looking at 

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Scripture, you've got to ask 
yourselves always two questions.

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The 1st is what can I learn 
about God, about his character, 

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who he is? 
And we hear in the book of Jonah

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that he's gracious and 
compassionate, slow to anger, 

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abounding in love, and one who 
relents from sending calamity. 

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What calamity is facing you this
morning? 

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What's God trying to prevent in 
your life? 

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And then the second thing that 
we have to look at is we have to

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ask ourselves, what do I 
recognize about myself in this 

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story? 
What do I see when I look at 

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Jonah? 
Last week Steve went through I 

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am Jonah. 
I'm Jonah to the city, to my 

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community when I just don't 
care, when I am unaware, and I'm

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Jonah when I refuse to pray. 
And this week I want to continue

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and say I am Jonah when I run 
away. 

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I am Jonah when I choose to run 
away. 

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So where is your Tarshish? 
3 CR? 

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Where's your Tarshish? 
Where's that place that you 

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said? 
I've heard the word of the Lord,

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but I'm just going to run away. 
I'm just going to go in the 

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opposite direction. 
James puts it this way. 

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The book of James, he said when 
when you read Scripture, it's 

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like looking in the mirror. 
OK, you're looking in the mirror

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and you're saying, oh, is this 
my life? 

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You don't look in the mirror and
then all of a sudden decide not 

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to action it. 
This is the reason why people, 

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everybody's walking around in 
Crocs. 

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You've got a mirror at home, 
you're looking at yourself. 

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You see wearing Crocs. 
Hey, they're comfy. 

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Are they comfy? 
I don't know. 

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I guess. 
Come on, that's good stuff. 

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Hey, who's wearing Crocs today? 
Don't know that. 

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You don't have to raise your 
hands. 

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You please let me, let me take a
sip of water. 

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So, so God asked. 
I said look when you read 

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scripture, when you hear 
scripture, look in the mirror, 

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reflect and act upon it. 
Take some decisive steps towards

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what you're seeing. 
So ask yourself, where is my 

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tashes? 
Where am I this morning? 

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Running away from from God. 
So just some context. 

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Jonah was a prophet as we 
understand it. 

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He was alive around the 8th 
century BC and it was the same 

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time as Israel had a king called
Jeroboam the second kind of 

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rolls of the tongue. 
Jeroboam the 2nd. 

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The second. 
And this king did evil in the 

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eyes of the Lord. 
So not a good king, one that 

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promoted false worship, one that
was unfaithful to the call of 

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God for Israel. 
But he was a very successful 

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king. 
And Jonah during that time 

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prophesied that Jeroboam the 2nd
would restore the boundaries of 

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Israel. 
So a successful king and a very 

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successful time for Israel. 
There's no greater measure for 

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the success of a king than what 
to increase land. 

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You're doing well. 
Your business is getting bigger,

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your family is getting bigger, 
your house is getting bigger. 

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I've got a beach house. 
Have you seen how much money my 

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business made? 
Have you seen the second Porsche

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that I have in the garage? 
Don't confuse success with the 

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will of God. 
Don't confuse success with being

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obedient to God's word for your 
life. 

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See, Jonah lived under this 
privilege of being able to see 

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his prophecy fulfilled, 
something that was quite 

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uncommon. 
Most prophets prophesied 

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something that was going to 
happen, still happened in a few 

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years, and never ever got to 
live to see it. 

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But Jonah prophesied that Israel
would restore their borders and 

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it happened. 
It took place. 

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So he was living under this 
incredible privilege of seeing 

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his words come to fruition. 
So it cut. 

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It's so strange, so weird that 
he hears the word of the Lord. 

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He's a successful prophet, and 
he decides to do what he decides

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to run away. 
Run away. 

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I'm going to run away. 
No, thank you Lord, not for me. 

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But strange why? 
And not only that he chooses to 

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run to Tarshish. 
Where was Tarshish? 

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Well, Tarshish was literally the
furthest civilized place that 

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Jonah or any Israelite knew 
about. 

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It was literally the furthest 
way, a place that he could even 

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imagine. 
And here to get there by boat, 

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OK. 
And if you look at the map, you 

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know, he was living in Gath 
Heifer, which was kind of quite 

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close to where Nineveh was, you 
know, and here to get to Nineveh

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by land, OK. 
But he had to get onto your boat

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and boats, you know, in the 7th 
century BC, I don't know if 

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you've seen any pictures of 
them, but they weren't exactly 

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the safest things around, you 
know? 

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So he decides to risk his life, 
go on a journey that would 

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probably take longer than a year
and say, I'm going to choose the

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place that is absolutely the 
furthest place that I can 

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possibly find to get away from 
the will of God. 

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So where is your Tarshish? 
Where are you running from? 

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So we've got to stop at this 
point and say, Jonah, what? 

