Lord Of The Storm

When we run and hide from God, God comes looking for us. He never gives up on those he loves. In Jonah chapter 1, a prophet tried to run from God.

So God sent a ferocious storm and a giant fish to bring Jonah back because God loved Jonah. Today, we explore three things about the relentless pursuit of a wayward man of God. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly broadcast of worship and teaching with Pastor Philip Miller. Today, join us for the second of five messages on Relentless, the Book of Jonah. Our focus today, The Lord of the Storm.

Here now is Pastor Philip, along with worship leader Tim Stafford and Assistant Pastor Josue Reyes. All right, well, good morning, Moody Church. Good morning. It's good to see all of you. Let's pray and give this service to the Lord.

Heavenly Father, come now, we pray. Meet us here as we lift high your praise. Teach us your ways and your word. Help us to follow you. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen. Please stand. Let's worship together. Praise the Lord, the Almighty, King of the Asia.

I so praise He is thy reverence, Salvation. All give the gift and through His and Holy Ghost to He in medo praise to the Lord who all be so wondrous. Spirit shelters thee under his wings for dead peace the same has thou not seen thy desires all heaven granted in lovely your day praise to the Lord who prosper thy word and defend surely his goodness and mercy here daily attending holler alloo the almighty hand If this love be praying the Lord for heaven is right and red and bound praises before him and he of them suffer his reply. And even in the dark of the world, places we know God with us. Even in the depths God hears us.

The grace of God has reached for me and pull me from the raging sea and I am safe on this solid ground The Lord is my salvation I will not fear in darkness falls His strength will help me still his walls I'll see the dawn of the rising sun The Lord is my salvation Who is my Lord song to separate all in love? My bed is great and the very dream one. The Lord is my salvation. My walk is winning in the Lord. He loves his promise of his word in winter faith, and the spring will form.

Lord is my salvation. In times of waiting, times of need when I'm the lost and I am weak. I know His grace will renew these days. The Lord is my salvation, Holy One, my Lord His name and the Victory One. The Lord is my salvation.

And when I reach my final. He will not leave me in the brave rise, he will call me home. The Lord is my salvation. He's my love, Lord.

Some to say, hold in love. My brain is ready, and the chance reward. The Lord is my salvation. Holy be to God the prince. Glory be to the Lord.

To God, the Son of Father. Glory be to God, the Spirit, Glory. Glory be to God, the Father. Glory be to God, the Son of Father. Glory be to God, the Spirit.

Glory does our angel. Glory's our angel. Heavenly Father, you are our salvation. Oh Lord, you are our salvation. We rest in you.

Glory, be to you. It's your name. All our our Father. Amen. You may be seated.

Lord, listen to your children pray. Lord, send your spirit in this place. Lord, listen to your children pray. Send us hard, send us power, send us free.

Something's gonna happen that the world has never known. When the people of the Lord can help praise, but always run a swing over there, and the walls gonna turn down. And the people of the Lord can. Lord, listen to children praise Lord, send your spirit in this place. Lord, listen to your children, praise Send us from send us back, send us praise.

Do you have confidence in God today? It's not our strength, it's His. Why do we seek it from ourselves? Why not seek Him? Amen.

Would you stand as we read together God's Word this morning? This is from Psalm 103. Pastor Philip read this. As we began this series, Let's listen as I read aloud. The Lord is merciful.

and gracious. slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins. nor repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love. toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west.

So far does He remove our transgressions from us. as a father shows compassion, to his children.

So the Lord shows compassion. to those who fear him. Amen. Sometimes when our kids were little. and they'd get in trouble.

Uh they would run off and hide from Krista and I. And they would cover their eyes with their hands. Have you ever seen a little kid do this?

Sort of cover their eyes with their hands, or they put a blanket over their head. And they thought they disappeared. You know, if they couldn't see us, we couldn't see them. And they thought they were safe. You know, they'd escaped.

and got away with it. And of course, that's silly, isn't it? It's totally silly. They weren't fooling anyone, we could see them the whole time. But you know what else is really silly?

trying to run and hide from God. You know? I mean, he literally knows all and sees all and is everywhere fully present at all times. times and yet We hide from God, don't we? We try.

