God Is Sovereign over Creation | Jonah 1

Blake Holmes: I missed you too. It's great to be back. For those of you who are visiting Watermark or are new to Watermark, my name is Blake Holmes. I just want to welcome you. I'm so glad you chose to join us this morning. For those of you who call this place home, I truly did miss you. As you know, I've been out on sabbatical for the past several weeks.

I just want to thank the elders for that gift of time. I've served at Watermark for 23 years. It was a sweet time for my family and for me just to experience the richness of Psalm 23, really, which says, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul." My sabbatical was a sweet time of rest, reflection, and renewal, and I'm grateful for it.

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and that is true, because I definitely missed my church family. Family is the metaphor the Bible uses to describe the church. It uses all sorts of metaphors. It talks about the church as a body, a temple, a flock, but I always love that idea of the church family because of the richness of the relationships and what I've experienced here for over 20 years and getting to see and watch many of you and the way you lead and your example, your encouragement to me. It is instructive to my heart. It's really good to be back.

Speaking of family, obviously, although I was in many conversations with Kyle Thompson and John Elmore, I wasn't here when Kyle made his announcement he was transitioning off our elder team, and I wasn't here when John Elmore announced he was rolling off our staff, and I didn't get a chance to publicly thank them.

What you probably can't appreciate is our staff works closely together. Our elders serve closely together. Those aren't just coworkers and acquaintances but men I deeply love and respect. Kyle Thompson taught me what it means to be an elder and what it looks like. John Elmore taught me and modeled for me what it means to be a pastor, and both modeled for me what it means to be a great friend. So, I missed that opportunity, and I wanted to say that.

I'm grateful for those guys and the way they've led and encouraged my heart over many years. Going forward, I couldn't be more excited about the vision TA has been unpacking that the elders want to share with you and what's happening at Watermark. I couldn't be more excited about serving alongside TA while he continues to lead and cast vision and preach every week and I have the opportunity to oversee our midweek ministries and care for our staff.

TA, I said this in the first service. I'm going to say it again. Brother, I really am grateful for you. People will often comment that he's obviously a very gifted leader and communicator. When I hear that feedback, I say, "Yes, but he's even a better man," and that's what's most important. We've been so blessed over the years…we really have…to have men up here who aren't just gifted. I mean, Jon Abel is not just a gifted worship leader; he's a great man who loves Jesus. TA is not just a great communicator; he's a man who loves Jesus.

I just get to share my friends with friends all the time, and it really is a joy and a privilege. I'm going to ask TA to come up now. I want to pray for our time. We're beginning a new series. We've talked about how we want to be a Spirit-led church and we want to be a praying church. Today we're starting a new series on being a missional church. Let me pray.

Father in heaven, it really is good to be back. Thank you, Lord, for the kindness of friends and their warm reception. Lord, thank you for the gift of church family, for all of the relationships that are represented in this room. I pray more and more people would experience what you intend for us being a part of the body of Christ. I pray, Lord, we would be, not just in word but in action, marked as a church that prays, that we'd be a Spirit-led church.

I pray, Lord, we'd be a missional church and that you would give us the eyes to see people as you see them, the heart to love them, and the strength to reach them and go in faith. Would you give my friend TA the words to speak today? May they be your words. Thank you, Lord, for what he shared in the first service and how it instructed and encouraged my heart. I pray, Lord, that you would free us from distractions and help us to listen intently today. In Christ's name, amen.

Timothy Ateek: Hey, would you guys let Blake know one more time that you're glad he's back? I told Blake this during the first service. Nobody cares more about the staff here at Watermark than Blake. Over the last two and a half years, I have felt so loved and cared for, because he is an incredible pastor. I'm so glad he's back today.

Back in December, my wife Kat and I got on a plane to New York City. We love New York at Christmastime. We try to make it a yearly tradition if we can. On the day we were traveling, I began to have a chest pain right here. It doesn't help that I'm a little bit of a hypochondriac. So, I began to wonder, "Is there something wrong with my heart?" The Internet's diagnosis was that I was about to die, so that was not helpful at all.

