CRCF””6/12/11
A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human being because even though they were a very large mammal their throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was indeed swallowed by a whale. The teacher reiterated a whale could not swallow a human; it was impossible. So the little girl said, “When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah.” The compassionate teacher asked, “Well, what if Jonah went to hell?” And the little girl replied, “Then you ask him.”
Ronnie McBrayer
As humans, we have an almost infinite capacity for screwing up. But thanks be to God there is at least one thing stronger than fallen, human stubbornness: Grace.
“Where sin (insert stupidity, stubbornness, foolishness) was powerful, God’s grace was even more powerful” (Romans 5:20).
Ronnie McBrayer
God”™s grace provides the opportunity and power to truly, actually change.
We are stubborn. But, with inexhaustible mercy, an all-powerful God, with time on his side, will overcome our stubbornness and transform us with His love!
The Jonah story proves the persistent grace and mercy and love of God. It teaches us about”¦
Recognizing Hard Grace
Ronnie McBrayer
HARD GRACE”¦What is it, exactly? It is God”™s mercy come to us by painful means. It is heaven”™s love in disguise. It is a divine gift in a very strange package. Hard grace is Jonah in the belly of the whale. How is that grace? Because if that big fish, selected by God to gobble Jonah up, had not appeared, Jonah would have drowned in the depth of the Mediterranean Sea. The whale was not Jonah”™s undoing. It was his salvation.
You can recognize God”™s hard grace and allow Him to lovingly reshape you for the life you were made for!
Jonah 1:1-3, 10-12, 17 (NLT)
1 The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai:
2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.
”¢ Sometimes “hard grace” has to come because of our rebellion.
Jonah ran 2,000 miles in the opposite direction from where God told Him to go!
And by the way, running away from God is fairly easy sometimes”¦at least at first!
There will always be a boat ready and waiting to take you away from God! There will always be someone who will drive that boat for you. But getting on that boat will always be a step down”¦and in the wrong direction. And it just might bring “hard grace” rushing into your life!
The text tells us in verse 5-6 that Jonah was sound asleep when this awful nor”™easter blew up.
”¢ Sometimes “hard grace” is necessary to wake us up from sin we”™ve become comfortable in.
10 The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. 11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”
”¢ Most of the time, our sin affects other people. And sometimes “hard grace” is sent to protect the innocent around us.
12 “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”
I believe that Jonah was at a place where he would have rather died than give up his stubborn pride and obey God!
17 Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.
What grace God shows Jonah! “Hard grace”, albeit”¦but grace nonetheless. God is the God of a second, third”¦tenth”¦twentieth chance!
Ronnie McBrayer
“You got to be tough if you”™re gonna be stupid.” We start down certain paths knowing, but not admitting, the eventual outcome. Road signs the size of billboards might as well be pointing out the dangers, and in the back of our minds we know it”™s going to hurt: Bad relationship choices, poor financial decisions, overly ambitious business goals, acts of selfishness and deceit.
You can recognize God”™s hard grace and allow Him to lovingly reshape you for the life you were made for!
Jonah 2:10 (NLT)
10 Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.
Hungry, tired and covered in whale-vomit, God finally has the prophet”™s attention!
You can recognize God”™s hard grace and allow Him to lovingly reshape you for the life you were made for!
Jonah 3:1-5, 10-4:11 (NLT)
1 Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”
3 This time Jonah obeyed the Lord”™s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. 4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” 5 The people of Nineveh believed God”™s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.
”¢ God”™s “hard grace” can wake us up and equip us for His assignment for our lives!
You can recognize God”™s hard grace and allow Him to lovingly reshape you for the life you were made for!
BUT”¦
Just because God gets our attention, changes and uses us one time, doesn”™t mean that we”™ll never blow it again!
10 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.
1 This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. 2 So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn”™t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.
The Message
1-2 Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God! I knew it””when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!
3 Just kill me now, Lord! I”™d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”
4 The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”
5 Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city.
The Message
5 But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk.
6 And the Lord God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah”™s head, shading him from the sun. This eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant.
7 But God also arranged for a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away. 8 And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed.
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
“Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”
10 Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. 11 But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn”™t I feel sorry for such a great city?”
Johnny Hunt
Sin does not have to have reasons or fact to argue/complain; sin simply argues because it is sin.
You can recognize God”™s hard grace and allow Him to lovingly reshape you for the life you were made for!
