God's Compassion Is Mission | Peter Tan-Chi | July 5, 2026

0:00 Have you ever asked yourself what happens to those people who have never heard about Jesus, who are wicked? In the book of Jonah, you will learn something that God uses people like you, like me, to accomplish his purpose, to share the good news. However, just like Jonah, it is also possible that we, his servants, may have a hardened heart. So the book of Jonah will help you develop the right kind of heart, the right kind of compassion to reach out to people who are not lovable. Watch this video. Hopefully it will impact your heart. God bless.

0:52 Well, hello. I'm Dave Sutherland. My wife Deanna and I live in Ortigus just down the street. were honored to CCF Maine here as our church home. I uh grew up in the US uh where I had a rich Christian heritage. My father planted churches. My mother was running the child evangelism fellowship for the state of Maine and I became a Christian at a young age in high school and in university. My younger brother and I. We were competitive debaters and we were pretty successful. We worked really hard. We were working literally a hundred hours every week to get ready for the next debate tournament. And in our third year of university, we finished third place in America. So, we were getting ready to try to become national champions in our next year. But that summer before my last year, I went away to a summer camp and I sensed that

1:38 God was asking me, what if you put ministry first in your life during your last year of university? And what if that you did that instead of debate and that made a difference in the eternal trajectory of just one person? Would that be worth it? And I felt that was a very unfair question because of course it would be worth it. But I was saying to God, I needed just one more year to finish my debate career. And I remember shedding a few tears because I felt that God was asking me to give up the most important thing in my life. So I reluctantly agreed to follow God's calling and focus on ministry first and debate second that last year. And as a result, our debate results in our last year of university were not as good as they were in the year before. But there was still the national championship. So the national champ debate tournament

2:25 happens every year. It starts with 120 teams and after three days they narrow the field down to 16 and from there a single elimination just like the World Cup. And in the round of 16 we won barely four to three. In the in the quarterfinals we barely won. We successfully we we then went to the semifinals and we were five judges. We got three to two. So again just barely won. And so we successfully made it into the final round. Just two teams left. And now a normal debate round they you debate for an hour and a half and then the judges take maybe 15 minutes announced. This time after a final round the judge took two hours to decide. And then finally the tournament director had the five ballots from the five judges that were going to decide. And he held them up in front of the room and he opened one and it was for them and one

3:11 for us and one for them, one for us and it came down to one last ballot and he opened that one up and it was for us and we'd become the national champions. And uh when that happened, I could hear God whisper to my ears, "If you will put me first in your life, I will take care of you." And I almost instinctively answered to him that um next time I will follow you no matter what because you've proven yourself faith uh faithful to me. So just a few weeks later after that debate Diana and I got married and uh without a doubt she has been one of the greatest blessings in my life. And soon thereafter Diana and I went to Urbana a big huge missions conference and we really felt that God called us to serve

3:57 in Asia from a secular platform. So, professionally, I became an international tax lawyer so I could serve overseas. And Deanna got her master degree in linguistics so that she could teach English. And uh we began our careers in Washington DC. We started our family and we planted a church in our living room. Eventually that church grew up to,400 people. I worked for Wall Street law firms as a lawyer and then I served in the Clinton administration as the associate international tax counsel for the US government. I even got to go to the situation room in the White House. a couple of times. It was a great job. But one day, I got a surprise call from Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley was the biggest investment bank in the world. And uh they offered me a chance to run their tax affairs across Asia. So

4:44 a few months later, we got on a plane and we moved our family and our kids to Hong Kong. And for the next decade, I put 5 million miles on the airplanes and I got to know the business centers in Asia very well. But our real priority was around ministry. And so we were trying to see where God was calling us. And uh we did a little bit like private equity. We invested a little bit of time, a little bit of money in 10 small Asian indigenous ministries to try to see which ones we could bring to scale. And after that search, the ministry that really grabbed our heart was one in the Philippines called International Care Ministries. In 1992, ICM was started by Bible College students in Bakolid. ICM exists to empower poor pastors to serve their own communities. In 1998, ICM's

5:31 budget was about two million pesos per year. Now ICM's budget is nearly a billion pesos a year. We are have grown to be one of the very largest charities in this country. It's really amazing what God can do. And when I explain ICM to people, I usually use three words. Focused, effective, and and scale. First a focus. God called us to serve the ultra poor in the Vayas and Mindanao that and that's what we focus on. Families that live on less than 30 pesos per person per day, about 50 US cents. Twothirds of the people we serve lack uh drinking water. Uh half don't have enough food. 17% of the mothers that we serve have had one of their own children die. Now, I don't know about you, but I

6:17 probably have had three or four friends of mine who have had lost one of their own children. and it crushed them. Like even years later, we want to go to dinner with them and they're still grieving. It is crushing. Imagine living in a situation where the society a CTO where where child death is really common. What would that do to the society? Second thing is ICM is effective. We work with Ivy League researchers to measure our impact. We've learned that local pastors are the God's hands and feet in their communities. And through the four-month transform program that we've created, local pastors equip the poorest families in biblical values, health, livelihood, early childhood education. After four months, the average ultra poor family experiences 107% increase in household income, plus significant reductions in serious illness and also in chronic hunger and

