Obeying God's commands is essential for spiritual growth and avoiding negative consequences, as demonstrated by Jonah's story where his disobedience led to a storm and being swallowed by a fish, but God's grace provided him a second chance to fulfill his mission.
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Well, good evening and God bless you guys.
Looks like you can't see me there, so let me Okay, there we go. A lot of technical difficulties on this evening. I apologize to you all. Um, we uh man ran into a lot of issues today, but praise the Lord. Um hopefully you can hear me and uh we are good to go. Um want to thank you guys for joining us on this evening. Uh God bless you on this Salt Tuesday and uh praying for each and every one of you. Listen, I'm not going to waste any more time because we are a little bit behind schedule with some of the difficulties that we um initially uh encountered. But I'm coming to you live from Jerusalem as you can see. No, just playing. Sometimes you got to laugh, right? So, y'all laugh. It's good for the soul. Um, but I'm going to jump right into just a few announcements that I have that'll get us going um and start us off before we get into our lesson.
So, first things first, um, this coming Sunday, that's May 17th, we have our lupus and cystic fibrosis awareness week. All righty. So, we will be in our purple. So come in representation um if either of these causes may be close to home or something that you are impacted by or know someone that you love um that may be impacted or has been impacted by um either of these um illnesses. We want to be in representation as we have some in the house that are um will be representing and will be giving us a little bit of information and awareness in regards to both causes. Um but we want to celebrate in purple. It is a casual Sunday so um most of us will be in t-shirts and things like that, but come in your purple um if you don't have one of these represented causes, but we want you to be in purple just to represent in the house. And uh it's the day that we are going to celebrate, acknowledge, and become more aware and educated on that. So that's this coming Sunday. That's May 17th, this Salt Sunday, um 10:00 a.m. in our normal location, 333 North Rancho Drive, 89106.
So hoping to see you guys there on this coming Sunday. And then on May 24th, which will be the next Sunday, which is also Pentecost Sunday, um not only will we be um celebrating uh Pentecost in which God sent his Holy Spirit um to dwell amongst us and within us, but we're also going to acknowledge teacher appreciation week. So, we are embarking upon the end of the 2026 school year.
And so, we want to um acknowledge and celebrate all of our educators that are in the room. Um and so we will find a portion of our service to do so. And so we want you to be there on that Sunday.
That is May 24th. So not this coming Sunday, but the Sunday after uh we will have teacher appreciation week. And then at the end of the month on May 31st, we made a shift um tonight. We were going to have our 2026 grad night, but we actually shifted that to a Sunday morning. So, this is going to take place on Salt Sunday, May 31st, um, at the end of the month, uh, before we get out of the month of May. This is graduation month for many. And so, we want to acknowledge all of our 2026 graduates.
And so, if you are a preschool, kinder, sixth grade, eighth grade promotion, 12th grade, if you are getting a degree, whether that's an associates, a master's, a um, all of them. All right, anybody certification if you're graduating, we want to acknowledge you.
And so in order to do so and to be involved, you do have to visit salturch.org.
That's www.saltchurchlv.org.
And this is for our family members. So hey, if you're part of Salt Church, that's who we're talking to. So unfortunately, it's not just for anybody that's watching. I know y'all watching from all over and you like, "Hey, we get to get celebrated. You going to get celebrated at your graduation." But this is for our Salt family. So, if you're part of the Saul family and you desire to be a part of um the celebration, we need you to fill that out by May 20th.
Okay? May 20th is a hard cut deadline.
If we don't get your form completed by May 20th because there's some information we need from you, um then you won't unfortunately be a part of that. But we do celebrate all of the graduates. So, that's May 31st. All righty. And then lastly, but certainly not least, we want to give you an opportunity to give. Thank you so so much to all of you who partner with us through generosity. Um we are excited when we have an opportunity to give because we look at it as an opportunity.
It is not um a debt that we owe, but it's a seed that we sew. We sew into the soil of the ministry work of Salt Church International in which God has called us to where we retrieve the lost, encourage the found, and equip the called. And so we want to invite you um to partake of this opportunity to worship the Lord in giving. And there are a few ways in which you can do that. and I'll give that to you again before the night is over. But you can do that through our secure platform titly. Also, you can text the word give. This is the easiest for all of you techies out there. Text the word give to 8447532023.
So, go ahead, take a screenshot of that um and get that information. in for those of you that may want to mail your gifts in. So, um, there are some who do that on a monthly basis, as a matter of fact, and we say thank you to all of you who do that and partner with us, but you can send that over to PO Box 36804, Las Vegas, Nevada 89133.
So, thank you so much for all of you that have give. Uh, we will pray over all of our gifts in the end there and and, uh, also give you another opportunity to see that for those that'll be joining us after. I'm looking at the chat and it's already 32 of you in there. So, God bless you guys. Go ahead and share this. Do me a favor, too, to our tech team. Send this link over to our Facebook page and make sure that that information is shared so that those individuals can link in and join us. Um, but we're going to jump into our lesson on this evening. All righty. So, I want to talk to us this evening about something that um although it is very important, it is not always popular.
Now, you might say, "Well, why isn't it popular, Pastor B?" I would say that it's not popular because we just don't get a kick out of doing it. And you saying, well, what is that? What I'm saying is that we have to obey God. It is vitally important that we obey God, people. Okay? As Christian believers, as disciples of Christ and followers of the way, it is our incumbent responsibility as Romans chapter 12 tells us that we are not to conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds and that we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. For that is our reasonable service. We are called to obey God. He says, "If you love me, you will follow my commandments." And so, I just want to encourage us on this evening to obey God. And I'm going to use a very, very popular biblical story in order to do so. And it's one that you have heard of it before if you are an avid Bible reader or if you just had Sunday school or Sunshine Band as a child. You will have come across this story at some point. Um, it is the story of Jonah. All righty. And so it is a story that I believe we can dig into and we can pull some uh value out of it, some nuggets that I think will be helpful to us. I don't plan to take up a bunch of time on this evening. Um I I I want to definitely be done um sooner than later. Um but I don't want to rush this time because I believe that God wants to speak some things to us right through his word. And um also we want to leave some time at the end for questions. So, if you have questions, I'm going to ask that you would put those questions in the chat. Um, I will go through scroll the chat at the end.
Um, and also we will uh take questions right at the end there as well. But we're going to use the chat in order to do that. So, you're going to have to put your questions into the chat. Um, that is the place where we will find it.
Unfortunately, if you are on the Facebook side, well, if you're on Facebook, you'll have to link in to YouTube anyway. Um, but that is how we're going to see your questions on this evening. So, if you put them in at any time, I'll go back and I'll find them. Um, or at the end there, we will leave some space and time for you to ask your questions. And just so you are aware, we do have administrators that are watching our comment chat, okay? And so, if you are acting up in the chat, if you're putting things in there, if you're trolling, you're doing things you shouldn't be doing, you will get removed from the chat. All righty. Um, so please, please, please make sure that you are not doing that, that we're being respectful and that we are um, digging in. All right? If you're here, get something out of it. As I always say, treat every moment like it owes you something. This moment owes you something. And I believe God wants to speak to us. So, with that being said, let's go into a word of prayer and then we will jump right into the lesson.
Father, we thank you for this time, God.
We thank you for the opportunity to dig into your word. We thank you Lord that your word speaks to us and it gives us clear instructions that we are to obey you God. Help us give us the strength.
Give us Lord uh the wherewithal God and the heart posture that seeks to please you in everything that we do say and think. I pray Lord that through your word on this evening that we would be changed. I pray that it would challenge us, that it would rebuke us, that it would encourage us, that it would do everything that you set it forth to do and not return unto you void. Have your way during this time, God. Now use me as your vessel. Father, I surrender myself to this moment and I surrender myself to the power of your Holy Spirit to speak through me. Word my mouth, God. Let every word of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. And we all typed amen. Go ahead and type amen. And we will go ahead and get started. All righty. So, we're starting right in Jonah chapter 1 um verses 1-4.