So, we're on the flight. I'm worried about it. I get off the plane. We are waiting for Uber, and I can't think straight. All I am thinking about is "Is there something wrong with my heart?" I'm calling Dallas to a friend who's in cardiology. We're talking through it. Then we get into the city, and some family had said they were going to give me an Apple Watch as a Christmas and birthday present. I called them and asked if I could just buy the Apple Watch in New York, because you can do an ECG heart thing.

I go to the Apple Store, go through the process, buy the watch, do the heart scan, and the watch says, "This device cannot tell you if you're having a heart attack." I'm like, "Well, this isn't helpful at all." So, we powered through the weekend in New York. We still had a great time. I get back to Dallas. I go to my doctor. He hooks me up with an EKG, and everything is perfectly fine. You're like, "Well, that was so anticlimactic." Some of y'all wished there was something wrong with my heart, because it would make for a better story.

The reason I tell you that is there might be something wrong with your heart. Not necessarily physically, but spiritually, there might be something wrong with your heart. My hope is that today is a massive false alarm. I hope every single person here gets to the end of today and feels like this morning was almost unnecessary because every single one of our hearts is in a good place and right where it should be spiritually.

Today is going to feel a little bit like a spiritual EKG, because if you've been with us since the beginning of the year, you know every sermon series we're doing this year speaks to something we want to be true of Watermark Community Church. As Blake just mentioned, we did a series on being a praying church because we don't want to just be a church that prays sometimes; we want to be marked by prayer. Then we want to be a Spirit-led church. We want to be empowered and transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Today, we're starting a series on being a missional church. When we talk about being a missional church, we are just talking about being on mission with God. We want to be a place that is constantly marked by a resounding "Yes" to all God is wanting to do in the lives of unbelievers through us in our neighborhoods, in our gyms, in our workplaces, and also in the places in the world where the gospel has not yet gone.

We want to be a church that is on mission with God, but what we need to make sure of is that our hearts are actually synced up with God's heart, that there isn't something wrong with our hearts spiritually. The way this is going to be a spiritual EKG is that we are going to look at someone in the Scriptures whose heart was not okay, someone whose heart was off. It was out of sync with God. We're going to look at his life, and we're going to evaluate if our hearts are more synced up with his heart than God's heart.

If you have a Bible, I want to invite you today to join me in the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah is where we're going to be this week and in the coming weeks. When you hear that we're starting a series on the book of Jonah, what do you think of? A fish. Right? That's what the story of Jonah is about. Some dude gets swallowed by a fish, and then that fish spits him out. Do you know that fish is only mentioned in three of the 48 verses in the book of Jonah?

The book of Jonah is not about a fish; it is about God's heart for those who are far from him, specifically the nations, and it's about how God wants to use us, his people, to accomplish his purposes on the earth. So, this book is going to play a significant role in helping us assess the health of our hearts. The way things are going to go today is we're just going to read some, and then we're going to make some observations from the text. That's what we do here.

If you're just visiting… Like, if you came last week on Easter, and you were like, "You know what? Let's give this church thing a try," I'm so glad you're back. We take this book very seriously. We believe that when we open it, it is our opportunity for God to speak to us, that these are God's words to us. We treasure this book, and we want to learn from it. So, let's start out. Jonah 1:1-3.

"Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.' But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord."

When we think of Jonah, this is what we think about. Right? This is what Jonah is known for. Jonah is known as being a guy who was called by God to do one thing, and he ran the opposite direction. But did you know Jonah is actually mentioned a different time in the Old Testament that is outside the book of Jonah that will actually inform our understanding of what's happening here in the book of Jonah?

The other place Jonah is mentioned is in 2 Kings 14:25 where it says, "He…" That's a reference to King Jeroboam II. "He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher."

We don't have time to get into the context, but what's happening here is Israel is in a dark place. The nation of Israel is being unwound. King Jeroboam II is not a good king. He's in a dark place, yet God in his kindness and in his grace, in the midst of the nation of Israel being oppressed by Assyria, gives them a little relief.

He sends a word to King Jeroboam II through the mouth of Jonah. Jonah says, "Hey, man. King, you have some good news coming, because there has been land that has been taken from you by Assyria, but God is actually going to push the borders back out to the place where the borders were when Israel was at its prime."

