we are in a series entitled Runaway. As we are looking at the strange and obscure character prophet named Jonah. Um this story, it's only four chapters and the chapters are pretty small but it just has this mixture of right and wrong, good and bad, obeying God running away from God. And and while this story took place about 2500 years ago, so many of its theme apply to us directly today. And so we're gonna jump into it on chapter one we saw in week one that really God spoke to Jonah and God spoke to Jonah and then gave him a command and to go and preach to Ninevah. And we mentioned how Jonah gets a bad rap because he got the command to go and preach Geneva Geneva and he literally ran the other way. But the truth is that nine Eva was this evil city, this city known for torture and beheading people in in terrorism. In fact the location of nine Nova is in Central Iraq where it really was the foundation or basis from their descendants came out ISIS and things there too. So imagine if you received a mission okay, your mission is to go into the headquarters of ISIS and preach repentance, I don't know, we might be quick to run away as well. And so well we talked about how even though Jonah ran away, God showed compassion and how God's compassion is not connected to our permission. But God's power and that God showed compassion to the sailors on the boat that Jonah climbed into and that showed compassion even to Jonah himself because when the sailors threw Jonah overboard, he was actually saved by a fish. You know it's a crazy thought but the fish is not the main point of the story. In fact it's just an underwater Uber that God used to get them from one place to the next. And then last week we talked about being rock belly bottom. I mean he was in the bottom of the sea and the belly of a fish. But it was there that Jonah prayed for repentance and we talked about how ultimately prayer is not a button to push but a relationship to pursue and so now he gets thrown back on land and we're gonna see that God speaks to him again and gives him a second chance and see how Jonah responds differently. Now, what's awesome about this grace that we've been singing about all morning is that ultimately God can use anybody to do anything for his glory. Let me give you an example. Um this guy on the screen, you're gonna see his name is Renee, His nickname was level Martinez. Now level was in a gang from the mid 80s all the way up to 2012 And it was in 2013 in his garage that actually um after hearing the message multiple times, multiple times, he finally broke down and actually prayed to receive Christ And while he spent 30 years trying to take life, he committed the rest of his life to go and give it. So while much of his life was growing up in gangs and he almost died five or 6 times. But God spared him and saved him. And he was a part of this gang called the latin syndicate. And so you don't just get out of a gang. But yet he transitioned out and then he started preaching to the very brothers within his gang. And so actually there's a powerful picture here of one of his gang members. His name was Corey and he preached the gospel and Corey got saved and here is level baptizing one of the leaders of the latin gang called the syndicate and what I find amazing is, well, he had the gang written on his chest, he had the gospel written in his heart and it changed everything. And now God is using this former gang leader to, to spread his message of hope and of life and forgiveness and freedom because ultimately God can use anybody to do anything for his glory. We're gonna read from Jonah chapter three here in a minute and if you have your bibles, I want you to turn there. But before we jump into it, I want you to give the main idea. So if you walk away with nothing else this morning and I want you to write this down because then as we read through the chapter you're gonna see the progression of this statement. And so if you're taking notes, write this down is that God's grace is bigger than our past, our performance and are prejudiced. God's grace is bigger than our past. It is bigger than our performance and it's bigger than our prejudice. So let's jump into the story. If if you have your bible open up here, if not we have verses on the screen that you can follow along. But also we have some brand new es v bibles available to you that we'd love to give you as a gift on your way out just for coming this morning. And so if you need a bible, make sure you stop by our guest services table before you head out. So let's let's jump into this Jonah Chapter 3: verse one. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. I just want to pause there. How awesome is that? That God's grace means that we have a God of second chances. Amen. How many times have we messed things up. But yet God gives us a second chance and God says first to arise and go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against. It's the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now nine Nova was exceedingly Great City. Three days journey and breath in other words, it would take you three days to walk through the city. In fact, some commentators say that about 120,000 people lived in nine of at that time, which was a mega city. We live in a major city in Phoenix is the sixth largest city in the country and it's slated by 2030 to become the fourth largest city in the country. And Maricopa County just last year was the single fastest growing county in the entire country. And so while we live in a great major city, so here was nine of a and it was a city primarily turned away from God and Jonah was gonna walk right into the middle of it. So Jonah began to go into the city going in a day's journey. I want to pause there. Now he just, he just kind