#194 Why the Story of Jonah Should Terrify the American Church

Many who have some semblance of church familiarity are familiar with the story of "Jonah and the Whale" or (the big fish). If you are more of a student of the bible, you realize that there is more than what meets the eye to our colorful, cartoon of a story that we typically give to kids regarding the narrative., What if there is another layer even beneath that? Not only is there another layer but the American church ought to really pay attention to what takes place in this narrative. It is about life and death...spiritual life and death. 

Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Black and blurred. It's Brandon here. Guys, first and foremost, I've been. Putting out a survey. So I can get some insight from you guys that's actually going to also be posted in the description link of this episode. So please do me a favor, just as a way to support this podcast. Fill out that survey so I can gain information further, tailor our episodes to our listeners. We're gaining some new listeners. Over the past few months, and I'm grateful for you guys. I'm grateful for the way that you interact with the. Those continue to rate and comment on the episodes rate and leave a comment if you're on Apple, you can do it as many times as you'd like to. I think that's also true for Spotify. I'm just not 100% sure, so if you've if you've already waited and commented on the podcast. In general, please do it again. It helps it become visible and I would really love for. 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I met some listeners. I I stated when I was doing that. So with Dan, I met some listeners in Michigan and I was very grateful for their responses to the encouragement that these episodes bring them and also the encouragement that they share them. They share them. Not about us. I know every content creator has to say that type of stuff, but genuinely we want people to know the Lord and know all the goodness that flows from knowing the Lord. So we want them to understand the truth and we understand. Ultimately the truth is a person. He is the Lord. Truth isn't a thing that the Lord wields. It is him. He is him as the young, and would say. So thank you for that. And let's keep that going. Help us out with that survey. Alright guys. Today's episode I want to look at. A current state of the American Church, a a popular. Kind of posture on this podcast. But I was preparing A sermon for Jonah. And. You know, I've always thought that there was some link in general. To modern Christians today, and the story of Jonah. But. In preparing the sermon, which is in Jonah, four, I wanted to highlight just how closely tied to the heart of Jonah we are in the American Church. You you're going to hear some things in this episode that I've talked about a lot. When it comes down to Jesus's warnings of Matthew 24, by the signs of the times. But then also. I want us to get a clear picture. On just how closely linked we are to the the purpose of the narrative of Jonah. And what it was meant to communicate to us. Now. Obviously, Jonah was not written to us, but it is written for us. And there is something that we ought to take away from it. And not only can we take away a valuable lesson from the story, the historical story of Jonah. But we can actually look. At ourselves. And begin to see clearly what you may be seeing in your own heart, what you may be experiencing in your local body, what you may be experiencing just at the church at large here in the. United States of America. I want to read this passage so so this is what I want to do. If if you are somebody who loves Bible study and like tracking through the Bible, you're going. To love this. If it's somebody who doesn't like Bible study and track it through the Bible, you might not love it, but I encourage you to do it anyway. It's not a long passage. We're just going to be in Jonah 4 Jonah Chapter 4, and we're going to read the first 4 verses. And and I'm going to give you. I'm just going to walk you through how we ought to be looking at this. So go find your Bible. Pause real quick. Everybody who has a phone has a Bible, but if you're not familiar with the Bible, I would encourage you to get a paper Bible, get a, get a. Paper Bible if you have one and get familiar with flipping the pages and knowing where places are and things like that. But I mean, you know, preferential. Jonah four one through 4. I'm gonna read it for us. 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 I was? 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 and steadfast, love relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord. Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said, do you do well to be angry? Now when we look at the scriptures, this is Brandon talking now. That's the end of the passage. When we look at the scriptures, we want to make sure that we are seeing the scriptures as one of three things, or a combination of the three. That when we read the scriptures, we read them as either a window. A mosaic. Or a mirror. Or is a combination of them? As a window through which we look at the world and understand it, that's where we get our world view. That's our world view. Our worldview is informed by the scriptures. It is the window window through which we view the world as a mosaic. It's cause by which we allow the scriptures to interpret itself so that we would understand it fully in all its meaning. So when you're reading something in Scripture, it's not in a vacuum. It's there on purpose, and it fits to make a bigger, larger artwork. The Bible is 1 narrative, but it is also not one book. It is a library. So window mosaic and a mirror. Obviously a mirror self-explanatory, but that we could be able to see the true reflections of our hearts and respond appropriately. And today I want to focus a lot on the mirror. That when we read these stories about Israel and things like that in the Old Testament, that we should be. Looking in a mirror. To see the conditions of our own heart. So I want to give you some context. If you're familiar with the story of Jonah, you got Jonah getting swallowed by a whale, right? If you grew up in church and you grew up in Sunday school, then that's typically what you end up remembering. There was this dude that got swallowed by a whale or big fish of some sort. Completely missing the heart of why this is included in Scripture. Now. John is a prophet of Israel. The shorthand version is as a prophet. God gave him instructions to prophecy, to a nation, then of a. And the Syrian nation. And he fled razes and obey God. He fled and ran. He ended up on a boat. And not only they end up on a boat, he ended up on a boat of pagans, gentiles, non Israelites, non Jews. And he was asleep on this boat. While a storm was raging, if you're familiar with the Gospels, you can see the foreshadowing there of what that's pointing to. And in paralleling I would say. As he sleep on the boat, the dudes on the the Gentiles on the boat are like well, you need to wake up and call on your guy cause we've been calling on our guides and we still about to die. So now you need to call on your guy. Wake up. So Jonah realizes why this was happening. It's because he was fleeing from the Lord and he told them that, hey, look, this is my bad y'all. If you toss me off the ship, you'll be good, because this is my Lord. You know, he's the one true and living God. And he made the land to see and everything in it, you know? So you got to worry about. This is just me. I'm. I'm. I'm. We got a little bit of beef right now. And I need. I'm fleeing from him. But if you toss me off your boat, everything will be fine. You sacrificed himself to save the men. On the boat. Then they toss them off. And the storm stops. All the while, the Lord has a a large fish swallow drummer. Depending on your interpretation, depending on the tradition of what you think this to be to mean, you can mean it can mean that either Jonah spent three days in the belly of a fish, or it meant that Jonah was dead. And went to the. Land of the dead shell. For three days. And after those three days, God had to fish, spit him up. Or resurrect him? And God gave Jonah the instruction again. He said go to Nineveh and I want you to prophecy against Nineveh. So Jonah went to Nineveh. He prophesied against Nineveh and he told them, hey, you got 40 days before the Lord thrashes you. Because of your wickedness. You're idolatry. You're a rebellion to the one in living God. You're going to get thrashed. And then something crazy happens. Never repents. And in their repentance. What we see in Jonah 4 is the response. And we see that he was. Displeased exceedingly. So I'm going to highlight a couple of things that we need to remember. As we look at the mirror. The three things we need to remember as we look at the mirror of this passage is that there's great pleasure that we have in the Lord and we. Need to remember that. Our pleasure is in the Lord. There is a great relationship we have with the Lord, and there's also great knowledge we have of the Lord. The pleasure we have in the Lord, the relationship we have with the Lord. And the knowledge we have of the Lord, that is what I want us to remember and see. In our hearts, as we look at this mirror and the reason why it's a mirror, is because today. There are. A lot of questions about God's character by those who profess to be his children. There are many questions of God's character by those who profess to be his children. So I want to let you see how that flushes itself out here in this patch. Let's start in the beginning. Because Jonah is greatly displeased here. In this passage and it says that he was displeased exceedingly. I'm reading the CSV English standard version and he was angry, it says. Now. Jonah did what God asked him to do. He obeys God. He obeys God after God saves him. He obeys God after God saves him after he rebelled against God. You see, you see? Like Jonah rebelled. God rescued him. And then God gives him instruction and he does it. Yet he still is displeased. Exceedingly and angry. I think one of the first things we can learn here is that you can actually obey God without a heart of submission. You can do that. You there are a lot of people who do that, who obey the Lord without a heart of submission. And I don't mean a a a willingness to submit to him. I'm talking about when we come to Christ. It is with our whole selves that oftentimes you'll hear in the Old Testament that we are to be pure hearted. He who has not lifted up his soul to what is false and hasn't sworn deceitfully. And the psalmist says in Psalm 24, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Who will stand in his holy in his holy place. He that has clean hands. In a pure heart, you will hear that phrase pure hearted. Jesus reiterates it in the beatitude, the Sermon on the Mount, but sort of a pure in heart. No.

