The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00 that it may transform our minds, convict our hearts and change our lives. And I
00:07 praise the name of Jesus. Amen.
00:12 Bitterness. Um we all have gone through through seasons of of bitterness in our lives.
00:19 Uh and there's there there's many different reasons of of why we become bitter. Uh we might be in our workplaces
00:26 and there's just somebody who who just keeps on doing better than us. And every time we look at that person, we we get
00:32 bitter. Or every time we we do something and there's this other person who who comes and outshines us or or or maybe
00:39 there's somebody who every time we put our work claims the our work for himself and we get bitter with that person.
00:45 Maybe somebody has has hurt us. Maybe somebody has sinned against us and and we are we are bitter with them. Um
00:52 there's there's so many reasons why we get bitter. We might just be bitter here because somebody in our home did not
00:57 carry out the trash this morning. Right? I mean there's there's so many reasons why we get bitter and all of us
01:03 have experienced different facets of bitterness. Even Jonah was bitter. See we we heard
01:11 last week that how Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh and preach forgiveness.
01:17 The reason is because he was bitter with the Syrians. I mean they were they were evil wicked people who who had evil
01:24 practices. You know, they would go to war and they'll skin people and they will take stakes and put it through people's tongues. And their major enemy
01:30 was the Israelites. So Jonah had every reason to be bitter with them.
01:37 But he was not just bitter with the Syrians. He not just bitter with Nineveh. He was bitter with God because
01:45 God put him into a loose loose situation. See, he was in a loose- situation. If he
01:51 goes to Nineveh and he preaches repentance and nobody repents, he might get killed. Loss.
01:56 And if he goes to Nineveh and they repent, then they won't receive God's wrath. That's loss as well. He's bitter with God
02:03 because God put him into a loose loose situation. So he does what every one of us does
02:09 when we are bitter. He avoids the people.
02:14 See, he great he went to great lengths and great distances just to avoid the
02:20 people of Nineveh. Here's a here's a map. Um he is here in Jopa. He's supposed to go to Nineve and 550 mi he's
02:27 going to Tarses the opposite direction. 2,500 miles in the opposite direction. He's trying to
02:33 do everything to go the opposite direction. And aren't we the same thing when when we are bitter with people? We
02:39 we try to avoid them. and they walk on this side, we cross the road. They're sitting on this table, we are sitting on
02:45 another table. All right? And and we let this affect our relationships. You know, we we are supposed to go to this party
02:52 because that person is there. I'm not going, right? We're supposed to hang out with these people. Oh, these friends are
02:57 no longer my friends because they are friends with that guy. So, our bitterness and our avoidance affects our
03:04 relationship with other people. In Jonah's case, it affected his relationship with God because he was
03:10 bitter with Nineveh. He it affected his relation. He was bitter with God. He was trying to run from the presence of God. Actually, in Hebrew, what it says, he
03:16 tries to run away from the face of God. He's trying to escape the face of God.
03:23 We sometimes let our bitterness affect our relationship with God, too. Sometimes we stop going to church
03:29 because we are bitter with certain people in church and we avoid.
