Stephanie Grounds has been attending Calvary Baptist Church since 2005 and resides in Grand Prairie, TX with her husband Chad and their three children. You can find Stephanie teaching in the Refinery or Boulevard of Kid City on most Sundays.  In her spare time, Stephanie likes to hang out with family, play volleyball, and cheer for THE Dallas Cowboys!

Some of you might know me as Chad's wife or you might know me as the girl that wears the blue shirt since I'm always in Kid City. I met my husband at Arlington Baptist College in 1995. Seven months into our friendship, and our courtship, we were sitting in an Arlington hospital room with my parents, and a doctor with bad bedside manner.  At the age of 20, he told me I needed a full hysterectomy. The words simply rolled off the tip of his tongue, “You're never going to be able to have children. You might as well go ahead and get the surgery. We can schedule it today or tomorrow.” What he said so easily, felt as if a house just landed on me, and crushed me. I also remember my very sweet, but very Texan mama replying, “Well, I don't think you are God and we will definitely be seeking a second opinion! Thank you, bye-bye. You are done here.”

The road to my surgeries began. There were six surgeries to be exact, one before I was married, five to follow afterwards, and they all led to exactly the same place: no children. It is amazing how during some of the loneliest times in my life, I absolutely felt my Savior the closest to me. He was right there beside me. He was whispering truths because the enemy was on a mission. Satan wanted to sift me like wheat and sometimes I let him. He would start whispering, “What kind of a woman are you? This is what your husband has dreamed of! All he talked about while you dated was having a family. You cannot give him that. What is wrong with you?” About the time that the enemy would start feeding me those lies, my Savior would start shouting out words of truth; everything depended on who I chose to listen to. The Lord taught me so much during my journey and gave me what I like to call “nuggets of truth”.

About eight years into my journey with infertility I was at my very lowest after learning a birth mom was choosing another family; not Chad and I. This was the second time we had tried to pursue adoption and the door had been shut. I fell on my face in my living room floor and sobbed from the depths of my soul. I gave myself time to weep and mourn before I got up and I went to the Word. That's where the comfort came from - friends can give you comfort, I love my family more than life, but the Word is what kept me sustained. I remember telling the Lord specifically, “I am lost. Please take away this desire to be a mom. I feel dried up and empty.”

My kind and gracious Savior took me to the Bible study I had been doing. The verse was Isaiah 58:11,

”And the Lord will guide you continually...”   Wait Lord, you mean I’m not lost?

“And satisfy your desire in scorched places...” My desire was to be a Mom and let me tell you, I felt really burned.

“And make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” Wait, I’m not dried up?

Then I gave up! Not the way you quit something, but I surrendered once and for all. This journey would be 100% His will and not mine, His timing and not mine, His way and not my way. I promise you, besides salvation, that was the sweetest surrender of my life!

In August 2008, after a nine-year battle with infertility (and you can say nine years, “like oh yeah nine years” but that’s a LONG time), I found out we were expecting. I embraced every moment of sickness. Every time I felt like throwing up I celebrated; I was so excited! It was a reminder of the life that the Lord had amazingly placed inside me. One month later we found out we weren’t only expecting, but we were expecting twins! At 20 we were told we would never have children and 13 years later we’re carrying twins... TWIN GIRLS! Their daddy was in trouble.

Everything was going perfect until my 24^th week. I taught at an elementary school, having a normal day, until the pain hit. I thought, “Good grief what did I eat that you two disagree with?” Before I knew it, I found myself in the nurse’s station at the school, buckled over, while she told the school counselor to get me to the hospital pronto! This could not be happening.

At the hospital, they told me I was in full labor. This was not good, it was January and my babies were not due until May! There were about six people in the room and everybody was doing something different - rolling me side to side, giving me shots, pumping meds through my IV. I had no idea what was happening because nobody was talking to me. I remember thinking, “I haven't even had a Tylenol since I found out about these babies!”