So, Jonah actually got to bring some amazing news to Israel, and it came true. I guarantee you, after this, everyone was going and following Jonah on social media. He became an influencer. When people heard "Jonah," they were like, "He's our guy. We love it when he speaks." So, Jonah, before the book of Jonah, is on record as God's man, as God's messenger. He's someone who hears from God and speaks, and when he speaks, people want to listen to him. That's Jonah.

Yet what we just read in Jonah, chapter 1, is God comes to Jonah and says, "Go," and he says, "No." It's crazy what's happening. I want to show you a map that shows you Jonah's intention. If you look at this, you see that he goes down to Joppa, and his goal is to sail in the opposite direction of Nineveh.

Now, I want you to look at that small square in the middle left where you see Nineveh on one side and Tarshish on the other. Tarshish was the farthest place you could go on the Mediterranean away from Nineveh. Jonah is like, "I don't want to just get away; I want to go as far as I can possibly go in the opposite direction of what God is asking me to do."

This is super interesting, because you're talking about God's man, God's messenger, someone who is known in Israel as God's person, and what we see him doing is running the opposite direction. Now, why is this the case? This is so important. Don't miss it. The issue is not what God is asking Jonah to do. God is asking him to go and speak a word of warning. That's what prophets did. It was in Jonah's job description. That's what he signed up to do.

He signed up to hear from God and share either words of comfort or words of warning. The issue wasn't what God was asking him to do; the issue was who he was asking Jonah to share with. See, when you look in the Old Testament, normally prophets were taking words to their own people, God's people, the nation of Israel, but in this case, God is asking Jonah to go to Israel's enemies.

He's asking him to go to Nineveh, which was actually the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and the Assyrians were the nation that was oppressing Israel, carrying out military campaigns toward Israel. They were a pagan nation, and they were known as a brutal people. They would absolutely torture people they captured. So, God is coming to Jonah, and he's like, "I want you to go to your greatest enemies and speak to them on my behalf."

See, the issue wasn't what God was asking him to do; it was who he was calling him to share with. It shows us something very important here. What God is showing us is this. Don't miss it. God's heart is for all in creation who are far from him, and he intends to use us to reach them. That is the longest point in the history of this church, but I don't want you to miss it. God's heart is for all in creation who are far from him, and he intends to use us to reach them.

That's what God is showing. God is showing Jonah his heart. And what is Jonah showing God? Jonah is showing God that there is something wrong with his heart, that his heart is actually not synced up with God's heart. This is where we need to do a spiritual EKG. We need to assess…Is there something wrong with our hearts spiritually? Are we more synced up with Jonah or Jesus?

I want to ask you…Is there a syncing issue? You know how frustrating it is when something won't sync with the cloud. I have my iPad up here every week, and this happens every few months. I'll get here on Sunday morning, and I will have been working on my message on my laptop. Then I will come and try to pull my message up on my iPad, and I can't get it because the message won't sync with the cloud.

I'll get so frustrated I want to go out in the parking lot with this thing. It's so frustrating. But do you know what the issue is? The issue is that Apple has it rigged that whenever they're wanting to do a software update, they won't let your files sync so that you will get the update. So, I find myself so frustrated, and then I remember, "Oh, wait. No, the issue is with me. There's user error here. The problem is that I need a software update."

What we find in the book of Jonah is there is a syncing issue. Jonah's heart is not synced up with God's heart. Jonah, as we're going to see, is frustrated with God, but the problem isn't with God; the problem is with Jonah. There's a user error. Jonah hasn't gotten the software update that tells him, "Hey, your heart is to be for all in creation who are far from God." So, we just need to evaluate. Are we more synced up with Jonah or Jesus when it comes to God's heart for people?

Let's evaluate. Just think about it. Jonah was good with reaching his own people, but he was not okay with reaching a foreign nation. So, what would this look like for us today at Watermark? What this would look like for us is to feel called to reach people in Dallas but not feel called to reach people on the other side of the globe. What this can look like is us believing something like, "Why would I ever think about reaching people over there when I'm not faithfully reaching people right near me?"