I will be reading. You'll see it there.
I believe this is the NIV uh version. So if you're taking notes, which you should be, um these notes will also uh be a reference point in which you can go back and revisit. Um and I'll also be giving you some takeaways. So there'll be a segment of scripture, then I'll give you a takeaway, and then we'll go from section to section and prayerfully get these lessons out of this story concerning a man by the name of Jonah.
All righty. So let's enter in Jonah chapter 1, starting at verse one. It says, "The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amati."
The word from God said, "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me." All righty. I'm going to stop right there. Before I go any further, just in the first two verses, I want you to understand that this instruction came first directly from God. It is important that we recognize that because often times what we don't understand is that there are a lot of instructions that are coming from a lot of places and we have a tendency to kind of be swayed all over the place, right?
There are a lot of voices, there are a lot of things that are happening that are being said and all of those things uh can can all affect us, right? Um it it's just a matter of where the influence is coming from that you would give your attention to. So, it's important to know that the word of the Lord came to Jonah. This wasn't just some good advice. This was God's instruction to him. And he gives him a hard word. Now, I need you to understand that everything that God says to us is not always going to be good. Okay? Uh everything that the Lord u puts upon our heart is not always going to be uh quote unquote encouraging. A lot of times we go looking for an encouraging word.
oftentimes we won't go to church unless we're looking for God to give us some encouragement, right? I I want to be encouraged. I want to be moved and and we come looking for them to sing a certain song to to give a specific word.
And if we don't get the feeling that we want, then we're turned off by it. I need you to understand that that God speaks to us and everything that he says to us is not always comforting in the moment because he is a good good father and he also chastises those he loves.
And so there are some times where God will give us instruction that is not always popular, nor is it something that you will be excited about. Okay, so real quick, um let's let's just talk about this for a moment. Jonah was uh someone that God intended to use. Okay? Uh Jonah was someone that was chosen by God. I need you to understand that all of us have a specific purpose that God desires to use us for. Okay? He calls us to certain things. He places certain gifts inside of us and uh he has a specific plan for our lives. In this case, he had a mission and a goal and a call and purpose for Jonah. Uh and it wasn't something that Jonah was specifically excited about. Um and so let's look at verse two uh really quick. Give me one second. Just wanted to give some instructions. All righty. So in verse two, it says, "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because it wickedness has come up before me." All right. So, so God gives him a tough word. He He not only gives him a tough word, but he calls for him to do something that is rather tough. Okay. Um he's called to be the mouthpiece for God. We know this as the gift or the five-fold ministry call of prophecy.
Often times, God will give those that he chooses as what is referred to as a seer. And those individuals will be called to uh give a word from the mouth of God. Okay. So with that being said, uh he calls him to give instructions to a place that has caught God's attention.
Uh the Bible says that their wickedness has come up before him. In other words, the things that they have been doing or not doing because you do understand that there are sins of omission and commission. We've talked about that before. There are certain things that can cause us to fall into sin if we do things that we should not do according to God's word. In addition to that, we also find oursel falling into sin when there are things that we should do that we do not do. Okay? So, I need you to hear that again. There are sins of commission, things that you do that you should not do, and sins of omission, which are things that you should do that you don't do. And so in this case, God calls for uh Jonah to go and to give a hard word to the place of Nineveh. Now, I want to say this too because often times we just equate the gift of prophecy or someone that operates in the prophetic to those who just come to give us good news. They tell us about uh the blessing that's on the way or they tell us that in uh 3 days or or in 24 hours you're going to get a call or all of these things are going to happen. you're going to get the house or you're going to get the car. A and we go looking for God to just be Santa Claus in our lives.
And we're looking for those that he uses to just give us a good word. Can I tell you that there are times where God will use his voice uh through those in which he chooses to use in order to bring correction. It's important. As a matter of fact, if every word that's coming to you is a positive word that's just talking about blessing, I would wonder if that is specifically from God.
Because again, God tells us that he chastises those he loves. That he corrects us, that he rebukes us. That is what the word comes to do. Not only does the word come to encourage us, but the word also comes to correct us, to rebuke us, or to bring harsh correction when we are in error. And this is what God is desiring to do through Jonah. He says, "I need you to go to this place called Nineveh because their evilness or wickedness has come up before me and I need them to know that I'm giving them an opportunity to change their way."
Okay, somebody needs to praise God right there because God in his love and care for us, he will correct us, giving us an opportunity to get it right. See, I if he were not a loving God, he would let you just go the way towards destruction until you reach that destruction and you find yourself past the place of no return. But what he does in this case is he says, "Hey, I'm going to give them an opportunity to get it right." All right, so let's keep going. Verse three says, "Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed to Tarses.
He went down to a place called Japa where he found a ship that was bound for a port." Okay. So, uh, let me just finish reading the verse. All right. I'm getting excited. It says, "After paying the fair, he went aboard and sailed for Tarsus to flee from the Lord." All righty. So, you see that I titled this the escape. Okay? Uh, there are many of us who are running from God. Let's just be honest. God has given us instructions and instead of us doing what we should do, we find ourselves actually running away from God. We're not listening or heeding to his instructions, but instead we just chase after our own desires and and we're walking in the flesh rather than the spirit. The spirit of God leads us into all truth. The spirit of God tells us what we should do in accordance with what the word of God prescribes for our lives. And often times we will grieve the Holy Spirit not doing what he tells us to do and we run in the exact opposite direction. Now, I I I want us to understand something. Um Jonah is much like many of us, right? We're not going to give Jonah a hard time because we we we read sometimes and and we don't insert ourselves. What we do is we just make it the problem of the individual that we're reading about. Oh, they're so hard-headed. Those stiff necked Israelites, right? We talk about all of the people in the scriptures who who who made all of these mistakes, but what we don't recognize is ourselves. In the text, the Bible says that instead of doing what he was told to do, he actually ran away from the Lord first and he headed towards Tarses. Now, I need you to understand the Bible tells us that we cannot hide from God. That you can go to the depths of hell. That you can go there is no place that you can hide from him. that at all times we are exposed to him and that there is nothing that we can do to actually get away from the eye of God that is always watching everything that we do. And so I don't say that to scare you. I say that so that you can understand that that can be a good thing as well because God always sees. And when God sees, he has the ability to cover us when we surrender and submit ourselves to his will and we are obedient to what he calls us to do. I often talk about the idea of us walking in covenant with God.
A covenant relationship is an agreement.
And when we come under uh relationship with him, when we surrender and submit ourselves to God, the Bible says that God then comes into covenant relationship with us. He then covers us.
He protects us. He provides for us. And anytime we choose to run away from him, what we do is we uh put ourselves in danger as escaping away from that covering or that covenant. Now, I hear what you're saying. Well, you know, there's nothing that can happen. You can't get, you know, out of God's covering. And once you're saved, you're always saved. And and and and I'm with you, right? The Bible says that no one can pluck us out of his hand. But you better believe that that if you choose to willfully be disobedient, you put yourself in harm's way because no longer is he removing himself from you, but you are removing yourself from him. Yeah.
The Bible says that he went down to Japa and he found a ship that was bound for that port. Meaning that ship was prepared to set sail. All right. I don't know if he knew where the ship was going, but he decided any place is better than going to Nineveh. All right?
And so he gets on this boat in a place called uh Japa and um it's headed towards a place called Tarses. It says he pays the fair and he went aboard and sailed for Tarsus to flee from the Lord.