7:05 scores of other life improvements. The third word we use is scale. 2.2 million Filipinos have graduated from that four-month transform program. That's a lot of numbers. And when you talk about scale, you have a lot of numbers. So, go get ready. God has cured 15,000 children of malnutrition. Nearly 300,000 have been dewormed. 300,000 screened for TB, 25,000 life-changing surgeries. We've seen uh churches have facilitated 300,000 small businesses, 200,000 vegetable gardens. 750,000 Filipinos, very poor right now, have saved a total of 500 million pesos of their own money. It's a huge amount of money for people

7:50 that earn 30 pesos per day. That is a lot of numbers and every one of those numbers represents a soul. So ICM uh CCF has been the engine for much of the spiritual side of ICM's ministry. Two decades ago, Pastor Peter spoke to 700 pastors at ICM's 15th anniversary. And uh CCF has given ICM lots of support since then. More than 20,000 unique pastors are actively inva engaged with Go Viral in the Philippines now from almost every denomination in the country. 74% of the pastors we serve have a Sunday morning offering of less than 500 pesos for the entire church. These pastors, they generally have entrepreneurial skills. So, they're able

8:37 to speak in front of groups and they could use those entrepreneurial skills to start a business to help themselves or their families. But instead, they use their last pesos to try to build up a local church. And that often comes at huge personal cost to themselves and to their families. Why do they do that? Because they feel that the God of heaven has called them to bring good news to their min to their neighbors. And so for us, those pastors, they're our heroes. ICM works with the CCF's beyond ministry to bring go viral across the Vayas and Mindanao. The scale is so huge. It's not easy to train 20,000 pastors one at a time. So we created a cascading strategy. Every quarter we bring two ICM staff from each of our 38 branches to

9:23 Manila for one whole week of training. So sitting right here all of these red shirts, they are the 76 ICM staff who are pastor trainers. They have just finished one week of training and so they stayed here to be with you this week. So they come from across the Philippines. ICM has 600 full-time staff across the provinces. In each of our bases we have a couple of dozen staff and our bases are in Kibbo Iloilo Bakola Dumagedi Bhol Sabu Lee Cornadal Jensen Depollo Dvau Dubuchan Cidio Porter Princessa and each one of those bases are subdivided into branches. So this morning we have we have uh ICM two staff from each of our branches and together these 76 ICM staff

10:11 they travel to the most most remote parts of the country. It is real heroism. So IC CCF trains the 76 ICM staff here in the NCR and then those 76 staff train 2,000 pastor leaders in all of the provinces to apply Go Viral. Those 2,000 lead pastors then train 20,000 pastors and those 20,000 pastors implement Go Viral in their churches. And these churches are small but together there is more than 1 million Filipinos on Sunday morning in their churches. And uh so it's a lot of people and the results of that go viral have become phenomenal. God has empowered uh these pastors to plant 12,000 new fellow church fellowships over the last three

10:56 years. And uh we checked and as of a month ago more than 90% of those churches planted over the last few years are still active. There's now 32,000 new potential leaders practicing prayer, care and share. There's 185,000 people who have accepted Christ and are now active in Dgroups. The pastors who drive those results are remarkable. Just three examples sitting over here. Pastor Joshua, he serves in remote devout communities where witchcraft is still widely practiced. Joshua has personally shared the gospel with 180 people. He's seen 140 new believers. Pastor Roy helped deliver almost a million meals to churches in General Santos after the huge earthquake that happened last month. Along the way, his downlights have shared the gospel with 26,938

11:44 souls. And finally, Pastor Aldrich serves Tiboli tribes in Lake Sabu. His downlines have seen God lead 18,333 people to become new believers. Those people are all in now in Dgroups. And every one of the 76 ICM staff could tell you incredible stories of God's faithfulness. If you want to, just ask them after the service. Training all of those pastors is only possible through ICM's partnership with CCF. And Pastor Peter has committed a huge amount of effort and resources towards adapting the Go Viral curriculum for this context. We are very grateful for the quarterly MMRC pastor trainings and the support thousands of trainings across Visman. Now, in addition to Go Viral, ICM also empowers pastors for direct

12:30 evangelism. Last year, we saw 500,000 Filipinos hear the gospel through tracks, films, and mostly through vacation Bible school. This year, ICM is well on our way to double that number and reach a million more Filipinos with the gospel message. Now, there are not that many churches like CCF that would be so generous to invest in remote communities outside of their own congregation. So, I hope all of you are proud to be part of the CCF community that follows God's call to help the poor. Back to my role in business. In 2009, uh, Morgan Stanley asked me to become their chief financial officer across all of Asia Pacific. I had a huge corner office and one of the biggest, tallest, uh, buildings in the world and I oversaw all the financial affairs of a

13:15 multi-billion dollar business. And God blessed me in that role. I worked with over the next four years, I worked four different CEOs. I worked with three different COOs and soon I was the longest serving member of the Morgan Stanley seuite in Asia. In December of 2012, I traveled to New York City to meet my boss, a very senior guy. I had a lot of things to say before I started. He put up his hand and said, "Just let me I want to let you know we've decided Morgan Stanley doesn't need a CFO in Asia anymore. You have any questions?" And um that meeting started at 2:00 p.m. and at 2:10 p.m. I was back in my hotel room and my career was over after 17 years. Now, I don't really mean to complain because investment banking can