It sounds good when you think that, yet there's a syncing issue there. You're actually not synced up with God's heart when you think that. Where do I get that? How do I support that biblically? Well, if you look in Revelation, chapter 7, we get a picture of where God is taking us. This is a picture of the throne room of God, eternity. It says in verse 9:

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'"

What we see is a day is coming where people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will be gathering around the throne of God, celebrating that salvation is found solely in Jesus Christ. God's heart is for all in creation who are far from him. How does God intend to reach the nations? Well, we get the Great Commission from Jesus. Matthew 28:19: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…"

This is a command to his disciples and to every disciple. That includes us. Don't miss this. When Jesus gives the Great Commission, the expectation from Jesus is that every Christian would leverage their lives for the sake of the gospel, going into our neighborhoods, our gyms, and our workplaces, but also to the end of the earth. That's the expectation.

So, if our hearts are going to be synced up with God's heart, then we have to realize that when it comes to the nations, those in the world who have yet to hear the name of Jesus, you are either praying, sending (which means supporting, giving so others can go), going, or disobeying. I want to show you a different map, and it's put out by an organization called the Joshua Project.

The Joshua Project estimates there are around 17,000 distinct people groups in the world today, and they estimate that 7,000 of those people groups have little or no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The people groups in red indicate the 7,000-plus people groups in the world that have little to no access to the gospel. Those red dots account for 3.4 billion people in the world who have little to no access to the gospel.

Just think about what we're saying here. We are saying there are billions of people in the world who have still never heard the name of Jesus, yet we might find ourselves saying, "I don't feel called to that; I feel called to reach this city" where right now there are churches all over the Metroplex clearly proclaiming the gospel. That doesn't mean we don't reach Dallas. We have a lot of work to do in this city, but as we're reaching Dallas, we also have a part to play in God accomplishing his purposes among those in our world who have yet to hear the gospel.

The other thing we need to evaluate is just as we said Jonah was okay reaching his own country, but not a foreign country, it's also good to realize Jonah refused to reach his enemies. He didn't want to go to Nineveh because they were Israel's enemies. So, what would this look like for Watermark Community Church today? It would mean we have enemies. I heard one commentator position it this way: we see people as enemies instead of captives of our one true Enemy.

It's just good for you to evaluate. Do you have enemies or do you have people who are captives to our one true Enemy? When you look at people at work or at the gym or out in public who belong to a different religion or when you encounter people who mock Christianity because they're atheists or when you come in contact with people who are in outright rebellion against God on issues like marriage, gender, sexuality, or abortion, do you see these people as enemies or as captives of your one true Enemy?

When you see people as your enemy, you're going to withdraw and judge. When you see people as captives of our one true Enemy, you're going to move toward them with urgency and love. There is a major difference between withdrawing and ranting versus engaging and explaining. There's a huge difference between withdrawing into your holy huddle and just ranting to one another about how people are wrong and getting keyboard courage and posting on social media, telling people how wrong they are…

There's a huge difference between that and moving forward with urgency and encountering and engaging with the opportunity to explain to them the truth with love. Am I saying we don't stand on truth? Of course not. We always stand on truth, yet here's what you need to think about. If you're not willing to reach those people, who will?

Imagine the implications. Imagine the fallout if every Christian was only willing to reach people who were most like them. Imagine what would happen. There would be a major deficiency in the church. We have to be clear. This is where we have to evaluate. Are our hearts synced up with Jonah or Jesus? God's heart is for all in creation who are far from him, and he intends to use us to reach them. We've made it through three verses. We're moving at rapid speed right now. Let's hit verse 4.

"But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep."

I love this. This is so interesting, because the storm is for Jonah. The reason there's a storm is because God is trying to get Jonah's attention, but whose attention is God getting? The pagan mariners. Those are the people who are doing what Jonah is supposed to be doing. They are in fear and praying. They're praying to the wrong gods, but at least they're praying. What's Jonah doing? He's fast asleep.

Now, one of the things I always encourage you to do when you're studying the Scriptures is to pay attention to the repeated words and phrases, because it will show you something important. Have you noticed the repetition of Jonah's descent? He went down to Joppa, he went down into the ship to board it, and then he went down into the inner part of the ship to fall asleep. That is a physical display of his spiritual reality. Jonah is spiraling downward spiritually.

