The Holding Pattern

The title today, The Holding Pattern. The Holding Pattern. The subtitle is, The Jonah Syndrome. The Jonah Syndrome. About 30 minutes before our scheduled landing at LAX, we were told that the airport was blanketed with fog. We'd be placed in a holding pattern. Our landing and lives were placed in the hands of air traffic control. At times like this, you might be reminded of the bumper stickers that read, God is my co-pilot. And you sure hope that is the case. We were to circle the airport for an indeterminate period of time, hoping that the fog would lift. It's possible to circle the airport for hours if you have enough fuel.

Over an hour passed, long and frustrating, all kinds of negative thoughts flying out of your mind. Your life flashes before you. You can do a lot of soul-searching in an hour. Still have time left over. Finally, we were directed to San Diego. So we have the question today, are you in a holding pattern in your life? And are you a victim of the Jonah Syndrome? You can be in a holding pattern, not even be aware of it.

In fact, in flying in a dense fog at night, you probably wouldn't even know it unless you were told. I surely didn't know it until they came on the speaker and said we're in a holding pattern. To be in a holding pattern can lead to apathy, it can lead to a lack of zeal, and a lack of total surrender to God.

There just always seems to be one more obstacle in your life that needs to be cleared before you can make that definite commitment to land. But I believe the principal reason we remain in a holding pattern is that we want to make sure, absolutely sure that the landing strip is absolutely clear. We play the game of one of these days, one of these days, but the runway never seems to clear up too much traffic. We're too busy, but we're so tired. Every person that I meet basically today, young and old, says, I am so tired.

I feel like I've been on the treadmill all of my life. One of these days, things are going to get better. And I guess that's one of the ways that we cope in our minds. One of these days, I'm really going to be committed to my calling. One of these days, I'm going to love my wife as Christ loved the church. I'm going to spend more time with the family. I'm going to communicate more.

One of these days, if the runway ever gets clear, one of these days, I'm not going to be so uptight. I'm going to relax. I'm going to study and pray. I'm going to be filled with joy, enthusiasm, excitement, and zeal. It reminds me of the Merle Haggard song that my grandchildren and I used to sing at the barn dances at the college, titled, Rainbow Stew. When the worldwide wars are over and the sun comes shining through, we'll all be drinking that free bubble up and eating that rainbow stew.

Eating rainbow stew with a silver spoon underneath that sky of blue. We'll all be drinking that free bubble up and eating that rainbow stew. But somehow, the rainbow stew seems to be always out there. Sometimes, the runway is filled with low clouds. Their traffic controller can usually handle this and guide you through. They can instruct the pilot to set his instruments and land. Sometimes, the runway is covered with a dense fog.

Then, the air traffic controllers are almost forced to put you into a holding pattern or direct you to another airport. Sometimes, there's a violent crosswind that might trip you over. So, we asked the question today, who is really your air traffic controller? Are you directed by self-will or are you directed by God's will? What is preventing you from landing? Are you lacking in conviction, commitment, courage? In the landing of a large aircraft, a definite commitment has to be made. The plane begins to sink about 20 minutes before you land. Eventually, the landing gear goes down and it seems like the whole plane is shaking at times and the bottom is falling out.

The plane goes into almost a nosedive. The nose is down and after a certain commitment, it's almost impossible to pull it back up. Under the best of circumstances, a definite commitment to land has to be made before you can land. Have you made that unconditional commitment to trust God to land and do the work of God?

We can all ask ourselves that question. Or are you in a frustrating holding pattern? Is that holding pattern your doing or is it God's doing? I don't believe God places us in holding patterns that often, and occasionally he might. Do you insist on being your own air traffic controller? And are you a victim of the Jonah Syndrome? Jonah placed himself in a holding pattern and he tried to run away from God. Jonah tried to flee from air traffic control. Let's go to Jonah chapter 1. We're going to look at Jonah from this perspective today. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah.

