04-18-2021 – Derek Yarber – Why Isn’t God Changing My Situation? (Gospel Meeting)

We have one more study left and our theme that we’ve had on old truths for a new world. And I think tonight, this might be the most applicable of all the lessons that we’ve had so far. Why isn’t God changing my situation? I hope I don’t excite you too much in some of the guys that isn’t in saying, I have a Whopper of a fish tale to tell you.

And I actually, I may end up being a mammal tail by the time it’s all said and done, but I have a big fish story to tell you and trying to answer this question biblically, why isn’t God changing my situation? It really bothers us. Doesn’t it to get stuck in a circumstance where in frankly, we’d rather not be, we pray and we pray about it,

but there we still remain right square in the middle of life’s muck. Why doesn’t God change our situations faster and more permanently than he often does? Why is it challenging circumstance after challenging circumstance that I find in my life? Why doesn’t God take the problems away that I find in my life? What was we open up the book of Jonah? We’re going to quickly note that there are some situations in a person’s life that do need changing.

And I had need in quotation marks because that’s, from our perspective, from our vantage point, they shouldn’t be there, their issues and they need fixed. And we don’t want to have to address them again. So why do we have to keep dealing with these things on a daily basis? Why doesn’t God take all the problems out of our lives? Well,

the book of Jonah can be seen as one. That’s just a, an account of problems. Problem. After problem after problem, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but for time’s sake, I’m just going to quickly identify four problems that exist in Jonah’s life. And it starts in chapter one verses one and two, the word of the Lord came to Jonah.

The son of Amittai saying arise, go to Nineveh that great city and cry out against it for their wickedness. God says, has come up before me. It’s almost like a stitch. We say it’s a stench to the high heavens will literally that’s what’s going on here. Their disobedience is so repulsive and they are so immoral that God cannot take another second of it.

He’s going to wipe these people from the planet and actually the terminology that is employed here, their wickedness has come up before me. It’s only used elsewhere in the scriptures about, so happens a place that we studied on Friday night, Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s how bad things were among the Ninevites like to the level of Sodom and Gomorrah. So he’s going to raise this place to the ground.

That’s a problem, the evil of the Ninevites, but there’s a solution to that problem. God has his prophet that he’s going to send. And this is a real privilege that’s bestowed on Jonah to date. There has not been a prophet of the Lord sent to a pagan nation. Now there are prophets who have made prophecies about other nations, but there hasn’t been a missionary.

If you will, of God sent to another country. And so Jonah has a real privilege. That’s laid on his shoulders. He gets to be the first missionary of scripture. He can be the apostle Paul before there is such a thing, but you’re well aware that Joan is not Very privy about this mission. He’s not excited about it. And he’s going to Try to avoid it at all costs.

We’ll look at those details a little bit later on in our lesson. But for right now, we know that Jonah and disobedience runs away from God. He climbs a board, a ship, and they’re in, we encounter the second problem of this book verses four and five of chapter one. The Lord sent a great wind on the sea. There was a mighty Tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken up.

Then the Mariners were even afraid and every man cried out to his God, even throwing the cargo in the ship, into the sea to lighten the load and hopefully to be able to survive this experience. I don’t mean to sound stereotypical here, but have you ever known a sailor? There’s a reason the phrase cuss like a sailor exists. I’m not saying that every sailor is an evil person.

We know that’s not the case. I have a Christian friend who is a Navy vet and he told me one time, he said, Derek, everything You’ve heard about sailors. It’s true and more, Okay. That’s not coming from me. That’s for someone who has a lot of years experience in it. We know that not every sailor is a bad person,

but we know that there are a lot of bad things that take place on shifts. And maybe it’s being away from home and seemingly having no ones to whom one must the answer. I don’t know exactly what the deal is, but you know, it’s something when a whole boatload of pagan sailors, at least a number of them, maybe all of them,

but a whole boatload of pagan sailors turn to God seeking And help, and the sparing of their lives. You know, that something is really up in this circumstance. That’s problem. Number two, in this book Here is problem. Number three, to satisfy the storm that people cast lots. And I find that, That it appears the process being guided by God.

The Jonah is the culprit behind this storm. And so they get ahold of him and they throw him overboard. Verse 15, verse 17. The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of that fish for three days and three nights. I know you’re curious, what’s the animal that swallowed this guy. I’m tired of the debating of it.