of walked in and we said, God's grace is bigger than our past because it starts off by saying that and the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time and I'm not certain, but if he would have disobeyed, I feel like it would have said and the word of the Lord came a third time and the fourth time and the fifth time because that's what we call weekly church, amen, like we come and we get a word and we don't do anything and then we come back and we get another one and we live out and so we have a God of 2nd and 3rd chances because he wants us to be connected with him and he wants us to obey him. And so despite his recent past of completely running away from God, he gives him this great mission and in spite of Minova who was known for their cruelty and their sin and their evil ways, he's gonna give them a second chance. And so despite their past, we're gonna see the gospel and salvation that is presented to them. But secondly, it's it's promoted um it's bigger than our performance because Jonah doesn't give his best effort. I'm gonna be honest, like this is where I say he's good, he's bad, he's right, he's wrong. So Jonah finally obeys God, but then doesn't even go to the most prominent part of the city. He just walks one day in and he says, okay I'm here. And then actually in Hebrew, what we're about to read is only five words. And so he just walks to a random place in the city and gives a five word sermon. Um This is equivalent to if you like tell your kids to clean up their room and they're like fine and they just tuck everything under the bed or in one spot or they pick up one piece, like can you clean up the living room and it's like sure, okay, done like there's no way you're done. No I am. Um and we've done this and they just do the minimum effort, right? Maybe you've been a part of a group project where somebody in the group project gave minimum effort. And some of you are nodding angrily and some of you are trying not to move because you were that person that barely contributed to the group project. So, um, so this is Jonah, Jonah, Jonah barely contributes to the group project. Okay. God, I'll obey you. But I'm not going all around the city. I'm just going to one spot. I'll give you one sentence. And so he says this here they called out. Yeah, 40 days and none of us shall be overthrown. I don't know you. But that's not a very good sermon, right? We have a sermon on the mount of jesus. That's awesome. We have peter paul, preaching incredible powerful sermons, But someone walking into a city where he knows no one and saying, Hey, 40 days, you're gonna be overthrown. No context, no mention of God, no chance to repent overthrown. By what? Like he breaks every rule of good communication. He doesn't connect with the audience. He doesn't, he doesn't give him a chance to respond. He says, Hey, random people that I don't know, You've got 40 days, you're gonna be overthrown. And ultimately you're gonna actually see Jonah in Chapter four. What you're gonna talk about next week. He's actually gonna leave the city and sit on the hill and say, all right, they're gonna fail? I'm gonna watch this city burn. And so he doesn't think it's gonna work. Have you ever done something at work? You don't think it's gonna work? So you don't put in your full effort? Okay. Some of you are afraid to admit that because maybe your bosses in the room, I'm sorry. But um right, sometimes we do things and like, you know, it's like, it's like my version of cleaning versus my wife's version of cleaning, Like my version of cleaning is that if it's out of sight, it's out of mind and it's clean, right? I remember actually when I just in college, I just torn my A. C. O. And I was at home and I was doing recovery and um and I was doing rehab. It sounds weird. I used to tell a story. Yeah, I was in rehab and people looked at me weird, but um I was in I was rehab here for my knee and um and then I was at my house and a good friend of mine, her name was Samantha came over and she came to visit me and I was so excited because it had been a little bit since I saw a friend. I thought she was a little cute. She came over and said, you know what, I'm gonna help clean the house and do something nice for your family. I'm like, we'll just do something for me. You know like this, it just comes in, it's just like hang with me, talk with me, why are you, Why are you cleaning the house when you're coming to visit? Like no, this will, this will mean a lot to your family. So she started cleaning and then she had to go to class and so she left before my parents came home and there and um, so I was there like a sophomore, a freshman in college and my parents came home to check on me and my mom walks in from school and he goes, john who was here and I was like, what? It's like the house is clean. And I was like, you're welcome says no, john, this is girl clean. This is not john clean, this is girl clean. And I don't know who this girl is, but I like her. And uh, and uh, and they started our friendship and dating and ultimately into marriage. And so there's a difference, right? When someone goes all out, when someone gives the minimum, in this case Jonah gives the minimum, he says, Hey neineva, 40 days, okay, 40 days. That's it. But what's crazy is that when you obey God, it's, it's not the, it's not the performance that matters. It's, it's the obedience that matters. And God uses that moment and had prepared the hearts and they respond in a crazy way. Sometimes you don't need a lot of words to communicate well, Christmas Eve 1910 William Booth, the founder or, or one of the early generals of the Salvation Army. I was very sick and could not attend the christmas banquet and back then when you would send a message you would it cost money