Sometimes we are sad for no good reason or depressed and can’t logic our way out of it. Elijah is one of the coolest guys in the Bible who just happened to be a bit of a melancholy.

He is one of the most important people who ever lived but most of us don’t know much about him, we’re going to look at some of his story. Turn to 1st Kings 18. 1st Kings is one of the books in the Old Testament that talks about the kings of Israel. Elijah’s time was a particularly dark period, his job was to be God’s prophet and speak His Word to the people and especially to the king. In this case it was King Ahab, you might have heard of him, he was a very bad man but his wife is even more notorious than he is. Her name was Jezebel—The Jezebel, the original. Ahab was a turkey on his own but she pushed him to be probably the worst king Israel ever had. And that’s really saying something.

Half the kingdom had turned away from God and were worshiping a false god named Baal, who was Jezebel’s demonic god of choice. She had all the true prophets of God murdered except for Elijah, and not because she didn’t try but because God had kept him hidden from her.

There had been a drought for three years and things were desperate. Crops had died, livestock had died and people were starving. God told Elijah to come out of hiding and go to King Ahab and tell him “I will soon send rain.” This is the setting for our story.

1st Kings 18
Ahab went out to meet Elijah. When Ahab saw him, he exclaimed, “So, is it really you, the troublemaker of Israel?”
“I have made no trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “You and your family are the troublemakers, for you have refused to obey the commands of the Lord and have worshiped the images of Baal instead. Now summon all of Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel.”

So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent.
Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it. Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed.

It was a throwdown of the gods in a simple game of “which one knows how to light a fire and burn some meat.” The prophets of Baal went first. They cut up the bull, placed it on their altar and called out to their god from early morning until noon, but nothing happened. At Noon Elijah started making fun of them, “Maybe you have to shout louder! Maybe Baal is relieving himself or daydreaming, maybe you need to wake him up.” This taunting really got them going so they started dancing and chanting, they cut themselves with knives and swords until their blood was gushing out—You have to hand it to them, they were very committed, they really went for it. They continued to act like lunatics until evening came but nothing happened. Baal was a no show.

Then Elijah said, “Okay, out of my way boys. My turn.” He prepared the altar, cut up the bull and laid it out for sacrifice to God but he wanted to make sure there was no doubt about the power of the One True God. He dug a trench around the altar and told the skeptics to pour water all over the offering and wood. He had them do this three times until the water filled the trench and the whole thing was soaking wet. They couldn’t have set it on fire it they had tried.

Notice that he poured all this water on the altar during a drought. Water was scarce but he had them use a ton of it anyway.

This is what happens next:

At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”
Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!”
Then Elijah commanded, “Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don’t let a single one escape!” So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there.

To show that the LORD is the One True God and to bring the people back to serving Him alone, God answered Elijah’s prayer in a big way. He even burned up the dust and the water in the trench, leaving a steaming dry patch of ground. Imagine how the prophets of Baal felt, who I’m sure were true believers in their false religion up to that point. They are standing there with their big pile of wood and meat with flies all over it, not looking very impressive at all—feeling stupid. The people turned back to the LORD and Elijah had all the false prophets put out of their misery.

This was a good day for Elijah. Can you imagine being him? Can you imagine how vindicated, affirmed, and encouraging this must have been? Then like the end of a supernatural fantasy thriller, he prayed for rain, and after three years a mighty rainstorm soaked the land. The people turned to God and the drought was over. This would have been a great time for the credits to roll and for everyone to leave the theater. The difference between a happy ending and a tragedy is where you stop telling the story.

When Jezebel heard about all of her pet prophets being killed and about how Elijah had ridiculed her fanatical faith in Baal, she was furious. She vowed on her own life to kill him within the next day.

This is where our hero takes a strange turn. See, I would fully expect Elijah the prophet who has the courage to soak the sacrifice before asking God to set it on fire to just laugh in her face. “Kill me if you can, you, you… Jezebel!” Shouldn’t he just call fire from heaven to strike her dead in her pretty little sandals? But for some reason, and logic has nothing to do with it, Elijah was done, he was tired. It says that he became afraid and fled for his life. He went out into the wilderness alone and prayed that God would just kill him. He had had enough.

Maybe he thought, “If the King and Queen aren’t going to repent and believe after what just happened with the whole “fire from heaven” thing then they are never going to get it. What’s the point? I give up, Jezebel wins.” And he laid down and went to sleep, hoping to die before he wakes.

Proverbs 18 says, “The human spirit can endure a sick body,
but who can bear a crushed spirit?”

Have you seen the Shia LaBeouf motivational videos? We kind of expect God to get in Elijah’s face: “Just do it! Do it! If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up!” We expect God to call Elijah out for being a baby and a quitter but that’s not at all what happens.

God is always more kind and patient with us than we are to ourselves.

It says the Angel of the LORD came to him while he was sleeping and touched him on the arm. A lot of people think when the Bible speaks of the “Angel of the LORD” it is referring to a pre-Christmas Jesus, I think they are probably right. So, Jesus shows up, let’s him sleep a little longer while He makes breakfast, then gently wakes him up and offers him bread and water. It says Elijah wakes up ate and drank then went back to sleep. This happens again, He wakes him up feeds him and hangs out.

Elijah got depressed and wanted to be by himself and wallow in his sadness but God didn’t leave him alone. He met him where he was and comforted him. He didn’t say “Let me know if there’s something I can do for you.” He just showed up and brought food.

People used to know how to do that but many of us have forgotten. When your friends are sad go to them, make them food and sit with them. Don’t just ask because they will usually say they don’t want anything. They don’t know what they want, it’s part of being sad.