I was finally able to ask what the nurses were giving me but nobody was listening. Finally, one nurse looked at me and she said, “Honey, we're giving you steroid shots. Your babies’ lungs have not developed. If they're born today, there's a very good chance they’re not going to make it.” I was devastated. They had done a sonogram and Baby A weighed one pound and Baby B weighed 14 ounces! This was a nightmare, but within a few hours the meds started working, my body was responding, and life started making sense again. I was told the girls were stable, but I would have to spend the duration of my pregnancy in the hospital on bed rest.  Two days later as I lay in that hospital bed, two of my precious friends were trying to cheer me up and brighten up my room. I'll never forget they painted a verse for me on a little board:

They hung it up in my room without knowing a few hours later that verse would be my lifeline! I had complained to the nurses that I was having a hard time breathing and they told me it was the medicine they gave me to stop the contractions and I was okay, but the feeling continued. I insisted that I really couldn’t catch my breath, but they suggested that I was going through some anxiety. Once I made it clear that I COULD NOT BREATHE I was taken for a CT scan and chest X-rays. The techs were laughing and having a good time, cutting up, and then all of a sudden they were very somber. When they took me back to my room, they treated me like I was a delicate rose.  I was confused, “What’s going on? What happened to the funny people from before?”

The techs said my doctor would talk to me if there was anything they needed to discuss.  The on-call nurse came in and she told me they found an aneurysm on my heart. They were talking with a heart specialist who would be in shortly to discuss this with me.  The heart surgeon arrived with my mom, my husband, and preacher.  When I saw preacher, I knew it was bad. My husband wanted to break the news to me, so with tears in his eyes, yet so strong, he said, “Stephanie, this aneurysm has to be removed but in order to do so, it requires open-heart surgery. They're going to have to lower your body’s core temperature to the point that your pulse is very weak. But the girls won’t survive that.”

I refused and insisted we just wait because they were only 24 weeks; we just needed to give them a chance and wait a little longer.  The heart surgeon insisted that I didn’t have time. The aneurysm could burst at any moment.  Again, I insisted we give my daughters a chance. I suggested doing a c-section.  They could deliver the babies (and we would pray for God to sustain their life) and then the doctors could do the open heart surgery afterwards.  The surgeon told me my body could not go through a c-section and in then immediately have open heart surgery. I would die on the table.  I recognized the options all as lose-lose situations but right there hanging in my window, seriously the same day, was this freshly painted sign: God is able to do IMMEASURABLY more than all we can ask or imagine. It is His promise, immeasurably more, and that was what it would take. A peace came over my body that I can’t explain to you, it was the Lord, and I resolved this wasn’t my story. This was not where God brought me. He did not bring me here for this.

No heart surgeon in DFW wanted to touch me because I was a huge insurance liability, but the hospital found a surgeon in Houston who would do the surgery. The plan was to CareFlight me to Houston so the doctors wanted to do a sonogram of my heart. They brought in the sonogram machines and told all my family and friends to step out. As hot tears were streaming out of my eyes, they had me swallow a scope. Normally scopes are done while you are under anesthesia, but I couldn't have any, so I was consciously swallowing a scope that would take a picture of my heart. The process seemed to last forever but I felt (literally felt) my Savior holding my hand through it. After it was over, I looked up at that surgeon and he had a very strange look on his face. He told me I had done well and walked out of the room.  That was all he said.

I was later told the heart surgeon went straight to my husband and a waiting room full of prayer warriors there that day.  The doctor looked at Chad and told my husband he couldn’t find the aneurysm.  It was on the CT scans, every test they did, but when they did the sonogram the aneurysm was gone. Chad asked if I still needed surgery, and the doctor said “Nope. She doesn’t need anything. It's gone.” The doctor was so puzzled and even had me go in weeks later for follow ups.  He admitted he didn’t know what happened.  I said, “I do! I told you. It was God. He did immeasurably more...”