14:00 be pretty cutthroat and uh careers can be short, but I was just surprised. But during that short walk from the Morgan Stanley building to my hotel, I felt God whispering to me, "I will take care of you." Just like he did all those years before. Now, fortunately for my self-image, other banks soon offered me senior jobs as well. And so, God did give me the opportunity to re-enter business if I had chosen. But I felt his call to pursue ministry full-time. Now, that pivot from investment banking to full-time ministry has has been a big commitment for me. I walked away from business at the height of my income earning years, but it's been really worth it because God, the God of the universe, who created all things and has all power, he's been so generous to me. He's given me a safe home, loving

14:46 relationships, enough food to feed my children, and far more than I'll ever need. And I know there are many people in our world that don't have those benefits. So, the least I can do is I can turn my heart and spirit towards him. Lay whatever he's given me at his feet and turn my attention to whatever task he's called me to do. So, to God be the glory. Thank you. Our theme for this month is mission. That's why it's called mission man. Now God's compassion is mission. If you want to know why mission exists, it's because of God's compassion. What do we mean by mission everybody? The word mission means being sent to accomplish a purpose. All of us are given a mission. The word mission comes from the Latin

15:34 word mission to sent. So all of us are men and women with a mission. Human missions seek to improve life on earth. God's mission seeks to transform lives for eternity. Do you know what is God's mission for us? How many of you know what's God's mission for us? Raise your hand. My goodness, you have been with CCF for 42 years and uh you are still wondering what's our mission. All right, quick review. This is our mission from the Lord. Everybody read. Go therefore and

16:19 make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Now, this English verse 19:20 has a few verbs. I will give you the verbs and you tell me which is the primary verb. All right? You won't see that in the English version but you guess in the Greek language what is the main verb number one? No, you must raise your hands. Okay? But you can only raise your hands once. You cannot raise twice. So my question is what is the primary verb? What is the main verb of Matthew 28

17:05 19 to 20? Okay. What is the main verb? Raise your hands only once. You cannot keep raising your hand, okay? Because there's only one primary verb. How many of you say go? Raise your hand. Go. You know, everywhere I go, including pastor's conference, you have pastors raising their hand. Go. How many of you say make disciples? Raise your hands. Turn around. You are from CCS. Make disciples. How many of you say baptize? Okay. Okay, the primary verb is make disciples. So what is go? Go is a verbal participles supporting the primary verb. So how do you make disciples? As you go, you engage people. How do you make disciples? You baptize them. How do you

17:52 make disciples? You teach them. So what's the main verb? Make disciples. So turn to your neighbor. Your mission is to make disciples. A Christian that is not making disciple is not yet a disciple because this command is for all of us to make disciples. If you make disciples, your disciple will make disciples. So until you are making disciples, you are not yet a real disciple. And in CCF, we teach you how to make disciples. Human mission may change history. Okay? You may invent new things.

18:38 Wonderful. However, God's mission for you and for me changes lives for eternity. Dave made a discovery when God spoke to him. What will you spend your life? Are you going to focus on debating or are you going to focus on getting involved in transforming lives? He made a choice. God's mission. The church does not make its own mission. We don't invent our mission statement. CCF we don't in invent. We just obey. The mission of the church is God's mission. And what is God's mission? To make disciples. Mission is the reason

19:24 the church exists. Who is the church? God's people. Ecclesia, a congregation, God's people. So turn to your neighbor. Tell your neighbor, you are the church. You are the church. Your mission is to make disciples. You can invent your mission. You can add your mission. But for me, I tell business people, I tell teachers, I tell mothers, I tell nurses. Everywhere you go, it's a platform for you to make disciples. How do you make disciples? You go. You got to engage people. You evangelize them. But after evangelizing them, you don't stop. You have to train them to become Christlike so that they in turn will make disciples. This is the

20:11 plan of the Lord. So God's compassion is mission. Problem. Do you know God's compassion? The word the word for compassion is from the Latin. Two words from Latin language. Number one is com. Com means what? Together. Pio means suffering. So the idea is compassion is somebody who empathizes. You empathize with people. You learn to feel their pain so that it will lead you to do something about it. That is Christ's compassion. He loves you. He knows your pain. So the idea of compassion originates

20:59 from God. Next, I want you to see how Jesus shared his compassion. Everybody read this. Seeing the people he felt compassion. Now, the Greek word for compassion is plamu. I don't want to pronounce it again. It's so hard because I don't speak Greek. However, I studied Greek. This word is a bit complicated because this word is never used in the classical Greek. This word is really invented by the apostles, by the disciples. They have to create a new word to explain compassion. Literally, it has to do with your inner organs.

21:47 Stomach, your heart, your liver, your bowels. Uh the inner stomach is so turned over that it will lead you to action. Therefore, compassion is a feeling that you love, but it will lead you to action. It cannot just be talking. It's feeling plus action. So today we will discuss from the book of Jonah. God's compassion everybody is mission. You will see this from the book of Jonah. Three things. There are many things you can learn. I want to highlight just three. God's compassion is proactive. It's something from within him. He initiates. Number two, God's compassion

22:35 pursues. He does not give up on people. And number three, God's compassion transforms. That's what he wants. He loves you so much, he will not allow you to remain as you are. All of us need to grow. So God's compassion will make you keep growing. Let's begin. Jonah 1 verse one. The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amit, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me." Following observation number one, the word of the Lord came. God initiated everything.

