03/31/26

Jonah week 3 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Jonah 2, verse number 1 is where are we going to be tonight? I'm going to pray right quick and we're going to dig right in. Lord God, we love you. We thank you for your goodness, your grace, and your mercy. And God, right now, we pray you'll take your word and preach. God, I pray you open up our hearts and our minds, God, and we can just see you right now. Lord God, I pray I decrease and you increase, and the words out of my mouth will be of you, not of me. God, we pray that we're going to give you all the honor, praise, and glory, because you're the only one that's worthy of our praise and our glory, dear God. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. So what I see here is there's this guy named Jonah. And you've seen it last week that he begged those guys, he said, I want you to throw me into the water. Jonah was like many of you and I, many times we get in our lives, in your Christian life, in your marriage, in your job. There's times in your life where you just say, I'm done. There's times in your life where you say, you know what? I'm tapping out. I don't want to put up with the church stuff no more. I don't want to put up with my wife no more. I don't want to put up with the things that's going on anymore. I'm done. Does that recollect what anybody's here tonight? In some shape, form, or fashion, you've been in that boat before. You've been in that wave that says, you know what? I'm done. And I'm ready just to be done with it. I've ran and I've ran and I've ran and I'm at this point where I'm just ready to be done. So he just told him, just throw me in, man. I'm done. And that's what he did. And he threw him in, but God prepared a great fish. And I mentioned it last week. Thank God that he prepared a fish. If not, Jonah would have died. We wouldn't have this book. But you see, God shows up when we're not ready for him. God shows up when we don't want him to. That's just what he does. He just shows up. So you see here when it says, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God, out of the fish's belly. So God's, he provided this mercy boat, so to speak, this lifeboat. But look what he says here. It got all over me today when I was studying this thing in verse number two. And said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord. I cried because of my affliction. And I believe right here, as I wrote myself some notes right here, Jonah had finally admitted, okay, it's my fault. I'm wrong for what I've done here. See, that's the thing that we've got to understand many times in our own life is you know what? We're the one that's messed up. We're the one. But he's ready to be done. He's ready to give up. See, I wrote this note, when we're done, the Lord's devoted. When we give up, he's just getting into you. I want to say that again. When you give up, that's when God's digging into you, man. That's when he's getting to you. Because you've got to become selfless when God wants to work in you. We've heard the statement so many times. When you throw it in the towel, God used it to clean you up. He used that to clean you up. But see right here when it says, and I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord. And then it says, And he heard me. But what we've got to understand right here, understand what that word says. He cried because of his affliction. He cried because of what he had done. I don't believe he's crying and saying, Oh Lord, I'm just such a bad person. No, he cried because he was mad with the Lord, man. He didn't want the Lord to save him right there. He said, I cried by the affliction of what happened within me. He said, Lord, I didn't want you to save me. Lord, I wanted to die. I wanted him to throw me in because I was done. I was done with you. I was done with the ministry. I was done with all this stuff. God, why did you save me? I believe at this very moment he was mad with God for a second. I and personally, and it doesn't say here, I believe there were two prayers. I tell you, believe there were two prayers in the belly of that fish. The first one, the first one he cried out to the Lord because he's mad at him. But the second one he cries out because he needs it. But he's upset right now. He said, Lord, I could have died and this would have been over. I wouldn't have had to deal with this anymore. But thank God God showed up. And it said right there, he said, and he heard me. And he heard me. You know, that's the prayer that God hears 100% of the time when you cry out, when the child of the king cries out to him and says, God, I'm sorry. God, forgive me. 1 John 1 9, he says, if you'll confess your sins, he's faithful and just cleanse you and forgive you from all unrighteousness. That's what he said. He hears that 100% of the time. And he said, and he heard me. Then it says, Out of the belly of hell I cried. Out of the belly of hell I cried. What he said, out of the belly of Sheol, I was in the, I felt like I was in hell myself. And I want to make your point right here what it says in the last part of verse number two. Listen what it says. Out of hell I cried, and thou heardest my voice. So I got to thinking about this thing. How many voices was speaking out? It says in hell there'll be there'll be they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He said, and all that stuff, man. Hey, I didn't say God, but I said in hell he seen this. I believe he experienced what was going on. And he said, he heard my voice. Over all the chatter, over all the stuff, he heard me. He heard me because you know what? God's love for you and I is so much, man, that he'll chase you down no matter where you go, to the depths of hell, in the bottom of the mountains, or wherever you went, man. He'll chase us down. Thank God that he chased me down when I ran. Thank God he chased you down when