Refusal

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. So we're going to be reading, and it'll be up on the screen as well, Jonah chapter 1, the majority of it. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to the Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. When the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his God, and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish. And they said to one another, Come, let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation and where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you? He said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Then they were exceedingly afraid and said to him, What is this that you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. And they said to him, What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, Pick me up, hurl me into the sea, then the sea will quiet down for you. For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but they could not. For the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore, they called out to the Lord. Oh, Lord, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood for you. Oh, Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. That's where we're going to end for today. So the story of Jonah is dealing with some fundamental issues that I think are facing us today in twenty nineteen. I can't believe it's twenty nineteen. Can you? But in twenty nineteen, nationalism, racism, human rights, they all are making the news. The rule of law. You know what? I think those are all the code words for really two issues, identity and difference. Those are the two issues that we are really struggling with in this world right now. And I think this book ties into that. It's where do you find your identity and how do you treat those who are different than you? So we're going to be exploring that in this book. I just finished a book. Miroslav Volf wrote this book a few years ago called Exclusion and Embrace. And after I finished it, it's like, wow, I wish I would have read this when it first came out. It is really good. It's not an easy book. I'm not telling you to go out and buy it, but it's a really, really good book. And in it, he basically says the tribalism that we are now seeing in this world, in every country, in every place that we've seen it, the tribalism that we are seeing is really starting to threaten the world order. It's starting to really cause a lot of commotion. There are more refugees now than ever before because of some of the issues that are going on in this world. And then there are all sorts of consternations over what to do with those people over there and these people over here. And what about them and what about this and what about that? And he says, partly because of the economic turmoil, now that we have haves who have technology and the have-nots who don't, and all this disparate things that are going on, we are starting to kind of point the fingers in all different directions. And he says in his book, it may not be too much to claim that the future of our world will depend on how we deal with identity and difference. The issue is urgent. The ghettos and battlefields throughout the world and living rooms and inner cities around the mountain ranges testify indisputably to its importance. And that's what this book actually deals with. OK, identity and difference at the heart of this book. When God calls Jonah, he doesn't just call him to help Nineveh out. He also calls Jonah outside of himself to find an identity different than the one that he had. And we are called, I think, to do somewhat the...