Jonah 1:1-6 Sailing from the Mission

The Mission of God in Jonah and the Shape of the Series

This week our pastor Don Filsack brings us a message out of a series entitled Embracing the mission of God a study through the book of Jonah.

As many of you know, we're gonna be launching into a brand new series here for the next few weeks we're gonna be going to the book of Jonah and I think it might be eerie for those of you who have been a part of the journey through the book of Acts so far and obviously we're not all the way through the book of Acts but that the way that that theme that central theme of The New Testament of the mission of God starting something new or doing something amazing how that carries through so it I Think a lot of times we can have in our mind this kind of concept of an Old Testament God and a New Testament God.

Have any of you had that in your mind or experience that a little bit? Kind of like there's a little bit of difference. Okay, right, but God's mission has not changed. The subtitle of this series is embracing the mission of God.

Unfortunately, we're going to get there by watching and a poor example of that. We're gonna be watching and seeing the life of a person who does not embrace the mission of God and is actually running from the mission Of God and today we're going to see him running away from that mission but despite our first impressions about this Old and New Testament God a plan of mercy and grace to The nation's has always been the point.

Jonah, Tarshish, and the Refusal of God’s Call

It's always been pointing forward towards Jesus Christ and now we live in a time when it's pointing backwards towards Jesus Christ and that's kind of the point of all of history the centerpiece is Jesus Christ and ultimately the establishment of his kingdom a kingdom of people who are bought back from sin and from death and from destruction a Kingdom ultimately that crosses all boundaries of race politics ethnicity Language and culture and that's what God has been doing for centuries for millennia.

That has been from the time that we sinned and we broke this creation and Adam and Eve fell from that time forward guys. They're working out a plan one consistent theme that rings throughout all of Scripture God Purchasing back his creation for his honor and for his glory and he did so through Jesus Christ.

And so again, we live at a time where we can look back at that. But this morning we're going to be introduced to a man who's running from that mission. Who's running from that vision of God and as Jonah runs?

We get to watch the relentless and severe mercy of God towards Jonah. It's relentless and it's severe, but it is mercy. It is grace. You see God we're gonna see loves Jonah too much to let him sail off into obscurity.

God has a plan for Jonah and so. Ultimately, he loves Jonah like a hurricane and he's going to bend Jonah like a tree and how many of you know that a tree. Has a breaking point. How many of you ever? Have you seen that recently?

Okay, probably all of us experience that in our neighborhoods and around. There's a point and then very ever any of you ever felt that way in life. Like there's a there's a level of flexibility, isn't there in our I mean and you have a view of varying degrees.

Would you agree with that varying degrees of flexibility? How much can we stand before the pressure starts to starts to kind of? Crack crack crack and eventually it have you ever felt like maybe you're just going to break.

Jonah felt like that in this text and we're gonna see we're gonna see at least a boat that felt that way the boat thought. It was gonna break apart. But we're gonna see as we come to worship God this morning.

I want us to think through the specifically this first song because I picked this first song. Intentionally Dave and I would sit down every week and walk through this and I wanted to walk through. The opening lines of the song because as we sing it I think sometimes we can misunderstand what the words mean to the song.

So I wanted us to see particularly how it shows it talks about how God loves us. And that love is sometimes shown in hardships and difficulties of life. Sometimes his love comes to us as hard things difficult things.

So here are some of the lyrics we sing these often. He is jealous for me speaking of God. He loves like a hurricane. I am a tree bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. You see what this is what these lines are saying is God is able to do what is necessary in my life and In your life to get our attention and that means sometimes his love for me is best expressed in hurricanes strong storms.

Obviously, we're talking figuratively, but we actually got to see a real one a literal one on Monday. Right huge storm rolls through and we've got a perfect picture. By the way, I was studying this text I was studying about the storm when the storm rolled through and I was sitting in the office and I looked Up in the sky was black and I was like case study.

I was just like here we go pretty awesome but the lyrics go on so God's love are you getting what I'm saying? God's love sometimes comes to us in those hard things. Sometimes that is his expression of love is to grab our attention to get us back to where we need to be.

How many of you acknowledge that there are times in life where you need a reset? You actually need God to reset you and he sometimes does that and it's not always easy. Would you agree with that? Not always easy.

