[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's words you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast. Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Traffic signs are everywhere. A lot of those traffic signs are very obvious and very clear. Some not so much. You've got ones that are like a octagon that have in bright white S, T, O, P. That's not a suggestion. It's not something you roll through. You come to a complete stop. And you don't sometimes just look in one direction. You might look in four different directions. Another one is white with the black trim around. It says speed limit. It's got a number underneath. That also is not a suggestion. That's not also the mean that that's where you're not supposed to exceed that speed limit. Another one's in the shape of a diamond. It's got an arrow that's curved to basically warn you, hey, there's a curve or there's a warning or something. You need to be cautious of what's headed your way. But then of course, we have other signs, signs that are more of like advertisements. And especially if you were traveling this past week over Thanksgiving, you might have seen one of these or 800 of these on the exact same road. What I'm saying is signs are all around us. We see them all the time. In fact, I would encourage you even just on your way home today, wherever you go, just to pay attention to them. You'll probably be amazed that there's ones you've overlooked. There's ones that you didn't know that they were there. Signs are everywhere. And so the issue is not necessarily that there's a lack of signs, but the question we always have to ask ourselves is this, right? Are we paying attention to them?
The text that we're going to be looking at In Matthew chapter 12 this morning, the thing that the Pharisees and the scribes are after, is a sign.
Maybe you've been there before where you wanted something very obvious, something to be very clear from God. So you Know what to do.
I think about Scott Stapp, who was the lead singer of Creed, a band that was very popular back in my day. He talked about this, some of you might remember. He said, you know, I remember growing up as a kid, and my parents were very, very conservative. He said we had a 10 o'clock curfew. And I was like, 10 o'clock? That's late. Like, mine was like, 8:30 anyway.
And he said, you know, we had this early curfew. They were very strict on me. You know, on Friday nights when everybody else went to parties, I didn't get to go to those parties. And so because of all of that, that strict upbringing and all things I didn't get to do, I got frustrated with my parents, I got frustrated with God. And I remember laying in my bed and looking up at the light that was turned off, thinking, all right, God, if you will just turn on that light right now, then I'll know you're real. And then I'll know that I need to follow you. I don't know if you've been to that degree. Probably not, but some of you may have. But I know in my own life there have been things that I have asked God for, like, God, please make it obvious, like what I need to do. I don't know what I should do next. And it's amazing. About the same exact thing. And maybe you've experienced this, too. In one instance, he'll make it so obvious, and the next thing, it's not as obvious. Like, I gave you the illustration when I share with you our adoption story about when we were trying to figure out what to do next. Do we adopt again or not? And Laurieann told me, she's like, hey, I'm not getting younger. We gotta make a decision soon. And so not trying to put a timeline on God, but we did say, God, make it obvious by this time, he literally did exactly in that time, same exact situation. Later, nothing.
So what about those times? What do we do in those times when it's not so obvious and we're not getting a clear direction of what's next? And maybe we get a little bit frustrated. God, why. Why wouldn't you always make it clear like that? Make it so obvious? And here's why. I think.
I think he knew that, number one, if we always got what we wanted and we always got that sign, we might be tempted to do what people have done all throughout Scripture. And it's this. To fall in love with the sign more than the one that gave it in Our text today in Matthew chapter 12, that's kind of what he's reading into the heart of the Pharisees. But I think he's also reading in our heart too, because when we think about those moments where we want to know what's next and what to do, oftentimes, here's what it's all about. It's just literally being obedient with what's right in front of you.
You may or may not get the answer. You may not get whatever that sign might be. But again, he's gonna point to. In this text, it's not about a sign, that it's all about Jesus. So I want to invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 12 with me this morning as we wrap up this series on the book of Jonah. And in this text, it's really neat what Jesus does, because, by the way, of all the narratives he could pick to help the Pharisees understand their wrong question and the wrong motive behind the question, but also to point out how he is so similar to things that have happened in history of old. And the one narrative he picks is Jonah.
But in this text, you're going to notice in just a second how he shows how he's similar to Jonah, but also how he's much greater. And so the first thing that Pharisees ask him is, hey, teacher, we really want to see a sign from you.
Now let me ask you, did the Pharisees really want a sign?
Really?