23:20 God's word came to Jonah. Next, what was God's concern? God is concerned for a city. It's called Nineveh, a great city. Nineveh, the great city. Now, if you read the book of Jonah, you will notice the following. It's not about fish. The word fish appears only four times. It's not about great city. It appears nine times. It's about the Lord. It's about God. He appears 38 times. So God is orchestrating everything. So our mission is called the great commission. If you have heard of Christians language, they talk about the

24:06 great commission. Matthew 28, go make disciples. It is called the great commission because it is great. It's from God. It's called co-mission because the word co means what? Together. So God's mission, we do it together. So it's called commission. It is not to be accomplished you alone. We together. So tell your neighbor we together. Together. Okay look at them. We are going to accomplish this together. So that's the idea. Now God's method is through people. So the word of the Lord came to Jonah and he tells Jonah cry against the city for the wickedness has come up before me. So God took action. Remember the Bible tells us God demonstrates his own love for us.

24:54 While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God's compassion is directed for all kinds of people, especially sinners. Notice the Bible says while we are still what? Sinners. See, God did not wait until you shape up because God loves you as is. That is God's compassion. He loves all kinds of people. Now many of us are like Jonah. I will tell you why. Because our tendency is not to love people that are not good. We like to love people who are good. Who loves us? We love them. So the Bible tells us what did Jonah do? Jonah rose up to run to Tarsus from the presence of the Lord. My goodness, Jonah

25:41 was running away from God. So he went down to Jopah, found a ship which was going to Tarsus, paid the fair, and went down to go with them to Tarsus from the presence of the Lord. Do you notice something? Jonah was running away from God's will. Did you notice that? >> Yeah. >> Why? You will know soon. In the meantime, let me tell you, if you want to know what is God's will for your life, don't copy Jonah. You know what? Look at Jonah. Many of you are thinking that circumstances will determine God's will for your life. It may, but don't use circumstances to justify God's will for your life. For

26:28 example, in the case of Jonah, he wanted to run away. So, what did he discover? He found a ship. Wow. God's will. There's a ship. And the fair is very expensive. Let me tell you why. It will take months to reach Tarsus. But you know what? Jonah discovered money. Jonah, the Bible tells us he paid the fair. So Jonah can say, "Wow, God's will. I have the money to pay." You see, you can justify using circumstances to say it is God's will. But my friend, you don't determine God's will based on circumstances. Let me give you simple example.

27:15 A man or a woman wanted to divorce the wife or the husband. Now my wife and I have countless example where we talk to people and you know what they tell us? God wants me to be happy. Therefore, it is God's will. How do you know? Well, I met somebody. He wants to marry me. God's will. My goodness. How can that be God's will? It's against the Bible. So, ladies and gentlemen, listen to me now. Do not determine God's will based on circumstances.

28:00 Circumstances will only confirm. But whatever you do, make sure it is in accordance with God's word. Are we clear? Never do anything based on circumstances that is against the word of God. You want to get married. The person seems good. You like the person but your parents do not like and the Bible says obey your parents. So what is God's will at that moment? God's will is don't marry the person. Now until you get parental blessing because that is how you determine God's will.

28:48 Are we clear? So in this story what did you notice? Jonah was asked by God to go to Nineveh. Why did he not want to go? Why did he decide to go to Spain? Tarsus. Listen to me. Jonah was prejudice. Because Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, are bad people. They are the enemies of the Israelites. Jonah knew that Assyria is going someday, maybe someday to attack Israel. At that time, Assyria did not yet attack Israel,

29:36 but Jonah knew these are bad people. Just like you, just like me. There are certain people in your life that has wronged you. There are certain people in your life, you have prejudice, you don't want to reach out to them. Don't be like a Jonah because God's compassion is for everybody. And you notice something? God uses Jonah to reach out to people. God will use you to show his compassion. God does not show his compassion without using human instrument. You and I are God's instrument. So please remember this. But the problem with God's instrument, we are like Jonah. We are stubborn. We have our own

30:22 will. And such was Jonah. So what did God do? Well, when Jonah began to leave Israel, God pursued him. He tried to run away from God. By the way, have you tried running away from God? Come on. Have you tried running away from God? Some of you are here physically present but your heart you are not doing what God wants you to do. God knows your heart. So what did the God what did God do? The Lord heard a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. What did God do? Notice God heard a great wind. God appointed the wind. God appointed the

31:10 great God appointed the sea to become what? Stormy, what are you learning? God will chase you, but his methods are not always something you like. God will use problems. God will use trials to get your attention. That's what happened here. The Bible is not making excuses. The Bible said, "The Lord heard a great wind. The Lord sent a storm. The sailors became afraid and every man cried to his God. They threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to

31:55 lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship. What was Jonah doing? Jonah was sleeping. Is it possible for Christians like you, like me, to be out of God's will and not be bothered by their conscience? Is it possible that some of us are sleeping today? Spiritually, you're asleep. You have no idea what's happening around us. God wants to use you, but you're asleep. It's possible because it happened to Jonah. Jonah was asleep. Don't be spiritually asleep. What else did you notice? The lives of

32:42 the sailors were in danger. You know, the captain was so desperate. He wanted to make sure everybody's praying. So, he did an inspection. He saw Jonah. The captain said, "How is it that you are sleeping? Get up. Call on your God. Perhaps your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish." You know, I discovered something. When a Christian disobey God, he not only affects his own life. He affects the lives of the people around him. You know what the captain is saying? We may all perish. You see, your disobedience does not affect you only. Your disobedience will impact your loved ones around you.