But the lyrics go on. That all of a sudden in a moment the afflictions that God sends me can be eclipsed by his glory. Because if I focus on him I see his beauty and his amazing love for me and I recognize that what he is doing is for my best.

It is in my best interest and that's something that you have to come to that conclusion. It is extremely abundantly annoying if somebody else tries to drive you to that conclusion. Do you know what I'm saying?

You're going through hard times and somebody's like well, just what is God teaching you through this? Why is this happening? Mmm, okay done. You ever feel that way. I mean for real. Have you have you been there?

You've got to come to that. I mean you've got to come to the end of yourself in a moment in a sudden glimpse of God's glory. Recognizing that what he's doing and we're gonna see Jonah out on the sea in a storm.

Significant danger. I mean mortal danger to him and these sailors and it's not comfortable. It's not a happy fun place. But in a moment you can see That Ultimately these hardships are because of his love for you.

Unfortunately, we're gonna see throughout the book of Jonah a painful illustration of a man who never gets there. He never gets to the place of having the glory of God eclipsed the hardships and the difficulty.

But I can encourage you and I want to encourage you to go there this morning as we come to worship. Can we Try work hard ask God for his grace to recognize his love for us and that his love is. Too much to protect us from storms too much to protect us from cancer from autism.

Whatever it might be in your life. That is the hardship that is driving you To your knees. Whatever it is that almost is breaking you in half and I recognize that as I look out here I mean some of you are going through pretty good times.

Some of you are going through extremely difficult times. Some of you are going through a fight with your you know for your very life right now. He lets us face hardships. So that ultimately we might be drawn closer to him.

And so I want you to open your Bibles, please to Jonah chapter 1. So we read this passage Jonah 1 1 through 6 just so that we can get a good glimpse of what a running man looks like here page 658 in the Bible that's in the seat back in front of you six five eight.

If you're gonna try to find Jonah in your own Bible, it's probably gonna take a few minutes. It's a small book in a obscure corner of the Bible, but Jonah 1 1 through 6 and if you don't own a Bible I'd encourage you to take the one that's in the seat back in front of you with you.

That's a free gift from us to you. We want everybody to own a Bible, but page 658 in that Bible. Follow along as I read. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying arise. Go to Nineveh that great city and call out against it for their evil has come up before me.

But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord.

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship was threatening. So that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his God and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea.

To lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had laid down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him. What do you mean you sleeper arise call out to your God?

Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish. Let's pray. We're gonna obviously be diving into the book of Jonah here pun intended and The the setting for the book of Jonah I think helps a little bit for us to kind of understand who is this dude Jonah that we're gonna be looking at Over the next several weeks.

So there's one other reference to the to the prophet Jonah in the Bible that's not found in the book of Jonah. So if you're taking notes and you want to go back and kind of check me on this second Kings chapter 14.

Where you probably spend a lot of your personal reading and you get a lot of you know sustenance from that. You know each and every day you're probably looking for something from the from the book of Kings.

But second Kings 14 verse 25 is the only other verse in the entire Bible that mentions the name Jonah the son of Amittai this exact same prophet even gives his father's name so that we know we're talking about the same dude.

But to get the bigger context, it's really second Kings 14 23 through 28 to understand everything that's being said about him there. Now from that pet from that passage we get some of the setting we understand where he was in history so he is actually a prophet in the days of King Jeroboam a King of the northern tribe the northern tribe of Israel.

And he's and it's King Jeroboam 2 .0. Now. There was a King Jeroboam 1 .0, and I don't know. He's probably like the he was an evil wicked king. So it's probably more like the Vista thing or something like that.

Um, so 2 .0 He brought in even more wickedness and more evil some of you aren't very techie so you didn't get that but um. Some of you used Vista and know what I'm talking about, but um, okay, so He was a wicked king, but so what did prophets usually do with wicked Kings?

Anybody have any ideas? What were prophets usually saying to wicked Kings? Quit it cut it out change your ways, you know all of this stuff. Jonah was a different kind of prophet during that time. Because despite the wickedness of the king over Israel at the time.

