Jonah 2 Smelly Salvation and Partial Repentance

Jonah’s Prayer from the Belly of the Fish

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

And this morning we're going to cover a text where Jonah is going to offer a prayer. He's going to ultimately kind of sing a prayer of thanksgiving to God from the belly of this great fish. And it's a poetic section that is really the most revealing part of the entire book of Jonah about Jonah's heart where he lives.

What he thinks how he what we what what system he's operating out of in his mind and. There's good in the prayer. There's bad in the prayer, and there's even some really Significant ugliness in this prayer as we dig into it, but in essence We're going to see Jonah in this prayer from the belly of this fish.

Throw in the towel. He's going to hoist the white flag and surrender to God, but he's going to do so Reluctantly. He's not going to do so excitedly or enthusiastically. He's even going to hold on to a stubborn self-centeredness, and we're going to see him holding on to that tenaciously right till the end of.

The book.

But the fact of the matter is the book of Jonah exists To show us God's relentless mercy. And the fact that God's relentless mercy is not a new thing. It's something that God has been in the process of doing all the way in in Centuries past and it's something that can you say pray?

Can you praise God that he still does that today that he still pursues us? Glory to God that he's still in that process of pursuing us and doesn't give up on us. But he has this relentless mercy and this text this morning shows us that God's rescue ultimately is not up to us.

Jonah is going to declare a phrase openly that really sets the tone for the entire book of Jonah. It is a primary theme of the entire book and it's summed up in just a few words salvation belongs to the Lord.

Salvation belongs to the Lord and so as we read this text and then come to Worship and Dave comes to lead us. I want us to be thinking about this great. God that we serve a God who is pursuing Relentlessly for his honor and glory salvation of his people.

So I want you to open your Bibles, please to Jonah chapter 2. You can find that on page 658 in the Bible that's in the seat back in front of you 658 in that Bible if you're trying to find it in your own it might take you a few minutes just because I Recognize it's a small book.

But 658 and if you don't own a Bible I'd encourage you to take that Bible with you. We want everybody to own a Bible and so those ones that are in seat back were purchased with you in mind to have a Bible.

Follow along as I read the entirety of Jonah chapter 2 just 10 verses. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish saying I Called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me out of the belly of shale.

I cried and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep into the heart of the seas and the floods the floods surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said I'm driven away from your sight yet.

I shall again look upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over over me to take my life the deep Surrounded me weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountain. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever.

Yet you.

Brought up my life from the pit. Oh Lord my God when my life was fainting away I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. Those who pay regards to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love, but I With the voice of Thanksgiving will sacrifice to you what I have vowed.

I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord and the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. Let's pray. Um last week. We left Jonah at the end of the text in the belly of a large sea creature.

We don't necessarily know whether that was a whale or a large fish or something like that. I'll probably Occasionally refer to it as a whale during the course of the messages because that's kind of what's on the tip of my mind here.

But we don't know exactly what it was. But the picture from the kids books do not do justice to the context in the setting of what we're encountering here. So have any of you seen those the flannel graphs the different?

Charts and graphs of the little kids pictures in the kids books raise your hand. If you've seen one of those you kind of have that in your mind, you know. He just probably had enough driftwood that he could could slide it together get a nice fire in there, right?

It's just kind of like a cave and you can see the arched ribs of the fish as the ceiling. Do you have that picture in your mind? I don't think that's super accurate. Okay, I think what you need to have in your mind is first of all pitch black.

No light in there at all. So you're in pitch pitch black tight.

Caustic smelly.

Oozing. And Probably what makes me the most squeamish in the whole situation is the likelihood that he's not in there alone. Okay, if it was big enough to swallow a man it probably has swallowed other things alive as well.

Okay, you get that picture. Okay enough. Some of you are like, ooh, okay I don't like I'm not a real fan of the outside of fish. Like would you agree with me? I mean is a smell of the outside of fish and then have any of your gutted of fish before you know stomachs not super Big in there.

Okay. It's not a significant portion of the inside of that fish. So. And why is Jonah in there? How did he how did he get to a situation where he's inside this fish in the Mediterranean Sea? Well, let me just summarize real quick for some of you.