He has found himself in a place where the God of the universe is shouting at him through a storm, and he's fast asleep. It shows a deep disconnect between him and God, so it shows us something very important. It shows us we can't consistently say "No" to God and be close with God. So, when God calls us to be on mission with him, we can't consistently say "No" and still be close to him.

Now, this is where I want to be careful, because this is where shame can begin to set in for some of us. This is where I'm going to ask you to hang with me, because the goal this morning is not to beat you over the head and send you out of here full of shame, but I at least want to call it out. I at least want to acknowledge it. We can't consistently say "No" and expect to be close with God.

It would be like me going to my wife Kat week after week, wanting a date night, and her refusing. So, I go to her this week. I'm like, "Hey, babe. I got reservations. Great restaurant. It's going to be great." She's like, "Nah, I don't feel like it." "All right." Next week. "Hey, Kat. I got great reservations. Date night this Tuesday."

"Yeah, I just don't feel like it."

"Okay. Cool. It has been a tough couple of weeks. Easter… It has been exhausting. Let's just hang home." Next week. "Hey, Kat, I got reservations. Date night. Let's do it."

"No, I don't feel like it."

Would anyone hear that and be like, "It sounds like y'all are crushing it"? We don't teach this at Merge. That's not the way to do it. See, here is the reality. Date night is an activity that leads to greater intimacy with one another. It is the same with being on mission with God. God is inviting us into an activity that leads to greater intimacy with him.

Being on mission with God is not just about the gospel going; it is about our intimacy with God growing. Do you see that? So, this is where it might be really helpful for some of you who battle fear when it comes to sharing your faith. And hello! I battle fear sometimes when it comes to sharing my faith.

One of the things that is so helpful for me to remember is that God never asks me to share my faith without him. He's never asking me to do something for him; he's only asking me to do something with him. So, when he invites me to share my faith with someone, God is the one who's like, "Hey, this is the person I want to talk to. Would you come and do this with me?" The goal is that you would experience more intimacy with God.

This is what makes the Great Commission so beautiful, and it makes it better than the commission God gives to Jonah. Do you see the similarity? God comes to Jonah and is like, "Rise and go." You have the Great Commission from Jesus: "Go and make disciples." But in Christ, because of the new covenant, God has come and made his home inside of us with the presence of his Holy Spirit, and God is committed to being with us every moment of every day. So, when we go on mission, we are going on mission with him, not for him.

Back over spring break, we were in Houston. It's very luxurious this time of year. That's why we went. (That was a joke, in case some of y'all are like, "Let's go to Houston." Don't. Just kidding, if you're from there.) We were in Houston at a restaurant, and the waiter was taking our order and brought us our food. I asked her if there was anything we could pray for her for. I knew I kind of caught her off guard. She was kind of trying to think on the spot, because she still wanted a tip.

Anyway, she asked for prayer for her dating relationship. Then when she came back, I just wanted to press in on it a little more. I began to share with her about Kat's and my dating relationship and how Christ was the center of it and the center of our marriage, and then I began to share with her about how I came to know the Lord. I shared with her my faith. I could tell she was not into it at all.

The way I knew that was she actually interrupted me and was like, "I'm sorry. I need to go and check on a different table." The restaurant was practically empty except for us and one other table. It was clear she was not interested at all. I could have left that interaction and felt like a failure. I could have felt really discouraged, but I actually left encouraged, because I sensed that I was right where God wanted me to be, doing exactly what he wanted me to do.

My joy wasn't contingent on the result; my joy was found in being where God was, doing what God wanted me to be doing. He invites us into mission for the sake of intimacy. And who knows what he's going to do in that girl's life in the coming days, months, or years? Now my role is to pray for her. I tell you that just to say it doesn't matter the outcome, how good it goes or how bad it goes. The key is being with God on mission. He's inviting you to more.

Before we move on, let me challenge us. Let me encourage us to not put spiritual makeup on spiritual disobedience. It's easy sometimes for us to kind of paint up excuses that sound really spiritual. One might be like, "You know what? Actions speak way louder than words, so I want to show the gospel, but I don't ever need to explain it." People need you to explain that Jesus Christ is, in fact, the way, the truth, and the life.