So let’s solve it. All right here tonight, the term that’s used in the old Testament of course is Hebrew. The one that’s used in the new Testament is Greek. And both of them really carry the same meaning. I hope I don’t hurt anyone’s feelings by this tonight. I know most of our translations have right red whale or fish, and it could be either one of those,

but really, yeah, the word itself just means a great sea creature or a sea monster. And that’s in both languages. So it really doesn’t narrow it down a whole lot for us. I’m going to try the best that I can. It could be a fish that swallow Jonah. And if that’s the case, it was probably some sort of shark.

What you see is a rhino den shark, but it’s not really looking like a shark, isn’t it? It doesn’t have those sharp jagged teeth in its mouth. Nevertheless, it is a fish. It uses gills to breathe. And so it was properly classified as that. So the rhino bin shark is a possibility and that shark is actually known to have swallowed a human being before a second possible fish is Mr.

Jaws to himself. Now that looks like a shark. Doesn’t it? What you see is a great white shark. And there was once a time that a great white shark was cut open and there was a man found in its stomach and body armor. Apparently it was some sort of soldier that had fallen overboard and the great white came up and swallowed the man.

It could have been the same kind of preacher that did or creature that did this with Jonah, the preacher. And then it’s possible that it wasn’t a fish at all. The meaning of the term also fits a large aquatic mammal. And it might have been Mr. Moby, Dick that swallowed Jonah, the sperm whale. There’s actually a story about a guy.

His name is James Bartley and he fell overboard. And there are several rioters that, that have content about this and, and seem to be reliable accounts, not one, but multiple outlets reported that this man, he fell overboard in 1891, the whalers star of the East, and that there was a sperm whale that swallowed him. And the story goes,

you take it, how you police. But the story goes that he was regurgitated two and a half days later, and he was still alive. It could have been a sperm whale that swallowed this man because they’re mammals and they use the lungs to breathe. They have a habit of swimming along the surface and with their mouths wide open. And that would make sense,

a lot of sense. It could be one of these three creatures. It may be also a creature that is yet undiscovered and it Maybe an animal that now is extinct. Okay. So now that I’ve clarified exactly what aquatic animal it was, the swallowed Mona Joan, I think we can all agree about this. That right. There is a problem that needs fixing,

right? You’re in the belly of any one of these animals or anything Thing like then that’s problem. Number three in the book of Jonah problem, number four is after mission is accomplished and in chapter four and verse eight, the sun rises and God prepares he’s behind this, A vehement East wind and the sun beats down on Jonah’s head so that he grew fangs.

Then he wished death for himself. And he said, it is better for me to die Lentil it, that sounds a little dramatic. Doesn’t it? I’m hot and sweaty and it’s too windy. Kill me now. Well, I, I think there’s more to it than that. Have you ever been out in the summer heat And all day long and you Can’t get underneath anything to get any relief from it?

There’s no escape. It’s rough. If it’s that way. About 10 years ago, Vanessa and I, we took a strange vacation. It was one of the best we ever taken. We went basically nowhere. We stayed. It was a staycation. That’s where they call them. Isn’t it. We stayed in the Ozarks, although we didn’t go to mom and dad’s house for much of it.

And we decided we’d recently bought a canoe. We’re just going to do our favorite thing that we enjoy doing together. And we’re going to float the Ozarks streams together, several different ones. We went to the Jack’s fork and the current river and the North work. We wanted to go on the big Piney because we’d never been on it before. Dad knows a lot about the streams.

And I said, dad, what’s the big Piney? Like, is it a good floating stream? And he said, well, if I remember I signed it, it’s like the Jack’s work is crystal clear spring fed water. Maybe not quite as Swift as what the Jack’s work is. And we thought that’s exactly what we want. Kind of like the other rivers that we floated that week.

And so I looked at my little handy book that I had and, and we plotted our course and we were going to do, I know it was a nine, maybe an 11 mile float. Well, if you have some current, that’s not a big deal. And so we go to put in on the big Piney river and boy were we surprised when it looked just like the Gasconade river Green,

Not good swimming, water and dead, still big pockets of water. I knew at that point, it was going to be a long day to make it even longer. I think I took about every fishing pole that I owned with me and I can’t help, but throwing every litter that I have in every nook and cranny of something that looks fishy, it’s a fishy river.