So his sole intent is to get away from God. Now I know in your mind you don't think that you disobeying and not doing what God asked you to do is you actually fleeing and getting away from him. But that is your intent when we willfully do the opposite of what God asked us to do.
and and and let's compare this, right?
Cuz right now, I know in your mind you're saying, "Well, God hasn't asked me to go anywhere and say anything, you know, like that. He hasn't asked me to to to to go to a particular place. He hasn't called me to a mission field."
Uh, but there are sometimes where God just tells you to just give him a yes.
There are sometimes where God tells you to just minister to a person. And what you don't understand is that you being obedient in that moment can be the very thing that that person needs in order to feel the encouragement that they've been seeking and that they've been without.
Yeah. Sometimes people are on their last leg and they're saying, "God, I need a sign from you." And you could be that person's sign if you would be bold and obedient to do what God has called you to do. The Bible says he pays a fair.
This is interesting to me, an interesting point. You guys have heard me talk about this before. or if you've heard me minister on this particular passage, and I'm careful at times when we open up these familiar passages, people just automatically shut you off because they think that, oh man, I've heard this before, but no, no, no, no. I want you to to really really posture your heart to to allow God to to give to you tonight what what can be fresh and what can be new in the season that you're in. The Bible says he pays the fair. Now, he is going away from where God is telling him to go. And the interesting thing is that he has to pay a wage in order to go uh away from God's will. Now, the Bible clearly tells us that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. All right, somebody find that address. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Go ahead and put that in the chat for the people that are there because I want that to be a scripture. I'm I'm not I'm not pulling up the the the the address in my head right now, but but anybody knows anything about a wage, you know that a wage is a payment, right?
This is an exchange. This is um something that you receive in exchange for something that you do. So So it's saying that the wage or the payment for your sin is death. All of us are deserving of death based upon the sin that we come into this world committing.
The Bible tells us that we are born into sin and shapen in iniquity. Meaning that our natural tendency or lean as human beings when we come into this earth is that we are sinful by nature. And so that naughty by nature that that that that causes us to be the way that we are, that is because we are born into sin. And what we deserve because of that sin is death. But because God sent Jesus, we don't have to embrace that.
But what we get in exchange is the free gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord if we accept him if we give our lives to him, repent and uh accept him into our hearts. Okay. So with that being said, it says that he pays a fair. Okay, he pays a wage to follow away from where God is telling him to go. He went aboard. He sailed for Tarsus to flee from the Lord. It says, "Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up." So, let's paint this picture real quick. God comes to Jonah. He gives him instruction. He says, "Hey, this is what I need you to go do. Go give this hard word to these people because they've been disobedient. And I need them to understand that now is the time to turn away from their sinful ways to repent while they still have an opportunity."
And instead of going to do what God tells him to do, the Bible says Jonah runs away from God. He pays a wage to go away from what God is telling him to do.
And it says that he gets on a ship which is set sail for a place called Tarsus.
When he gets on this ship, the Bible says a great wind comes on the sea and this a violent storm breaks out and the ship starts to break up. All right. Now, here's the first takeaway. Running from God will always lead you to danger.
Running from God will always lead you to danger. I I talked about it earlier, right? We are under a covenant of protection with God when we follow his statutes, when we do what God tells us to do. Now, ah, I'm glad. Thank you, Holy Ghost. Before I move forward, I don't want you to hear what I'm not saying. Right? Because for some of you, what you'll say is, "Well, that's not right." Right? We come into a relationship with him, but the only way that we get the protection that he offers us is if we do what he says we're going to do, which means we have to be perfect. I don't want you to hear that.
That is not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that when we willfully continue in a condition of sin that he has sent his son Jesus to free us from, we place ourselves in danger. You place yourself in the line of fire and danger is available to you when you run away from God. So the best thing for us to do is to come near to God. As James says says, come near to God and he will come near to you. All right? The the only way that we can um stay under the protection of God is when we stay close in relationship in our walk with him. But running from God will always lead you to danger because what you do is you remove yourself out of that covering, right? A covenant is a covering. I always say it's like an umbrella. Okay? If you're under an umbrella, that umbrella protects you from all of the u you know the elements that are outside. I went to my son's track meet um the other day and I I I mean I tell you I am still like my skin is just burned because I didn't have any covering. I had a hat, but it was in the car. They had a tent and umbrella, but I chose to come out from under the umbrella and the tent to get a little closer to the action. But what I was doing was I was completely exposed to the sun in that entire time. And it was just baking me away. All right. Gave me sunburn. And so again, my choice to come out from underneath the covering, right, or to say, "Hey, I I'll just go out here for a little while." It exposed me to the elements and because of that I place myself in danger. So I need you to understand when you run away from what God is telling you to do, it will always lead you to danger. Right? I I I can't promise what's going to happen or what's not going to happen. All I can tell you is that you are exposing yourself to the elements when you come out from under his covering. And his covering is in his his word. Whatever God tells us to do, there's protection in what he tells us to do. You can be certain of few things, but you can be certain 100% that when you follow what God tells you to do, you can be protected. I'm not saying it means that everything's going to be easy. Somebody say, "Amen." Because following God can can walk you into some tough situations. You will still be challenged. The Bible tells us that Jesus was doing the will of the father and yet the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Okay? So there are times where we will be tested and and God will allow certain things to to to come our way. But but what you can be certain of is that you're still protected. Even when you consider Job, right? The Bible says that that that the conversation between God and Satan, God tells him, he says, "Have you considered my servant Job?" And and and the devil says, "Yeah, I've considered him, but but there's a hedge around him. There's protection around him. I've tried to get in and I can only get so far. And God says, "Listen, I'm going to remove the hedge and I'll let you touch him, but you can only go so far." This is what I need you to understand is that no matter what comes your way, God will place a protection around you and it can only go so far.
Whatever God allows is only what it will uh have the uh the freedom to to to to embark upon. Other than that, God says, "I'm going to protect you." And so you can be certain that when you stay in his will, there's protection in that. All right, let's go to verse 7 and 8. All right, so there's some things that happen along the way. He gets on this boat. Um, you know, this storm comes on and all of the craziness is going on.
Everybody is impacted and affected by this because they are no longer under the covering. Jonah removes himself from God's covering and so now he's now in danger. Okay. The Bible says in verse 7, "Then the sailors said to each other, come let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity. They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah." So what they say is, um, we got to figure out what's going on. Somebody on here is living foul cuz all of a sudden this storm just came out of nowhere and is threatening to take us all out. And it says that they cast locked, which was a familiar and normal way of them figuring out God's will. Okay? It was a way in which they would uh petition God in order to kind of find out uh what was going on. Bible says that they cast lots and they find out who's responsible for the calamity and it fell on Jonah. All right? So, he's uncovered. So, not only has he uncovered himself, but God now allows him to be uncovered and he's the object of ridicule. Everybody knows like, "Hey, you're the reason why we're going through this." And it says they ask him, "Who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from?
What is your country from? What people are you? They're asking this dude, who are you? What what's the deal with you?
Where did you come from? And why are you on this boat with us? We had a mission.
We had somewhere that we were going, but you got on here and you made things worse for us. All right. So, you might wonder, what are you getting at, Pastor V? Uh, first off, you uncovered yourself and then God allows you to be uncovered.
Now, I want you to get this takeaway.
You can run from God, but you can't outrun God.
You can run from him, but I can promise you, he's always going to catch up with you. You're never going to outrun God.
He's trying to get away from God. His intent and his purpose for getting on this boat is so that he can get as far away from doing what God told him to do.
So, I guess in his mind, he thinks if I go the other direction, then I'll be out of the way of what God tells me to do.