33:28 That's why I'm very careful. I'm very concerned with my life. I don't want to go away from God's will because I know God is faithful. He's going to call my attention. But it's possible the consequences of your disobedience will impact negatively your loved ones. So don't say it's your life. I remember this couple. My wife and I were counseling. You know what this person said? It's my life. It's my life. I can do whatever I want to do with it. It's not your life. It's God's life, but you are going to affect your children. You're going to

34:16 affect other people. So, please don't be so selfish that in your mind you think you can run your life the way you like it. Because if you stay away from God's will, it's going to impact others and the consequences can be devastating. I've seen families destroyed by the behavior of parents. I've seen companies affected because their leaders don't follow God. So my point is this, make sure we follow God's will. But if you don't follow God's will, what will God do? What will God do to you? All right,

35:02 imagine now you're the boss of your company and your company tells you, I want you to go to vele. Where is beol? South. But what did you do? You tell your boss, I don't want be. I'm going to go to Baguio. No, you are the boss. What will you do? Will you fire that manager? I don't know what you will do. But you know what God did? He chased after Jonah. You know the men discovered something. The men discovered it was Jonah. So they confronted him. How could you do this? The men knew that

35:48 he was running from the presence of the Lord. He was a servant of God and he tried to run away from God and the people knew the people said how could you do this in Tagalog? How could you do this? It was not in the Bible. But I noticed many of God's people have soy sauce in their head. You are not thinking. You are thinking you can run away from God. In fact, some of you are here today. You're out of God's will. Your private life, your public life, I don't know what it is, but you know you need to change, but you're fighting. Well, let me tell you something. God loves you so much, he won't let you get

36:35 away with it. He will chase you. How will you chase you? Storms, sometimes financial storm, physical, health problem. You know, God loves you so much, he's going to do something to get your attention. And that's what happened to Jonah. God was running after him. And you know they asked Jonah a simple question. What shall we do? What shall we do with you that the sea may become calm? You know the Bible tells us the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. It was getting worse and worse. He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm. I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you. You know Jonah got it. Jonah

37:23 said I know why this is happening. You see God knows how to speak to you. And I know many of you here are now listening to God. Jonah knew. So what did Jonah say? Throw me into the sea. Now let me ask you why did Jonah not just commit suicide? In his mind suicide is wrong. So he does not want to kill himself. He wants people to kill him. Throw me. You know the Bible tells us they did not want to throw him in the sea. Well, the Bible tells us they tried to save the boat to go to the shore, but the storm got bigger and bigger. So

38:12 finally they said okay we will throw you into the sea. But before they did that they prayed Lord please know our heart we don't want to kill Jonah but if that's the only way according to him it's your will. So what that's what they did. So they pick up Jonah threw him into the sea and the sea stop. It's a miracle. You know raging sea don't stop. It takes hours. But here, stop. Everybody read. Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. My goodness, the pagans discovered there is one true God. The

38:58 men feared the Lord, Yahweh, not gods, the Lord God, maker of heaven and earth. And they offered a sacrifice to the Lord. They worshiped. Amazing. God's compassion reached out to the sailors also. So the sailors understood. They got saved. They worship the true God. What about Jonah? Let's find out. The Lord God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. My goodness. God

39:43 not only appointed the storm, not only appointed the sailors, not only appointed the sea to chase after Jonah. God appointed what? >> A great fish. Now I do not know what kind of fish. If you are still bothered, is that possible? Let me help you so you won't be bothered. Scientifically speaking, is it possible? Of course, it's possible. That's the size of a blue whale and that's the size of an elephant. So for a man, absolutely no problem. But the reason why I believe in the Bible is because Jesus believed in the Old Testament. Jesus mentioned this. Let's look at what Jesus said. Just as Jonah was three days, three nights in

40:28 the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man, referring to himself, be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. If Jesus believed in the story of Jonah, I have no problem believing in Jonah. Do you have problem believing in this story? No. It's a real story. It happened. So when did Jonah when did he begin to pray? If you were Jonah, you are thrown in the water. What will you be thinking? >> Finish. The end of my life. Amen.

41:14 >> Amen. >> It's the end. But you know what? God is amazing. God is chasing Jonah. What did God do? God used a fish to speak to Jonah. Now imagine you are now in the stomach of the fish. What will you be thinking? Can you smell is fishy? Is the fish fishy? I don't know. You like the smell of fish. What about the sliminess of the stomach? >> You don't like it, huh? Whatever it is, what will you be thinking? I want you to imagine complete darkness. >> But you are alive. Do you think you'll be sensitive to the

41:59 voice of God? What do you think? >> You know, I got hospitalized in my life. I was never hospitalized before. At that time, my first hospitalization, I had uh hepatitis. I was so weak. My wife said, "Something's wrong with you." So, she brought me to the hospital. When I got to the hospital, my uncle was a doctor. My uncle said, "You cannot live. You stay here." So, it's like emergency. And but the Lord spoke to me. You know what the Lord said? Peter, will you be serious with your Christian life? I want you to make disciples. I don't want you to play around with Christianity. are you going to be