I want to thank so many of the people who prayed. When you tell somebody you will pray for them: pray for them! Prayer works and God is still in the miracle business! I was able, with the Lord's help, to hang on to those precious baby girls.  At 32 weeks, my beautiful twin miracles made their debut. Abigail Elise came first weighing 4lbs, 6oz and Reese McKenna came one minute later weighing 3lbs, 7oz. and they are the joys of our lives. I want you to know that God is still in the miracle business. He loves to show off because nine months later, we all discovered there was a sibling coming. Our son, Noah Colt was born 18 months after his sisters, rolling in at 9lbs pounds. More than their COMBINED weight.

The kicker of our story is that I delivered all three of those babies in the same hospital where that first doctor told me I needed a full hysterectomy and would never have children.  Wow, I guess my mama was right when she said that things aren't always as they seem.

Although I wouldn’t know until years later, my journey to Christ started while I was in the military.  I enlisted in the Marine Corps out of high school and served for nine years.  I was active duty during 9/11 and spent significant time deployed to the Middle East. I was close to other Marines, men I considered brothers.  Some of them were devout Christians and whenever a situation would go awry they would look to me and say, “God was watching over us today.” Being the hardened heart I was, I would brush it off and crack a joke.  Truth be told, I often could not explain why certain things happened the way they did. I lost too many brothers along the way.  We didn’t grow up together, but I would have traded my life for theirs without hesitation. I carried a huge amount of guilt, not for what we were called to do, but the fact that friends, my brothers, did not survive. I felt left behind. I wanted to be with them cracking jokes and hanging out.

When I left the Marine Corps life behind in 2008, I had a hard time dealing with being in the “real world”.  People seemed rude and as if they truly did not care about anyone but themselves. I found it difficult relating to anyone who had not been military and deployed.  This was very dark period for me; I was fighting an uphill battle every day. I leaned heavily on my wife of 14 years (and counting) and a former Army brother I met after joining the civilian world.  We developed a bond quickly because Daniel understood what it meant to have a rough night (because of my nightmares) or that I felt off (because of my anxiety) or the pain was bad today (from my back injury). He could look at me and know something was off and that I needed him to just be there. Half the time we didn’t talk, and when we did, we were cracking jokes.

Daniel invited us to his church many times in the first years I was out of the military.  Eventually, my wife started attending on a regular basis while I stayed home or “had something to take care of”. Soon, my wife recommitted herself to Christ and invited a Life Group into our home.  I was absolutely against that, but I love her, so I let it ride. As the weeks passed, I found myself getting involved with the group. I also realized these people did not judge me in any way. They knew about my military service, deployments to the Middle East, and they did not care. They showed me unconditional love even with all of my faults (to include anger, rage, and the occasional outburst).

Over time, I started attending the church on a regular basis and enjoyed helping out around the church (especially preparations for the Judgement House production).  I developed a friendship with the Pastor, Brian Loveless, and Outreach Pastor, Ron Adams. I would meet with these men regularly. They would always tell me that Christ will accept me, faults and all, but I did not believe I was worth saving.  I did not believe that Christ would want me in His church, but God didn’t give up on me. Since I wasn’t listening to God’s pull on my heart, He found a more forceful way to get my attention.  In the span of a single week we had our car repossessed, could no longer pay our bills, and everything else that could have gone wrong did!

When things fell apart, I had a meeting with Brian. I laid everything out and again he pointed out, “Christ is after you and is calling you”. In that moment, I understood that I could not do life my way. I needed Christ in my life. I needed Christ to lead me and lead my family. That was when I finally accepted Christ in the pastors office, crying and broken.  The feeling that I had someone in my corner was instant.

I would be lying if I said my walk with Christ since that moment has been easy. There have been trials and times where I fall flat on my face. The difference is instead of trying to do it my way, I allow Christ to direct me through prayer and open myself up to His “nudge” in the right direction. I still have flaws, but they are being worked out through our trials. God puts me in situations that are difficult, and once the initial shock is over, instead of getting vengeful I start looking for the thing that I am supposed to learn from this.

In 2013, my wife and I had two miscarriages relatively close together.  The losses tore me up inside, but instead of letting it destroy me; my wife and I lead tour groups through the Judgement House production.  We explained what we were going through to each and every person in our group and how we believed that God would see us through. Our church family rallied around us too; giving support, listening, and encouraging us.

