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00:01 Well, good afternoon. This we've come to the end of our series in Jonah. And
00:08 Jonah is um kind of funny kind of book. It's like a
00:13 Korean serial, you know, where you actually have a lot of questions asked in the first part one, part two, part three. And the all the answers are given
00:22 to you in chapter 4. Is is the book of Jonah about a disobedient prophet? After
00:30 all, in chapter one, he says he runs away from God's assignment. Chapter one, he wishes he dies. He asks the sold the
00:38 sailors to throw him into the ocean. In chapter three, is it is it about God saving 120,000 people? Because in
00:46 chapter three, 120,000 people repent and I thought the show would be over, right?
00:52 No, it goes to chapter 4. So, chapter 4 answers all these questions and tells us
00:59 what Jonah is basically about. There about three lessons I would like us to
01:05 um ponder upon this morning as we go into Jonah chapter 4. We need to be
01:11 released from the prison of our own perspectives in life. Number one. Number two, recognize God's refining grace in
01:17 our lives. And finally, realign our hearts to God's. Let me just uh take the
01:23 passage and break it down for us. But before we do that, let's uh start with a word of prayer. Lord, we ask that you
01:29 speak to us this morning because we believe that this message is not just
01:35 for Jonah, not just for the people of Nineve thousands of years ago, but it's
01:40 for us as fresh, as real, as relevant, and as powerful. We ask of you that you
01:47 bring this gospel into our hearts for Jesus' sake. Amen. We need to be
01:52 released from the prison of our own perspectives in life. Let's look at Jonah's perspective. If you see, he
01:58 reads, "When God saw what they did, how they turned from the evil way, God
02:03 relented from the disaster that he said that he would do to them, and he did not do it." But it displeased Jonah
02:11 exceedingly, and he was angry. This is startling. If you thought that the
02:16 climax of this book would be the salvation of 120,000 people whose lives
02:22 would be saved, instead there is anger. There's anger from the very person who
02:28 brings the message of judgment and salvation. When it actually people
02:33 respond, he is angry. And the extent of the anger is absolutely astounding. He
02:39 says, "Thou therefore thou, oh Lord, please take my life from me. It's better for me to die than to live. Can you
02:46 imagine this? You're coming to the Lord, the creator of the universe, the originator of your life, and you're
02:52 telling him, "Life is not worth living anymore. I want to die." That's the extent of his anger. Same suicidal
02:59 tendency in chapter 1 verse 12. He said to them, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea. The sea will quieten down for
03:06 you. For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you."
03:12 And who is the source? What is he angry about? He's angry about and he prayed to
03:18 the Lord and said, "Oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to
03:24 flee to Tarses, for I knew you were gracious God and merciful, slow to
03:30 anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster."
03:36 He's angry at God. He's angry at God because God is
03:42 gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast lust, and relenting from disaster. It's a bit
03:49 strange, isn't it? You are actually angry with God for the very properties
03:54 of God that actually bring you salvation, but he has brought salvation to someone else. U so God is unfair. God
04:03 should save me as a Jew, but shouldn't save them as Gentiles. That's exactly what he's saying. It's like saying um
04:11 in Psalm 73, truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart,
04:17 but as for me, my feet have almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped.
04:22 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. The psalmist here himself, he's saying that
04:28 when he saw good things happen to bad people, he nearly lost his faith. It's
04:34 not just bad things happening to good people. It's good things happening to bad people. They're two sides of the same coin. And he thinks, "Hey, I can't
04:42 stand it." Look, for they have no pangs until their death. Their bodies are fat and sleek.
04:49 They're not in trouble as others are. They're not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore, pride is in their
04:55 necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through their fatness, and their hearts overflow
05:01 with follyies. If other people, if good, if bad people have a good time, what is
05:06 that to you? But he looks and he's envious, he nearly loses his faith. Look at this picture and see whether you're
05:13 happy. Ah, yes. For some Malaysians, I think you'll recognize who. And when you look at a picture like this, are you
05:19 happy for them? If you are not from this country, uh, and you don't read Wall Street Journal, then you won't
05:25 understand. But for the rest of us here, we look at this. And how many of you are happy? Put your hands up. Yeah, only one
05:32 or two. Okay, two two people happy. All right, so the rest of us, we have a long way to go.
