Speaker 1: I have been being chased down, literally by the Book
Speaker 1: of Jonah for the last I don't know how many months.
Speaker 1: Every time I turn on a YouTube you know something
Speaker 1: or other one of my favorite whatevers, whoever's there, they're.
Speaker 2: Talking about Jonah. Jonah keeps popping up.
Speaker 1: I ended up with a little book about Jonah. So
Speaker 1: I read the book and just all sorts of things.
Speaker 1: So guess what you're gonna hear about today. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: hope you're all ready for that. So Jonah is a
Speaker 1: four chapter, little tiny book in the very back of
Speaker 1: the Old Testament.
Speaker 2: When was the last time you read Jonah? Hm hmm.
Speaker 1: Look at your neighbor, hmmm. Well we're going to take
Speaker 1: care of that today. Jonah's a short little book, is
Speaker 1: about four chapters and exactly forty eight verses long. We
Speaker 1: can do this, people, You can read the Book of Jonah.
Speaker 1: You could do it so fast, you could probably do
Speaker 1: it about fifteen minutes. You have Jonah down, bam, you know,
Speaker 1: mark it off the bucket list. Right.
Speaker 2: So, this is the Book of Jonah.
Speaker 1: It's very, very, very small, but I will tell you
Speaker 1: those forty eight verses are packed with power. Those forty
Speaker 1: eight verses are gonna leave you with more questions than
Speaker 1: you have answers those forty eight verses. If you are
Speaker 1: a preacher like me about every other word, you're.
Speaker 2: Gonna go, oh, that'll preach good.
Speaker 1: I would someday give me that, give me that, give
Speaker 1: me that mic, and give.
Speaker 2: Me that Jonah, and I'm gonna preach it.
Speaker 1: So I get to do it here today, right, So
Speaker 1: I get to bring you a little piece of it.
Speaker 1: If you read the Book of Jonah, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: so you're gonna be so inspired. But you're also going
Speaker 1: to be so convicted. So that's our job here today.
Speaker 2: Are you ready? Okay?
Speaker 1: Jonah is a minor prophet, and that does not mean
Speaker 1: that he is insignificant or underaged. It merely means that
Speaker 1: Jonah is one of I believe there's twelve minor prophets
Speaker 1: in the Old Testament. And he's short, that's all he is.
Speaker 1: He's short, not short, but short, right, But it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean he's insignificant. Jonah was referred to by our Lord
Speaker 1: Jesus as he was walking on this earth. You can
Speaker 1: read about it in the New Testament. He refers to
Speaker 1: Jonah multiple times, and so this whole story is very, very,
Speaker 1: very impactful. So I'm excited to kind of crack it
Speaker 1: open for you here today. So when I say Jonah,
Speaker 1: what do you say.
Speaker 2: Ninevah the whale? What else running away? Did you? Were
Speaker 2: you here for service?
Speaker 1: He's given away? He's a spoiler alert over here?
Speaker 2: Anything else that you would say? O?
Speaker 1: Kay, okay, Well, it sounds like you're very Jonah literate
Speaker 1: out here. I'm very proud of you. So I Hopeully,
Speaker 1: you're going to learn something new here today. Yes, Jonah
Speaker 1: is actually one of the most well known Bible stories.
Speaker 1: And as I said, it's forty eight verses long. Jonah
Speaker 1: and Noah are in competition for the most well known
Speaker 1: Bible story, right so, And but they both involved the sea,
Speaker 1: right and it's something to float in, so there's similarities,
Speaker 1: right so. But Jonah is one of the most well
Speaker 1: known I would say the whale, ninevah, tarsish, you know,
Speaker 1: all those kinds of things. But there are a few
Speaker 1: things that you don't know. I can assume because I
Speaker 1: didn't know. So if I don't know, you don't know.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to share him with you, so you know,
Speaker 1: and I know, and we all know and it'll all
Speaker 1: make more sense hopefully, right. So the first thing I
Speaker 1: want you to know is a little bit about Ninevah. Now,
Speaker 1: if you know anything about Jonah, we're going to learn
Speaker 1: how ninev fits into the story. But let me give
Speaker 1: you a little background about Ninevah. Ninevah is one of
Speaker 1: the oldest cities in civilization. Ninevah is actually mentioned in
Speaker 1: Genesis ten in the Table of Nations after Noah's ark
Speaker 1: and God is setting aside and setting up the table
Speaker 1: of Nations and the boundary, and he mentions a few
Speaker 1: cities that were established at that point.
Speaker 2: And Ninevah was one of them. So ninev is a
Speaker 2: very very old cities.
