04/14/26

Jonah week 5

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Glad to be back with y'all tonight. Like always. We'll be back in Jonah again. We're in Jonah 3. Jonah chapter 3, verse number. Well, we're going to start back in verse number 4 tonight. And dig in and see what the Lord, what the Lord has for us tonight. I'm excited to push on through this book, but then again, I kind of don't want to get out of it. You know what I'm saying? It's just it's been so good to me. It's it's if I can say anything else, it's taught me how to be more like Jesus. And that's what this book should do to each and every one of us. It should teach us to be more like Christ each and every week. That should be our desire. When we were raising kids, our desire is to watch them grow, to watch them get better. When they played sports, watch them get better, watch them progress. It's the same thing your Father in heaven is looking for. He's looking for you to grow. He's looking for you to get closer to him. And he wants to hear from us. That's just what he wants to do. But let's dig in. I'm going to read, I'm going to read Jonah 3. I'll pray and we're going to get going. It said, and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go into Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah rose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey, and Jonah began to enter the city of day's journey. And he cried and said, Yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For the word of the Lord for the word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth and satin ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed unto and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way and their violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? And God saw the works that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. Let's pray right quick. Dear God, I love you. I thank you, God, for your word. I thank you for each and every man and boy that is here to represent themselves, represent their family, and represent you, God. And Lord God, I pray tonight that you will open our hearts and minds. Lord God, help me to just calm down for a minute and listen to you and let you preach. And I'll be careful to listen. Lord God, I pray the words out of my mouth will be of you, not of me, God. Lord God, I pray I decrease and you increase. Lord God, I pray that you open our ears tonight. Lord God, I pray that you draw us closer to you tonight. Because God, it's all about you. I love you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. So we said in verse number five, he said, So the people of Nineveh believed God, and they believed God, and it said, they believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth. And I get, as I was studying back over this thing, I we get to thinking, why did they, we need to put in perspective, why did they listen to this guy? Why did they listen to this guy from Israel, this guy that was not even of them? Why did they hear this man that shouldn't have been there? Why did they believe God? And I got to studying and digging this thing, and the reason that they believed, it said it didn't say they believed Jonah. It didn't say that Jonah, anything about Jonah right there. It said that Nineveh believed God. And what we've got to understand, what I've got to understand is I as I go out and I preach God's word, and other people, Brother Clint and Brother Andy, and different ones that go out and preach God's word. What we've got to understand is, man, what God said in verse number two right there. And he said right there in verse number two, he said, preach unto thee which I bid thee. See, there's a difference in the sermon and the message. There's a difference in pulling it up and letting it come down. There's a difference than God bringing the message to you and you bringing it up. That's what it what he's saying right there. And what you what they're saying in verse number five is, man, they believed God because God was speaking. It wasn't Jonah, man. The words coming out of his mouth, it was of the Lord. It wasn't of him. He was all about Jesus. And man, I get to thinking about, I always try to put myself, and you've heard me say it many times. I'm gonna sit myself right there. I'm gonna see what's going on in Nineveh. I'm gonna see what's going on. And I get to thinking about they listen to this guy. They listen to this guy that man, let's just be honest. He laid it all on the table. How many times did you get you get caught by your parents? And do you you know you need to get it, just go ahead and pull it all out your pockets? Anybody ever been anybody that ever been arrested? And and and on the side of the road, you had to get it all out your pockets? Anybody? Don't don't admit. Okay, we've got two or three. They have. The rest of y'all, I'm just kidding. But I I think, man, it just breaks me. When I get to thinking about Jonah, Jonah took took everything out of his pockets. Jonah laid it all on the table right here. I can just see Jonah telling these people, he said, listen. And I just I feel like that God, there was more than five or six words that Jonah said. He said more than, yet 40 days and enables shall be overthrown. He said more than that. And I can just see Jonah saying, Listen, y'all, I'm fixing to lay it all out on the table for you. I know that I should, you should kill me