Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Well, today I want to share a message with you that I have titled P, d and C Now we'll get into what those letters mean here in just a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I want us to go ahead and turn in our Bibles to the book of Jeremiah.
Speaker 1: We're going to be in chapter 29.
Speaker 1: Chapter 29 of the book of Jeremiah, we're going to be going a little Old Testament today.
Speaker 1: Today, as we're going through the different scriptures, I'm going to be reading out of the New Living Translation For me.
Speaker 1: It's just easier for me to understand.
Speaker 1: That's why I like that.
Speaker 1: So if you would stand for the reading of God's word, jeremiah 29, verse 11, and this is what it says, for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.
Speaker 1: They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Speaker 1: Amen, father.
Speaker 1: I just thank you that as we come together today, father, you will give us ears to hear what your spirit would say to us.
Speaker 1: Father, help me to get out of the way and help your word to shine forth.
Speaker 1: Father, I know it's your word that destroys the yoke of bondage and we thank you, father, for working in and through our lives.
Speaker 1: Just give us ears to hear, father, what you would say In Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: And everyone said Amen, you guys can have a seat.
Speaker 1: I want to remind everyone today that God has not forgotten about any of us.
Speaker 1: As far as God is concerned, there is no such thing as a second class citizen, amen.
Speaker 1: Okay, how many of you know God made each and every one of us, is no such thing as a second-class citizen?
Speaker 1: Okay, how many of you know God made each and every one of us?
Speaker 1: The Bible tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Speaker 1: Now, there are a lot of folks that don't believe that.
Speaker 1: How many of you know that?
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people that don't buy into that and see, here's the thing None of us are any less important in the eyes of God than somebody else.
Speaker 1: We all have a part to play in God's plan, amen.
Speaker 1: And God has a plan for each and every one of us.
Speaker 1: Look over to someone and say God has a plan for you, and that is the truth.
Speaker 1: He has a plan for all of us.
Speaker 1: Now, god's plans are always good, god's plans are always filled with hope and God's plans always give us a future.
Speaker 1: Amen, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: But now, having said that, I do need to clarify God's plans are not always easy.
Speaker 1: There are going to be times that God's going to ask you to do some things that seem just a little bit bigger than what you want to do and a little bigger than what you feel comfortable with.
Speaker 1: If you haven't experienced that yet, you will.
Speaker 1: But that's okay.
Speaker 1: God has a plan.
Speaker 1: Today, I want us to take a look at a man who looked at P, d and C straight in the eye and learned a lot of important life lessons.
Speaker 1: How many of you know that as we go through life, life has a way of teaching us some things.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had your mom or dad give you some really good advice that you just kind of eh?
Speaker 1: And then, as you get a little life experience, you come to the realization of you know what.
Speaker 1: Maybe mom and dad weren't as dumb as I thought they were.
Speaker 1: I've had that conversation with my father when my oldest son was just a couple of years old.
Speaker 1: I was working nights at Brookshire's and came down to where he was working one morning after I got off and I told him.
Speaker 1: I said dad.
Speaker 1: I said I want to tell you something.
Speaker 1: I'm going to only say it once and if you ever bring it up, I'm going to deny I ever said it.
Speaker 1: But I have come to the conclusion that you and mom were not near as dumb as I thought y'all were, and life has a way of teaching us some things.
Speaker 1: Now, my mom and dad they tried to keep me from hitting the potholes, but I'm one of those people that I just need to know, but I'm one of those people that I just need to know.
Speaker 1: And in life, it's not the years but it's the off-road miles that add up.
Speaker 1: Amen, and for you, young guys, y'all understand that as you get a little bit older.
Speaker 1: Okay, today I want us to turn to the book of Jonah.
Speaker 1: Now Jonah is in the Old Testament, towards the back of the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: It's a small book, only four chapters, okay, but inside these four chapters there is a lot of life lesson.
Speaker 1: We're going to start with verse one of chapter one, and God is talking to Jonah.