Speaker 1: Knock your neighbor and say old, very ancient, like older
Speaker 1: than me, older than you, right.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that's Ninevah. Nineveh during the.
Speaker 1: Time of Jonah is the capital city of the superpower
Speaker 1: of the day, which is Assyria. And Assyria is known
Speaker 1: for quite a few time things during their time frame,
Speaker 1: but the biggest thing that they're known for is their
Speaker 1: absolute brutality against humanity. The Assyrians had some of the
Speaker 1: most brutal, the most evil, though the most inhumane ways
Speaker 1: of teaching treating humanity life meant nothing to them. Their
Speaker 1: torture for their enemies when they would go out and
Speaker 1: do battle, the torture that they would inflict would make
Speaker 1: your little.
Speaker 2: Mind go crazy.
Speaker 1: It's way worse than any kind of horror movie out there.
Speaker 1: They were known for the incredible evil. And so this
Speaker 1: is Ninevah, Ninevah, so the time of Ninevah and the
Speaker 1: Assyrians so kind of have this in mind. They're this foreboding, formidable, horrible,
Speaker 1: horrible group of people that were ruling the world.
Speaker 2: Really by that time. Israel at this.
Speaker 1: Moment is small and tiny, a little tiny right there.
Speaker 1: And so remember your is your your Bible history. There
Speaker 1: was King Saul, the first king of Israel. Then there
Speaker 1: was king and then there was king. Oh, you are smart,
Speaker 1: you are smart, Okay, So then who knows what the
Speaker 1: next king's name is? Yes, and Jereboem we had some
Speaker 1: Yes anyway, the next the next guy in line sins
Speaker 1: against God greatly, and because of that, the king of
Speaker 1: Israel is torn into two. How many remember that there's
Speaker 1: the Northern Kingdom of ten tribes, there's the Southern Kingdom
Speaker 1: of two tribes. What was the name of the Northern Kingdom.
Speaker 2: No, Israel.
Speaker 1: Israel is the North kingdom, ten tribes. Judah is the
Speaker 1: name of the Southern Kingdom, and two tribes are down there.
Speaker 2: Everybody with me, Okay.
Speaker 1: So the books of First and Second Kings and first
Speaker 1: and Second Chronicles, so as you're reading your Old Testament
Speaker 1: is a chronological history of both of these divided kingdoms
Speaker 1: of Israel.
Speaker 2: Right, So as you're.
Speaker 1: Reading, you're going to be hearing about Israel and Judah.
Speaker 1: Israel and Judah, so don't be confused. They're the divided kingdoms.
Speaker 1: So Jonah actually before we go there, yes, open up
Speaker 1: your Bible to Second Kings, because I want to give
Speaker 1: you some context to Jonah. So I gave you a
Speaker 1: little context to Nineveh and how horrible Afhala is. Now
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a little context to you Yonah.
Speaker 1: Jonah is has a bigger role to play than his
Speaker 1: forty eight verses at the end of the Old Testament,
Speaker 1: and we find in Second Kings.
Speaker 2: I'm going to read this to you.
Speaker 1: It says here in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, son
Speaker 1: of joe Ash, king of where So that's the Southern tribes. Jereboam,
Speaker 1: son of joe Ash, King of Israel the Northern tribes,
Speaker 1: became king in Samaria, and he reigned for forty one years. He,
Speaker 1: meaning Jereboam, the King of Israel, did evil in the
Speaker 1: eyes of the Lord, and did not turn away from
Speaker 1: all the sins of that Jereboam guy way on back
Speaker 1: that caused the division and which he had caused Israel
Speaker 1: to commit. He this current king was the one who
Speaker 1: restored the boundaries of Israel, Israel from Liebo Hamath to
Speaker 1: the Sea of Araba. Okay, So what has happened is
Speaker 1: that during these divided kingdom times, Israel is very small
Speaker 1: and very insignificant, and is constantly being whittled away with
Speaker 1: pressured the nations that surround are constantly wanting to come
Speaker 1: in and take over, and so it's getting smaller and
Speaker 1: smaller and smaller. But at this moment, this king, Jereboam,
Speaker 1: it says here he was able to militarily go in
Speaker 1: and re establish his boundaries, push those things back, get
Speaker 1: back what the devil had stolen from him. And let's
Speaker 1: look and see how he did that in accordance with
Speaker 1: the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken
Speaker 1: through his servant Jonah, son of a Midtide, the prophet
Speaker 1: from Goth, Hiraba or whatever that heifer.
Speaker 2: Yes, so what we have is a king. We have Israel,
Speaker 2: we have Judah.
Speaker 1: The next verse says here the Lord had seen how
Speaker 1: bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slaver frees, were suffering, and.
