The Cost of Unforgiveness |03.01.26|When God Loves Your Enemy pt.2
We are working through the book of Jonah, this Lenten season, which in regards to the Bible as a whole is just this little hiccup of a book in the midst of the prophets. It's a story we've heard about, but many of us have likely not dwelt upon. That's what we're going to do over the next couple of weeks as we journey through Lent. And as we prepare to hear the word today, would you please open your Bible, either one that you brought, or if you did not bring one, that is OK. There is this Bible under the seat in front of you, unless you're in the front row. You lucked out.
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So open that up to Jonah chapter 1, verse 4. And we're going to work through that bit by bit on our Sunday mornings together. But there's no reason you can't go home today and read through the entire thing in only about five or 10 minutes. It's very short. In fact, I encourage you to do just that. Go home, read it through, and circle or highlight some words in that Bible, and bring it back next Sunday so that you can have a conversation with somebody out in the atrium and see what you found and see if maybe they saw the same thing. What's really amazing is that it's the same words in the Bible, but the Holy Spirit that is in you is from God. And He likes to draw out new things based on your experiences and what you're reading. And so you get to bring water up from that well. And then you get to come here, and you get to share that with the people around you. And the Holy Spirit then works between you and the Spirit of God grows. And it's this beautiful, beautiful thing. And we call that church. We call that the church. It's a beautiful thing. It's not just the person who stands up here that gets to share the good news that God is giving. It's you as well. It takes all of us. So I hope I've given you enough time to find Jonah, chapter 1, verse 4. And would you please rise together as you are able, and join me in the reading of the Word.
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"But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. Then the sailors were afraid, and each cried to His God. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. The captain came to him and said to him, what are you doing sound asleep? Get up. Call on your God. Perhaps the God will spare us a thought so that we do not perish. The sailors said to one another, come, let us cast lots so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell to Jonah.(...) Then they said to him, tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you? I am a Hebrew, he replied.
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I worshiped the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.(...) Then the men were even more 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 so.
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Then they said to him, what shall we do to you? That the sea may quiet down for us, for the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. He said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them.(...) Then they cried out to the Lord, please, oh Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man's life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood for you, oh Lord, have done it as you pleased.
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So they picked Jonah up and they threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
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Then the men feared the Lord even more and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows, but the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish, three days and three nights. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, you may be seated.
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So you may not know this about me, but I have a feeling that after today, you are not likely to forget.(...) But I am a huge fan of baseball.(...) It is by far my favorite sport, and I won't go into the very many, many reasons why it is my favorite sport, but just know that I'm very passionate about the game and how you play the game. And my team of choice is the Seattle Mariners.
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After first service, there was quite a few people, it was like, I forgot there was a team in Seattle. Yes, there's a team in Seattle. And they are the Seattle Mariners. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and so that is my hometown team. And an interesting fact about the Seattle Mariners, they are the only team in Major League Baseball that has never been to the World Series. I'm not talking about winning or losing, I'm talking about even playing in the World Series.
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Out of 30, 32 teams, they're the only team that has never been there. And they've been a team for 50 years, and they've never made it to the World Series, not once. Now last year, they managed to get as close to being in the World Series as they have ever gotten. They were only eight outs away from playing in the World Series. They were leading the Toronto Blue Jays. It was game seven, winner take all. The Mariners are winning up to this point when all of a sudden George Springer, playing for the Blue Jays, hits a deep fly ball over the left field wall, giving his team the lead over the Mariners.(...) The Mariners could not manage a comeback in the Blue Jays advance to the World Series, and I was so mad.
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So mad. Now please, I need you to understand. I was not,(...) okay.
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I was mad that they lost, but I can handle that because I've had 40 years of the Mariners losing.(...) That's not a new thing, but they got so close. What really, really made me mad, what was unbearable, was that they lost to him.
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George Springer, no relation to Jerry, by the way, in case that's confusing you. George Springer was on the Houston Astros in 2017.