right now. Because I'm in a place you've killed my family, you've killed people of my community, you you've did so much harm. And he said, Listen, I don't even want to be here. He said, I don't even want to be here. He said, God told me just a couple days ago to come tell y'all. And man, I'll just be honest with y'all. I didn't care if y'all died or not. Dude, I think he got real. I think he stood right there and he got real and he said, you know what? The only reason I'm sitting here is but God. The only reason that I'm here is because God wanted me to preach and I had to get out the way. And that's what he said in verse number two. He said, Jonah, go tell him. Because Jonah didn't want to be there. And I could see Jonah saying, you know, God told me to preach, but man, I just didn't want to do what God called me to do because man, I wanted you to die. I didn't care about y'all. I didn't care. I didn't care what happened in your life. And if we if we're going to be honest men in here tonight, you probably had a thought about somebody in your life before that you just thought, you know what? I don't care if they ever show up back at the church. I I don't I don't care if they ever show back up to my house. I don't care if this marriage works. I don't care if this relationship works, I don't care at all. Anyone ever been there? We have. But here's the deal. Jonah got real. Jonah said, I'm laying it all out here. He said, Listen, y'all. I started running from God. And man, before I knew it, I was so far away. Man, I was in a ship headed in a total direction away from God. And let me tell y'all something. I believe he said, Listen, y'all. It was so bad that, man, I had to go into this belly of this fish that felt like hell to make sure that I had to understand what you were fixing to do if I didn't do God's will in my life. And all of a sudden, man, I had to do God's will. All of a sudden, I had to say, you know what? I care about you. I care about your future. And he preached it. And he told them. And he lived it. And I believe there was so much passion in that preaching because he understood what hell was like then. He understood that, you know what, God had called me for a purpose and it wasn't for me to do my own will. And the same thing we've got to understand in our own lives, y'all, is listen, this life is not about you, and it's not about who you are. It's about Jesus Christ. It's about you and I living our life for Jesus Christ and to see how many people we can take with us. Because we're all going to die one day. Your friends are going to die one day. The people that live in your house are going to die one day. How many are you going to take with you? That's the question that God is asking you and I to die. Do you care enough that you'd go tell them? Do you care enough that you would go tell them? Because see, you know he said it in verse number four. He said, in 40 days, the Nineveh's gonna be overthrown. I can remember a dude that was overthrown out of a ship because he was being disobedient. I believe what God showed me today is as I was digging back into this thing, I believe that when Jonah was sitting there preaching to Nineveh, I said, he said, Nineveh, I became you. I became you. I was disobedient to my Lord. I was disobedient to him. I was not headed in the right direction. I was doing the things that I know I ought not to have been doing. Nineveh, I was you. You say, Mike, why do you say that? Because many of us didn't mean to. But we become a Nineveh. We become someone that you know what? We were embarrassed of. I can stop right there and say, all right, somebody testify how you've been embarrassed in your life, how you've lived your life in the wrong direction. And we could sit here for hours. It would be dark before we left here. The people that's made mistakes in this room. Because if we're honest, we all have. We all have. So looking on, it said in verse number five, so the people believed the people of Nenim believed God and they proclaimed a fast. I'm gonna ask this question. We got all different denominations of people. Some people ain't got a denomination yet because they need to get saved. But we'll leave that there with you and Jesus. But not with a raise of the hand, but I want you to think in your head, you ain't got to raise your hand. Have you ever fasted? You say, well, Brother Mac, that's that's just for certain denominations. That's that's the Bible says, and and I didn't I didn't pull up the scripture, it didn't say if you fast, it said when you fast. You said, but Brother Mac, you don't understand. I've never performed that. Well, maybe you've never been close to God. He said, when you fast. Do you understand what fasting means? What fasting means is, man, you saying that, man, I deny self. I deny those things that that are comfortable, that that the Cadillacs and candy, all those things. I deny all those things because God, I need to talk to you. God, I need to draw close to you. God, I understand that I'm messed up and I need you right now. And and what he's saying is, I need to proclaim a fast and I've got to put it all away. And then he said, put on this sackcloth. This I think it was like like goat's hair. They just hang it, and it was uncomfortable, and it just covered them up and said, I'm nothing, but Christ, you're everything. I'm nothing right now. And if you're ever gonna be anything for Jesus