They're just joining us for the first time in a series. Jonah is there because God called him to go and preach to this Enemy nation of Israel. Now prophets were used to prophesying to their country.

Okay.

So to Israel or to Judah in the south and they were used to talking to their own kings to their own people to their Own leader saying shape up or your God's gonna judge you or you need to change something or but he's being called to do Something different he's being called to go to a wicked enemy City and call them to repent.

Call them to get right with God and he's not real excited about that. And we're going to see that throughout the course of the next few sermons here. So he's called to do that Jonah says No to God and attempts to run from God heading the opposite direction on a boat.

God sent a storm and Then God revealed to the sailors and the captain of that ship that the only way to stop the storm was to throw Jonah Overboard. They try their best to not throw him overboard. They wrote try to row to shore.

The storm stops them. They finally give in and reluctantly throw him overboard. God sent a big smelly fish to swallow Jonah and that's where we're at in our context. And so it's in that context I just got to paint that picture for you because it's in that context that Jonah is going to offer.

What amounts to a poetic prayer of Thanksgiving. Some have even referred to this as Jonah's psalm of Thanksgiving. It's got Hebrew poetry involved in it. It's got some Hebrew meter and some rhythm to it.

Now Hebrew poetry doesn't rhyme like English poetry does. It's a little bit different. It's in parallelism say it's saying the same thing over again in different ways and things like that. And so while in the belly of this fish Jonah is going to be remembering and this is it's a little Mind-bending because you see this a little bit past tense in his prayer while in the belly of the fish.

He's remembering a prayer that he prayed To God when he was thrown into the water. So whether this is hours removed and he's in the belly of the fish praying now. Are you getting that that's a little bit a little confusing to some of you?

Okay, he's in the he's in the fish and he's remembering and he's going to be reflecting on a prayer that he prayed boom when He was thrown into the water.

Immediately.

Jonah’s Descent, Distress, and Deliverance

So to get the chronology of this event in our minds the sailors picked up Jonah threw him overboard and Jonah is going to Tell us that at that point when he was in the water his feet hit the water. He cried out to God.

He was in great distress. Now one thing that I want to point out is Jonah was not apathetic about this scenario. He's involved and he's in great distress when he is thrown into the water. He was not resigned to dying.

It's not as though he was like, okay. Well, this is what I deserve and this is what's gonna happen to me. I'm going to drown and I'm okay with that. He's actually a little anxious about that. Remember, he's a real person with real feelings real emotions real responses.

Okay, you got to remember that when you get into this text, right? I mean he's thrown in and he believes he's going to drown and the storm is raging around him and he's scared. He refers to being thrown into the belly of shale the the Hebrew concept of the grave the afterlife death and being sent to that place where it was darkness and there's a lot of.

If you if you just take the Old Testament without the New Testament, you do not have a well-formed Concept of the afterlife it takes both parts Old and New Testament to come to the conclusions of resurrection.

To come to these types of things and so both it's not a complete picture. Even a modern-day Jew if you if you press them and ask them What is life look like after death? There's a lot of Himming and hawing and unsure because the Old Testament is not very clear.

But they had this concept of shale that all people go to it's the grave. It is the place of death and that's what he's talking about here. And there's a play on words. Because Jonah is praying from the belly of the fish saying I was delivered from the belly of the grave.

Into the belly of the fish. There's a picture of movement there of being delivered from one belly to another belly the belly of the grave the belly of shale. To the belly of the fish so you see kind of poetry involved in this.

But the main point here in this introduction is that Jonah was dying and he called to the Lord for deliverance. His mind turned towards God. He is sinking in the water and we're gonna see how much he sank here in a moment.

But this is a prayer of Thanksgiving and all prayers of Thanksgiving in Hebrew poetry have a common structure. So I just want to just point this out for those of you are a little bit more analytical in your minds.

We have an introduction in verse 2. Then we have an explanation of dire circumstances in verses 3 through 7. These are common. These are what you expect in a Hebrew psalm of Thanksgiving. The explanation of dire circumstances verses 3 through 7.

Thankfulness for the deliverance in 8 and 9. But what makes Jonah's prayer unique in the concept of Hebrew poetry is That although he has been delivered from drowning in the sea. We know that Jonah still needs yet a further deliverance, doesn't he?