03:34 Now, there's different ways of avoiding people. Some of us are the people who who go to different places. We we we try
03:40 to stay away from people. Some of us avoid eye contact. Some of us avoid conversation. So, we
03:47 like the silent bitter person in our home. Ever had that in your family that you're just bitter with a person, you
03:52 just don't want to talk to them. Even though their home runs on communication, no, you would just stop communicating with them for a while, right? Regardless
03:59 what needs to be done, you are silent and you will not communicate. you are in
04:04 a void mode. And then there's the next level people like me who who when they're bitter go
04:12 the great distances of of of doing even worse things. We we actively do things
04:18 to bring people suffering, right? Great distances and great lengths
04:25 just to make the people suffer who we are bitter with. Uh I remember um some most of you guys know um I'm divorced
04:31 and u um I was so bitter. I was so bitter because u my my wife was leaving
04:37 me for some other man and I was so so bitter in my heart and and I did great
04:42 things just to bring wrath upon her because she was deserving of all evil
04:47 and all wrath. See what I did was we we were we were packing up our homes and and it was the
04:54 little evils that just gave me so much joy, right? I tell you, um, and it's hard for me to
04:60 to say it without feeling a little bit joy still. Um, it just shows you the condition of my
05:06 evil evil heart. Yeah, I'm still a work in progress. Um, and anyways, what
05:12 happened was we had like two and and the people in GMA know this story. Um, we had like two rice cookers and we were we
05:17 were like dividing up all the electronic goods that we had in the house in two different homes. And what happened was
05:23 um, one rice cooker was working perfectly and the other one had this like fuse problem. when you plug it in, it trips all the fuses in the house. So,
05:30 what I did is I took the one that's broken and I polished it and I cleaned it and I made it all nice and I put it
05:36 in a nice box and I was like, "Hey, evil woman." And my heart was thinking, you know, come here. I goodhearted Masimo,
05:42 good moral guy, I'm going to let you choose which rice cooker do you want, right? Of course, knowing her, she likes
05:48 shiny things, you know? So, like she she she should she took the the rice cooker and I was thinking, "Oh, she's going to
05:54 go to her apartment in a new apartment. She's going to put in the rice cooker and she's going to cook rice and boom,
06:00 the fuses are going to brew us. She has no idea about electricity. She's going to be in the dark for days, you know. I
06:05 mean, it was this joy. I I didn't stop there. I I continued in in the the last day, you know, and um when we were
06:11 cleaning up all the house, obviously, she wasn't there and no bitterness here. Um
06:16 um what happened was I was cleaning up all the the boxes in my house and um um there was this kitty litter and all this
06:23 dirt and we had two rooms. one room was where she's going to put all her boxes for her apartment in Monara somewhere in
06:29 the highrise somewhere right and and then me somewhere in OG right my my my other my other room and she had these
06:35 boxes and what I did I I um took a box an empty box I took all the dirt made it
06:40 really heavy and I took the kitty litter that was been there for like three days really stinky and I put it into that box as well and and then I I taped up the
06:47 box made it look exactly like one of her boxes and she had these boxes arranged in like BDR bedroom and like K for
06:54 kitchen you know in in that room. So I took that box, packed it exactly, put it next to the BDR rooms, copied her
06:60 handwriting, BDR, right? And I put it there and and then I know
07:06 exactly what she's going to do. She's going to come to the room with all the packers and be like, "Okay, all these all these u to my house." And exactly
07:12 what happened. She came the next day and she said, "Okay, okay. All these boxes in this room all to my house." And oh, the joy just thinking about it. What
07:20 what's going to happen is she's going to go to her room. She's going to un the packers are going to go to the room and they're going to unpack everything
07:27 unpack. There's going to lay the boxes uh into different rooms and she's going to be there at night and she's going to unpack her boxes and then in her bedroom
07:35 she want going to come to that box and she's going to open up and all that sting that she deserves, you know, will
07:42 will be in her room for the whole night and she can't carry the box because the box is too heavy for her to carry and
07:47 she has to leave it there the whole night. Oh, oh, the joy in my heart.
07:54 I mean, we do great things when we are bitter with people. We do crazy things.
07:59 And it just shows how hard our hearts become when we get bitter.
08:05 See, Jonah was bitter and Jonah's bitterness brought him down, down, down, right? I we heard last week in the
08:10 passage how he went down to Jopa, down into the boat, and down to the belly of the boat.
08:16 I went down, down, down. the the same bitterness that caused me all to do this this this this nonsense,
08:22 right? It's it's the same bitterness that eventually led me to a drug addiction that eventually led me to lose all my
08:28 money and all my wealth. That's why I was raising my hand. I know for 32 cents very well
08:36 and I went all the way down the same bitterness and I became tired.