Speaker 1: It says the Lord gave this message to Jonah, the son of Amittai get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.
Speaker 1: Announce my judgment against it, because I have seen how wicked the people are.
Speaker 1: Does that sound something kind of like when we watch the news.
Speaker 1: What we see right now going on here in America, it's not some third world country, it's right here at home.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of wickedness going on.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that don't want to act right.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that don't know how to act right.
Speaker 1: Okay and I'm not saying that in a mean way, I'm just saying it They've never been taught how to act right.
Speaker 1: They've never had it modeled for them.
Speaker 1: Now Jonah heard from God, and Jonah reacts the same way we do oftentimes when we hear things from God.
Speaker 1: Jonah said in his heart that's not God.
Speaker 1: Hmm, that's not God.
Speaker 1: That's not God.
Speaker 1: God wouldn't ask me to do that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know me.
Speaker 1: God's not going to ask me to do that.
Speaker 1: That was what Jonah was saying.
Speaker 1: Jonah was given a big responsibility.
Speaker 1: He did not believe he was ready for the assignment.
Speaker 1: Have you ever faced some things in your life that you really and truly thought you were not ready for and after just a little bit you realize, whoo, this is a lot bigger than I thought it was.
Speaker 1: Okay, it happens.
Speaker 1: Jonah was afraid, he dealt with anxiety and Jonah was dealing with a poor self-image.
Speaker 1: Can any of y'all relate with any of that At some point?
Speaker 1: I think we all deal with fear, we all deal with anxiety on some level and we all sometimes don't think we're good enough.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of the way things are.
Speaker 1: Jonah was dealing with fear.
Speaker 1: He was dealing with the fear of what if.
Speaker 1: How many of you know that when you start playing the what if game, nobody wins?
Speaker 1: Playing the what if game, nobody wins.
Speaker 1: Well, what if I go and this happens?
Speaker 1: Or what if I go and it doesn't happen?
Speaker 1: Or what if it's really hard?
Speaker 1: What if I'm not able?
Speaker 1: Or, even worse, what if I fail?
Speaker 1: Even worse, what if I fail?
Speaker 1: We allow ourselves oftentimes to be paralyzed by the what ifs in life.
Speaker 1: We get so busy focusing on the what ifs that we forget about the biggest what if.
Speaker 1: What if God shows up and is just God in the middle of the situation?
Speaker 1: What if God shows up and empowers me to do what he's called me to do?
Speaker 1: What if?
Speaker 1: Have you ever prayed for something, maybe in a situation, and the answer that you get is nothing like what you were wanting or what you thought it was going to be?
Speaker 1: I know I have.
Speaker 1: So when Jonah hears this news about.
Speaker 1: Go to Nineveh and give them a message.
Speaker 1: What does Jonah do?
Speaker 1: Looking in verse 3, it says but Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.
Speaker 1: He went down to the port of Joppa where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish.
Speaker 1: He bought a ticket, went on board to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.
Speaker 1: But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that sound like a lot of fun?
Speaker 1: Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted out to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
Speaker 1: But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold of the ship.
Speaker 1: He was letting the rockiness of the storm just rock him on to sleep.
Speaker 1: No care in the world.
Speaker 1: Because, in his mind, I'm getting away from God.
Speaker 1: I don't have to do that.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take this into my own hands.
Speaker 1: How many of you know, we get in trouble when we do that.
Speaker 1: So we see Jonah's reaction to the plan.
Speaker 1: Jonah didn't pray, jonah didn't ask for reassurance, he didn't ask for clarification.
Speaker 1: Okay, jonah did not obey, jonah ran.
Speaker 1: How many of you ever heard the saying when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Speaker 1: Or, in Jonah's case, when the going got tough, jonah ran from the presence of God, or at least tried to.
Speaker 1: He was trying to get away from the assignment that God had given him.
Speaker 1: He ran in the complete opposite direction.
Speaker 1: He was running from his plan, from God's plan, for his life.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been guilty of doing that?
Speaker 1: I have.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been guilty of doing that?