A few years later, God gave us two more sons.  One was born in January 2015.  And a year later, God put an 18-year-old man in my path, leading me to bring this young man into the family. Now all four of our living children are thriving and our family is complete.

I have a saying, “family does not have to share our blood but must be willing to shed blood for each other.”  It’s an idea carried over from my time in the military. You must be willing to help each other, be there when a family member has needs, fill in the gap when one appears. You must be willing to follow through with action, not be the type of person who attends church each week just to check off a box. I have a large church family now, and when we have rough patches, they’ve come running to help.  There are multiple women I call “mom” who pray over us, brothers and sisters in Christ willing to help.  Being a follower of Christ is more than getting baptized and making a proclamation of faith.  Those things are important, but there is much more. You need to read the truth (the bible), you need to surround yourself with friends who will speak the truth into you, and you need to be an active member of your church (both through work and through tithing) and the most important task of all - pray on a regular basis.

Pray for your family, pray for others when they are in the middle of a trial, pray for your pastor, pray for your church. One on one time with God through prayer will open you up to direction and guidance.  You will be amazed how he uses you! Being a follower of Christ is not easy. You will face trials on a regular basis. You will have more questions than answers most of the time. However, eternal salvation and being in a relationship with Christ is worth it. I wake up every day with all the faults I went to bed with, but I now lay it all at the cross every day knowing He will see me through.  My sincere hope is that my story will speak to someone who needs to hear it; someone struggling to understand that Christ is there for you. His gift is free and all you have to do is accept it. And if you have questions, come to our service at Calvary Baptist Church on Sunday, we will help you answer them. 

I can tell that school is cranking back up because Monday and Tuesday, when I went to my gym, it was completely full.  Every single machine, every rack, somebody in it.  I've learned you can literally set your calendar by certain seasons where that gym fills up.  In January, beginning of a brand new year, New Year’s resolutions like "this year I'm going to doing it, I'm going to drop that weight, I'm going to get in shape, and I’m going to stick with it" and that gym will be packed in January.  In September, we're getting back in the roll of things.  We're getting the kids back in school.  Going to get that budget working finally. That gym will be full.  Here's the good news though (it's probably not very nice); I know that in about a month, it'll be back to normal again.  I was thinking what a microcosm, what a smaller picture of life that is.  How very often, our attempts to make positive change in our life, a change for the better, wind up being painfully temporary, incredibly frustration.  Next Sunday, God willing, I'm starting a brand new series and we have something special tonight as well.  Tonight Dr. Brady Blevins from the Watchmen Fellowship in Arlington is going to be here.  We're moving all our services to the auditorium and he's going to be speaking on understanding Islam.  With all that we have in the news about radical Islam, what they believe, and what the Quran teaches, and all of that.  There will be handouts; it's going to be incredibly informative to understand what this religion teaches and more than that, to understand if you have Muslim neighbors, co-workers, friends, family, how you can be a positive light in their life and how you can share the beauty of Jesus with them.  So tonight we'll all be [in the auditorium].  Next Sunday, we'll be starting a new series entitled Change your Life for Good.  If you've ever been on that hamster wheel of "this time it'll be better. I'm going to work harder. I'm going to do it. I know we have got to get the money straight. I've got to get this habit under control.” But it never lasts and that's not my topic today.

Today, I just want to ask you a question, and I don't want you to answer it out loud, I just want to ask you the question “how are you?” Honestly, I’m finding out increasingly the value of this.   I wish that I could sit down, one-on-one with every single person in this auditorium, and just take a minute and look you right in the eye and say “tell me how you're doing”. We ask that question casually to each other, right? “How are you?” “I’m good.” But when somebody really asks us that, I can't tell you how many times that I’ve been in that scenario. Where I look somebody in the eye and said “tell me how you're doing” or frankly a close friend or somebody I love reached over to me and said “Brian tell me how you're doing”. I can't tell you how often the individual being asked that question immediately breaks down in tears. Some of you right as I’m speaking feel moved by that question. “How are you?” In the text were about to read, Jesus Christ is standing in front of this Incredibly diverse crowd, much like I am this morning - all different ages, all different backgrounds, all different life settings. There were dedicated followers of His. There were religious leaders that were frankly skeptical if not outright hostile. There were curious spectators, people who just weren't sure who He was or what he was doing, but wanted to find out. And there were just plain miracle seekers. They were just there because they thought “Maybe He's going to do something spectacular. Maybe we'll get a meal out of it. Maybe we'll get a miracle out of it.”

