04/07/26

Jonah week 4 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Vomit. Um the Lord caused him to vomit him out in in in 210. And uh so we're gonna dig into chapter three right here, verse number one, and see where the Lord leads. Um but before I get started, I want to thank everybody that that that helped cook, helped do everything tonight. Thank y'all for all you do. It's all it's all for the Lord, it's nothing for a man, it's nothing to lift anybody up, it's all to lift Jesus Christ up. We're here just to I hope we're here to get fed spiritually and physically. I hope you're here tonight because you want to draw closer and you want to draw your family closer to God. That that that's that's that that's hope is what we're all about is to draw closer to Him. And we can be that example for others each and every day. But let's pray and we're gonna dig right in right quick. Lord, I love you. I thank you, God, for your goodness, your grace, your mercy. I thank you for this book of Jonah, God, that has grown me in my relationship with you, God, because I've seen, Lord, that you just show up, God, when we don't understand how or why. We can't explain it, but Lord God, we can't deny it. And Lord, I'm thankful for you. Lord God, as I always pray, I pray I decrease and you increase, and the words out of my mouth will be of you, not of me. God, thank you. I pray you'll open up our hearts and our minds. Lord, may we hear you tonight. Lord God, we want to pray against the devil and demons of hell. They're not welcome in this place, but you, the Spirit, are welcome to rule and to reign. You're welcome to speak, Lord God. And I pray we're careful to listen. We love you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You see, in chapter 3, verse number 1, it says, And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time. Man, if you just think about that, that ought to just make you think about it again. The word of the Lord came unto Jonah a second time. Thank God for second chances. Thank God that he didn't quit on me or you the first time we turned our back on him. Because we didn't deserve it, but we're thankful for it. And man, he just, he's there for us. Not that God's saying it's okay to sin, but man, knowing that we have a father that loves us so much, that shows us so much grace and mercy, to say, you know what, you did mess up. But I want you to see how this father responded. And it's teaching me more of handling my two boys that's sitting here when they do mess up. Even though I am going to tune them up, amen. But but it makes me want to be more like Christ. And it makes me want to be more like the way he responded in this text. If you'll understand that when it says and the Lord came unto him the second time, look what it said. And it's and the Lord spoke, arise and go to Nineveh. But we need to understand, listen, the whole second chapter, God never spoke with his mouth. He spoke with his actions. He spoke with the things that he allowed happen in his life. He spoke in so many ways. And you never seen him, you've never seen God speak in this time. He didn't speak to Jonah. He just let Jonah run. He said, Okay, big boy, I'll let you learn your lesson. Anyone been there? He said, Okay, boy, I'll let you run. You think you got the bull by the horns, you think that you've got life figured out, I'll let you run. But hey, there's gonna be a day because I'm running after you, because he'll never leave his children. He'll chase them after you, man. He'll come get you because he loves his children. Thank God that he loves us enough that he'll chase us down. But it says, he says, the same thing he says, if you look in Jonah 1, 1, I mean 1 2, it says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness come up before me. That's what he said in Jonah 1. That's what he told Jonah to do the first time. Look what he says in the second time when he tells them this. He says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. He said, This time, I want you to preach what I tell you. He said, Preach not your circumstance, Jonah. Don't preach what you want to say, Jonah. I want you to listen to me now. Now, this time I want you to preach the way I've called you to preach. He's teaching him and teaching us, you know what? Your way is not always the best way. How many times has has did your daddy say, okay, big boy, you think you got it figured out, and he lets you roll. And then you come back with your tail tucked between your legs and be like, You were right, daddy. You were right. How many times have we been there? We all are. And we look back at those times and we're so thankful that Daddy let us fail. We're so thankful that Daddy let us go through those trials so we could understand, so it could grow us, so we could grow now, is what he's saying, so we can grow to be a better Christian. We can grow to be a better man, a better daddy, a better husband. He's taught us to go through these things so we can get on the other side and we can truly see what God's trying to teach us and tell us. That's what he's trying to show us. See, there's people sitting in this room tonight. That's messed up. There is. There's people sitting in this room tonight. I'll be willing to bet that you're hanging on to a regret and it's costing you the 100% relationship with Christ like it ought to. I'll be willing to bet it. I'll be willing to go another step further and say, okay. Is there anybody in this room that admit and says, yep, I got something that I just need to let go of? Anybody? I'll be the first one. And what God is saying to us is if you want to be what I've called you to be, because I've called you to be a child of the king and to live out that life and live that life in front of others, he said, Man, you've got to bury the hatchet and the handle. But too many times we bury the hatchet with the handle sticking out so we can pull it out when we really need it. That's just what we do in our life many times. And he's trying to teach us not to do that. He's trying to teach us to put it all away. But I'm gonna tell you something