05:37 What a romantic looking couple, isn't it? Uh the problem is it's not you, it's
05:43 it's it's me. All right, it happens. Good things happen to bad people and it
05:48 doesn't happen to me. That's why we are very upset, isn't it? And we are envious and we lose our faith. Where's the
05:54 justice in life? Where is God in life? Isn't it? um all in vain have I kept my
06:00 heart clean and washed my hands innocence for all day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning I
06:07 have kept my integrity I've kept my job I've kept my principles and I am in poverty and he's drinking champagne at
06:15 $10,000 a bottle and somehow I don't want to live in the world like this that
06:21 don't you think that's somehow how we feel this a more dramatic example of the
06:26 terrorist attack in Mumbai by some years ago when terrorists came in and killed hundreds of people uh and and among
06:34 their victims was a Jewish couple who were ministering to the poor people uh
06:39 in Mumbai. They were not only captured, they were tortured, their sexual organs
06:44 mutilated and they were killed. And one of the chief rabbis in the United States
06:50 uh wrote these words. But to love those, he was asked, "Don't
06:55 you think you should love your enemies? But to love those who indiscriminately murder God's children as an abomination
07:01 against all that is sacred. There is a man who is human. Is there a man who's human whose heart is not filled with
07:07 moral revulsion against terrorists who target a rabbi who feeds the hungry? Would God or Jesus ask me to extend even
07:15 one morsel of my limited capacity for compassion to fiends rather than saving every last particle for their victims
07:22 instead? That's true, isn't it? And he writes on, "Could God really be so
07:28 unreasonable? Could Jesus be so cruel as to ask me to love baby killers? Would
07:33 such a God be moral as he did? Could I pray to a God who loves terrorists?
07:38 Could I find comfort in him knowing that he offers them comfort as well? No. Such
07:43 a God would be my enemy. He would abide in Hades rather than heaven. I would be damned before I could worship him. I
07:50 will accept an eternity in purgatory rather than the moment of celestial bliss shared with these beasts.
07:57 And these are the exact sentiments of Jonah because Assyrians were much worse
08:04 than the terrorists who attacked Mumbai. They would capture people and strip them of all their skins and hang the skins on
08:12 the walls of Nineve and bury them into the ground and stick out their tongue
08:17 and drive a steak to the tongue until you died of thirst. That's what they would regularly do. You're asking him to
08:25 when bad things happen to good people. The world is therefore divided into good
08:31 people and bad people. And our God is supposed to look after the good people and not the bad people. You know why
08:38 does does he think that God is unfair? He thinks God is unfair simply because he's got a different idea of God. God
08:46 doesn't fit into his idea of what God should be. He's got a perspective about God that doesn't and and when he meets
08:53 the real God, it doesn't fit in. You see, therefore, oh Lord, please take my life from me. It's better for me to die
08:60 than to live. the reason why it's better for him to die than to live because he can't live with this sort of God. Now
09:06 that this idea of God is now dead, he might as well be as well because I have an idea of God who will basically help
09:12 the Israelites and kill all of Israelites enemies, help the good and curse the bad. And if I meet a real God
09:19 who actually burst through the kind of definition of what God should be, therefore I rebel and God is unfair. has
09:27 um letter which I picked up from the internet of somebody who struggled with
09:33 this as well and is written by a young lady not quite so angry with God but let me read to you the letter it says dear
09:39 God I can hardly believe that this is my wedding day I know I haven't been able
09:44 to spend much time with you lately with all the rush of getting ready for today
09:50 and I'm sorry I guess too that I feel a little guilty when I try to pray about all this since there isn't a Christian,
09:57 but oh father, I love him so much. What else can I do? I I just couldn't give
10:03 him up. Oh, you must save him some way somehow. You know how I've prayed for him and the way we've discussed the
10:09 gospel together. I've tried not to appear too religious. I know that's because I don't want to I didn't want to
10:15 scare him off. Yet, he isn't antagonistic and I can understand and I can't understand why he hasn't responded. Or if only he were a
10:23 Christian. Dear father, bless our marriage. I don't want to disobey you,
10:28 but I do love him and I want to be his wife. So, please be with us. Please don't spoil my wedding day.