08:43 Ever been that way? Ever been so bitter? so mentally stressed that you're just
08:49 tired. So tired. And because I was tired, I was I was
08:55 blaming the whole world. I was blaming her. It was definitely her fault. That's what we do when we're bitter, right? We
09:01 we blame everybody. And we must realize one thing. Though
09:07 everybody or the people who have hurt us might be the occasion of our bitterness,
09:14 they're not the cause of our bitterness. Our unforgiveness
09:20 is the cause of our bitterness. Jonah was bitter because he didn't want
09:26 to go in and preach forgiveness to Nineveh. It was his unforgiveness
09:33 that caused his bitterness. And Jonah too was tired. He went all the way down to the belly of the boat and he slept.
09:40 He It says he went to a deep deep sleep that even the storms couldn't wake him.
09:46 No, somebody had to come and wake him up. And that's why God came and God brought
09:54 a storm. And there are strange things, right, about the storms in our lives.
10:01 what the storms in our lives do. What the storm did for the sailors and what
10:06 the storm did for Jonah. It reveals the condition of our heart. You see, the
10:14 storm revealed revealed the condition of the heart of the sailors and it revealed the condition of the
10:20 heart of Jonah. And we're going to deal with both conditions here. Let's let's first look at the sailors. What was
10:28 happening? um the storm was coming and um the sailors they tried everything possible to do just to get out of the
10:34 storm kind of like us right hard times come we we try everything what we can do and it's only when everything else that
10:39 we know what to do doesn't work out then we start praying and that's what he did they started praying they started praying to their
10:45 gods start worshiping god not god but their gods and when that didn't work out
10:50 they're like hey there's this one guy who hasn't been worshiping his god maybe it's this guy's god that is in charge of
10:56 this so they went down to the boat they woke up Jonah like, "Hey, Jonah, go pray to your God." And Jonah's like, "Me?
11:04 Pray? I'm avoiding God right now." I mean, it's crazy if you look at the
11:09 text, it starts with Jonah, arise. Go to Nineve. And here you see again, Jonah,
11:14 arise, pray to your God. I mean, Jonah does not want to pray to God. He he's avoiding God right now, but we'll get to
11:21 Jonah shortly. So, here they are getting Jonah up. He doesn't want to pray. They they cast lots
11:27 and then next thing happen is he falls on Jonah again and he's kind of pushed against the corner and when he's pushed against the corner.
11:35 Yes. He finally admits I'm I'm the one I'm guilty. I'm the one because of me because I'm running from God. Um all
11:41 these things are coming on to you. And what happens is they find who are you?
11:47 Where are you from? They they do an investigation. They do an investigation because all they care about is getting
11:52 out of the storm. They're not interested to come into relationship with God. They're not trying to find out what who his God is. All they want to do is to
11:59 find out who can they pray to. What can they do to get out of the storm? And then Jonah tells them, "Throw me
12:04 overboard." Like, what? That's crazy.
12:11 I mean, it's counterculture. I I'm not going to throw something. That's That's radical. No, no. We're
12:17 going to try everything possible. We're going to exhaust every other possible option. So they start rowing. They start
12:24 rowing all their might and all their strength. Start rowing and they don't know they're actually in a rowing contest against God,
12:30 right? So they're rowing. They're trying everything. And when that fails, then only they're willing to do the
12:35 radical thing. And that just shows their condition of their heart. They're not here to
12:40 worship. They're not here to repent. They're not they're not all they want is to get out of trouble.
12:46 They want to get out of their storm. Yes. Eventually they obeyed and eventually they they threw Jonah over
12:52 water. But why did they do it? They do it to get out the storm.
12:59 And sometimes we have obedances in our life that that seem like repentance,
13:04 but all we want to do is just get out of trouble. Want to get out of storm. There's there's no real desire to seek
13:10 relationship with God. There's no real desire to to do real worship. All we are interested in is self
13:17 preservance. What can we do to get out of the storm?