Speaker 2: There was no one to help them.
Speaker 1: They were living in very dark times, very pressurized times.
Speaker 1: And the word of the Lord came to the Lord's servant,
Speaker 1: a prophet, And that prophet named Jonah, was standing in
Speaker 1: the presence of God and heard the word of the
Speaker 1: Lord and took that word of the Lord into the
Speaker 1: presence of the King. The king did as Jonah had
Speaker 1: said and had great success.
Speaker 2: This is the Jonah we're talking about. Did you know
Speaker 2: that about Jonah? Good near? Did I? Now?
Speaker 1: Jonah lived during very dark, difficult times. Israel's border is
Speaker 1: restored militarily through that. Jonah partnered with the word of
Speaker 1: the Lord. The word of the Lord came to him
Speaker 1: in dark times, in troubling times.
Speaker 2: The word of the Lord. He was standing before the Lord.
Speaker 1: He heard the word of the Lord, and he partnered
Speaker 1: and went into the King, and things changed. God does
Speaker 1: not do things without a partner here on earth. I
Speaker 1: know we have said this here so many times. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get this pounded into our hearts and our souls,
Speaker 1: that you are very, very vital. You are on this earth.
Speaker 1: Sucond breath, walk and do in your thing, so that
Speaker 1: you can hear the word of the Lord, and you
Speaker 1: can go forth with the word of the Lord, and.
Speaker 2: You can make a difference.
Speaker 1: You can speak the word of the Lord into very
Speaker 1: dark and troubling times and make a difference. That is you,
Speaker 1: that's your new identity.
Speaker 2: There, you have it. Okay, we can be done. Is
Speaker 2: that a good enough sermon? There's more. There's more. Amos
Speaker 2: three p. Seven says that God does nothing. Can we
Speaker 2: have it up there? Or did we lose our screens?
Speaker 1: Surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan
Speaker 1: to his servants, the prophets.
Speaker 2: How many of you in.
Speaker 1: This house are servants and prophets of the Lord. Are
Speaker 1: you his child?
Speaker 2: Then you're his? You are absolutely his.
Speaker 1: And this is Jonah Jonah partnered because the servant of
Speaker 1: the Lord, of the prophet, he stood in a very privileged,
Speaker 1: privileged position. He was in the know, He could see things,
Speaker 1: He got the insights from the Lord. He stood in
Speaker 1: the presence of God and felt the pressure of God's
Speaker 1: will upon his spirit and heard God's voice telling what
Speaker 1: was to come Jonah. Actually, this little part, this little
Speaker 1: passage here places Jonah in the next generation from Elijah
Speaker 1: and Elisha.
Speaker 2: Did you know that.
Speaker 1: Jonah grew up under Elijah and Elisha?
Speaker 2: And the thought is.
Speaker 1: The thought is is that he very well could have
Speaker 1: been part of the school of the prophets during Elijah
Speaker 1: and Elisha. Wow, now we're seeing Jonah in a whole
Speaker 1: nother light.
Speaker 2: This man was in the know. He was a mover
Speaker 2: and a shaker.
Speaker 1: He was successful, he saw his partnership with God really
Speaker 1: means something and change things. Jewish legend even says that Jonah.
Speaker 1: Now this is legend, people, I'm not quote in the scripture,
Speaker 1: but legend, Jewish legend. Jewish scripture says that Jonah was
Speaker 1: actually the son of the widow of Zarah Fath. Do
Speaker 1: you remember her that gave food and a room to
Speaker 1: Elijah and the son had passed away and Elijah came
Speaker 1: and raised him from the dead. Jewish legend is that
Speaker 1: that was Jonah. Now, I don't know, we're in Legendville, Right,
Speaker 1: But what if? What if this is his pedigree, this
Speaker 1: is Jonah's past, This is what Jonah.
Speaker 2: Could you know?
Speaker 1: What was he was capable of? Jonah was just he
Speaker 1: was a guy, right, He was the man for the moment.
Speaker 2: He had accomplished so much. And I don't know about you.
Speaker 1: If I was in Jonah's shoes at this point, I
Speaker 1: have been in the King's presence. I have been in
Speaker 1: God's presence. I have heard things that other people don't hear.
Speaker 2: I've heard from the Lord.
Speaker 1: I'm able to walk into God's the King's presence, and
Speaker 1: say words and it actually comes to pass. Things are happening.