Or we might tell ourselves, "You know what? Only God can change a heart, so my job is just to pray for them." Yes, that's good theology. God is the one who is sovereign, and he calls us to pray, but he also invites us to share. That's a part of it. So, let's be careful that we don't put spiritual makeup on spiritual disobedience.

If you're feeling any shame right now, this is where I really need you to lean in with me, because I want to show you why I'm even encouraging you with what I am. Let's look back at the text. Verse 6: "So the captain came and said to him, 'What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.'"

Do you see the irony here? Jonah was called by God to go to pagans to tell them to call out to God, yet Jonah is being told by a pagan to call out to God. Verse 7: "And they said to one another, 'Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.' So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah." Just imagine this.

"Then they said to him, 'Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?'" That question doesn't even make sense, but it's like, "What is happening right now? What's your country? What's your people? Where are you from? What is happening right now? What is happening that this is going on?"

I love his response. "And he said to them, 'I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord…'" Yeah, right! "…the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." He's trying to run away from the God who made the thing he's trying to use to run away from him: the sea. Why this is so important is Jonah is showing that he has unhitched his activity from his identity. Do you see that? He says, "I'm a Hebrew."

As a Hebrew, he would know it was God's intention all along for the nation of Israel to be a light to the nations, yet here he is, as a Hebrew, perfectly content for the nations to sit in darkness. He says he fears the Lord, yet he has told God "No," and he's trying to run away from God on the sea that God created. There's a discrepancy. He has unhitched his activity from his identity, which shows us something very important.

Here it is: who we are should determine how we live. The reason I don't want you to feel shame, the reason I'm inviting you into more, is I need you to see that you are so much more than just a normal human being. If you know Jesus Christ, if you have put your trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, then your identity is so much more than just being a normal human being. If we're in Christ, then we're fishers of men, which means we should be fishing. We're salt, so we should be preserving a world that is full of decay.

We are light, so we should be shining into the darkness. We are freed men and women, so we should be working to set the captives free. We're children of God, which means we should be showing children of wrath the way into the right family. We're ambassadors for Christ, so we should be representing Christ to the world, and we should be pleading for the surrender of those who are on the verge of eternal destruction. That's who we are, and when we live out of the overflow of who we are, it changes how we live.

So, this is what I want to encourage you with. If you feel fear when it comes to sharing your faith… Like, this week, if you have a moment where you sense God is calling you to engage, just stop. Pause. Take a breath. Just remind yourself of what is true of you. You're a child of God. You are light. You are salt. You're an ambassador. The Spirit of God is in you. God is with you. He is sharing the gospel and empowering you to do so. Lean into it. Verse 10:

"Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, 'What is this that you have done!' For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then they said to him, 'What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?' For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, 'Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.'

Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, 'O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.' So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows."

Do you see what's happening here? Pagans put their trust in God, which is so amazing. Jonah told God "No. I will not go and tell pagans about you." So God was like, "Okay, fine. I'll just trap you on a boat with pagans, and you don't even have to say a word except to tell them what to do with you, and then they'll put their trust in me." He's showing Jonah, "Look. Get on board or get off board, but one way or another, you need to know that my heart is for all in creation who are far from me." These pagans cry out to God, and the peace of the sea reflects the peace they now have with God.

It shows us something very important. This is where the grace is. God will change lives through us in spite of us. Isn't that good news? Jonah was running from God because he didn't want to be used by God to bring pagans to God, yet God brought pagans to himself through Jonah. Just imagine. This is how powerful God is. If God is this powerful that he can save people even in our unwillingness, imagine what God will do when we are willing.

God's salvation isn't dependent on our willingness, yet God is most glorified through our willingness. This is where the encouragement is. Here's what it means. It means if God is able to save people when we're completely unwilling, then just imagine what he will do when we are willing yet we botch it. You can share your faith and kind of botch it, and God is able to take your water and turn it into wine. God is able to grow beautiful things from very mediocre seeds.

