Photos by Ralph Freso/ Slideshow/ Livestream
Faith and mercy must live together.
That was the key message delivered by Pure Heart Church lead pastor Dan Steffen at Monday’s Chapel in Grand Canyon University's Global Credit Union Arena.
Continuing the Chapel theme of Hall of Faith, Steffen chose to spotlight Jonah and weaved in his personal experiences to emphasize the importance of faith and mercy.
“Have you ever known someone who was absolutely right but lived it out in an absolutely wrong way?” Steffen asked GCU students.
In the case of Jonah, Steffen elaborated on his attitude problems, which started when God called on Jonah to travel to Nineveh, the largest city in the world. Nineveh was overrun with barbarians who put hooks in the jaws of leaders and dragged them into captivity.
Jonah was to tell the Ninevah people that they would be destroyed in 40 days. Instead, Jonah gets on a ship to Tarsus.
“If you ever run from God, stay on dry land,” Steffen said, noting how sailors find out Jonah is running from God and asks to be thrown overboard.
The sea is calm when Jonah is tossed, but he is swallowed by a large fish, where he lives inside for three days, as referenced in Luke 11:29.
In Jonah 2, he prays to God, and his wish is answered with one caveat: the fish tossed him on the Ninevah shore.
“God will get you to where he wants you to go, so it’s better to go willingly,” Steffen said.
Jonah obeys God’s orders and tells 120,000 Ninevah residents of the Lord’s threat. Amazingly, every citizen repents and gives their lives to God.
But Jonah is furious because those once-barbaric people wouldn't be held accountable for their previous actions, prompting Jonah to complain to God. Jonah tells Him that this is why he tried to travel to Tarsus.
“Just kill me now, Lord,” Jonah said.
Jonah was far from an exception among those in the Hall of Faith, as every honoree “had a shallow side,” Steffen said. Jonah had faith but didn’t carry God’s heart.
“God is not looking for perfect people,” Steffen said. “He is looking for people who will trust Him and believe in Him.”
“What do you do when your faith needs an attitude adjustment?”
Jonah travels outside Ninevah to throw a “pity party” to see if God would change his mind and destroy the people Jonah dislikes.
“But God has an amazing way of transforming our perspective,” Steffen said. “God has an amazing way of getting our attention.”
A plant grew and provided shade to Jonah, whom Steffen suspects was bald and possessed bleached skin from the time spent inside the fish.
But the next day, a worm eats and kills the plant, angering Jonah.
In Jonah 4:9-11, God asks Jonah: “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant that died? Yes, Jonah replies, “even angry enough to die!” God responds, You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there.” God later emphasized that 120,000 people in Ninevah live in spiritual darkness, as well as animals.
“Should I feel grief, shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”
Steffen says he does not hear from many leaders “in the body of Christ to have a heart of mercy,” reiterating that Jonah’s problem was that he did not carry God’s heart.
There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others, said Steffen, paraphrasing James 2:13.
Throughout his talk, Steffen compared some of his struggles to those of Jonah. He recalled listening to a pastor talk about adoption while driving to Prescott 26 years ago. He was dismayed to learn that a Colorado church was “emptying” the foster care system because Christian families were adopting children.
He sensed God was calling him and his wife to adopt a child, but they were consumed with three kids and a busy career.
However, “when God calls you to something, He’s going to circle back around and make sure you figure out what it is, and you start walking in it,” Steffen said.
Decades later, Steffen revealed his wife had a much younger cousin plagued by troubles who delivered a baby. They were told only he and his wife could adopt the baby.
“I wish I would have done it at 32 years of age,” Steffen said.
Eighteen months later, they learned his wife’s cousin was in jail but was released briefly to deliver another girl, whom they adopted.
Unfortunately, Steffen said both babies were addicted to fentanyl when they were born, and the older girl spent 29 days in the intensive care unit while on morphine to deal with trembling and pain.
The younger baby was in ICU for two weeks because of her mom’s addiction to fentanyl, heroin and alcohol. The baby detoxed in utero because her mother was in jail for 30 days before she was born.
“That is the grace of God on their minds,” Steffen said. “Absolute miracles. … Our faith went to a new level. I had faith to be a father at age 52.”
But Steffen never prayed for their mother, holding the older daughter and getting angry at her mom for her addiction’s effects on the girls.
“I had great faith, but I needed an attitude adjustment, and that’s what God gave me,” Steffen said.
Two things seized Steffen’s spirit:
- He was so focused on what the mother had done that he lost sight of what Jesus had done for her on the cross.
- And “I was so busy reflecting on the darkness she had done on the girls that I didn’t take time to reflect on what darkness had caused her to do.”
“The Holy Spirit took me on a journey and reminded me of Lexi’s childhood and reminded me of the abuse when she was introduced to drugs in junior high,” Steffen said. "Once I took the long walk around, once I stopped long enough to see the pain in Lexi’s life, it changed my heart.”
Next at Chapel: All Musical Worship featuring the GCU Alumni Band, 11 a.m. March 2, Global Credit Union Arena
GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
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