Marina Christian Fellowship
Sunday 10 AM - October 20th, 2019
Sunday Worship Service
Locations & Times
Marina Christian Fellowship
12606 Culver Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066, USA
Sunday 10:00 AM
Series: Grace TrekTitle: Jonah's Journey, Our Journey
Title: In the Belly of the Beast
Text: Jonah 1:17-2:2, Psalm 121:1-2
Legitimate suffering
“Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.” - Carl Jung
In other words, the attempted avoidance of legitimate and necessary suffering that comes with being human, leads to unnecessary suffering.
Meanwhile, the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish: “I called out to the Lord in my distress, and he answered me. From the belly of the underworld I cried out for help and you have heard my voice.” Jonah 1:17-2:2 (CEB)
Jonah did what a lot of people do when they realize that their attempts to avoid necessary suffering through their own controlling behavior has led them into worse unnecessary suffering. Jonah finally cried out to God for help!
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills-- from where will my help come? 2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2 (NRSV)
A wise person will have figured out, probably through a lot of failure and unnecessary suffering, to look to God for help in times of trouble.
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. Luke 4:1-2a (NRSV)
In our baptism, we repent, trust and follow Christ, and are named a beloved child of God, which is our true identity. After our baptism that commitment and true identity will be challenged. That is called spiritual warfare. Jesus provided a great example of how to respond to spiritual warfare.
The most powerful spiritual weapon in overcoming the forces of evil is to agree with what God says about what is true. That requires HUMILITY.
First Battle: The Identity Battle
3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Matthew 4:3(NRSV)
IF you are NOT God’s beloved Son, then you are really on your own. Therefore, misuse your own power to satisfy your personal needs. It is interesting that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first request He teaches us to make is for our daily bread (the food we need to survive). This is a recognition that I am God’s beloved child and, therefore, God is the source of my daily provision. I am not.
4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4 (NRSV)
Jesus agreed with God’s version of reality rather than the devil’s twisted distortion of it. For Jesus, food alone was not enough. He had to agree with every word that comes from the mouth of God. And the most basic word that came from God’s mouth about Him was that He was God’s beloved son. Jesus, therefore, teaches us that to win the identity battle, we must agree with what God says about who we truly are.
Second Battle: The Validation Battle
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Matthew 4:5-6 (NRSV)
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Matthew 4:7 (NRSV)
Jesus rejected the devil’s lie about the need to seek validation. Jesus agreed with with the fact that God had not only declared Him to be a beloved son, but also declared that God was “well pleased” with Him. And what God says about Jesus is also true for us. When God created us, God declared that we are supremely good and in us, He is well pleased. We do not need to seek validation from others because God has already validated us.
We think God is in the business of using power to validate our egos. When we involve God in trying to put a stamp of approval on our egotistical games, it never works out. God’s power does not serve the ego. It functions in the service of love.
Third Battle: The Worship Battle
Worship = To ascribe worth (worth ship) and to regard with the highest respect, honor, or devotion.
There really are only two things we can worship. We can either worship God or ourselves. A basic temptation of the devil is to replace the worship which rightly belongs to God with self-worship.
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:8-9 (NRSV)
Satan gets us to bow to him by bowing to ourselves and the demands of the ego. Here Satan is ultimately trying to get Jesus to serve himself, rather than to obey God the Father’s will.
“Underneath it all is the radical evil of the human heart - a heart that would make me god in place of God.” - Dallas Willard
It is a battle over who gets to sit on the throne of our hearts. Will it be me or God?
10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Matthew 4:10 (NRSV)
The ultimate weapon in our battles against the enemy is true humility. It is to agree that God is God and you are not.
6 But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you…. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. James 4:6-7, 10 (NRSV)
When we, like Jonah, find ourselves in the belly of the beast, it is an opportunity to learn humility. It is an opportunity to let go of the way we want to define ourselves, and to allow God to define us. It is an opportunity to stop feeding the ego with attempts at validation, and to be content in the knowledge that God’s validation of us is enough. But most of all it is an opportunity to dethrone our egos and put God back in the rightful place of being the only God to which we bow.
.
..we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5:1b-5 (NRSV)
Our suffering in the belly of the beast is meant to be a love education. It is meant to empty us out of self, so we can be filled with God’s love. Through being humbled and learning to let God be God, we grow in our capacity to love as God loves.
Title: In the Belly of the Beast
Text: Jonah 1:17-2:2, Psalm 121:1-2
Legitimate suffering
“Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.” - Carl Jung
In other words, the attempted avoidance of legitimate and necessary suffering that comes with being human, leads to unnecessary suffering.
Meanwhile, the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish: “I called out to the Lord in my distress, and he answered me. From the belly of the underworld I cried out for help and you have heard my voice.” Jonah 1:17-2:2 (CEB)
Jonah did what a lot of people do when they realize that their attempts to avoid necessary suffering through their own controlling behavior has led them into worse unnecessary suffering. Jonah finally cried out to God for help!