Speaker 1: People are calling me up saying, hey, how do you
Speaker 1: know these things? Teach me how you know them. So
Speaker 1: maybe Jonah was having some seminars about how to be
Speaker 1: a great prophet. I don't know, but he was kind
Speaker 1: of in this place of great success. And I don't
Speaker 1: know about you, but maybe if I was Jonah, after
Speaker 1: we had done all this, and we had won many wars,
Speaker 1: and we had gone back to our original borders and
Speaker 1: kind of got through a bunch of mess. I don't
Speaker 1: know about you, but I would maybe buy a piece
Speaker 1: of property out in the back, you know, in the
Speaker 1: hill country, and you know how to view iced tea
Speaker 1: plant a orchard out there. You know, kick back, have
Speaker 1: some friends in every once in a while, start a fire,
Speaker 1: little bonfire, roast some marshmallows, to tell stories that might
Speaker 1: be my mindset. I did it, I succeeded. I'm amazing.
Speaker 2: I don't know. This is just this is where my
Speaker 2: mind goes. Right.
Speaker 1: But let's now open up Jonah and find out what
Speaker 1: happens next. Truly, verse one and two, the word of
Speaker 1: the Lord came to Jonah, son of a Mitai, go
Speaker 1: to the great city of Ninevah and preach against it
Speaker 1: because its wickedness has.
Speaker 2: Come up before me.
Speaker 1: So here's here's Joanna in the presence of God one
Speaker 1: more time. This is his familiar place. He's a good Christian,
Speaker 1: He's done amazing things. And you know he starts getting
Speaker 1: that feeling again, you know, that presence of God kind
Speaker 1: of feeling.
Speaker 2: Oh, I know what this is.
Speaker 1: Oh God, you're gonna say something good. You and me,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do something big, now I know it. And
Speaker 1: the words that come from the presence of God is Jonah,
Speaker 1: go to Ninevah, preach against it because it's wickedness has
Speaker 1: come up to me. Now. The equivalent would be for
Speaker 1: a Jew from say New York in the nineteen forties
Speaker 1: to get on a plane and fly to Berlin, Nazi Germany,
Speaker 1: and get up and go to the center of the
Speaker 1: town city there and start preaching against Hitler.
Speaker 2: How long would that last? How would that go for him?
Speaker 1: Have you ever been asked to do something you really
Speaker 1: don't want to do?
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter how wonderful you are.
Speaker 1: You could be having a wonderful day, having a wonderful life,
Speaker 1: doing great things for everybody, you know, just like really
Speaker 1: knocking life out of the park.
Speaker 2: But then you're asked to do.
Speaker 1: Something you don't want to do. It's a thing that
Speaker 1: happens on the inside of you. It's a real thing.
Speaker 1: So Jonah has some new assignment. And I will tell
Speaker 1: you that this is the first time any prophet of
Speaker 1: God has been deployed or sent outside of the confines
Speaker 1: of Israel into an ungodly nation to preach. This is
Speaker 1: the only time Jonah is the lucky one.
Speaker 2: He gets to go to.
Speaker 1: Not just Assyria, but Ninevah and preach against it. And
Speaker 1: this mighty man of God has a thing stirring in
Speaker 1: his heart. All of a sudden, what God was asking
Speaker 1: him was the biggest thing he'd ever been asked to do.
Speaker 1: It was unprecedented. Nobody'd ever been sent outside of the
Speaker 1: walls of Israel. It was at best unreasonable to ask
Speaker 1: a human being to go into Ninevah into it, not
Speaker 1: just you know, yell over the wall into it to
Speaker 1: preach against it. And at worst it was suicidal. God
Speaker 1: was asking him to lay his life down, so inside
Speaker 1: of his soul he was raging with a war to
Speaker 1: obey or disobey. Has anybody ever had this war inside
Speaker 1: of your soul? Where God has set a standard, maybe
Speaker 1: made a call to your life, asked you to do something,
Speaker 1: set his word in his Bible that says thou shalt
Speaker 1: not lie.
Speaker 2: And you want to lie really bad right now because
Speaker 2: it would pay off quite well.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you have a little bit of something, something
Speaker 1: that you know and you want to share it, or
Speaker 1: you're listening, or maybe you want to kill somebody, or
Speaker 1: maybe you have some thoughts in your head towards having
Speaker 1: a sexual something or rather going on.
Speaker 2: Just that thought.
Speaker 1: What if and you have a fight, a war inside
Speaker 1: of you.
Speaker 2: Anybody been there, Well, this is where Noah found himself.
Speaker 2: Should he obey? Should he not obey.
Speaker 1: The mighty Man of God, who's done amazing things, He
Speaker 1: shouldn't have any trouble ever, Verse three. But everybody say butt,
Speaker 1: So you'd think at this moment you'd hear these wonderful,
Speaker 1: heroic words of So. So Jonah got up, went right
Speaker 1: to Nineveh, preached his little heart out, and everyone came
Speaker 1: to Jesus.