to send per letter or per word. And so because he was sick and because he was ill, he sent a one word message or commencement speak of speech to be delivered at the Salvation Army christmas Eve dinner and so they gathered everyone together and said General William Booth wants of the Salvation Army wants to give you this message, others and that was it one word. He just uttered the word others. But isn't it amazing that after 11 word message here we are 100 years later and the Salvation Army is actually doing work around the globe emphasizing and helping others. Sometimes you don't need a lot of words to communicate truth right on a wedding day. The most important words you could ever say, I do right or wrong. And in the purchases you make, whether it's a car or a home you come to a point and say, I'll take it if you're in a dating or marriage relationship. The three most important words a guy could ever say to his wife is, I'm sorry, I was wrong. I'm just being practical. Okay. No. Um, it's the idea of, I love you right. Sometimes the, the the smallest phrases means so much and it makes a huge impact. In fact I was just talking with the family here in this room earlier this week and I heard the coolest little story there, little boy, a real tiny just a toddler. Um They would pray together at night. And so when he wakes up in the morning and their toddler opens the blinds of the window and says good morning, jesus, that's awesome. Just as simple as phrases can mean so much. And so here Jonah did not give a great performance, did not give his full effort, but yet he obeyed the will of God and he was there and it was God's power. And so let's see how the nine invites responded to this five word sermon. And the people of Ninevah believed God, they called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them, sack cloth was meant to show repentance. It was something that you wore to demonstrate that you were repenting before the Lord. Well, notice how extreme they go. It says the word reached the King of Ninevah and he arose from his throne and removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. In church tradition, you've seen people do ash Wednesday and that was like they put a mark of ash on their forehead and that was to represent the idea that we came from dust and that we will go to dust and apart from God we are nothing. And so here the king of Nina nina put on the sack cloth to show repentance and sat amongst the ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through nine nova 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, but let man and beast be covered in 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. And when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he said would come to them and did not do it. They repented so hard and so full that even the cows repented. They're like, I don't know if my animals need to repent, but just in case they're gonna fast too and we're gonna put sackcloth on them. Everyone's repenting, we have to do this. God help us. God save us. And so in this minimum effort, the most unlikely people repent and are saved. See God's grace is bigger than our path. Jonah had messed up. The nine invites had messed up. God's grace is bigger than our performance because Jonah did not preach this incredible sermon and and for days and to each part of the city, he said five words he said, you got 40 days Even in that moment God used that and his spirit moved through the city of 120,000 people to where even their cattle repented and they're going through and turn to God and their repentance ultimately led two guards relenting of justice and wrath upon them. So it's just incredible that we see this. It's an unlikely prophet, unlikely people. But from this truth, we understand that there is nobody. And I mean, nobody outside the reach of God's grace amen. Here was a city known for their cruel and evil ways and here was a prophet who disobeyed and ran away from God. But in the right moment at the right time, God spoke through Jonah, Jonah and they repented and they received and they believed God and it changed everything. God's grace is bigger than our past. He's bigger than our performance and he ultimately is bigger than our prejudice, Jonah was prejudice. He thought the Neophytes did not deserve this. They don't deserve it. If we're being honest with ourselves, we're prejudiced too. To be prejudiced means to prejudge somebody, you know, oftentimes it's connected with race. It's actually demonstrated here in this story, but you can also pre judge someone by their look or by whether they have money or they don't or their political party or or where they live or by their job or either gender, like when you show prejudice. When you pre judge someone, you, you give you basically block out the chance to see God work in their life. You're saying, no, no, they don't deserve it. You've done unintentionally. If you put yourself in God's position, as soon as you say, that person doesn't deserve this, what you've done, it says God, nope. They're not allowed to, they're not allowed in. It's the little kids 14 and said, Nope. No, girls allowed, nope. For this race. Not allowed, nope. This political party, nope. They're not out in, nope. And while it's easy for us to say no, I'm not prejudiced. Okay, But is there somebody who, if they showed up at church today, you'd be tempted to leave. If there's somebody that sat down next to you, it would be difficult for you to worship. Is there somebody that like man, if they came? I don't know if I could come. That's that's showing our hearts that's real. We all have that. But I want to tell you is that God's grace is bigger than that. He's bigger and what our world needs more than anything, because we live in a