This is the time of the divided kingdom by the way. So there was a united kingdom all of Israel the kind of a golden heyday under Saul David Solomon three main kings. Solomon's son Rehoboam made some boneheaded decisions like sons sometimes do and Totally tore the kingdom in half by his foolishness.

And so one guy Jeroboam took the northern ten tribes and another dude the son of Solomon Rehoboam took the the southern two tribes and so we've got this divided kingdom going and Jonah is a prophet to the northern part of that as I said earlier so with that you got this wicked king and Israel is going through the process process of expansion.

They're in this expansion campaign. Their borders are growing. They are on the list of who's who among the nations of the Middle East during this time. You know if you if you're playing Age of Empires to or you're playing some video game and you get these losing a lot of you.

You got these list of nations here and on the list of nations things are going really well for Israel right now. They're at the top of the list. So Jonah was used to and this is what the whole reason I'm even setting this out Jonah was accustomed to positive prophecy.

Saying good things. That's that's what his that was his mo as a prophet. He's literally going to this this King Jeroboam who's wicked and he's saying God has told me that your kingdom is going to expand during your reign and it's going to be good and things are gonna go.

Well, and it's like that's that's that was his mo. That's that's how he rolled. So you kind of get a little bit of who he was by what he prophesied earlier. What we already know about him from the book of second Kings.

He was pro-israel at a time where Israel was rocking. So you got to set that stage in your mind that that's who this guy is. He is for Israel, but not so much for Israel's enemies. He is not even prophesying that they're going to be destroyed which they will eventually for their wickedness.

So that's our dude for the next several weeks. That's this guy. He's used to saying good things to the king. And we see from the start right away. Obviously, he's a prophet the Word of the Lord came to him giving him instructions.

Oftentimes a prophet the Word of the Lord comes and says something and he's supposed to go and repeat that but that's not what happens. Here he's actually just given some instructions go and do these things.

He's told to arise. To go to Nineveh and to call against them three simple commands arise go and call and God even gives a reason for his call. He says here's why I want you to go do this. Now how many of you know that God doesn't owe us an explanation for the things that he wants to do in our lives?

Are you aware of that? It doesn't owe us doesn't owe us an explanation but oftentimes we find a scripture that he's gracious enough to give the reason and The reason here is the wickedness of the Ninevites says these people have a something specific about their wickedness.

They're evil now does God know all wickedness. Does he see everything that happens on the on this globe? She's everything that goes here, but something unique about the Ninevites literally grabbed his attention.

It was like whoa, this is getting bad. Okay, so you got to put that in perspective and realize God sees everything but particularly their wickedness was rising up before him and. So God calls Jonah to go and call against them, but there's one huge problem for this prophet of Israel.

He is being told to go to Nineveh. Nineveh is called a great city multiple times in the book of Jonah most often by God in the text. Not great, obviously because of its moral upstanding ethical Character, but because it's a huge town.

It's this enormous place. It's not yet the capital at the time of Jonah. It's not the capital of the Assyrian Empire, but it's very prosperous. It's an up-and-coming political center. Assyria is going to be the nation that is going to eventually roll through northern Israel destroy it decimate it and Exile its people now.

Jonah doesn't necessarily know that at this time. But Assyria is going to be the tool that God uses to judge wicked Israel on down the road. Which you can see some irony in the course of history in Jonah being asked to go to Nineveh and call them to repent.

But because Jonah didn't know that was going to happen. It is primarily about the wickedness of the Ninevites that is causing Jonah to stand off. It's like I don't really want to go there. I don't want to call them the repentance.

Because their wickedness was legendary during Jonah's time even though they're not the primary superpower of the time they're up-and-coming and their wickedness is known even to Jonah we certainly know that they had obtained God's attention by the Specific attention and that's why God is sending Jonah and he says that outright.

So God said arise and go. Jonah gets the verbs, right? He raises up and he goes Okay, but he gets the objects wrong in the sentence. So where it's arise and go to Nineveh. He arises and flees to Tarshish.

Two times in the verse if you look at verse 3 in your text. We're told that Jonah flees from before the presence of God. The text there though the words that are used is actually before the face of God.

He's trying to get away from God's face trying to get away from God looking upon him is the idea here He goes down to Joppa and and it's interesting to note. There's a lot of poetic structure in the book of Jonah.

