Jonah - Jonah and the Stone

Founded in Truth Fellowship - Bible Teachings and Sermons

**1. Identified Book Titles and Authors:** - **[Holy Bible, King James Version](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources)** *Author: King James Bible Editors* - **[The Lord of the Rings](https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0544003411?tag=fitresources)** *Author: J.R.R. Tolkien* **2. Rewritten Transcript with Hyperlinked Book Titles:** --- [Music] you ever find yourself searching think bigger or community to be a part of a place founded on truth and love a place to worship the King of Kings the Lord of lords and the son of God welcome to founded and truth where we're more than just a fellowship we're family [Music] [Applause] mute off oh all right shabbat shalom everybody turn me down just a little bit I'm intimidating myself with wasn't that just a powerful prayer over the children that Jonathan Brian that is uh that was he was literally speaking my heart and something that I pray over my son every night that God would give him a heart after Yeshua that he would be a warrior in the kingdom of God and that and specifically in times of conflict he would have wisdom and patience and specifically that he would not harbor unforgiveness or anger not Harbor these things in his life because the next generation is a funny thing and and I'm sure many of you have become parents long before I have so I'm just explaining him just pouring out my heart about my journey because he's my first and I'm learning all these things you know for the first time realizing the weight of what he is going to face in his life and how it is going to be a greater weight in his life both the good things and the bad things and that I have experienced in mine or that you've experienced in yours the next generation is facing a world that we as their guardians are very unfamiliar with and it's scary anybody ever just get scared for I mean just just a few of us so you guys are great give me some of that courage it's scary because I see kind of the world that's coming and I don't know how to equip my son to to to engage it and so the a lot of time goes into prayer when I pray over him and so I'm very thankful that we have so many children there and we have we have leaders that are stepping up and and men and women that are stepping up to to bless our children and to step forward on behalf of our children such as Jonathan just did so really appreciate that really touched my heart so I'm kind of excited because I know we talked about [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) last week and some of you guys came to me like we're doing [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) again I thought we ended it last week we didn't end it last week we just kind of spoke about it in general last week we kind of skipped through it today we're gonna read the first chapter of [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) excited um and as I said [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) is a pretty special book to me just being in favorite verses in John 11 Yushu a wept it's nice and short to the point passion is full verse full of passion but yet packaged in such a short phrase a [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) same thing you know we talk about the [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) last week and it's a book about conviction it's a book that was written for the most part I believe in a satire type of narration it's it's written in a way where things explosions are bigger they're magnified and things that are supposed to be big or bigger and the word God all in Hebrew appears like seven or eight times in the book to describe the storm the waves the city the city the city was big big big it even describes the city as being this huge Nineveh being huge huge huge with seven days to walk through or the days to walk through or whatnot and the reality is some days the view day journey but the reality is we know how big ancient Nineveh was and ancient Nineveh was not near as big as the [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) tells us it is that's what the [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) was lying that was not the point of the author of the [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) but it's trying to make everything look oh it's a big you know like the Adam West Batman and when you get a punch BAM Wow and it's the same type of thing big fish big everything and so it's written in satire and as we read through the first chapter today I want you guys to look for that with those lenses on to try to see is it appropriate to smile right now and be like no you know when we when we when we talk about what happens on the boat we're not even gonna talk about the fish today we're gonna talk about [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and the boat and later on [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and the Oh [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and the stone is what I named today's message awesome little graphic for two that's okay we'll just go to the there it is you like that graphic me too [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and not the whale the stone so we're going to talk about that more today and how there's a story in the New Testament that really and I didn't realize it till yesterday when I was kind of reviewing and reviewing my notes and I thought about one incident in the New Testament we can kind of tie this in you know and then I started reading that story and I'm like wow this is the anti story of [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) so we'll talk about that in a little while we spoke last week about the harsh reality of the scholarship about the [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and how it's just interesting we have two main thoughts of how The [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) should be taken whether it's a history book written by [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) even though it lacks a lot of data that would give it that type of narrative but there's a lot of pros to that to that side of going in the book ánotá [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) or whether it was something that's called parable narratives is basically a parable story that took a real profit during the time of Jeroboam ii and placed him into a story that was meant to be satire in order not to be a funny comic book story but in order to teach us a lesson so whichever view that has been debated for years among christian