Zach Shives

Speaker 5: To say we've been blessed this week would be an understatement. You know, I mentioned it the other evening. God's goodness, surely just. It just oozes here. But, you know, as we've been able to go other places, it just warms my heart that. We're we really do find family everywhere. You know, back on August the 15th. My family said goodbye to a church that we love dearly and. That was hard. Where we had served for many years and we really didn't know everything we were getting ourselves into without OK, here or here we go. Here we go. You're just going to have to take it from here. And God has just been so good. And again and again, I've been able to go to a couple of different churches already and been able to go even to some churches in the Northeast and just the way the Lord has been faithful to show that, you know, the family that we had in Bridgeport really is everywhere. And. Thank you for that. It's especially it's a little bit near dear to me right now because this afternoon I got to watch as the church that I left got to install their new pastor. So that. And that was a privilege for me to watch that. And David Pugh, which you went to schools and didn't you? Yeah, he's a wonderful, wonderful man. I've been able to help him out with some things there to help get him settled. And just watch how God has orchestrated it all. How God used its blessing to bless. So thankful for the goodness of God, I'm so thankful for each person here, so thankful for the attention that you all have displayed throughout the week. I also want to thank the children I know. I don't see hardly any of them in here tonight. I think they're practicing for the play practice. But oh my goodness, I had so much fun this morning. We made a mess in junior church. I was behind most of it while I was in Bridgeport, I had the privilege to lead the children's ministry for several years, and I know some people say children's ministry is not for them. Some people may have thought that that would be true of me at one point in my life, but I truly fell in love with it and I had a blast this morning. It really was good. Can I give you just a quick test? But this has nothing to do with the message, but can I give you a quick testimony about someone's ministry real quick if I can. There was a time and I mentioned it to your pastor the other day, there was a time whenever I first showed up at the church in Texas that not by the pastoral staff, not really even by the members, it was completely outside influences. But there was some pressure on me to take a very pragmatic approach to ministry, which what I mean by that is to do anything and everything simply to build the junior church. And to build it fast and to get to where it was bursting at the seams, I mean all of the time and there was a guy who was there before me and he did that and you know and. Lord used him again, I don't want to say or didn't use him, but I just as I prayed about it, I just knew the Lord didn't want me to do that. He wanted me just to keep the main thing, the main thing, which is what the word of God. You know, children need the word of God to. And what are we going to have a good time with the children? Absolutely. And we had a blast with the children. We did. We had lots of activities with them and we had a game time and a snack with them every single time we met. We always had a good time, but we made sure to keep the main thing, the main thing. And I said, Well, what? I'm just going to. Trust me, you know what you're doing, I can't really compete with all the other fun things that they can do throughout the week, so we'll just see what God does. We started out with about eight. And we ended up with well over 40. Time it was done again, I'm not saying that numbers are everything, but it was exciting to watch God use it. Watch the kids grow both numerically and spiritually. And we had a blast with him over the years. Then after that, I had the privilege to take over the youth ministry. It's a very similar situation where there was again, some pressures on me to take a very pragmatic approach to youth ministry and the clearance. I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. Youth Ministry, again, I want to clarify it had nothing to do with the pastor I worked for. It wasn't coming from him. It was really coming from it's from sources outside of the church that were causing that pressure. And so there was that temptation. But we said, well, it worked before, we'll try it again. We started off with 17. Then A. Said, Well, we'll just open God's word and preach it. We open up first week to the Book of Ruth. Again, the breach of the Book of Ruth. And we went to the Book of Genesis right after that. Eventually, when I to the Book of Revelation. We watched her take a very small group, and we watched it grow not just numerically, but watching him spiritually grow. And. Last just last Wednesday night, one of the youth that I was able to invest in heavily. He was my bodyguard while we were there. His name was Keegan Hastings. He's 16 years old and he's about six, six, 300 some pounds. Looks like the scariest guy to get ever, ever, mate. Really. He's great kid, but he was my bodyguard the whole time. We were there for good reason. And. He got to preach this past week, and I was so proud of him