And was that really what they were after? Well, the more you dig into this text and look at the context, they weren't actually wanting a sign. They were just trying to find another way to accuse him, to point out something wrong that he was doing. But if you look at the context of Matthew chapter 12, and you back up a little bit, he gave them a sign. But the problem was this. They didn't listen to it. In fact, you might remember that he healed this demon possessed man. And do you know what they said after Jesus healed that demon possessed man? They said, well, he's just doing that by the power of Beelzebub, y'all. That makes absolutely no sense. Why would Satan drive out Satan?
So you can tell they're already missing the point, and then they get upset that he's healing and doing other things on the Sabbath. So what he's noticing from this group of people is it's not about the sign. Because let me ask you for just a second, if Jesus did give them a sign, do you think that would have changed their mind?
I don't Think so. And here's why I don't think so. The Bible says that all of Jesus miracles and deeds could not even fit into this book.
So what you and I know to be true, they experienced probably 10, 100 fold, yet it did not move the needle. What is that kind of trying to say to us? What does that mean for us? Well, there comes a time where those things that you see or don't see is not necessarily about whether or not it's true or not or lack of evidence. It's whether or not we want it to be true.
Because kind of like the Pharisees, if they got that sign, I don't think it would have moved the needle at all. They got plenty of signs.
But maybe think about this for us just a second.
A lot of times we'll say, well, God, if you'll just do this, then I will do that.
Well, he's already revealed so much to us.
He's already given us Jesus. Really? Is it about that?
Because how many times has maybe God answered a prayer? He's opened up a door, and it maybe changed us for a little bit, but the message behind it didn't truly land.
And so as we think about this, I want you to notice what he says next. He says an evil and adulterous generation is looking for a sign.
You might remember in John 6, when Jesus saw a crowd that was hungry, and he saw that crowd hungry, he didn't want to leave them hungry. He turned, as we talked about that Levitical lunchable into a meal for thousands of people. They were so amazed by that miracle that all those people showed back up the next day. But why did they show up?
They wanted another meal. What did they want? They wanted another sign.
But he knew that they would fall in love with the sign more than the one that gave the sign. And so he's trying to divide the crowd and he said, all right, so here's what we're gonna do, guys. Unless you eat my flesh and you drink my blood, you have no part in me.
Now, when we read that with 21st century eyes, we know what Jesus means because we just shared in it this morning. We think of the bread and the cup. We think of his body broken and the blood that was shed. Y'all, they did not know that and think that when they hear, eat my flesh, drink my blood, they're like, what is wrong with him? They're thinking cannibalism. Like, we have insight that they do not have. And so what? He's like, yeah, go. He's Saying, I am the bread of life. What he's trying to say, it's not about the sign, it's about me. And then, guess what a lot of people did, they were out.
And so then he says, so I'll give you an example of a sign. In fact, at early service this morning afterwards, one of our members here pointed out to me some different parts of how the narrative of Jonah was very important to like the scribes and the Pharisees. It was something that they knew about very well. He said, you know about Jonah, there will be no sign except the sign of the prophet Jonah. He's like, this is going to be the best example. He said, so just as Jonah for three days and three nights was in the belly of a fish, I was for three days and going to be for three nights in the belly of this earth.
There's going to be evidence all around you, whether it's the temple veil eventually going to tear, the earthquake and the darkness falling over the face of the earth. There's going to be so much evidence. But here's what's going to happen. You're still not going to believe. It's not that you need more evidence, it's that you need a heart that is postured to receive it. And then he says this. The men of Nineveh are going to rise up at the judgment with this generation. Here's what they're going to do. They're going to condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. This is kind of a mic drop from Jesus.
What he's basically saying is Jonah preached one of the most half hearted, unloving, undetailed messages yet. A group of some of the worst people on the entire planet, 120,000 of them, repented.
He's saying, you have seen way more than the Ninevites, but yet you don't change.
And so as we read this, we have to think, well, what else do we need? What else do we need to see to really believe it's not about the sign?
Because again, we'll fall in love with the sign, not the one that gave it.
I love this quote that greater light requires greater judgment. It's the idea because what we know, we know it to be true.
That is wonderful. But with that comes a very heavy responsibility to do something with it.