42:45 serious with me? And that's when CCF came into my mind. To be serious with God means to make disciples. And when you make disciples, you have to put them in the local church. But my whole point is this. God spoke to me loud and clear when I was in the hospital. I don't know about you, but when you're having problems, you should change your attitude. Instead of being angry at God, you should say, "Lord, you must be speaking to me. What do you want me to learn? What do you want me to do?" That is what happened to Jonah. Jonah was in the stomach of the fish. And the Bible tells us for the first time recorded in

43:32 the book of Jonah, Jonah prayed to the Lord from the stomach of the fish. He did not pray in Jopa. He did not pray when he was on the boat. He did not pray when he was under the boat. He only began to pray in the stomach of the fish. Now, let me ask you, are you still running away from God? Do you want to be in the stomach of the fish? How many of you like to be in the stomach of the fish? Please don't raise your hand, okay? Because God has many compartments he can put you in. Okay? My whole point is this. Don't wait until you are so desperate. Right now, have a soft heart. The Bible

44:18 tells us when Jonah was fainting away, when I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you. See, Jonah knew one thing. Whatever it is, God is just one prayer away. I want to tell you something. It doesn't matter what you have done in the past. It doesn't matter what you have done. But if you're willing to humble yourself today, you can pray. And once you pray, the Bible tells us God responds. But God is waiting for you to make your move. The Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah up. God delivered Jonah. Business class.

45:05 back to where he's supposed to begin with. Back. You know why? Jonah needed a lesson. Do you think Jonah learned his lesson? What do you think? >> My answer to you partial. Because God transforms us stage by stage because Jonah's heart was not yet right. You know why? Why it was not right? You know the the last point I want to share with you is God's compassion transforms. Now what do we mean? Look at chapter 3. What happened to Jonah? The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. That to me is the good news about God. He is so

45:52 kind, so patient with us. He give us another chance. And I have good news for you. Not just second time. God will keep giving you opportunities. But please don't be so stubborn. You know why? If you are so stubborn, the next time you may become sassimi, okay? The next time you go in the storm of the fish, it won't deliver you. You become sushi. Okay? So don't become sushi. Don't become sashimi because you better listen. The Bible tells us a man who hardens his neck, you keep hardening your neck. The Bible says it will be broken beyond remedy. So I do not take these things. I don't abuse the grace of God. Now the word of the Lord came to

46:40 Jonah the second time. Everybody read, "Go to Nineveh, the great city." Notice the great city. Proclaim the proclamation which I'm going to tell you. I want to ask you a question. Could God have sent somebody else? >> Yes. >> Why Jonah? >> Could God send a monkey? >> Yes. >> Did you know God use a donkey to speak to a prophet? So God can use a monkey. But why will God not use monkey? Why will God use monkeys like you and me? Why is God using you using me? Listen, this is God's principle. God can use anybody, but God chooses to

47:26 use you, to use me. It's a privilege. It's a privilege to declare God's message for the people around you. For me, what a privilege that God has called me. God has called you to share the gospel. Until you understand the gospel, the compassion of God, my friend, you will not take your mission seriously. Not everybody is called. Only God's people are called to share the gospel. And you and I have a mission. Jonah was given a mission. Go to the city. Tell them what I want you to do. You know what happened to Jonah? Jonah obeyed. The Bible tells us Jonah

48:13 arose and went to the Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. He became obedient. Now Nineveh was exceedingly great city a day's walk. But you know what happened? Jonah just obeyed God. He preached and after preaching, you know what the Bible tells us? Jonah obeyed God. What was his message? His message was so simple. 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. What is 14th in the gall? That's the brutal message. If you share the gospel, how do you share the gospel? Accept Jesus or you die.

48:59 No love, no style. But I discovered something. Even no style, no love. You know, Jonah's heart was still hard. He was obeying God externally. Okay, God, I will obey you. Some of you are obeying God out of fear. But God wants you to grow. God wants you to obey God not out of fear, out of love. But Jonah, his heart was not right. But you know what happened? The people of Nineveh believe in God. They called a fast like us. Imagine prayer and fasting from the greatest to the least including the king. Wow. How can God do that? Not because of Jonah.

49:44 God use needs instrument. But God will be the one to change people. Tell your neighbor. God is the one to change people. Not you. Tell your neighbor. God is the one to change people. Okay? So you know what happened? God saw their deeds that they turned away from their wicked way. They repented. The then God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared to bring upon them and he did not do it. God spared the city because Jonah obeyed and God did his part. So my lesson is this. My part is to share the Bible in the most loving way and God's part is to change people. My job is not to force people to change. God will

50:32 change people. Amen. So the Bible should have ended here. They live happily ever after. But there's a problem. There's a chapter 4. Why chapter 4? This is what you need to understand. The book of Jonah is not about Jonah. It's about you, about me. Why do I say that? It greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. My goodness, this guy should be happy. Wow, they repented. They came to Christ. Will he be happy? Why was he not happy? His heart. You see, he does not like the Assyrians. He wanted these people destroyed. But God saved them. And the proof of my theory is the next verse. He prayed to the Lord and said,