as I watched him get up in that pulpit, just say what God said. And just watching God work over the years and as now we're transitioning to a church point ministry, do you think there's some, perhaps some pressure to take a pragmatic approach with church planning to compromise a little bit and to say, Well, let's just kind of turn everything into all about fun and let's just do everything we can that way and. Kind of tossed the word to the side, there's absolutely pressures, but. God has done it before. And I know he'll do it again. I know he'll do it again. So anyways, I. I don't know worldwide said that. I hope it's encouraging to you that, you know. The best thing that we can ever do is to give our lives over with the word of God, says best thing a pastor can do. I'm so thankful for brother Gary and I know that's what he's doing here as we just preach the book. Let whatever it said dictate things. We're not going to worry about all the vain traditions of man, we're not going to worry about the ideas of of church building, and we can try to build it up as fast as we can. We're just going to preach the book. Love it. It's the most exciting part of ministries watching God do it. We're just faithful to obey, man. It has nothing to do with my message, so. Please turn in your Bibles to the Book of Jonah chapter number four. The Book of Jonah, chapter number four. Very familiar to a lot of people. Whenever we think of the book of Jonah, instantly we our minds gravitate towards the phrase Jonah. And then there it is. You know, it's ironic the whale only shows up in like three sentences in the entire book. So really, and I'm sure many of you are aware that the whale is not the thing in the Book of Jonah. There's a much deeper message that God wants us to understand. And really, whenever you get to Chapter four, that is where the thrust of the message of Jonah is found. Now, a lot of what's found before then it really leads up to and we'll rehearse some of the things again just to make sure everybody's on the same page. But the big part of the message of Jonah is found here, right? And Jonah, Chapter four, so we're going to go ahead and read all seven verses. Beginning now in verse number one. It says, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly. He was very angry. What was he so displeased about? That God would show grace and mercy. To the people of Nineveh. First to any prayed until the Lord and said, I pray the Lord was not this my saying when I was yet in my country, therefore, I fled before onto Tarshis, but I knew that that was a gracious god and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and repentance the of the evil. Therefore, now, oh lord, take I beseech thee my life from me that escalated quickly, or it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord. There was now well to be angry. So Jonah went out of the city, sat on the east side of the city and there made him a booth and sat under it in the shadow so he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord prepared a gourd. And made it to come up over, Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grave. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gore. First time you see Jonah Smile and the entire book. He's got some shade or seven, but God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it smelt the gourd that it withered and it came to pass when the Sun did arise that God prepared of a humid east wind. And the Sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted and he wished and himself to die and said it is better for me to die than to live. God said to Jonah. Doing so well to be angry for the gore, and he said I do well to be angry even on to death. Then said the Lord now has had pity on the gourd for the which, though has not labor. Neither made a debt grow, which came up in the night and perished in the night. And should not I spare Nineveh. That great city we're in are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand. And also much cattle. It's quite a text. The book of Jonah is intended to be a mirror. That we look into. Hopefully, we see perhaps some things, maybe in ourselves. But really, there's a contrast given right here, a contrast between God's heart. Jones. And it's really a choice. For each and every one of us, of which one are we going to embrace personally? Are we going to embrace what is natural to ourselves and take what, Jonah? Has the heart that Jonah has? Or will we decide to lay aside? Our own natural thoughts. We could say. And instead, adopt the heart of God. It's a question that we need to answer, as we see. That God wants us to make a trade for his heart instead of what is natural to our hearts. Let's pray and then we'll get right into it and see. Lord, we are so thankful again to be here tonight. So thankful for this church. So thankful for the sweet spirit that is here. God, I do pray that you would meet with us. Nobody here came to hear from a man, but we came to hear from your word. So, God, I pray that your word would be declared clearly. It your people would understand it and more that we would be better people for your glory as a result. Lord, we love you. And Lord, I pray that as we learn to love you more, that we would also learn to love who and what you love. We pray it all now for your glory.