After the visit he must have felt a little better because he got up and went on a forty day walk. Kind of like Forrest Gump. “Momma always said you have to put the past behind you,” I think that might have been part of what he was doing. He walked a couple hundred miles toward Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, the same mountain where Moses met God and was given the Ten Commandments. This is always a good and healthy thing to do—go for a walk to clear your head, and go toward God. Seek first the Kingdom of God.

It takes a while but he finally gets there and spends the night in a cave. Once again God doesn’t leave him alone, He shows up and says to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah says this in response:

“I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

Elijah felt like he had been left alone. There was no one else following the LORD, and his people wanted to kill him. He had been a good prophet, he had done his job, he was brave, and no one listened. He had done everything God had asked of him and he felt like it didn’t make any difference. He had seen amazing things, done amazing things, and no one cared. They just wanted to kill him anyway.

You might think God would comfort him by saying how his ministry had accomplished good things, give some examples of people he had helped but God wanted to make His point using a multimedia presentation.

God told him to stand before him on the mountain. He sent a mighty windstorm to blast the mountain sending rocks flying and making a thunderous sound but Elijah noticed the LORD was not in the windstorm. After the wind God sent an earthquake that shook the mountain impressively—probably very frightening. After that He sent a fire. In all these mighty acts it says the LORD was not in them.

Elijah had seen these kinds of things before. He had been the prophet of God used to shock and awe people with giant displays of supernatural power. But God doesn’t speak to the heart of man in a thunderous voice of signs and wonders.

The LORD spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper. God asked him again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Elijah gave the same answer, he basically said, “I’ve done everything You asked me to do but no one cares. I’m the only one who is following You. I’m all alone and the people I am trying to help want me dead.”

God listened to Elijah, He fed him, He sat with him and then He spoke words of comfort.

First He assures him that he is wrong about being alone. God says there are 7,000 others who have not bowed to Baal, including a young man named Elisha. He sends Elijah on a mission to anoint a new king (which is music to his ears because it means Ahab and Jezebel are about to be dog meat) and to find Elisha and hire him as his assistant, to anoint him and train him to be his replacement.

These are all great words for Elijah. You are not alone, Your life’s work is important, I am not done with you, your enemies will be destroyed, and I’m going to give you a friend. You don’t have to do this by yourself.

Do you know what the most beautiful words in the English language are? They’re not “I love you” or “I want you,” they’re not even “Here’s that $500 bucks you loaned me.” The most beautiful words in the English language are “I’ll be there for you.” “I’ll be there for you.”

God gives Elijah a friend. Someone to walk with him. Someone to share the burden. The Bible records several times when Elijah tried to run away and be alone again but Elisha would not leave his side, no matter what he said. Eventually, after many more adventures the day finally comes when Elijah is going to hand his job over to his protege. He asks his friend if there is anything he can do for him before he is taken away. Elisha, who loves and respects his mentor asks for a double portion of his spirit if he is to follow in his footsteps. Here’s what Elijah says and what happens:

“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah replied. “If you see me when I am taken from you, then you will get your request. But if not, then you won’t.”
As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire. It drove between the two men, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father! My father! I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel!” And as they disappeared from sight, Elisha tore his clothes in distress.
Elisha picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan River. He struck the water with Elijah’s cloak and cried out, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Then the river divided, and Elisha went across.

They continued to search for Elijah with fifty men for three days. They had seen a lot of crazy things with Elijah and they thought God might have transmogrified him onto the top of a mountain somewhere, but they abandoned their search and realized he was gone. God had taken him.

There are only three people in the Bible that I am aware of who are taken directly to heaven. A man named Enoch, Elijah and Jesus. This is a very exclusive club.

The next time we see Elijah he will be repaying the kindness shown to him by the Angel of the LORD who had visited him when he was alone and sad. Elijah shows up, along with Moses to minister to a very weary Messiah on the Mount of Transfiguration. They showed up to encourage Jesus and the Father said, “This is my beloved son, listen to him.” kinda cool.

Sometimes we are like Elijah and our hearts are heavy and we just feel sad for no good reason. Sometimes it’s right after our greatest victories. Sometimes we feel like all the work we have done is just spinning our wheels and nothing matters. We don’t matter. We feel alone and tired.

“A crushed spirit who can bear?”

Everything is hard when our spirit is crushed.

You know what the most amazing thing about the story of Elijah is? That we know it. That the Word of God would tell us the truth about such a flawed hero. That He didn’t think He should spin the story so that Elijah comes off as a better person. That’s what we would do. We always use the spin machine to put our religious leaders in the best possible light. Or the worst possible light. I think it is a great testimony to the truthfulness of God’s Word that The Bible is full of real people who have the same struggles we have, it’s not full of ideal people and superheroes that we could never live up to. It’s like real life and sometimes it’s confusing and messy.

What can we learn from this story?

There are many things we can learn about God in a thousand different areas, that’s the amazing thing about God’s Holy inspired Word. Every passage speaks on a multitude of subjects and levels. I’m going to focus on what I think it says about dealing with a crushed spirit.

First, even the best of us are going to get depressed. Not many people can go toe to toe with Elijah, he was a great man. Remember that it doesn’t make you a bad person or a loser if you have seasons of your life when you feel sad. Don’t let people shame you for feeling melancholy. Sometimes you’ll have a reason and sometimes you won’t. It happens to the best of us.

Second, if you find yourself in a slump, cast down, with a crushed spirit—there are some simple things you need to do. You need to rest and you need to be around people who care for you. It might be time to take a lighter load at work for a while, take some time off. Take a sabbatical, take a vacation, rest.

Last year was a dark season for me, there came a point when I knew I was spent and needed to recharge. I took a two month sabbatical from the church I was working at and for part of that time I got away from everything. I stayed in a cabin in the desert, I read the Bible, prayed and took long walks. I also met with a pastor who specializes in helping ministers who have been damaged by the churches where they serve. He is a ninja and was very helpful to me. I’ll be happy to share his contact information with you if you need it, just send me an email.