world filled with difficulties filled with distractions filled with divisions. We don't need more social media posts claiming that we're right and they're wrong because it's not an us versus them. It's us and it's we and then all of us are under the authority of God. And so that there is grace available for every person. Do we live that way? That is why our vision and mission Grove is to help every man, woman and child experience jesus because what our culture needs is not another program but the gospel amen it's available to all. There's a story two weeks ago on the news in Texas and security like maximum security, even solitary and even death row inmates of rival drug cartels and gangs both just on the other side of the border and in the south and really from south America. And so these guys are like the worst of the worst And in fact that they require 5-6 guards for one inmate because of the things that they've done. But there was this incredible story that the news could not explain was that when a church actually started a church campus in the prison and started streaming their services and started having a campus pastor in the prison prison and they started actually doing worship services and people start getting saved that here are leaders of this drug cartel and rival gangs that both wanted to get baptized. And so while they were put on other sides of the prison, they came in and got baptized in the same water on the same day and afterwards hugged and put their own lives at risk apart from the Gospel. How do you explain that? I don't know, I don't know. Um I was in, I was in Mexico on a mission trip with my own eyes and we had a group and some of the students were actually in on that trip and we did these gospel presentations on the street and that was pretty cool. But we were going into the prisons and we thought we were gonna go on this front lobby of the prison. But they said no, no, we've gone on lockdown for you like, oh that's, I don't, I don't know if we're available now, I mean we're here, but Okay. And so we got a group of like 15 high school kids, Okay, a couple. And we walk into this room and it's like a cinder wall block gym. And on the second level There was 120 inmates all standing at attention in order to get into this maximum prison in Guadalajara Mexico, you had to do something extreme. So, um, and I walked into the room, I was gonna be honest with you, there was like four guards 120 inmates and they were not, they were not cuffed, they're like, oh they're good, they're at attention. I'm like, oh that makes me feel safe, he said, and don't worry, there's a sniper up top, I'm like, okay, kids ignore the sniper, we're gonna do our presentation. And so we go and actually your brother in law who's in the room was there, he can vouch for this. So he was actually playing the devil in his in his gospel presentation. And so we're doing these gospel dramas and Ben was there and all these inmates started glaring at Ben, I'm like, yeah, that's my brother in law, this is not good or like I'm gonna go back and say sorry, sorry there guys, we lost one, but Ben did great, but and so we're doing these things and here is this, I'm just being transparent, real. We've got a bunch of white bread, no nothing teenagers from Scottsdale Arizona and they're doing this gospel presentation to this music and then one of our leaders gets down and it's big kevin with Grace and Mercy ministries. If we've worked with Grace and Mercy ministries, you've seen kevin. Um, so he was on this trip and we're rotating through his preaching and so he's preaching through a translator and he's just bringing it and then he says, and if you want to receive jesus right now, I want you to come down here. And the guards are like, no. Yeah, and I'm like, it's like, come on, I see it. And for whatever reason they said yes And no lie, God is our witness out of 120 maximum security inmates 90 came down and were weeping and we put these little worthless bracelets on them and gave them gospels of john and we're praying over them and they're just lifting their hands up and they're crying and you know what I'm saying, thank you, jesus for saving me or at least, I don't know, I don't speak spanish, but it sounded like it and then they're going and we had the local church pastors with us and it was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. Was it the skit, was it the drama? And it was okay, but it wasn't like box office movie. Okay. But in that right moment at the right time presenting the Gospel, God changed the hearts of inmates who came down and realized that while and here's what's crazy think about this while they were physically in prison, they were spiritually and eternally set free. And if God can save the ninja fights, if God can save those in maximum security prison in Mexico, if God can bring rival gang leaders together that I'm telling you that there was nobody outside the reach of God's grace. Do you have a child? Let's run away from God. Do you have a sibling? Do you have a spouse? Do you have a friend? You have a coworker? That's far from God. There is hope, there is hope God's grace is bigger. And if God is not focused on our past and he's not focused on our performance because here's the thing like I want, I want to be about performance. I mean here we want to do excellence, we want to, we want to have an excellent um really gathering here. And so we value that, but on the flip side, I remember one time when I was in, Ohio and I was a youth pastor up there, we were gonna do a sporting event um on a local college campus and we got speakers who are all americans from Ohio state and um and they came and they shared their testimonies and it was incredible and we got the best musicians in the area and the