Unidentified: In Jesus name, amen. And then.

Speaker 5: In April of 1995. There was two men that were filled with rage. That filled a moving truck ride or moving truck with forty eight hundred pounds homemade explosives. Around nine o'clock in the morning, one day they part one of them parked in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Sure, many of us remember it well. What happened? Nine oh, to the explosives were detonated and life for people in the United States has really never been the same since. One hundred and sixty eight people were killed, more than six hundred and eighty people were injured in the blast. Of those that were killed, 19 children are included in that number. 15 of whom were in the America's kids daycare center that was located on the second floor of that building. I had the privilege to work with the son of the fireman or fireman who actually first stumbled on the daycare. Mr. Williams, the fireman, has not as well as of the last time I saw him, told me that he has not had a good night's rest ever since. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the two bombers referred to the deaths of these innocent children as merely collateral damage for their cause. Can I just say this right now that that's unimaginable? I almost can't imagine the rage and the hatefulness that it would take to get to the point and say the deaths of children are just merely collateral damage. As they showed no remorse at all of what they had. But it begs a very important question. A question that an emissions conference needs to be asked. That it would be this. Should God's mercy? And should God's grace? Be extended even to people the like. Of Timothy McVeigh. And tearing. Does God's grace and does God's mercy? Should it be extended even to them? Or should it merely be extended to the people? That we are the most comfortable giving it to. You see the profit in our narrative that we just read would say, absolutely not. There's no way in the world that Timothy McVeigh or that Terry Nichols should have an opportunity to receive the grace in the mercy of a great god. There's no way that they should receive it. We'll say, Well, how do you know that he would say that? Well, let's rehash a little bit about the book of Jonah. You see, the Book of Jonah was written during a time in which the Assyrian Empire was prominent in the world at that time. Now, the Assyrian Empire that they were known for being some of the most wicked, vile, detestable, angry, just the most wicked people you could imagine whenever they would. Oop, OK, there goes it went on for a second, whenever they would conquer a people, they would do everything that they could to humble that people and they would do it in cruel, unusual and just detestable fashion. And so it was a known thing of the world of that time that the Assyrian Empire was enemy number one in everyone's mind. Everyone's mind. Everybody in the world, except for probably the Assyrians themselves, hated the Assyrians. Now, of course, the capital of Assyria was a city called Nineveh. And so there are a rewind back to chapter number one. God came to the Prophet Jonah. And said, I want you to go to Nineveh, to the land of Assyria, and I want you to declare my message to the people of that city. And Jonah ran away. Jonah said, absolutely not, I'm not doing it. And as we read in our text, the reason for it wasn't merely that he was afraid of the invites. It wasn't that he was like, Oh no, I'm too scared to go to Nineveh. But the reason why he didn't want to go to Nineveh was merely because he hated the native sites and the people of Syria. And so he ran away. And as he ran away, he got on a ship and he's acting. By the way, if you haven't studied the Book of Jonah, it's the most backwards book you could ever imagine. Everybody in the book does the complete opposite of what they're supposed to do. The name Jonah means Dove his father's name. Amitai, means faithfulness. So here he is. He's dove son of faithfulness. He's a prophet. He's a man of God. We would expect that if anybody would obey God, it would be Jonah. But what does he do? He does the exact opposite of what we would expect. He gets on a ship and runs away. And as he gets on the ship and runs away. God begins to try to get his attention. And so. A storm comes God sends a storm and the pagan sailors begin to pray while the prophet of God is sleeping. It's kind of backwards, isn't it? He's sleeping while the pagan people are praying. Again, showing the opposite. And then, of course, we we go through we find out they it comes out that Jonah is again, though they find out that Jonah is the cause of the storm and they throw him overboard. That's why he says for them to do again, this is not Jonah's attempt merely to spare their lives. But it probably looks more like a suicide attempt to get out of doing what God wanted him to do to begin with. How much do you have to hate somebody that