And so as we think about this today, I want to ask these two questions, because these two questions, I think answer the very question that the Pharisees were dealing with, but that we all kind of face is, what is it we really need. Well, we're going to look at how Jesus was very similar to Jonah, but how he was much greater. So how was he similar? Well, one of the ways he was very similar was just as Jesus preached and taught to a lot of people that did not receive him, preached and taught to a lot of people that did not look like him, act like him, he still ministered to them. You know, both were called to minister to their very, very sworn enemies. We were very clear right in the first few weeks of this series how awful the Ninevites were decapitating people, skinning the men, women and children alive, burying them up to their heads in the sand, stacking dead bodies at the entrance of the cities. You know, Jonah didn't like them, they didn't like Jonah. We've made that all very clear. And we were even trying to, like, filter the bad results like that. That's how awful they were. But yet Jesus brought them a message. Jonah brings them a message. We see a parallel, of course, in the fact that Jesus was in the tomb for three days, and Jonah went into that tomb as if it were that grave or the belly of that fish. And through the power of God, he came out of the grave. But it's not just the physical part. We talked about the dots that God connected for this group of people, because remember Dagon, their fish God, the Assyrians worshiped and served this pagan God that had a pagan practice and a pagan temple that where they were, would worship this man that had like this. It was like half man, half fish. And according to their history and tradition, what was going to happen is out of the mouth of a fish was going to come a man declaring a message.
So when Jonah shows up, they're like, oh, man, there it is. Like, God uses something pagan. He uses something sinful like that to send a message. And so you see all these dots that are connected. But to me, one of the most powerful ones is something that Brandon referenced last week in Jonah Chapter four. You might remember that right after God did forgive the Ninevites, Jonah made this statement. He said, I knew you were a kind and a compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. He's basically saying, I just knew you were good.
And then after he says that, in like a pity party, he goes and sits off in the heat pouting. And then it says this. And the Lord provided a wind.
And then the Lord provided Jonah a what? A tree.
And you'll notice in that moment, it's probably Jonah's like, okay, whew I can join this. And then out of nowhere, and to me, what is seemingly one of the most random details in Scripture, God sends a worm to eat the plant. Even at vbs, I was like, what is going on? Like, that was random. Gotta get your humor. But God's never random.
I think what he was doing is two things. Number one, he knew that if he left that plant there, it would all become about the plan. If it was constantly a wind, it would all be about the wind. Because just like the Pharisees and we all struggle with that, we might fall victim to falling in love with the item, the thing, the sign, more than the one that gave it. So he sent something to eat that plant. And what's interesting, what he sent in the Hebrew is used 43 times in your Old Testament. It's the word tolah. And a tola refers to a worm that was scarlet or crimson. And here's what's amazing about this. And I. So I was telling Brandon, we were talking about this. We got sucked into, like, videos on this, and three hours later, I was like, oh, no, I gotta write a sermon. But amazing, amazing stuff. So in Jonah, chapter four, when it says a worm, this is the word that it uses. And it has incredible symbolism behind it. So the tola was a worm that was very, very prominent and prevalent in the, like, Middle east, especially Israel area. And here's what would happen. Every year, the female worm, in its red state, would climb up a tree, and whenever it went up to that tree, it knew it was not coming down.
It would attach itself to a tree and it would die on that tree. And you're like, well, why did it die? Well, what it was doing was it was using its own blood and it was using its own self and created this coating in order to bring birth and new life to the little baby tola. And so then when that new birth happened, then this red filament would then start to go down that tree, permanently staining the tree. But here's what's amazing. After three days, on the fourth day, that red tola would then turn white. Almost like a. If you look at pictures of it, it looks almost like a dusting of snow or something like that.
And what was also interesting in those three days, what would happen is priests and others would go to those trees and scraped the red that was on those trees in order to get it to die. Like the temple veil, the tabernacle curtains, their own outfits to represent purity, to represent royalty and those kind of things. So when you read that and start to think about all these connections, you're like, man, there is so much here. That little female bug went to that tree knowing it was not going to come back. But the reason it went there was to bring new life. You read this and I read this. It's all amazing. But Jesus is saying, I know you might get interested in that, but don't miss the point that there is still something better than that. There's someone better than that, and I'm here.