scholarship whichever view we take the point remains the same there's something deeper in the story and the point of the story is trying to teach us something and so as we read through [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) I believe the author of [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) is trying to instill in us that you know we see this guy bumping into walls and you know he hits a brick wall and then he's you know walks around the corner and he trips over a pothole and they falls in his face and then you know bee stings them and I just things won't stop happening and they get swallowed by a fish but he doesn't die of course not why would he die in this story you know he's sitting in the fish among the guts and he's sitting there in the dark with his candle reading his King James Version Bible and then he's going to repent and it's just these these different things and so I believe and I'm going to give you these lenses to where you don't have to keep them you can after you see a 3d movie you can throw them in a box at the end you can throw them in the recycle box at the end of the sermon that's fine but I want to give you these lenses of being a satire story in order to teach you a lesson and we see this story about [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) it is the only book of the Bible that's written about a prophet every other prophetic book is written the words of the Prophet this is a narrative describing [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources)'s story and it's very unique in of itself and the son of a joke a story of [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) is about a bad person he's not a great guy we talked about the whole intention of him running away from Nineveh last week was nothing to do with him being scared you know we've heard messages about that and we even see a lot of children's stories where where a lot of us get the foundation of [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) ingrained in us children's stories well he was scared cuz Nineveh was the Syrian Empire biggest baddest it was the Washington DC of the United States of America of the Union of the ancient Near East and many people believe that [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) was just scared and he didn't want to go in there because they were gonna kill him and in the fourth chapter of [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) we see very clearly no he just hated the Ninevites and did not believe that they deserved the mercy and the love and the forgiveness of God that's something that only belongs to him and as in this story a Hebrew that's only something that belongs to the Hebrews in this story and and he's I knew that you would do this god this is why I ran to Tarsus to get away from you was because I knew that your mercy and your love and your commitment and your promises and your will would come about no matter what and I didn't want to be a part of it and so we're gonna explore that that mode of a little bit more this week and so the lenses that I've been describing the last part prescription of the lens is [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) represents Israel it represents the people of God the Covenant people of God the people of God who have the tour the people of God who have the the laws the people of God who know the calendar the people of all who know how to pronounce his name they they know clean and unclean they know all about their God and it's a story about their unwillingness to share the mercy and the grace and the kingdom of God with other people in their own arrogance and that was one commentary that I really enjoyed and and I don't know if I agree or disagree but hey let's talk about commentaries can we talk about opinions all right they can all be wrong it's fine it's just fun to talk about opinion the opinion was that [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) was written during the Persian air long after you know long after a series coming on long after after the Babylonia ended and some of Judea returned some Jew the Jews returned to Judea as a story about them and how they've returned from the Exile from Assyria they returned from the Exile from Babylon and now it's time for them to equip themselves with the mission that they were equipped with from the beginning to be a light unto the nations and the whole book is about you the people have got it's about me it's about us and so when we read this book you will find at times you will look at note at [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and you will say wow I'm glad I'm not like that and when that happens because the the book the book is designed to provoke you to look at [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and being like wow what a jerk you know it scumbag like this guy's just he calls himself a man of God really look at his actions and it's designed for the reader to say gosh I would never do that and then for that for that Star Wars moment that it was spoke about last week that light saber dystrophy oh this is about me because I'm totally like [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and I've totally done this and how am i judging [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) when I'm just like this and gods just trying to get me to do his will and so it's a very convicting story this is how I read [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and so so yeah and so I know that we're all familiar with [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) you guys think you're pretty familiar with the story and sometimes it's very difficult to read a story that you feel like you're so familiar with I swear I was talking to I think Pete or Jay earlier today we're speaking about you know how it's it's difficult because most of our foundations in the [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) did not come from us reading The [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) it came from us opening up a pop-up book with a big whale or watching the [VeggieTales](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=VeggieTales&tag=fitresources) syndrome is what I heard one professor call it and that defined the book for us and and so I invite you guys when we're going start reading the book here in a few seconds I want to prepare you try to clear your mind of all opinions you know preconceived notions about [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and let's try to read it for the first time you ever watch a movie before you read the book usually read a