awesome that I seen in this text as I was studying back through this thing this evening, and I wrote this down there's power and silence in someone you respect. There's power in the silence of someone you respect. There was power in the silence between chapter one and chapter three. There was power when he wasn't speaking with words, man. He just he just he was speaking through situations. But what I'm saying is, there's somebody in your life, how many times, all right, let me ask you you men this question. How many of you have ever gotten solid treatment from your wife? Huh? Don't beat her down, okay? But let's just be honest. You've got a solid treatment from your wife. And that was power in that, wasn't it? And the people you respect, how many times have your daddy or your mama or somebody got on to you? But the the way they got on to you is, man, they didn't say a word. They didn't say a word, man. It spoke in volumes. It spoke in volumes. Because you respected them enough to know that you hurt them. See, God was speaking right here without even speaking. That's what he was doing. But I believe that the devil's trying to tell many of us that you know what? Your past is always gonna define you. Your mess up is gonna be who you are the rest of your life. And he tells you that, and he keeps telling you that over and over and over. Because you know the Bible says it in John 10, 10, he cometh not but to steal your joy, to kill your relationship with Christ. To steal, to kill, and to destroy all your friendships and everybody around you. That's what he's come to do, man. He wants to tear up your life. That's just what he is about. That's what he's trying to do in our lives. Over and over and over. He's trying to tell you that divorce is gonna define you the rest of your life. He's trying to tell you that that addiction that you had, it's gonna define you forever. He's trying to tell you that your addictions and your bad business deal and your attitude is gonna define you the rest of your life. The way you left a church, the way you left your job, the way you did things, that it's gonna define you the rest of your life. That's what the devil wants to tell you, and he wants you to believe it. But he's a liar. He's a liar. And it's time that we as men stand up and say, you know what? I'm not gonna listen to you anymore. I'm gonna listen to the Lord because you know what? Hey, he's got a plan for me that's way greater than you. You can tell me you've got something for me, but all you got is something that's gonna make me empty inside. That's what the devil's gonna tell you. He's gonna tell you. That he's got you something, but you're gonna wake up empty. You're gonna wake up wanting. You're gonna wake up to those things. See, people mess up. We just do. We're gonna mess up. I read a story today, and I'm gonna read, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you about it. And some of you might be heard this story. There was a there was a football game back in 1929 between the Georgia Tech and California. All right? They had this football game back in 1929. And there was this guy called Roy Regals. And as they were playing, this guy, Roy Regals, played for the for California, and the Georgia Tech guy had fumbled the ball, and the guy with California, he picks up the ball and in Discord, he's not knowing what's going on. I guess they're fumbling for the ball, and he tears out running, and he runs 65 yards, and one of his own men tackles him before he scores a touchdown for the other team. He had headed in the wrong direction. And then and then right after that, right after that, they they they go to punt the ball, Georgia Tech gets it, gets a safety, and Georgia Tech ends up winning that game eight to seven. But at halftime, before this game is decided, after halftime, the coach comes in, and you know how the coach is doing a football game, man. He's just he's fitting a blister you for everything you messed up. And Royd Regals, all the team sitting there, and Roy Regals is sitting in the corner with a with a with a towel over his head, and he's just sitting there sobbing, and he's weak and he's weeping and just saying, Man, I've just messed up. And they said that the time guy came in and said, You know what? There's three minutes left before halftime's over. We're fixing to go back in the game. Said the coach hadn't said a word, it's total silence. And the coach came in, he said, he said, Alright guys, we're gonna start the same people in the second half. And everybody looks around. And everybody gets up, they get ready to go out, and Roy Regals is still sitting in the corner, and he says, nothing. He's just sitting over there. Coach said, Roy, I said get up, let's go. He said, Coach, I can't do it, man. I've embarrassed you, I've embarrassed me, I've embarrassed everything, Coach. I can't do it. Coach said, Roy, I said get up and let's go. They're eating but half the game gone. He said, now get up. Roy Regals got up and they said he played one of the greatest games he'd ever played in his life. They still lost the game eight to seven. They said Roy Regals was embarrassed. He was ridiculed by the announcers by all kinds of people. Royal Regals become a captain on that team another year or two later. Roy Regals went on to he went on to fight in World War II. He went on after that and he built a great business, and he was he that so many people talked about how he took that situation that could have been so bad that he could have quit on himself. He could have quit and said, you know what, I'm not good enough, but he didn't. And he made something out of himself. And I believe that God gave me that story today to share with someone today, say, you know what? You might be dealing with something, you might be dealing with a bad divorce, you might be dealing with something bad. But God said, Listen, don't let that define you. Let that be your testimony that Jesus Christ can use whatever you've got, and he can use it and win other people because of the things you went through in your life. It reminds me of the story. I heard it, I