You need to rest and you need to be around people who care for you. Don’t push people away. Don’t hide from the world, don’t crawl inside yourself. Eat good healthy food with other people, don’t self medicate with junk food. Drink plenty of water, don’t spend your days drowning your sorrows with your mood altering beverage of choice. I’m the last guy to say there’s anything wrong with having a beer to take the edge off but don’t try to live there. Don’t be filled with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Third, get moving. Take a walk, and while you’re walking seek Your Heavenly Father who loves you and is always more willing to listen than we are to speak. Get outside, look up at the sky, breathe in the air, feel the wind. Listen to the gentle whisper of The LORD.

Here are some of the comforting words He will say to you when you turn to Him and listen:

Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
If anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.
God loved the world so He gave his one and only Son, that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

We just have to lift our hearts up to the Lord.

God will answer our prayer by giving us rest. He will also send people to us to help us and be our friends. God will not leave us alone in our despair.

Here’s the other side of that. We need to be listening for our assignments. We need to be ready and willing to be there for the people God is sending us to. There are going to be days when you are sad and God will send one of His angels to minister to you. To touch you on the arm, feed you, and sit with you until you are ready to get back up. There are going to be other days when you are the angel He will send to someone else.

When it comes to answering our prayers, God’s “Plan A” is to work through people. Growing in our faith mostly boils down to us learning to listen for our assignments and following through on them.

When God puts someone on your heart, pray for them. If you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about a friend, pray for them. Then when you get up in the morning, call them. Invite them to lunch. Go to their house. Take them food. Just sit with them and do nothing. Be there for them. Listen to them. Don’t judge them, criticize them, or give them advice and try to fix them. When we are sad we mostly just need to be understood. Most of the time if someone wants advice they’ll ask for it. Don’t play “that ain’t nothin’”—you know, when they tell you what’s bothering them and you say, “That ain’t nothin’, let me tell you about when something like that happened to me.”

It’s not easy because if you’re honest, everything everyone has ever said reminds me of something about me.

I look around the world we live in and it’s so strange. Everything is amazing and yet everyone seems so apathetic. We all have riches that the ancient kings couldn’t even dream of, comforts they couldn’t imagine. Solomon in all his glory never felt air conditioning or tasted ice cream. Yet over 250 million people are on some form of antidepressant medicine in the United States alone.

The world we live in says “if you’re sad there is something wrong with you—take a pill.” Religious people tend to say “if you’re sad you are doing something wrong—you need more faith, you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop sinning, remember the joy of the Lord.”

God didn’t give Elijah advice and He certainly didn’t give him a prescription of Zoloft. Jesus is known as a “man of sorrows” who wept for the people He loves. He came to make everything new, to give us new hearts, and to wipe away every tear. We believe God came into our world to meet us, feed us, be with us and give His life for us. No other religion has this view of God.

God invites us to pour our hearts out to Him. Our sadness, anger, confusion, to take our messiness and spew it out to Him. To truly lift our hearts up to the LORD. We don’t have to hide from Him.

When we don’t feel loved. When we wonder if we matter. When we feel alone. Jesus wants us to know that He is with us, we have the love, approval and acceptance of the One who knows us the best, the One who made us. Jesus is the gentle whisper of God, the Word of God, in human form.

We will feel alone but we will never be alone. In the world we will have trouble but He has overcome the world. We will feel the pressure of work that is before us but Jesus wants to remind us of the cross. Everything that can crush us He took upon Himself and He declared once and for all, “It is finished.” AMEN

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I like the strange stories in the Bible, the ones that don’t seem to make sense when you first look at them. For example, God tells Moses to go to Egypt and talk to Pharaoh but on the way his wife has to perform an impromptu circumcision on their son in the middle of the night, she did this because God was going to kill Moses.

That seems crazy to me. Why was God going to kill His own messenger? Why was that confusing detail included in the story? I think the simple answer is because it’s true.
A couple years ago I told a friend that Judges is one of my favorite books in the Bible because of how weird it is. A few days later he called me and said, “I don’t get it, I’ve been reading through Judges and it’s just confusing and depressing. It’s a bunch of selfish, rebellious people who do evil in the sight of the LORD. It doesn’t make sense, how is reading Judges supposed to help me?”

I said that’s exactly what I love about it. A bunch of selfish, rebellious, horrible people—and it’s hard to find God in the story at all most of the time—which sounds like real life to me. That’s the world we live in. It’s not easy to make sense out of the things that happen in life.

A lot of the books in the Bible barely mention God and are filled with horrible people doing terrible things.

God’s Word isn’t what most people think it is. Most people think it’s something like Aesop’s Tales, a collection of stories with good moral values. Clearly defined good guys and bad guys with obvious lessons of virtue at the end. Here’s the truth, it’s hard to find a good role model in the Bible. Most of the people it tells us about are a lot like us.

There is one obvious exception. Jesus is our ultimate example of how to live our life worshiping God and loving people but even with Jesus we are given some strange details in the story now and then.

Are you ever so hungry that you become a bit of a grouch? In Mark chapter 11 we are told about a hangry Jesus who couldn’t find a Snickers bar so He got mad and killed a tree. This is a really hard verse for tree hugging hippy environmentalist types. Listen to this, Mark chapter 11:

The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. Then Jesus cursed the tree saying, “May no one ever eat your fruit again!” And the disciples heard him say it.

So, it sucks to be that tree. It even says it wasn’t the season for figs! What the heck? Why would He get mad at a tree for not having fruit when it wasn’t even the season for fruit? Why would He get mad at a tree?

