Lying Vanities

Jonathan Pennington preaches from Jonah 2:8, working through three questions: what a lying vanity is, what it means to observe one, and what it means to forsake your own mercy. Using 1 Samuel 12, Psalms 115, and the account of Jonah fleeing to Tarshish, he shows that a lying vanity is an empty thing that promises what only God can give, whether money, reputation, or trust in self, and that holding onto it costs more than it ever offered. He closes by asking what each of us runs to when we are running from God's will, and reminds us that God's mercies are new every morning and that no prayer for another person is wasted.