Speaker 1: I have.
Speaker 1: I know there have been assignments God has given me and I'm like mm, mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm.
Speaker 1: No, god you know and I've had those discussions with God to where I'm like I don't want to God and God just keeps giving me the same assignment.
Speaker 1: It's very interesting.
Speaker 1: Okay, jonah did not like the assignment, so he decided to take life into his own hands.
Speaker 1: He decided it was time to get away for a little me time.
Speaker 1: How many of you know, it's okay to get by yourself and have some me time from time to time, but it doesn't mean that we need to be running from God in the process of doing that.
Speaker 1: Okay, so Jonah's running wasn't working.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, jonah's running was causing extreme collateral damage to the people around him.
Speaker 1: Your running doesn't only just affect you.
Speaker 1: Okay, now, the men on this ship, the sailors they were traitors.
Speaker 1: Okay, the goods they were throwing overboard, trying to make the ship lighter so it would not sink, this was their livelihood they're throwing into the ocean.
Speaker 1: They are literally throwing their income away.
Speaker 1: Okay, now, how many of you know you got to be in a pretty desperate situation to be throwing your livelihood away?
Speaker 1: They were not in a good place and I'm pretty sure that the cost of Jonah's little ticket to sail to Tarshish was not going to cover the cost of what they were throwing in the ocean.
Speaker 1: There was some collateral damage.
Speaker 1: The men on the ship did not serve the one and true God.
Speaker 1: They were praying to their little g gods, and by little g I mean they were praying to their little stick image, or their little rock image, maybe their little gold or silver bronze image of whatever that image might be, whether it was a person, whether it was a dog, whether it was a cat no, they wouldn't do a cat, but maybe a cow or what.
Speaker 1: They were praying to any and everything but the one true God.
Speaker 1: And how many of you know, when you do that, you're not going to get an answer that you like.
Speaker 1: You're not going to get an answer Period, so that's just kind of the way that works.
Speaker 1: But during all this commotion, jonah was asleep and even though there was all this commotion, all this chaos all around him, jonah was clueless.
Speaker 1: Have you ever met someone that, after talking with them for just a little bit of time, you realize oh my gosh, y'all are clueless.
Speaker 1: You listen to someone talk about their grandiose plans and how they're going to get there and what's going to happen, and you look back and go it's not going to work out that way.
Speaker 1: Probably it might, but I'm not going to put any money I care about losing on that bet.
Speaker 1: Okay, see, many of us today we take this same approach to living our lives.
Speaker 1: We want to bury our head in the sand and forget about, or not think about, that there is a lost and dying world ready to split hell wide open.
Speaker 1: There's a message the people around us need to hear, and it may be that God's assignment for us is telling them about it.
Speaker 1: I may not can affect the whole world, but I can affect someone in my world.
Speaker 1: We all have a sphere of influence.
Speaker 1: The question I want to ask today is how are you influencing If you are the only Jesus Somebody sees?
Speaker 1: Are they getting an accurate picture?
Speaker 1: Some questions I've had to ask myself.
Speaker 1: The wicked people of Nineveh needed to hear a word from God.
Speaker 1: Jonah was supposed to deliver that word, and Jonah wanted nothing to do with that plan for his life.
Speaker 1: Moving on to verse 7, it says the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm.
Speaker 1: When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit.
Speaker 1: How many of you hate being identified as the culprit?
Speaker 1: It's a bad day when you get called out.
Speaker 1: Why has this awful storm come down on us?
Speaker 1: They demanded who are you?
Speaker 1: What is your line of work?
Speaker 1: What country are you from?
Speaker 1: What's your nationality?
Speaker 1: They're grilling him.
Speaker 1: Jonah answered I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.
Speaker 1: The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them that he was running from the Lord.
Speaker 1: Oh, why did you do it?
Speaker 1: They groaned, and since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him what should we do to stop this storm?
Speaker 1: Jonah replied Throw me into the sea and it will become calm again.