Adam and Eve, when they sinned, what do they do? They hid, they hid in the garden. God came after them, didn't he? Where are you? Jonah tried to flee from God.

Didn't like his assignment. He went to Tarshish. And uh God came looking for him, didn't he? He used a ferocious storm. He used a crew of sailors.

Uh used a ginormous fish to get his attention. And when you and I run and hide from God, You know, we do a similar thing. Maybe we don't physically run, but we hide, don't we? We conceal. Our sin.

We wear masks and pretend that everything's okay. We walk around hoping no one ever finds out about Yeah. whatever that is. And God comes looking for us too. Friends.

Because God never gives up on those that He loves. That's why we've titled this series Relentless. Because God is unrelenting in His grace for undeserving people. That's true of God's love for the Ninevites. For Jonah.

And it's true for us as well.

So we're back into the story this week. You'll recall from last time that Jonah had been a national hero. in Israel. It was his prophecy to Jeroboam II. That ultimately led to the securing of the national border, which then led to increased national security for the nation.

and economic prosperity. And so Jonah loved this whole God and country thing. He was happy to serve God as long as it was aligning with his national aspirations. But when God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, the most Feared terrorist nation of the day. The enemies that Israel feared the most to warn them.

to turn from their evil ways. Or judgment would come, Jonah. Flatly disobeyed. He headed in the opposite direction as far as he possibly could go. Because to warn his enemies was to give them a chance, a chance to repent, a chance to turn.

And he knew if they did that, God would be merciful to them. Because that's just the kind of God that God is. And Jonah felt he would rather die. than see his enemies receive the mercy and grace of God.

So he boards a ship to Tarshish as far as he can possibly go from Nineveh. He's fleeing Israel, the land of promise. He's running away from the presence of the Lord. We see that phrase twice in verse 3. He's going away from the presence of the Lord because, in the ancient Near Eastern thought, the sea was the one place where the gods didn't have power.

It was where chaos reigned. And so, if there's anywhere he can escape God, it's going to be at sea. And so he thinks he can hide. He thinks he can escape. He thinks he can get away with it.

But he's about to discover The Lord of the Storm. The Lord of the storm. Grab your Bibles. We're going to be in Jonah chapter 1, verses 7 down to 17 today. We're going to see three.

big movements in the story. The chance of discovery, The sentence of death. and the depths of mercy. The chance of discovery, the sentence of death. and the depths of mercy.

This morning. Would you bow your heads? Let's pray and ask the Lord to teach us today. Heavenly Father, We like to see Jonah as someone Other than ourselves. He's the one with the problems.

He's the one running from God. Father, I pray that you'd help us realize. We all have a little Jonah in us. We all run, we all hide. And in your love, you chase us down.

Help us to learn from Jonah. How to respond rightly to you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

So first of all, the chance of discovery, the chance Of discovery. We've got a storm that's battering, we've got a vessel that's shuddering, the sailors are panicking because they've seen storms, big storms, but nothing like this. Storm. The sea was angry that day, my friends. And the sailors conclude this story.

Must be the work of the gods.

Some God must have it in for them. And they decide the way they're going to figure it out is by casting lots. Casting lots was like gambling. It was rolling dice, flipping coins, drawing straws, that sort of thing. They usually used bone fragments of animals or shards of pottery.

They'd mark one of them specially, and then they would cast them or draw them at random. And the whole point was this exercise was beyond human manipulation and it was under divine influence.

So the whole idea is you can't game the system, but the gods could. And if the gods wanted to send direction or a message, they could do it through this random event. And so it helped them divine the choice that needed to be made, in this case, to discover who it was that had something to hide.

So verse 7, 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.

So, Jonah wins the lottery, or loses the lottery, depending on how you look at it. And here's what's amazing. God uses these pagan sailors. And their chance lottery here to bust Jonah. Isn't that amazing?