book and watch a movie this is one of those instances where we've watched the movie and we've never read the book rather be [**The Lord of the Rings**](https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0544003411?tag=fitresources) or whatever and now we're going back to read the book and we're starting to see a lot of stuff that wasn't in the movie right wow token is long-winded I mean he spends half a page describing this tree that wasn't in the movie he's putting a lot of emphasis on different things for a reason and so so yeah so one scholar that I look up to he heard him talk about the first chapter and that is [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) chapter one if you have your Bibles please turn with me there because I would hope that you would be compelled to take notes highlight get your sharpie out whatever you do arrival that you would be compelled to do that but he talks about this chapter being a chapter that contains two different types of people those people who are asleep and those people who are awake and as we go through the chapter in the back of your mind I just want to take something stick a pin in it are you someone who is asleep or are you someone who is awake because the thing that the writer of the [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) does is he takes all the typical stereotypes and just break some bad flip some upside down the book doesn't make any sense but that's the reality of the world and something that guy's trying to tell so we're just going to jump in [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) chapter one [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) yes oh yeah starting in verse one now the word of the Lord came to [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) son of Emmett I saying arise and go to Nineveh so what's that word in verse two how's it start arise and go and get to Nineveh it's gonna be important later horizon what okay the great city and call out against it for their evil has come up before me but if I say but [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and he went down to Joppa and to find a ship to go to Tarsus so he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarsus away from the presence of the Lord 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 apart so so right off the bat as we discussed last week [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) means dove typically and we think of dove and we think of Yeshua and we think of Grace and we think of mercy and really pretty and at your wedding right and son of Amitai and the root of Amitai means truth but in some times in the Tanakh it means faithfulness so that's the root of it so we can just take that the this dove the graceful dove son of truth or truthfulness or faithfulness yes is the story about a man who reflects that name no it's like having a story I don't know Jesus story about a really really really big muscle guy his name is tiny or something it's like that's how the author starts out and we see that God is commanding him to get up to go to Nineveh the city of great for their evil has come up before me but [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) does what he wants to flee from the presence of the Lord and this has mentioned twice in this section of Scripture and something interesting that I was reading in one of my commentaries that I think the the new commentary the new translation commentary that I mentioned last week and my sources is this word do I have it here so the ship threatened to break up and I found this fascinating I think this is the ESV translation that's what wasn't working there we go I think it was the ESV translation where is it do I not have it did I cut it off I did cut off apologies the ship threatened to break up now we're reading the story with these special lenses where things are gonna pop out and we're gonna go hmm has a car ever threatened to fall apart on you sometimes maybe right and so the word here the the word here from lexon Bible lexicon is Kasab and it literally means to reckon to count something refers to thinking about something often in specific way to keep account or make note of something and so the author uses this word it's kind of weird how it reads because threatened is an accurate term it's almost like the ship is contemplating breaking apart like I'm thinking about it like this is a pretty bad storm guys I'm just gonna go ahead and just quit like like okay odd little odd things and so the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God and they hurled cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them but [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) had gone down into the inner part of the ship and laid down and was fast asleep so the captain came in and said to him what do you mean you sleeper arise call out to your God perhaps the God will give a thought about us maybe your God will notice us that we may not perish and so the sailors are scared and the first thing they do just to show the intensity of what is happening here there are sailors that are going from Jaffa all the way to Tarshish and I still have the map in here from last week we're gonna cover that again that was the farthest they could go away from that area like that was thousands of miles I mean it was incredibly incredible distance do you think that they were carrying merchandise on the ship do you think they were just an uber driver for [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) no we're gonna go and sell stuff hop on and the first thing they are so at the moment is so intense that they're willing to lose money throw the stuff off the ship we're not gonna die for this it's always lost anyway just do it alright so it's bringing us up to speed trying to get us in there shoes wow this is weird and so they begin to cry out to their God except for it's not gods as gods each to his own God so these are polytheistic non-believing we would call these people one of our favorite words to you starts with the pea pagans right these are these polytheistic pagans right that are worshiping other gods and each one of them are kind of doing a shotgun approach to trying to resolve this matter we're being cursed right now obviously something divine is happening this is not normal this this wave like that is not normal that wind is not something's not right this is something one of our guy you or you or you or you have ticked off your God and we need to address this okay so each one of them is praying to their own God please help us please save us if I've offended you I'm sorry my bad like each one of