Speaker 1: I know this terrible storm is because of me.
Speaker 1: Don't you hate it when that realization of the storm that you're in the middle of you caused?
Speaker 1: It's one thing to be in a storm that somebody else has caused, but when the realization hits that the reason I'm in this mess is because of decisions I've made.
Speaker 1: Verse 10 tells us that the sailors were terrified.
Speaker 1: The sailors didn't want to sacrifice Jonah.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to kill him.
Speaker 1: That's not what they were wanting to do.
Speaker 1: They just wanted this storm to stop.
Speaker 1: They wanted to be safe.
Speaker 1: And you need to understand that this is not a calm conversation.
Speaker 1: That's going on because the Bible tells us the storm is constantly getting worse.
Speaker 1: If the storm is constantly getting worse, how many of you know that?
Speaker 1: Tensions start to rise and the conversation you may just have very calmly now becomes an in-your-face what-the-mess-is-going-on kind of conversation.
Speaker 1: Any of y'all ever been involved in any of those?
Speaker 1: It's not any fun being on the receiving end of that, is it?
Speaker 1: I'm just saying at least it hadn't been for me.
Speaker 1: The crew members were being affected in a very negative way due to Jonah's actions.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing there are families all around us today that are experiencing their own storms because somebody in the house is drinking excessively, somebody in the house is allowing a drug issue to overtake them, someone is allowing pornography to rule their lives or any one of a million other things going on.
Speaker 1: Families are under attack today, and there are families that are literally about to explode from the inside because one family member refuses to act right.
Speaker 1: And how many of you know that?
Speaker 1: There are times that we're going to come across people that just flat don't want to act right.
Speaker 1: They want to do life their way, they want to do life on their terms and they don't give a flying flip who is affected in a negative way because of it.
Speaker 1: And that's sad.
Speaker 1: But you know what?
Speaker 1: I can't control somebody else's actions.
Speaker 1: I can only control my actions and reactions and, to be real honest, I don't do that well a lot of the time.
Speaker 1: Okay, jonah provides the crew a solution, but the sailors don't like Jonah's answer.
Speaker 1: Jonah says just throw me overboard, it'll be all right.
Speaker 1: And then our sailors are like no, that's not what we're about.
Speaker 1: Jonah believes it is better to be dead than to follow God's plan.
Speaker 1: Think about that.
Speaker 1: Jonah's like just throw me overboard, just put me out of my misery, please.
Speaker 1: It's a sad place to be.
Speaker 1: Moving on to verse 13, it says instead the sailors rolled even harder to get the ship to land, but the stormy sea was too violent for them and they couldn't make it.
Speaker 1: Then they cried out to the lord, jonah's god, oh lord, they pleaded don't make us die for this man's sin, don't hold us responsible for his death.
Speaker 1: Oh Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.
Speaker 1: Then the sailors picked Jonah up and they threw him into the raging sea and the storm stopped at once.
Speaker 1: The state let me try that again.
Speaker 1: The sailors were awestruck by the Lord's great power and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.
Speaker 1: Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.
Speaker 1: There are some days that seem to never, ever, ever want to end.
Speaker 1: It's like this day is taking forever.
Speaker 1: And you look down at your watch and you're an hour into your 12 hour shift and you're like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm back in math class in high school again, going uh, ms Abbott, you need to check your clock.
Speaker 1: I think it's broke because those hands aren't moving.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, it's that kind of a day.
Speaker 1: Now see the sailors.
Speaker 1: They were trying to fix their storm.
Speaker 1: The sailors figured if we just row hard enough, if I try hard enough, I can get myself out of this.
Speaker 1: And the storm was going yeah, that's not going to work, that's not going to get it.
Speaker 1: Then they cried out to the Lord not a God, but the God.
Speaker 1: See, the sailors are learning.
Speaker 1: The sailors aren't going to take three days to get this.
Speaker 1: They beg for mercy, they ask for forgiveness.
Speaker 1: Now I want to ask you a question, Thinking about some of the storms that you've dealt with in your life.