It's it's written in you in a unique style where it's certainly prose and it's telling us a story. But there's a lot of repetition a lot of things that were meant to see like for example. It's very very clear that this going down to Joppa is the beginning of a descent for Jonah.

He is descending. He's constantly we're gonna see him going down going down going down it almost any time we see a Direction arrow for Jonah from here forward. It's going to be down down to Joppa down into the belly of the Boat in a moment then down into the sea then down into the whale.

We're gonna see down down down and it's a spiral and it's like Jonah is going to be spiraling out of control in our text, but he goes down to Joppa and Jonah Ironically finds a ship ready for Tarshish.

He had already made up his mind. He wanted to go to Tarshish this town and I'm gonna explain it to you in a second. What I want us to see from that is okay. Jonah says I'm gonna run from God and I'm gonna flee to Tarshish and he gets there and He finds a ship ready to go to the place that he's trying to flee to now.

Circumstantially does that sound like maybe maybe fate is on his side or something. To give this a put this in perspective of timing in the historical and cultural setting Tarshish was a three-year round-trip journey from Joppa.

Take you three years to get there. So the chances that a ship ready for Tarshish are there in port at Joppa are slim to none at the time that he needs. It goes down. There's a ship there now what I want to point out from that is not everything that Circumstantially seems to be going peachy in your life is Circumstantially peachy in your life.

Do you see what I'm saying? Just because your will lines up and doors are opening doesn't mean you ought to go running through every open door. You're getting what I'm saying here. You can easily go. Oh well God must be in it because it blah blah blah and everything fell into place and uh and Then crash and burn later and be like God why why?

You see what I mean? And ultimately Jonah could go down to that ship and say oh God provided a ship obviously he wants me to go to Tarshish. When he knows what God has asked of him, and I've heard people say that all the time.

Well God wants me to divorce her because these things have happened this way. I've heard that with my ears God wants that for me. Maybe there's something here that God has told you directly that you ought to think about her that you has Clearly been revealed to you like didn't God come to Jonah and say I want you in Nineveh.

He could easily point to the circumstances and say otherwise, but how many of you know that running from God is misguided. Did you know that a? Couple of you think so, but I don't know what the rest of you who didn't respond to that are thinking.

But let me let me tell you that running from God is misguided, okay? He paid the fare. Even though this is likely a large cargo ship. They would be pretty eager to have a paying customer and The word that's used for paying the fare is likely that he basically paid so that they wouldn't bring anybody else on board.

He paid the total of anything that they would they would they would bring anybody on board for passage. So he's paid a sum of money a large sum. And what I want to point out is that Jonah is willing to part with his own Personal wealth with some of his own personal wealth at least to escape the mission that God is calling to him.

He is running and he's running hard. He's willing to sacrifice even finances to get away from this. Now Tarshish is not easy to locate with certainty if you look on the bottom the maps in the back of your Bible you might Actually see Tarshish that probably not it just just in a simple map.

But if you were to get a Bible atlas they would have it over in Spain somewhere. And that seems to be quite likely there's a town with a name in Latin. That's very similar to Tarshish and so that people make that connection and say okay.

That's probably it. Ultimately what we need to know is that it was it was legendary and ancient writings as a place where the name of God was Not named so in Jewish writings that are not they're extra biblical that are not biblical.

Or not part of the Bible in ancient writings that Jews wrote. They were like if you wanted to talk about a place where God wasn't named where nobody knew about God. It was Tarshish so out in Tarshish.

You know the place where nobody worships God Elohim Yahweh the God of the Old Testament. And so it was legendary in that standpoint. But it was also considered to be the extreme edge of the known world so that if you wanted to talk about Timbuktu.

Or you know maybe some of those places I mean would you use Timbuktu that way like a place that's out in the middle of nowhere. You know at the edge of society at the edge of the world or something like that.

Tarshish was that Timbuktu to them? So That is ultimately where we're looking at when we're saying he's planning to go to Tarshish he's heading West when God told him to go east. Now I want to say this because I think we can give Jonah a bad rap and and not really understand.

I don't believe that Jonah really thought he was gonna lose God. I don't think he literally thought he was going to go someplace where God physically is not present. If you've thought that before like he's running from the face of God.