10:36 Isn't it? If you really love me, if you're really a good God, you will let
10:42 me have Larry. If you really love me, you would think about my happiness and not your law. You know who is she
10:49 worshiping? She's worshiping an idol. a God made in her own image. You know what
10:57 she should be doing? She should be saying this prayer instead. Dear father, I don't want to disobey you, but I must have my own way at all costs. For I love
11:04 what you do not love, and I want to do what you do not want. So, please be a good God. Deny yourself, move off your
11:09 throne, and let me take over. If you don't like this, then all I ask is that you bite your tongue and say and do
11:15 nothing that will spoil my plan. So, let me enjoy myself. I think we would be more honest, isn't it? if we were able
11:20 to pray that kind of prayer. You see, um Jonah says, "And the Lord said, "Do you
11:29 do you do well to be angry? Are are you are you right? Is it right for you to be
11:34 angry?" We all start off with a perspective what God should be. But when
11:40 our enc perspective encounter the real God, we are actually shocked. You know, some of us come and I know many of us in
11:47 this church come to know God simply because you went through a financial disaster or a legal battle and then you
11:54 turn to God and somehow God ministered and then you gave your life to Jesus. Some of us I know here are my patients
12:01 and you suffered illnesses and you brought yourself to God and you come because he's healed you and then you
12:08 remain faithful. But at some stage, God is going and and your view of God is a
12:13 God who meets your needs. When you're lonely, he's there. When you're down, he brings you up. Many of us think God is
12:20 like that. But when you actually encounter the real God, the real God's
12:25 not like that. The real God's not a teddy bear. The real God is awesome.
12:31 He has his own mind. And when you encounter the real God, when you perspective encounter a real God, you
12:37 actually have a comfort. It you have a conflict in our lives, in our minds, a real God should allow me to marry an
12:44 unbeliever. A real God should understand my pain and loneliness. A real God should understand that in business I
12:49 have to give a bribe. I have to support my family. A real God cannot be so unreasonable.
12:55 And so therefore, we we come into the faith initially seeking God's hands.
13:02 But in the end trouble comes and we meet the real God. And that's when either people carry on the with their faith or
13:09 they move away. And the whole and and the gospel according to Jonah
13:15 is a gospel about how God deals with all of us when we encounter the real God.
13:20 And what does God do? He should actually wipe him out, isn't it? This is a nasty, horrible prophet. Saved him by the
13:27 whale. He promised me he'll repent. And yet he's doing this. But God doesn't do
13:32 that. What does God do? God sits him down outside the city. He's sitting
13:38 there and he's waiting, waiting and waiting for God to destroy the entire city with 120,000 people going up in
13:45 smoke and then he's going to get up and he's going to jump and he's going to celebrate. You know what kind of anger
13:51 and bitterness and hatred that must fill your heart when for you to be waiting
13:56 for people to die? So what does God do? Instead of wiping him out, God
14:02 allows a plant to grow up. 120 Fahrenheit heat. It's horrible. It
14:07 provides shade. He's very happy. And God sends a worm, destroys the plant, and
14:14 then it's hot. And he sends a wind. It's even hotter. And let me read. And God
14:20 said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" When he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry. angry
14:28 enough to die. He cares more about the plant than for human beings. And the
14:33 Lord said to you, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it a grow which came into being in
14:39 a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineve, that great
14:44 city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also much
14:51 cattle. So here you actually have God showing him the difference. The
14:57 difference is God cares for 120,000 people who do not know the right hand
15:02 from the left. They don't have God's revelation. And you have a prophet who is whose heart is completely cold. His
15:10 only thinks about his comfort and he's complacent. The two things are there you
15:15 know and and you know look at Jonah's perspective. The Lord appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it
15:21 might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.
15:27 The word exceedingly glad. He's like overjoyed. Four chapters. The only place where he's
15:33 overjoyed is when he got a plant. Can you imagine what a distortion of
15:40 human values that is? Some time ago in the 90s, I think there was a true story of a young woman called
15:48 Pamela Smart who didn't like her husband very much and arranged to have him murdered. And she had him murdered
15:54 because she had an affair with a young man uh called Ryan. And three of them
16:00 tied up the husband and arranged to kill him. They got a gun and were pointing to the back of his head. One man, one of
16:07 them were holding was holding a knife to his neck. And just before they killed him, one of them said, "Hey, we can't
16:15 shoot him now. There's a dog. It'll permanently scar his emotions." So they to remove the dog and then they shot him
16:21 in the head. I mean, you think about the perversity human. I mean, the plant is
16:26 more important than a 120,000 people. That's what it's come to. Uh this is the
16:32 uh recent controversy. If you read in the newspapers, you have Donald Trump
16:37 who says that this is the largest inauguration event ever, largest crowd
16:43 ever. But you compare 2009, I think he's blind, isn't it? Something wrong. And he
16:49 says it was sunny. Actually, it was raining all the time. You have a and and his political secretary says this is
16:56 alternative facts, which means Donald Trump lives in a place of alternative reality. But don't laugh.