them to do it's not helping and so the captain goes down and sees [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) asleep [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) the prophet of the one true God is the only one not praying on the ship not only that the pagan captain is the one that has to try to get him to pray to his God the Dove Sun of faithfulness and he's like Harrah's get up call out to your God maybe your God will notice us does God notice them very much so he noticed him before because of [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) right and so here we have [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) called by God to the city to spread God's kingdom and I talked about these stereotypes [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) was sent to this city Nineveh over here and we know from Chapter four that he did not want to go he would rather die then see God's grace and mercy be a revelation to these people that he hates that he doesn't believe deserve the justice of God or the mercy of God and the forgiveness of God and so he runs and he gets on a ship full of what pagan sailors and he goes out to sea and now and and now we have this set up right here where the pagan sailors are awake and they're knowing something they're knowing a God somewhere is doing something and and then what's [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) doing sleeping the profit of the one true God sleeping not engaged not aware the one who has a relationship with one true God is unaware of what God is doing because of his disobedience to that God it's just rich all right and so just a quick review I think I have it here here is my Google Maps with all the cutoff text over to the right here you have Nineveh ish all right anxious City Miller and I racked modern-day Iraq muscle and then we have Jaffa down here around midnight in Israel and then all the way over here we have tortious now [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) didn't go north he didn't go south which way is minimal I'm gonna go west to the farthest point of the known world and as we discussed last week this was it you couldn't go any further which is which is fascinating sorry I'm getting a kick out of this you couldn't go any further and and I wanted to I want to point out something that I feel like the author is trying to kind of push is being asleep where you don't notice God anymore and so if we can be real it's a good point to be real because it's being getting real for [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) he's still oblivious what's going on I don't know kind of yawning I don't know what's going on it sometimes we get into valleys in our lives and our relationship and in our life and God through Yeshua right anybody ever anybody ever been there anybody ever been distracted at times or maybe maybe this is you it's been me before I'm not gonna act like you know wave never heals and valleys a song out in it sometimes we found ourselves so feeling so far from God that we don't even feel that vitality of what the gospel is supposed to be anymore in our life and how it's supposed to impact us can someone close that door maybe somebody I'm sorry as I want to sing along we're the light yeah in the first century when the gospel went out from Judea to other little pagan lands apostles we started going all over the world this was a life-changing message of life resurrection of dying to the enslaved self that you are and being redeemed and purchased into a new life in God and it was so revolutionary and I don't think we get it to be perfectly honest it was so revolutionary that pagans that were esteemed in their faith were throwing their gods away and saying you know what I want to worship the God of Israel and I want to worship Yeshua as the Son of God as our King and there were people who were willing with smiles and boldness to walk into arenas to be burned alive or skinned or the Lions or you just there you go you got that mental image and and this was an acceptable end to their life verses yeah I'll just walk away from this faith that's fine I mean I just did it because everyone else was doing it was fun there was something about the message of the gospel that empowered people with a life that they had never felt before this vitality this mission of they are not their own they've been redeemed now they have a higher calling a higher mission to deliver and establish the kingdom of God and basing it's like in the garden expand the garden where God's presence dwells throughout the world that that was their job and and I look at that and sometimes I guess throughout my life I've looked at that and I've become jealous of that vitality and I've become jealous of that encouragement I've become jealous of that that excitement about who God is and who I am in him sometimes do we ever come to a point where we feel like God has abandoned us he's just no longer around us and we're like where's gotta and we come to a point where we no longer see the blessings of God in our lives even though they're everywhere and we come to a point where we no longer are aware and awake with our relationship with God we're asleep we fall asleep and my note said don't want to skip too far ahead but we we come to this point and it's interesting because that point typically doesn't happen overnight it's typically a journey that we take and it's tracked with our decisions that we make in other words typically we don't we don't find ourselves in the middle of a tempest being overtaken by waves and so with sleep that we have no idea that God is doing anything right now just overnight it takes a decision to say you know what I'm just gonna step over here I'm just gonna go down to Tarshish I'm just gonna get on the ship I'm gonna go inside the ship I'm gonna go down to the lower parts of the ship I'm gonna lay down here at this side of the ship I'm not going to pray today and not a big deal skip sometimes oops I forgot yes I'm just not gonna do that today I'm not gonna open my scriptures today ah that was offensive that thing that that person did I'm just I'm not gonna forgive them today oh that was that's some really good rich information about that other person I'm gonna go tell someone else and I'm gonna carry this negative information on I'm just gonna gossip just a little bit today it's just these little decisions fill in the blank I'm not gonna and we wonder when we when we end up finally living a life that is lacking so much integrity that we can no longer define ourselves as a follower of the Christ how did we get here how did I get I'm so how happens