Yeah, it's really good to be here. I was saying to First Service one of the times I got to preach at Veritas, Cedar Rapids was the week before we started Candidate Church in northeast Iowa up the road. And I so had the week off, right. It was the week before we had our first service. This was a long time ago. In fact, Veritas was meeting in a bar. Does anyone have any recollection these days? I'm like, your feet kind of stick to the floor because of all the beer that was spilled the night before. And, uh, and then and then you jump in a car and you shoot on down to Iowa City. At that time, Mark and Veritas, Iowa City was in some hotel or whatever. And I remember they had the timing down so tight that you would leave the bar, get in the car, and I'm literally walking up, putting a mic on as I'm walking onto the stage to speak at Iowa City. I mean, it's just nuts what God has done in this place. It's been so fun to be able to do that with Jake and Mark and so many of you over the years. I'm in Gainesville right now, and candle, the church I helped to plant sent me out as a planter and we've been there seven years. It's been amazing what God's been doing. Um, let me jump in and tell you a story that's not original with me. Donald Miller actually told a story, and it's captured my heart. He tells a story of a father named Jason, who years ago was very concerned about his thirteen year old daughter. His thirteen year old daughter was beginning to date a guy that he did not approve of. And he thought, I think he she's sleeping with this young boy. And the dad had found drugs in her room. And so understandably, he was very concerned on the pathway that she was already starting to to take. He spoke to, uh, Donald Miller about this, and he explained the situation. And Donald Miller basically said to him, hey, your daughter, she's actually just just chosen to play a part in a better story. Well, that doesn't comfort a dad. It's confusing at best. And and what are you talking about? Well, Donald Miller shot him straight and just said, look. She looks at your guys's marriage. She knows it's just your fakes. She knows what really your house is like. She knows the image that you guys put on at church that basically you're only together because the kids are still young or whatever, and she sees all that and you don't approve of her life, but this other guy at least offers her purpose, adventure, meaning something real. So she's just chosen to play a part of a better story, that's all. Well, what the dad does next is mind boggling. He just makes this total crazy move. He pulls the family together, his wife, teenage son and daughter, and says, okay, here's what we're going to do. He had done some research and he said, we're going to take a mortgage out on our house. I'm going to invest twenty five thousand dollars in an orphanage in Mexico. Where'd this come from? We are going to invest heavily. We are going to love them. We are going to serve them. We are going to give them the basic medicine they need so they can just simply live. Our family is totally doing an about face and we are going to give ourselves to this. The wife looks at him and actually says, if you're serious. I'm in. The boy says, dad, I think people would get behind this. I want to put this on the internet. I think people would give to this and would help this. And the daughter, totally unprompted, drops that boyfriend and jumps in because in that moment, she just chose to play a part in a better story. Today, God's Word is going to interrupt whatever's going on, but not with guilt. Just a better story. And he's going to invite us to take some steps forward, to play a part in his story, a better story. And there's no guilt, but only invitation as we see this better story unfolding in the scriptures. So let me start not where we're going to end, but just in a passage that kind of opens up this story. Genesis twelve, Genesis twelve. We see the very first hints of this better story spoken to a man named Abram. And let me just share it. Genesis twelve one to three. I'll read for you. It'll be on the screens as well. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Abraham, I'm going to bless you to be a blessing to all nations. Blessed to be a blessing. What is this better story that God was inviting him into? Leave what you know. Leave what's comfortable to you. I'm interrupting everything that feels normal and natural to you. But take heart. This is not lost, but this is gain. I will bless you. And that blessing will be uncontainable. It will overflow to all peoples. Now, it wouldn't be Abraham himself. The blessing that would come, that would literally bless all nations was Jesus Christ. The world is under the judgment of a holy God. The scriptures bear this out. Our sin has deserved us his wrath. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came, lived perfectly for us in a way that we never could, and then died sacrificially in our place, absorbing the wrath of the father that we deserved eternally to experience in hell, and that by faith in him, in his death, burial, and resurrection, he didn't stay dead. We can experience the blessing of God, but here we're just starting with it all that is coming. It starts with one person. God has a doomed humanity. He starts with one and he says, from you and through you will come blessing to all peoples. Did God's people understand that? That God was blessing them to be a blessing, blessed to be a blessing? Did they get that? Some did and just some didn't. And you can hear it in their prayers. Uh, a friend of mine and yours, Jeff Dodge, told me when I was a college student. He said, Paul, you can tell a lot about people from how they pray. Now, just know this about Jeff. He's not studying your prayers. I know that some people are already just scared to pray in public. Like that whole exercise was unnerving to you. That wasn't his point. It wasn't to make us unnerved, but just. Jesus says, from the overflow of our hearts. Our mouths speak well from the overflow of our hearts. Our lips pray as well. I mean, it says a lot when you listen in on some young college guys prayer life, and he's begging God with tears and agony into the night. Oh, God, bring her to me. You're like, okay, it's clear this guy wants this girl. If someone's prayers are only about their academics, okay, they value school. If a parent's prayers is more for the health and happiness of her kids than the holiness of her children. You go, okay, I see, I see the highest priority. We can tell a lot about our prayers. Well, let's listen in for a moment to one of the prayers that came off the lips of one of God's people in the Psalm. Psalm sixty seven one begins like this. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us. Let me stop there. I've got that verse down cold. Isn't it easy to pray this? Oh God, please bless me, help me, love me. Show your favor to me. Come through for me. I have needs, God be gracious to me. What I fail to see is that there is always a context for God's blessing. There's always a reason for God's blessing. It was never meant to simply come to us. It was meant to go through us. Listen to how the psalmist continues. Psalm sixty seven. We'll take it from the top. May God be gracious to us and bless us, and make his face to shine upon us. Here it is that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you. Judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. And then that word. Selah. Just think about it. Just stop everything. Have you ever considered that the blessing God has poured into your life was not primarily for you? There's a context for the blessing. There's a purpose for it. There always is in the mind of God. And actually, that brings more joy to you, not less, to participate in it. Have we ever considered, like God put us in the most prosperous nation for a reason? Have we ever considered that? Even where I'm at the University of Florida, sixty thousand students, people, the best, the brightest, the most influential, coming from all nations, just there wanting to speak English, wanting to know our ways this close to hearing the gospel. Have we ever considered that's the hand of God to bless them? Have we considered that there's a context to blessing before Jesus came? Did God's people in general understand that some. Did you read Isaiah? Guys like that? Oh, he got it, some didn't. Because at the time of the writing of the book of Jonah, God's people were being wildly disobedient. Jonah was a prophet of God, but he had a unique assignment. All the other prophets were sent to God's people to rescue them back, to try and pull them back towards God. Most of them just got killed doing it. Jonah, you got a different assignment. You're going to go to the people that God's people hate. You got a unique assignment. You're a prophet to the nations. Did Jonah understand that God's people had been blessed to be a blessing? Let's see. Jonah one one to three. Here's how it starts. We won't read the whole book now. the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that 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. God said, go here to Nineveh. He got in that boat and went as far away to the other side of planet earth for him as he could. Jonah was sent to Nineveh. Now what do we know about Nineveh? It was called. We'll see this later in the book, an exceeding great city of three days journey. Meaning if you kind of could walk about twenty miles a day, you'd spend three days just walking around it like a sixty mile circumference. It's a big city. How many people live there? Don't know for sure. But later we will hear that there are one hundred and twenty thousand who didn't know their right hand from their left hand, probably a reference to children. And if one hundred and twenty thousand children, maybe six hundred thousand, a million people just guess work. But a very large city. Was Jonah a good place to raise a family? No. Nahum. Another book in the Bible is a little bit like a running commentary on Nineveh, and it gives you a window into what that city was like. Nineveh is known for a few things. It's vile. They worship images. It's full of wealth. It's full of lies. It's full of plunder. These are just phrases right from the book of Nahum. It's called the City of Blood. Interestingly, there are wall carvings that represent the king and the act of putting out the eyes of his captives. dragging others by a hook through their lips like just send a hook through them and then drag them into captivity. They were known as they enslaved nations with prostitution and witchcraft. In the Book of Nahum actually ends with this line that everyone who hears the news about the destruction of Nineveh claps their hands. At your fall. Because who has not felt your endless cruelty? Was Nineveh a great place to raise