Okay. And so I’m doing that Left and right. We’re about halfway through the day, triple digit heat Index day. You don’t want to get in and swim. Cause look at the water. You know, it’s not very inviting. And all Of a sudden my sweet, The bride just has a meltdown and starts crying. I’m a guy and I don’t know what’s going on.

So I felt terrible. I said, what’s wrong? She said, you don’t care. I said, what are you talking about? As I make my next cast, she said, you won’t quit. You won’t quit fishing and you won’t paddle. Well, I did feel kind of badly. So I put my fishing rods down for most of the rest of the day.

And it was a long remainder of the day. We were charred by the time we got in and it was so hot and we were so miserable and so burned. I don’t even think we went floating the next day. We took a day off on our vacation. If you’ve been out there for very long, under the, the intense summer sun, you can’t catch a break.

You know how rough that is? This gentlemen, right back here, though, Jeremiah, he could tell you about a worst heat than what we’ve experienced. This part of the world. It often gets 120 plus degrees in the desert. And then you have, from what I told her, I’m having done it myself. But you have the reflection of the sun’s rays coming up off of the sand,

extremely hot and to make matters worse. There’s a strong wind in a desert area. This is what locals refer to as the Sirocco and what it is a giant dust storm. And all these particles of sand picked up and think about it. You’re hot, you’re sweating your skins burn. And then all of these pieces of sand come striking at lightning speed against your skin.

And it feels like you’re being penetrated by needles all over. So it’s a little worse than I’m hot, sweaty sunburn and the winds blowing. No, it’s a lot worse than that. Everything in Jonah’s life seems like it’s going wrongly. All of these problems, all these situations that need change. You ever feel like Jonah got this problem going on. God,

please help me with it. Day comes a week, passes a month. And you’re still dealing with the problem. Maybe years later, another problem comes in another situation that needs change it. And we did we question God, where are you? Maybe not that much, but to that degree, but why aren’t you changing my situation? That’s what Joan is wondering.

How are these, all these problems in my life. Sometimes God needs situations to change people. And often he lets troubling circumstances come into our lives that are not fun for us because he’s trying to use those to change people around us. And that’s certainly the case with Jonah. You have the issue in the storm that blows up on the, on the sea And why does God let that happen?

Why doesn’t he just take it right away? Well, we find out in chapter one verses 11 through 16, the sailors, I asked him, what should we do to you? When they find out is Jonah’s fault that the sea may be calm for us. And he said, you’re going to have to pick me up, Throw me into the seat.

Well, the men don’t want to do and be guilty of the loss of this man’s life. So they row hard trying to get to land, but God makes sure that it’s not going to happen. God’s not ready to change that situation just yet. Therefore they cry out to the Lord, Oh Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life and do not charge us with innocent blood.

So they did what they had to do. They picked Jonah up. They throw him into the sea and it’s kind of like Jesus and the stormy sea of Galilee. They’re so scared. The disciples he says to the sea, finally knock it off. C’s like glass and they’re blown away. As soon as Jonah touches the water, storm’s going look at what this does to the sailors in their hearts.

The men feared the Lord as a result, exceeding. They offered a sacrifice to the Lord, which means they started worshiping him and they took bowels. And I think those are commitments of how they’re going to continue to follow him. Now, whether they carry out those vows, your guests is as good as mine, but one thing’s for sure, If you’re doing A cost analysis of something and all that it costs is for you to have a little bit of problem for a time in your life and that’ll produce and change a whole boat full of sailors lives to get them to become God-fearing saints.

Was it worth the cost? I’m going To go out on a limb and objectively say Yes, it was worth it. God uses the storm and Joan his life to change all of these men’s hearts That are aboard the ship. Well, Why does God have a sea creature swallow Jonah? And why does he have to stay in that creature’s belly for three days,

Jonah doesn’t want to be in there that long that’s a city.<inaudible> the needs changed. I think Jonah needs to stay in that creature’s belly for several days, for more people to be saved. Chapter three in verses four through 10 Jonah cries out to the people of Nineveh yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them all the way down to the least.

Then the King of Nineveh published throughout. None of them by his Nobles cry mightily to God. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way. And from the violence that is in his hands, then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way and God relented from the disaster. He had said he had bring upon them and he did not do it.