Here’s another one that people have trouble with, it’s in the same chapter:

When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

How does this fit with the standard picture of Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild? Or maybe you have heard this story so many times it doesn’t seem shocking anymore. If that’s the case then listen to how people responded to what He did at the time:

When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so amazed at his teaching.

I have to imagine them rolling their eyes and using sarcastic quotes when they say “so amazed at His teaching.” They must have thought the general population were a bunch of simpletons, easily amused by a snake charmer. These were the most famous teachers and leaders in the nation, and this made them mad enough at Jesus to want to kill Him. That’s pretty mad. These were people who were not usually in the business of murder, they were Bible teachers not thugs—normally they were good citizens. He really got under their skin.

See, their usual way of teaching was to read a Bible passage and have long conversations about all the potential things it could mean. To the general population it probably sounded like “come let us reason together Blah blah I’m so smart blah blah blah.” Then Jesus comes along and all His teaching is hidden in riddles and simple stories. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who bought a field. The kingdom of Heaven is like people sitting in lawn chairs on plastic grass.” Huh? Sometimes He explained what He meant to the disciples when they were alone and sometimes they were just left scratching their heads along with everyone else.

The cursing of the fig tree was one of these parables and I think the point might not have been so obvious to them. After Jesus cleared the temple they left the city and passed by the same tree the next morning, listen to this:

The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots up. Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree you cursed has withered and died!”
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”

See, they were amazed that He could speak to a tree and it would wither. “Move a mountain” was a figure of speech for them just like it is for us. It means “to do the impossible,” so Jesus is telling them that if they have belief, seemingly impossible things are possible with God. He warns them that having doubt in their heart and holding a grudge can get in the way of moving mountains, doing impossible things, like forgiving sins—or cursing a fig tree.

But I don’t think He explained the parable of the fig tree to them in this passage. I think it’s connected to what He did in the temple courtyard.

The temple was built in Jerusalem to be the central place for worship. It was enormous and beautiful, people traveled from all over to see it. The Jews had to travel to the temple to make sacrifices, offerings, pay their tithes and attend feasts. The Temple was the center of their spiritual life, and they prayed facing in its direction no matter where they were. It’s where they understood the very presence of God on earth to be manifest.

God’s design instructions for the Temple included various layers of access depending on who you were. Only the High Priest could go inside the Holy of Holies at the center of the Temple and only once a year. Priests were allowed access to the area surrounding the Holy of Holies and performed sacrifices on various altars. There was the priest’s court, the men’s court, the women’s court, and an area by the South Gate called the Court of Gentiles. This was an area for people from all nations to come and pray to the One True God. He made it clear that all people should be welcome in His house.

The Temple was in Jerusalem, the Holy City, and when God’s people traveled to pay their tithes and give their offerings they would usually convert their crops to money. It was much easier to carry coins than to haul a tenth of their crop or livestock across the country. When they arrived at the Temple they would buy whatever animals or grains they needed to make sacrifices for worship. The Temple tax had to be paid with Jewish coins, so they would exchange their Roman money for shekels. The people who ran this currency exchange were called the money changers. It was all a religiously enforced extortion ring and tourist trap.

Now, where do you think this little marketplace was set up at the Temple?

Here’s a hint: the religious leaders didn’t see why all those dirty gentiles needed an official court to pray to the Jewish God. They had a much better idea for how to make use of the space.

So, Jesus walks into the Court of Gentiles and kicks out everyone who wasn’t praying—everyone who was there for the wrong reason.

Israel never seemed to understand their role as a priest nation. They were supposed to be the example of what it looks like to worship God so that all the other nations would see how to do it. It wasn’t supposed to be an exclusive club. Other nations were supposed to see them worship God and believe in Him. They were supposed to bear fruit.

Jesus sees a fig tree in full bloom but bearing no fruit, He curses it and says “no one will ever eat of your fruit again.”

That same day Jesus drives out the money changers and a week later He becomes the final sacrifice, the curtain in the Temple is torn from top to bottom, there will no longer be fruit from any of the sacrifices at the temple again. No burnt offerings of devotion, no grain offerings of thanksgiving, no fellowship offering and meal, no sin offering for the forgiveness of sins, no guilt offering for atonement and restitution. No true worship will ever be the fruit of this Temple again. In a few years the Romans will completely destroy it.

I’ve often wondered why people are not more amazed by this. There has not been “Old Testament Temple Sacrifice and worship” since the generation when Jesus said “It is finished.” We believe when Jesus died on the cross it put an end to all that.

There have been attempts to rebuild the Temple and re-institute the sacrificial system but all of them failed. There are stories of miraculous events shutting down the people and the armies who tried. Many have understood that it would go a long way toward challenging the true claims of the Gospel if an Old Testament Temple was active in Jerusalem. Like I said, I’ve wondered why people aren’t more amazed at this.

It’s also interesting to me that since the year 691 there has been an Islamic shrine sitting in the place of Solomon’s Temple, making it impossible for anyone to even attempt to rebuild. And it’s not like it’s a Christian church sitting there, keeping the Jews out, protecting the claims of Jesus.

Anyway, I find all of that to be faith building. Jesus was the final sacrifice.

Here’s the big idea I want us to think about tonight: God’s purpose is for us to bear fruit not just to grow.

The fig tree had grown just fine, it had full leaves, it looked healthy but it didn’t bear fruit so Jesus cursed it to die. It wouldn’t be a blessing to have an entire field of giant, leafy fig trees that did not have any figs.

In the same way, the Temple was beautiful. It was huge. But the Sadducees, who were the religious leaders that controlled it, no longer believed in the supernatural power of God, they did not believe in resurrection or life after death. They were a Jewish culture club. They saw absolutely no reason to be a witness to non-Jewish unbelievers. They would have said the stinking gentiles could go to hell except they didn’t believe in hell. They didn’t believe in heaven either.