17:03 All of us do the same things. All right. This is a study that was done in among
17:10 University Cornell students some years ago. And what they did is got 135 students and they made them put on a
17:17 t-shirt of and the teacher has a picture of somebody who is actually very embarrassing. They wouldn't be caught
17:22 dead with the picture in in this country. You you know whose picture will be on in that country. It was a picture
17:29 of Barry Manalof. I don't know why American student do not like Barry Mandalov. So they were to come into the
17:34 room and then if you were wearing a t-shirt with um picture of Barry
17:41 Mandalov, you'd be very embarrassed and you'd be so self-conscious in it. And so they were asked when you were walking
17:46 the room, how many you know, how many of you think that that people noticed you?
17:52 And more than about 47% thought that other people noticed them. When you ask
17:57 the people in the room, actually only about 20% notice them. So therefore, they're more acutely aware. They've got
18:02 what we call this spotlight effect. And even if we change the experiment to something non-mbarring, even less people
18:09 notice, but they still thought a lot of people notice them having this non-mbarring face. So the bottom line is
18:16 that we always form our perspectives around our own ideas. We are trapped
18:23 within our own perspectives. Uh and and that's not a good situation. Some years
18:28 ago about 100 years ago was one of the first few missionaries to the um uh can
18:34 someone do me a favor the hospital calls me. I can't answer this call. Brahma can
18:40 you answer the call for me? Thanks. So that and take a message. Sorry. 100 years ago,
18:46 Sevir and David Flood, they uh were Swedish missionaries to
18:52 Zire and they went there with two other couples, another couple called the Ericsons. And when they were there, they
18:59 were to minister to two villages and the two villages were very antagonistic to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They refused
19:05 to let them in. Uh they had a young boy with them and they had to live in between the two villages and they went
19:12 through a horrendous time. The place was full of mosquitoes. Uh they had malaria and she became pregnant at that time and
19:19 pregnant suffering the rigoros of malaria. And through a whole entire year there there was no converts. All they
19:27 had in contact was one little African boy who brought them some food and that
19:33 was all. The other couple, the Ericsons, were so distraught with the suffering that they actually left the mission
19:39 field there. And David and severe flood remained and she in a pregnant state and
19:45 with malaria continued to get very very ill and one and just after she delivered she died
19:53 and the young baby was born name was Aggie and she was and David flood became
19:58 very angry because he's lost his beautiful 27year-old wife who had come all the way to Ziah to share the gospel
20:05 and instead of continuing he was bitter God was unfair and so therefore he gave
20:13 away he gave away his daughter to another missionary couple and he left the mission field with his son and went
20:19 back to Sweden and the daughter was brought up with the Eric by the Ericsons and then they also died tough mission
20:26 field and they gave the daughter somebody else who went back to the states and 40 years later on the
20:32 daughter tries to contact the father her name is Aggie and no reply at all to all
20:39 her letters. And one day she was in London. When she was in London, she attended an evangelistic meeting. It was
20:46 led by a African pastor by the name of Reverend Rugita Nagaro, the head of a
20:53 denomination that are 110,000 people and they shared. And did you have you heard
20:59 of Sevilla and David Flood? Yes, I have. He was the young boy who brought food to
21:07 David and severe flood. He came to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He went
21:12 back to the village and you know 600 people in that village accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And now he's
21:18 the head of the denomination. There's 110,000 people and Aggie continued to reach out to the
21:25 father and one day she lands back into Sweden and actually found out where the father was. He had remarried five
21:32 children who absolutely hated their father because he was full of bitterness. He became a drunk. Finally,
21:41 she persuaded them to tell her where her father was. And he and she found him in
21:48 a very broken down derelic part of town lying down there
21:53 out of his mind, bitter, alcoholic bottles thrown all over. And
21:59 she told him, "I'm your daughter, Aggie." He couldn't believe it. You know, God brought me to the moment you mention God, he explodes. Boom. And it's
22:07 so bitter. But then later on, she tells him what happened. That severe flood
22:12 died. But she had brought the gospel to that one boy. And the one boy caused a
22:17 revival. His heart melted and he was released from his prison. But the
22:23 trouble is his five children are non-Christians. They're totally antagonistic to the name of Christ
22:29 because of the bitterness which is the legacy that David flood led. You see, brothers and sisters, we can think God
22:36 is unfair because we don't have the whole picture. He didn't know. He didn't
22:42 know that God had a plan for that one boy and it took the death of his wife to make that happen. And so therefore,
22:49 sometimes God doesn't fit in our perspective because our perspectives are so narrow. We can't think through it
22:54 all. And so therefore we come to situation in our life like David flood or Jonah where plants are more important
23:01 than people. These is actually a prison. We're imprisoned by our perspective.