Do you remember how to pray these people where a statement is made of them? It has only said of Sodom and Gomorrah Elsewhere. Now It’s possible that Jonah had a really long message that we don’t have a record of it. I gave a lesson on this here a while back, the shortest sermon that was ever preached nine words long is all the way.

That’s an English and it’s pretty comparable and Hebrew in nine Words. Now that’s a dream. Isn’t it for a preacher to get up, say nine words, get down and let everyone go home. It was a short message. And these people who are so wicked that’s enough to convince them why would they believe Jonah? He’s just spent three days in the belly of a great secret.

Your, whether that’s a fish or a mammal, he’s been in acidic, corrosive, gastric juices of a living animal. When your skin gets wet for very long, it becomes shriveled. All right? And something else takes place in the gastric juices of an animal. And it relation to human skin. Maybe you’ve seen this with a fish, the swallowed,

a smaller fish, and you’re cleaning it. You cut it open. It turns white. Jonah is a man who has probably a medium Brown skin color. And you know, it would have been like whenever natives in this land saw people coming over from Europe. There’s a reason. They said white man, okay. That’s what it would’ve been like medium Brown scheme going to people,

a medium Brown skin. He walks in there And he’s jet white because his skin has been bleached. Maybe this is what Jesus had in mind. Some people believe. So when in the new Testament, he makes illusion to the sign of Jonah. I don’t think it’s as much the message that Jonah brings as much as the very sight of Jonah That causes these people to be convinced of the power of God almighty.

And that coupled with the message he’s about to use the power that you see here against you causes all of them to change. And if that’s the case, there’s yet another instance of irony in this meeting that we’ve had together, that to produce the obedience of these pagan people, God might have needed the disobedience of his prophet. If Jonah never disobeyed, he’s never thrown overboard.

He’s never swallowed by this fish and he’s never turned white. And I think the people don’t ever believe the message that wasn’t that interesting, but in the all-knowing Providence of God in the tune of today, that he needs the disobedient, the disobedience of one of his people to, to produce the obedience of those who do not belong to him. God uses these situations in Jonah’s life to change people around him.

Sometimes God uses situations in our lives to change people around us also. And then sometimes God is just using the negative quote unquote circumstances of our lives to work on us and to try to change his own children. Gentlemen has some real character flaws. Like every one of us, this seriously needed refining. I want to go backward and look in chapter one in verse three,

the earliest indication this Jonah arises To flee to Tarshish. And I’ll say that fast three times from the presence of the Lord, he went down to Joppa and he found a ship I’m going to Tarshish paid the fare, the full fair, But at least we’re not told of a preacher’s discount. And he went down into it to go with them, to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Joan is from the small Israel light town of DAF heifer, and he leaves There and he goes Southwest somewhere around 50, maybe 60 miles to the ocean, Only known port city of Israel Joppa so that he can set sail and get out on the open waters. Here’s why that’s relevant. God has Call Jonah to go about 500 miles to the Northeast by land to Nineveh.

Instead, Jonah is willing to try to go about 2,500 miles to the West. Bye. See, he has no problem disobeying his God. He failed. It feels to have a healthy respect. You might say a fear of the Lord and he needs a fear in his heart to be produced of God so that he will obey him again. Chapter One,

verse five, Jonah had laid down in the ship when he gets in and he was fast asleep. The people come to him when they find out he’s the one to blame. And he says to them, I am a Hebrew. And I fear the Lord. First of all, when you openly defied, God is his truth. Does that ever bother you?

There were lost sleep over that, knowing that your condition is not right with him. I had, That’s called a conscience and that’s a good thing. Jonah has openly defied God. He goes down, he shuts his eyes and he is sawing logs. He’s just fine in the condition that he is. That’s what you call in the scriptures, a calloused heart.

He tells the people, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord. Oh, really? So much so that you openly disobeyed him. Whenever he tells you to go on a big mission for him. I think you can make the case. He has no problem with lying right now. He says, I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.

And in the end, God’s going to prove this statement of Jonah. Yes, he is. In fact, the God of the sea. And he is the God of dry land. Jonah has some issues through which he needs to work only because he has to. He goes and he preaches the, to these people. They change and God spares them.