heard it again as uh Joby Martin was preaching uh Sunday. I listened to that message he had he had spoken. Story that I've always I've always looked back to. We talked about it so many times when those four guys got picked up in his corner to mat. But that ain't what I want to talk about. I want to look at God told him, he said, I want you to lick, I want you to arise and walk. He said, but I want you to take your mat with you. And what the what the Lord was saying to this man, and what the Lord is saying to somebody that's struggling with this tonight, what the Lord is saying is, listen, don't let your mat define you. You define your mat and you let that be a testimony that you can go and win somebody else to Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying to you and I tonight. Don't let this stuff define you. He said, Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it. And preach, I preach what I told you to this time. He said, Let the Spirit move, not you, Jonah. He said, Jonah's got to get out of the way. So I can preach. And it said, so Jonah arose. So Jonah arose. And I'm trying to see right here. But Jonah didn't speak out this time. Jonah didn't arise and go to Tarsus this time. It said, but Jonah arose. Because you've got to imagine. I want you to just set your mind on you've been in a belly of a whale for three days. I want you to imagine what you stunk like. I mean, could you imagine? You just think about cutting a di uh, you just imagine just cutting a fish open. Man, he stinks already. This man's been in him three days. Could you imagine the acid that was inside this fish that was probably eaten away at his skin and everything else? This man got spit up on the on the shore and he stunk. But God told him right here, he said, so he said, Arise, go to Nineveh. He said, So he arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Listen, now he's listening to the word instead of instead of his circumstances. Now he's listening to God this time. But he said, and go to the he said, now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. So he got up. He got up and did what his father told him to do this time. Understanding right here. Nineveh was exceeding three days' journey. It was three days' journey. And it said in verse number four, and Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey. See, when God gets your hold of you, man, you care about people. You just do. Just for a moment or two, right there, Jonah was more concerned about the will of God and the destiny of the people of Nineveh than he was a self. And that's where God's trying to get you and I to. That's where he's trying to speak to us and say, listen, you don't matter. What matters is Jesus Christ. What matters is you doing the will of the Father. It doesn't matter what you want to do, it matters what he wants you to do. See, see, he ran down to Tarsus to go to go to go down to Joppa to go to Tarsus. But this time he's going to go right where God called him to go. This time he's going to listen to the Lord. This time, what God is focusing us in on, listen, he did give us one more time. He did give us another chance because of that grace and that mercy that God gave us. See, I just got to thinking about this. He made haste. God told him to go this time, and he went. It's kind of like back at when when God when Jesus told Zacchaeus in Luke 19, 5, I think it's Luke, yeah, not Luke 19.5. He said, and when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must bid, I must abide at thy house. He said, hurry up. It's kind of like, guys, it's kind of like I want you to think about it like this. How excited he was. So if you knew, if your wife had planned a trip and it was a shopping trip this Saturday, and she took, she had an IT, you know how women are, you know, they're gonna lay out an itinerary, amen. They just, they just will. And man, they got all the they're gonna go to Lululemon and they're gonna go to the Seafora and whatever these all these shops they want to go to. They're gonna go to all these shops, and you were just so stoked to get to go with them and to go all these places. Am I right? Yeah, it's being recorded. You know they're gonna listen to this. Amen. But now let's let's let's take a different scenario. Somebody has paid for you to go on a guaranteed kill elk or deer hunting trip, or maybe the greatest bass fishing trip of your life. It's paid for. It's free. All you gotta do is get there. Now, which one you gonna hurry up to, which? Huh? I'm willing to bet you're gonna hurry up and get packed up, man. They said, hurry up, we got to leave tonight if you're gonna get to go to trip. You hurrying up and get packed up because you're ready to go there. Because, man, you're getting to do something that somebody else has paid for. You're getting to do it, man. Somebody has done that on your behalf. They have paid for that for you. See, he understood, man. It just gets all over me. He understood that, man, God showed his mercy and showed it in a way that said, you know what? He could have died, but he said, No, man, I'm gonna save you for this purpose. And that purpose was, I want you to go to Nineveh. So, so a three-day journey turned into one day, man. He was running. He was running with all he had. He didn't care what he smelt like, what he looked like. He wasn't worried about any of that stuff. All he was worried about is doing God's will right now. And the question I want to ask you tonight is, have you ever been there? Come on now. Have you ever been to a spot where you didn't care that anything else mattered except doing the will of the Father? That's something that we need to think about. And I pray it's something you think about and you say, amen a row, me. What is your desire in life? Is your desire in life to fulfill everything you want or fulfill the will of the Father? And that's what he's saying to us tonight. We all have big dreams and big plans, but man, hey, we serve a big God and he's got big plans and big dreams for you. Hey, he's got a big place in glory for you, man. You ought to get excited about that.