23:08 We're imprisoned by our narrow view. We we we are locked in by our love for our
23:14 own comfort. We're locked in by the walls that we have built ourselves. You
23:19 come to the church, half the people you like, half the people you don't like. And you always talk to people you like.
23:24 And the people you don't like, you don't talk to them. We're locked in, isn't it? Because this is our narrow perspective.
23:29 We're locked in by our perspective, our priorities to get ahead. Anybody that helps us get ahead, we we get along with
23:34 them. Anyone who's not useful to us, we don't. We're knocked in by our narrow
23:40 horizons. And so therefore, brothers and sisters, we actually have to move out.
23:45 We need to be released because each one of us have this narrow perspective. We have to break out. The second thing we
23:52 need to do in order to break out, we need to recognize God's refining grace in our lives. Jonah has this episode of
24:01 the plant he has. God gives him a plant and it became up then it became a shade
24:08 and he became very very happy because of that. God gives him a plant. So the
24:13 blessings which God places in our lives and you look in the whole gospel of Jonah, look at what Jonah writes. Lord
24:21 hurled a great wind. God appointed a great fish. God spoke to the fish. God
24:27 appointed a plant. God appointed a worm. God appointed a scorching east wind.
24:33 Every single line, see this gospel is not about Jonah. It's not about Nineve.
24:38 You know what it about? It's about God. It's about God. Every sentence is laced
24:45 with the idea there is God. And this is God's grace. But what is God's grace doing? You've got two sets. On the red
24:52 set, you've got bad stuff. God sends a storm. God sends a worm. God sends the
24:59 east wind. Then on the red on the green side, there's good stuff. God sends a fish at the right time. God sends a
25:06 plant at the right time. But yet life is made of good things and bad things. And
25:13 sometime we complain, oh God, when God sends a fish, it's a blessing. When God says a worm is not a blessing, I come to
25:20 the church and I see plenty of worms. So I go and go for the plants rather than the worms. Brothers and sisters, some of
25:27 us are suffering. Some of us have worms in our lives. Some have some of us are exposed to the east wind. But these are
25:33 circumstances which God purposely put into our lives. Look at Joseph.
25:38 Joseph was born in a big family and he was well on the way to being the most
25:44 spoiled brat on the face of the earth. Isn't it? father gives him a nice coat of many colors and he's full of himself.
25:52 Do you know if you left him there he would have been the most dysfunctional young man you ever seen and his family
25:58 would have died in Canaan because of famine. What God did instead was to take
26:03 him out. He sent a worm into his life. He took him out and made him a slave.
26:09 Sent people into his life. Sent worms into his life. Biggest worm was Portafa's wife. So you see a beautiful
26:16 woman doesn't mean it's a blessing. You know, it could be a worm into your life and eat you up. You know, uh you look,
26:25 God sends a storm, God sends a whale. At the very last minute, you just jump out
26:31 from the ship and the whale is waiting. What are the odds? It's extraordinary. The timing causes this to become a
26:38 miracle. Then you see another way in which God acts. He's got a shade. It's up in 24 hours. Worm comes. Can't see
26:46 the worm. It eats the roots. The shade dies. God sends the wind. And you can't
26:53 see the wind. You can feel the wind. And this is ordinary circumstances. Whether extraordinary circumstances or ordinary
26:60 circumstances. What is Jesus telling us? God telling us the Jonah is telling us that God is in control of both the
27:06 extraordinary and the ordinary circumstances of our lives. Let me give you an example. Some years ago,
27:14 a pilot managed to save 155 people by landing on the uh the Hudson River in
27:21 New York. And he, if you look at it in terms of bad stuff happening, he had the
27:27 misfortune to have got up on the plane and within three minutes Canada Goose
27:33 came into the airplanes engine. And you know, how unlucky isn't it? All Airbus
27:38 320 engines are designed so that you throw averagesized duck 4 kilograms. It will shred the
27:46 duck. It will pulverize it into baby food and you'll be fine.