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A few of you may remember a thing called the trashcan scandal. Most of you may not, that is okay. But what it was, was that they cheated. The Houston Astros cheated. They were using a camera to steal the signals of the catcher and then telling the batter what pitch was coming, and that's not how you play the game. That is not how you play the game. It is above and beyond cheating. And George Springer was one of the leaders of that team. He was a cheating cheater who cheated.
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Okay? (Audience Laughing) And in my opinion, he should not be playing baseball(...) anymore, let alone hitting the game-winning home run and getting to play in another World Series because he cheated. And he stole the 2017 World Series along with the Houston Astros.
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I'm telling my wife about this, and honestly I should have started this sermon by saying my wife was right. I should have just started everything with giving her that credit. But she was right. I'm telling her about this, and she's sitting over on the stairs while all this is happening, and I'm crunched up on our couch just fuming and texting my friends, my angry texts. And I'm telling her about George Springer and how he's a cheater who cheated, and she's like, "You really need to get over that."
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And I told myself she just doesn't understand baseball. She doesn't get it. She doesn't get it. So I tell my son the next day, and he gets baseball, he loves baseball. He plays, we play baseball every day. And he loves the Seattle Mariners along with me, and I'm telling him, he's a cheater who cheated, and he shouldn't be playing baseball. And I'm gripping the wheel of my truck as we're driving to the gym, and I might have had some foam on my mouth, I'm not entirely sure. But all of a sudden I realize this is hate. This is hate that's just spewing from my body.(...) And so I go quiet.
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And then it's a couple of seconds later, my son in the back seat just says, "Hey, Dad?
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"Yeah, buddy?
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"Sounds like you need to forgive George Springer." (Audience Laughing)
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(Audience Laughing) Right?
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So my wife was right. I needed to get over this. I needed to move on. But I just stared at the road, and I told him, "Son, I think you're right.
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"And I think your mom's right.(...) "But I'm not ready to do that yet." And that was five months ago.
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And you may be able to tell from my demeanor,
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I'm getting closer.
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I'm not fully there, but as I've been preparing this sermon, I have been telling myself over and over, by Sunday, I want you to be able to say, "I forgive them." And I'm like, "I am trying to forgive them." I am, I really, really am.(...) I want to wait until I truly fully feel like I forgive them to say that, but I am definitely trying to forgive George Springer and the rest of the Astros.(...) And you're probably sitting in your, I'm pretty sure there's more than half of you in the room right now who are sitting in your seats thinking, "Danny, this is really ridiculous.
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"This is really ridiculous that you're this upset "about a baseball game."
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And I am finally at a place where I can tell you, you are absolutely right.(...) You are absolutely right. It is ridiculous to be so angry about something so small.
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And I bring all of this up to ask you,
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what are you holding on to?
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And that's not a log in my own eye, spec in yours kind of thing. It's that we're all holding onto something.
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And I can finally see my something for what it is. It's a sin.
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It's disobedience to God because hatred is not the way of the cross.
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Forgiveness is.
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We're looking at the life of Jonah, and Jonah has let hatred and unforgiveness fill him up
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and it has literally driven him away from everything he ever loved.
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And we see that it has eroded his ability to love God and love others, which is the entire point of the Ten Commandments. Right, love God, love others. Or for you, love God, love others. I had that backwards. But when we allow sin to seep in, we push God out.
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And so we're gonna look back through this passage a little bit verse by verse. All right, in verse four we read, but the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. Remember we first read that God said go up to Nineveh, but he didn't, he went down to Joppa. And then he went to the farthest known place that he could find on the map and said, "I'm going there, I'm getting away from God "and from everything God says, "and I'm just gonna run away."
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And so they're on, but then the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea. It's worth pausing for a moment to talk about this. Who sent the storm?
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God.
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God sent a terrible storm. We are so tempted in our picture perfect social media culture that we like to say that God only sends the good things and not the bad. But the Bible tells us very, very differently.(...) And that assumes that God is actually lacking in power when bad things happen and God is not lacking in power. The uncomfortable truth is he is in control of all things. Job says to his wife as the world is crumbling around them, shall we receive good from God and not receive evil? Or again in first Samuel, Eli upon hearing that his family line will end with his wicked sons, he says, "He is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him."(...) And I know for some of you in this room, maybe many in this room, this raises even more questions(...) than it answers.