you said, you know what, God, I'm done with you, but you he said, I'm not done with you. He said, I still got something for you. And thank God he didn't quit on Jonah, because man, this book's been good to me. Don't matter where you've been, he'll chase you down. No matter where you're at, he'll go and get you. Look, look, look in verse number three. He said, For thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods come past me about all the billows, and thy waves passed over me. See, you remember just a few verses back in chapter one, there were some guys on a boat, those sailors, those pagan sailors, man, they was going through the storm of their life. They didn't ask for it. Now Jonah's having to understand, you know what? Now you know what they're going through. Now you know what you caused them to do. You you you caused them to go through all this trial and tribulation because you're not being obedient. And we talked about it last week. How many times we've got to worry about in our own life how bad of an example we are for other people somewhere. Because when those people see us headed in the wrong direction, man, sometimes we drag them. I worry so much about dragging my four kids or my wife in the wrong direction, man. We've got to stay focused. We've got to stay in our lane. I want you to just imagine going down a two-lane road and you veering off across the center line on the other side and you're fixing to go down a hill. I want you to imagine when you get out your lane. Man, there's danger in the other lane. There's danger when you get out of God's will. There's danger when you don't stay in between the lines and do what God's called you to do and stay on that narrow road. But listen, we're only one click away. We're only one sin away from heading in the wrong direction and jumping on that broad way that leadeth to destruction and that'll tear up our lives and our family and our marriage and all those things. If we're not careful, man, God's saying to somebody tonight, man, stay in your lane. It's so easy to get out. It just is. It's so easy for us to get out of our own lane. But you see, over and over, I I could just imagine this when he said this in verse number three. He said, He said, For thou hast cast me in the deep in the midst of the seas, and the floods come past me about all thy billows and thy ways, they passed over me. And I get to thinking about you sit at the beach, you know, you know when you went to the beach and you set up all the stuff, you know what I'm talking about? Like there's 400 pounds of stuff, you towed it to the beach for the wife and the kids, you get it all set up and it's good and it's well, and then 10 minutes, somebody's tired, somebody's hungry, and somebody's got to use the bathroom, and we gotta go. Anybody been there? You've got kids, you've been there. But that two minutes that you got to sit in your chair, you remember that? That like two minutes? You sit down and you heard those waves coming in over and over and over again. You just hear them crash. And I believe that's what God's saying. I've told you over and over and over again. That's what I can hear. But then he says, in verse number four, then. Then. That was the very moment in verse number four, I believe that when he's finally seen it. And I believe God's saying to somebody tonight, man, I've told you over and over and over. Man, I'm encouraging somebody tonight, man, don't wait till then shows up. Don't wait till then happens in your life. Don't wait till then you you can't do it anymore. Don't wait till God had to send a fish, man. Don't wait until you've had to experience what he experienced. And I don't know anybody's life or anybody's situation sitting here tonight, but somebody needs to hear, man, don't do it. Somebody needs to hear tonight, man. God is trying to keep you in the lane, and you're you're you're you're so fast it won't be getting the wrong direction. Discipline to a Christian is as important to try as training is to an athlete. I didn't come up with that, somebody said it, because I ain't that smart to say something like that. But discipline to a Christian is as important as training is to an athlete. How disciplined are you? When your buddies are headed in the wrong direction and you know they're talking in the wrong way and they're doing the wrong things. How disciplined are you to say nope, I can't go there? How disciplined are you when something pops up on the screen or something pops up on your phone that you say nope? That's the devil. Nope. God wants to see your discipline. God wants to see yours and my discipline. He wants to see your devotion to him. He don't want us to be like Jonah. Jonah was devoted to Jonah. Jonah wasn't devoted to God like he ought to be. God wants our devotion. He wants us to say, okay, God, wherever you lead, I'll go. You say, brother Matt, yeah, but you don't understand, man. He might lead me somewhere where I don't want to go. Listen, I shared y'all my testimony a few weeks ago. I know what happens when you don't listen to God. I know what happens when you don't go 100% and say, okay, God, wherever you lead, I'll go. That's your warning tonight. God's saying to you, man, listen to him and go in his direction. Be about his will. That's what he's saying to you and out of night. But he said, Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight. We're in verse 4 now. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight. Yet I will look again to thy holy temple. See? He went down to Joppa to catch a boat. He went down into that boat and he fell asleep. He went down into a fish. He went down into the bottom of the mountains. See, God had to bring him down as far as he could go. Can I tell you? He took the last step down he had to take before God could get him to look. The only way he could look was up. The Bible says there in the next verse that, hey, he was at the bottom of the mountains, man. He said he was at the bottom of the sea is what he's saying. He had no way to look but up. God's giving somebody a warning tonight. God's speaking to somebody about a warning. Because he don't want you to have to go all the way down. You can't do nothing but look up. Which is a blessing thing to look up. There's a blessed thing to get to talk to the Lord. There is. Man, God's giving us a warning tonight. He said, I'm cast out of thy sight. Jonah finally realized that the downward spiral he took because of running from the will of God. He finally understood. Jonah finally understood right here in verse number four that there was a separation between him and God. The book of Habakkuk says, but God has a pure eyes to behold iniquity. Man, there was a separation between God and Jonah. At that very moment that there was a separation, man, he was like, What's going on here? He said, Oh yeah. I did this, didn't I? I did every bit of this. All this was because of me. Because of what I done. That separation. Jonah's now seeing that the separation of God is greater than his own selfish desire. He finally sees that his selfish desire has got him in this situation. And he says, I need God. Lord, I thought you were with me. I thought you were with me, but Lord, there's a separation. Where are you at, God? And look what he does next. Look in verse number five. Then the waters can pass me about. I'm sorry, I need to finish verse number four. Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. He knew that God was, he knew, he cried out to God right there, and he knew that he was going to have fellowship with God again. He knew that God had put a purpose in him. He knew that God had saved him for a purpose. There's people sitting in this room right now that, man, you should have died. Hey, I remember one time, man, I went out on Highway 82. I'll never forget it as long as I live. My mechanic had fixed the trailer. I was driving a truck. I was about 19 years old and I didn't have my CDLs and I still don't got them. So, yes, I was doing wrong. Anybody agree? I never forget what's moving. I had the fuel trailer hook behind my old R Model Mac truck. I'm coming up the ad kits into the red light. Ricky's in front of me with a loader. I'll never forget it as long as I live. And when I went to when I went to pumping the brakes, getting ready to downshift, all I can hear is the air going out. And I seen that and that buzzer going off. I didn't have no brakes. I didn't have no brakes. And I'm coming up on Highway 82. You know how busy Highway 82 is in the middle of the day, and I'm coming up on Highway 82, and I'm scared to death. And man, I can't stop. And I'm like, God, what's what's gonna happen? I'm fixing to get killed right here. And I just felt the Lord say, just put up gear and go. And I found me a gear, son, and I let her eat. That thing was boiling black smoke. Man, I get tear out thinking about how good God is. Amen. I pulled out on Highway 82, and there wasn't a soul in sight. Because my God is faithful. My God is real. And he showed up. He showed up that day, man, and I just pulled out there. I didn't pull far though because I got that turn of lane and pulled right back to the left. We parked that baby right there. I promised. Our mechanic had done some welding. He melded all my airlines. But that was a scary day for me. But God provided. He saved me for a purpose like this right here, and I'm thankful for it. I'm thankful for it. He said in verse number five, the waters can pass me about, even to the soul. The depth closed around about me, the weeds were wrapped around my head. All of a sudden, all of a sudden he feels that the Lord, he feels the Lord, he said, Lord, I feel like in hell we said he says it in the next verse. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth were where bars was about me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. He seen at that very moment the troubles that was in him. All of a sudden, in verse number six, verse number six and seven, verse five, six, and seven, all of a sudden he wanted to get out of the situation that he put himself in. All of a sudden he seen that he needed God worse than he needed himself. All of a sudden he said, God, I need to get out of here. You see, it said, it says, and the bars, he said right there in verse number six, he said, and the bars was ever before me, man. He said, I feel like I can't get out. And look what he said. Yet thou hast brought up my life from corruption. O Lord my God. I got to thinking about that word corruption. I get to thinking about if you saltwater fish very much, and you you ever caught a fish that's that's got got a uh that had a lure stuck inside of him. One time I caught one and I found found that that fish with that lure stick and stuck inside of him. But one thing I realized was it was all the way down to the to the plastic, that that that hook was was rusted away. Because there was so much, there's so much acid inside the body of a fish. And I believe that's what he's saying right here when he says, He says right here, um, my mind's gone blank. I know it's right here. Oh, and he says, Thou brought up from the life of the corruption. I I believe it was just eating him up inside. And the people says that there was like a godfish, and they said all this corruption had eaten him up, and they thought that maybe his skin was burned from all the acid and everything that he that he had inside. It doesn't say that in scripture. That's just what some great theologians say. I'm not a great theologian. I don't know what he looked like, but I know when he came out of there he stunk. He stunk, but I'll be willing to bet when he got to Nineveh, he wasn't worried about what he smelt like, what he looked like, or what he sounded like. All he was worried about was