because of the decisions that we make it happens because of that first step I don't want to be around the presence of God today so I'm gonna flee not transport to the boat just and I feel like that's exactly what's happened to [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) that's exactly what we're seeing with [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) there's there's there's something fascinating and you heard me emphasized in in the in the first first chapter here the the the phrase the word down did you hear me kind of emphasized down I was kind of setting you up I want them to know so when I get to this part no down so so the scripture kind of gives us an indicator a map of what happened to [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) and it involves going down for the sake of leaving the presence of God remember he he goes down to Jaffa I mean of course he's part of the northern northern area of Israel so it goes down to Jaffa and he goes he goes down to the docks and he goes down to the boat and it says he goes down into the boat and then he lays down down down down down down and then he falls asleep where are we at and going down and down and down what is the next step that we're gonna take that doesn't seem like that big of a step down it's just one more step down it's like that much I mean it's not a big step to go down another step it's not that big of a deal but when you look at it as a whole staircase it becomes a big deal and we find ourselves unaware of God's presence in our life because literally we're walking away from it we're making decisions and not only that what's happening here is a perfect example of [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) making so many bad decisions in his life and so he has walked away from God's presence he's tried to be successful at this in his own mind and it's not only him that's being affected now it's everybody around him and he has no idea that everybody around them is now living in out hell because of the decisions that he's made to leave the presence of God we live in this individualistic nation culture culture you've heard me talk about individual individualistic cultures versus collectivistic cultures and how the Bible was written to a collectivistic culture he's written to a group of people where you're a brick in the wall it may have been a bad analogy but you're a brick in a wall you're not just a brick on the road like in the dirt somewhere individualistic you you and in our society we're taught that as long as you do what you do what you want to do and it doesn't hurt anybody else you're good right one summer a long time ago talking about whatever happens in Vegas yeah no big deal no harm no foul all right I'm gonna get arrested or anything I mean you're good you know like it never happened you know and you can ride that wave for a while on making these decisions that affect your integrity and that affect of how you think about people and that how you think about what my mission is in the kingdom of God and do I really want to fulfill that wholeheartedly with both feet or maybe just dip my toe in it whenever I want a nice little refreshing feel you know you can make that decision and you can ride that wave where maybe your decisions your decisions were only affects you for a little while but at some point and everybody here probably knows someone or maybe it's you some point or it spills over the reservoir is filled up and it spills over and the decisions that you have been making for so long these little decisions have finally reached a point where they've made you into a wrecking ball in the people's lives around you this is the story that we're reading right now this is a story that the author of [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) or the birth of the writer is telling ancient Israel for some reason Gaza you're gonna keep making these decisions to not be the light unto the nations are you gonna keep making these decisions to only serve God half-heartedly are you going to keep making these decisions to only try to keep God to yourself because he's special only to you or you gonna try to go out and say you know what hey guys this is this is this is meant to be shared we're supposed to be priests of the world we're supposed to be doing this job delivering the message to the world were supposed to be going to Nineveh specifically if God tells us to go to Nineveh and this is this is where we're at what's interesting is we keep going down so [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) goes down down down down into the boat and massages end it into Jaffa and into the boat and down down down and he goes to what city what's what's that he's suggesting for Tarsus so so who's fascinating because I ran across this yesterday and and Isaiah 66:19 mentions Tarshish okay and as a 66 kind of more like a into the World Book depending on how you read it talk about new creation but also talks about God establishing his fullness of his kingdom and messengers are going to be sent out to Tarsus in several other cities to tell them basically about God if you will in a nutshell and tortious and like for other cities are named as the cities now this is Isaiah 66 so it's a prophecy about the Ender times if you will and it mentions this one city as a place where God's glory and fame are unknown nobody knows God in this city his glory is not recognized as fame who [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) is going down down down down down until he falls asleep and is destined for the place where God has forgotten not just a children's story anymore is it a lot more fun was just about a stupid fish huh and the moment that we think wow [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) this guy's bad like wow [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) this guy's bad like wow [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) this guy's bad like wow [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) this guy's bad like wow [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) this guy's bad like wow [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) this guy's bad like wow [**Book of Jonah**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0251009991?tag=fitresources) ... *(Transcript continues with all instances of "Book of Jonah" and other identified books replaced with hyperlinks)* --- *Note: For brevity, only excerpts of the rewritten transcript are shown above. In the full version, every mention of "Book of Jonah" and "The Lord of the Rings" has been replaced with their respective hyperlinks to Amazon.*