Speaker 1: Have you ever tried to fix your own storm?
Speaker 1: Have you ever tried to fix it and then just made a bigger mess out of it?
Speaker 1: Or maybe you tried to cover up your part of it?
Speaker 1: Because if I admit that I might have had something to do with this storm, then somebody's going to want me to take responsibility.
Speaker 1: Heaven forbid, heaven forbid, heaven forbid.
Speaker 1: Just this week, I was slapped in the face with some very disappointing news.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever got some disappointing news?
Speaker 1: I think we all have, and I was running through my mind what can I do to fix it?
Speaker 1: Now, bear in mind I've already been working on this lesson, but I'm still going to fix it.
Speaker 1: And I realized real fast okay, that number one.
Speaker 1: It was out of my hands, it was beyond my control.
Speaker 1: Me trying to fix it was not going to fix a thing and it was frustrating.
Speaker 1: And I had to realize.
Speaker 1: You know what Life happens and sometimes it doesn't go the way I want it to.
Speaker 1: I yelled, I screamed at my steering wheel.
Speaker 1: I am 56 years old and I was throwing a straight up two-year-old fit.
Speaker 1: I want to color myself in a more favorable light, but I was out of control and I am very grateful that I was on some back country roads At a time of the day that there was no traffic and nothing but the cows going, huh.
Speaker 1: And then God brought me back to this and I had to apologize to God for my childish actions.
Speaker 1: I had to repent For the way I was trying to handle things and that's not an easy place to be in, but it's a good place to be in.
Speaker 1: I know God has a plan and I have to trust that God is putting the parts into place to give me a future and a hope.
Speaker 1: Now, it's easy to talk about walking by faith when you're not the one having to do it.
Speaker 1: It's easy Pastor Stephen, correct me if I'm wrong it's easy to even preach about walking by faith.
Speaker 1: But when God says, hey, jim, it's your turn, I'm like what?
Speaker 1: My turn?
Speaker 1: It's not my turn, I just had a turn.
Speaker 1: It his turn or her turn?
Speaker 1: Somebody's turn?
Speaker 1: Surely it's not my turn again, any y'all?
Speaker 1: I think y'all know what I'm saying there.
Speaker 1: Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1: And I felt like God asked are you going to walk by faith?
Speaker 1: Are you going to throw a fit, whine and complain?
Speaker 1: Well, my answer was yes.
Speaker 1: I started by throwing a fit and then I went on to the whining and complaining.
Speaker 1: And then I went on to the whining and complaining.
Speaker 1: And how many of you know there's a difference between whining and complaining?
Speaker 1: Complaining is just simply talking things out.
Speaker 1: The whining is when you're stretching it out.
Speaker 1: But God, I don't want to do this.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't put up with that from my kids and I don't want to do this.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't put up with that from my kids and I don't figure God is going to put up with it from us.
Speaker 1: And then the realization hit me Life happens.
Speaker 1: Let God be God, walk by faith, do what he's told me to do and rest assured he will take care of the situation.
Speaker 1: Now it's easy to talk about, but when you go to take that step and you don't see nothing, but just a whole lot of nothing.
Speaker 1: And God says take that step.
Speaker 1: And you don't see nothing, but just a whole lot of nothing.
Speaker 1: And God says take the.
Speaker 1: Why have you ever just asked God?
Speaker 1: Why God?
Speaker 1: Why is this going on?
Speaker 1: Why can't I seem to get ahead?
Speaker 1: Why can't this be easier?
Speaker 1: Because a lot of times, easy doesn't teach us a lesson.
Speaker 1: It's the hard times where we seem or at least me.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to bring this back on me the hard times when I learned my lesson a little better.
Speaker 1: Even the sailors knew that the storm was sent by God for his good reasons.
Speaker 1: Okay, they did throw Jonah overboard and the storm stopped at once.
Speaker 1: And it was at this point that the sailors really freaked out, because they know this doesn't happen and God was taking care of them.