They had grown big and powerful but it was not a blessing to have more elaborate, well attended, faithless sacrifices.

We’re very excited about NewChurch and we want to see it grow. Do you see where I’m going with this?

When a seed is planted it has to grow or it will die. Once it is fully grown the purpose is to bear fruit, not to keep growing.

There is so much talk about church growth. How to grow your congregation, get bigger, more people, bigger and bigger is better.

We’re just a little church seed planted in the astro turf right now. We obviously need to grow or we are not a healthy church, but God won’t be more pleased with 400 people showing up instead of only 60 if we are not bearing fruit. There’s no point in becoming a big growing congregation that produces none of what God actually planted us for. Growth for growth’s sake is more like cancer than the Gospel.

As individual followers of Jesus we want to grow in our faith but not so we can have great big extra layers of faith making our pants too tight and hanging over the top of our “Jesus Fish” belt buckles. We want to grow in our faith so we can produce fruits of the Spirit. The Fruits of the Spirit are Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, sexual purity.

As individuals, If we spend an hour a day reading our Bible and then another hour praying, and we show up to every worship service but we don’t love people, if we don’t experience joy and peace, if we have no patience with people, if we are unkind to difficult people. If we have no interest in goodness—things that are good, pure, true, right and holy—if we are just selfish and greedy, unreliable and rude, vain and narcissistic with no self-control over our appetites or sexual desires then we’re just a big stupid tree bearing no fruit. We’re not only missing the mark, we’re also missing the point.

As a congregation, If we establish a new church with big ideas, a great band, cool graphics, an engaging message, and have 400 people sitting in comfortable chairs but God is not glorified, His Word is not preached, His forgiveness, grace and love are not shared with the people who need it. If people aren’t led to follow Jesus, and no one’s baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit then we are not bearing fruit as a church.

I’m excited about NewChurch and I’m so thankful you’re all here. It’s obvious that God’s pouring out His blessing on what we are doing. I believe God has called us to do what we are doing. I love our Saturday night gatherings, they have been an incredible source of joy for me and my family. I know it has been the same for a lot of you. It’s been fun so far.

Very soon we’ll move into the next phase of this ministry. We’ll have lights, a stage, and a backdrop to make it look like church in here. We’ll get some speakers and sound equipment so everything sounds really good, and we’ll get some screens so we can read the lyrics together and show videos when we want to. We’ll get some comfortable chairs and invite the community to come sit in them and join us, and I think a lot of them will and we will grow. Unless a seed grows it will wither and blow away or be eaten by birds. We have to grow.

But the point of what we are doing is not to grow, that’s just a necessary step in order to accomplish the actual goal: which is to bear fruit.

What does it look like if we are bearing fruit?
It looks like a church where people are finding out about Jesus and following Him. A church focused on Jesus, not our brand. When we talk about NewChurch we want people to hear us saying “come and see Jesus,” we want to be a church that is so excited about what God is doing here that we can’t contain it. A church where we look forward to seeing each other when we come together to worship. A place where all of us are friends, our children are friends, and we share life together outside these walls, too. A place where we lift up our hearts in prayer and our voice in singing: We thank God and give Him glory for who He is and what He has done and for the new life He has given us. A place where we hear the Word of the Lord and it cuts us to the bone, we’re challenged to repent and believe. We hear the Word of the Lord and it is healing medicine for our soul, we are refreshed and comforted by the promise of grace. A place where we are washed clean, baptized and forgiven, a place where we eat and drink salvation. We serve each other, we will be there for each other. We pray for each other, visit each other, and hold on to each other to keep any of us from falling. A place where no one is an outsider, we want to invite everyone and anyone into our community.

Why are we here? Why do we go to church? I think most of us probably started going for one reason but kept going for another, or a bunch of other reasons.

When I was fourteen I started believing in God and I started going to church because I wanted to get to know Him. I wanted to be around other people who believed, other people who knew Him. I kept going because I made friends with people there, I looked forward to seeing my friends at church and if I didn’t show up I would be missed.

Maybe you started going to church because your parents took you and you didn’t have a choice. Maybe you still go now and then out of a sense of obligation or guilt. Maybe you think going to church is just part of a well balanced, wholesome, all American way of life. Maybe you started going to church again once you got married or had kids. Maybe you show up for them, a way to keep peace in your relationship, keep from rocking the boat. Lots of things get us in the door—obligation, hard times, sickness, tragedy—churches across the nation were full of people after 911. These might be the reasons you started going but they’re not why you kept going. You kept going for your own reasons.

Jesus went to the fig tree because He was hungry and He liked figs.

My hope is for NewChurch to grow from the little seed we have planted into a strong, healthy church that worships God and loves people. A place where people come to learn more about the LORD. A place to rest in Him, to abide in Him, to remain in Him. Listen to these words from John chapter 15 about Jesus:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean (you already belong here, are forgiven and redeemed, and are part of Jesus, the body of Christ) because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

Growth isn’t the point. Bearing fruit is the point, and we can only bear fruit if we abide in Jesus.

I like the weird stories in the Bible, the stories with strange details that don’t seem to make sense. I like how God went out of His way to show us we don’t have to be perfect to follow Him or do what He is calling us to do. He didn’t call a bunch of super holy, impressive people with flawless pedigrees and impeccable track records to start this new church—He called us. We are the ones who are here to roll up our sleeves and do His work, to worship God and love the people He sends us. We just have to show up with willing hearts, make sure the house of prayer is open for everyone, Jesus will do the impossible part if we abide in Him and His words remain in us, whatever we ask will be given to us. This is to our Father’s glory, that we bear much fruit, showing ourselves to be His disciples.