No.

That freezes pure hearted. The picture that comes to mind is like a precious stone that is not an alloy that's not mixed with other stones and materials, but it's pure all throughout. And that means that there are no other allegiances when you talk about it in the biblical context. There is no other allegiance that you have. But it is to the Lord and to the Lord alone. I mean we we think about some of the things that we've addressed in this podcast, I think you can see the many allegiances people have. Obviously the one that we stress the most is ethnic allegiance that we see that in a lot of black Americans. You also see it in some white in white Americans. That's it's growing more and more popular again. You see how the enemy is just recycling. Is nonsense and we fall for it. Jumping on our teams instead of standing in the gap and proclaiming the truth of the gospel with fear, fearlessness and courage. So now you have races who are so bold and their allegiances to their skin color because of the fact that they had to sit under racists who were so bold and their allegiance was in their skin color. And you had black American Christians saying no, it's OK for blacks to be racist cause we're black. And so now we're about to see the pendulum flip and say, oh, no, it's OK for white American racists to be racist because we're white and we had to sit under all this BLM nonsense. So to be pure hearted is to not have another allegiance. And to have a heart of submission is to have your allegiance fully to the Lord. However, you can do what he commands you and not have a pure heart. Now the question is, will you do what he commands you when it collides with your other allegiances? That's the issue. With having a mixed heart. So Jonah does what the Lord tells him to do. The word he says that he was angry and interesting enough that word anger is the same word used for Cain when Cain had anger. That led to him murdering his brother. And it's just not talking disappointment here. It's not disagreement. It's full blown. Blazing hot rage. That's what the Hebrew word means. It means burn hot blaze. So Jonah is displeased. And he's burning with rage. Now here's where some things become familiar with us. Though he is displeased, though he's burning with rage. Why does it seem to be so convincing to him? Why? Why isn't it something that he experiences in his heart and he repents of immediately? Well, it's because he feels justified y'all. Jonah feels justified. Ninevah is a wicked place. Never as a matter of fact, because of their love for wickedness, they devised new ways to torture people. They just did that in their spare time. And to make matters worse, Jonah believed that because of none of us wickedness, Israel would be at the hands of their wickedness soon. So it was some good news. That the Lord was going to destroy them. And in Jonah's mind. This wicked place needs to be brought to justice. And Jonas issue is our issue today because we think that justice is this weapon to be wielded for our own comfort, for our own pleasure as a matter of fact, the word justice is so used, it seems adultery. It's so overused and we don't have any concern with what justice actually means, because what we use the word justice, what we feel in our heart is vengeance. That's what we really want. When you look at all the different clips that you see on social media and all this other stuff of people crying for justice, they're not crying for justice. They're crying for vengeance. And we would rather actually have vengeance than bring God glory. And here's a secret for you. If bringing about true justice glorifies God and not us, and you believe that, then you'd also believe that offering forgiveness does the same. And that's where we have a problem today, as does Jonah obviously. You remember that tragedy. The man named Botham Jean, who was killed in 2018. By a woman named Amber Geiger. She was a police officer. She walked into Botham Jean's apartment, shot and killed him. Now in trial, that's right. Court trial. That's right. The court trial that convicted her. That's right. The court trial that convicted her to 20 years in prison. That's right. She's serving it right now. Yet. People were still lusting after quote, UN quote, justice. How do I know? Because during that time and in the trial, Botham, Jean's brother, publicly. And genuinely it seemed. Offered forgiveness to Amber Geiger. And it set some Christian hearts ablaze in wrathful anger. As a matter of fact, Christianity Today, that is just, you know, the New York Times with a crucifix. Christianity Today put out an article that was called quote Botham. Jean's brothers offer of forgiveness went viral. His mother's calls for justice