Speaker 1: They offered sacrifices to God and promises to serve him.
Speaker 1: That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: When Jonah hit the water, not only did the storm stop, but there was a great fish waiting to have a meal, okay, and Jonah found himself in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights.
Speaker 1: And then, skipping down to Jonah, chapter 2, verses 8 through 10, it says and this is Jonah talking those who worship false gods turn their back on all of God's mercies.
Speaker 1: But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise.
Speaker 1: We talked about songs of praise earlier today.
Speaker 1: In the hard times, god still wants us to praise him.
Speaker 1: Amen, and I will see songs of praise.
Speaker 1: And Jonah says and I will fulfill all my vows, for my salvation comes from the Lord alone.
Speaker 1: Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out on the beach.
Speaker 1: In some versions say vomited Jonah out on the beach.
Speaker 1: Now, doesn't that give you a warm case of the fuzzies?
Speaker 1: Know that you've been up chucked out on the beach, but you tell you what I'd rather be up chucked out on the beach.
Speaker 1: But you tell you what I'd rather be up chucked out on the beach than still in the stomach of the whale.
Speaker 1: Okay, just saying Jonah spent three days inside that fish.
Speaker 1: Three days, think about that.
Speaker 1: 72 hours.
Speaker 1: It took him that long to come to his senses.
Speaker 1: Now I would like to think that, even though I can be stubborn, even though I can be hard headed, that I'm not three days in the belly of the fish kind of stubborn, okay.
Speaker 1: But I guess Jonah finally realized that, sitting there in the belly of the fish, there was no way for him to mail out invitations to his pity party.
Speaker 1: Any y'all ever mailed out invitations to a pity party and nobody shows up.
Speaker 1: That's just a sad day, isn't it?
Speaker 1: After three days, jonah comes to his senses and Jonah decides it is better for me to follow God and do what he asked me to do.
Speaker 1: Jonah starts by offering songs of praise and then Jonah makes a promise to fulfill his assignment.
Speaker 1: He's going to follow through with what God tells him to do.
Speaker 1: Now verse 10, when it says that God caused the fish to spit Jonah up.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty powerful thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, give the little guy a bellyache, get close to the shore.
Speaker 1: I don't still don't want jonah to drown.
Speaker 1: Get him where he can get about my business.
Speaker 1: That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: Chapter 3, verse 1, says then the lord spoke to to Jonah a second time get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.
Speaker 1: Does that sound familiar?
Speaker 1: Okay, and deliver the message that I have given you this time.
Speaker 1: Jonah obeyed the Lord's command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.
Speaker 1: On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowd 40 days from now, nineveh will be destroyed.
Speaker 1: Now you would think, or at least I would think, that the first order of business is for Jonah to get cleaned up.
Speaker 1: If I've been three days off in the belly of a fish in there, with all the other stuff that's in the belly of that fish, okay, you're not going to smell squeaky clean and smelling good, all right, you're just not going to smell squeaky clean and smelling good, all right, you're just not going to be there and having a bedhead is going to be the least of your worries.
Speaker 1: Okay, think about this, as Jonah is going and preaching, don't you think he was a sight to behold?
Speaker 1: And don't you think the people of Nineveh are going?
Speaker 1: Hmm, if God's judgment looks anything like this, I'm going to take a hard pass.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go ahead and repent right now.
Speaker 1: Okay, they learn quickly.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: God has a plan for each and every one of us.
Speaker 1: He just does.
Speaker 1: Verse 6 says when the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne, took off his royal robes and he dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes.
Speaker 1: Then the king and his nobles sent out a decree throughout the city, no one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all.
Speaker 1: People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning and everyone must pray earnestly to God.
Speaker 1: They must turn from their evil ways and stop their violence.
Speaker 1: Who can tell?
Speaker 1: Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.
Speaker 1: And when God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and he did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.
Speaker 1: That's a good day, when you know you're in the crosshairs and it's about to be over and you decide to get you a little act right and a little repentance going on and God says okay, I'll take my hand back, I won't do what I was about to do.