So what made Jesus so much better, so much, in a good way, than Jonah? Well, number one, Jesus had a much greater message than Jonah. We jokingly kind of talked about his message a few weeks ago when he finally shows up in Nineveh. He gets spit out of the fish and then heads that way. He gets there and he's kind of like that child. We talked about that. When you're kids fight with each other, you're like, go tell your sibling that you're sorry, and I'm sorry. You're like, no, you didn't mean that. There was no love, there was no grace, there was no heart behind that kind of message. That was Jonah. He went and said, Hey, 40 days, Nibba's gonna be overthrown. That was eight words of the English, five in the Hebrew. And yet they changed.
But what's also interesting is at the very end of that sermon, did you remember what the people of Nineveh said? They said, well, who knows whether or not God will forgive us?
I read that. I'm like, well, of course God's gonna forgive you. He's God. Like we know that. Like, he's a God of grace, love, and truth and forgiveness. Do you know why they say, I wonder if God is gonna forgive us? Because they didn't know. Because Jonah didn't tell them.
He didn't share God's grace. He didn't share about God's truth. He didn't even tell them how to do it.
But think about what you and I have today.
We have so much more available to us than Ninevites. I mean, you open up your Bible and get the book of Matthew and hear that come unto me, all you who are weary and are heavy laden, and I'm gonna give you rest. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him doesn't have to perish, but can have everlasting life.
We read about him in John 10, talking about how, listen, I know following me is new. I know that's going to be challenging at times. You're going to have to say no to something.
He said, I am the way. I am the truth and life. And I want you to know that I'm this door. And I understand doors are scary. But when you walk out on the other side of that door, that I am, he says this, I am your shepherd. What he's saying is, when you walk out through that door, there's no such thing as a shepherdless sheep. You are going to go out and you're going to find me.
That's the message we get to hear.
The Ninevites had less.
And so he's saying, all right. That's the kind of message I give. I think about what Timothy Keller pointed out about the Gospel of Mark. He said in Marks narrative, when he talks about Jesus in the storm. It's almost word for word with what you see with the narrative of Jonah. Both Jesus and Jonah were in a boat. Both Jesus and Jonah were in the middle of a storm. Both Jesus and Jonah had waves that were purposely mentioned that were beating against that boat. Both of them were resting in the boat. Both in the narratives were asking, hey, don't you care yet? The ending is very different because one of them is thrown and sacrificed into the storm. The other one becomes the sacrifice and has power over the storm. But the other thing is this, that Jesus had much better character than Jonah.
Much. I mean, it doesn't take much to see. I knew you were kind and compassionate, and I used to be like, man, give that guy a hard time. But sometimes, again, if we're not careful, with a unguarded heart, couldn't we also say something like, well, you know, I need them to be there. They need to be the finished product. But God, please give me grace. We can do the same thing if we're not careful. And so I listed several of the ways that Jesus was just a much better character. And I had to delete half of them because we didn't have enough space in the slide. But think about this. Jonah ran from his assignment.
Jesus ran towards his.
Jonah came to Nineveh only because he had to. Jesus came because he wanted to. Jonah sat outside the city and he hoped for Nineveh's destruction, while Jesus stood outside Jerusalem. And he wept and he pleaded for her salvation.
But here's the other thing I want you to consider today about why Jesus is so much better than Jonah is, because Jesus has created for us a much better community.
Imagine if Jonah today was in charge of creating a community.
What would that community look like based on everything that we read about Jonah, I'll tell you what it looked like. It would look a lot like Jonah.
The mindset that he had towards other people. God, why would you include them?
A Jonah community would be a very us versus them.
But a Jesus community doesn't draw those lines between us and them. Because here's what we understand is we are all us and them.
The message of the gospel really is, as we bring it to other people is God. I want you to do for that person over there what you did for me.
That's what he talks about. You know, when he talks about what is it the put heaping coals on their head. It's not go sic em God. What that means in the Hebrew is God, I want you to do for those people exactly what you did for me. Why does that matter? When we really take hold of that gospel message, it leads to a few things. It leads to a community that repents.
It leads to a community that is very transparent with one another and accepts one another. That's what happens when we. When we really live that out. And so we kind of have to go back then and think about, well, how do we view our own salvation? How do we view how we even receive the Lord ourselves? Because think about this for Jonah. There is nobody in the narrative of Jonah that received more grace than Jonah, but he failed to see that. So again, it really is important for us to understand how we understand our own salvation.