Of course, I'm going to obidiah stuck in there between. In Jonah 1 verse 1, Now the word of the Eternal came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh. Arise and go to Nineveh. Nineveh was one of the great cities of the ancient world. There was a great wall that went all the way around Nineveh. It is said that wall was wide enough for chariots to have a two-lane traffic going. Go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry aloud, for their wickedness has come up before me. Of course, Nineveh is the capital of Assyria. Assyria was the arch-enemy. Assyrian Empire controlled most of the Middle East part of the Mediterranean world. That great city, Nineveh, capital of Assyria. But Jonah rose up to flee under Tarshish. Some think Tarshish, probably Spain. So he caught a ship, got on a ship. He bought passage. But Jonah rose up to flee under Tarshish from the presence of the Eternal and went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with him under Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. How about trying to escape from the presence of God? To flee from the presence of God is equal to disfellowshipping yourself. Can you disfellowship yourself from God? Actually, you cannot flee from his presence, but you can disfellowship yourself from God. You can cut off yourself from God. And that is a frightful position to be in. You can be attending church and be disfellowshipped from God, your relationship with him. But you hear the words and all of that. Some try to make Jonah into a hero and say that he knew the prophecies. How Isaiah had prophesied in the book of Isaiah that Assyria would come and carry Israel into captivity. And this might have been a factor in his running away from the great pilot of our lives. But if that is, it's really no excuse because he was trying to look good in the sight of men and giving over to, quote, peer pressure. But a tough job is not an excuse for running away. So just because a job is tough, it doesn't justify running away. Especially if God is the one who says to go to it. We read that first verse again. Now the word of the Eternal came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Go down to Nineveh. But Jonah bought passage and he tried to get away. I used to have a saying posted in the locker room when he was coaching football. When the tough gets going, then the, I'm reversing, when the going gets tough, then the tough get going. Do you ever find yourself refusing to surrender and submit to God? Let's look at verse 4.

Jonah was lying there and he was fast asleep. Not even aware of the tempest that was going on on the deck. Not even aware that they were fearful of their lives. So the shipmaster came to him and said, What do you mean there, old sleeper? Arise, call upon your God! If so be that God will think upon us that we may not perish. So they were gripped by fear, ignorant superstition, and the dogmas of man. And here was Jonah, who knew something about God and had even been given a commission from God. And I don't know how you can flee from God and go down and get in a ship and go to sleep, but that's what it says that he did in verse 7.

And they said, Everyone to his fellow, come and let us cast lots, that we may know, for whose cause this evil is upon them. And that's what the ancients believed to a large degree, that if they were the victim of ill-fated action, whether it be the weather or something else, somebody must have done something wrong.

They haven't appeased the gods properly. So let's find out who it is. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray you, for whose cause this evil is upon us? What is your occupation? And where did you come from? What's your country? And what people are you of? And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew, and I fear the eternal.

You see, what you say out of your mouth does not necessarily mean that you have been able to internalize it into the innermost parts of your being. If Jonah indeed had feared God at that point, how would he dare try to run away from God and not fulfill the mission that God had given him?

Says, I fear the Lord God, the God of heaven, which has made the sea and the dry land. He's the Creator. He's the true God. In essence, that's why Jonah was saying, You're praying to gods that are not gods. But I know the true God. I fear Him. But I went to sleep. I'm running away from Him. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto Him, Why have you done this? For the men knew that He fled from the presence of the Eternal, because He told them, I'm trying to get away from God.

Can you imagine telling somebody, Hey, I'm trying to get away from God. So I'm going to take this ship and I'm going to go over to Spain, or wherever it is, and try to get away from God. And sometimes in our lives, we take a ship and we take a trip. We may not be actually leaving our home, but figurative, metaphorically, we're taking the ship, we're taking the trip. And we're trying to get away from our responsibility that God has placed before us.

You know, the old Lynn Anderson song, I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden. And with great affliction, persecution, oppression, oftentimes you'll enter into the kingdom of God. They said unto them, What shall we do unto you?

That the sea may be calm unto us, for the sea was angry and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up, cast me forth into the sea. So shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.

And Jonah knew that it was because of him, and that God was dealing with him. Jonah becomes what I call here a pseudo-martyr. A pseudo-martyr is one who's willing to give his life for a cause that is not God's. That's a pseudo-martyr. There are all kinds of pseudo-martyrs in this world. Within the past 24 hours, a man dressed as a policeman went to a police station in Bathra in southern Iraq. And he pulled the trigger, and the bomb blew up. Fifty-three people dead. See, there's hardly any defense against a suicide bomber.