Speaker 1: That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: The king heard the message.
Speaker 1: The king wanted to make sure it went throughout the whole town, city and let's get everybody on the same page.
Speaker 1: How many of you know it's good to be on the same page?
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: And everyone laid down the violence that was in their hearts.
Speaker 1: God saw the people of Nineveh repent and he changed his mind.
Speaker 1: God showed mercy and Nineveh got a second chance.
Speaker 1: How many times does God give us a second chance to get things right, or a third chance, or a fourth chance, and I'm very grateful for that?
Speaker 1: But we need to understand that there's going to come a time that God says that's it, you've had your chance.
Speaker 1: So we don't want to push past our limit, or at least I know I don't.
Speaker 1: Now, in the letters that we started out with today, the letter P stands for protect.
Speaker 1: God protected Jonah even though he was running from him.
Speaker 1: Okay, why am I old and wise?
Speaker 1: Because God protected me when I was young and dumb.
Speaker 1: Okay, god was protecting Jonah, jonah, god protected the ship's crew members in the middle of the storm.
Speaker 1: God protected Jonah from drowning by sending a big fish.
Speaker 1: Now, that big fish for three days probably wasn't comfortable, probably wasn't easy, but he wasn't dead.
Speaker 1: But he wasn't dead.
Speaker 1: You know, jonah, for that three days, had his alone time.
Speaker 1: He had some time to think about some things to get some things right.
Speaker 1: God also protected his plan for the people of Nineveh because God doesn't want to kill us off.
Speaker 1: He wants all of us to come to repentance, amen.
Speaker 1: He wants us all to make good choices.
Speaker 1: When we follow God's plan, things go much better.
Speaker 1: Now we're still going to have trials and challenges along the way, but we also have the peace in the middle of the storm, knowing that we are where God wants us to be and doing what he wants us to do.
Speaker 1: That's a good place to be.
Speaker 1: The D stands for direct.
Speaker 1: God will direct us where he wants us to go.
Speaker 1: Okay, the book of Psalms says in chapter 37, verses 23 and 24, that the Lord directs the steps of the godly.
Speaker 1: He delights in every detail of their lives.
Speaker 1: A lot of times we stop there, but I want us to look at verse 24.
Speaker 1: Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.
Speaker 1: God knows that we're going to make mistakes.
Speaker 1: He knows that we're going to make mistakes.
Speaker 1: He knows that we're going to come up short, but he's holding our hand anyway.
Speaker 1: He wants us to understand that he has our best interest at heart, and we also need to understand that God is more interested in our obedience and our growth than he is our comfort in our obedience and our growth than he is our comfort.
Speaker 1: Hate it when that happens, but you know, sometimes it's going to be a little tough.
Speaker 1: And following God is more about the journey of walking with God hand in hand and trusting that he'll direct us in exactly what he wants us to be, remembering our key verse, jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.
Speaker 1: They are plans for good and not a disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Speaker 1: I believe we need to quit asking God to bless our plans and we need to ask God God, what are your plans?
Speaker 1: And then let me get in line with your plan, because I know your blessing, where you're directing?
Speaker 1: Because where God directs us, he's going to provide for us, amen.
Speaker 1: And when we're about God's business, he's going to be about ours.
Speaker 1: That's just a fact.
Speaker 1: Now, back in Jonah 3.10, it said God changed his mind about Nineveh's destruction.
Speaker 1: Over in Jonah, chapter 4, verse 1, it says this change of plans greatly upset Jonah and he became very angry, so he complained to the Lord about it.
Speaker 1: Didn't I say before I left home that you would do this, lord.
Speaker 1: This is why I ran away to Tarshish.
Speaker 1: I knew that you are merciful and compassionate, god, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
Speaker 1: You are eager to get back, or you are eager to turn back from destroying people?
Speaker 1: Just kill me now, lord.
Speaker 1: I'd rather be dead than alive if what I predicted won't happen.