unknown 20:21

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

But he said, Arise. And Jonah. He went. And verse number four, and Jonah began to enter the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet 40 days, and then of us shall be overthrown. Man. I want you to look at that word. It said, and he cried. I could just imagine. I just for a minute. Can you picture yourself? Can you picture yourself putting in that well for three days? Could you imagine when he said right there, let's just go back and read it for a minute. He said, The waters can pass me about, even to the soul, the depths closed around about me, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth were bars was about me forever. He felt so much despair. He felt so much stuff. And I believe that when he man, when he got to Nineveh, that man, he preached the paint off the walls. I believe that when he got there, man, he was, he sat there and he told him, he said, man, whatever you do, just repent. Whatever you do, I want you to make sure that you get cleaned up, because man, I don't want you to go. I experienced what hell was like. I experienced what hell was like that night, that that day, the next day. I experienced everything about it. I don't want you to go there. Man, I believe if I believe if some if we could just open the portals of heaven right now and you could just listen listen to them cry that say, Don't do it, man. That say you don't want to be here. I could just I could just imagine what the screens would be of people that. Man, possibly you and I could have had an opportunity to tell, hey, Jesus Christ is the way, and we didn't. I get so excited about it, man, because I don't want nobody to go to hell. I don't want you, your family, or anyone else. But that's got to be the desire of every single man sitting in this room tonight is that you don't want to see anyone anyone go to hell. Any one of your friends, any one of your family members. And man, he preached. Could you imagine the passion he preached with? Knowing that he just came from all that and then he knew that they were fixing to face it if he didn't go and cry to them. I said it many times. It ought to make a sin different. It just had. So he said, 40 days, and you'll be overthrown. I'm almost done. I had an anticipation of hitting 10 verses again tonight. Y'all can laugh if you want to. Y'all showed up. In Genesis 19, 24. I want you to think about that word over overthrown. In Genesis 19, ain't that right? Yes. And the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone, and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants and of the cities and that which grew up upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. That word overthrown right there, it ought to mean something. When he says that right there, he said that Nineph should not be overthrown. They shouldn't have to do it. And they heard it. I know it's a little long, but it's okay. He said, Jonah, I wrote these three things. Jonah's cry was loud to them. Jonah's cry was lamented from him. I could just hear the weeping in his voice when he cried out to him. I believe they've seen so much passion in them. He said, if this crazy dude that's from Israel is coming into a place that knows that we'd usually just kill him. If he's gone through all this stuff, he's telling us all these stories, man. We got to believe that God's real. We've got to believe, man, this dude, this dude's not crazy, man. He's being filled with the Spirit right now. They could tell something was different about this guy. They could tell this guy was real. And then you see in verse number five, so the people of Nineveh believed God. And the first thing that you've got to understand, if you're ever going to get cleansed of your sins, you've got to believe God is who he says he is. And you've got to believe that when he tells you that you need to get up off of that and not let those things define you anymore and trust in his word that he says that he is who he says he is, and you've got to believe that he said, Listen, I will carry you through those storms. I'll give you places that you can use your testimony that they're going to win people to Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying. You've got to believe him and take him at his word. I've got to take him at his word. So the people of Nina believed God. And he proclaimed a fast. And he put on sackcloth. So what they said is, okay, God, we we trust in you, we believe in you. Listen, this this is this is people that shouldn't, but they are. Because they've seen how much power. I guarantee these people sitting in this room right now, and I know some of you, you never thought you would be in this place. You never thought you would be in a setting like this right here. You know what the difference is? But God.