AMEN

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It’s a simple concept to grasp: we grow stronger when we have to work at something. I have calluses on my fingertips because I am constantly mashing them against steel guitar strings. If I want strong arms I can make myself lift iron weights until my arms are in pain, let the muscles heal and do it again, if I repeat this often enough I will have strong arms. We all know this.

My grandma was a small woman who never weighed more than 90 pounds in her life but to heat her home and to cook she had to carry buckets of coal from the shed every day. When I was a child I asked her to show me her muscles and when she fired up her granny guns, it looked like two rock hard oranges had been shoved under flappy old lady skin. I’ve never seen anything else like it.

It was not fun carrying the buckets of coal, it was not pleasant but it made her strong.

We all know the saying, “Whatever doesn’t kill us only weakens us unto our ultimate demise.” No, wait, that’s not quite it. “Whatever doesn’t kill us, makes us mad?” “That which does not kill us…” I’ll look it up and get back with you later.

I’m talking about how our families shape us into who we are, whether we like it or not.

Have you heard of peopleofwalmart.com? It’s a website that exhibits a gallery of photos taken of the most remarkable Walmart shoppers. These are photos of people without shame roaming the aisles searching for the very least of the least common denominator. You will see things that cannot be unseen. Grown men, full-on mullet, permed in the back, morbidly obese, wearing a ballerina tutu, a hunting knife and a wife beater. Perhaps he is accompanied by a mountain of a woman sweating gravy, wearing yoga pants and a bikini top, she has clearly drawn her own eyebrows with black eyeliner but she didn’t quite understand where they were supposed to go because she looks perpetually surprised. They are followed by a child wearing only a sagging diaper, thick yellow goo running directly from nose to mouth. There might be a teenage daughter with her overly painted face locked on her cell phone, she looks like she might be talking to her pimp. Their cart is filled with snack cakes, generic soda, cheap beer and more yoga pants. I can’t look away.

I’m not telling you about these people because I think I’m better than they are. I don’t cringe when I see them because they are from a world that is so far removed from my own. In some ways these are my people. When the little boy with the sagging diaper grows up he might shave his head and stand in front of a congregation and talk about the challenges of growing up in his particular family.

We all have families and not one of them is normal. I grew up in a couple of small towns in Central Illinois and driving down the streets looking at the small white houses you might think the most normal people lived inside with their boring little cozy lives—but that was never the case. Inside each home was a unique family with their own private version of dysfunctional crazy broken soap operas. Every one. And every single one of them wishes they had a normal life like other people. I’m convinced there are no normal people. There are only people like us, people who have been warped in particular ways by family members who were supposed to love us. We all have stories we could tell.

In II Samuel there is a perfect example of this. Israel’s first king was a man named Saul. He was a handsome fellow, a head taller than most men, he was a mighty warrior and he was the anointed king. How can it get any better than that? To anyone looking from the outside he had it all.

The problem was that he was also crazy. Saul was completely obsessed with his son Jonathan’s best friend who was named David. David was also a tall handsome young man, and a mighty warrior. He was also a musician and a chick magnet. Saul had everything but the only thing he could think about was destroying David because of his jealousy.

This is the same David who slew Goliath, wrote most of the Psalms and would later become king.

Things didn’t go so well for crazy king Saul and one very dark day three of his sons, including Jonathan were killed in battle, and Saul took his own life in despair by falling on his sword. David became king and the rest of Saul’s family died one by one, except for one young boy. That young boy is the focus of our attention tonight.

2 Samuel 4:4
(Saul’s son Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth, who was crippled as a child. He was five years old when the report came from Jezreel that Saul and Jonathan had been killed in battle. When the child’s nurse heard the news, she picked him up and fled. But as she hurried away, she dropped him, and he became crippled.)

Five-year-old Mephibosheth was paralyzed for life. For the next twenty years he lived off the grid, fearing the new king would certainly put him to death if he knew about him. Kings did not usually tolerate anyone who might have a claim to their throne.

Things went well for King David and one day he thought of his childhood friend Jonathan.

2 Samuel Chapter 9:
One day David asked, “Is anyone in Saul’s family still alive—anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” He summoned a man named Ziba, who had been one of Saul’s servants. “Are you Ziba?” the king asked.
“Yes sir, I am,” Ziba replied.
The king then asked him, “Is anyone still alive from Saul’s family? If so, I want to show God’s kindness to them.”
Ziba replied, “Yes, one of Jonathan’s sons is still alive but he is crippled in both feet.”
“Where is he?” the king asked.
“In Lo-debar,” Ziba told him, “at the home of Makir son of Ammiel.”
So David sent for him and brought him from Makir’s home. His name was Mephibosheth; he was Jonathan’s son and Saul’s grandson.

Mephibosheth had been living in a trailer house somewhere in Boonies county. I can’t prove Makir would take him to Walmart to hide Sudafed and lithium batteries in his wheelchair pockets but do you really think it’s a coincidence that his name sounds so much like Meth Chef?

So, a special task force of the king’s men show up, knock down the aluminum door, and take Mephibosheth by force to stand in front of the king. Except he can’t stand. He had to be carried and he must have been scared of what this was all about. He never really knew his father and he had spent his whole life trying to avoid this moment. Let’s see what happens next:

When he came to David, he bowed low to the ground in deep respect. David said, “Greetings, Mephibosheth.”
Mephibosheth replied, “I am your servant.”
“Don’t be afraid!” David said. “I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king’s table!”

Say what? The most powerful, respected man in the nation, the king of Israel was treating him like royalty. Like a long lost friend. Like the prodigal son. He was having a hard time believing his ears.

Mephibosheth bowed respectfully and exclaimed, “Who is your servant, that you should show such kindness to a dead dog like me?”

It doesn’t record David’s response to this. It had to break his heart that the son of his close friend saw himself as a dead dog. That wasn’t how David saw him.

And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly at David’s table, like one of the king’s own sons.