He's sovereign over all of this. Don't you see? God is flushing Jonah out of hiding here. He's exposing Jonah for who he really is. In the middle of the sea, in the middle of the storm, in the middle of all these sailors.

God is saying, look, Jonah. You can run, but you can't hide. Because I'm the Lord. I'm the Lord of heaven and earth. of the land and the sea.

Of this storm and these lots, and I'm the Lord of you. And you can't outrun me, Jonah. Verse 8. Then they said to him, Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What's your occupation?

Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you.

Okay, fella, fuss up here. What's your story? What's going on? You got us in this mess. How do we get out of it?

every eye fixed on Jonah, his stomach churns, not because of the sea, but because he's been found out. And in this moment, friends, Jonah has a choice, doesn't he? He he can play innocent. I don't know. He can make up a story.

Where he gets a little safe face, you know, he can make something up. He can refuse to answer, he can plead the fifth, right? Or He can fess up. He can tell The truth. And in the grace of God, friends, Jonah in this moment stops.

in his tracks. He stops hiding. And he starts coming clean. Look at this, verse 9. And 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. You want the truth?

Okay. I'm a Hebrew. I'm a son of Israel. And I fear the Lord. Notice capital L O R D.

Remember, whenever you see capital L O R D, that's a code for in Hebrew, it's the covenant-keeping name of God, Yahweh. This is the name that God gave Moses in Exodus 34 and said, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.

Now here's my question. Why would a guy who's running from God. Use this name. For gun. Why would he use this name?

I wonder if that's significant. Jonah continues, he said, He's the God of heaven. Who made the sea? The sea. The sea!

I'm on. In the dry land. This is God's domain. This is his stomping ground. Like the heavens that are raging, the sea that is churning, this is all God's domain.

In other words, Jonah is realizing what the psalmist will later write in Psalm 139, verses 7 to 12: Where can I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol in the grave, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, Your hand shall lead me, even there your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me. And the light about me be as night, even the darkness is not dark with you. The night is as bright as day, for darkness is as light with you. There's nowhere to hide. Verse 10, then the men 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. See, there's a twist of irony here, friends. The sailors. See the tragic futility of Jonah's flight with immediate clarity. What were you thinking, dude?

You can't outrun the Lord, the God, the Creator of all things. This is His province. And now if they were afraid before, now they're terrified. And in all of this, friends, don't you see that God is bringing Jonah's rebellion into the light? God brings Jonah's rebellion into the light.

The sea, the storm, the lot. It's all designed. By God to bring Jonah into the light so that he will confess out loud what he's been hiding in secret. Friends, listen. If God loved Jonah less, He would just let him go.

But it is his mercy, his grace, his undiminished love that pursues Jonah. God brings Jonah's rebellion into the light because he loves him. Because, friends, bad things grow in the dark. Isn't that true? And when we bring sin into the light, it begins to lose its power.

And as Jonah confesses out loud, The sin that has been in his heart. Not to God yet. He'll do that next chapter. But right now he's confessing to these human beings It's the first step toward his healing. It's the first step toward his healing.

Because, friends, confession is grace. Confession. is grace. Friends, I don't know if I don't know who needs to hear this. This morning.

But if you've been running from God, If you've been hiding your sin, If you've been wearing a mask. Maybe this is God's wake-up call for you this morning. That God is exposing you. He's putting his finger on that thing that you haven't said out loud, that you've been nursing on the inside. God is bringing your rebellion into the light because He loves you.

Because he's not done with you. And he's pursuing you. He loves you too much to let you self-destruct. If he loved you less, he'd let you go. But this storm is for you.

These lots are for you. And in His mercy, God is calling. You. This morning. The Apostle John writes in 1 John 1, verses 5b to 9: God is light.

And in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, We lie. We do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Friends, confession is grace. It feels like a kind of death and yet there's life.

It's the first step toward your healing. I want you to come into the light this morning. Today The second thing we see here is the sentence of death. The sentence of death. Jonah has pleaded guilty.