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And I would love to dig through that more with you at a later time. Unfortunately, we can't spend our whole time on this thought right now. I mean, we could, but we have other things to talk about.(...) So I just need you to know that sometimes junk happens. And sometimes it's the enemy trying to mess you up. And sometimes it's God trying to wake you up. And sometimes like the sailors here, you're just caught in the middle of someone else's battle.
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Which leads us to verse 5. "Then the mariners--" not the baseball team, but the sailors-- "were afraid, and each cried to his God. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep." So the storm is so bad that professional sailors are panicking. They're so scared that their idols are not responding. Their pagan prayers are having no effect. So they throw their cargo overboard. This is life and death so much that they're even willing to throw away their livelihood. They don't get paid if they don't bring cargo to port. (End Playback) More amazing than that, Jonah is sleeping. You may ask, how is he possibly sleeping? Wouldn't he have been thrown out of his bed at some point? Well, actually beds in those days and ships would have been more like hammocks. And so Jonah is actually swinging, ironically, being rocked to sleep by this great storm,(...) possibly having the best sleep of his life up to this point.
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Which is another lesson that comfort doesn't always mean blessing.
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Can we also notice a theme going on with Jonah? He went down to Joppa to catch a ship. And now he goes down into the ship. And then he lays down to sleep. He keeps moving down and down. God said, go up, and Jonah is going down.(...) He's moving away from the presence of God in any way, shape, or form that he can.
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He thinks he is running for his life, but the truth is he is running from the source of life. He is drained, running on fumes. And finally, he just passes out.(...) But it doesn't last, because the pleasures of sin never do.
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The captain came to him and said, what are you doing sound asleep? Get up. Call on your God. Perhaps the God will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.(...) And this is the great danger of idols and superstitions. You are constantly hunting for the one that you're missing.(...) You're never satisfied. Maybe if I pat my head and rub my tummy, right? No, no, no. It's rub my tummy and pat my head. No, wait. It's which way is it? How do you do it? And then it's no, no, no, wait. I need to have a very diversified portfolio. And I need to show up to church on time, maybe even early. And I need to get my kid involved in travel sports. And I need to brush after every meal. And I need to do my daily cold plunge. And I need to bench press more than everybody else in the gym. And I need to stay up to date on everything that happened in Congress and, and, and, and, and what.
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And what are you chasing? What's that one more thing that's going to make your life perfect? What's that one more thing that's going to make you successful? What's that one more thing that's going to make your family love you and respect you? What's that one more thing that you keep working on that's pulling you further and further away
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from the presence of God in your life?(...) God doesn't tell us be busy. He says, be still.
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Be still.
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And know that I am God. But we want to add one more thing on top of that.(...) Let's be still and--
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no, there's no and.
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There is God.
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There is no and. Everything else is just an idol.
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And it cannot bring you happiness and joy.
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But we think if we collect all these things, then we'll be worthy enough for God to bless us. But God doesn't want your stuff.
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He wants you.
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He wants you to listen to Him. He wants you to obey Him because He has a plan for you to prosper you and not to hurt you.
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He wants to free you from the set of legalistic structures and chasing after loopholes.
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Verse 7, "The sailor said to one another, come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us." So they cast lots, which means they like rolled dice or they flipped a coin until they've put on who it was that was the guilty one. And the lot fell on Jonah. Now, Jonah knows exactly what's going on. All he has to do is speak up and say, yo, it's me.
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It's me. But he doesn't. He joins them all.
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And he's just waiting. Maybe the dice-- this is a big storm. Everything's rocking. Maybe it's going to tip over and they're going to think it's somebody else's fault. And he's just waiting for the dice to fall on someone else.
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But they find out it's him. And so they lay into him. Why? Why did you do this? What's your occupation? Where do you come from? Who's your country? Who are your people? I imagine everybody yelling this at once, not one voice, repeating this long laundry list of questions. But because the storm is still going. The storm hasn't stopped for them to deliberate this. It's still going. And now here comes the kicker in verse 9. Jonah says, "I am a Hebrew.(...) I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."