And Jonah HAD been right there! But as the book ends, Jonah has reverted to a temper tantrum and his old stubborn ways of being self-righteous towards his enemies and bitter at God because He”™s so gracious!
Now catch this”¦
You HAVE to recognize God”™s hard grace and allow Him to lovingly reshape you for the life you were made for!
It won”™t happen automatically, just because “hard grace” crashes into your life!
You can recognize God”™s hard grace and allow Him to lovingly reshape you for the life you were made for!
WILL YOU?
Ronnie McBrayer
Hard grace comes in the form of divorce, betrayal, family upheaval, job loss, the death of a loved one, the death of an idea, or break-up; you think your life will never be the same again, and you are right. The pain, however, is not unto death. It becomes a doorway to self-discovery, to personal transformation, to a God-honoring life you never thought possible. Hard grace arrives at our doorsteps in the shape of sickness, financial collapse, bankruptcy, addiction, injustice, self-inflicted wounds, foolish decisions and personal rebellion. Hard grace is all those things that God allows into our lives that deconstruct us. Hard grace reveals and then strips away our inadequacies, our false personas, our rebellious façades, our ugly prejudices, our selfishness, and all our heavy and life-stealing baggage.
But this tearing down and stripping away is not for our destruction”¦
It is for the purpose of our rebuilding and remaking. Hard grace does not destroy us. It transforms us. Hard grace does not set us back. It propels us forward. Hard grace doesn”™t leave us to drown in the trouble of our own making. It gobbles us up providing space and place (cramped as it is) to learn, grow, change, and then get on with the life God has for us. Hard grace hurts us ”“ yes”“ but hard grace never harms us. That”™s why it is grace! And that is why it comes to us when we deserve it the least! God”™s grace prevails in our lives, even when it is grace that seems to beat us black and blue.
You can recognize God”™s hard grace and allow Him to lovingly reshape you for the life you were made for!
Hard grace is the prodigal son coming to his senses, face down in mud and much of a pig pen, and finally deciding to go home.
Do you remember the story?
Luke 15:1-2, 11-24 (NLT)
1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people””even eating with them!
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ”˜I want my share of your estate now before you die.”™ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ”˜At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.””™
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ”˜Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.”™
22 “But his father said to the servants, ”˜Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.”™ So the party began.
David Beavers
God often hides his holiness, grace and mercy in our failings and falling…even our rebellion (ala Jonah). This hard grace is just the way it is. It’s not a sometimes thing for certain saints, it’s not the way things workout, or because we are “bad” people, but “the way” (Jn14:6) but for all whose hearts hunger for his healing and grace. We don’t want it, we don’t look for it, but it is “necessary”. On the surface, the happy endings don’t happen like we expect, but the characters are transformed, and that’s the goal, or that’s really the gospel (not just the “escape” hatch).
You can recognize God”™s hard grace and allow Him to lovingly reshape you for the life you were made for!
Ronnie McBrayer
Hard grace is not taught. It can only be experienced. There is no school for this sort of thing ”“ only hands-on practice of it. We can talk about, illustrate it, appreciate it ”“ but in the end we have to live it.
Because we are human, we will make mistakes, and because we will make mistakes, we will become experienced in the currency of hard grace. We don’t necessarily want it; we don’t go looking for it; we prefer to stay out of whale bellies whenever possible, but this is a necessary part of being human. Our humanity leads us to making mistakes, our mistakes lead us into storms of our own making, and these storms lead us to hard, redeeming grace, and that grace transforms us ”“ if ”“ and this is a very big IF”“ if we will allow it. If we will be good stewards of our pain and our failures; if we will accept our brokenness as a birth canal for a new life; if we will see our shattered hearts as the plowed up soil through which the seeds of the future will erupt; if we will let this deconstruction of our very being, become the beginning of something new and wonderful God wants to build.
I want to close with an amazing video of a Chinese girl with no fingers on right hand playing piano. I don”™t know how she lost her fingers””not sure if perhaps she was born that way (kinda looks like it). Now, I think this video fails to parallel the message exactly””because I don”™t think that the fact that she doesn”™t have fingers is because of God”™s hard grace necessarily. But her RESPONSE is what I want us to get”¦and to IMITATE when dealing with God”™s hard grace in our lives. Hard grace doesn”™t have to be the end of the show”¦hard grace can be the beginning of the dance!
In fact, that is God”™s intention in hard grace!
May we allow God”™s hard grace to reshape us so that our broken and imperfect and weak lives can play a concerto of grace for others to hear!