Speaker 1: The Lord replied.
Speaker 1: Is it right for you to be angry about this?
Speaker 1: And how many of you know that when God asks a question like that, he already knows the answer.
Speaker 1: Jonah is mad because God did not rain down fire and brimstone and just suck these people up into nothing.
Speaker 1: And he's complaining about it.
Speaker 1: But how about us?
Speaker 1: Have you ever wanted God to rain down fire and destruction on some people that have wronged us?
Speaker 1: Get them, god.
Speaker 1: Get them good.
Speaker 1: And I hear her say you're supposed to pray for your enemies, god.
Speaker 1: Let them get hit by a train and die.
Speaker 1: No, that's not what it means.
Speaker 1: Okay, when we feel that we have been wronged, we want justice, but when we're the ones that have been doing the wrong, we want mercy.
Speaker 1: Think about that.
Speaker 1: Depending on which side of the equation you're on dictates on what you're wanting.
Speaker 1: Jonah sat down to see what was going to happen.
Speaker 1: God caused a big old plant to grow up over him to give him some shade, because it was hot where he was.
Speaker 1: And Jonah was like, hey, I'll get used to this.
Speaker 1: And then God sent a worm, chewed the stem of the plant and the plant withered and died.
Speaker 1: And then Jonah got an attitude again.
Speaker 1: Imagine that.
Speaker 1: And then God said to Jonah is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?
Speaker 1: Yes, jonah retorted, even angry enough to die.
Speaker 1: Then the Lord said you feel sorry about the plant that you did nothing to do to get it here.
Speaker 1: It came up quickly, it died quickly, but Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals.
Speaker 1: Shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city?
Speaker 1: The only reason Jonah is mad about the plant dying is because it affected his comfort.
Speaker 1: Jonah lost his shade and he was having to endure some heat.
Speaker 1: Okay, the P today standed for protect.
Speaker 1: The D stands for direct.
Speaker 1: The C stands for correct.
Speaker 1: Hmm, the C stands for correct.
Speaker 1: I believe there are times in our lives when we all get a case of stinking thinking.
Speaker 1: There's a time in our lives when we need a checkup from the neck up, okay, just saying there are times we need to correct the way we are thinking.
Speaker 1: This is when having a good friend comes in really handy, because a good friend will tell us what we need to hear not necessarily what we want to hear, Okay, and if you're a good friend, don't water down the message.
Speaker 1: We give them the same message.
Speaker 1: We just give it to them in love.
Speaker 1: If they're being stupid, tell them they're being stupid, but do it in love, okay, it is better to receive correction from a friend than to be hard-headed and have to have God step in to get our attention.
Speaker 1: Okay, and understand this If we won't listen to the still small voice, he will ratchet things up on us.
Speaker 1: Okay, and I don't want to have to be there and listen to God yell.
Speaker 1: I'd rather just hear the still small voice and go.
Speaker 1: Okay, god, I get it, I'm moving on.
Speaker 1: When we are shown that our thinking needs to be redirected, let's not get offended.
Speaker 1: Can we do that?
Speaker 1: Can we work on not being offended when someone tells us that what we're doing is wrong?
Speaker 1: If there's any truth at all to what they are saying, we owe it to ourselves and to them to at least investigate it.
Speaker 1: And if we need to change our thinking, we need to do it.
Speaker 1: Jonah allowed his thinking to become very selfish Anyone ever been there?
Speaker 1: God wants us to take our eyes off of us and put it on him.
Speaker 1: There are people all around us that need to hear our story.
Speaker 1: They need to hear that God has a plan for them, that there is a future and that future is filled with hope.
Speaker 1: Amen, heavenly Father, we just thank you today, father.
Speaker 1: If there was anything of me today, let it be quickly forgotten, but anything that was of you, father, let it grow down deep inside of us.
Speaker 1: Father, help us to listen to what you want us to do and help us to follow your plan, and thank you, father, for working on our behalf.
Speaker 1: Amen, pastor Stephen.