Speaker 2: So you'd hope there would be a sol right here.
Speaker 2: But there's no. So it's a butt. And everyone knows
Speaker 2: what happens.
Speaker 1: When there's a butt, it means that the opposite happened. So,
Speaker 1: but Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarsis.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows that if you're in Israel and you're going
Speaker 1: to go to Nineveh, you're going to take a left
Speaker 1: and you're gonna head east. But Jonah, oh no, he
Speaker 1: took a right and headed west. So he went the
Speaker 1: exact opposite. He went down to the port of Joppa,
Speaker 1: where he found a ship. Can you imagine that God
Speaker 1: had a ship.
Speaker 2: Right here for me? The Lord is in this.
Speaker 1: Who how many times have we blamed the Lord for
Speaker 1: our fleeing and disobeying.
Speaker 2: How easy it is. Look at how easy this.
Speaker 1: There's my ship right there's got my name right on it.
Speaker 1: After paying the fare, and wouldn't you know, in my
Speaker 1: little bag Jonah's little baggy, there was just enough, just
Speaker 1: enough to pay the fare. It was God again, confirmation
Speaker 1: two things. I am supposed to sail to Tarshish. He
Speaker 1: went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Speaker 1: It's God's nature to ask for the biggest, most unprecedented, unreasonable,
Speaker 1: and even suicidal things from you. In fact, he's asking
Speaker 1: you to die to yourself.
Speaker 2: He wants you to do the hardest of hardest. Are
Speaker 2: you kidding me? You want me to forgive that person?
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me? You want me to get up
Speaker 2: early and pray? Are you kidding me? You want me
Speaker 2: to do what? And you have this fight inside of
Speaker 2: you between what? Should you want me to love my wife?
Speaker 2: Right now? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: I died to something. If I'm gonna do what you
Speaker 1: want me to do? Kind of suicidal right now?
Speaker 2: God, I don't know. You're asking me something big.
Speaker 1: God asked Abraham for something big. He said, laid down
Speaker 1: Isaac and sacrifice him on the altar. Abraham said yes,
Speaker 1: because Abraham trusted the character of the one asking.
Speaker 2: He trusted his character.
Speaker 1: God will provide, so.
Speaker 2: There was no butt in Abraham's story. He did it.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So let's keep reading. So verse four we got Jonah running.
Speaker 1: Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea,
Speaker 1: and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened
Speaker 1: to break up. Can I just say to you, people
Speaker 1: of God, with every sin ever, every time you turn
Speaker 1: away from God, every time you run from what he says,
Speaker 1: every time you compromise what he says, there is a
Speaker 1: storm attached to it. You cannot get away from the
Speaker 1: storm attached from running from God. And I will say
Speaker 1: something else, very broad, and it includes me, because I'm
Speaker 1: in this room. Every single one of us are running
Speaker 1: from something from God. Every one of us right now
Speaker 1: in our souls are fighting with a little.
Speaker 2: Sumpthing something that God is saying. I don't like that.
Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna do it my way. Every one
Speaker 2: of us, raise your hand if you know what I'm
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 1: Come on, everyone, see I'm right. Everyone's running from something,
Speaker 1: and every time you take a step away from God's
Speaker 1: calling God's will, God's weighs, God's bar God's thoughts. Every
Speaker 1: time you go I want mine, a storm starts to brew.
Speaker 2: A storm is always attached to that.
Speaker 1: And first of all, the storm will start raging inside
Speaker 1: of your own soul, and it will start fighting you,
Speaker 1: and it'll start just and then what happens.
Speaker 2: Is you act out. Sometimes you'll snap at somebody, or.
Speaker 1: You'll you'll do something, and now you've involved somebody else.
Speaker 2: In your storm. They got hit by.
Speaker 1: All of your storm, and they had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with the storm, but now they're sucked into your storm.
Speaker 1: Sometimes your spouse is stuck, sucked into your.
Speaker 2: Storm, and your spouse cana.
Speaker 1: I didn't have nothing to do with that, and now
Speaker 1: I'm dealing with a storm. Maybe your children are sucked
Speaker 1: into your storm. Maybe the people that's your worker now stuck,
Speaker 1: or maybe you go to work and you're sucked into
Speaker 1: their storm. I didn't do nothing here. Sin and storms
Speaker 1: are connected all the time. You and I happen to
Speaker 1: live in a nation that has had sin within.
Speaker 2: Our leaders.
Speaker 1: Listen, I've never had an abortion, I am not. I
Speaker 1: have not even had a a illistic sexual affair, let
Speaker 1: alone with my same sex.