So he's going to be praying and thanking God that he's been delivered from drowning. But it's kind of like an out of the frying pan into the fire kind of thing, right? Because put yourself in his vantage point as he's praying these thoughts.

Has he been delivered yet? Has he been delivered yet? Not completely. Okay, he's in the he's still under the water. But he's at least got something to breathe there and he's alive for now. But the fact of the matter is poetry is meant to be felt and not just analyzed and there are lots of strong words.

We see just there's there's all kinds of an emotional Driving almost throbbing behind this psalm here. Jonah has been cast into the deep to the heart of the sea. He is sinking. He is surrounded by water.

He even says God's waves and billows have washed over him. If you look at verse 3 notice who Jonah says cast him into the sea now. Who do we know if you if you were here the last couple of weeks who threw Jonah into the sea?

So who does he implicate in the psalm? Look at verse 3. He's praying to God and he says for you cast me into the deep. He doesn't blame the sailors. He knows full well who is responsible for these events that have unfolded in his life and he's like God you've done this.

He also acknowledges that God is in charge of the sea. Do you see that in verse 3 at the end? He says all your waves and your billows have passed over me. Whose sea is it? Whose ocean is it out there?

It's God's ocean out there. Some of you have spent some time out to ocean and been out to sea and No sane man has ever laid claim to the sea. I Own it. It's mine. Those are my waves. Those are my billows, right?

I mean, that would be kind of kind of strange you'd be checking his temperature or something. Can we control it? Can we tame it? We haven't even adequately mapped it. I'd be curious just to see like what percentage just throw it literally.

I'm looking for some audience participation. What percentage of the oceans floor do you think we've mapped so far? Anybody have any guesses? Three percent. Ten percent. I've heard. Three percent. Ten percent.

You're in the ballpark. Five percent is what most people if you just do a Google search and just figure out. How much of the bottom of the ocean have we mapped it accounts for what percentage of the earth?

The earth's surface. Seventy percent of the earth's surface. We only know five percent of that seventy percent. Okay, even mapped it even know what the structures look like down there even know the floor of it.

You see what I'm saying, I mean it where are we in the notion of owning the sea we've named mapped it yet. While thinking Jonah knows he is heading to the grave as a man separated from God. We've seen him spiraling out of control in his life going down down down and he knows that he is heading to the grave as A man who is running from God.

He is being driven from God's sight which really if you consider is ironic because. Isn't that exactly what he was shooting for in the first place the text tells us he's moving away from God's sight moving away from God's presence as he as he.

Falls down closer to shale further closer to the grave. And we know that that's not physically moving away from God right. God is everywhere. So that's not what we're dealing with we're dealing with poetry and this type of thing.

But he's saying as I'm falling away from you. That's what he was trying to do. He was trying to run from God's presence. He's literally trying to get away from God and now he's in the water spiraling out of control going down further.

He's been running from God's calling. He was trying to stop serving before the presence of God. Now one word makes a big difference at the end of verse 4 and I just want to point this out to you. He says then I then I said I'm being driven away from your sight.

I'm going away from you. Yet, I shall again look upon your holy temple. Well, what does that mean? Did he just all of a sudden while he's thinking out of control going down and he's about to drown. It was he suddenly like well, okay, I'm gonna get back to Jerusalem.

I'm gonna get to the temple in Jerusalem and it's all gonna be okay. Like it almost kind of sounds like that. Would you agree with me? Like oh, but don't worry I'm gonna get to see your temple again. Like there's some kind of a rock-solid Assurance there.

Well, it might be better translated and this is significant yet I shall again look toward your holy temple.

The.

Proposition there can be translated toward and I think it should be. The reason that this is important is that Jonah is not saying that he has a steadfast confidence that he's going to get back to Jerusalem in one piece.

He doesn't know that yet. But while Jonah is thinking like a rock to the bottom of the Mediterranean.

He is.

Telling God that his heart has turned towards and will turn towards his holy temple the place that represents God's presence. And you think I will turn my face toward your temple. What's implied by that phrase is significant.