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Really,(...) Jonah?
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You're worshiping this, God?
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This should give us a little bit of a chuckle, or at least a moment to pause and think. Because what part of worshiping is rejecting and fleeing from the one that you are worshiping?
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I haven't seen that in our order of service. I've looked through the green book. It's not a part of our Sunday morning service, to reject and disobey the one who has called us together.
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It's an easy joke to make. But if we look deeply into our lives, it's a mistake we're all constantly making.
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This should give us pause, because Jonah here is also not professing his faith. He's not offering encouragement. He's using his knowledge to elevate his status among his peers.
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He is not comforting terrified men in their hour of need with good tidings. He is mocking them. And he is criticizing them the way political parties do after a round of elections.
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If you are using your relationship with God to elevate yourself and not God, that is literally taking God's name in vain.
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And it is a sin.
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And it's no different than idolatry.
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So Jonah,(...) the prophet of God, is not one more idolater in a storm.
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And the men were even more afraid, because they've heard of this Yahweh. They've heard of this Jehovah, the Lord. They said, 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 so. I said, Jonah's just one more idolater in a storm, but it even seems like he might be even less than that, because he just genuinely doesn't care anymore.(...) When the others hear about this great and powerful God, they fear.(...) And they seek to make right what was made wrong. They may not have proper theology, but at least they're putting in some effort. In Revelation, what does Jesus say to the church? He says, because you are neither hot nor cold, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth.
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At least they're putting in some effort. And Jonah's just like, eh.
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They said to him, what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. He said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for you, for I notice because of me that this great storm came upon you. Now for years and years, I read this and I thought, ah, here he is, noble Jonah, coming to the rescue of the sailors.(...) But now that I'm reading it again, and perhaps with some cynicism in my heart and in my life, but I don't think Jonah is actually being noble here at all. I think hard as he has tried, he can't stop hearing God speak to him.(...) He's lived all his life knowing God and hearing from God. And he can't as hard as he tried tune out that voice completely. And God is saying he wants Jonah out of the boat.
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And if Jonah cared anything for these terrified men and for their families, he would jump.
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He would just take action and say, hey, this is me, this is my fault, I'm going to get out of the boat and you are going to be safe.
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But he doesn't. He looks right back at them and says, you're going to have to throw me out.
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Which when I hear that, I think he's basically saying over my dead body.
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Jonah is tired and numb and angry and prideful and deceitful. And this doesn't sound like someone full of the presence of God, does it?(...) This sounds like a man who is full of himself.
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And when your actions and your words begin to sound like Jonah, you really ought to stop and take inventory.
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The Holy Spirit is trying to tell you something that you just aren't seeing.
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Nevertheless,(...) the men rode hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. They're trying to find a way around God's command.
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Sound familiar?
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Jonah said, this is what's got to happen. I go into the water.
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And they're like, well, maybe not, maybe this, maybe that. They tried to row, they try to find a way around it and they can't do it because God wants Jonah in the water. So the other men are showing greater compassion for Jonah than for their own lives. They're trying to row through the storm, putting the many at risk for the sake of the one, but they finally realize it's no use. Then they cried out to the Lord, please, oh Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man's life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood for you, oh Lord have done it as you pleased. So they picked Jonah up and they threw him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging.
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They had last are willing to listen and follow God's way. They submit themselves to the sovereignty of Jehovah. And only after submitting to God's plan did they find peace.
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Then it says the men feared the Lord even more(...) and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and they made vows. Jonah missed his chance to share the love and forgiveness of God with these pagan sailors.
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He was too wrapped up in himself to give it another thought.
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But God did not miss his shot.
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God never misses.
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His will is always worked, whether through you, beside you or in spite of you.
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That is the good news. It doesn't depend on you, someone else's salvation.