27:51 On that day, it was Canada geese and they are 12 kilograms.
27:58 I mean, Donald Trump should build a wall for Canada geese. There are 12 kilograms. Then we don't have problems,
28:05 right? He didn't. So it happened to be 12 kg and what are the odds? Horrible
28:10 thing, you know. And then they all nearly crash uh and it shreds the engine. And this is Bob Benson who is
28:16 basically the chief investigator of the National Transportation Safety Board.
28:22 And you know what he concludes? It is a miracle that they actually
28:27 landed because no one has ever landed an airplane and saved every single person. Why? because it is a collocation of
28:36 unusual circumstances. Coincidences. Coincidentally, on the plane was a pilot with 40 years of
28:43 experience. Coincidentally, coincidentally, there was no wind. Coincidentally, the
28:50 Hudson River was calm. Coincidentally, the pilot did not follow the usual
28:56 protocol. You're supposed to switch on the vital APU, which is auxiliary power
29:01 unit, right at the bottom of the checklist. You know what he did? He put it on top out of instinct. And because
29:09 of that, the plane autopilot, because you lost both engines, you lost electricity. So you switch on the
29:15 auxiliary power unit from back and that holds the autopilot in place. So they were they were able to adjust their
29:20 pitch. So when they went below stall speed, they could have crashed. But the autopilot kicked in and he was able to
29:27 land. And he landed the plane with a tail first and then the head. You see
29:32 whole bunch of extraordinary ordinary circumstances. And that's why the NTSB
29:38 director calls this a miracle. Miracles happen all the time in our lives. It
29:45 could be extraordinary. It could be ordinary. It can comprise of the east wind or the unknown worm. But
29:53 it is Jonah is telling us God is in control. Who deserves God's grace? God
29:59 is telling him on one hand there are 120,000 people. That's a heck of a lot of people who do not know their right
30:06 hand from their left hand, which means in some sense of the gospel they are actually innocent. On the other hand,
30:11 you've got a prophet, a prophet of God who knows who God is, who studies the word of God, who is filled with anger,
30:18 hatred, disobedience, false repentance. He he preaches a grudging sermon. He's
30:23 suicidal and he's full of hate. Look at his sermon which he preached. Those who
30:29 this is what happened to him inside the whale. He says, "Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope in
30:35 steadfast love. But I with a voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you which what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation
30:42 belongs to the Lord." This is him inside the whale.
30:48 When he gets outside the whale full of anger and hatred again in the whale, what does he say? I with a voice of
30:54 thanksgiving will sacrifice to you. I have vowed I will pay. He's full of self-righteousness. He's better than an
31:01 innovance. The whole problem with Jonah is that when grace is given to him, it's
31:07 okay. He deserves it. When grace is given to somebody else, they don't
31:13 deserve it. That is the problem. That is our problem. We walk around with holy
31:18 jeans, don't we? We walk around and and it's holes all over the pants, but we
31:25 love it. We think this is great. We think these are holy, isn't it? In fact,
31:30 the bigger the hole, the better. More expensive. You can ask Evelyn Ton.
31:36 She works for used to work for Levi. The bigger the hole, the the better it is. And and we think it's great. And and and
31:43 and Jonah's walking around. He's thinking he's great. He doesn't see his pain. He doesn't see his holes. We're a
31:49 people who are trapped by our own perspectives until God shows us our poverty.