you have to commit suicide before you? Want to give the message that God wanted you to give to them? My goodness. It is the exact opposite of what he's supposed to do. Then, of course, then in chapter number two, we find out that God had prepared a great fish, that it swallowed Jonah and that in the belly of the whale or the great fish that Jonah at least attempts to make right with God, he doesn't necessarily say, God, I'm sorry, we're not going there, but he at least. Probably in the heat of the situation, he appears to at least make things right. Chapter three comes and the whale splits them up on the ship, and God again comes to Jonah and says, I want you to go to Nirvana and cry against it, do what I told you to do the first time, as at the beginning verse of chapter number three, is almost identical to the command that God had made at the beginning of Chapter one. So this time, Jonah goes, we find out that it's a great city of three day's journey, but Jonah only goes one day's journey. Again, the indication is that he doesn't obey completely. And then as he only goes, partly, he gives a very simple one sentence message. Now, can we say it this way, it's the most unusual message in the entire Bible. Every time in the Bible that God has proclaimed knowledge of judgment, God also gives knowledge of his great mercy and grace and opportunity to receive that mercy and grace. But what is strangely omitted from the message of Jonah? No opportunity for mercy or grace? Perhaps his own attempt to sabotage the message from God. But we found out that God's message is greater than God's man. And the whole city repented as a matter of fact, again, going along with the theme of how everything is backwards in the book. Everybody repented so much that even the cows repent. That's what it says in chapter number three. Even the cattle are called on to repent and they're called on to repent and sackcloth and ashes. Again, go along with the theme of the book, it's it's comical, almost as you see everybody doing what is backwards in the book. Of course, Jonah, being quite satisfied that his part of this is done, he leaves, but he's angry because God gave them mercy and grace. And he wasn't happy about it. It's a matter of fact towards the end of chapter number three. There is a statement made in which the from the king of Nineveh, where he says everybody repent and sackcloth and ashes and who can tell. Whether God will show mercy and grace to this people. Well, there is somebody that did know. Whether or not God would do that and that was Jonah, so well, how do you know that Jonah knew that? Well, let's get into it now in chapter number four. We're going to go ahead and through the text. I hope that we can make it clear. But first off, we're going to see. That Jonah is going to first reveal his anger is because God's actions were consistent with his character. So what do you mean by that? Look at verse number one, first off, it says, but it displease Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry, very upset about what God had done. And then in verse two, it says, and he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray the Lord was not this my saying when I was here in my country. Therefore, I fled before and to Tarshis for I knew that thou art a gracious god and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repentance the of the evil. He says, I knew this is going to what was going to happen. I mean, I knew I was going to pray or that they would, that I would preach and then they would pray and they were repent. And then you just couldn't help yourself but forgive them. I mean, I knew that's what was going to happen. And if anybody didn't deserve God's grace and mercy, it would be the net vides. So I knew that was what was going to happen. No way I wanted that to happen. That's why I ran away. Could you imagine just the thought process for a second? Of someone who's supposed to be the man of God or the prophet of God saying, I don't want the people that hear my message to receive the grace and the mercy of the God that I'm serving. Has Jonah already forgotten the great grace and mercy that he has been shown? Has Jonah already forgotten the fact that he, as one of the children of Israel, was not great because of anything that was in him self? He was not great because of anything of his own merit. He merely was great because God was great. Now, and I think we need to be reminded that as children of God, the only thing that's special about us is the great God, that we have the privilege of serving the great God that has saved us and redeemed us with his own blood. He has given us mercy. He has given us grace. There's nothing special about any one of us, necessarily. But there's a whole lot special about him. And Jonah was beginning to lose sight of the fact that. He was really very small. But God is very great. And so he says, God, I know that this is what was going to