I think about a time I was sharing the gospel not very long ago, and I did a terrible job. I'm just going to say it. I totally botched it. It was like it was the first time ever that I was sharing my faith. I don't know what was happening. It reminded me of this time in high school when I went on one of my first dates. I showed up to the house, and the girl's mom opened the door, and there was a sign that said, "Wet paint." I was so nervous I was like, "Wet pa…wet pa…wet…" And the mom goes, "Wet paint?" I was like, "Yeah."

It was like that. It was like, "Um, Jesus Christ, um, uh…um, Jesus Christ died for your sins." I mean, it was so bad. I was like, "If the people of Watermark could see their pastor now." Yet you know what? I walked away from that experience… I got the gospel out. I think I shared it clearly, but I walked away, and in the end I was still encouraged, because I was right where God wanted me to be, and I was doing exactly what he wanted me to be doing. My trust wasn't in exactly how I said it; my trust was in the one who is able to turn water to wine.

I tell you that to encourage you. God can use you and me even if you don't feel ready, even if you feel like you don't have it perfectly succinct as you might hear other people. It's okay. God can use you. We want to be a missional church. We want to have our hearts synced up with God's heart. We want to be where he is. We want to do what he wants us to do. We want to share with people in our neighborhoods, our gyms, and our workplaces, and we want to be a part of the gospel going to the nations.

So, how do we respond? Here's what I would ask of you this week. What I would ask of you, especially if you call this place home, is to start praying. Where this all starts is with us cultivating a resounding "Yes" in our hearts to God, and that only comes first by prayer. So, I want to encourage you to take your phone, and I want to invite you to download an app put out by the Joshua Project called Unreached of the Day. You can begin opening that app every day, and Joshua Project will highlight one unreached people group you can begin to pray for.

Then I also want to invite you to begin praying… I'll put these prompts on the screen. How you can cultivate a resounding "Yes" to the Lord is to begin praying, first, "God, please give me your eyes to see people as you see them." You don't want to have enemies; you want to just know captives of our one true Enemy. Second, "Give me your heart to love the lost as you love them." Then third, "Give me your strength to reach them as you would reach them." Begin to pray that every day. Those are prayers God loves to answer.

Then, as you go throughout your week, when you sense that God is inviting you to engage with someone, don't freak out. Here's what I encourage you to do. Just pause. Pause, take a breath, and just ask, "God, what are you asking me to do right now?" Just ask. "What are you asking me to do right now?" When you sense whatever it is, take a leap of faith. The Spirit of God is in you. He can strengthen you. He'll be with you. Take a leap of faith.

I'll end by saying this. I hope there are people here today who don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you're honest, the people in the story you most identify with are the mariners in the boat. It's the people worshiping other gods, because either you're from a different religion or you just worship other things in our world as if they are gods, things like money or success or exercise or sex. You worship these things as the things that will satisfy your soul when they can't.

You find yourself here on this Sunday morning, and the chaoticness of the sea in the story of Jonah kind of reflects where you're at in life right now. Something in you is longing for the peace and the calm and the forgiveness that can only be found in the person of Jesus Christ. If that's you, I just want you to know that Jesus Christ is the better and greater Jonah. Jonah resisted God's will. Jesus Christ fulfilled God's will with joy. He left heaven for the sake of his enemies. He lived perfectly.

He died a death where he endured the wrath of God for you and for me, and then he rose from the dead victoriously, making a way when there was no way, so that all who would turn from their sin and turn toward God and receive Jesus Christ could experience complete forgiveness and a real, enjoyable, eternal relationship with the God of the universe. If that's you, and you sense God brought you here for this morning, then your first step with Jesus is to simply receive him, to give your life to him. Let's pray together.

Lord, I do pray that for anyone in the room who doesn't know you, God, that even right now they would call out to you, that they would acknowledge their need for you, that they would put their trust in you and experience complete forgiveness. God, I pray for all of the Christians in the room right now. I pray against shame. I pray against fear. I pray for urgency. I pray for resolve. I pray for confidence, knowing that you're with us. You're in us, God. You have saved us to go on mission with you. So, God, would you allow Watermark Community Church to be a missional church? We need you. In Jesus' name, amen.