Well, hello Valley View. I hope if you’re watching this you’re warm and surviving the snow, that you have power. Of course, I’m recording this Friday evening, so who knows exactly what you’re experiencing this as you watch it. But the elders felt that it was best to just go ahead and make the decision. It was clear some kind of big storm was coming. Let’s go ahead and make the decision to cancel church for this week. But I’m recording this video to give your families something to watch together, to meditate on together, to discuss together. And if if you live alone, if you don’t have family around, call a friend. You should have some of the discussion questions and the email that we sent out as well. And the goal is just to help you get in God’s word this morning. You’re hunkered down at home. The days might seem endless the longer you’re at home. And this just gives us an opportunity to worship. You have a playlist as well of worship songs, and just gives you a chance to spend Sunday morning as you normally would worshiping the Lord. And to do that, I wanted to point us to a passage in the New Testament. We’ve been studying the book of Jonah, and I didn’t want to just deliver that sermon that I had prepared for this Sunday, because it’s the last chapter in Jonah. It’s going to wrap up the book of Jonah. I think it’s a really important chapter for wrapping up some important themes in that book, and I didn’t want to shorten it or condense it. I want to still deliver that sermon. I think it’s something that will benefit us all. So we’ll do that the next time we’re together. But I think there’s some key ideas in Jonah, chapter four, the next Jonah sermon we’ll look at, that we can talk about today because Jonah chapter four, the theme of the message that I’m going to highlight is what do you do? How do you react when things don’t go your way? That’s really what Jonah, the situation he finds himself in. He went to Nineveh even though he didn’t want to eventually goes, he preaches, the whole city repents, which is the thing every preacher would want to happen. And yet he pouts afterwards. We’re going to see when we look at chapter four. He’s not happy about it. He’s upset things didn’t go his way. God didn’t follow his plan. How do you react to that? I think we see that theme. So we see his reaction obviously reveals the fact that he doesn’t realize how much God has done for him. He’s forgotten how much God has done for him. He never fully embraced that God had shown me such mercy in the belly of the whale, and yet I’m not willing to extend that to others. We see that theme in a number of other stories in the New Testament. I’m going to point is to one in Luke chapter seven, and it’s the story where a Pharisee invites Jesus to his home for a meal. And so this is in Luke chapter seven. I’m going to read the first few verses to give us the setting. I encourage you, I’m not, I’m not going to unpack all of it. I’m just going to read through it, describe a few things, set you up with some things to consider and discuss. I’d encourage you to reread it as a family. Maybe pass around the Bible and give people opportunity to read some of the verses. Luke 7:36. One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisees house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now just try to imagine that setting. Try to imagine yourself. You go over to a friend’s house, someone well-respected in the church. They’re inviting over a really important Bible teacher from out of town, someone you really respect, want to hear from. And while you’re sitting there, in comes this woman that is known as someone who wouldn’t be invited to this, that you wouldn’t want around, who has a poor reputation. She is uninvited and she comes in and starts doing this, wiping his feet, weeping, pouring out expensive perfume on his feet and ointment. Just try to imagine how incredibly awkward that would feel. I mean, everyone in the room would probably be horrified, wondering what is going to happen. What is Jesus going to do? What is the host going to do? How’s this all going to end up? It would be extremely awkward. Now we get the reaction of the host of the Pharisee. Here’s what he says. Verse 39. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him being Jesus saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. And so we get his response. It’s interesting. His immediate response is, this can’t be a prophet because he’s allowing her to touch him instead of why wouldn’t his response immediately? Wow. Only a prophet would show this kind of love and mercy to someone. This already reveals a little bit about his heart. And then Jesus, of course, knowing this response to him and here’s what Jesus says. And Jesus answered, answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you now. It says, Jesus answered him, this man said to himself, so Jesus knew what he was thinking. And Simon said, say it, teacher. And Jesus now gives a parable, gives an object lesson. I love how parables will pry open the heart in a way that just giving someone a nugget of truth doesn’t all always do. So here’s what he says. Verse 41 A certain money money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii, and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And Jesus, he said to him, you have judged rightly so. He’s been talking to Simon. He’s told him this parable, and who knows if Simon is getting it or not? More than likely he is. But now he turns to the woman. The scene shifts and he turns to her and he says, still speaking to Simon, even though he’s turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. And