a family? It was the worst place you could imagine. Wicked. Evil. Awful. Godless. Dangerous. Immoral. So I look at Jonah and I'm like, my word, God just told you exactly what to do with your life. God's got a wonderful plan for your life. Go there. But sometimes I have to think a little bit more like what that's about. If God said, I've got the place for you, there's this al Qaeda cell in this place. It's awful. It's that evil. It's wicked. I found it, and you know what? If I up here had a one way ticket for you to fly out of Cedar Rapids later this afternoon. You want it? I wouldn't. I get it. Jonah goes the other way. God's like Jonah. I want you to go this direction. And Jonah's like, no, I don't want to. But I love these people over here. I hate them. We all do. This is who I long the blessing of God to flow over it. Can you just still bless me right where I'm at? Jonah was, uh, maybe you know some of this book. Uh, he gets on that ship, he gets thrown overboard, then God like cuz up this fish. It's like the things on remote control, like guys like you're gonna get where I'm gonna send you and like grabs him in three days underwater in this belly of this. And then God like sends him like, takes him right back where God wanted him, throws him up. Like, I mean, we throw up. Jonah was the throw up. He was like a passive verb. Like you became the vomit. Like he's the only one that I've known that actually didn't vomit like you were the vomit. Like he's thrown up. I don't know if he's partially digested or what, but now he is ready to get moving in the right direction. So. So let's pick it up in Jonah three then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. Like, if your mom has to say it a second time, you're in trouble. But the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was exceedingly great city. Three days journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published it through Nineveh. And here it is by the decree of the king and his nobles. Let neither man nor beast herd nor flock taste anything. We're all fasting. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. Wow. It's amazing. You'd think people so far from God, they're so wicked, they're so bad. It's like a couple people I went to high school with. I'm thinking they will never become Christians. And then they did. I couldn't believe it. I mean, these people are so far from God. Did you know that the most thriving movement of God that I'm aware of going on a planet earth is happening really close to where this is in Iran right now? God's doing this. Sometimes the most wicked people are this close to the hope of forgiveness, because they are weighed down with the judgment that they perceive is on their life. Well, sometimes we get this story right and sometimes we get it wrong. Um, before I started moving kind of with this church planting vision, I was actually a family pastor at cornerstone a bunch of years ago. And, and one time I went and I found a book in the kids, like, I don't know, nursery library or whatever on Jonah. So I'm just going to share it with you and you tell me how much they got right. And if they got any of it wrong. Okay, here's just a few pages from the book of Jonah. Uh, first the cover. It's pretty cool. I mean, that that it clearly it's a whale. It doesn't say it's a whale. It says it's a fish, but it could be a whale. Anyways, it's a whale here. And Jonah, bright yellow tunic. We don't know if he wore that or not, but let's just go with it. You know, the color looks good on him. So there's Jonah, and he's by his fish. Obviously, he's been thrown up. He's happy that that's done. Rinsed off. Okay, next, the people of Nineveh became quiet and listened to Jonah as he's preaching to him, frightened by God's warning, they all rushed home to pray for forgiveness. Jonah couldn't believe it. This is pretty true. I mean, look at sackcloth on them. Not the cat, but there's a lot. Even a lot of the animals. Like just responding. Okay. Next picture. After a short while, God saw that the people of Nineveh had changed. They repented. They believed. So he decided to give them another chance, just as he had given one to Jonah. Which is true. God gave Jonah another chance out of that fish's belly. And so he gave a chance to Nineveh. And. And God's blessing is on it. And Jonah, man, he looks happy. Along the way he acquired a pet bird, which again, is not necessarily. We don't see that in the Bible, but it shouldn't cause you to just throw the book out. Creative license. But he's got a bird and it's blue. And Jonah's smiling, the bird smiling. It's a good day. Okay. And then and then let's see how the story of the book of Jonah ends. The way of the Lord is good, thought Jonah, as he started on his long trip home. Wow, you remember it? I mean, Jonah, happy as can be. He's got a stick, a little kick in his step. He's just, like, moving, you know? And the bird, I mean, he's still smiling. The bird smiling. We're heading home. It couldn't have been better. God used us. It's a little different. I've since gotten rid of that book out of the cornerstone library. Let me let me just read to you how it ends, Jonah four. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said, do you do well to be angry? Jonah went outside the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself. There he sat under it in the shade till he could, till he should see what would happen. What would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant, and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when Dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah, so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die, and said, it is better for me to die than to live. But God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? And he said, yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow. Which came into being in a night, and perished in a night, and should not I pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle. And just like that, the book of Jonah ends. It ends with a question. It ends with an unresolved question. This still is hovering over us. Where God's prophet, reluctant as he was, finally does what he says, sees the compassion of God, and hates it so much that multiple times he begs that God would kill him. He can't stand to see. Blessing come to them and God goes. Isn't it okay that I pity lost people? And just. It's still there. It's just the question of God. You got to answer it. You got to figure out how you're going to respond. I don't know how the Jews ever kept this book in their Bibles. It's such an indictment. We have been blessed to be a blessing to all nations. That's clear. Genesis to revelation. We could look at a lot of passages. We have been blessed to be a blessing to all nations. We've been blessed with the gospel to bring the gospel to all nations. That's the greatest blessing there is. The ultimate blessing is through Jesus. So. So we're in this now. does our giving show that we understand this? The stats are in. I mean, this is interesting. This is just the Western church. I'm not this isn't Veritas. I hope you're doing way better than this. The stats of giving are this, that of all the money that goes to Christian, like, um, cross-cultural work, only zero point one percent of our giving goes to that at all. So only zero point one percent of our giving leaves the church for cross-cultural work, period. And that's not one penny of a dollar. That's a tenth of a penny for every dollar given. It kind of makes it out of this country, you know, to any kind of cross-cultural work. But what's interesting is that of the cross-cultural giving of that tenth of a penny, only one one hundredth of that actually makes it to the three billion people who've never heard of the gospel. Most of the giving, even though it's a small amount of giving, goes to places where at least they've heard about Jesus, or they have a Bible or a church. But the three billion that don't know it, one one hundredth of the one tenth of a cent makes it to them. To put that into perspective. To get around. You can't cut pennies small enough to. If you gave ten thousand dollars to the local church. That's saying that only one dime of it would ever go to places like Nineveh. And there are three billion people, almost half the globe. Have almost nothing of Jesus in their world. So this is how the Western church is doing. This is kind of our report card. Does our giving show that we are blessed to be a blessing? I would say no. Does our going show that we are blessed to be a blessing? Like our get up, let's like go. Let's send some people to get there. You tell me. Current goers. There are around four hundred thousand global missionaries right now, so we just prayed for some of them. Some of them have left this church. You're supporting them. There are over four hundred thousand people like that, but only three percent of them are going to the people who've not yet heard right, three percent of them are going to the people who have not heard. They're called unreached people groups. We're going to talk more about this today. So get this. Three percent of our workers are going with less than one percent of cross-cultural giving to three billion people. It's like one of the most unbelievable unbalanced imbalances there could be. Um, our goal is indigenous church planting movements among all people groups. So many don't even know who Jesus is, what Jesus is. You can go up to them. I heard a story of one guy going, hey, do you do you know Jesus? And and he's like, is that a bar of soap? Strike one. Do you know who Jesus is? I don't, but I can take you to the next village. Maybe they know. It's just like nothing. Nothing. Just total blank. Why aren't we going? I don't know exactly why, but I'll tell you what. Within the international Mission board, that's kind of Southern Baptist Convention. The sending the two greatest things. Holding goers. People who want to go, they want to move the needle. They want to go and be a part of the the going site. There's a lot of ways to participate in this, by the way, but who want to be one of the goers? Two of the biggest reasons, the two largest reasons that are keeping people from going. Number one is porn. Number two is parents, not non-Christian parents. Christian parents. That's a fact. Christian parents who let someone else go. Full of adultery and prostitution and witchcraft and blood. And you know what? Send someone else. Not my kids and certainly not my grandkids. Because. What does it say of us? I have kids, and one of them now has two little kids. Every screensaver, every time I change it, it's just always another picture of Flora. It's just me and Flora. I don't want her to go. Can I just be honest with you? But I am willing. Through blinding tears. I've cried them already. And I will cry