Listen, when God places purpose on your life and God desires of you to do a thing, um that thing ain't going nowhere. Okay? If if that's what you're called to do, that's what you're called to do. And and and here's the thing that that I I really have to remind us of because often times part of the reason why we run or why we uh go away from what God is telling us to do is because it's uncomfortable. Let's just be honest, it's uncomfortable. I don't want to do what God is telling me to do. And and there are a number of reasons, right? Um because there is pressure that comes with the weight of the responsibility of what God calls us to.
Yeah. Anytime you're called to be an example, there's a responsibility that comes with that. If if if I'm not called to be an example, then I can do whatever I want to do and I'm not hindering anybody but myself, right? But the minute I take on the responsibility of leading, I am now responsible not only for me but also for the individuals in which I have influence over. So, so in this case, he is now responsible for everybody that's on that boat. He gets on that boat and everybody's going through the same mess that he's going through and it's because of him. And so, he's trying to outrun God, but but what he realizes very quickly is that he cannot outrun God. You can run away, but but God is still going to hold you accountable. I I realized something recently. Um and and I think this is just human nature, right? Often times the way we think is that, hey, if I'm going through a lot of stuff, then I get a pass. Um I I don't have to, you know, I can take a break or I don't have to live up to the responsibility that I'm called to. But I beg to differ because one of the things that I've learned is that it doesn't matter what I'm going through that the work still remains. God still calls us to show up. He still calls us to be impactful in the lives of other people. It doesn't matter what you're going through on a personal level, right? Because sometimes we can uh conflate what we're going through and then we push that off on everything and everyone else and we think that gives us a pass. Well, you know, I get to take a break. I I wish I could say that, y'all.
I wish I could say, "I'm tired. Um, you know, I got a lot going on. Um, there's a lot of things that I need to tend to, and so I need to kind of take a break away." We don't get to take a break away because the responsibility still remains. There are still those that are out there that are lost. There are still those that are out there that are hurting. And every minute that we uh put the attention on ourselves and we take it off of the mission and the call and the purpose in which God has called us to uh what we do is that we are hindering other people. Okay. What what he didn't think about is that there was a people that were dying in this place called Nineveh and God needed him to go there and to give them to sound the alarm. God needed him to go there and to be the voice of reason to be the one that would uh awaken them and get their attention before it was too late. And yet he looked at himself. This is not something I want to do. And uh this is uncomfortable. Who wants to be the one to give the bad news? But it was even deeper than this because if you read this, you'll find out that part of his reason for not wanting to go there was because he knew the nature of God. Jonah understood that God was a gracious, a kind, and a merciful God. And if he was given instructions to go in to warn them, what God's intent was was to give them an opportunity to turn from their wicked ways so that he can extend grace.
This made Jonah upset cuz he didn't feel like they deserve grace.
I'mma stop for a moment cuz how many of us are playing that role, right? We we don't think certain people deserve certain things. Hey, they've made too many mistakes. Hey, hey, hey, they they don't acknowledge you, God. So, they don't deserve your goodness. But who are we to say that? Because all of us fell short of the glory of God. All of us fall short of the glory of God. All of our sins are as filthy rags. So, none of us are any better than anybody else. So, the same way he came and he rescued us and freed us from our sin when we were yet sinners, he died for us. Why is it not okay when God wants to extend that grace to someone else? So, we get to see Jonah's heart on display in this particular story. All right, let's keep reading. Bible says in verses 11 through 16, it says, "The sea was getting rougher and rougher." So, they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"
Jonah says, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. It will become calm. I know that this is my fault that this great storm has come upon you. Instead, the men did their best to row back to land, but they could not for the sea grew even wilder than before. Listen, I want you to think about something because uh Jonah at some point he's going to get thrown out. Okay? Because they realize he's the problem. Now, now here's what I like because this this shows the heart of people. We think that all people are evil and everybody has bad intentions.
The Bible says instead of just throwing him overboard, the men did their best to row the land. They're doing their best to just try to get everybody safely to land versus us throw him over into the wild sea, which could lead ultimately to his demise. See, some people have a heart where they they just want to try to make it work. And unfortunately, we put people in that position trying to make it work when we are just living outside of u the will of God. When if we would just do what God desires us to do.
Let's just be honest. This happens in family life every day. Someone in the home is not living the life that God has called them to live. And everybody's being impacted by it. And everybody's just doing their best to just make it work when when at the end of the day, this is not even what we're called to do. We're called to walk in obedience to God. And when we walk in obedience to God, there is safety there. And and sometimes there are some of us that that stand outside of the will of God. And yet we make it hard on everyone around us, including ourselves. The Bible says that they go to him and they like, "What what are we supposed to do?" Like, "What are we supposed to do?" Jonah says, "Just throw me overboard." He goes, "That'll solve your problem." At this point, he realizes he's in the wrong and and he's actually his heart is actually becoming softer to the idea of him not being everybody else's problem. And the Bible says that he says that I know it's my fault. Go ahead and throw me overboard. And the men did their best to roll back to land. And as hard as they tried, they couldn't. It says the sea grew wilder than before. So the problem doesn't get any better. It just continues to get worse. which is what we find sometimes when we remain in a life of sin that that we think that okay it it'll get better right if I just try a little harder no what we need to do is we need to be obedient the title of this again was what obey God if we obey God we can rid ourselves of some of the trouble that comes from disobeying him all right let's keep going so in verse 14 it says that they cry out to the Lord finally right because they don't want to throw him overboard. They're trying their best to figure out another way to deal with this issue. And so they cry out to God and they say, "Please, Lord, don't let us die from taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man. For you, Lord, have done as you please." They're like, "God, we realize everything that's happening is because you causing it to happen. And you know, obviously this is what's supposed to happen, but at the end of the day, we're trying to get back in your good graces. we we don't want to deal with the calamity that's coming because of what he chose to do. And and at this point, they are they're they're submitting to the idea of throwing him overboard cuz they realize this is what's going to save us all. Verse 15 says, "Then they took Jonah and they threw him overboard and the raging sea grew calm." So sure enough, Jonah was the reason for the mess. And sure enough, when they threw him out, the Bible says that the sea grew calm. At this, the men greatly feared the Lord and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. They recognized God's power in this moment. They realized that first off, God's not playing. And secondly, God means what he says. God wanted him to do something that he wasn't willing to do. And because he was willing to be disobedient, he placed himself in danger, which led to him being called out. And now he's uncovered. and now he's thrown out. Okay, let's go to this key point. Your disobedience endangers more than just yourself. Okay, I need you to know that um I've said that in the time that we've spent thus far. I've talked about it how it can impact a family. Um it impacts generations. Your children struggle because of struggles that you are unwilling to fight against.
when we're unwilling to be obedient to God. These are some generational things that sometimes get passed down. Uh when we uh will submit ourselves to uh fleshly things and we won't allow ourselves to to to live a life of self-discipline which is a fruit of the spirit. When we won't operate in self-control, then what we do is that we make that available to our children because they begin to see that that is a life that is available to live as opposed to one that is surrendered and submitted to God. Uh the best thing you can do for your kids is to obey God even in the hard times. When your kids can see you go through rough moments and still praise God, um you're doing them the greatest service that you can do for them as opposed to you doing the disservice of showing them that, hey, I can try to fix this on my own, which is what Jonah tries to do in this situation. He tries to fix this situation by first running away from God and saying, hey, I'll just avoid what he's telling me to do. And then secondly, he tries to then fix the situation by just saying, "Hey, just just throw me overboard." Now, we understand that that brings peace to the circumstance, but it doesn't fix the underlying problem, which is his disobedient heart. Okay? So, let's keep reading. All right. Now, we'll we'll read from verse 17 um in chapter 1, which is the last verse, I believe, in that chapter, and then we'll we'll cross over into chapter 2, and read the first two verses there. Okay? So, so something takes place when he's outside of this boat. It says, "Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." Uh, interestingly enough, uh, this this this it it it blows my mind a little bit of how detailed God can be, right? Because what God does is he allows, okay, let me say that. allows a huge fish to just so happen to be in the vicinity of where he gets thrown off of the boat. Okay? And it says that this huge fish swallows Jonah. This huge fish swallows him. It doesn't say it kills him. It doesn't say it eats him up. It says it swallows him.
