Letting Go

Some of you may have heard of the song "Nothing I Hold On To" by United Pursuit. It's a great song, with easy to remember words. The bridge of the song is really simple, it just says, "I will climb this mountain with my hands wide open" 

These lyrics remind me of in Genesis, when God told Abraham to go up to the top of Mt. Moriah, and sacrifice his son Isaac. God asked Abraham to do this to test his faith. God had it all planned out ahead of time that a ram would be caught in a bush at just the right time, and an angel showed up to stop him from sacrificing Isaac. But Abraham didn't know all of this up front. 

Mt. Moriah was a few days away. So they packed everything up, the wood, the oil, all the supplies, and they got some of their servants together and they went off on this trip.

When they get near Mt. Moriah, Abraham tells the servants to wait for them while they go and sacrifice. In Genesis 22:6, Abraham says, "I and the boy will go and sacrifice, and we will return to you." 

Check out Abraham's faith here. Even though God told him to sacrifice his son, and he's ready to do it if that's what God wants, Abraham knows that they're coming back. You see a few chapters earlier, God promised that through Abraham's seed (Isaac), God would raise up a nation. Abraham knows that God isn't done with Isaac yet. 

So they are walking up the mountain, and Isaac asks, "Hey dad, where's the sacrifice?" Awkward question at that moment... Well, Isaac.... you're the sacrifice... Probably wouldn't be the most fun trip. But that isn't what Abraham says. In Genesis 22:8, Abraham tells Isaac, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering."

So they went up the mountain, with no offering but Isaac. 

What a picture. Abraham is letting go of everything that he holds dear. Isaac is the son that he was promised in his old age. It isn't like he has a bunch of other kids at home, or can have more kids. Isaac is their only shot. But Abraham walked in obedience.

Is God calling you to let go of some things like He did to Abraham? It would have been really easy for Abraham to get defensive, and say something like, "No, God! Not Isaac! YOU gave me Isaac!"

But Abraham didn't say that. If he had said that, he would have been elevating Isaac higher than God in his heart. 

You see, God wants our hearts to Himself. He'll give us blessings, and He'll put people in our lives that He allows us to share this life with, but ultimately, we are His. We've been bought at the price of the blood of a Lamb. 

All of this was a beautiful picture, because a few thousand years later, God would give His own Son as a sacrifice. God did provide the lamb, not only for Abraham and Isaac, but later for the whole world. Jesus' blood that He shed on the cross, and His death were the payment for our sins. The price that we owed was put on Him. He has purchased us with His blood, and that is why He can ask us to let go of these things.

Ask God today, "Is there anything in my heart that I've put higher than You? What changes do I need to make to keep You as the Lord of my life? Please give me Your Holy Spirit to walk in, so that I will have Your strength to let go of these things, and to follow You will all of my heart. Amen."

End of the Story

We're closing out our 3 part series on the book of Jonah today. We've followed Jonah, a man of God, a prophet, the equivalent today of a pastor or a missionary as he runs from God.

God asked him to go to Nineveh, but instead he ran the opposite direction, and ended up in a fish because of it.

Jonah turns back to God while he's in the fish and the fish vomits him out onto dry ground. That's where we pick up. 

Jonah 3:1-2, "Then the Word of The Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you."

The Word of The Lord came to Jonah.... AGAIN! You know, if I had been God in this situation, I probably wouldn't have sent Jonah again. I would have found someone who would cause less trouble. Maybe send the fish, that would get people's attention.

But you see, God is all about second chances. God knew Jonah would run the first time before he even told him to go. 

God gives second chances to people who don't deserve first chances.

God already knows every mistake that you will ever make. He knows how you will drop the ball and how you will fail and mess up, but He still chooses you! He still has plans for your life.

Ephesians 2:10 tells us, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

No matter how badly you mess up, God still has a calling on your life.

Jonah 3:3-4, "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the Word of The Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

This time Jonah obeys. He's learned that it ends better for him when he follows God.

That is one heck of a city! It took three days just to walk across the whole town.

History tells us that the walls of the city were 100 feet high, and they had 200 foot towers on them. The wall was wide enough for three chariots to ride side by side on top of it.

I think that it's interesting.. Jonah's message isn't the kind of message that people like to hear. He basically says, "You're all going to die in forty days."

Jonah 3:5-9, "And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."

Check this out: Jonah preaches, and EVERYONE listens! All the way to the point of the king finding out about what's happening, and he repents and tells the whole city to repent!!

They all turn to God, and look at verse 9 again. "Maybe God will relent." Maybe... they don't even know if he will.

Jonah preached, and the people got convicted. God's light was poured into their city, and it made them see how dark they were. When they saw their darkness contrasted against God's light, they abandoned their darkness for God.

The last verse of chapter three is one of my favorite Bible verses. It shows God's response to their repentance.

Jonah 3:10, "When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it."

God saw what they did. He saw how they repented.

They didn't "say the right words" or give enough money to the right organization. 