31:56 God's refining grace teaches us that when you first come to know him through
32:02 all his blessings, the shades and the whales in our lives, that's okay. But you've got to move beyond that. When you
32:08 learn to love God for who he is and that's when trouble comes to your life. He allows the worms, the east wind to
32:14 come to life so that you move from God's hands to God's face. It's refining
32:20 grace. This is a picture of two people signing executive orders. We have this
32:25 uh 2017 Donald Trump signs an order to block many people from Muslim countries
32:31 entering America. Now 1863 Lincoln signs an order freeing slaves. You could not
32:38 see two more different men, right? Why? Because they both come from different
32:43 experiences of life. One is born of a real estate developer with a silver
32:48 spoon in his mouth who's got millions of dollars to start his business. That's why he's great. The other man is born of
32:55 humble background. And in fact, this is what the pope said of Donald Trump. A person who thinks only about building
33:01 walls wherever they may be is not and not building bridges is not a Christian. He got very upset. started tweeting
33:07 against the pope. On the other hand, if you look at Abraham Lincoln, you see
33:13 what this is what he wrote. When I left Springfield, I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I
33:18 buried my son, the savior's trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettsburg and saw the graves of
33:24 thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes,
33:29 I do love Jesus. It is a refining grace that comes through pain and suffering
33:37 and struggling with God. You think why God is unfair? Why did you take my son away? And coming to grips with the real
33:42 God and experience real grace. And when you experience real grace, your life changes. Finally,
33:50 we need allow to align ourselves with God's heart. Well, only we need to be released from our own perspective. We
33:56 need to experience his recognize his grace in our lives and ordinary things and and in extraordinary things. But
34:02 lastly, we need to realign our heart to God. Here God is saying, "You pity the
34:07 plant for which you didn't did not labor nor did you make it grow which which came into being in the night and perish
34:15 in the night. Should I not pity Nineve, the great city where more than 120,000
34:20 people who do not know their right hand from their left and also as much cattle?
34:26 God is trying to put this into stark contrast. God is saying you need to realign your heart with mine. Your heart
34:33 is only interested in your personal comfort. You only love the plant because it provided shade. You're only upset
34:39 about the plant because it died. And all of us are like that, isn't it? We're only interested if our jobs are doing
34:45 well. We're only in a good mood when we've got a bonus. Everything else,
34:50 we're not in sync. So therefore, God is saying, "You have to realign. I don't
34:55 realign to your life." You know, you have to realign to mine. That's what
35:00 he's saying. And my agenda is saying there are 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from their left hand.
35:07 That's exactly what he's saying. That's why years later on, God cares. so much
35:13 for the people of Nineve. And worse, God cares so much for the people of Isis that he sends his son to die a cruel
35:20 death. Absolutely cruel death. Should I not care for the city? If you look in
35:26 the city of Kel today, we as a church need to reach out to everyone. But we are still locked in by our own
35:32 perspective. We are still locked in by our desire for comfort. We are locked in by our priorities of our own careers and
35:40 aspirations. We can't see beyond that. Just like Jonah, we cannot see beyond our perspective and we try to recreate
35:46 God in our own image. We try to create idols. We can't reach out to the city till we break out. We have to break out.
35:54 There's a story of Samaritan's Purse is one of the organizations that goes all over the world to reach out to the
36:02 poorest of the poor and the most oppressed. When they had the Ebola virus, they were there. when they are
36:10 fighting in Mosul with refugees there, they're there. How did it start? It
36:15 started with the heart of one man. His name was Bob Pierce in the 1970s. He was
36:21 the in the Korean island and he saw the orphans of the Korean War and he fell in
36:26 love with them and he said these words, "Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God."
36:34 The bottom line is that Jonah is about the gospel to the elder brother. You
36:41 know the elder brother is full of self-righteousness. When the prodigal son comes back, he can't share in the
36:47 happiness. He can't join. His heart is not broken because his heart is not aligned with his father's heart. His
36:54 father tells him, "Your brother was lost but now was found." But he doesn't feel.
36:60 So we need before we love the city, before we reach out to the city, we need to realign in our heart to the heart of
37:05 the city that our hearts be broken with the things that break the heart of God.
37:11 How many of you recognize this gentleman? Who do you think he is?
37:16 This is the first Olympic hero of China. Can you imagine? Eight years before
37:22 China sent an official team, Eric Little, born in China, brought up in
37:28 China in all the first white Chinese, wins the 400 meter dash 46.7
37:37 seconds in a race that he never trained for. Famous. Why? Because he refused to
37:43 run on a Sunday because he will glorify God. He who honors him, God will honor.
37:48 That was his favorite verse. and we all know him and admire him for that. In
37:54 fact, the Chinese actually put up
37:59 um a statue in the city of
38:07 uh Chenzin and you will see the Chinese never put up statues of white people. Never.