51:18 "Please, please, Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore, in order to fortold this, I fled to Tarses. For I knew that you are a gracious, compassionate God, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity." You know what Jonah is saying? Lord, if I obey you, these people will be saved and I don't want to save them. You know, it happened to me. Remember my story years ago? I was asked by God to witness to somebody who betrayed us, who betrayed our family, who took over our company. And I told the Lord, I don't want to go there. The Lord said, "No, you go there. Pray for him." Because he

52:05 they requested for me to go to see this man. In my mind, why would I pray for this man? What if he gets well? Oh, worst of all, what if he comes to Christ? But then the Lord spoke to me. The Lord said "Peter if you don't obey me, how can you be a pastor? How can you in conscience tell people to obey God? You are not obeying me." You know, God really spoke to me. But you see, you and I are like Jonah. Our heart is hard. Our heart is hard. Jonah did not love the people. And notice what's my proof. You know what he did? Jonah to spoke to the Lord. Please take my

52:53 life from me for death is better than life. He wants to die. You notice he keeps repeating, I want to die. I want to die. He does not want to save those people. You know what Jonah did? He went up from the city, sat east. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under the shade tree until he could see what would happen to the city. Do you know just have a picture? Jonah went out of this great city. It's a big city. I suppose he went to a hill and he was looking. You know what he wanted to see? For God to send earthquake and fire and destroy Nineveh. But God did not do it. God saved the city. But he was still hoping,

53:39 Lord, destroy the city. That guy's heart is so hard. You know what God did? God planted a plant to provide shelter. God appointed a worm the next day to destroy the plant. God appointed a scorching wind to wake up Jonah. And you know what Jonah did? Oh, look at his soy sauce. He became faint, begged with all his soul to die. Death is better to me than life. You see drama drama. That is Jonah. God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" Jonah said, "I have good reason. I'm angry even to death." You notice he keeps repeating the guy has no heart for

54:25 sinners. The Lord said, "You had compassion on the plant which you did not work, which you did not cause to grow." Look, Jonah had compassion, but compassion on the wrong object. Many people of today, they love their dogs more than they love their neighbors. We love things more than we love people. Shame on us. You need to learn to love people, especially people you don't like. That's God's compassion. By the way, are there people you don't like? Are there nivites in your life? They've done something against you. You don't like them. Well, the Bible tells us the last verse

55:11 in the book of Jonah. Should not should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between right and left. Many scholars tell us these are children who cannot differentiate right hand or left hand. That means there are a lot of people. If you have 120,000 children, what about adults? So this is a great city. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people and God is saying I care for the city. You see God care for city. CCF we are focused on city. The provinces we praise God. We partner with ICM because these are

55:56 ministry that you and I cannot do. But you are called to be in the city. You are to reach out to people. In this verse, why did the Bible ended with a question mark? Because that question mark is for you and for me. Are you like Jonah? You don't care for people. You see, God is asking you this question. Where are you headed? Are you headed for Tarsus or are you headed for Nineveh? Where is the direction of your life? Are you pursuing God's will for your life or are you running away? Where are you right now? For some of you, you may be like Jonah, externally

56:42 doing God's will externally, but in your heart, no compassion, no love. What is the message today? God's compassion is what? Mission. For you to embrace the mission. You got to have compassion. God's compassion. But the sad thing is this. I don't have compassion. I'm still growing. I asked my wife, "Why do you share the gospel with almost everybody?" Observe my wife everywhere we go. Give her 10 minutes with somebody, she'll be sharing the gospel. You know what she told me? Peter, I don't think of myself. I look at them and I think where will they go after they die? You see, my wife

57:29 is thinking where they will spend eternity. Most of us just think of ourselves. We think of our own convenience. We don't really care for people. Even as Christians, you need to pray that God will give you a heart of compassion. This week a group of us including myself had a chance to meet a government official and I shared the gospel with this man. Why did I share the gospel? Because God has begun to transform my heart. I have to tell you years ago I asked God, Lord, I don't want to share the gospel out of duty. I don't want to be a professional Christian. I want to be a Christian that

58:15 has a heart to love people because by nature I don't like people. I don't love people. But God is changing my heart to have compassion. And I discovered something. As you surrender your heart to God and you do what God wants you to do, he will keep transforming us. You see, transformation is not overnight. It takes time. You all need transformation. And how do you become transformed? The book of Jonah eventually point to one person, Jesus. That's why Jonah is not the end until you understand it points to us and to Jesus. The men of Nineveh will stand

59:00 up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. Behold, something greater than Jonah is here. What is Jesus talking about? Jesus is saying something greater than Jonah is here. Who is that something greater? Jesus. That's why Jonah is compared to Jesus biblically. Jonah was sent by God. Jesus was sent by God. Jonah disobeyed. Jesus obeyed. Jonah lacked compassion. Jesus was full of compassion. Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days, three nights. Jesus was in the tomb three days, three nights. Jonah came out

59:46 of the fish. Jesus rose from the dead. Jonah, no heart. Jesus died for sinners for us to be saved. So my question, have you encountered the compassion of God through Jesus? The secret of compassion is to have Jesus in your heart until you experience the love of God through Jesus. You cannot really develop a compassion for people you don't like. The truth is there are people you like. There are some people you don't like but don't have a hard heart. So how do you have God's heart, God's compassion? The Bible tells us through Christ. The apostle Paul confessed this. The love of Christ