should too, UN quote. And I remember thinking, why on Earth did they feel the need to? Have to put that article out. Now maybe I would not have asked that question to myself if I also wasn't surrounded at the time by Christians who were also coming to me and saying, yeah, man, I just don't know. I just don't want Christians to get the wrong idea or get want people to get the wrong idea about her, his brother forgiving her. These these people were not for. To his offering of forgiveness, they did not celebrate it. At best, they didn't celebrate it. At worst, they had the heart of Jonah. Because something that I did not address that you probably still remember from this case is that Amber Geiger isn't just a mere police officer, neigh. She's not even a near mere woman. But she's the worst of them. Because Amber Geiger is a white. Police officer woman. And we know what needs to happen with those despicable people. We know what needs to happen with these disgusting people descended from other disgusting people who did all these wicked, evil and hateful things that has led to the displeasure that has led to the oppression that has led to the bitterness that has led to the generational curses, generational trials of other people. The fallen oppressed people in this country so that those people who have the wrath and anger kindled in their hearts and their displeasure with the offering of forgiveness to these despicable people, their wrath and their vengeance, is justified. So they think. They think that. They're justified in their calls for quote UN quote, justice. Because we just don't know what would happen if we don't fight for justice in this world. Things are so bad. In this country I mean. Things are bad. But compared to the way they are outside of this country, these people are snake oil salesman. I'm talking about the ones who are quick to get in front of a camera. I'm not saying that there isn't real pain if you follow the podcast, we acknowledge that as a matter of fact, I acknowledge that it was real racism that led to embittered hearts that justify their embittered hearts today. And that's going to lead to other racism. That's what I was talking about at the beginning of the podcast. You have predominantly white towards black racism that led to predominantly black towards white racism. And they said that it wasn't racism because we don't own corporations yet. But you know, try that in front of the Lord when you die and stand before him. And so now what we're seeing is a flip back to where you got white on black racism, but it's not predominant. It's very it's it's a minority. But there are white Americans saying, look, I'm not playing this game of tiptoeing around every word I say at the fear being called racist. So I'm gonna just be racist. The enemy is having his way with a lot of people's minds because we're so stupid. Getting back on track. So, yeah, Botham Jean's brother, all for forgiveness and Christians in a very passive aggressive way went berserk. Because I feel like they shouldn't have to offer forgiveness because their wrath and their desire for vengeance is justified, just as Jonas was. He has no pleasure in the Lord. And nor do those who I'm talking about today, who would call themselves Christian. Yet they seem so angry about the condition of the world because they don't have pleasure in the Lord. You know that passage? Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Since Psalm 37. Let me read Psalm 37 for you really quickly. Here's the context of that. Here's the context of where that delight. Comes from and what the breadth of that delight is. Verse one. Fret not yourself, because of evil doers. Man, if people opened their Bible. If they only opened their Bibles. It continues on be not envious of wrongdoers. For they will soon fade like the grass and whither, like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your. Heart commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way over the man who carries out. People devices refrain from anger, forsake wrath, fret not yourself. It tends only to evil. If only we opened our Bibles. If only we preached from the scriptures, then we would allow the Lord to graciously. Cut the hearts. Of those who have wrath and vengeance and hate building on their hearts so that he would offer them his grace. And it's a grace that's meant to be extended towards the neighbor. But what if they hate me? The Bible says something about that. The Bible says something about the people we're supposed to hate. How we treat them? The Bible even gives us an explicit example of it, God himself showing you how you treat the people you hate. How has he treated you? That's what we forget. So rather than fleeing like