So on Sunday nights, we're doing a series of lessons on one another. And one of our shepherds, Craig Beall, brought this up in our last class. It was really good. And he posed basically a question that I had not really considered. And it was this. If we don't view our own salvation properly, we won't view other people properly.
And the point was this. If we view it all based on merit, well, I did this and I did this, and I did this and I did this and I did this, and look what I did in order to be saved. If merit is the focus, I'm the focus. If merit is the focus, I'm gonna say, well, I did this and they didn't. Right? That's gonna be the mentality.
But if response is, it completely shifts the way we treat other people. Think back for a second. If we're not careful, we can have the mindset. Well, I did this to add myself to the Lord. No, the Lord adds us to the body of Christ.
I can't add me.
I've seen where I try to get me places. It has a dead end, he adds us to his body.
So do you view salvation more as merit or response? And I'm telling you, if we view it as response, it's going to directly impact the way we see other people. I'll give you an example.
If you think about what Jesus said in John, excuse me, Luke 5, it's very similar to what he said, the scribes and the Pharisees, what he said to Jonah when it says this. The Pharisees and the scribes, they grumbled at his disciples, and here's what they said. Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I've not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.
So let me ask you, if we really, really believe that, what would then that entail?
If we really believe that, what would that look like, like here?
Well, I think when a community really believes Luke 5, we will definitely become very warm, very inclusive, probably the most humble people alive.
So as I was reading this, one of the things that I thought about is I love bringing guests here to Madison because the love that you give is incredible, and I really appreciate that.
But one of the things I also know is anytime, if we get comfortable in what we have, sometimes we might take it for granted or maybe assume it's going to happen, even sometimes, like accidentally or unintentionally, whatever it is.
So let's always be mindful and maybe ask this question, as we all have a responsibility in this, to kind of have like, whatever it is, whether it's worship after an event, to have our heads on a swivel, looking for people.
When people join our worship or events, do they feel the warmth of Christ? I think it's always important to ask that. Question number two, when someone who doesn't fit your normal criteria for a friend, how do you manifest the gospel and the love of the gospel to that person?
I want you to think about those two questions.
So as we end with that, the two things, I guess that stuck out to me in this series was as I was getting ready, learning a little bit about the background of Jonah. There was no guy at that time that knew more. He was known as Israel's prophet. He was Israel's preacher. But we know, right, he had more commitment to his country than he did to his God. And so because that was his main focus, what happened was he knew a lot of stuff. People would go to him to find information. But the problem was all that information, all that theology did not lead to a life of greater love.
And that's what we have to warn ourselves of. The information is good, but if you think about what the true task of what discipleship is in the first place, it's not reshaping your information, it's reshaping your love, reshaping the way you see people, reshaping the way you see yourself in order to see people in the right way. You know, again, Jonah had experienced the grace of God more than any other person, but yet he didn't want to give it to other people.
The hatred that was in his heart overpowered all that theology that he had in his head, and it did not lead to a life of love. Think about what Paul said in First Corinthians 13. You know, the church in Corinth is kind of getting to this debate of, well, they're speaking in tongues, they're doing this. And there's all these signs, right, that they're saying that all these people are doing.
And Paul said this. He says, well, you know, if I can speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I just become a noising gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and all the knowledge, and I have all faith, even to remove mountains, but I have not love. I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor and I surrender my body to be burned, but I do not have love, it profits me nothing. Do you see what he's saying? The aim of our knowledge and our information is love for God and love for other people.
That's the end of it.
Again, the aim of our knowledge and our information is because of a love for God and to love people more.
The second thing that stood out to me as I was going through this, and I think maybe it's because of my childhood growing up. And, you know, you focus on Jonah and the fish that you get so caught up in, like, what's happening inside that fish.
In fact, one of the things I wanted to share that I thought was kind of funny is they said that when he would have been in that fish, you know, for three days, the stomach acids of that fish would have likely turned him into a blonde. Like, he would have blond hair and walked out. It would have been like, oh, you know, like, something can believe his butter, but something like that kind of thing walking out of the fish.