There's hardly any defense against someone who threatens suicide. That's like the ultimate threat. Nevertheless, the men didn't listen to him at that time. The men rode hard to bring it into the land, but they could not, for the sea was angry and tempestious about them. Wherefore they cried under the eternal and said, We beseech you, O Eternal, we beseech you. Let us not perish for this man's life and lay not upon us innocent blood, for you, O Eternal, have done as it pleased you.

So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea. And the seas ceased from her raging. Imagine that as soon as Jonah goes overboard, a calm over the sea. So you know, and you know that you know, that God is directly involved in this. This is God's doing. God is dealing with Jonah.

Then the men feared the eternal exceedingly and offered a sacrifice under the eternal and made vows. Some of the things that people do in battlefield or whatever. Oh, Father in heaven, if you'll get me out of this, I'll worship you. I'll be true to you for the rest of my life. Now the eternal had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

You cannot flee from the presence of God. We go to Psalm, we'll be coming back in two to Jonah, so if you want to mark it. Cannot flee from the presence of God. Go to Psalm 139, verse 7. Psalm 139, verse 7.

In Psalm 139, verse 7, Where shall I go from your spirit? Oh, where shall I flee from your presence? If I send up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in the grave, and she'll, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me.

Yea, the darkness hides not from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you. For you have possessed my range, you have covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. A marvelous are your works, and that I know very well. My substance was not hid from you when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

So there is no place that you can hide from God. You cannot flee from His presence. Now we go back to Genesis 4. Genesis 4 and the story of Cain. What happened to Cain after he murdered his brother Abel because of jealousy? Because God did not accept Cain's offering, He brought a thank offering, in essence saying that I, perhaps Cain thought he was a prophesied Messiah, Genesis 3.15. And in verse 1 of Genesis 4, Eve even says that I've gotten a man from the Lord. Maybe even Eve thought that Cain was a prophesied Messiah, Genesis 3.15. And then Abel brought a sin offering, and his sacrifice was accepted.

Abel judged himself and said, I am the sinner. And Cain, being the firstborn, could have had the preeminence if he had repented. But no, he let jealousy overcome him. I'm going to have the preeminence, and I'm going to kill my brother. And God comes looking for Cain and says, where's your brother Abel? And Cain says, well, how do I know? Am I my brother's keeper? And the resounding answer from Genesis to Revelation is, yes, you are your brother's keeper. Now, the punishment. God did not execute, did not sentence nor execute what we call capital punishment, that is, to kill Cain for his murder.

But he did something else. In Genesis 4.13, well, let's read earlier of 12. When you till the ground, it shall henceforth yield unto you her strength, a fugitive and a vagabond shall you be in the earth. And Cain said unto the eternal, my punishment is greater than I can bear. I just can't take that. Behold, you have driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from your face shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that every one that finds me shall slay me.

And the eternal said unto him, therefore whosoever slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And God in essence placed a fence roll around Cain and says, look, don't kill him, because his punishment that he went through was in essence worse than death. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. And when you go out from the presence of the Lord, that is very frightful to contemplate. Verse 16, And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.

The irony of fleeing from God is that oftentimes people do it under the cloak or cover of the church or for some other pseudo-cause. That is, they don't really do what God says to do. They don't really ever begin to earn his descent to land, to commit the landing gear doesn't go down, much less land. They don't really trust their great pilot. The great air traffic controller of the universe, God the Father. They always hold something back and play the game of one more yea-butt. Yea-butt, did you know?

Yea-butt. Some would even offer themselves in a type of pseudo-martitum rather than face themselves, rather than submitting and being converted. Once again, pseudo-martitum, that's when someone is willing to give up their life and their commitment that they made at baptism to really submit, surrender, and serve God. They're willing to give all that up and go away from God.

Most of the time it has to do with some kind of pride. You know the three things that John mentions in John 2, verses 15-16. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. They will cling to the church in a form of godliness, but in their heart they are fleeing from the presence of God. They come to church and go through the motions using the church as a cloak or a shield.

Having a form of godliness, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 3.5, but denying the power thereof. So Jonah was ready to die in a type of pseudo-martitum rather than obey God. Notice he didn't cry out. He didn't pray until he was in the belly of the great fish.