Which means that while he is um now in the belly of this fish uh this huge fish which many refer to as a whale because they're trying to think like what fish is large enough um to fit a human being inside and and you know they could still live. It says that he's in a huge uh the belly of this huge fish and the belly of this fish for three days and three nights. Okay, so now we're crossing over into chapter 2. It says from inside the fish. All right. So, this section is entitled from the belly because it's in the midst of the belly or the inside of our problems where God gets to our heart. Often times when we are going through the worst moments in our lives, this is when God gets our greatest attention. Okay? For some of us, as long as things are going good, God will never get our attention. It's only when we're going through the rough moments, right?
and from the belly or inside of the fish or inside of the midst of our troubles when God will get our attention. The Bible says, "Inside of the fish, Jonah prays to the Lord his God." He says, "In my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help and you listened to my cry." It's interesting how spiritual he gets all of a sudden, right? Uh because before he didn't want to have nothing to do with what God was telling him to do, but now all of a sudden it says that that that he calls for help and God is hearing his cry.
Okay, here here's the takeaway before we go further. The fish wasn't to pay Jonah back. The fish was to win him back.
I'll say that again. The fish wasn't to pay Jonah back. It was to win him back.
There's sometimes when we go through things in our lives and we think that God is punishing us. You know, God's punishing me. He's punishing me for for the decisions I've made or for what I've done. And you know, and it's not that God is punishing us, but there are consequences to the decisions that we make. Again, when we decide to walk away from God, when we decide to disobey God, to run away from God, like Jonah, there are consequences that are attached to the decisions that we make outside of the covering of God. And and God's not trying to get you back. You know what God's trying to do? He's trying to win you back because he could have killed him. He could have allowed him to die in the midst of all of those issues. He could have allowed him to die in the midst of the decisions that he made. But the Bible says that God was gracious and kind to him even through that. And it says that he has this large fish to come and to swallow him to give him some time to think about what he's done. Yeah. He he he he wants to uh provide space for him to think about the decision that he's made. Um, I've heard the testimony of individuals um that have been locked up, right, have gone to prison or have been incarcerated for a period of time.
And what they say is that there's there's so much time to think and it can be dangerous, right? Because it's it's silent and it's isolated and it's lonely moments. But for some who desire change and want to be in a better situation, what ends up happening is that these individuals, they utilize this time in order to think about the decisions that they've made. God provides space for Jonah to think about the decisions that he's made. He He provides trouble in order for Jonah to realize who he needs to go to in his moments of trouble. The Bible says that God is a very present help in the time of trouble. I love that and I hate it, right? Because it means that the greatest moments of presence of God is going to come in our toughest moments of trouble. So, so, so it's not necessarily the way that I want to encounter God, but what I can be certain of is that he is a great help, a very present help. It means that he's on time, that he's there in the midst of your trouble. Okay? So, so again, I'll say this. For some of us, we need trouble or we won't even seek God.
Trouble keeps us on our knees. For some of us, the minute things start going good for some of us, it's like we just forget about God and and and and just go about our way. You know, when things weren't going good, we were at church every single week. when things weren't going great, we were praying and we were calling and asking everybody to pray for us and please, please, please, and you know, we're seeking God and we might even give a little offering and and we might even jump into the fast for a day and and we'll do all the things until things start going good. And then what God [clears throat] understands about some of us is that he has to keep us in trouble. He has to allow things to happen to us that keep us close to him.
Now, that's not what God has to do. But again, it wasn't to pay him back. It was to win him back. The trouble moment in the belly of the whale was to win Jonah back, was to get his attention, was for him to have a moment of silence, to have a standing 8 count, to get his mind back together and realize, hey, man, you're going the wrong way. So, I I want to encourage somebody today that your trouble is not always to kill you. Your trouble is not always set up to take you out. Sometimes that trouble is what's going to be needed in order to keep your attention and your mind focused upon God. And I hate that it's that way and it shouldn't be. But but that's just the natural tendency of us as human beings.
We just relax when things are going okay. I don't know what it is about us.
That's what we do. You can you can be in the greatest space of your life, right?
You can be walking in spiritual uh power. You can be walking in clarity and and a and an amazing level of discernment and spiritually you're able to have insight and see things and that will have come because you've been consistent in your walk, right? You've been going to church. You've been fellowshipping. You've been connecting in community. You've been fasting.
You've been reading your word. You've been having a consistent prayer life.
Waking up every day praying. And then the minute things are just kind of going good or the way that you desired them to go cuz they're never going to be going perfect, right? So don't ever think that. But the minute things are going kind of good, then all of a sudden we back off of the things that got us there. Doesn't make sense. You got to stick with what got you there. You got to stick with what got you there.
Sometimes the moment becomes too big for us and then all of a sudden we start making changes because we think that um I get a space to breathe. I got breathing room. No, you don't have breathing room. You need to stay on top of it. All right. Okay. I hope that that got through to somebody. Alrighty. So, moving forward. Now, [clears throat] we're now we're going to talk about how God works, right? Because he's a gracious God. As as much as we want to point out, you know, that God allowed all this stuff to happen. You know, the ship the storm went crazy. He got threw off the ship. He's in the belly of the whale. You can say all of that stuff, but that all started with his disobedience. But it is only his grace that covers us. The Bible says in Jonah chapter 2, so we're going down to verses 6-10. It says, "To the roots of the mountains I sank down. The earth beneath barred me in forever." This is Jonah now getting spiritual right inside the belly of the fish. It says, "But you, Lord, my God, you brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you to your holy temple. Okay, I'm g just say this real quick because I have to. Um, we shouldn't have to get to the point of our life ebbing away before we remember God because God is good all the time and all the time God is good. But the Bible says that that now he gets a reflection moment. Now he gets perspective and he realizes that in his worst moments, this is where he has to go back to God. It says that his prayers are risen to God in his holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them. But I with shouts of grateful praise will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say salvation comes from the Lord. Okay, before I read the 10th verse, I just want to talk about this place that Jonah comes to.
There is a place of repentance. There is a place of recognition of what he has done wrong. I believe he already recognized it because uh it says earlier in the scripture in chapter 1 that that when they come to him and they say, "Hey, who are you? Where are you from?"
Um he tells them. He says, "I'm the reason this is all happening." So he realizes that the things that he's going through is because of the decisions that he's made. That is huge. Not only is it huge, but it's mature. Cuz many of us are not willing to be mature enough to uh take responsibility for the things that we've done. We're quick to get mad at God. We're quick to get mad at other people. And we'll blame other people.
We'll blame God for the things that are happening in our lives. and we won't take the personal accountability for the things that we've done or not done which have caused us to be in the position that we're in. Jonah comes to a place of realization. He says, "Listen, I'm the reason why this is all going on." He goes, "So, at this point, you know, if you throw me over, at least you won't be in trouble anymore." He's like, "I'm I'm probably done for." But God in his grace, somebody say, "But God in his grace, it's because of his grace that we get a new opportunity." The Bible says that he is now praying a new prayer. We talked about that on Sunday. For those of you that were there on Mother's Day, I talked about God changing our prayer.
There comes a point in our lives where you will go through enough stuff that God will change the tone of your prayer.
You'll stop praying just for yourself.