Speaker 2: I've never done any of that.
Speaker 1: But I am living in a nation that is now
Speaker 1: sucked up into a storm at the sin of the
Speaker 1: citizens in this nation. But I will tell you I
Speaker 1: have my own sins. Ooh, wish I didn't have to
Speaker 1: say that. And even the smallest of turning from him,
Speaker 1: even the smallest little stiff farm, even the smallest cute.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1: Here is sin, and it has a storm attached to it,
Speaker 1: and it is storming and it's causing. So let's finish
Speaker 1: that verse all the sailors, or no, go to verse five,
Speaker 1: all the sailors. So here's here's Jonah. Let's just remember
Speaker 1: where we're at, because I just took a lovely rabbit trail.
Speaker 1: So let's start at verse four. When the Lord sent.
Speaker 1: Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea.
Speaker 1: Oh shoot, three minutes, and such a violent storm arose
Speaker 1: the ship threatened to break up. All of the sailors
Speaker 1: were afraid and tried to and cried out to his
Speaker 1: own God, and they threw the cargo over this into
Speaker 1: the sea to lighten the ship. So what happens here
Speaker 1: is there in the middle of a storm, and the
Speaker 1: sailors know what's going on. They're the ungodly ones, and
Speaker 1: they see that problem is a bruin.
Speaker 2: So what do they do.
Speaker 1: They start praying. When you're in a storm, the storm
Speaker 1: is not sent to destroy you. The storm is not
Speaker 1: sent to punish you. The storm is sent.
Speaker 2: To reclaim me.
Speaker 1: Your storm. The storms that you're in the midst of
Speaker 1: are sent to you so that you will realize you
Speaker 1: are not God. Whether you cause the storm or not,
Speaker 1: you need a God, you need something bigger. It causes
Speaker 1: us to get on our knees and begin to pray.
Speaker 1: The storms that are in your life. You're not to
Speaker 1: avoid them. You are to run towards them. You are
Speaker 1: to let the storm do its full work inside of you.
Speaker 1: Because storms have the have God's love in the midst
Speaker 1: of them. They're sent to reclaim you and anyone else
Speaker 1: you've drug into that storm. So now we have all
Speaker 1: these heathen people up on deck praying their guts out.
Speaker 2: Ah, I need help, we need something bigger than us.
Speaker 1: And they start throwing, they start doing, they start doing
Speaker 1: whatever it takes to keep that ship afloat. They are
Speaker 1: in a massive work party up there. So but where
Speaker 1: is our wonderful, wonderful, godly man.
Speaker 2: But everybody say but once again, that.
Speaker 1: Indicates that the next to the rest of the sentence
Speaker 1: is that they were doing the wrong thing. But Jonah
Speaker 1: had gone below, where he lay down and fell into
Speaker 1: a deep sleep, a deep sleep. Are mighty man of
Speaker 1: God in the midst of the storm, said I'm going
Speaker 1: to take care of me.
Speaker 2: He went down below.
Speaker 1: He found his blanky, he found his pillow, He found
Speaker 1: a nice little warm spot. It kind of reminds me
Speaker 1: of a little mouse, how they make little nests in
Speaker 1: the middle of where they shouldn't be. So he's down
Speaker 1: there and he goes and let me tell you what.
Speaker 1: The ship is tossing back and forth. They're about ready
Speaker 1: to die. It is strange to me that this man
Speaker 1: can sleep. Doesn't that seem a little strange? This was
Speaker 1: a huge question in my mind. Why is he sleeping
Speaker 1: when he's about to die. And the people up top,
Speaker 1: what are they doing. They're praying their guts out, and
Speaker 1: they're working. We got a prayer meeting at a work party.
Speaker 1: And Jonah is downstairs, and every time that ship would
Speaker 1: toss him around, he'd kind.
Speaker 2: Of fluff his pillow up again.
Speaker 1: And just kind of look around, make sure these, and
Speaker 1: pull the blanket up over his head. And he kept
Speaker 1: sleeping until the captain went to him and said.
Speaker 2: How can you sleep?
Speaker 1: That was my question too, So here's my answer. When
Speaker 1: I was a child, my mom would tuck me into bed,
Speaker 1: I would fall fast asleep, and with about an hour
Speaker 1: or so, she would hear my door open, and I
Speaker 1: would get up and walk around the house. We could
Speaker 1: have conversations, we could talk. Sometimes if she didn't catch me,
Speaker 1: i'd run outside. One time I went outside, I was
Speaker 1: stacking wood, I was doing work. I even ran over
Speaker 1: to the neighbor's house and ding dong ditched once. They
Speaker 1: said the next morning, O the strangest thing. And all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm thinking, I kind of remember that
Speaker 1: I was sleep walking and talking.