This is actually a part of Jonah's repentance a part of his turning back to God. He's saying God even though I'm currently sinking away from you I'm willing to turn towards my face towards your holy temple again towards your presence.

I am willing to go back into your presence in service to you. That's ultimately what he's saying by this phrase I will turn my face towards your presence again. Verse 5 adds a little bit more picturesque language.

The water closed in over him. He's going deeper and Although they were fairly close to shore. He's gotten down to the depth of some vegetation near the bottom. He talks about weeds being wrapped around his head.

Literally this is happening.

Of course.

The presence of vegetation tells us we're not too far from shore and Not literally down as verse 6 tells us to the roots of the mountain. Is he literally down that deep? Well, no not literally because there's vegetation there, but he is down quite a ways and Can you blame him for a little bit of exaggeration in verse 6 about being at the roots of the mountain?

I'm sure he's feeling some pressure and if you go down to the bottom of the 10-foot swimming pool or the 12-foot Olympic sized swimming Pool and if you've been down there you feel the popping in your ears and the pressure.

Jonah is feeling the pressure. Okay, he's literally sinking and he's feeling that and He's anxious and nervous. Jonah speaks about going down to the land whose bars close upon him forever. Another picture of death.

He's at the gateway to shale that Hebrew concept of the grave. And the fact of the matter is in our story. I mentioned Jonah has done nothing but sink throughout the entire book. He went down to Joppa.

He went down to the bottom of the ship. He was hurled down into the sea. He sank to the depths of the grave when suddenly look look at the text. Look at verse 6 at the roots of the mountain. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever.

Yet you brought up my life from the pit. Oh Lord my God. What is this that we encounter? Jonah has stopped going down. But now what direction is he heading? He's going up on the basis of what?

God.

The Lord his God is. The Lord his God is lifting him up from the pit. Jonah goes upward for the first time in the text and it is not because of Jonah. It is the Lord doing it. Upward movement for Jonah comes from God.

And I would propose to you the upward movement in our lives comes from God. I'm not talking about climbing the social ladder or getting a nicer car or getting a promotion or a raise. What am I talking about?

What kind of upward movement comes from God like maybe things like true joy? True salvation. True meaning in your life. True purpose. That kind of stuff that gives you the the force to live. Well, all of those things come from God's hand.

He is the one who dispenses those things and gives us upward mobility in the way that we live our lives. That is what provides that for us. When did God's salvation come to Jonah he says in verse 7 just in the nick of time.

Beginning of verse 7 says when my life was fainting away another way to translate. That is just literally when I was about to lose consciousness. He's just about to drown. And he says I remember the Lord and my prayer came to God in his temple Temple in heaven where God is listening to prayers.

Now it's important to understand that there's a little bit of a break after verse 7. So you get to 7 and at the end because when you come to verse 8 It just kind of seems disjunct like all of a sudden like what's going on.

What's happened is he's been reflecting back on this prayer that he offered when he was in the water. Now he's back caught up with himself. So he's like I prayed these things to you and you delivered me.

I'm about to say thanks for that because I was in the water and I was gonna drown and my life was fading away and I was settling deeper and deeper and the seaweed was around my head and this was going really bad about to die.

And you.

Delivered me.

Now he's caught up and he's literally reflecting on his current situation while in the whale. So in verse 8 he states that those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. Anybody think that seems like a strange comment like just stuck in the middle of this prayer of Thanksgiving.

Anybody besides me think that that looks okay. A couple of you think that's strange the rest of you are like Oh, I totally get it. That's exactly what I would say if I was in his shoes. I don't know. Seems like a strange comment to me.

But think about where else have you seen idols mentioned in the book of Jonah so far. Who else who have we seen worshipping idols the sailors now? We're gonna see Jonah in just a moment. Talk about sacrifices and vows.

Who did we see make sacrifices and vows earlier in the text? We are meant to be focusing and thinking about the sailors the sailors car coming to mind here. And the fact of the matter is Jonah has been he's been pushed to the bottom of the sea.

He's been swallowed by a whale and he is still hung up on the sailors. They're still in his mind. He's still focused on those pagans those others those other people who don't deserve your love God. Now I want to point out that Jonah's got a hang-up and we're gonna explore that and unpack that a little bit.