So let's go back to Jonah, chapter 1. We read again verse 17. Now the Eternal had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. In chapter 2, verse 1, Then Jonah prayed unto the Eternal his God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine infliction unto the Eternal, and he heard me, out of the belly of the grave shield cried I, and you heard my voice. And the being in the belly of the great fish was metaphorically figurative, equal to tantamount to being in the grave. And of course, if God hadn't intervened, and as a type of resurrection, the fish vomited him up, then he would have been dead.

One of the great messianic signs, Jesus Christ in one place said, no other sign would be given of my Messiah's ship other than, as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Some people will live in abject misery and view themselves as martyrs rather than facing up to the situation and making a total commitment to surrender to God.

They run away from God all their lives. I have relatives who have done this and are doing this. They play on the edges, I call it, like a kid might play on the edges. Or someone might play on the edges and never totally commit. Oh, they go to church. They don't go to the church of God. Or they have stopped attending the church of God, but they still think they're playing on the edges of God's great, what, trampoline or whatever playground, and that there's some kind of security sort of in doing that. Oftentimes wives do this in marriage.

They will endure alcoholics, drug addicts, any number of addictive habitual behaviors. They become enablers of codependent, addictive behavior. They protect and they blame the situation and circumstance rather than insisting that the perpetrators assume responsibility. All we make excuses. And a lot of it, once again, has to do with this pride of life. I want to look good.

What will the neighbors think? Well, if they go to church, well, what will the church people think? What will the minister think? There are a lot of people who suffer all kinds of problems. And rather than call to get help, you can always say, well, the minister should go out there. Yeah, he should. But at the same time, are we too proud to pick up the phone and say, I need help?

Sometimes we don't know. All of us need to examine ourselves and ask the question, am I an enabler? Do I enable people to continue on a path of compulsive, addictive behavior? If God is working in your life, and I submit that you, by being here today, you profess that He is, then He's not going to let you go easily. If you refuse to judge yourself, then God will step in and judge you and chase you.

Not only you, but me too. There's no one exempt. Let's go to 1 Corinthians now. We'll be coming back to Jonah, of course. We'll be going through all four chapters. In 1 Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 17, Paul begins to take the Corinthians to task for the schisms that were in the church there. One of the big problems had to do with how they were taking the Passover.

They were having a meal, and they weren't having a potluck where they put it all out and shared it. They were each bringing their own and the rich people the well to do were bringing their goods and their wine, and some were even getting drunk. And there was not unity on the most sober, somber occasion of the whole sacred year. Paul tells them that they need to properly discern the body of Christ and judge themselves. In 1 Corinthians 11, 29, For he that eats and drinks irreverently, He that eats and drinks irreverently, Eats and drinks, and it should be judgment to himself, Not discerning the Lord's body.

Of course, there is the literal physical body that Jesus Christ gave for the sins of the world. And there is the body of Christ, the church of God, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. And it's more that body, the church, they were not having the same love, care, and concern from one another, but were having a drunken orgy. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. I'm just telling you, and I'm telling myself, and I have spoken on this in the Big Sandy area for over 30 years, and yet it is one of our greatest problems in the whole church of God worldwide, judgment, mercy, and faith. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Eternal, that we should not be judged with the world.

So God was not going to let Jonah go easily. If Jonah would not judge himself, then God would step in. So Jonah thinks he's getting away by getting into his ship, going to sleep, and trying to go down to Tarshish. But God said, not so quick. Not so quick. Let's go back to Jonah now.

Jonah chapter 2, verse 3, For you have cast me into the deep and the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about. Jonah talking to God, all your billows and your waves pass over me.

Then I said, I'm cast out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. So why would he look toward your holy temple? See, that's the place that the Jews knew that that's where God had placed his presence in the temple. That's the place they faced in prayer. So I will look again toward your holy temple. Toward your presence is, in essence, what he's saying. The waters compost me about, even to the life.

The life essence, the soul. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down into the bottom of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever. Yet have you brought me up, my life from corruption. O eternal, my God! When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the eternal. And my prayer came into him, or unto you, into your holy temple, into your presence. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

That's quite a verse here. We talked about this in the Bible study this past week. That in order for one to receive ultimate mercy and forgiveness from God, they have to repent. Now, in some cases, the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. And as it says in Ecclesiastes, therefore the hearts of men are continually set on evil. When a person begins to go the way that Jonah was going, what are they doing?