You'll stop doing just what you want to do, but you will change the intent of your heart and the prayer of your heart in order to please God. This is what Jonah is now doing. He's saying, "Listen, I'm going to praise you, God.
I'm grateful for all that you've done."
He goes, "I'm going to sacrifice to you.
It's not about what I want, God, but it's ultimately about what you want and what I vow to you. I'm going to make it good, God. I'll do what you told me to do, God, if you give me another chance."
How many of us have cried out that right in the middle of our trouble? Lord, if you get me out of this, I promise I'll serve you the rest of my life. God, if you give me another chance, I'll make it right. Well, guess what the gracious God of the word says and does. It says, "The Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah unto dry land." So, after all that, God in his grace, he now gives him a second chance to do what he said. Now, I don't want to move too quick right here because one of the things that ends up happening is that sometimes we take for granted the fact that we'll get a second chance and we think that it's okay for us to, you know, take a chance at just doing whatever. There are some people who never get that second opportunity. There are some people whose decisions are are are so dangerous um that they put them in uh bad circumstances that they can never recover from or even worse they they've lost their life because of sin. And so we cannot take his grace for granted.
Okay, here's the takeaway. Call upon God in the midst of your trouble. In one word, repent.
Repent, people of God.
We're not preaching enough of repentance.
We're just talking about, you know, co go to church, right? Give your offering. It is so much more than that. It is about having a heart that is turned towards God. It is about desiring right and righteousness.
It is about being holy because he is holy. It's not about following a big book of rules. It's about being uh uh living a life that is compelled to serve him. It is about doing the will of the father because he first loved you. It is about recognizing the sacrifice that he gave for you. So the small sacrifices that he asked us to give are minimal in comparison.
The takeaway is to call upon God in the midst of your trouble. Once you realize like, hey, I messed up. Hey, call upon God from the belly of the fish and repent. And I'm not just saying say I'm sorry for the sake of saying I'm sorry.
There are a lot of people who just say they're sorry because they don't want to get in trouble. All right. All right. I got enough spanking. I'm sorry. No. True repentance is to turn away. It's to go in the opposite direction. It is to say, "I no longer want to live a life of sin, but my heart's desire is to go a different direction and to please you."
That's a heart matter that has nothing to do with your mouth. Because there are a lot of people who say they're sorry and and and repent with their mouth, but their heart is far from it.
There are a lot of people who say, "God, I want to serve you. God, I want to do your will." But that's their mouth speaking. Their heart and their actions don't align. And sometimes we need a heart check. And repentance is necessary. The Bible tells us that if you would confess your sins, that God is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Okay, that's uh um 1 John 1:9 and 10. Okay. Um confession is necessary. So, in order to to receive forgiveness, you have to first admit that you're wrong. You have to be willing to admit that you've messed up.
Okay? And I know that that sounds simple. It's just like, "Oh, okay. Just admit that you No, not everybody is willing to do that." And we we typically make excuses and we typically um run away from the responsibility because it's always someone else's fault. It's always someone else is the reason why I am the way that I am or I feel like I feel or I did the things that I did. And the truth is is that we are now I I'll say this loosely, but I just want you to hear what I'm saying. I say we're the captains of our own ship. Although we should be allowing God to be the captain of our ship, often times we take the wheel and we want to make the decisions ourselves. But then when it's time to, you know, fess up or it's time to deal with the situation, we don't want to do that. It was someone else's fault why you did what you did. No. Call upon God in the midst of your trouble. Take responsibility.
Repent. And the Bible says that he will give us um recompense or forgiveness for those sins. All righty. Now, let's talk about a God of second chances before we close out tonight. I'm almost done, y'all. All right. Jonah chapter 3:es 1 through3. So now we've gone through chapter 1. All right. We understand the issue which is at hand. All right. Jonah comes to a place of recognition, acknowledgement, and confession. All right. He then calls out to God from the midst of the belly. We understand that God is not punishing him by allowing this to happen, but God is looking to win him back. He's giving him a second opportunity. Okay? So, so that's the thing that you need to understand. Just because God gave you a second opportunity doesn't mean that you have now been freed from the responsibility of obeying what he first told you to do.
See, you didn't want to hear that part.
You wanted to think like, "Okay, okay, I got out of it now. Okay." Nope. God still expects him to do what he told him to do. The Bible says the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
Somebody say a second time. Yeah. Your second chance is not just a second chance for you to now be without the punishment that you first endured. Your second chance is another chance to obey God and do what he told you to do. It says the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. He says, "Now go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city and it took three days to go through it. Okay. I always love when they give those types of details because again what that lets me know is that that was a lot of time for Jonah to change his mind. That was a lot of time for Jonah to just be like, "Uh, okay. I did what you told me to do. I went No, he he said to the great city of Nineveh." In other words, he wanted him to understand, I need you to talk to all of the the city. Let everybody know what I'm saying cuz I'm going to destroy this whole city unless they get their act together. God gives him this instructions. Okay. Now, I want to remind you for a moment, too, um, back at the beginning of chapter 1, and I didn't share all of this. At least I didn't put it on the screen, but I did share it. Um, it'd be good for you to read this story, but when you read this, this is a short book, by the way, okay?
It's only like three, four chapters. Um, but the thing about it is that Jonah did not want to do what God told him to do cuz he was a little salty about God's posture. He understood that God was a God of grace and he didn't feel like these people deserve the grace that God would give them. So what he knew was that if I go and I say what God is telling me to say, more than likely God is going to, you know, make it okay, right? He's going to patch it up and they're not going to get the punishment that I think they deserve. It says Nineveh was a large city. It took him 3 days to go through it. So he went, he did what he's supposed to do. Okay, so kudos to Jonah. Let's clap for him.
Let's say, hey, Jonah did his thing. All right. If you got questions, remember, go ahead and put them in the chat. Um, I'll visit them here at the end. Okay.
So, here's the takeaway. God's grace is sufficient and he still means what he says. God's grace is sufficient. So, he'll extend grace to us because he's that type of God. And he still means what he says. If he tells you to do something, he still means for you to do it. So, you don't get off the hook. You don't get an opportunity because you didn't do it the first time. and you know, you went through what you went through and then God freed you out of that and all of a sudden, you know, God's going to forget what he told you to do. No, God expected him to do what he told him to do and he told him a second time. His grace was sufficient to position him for another opportunity and he still meant what he said. Okay, so I need somebody to understand that.
All right, let's go to chapter 3 and then end in chapter 4 in the first four verses. Okay. So, chapter 3:10, it says, "When God saw what they did, because Jonah went and did what he was supposed to do, he gave them the word, he went through the whole city, it took him three days to do it. And it says, when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction that he had threatened."
Okay? So, God says, "I'mma kill y'all."
He goes, "I'm going to destroy your city unless you do what I'm telling you to do and turn from your wicked ways." The Bible says that when Jonah gives this word to the people, this is exactly what happens. Now, this is where things get a little iffy, right? Because God's will is still performed. He uses Jonah to perform his will. But here's the interesting thing is that when Jonah was in trouble, you know, his heart was all right and and and he was acknowledging God in his sovereignty. God, you know, your will is all that matters, God. [snorts] I praise you because of who you are. I worship you because of your grace, God. If you let me out of this, I will worship you and you alone. I will be obedient, God.
I repent. He's saying all of the right things when when he's in the heat of the fire. But again, here we go with our tendencies. Now that he's out, he even does what God tells him to do. But that that that that eroded heart starts to show its face again. Bible says in chapter 4 that after God removed the destruction that he threatened from the people of Nineveh, it says Jonah to him this seemed very wrong and he became angry. So Jonah is still salty over the fact that God would rescue these people.