Jonah did, we run towards the throne of Grace, even in our frustration and anger y'all. Even in our displeasure, we run toward the throne of Grace. We don't try to run from God. We actually run toward him with these things, tingling on our heart and burning on our heart. And we say with David, search me ohh God and know my heart try me and know my throw and throw my know my thoughts. See if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Search the depths of my soul and show me the things that I try to conceal there that doesn't belong to you, but that I'm justifying secretly and Wilding and hoping, and it's galvanizing and it's proliferating itself throughout my body. Show me, Lord. That's what we ought to do. Jonah didn't do it. Jonah rebelled. He ran away. God saved him. Rescued him. Then he ended up obeying God with the lack of submission spiritual submission. And then God did what God does. And Jonah is mad. Jones map. Delight yourself in the Lord. He'll give you the desires of your heart, your pleasure. Is not in things that happen that you want to happen. Your pleasure ought to be in the Lord. That's the only way you can maintain pleasure in a fallen, broken, sinful, wicked world. Is that your pleasure is in him. You need to remember that. We also need to remember the relationship that we have with him. You wanna hear a little bit of irony? After Jonah's rebellion and in his subsequent saving from that rebellion, and then he witnesses what God does through him, he brings none of us to repentance. And now he's angry with God. And in that anger, after his rebellion, he prays. And and it's not a a prayer of, like, repentance. It's a complaint. But the thing that he's missing about this prayer is that he gets to pray. He has access to the one true and living God. Who hears his cry and responds to him in real time? He has this access, yet he's blinded to it. He's blinded to the peace he shares with God, and how that peace is obtained. And thus we share in the same blindness. But let's look at the passage really quickly. And he prayed to the Lord. This is back in Jonah for our home passage. He prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That's why I made haste to flee the tar sheets, for I knew that you are gracious, guide and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster man. I mean you. If you could close your eyes, you would think that Jonah was preaching. He's complaining. What's interesting about this is that Jonah utilizes the access he shares. With the Lord. This relationship that he has with Yahweh is what he's leveraging to communicate his great displeasure with Yahweh. How on earth can we be so close yet so far from the Lord? How is it possible that we can lift hands? We can sing? We can quote scripture. Yet if someone were to show us a picture of the Lord's heart to us, it would be a foreign object. Jonah says true things about the Lord's character, and it's those aspects of his character that bring displeasure to Jonah. How can we be so blinded? I'll highlight two ways. Self centeredness. In a low view of God. That's how we can be so close, yet so far from the Lord. If you're somebody who grows up in church. This is probably more you're more susceptible to this type of heart. The Jonah type of heart, than somebody who is who has come to Christ, you know, later in their life. It's not impossible for that to happen, however. But the way that we can be so close yet so far is a self-centered blindness and a low view of God. Let's highlight the self centeredness we share in this today. Now I know we let let's look at this passage and the English really quickly. Passage that we just read in Jonah 4 verse 2. Listen to this. Ohh Lord, is this not what I said when I was yet in my country? This is why I made haste to flee the charges. For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast. Love relenting from disaster. In the Hebrew text, there is no fewer than 9 times that Jonah expresses some type of I or my sentiment. Yes, Jonah is indeed praying and he is indeed talking to the Lord. However, though God is the ruler of all things and the one to whom he is speaking, the real prized possession of jonahs relationship is the fact that God has a relationship with him. That's the prized possession in Jonas Heart that God has made a covenant with Israel. That's what really gets Jonah going and worship when he's singing the songs of the Lord. But it's not about singing the songs of the Lord. It's about what the Lord has done for Israel. Oh, you brought us out of Egypt and you cleaned us up. And now we are free. I am free. Indeed, we had the Egyptians chasing us. But you got rid of them for us and drowned them in the sea.

We are free.