Christ, you've got to say, Lord, I'm nothing. Will you make something out of it? But our pride gets in the way, man. Our pride says, but but but if I say I'm nothing, what's what's people gonna think? What I'm gonna tell you is when you stand before Jesus Christ one day, I don't think you're gonna be worried about people. I think all you're gonna be worried about is the presence of the king. I think all you're gonna be worried about is getting on your knees and saying, Worthy is the lamb that was slain for me. I think that's what's gonna happen that day. And that's what God is saying to you and I right here. We've got to get excited about those things. We've got to deny ourselves and say, I'm nothing. Somebody needs to put some sackcloth on. And then he says, You know, we talked about that pride, didn't we? Look at verse number six. I'm sorry, verse number five. From the greatest even unto the least of them, they put it on. See, God can't work in a prideful man. God can't work in that man that thinks he's somebody. That thinks that thinks that the numbers in his bank account, or or the stature of his house, or how good his clothes look, or or where he's at at his job, thanks that he's somebody. Man, God ain't about that. But but God, but you've got to understand that these people, this man preached a sermon that was so great that even the greatest, even the ones that thought they were somebody, understood all of a sudden, man, I ain't nobody without Jesus Christ. And that's what he's saying right here. But look what he says from the greatest even to the to the least of them. It's sitting to get good. For the word came unto the king of Nineveh. Man, this is their leader. This is their leader, y'all. The word came to the leader. It had spread out so much that the leader, the leader, the one that had led them in this wrong direction, the one that was that that was going all in the wrong ways in the wrong places. It got to him, and look what it said. And it rose unto the king of Benal, and he arose from his throne. See, it all starts with you, men. It all starts with each and every man that's got a child in this room right now. It starts with you. You're the king. So to speak, you're the head of the household, and guess who's gonna be held accountable one day? For the way you taught your children and the way you lived your life. You're gonna stand before God one day. So it's time that we say, you know what, God, I'm gonna do it the right way. And somebody might be sitting here and you're not married yet. Somebody might be sitting here as a kid and say, I'm not understanding what you're talking about. Man, start it the right way. Do it the right way, teach them the right way. The Bible says just teach them and send them out. They'll come back to it. That's what he said. See? It's kind of like in the church. I wrote this down. If the preacher can't do what he expects from the crowd, if the preacher can't do what he expects from the church, don't ever expect the church to do anything. It starts. It starts here, y'all. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. It bears repeating over and over. It doesn't matter how much you know. It don't matter how many times you can quote scripture. It don't matter how much, it don't matter how good somebody can preach if they can't come live it. We've got to live it. I've I as I stand up here and I speak week after week, it don't matter how good I speak if I fail my my two kids that are in this room tonight. It doesn't matter how good I speak if I can't live it. I gotta live it before my family. I gotta live it before them. You've got to live it before them. That's just what's gotta happen. But we've got to have that desire. But man, this king had messed up. But even his people, man, his people got on to it. His people, man, just what was happening, man, it just got to him. And look what he does in verse number six. And the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne and he laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and ashes. Understand that that robe, brother, that robe is like his royalty. He got up off this, he got up off of what he thought he was somebody, man. He got rid of his deity, he got rid of his royalty, he got rid of everything that made him righteous. And he took it off and said, you know what? I'm unclean also. I I got I got I'm cheapest. Because you see, he was leading the wrong crowd. And if you're gonna be, I think I said it last week. If you're gonna be free, you gotta be honest. And and and this man, this man had to get honest. If you're gonna be the man God called you to be, man, quit making excuses. Quit making excuses why you're not being who you ought to be. Quit trying to put the blame on somebody else why you can't be the daddy that you need to be, or you can't be the worker that you need to be. Man, don't lay the excuses. God is not looking for your excuse. He's looking for you to give him all you got. That's what he's looking for, you and I. But he said, he sat in ashes. He said, Man, I'm a nobody. Could you imagine the king of this great huge place of Nineveh? The king set in ashes. The king said, I'm not worthy to sit on the throne anymore. And then it says, and he calls it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh to by the decree of the king and his noble saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water. Could you