13:25 Of course, there's Jonah. Now, we we are hoping that that maybe maybe Jonah's
13:30 heart is different. Maybe maybe Jonah responds differently to the storm. And and it seems that he's he's doing
13:36 repentance, too. I mean, it seems that he's doing something good there, right? I mean, he finally owns up. I'm at
13:42 fault. Yeah. Yeah, when you're finally pushed against the corner,
13:48 when you have no choice, when you've been found out about, then you own up. But at least he does
13:54 that. At least he does it. At least at least he says, "Okay, because there some of us even when we pushed against the corner, no, no, no, it's not my fault."
14:00 But he's he's against the corner and he owns up. He says, "Yes, it is my fault
14:06 and it's because of me that you guys are suffering, too." And just a a quick note here. It just shows that our sins and
14:12 our disobedience affect others. It affects other people as well. And we
14:18 got to own up to that. So we must know one thing that the most loving, the most gracious thing that we
14:27 can do for our family, for our friends, for our community is walk in obedience with God.
14:32 That's the most loving thing we can do to be faithful to God and walk in obedience with God because our sins will
14:38 affect others. So he's he's there. He's owning up.
14:45 But it's just surface repentance. Why do I say it's just surface
14:50 repentance? Because in chapter three later on we read he's still bitter.
14:58 Yes. He he he does the actions. He does the preaching. He he does what he needs to do later on, but he is still bitter.
15:07 See, surface repentance is um is a good illustration. You think of a a shark in the water. We have this sin and it's
15:14 like a shark. What we do is we we always repent of the fin, the the surface problem, the thing
15:20 that we can see. Let's see. Yen comes to me and calls me fat. Yeah. And then he
15:26 goes behind the corner and chuckles, you know. You know, it might be true, you know, but he chuckles, you know. So he's
15:31 being evil about it. So I get angry and I go up to him. I slap him.
15:36 Yeah. I I slap Eden because I'm so angry. I call him old. Yeah.
15:43 So then I I I I go home and I I I realize what I've done is wrong.
15:50 And I say I shouldn't have slapped him. I shouldn't have called him old, you know. Oh Lord, forgive me. Forgive me
15:55 for I I I shouldn't be a person that slaps people and I shouldn't be a person who reacts in that way. What have I
16:02 done? It seems like I'm repenting, but I have just repented of the surface issue.
16:08 I've just repented of the fin. What I've done, I've cut off the fin. So, what happens next time somebody calls me fat
16:13 or or insults me or chuckles about me? What I do? No, I don't slap.
16:20 I'm an angry person who doesn't slap. I'm still bitter. I'm just an angry time bomb walking
16:28 around not slapping people, not retaliating, keeping it quiet. What
16:36 happens is I become numb in my heart. Now I don't hate, I don't love, I don't
16:41 do anything. I I just become numb. That's the problem. You have repented
16:46 off the fin. You've cut off the fin of the shark, but the shark is still in the water. And you've created this this
16:52 deadly animal, this shark that nobody can see,
16:58 that's ready to devour any time. And you have no idea when he's going to bite. The symptoms are not there anymore
17:04 because you haven't gotten down to the heart issue of the problem.
17:10 You see, real repentance gets down to the heart issue. Here's a a little chart on how we can own and disown our sin.
17:15 This is some slides I've uh taken from uh the city to city network. And it says here, "Own your sin." Yes.
17:22 Step one. Jonah did that. He owned his sin. He says, "Yes, I'm I'm I'm at
17:27 fault. It's because of me that other people are suffering, too."
17:32 That's why he stopped. He didn't go to step two. He didn't go and
17:37 deep seek deep in his heart. You see what I should have done when
17:43 talking about the repentance with with Y and the the story just now. I should have understood why is it that I got so
17:50 upset with him. It's because whatever he said attacked
17:57 my selfworth. And what Ian's word attacks my selfworth
18:02 and I don't get myself with from Christ. No, I get it from what other people say about me.
18:08 I'm so insecure. I'm not self-con I'm not Christ confident.
18:13 That is the hard issue that my selfworth is derived from what people think and say about me, not what God thinks and
18:20 says about me. That's the heart issue. And then once you figure out your heart issue, you
18:26 repent of the heart issue. You say, "Oh Lord, I'm sorry that that what other people say about me is so important.