But here's the thing, Jesus who doesn't see people in photographs, didn't see like we see in exterior He sees in x-rays. He sees right down to your heart, right down to your motives, right down to what you really feel, and what you really believe.  Listen Jesus is standing in front of that crowd, sees and knows exactly how they're doing, body and soul. And the One who sees and the One who knows says this in our text, 

Matthew 11:28 [I’ve preached and taught this text a lot of times I’m still not over it] ²⁸ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Father, we come before you this morning knowing that we’re always before you. You're here. You see. You know. And yet seeing and knowing everything, You invite. You tell us to come to You. And today Lord I felt so strongly as I’m studying for this other series (and that's on my mind) and all the possibilities of how we human beings really change, and yet God today this was the message, and the songs Brandon picked, and all of it syncs up. Lord I just know today this is what you have. So Spirit fill it, use it for Your glory and our good.  It’s in Christ's name I pray, Amen.

Two things in this text that jump immediately off the page: Jesus... who sees, Jesus... who knows exactly where they are, exactly where you are, first of all describes their true condition and secondly He makes them an offer. He says, I know this is where you really are.  Not what you tell people, not the appearance you try to put on to make yourself more palatable for public distribution, but the real you.  I know exactly your true condition and I’ve got something for you, right in the middle of where you really are.

First of all their condition described...
There are a few terms that I would use to describe their condition that may be yours today The first one is a powerful word RESTLESS. Restless - that lonely, unsettled feeling that there's something missing, something undone, something incomplete. I'm telling you, for most of my life, this has been a tremendous struggle that I didn't even understand. It’s in quiet times, times where I wasn't out doing something, I wasn't occupied with some pursuit, times when I’m on the couch, times with the family, times where the TV is off.  I get this feeling, this “hair-shirted” discomfort, this restlessness like something's off, something is not done.  I’ve told you I'm a believer in counseling; in this last year, going through all that stuff, the depression, then ultimately an eating disorder and all that stuff.  Finding out from this counselor, he said “let’s examine those. Let’s find out what is that thing when you feel that restlessness.” And in talking about it, what he came down to is this: that is based in performance. You feel like, “I got to do something more to be okay with me. I got to do something more to be acceptable to people.” Jesus described this as a restlessness of soul. You want your soul is? It's the real you beyond the merely physical. Your mind, will, and emotions.  Your personality - that thing that makes you, you. Jesus said, the Creator of life said, that [thing] can be incredibly restless something’s off and I don't know what it is. Somebody listen, that's why when you get in the car, and it's quiet, you're by yourself, you will immediately reach for that radio knob.  That's why some of you are always, always, always on twitter, always on Facebook, always on social media.  If there's a moment's pause in the action, that discomfort, the restlessness starts bubbling to the surface and it's so miserable you’ll do almost anything to head that off at the pass. They were restless.

Here's the second thing...

They had bought into the saving power of more. They bought into the saving power of more.  Man alive, is this not 2016? If you're restless, if everything's not right in your life, if something's missing here's what you need. You need to have more money. You need to have more status. You need to have more possessions; you need to have a better body. You need to have more sex appeal. You need to have more education. You need to have more status. Maybe you need to do more. Maybe you need to do more hobbies.  Do more vacations, do more drugs, drink more alcohol, have more partners. You need to be more, you need to be more educated, be more athletic, be more qualified, be more loving, be more moral, be more religious, be more spiritual. Whatever it is, if I could just be, have, do that I wouldn't feel like this. That's exactly where they were 2,000 years ago y'all. I know sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking like, “man if only I lived 2,000 years ago, things would have been so much easier.” Really? I don't know about you, but I love having running water and like a toilet. That’s a really good thing to me, right? I love that we're not living like in Roman occupation. There are a lot of good things about living in America in 2016. And here's the deal, humans have always been humans. We've always wrestled with this same garbage. They were wrestling with it then; we're wrestling with it now. They were restless and they, like us, had bought into the saving power of more.