Indeed. I mean, that's what their worship songs would be today if they joined us in our Christian CCM stuff, God would be in the song. His name would be in the song low low. His deeds would be in the song, but the product is actually us, the prize. Is us the object of our worship? Is not that God is a savior, it is that he saved us. That is the sentiment. That blinds you. This self-centered. Idea of what it means to be in a covenantal relationship. With the Eternal 1. You listen to the Christian CCM songs, at least the popular ones. You get what I'm saying? You get what I'm saying. There's a lot of self centeredness that we're dealing with. As a matter of fact, anxiety is proof of this. It's not that it would need to be explicitly surface level self centeredness. It's that self centeredness is connected to anxiety. There are studies on this. You can look this up, but you don't really need a doctor or PhD to confirm it. Scripture gives us this. At the heart of anxiety is this question. What will happen to me? Doesn't matter the context. That's at the heart of anxiety. What will happen to me? Even if that question in your if your rebuttal is, well, no, I get a lot of anxiety thinking about my loved ones. Yeah. Did you hear that statement, your loved ones? So when something happens to them, it's still something happening to you. That's the heart of the anxiety. I don't mean for this to sound like it's. I'm ridiculing that I want to give light to it as a form of good news, that there is a very famous passage that's attributed to this mindset that doesn't often get attributed to it. Psalm 4610. If you don't know it by its biblical reference, you know it by what you've seen on bumper stickers and coffee mugs and little paintings of people sitting by a still lake. Be still. And know that I am God. You look at the context of Psalm 4610. What's happening is the psalmist is saying though all of this stuff that's happening around me ought to cause me to have anxiety about it, to question what's going to happen to me, what's going to happen to mine, what's going to happen to ours, the Lord says. That you need to be still. And it's a loving rebuke. Saying that, the greatest tragedy in this world is not that something would happen to you. The greatest tragedy in this world is that there never be anyone to rescue you. That's the greatest tragedy. And guess what? It's not a tragedy. I am the rescuer. You need to cease striving. And know that I am God. That the ultimate prize of this world is not for people to know your name or for your existence to be clearly perceived by all who breathe and speak. But the greatest prize in this world is for all who breathe to know my name. Your greatest prize is not to be rescued, or the greatest prize, and as well as not that you would be rescued. The greatest prize in this world is that there is a rescuer. And the reason you can be still. Is because the rescuer knows you. And he made you his. So though the Earth's Withers and melts away, the psalmist says. Though mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, what the psalmist says before that is the beginning of the entire passage. God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. Therefore. We won't fear. Though the Earth gives way. We won't fear. Though. The cancer diagnosis is very scary though. The sickness is metastasizing, though my favorite family member has passed though these people at work don't treat me well, though I'm isolated in my local gathering, though my spouse doesn't love me well and I don't know what to do though. My children are going wayward and I wish that they would turn to the Lord and I feel guilty as a terrible parent. I will trust in the refuge of God, who is a very present help. Rather than me going to the next pragmatic solution of trying to fix my issues, I ought to cease striving. Is that freeze? And know. That he is God. That is the only solution. For the different doctorates that we've all achieved in the modern day MEA login degrees. We love our Christian music today. We love the songs you know, we love the kind of like. I don't know gentleness of each song, some of them a little too gentle. Some of them like romances. It's like, I mean, it's weird. It's just weird for men to sing. But at the end of the day, you become. The world's foremost myologie in. God is present. The language of God is present. His deeds are present, but at the end of the day, the real beauty of his goodness is what he's done for me. And we gotta get out of that. Because it creates blindness. 