Like he's trying to get away like How dumb was this guy? I mean really literally like do you think I mean or maybe even maybe we're being kind of silly. Just for thinking he was that dumb. Does that make sense.

Because I mean of course he knows he can't. He's a prophet of God for goodness sake he's he's been serving The Almighty. He knows he's not gonna get away. So what's he doing? I mean, let's really give Jonah a little credit here.

I believe he's trying to lose his calling. The idea of being before the face of God is one of service to him. Of one of I mean a prophet was seen to Be before the face of God in receiving revelation and then disseminating that and spreading that to God's people and going in.

Going about doing the duty that he's been called to and he's trying to lose all that. He's done being a prophet. He wants to stop representing God. He's trying to get to the southern coast of Spain for a nice retirement from his religious duties.

By the way. Good choice of location. I've been to southern Spain. Awesome. Okay, good place to retire. If you're looking for a place to retire. Jonah is trying to do it up in style. But one does not easily lose their calling.

Especially when God is The voice that is doing the calling. So the Lord hurled a great wind. Anybody here ever experienced a great wind? About 80 miles per hour recently. If you're looking out the window last Monday, you got a glimpse of the awe of a great wind.

I was standing right over here when that storm started to come across and I was watching out those windows and just watching I mean those trees almost touching the ground. It was just intense. Amazing.

Deidre was here in the morning and she was over there at the office center working and at one point. I finally said Deidre, maybe we just kind of go away from the windows for a second here. It was kind of like that's gonna just all come in.

It just felt like that did anybody get to look out the windows while that thing was coming across. Intense amazing. Okay, so I don't need really any other explanation because God gave a perfect perfect case study this week about amazing storm.

The only thing I need to add is put yourself out to sea on Monday. Put yourself on the ocean on Monday and now you're getting a perspective of what God is doing with Jonah here. They've set off they've set sail and they are on their way.

Rickety old ship and The storm comes up. Anybody else thinking like me? No, thanks. Okay, Lynn and I had a chance to cross the Tasman Sea going from New Zealand on a cruise ship over to Australia. Awesome trip of a lifetime.

No, we're not just that wealthy. Somebody actually bought that for us. Amazing Trip for our 10-year anniversary one. One day on that on that cruise. We woke up in the morning and couldn't see land. There was only one day like this woke up in the morning couldn't see land.

Went to bed that night couldn't see land. It was crossing the Tasman Sea basically a three-day passage leave the port and then out to sea for Basically a full day and then another half day during that crossing some storms swirled up.

We never saw lightning never really saw the the the storm itself. But they were they were out there somewhere 33 foot swells out on that ocean that night. You could feel the front of the cruise ship slammed down on the waves.

Crucial huge ship. Okay enormous. I skipped dinner that night. I was green now when you when I say I skipped dinner. You need to understand what I'm talking about when I say I skipped dinner. Okay, and I just got to lay this out for you to just show.

I mean just the intensity of what it's like to Be at sea in a storm. Okay, I could have had prime rib Lobster crab legs as much as I wanted and the waiter would have cracked the crab legs for me at my seat if I had asked him.

All the dessert that I wanted that I mentioned. I skipped dinner that night and not only did I skip dinner? But I literally Went to bed in place of dinner. I was just like I got to get out of this. I just got to lay down and just try to get someplace else other than right here.

This was the kind of storm where if I wanted to go to my office I would start off in this direction and eventually end up over at my office. It was literally like you pick a line in one direction and go I'm gonna and I got to get over here.

So I'm gonna start heading this direction. The fury of a storm at sea is something that's terrifying. Has anybody else experienced that? It is intense. It's crazy. Everybody ought to try that sometimes the text gets kind of funny because.

Again, it's a little bit poetic, but it actually personifies the ship and it says the ship, you know. The ship was thinking maybe it ought to just break up. Okay, maybe the ship the ship is thinking maybe I ought to just snap in half.

We see we see that the sailors are afraid here now, these are seasoned mariners. You know ARG and stuff and and they are scared. Okay, they're terrified now. How many of you know when the captain of the ship is scared that does little for my confidence.

Okay. Do you know what I'm talking about? I was flying on a on a plane into a ship hole that in Amsterdam and The the captain of the ship the captain of the ship. Yeah, the captain of the airplane called across the thing.