Jonah forgets that that that he made mistakes and God gave him another chance and he doesn't see that it's okay for God to do that for someone else. It says Jonah then prays to the Lord and he says, "Isn't this what I told you God?"
He said, "When I was still at home, when you was telling me to come here before I left to go to Tarses, right? Remember when you was telling me and I ran away from what you told me to do? This is the very reason I ran." He says, "That's what I was trying to tell you. That's why I was running away from what you told me to do." He says, "Because I knew you were a gracious God and you were compassionate. That you were slow to anger. That you were abounding in love.
A God who relents from sending calamity.
Let me just stop for a moment. What kind of selfish, ignorant perspective is this?
It was okay when God rescued you from your mess, but it's not okay when God gives someone else his grace and an opportunity to change.
I struggle with this. And here's the thing about this particular passage that um I want to say in a lot of ways is disturbing, but at the same time, I won't even say it's disturbing. I I will say it's it's real. This is how real God's word is. Cuz this doesn't end on like a good note like we think, right?
Cuz common sense would say, okay, God told him to do something, he didn't do it. He tried to run, you know, he then gets exposed. He gets thrown off the boat. God sends a fish to swallow him up, bring him back to his senses. He's in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Uh this fish spits him up on land. God gives him a second chance. You know, while he was in the belly of the fish, God got his heart right, made him change and, you know, do all of the things that he wanted him to do. And then when he got to land, he gave him instructions again. He says for the second time, I want you to do this.
He then listens. He's obedient. He does what God wants him to do. Everybody lives happily ever after. That's not what happens. The Bible says that he tells God, "This is why I tried to forstall by fleeing to Tarses. I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, that you're slow to anger and abounding in love, everything that was extended to him, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life.
For it's better for me to live than to die. Or it's better for me to die than to live. But the Lord replied, "Is it right for you to be angry?" So God is asking him, he's saying, "Okay, make this make sense. It was okay when it was you and and I was giving you a second chance, but it's not okay when I'm willing to do that for someone else who you think that you're better than and that they don't deserve it." This reminds me of scripture. Um when Job is going through his trials and his wife says to him, you know, why don't you just curse God and die? And Job says,"Woman, are you crazy?" No, he really did say that though. He said um he says, "Shall we accept good from God um and not trial?" He goes, "God gives and God takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." I love Job's perspective.
It's hard to understand Job's perspective, right? Because Job is going through what many of us couldn't endure.
I mean, he's lost almost everything. His health is under attack. Um, his friends have turned against him. His wife is now, you know, turning against him and God. And, uh, he's enduring all of this and in the midst of it, yet still remaining faithful to God and not turning his back on God. Now, he was human because you saw in that uh book that there were moments where he questioned God and he's like, "Man, what's going on?" And and God questioned him back and said, "Were you there when I created the earth? Like, who are you to question me?" Right? I'm the maker of of heaven and earth. I created you. And so, in this situation, I believe it's similar because God is saying to him, like, is it is it right for you to be angry? I I I think you're missing the picture, Jonah.
He goes, "I I called you to be a conduit of my grace after I extended the same grace to you when you didn't want to do what I told you to do." Yet, when these people will give up their wicked ways and serve me with all of their heart, you have a problem with that. The Bible says that um and this you won't see this on the screen, but if you read the end of chapter 4 there, it says that he literally he's asking God to die. He's just like, I don't even want to live.
Like this is it's not worth it. And it says that he goes and he gets under um God provides a a large leaf, like a large uh leafy tree that covers him and shades him from the sun. and he gets excited over the fact that this this this [laughter] this plant or this leaf is protecting him. And then it says that God also allows a worm to come and to eat it up for it to wither away and for him to again be exposed to the sun. And I think at this point God is like almost like testing his heart. Let me see if he got it. I'm going to give him another opportunity. All right. I'm going to extend some grace to him. I'm going to cover him. I'm going to keep him safe even with his bad attitude and bad heart and I'mma see if he gets it yet. It says that the worm comes and eats up the leaf, taking away the shade. Jonah then lies there and says, "See, [gasps and sighs] every time I just want to die."
And it, matter of fact, I I just got to read it cuz I I I don't even feel right paraphrasing this, but I want to read it to you because I think it's necessary for us to hear the end of this.
It's interesting that chapter 4 is subtitled Jonah's anger at the Lord's compassion.
Let me let me say that again. Jonah's anger at the Lord's compassion. Okay, so it ends by this. It says, "Then the Lord provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort. Jonah was happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm which chewed the plant so that it was withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die and said, "It would be better for me to die than to be alive." Sound familiar?
It is. He said, "And I'm so angry. I wish I were dead." But the Lord said, this is how it ends. I need you to hear this because some of us, you won't ever get it.
You won't ever get it. You only obey God long enough for him to do for you what you want him to do and then you go back to your wicked ways. It says, "The Lord said, you have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow." In other words, you have nothing to do with what I did for you.
All of the kindness that I extended to you, all of the grace that I continue to give you had nothing to do with you.
He says it sprang up overnight and it died overnight. So the same way I can send it, I can take it. He says the same way I bless you is the same way I can remove things from you. And often times God removes those things from us as I mentioned to you earlier because it's only in the trouble that you will stay loyal to him.
It says it sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh? In other words, he like should I not care about the souls of these people? Should I not extend compassion to them the same way that I did for you? He goes, [snorts] "In which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and also many animals."
Here's the worst part about it. That's how it ends.
There ain't no a third time Jonah got it right and and and Jonah came to his senses and finally realized that he was being selfish. No, it ends just like that. And I think it ends like that on purpose so that we can understand that if we are not careful and if we don't surrender our hearts to God that you will remain in this same state that many of us find ourselves in. You keep wondering why you're stuck in these cycles of oh I just I'm depressed. I feel bad about everything. I just feel like I just want to die. Nothing's going right for me. And you don't realize all the things that God is doing for you and that he has done for you. You only see what he's doing for other people. And it makes you upset about what God is doing for other people because they don't deserved it. Well, well, why' they get the the wife? Why' they get the promotion?
I know you didn't think this lesson was going this way, [laughter] but this is the way it was going.
Because obeying God is about more than you just getting what you want.
God's will does not have to match our plans. That's your last takeaway. God's will does not have to match your plans.
Hear me clear.
What God desires for us does, Matter of fact, I'll throw myself under the bus. Okay?
God's will for my life don't necessarily match my plans. Matter of fact, I can't remember the last time it did cuz just about everything God has asked me to do has been something I didn't really want to do. I know that most people think that it's glamorous, right? And it's and it's a a position of glory, right? To to to be a leader or to or to do this or to do that. Often times what comes with it is so uh uh difficult that that you'd almost rather not do it, right, than to if if I could choose what I wanted to do in my life, it wouldn't be some of the things that God calls me to do.
But I do it because first and foremost, I honor the Lord. I love him and I trust him.
I trust that that what God is calling me to do has more to do with others than it has to do with me. And so I can't get caught up in what feels good to me, what makes me comfortable or or get caught up in, well, God, these people don't even deserve somebody.
I I I can't I can't live my life that way. At the end of the day, that's what I'm supposed to do. Obey God.
And that's what I'm asking you to do is obey God.
Obey God. Do what God is telling you to do. I can promise you that if you follow the plan that God has for your life, it will lead you into purpose and destiny.
And I'm not saying that purpose and destiny is always uh glorious. I'm not saying that it's always uh you know the paths that that that are plush and have all of the blessings on the other end.
God will take care of you. But but obeying God is what we are called to do whether you desire it or not, whether it's easy or not. Sometimes you're called to do the hard things. It's uncomfortable.
I picked this picture for a reason cuz cuz that's a wide path that he could be walking on, but he's walking down that narrow path. And often times walking down that narrow path, you don't really know what's on the other side of that.