But I just want to say at the outset what Jonah says is accurate. It's true. It's misguided the way that he says it in the context that he says it it just shows something Horrendous and ugly about his own heart, but it's accurate.

It's true. What does he say? He says those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.

Idolatry will.

Never lead to stability. It will never lead to stability in your life. Have any of you ever worshipped something other than God? Have you can you testify that those idols have an insatiable appetite? They want to own you.

They will be your master readily. Our idols quickly own us. Would you agree with that? We are easily owned. Money is an ugly master. Sex is an ugly master. Fame prestige power authority. Ugly masters, would you agree with me?

Drugs.

Ugly masters and They will destroy us. Whatever it might be for you There is nothing stable or steadfast about idolatry. There will be no stability in it and equally there is not an ounce of real love in it.

You worship sex you worship drugs you worship money you worship whatever it might be. Is there love in it? No.

No.

Just a insatiable hunger for more a desire for more and nothing ever. You never reach the bedrock with idolatry. You never find a firm place for your feet to stand and yet we're so easily swayed and easily brought into it.

God has a monopoly on Steadfast life transforming love. And let me be the first to encourage you accept no substitutes. Turn to him. That is the place where stability is found. That is the place in Christ is.

Christ is the rock in which we can ankle anchor our souls and find rest and purpose. There is no other place. Even though Jonah's statement about idolatry is very true It betrays his arrogance. Because he goes on to make himself out to be better than those wretched sailors.

Jonah doesn't even know what happened as sailors when he hit the water, right? He hit the water sank and was going down to the bottom. He doesn't even know and.

So.

We know that they offered sacrifices to God and made vows to follow him. They've literally done more than Jonah has to honor God and yet he is there. Basically maligning them. And look at verse 9. He says in in arrogance.

Those.

Those pagans forsake your your steadfast love, but I.

But I.

Jonah's arrogance and self-centeredness even shines through while he's trying to confess and repent. I Think we can be there, right? Or even in the process of repenting we can say well at least God. I'm not like blank.

But maybe you could forgive me for this little thing that I did over here. Can you relate to that? At least in your thinking maybe you wouldn't be so brash as to say it, but you might think it well I know I'm not.

You know, this is just a little thing. I'm not like that, but I did this little thing and I know that'd probably be pretty easy for you to forgive me for that. But I'm not like this. He's ultimately saying well, at least I'm not like those sailors I would.

The boy with the voice of Thanksgiving will sacrifice to you and What I vowed I'll follow through on. Now, do you see how ironic this is those of you who were here last week? Do you see how utterly? Unbelievably ironic it is that he's promising and pledging to God from the belly of the fish.

I won't be like those sailors. I'll sacrifice to you and I'll make vows to you. What was the last thing that we saw the sailors doing? Sacrificing and making vows to God. It's just this intense irony in this.

They've done more than Jonah. Jonah the prophet of God is pledging to do what these pagan sailors have already done. And he's thinking he's so much better than them you get it you see that God has a sense of humor.

Now we cannot miss the authenticity and Jonah here the fact of the matter is his heart has not changed regarding foreigners. But I believe it is changed towards God. He throws in the towel and he says fine I will serve you you get me out of this whale.

I will sacrifice to you. And I don't think we can interpret his vows in this context is anything less than his willingness to go to Nineveh. I think that's the only vow that God is interested in in his life right now.

That's the thing that he's running from. That's the thing that is the one of the centerpieces of the entire book. And so by Jonah declaring vows. He's saying yes, I will serve you. I will do what you ask and he ultimately says I know that salvation is yours if I'm gonna get out of this situation.

It's gonna be at your hand. He knew that aside from God's work. He was stuck there and going to die. But then here like I stated earlier in my introduction Jonah states the most clear Point of the entire book of Jonah the mission of God is wrapped up in the declaration.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. It's interesting to note Jonah believed it and he only wanted it for himself. He believed that God was a God of mercy. God was a God of grace and he said give it to me God.

Give me your grace. Give me your mercy but I don't really want it for the sailors and I don't really want it for Nineveh and I don't want it for people like This or this or this and you name your categories and build your walls and and whatever it is in your mind.