doing the will of God. So he says in verse number seven, when my soul fainted within me, when my soul found He said, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. What he said in verse number seven, he said, When I give up, God give in. He said, when when I said, Okay, God, I'm gonna do your will, not mine. That's what he, I believe that's what he's saying right here. He said, he's just submitting to God right here and said, Okay, God, wherever you lead, I'll go. That's how that's tough. That's tough. Because what if God called you to a different job? You've been at the same one for 25 years? What if God called you to uh another country? What if God called you to be a missionary in uh in uh Afghanistan right now? What if God called you to those things? That's what he's saying right there, and he's saying to us, man, it's my soul fainted within me when I remembered the Lord, and my prayer come unto thee into thy holy temple. He said, Man, you heard me, Lord. You you heard me, and now I'm excited, God, because you heard me, and now I know there's fellowship again. And then look what he says in the next verse. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. What he says? What he says right there, you've heard of the vanities, the song of Solomon I met with Solomon. You remember Solomon said it's all vanity of vanity. He chased the whole world, had all the wives, had all the stuff, had everything that anybody would want physically. Anything that you would want in this world, he said it's all vanity. It's all in vain. He said, I don't need this. This stuff that we I've chased all my life, man, I didn't need it. It was just things that I chased. And I think God is saying that to us, you know what? We can chase all this stuff in the world, but man, if we ain't got Jesus, we ain't got nothing.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

But he said that that that they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. What I believe he's saying to us right here is Joan is saying that he idolized himself more than God. He idolized what he thought of life more than he. He became his own idol. You say, man, I would never do that. Would you ever boast? Would you ever think, man, I'm pretty good? Man, I did a good job. Many times we have. We put that eye in front of Jesus. When knowing that he gives us the air to breathe and he gives you the brain to do it, and he gives you the abilities to do it, he's given you the strength to do those things, and man, we need to be careful to give him praise, honor, and glory for the little things, man. The little things that he's given us. Man, anybody can find negative to bring up in life, but God said, Won't you be thankful of the good things? Won't you be thankful of the little things? Won't you be thankful that, hey, we got a place that we can That to come to tonight and to praise his holy name. Thankful for this book that he's given us, and we live in a free country, man, that we can we can serve God and we can praise God, not worrying if somebody's gonna come in and shoot us up, man. Thank God for those things. Thank God for our health. Because we might be like some of the ones that's been need prayer tonight. We could be in that boat tomorrow. Thank God for where he's put you now. And I'm not saying people ain't in trials. A room this size, I'm sure you, there's some people who got some real trials in this room. But we also serve a real God. That he can fix any of those trials and any of those tribulations that we go through. He said, But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that I vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. See? He vowed a vow a long time ago. They had an ordination service for him. He was called to be a prophet. He was called to be a prophet. He was called to be something. And he vowed, Lord, I'm gonna serve you. And we talked about it a few weeks ago, man. When God calls you something, it's forever, man. It ain't for just a season that he's called you to serve him. This man was called to be a prophet all his days. He was called to that. And he says right here, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will praise him, and I will pay that I vowed. I will pay that I vowed. You know what he fouled to do, don't you? He vowed to be a prophet. And if you go back to verse chapter 1, I'll go there for you. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amati, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. I ain't even got to read the next verse because you know what it said. But Jonah didn't say that this time. He said, Lord, I vowed a vow and I'm gonna do it. And he says it, a vow of thanksgiving. Now I'm I'm looking ahead a little bit. He ain't gonna be thankful in the end right now. If you read ahead, as a spoiler alert, Jonah gets upset again. But but right now he says, I've avowed a vow, and then he says these great words. He said, Salvation is of the Lord. He said, Man, I couldn't. He said, I can't make this up. If God wants to save a man, it's yours, Lord. If you want to save Nineveh, God, I can't stand in the way. Because God, if you were to kill me, you would provide somebody else to go to Nineveh to cry against them. God's salvation is yours, and I gotta get out of the way and let God be God and me be me. And that's what he's saying to us, man. Is listen, you might not agree with everything that's going on in this room, at church, in your house, or anything else, but you know what? Salvation is of the Lord. And we've got to understand that. See, you say, Well, Brother Magic, I just, man, there's some things going on. And listen, we we know some things. I mean, every everybody in this room knows there's some things that's just not happening that's great lately in churches and different things. But you know what? What the devil wants us to do is talk about it. Because as long as you're talking about it, you ain't praising the Lord. As long as we're talking about this, and I think the Lord is saying to us, man, just stay in your lane.