2nd blindness is a low view of God. I mean you you see in Jonas prayer that he acknowledges God's compassion and his mercy and his slowness to anger all of these things are true. And one of the most notoriously small minded views of God ever recorded. He says. I knew that you were gracious, guide and merciful, stolen anger and abounding in steadfast laws and relenting from disaster. Like he's saying all these things about God, I. Imagine the Lord listening and going. But go ahead but. Right. Your gracious God and merciful slow to anger and abounding and steadfast, love relenting from disaster. But I didn't expect you to be those things. To the people I hate. I found beauty in you being those things to me. You might be thinking to yourself, well, this is the same issue. This is self centeredness. Now it's a little bit different though. It's connected. Our self centeredness necessarily gives us a low view of God. Because we think that God dwells only at our address. And if it's not just our address, it's the address of the people. We're either indifferent to or the people we care about. But when it comes down to the people. We hate. Nah. God don't live here. John. Fleas. He flees from the Lord because the Lord called Jonah to tell Nineveh the truth, man. If that's not an upside down way. That things are happening today, I'm going to expound on that a little bit later soon, because we're wrapping up soon. But he flees. Because. He knows that God's compassion and mercy and slowness to anger is present. He just wants it limited. He believes it ought to be limited. God's goodness and his mercy and his grace and his loving kindness, his his slowness to anger, all of that stuff has to be placed on hold when someone comes against me and mine, and we think God is big enough to deal with us, but too small to redeem our enemies and bring us joy in the process. Man, there was a family member. Years ago. Who was doing a lot of reckless stuff to people I love deeply. And I was not in the same vicinity as this person. And so all I could hear are reports of the thing that was being done. This person did this. This person did this and man, my heart was kindled. Just the fire raging in my heart was kindled. Every single story in the story and story. I remember getting. Another report one day and just being very angry, and me and my wife's apartment. Ohh man. I missed that apartment. That was a nice apartment years ago. I remember pacing. Back and forth in our living room. And then my wife said. Brandon, we need to pray for them. And I I'll never forget this moment because. The moment I bowed my head. And closed my eyes. To not take my anger and frustration to the Lord in that moment, which would have been susceptible, I mean acceptable. That would have been perfectly fine. That's something I actually implore and encourage you to do that you would go to the Lord with those things rather than going to the world and doing something stupid. But that's not what my wife's suggestion was. Her suggestion was not for me in my anger and in my frustration, though I don't know what to do with it. Take it to the Lord so he can deal with my anger and my frustration. Her suggestion had nothing to do with me. Her suggestion was we need to pray for him. And there's only one way. To genuinely pray for someone. It's to bring yourself before God. Who once saw you as equal to them? And that is what my heart flooded with the moment I closed my eyes. That I realized that a lot of my anger and frustration, though rooted in real things, that they needed to be held accountable for. But the self righteousness and the kindling of laugh and vengeance was actually being fanned by my comparison. To him. And the fact that I was hoisting myself up above this person. If you could dig into the depths of the Lord's heart. You'll find knowledge of your own sin. And it'll break you. Because though you'll know what it is, it'll be covered. Even when you try to look at that sin in his heart, you'll see it absent of judgment and anger. The deeper you go down, the wider you go, the further you go, the higher you go. In his heart, the knowledge of your sin is there, but even more there is grace to be found covering it. That is true for those in Jesus Christ. It's true for no other. And it only happened because. Of my wife's faithful call from me. To enter. Into a moment of spiritual submission. Where I was happy basking outside of it. Pray for him. Jump outside of your low view of God that says. God is compassionate, merciful, slowness to anger with you, Brandon. But with this person who is pushing your patience and has got you daydreaming, them bumping you in the street so that you can knock them out. Now the Lords. He's too small for his compassion and mercy and slowness to anger to cover him. And that's just not true. We forget. What it means to have relationship with the Lord? We forget that the beauty of that relationship. At its core. You won't find us. You'll find him. The Lord. This relationship we have with the Lord, our relationship made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And the sacrifice is sufficient for all who desire a relationship with him. So where do we most see ourselves? Hopefully you see aspects of your sinfulness throughout this, but culture at large. Where do we most see ourselves in this text, especially in mirror form? When you look in the mirror, if you have any text on your shirt, the text is still going to be the text. It's just going to be in reverse. So it doesn't mean that it's the opposite. Of the text. It doesn't mean that if you if you have on a shirt that says sin and you look in the mirror, the shirt's going to say righteousness. No, it still says sin just backwards. That's how sometimes Satan tries to scheme you. That's why you had so many black Americans willing to become racists. Because Satan just gave them racism in a mirror. And people looking at the word say, ohh no, that's not racist. We must see ourselves when it comes down to our need to remember the knowledge. We have of God. We