They changed what they were doing. Their lives began to reflect God's light.

When God saw the fruit in their lives, He held off the disaster.

What's interesting is the contrast we see between the people of Nineveh in chapter 3, and Jonah in chapter 4.

Jonah 4:1-3, "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."

Hold on a second.... The whole city of Nineveh just got saved, commentators estimate that there were about half a million people in the city. Jonah has just led the biggest revival in history, and he's upset about it. WHAT?!

Jonah knows that God is gracious.

Jonah knows that God is merciful.

Jonah knows that God is slow to anger.

Jonah knows that God is loving. 

Jonah's knowledge of God was not the problem.

Jonah's response to God was the problem. 

Jonah even admits that he ran from God because he didn't want to see God forgive the city of Nineveh. Wow. We get a real glimpse of Jonah's heart here, and it's nothing like God's.

Jonah tells God that he is so upset about this that it would be better if her were just dead.

The Messsage paraphrases this like this, "So God, if you won't kill them, kill me! I'm better off dead."

Whoa Jonah. This dude is DRAMAAAAAAAAA.... But God still responds to him lovingly. 

Jonah 4:4-9, "And the LORD said, "Do you do well to be angry?" Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, "It is better for me to die than to live." But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die."

So here's the scene - God calls Jonah out on getting so upset, so Jonah goes outside the city and sits down to watch God destroy it. While he's sitting there, God sets up a little illustration for him.

A plant grows up and gives Jonah some shade. Jonah was "exceedingly glad." Jonah was stoked about this plant. At least Jonah is never apathetic. God forgives Nineveh, he's mad enough to die. God sends him a plant to give him shade, he's stoked. 

But the next day, God kills the plant. No more shade, and God even sends a hot wind to make it worse. You can probably guess the outcome here. Jonah gets upset, specifically " so upset that he'd be better off dead."

God calls Jonah out again in love. "Should you really be angry?"

Jonah's response, "Yep! I'm so angry that you might as well kill me here." Whoa, dude! Take a chill pill! But then God explains this illustration to Jonah. 

Jonah 4:10-11, "And the LORD said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

Jonah is upset that the plant died. It was just a plant!

God is much more concerned about the people of Nineveh. 120,000 people that don't know their right hand from their left.... Kids don't know their right hand from their left. (the one where your pointer finger and thumb make an L is your left.) 120,000 kids in the city. 

God cares about Nineveh.

Look at this contrast here,

Nineveh hears God speak to them, they repent, turn around, and start living differently.

Jonah hears God speak to him, runs away, then gets angry with God.

Nineveh (a city of wicked people) have a better response to God than His own people do. When it comes down to it, this book ends with Nineveh being closer to God than Jonah. 

Now I want to ask this question, which category are you in?

Not which category would you put yourself in, but honestly today, which category are you lined up wtih? What does your response to God look like? Are you against God, or mad at Him? Are you doing what He says only because you have to? Or are you really responding to God, making changes in your life to reflect Him?

Jesus came and died on the cross for us, so that we could be lined up with God, joined in relationship with Him. 

Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we could go to church, or so that we could have cute Bible verses to post on our walls when we want to feel better. He didn't die on the cross to give us a prayer for before we eat.

Jesus died on the cross to offer you a radical, joyful, hopeful, Spirit filled life with Him. I heard it put this way, "the Gospel is the story of God covering His naked enemies, bringing them to the wedding feast, and marrying them rather than crushing them."

All He asks us to do is respond in faith.

Jonah's story ends with a man who is completely unrepentant, completely unwilling to turn towards God and resond. Your story could end any day. Which camp are you in? 

As God's light is poured on you, are you repenting with Nineveh, or getting upset and emotional with Jonah?

Breakthrough

If you've ever been in the ocean, you've more than likely experienced waves knocking you down, being held under the water.

If  you've never had that happen to you, I can only explain it as what it must feel like to be in a large washing machine. You're being tossed and thrown in every direction all at once. You have no idea which was is up until the waves push you down so far that you hit the sand beneath you. That gives you some point of reference, but you still have to fight through the weight of that water pushing you down just to get a breath. It can be scary, multiple memories come to mind where I wasn't sure if I was going to come back up at all.

Isn't life like that sometimes? Things push us down, and hold us underwater. We can't breath, and we get overwhelmed by all of the pressures around us. We're all familiar with the feeling of being held down on the bottom, trying so hard to get a break in life. I think a lot of us are even there right now, today. We need a breakthrough. 

Ephesians 2:14 says, "For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility"

The "He" in this verse is speaking of Jesus Christ. Before you dismiss this as another Sunday school message about how Jesus can solve our problems, hear me out. 

This verse doesn't say Jesus brings peace, or even that Jesus offers peace. It says that Jesus IS peace.

Think of the most peaceful situation that you can imagine. I think of lying in my hammock way up in a tree, I have my headphones in, relaxing in the sun. Those peaceful situations give us a chance to take a deep breath. To let go of the struggles and pressures around us, even if it's only for a moment, and breath. In a way, those situations are small breakthroughs for us. 