They're doing exactly what it says here. That they are, in essence, fleeing from God's mercy. Verse 8 again, They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. I mean, as long as you insist on remaining in your sins and fleeing from the presence of God, he cannot extend forgiveness and mercy. To do so would make him the minister of sin. Now, he may be long-suffering, and sometimes we confuse long-suffering with mercy, and not execute the sentence speedily, but sooner or later God will confront us.

Or if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are judged so that we will not be judged with the world. God will not let us go easily. Hold your place now again, please. Let's go back to Psalm 50. Psalm 50 depicts the coming of Jesus Christ, and it is a treatise written to those who have entered into covenant with him of what he expected from them.

The first 15 verses we pick it up in 16, but on the other hand, for a while Jonah was on the other hand. In Psalm 50, verse 16, but under the wicked God says, What have you to do to declare my statues? Why are you thinking it? Or that you should take my covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you? Jonah tried to cast God's words behind him.

He tried to run away from his mission. When you saw a thief, you consented with him and have been partaker with adulterers. You gave your mouth to evil and your tongue framed deceit.

You sat and spoke against your brother. You slandered your own mother's son. These things have you done, and I kept silence. See, oftentimes God is long-suffering with us, but to extend ultimate mercy, you have to repent. You thought I was altogether such a one as yourself. I mean, that's way off. But I will reprove you and set them in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver.

Whoso offer praise glorifies me, and to him that orders his conduct are right, will I show salvation to God? Jonah had to be brought to the very point of death, the very point of death in the belly of the whale, to cry out to God and to seek him.

We're going to find out more about Jonah and maybe ourselves as we go along. Now back to Jonah, verse 9. As we go back there, we can ask ourselves, do I hate instruction? Isn't that basically the problem with people who are fleeing from the presence of God, or trying to hide from God in the church, or think that righteousness flows just on the other side of the fence? It's just over there.

It's a place in the people, the people over there. I used to, when I was teaching Bible classes as an ambassador, I would draw two circles on the board, and I'd say, this is church organization X, this is church organization Y. Now some say that in order for you to be in the kingdom of God, you've got to be in church organization Ys. So if you're in X, this is if something mystically, magically happens when you step from circle X to circle Y.

Oh boy, I mean, that's just a different world. Give me a brain. Does that change your heart? Does that change your being? Does that change your relationship with God? Well, you could argue maybe over a course of time and so on. There's another category of people who crowd to God day and night, yet they remain in a holding pattern.

Their lives never change. Why? All they're crying out to God. Even though they say they're miserable and want to change, they're not willing to give whatever up, whatever it is that they say is holding them back. And obviously that sounds like a paradox, oxymoron, whatever. If they gave it up, they would not have any more excuse for being the way they are. They would have to face themselves. Let's go to Proverbs 14.10. Proverbs 14.10. I have counseled people like this. They know what their problems are.

Most of us know what our problems are. It can range from what happened to us in childhood. Maybe we were abused. Maybe we were abused physically. Maybe we were abused sexually. Maybe we were abused verbally. Maybe all three of those. And maybe more. We know that happened. We know it affected us. Can we ever let it go? Can we ever let it go? If you've never faced it, face it. If that's what you say is holding you back and you're in a holding pattern, face whatever it is. Don't let it control your life. You control your life, not some situation or circumstance that happened years ago. Proverbs 14.10.

The heart knows his own bitterness, and a stranger does not intermetal with his joy. I'm not going to let this go. This is my reason for being. This is my excuse for being the way I am. You're not going to take this away from me. It's the old problem of, my problem is my problem all over again. They use their problem.

Their problem as an excuse to remain in their holding pattern. We must never let the situation and circumstances of life dictate to us how we are going to judge, I mean, how are we going to deal with life? In reality, Jonah really never judges himself as we see from what we have read so far. Jonah didn't like the mission. He didn't like the mission he had been given because it had been prophesied that Israel would be taken captive by Assyria.

Now, whether or not that's really the reason or not, I don't know for sure. There's an implication, as we will see later, that maybe that was the case.

God has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation, and his will is for human relationships to work at all levels in our lives. Some people don't really want to change so they can be reconciled, but reconciliation is God's will, and to be reconciled, you cannot hold on to your bitterness. Somebody has to enter metal. There are such things as interventions, as you know.