saw Jonah's knowledge. Jonah was in rebellion until the Call of God because he was afraid that as a result of God's compassion, kindness and long-suffering and enemy deserving of wrath and justice will receive grace and forgiveness. Does that sound familiar? Minimal. Jonah, I'm sorry. Jonah cries out. And his remembering of who God is, he uses his knowledge of God. To say man. I knew you were going to be all gracious and forgiving and stuff. And so Jonah feels like he can't trust God with God being truly good, which means that God isn't just. God can't be truly just because he's too forgiving, so therefore I need to take justice in my own hands. No, I'm not gonna preach to this this place because God is too merciful. I'm not going to use the Lords words because he's too merciful. And what I'm seeing today in churches is the complete reverse of that. In mirror form. That many churches are refusing to preach what is true. They are refusing to preach God's word because they don't believe he's good. If you let them tell the story, they'll say he's too wrathful. There's too much vengeance and anger in the Bible. It's not kind enough. Therefore, he needs my help. I'll preach. My own words, and if it's not my words, I'll get these other people's books and I'll read their books and I'll use their books because. The scriptures aren't. Powerful and God isn't good enough to transform. All scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, reproof. For correction and for training and righteousness, Paul says in second, second Timothy 3. And it's breathed out by God and it's profitable. Why? That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The knowledge we have of God affirms his goodness and our ability to rest in him. Here is knowledge that we have of the Lord. That he knows the end from the beginning. Isaiah 46, remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God. There is none like me declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, things not yet done. We also know from that same passage that the Lord will do his will. Says in Isaiah 46, continuing on, my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish my purpose. Calling a bird of prey from the east. The man of my Council, from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I. Will do it. Jonah's prayer about the Lord's graciousness and compassionate compassion. He gets that from Exodus 34, six and seven. Israel's knowledge of the Lord. This is the full context the Lord passed before him. It says in verse 6 and proclaimed the Lord the Lord of God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast, love and faithfulness. Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But who will by no means clear the. Guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children and the children's children to the 3rd and the 4th generation. What? How on earth does God be? How can we celebrate him for being so gracious and compassionate, and also celebrate him for by no means clearing the guilty? How on earth can they both be true? I'll tell you with this. Another reminder, we need to have. The knowledge we need to have of the Lord. For I delivered to you as of first importance when I also received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. That he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, that he appeared to cave fast, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. And then he appeared to James and into all the Apostles. And last of all, as to 1 untimely born, he appeared also to me. This creed that Paul was cited in First Corinthians 15 is. The realization of what was prophesied in Isaiah 53 that he was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom? Men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our graves and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him, stricken and smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds. We are healed all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. How on earth can the Lord be so gracious and compassionate? But also just and vengeful. How can we rest with peace and joy in this fallen sin ridden world? When it seems that the sinful and rebellious and wicked prosper. How do we guard our hearts from growing evil and then covering that evil with a supposed justification for evil? I tell you, you remember the knowledge you have of the Lord that he truly is gracious and merciful. And it's not at the extent of his justice. For his justice was carried out on his own son, and for all those who choose not to follow and identify in that son. Will have their own justice brought to. Them. And all those who do confess with their mouths and believe in their heart that Jesus is that servant on whom our iniquities were laid, for which pleasure. In the heart of the father was brought to crush his own son. Because Glory gets to his name. Through the salvation of former enemies turned children. And in a sinful world, remember that. And wait on him. Wait on him. Don't be caught in a snare by the enemy. Don't let him just recycle sins over and over and over again. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Thank you for listening to this episode of Black and Blur, where you're guaranteed to hear one of two things, our humble opinion or the facts, all right.