And listen to this in chapter four, the first three verses it, Please, Jonah, exceedingly that these people are not going to die. And he became angry. He’s a preacher of the Lord. Can you Picture a man standing in front of you and delivering a sheriff would put it, preaching his heart out. Can you imagine that taking place? And every person comes forward and responds to the Lord’s message.

And suddenly you see him gritting his teeth and his face turns red and he starts spitting and mumbling under his breath. He’s so angry about that. Well, isn’t that the purpose of it? He doesn’t want people to be saved. So he prayed to the Lord and he said, Oh Lord, was this not what I said? When I was still in my own country,

I fled to Tarshish for, I know that you are gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness. One who were in Lindstrom doing harm. Can you fathom a child of God, praying to him, complaining to him about his character and how he just has too much grace and too much mercy, too much patience and too much love.

If you don’t love the character of God, that can only mean one thing. And that’s that you don’t love God himself. Jonah’s two greatest struggles are not on the outside. Even though they manifest themselves, his two greatest struggles are on the inside. He doesn’t love God and he doesn’t love people. And according to Jesus, those are the number one.

And number two, things that matter above all else, he hasn’t even started off on the right track. Jonah says, Lord, just take my life from me. If you’re going to be that loving and that gracious and that merciful and that forgiving, I don’t care to live anymore. And I don’t want to serve you. Jonah has some real deep seated issues in his life.

Verse five, he goes out and he sets on the East side Side of the city till he could see what might become of the city. He knows that God has spared this place, but he sits like a little child instead of mission accomplished and going on a victory for eight all the way home. He just sits out, Oh, they’re outside of the town and watches it,

hoping that God changes his mind. And then he goes back to what he said earlier. And then he’ll wipe these people off the mat, deep seated issues Jonah has in his life. But you see the infinite patience of God. Even with his own child in his prophet, Jonah four verse six, the Lord, God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah to deliver him from his misery.

You understand that this man is basically just told God that he hates him and that he hates people. He’s a preacher of the Lord. What would you do now? If you haven’t got shoes and God looks down on his child and he sees someone who’s hot and he’s sweating. And he has sand being pelted against this, his scan. And he thinks I need to give this guy a break.

And so it gives him this, this plant that comes up over any proves Jonas statement about the Lord in the beginning. Remember what he said, Hebrew. I fear God who is Lord of the sea and also of the land. Well, God’s just proved both now. Hasn’t he? He showed him God of the sea by preparing the fish that Jonah probably saw as a problem that might have not reflected just yet.

Do you realize that if God did not prepare that fish or that mammal to swallow Jonah, His child would have drown in the ocean. I don’t think this was a punishment on Joan. I think it was a vehicle to save his child who didn’t deserve it. He looks down and he sees his child hurting. He thinks he needs a break. And so it gives him this plant,

probably the castor oil plant, which is very prominent. And that region of the world is it’s leafy, it’s bushy, and he can hide in it and he’d get a break from the heat and from sweating and from all that sand that’s blowing through the air. But I guess you could say there’s a fifth problem that comes about that plant. Doesn’t live very long.

The plant dies. And, and in this short time, Joan has kind of grown attached to that plant that gave him such relief. The Bible says, unfortunately, not that he was grateful to God, but he was grateful for the plant. Doesn’t love God, but he loves plants. And he’s mad whenever that plant dies Verses nine through 11, God said to Jonah,

my child, is it right For you to be angry about the death of a plant? Do you really love it that much? You said it is right for me to be angry, even a death translation. I’m never going to stop being mad about the death of that plant. It never should have died. You could have kept that situation. And God said,

Jonah, do you not realize I’ve been trying to use all of these situations, not simply to change the Ninevites. I’ve been trying to use them to change you. Do you not understand that, that you had pity on and you love quaint and you don’t Expect me to love and have pity on a city in which more than 120,000 persons who can not discern between their right hand and their left are found and much livestock,

Joanie, you love plants, but you don’t care about the animals. The animals are better than the plants. Joanie. You care about plants, but you don’t care about people. What’s wrong with you. Why do you want all these situations gone From your life? Don’t you understand? I’m trying to change you and you need it. I wish the lesson could continue,

even though you probably don’t because there times out I wish the lesson could continue and I had more texts and I could show you how five way Jonah has his a ha moment. Finally, the light comes on. He says, okay, God, I get it. You were right all along. Yes. I’m ready to change. Listen, I’m an optimistic person.