Continuing now back in Jonah, verse 9, chapter 2, verse 9. But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving.

But Jonah still has not said, I have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He still hasn't said that. Cain came to God with a thanks offering. So Jonah says, I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that I have vowed salvation or deliverance of the Eternal. And the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon dry land. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I told you to do. Go do it. So Jonah rose up, and he went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days.

The second time Jonah mechanically, methodically, out of a wrong sense of duty, obligation, and responsibility, in other words, his heart wasn't in it, but he went to Nineveh.

Brethren, for it to really be accepted of God, our heart has to be in it. Jonah's attitude was sort of like the old Tennessee Ernie Ford song, 16 tons. Well, I picked up my shovel and walked to the mine. And what did I get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

Mechanically, methodically, sense of duty, heart not really in it, but I got to do it.

So we need to pray that God will give you and I the heart to keep on keeping on. We're living in tough times. Virtually everybody here has some great problem. For many of us, it has to do with health, or it has to do with other things. You know what it is. And sometimes it is very difficult to keep on keeping on.

The correct response when God calls and tells us to do something is simply this. Here am I, Lord, send me.

You know, Moses at first protested, and eventually he said, Here am I, Lord, send me. Isaiah is a principal example. Let's go there. Oh, your place. Let me go to Isaiah 6. In Isaiah, he had a lot of fog on his landing strip. One of the problems that Isaiah had, he said, I'm a man of unclean lips. I guess Isaiah did a lot of cursing.

And his lips were not clean. In Isaiah 6, the time frame is given in verse 1, the year that King Uzziah died. I saw also, this is a vision that Isaiah had, the eternal sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Then it describes all the various things that were there. What we're saying in the opening hymn, verse 3, And one cried unto the other, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the eternal host. The whole earth is full of his glory, his presence. Usually that's what glory means, presence of God.

So it describes these beings that were there. Verse 6, Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live cold in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity has taken away, and your sin purged. See, Isaiah said in verse 5, Then I said unto the Lord, Woe is me, I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. More and more, the big bomb words, as they call them, are coming out on television. More and more, these cable stations are going toward total frontal nudity. More and more, virtually everything has some kind of sexual enyendo attached to it. I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. Then this one took these coals and touched his lips, and said, We have cleaned it up. Verse 7, and he laid it upon my mouth.

Verse 8, I heard the voice of the Eternal saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me. That is the response that God wants from us.

From whomever he's called from the beginning of time to the present day, repent and say, Here am I, send me.

Now back to Jonah.

In Jonah chapter 3 verse 4, Jonah began to enter into the city of day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed of fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them, even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him. He took it off, covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes, got off the throne, pulled off the royal robe, and sat in sackcloth and ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herdon or flock, taste anything, let them not feed nor drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God, Yes, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell? Who can tell if God will turn and repent? This is like the scripture that I read last week toward the end of the sermon. What does God expect from us? Call a fast, call the solemn assembly. Who knows? Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turn from their evil way. And God changed his mind about the evil, the calamity, the upset that he was going to bring on Nineveh. He had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. But it displeased Jonah mightily.

He didn't want them repenting.

Jonah was so upset.

Verse 2, And he prayed unto the eternal, and said, I pray you, eternal, Was this not my saying when I was yet in my country? So this gives some credence to Jonah. Didn't want to go to Nineveh, because if they repented, it would be like they would hold him responsible for Assyria coming because Assyria was spared at the preaching of Jonah, at least for a season.

Didn't I tell you this when I was in my country? Therefore, it's because of this. I fled before unto Tarshish. For I knew that you were a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repented you. You changed your mind, and you wouldn't do it if they repented. Therefore now, O Lord, I beseech you, once again, pseudo-martyrdom, take my life from me. It is better for me to die than to live.

Now, on the other hand, how does God view the repentance of anyone? We go to Luke 15, and you could probably quote it before we get there, but let's go read it in Luke 15 and verse 10. We should read into it.

It's a parable, and with this ending about the lost sheep, I'm going to seek the one. Verse 7, I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven, O Lord, I am not a man of the Lord, and I am not a man of the Lord, and I am not a man of the Lord, and I am not a man of the Lord, and I am not a man of the Lord, but I am an man of the Lord, and I am not a man of the Lord, and I am not an act of the Lord, and I am not an act of the Lord.