worship was awesome and someone came up and shared the gospel and it was like man, this is awesome, we nailed it and then nobody came forward, no one came forward and and some of you are thinking well because you had a lot of state players um, no, um we can say that about michigan but um no and so I was like God, how does this work? And so I realized that it's not about the performance right, it says that we are dead in our sins but with the grace of God, we are made alive, you know, it's like preaching, going to preach to a graveyard, does performance matter if you're at a graveyard, we're bringing the speakers up and we're like man, that song was really good, right? No, it takes a spiritual miracle to go from death to life and only God can do that and where that plays in is that I wish I had a stronger testimony growing up, I grew up in a christian household, I had loving parents, you know, we learned in church about heaven and hell and I came home and I asked my mom about that and we prayed to receive christ and I was like, man, I wish I had one of those cool testimonies. I've come to realize now that God's grace is on both sides, both from situations and before situations. And ultimately every testimony, every story is one of someone going from being spiritually dead to alive and that your story, every story is a miracle and worth sharing. Like, well I'm not that bad, you need jesus, I'm not as bad as that person, you need jesus, I have no hope jesus is available to you and here's, here's what God has asked for us to do. Three things were taking notes, You can write this down number one. God asks us for faithfulness to his message, faithfulness to his message. I said the word of the Lord came the Jonah and he acted. I want to thank you for being here this morning so that we can collectively sit under the word of God. I want to encourage you to, to faithfully gather because there's something special. When the church body comes together, the church family comes together to be faithful to the word of God on a weekly but also a daily basis. What is the word of God? Well john 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God loves us. God gave his son and when we believe we live eternally, it's that simple. Are we faithful to that message? Do we receive that? Secondly, God asks for our obedience to God's mission. When God tells you to do something, are you willing to go do that? Is there something in your heart right now that you've been putting off for a while? Maybe a conversation you have to have maybe a I don't know, maybe it's it's to join a community group or to serve or to forgive or is there something that you know, you need to do right now. Are you willing to be obedient? Because while Jonas performance his sermon wasn't that great notice Ninevah didn't respond until Jonah did. Are you willing to obey? Are you willing to do what God's called you to do? And then lastly, God asks for our repentance to God's mandate. Are we willing to turn from sin? Because if we are, It says in first John 19 that if we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all sin, righteousness. Even the cattle repented. Mm hmm. Right. All of Ninevah. That huge revival started when they said, nope. We have sinned, we have Ron God forgive us because when we repent God relents. When we repent God relents and his grace becomes available. And if you notice those words here being faithful obedient repentant that spells four and here at Mission Grove, we are ultimately for the community and when we started this church, you know, I would love to have a growing booming church. And it's amazing and an answer to prayer to see all of you here this morning. But I've realized that at the end of the day, it's not about a performance, it's not about the words that I say, it's not about the words that were singing, but about you experiencing the spirit of God in your life. And then if we're gonna be for the community, which we're gonna serve and do all kinds of fun stuff. But if we're gonna be for the community, what that means is we're going to be faithful to God's message. That means that we're gonna be obedient to God's mission and that when we mess up, we're gonna be repentant to God's mandate and we're gonna trust God with the results. And I encourage you to do the same with your family. Let's pray dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you here on this Father's day that we can come to you our heavenly father, that God, your grace is bigger than our past God. It's bigger than our performance. And it's bigger than our prejudice, God help us to find the grace in the midst of all of that. And just as the Neophytes repented, May we repent of our sin and turn to you because salvation belongs to you alone, Oh God, and for those that are in this room, I pray that they would pray to receive you. Maybe for the first time they're saying God help me, forgive my sins and I put my life in your hands, Thank you for saving me and God. Maybe some of us in the room are like Jonah. We've been reluctant to follow him. We've been reluctant to go on mission for him. We've been reluctant to, to trust. Maybe our prejudice has got in the way. Maybe our past has gotten away. Maybe we've focused too much on our performance, whatever it is that's put a wall between us and you. God. I pray that we would just break that down today. God, as you saved the ninja fights in that moment as you use Jonah to do that. I ask that you would use us right now and save us and bring salvation through your son. Jesus christ may this be the most memorable father's day for a person in this room because they will forever remember accepting you as Lord and savior for the first time. Today we love you God, it's in your son's name. We pray Amen