This is beautiful. From that time on Mephibosheth was treated as part of the royal family. His story is our story. Our family dysfunction leaves us feeling ashamed of who we are but God offers us a seat at His table. He treats us as His own sons and daughters.

When I was writing this message I kept thinking, “But Frank not everyone has a freaky white trash bloodline, some people aren’t going to relate to this message at all—the normal people are just going to judge you.”

It’s different for all of us. We might not have a nanny who dropped us on our head and made us a paraplegic but I’ll bet we all have ways our families have crushed us.

Maybe in different ways, maybe less obvious ways. Maybe you hear the critical voice of your mother or your father second guessing everything you do—and maybe you find yourself either being overly critical or overly passive of others. Maybe an uncle or cousin did something to you that left you carrying a lot of shame, things you don’t want to think about let alone talk about. Maybe there was abuse, violence, alcoholism, addiction. Maybe dangerous people who left scars on your body or your soul. Or maybe it was less dramatic, maybe you grew up with people who never talked about their feelings or issues and now you find it really hard to get close to anyone—conflict of any kind shuts you down. Most of us either repeat the patterns of our families or react against them and overcorrect by going the other way. For every person there are a thousand different ways our families have been used to hurt us to harm us.

Obviously I’m not trying to say that every family is an evil soul crushing machine. Most of us love our children and are thankful for our families. Most of us.

Mephibosheth probably knew that his family had once been kings. How do you think he felt about that? I doubt if it gave him any comfort or pride. His dysfunctional grandfather got his father killed and ruined his life. He probably saw himself as a victim of it all, focused on everything he had lost. He was probably sad and bitter. He is the very image of a broken young man.

But God uses the dysfunction of our families to shape us into who He wants us to be. I’ve always thought it was funny how many new parents believe these two things: First, they want their kids to grow up and be like them with their values, principles and morals. But second, they don’t want to raise their kids making the same mistakes their parents made with them. They want to end up in the same place but they are dead set against going the same route. I want my kids to be like me but not raised the same way I was.

It’s in our families that we learn how to be around other human beings. We don’t get to choose our family, we just get what we get. We can be picky about who are friends are, who we go out to dinner with, or who we invite into our private lives, but our mother is always going to be our mother, our father is going to be our father, and year after year we will find ourselves sitting around the table trying to show grace to our brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles. Most likely no one can get under our skin faster than the people around that table. The family table. That table is where we learn to either show grace and forgiveness or not. We learn to talk things out or crawl inside ourselves and hold grudges. We learn to show kindness, patience and gentleness or we practice anger and hostility.

Who is the most difficult person in your family? Maybe everyone has to walk on eggshells around them, maybe they are rude, or controlling with passive aggressive manipulation. Maybe the most difficult person at your family table—if you were to be honest—is you.

Grace is never easy. It’s not easy to offer to others and it’s not easy to accept for ourselves. It’s not easy to forgive the people who have hurt us, and it’s far too easy to wallow in our pain and shame feeling like a victim, being mad at the world, mad at our situation, maybe even mad at God.

Listen to these words from 2 Corinthians 4:16-17:

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison

God uses our families to force us to grow. He is making us holy, sanctifying us to become the person He created us to be. The best version of our self. He is making something beautiful out of our pain.

In this story we are all Mephibosheth and the King has invited us to His table.

Don’t lose heart, don’t be afraid, He didn’t call us here to harm us. He’s invited us to join His family. Maybe you feel like you don’t belong here but look around, everyone feels that way. We are all scared crippled children. None of us got here by our own power, we all had to be carried. None of us has done anything to deserve the feast that is set before us, none of us could afford it on our own. There’s not one of us that has a clue about how to act now that we’re here, we all have our elbows on the table, we chew with our mouths open, we argue with the other kids around the table and we wipe the gravy on our sleeves. Even so, the King smiles at us, He knew what He was doing when He invited us to dine with Him.

Forget about not belonging here. Let go of your anger. Let go of your sadness. Let go of your shame.

God loves us. In time He’ll teach us how to sit at the table and show each other the same grace He’s shown us. There’s plenty of time for that, but for now let’s be thankful there is plenty of wine and bread for all of us.

You have not been left alone to rot in your family shame. All of our families have crushed us in one way or another but we can take heart in the fact that God will redeem our suffering. We are being renewed day by day and the troubles of this world are to be seen as “light momentary afflictions” preparing for us an eternity that is glorious beyond all comparison.

Whatever doesn’t kill us will be used by God to make us more like Jesus. In fact, He will use it to kill the old us and raise us to new life in Christ. He will carry us to His table and one day we will be able to walk again. Can we begin to show a little grace to each other, and can we begin to accept the grace and forgiveness that has been offered to us. May we learn to be thankful to have a seat at this table. AMEN

This is the third week of our Jonah teaching series. If you have missed any of the other weeks then I encourage you to listen to the podcast and get caught up. They include both Kemper’s part and my part. In fact, there have been about a thousand downloads of the NewChurch messages so far. You can catch up on any of the weeks that you might have missed. It’s a great way to put your smartphone to work redeeming the time you’re stuck in traffic.

Here’s a quick recap: Jonah was an Old Testament prophet, God told him to go to Nineveh and tell them to repent. He didn’t want to, so he got on a ship and headed in the other direction. God sent a storm. Jonah was swallowed by a sea monster, which gave him a change of perspective. He is vomited onto the beach and that’s where we find him this week. He’s going to have a second chance to do what God told him to do in the first place.

Jonah Chapter 3 verse one:
Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you. This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh.”

Jonah repented. What does repentance look like?