1:00:35 controls us. Paul is saying, "I am controlled by the love of Christ." Notice, not just Christ loving me. It's the love of Christ. The love of God in you need to experience the love of God. Ladies and gentlemen, can you turn to your neighbor? Tell your neighbor, "God loves you." >> Do you believe God loves you? Yes or no? Have you experienced his love? Have you experienced his forgiveness? You see, until you do that, you will not know what I'm talking about. You will not know why you should tell sinners that Jesus died for them. You will have no idea what I'm talking about. But once you experience the love of God, how you have forgiven, how your life has been transformed, I tell you, you will want

1:01:22 to tell people the good news. He died for all so that they who lived might no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't live for myself anymore. But my tendency is to live for myself. But God told me he died for me so that I will now live for him. What about you? Is God speaking to you? Are you familiar? And do you now understand what is God's compassion? God's compassion is mission. Now what is God's compassion? It's proactive. It's from him. He loves you. Nobody force him to love you. He loves you. What is God's compassion? He

1:02:07 pursues you. Are you being pursued by God right now? >> Yes. >> Are some of you having problems? Maybe. Well, God is not angry. God loves you. He wants to transform you. Are you about being transformed? Now, if some of you would like to experience God's love in your heart, I want you to pray with me. Let's bow our heads. Wherever you are, if you want God to transform you, you want to experience God's love, wherever you are, raise your hand. Praise God. Those of you in the satellites, those of you who are watching us worldwide, wherever you are, if you have heard the voice of God telling you to repent, to change,

1:02:54 and you are willing to surrender to him, raise your hands. Anybody else? Higher. Higher. All right. You know why this is very important? This is a day where you realize you may be doing God's will, but you don't have God's heart. Why don't you pray that God will give you a heart of compassion? really come to Jesus, experience his love for you, his unconditional love, unconditional forgiveness, so that you in turn can share love with others. Anybody else? Praise God. Well, wherever you are, why don't you stand up? Hey, stand up. I'll pray for you. Yes, those of you raise your hands. You want me to pray for you, just stand up wherever you are in the satellites, stand up between you and the Lord. No looking around. If God has spoken to you, you need to make

1:03:41 a decision. Just like last Sunday, today when you hear his voice, do not have a hard heart. If God is speaking to you, anybody else, you have been running away from God. Okay? And God is speaking to you today. God is saying, "Why don't you change?" Some of you have been compromising. You think you can run away from God. The fact that you are here today and the fact that you're listening to this message means God is chasing you and God loves you. So why don't you surrender to his love? Anybody else? Wherever you are, praise God. Now pray this prayer with me. Lord Jesus, here I am. I surrender my life. Sometimes Lord or even now I'm trying to

1:04:28 run away but today I'm coming home. Lord, I come to you. I will do what you want me to do. Go where you want me to go. Take my life and give me a heart of compassion. Give me a heart like Jesus. I pray that for myself that I learn to love people more and more. In Jesus name we all pray. Amen. And amen. God bless you. Happy missions month CCF family. Welcome to Sunday FastTrack where you ask real life questions and we give you biblical truths. I'm Hakem Want from CCF Beyond, our missions department here in CCF. And

1:05:16 we're here today with Dr. Peter Tanchi to answer some of your questions. Good day, Pastor Peter. Happy missions month. Thank you for your very compelling message. Are you ready to answer our questions? >> Yes. Yes. >> Praise God. For question number one, what usually keeps people from obeying God's call and how can they take the first step to turn hesitation into action? >> Well, sometimes it's fear. It's fear of uh what will happen because there are times when God really asks you for example he tells some of his disciples sell everything you have follow me now why will you do that but then the disciples asked Jesus if we sell everything what happens to us Jesus said

1:06:05 you'll be rewarded 10 times even in this life and in the life to come so to obey God requires faith So if you believe God that he has his best plan for you, it will overcome fear. Remember faith and fear don't go together. If you have faith, you overcome fear. >> If you have faith, you obey. So to answer your question, why do we not obey? Many times is lack of faith. >> Thank you, Pastor Peter. For question number two, many of us are like Jonah and have hardened hearts towards people who have hurt us. How do we go from holding grudges to genuinely wanting those who have hurt us to experience the love of Jesus? The only way to do that is to experience the compassion of God

1:06:51 in my life. If I experience God's compassion, I experience his forgiveness. Who am I now not to extend forgiveness? So people who are not able to forgive even though they call themselves Christians, >> I have a question mark. I really doubt if somebody can truly be a Christian and hold grudges and hold unforgiveness. >> I'm not going to judge everybody, but I'm saying I have a strong doubt. >> If you are a real Christian and you refuse to forgive is a problem. >> Yeah. Thank you for that wonderful answer, Pastor Peter. For our last question, how do we answer people who say, "Is it fair for God to forgive evil

1:07:37 people who repent?" The reason why it is always fair for God to do what he wants to do, number one, we all know God is just. And number two, we know God's forgiveness is based on what Jesus did to pay for our sins. In other words, our forgiveness has only one basis. It's because Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. It was paid for. >> To forgive without restitution, without solving the problem of justice is really a problematic. But with God, he solved both. Justice and love. He died for us to pay for our sins. Justice. Love

1:08:23 forgive us. >> Praise God. Thank you, Pastor Peter, for answering our questions. And that's it for CF Sunday FastTrack. God bless. >> God bless.