Now the question is, what's the sentence? Verse 11. Then they said to him, what shall we do to you that the sea would quiet down for us? but the sea grew more and more tempestuous. Jonah, look, you're the reason we're in this mess.

How do we get out of it? What punishment will satisfy the wrath of your God? What will make atonement for your guilt? Verse 12, he said to them, Pick me up. and 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. Jonah's response here is interesting, very revealing. At one level, he's quite correct, isn't he? The wages of sin is death.

And he has openly rebelled against God, and God is bringing justice to him, and atonement must be made. But Jonah also knows that God is a gracious God. That he is merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and quick to relent from disaster. He says so. We saw it last time in.

Chapter 4, verse 2. Jonah knows this about God. That's why he didn't want to go to Nineveh. Because this gracious God would be gracious to the Ninevites.

So Jonah knows the storm is for him, and if he would just turn and repent. and cry out for mercy. God will relent. Because God is unrelenting in his grace for undeserving People. It's true of the Ninevites, it's true of Jonah, it's true of us.

And so all Jonah has to do is repent. and cry out for mercy. And God will answer. But Jonah doesn't do it. He doesn't do it.

He says, instead, hurl me into the sea. Sacrifice. Me, let me go down to the depths. That you might live. Why?

Because Jonah's conflicted. At one level, he's owning his sin, he's coming clean, but at another level, he's still running from God, isn't he? He's still stubborn. He's still too proud. He's obstinate.

He knows exactly what he needs to do, but he won't do it. He's going to go down unrepentant to the very end. But the men can't stomach it. Verse 13: Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

So here they are, they're doing everything in their power to save Jonah's life. to make sure he gets a second chance. Even in his guilty state, they are hoping for his redemption, but all the striving against the storm is futile. Verse 14: Therefore they called out to the Lord, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life. Lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.

See, they really don't want to do what Jonah says must be done. They don't want to be responsible for his death, but they also realize we're out on options. If the prophet of God, of the God who sent this storm, says that the only solution is to throw him into the sea. It must be our only option. You see.

And the situation is thick with irony. Do you see this? These pagan, polytheistic sailors Are the ones crying out for mercy and forgiveness from God? For something they haven't even done. And the one guilty guy keeps his lips closed.

And notice that the pagans are calling on the covenant name of God. Yahweh In this moment, they are closer to God than Jonah is. And here they are making every possible effort. To see a guilty foreigner escape the judgment of God and find mercy, which is the very thing Jonah refused to do for the Ninevites. These pagan sailors Are doing for Jonah what Jonah would not do for the Ninevites.

Do you see that? And as this situation goes from bad to worse for Jonah, He's coming face to face with the reality of his rebellion, isn't he? He's coming face to face. God makes Jonah own the deadliness of his sin. That's what's going on here.

Jonah has to own the deadliness of his sin. Because the wages of sin is death. And as Jonah looks out on this storm of God's wrath, And the watery grave that is awaiting him, I think in this moment the weight of his sin must have sunk in. And Jonah felt conviction. For what he had done.

And friends, conviction is grace. Conviction is grace. Friends, have you ever been overwhelmed with conviction? For your sin, the deadliness of your sin. You realize that's grace, right?

That's grace that the Lord would put his finger on. I'm your problem. and force you to deal with it. Because it's under the weight of conviction that we Cry out for mercy. And it is the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance.

Romans 2.4. And that repentance leads to life. leads to life. Confession feels like death. But it is grace that leads to life.

Conviction feels like death. But it is grace that all Also leads. to life. And now the depths of mercy. the depths of mercy.

Verse 15, so they picked up Jonah. and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. I love this.

So, God, remember, He hurled the storm, they hurled the cargo, now they're hurling Jonah. Right? The sea ceases from its raging just like that. And sailors realize Yahweh is the Lord of the storm. Verse 16, the men feared the Lord exceedingly.

and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. Notice their fear has transferred. First, they were afraid of the storm.