And. But what's interesting is, like, I got so sucked into. What would have it been like in that.
That I was so focused on what was happening with Jonah in the fish that I missed the drama that was happening inside of Jonah.
And it kind of made me think. And maybe you've noticed this as we've gone throughout the series. Kind of like Luke Lucas mentioned this morning, and you did a great job, by the way, in your communion thoughts, is that sometimes the most dangerous place to be is not necessarily a job, but yourself.
Not necessarily in this situation, but in yourself. Not necessarily in the fish, but to be caught up in yourself.
And that gives whole new meaning to the whole idea that the condition of the worker is usually more important than the work itself, because you can do all the right work, but do the right work with the wrong kind of heart.
Jonah struggled to get outside of that fish. And I think it's because of two reasons.
Because of pride and idolatry. I know there's a spelling error. Just pretend it's not up there. Jonah 2. Now you're gonna be looking for it. Sorry, I shouldn't say anything.
Those who cling to worthless idols, they forfeit the grace that could have been theirs. This is what Jonah is saying in the fish.
You know, he's saying that about. Right. He's talking about himself. He's like, you know, when you cling to a worthless idol, you forfeit, forfeit what could have been there for you to enjoy.
What worthless idols did Jonah have in his life? What worthless idols do we have in our life?
And as you think about what those worthless idols are, you know, it's interesting. In the Hebrew, the word kabod is usually the main root word for worship, which means to give weight to.
And in Calvin, one of the things that he mentioned, he said, within every man and woman's heart, if they're not careful, they can create idol factories, which is the idea that if something. We put something up here, and then if it doesn't deliver, we create another idol, put something here, and if that doesn't deliver, we'll put something here. And God's job, if we let him, will go around and knock down every single one of those idols. But we're like, well, God, don't knock that down. It's mine. There's nothing that's ours anyway.
But it's easy to forget that. And so what he's saying is, the quicker we can let him have that spot and give him the weight he deserves, because whatever it is that you and I worship, right? Or what we give weight to, that's gonna be where our worship is directed towards that's where our focus is. So here's what I want us to do. I want us to think about our own lives, and I want us to think about. We talk about legacy a lot, but I know about. For me, when I think about that, I tend to focus. Maybe it's money, maybe it's something, you know, make sure my kids have this and the will, which is good to do, and you need to do that, by the way. But at the end of the day, what's going to be remembered is what I do for Christ. And so I want you to think about this. If you put your name in there, so and so will never be forgotten. Not because of their accomplishments, but because of whoever it is, whatever your name is, your participation in his.
You know, actually, at the very beginning of this message, would seeing something different, having something so much more obvious, really, really, really move the needle all the time?
I think that's why this narrative is in Scripture, to show us that, yeah, I could give you another sign, but if you're not careful, you could fall in love with the sign more than the one that gave it. So I want to ask you this morning, who are you really in love with?
And as you consider that question, I want you to think about this morning. Aren't you glad that we don't have Jonah communities?
That we have a Jesus community?
I'm so glad that we are a part of a community that doesn't look like us all the time.
It helps to remind us as we look at their life and our own life that it's just another picture of the Gospel.
But aren't you glad that we serve a God that brings a much greater message than Jonah?
We get to read through all these things all the time. And I don't know about y'all, I take all of these things for granted so much.
But also, is it not a little bit of a challenge to think? Man, the Ninevites repented with over 40 days, and you'll need a repentance.
Yet we have all of this amazing, amazing truth right in front of us. What else do you need?
So maybe you're here today and you've never given your life to Christ. Maybe you're here this morning and you're just flat out nervous about a sin or something that's been going on in your life. You've been sweeping it under the rug, and you might be nervous because of how you might be received.
We're not creating a Jonah community here. This is a Jesus community.
We want you to experience love just like the Ninevites. We want the same thing that Jesus gave the people all throughout scripture to give you here. Maybe you're here today and you've never given your life to Christ.
Just as like that worm died so we could. That the child could have new life. That's exactly what happens with us. Because of Christ's death, we have new life. His blood washes us. We celebrated it this morning. And maybe you've never made that decision to go into that watery grave, to come out brand new, letting his blood cleanse you. Whatever it is that you have a need of, please come while we stand and we sing this song.