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Just just try, Let me try and 
understand what's going on in 

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your brain over here. 
Let's try and understand why, 

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why? 
Why would you do this? 

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Why not listen to God? 
You're a successful prophet. 

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You've seen all the success. 
Why don't you just listen to the

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word of God and word of the 
Lord, the will for your life and

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go to Nineveh? 
Well, he gives us the answer in 

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chapter 4. 
So you've got to go right to the

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end of the book and he says 
this. 

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When God saw what the Ninevites 
had done and how they turned 

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from the evil ways, he relented 
and did not bring on them the 

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destruction that he had 
threatened. 

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But to Jonah, this seemed very 
wrong. 

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This was not good. 
And he got very angry and he 

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prayed to the Lord. 
Isn't this what I said would 

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happen? 
Isn't this what I So they 

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obviously had a discussion prior
to disobeying the will of the 

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Lord. 
He had a discussion with God. 

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God, I don't want to do this. 
You're asking me to do 

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something. 
I do not want to do this. 

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I don't want to go there. 
I know your character, God. 

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I know that you can save. 
We have spent almost six months 

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learning about the grace of God,
the mercy of God, that he is 

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slow to anger, abounding in 
love, one who relents from 

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sending calamity for six months 
as a church that has been 

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birthed into us. 
So we know his character, but 

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still in this moment, God is 
calling us to say, I want you to

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do this. 
I want you to go here. 

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And within our hearts there's 
this pool. 

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Nah, ah, God not there. 
Don't touch that. 

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Don't touch that. 
God, that's too. 

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That's that's too painful for 
me. 

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So Jonah hated the Ninevites and
he had good reason to hate them.

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You see, Nineveh was the last 
little bit of context. 

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Nineveh was the capital city of 
the Syrian empire, and the 

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Syrians had been in power for a 
few 100 years. 

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They were the dominant force 
within that region. 

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And not only that, they were 
cruel, they were oppressive, and

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they were barbaric. 
Just to give you a little bit of

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a picture, this is what one of 
the king said after he conquered

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one of the nations next door to 
Assyria. 

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He said, I built a pillar over 
against his gate and I flayed 

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all the chief men and I covered 
the pillar with their skins. 

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Some are impaled upon the pillar
on stakes. 

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So this guy had a had a thing 
for decorating. 

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I'm going to build a pillar. 
I'm going to cut up some 

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people's skins and stick it on 
to it. 

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Many captives are burnt with 
fire, some are cut off their 

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hands and their fingers from 
others are cut off the noses and

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the ears, and some of them are 
poked out their eyes. 

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That's pretty much him bragging,
saying this is how I deal with 

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my conquests. 
So who's been cruel to you? 

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Whose oppression have you been 
living under? 

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Who do you think yourself? 
Or that guy's a barbarian? 

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Where is your Tarshish? 
Where are you running from? 

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God? 
So let me tell you about my 

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Tarshish. 
So Sam and I got married in 

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2003, just 2003 pass that one. 
And quite soon afterwards, I 

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just felt like, whoa, I've just 
made a big mistake. 

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I think I married the wrong 
person. 

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And we were involved in church 
ministry and we're leading 

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worship. 
I think we're leading a Home 

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group. 
So what do you do? 

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You go like, oh, it's going to 
get better, definitely going to 

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get better. 
And being a good German and 

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being a good leader, we're going
to plow through this. 

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It's going to get better. 
And Sam felt pretty much the 

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same way. 
Like, whoa, this marriage thing 

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is hard. 
But we didn't have a lot of kind

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of, I don't want to say support,
but the kind of the gumption to 

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say there's something wrong. 
We need to go and get some help.

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We need to go get some help in 
this place. 

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So you know what happens when 
you live with these things. 

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Do they go away or do they just 
kind of grow? 

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Well, they tend to grow. 
I don't know if you've noticed. 

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If you don't deal with stuff, 
this tends to to grow. 

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So these feelings just grew and 
grew, and after a while I just 

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became depressed, became 
unhappy, was definitely not 

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living my best life until 
roughly around about 2012, nine 

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years later, just before Sophie 
got born, was born, I started 

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having an affair with the person
that I met at work and the 

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storms came in. 
I was on this boat heading to 

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Tashish and I knew that our 
marriage wasn't what I wanted. 

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There was too much stuff, there 
was too much inner happiness. 

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And I remember driving in the 
car the one day and crying out 

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to God, saying God, this is not 
living, this can't be living. 

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I hated my life so much. 
And I eventually, through some 

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unexpected way at work, we got 
some counseling and the guy 

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looked at kind of the report 
that I did around the 

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psychometrics and all these 
other things. 

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And he said to me, oh, Kai, you 
look like you are deeply, deeply

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unhappy in your relationship. 
What's going on? 

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And in that moment, it was 
actually the first time I was 

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honest about my relationship 
with, OK, got nothing to lose. 