Here's the third way Jesus described them.  They were restless, chasing after something more, and the pursuit had left them unbearably burdened; BURDENED. Kathe Koja wrote this:
Everyone is cored by that existential void, the deep hole in the heart that cries for radiance; our entire consumer culture is [built] on the belief that, if you stuff enough things down that hole, you can finally satisfy it into silence. [But] that has never been the case. [Paraphrased] Creativity won't do it, sex won't do it, art won't do it, and even love can't fill that hole.

So here's what happens, at the end of all that “more”, they find they are not only now still restless, still lonely, still “hair-shirted discomfort”; now they are weighed down by a thousand and one obligations, addictions, expectations. Now I got my kids plugged into 75 things a week and I’ve got to take them to all of them. I’m running myself ragged to the point of exhaustion but I can't stop. Now I’m working so many hours I’m flat exhausted. I’m still in debt but now I’m stressed as well. Whatever the burden might be, it's on your heart, it's on your shoulder, that’s on your life.  I want to ask you this morning... Man, I know this is personal. Oh, this is personal. It’s personal for me too. Some of you as I’m talking (and don't you dare think it's the words) the Spirit of God is moving your heart you’re like, “that's exactly where I’m at! That's exactly where I’m at, and preacher I know you're going to have like some solution that's all hyper-spiritual and I ain’t that spiritual. I wish I was. I don't know how to get off that hamster wheel. I don't know how to climb off that treadmill and but that's so much a part of the fiber of my life. Wearing the right thing, and saying the right thing, and impressing people... I don't know how to stop. So please don't give me something so high that I can't reach it. That I can't do it. That I can't go there.”

Are you restless this morning? If you are, I want to ask you this question. Nobody needs to answer out loud: What's your functional Jesus? What's your functional savior? I'm not asking you who your savior is because nine-tenths of you would say Jesus Christ is my savior. I'm asking who or what you turn to when you're restless. That's your functional savior. Is it food? Has been for me for a lot of years, man. You know what? A lot of us use that like other people use cocaine or alcohol to numb away the pain. Is it work?  Is it sex?  Pornography? Trying to wear the right thing, to do the right thing, attain the right thing? Who are you turning to, to fill that hole in the middle of your soul? And can I ask you that old Dr. Phil question (though I’m not a huge Dr. Phil fan): How's that working for you? Because I got to tell you for me, hadn't worked very well at all.

Thank God, thank Jesus He knows exactly where they are. He knows exactly where you are. The title of this sermon, listen to me, is Jesus Knows. Jesus knows.  And instead of crossing His arms, and instead of clenching His fists, He opens up his Hand and here's what He says, (gets me every time)

Matthew 11:28-30

²⁸ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

What is He saying when He says “come to me..”? You know what He's saying first of all? Listen to me. He's saying come as you are. Come as you are. Some of your like, “Man I wish I could be this, but I can't.” He's saying forget about trying to be that. Come as you are! He didn't say come to Me when you're better. He didn't say come to Me when you're more. He said come to Me when you're less, come to Me when you're less than you ever thought you were. When you're restless, when you're busted up, when you fail for the hundred and fifteenth time, come to Me when you're hurt, come to Me when you're drowning in obligations. Don't try to clean it up, don't let your pride banish you, and don't let your shame keep you away! Come to Me. I've got rest and I can give it to you!