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Come on, bro.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Just stay in your lane. I know there's trouble over there. I know there's trouble in the end of the, but God's saying to you and I tonight, He says, I want you to stay in your lane. I want you to pick up your Bible every morning and every evening. I want you to praise me. I want you to sing about me. I want you to read about me. I want you to pray to me. He said, I want you to I want you to stay on the things that, man, I need. I need you and you need me. God's wanting you. He's wanting you to stay in touch with him right here. That's what he's desiring of you. That's what he's desiring of me. If you're so caught up in doing the things of Jesus, man, you ain't gonna have time for all that junk. And that's what he's teaching you and I. And man, I know it's tough. Because man, I hear the junk and I just, before I knew it, I jumped into junk with you. But God's saying, stay in your hand. Verse number 10. Man, it's glasses. And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. You know. God spoke to that fish twice, and both times he listened. But old Jonah, the prophet. And it's funny we we we laugh about it, and it is funny. But we ain't no different. We ain't no different, y'all. God tells us to go and we say no. God says to do and we say that'll require me to get out my lane, God. That I want to be in. Because see, I the the the next point of this is listen, some of you've been riding on the rumble strips too long. Some of you has been, some of you've been where you ought not to be for too long. God says, I need you to get in the lane I've called you to be in. I need you to get in the will that I've called you for and get out your own lane. Because too many of us want to be where we want to be, when we want to be, because it feels comfortable there. God didn't call us to be comfortable. He called us to do his will. You said, but Brother Maggie, man, it feels good to be comfortable. Ain't serving God supposed to be comfortable? Well, let's think about that for a second. We're gonna celebrate a day this Sunday. About a hippie tune. And I want to ask you a question. How comfortable was Jesus when he was on that cross, dying closed. How comfortable, how comfortable was he following his father's will? How comfortable was it when he went down that road, man, and he was dragging the cross? Can I tell you, God ain't called you to the comfortable when he didn't call his son to the comfortable to save you? So don't worry about comfortable, worry about being in God's will. That's what he's saying tonight. I'm gonna leave you with this a little bit of funny. I bet that fish was tired of hearing the belly aching and the grumbling inside. He was sick of hearing it. And man, there was one voice he was ready to hear. He had heard all the belly aching he wanted to hear, but when he told the Lord to get him out, man, it it was like that. He was tired of hearing the belly aching and he spit him out on the dry land because he didn't want him back in that water no more. He had had enough of Jonah. He had had enough of Jonah. Amen. That was good to me. But if I can encourage y'all with anything else tonight, isn't stay in your lane. Stay in your lane. Amen. When when I've already said it once, but God wants to see your devotion. He wants to see your devotion to him. And maybe, just maybe, just maybe, you might have those little tests. He's wanting to see your devotion before he can get more on you. Before he can put more on you. You say, well, I don't want no more. Wait a minute. Did he call you to the comfort? Or did he call you to do his will? That's the thing he's asking us tonight, right? Anybody got anything else?

SPEAKER_03 30:17

Oh, brother Ricky, uh, you're gonna have surgery. It's coming um this coming week on the 2nd. And he'd asked about um praying for him. Uh I thought about something that's real personal to me. In my life, uh, about 28 years ago, uh, we had a little sick boy. Been in Hawking how many times, had a lot of stuff going on. He was a wimpy white male, what they called him. He pissed me off. But anyway, that's the side point. But me and my wife have been praying, and uh when we got through, God spoke to both of us at the same time that we need to go pray for him. And uh I had read something crazy as I've ever heard of in James 5. It says, Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let him pray over him, anointing him with the oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of the faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall rise him up. And if he have committed sin, they shall be forgiven him. And uh, I didn't have no oil. We walked through the kitchen, and there was some hot cajun oil. I've come to it. What oil is not where the power comes from. The oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. It pays off to be dumb, so I grabbed a bottle of hot cajun oil, and we went in there, anointed with oil, laid his hands on him, but he woke up and it scared him to death. Didn't know what was going on with mom and daddy. His mama's a nurse. She knows what happens if you go to taking medicine off somebody that they ain't supposed to be taken off of him. But God said he was healed. Twenty-eight years ago. That was the last time he's on Indian medicines. Amen. And God healed.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

Amen, right.

SPEAKER_03 32:25

If you come up here with that, just stay where you at. There's no power, then it's also. But what it's in Boston, if y'all will, brothers, those of you that will come gather around, Brother Ricky. Is that the break for Ricky? The doctor, staff.