happen. I know that you would forgive him. And as he does this verse number two, he actually quotes the most quoted portion of the Bible within the Bible, which is Exodus. Thirty four six. Exodus thirty four six is a dissertation from God on the character of God, and it is an absolutely amazing passage of scripture. Again, we're not going to take the time to read it right now, but notice what it says. Thou art a gracious god. And John is speaking a lot about that, as if it's a bad thing. Jonah wouldn't be here if it wasn't for God's grace. And yet he's complaining about the grace of God. And merciful again, Jonah wouldn't even be there if it wasn't for God's mercy. But he's again complaining about God's mercy. He's slow to anger again, if you were to look that up the Hebrew phrase, This is so wonderful, I love it. The idea of the word that's used there is literally that God is long of notes. So God, as long of those gods like Pinocchio, no, no, no, no different. Different, long of nose. But in the Bible, whenever it says that somebody gets angry, literally what it says is their nose burned hot is the idea that it comes out. And actually, there's passes in the scripture that say very explicitly that his nostrils burned or something like that. Well, when what it means that God is long of nose and means of the Lord takes a long time for God's anger to really come out. Now, aren't you thankful in your own life that God is slow to anger? And that it takes a long time for God's anger to begin to be manifested in our own lives. And yet again, Jonah was the recipient of the fact that God is slow to anger, said no, wait, a second brother, Zach God, used a world to get attention in a storm. How was that guard being slow to anger? Well, first and foremost, he didn't kill Jonah. First and foremost, he gave Jonah the opportunity to fulfill the message and fulfill the commission that God had given him. So absolutely, God was slow to anger, even with Jonah. Now the next part. And of great kindness. Had God shown ever shown kindness to Jonah? Absolutely. Just the fact that he was one of the children of Israel was God showing great kindness to Jonah. And if somebody is here this evening, that is evidence in and of itself that God has shown great kindness to you and great kindness to me. But they notice that last phrase and repentance the of the evil, and that's not the same thing as whenever we repent of sin. But the idea is that God turns away from the wrath. That we so rightfully deserve. And so, you know what Jonah's complaint is, he paints God as if God is some cosmic pushover that just can't help himself, but to forgive people. That's what Jonah is painting God as, because God knows that threw throughout the entire Bible when people repent. God has a consistent and reliable response. And that is to give his grace to give his mercy, to give his love and to give himself. Now, can anybody be thankful for that themselves, that there was a time, perhaps, and each and every one of our lives, hopefully that we were able to get down on our knees and repent? And God forgave us, that he forgave us of our sins, and he showed great love and mercy to us. Now I don't know about you, but I'm thankful for that. And Jonah should have been thankful for that in his own way. But what was it that he said, I know you just couldn't help yourself. I knew you couldn't help yourself. So the next verse, it starts to get good. It's already been good, the first four then said the Lord, doing so well to be angry. God's calling them out now. Jonah, of course, ignores God parents. Have you ever said something like this to your kids and then your kids just. Naturally, acts like they didn't hear what you had to say. Yeah. Well, Jonah, does that right here with God? We find out that Jonah now goes outside the city and he wants to just see whether or not God is going to change his mind, and he's thinking, hopefully God will do it. God, please change your mind. So he made a boost to protect himself, and again, his own efforts couldn't even bring satisfaction. So God prepares a planned adverse six to cover. Jonah. And in verse six, there's the statement that Jonah was exceeding glad. At the beginning of this chapter, he was exceeding displeased and very angry. Now he's exceeding glad. Why? Simply because he has some shade as he can watch what he hopes is God's judgment. Wow. But just as God prepared the planet, God also prepared a world. And then God, prepare the human east wind. Now, can I just stop and say this? This is again God's showing grace and mercy to Jonah. I mean, God could have just said, fine, I'm done with you. Let me just you can go out there and bake in the Sun. But no, God was gracious again to him. God was loving to Jonah. So as we march again, I'm trying to do my best with time as we march to the passage whenever we get down to versus nine through 11. It comes out that Jonah was ultimately angry because he didn't