he’s been speaking to Simon, even though he’s looking at her. And now he speaks to her, and he says, your sins are forgiven. And then we get the reaction of everyone in the room. So if you’ve been sitting in the room and this whole awkward interaction has been going down, now you get to hear Jesus explaining to the rest of us, then those who were at the table are you get to hear everyone else react. Then those who were at the table with him began to say, among themselves, who is this who even forgive sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. I think this story’s powerful because in it we also get a glimpse of some of what Jonah was wrestling with. We get a glimpse into the heart of this man. We get a comparison between this man and this woman, and we get their behavior, and we see how their behavior reveals so much about how they view various things. It reveals how they view Jesus. You know, the Pharisee viewed him as just some guy. Hopefully I can entertain and and maybe who knows? We know they often wanted to trick him. I don’t know what this guys in particular motive was, but he certainly wasn’t there to worship him. Whereas the woman we know that she views Jesus very differently than he does, we see how they view themselves. He had no humility. He lacked humility. He was very pompous and pious. She humbled herself. She was full of humility. In fact, I’ve been, reading the book Lower by Zach Mere-, Meerkreebs I think his name, he was the guy who preached the sermon at Asbury that sparked the revival there. And even by his own admission, his own explanation, his own description of the sermon, was that it was a real stinker, one of my worst. He texted that to his wife as soon as he finished, which is a good reminder that man, God can use even the things that we do that we feel like weren’t great. How encouraging is that? He quotes C.S. Lewis in his book. And his book isn’t just about the revival. It talks about the revival, and it also talks about the importance of walking in humility. C.S. Lewis says this about humility. He says, if anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. That’s a big step too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed. That’s a hard. It’s a hard quote to hear, because none of us likes to walk around thinking that we’re prideful, but I think we all could identify areas of pride in our lives if we really took the time to pray over it and think about it. But that’s the first step to admit it, to be aware of it. And we see her humbling herself before Jesus. He was too prideful to do so. We also see their view of forgiveness, and I think this is quite possibly the main crux of the passage, because in verse 47, 40–, yes. 47 he said, I tell you her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And I think this highlights the issue this man was wrestling with. And also similar issue that Jonah was likely wrestling with, which was they didn’t really appreciate or understand their need for forgiveness fully. They probably thought they were still self righteous, doing great, doing pretty good. But when they come to the place where you realize how much God has done for you, how much he has forgiven you, that changes everything. And it’s through that. You’re able then to extend forgiveness to others. When you realize how much he’s done for you. So I will give you some questions to discuss along these lines, but I think it’s important in the midst of these questions, to be thinking about how do you relate to both the Pharisee and the woman in the story? Because there’s been times in all of our lives where we’ve been the proud, self-righteous, didn’t need, didn’t really, really realize our need for forgiveness. There have been times where we can relate well with that. There have been other times where we can relate to the broken woman who’s overwhelmed with her sin, who’s falling at his feet begging, and just so grateful for his love for her. I think we can relate to both, and it’s important to connect with both. I think this also sets us up for how we’ll view Jonah four next week, and it’s important for us as a church to walk in humility, to be a church that when people come in, they know we don’t think we’re any better than you. Maybe you don’t know Christ, and we do, but we’ve been where you are. We love you. We want you to hear truth because that’s the greatest thing that can happen to you is to know Jesus, to find him in his word. And that’s our hope. So we will hopefully see you next Sunday. Hopefully everything’s cleaned up by them. Maybe even Wednesday night. I will say we’ve decided to cancel Wednesday night supper so there won’t be a meal Wednesday night. The preparation for that usually starts on Monday and more than likely, it seems the storm will disrupt that. So it won’t be a meal. We’ll see whether there will be activities that night or not. More than likely, if the roads are clear enough, we’ll still have regular activities. Students, Awana, dgroups. But we’ll communicate that in our Wednesday midweek update plan to send that out as well. If you didn’t read this last one, check it out. Because in that, I highlighted a number of exciting activities we have coming this spring. We have some guest speakers, one in particular. I think you’d be very interested in. I think God is doing some great things in our church right now, and there’s some exciting events ahead of us I think you’ll want to know about and look forward to. So praying you have a great Sunday and a great week. So grateful for this church of so grateful for Valley View. Thank you for being in God’s Word this morning together. Have a great day.