We should be in heaven over one center, Luke 15.7. I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one center that repents, more than over 90 and 9, just persons, which need no repentance. And it's like, well, they're sinners. Why would we want to have anything to do with them? And God wants us to love everybody. In fact, you know, the Bible even says, love your enemies. And a lot of the things that we do in building up barriers has nothing to do with the person being our enemy, per se. I say unto you, likewise joy shall be in heaven over one center that repents, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Then he tells the story about the woman having lost one piece of silver, one of the ten pieces. And finally she did a diligent search and she found it, verse nine. And when she had found it, she called her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost.

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one center that repents. Then the story of the prodigal son. Now that story is amazing. And when the prodigal son does eventually come back, and the father kills a fatted calf, throws a big feast, but the brother that stayed at home, the brother that did everything right in form, when he saw what the father was doing for the younger son that had wasted his goods, went to the father and said, Why are you doing this?

You never did this for me. You never did this for me. You never threw me a feast. And now this one comes back that's wasted all of his goods and yours. Why are you doing this? And the father said, Well, son, I had you here all the time. You were sharing in everything all the time.

But see what it revealed, what was in the heart. And you can be doing all the form. But Scripture is not kidding when it says, And God looks on the heart and not on the outward appearance. Now back to Jonah. Verse 4, 4-4, Then said the Eternal, You do well to be angry. So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side. Now I misread that in inflection and punctuation. Verse 4, did you catch it? God is not saying, Jonah, you got a right to be angry and I don't blame you.

What God is saying there, it's in the form of an interrogative. He is saying, Jonah, do you have a right to be mad? Do as you will to be angry? Is that what I'm looking for after all these people are repented?

So Jonah went out of the city, sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would happen or become of the city. The eternal prepared a gourd, made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief.

Jonah was exceedingly glad of the gourd, I mean, as protecting me. But these people that are repented, I don't have much time for them. Jonah wasn't very committed to reconciliation with God or with man. The next day, God smote the gourd and withered. Verse 8, it came to pass when the sun did arise that God prepared a vehement east wind. East wind in the Bible symbolizes destruction.

And the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, so much so that he fainted. And he wished himself to die, and he said, It is better for me to die than to live the third time. And God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry even under death.

Then said the eternal, You have had pity on the gourd, for which you have not labored, neither have made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a day, and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are more than sixty thousand people that cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much cattle. Of course, the Ninevites thought they were the enlightened ones, the great ones of the earth at that time, and the great Assyrian Empire. But God said, They don't know their left hand from the right. They don't know anything. And so it is with the nations today. In their pomposity and pride, they walk around.

So what about ourselves? Jonah never really judged himself. He never really exercised his judgment, mercy, and faith. Jonah was fearful of what his people would think of him if he went down to Nineveh and preached repentance to them. My people will blame me and I will be an outcast. Whereas it says in Acts 5.29, it is better to obey God than man. If we obey God, of course, he will deliver us. Jonah didn't like the mission he'd been given because it had been prophesied that Israel would be taken captive. He knew people would be against him. And one of the problems in conflict resolution is that people want to continue to justify how they feel about things.

If reconciliation takes place, then I will have to give up all of my negative feelings. I'll have to give up my bitterness, the joy of my heart, as we read from Proverbs 14.10. My pulpit on Facebook will be taken away from me. And I will have no place, no audience to complain to. I have now faced my problems. And I have been reconciled to God and my brother and my neighbor.

God has committed the ministry of reconciliation to us. And I hope we will live up to that. So, brethren, here we are, at this critical, crucial time in the history of the world and the Church of God. And God is looking for us to be fully convicted, committed to act on courage, to be willing to say, Here am I, Lord, send me.

I'm not afraid of the mission, because I've internalized the 23rd Psalm. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. I know, and I know that I know, that you are with me. Psalm 16, verse 11. Let's keep our eyes and our minds focused on the big picture, putting on the helmet of salvation, which is hope, which in everyday language means to keep the big picture of the kingdom of God burning brightly in our minds. In Psalm 16, verse 8.

In your presence, His fullness of joy will never flee from the presence of God. At your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.