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills-- from where will my help come? 2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2 (NRSV)
A wise person will have figured out, probably through a lot of failure and unnecessary suffering, to look to God for help in times of trouble.
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. Luke 4:1-2a (NRSV)
In our baptism, we repent, trust and follow Christ, and are named a beloved child of God, which is our true identity. After our baptism that commitment and true identity will be challenged. That is called spiritual warfare. Jesus provided a great example of how to respond to spiritual warfare.
The most powerful spiritual weapon in overcoming the forces of evil is to agree with what God says about what is true. That requires HUMILITY.
First Battle: The Identity Battle
3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Matthew 4:3(NRSV)
IF you are NOT God’s beloved Son, then you are really on your own. Therefore, misuse your own power to satisfy your personal needs. It is interesting that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first request He teaches us to make is for our daily bread (the food we need to survive). This is a recognition that I am God’s beloved child and, therefore, God is the source of my daily provision. I am not.
4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4 (NRSV)
Jesus agreed with God’s version of reality rather than the devil’s twisted distortion of it. For Jesus, food alone was not enough. He had to agree with every word that comes from the mouth of God. And the most basic word that came from God’s mouth about Him was that He was God’s beloved son. Jesus, therefore, teaches us that to win the identity battle, we must agree with what God says about who we truly are.
Second Battle: The Validation Battle
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Matthew 4:5-6 (NRSV)
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Matthew 4:7 (NRSV)
Jesus rejected the devil’s lie about the need to seek validation. Jesus agreed with with the fact that God had not only declared Him to be a beloved son, but also declared that God was “well pleased” with Him. And what God says about Jesus is also true for us. When God created us, God declared that we are supremely good and in us, He is well pleased. We do not need to seek validation from others because God has already validated us.
We think God is in the business of using power to validate our egos. When we involve God in trying to put a stamp of approval on our egotistical games, it never works out. God’s power does not serve the ego. It functions in the service of love.
Third Battle: The Worship Battle
Worship = To ascribe worth (worth ship) and to regard with the highest respect, honor, or devotion.
There really are only two things we can worship. We can either worship God or ourselves. A basic temptation of the devil is to replace the worship which rightly belongs to God with self-worship.
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:8-9 (NRSV)
Satan gets us to bow to him by bowing to ourselves and the demands of the ego. Here Satan is ultimately trying to get Jesus to serve himself, rather than to obey God the Father’s will.
“Underneath it all is the radical evil of the human heart - a heart that would make me god in place of God.” - Dallas Willard
It is a battle over who gets to sit on the throne of our hearts. Will it be me or God?
10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Matthew 4:10 (NRSV)
The ultimate weapon in our battles against the enemy is true humility. It is to agree that God is God and you are not.
6 But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you…. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. James 4:6-7, 10 (NRSV)
When we, like Jonah, find ourselves in the belly of the beast, it is an opportunity to learn humility. It is an opportunity to let go of the way we want to define ourselves, and to allow God to define us. It is an opportunity to stop feeding the ego with attempts at validation, and to be content in the knowledge that God’s validation of us is enough. But most of all it is an opportunity to dethrone our egos and put God back in the rightful place of being the only God to which we bow.
.
..we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5:1b-5 (NRSV)
Our suffering in the belly of the beast is meant to be a love education. It is meant to empty us out of self, so we can be filled with God’s love. Through being humbled and learning to let God be God, we grow in our capacity to love as God loves.
Today's worship songs Spotify Playlist
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https://open.spotify.com/user/bfenwick/playlist/4mJV7hCN4P3M1Ye1g9nagd?si=neOcm7foSIWPIRDH3eDScASongs for 10-20-19
1. Multiplied by Need to Breathe
2. Head to the Heart by United Pursuit
3. Never Let Go by Matt Redman
4. Praise You In This Storm by Casting Crowns
5. Boldly I Approach by Rend Collective
1. Multiplied by Need to Breathe
2. Head to the Heart by United Pursuit
3. Never Let Go by Matt Redman
4. Praise You In This Storm by Casting Crowns
5. Boldly I Approach by Rend Collective
Upcoming Events
10/27/19 - Youth Group at 10 AM in the youth room<br>10/27/19 - Grace Trek Sermon Series: Getting Closer<br>11/2/19 - Habitat Build Day<br>11/3/19 - Youth Group at 9 AM in the youth room<br>11/3/19 - All Saints Sunday (Our Saints)<br>11/3/19 - Grace Trek Sermon Series: Take Up Your Cross
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MCF “happens” because of your giving! Your generous financial partnership is vital and greatly appreciated! You can give at the following link below or by texting MCF to 77977.
https://pushpay.com/g/marinachristian?src=hpp