18:34 That's that's where I get my self worth from. Oh, help me. Help me get my worth from
18:41 you. You are my creator. You are my maker. You You are everything that matters. And
18:46 you say that I'm your son, that I'm loved, that I'm chosen.
18:51 Oh Lord, help me. That's confessing of the heart issue. And then what we do is
18:57 we disown our sins. Say we what has Jesus done for us? Well, Jesus has adopted me, right? He has paid the price
19:04 for me for the action. I'm I'm now a son of God.
19:10 So he's given me worth. And then we ask the spirit, spirit, help
19:16 me next time, next time when somebody insults me, when when somebody is evil towards me, help me not to retaliate,
19:22 but help me help me find my self worth in you. I ask the spirit to guide me in this.
19:31 Another way of of looking repentance is downward repentance because a lot of times our repentance are habitual
19:37 habits. And how do we get rid of them? And here it just says sight. See again take a clo close look at my heart.
19:44 Always look at the heart issue. How can I honestly and specifically confess this to Jesus?
19:52 How has that sin damaged me, my family, and my community?
19:58 Because sin always damages me, my family and my community. And we need to vocalize that. We need to think on that
20:05 best we do that in community so people can hold us accountable to our actions. And then here, how has the sin
20:13 tarnished the name and glory of Jesus? And how is the sin seeking my ruin? If
20:22 we take this, if we do this regularly, we're going to start hating that sin.
20:29 If we start vocalizing and thinking through these things, we're going to start hating the sin
20:35 and we'll be able to maybe change. But what is what was the what was the
20:42 hard issue with Jonah? What was the heart issue? Wasn't it that he was running from God? He says, "Yes,
20:48 it was me. I was fleeing from God. That's the problem." Well, that's not the problem. The problem was bitterness, right?
20:56 The problem is that he thought that Nineveh was undeserving and unworthy and did not deserve forgiveness.
21:05 You know what the problem is? If you think that certain people are not worthy of forgiveness,
21:10 it means that you think that you are worthy. When you think that certain people are
21:17 not worthy, you think that you are worthy. And that's the problem. Entitlement.
21:24 Jonah thought he was great. Jonah thought he was good.
21:30 I mean, he was like a a famous preacher. He was like the Tim Keller of the day,
21:36 but he thought he was good. He thought he was entitled because he was a Jew that he deserved forgiveness
21:44 because of his ethnic background. And people of other ethnic backgrounds don't
21:49 deserve forgiveness. Sounds familiar.
21:56 He thought he was entitled. What he should have realized is that nobody is entitled. That's why it's
22:02 called grace. unmmerited favor, undeserving
22:10 favor. I was the same way. Yes, I was getting my act back together
22:17 and I I started going to church and I started doing some obedes, moved back
22:23 into my parents' house, but I was still an addict and I was still bitter.
22:31 And I thought that I was a moral person. I thought I was a good person because I
22:37 have become in this condition. I didn't hate anybody anymore. No, I I was comfortably numb.
22:44 So, I must be a good person because I don't hate people. And there I was and I went to church one
22:51 Sunday and I remember this. I was in straight Baptist church and pastor Ronnie Chu uh was preaching and he was
22:56 preaching through a series of 40 days of love and he was preaching and he was saying
23:02 and he was teaching and convicting me and he was saying the opposite of love
23:07 is not hate. The opposite of love is apathy.
23:15 The opposite of love is indifference. It's not caring. being nonchalant.
23:23 That was me. I didn't care. I was numb. And it hit home. And he was saying, "I
23:30 am worse than the people who hate. Oh,
23:37 for the first time in my life, I I understood that I'm no good.
23:44 I'm not worthy. I'm not deserving.
23:50 I'm wicked. I went back home and I was confused. I was like, who am I?