You say well, they're not worthy. But God, would you please be merciful towards me? Can you hear can you can you hear your own voice say things like that in your head? Before we judge Jonah on this can we find do we see the the biases in our own lives and the walls that we build up in the.

You see what I'm saying guys tracking with that. We're all like that he wanted it all for himself. He recognizes that salvation belongs to the Lord. He just says I want it for me and the Lord commanded the fish and it spewed and Out squirts a pasty white Jonah covered with fishy bits.

You.

That's probably was not a pleasant thing. If they were fishermen along the side of the seashore. They're what? Can you imagine being on the shore when that happened. Creepy Jonah was thankful for the fish.

He was literally thankful for the fish. It was a vehicle of deliverance from the depths of the grave for him. He offers thanks for it. I Made a mistake in a sermon a couple weeks ago, and I just need to correct this.

And this is a great time to correct it. I went back and I was listening to it because I somebody pointed out and I was like, man I know that wasn't in my notes. But I had mentioned that Jonah was not mentioned anywhere other than second Kings.

Incorrect. He's also mentioned in the New Testament. What I meant to say is that the only other place we hear Jonah's voice Outside of the book of Jonah is in second Kings the only place he speaks, but we see him.

We see Jesus mentioned him and If you're taking notes, I want you to write down this reference Matthew 12 39 through 40. Jesus talks about Jonah kind of significant if our Lord and Savior is talking about our main character here.

And this is what happened some scribes and some Pharisees some of the who's who the religious elite and the scholars and the people who? Followed the law just exactly. They came to Jesus and they asked him to give them a sign.

Now Jesus was going around the countryside doing miracles and they could have just taken any one of them. But instead they're like give us a sign. We want you to do something specific for us and then we'll follow you then we'll believe you and so Jesus responds this way at The demand of people for signs.

He wasn't really quick to give them. He was willing to freely give them when they were when they were just Gently and kindly asked for but when it was a demand not so much and he answered them. This is a quote an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.

But no sign will be given to it except the sign of the Prophet Jonah. Okay, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth?

Jonah.

Ultimately reflected Christ's passage through the grave and ultimately what we're looking at is Jonah went through the paths of death.

That's the picture and.

He had a resurrection of sorts when he was spewed out of that fish. It was like resurrection to a new life to a new chance. Do you see that in the book? He's been he's been given a new lot on life a new opportunity to start fresh and start over again.

He was brought through the darkness and carried through the places of death. He stands as a picture of Salvation to us. Did Jonah deserve deliverance? Did he deserve it? Not really you guys looked confused on that question.

I'm not trying to trick you. But he was given a second chance. And in the same way Jesus offers a second chance to anyone we can experience new birth through trust in Jesus. The one who went to the cross and passed through the grave on our behalf.

And so he who spent three days and three nights in the belly of the earth in the grave. For us is the one who provides a second chance. Now there are three main applications. I want to unpack from this text.

I recognize the Holy Spirit and I Encourage you to pray as you're listening to the Word of God and how would the Holy Spirit guide you and direct you? What does he want you to understand and he can he can do whatever he wants.

But listen for his voice convicting you on these three points as I go through. Pray and ask him to reveal what he would desire to put his finger on in your life. But the first one is how do you think about others a common theme throughout this book?

Recurring theme. And yet it takes front and center stage in our text this morning because of the fact that Jonah was satisfied. He was okay with the concept of being saved alone. Now I know a pitch. I know a pastor who had a pit has a has a picture he had it on his wall and it was framed and It was a drawing from his son when his son was young and it was done in Crayon and it wasn't a fabulous immaculate picture but it had a storm and a little lightning strike and yellow coming down and then it was an ocean and a ship and Two men overboard stuck in the water and the one Was holding on to a life ring with one hand and with a rope attached to the boat and he's holding on to a life ring and he's reaching out to the other man in the water with his hand to grab a hold and The can you imagine what the caption said under that?

The caption said I Will not be saved alone. I Will not be saved alone. He is our hope he is our rescue. Who are you reaching out for in your life? Who is there that is in the water with you? And that's the fact I think too many non-christians out there see us and they think we're already in the boat.