Listen, you know what the real problem is y’all?  It's not that Jesus won't take us, it's that we banish ourselves through either pride “I'm not going to do it; I’m going to try my way, that's boring, that's hard, that's legalistic, that's puritanical. I don't believe really in my heart that Jesus is all that good so I’m just going to keep doing this. It ain’t really working and it's not really great, but it's better than that. Pride or shame, “you don't know what I’ve done, Preacher. You don't know how far I’ve gone. Jesus couldn't possibly use this. I’m not good enough. I’m not right enough. I’m not smart enough.”  Either one will banish you when all the while the Son of God is saying, Come on, I’ll take you like you are. Come on.

It means come as you are. You know what else it means?  Come to a person, not a system. Man alive, if you're still in here with me say Amen. Come to a person not a system. A whole lot of us, when we hear “come to me” here's what we think: Well I really do need to read my bible more. Well I really do need to pray more. I do need to be in church more often. There’s this whole list of additional obligations, and frankly that doesn’t give you any hope because you're like “I’ve already got obligations that are drowning me. Adding five more, it's going to sink me!”

Friend, I want to tell you something, listen to me: your salvation is not found in religion. Your salvation is not found in a system. Your salvation isn’t found in a list of do's and don'ts. Your salvation is found in a person, Jesus Christ the Son of God and the bible is a means of chasing Him. Coming together with believers, all of whom are just as banged up as you (and if you're in here and you think you're not banged up you may be more banged up than the rest of us). Let me say that again... *speaks deeply into the microphone* If you're here and you think you're not banged up you may be more banged up than the rest of us.  *laughter* I can't do that with my lapel mics, I’m going to utilize this for all it's worth.

The truth is,  all of those things that if we're not careful we make ends in and of themselves: scripture, prayer, worship, community, church.  Those are pathways to a living Savior.  I want to know Him, I want to chase Him, and I’m going to feel Him.  I want to walk with Him.  Listen don't make any of that stuff an end in and of itself; that's exhausting. Make it a means of getting to Jesus.  I was talking with somebody recently and somebody had shared this with me and it blessed my heart...

If I am digging for buried treasure, I'm going to need some implements. I’m going to need a pick, I’m going to need a shovel to get down to the treasure, but you know what? It would be foolhardy of me to make a treasure out of the shovel. It would be stupid of me to make the goal of my life the pickaxe. But I tell you what; I’m never going to get to the treasure without that stuff.  The word, prayer, community, are our ways to get down to the treasure that is Jesus Christ.

An offer extended, “come to me” and He says take my yoke upon you and learn of me”  Now, we have a vague understanding when we hear “yoke”.  That's that wooden instrument placed around the neck of two oxen to pull a plow, to pull load of some sort, and I think I’ve heard preachers and commentators talk about, Ok Jesus is saying I’m the one pulling, its My energy, it's My work, just link up with Me and let Me do the pulling.  I don't think that's bad, but I think we do need to understand that in Jesus’ day and culture, the most impressive calling that a person could have was to be a Rabbi; to be a teacher of the Hebrew scriptures. I mean in that culture, that was the tops. And interestingly enough a Rabbis thinking, his philosophy, his particular interpretation of scripture, guess what it was referred to as: His yoke. So whenever a Rabbi chooses an apprentice they call them their “Talmudine”, a disciple. It was a tremendous honor. 

He would ask this young pupil “come take my yoke, my teaching, my thinking, my way upon you, become my disciple. This is an honor, I'm choosing you, come walk with me, take my yoke on you.” The boy would then leave everything.  He’d leave his home, leave his mom, leave his dad, leave the synagogue, he’d leave the community, he would devote his entire life to being with, and like, that Rabbi.  He followed his teacher so closely that one of the Jewish sages was quoted as saying this “may you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi. “ You're walking so close with them that the dust of their feet is covering you.  Jesus said I want you to be My disciple. I want you to take My way, My learning, My teaching on you. I want you to leave behind thinking that your job is your identity. You're not a lawyer, you're not a teacher, you're not an athlete, you're not student, you are mine. Those things are secondary. I'm calling you with the highest calling there is; not to do, but to be. Come be with Me. Come walk so close with Me that My dust gets all over you. Can you imagine? Listen that was the highest of callings. That's what we think, “Well yeah, for that gifted one, for that beautiful one, for that holy one; God would call them to that.” No, listen, what Jesus said a couple of verses earlier in