unknown 26:17

Come on. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

But he showed up, man. He showed up in your life and you trusted in him. You admitted you as a sinner and you asked Jesus to come in your life and to save you, and he changed you and he put you in a spot. Because, man, I know some of you. You ought not be here. But man, his grace. His grace pulled you up out of that fish that day. Hey, it's kind of like he said in verse in Psalms 40. He brought you up out of that horrible pit, out of that merry clay, and he set your feet upon a rock and he established your goings, and he put a new song in your heart. And many shall see it and believe. And believe. Why shouldn't you give up on who you are? Why shouldn't you let your past define you? Just what he just said right there in Psalms 40. Because many shall see it and believe. So what are you going to do with your past? Are you going to let it define you or are you going to define it? Are you going to pick up your mat or are you going to let that mat keep dragging you down in the mud, man? It's time for us to stand up for who he is. It's time for us to tell the devil to go to hell because he ain't welcome in your life. He ain't welcome in this place. Just tell him to get out your life, man. He ain't welcome in your house. He ain't welcome in your marriage. He ain't welcome with your relationship with anyone. All the thing that's welcome is Jesus Christ, and man just tell him to get out. But too many times we're scared to tell him to get out. Because too many times we like what he's telling us. Who you gonna listen to? You're gonna listen to God or you're gonna listen to the devil? You're gonna listen to yourself or you're gonna listen to the Lord. Because listen, Jonah just taught us in these first three chapters, man, what happens when you listen to yourself. Jonah's done told us what happens when you keep going your own way. Jonah's done told us that you know what? If you keep doing what everybody else is doing and you keep listening to everybody else, you're gonna be in a different direction than you ever wanted to be. Because he said, Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, but narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few they'll be that find it. I want to be a few. My desire is that you be that few also. That should be our desire. I want to finish verse 5. And they put sackcloth on. When they put that sackcloth on, that that that that camel, they say it's it was like camel's hair or or or goat's hair, and they just put this thing on. And what that was symbolizing, when they put that on, that sackcloth on, it was just symbolizing to say, I don't need anything else. I don't want anything of the world. All I want is Jesus. All I want to know is right now I just want to I just want to be alone with everything. I want everything else gone, and I want nothing but Jesus right now. I need, I need, I just need to be close to Him. I'm denying everything else is in the world. And God's saying that to somebody tonight. You've been chasing that world and running with that world as long as you've been running, but he says some of you need to put some sackcloth on. I'm not talking about literally, I'm talking about spiritually. You need to get along with God. You need to get in that closet with God and say, you know what? God, there's been some stuff in my closet for a long time. God, there's been some stuff that I've kept in this closet. And God, I know you're an all-knowing God. But man, I gotta get out the closet. I gotta get out of the closet with some stuff that I've been dealing with. God, I've been dealing with some anger. God, I've been dealing with some things that, man, I just ain't put, I just haven't put away, Lord. Lord, Lord, I've just held on to a few of these things, and man, it's I know it's hindering me. I know it's hindering my relationship with you. And somebody tonight says, you know what? I need to get down in my closet, and that closet, my prayer closet with you, and admit, God, man, I just ain't got it. But I know you got it. God, will you bring me through? And you know what he'll do? Just what? Just what those people in Nineveh right there. They believed. If you'll believe that he can bring you through, he'll bring you through. That's what I do. Anyone got anything else? If not, let's pray. Well, we love you for you, who you are. Man, God, I just get overwhelmed by who you are. Man, we know and deserve what you've given us, but we're all thankful for what we've got. God, thank you for our families. Thank you for our help. Thank you, Lord, for this place that we get to come and to get to lift your name on high and tell the devil to go to hell, but we can tell him that because we know that Jesus Christ is able and he's willing and he is worth serving and nothing else is. Thank you for this place. Thank you, Lord God, for these men, and I pray that, Lord, they go out of here, and I go out of here closer than what we came in. Because Lord, I want to be closer to you. Because Lord, I know that, man, it's just right around the corner. You're coming to get us. Lord, help us to desire to take everybody we can with us. We love you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Yes, sir.