He said I just want to tell you there's 30 mile per hour crosswinds as we're coming in. We have to land now we're next up in line and Stewardesses go ahead and have everybody assume impact position. Anybody ever been an airplane and and you know, you've seen that you anybody ever read the card where you see this in your head.

We did that okay, and I was like, you don't want to do that, right you just kind of like did people really do. Yeah, we did and we came in and we got two landings for the price of one. I mean, it was the stiffest landing.

I thought it was done like everybody just screamed and it hit and we were back in the air again and then down again and and It was intense. Okay, and I looked up at the stewardess at one point during that and she was pale.

She was white as a sheet and I thought this is not good. You know, she would have been cheery and happy that would have been nice. But she was not pleasant and I was like, okay, if she's scared, I'm scared.

Okay now now we're there. So you kind of get this idea that even the even the mariners are afraid. And so that's what makes this whole picture even more funny. What we're gonna see next in verse 5. This is gonna show the depth to which Jonah has sunk really in just a few short verses.

The Storm, the Sleeping Prophet, and the Captain’s Rebuke

Sailors are praying they're working to save the ship working to save their lives working to save Jonah's life. They're throwing cargo into the sea to allow the ship to ride higher. So it takes on less water.

But Jonah's gone down. Deeper even down into the bottom of the ship and he's laying down. And he's gone to sleep. You ever heard the phrase no rest for the wicked. It's not true. Sound sleep is not just reserved for those with a clear conscience, but also sometimes sound sleep comes to those who just don't care.

You know what I'm talking about and that's what's happening here. Jonah the one who is the cause of the storm is doing absolutely nothing to help. But is down sleeping in the bottom of the ship. So the captain the word captain there is.

Literally the one in charge of the ropes that's a literal translation of that word the one in charge of the ropes the one who guides the ship and Catches the wind with the sails and all of that stuff.

He wakes him up and he says and I'm gonna loosely translate this for you, dude, for real you're asleep. Like that's what he says. I mean look at look at it. I mean, it's a loose translation dude, for real.

And what the captain says next is hilarious. If you don't think God has a sense of humor, you've got to you got to look at this down at the. Unfortunately, you got to look at it kind of at the Hebrew level to get it but God has a sense of humor in this passage this sailor this idol worshiping non-jewish foul-mouthed sailor.

I say foul mouth just because he's a sailor. I don't know. But I just had to throw that in this sailor. Says these two words to Jonah arise and call. What did God tell Jonah to do in the first place? Arise go and call he's going he's going but now he's being told to still arise and call and There's I don't think that that was lost on Jonah that here.

This sailor is using the exact same words that God has Rise and call that's what Jonah should be doing, right? Isn't that what he's supposed to be doing only in Nineveh? But now he's being asked by the sailor to arise and to call on his God the sailor says.

Perhaps your God will give thought to us. Maybe even be gracious enough to save us. The storm was so bad that ultimately the captain of the ship assumes that aside from divine intervention. They are all going to be fish food.

The plight of these sailors and Jonah at this point should not be minimized. They are an imminent mortal danger. This might seem like a strange place to end with this call, but this ultimately concludes the running.

This is this is the section the passage that has the fleeing on it. We're gonna see next week a little bit more of the revelation of what Jonah. Jonah actually owning a little bit of what he is Doing recognizing before them that he is fleeing and running.

So it might seem like a strange place to kind of end and a little bit abrupt. But I want to point out it didn't take God any time to catch up with Jonah. And he's not going to quickly give up on his chosen prophet.

Running from God, Mercy, and the Call to Communion

When I draw a couple of applications from the flow and the focus of this text a couple of things that I think. Really, you know, this is an ancient text, but that we could draw out and see where we're at here in 2011.

The obvious central application comes from the concept of running from God. Although none of us bear the title of title and office of prophet. And then called to be a prophet of God in the mouthpiece and speaking God's words God has indeed created each of us for a purpose.

Would you agree with that? He has a reason for us a reason for you a reason for me. We have gifts talents resources abilities. Did you hear that list think about yourself? I'm gonna I'm gonna say that list again and you think about yourself gifts talents resources abilities.