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Let me tell this guy. 
And he gave me the best advice 

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I'd ever gotten. 
He said to me, you know what, 

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car? 
You're so unhappy. 

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You're so depressed. 
I'm sure Sam actually probably 

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feels the same way. 
You need to come clean. 

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You need to go home. 
You need to have an honest 

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conversation with your wife 
around how you feel and you need

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to have an honest conversation 
around what you've been doing. 

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And then you need to lay it on 
the table. 

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And he actually gave us like a 
very little chance of, of us not

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making it through this. 
But he says you can't live like 

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this. 
So for three days I wrestled 

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with that. 
It was literally 3 days. 

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And then I got home the one 
night and I said, listen, babe, 

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you know, we need to have a 
proper conversation, need to 

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have a but and I wanted it out. 
I just wanted to end the 

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marriage. 
I just wanted to get out of 

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there. 
And in that moment, I came clean

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and I said to Sam, this is how I
felt. 

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This is what I'm doing. 
And that's what it is. 

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And we had a conversation for 
probably about three hours. 

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And after that, she and I 
actually couldn't believe the 

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grace of God in that moment 
because Sam is can be quite 

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fiery at times. 
And one of my biggest fears was 

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just, you know what she would 
say to me. 

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And in that moment, right at the
end, she looked at me and said, 

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listen, I want to acknowledge 
that. 

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I've not been the wife that I 
could have been, but in this 

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moment I feel God saying that I 
want to be the wife that he made

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me to be. 
And even in that moment, I 

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looked at her and I said, oh, 
that's great. 

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But I want Tarshish. 
I want out of there and she said

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I'm going to prove to you I'm 
going to fight for you. 

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I'm going to fight for this 
marriage. 

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The affair ended, but we still 
separated. 

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We've died for a while to the 
granny flat and Sam just loved 

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on me with a relentless grace 
and mercy that no human could 

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ever have done if it wasn't from
him. 

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She even decorated the granny 
fat. 

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I was staying in she even one 
night. 

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One night I came in and said, 
look, I'll just come and put 

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some of the some of the things 
that you love. 

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And yeah, maybe I should or 
shouldn't share this. 

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But anyway, she would phone me 
up in the middle of the night 

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and say, hey, what are you up 
to? 

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Yes, Dennis. 
Dennis is giggling. 

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00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:44,400
She was. 
She overwhelmed me with her 

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00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:46,080
kindness, with her 
thoughtfulness. 

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00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:53,440
And after a few months it was 
like we were having our second 

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00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:59,880
honeymoon and I felt the love 
for her that I had never felt 

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00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:04,560
before. 
And I was on this route to 

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Tarshish. 
I wanted out. 

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But through the grace and the 
mercy of God, we've been able to

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00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:21,680
restore our marriage. 
And now we've been married for 

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00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:36,370
21 years. 
So back to Jonah. 

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We can kind of understand why in
our lives and in Jonah's life, 

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you've got this, this Tarshish 
that you, I mean, you've got 

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this Nineveh that you just don't
want to go to, so you choose to 

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run to Tarshish. 
He had every justification. 

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00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:02,840
He, he'd felt the cruelty of the
of the Syrians. 

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00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:07,840
He'd felt the oppression he 
lived in that he'd grown up in 

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00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:10,680
that he'd experienced it for 
many years. 

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00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:14,080
And he had just thought to 
himself, I'm not going there. 

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I'm not going to do it. 
But the one question that we 

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00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:23,680
haven't asked and we haven't 
answered yet is why didn't God 

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00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:31,200
give up on Jonah? 
I mean, why go through all of 

305
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,480
the mess? 
You know, there was actually 

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00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:38,880
Amos and there was Hosea who 
were alive at the same time as 

307
00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:40,760
Jonah. 
They were both prophets. 

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00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,040
Why didn't God just choose them 
to go speak to the linebites? 

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Why, why, Why go through the 
storm? 

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00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:53,560
You know the boat, the 
conversation with the guys on 

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00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:57,960
the boat. 
You know the whale, the 

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00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:00,320
elaborate whale, or the big 
fish. 

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00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:09,760
Why go through all of this? 
See, God went through all of 

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00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:15,000
that with Jonah. 
Because he's gracious and 

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00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:21,560
compassionate, slow to anger, 
and abounding in love, one who 

316
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:28,680
relents from sending calamity. 
Why did God not give up on me 

317
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:34,680
and on Sam and on Sophie? 
Because he's gracious and 

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00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:39,040
compassionate, slow to anger, 
abounding in love. 

319
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,320
One who relents from sending 
calamity. 

320
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:47,600
Church, where is your chargesh? 
Where are you running from? 

321
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:54,760
God is gracious and 
compassionate, slow to anger and

322
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:59,440
abounding in love. 
And he's relenting from sending 

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00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:06,360
calamity in your life. 
Amen.