Speaker 2: So much of the.
Speaker 1: Church might appear awake, but they are sleeping.
Speaker 2: So many of us in.
Speaker 1: Our lives might appear that we are functioning and walking
Speaker 1: and talking and caring and thinking and dreaming. In fact,
Speaker 1: you dream a lot when you're sleeping.
Speaker 2: But we are sleeping.
Speaker 1: And how do we know if we're sleeping or if
Speaker 1: we're actually awake? I will tell you how the determining thing,
Speaker 1: and that is indifference. How much indifference do you have
Speaker 1: in your soul? That ship was sinking, and Jonah did
Speaker 1: not care.
Speaker 2: The heathens up top cared.
Speaker 1: Jonah cared only for his own comfort, fluff the pillows.
Speaker 2: Until he was completely con faced.
Speaker 1: With what are you sleeping for? How are you sleeping?
Speaker 1: There is a storm? How do you know you're sleeping?
Speaker 1: Is when you are indifferent. You're caring about yourself and
Speaker 1: inconsiderate of everyone who is now wrapped up in your storm.
Speaker 1: You're not showing up at the work parties because you're
Speaker 1: busy taking care of yourself. You're not praying, you're not
Speaker 1: coming to the prayer meetings, you're not caring about things.
Speaker 1: You're not confessing, you're not having accountability with other people because.
Speaker 2: You don't care. Jonah didn't care.
Speaker 1: Jonah was a amid all that confusion and noise, Oh
Speaker 1: Christian man, for you to be indifferent to all that
Speaker 1: is going on in such a world as this, for
Speaker 1: you to be negligent of God's work in such a
Speaker 1: time of this, is just as strange. The devil alone
Speaker 1: is making noise enough to awaken all the Jonahs all
Speaker 1: around us. There is tumult and storm, yet some still sleep.
Speaker 1: That was Charles Spurgeon written in the late eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: For us today, Jonah. If Jonah had kept running, he
Speaker 1: would have drowned and all that was in the storm
Speaker 1: with him. We can stay in our sin people and
Speaker 1: take refuge away from God. Keep running from him, keep
Speaker 1: running from what he wants to do and to say,
Speaker 1: and to snatch you from We can keep running or
Speaker 1: but you can't find refuge. Can You cannot find refuge
Speaker 1: outside of God. You can only find refuge in God.
Speaker 2: Verse seven. Then the sailors said to each other, come, let's.
Speaker 1: Cast lots and find out who is responsible for this calamity.
Speaker 2: You can bet.
Speaker 1: Jonah was starting to, you know, get a little nervous.
Speaker 1: They cast lots, and sure enough it fell to Jonah.
Speaker 1: I have a feeling, Jonah, you know it wasn't me.
Speaker 1: If I would have been Jonah to say wasn't me.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Try again.
Speaker 1: I think there was a mistake because he wanted to
Speaker 1: you know, I would want to keep running. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: want to own up to this. But instead, so then
Speaker 1: they asked him, tell us who is responsible for making
Speaker 1: all this trouble for us.
Speaker 2: What did you do? What do you do? Where do
Speaker 2: you come from? What is your country? And what people
Speaker 2: are you?
Speaker 1: They were asking Jonah for his identity.
Speaker 2: They were asking him, who are you? What have you done?
Speaker 2: And I would say to each of you there was
Speaker 2: an undressing.
Speaker 1: Of Jonah, and at that moment, he'd either had to
Speaker 1: come clean with the truth of who he was and
Speaker 1: what he had done, or he could keep pretending like
Speaker 1: everything's fine.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm just a normal old fellow. Just happened to get
Speaker 1: on the ship. I don't know what's going on. No,
Speaker 1: he owned it humbly. He repented. He knew his identity, He.
Speaker 2: Knew who he was.
Speaker 1: I am a Hebrew. I worshiped the Lord, the God
Speaker 1: of heaven, who made the sea in the land. This
Speaker 1: terrified them, and they asked, what have you done? They
Speaker 1: knew he was running away from the Lord because he
Speaker 1: had told them so.
Speaker 2: The sea was getting.
Speaker 1: Rougher and rougher, so they asked him, what should we
Speaker 1: do to you to make the sea calm down for us?
Speaker 1: He said, pick me up and throw me into the
Speaker 1: sea and it will become calm. I know that is
Speaker 1: my fault that this great storm has come unto you
Speaker 1: who's ready to stand up and say I am a sinner,
Speaker 1: I am running from God.
Speaker 2: My heart is good. I've got a.