Now they fear the Lord of the storm. It reminds me of another group of sailors in the New Testament. with another man who was sleeping through a storm. You know the one I'm talking about? Jesus asleep on the boat.

And the disciples wake him up and say, Don't you care that we're perishing? They were afraid of the storm. And Jesus stood up and he spoke to the wind and the waves and said, Peace. Be still. Like he was hushing a little baby to sleep.

And the sea became calm. Just like that. And Mark says they were terrified. and said to one another, Who is this man? that the wind and the waves obey him.

They were no longer afraid of the storm. They were afraid of the Lord of the storm. It's exactly what's happening here. with these sailors in Jonah's day. And they respond, right, by offering a sacrifice, thanking God for sparing their lives, and they make vows.

We don't get the content of their vows, but it's likely that they're promising to worship the Lord God as the one true God, that they are vowing to seek to serve and honor Him with all of their lives. And again, such irony. Don't you see this? The pagan polytheistic sailors are more rightly responding to God than his own prophet. It's amazing.

Who is at this very moment sinking in the depths of the sea with stubborn unrepentance in his heart? But God's mercy, friends, knows no depths. and his fathomless grace. is beneath the waves. Verse seventeen.

And the Lord appointed a great fish. to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. My mom used to send me to my room. When I got out of line.

She said, You go in there and you think about what you've done. You think about it. You think about it. And I had to stay there. until I had a change of heart.

And that's basically what God's doing with Jonah here. Only instead of his room, he's sending him to the GI track of a giant fish. Makes your parents look awesome, doesn't it? Yeah. And he has to stay there until he has a change of heart.

But don't you see this fish is again mercy and grace? Because with this fish, God rescues Jonah from the watery grave, doesn't he? Instead of an instant death, Jonah gets more time. A chance to repent. To cry out for mercy and discover that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and quick to relent from disaster.

Friends, Jonah needed time. to find repentance, didn't he? Just like the Ninevites needed time to find repentance. It turns out Jonah and the Ninevites are actually in the same boat. Both are desperately in need.

of God's unrelenting grace for undeserving people. And instead of treating the Ninevites and Jonah as their sins deserved, dropping the hammer and bringing down immediate judgment in his mercy, God gives the Ninevites and Jonah more time to find repentance. Instead of stopping the clock, He lets the game continue. into overtime. Because continuation is grace.

Continuation. is grace. Friends, do you realize how much extra time God gives us When Adam and Eve sinned, they had one rule, they broke it, right? They wrecked the universe. Right?

If you were driving a really nice car and you wrecked it, there would be consequences, right?

Well, they wrecked the whole universe, okay? It's pretty bad. And at that moment, the whole thing could have ended. The whole human story, the human project. The human experiment.

Could have just been over, right? Done. Forget it. And yet God gave them time, didn't he? Time to repent.

Time to return. Time to reconcile. And come back. When the Ninevites conquered the world with brutality and terrorism. God could have dropped the hammer.

He could have ended it. They were evil, and they deserved it. But God gave them more time. Time to repent. Time to return.

Time to reconcile. When Jonah said, Forget you, God, I don't want to do what you told me. I'm done with you. God coulda let him sink, couldn't he? He would have deserved it.

But God gave him more. Time. Time to repent. Time to return, time to Reconcile. Friends, when humanity rose up and crucified the Son of God.

Cosmic treason. It could have ended right there. You kill the Creator. There are consequences. And yet God gave humanity more.

Time. Time to repent, time to return, time to. Reconcile. And friends, as bad as this world gets, With all of our sin and all of our rebellion and all of our cultures in-your-face rejection of God. Do you realize at any moment Jesus can return and put everything to right and bring justice and put an end to all wickedness?

He can do this. But God gives more time. Time to repent, time to return, time to reconcile. You know why Jesus hasn't come back? 2 Peter 3:9, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but he is patient.

Toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Because friends, continuation is grace. Another day. Another chance to repent, to cry out for mercy, to discover God's unrelenting grace for undeserving people. And that window of time won't stay open forever.