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But you should work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
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And then this last moment, but the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. It may not mean actually anything, but I do find it interesting with the word structure that the fish swallows up Jonah, right? For the last time we heard up
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was God said go up to Nineveh and Jonah went down and then he went down and he went down and he went down and he kept trying to get away from the presence of God. But now we see the sailors picked up Jonah and they threw him into the sea and the fish came up and swallowed up Jonah. And so God's will is being worked, even though it looks awful and not comfortable. We hear the Lord provided a fish to swallow him. Thanks God.
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You know, it doesn't, I would not sign up for that. I would not sign up for that trip.
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But this is what God provided
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and what God intended. The plans to help you and not to harm you.(...) But now that he's picked up and thrown in and the fish swallows him up, Jonah is beginning to move back towards the presence of God.
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He has done his best to move away
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and now he's reluctantly,(...) begrudgingly, but he's moving back towards the presence of God before God is drawing closer to him because God pursues us.(...) He pursued Jonah across the sea.
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He doesn't give up on his children.
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We see all too easily in Jonah a mirror for ourselves that while we acknowledge God with our lips and our bumper stickers and we cry out on Sunday for blessings and a special word
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until perhaps that word is forgive them.
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I don't know who them is for you, but I bet you do.
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And let's not confuse anger with hatred and unforgiveness. Remember that anger is an emotion that tells us something is wrong or needs attention like a light on your vehicle dashboard. The light isn't the problem that's trying to tell you that something else isn't working. Addressing it quickly can be the difference between a $50 fix or a $5,000 fix. When we let anger go unchecked, it doesn't really turn off. It just drops further back in our mind and slowly infects our thought.(...) But in Ephesians 4.26, Paul tells us, "In your anger, do not sin. "Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry "and do not give the devil a foothold. "Don't make any room for the devil."
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That's an important part. You are not gonna fix every problem or disagreement today,(...) but take steps. You can. Take the steps you can so Satan doesn't have time to build up an outpost in your heart.
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Paul goes on to say, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, "brawling, and slander, along with every form of malice.
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"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, "forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you."
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And that's the point.
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God in Christ has forgiven you.
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And so be forgiving to one another.(...) It's a fun thing to look up in the dictionary, the word all.(...) You wanna take a guess what it means?
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All. It means all. It's a tiny word that means everything.(...) It's a tiny word that means everything, literally. It put away all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and wrangling, and slander, together with all malice. Now I have slandered George Springer all the way to the center field wall and back, and I am sorry.
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I am sorry for that. I did that to make a point of myself that this is a small sin I'm tempted to say.
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But there's no such thing as a small sin. There's only one category for sin, and that's sin.
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Every single sin puts a wedge between you and God,
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which puts an even bigger gap between(...) the people God has called you to love and serve, that he has provided in your midst to love and serve.
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I discussed earlier my distaste for George Springer in the 2017 Houston Astros, and I confess that it sounds ridiculous, and that's because it is.(...) I'm tempted to call it a small sin because it gets me off the hook of having to deal with it. But when we compromise in little things, it becomes easier and more tempting to compromise in larger things.
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It's sin, and it needs to be dealt with. And we can't keep justifying sin in the same breath and say, "Yeah, I'm a follower of Christ."
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So let's rip off those labels.
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Like a dirty Band-Aid,
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and get back to calling it what it is. It's sin, and it's disobedience.
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I don't wanna be a father who teaches my son it's okay to hate.
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Hatred is not the way of the cross.
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Forgiveness is.
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And we move toward forgiveness by first calling our disobedience what it is, and we confess it to one another. And then we remember that we are forgiven.
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And because we are forgiven, we are called to forgive.
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We like to look back at Jonah and laugh because it's so obvious that he was in the wrong. But we need to look back at Jonah and recognize that we have all been forgiven much. And so we should not seek to pass judgment on the people God brings into our midst.
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We also need to recognize that we have been given the same command as Jonah. It just sounds a little different. Matthew 28, 19. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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The Danny Moore translation,(...) get up Danny.
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Get up Drew, get up Mike,(...) get up Chris.
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Get up.
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And go tell them, I love them.
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And I forgive them.
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Amen.