Speaker 1: Good heart, but I'm a little hard right here, and
Speaker 1: I know it's causing problems for you.
Speaker 2: For me, for this nation, for the church, Big Cea.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, people of God, it's time.
Speaker 1: It's time to undress from all of the fancy posturing
Speaker 1: of perfection that we want to pretend we are.
Speaker 2: I am a sinner, and I have tendencies to do
Speaker 2: things that harm you and harm me. But the blood
Speaker 2: of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, is our answer.
Speaker 1: Instead, the men did their best to row back to land,
Speaker 1: but they could not, for the sea grew even wilder
Speaker 1: than before, if.
Speaker 2: That could even possibly be.
Speaker 1: Then they cried to the Lord, Lord, please do not
Speaker 1: hoid let us die for taking this man's life. Do
Speaker 1: not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man. For
Speaker 1: you a lord, you a lord, have done as you please.
Speaker 1: In other words, Jesus, I don't know who you are.
Speaker 1: Or maybe they just said God, I pray he was right.
Speaker 1: They took Jonah and threw him overboard and the raging
Speaker 1: sea grew calm. At this, the men greatly feared the
Speaker 1: Lord and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made.
Speaker 2: Vows to him.
Speaker 1: The moment we as the church stand up and humbly
Speaker 1: admit our sins, humbly admit you and your family, When
Speaker 1: you humbly admit your sins, you and your own soul,
Speaker 1: when you humbly say, inside of your soul, Oh Father God,
Speaker 1: I will not run from you, I will not be
Speaker 1: in rebellion. I will embrace you every moment, every place,
Speaker 1: every opportunity.
Speaker 2: If we stand up and receive it.
Speaker 1: And humbly admit and humbly take a posture that says
Speaker 1: you're right, it's me.
Speaker 2: I need to repent.
Speaker 1: What you're doing is you're throwing yourself into the storm.
Speaker 2: You're not running from it.
Speaker 1: You're saying, I will become a part of what will
Speaker 1: fix this mess.
Speaker 2: Then they took.
Speaker 1: Jonah and through and the seagrew calm. At this the
Speaker 1: great the men greatly feared. When we take our place,
Speaker 1: salvation abounds. Verse seventeen starts with another word, but but
Speaker 1: the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and
Speaker 1: Jonah was in inside that fish. For three days and
Speaker 1: three nights. It was suicidal, unprecedented, and unreasonable to throw
Speaker 1: Jonah into that storm. It was unprecedented, suicidal, and unreasonable
Speaker 1: for Jonah to say, throw me overboard.
Speaker 2: It was me.
Speaker 1: But when he yielded to humility, let the Lord take
Speaker 1: his heart, take everything that he was, admit it, throw
Speaker 1: himself into the trouble, into the storm. It calmed it.
Speaker 1: It put Jonah into the storm. I will say there
Speaker 1: was another that threw himself into the storm of sin,
Speaker 1: of unrighteousness, of injustice, of every storm that every man,
Speaker 1: woman and child has created within their own souls and
Speaker 1: within their own sins. Jesus Christ threw himself right into
Speaker 1: that raging storm.
Speaker 2: And he was in the belly of.
Speaker 1: The tomb for three days. And I will say to
Speaker 1: you people of God, that when you turn and you
Speaker 1: face your storms, when you admit to your storms, and
Speaker 1: you throw yourself into it through repentance and through everything,
Speaker 1: and say no, no, I'm gonna quit running, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: quit fighting, I'm gonna this is my problem. I'll quit blaming,
Speaker 1: I quit all that, this is my problem, there will
Speaker 1: be one in that wave to meet you, and he's
Speaker 1: filled with love and strength and courage and hope. And
Speaker 1: when the people of God become ones that end all excuses,
Speaker 1: end all of that, and we throw ourselves into the
Speaker 1: storms of this life, the storms that I've created, and
Speaker 1: the storms that you created, and the storms that everyone.
Speaker 1: When I throw myself in, begin to not be indifferent
Speaker 1: any longer, but in to engage, to show up at
Speaker 1: the work party, to show up at work and share
Speaker 1: the word of God, and to do the things I
Speaker 1: have in my hand to do, and then to come
Speaker 1: to my place of prayer and not miss my own
Speaker 1: personal prayer meeting with the Lord.
Speaker 2: Every day we will see the raging storms.
Speaker 3: Came awaken, Church, Awaken, How can you sleep?
Speaker 2: How can I sleep? Awaken? Awaken to the storms of
Speaker 2: your own personal sins?
Speaker 1: Awaken, Awake and awaken, awaken and quit running, Quit pretending, boy.
Speaker 2: Can throw yourself under the storm. Jesus is there, Amen,