Jesus IS our peace. 

In Jesus, we get that deep breath that we need, we get that breakthrough from the struggles of life. Our relationship with Jesus is the most important factor to our breakthroughs, because in Jesus, we're made right with God. That verse from Ephesians says that Jesus broke down the wall of hostility between us and God. That's the gospel! Our sin had put up this wall between us and God, and we couldn't cross it or go around it or get over it. We were stuck. We were being held underwater by our sin. Jesus saw this, and He came and broke through that wall. Jesus didn't show us a path around it, or build a bridge over it. Jesus broke down the wall. Jesus removed all of the separation. We have full access to God through Jesus.

This is huge, and it is a complete game changer. We don't have to be overwhelmed by the struggles around us, or held down by the pressures of life. We have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead living inside of us! We have the promise that we will spend eternity with God. Our God is alive and loves us. The peace that comes with that will overwhelm every circumstance or pressure that could ever rise. 

Our relationship with God is a vertical relationship. The things going on around us today are just horizontal, and Jesus promises to be our peace, not just in the vertical, but in the horizontal as well.

When our vertical life is right, our horizontal life is doable. 

No weapon that is formed against you can prosper, God has promised to reveal His goodness through every circumstance that comes your way. Waves will come. Life happens. We will all be held under at some point or other. This isn't a promise that life won't be tough, but it is a promise that we have a breakthrough in Jesus. When the vertical is right, the horizontal is doable.

The Pursuit of...

In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is addressing the church in Corinth on the proper use of gifts in the church. He spells it out in verses 26, 33, and 40. He tells the church first, that the gifts are for building up, that God is not the Author of confusion, but of peace, and also that the gifts should be used in a decent and orderly fashion. These verses are absolutely vital for bringing clarity to the way that these gifts are to be used, especially among the congregation. However, it is not all of the explanations of the gifts, and prophecy and tongues that sticks out to me.

What sticks out to me in 1 Corinthians 14 are the three things which Paul tells us to pursue, desire, and seek.
The word "pursue" literally means to follow, in order to overtake or capture. Pursue is a verb. To pursue requires action. Now that this is established, what has Paul commanded us to pursue? The answer to that is found in verses 1 and 12. Paul tells us, pursue love, earnestly desire spiritual gifts, and strive to excel in building up the church. I'm sure that most of us read this list and are automatically drawn to the first part. "Pursue love." That sounds so nice. Maybe someone will make a sign of that and put it over their door with "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord" right? WRONG. When Paul says to pursue love, he is telling us that we are to actively hunt down ways to better put ourselves last. Now you're all thinking that the second two items sound better, but wait. Lets continue to look at pursuing love. Paul has just finished penning 1 Corinthians 13, which is widely known in churches today as "the love chapter" where new definition has been brought to love. To sum up Paul's new definition, love is putting the needs and desires above our own. Love manifests itself through humble service. This is something seen throughout the Gospels. Romans 5:8 tells us, in this we know that God loves us, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ's death showed His love. What we do shows our love. This death to self is something that Paul even uses as an example specifically for husbands in the way that they treat their wives. Love, as Christ loved the church, giving Himself for her. The love that Jesus Christ brought embraces selflessness. "Pursue love" might as well be read "pursue selfless living"

Secondly, Paul tells the church in Corinth that they should earnestly desire spiritual gifts. These gifts encompass every way in which the Spirit of God moves among His people. As followers of Christ, our desire should always be to see God move in our midst. Jesus calls us to love God with everything that we are (Luke 10:27). That involves seeking His face above everything, regardless of how we feel, putting His will above ours. If we have Jesus on the thrown of our hearts and lives, nothing should excite us more than God Himself coming down to our level and moving in our midst. Spiritual gifts are not only when God's Spirit moves among us, but through us. The Holy Spirit Himself moves and works in and through us. How could we, as disciples of Jesus, desire anything more?

Finally, in verse 12, we are called to strive to excel at building up the body of Christ. Paul doesn't just tell us to try to build up the body of Christ, but to excel at it. We are supposed to be professional edifiers. The church of Christ should be the most encouraging, most uplifting people on this planet. That is how God calls us to be set apart. If we aren't edifying the body, glorifying Christ, then we are not reflecting a faithful image of Jesus to the rest of the body and the world outside. When someone excels at something, not only are they the best at it, but it comes naturally to them. We as the church must be so wrapped up in who Jesus is and what He has done for us that edification should come naturally. This last item will truly be a product of the items which Paul places before it. When we are living selfless lives, fully dependent on the constant moving of the Holy Spirit, edification is the result. When we move away from this, we go from operating as a member of the body of Christ to operating in our own flesh, and it is certain that edification will not be brought to the body of Christ through one of its members walking in the flesh.

Pursue love, earnestly desire spiritual gifts, strive to excel at building up the church.