23:58 Who am I? I don't deserve his grace. I don't
24:03 deserve anything. I'm I'm like Jonah. I'm I'm bitter and
24:11 I'm running. No, no, no. I'm worse. I'm like the
24:16 sailors. I'm the storm. I'm I'm worshiping, but all I'm doing I'm just doing to to get
24:23 out of the storm. And then it hit. No, I'm worse.
24:32 I'm Nino. I'm wicked.
24:39 The word says that no one is righteous. Know not one. All have fallen short of the glory of God.
24:46 It finally hit me and I was saying, "Who am I? Who am I, Lord? I
24:52 I see that everybody else is wicked, but here I am and I'm wicked."
24:59 And it hit me. And I started thinking, "Who am I?"
25:07 And then the penny dropped. Who am I, Lord? Who am I?
25:15 that you are mindful of me, that you would send your son
25:23 to die for me. I'm not worthy of your love.
25:31 How can this be? And I started feeling love beneath the waves.
25:38 I I I finally understood grace.
25:44 I was not deserving. I finally got it. I think who am I to to
25:51 not give forgiveness to everybody else in my life? Who am I to to run around with a bitter
25:57 heart thinking that people are not deserving? I'm not deserving. Who am I? Who am I to to not give my life
26:04 completely to you and surrender to you completely?
26:12 See, grace is the only thing that can break your heart.
26:20 Grace broke my heart. See, grace
26:25 changes everything. It is God's grace that changes
26:31 everything. And that's that's the story of Jonah. While we are running, God is pursuing.
26:38 See, that's the good news. that while Jonah was there not really repenting and
26:45 just just doing surface repentance, God was pursuing him and had a plan to save him.
26:50 While while the sailors were around just just trying to do self- perseverance, God had a plan to even save the sailors.
26:58 And while Nineveh was wicked, God had a plan
27:03 to save Nineveh. That is the good news that while we were yet sinners,
27:10 God showed his love that he sent his son to die for us, while we are yet sinners,
27:18 while we are unrepentant, while we're running, while we're wicked.
27:25 Let me ask the worship team to come up there. Just close with few statements.
27:32 You see, Jesus said Jesus said that he's just like Jonah.
27:39 See, Jonah Jonah went overboard to calm the storm.
27:46 And then he went down, was swallowed by fish, and he stayed down under for three days. And then he rose again to the living.
27:53 Jesus Jesus was thrown into the storm of God's wrath on the cross for us.
28:00 He stayed under the earth for three days. Then he rose again.
28:05 The only difference is Jonah did it involuntary. Jonah did it because of his own
28:11 disobedience. No, but Jesus came and pursued us
28:18 because of our disobedience. Jonah ran away from the enemy. Jesus ran
28:25 towards the enemy. Jonah was about revenge.
28:32 Jesus was about restoration and rescue.
28:38 It's because of Jesus finished work on the cross and his resurrection
28:43 that the wrath of God's storms is no longer for us. No, Jesus took it upon himself. So now we know that whatever
28:50 storm comes in our lives is not a storm to pay us back for our sin. No, it's to bring us back from our sin.
28:57 The storms come not for retribution but for restoration
29:05 and it's because of Christ's love and because of his work on the cross and because of God's grace and mercy
29:16 because of his goodness that we can be like Nineveh and we can repent
29:23 that we can be like the sailors and and give sacrifices and vows to God
29:30 that we could maybe be like Jonah, a work in progress
29:36 but still used for God's mission.
29:42 Let's pray. Father Lord, you
29:49 you are a good God. We have we are bitter people, Lord. We we run from you.
29:55 We we have hard hearts. We avoid people.
30:02 But you pursue us. You come after us.
30:08 You give us your grace. Oh, what love.
30:16 Father, you are mindful of us.
30:24 Lord, help us. Help us see who you are and what you have done.
30:32 Help us experience your grace.
30:39 Lord, we so often are about our own glory.
30:46 But we are like grass and our glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls.
30:54 But your word lasts forever. Your steadfast love is forever.
31:03 And your mercies are never ending. They are new every morning.
31:10 And we give all glory to you.
31:16 Amen.