imagine? It says 40 days. Wait, let's look at this for a second. It said, don't even let the flock eat, man. Could you imagine? Some of y'all got hound dogs in here. What happens every day if you got hound dogs sitting in the pen and you ain't fed them in 24 hours? They jumping up on the fence, they barking, they howling. What do you think happened if you didn't feed that cow for a couple days? They'll be bellowing. They'll be moving. They'll be doing all kind of stuff we don't want to hear. What about when you fasted for several days and your stomach's digging on the inside? And man, you your hunger's so great. And it feels like your stomach's talking to you. Anybody ever been there? It's just talking to you, like, hey dude, can you feed me? Huh? And that's where God's trying to get us. But here's the deal, man. We're too full. We're too full. You say, what do you mean? What did you just do in just a few minutes? In ten minutes, you filled up what was hungry. We're too full. We fill ourselves with life. We fill ourselves with our job. We feel ourselves chasing dreams. We feel ourselves, and nothing's wrong with any of those things. But we feel ourselves so full, man, that they ain't room for Jesus. I'm just being honest. It's amen or owe me. That's just the truth. We feel ourselves so far up that, man, we don't know what hunger is. The Bible says hunger and thirst after the Lord. When's the last time? When's the last time that you couldn't get home because you just wanted to get in God's word? When's the last time you just wanted to get along with God and say, man, God, I just want to hear you. I want to hear you speak to me. And that's what God is saying to us. But there's some of us that's never hungered in our lives. There's some of you that's never missed a meal. There's some of you that's never understood what hungering and thirsting for the Lord really means. God said, Man, we got to hunger after him. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. I can't remember if I ever shared a story with y'all. If I did, I'm gonna share it again. Just just just bear it. I think I did, but we don't some of us you might not have heard it anyhow. Me and my wife was in St. Augustine years ago. And we stopped at the convenience store. She left her pocketbook in the car and somebody as we went to the convenience store, we come back out and her pocketbook's gone. Wallet's gone. All the kids' social security numbers are gone. Her driver's license is gone. Credit card's gone. Debit card's gone. Money's gone. Two tithing checks is gone. That was in that wallet. And I got home in that motel room that night. I'm ashamed to say I prayed for hours. Hours. Over my identity. Over my identity. That didn't matter. But how how man how many times can we say, man, I pray for hours? For that person that's sick. I pray for hours. For that person that's need to be saved. I'm embarrassed to say, man. I prayed more about my identity than I did for my savior to work in someone's life. How important is he to you? That's what he's saying. How important is he? They cried mightily unto God. You notice when you got a situation going on. You notice when you don't know if the test results is going to be good or bad. You notice when man, you're just not sure, God. And cry mightily. Because you want to see the work of God, because you want him to show up. And that's what he's saying to you and I. Do you care enough about Jesus Christ? And do you care about enough about the person that lives in your house that you'll cry mightily because you're worried about if they're going to heaven or hell? That's what he's saying to me. Do you care that much? I tell my kids all the time, you just don't know. If you've been a daddy, which many of you are, they just don't know. They don't understand the love of the Father for his kids. They don't understand that he worries. That they're going to make the wrong decisions that he made. Man, the love that I have for my children is nowhere near the love that Jesus Christ has for me. Can you cry mightily to him? That's what he's saying to you and I tonight. But he says, let them turn everyone from his evil way. See, you can't turn from your evil way if you don't understand that you've got an evil way. Look what he says right there in the next part. He said, and from the violence that is in their hands. You can't ask for forgiveness for something that you don't realize that you're doing. These people were just living life, man. They didn't understand. That's the only thing they knew in life. They were Nenobites. They were headed in the wrong direction. And some of them just didn't know it. That's just what they've been taught. But he's saying to us right there, you've got to understand that you've got a problem. You've got to admit that, hey, I got a problem. The cry. I wrote this. Some people make excuses and some people make a difference, but you can't do both. Some people make excuses, and some people make a difference. You can't do both. What about you? Are you going to continue to make excuses why you can't be what you can be? Are you going to continue to make excuses? Or are you going to make a difference? Hey, because Jesus Christ made a difference. That day on Calvary, he made a difference. He changed the whole world so you and I could sit here tonight and appraise his holy name. That's what he did. He gave you an opportunity to have life. That's what he gives. Each and every one of us. He said, Who can tell? He said, Who can tell if God will repent? That word repent means relent. Who can tell if God would say, you know what? I'm that merciful. That if you'll change and turn from your way, his fierce anger, that we perish not. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of their evil. He relented. He said, You know what? They are who they say they are. See, it wasn't a get out of hell ticket. Too many times, too many times we come and listen, I've done it, you've done it, we've all done it. We said, Lord, please forgive me because I messed up. Dude, you didn't mean no more of that. Lord, will you wipe this away so I'll feel good about it? That's where we're at. The Bible says in Jeremiah 18.7, as I get there. I got two scriptures and I'm done right here. Jeremiah 18.7. He said, At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy it? If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do in them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plan it? If it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said, I will benefit them. What he's saying is, I can do what I want to do because I'm God. What he's saying is, nobody's too far gone. I'm sure there's people sitting in this room right now and thought, you know what? I was too far gone. And people said that that dude will never change. He'll never be nothing, man. God can't save him. You ever heard that? If you're honest, you probably said it. The Lord said there's nobody too far gone. If Nineveh wasn't too far gone, there's nobody too far gone. But you know, we're gonna learn next week how Jonah got ticked off at the Lord again. Because Jonah was selfish. Jonah was selfish. But I want you to remind you of something as I leave leave this with you. I got to turn there. In Nahum, you go two books over from Jonah, you go to Nahum 150 years later. Let's let's jump, let's jump up 150 years. And then it says in Nahum 2.11, it says, Where's the dwelling place of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions? Where's the lion? Even the old lion walked in the lion's well, and none made them afraid. The lion did tear in pieces enough for his wealth and strangled for his limeless and filled his holes with prey and his dens with rice. What he said is, man, this man did his job. He said, This lion showed up, he provided for his family. He did all the stuff that he was supposed to do. The same thing that God was telling each and every man here, you're to provide, you're to protect, you're to do those things, you're to lead your family in the right direction. That's what he's saying. But then look what the Lord said, Behold, I'm against thee, saith the Lord of hosts. I will burn her chariots, and the smoke and the sword shall shall devour the young lions, and I will cut off the prey from the earth. The voice of thy messenger shall no more be heard. Woe to the bloody city. It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey departeth not, the noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattlings of the wheels, and the and the prancing horses and the jumping chariots. The horsemen lifted up both the bright sword and the glittering spear, and there is a multitude slain and a great number of carcasses, and there is none end of their corpse. They stumble upon their corpse. Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and the families through her witchcrafts. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, I will dis I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdom thy shame. 150 years later, God destroyed Nineveh. And I bet if Jonah was alive 150 years later, he'd say, Lord, I told you so. Because that's how we are. But you know what? In all this, man, I could think about a situation right now or two, and I'd be like, God, if I was God, I'd do this. Lord, I why why don't you do this? God, this person ought not to act like this. God, why don't you change things up, Lord? Lord, won't you listen to me? I got this figured out. See, like Jonah said, you know, he got ticked off at the Lord, but the Lord said, I got this. I'm in control. And 150 years later, he did destroy them. But what happened in those 150 years? The same thing in your life right now, what God is saying is, listen, you might be sitting here thinking, say, man, that guy ought not to be there, or that preacher ought not to do that, or that guy ought to not act like that. Listen, it ain't up to you. That guy might be winning somebody to Jesus that you don't have nothing to know about. You know what God said to me? You just live your life and shut up. You just live your life according to my will and let me handle the rest. Because I'll be honest, sometimes we get we get sideways. Anybody in here get sideways? The Lord says, Vengeance is mine. But too many times we want to boast. Let's give it to the Lord. Let's give it to the Lord. So the question is, can you quite cry mightily unto God and ask him what you need to ask him? Somebody needs to cry. And I ain't talking about weeping with tears, I mean cry out to the Lord. More than a 10-minute sentence. More than 10 words that says, Hey God, I'm here. Check. He don't want you vain oblations. The Lord wants your heart. If He ain't got your heart, he ain't got you, man. Come on. Be obedient to the Lord. Anybody got anything else? Yes, sir. Yes, sir, go ahead.