Listen to me, He wants you. He's calling you. That restlessness you feel, and do almost anything to get away from, is the greatest gift God could ever give you. It will save your life if you let it; because He's calling you finally to come on. You're not going to do it perfectly. You're going to mess it up all along the way, that's alright. He knows. Jesus knows.  “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek [approachable, gentle, calm, unspeakably powerful but that power is controlled] and lowly in heart [I’m not too good to be around you]: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

One author paraphrased these verses and I want to close this: Come to me and I will give you rest, all of you who works so hard beneath a heavy load. Come wear my yoke, it fits perfectly.

So there he is; squeezed into the stomach of a giant fish that God had prepared for him. He had been running from God, but all along, God was running after him. He sent the great fish (representing grace) to save him from the storm (representing God’s wrath.)

This is phase #2 of the story. Repentance is the theme of the chapter as Jonah moves from religion and rebellion to repentance.

Now, repentance is the first step of a bigger process called spiritual breakthrough. It’s best described as moving to a new level of relationship with God. You might have experienced this very thing at summer camp as a teen, a holiday service, or a spiritual retreat. Maybe you were convicted. You knew what you needed to stop doing and what you needed to begin doing instead. Jonah had that moment here.

But it wasn’t a walk in the park. This breakthrough came as a result of a seriously painful, even life-threatening, experience that brought about repentance. Don’t be fooled by the cartoon depictions of this moment. Jonah wasn’t walking around inside a stomach. He wasn’t playing on the ribs like a xylophone or playing with the others fishies in there. He was more likely squeezed inside this disgusting, wretched smelling digestive system. Literally being burned by the stomach acids as it tried to digest him. He was raw, he was slimy, he was stinking horribly, thirsty, hungry, lonely, awkward, and broken hearted.

There is a week in the Navy Seal training known as, “Hell Week.” On average, only 25% make it through this part of training. Imagine, on the first night, you are awakened from your sleep with guns firing inside your bunker, and concussion grenades exploding to make your head spin. All that can be made out in the yelling is orders to crawl on your belly across pavement and sand into the ice-cold sea. Thus begins Hell Week, and from that moment on you’re given only minutes of sleep at a time for the rest of the week.

You are ordered constantly to perform hundreds of pushups, sit ups, and pull ups. You are made to perform torturous water training for hours at a time. Swimming. Army crawling. And more swimming. On the first day of Hell Week the sergeants make you take all of your clothes from your suitcase, soak them in the ocean and drag them through the sand and neatly put them back in your suitcase, so your skin is rubbed raw by the sand and water. You’ll have blisters, scabs, and open wounds the entire week and just when it couldn’t get any worse, you’re thrown into the salty ocean for the thousandth time.

There is a constant yelling, whistling, shoving, insulting, and testing to build your commitment. Soldiers are made to carry boats and huge logs and even each other with literally no sleep in days. Several men have actually died during this training week.

But what makes all of this unbearable is the constant temptation of donuts, coffee, and blankets offered to you if you just quit. Basically, Navy Seal training is created to make the strongest men cry. They want to weed out the weak links. But in reality, what they’re doing is strengthening their soldiers. Because the drill sergeants know that if these soldiers are going to be effective in combat, they have to be strengthened. They must be brought to a point of breaking, so they can be built back up.

Sometimes God allows us to go through extreme circumstances to break us. And we’re given a choice. Choice #1. Quit on God. Which usually involves getting angry, getting depressed, getting deeper into sin, and therefore staying broken. Or choice #2. Have an experience of repentance where God is allowed to build you back up the way He wants. See, God was preparing Jonah in the belly of the fish. He wanted to break Jonah, not so that he would quit and give up, but so he would repent and have spiritual breakthrough.

Sometimes God puts us through terrible circumstances to bring about spiritual breakthrough, starting with repentance.

There were some lessons that Jonah learned in the belly of the whale that radically changed his life and moved him to a new level of spirituality. In my next few posts I’m going to investigate the lessons learned in the digestive system of a fish.