38:14 This is the only one that they put up and there's a reason why they put it up. Not because of Olympic games, because
38:21 you see Eric Little lived this life at a 23 years of age. He became famous. He
38:27 won the Olympics. They came in all sorts of, you know, offers of sponsorships and jobs and riches. He turned them all down
38:36 because he saw his race not just at the Olympics, but the second half is more important. A lot of you don't know what
38:41 happened from his age of 23 till he died at 43. 20 years. And they actually made
38:47 a movie recently uh called under Joseph Fines is the the actor the second
38:52 Chariots of fire because this is the more important race. The more important race is the last race. The next you know
38:59 he ran his first race at 23 years of age 47 seconds. That was fame. The next 20
39:06 years was much harder. He worked in an Anglo-Chinese school. He taught science and English. He he stayed there for the
39:13 Chinese people, people who were different from him, people who didn't want him there. He stayed there for 20
39:19 years. He married a Canadian lady called Florence, had three children. When the
39:25 war came, he sent Florence and the kids back with a pregnant whose wife was pregnant with a third child and he
39:32 refused to leave China. He was locked up for one and a half years in an internment camp because he would not
39:39 leave the bl the beloved Chinese people. He developed
39:44 a brain tumor and he died on the mission field. Why? Because the last race is
39:52 more important than the first race. The last race is a reflection of his heart. His heart was realigned with God.
40:01 In I would end with this last story. There's a lady called Kayla in
40:07 Samaritan's Purse missionary shared this and he said in Mosul when they're doing
40:12 all this fighting uh with the um ISIS this young lady was found
40:18 unconscious for 48 hours a bomb had gone off and she'd been nearby and her head
40:24 was wrapped up with bandages. It was all cut up. There was scars. She had been
40:30 previously tortured by ISIS. And it was blood stained. Her teeth had fallen out. Her face was swollen. And as she as the
40:39 missionary came to her, she grabbed her hand. You know what she asked? She asked a very important question which the
40:45 world is asking us today. She asked one question. She asked, "Tell me honestly,
40:51 am I still beautiful?" That's all she wanted to know. Am I
40:56 still beautiful? And the Samaritan Purse missionary stood back and stopped her
41:01 for a minute. How was she going to answer the question? And suddenly she saw the bandages. She saw the swollen
41:08 face. She saw the broken teeth. You know what? She suddenly saw beyond that.
41:14 Am I still beautiful? Yes, you are. You know why? Because you are made in the image of God. It is no matter what you
41:22 have done, what you've gone through, what torture, what what evil that you have even done. Our ability to realign
41:29 our hearts to to God is to be able to see God as to see people as how God sees
41:34 people. God sees people past the pain, past the torture, past the pain, past
41:40 all the scars. God sees their heart and that God has put his image into their lives. And when God asks us this this
41:48 question to on this church, should I not love the city of KL?
41:54 Yes. Because there are more than 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from the left hand. And we need to
42:00 realign and see them not as enemies or as different ethnic people or people who
42:05 are not as good as you, but we see them with the kind of grace that God has given us.
42:12 Then we can bring the gospel. then we can be a church of the gospel of Jesus
42:17 Christ. Let's have the team up here while I end with a word of prayer.
42:32 Let's pray. Father God, we end this morning
42:38 with a very important question. The world is looking at us and asking
42:43 us, "Am I still beautiful?" Or are we too
42:50 caught up? Are we too blind and imprisoned by our own perspective that all we can see is our own comfort,
42:58 our own horizons, our own businesses, our own families. That's all we can see.
43:03 Father Lord, this morning I'm going to ask, oh Lord, that you with the power of the Holy Spirit give us a breakthrough.
43:08 A breakthrough in the miracle of opening our eyes to who? The world. Who is in
43:16 the world? Migrant workers in KL, Nepalies, Bangladeshies, our own Chinese, Malaise, people who need the
43:24 gospel of Jesus Christ. Open our eyes to the grace that you have given to us in
43:29 our lives. That that grace is refining grace. The grace is given to us for a reason. to refine us, to make our hearts
43:37 more like his, to break us down from our self-righteousness and realize that we are objects of your grace. Oh Lord,
43:45 transform us. Help us to grow into your likeness. Help us to love our city. For
43:50 we ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