And I hope that’s okay, What transpired with him? But the reality is this. The book of Jonah abruptly closes right there. And so we’re forever left to wonder, did Jonah heed life’s lessons. And did he accept God’s situations that he allowed to come into his life to try to change the message We have to ask the donor Joan ever changed or not.

But really there’s a more important question that we ought to ask in the situations that God has allowed to come into each one of our lives right now that we don’t like, and we’d rather to be changed. Are we letting him work his magic so that either he can use that To change people around us, or maybe just maybe We need those situations and for God to use them to change us,

don’t leave your loved ones to wonder for the rest of their lives like Jonah. Hey, you remember when Derek was going through all that tough stuff That he ever fixed things in his life. Oh man, I don’t know. Yeah, me neither. I hope so. Don’t leave your loved ones to wonder, as we are left to wonder about Jonah.

If there’s something that needs to change except God’s help and use the effort he’s putting forth to refine Your character. A man who experienced a lot of hardship wrote this and Psalm one 19 verse 67, David says before I was afflicted, or in other words, before I had situations that needed changed, he says, I went astray when things were easy and I wasn’t challenged.

I wasn’t the obedient child that I should have been. But now implying once the undesirable situations came into my life, I learned some really valuable life lessons through those. Now he says, Those helped me out. I keep your word, James. The first chapter says in verses two and three of my brother and counted all joy. What a blessing when you enter into various trials,

no Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, that you may be complete and perfect, lacking nothing. God lets undesirable situations come into our lives and he doesn’t fix them just like that at the drop of a hat when we want them to do so, Because he’s trying to do something special through undesirable situations. He’s either trying to change people Around us or he’s trying to change us Ourselves.

And the real Struggle we have with this as his children, we pray to him. We beg him. We might even cry about those circumstances. Say, God, please take this away out of my life. And we wonder then why isn’t he doing it? Is he listening to me? Does he care If you belong to him? I assure you,

he’s listening to you. And I assure you that he cares according to first Peter chapter five, verse seven, but don’t make the mistake and thinking that just because your life situation, isn’t changing that God isn’t at work in your life. He’s using That situation that he’s not fixing because there are either people around you who need fix Or there’s yours truly at whom you look in the mirror that needs fixed.

He’s trying to change every one of us from the inside out. I know it’s easy to look at Jonah’s life and say, man, that guy has problems because he disobeyed God. Yeah, that was wrong. And he shouldn’t have done it, but that’s not the real problem in Jonah’s life. The real issue is what’s found on the inside. He didn’t love God and he didn’t love people.

And that’s why he was disobeying. God, God has us. God desires for us to do some things on the outside acts chapter two verse 38 says he wants us to be baptized. That’s an action so that we can have the forgiveness of our sins, but that’s not where he starts with those people. First thing he tells him to do, he says,

you need to repent. You know what that word means, change your mind. And that’s not a change of action. It leads to a change of action, but it’s not a change of action. It’s changed your mind, fix the inside first. And then we’ll get to work on the things on the outside. As you look at in your own life,

are you learning the life lessons that God is trying to teach you? Are you willing to work on the things that are off? Not just on the outside, but as well? The things that nobody else, but he sees those things that are found on the inside. Because if we’ll change the way we look at wrongdoing, we will see things get fixed on the outside as well in our lives.

There’s nothing wrong with praying to God about situations that aren’t fun and out of which we would like to go. There’s no issue with that, but maybe instead of spending so much time in our prayer lives asking God to take away our situations. Maybe we should spend more time asking him to change people around us and to change us in those undesirable situations that we’re facing.

Why isn’t God changing my situation if he hasn’t changed it yet? It’s probably because he’s working on someone around you. And he’s trying to change a friend, a family member, a coworker, a classmate, a neighbor, and maybe even a complete stranger. And perhaps just, maybe he’s using that situation to try to change you. As you look at your life tonight,

are there some things that need refinement? Is there some character fine tune that needs to be done? Well, let’s not spend so much time complaining to God about our situation. Let’s spend more time trusting in him and asking him to change others and change us through our situation. And if that’s what’s taken place on the inside tonight, let’s do something about it on the outside.

As we stay in and sing the song together.