them again in faith that not out of duty or drudgery, but out of anticipation and the greater blessing of God that people would be sent into the nations. I sat over here first service next to Garrett. Guy's got a lot of kids. A lot of children. He ran some number if, like, they each have three kids and they all each tell everyone about Jesus. In ten generations, eight hundred thousand will know. Well, Scripture talks about man with kids is like a warrior with arrows in his quiver. What if God would call him? And what if God would call you in the strength that faith provides to pull that bow back far and fire your children like arrows deep into enemy territory so they could do damage for the kingdom of God and literally bring blessing to all nations. Porn and parents. If we're blessed to be a blessing, it's not coming through in our in our going at the moment. What's keeping us? Unbelief. Maybe we couldn't believe that. Actually, that's a blessed path. Oh, let someone else be blessed then. I'd hate to keep all that blessing myself. God loved the very worst of humanity. God loved the most evil of all people. Jonah hated the people that God loved, and Jonah hated the idea that God had blessed him to bless them multiple times. He prayed God would kill him when he just saw what was happening a revival. I'm not going to lie to you. The going is hard. I only go on short term trips and I want to get back. Sometimes I've gone like Danny was talking about, to Kathmandu. You get there. At At first it's novel, it's nice. And then. What's wrong with these people? Their customs are all messed up. They can we eat some good food? Have you guys learned about the cheeseburger? And what's all this noise? Someone needs to teach everyone English over here. This would be way easier for me. And then the smells like when you go to Pashupati temple. And you smell not a barbecue. Them burning bodies right down next to the river because they believe. Let the body burn. It's died within twenty four hours. If we put those ashes in that river, it grants them greater blessing in the life to come. And you can't get your eyes off the family crying as the body burns in front of your eyes. You don't want to smell it anymore. You just want to get out of there. But then you think they have no hope. Someone has to tell them. This thirteen year old girl that I spoke of earlier did not want in on her dad's fake life. And then when her dad said, this is what we're going to be about, she chose to give her life to a better story. She couldn't say no. Is it possible that a couple things are true today? That God is inviting you in to a better story, and that that better story, your life would truly be better to be more engaged in what you have to see from cover to cover that that story would be a greater blessing to your life. I believe it's possible. I believe it's true. And I know your church believes it's true. Your leaders have set up a missions conference because they believe they want in on the greater blessing of God. They believe they have been blessed to be a blessing. Your church leaders are full of faith here. They know how the story ends. It didn't end with Genesis. It ends with revelation where all tribes, people, tongues, languages will be around the throne of God men, women, boys and girls of all peoples. Listen, I'm excited for the vision of Salt Network that there would be all four hundred and three major universities with a thriving church. I would love to see that happen, but four hundred and three universities is that much compared to three billion people who still need to hear. It's just a bigger vision. We have to keep that in front of us. And your church leaders are. That's what the next couple days are about this afternoon we see that where Jonah failed, Jesus succeeds. We see him blaze a trail, and we will brainstorm how every one, every one as small as you are, as big as you are, as old as you are, as young as you are, it doesn't matter. Like every one of us has a part to play in this. I believe you want it. I believe you don't want to settle. I believe God is interrupting our lives with a better story. And I believe that when we see it, no one has to make you feel bad about anything. You will lean in and go, I want that. Let me pray that God would help us want that. Father, thank you so much for your word today. Thank you for Veritas Church. From the humble beginnings of some bar, I don't even know what it was named to what you're doing now. You've certainly blessed them. You've certainly blessed them and Veritas down the road. You've certainly blessed them. You've blessed our network. God, let us remember that there is always a context to blessing. There's always a reason for it. And it isn't just for nicer youth programs and bigger stages and more of us. It literally is to see the world encounter your blessing. God, let us not be like Jonah who begged you to die, but let us be like Jesus and let us follow him. The great Savior, the one greater than Jonah, has come, the one who left heaven, the first missionary of all, the one who left heaven for a world that needed him so desperately. Jesus, our hearts are captured by you. We are invited into your great story. You could have done it without us. You've chosen to pull us in. Oh God would we? With hearts full of faith, with humble hearts not defiant. Say I'm in. I want a part in the better story. We ask this in your name. Amen.