To “repent” means to “turn around.” It’s like when you are using a GPS and take a wrong turn. Recalculating route. For a while it usually just tells you to turn around, make a U-Turn. If you don’t turn around, eventually you will get so far off track that it will take a different route altogether. I think that’s kinda how it is with God, too. We start following Jesus and we’re like a little kid, “Where’re we going? When are we going to get there? Are we there yet?”

I always told my kids the same thing when they asked that. I said, “We’ll never be there. We’ll always be here.” Of course that didn’t help at all. They just figured out different ways to ask the same question.

We always want God to tell us exactly what the plan is but He is stubbornly vague. I think God leads us more like a GPS than a Rand McNally folded map. He only tells us the next turn and He won’t even do that unless we keep moving.

So Jonah got his solar powered Garmen Tom Tom hooked up to his camel and set a course for Nineveh, 500 miles in the exact direction he did not want to go. His internal monologue was probably something like, “Oh goody. Let’s bake in the sun for a month or so, just so we can stand in the public square of the Nazi terrorist capital city and tell them all about how God is going to destroy them if they don’t stop being mean to everybody. Sounds like fun, I’m sure it will go over really well. I wonder if they will impale me on a spike right away or just knock me in the head and let their dogs lick up my blood? It doesn’t say he whined and moaned the whole way there but there’s a pretty good chance he did. They were probably out of air conditioned camels by the time he got to Budget Rentals in Joppa. It was a suckfest no matter how you look at it. The trip probably didn’t put him in a better mood.

Grumpy or not, the mission hadn’t changed. He still didn’t want to go but he was going to surrender to what God wanted. He had been shown grace, and obedience looked different now. He was a little less selfish. Going to Nineveh wasn’t on Jonah’s bucket list but life isn’t about a bucket list, it’s not about our big self indulgent plans.

Look at it this way, before we were following Jesus, when we were dead in our sin, selfish as hell, wandering around wherever our hunger drove us—like extras on the Walking Dead—we thought it was all about us. Our plans, our dreams, our desires, whatever we thought we wanted, whatever we thought was good for us. The things we want are seldom good for us. The irony is that being self focused is actually self destructive.

In the second chapter of Ephesians it says,

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our sin—it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by our works. For we are God’s handiwork (His masterpiece), created in Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

God gives us faith, He opens our eyes, opens our ears, makes us alive, and invites us to walk with Him. As we go, we find there are things He has prepared for us to do. This is where we will actually find freedom. It’s when we focus on God’s plans, and the work He’s called us to do that we will find a purpose that will resonate with us. When we repent of our selfish ambitions and embrace His plans, His dreams and His desires, surrendering whatever we thought we wanted for the much more satisfying and meaningful bucket list He has in mind for us. That’s where the abundant life begins.

We think we want to do things our way but our way destroys our relationships, squanders our money, wrecks our family, and wastes our career. We either surrender all these things to God or He will work through circumstances to discipline us toward HIS way—getting us back on track. Recalculating route. The mission is always the same, we’re supposed to worship God, and love people. Life makes more sense when we don’t make it all about ourselves.

So after a month in the desert, Jonah pulled into town, got off his camel and gave the most effective evangelistic message the world has ever known. At the end of his sermon somewhere around 200 thousand Ninevites repented and believed. If you look at numbers alone, it was more effective than any tent revival, more than the apostles in the Book of Acts, even more than Jesus Himself preaching the Good News.

But no one studies Jonah for preaching tips. Here was his epic message, all eight words, ““Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” That was it. No funny stories, no sermon illustrations, no three points of alliteration to make it memorable. Just, ““Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” He was kind of like a cartoon homeless guy holding a sign saying “The End is Near!”

And it worked. In spite of the most “phoned in” message the world has ever known. In spite of him not wanting it to work. In the face of every possible reason why it shouldn’t have worked, “The people of Nineveh believed God’s message.”

They didn’t impale him. They didn’t threaten him. They just believed him. They “turned from their evil ways and stopped all their violence.” They even made their animals fast from eating and drinking and put sackcloth on them. They didn’t want to take any chances, they were hoping God would show them mercy if they repented. God heard them and gave them grace, just like He gave grace to Jonah. Next week we’ll find out how Jonah feels about how effective his preaching ministry had been. Spoiler alert: He is not pleased with the results.

Here’s a couple things I want us to think about:
First, our motives don’t have to be pure to do God’s mission. Obedience is enough. You might not feel like having that awkward conversation about Jesus, or inviting someone to join our NewChurch launch team, or calling out a close friend to repentance when they are in sin. You might not think they’ll listen to you, or that it will do any good at all but the results are not our job, our part is just to surrender and do it anyway. It’s not our responsibility to make it effective.

If God gives you a mission He will also provide the power to make the mission work. We dig up the ground, plant the seeds, and pull the weeds, but we can’t do anything about making it rain or bringing the seeds to life and causing them to grow. That’s God’s part. Our job is to go and to say the words, it’s His job to make faith in the heart of the hearer. He is the One who gives life.

Jonah’s message was lame but God used it to call hundreds of thousands of people to faith and repentance. When we speak God’s Word to people, even when we are reluctant and poorly paraphrase what it really says, even if we’re not feeling it in the moment—He will also use us to call people to faith and repentance.

The next time you are afraid to speak up and tell someone something—maybe you feel the Holy Spirit gently nudging you, or maybe not so gently—remember Jonah. He didn’t want to, he did a poor job, and God made it work anyway. He became the world’s greatest evangelist.

This is good news because it means it’s not up to us. Whether NewChurch grows into something beautiful and amazing or not is up to God. Our job is to show up and be faithful, speak to people and invite them to join us following Jesus. It’s not our job to convince anyone, we can trust God to bring the mission alive in their hearts just like He has done in ours.

May God give us boldness. May He use us to call people to faith and repentance. May we be faithful in what He has called us to do, and may we take it to heart with great comfort that none of this is about us or up to us. AMEN