love. Who and what God loves? Verse nine, God again asked Jonah, do or style will to be angry and notice Jonah's response. I do want to be angry even on to death. My goodness, how low can a person get? I do want to be angry, even on to death. Jonah is showing how flawed he really is. Jonah loved his comfort. He loved his people and he clearly loved himself. And yet this whole thing, the whole episode with the gourd merely was an object lesson to show Jonah's hideous condition. The scene, I want you to. Oh, you don't have to turn there, but in Deuteronomy six verses, 10 through 11, it says, and it shall be when the Lord thy god shall have brought them into the land, which you swear until my fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give the great and goodly cities which now build is not and houses full of all good things, which our feel it's not. And wells dig, dig, which thou dig. It's not in vineyards and olive trees, which they'll plant planters. Not well now. So out of Eden and before. They got was basically saying, you're going to go into L.A., what you've not had to do anything for it. And Jonah, you're angry about a Gordon, which you two had nothing to do with. Jonah, I'm the one who gave you the gourd. I'm the one who's giving you grace and mercy this whole time. And now you're angry about it as if it was something of which it was in your own hands to control. You see, the point is that Israel, Jonah included, are not great in in and of themselves, but God is great. But verse number 11. Says and should not, I spare Nineveh that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons cannot discern between the right hand and there are left hand. And also much care, after all, the cattle did repent, too, so he had to include them in. Again, showing a little bit of how backwards it is. You see, God loves Jonah's enemies, and God is trying to help Jonah understand that because God loves Jonah's enemies, therefore, so should Jonah. The idea of these people not knowing between their right and their left is that they do not know or have the divine revelation that Israel has been given. You see, it contains hyperlinks back to who Deuteronomy, the first Kings. Other passages in the Bible where we know that Israel does. Have knowledge of God's divine revelation, why? Because they have the law of God. They know what God, who God is again back in verse number two, whenever Jonah quotes from Exodus. Thirty four. Jonah knew very well who God was and what his character was. The God is now saying, you know? But they don't. Jonah? So shouldn't they even have the opportunity to receive my mercy and grace? You see, God was showing Jonah what was truly important, and it wasn't the the comfort of Jonah. It wasn't the greatness, the perceived greatness of Jonah that was important to God. But what was it that was important to God? People. People. Is what was important to God, and I contend with you is still today important to God. Well, that's the story. So we can come at the end of that and say, now, what in the world are we supposed to do with all that? Well. As we indicated at the beginning. Jonah's big issue was that there was a people that he thought shouldn't have the opportunity to receive God's mercy and grace. So. An emissions conference. It's. Right. Perhaps for us to consider the fact that could there be. People in our minds. That we perhaps think. Should not receive God's mercy and grace. And we might say, no, I would never, ever just say something like I would never even think that. But could our actions? Perhaps say that. There was a there's 18 years ago. His name escapes me, but he was talking about how absurd it was to believe in the Bible and that people howl in his mind how absurd it was. And he said, I don't understand how the Christians can claim to believe the Bible. He said, because I've read the Bible and I've read what it says will happen to each and every person whenever they die. I read the Book of Revelation and read about the coming judgment of the Lord that's coming upon the Earth. I've read all of that, and I've also read of the great mercy and grace of the Lord and the great love that he has for his people. And he said, so if this is true, then what gives? And then he said, how much does a person have to hate somebody? To believe all that this is true. And they're not say a word. To anyone else. Said he said if I if I truly believe that he said I would crawl on my knees until they were bloody, I would do whatever it took. I would scream it from the mountaintops and I would go anywhere I could. I wouldn't care if they threw me out. I would do everything that I could so that they knew that there was a great and a wonderful and a just in a loving god. That will give them an opportunity to repent and if they will repent, he does have a consistent response. That's what he would do if he believed that. But his question is valid. How much do we have to