That's why the Bible says today is the day of salvation. Today If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. But repent of your sin. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Because friends, on the cross Jesus faced the storm of God's wrath.

And he died in our place and for our sake. when we deserve to sink to the bottom of the sea for our sins. He said, Throw me in instead, so that you might live. Let me go to the depths. For you.

And on the cross, friends, Jesus offered himself as our substitute. He was swallowed up by our watery grave. There was no great fish to rescue him.

So that we might live on the calm seas. Peace. Be still. As Jesus says in Matthew 12, Verse 40: Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.

So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And on the third day, friends, Jesus rose again. And with his resurrection life, he gave us more time. Time to repent. Time to return.

Time to reconcile. Because God is unrelenting in His grace for undeserving. people and no matter how far we run or how much we try to hide. No matter how stubborn and proud and obstinate we are, friends, our God always comes looking for us. Because God never never gives up.

On those he laughs. Amen. Amen. Friends, God's grace is relentless. Relentless.

John 3, 16 and 17, for God so loved the world. That he gave his only son. That whoever believes in him should not perish. perish. but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. But in order that the world might be saved through Yeah. Friends, won't you turn to Jesus? While there's still time. Today.

is the day of salvation. Would you bow your heads and pray with me? Father. I want to pray for two groups of people in this room this morning. I want to pray for people who are like the sailors in our story.

That for the first time are encountering the living God. The God of heaven. who made the Sea and the dry land and all that there is. who are encountering The name of God. for the first time.

The covenant keeping. Name of God. Father, there are people here maybe this morning. who want to come home. Who wants to respond to your grace, to your saving work in Jesus Christ?

Who are ready to admit that they are sinners? and believe that Jesus is their substitute. Commend all of their life to you. Father, I pray. For your saving work in their lives this morning.

I pray that you would grab a hold of them, that they would say yes to you. And Father, I want to pray for those who are here who. are like Jonah. in our story. That there are secret sins hiding.

in the dark places. of their lives. And they're not being honest. about what's going on. confessing their sin.

Father, would this be the moment where they stop running? where they realize the weight of their sin. the deadliness of what they're playing with. And that they would be bold and courageous to say it out loud. to come clean and come home.

Father, only you can Do the work of transforming our hearts. Help us, we pray. Father, the hope for Jonah's and the hope for sailors alike. is the mercy and grace. that you offer to us.

In Jesus Christ. our substitute, his life for ours. when he died on the cross. for us. We cling to him.

as our only hope.

So father We admit that we are sinners, far from you. Father, we believe that Jesus has done everything to make us right with you. And Father, we commit ourselves to you. As our Savior and our Lord. We come clean.

We come home. We come. to you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. You delight to show your mercy.

So ready to forgive. You delight to show your mercy, for your name is made in your heart. Hear the airless home, where all your name you alone can save. Hear the air is known, when your name is reigned in your heart. His grace here the heavens on our own human world can save mercy Christ have mercy Christ have mercy on mercy Christ have mercy on us now who is this God who partens all our sin so ready to forgive you delight to show your mercy Who is this love who pardons all our sins?

So ready to forgive the show your mercy. Amen. Aren't you so grateful that there's more mercy in Christ? Then there's sin in us. Amen.

Amen. Our benediction today. is a verse that we read earlier, but I just I want us to Let this sink in. This is 1 John. five through nine.

God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie. And we do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light. as he is in the light.

We have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, We deceive ourselves. and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all.

unrighteousness, everything. This is our God.

So Moody Church, remember, you're loved more than you know. And now, let's go and be the church. Have a great week. On today's Moody Church hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller with another message in a series he's calling Relentless: The Book of Jonah. We heard about The Lord of the Storm.

Clearly, Jonah is in serious trouble.

Next time a man in desperate straits finds grace beneath the waves. The Moody Church Hour is a listener-supported ministry. We count on the ongoing financial support of listeners like you. Together, we share solid biblical teaching that transforms lives across America and around the world. You can call us at 1-800-215-5001.

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