hate somebody? We've all that the Bible says is true. And then be silent. And then we saw. Because the mission field isn't just in the Philippines. And it's not just in Keene, New Hampshire, but it is most certainly in Collinsville, Oklahoma. And it is most certainly in Owasso, Oklahoma. And it is in Tulsa County, and there are people all around us right here right now. That God wants to show his mercy, love and grace to. And now. He's looking merely for a willing vessel. Which he can use to give them that message. Right here. Right now. But at the same time, that's one application, but I still think we need to perhaps visit the text and try to line up the application more of the text to consider Is there somebody? Perhaps has offended us in the past. That we know they're not safe. Perhaps it was a boss that mistreated us. Perhaps it was a family member that didn't do us right. Perhaps it was a neighbor. We didn't get along with. Some way that we've avoided. Giving God's message to. Is there somebody? In our lives that perhaps we're not willing. To give the message of God's great grace, love and mercy. I use the example at the beginning of the bombing in Oklahoma City. There was a grandmother. Who had two children? That were killed in that blast. There were a part of that daycare. Naturally, as all that happened, she was terrified, heartbroken, angry. Struggled with anger for several years. But there was something a little bit different about this lady. She was a believer. She was a matter of fact, she's even today still a member of Southwest Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. So she began to do something that perhaps we would say is unconventional. She began to write letters to Terry Nichols. She was able to get an audience. Different points. Now I can't I'm not aware of whether or not Terry Nichols ever got saved, I don't know. I truly don't. But her response was right. That there was somebody in her life that. Perhaps in and of herself, she would have thought no way I want to give God's mercy and grace to them. But what was it that she did? He learned that God loves them. God loves him, she should, too. She showed the greatest love that a Christian can without outside of just dying for them, and that is to share the message of God's. If she can do that on a weekend to. So perhaps this evening. As we conclude this mission's conference. We can consider the words of Jesus in Matthew, five. Forty three through forty eight. You know, we don't know if Jonah ever got things straightened out, but we can't. Matthew, five versus 43 through 48, it says we have heard that it has been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate the enemy. But I say unto you love. Your enemies bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate. Pray for them, which despite fully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your father, which is in heaven, where he may get the sun to rise on the evil and on the good and send it rain on the just and on the unjust for if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the Republicans the same. And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others do, not even the Republicans, so. And he concludes with this biggie, therefore perfect. Even as your father, which is in heaven. Is perfect. You know what God's saying right there? We need to learn right here right now. Like, God was trying to show, John, that we need to love others. And view others the way that God sent. In a way that is unnatural to our flesh, in a way that is unnatural to what we want to do. We need to learn. To love the way he loves. And if the people of Collinsville Baptist Tabernacle can learn that. If me and my life. If I can learn. And my goodness, what God can do with this right here right now.

Unidentified: In this community. We get it.

Speaker 5: It's Lord, we are so thankful for your word and. God, it's not always easy to preach text like this, but Lord, there's no need for. We consider. We need to learn to have your heart. What is natural to our cells and natural to our flesh is to have a heart like Jonah that merely wants to give your message to those that it's easy to give it to. But Lord, what about those that it's not easy to give it to that we need to learn to love even those people. So, God, I pray first and foremost of my own life, Lord, I pray that you continue to work in my life in that regard. Lord, I pray for the people here at Collinsville Baptist Tabernacle or that. We would. Switch now we would trade our heart of flesh, our heart. Of we could even say hate for your heart that loves. So, God, I do pray that you would do a work now and this your church. Lord, we love you so much, we pray. Now these bless this kind of invitation. We submit it now to you. Jesus name. We are going to have a verse of invitation, the altars are open, his brother, Matt begins to sing,

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