It's scary to trust God. It's scary to do what God wants you to do. Sometimes you get beat up [laughter] in a line of fire doing what God tells you to do. Sometimes you're misunderstood. Sometimes you're talked about. Ask me how I know. Cuz that's the reality of what we live in operating in God's mission and calling, what he calls you to do in ministry. It doesn't always feel good.
But it's not always glamorous.
Everybody's not always patting you on the back. For every person that pats you on the back, it's two or three people that are stabbing you in it, too. But that can't stop you from doing what God has called you to do. And we can't have the heart like Jonah.
We can't be like someone who will only do what God is telling us to do when we think there's a benefit on the other side for us.
There are others that are impacted by what you do. and what you don't do.
God has called you specifically to people that you are called to impact and to touch. And if you do not do what you're called to do, there are some who will suffer. I want you to think about it for a moment. If Jonah didn't do what God told him to do, now first thing you need to know is that God can use anybody or anything. Okay? He he used a a donkey to talk in scripture before when when people wouldn't do what he called him to do. Okay? So God will get his his will done, but but when you don't do what he called you to do, there is a consequence for not doing that.
And if he had not done what God told him to do, there was an opportunity or chance for a great city to be destroyed.
What did the scripture say? I I just read it to you. It says there are more than 120,000 people who can't tell their right hand from their left. So what he's saying to him is there were all of these people over there that I was calling you to. I wasn't just telling you to do it just because I wanted to put you in harm's way or put you in the line of fire or make you uncomfortable. I was calling you to do it because you are my hands and my feet in the earth.
And I'm calling you to preach my word, to say what I'm calling you to do, even when it doesn't feel good. You know how many messages I have to preach on Sundays that are not the messages I would choose to preach?
You know how many many messages I would like to be encouraging and everybody to be doing back flips and high-fiving and d I would like to do that but that ain't what God called me to do. He He's called me to cry out and spare not. He's called me to say the hard things that sometimes make people say, "Well, this I don't want to be here anymore." You know, that's that's what he's called us to do. But at the end of the day, guess what we have to do? people of God, we have to obey God. We have to obey God. All right. All right. So, I'm going to check and see if there are any questions. I pray that that helped you. Um, let's look and see if there are any questions in here. You can go ahead and start putting them in there. Also, if you are still around, [laughter] Elder, God bless you, sir. I'm glad something made you laugh. Love you and miss you, sir. We're praying for you.
Alrighty. Uh, let's see. Any questions?
Any questions? Thank you so much uh sister Angie for going and getting that address. Romans 6 and23. The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. All right. Wouldn't casting lots be like pagan worship. Good question, sister Aelia. Um in today's time, yes. Um it would be like gambling basically, right?
Let's let's cast our lots or let's see um what fate has to say. Okay. It would be um at that time it was not. It it was a form of um they would do all types of things. Um I it's not coming to my mind right now but they would almost like select straws. They would do all types of things that would um determine God's will in circumstances and it was just one of the methods in which he he he choose chose to use. Now they were not uh participating in divination. They were not um going to soothsayers or fortune tellers to get answers. um they were petitioning God and then asking him to show them in in this manner or fashion. Um so I I do understand what you're saying but contextually. Okay. So that's the important thing is contextually it's no different than um you know even in scripture now you know we talk about um I was just watching House of David earlier with with Lady Tai and uh we've been enjoying that series um and you know it hadn't necessarily gotten to that part but right now you're seeing the pure heart of David but there is some point right you know that there was a lot of things that happened and I was just thinking about and talking about the fact that he had you know like eight wives and like three concubines um I I think on Sunday I even talked about it. Um, uh, Elena, right, had Hannah and had Panana and those are two wives. And now that sounds crazy to us, right? Cuz that's polygamy and we're like, we don't practice that. And why would that have been okay? But contextually during that time, it was something that was allowed.
Okay. Um, and I always like this and and I I I did not coin this, but I've heard people say this. Um, there are some things in scripture that God um uh man, what's the word I'm looking for?
that he didn't particularly prescribe.
Um, but I'm trying to think of the other word.
I can't think of it right now. But there were some things that were allowed, right? But it wasn't necessarily God's will. It's no different than God allowing there to be a king of Israel.
That wasn't his desire. Okay? It wasn't his preferred will. It was it was his um permissive will in in this case. He allowed them to have a king. Although that wasn't his intent. um he was their king and they kept crying out for a king so he allowed them to have a king. So there's some things that God permitted but it wasn't necessarily what he prescribed. I think that's what I was going for. Okay. So yes, I do hear what you're saying and and it it is to in today's um context, right? And there's a series that that I'm working on, guys.
I'm I'm sorry I keep saying that right and y'all are like, "When you going to get to it? When you going to get to it?"
I'm really just following God. Okay? We got a series coming up that's called What Would Jesus Do? And so we're going to rock with that after we get out of I think it might even be before Father's Day. What would Jesus do? We're going to run with that. And then we're going to get to um um altars and um idols. Idols and altars. Okay. And so we're going to talk all about the the witchcraft and all those things. So I mean it it really is is deep. There's a lot to it. So yes, we'll we'll talk about all these things.
Yep. So thank you for for bringing that up. All right. Let's see.
[sighs] All right. I'm going to just read this.
This is I think it's more of a comment.
Says, "God, allow us to be great stewards of your word and will. Don't allow us to be like the Israelites and go in 40 years and never see the promised land. Everything you promised us will surely come to pass." Amen.
Jonah had firsthand experience of receiving God's grace, but wanted to see others perish and not receive the same.
That's such perspective from our own heart posture for others. It is indeed.
It really is. And it's uh it's sad, right? Um it's sad that we feel that way and that we will often uh respond that way. All right. Any more questions in here?
All right. Well, I don't see any more questions. Um but I I definitely again I I'll I'll just talk for a minute, but I'm done. I'll talk for a minute just to see if any more questions pop up in there. But if you have any more questions about any of this, um, you know, please put it in there and I'll definitely respond before we close out.
But I just want us to understand, um, everything in scripture is there purposely, okay? God didn't just include and insert things in the in the scriptures just for the sake of putting it in there. It it has value to our growth and development as believers.
Okay? So, for him to put something in there like this and for it to end the way that it ends, right? Because in our mind, we think, you know, every story you read, you're like, "All right, what what's the what's the where's the victory on the back end?" Um, God accomplished his will and and it still ended the way it ended. It reminds me of Moses, right? God chooses this man. He uses him in mighty ways to perform miracles um to bring him glory to create and develop um his law for his people to follow. And then with all that being said and done, Moses uh you know, his heart is not in the the position that God would desire it to be. And after all that he's done, he gets to the edge of the promised land and God says, "Okay, they're going to go in, but you ain't going to go in." He lets him see it. And sometimes the story ends like that, I think, on purpose for us to know that, you know, we're not above um reproach. We're not above uh God punishing us or or or not allowing us to just get over on him. The Bible says God won't be mocked. God God will not be mocked.
Whatsoever a man sws, that shall he also reap. And it's only by the grace of God that we don't pay the price for every, you know, mistake that we make. Thank the Lord that that many of the mistakes that we've made that he has not punished us because of those because we're deserving of whatever consequence that comes our way. And it's only his grace that covers us. Amen. All right. So, I want you guys to to obey God. Obey God.
All right. There's one more question and then we're gone. How could Jonah know God so well and still resist God's heart? It's a good question. Um, it really is a good question, but I I I question that about about us. Um, I question that about myself. How can I know God the way that I know God? How can God have done all the things that he's done for me? How can God have proven himself so many times and come through and yet I still doubt in moments? my heart still gets overwhelmed with fear. Um, when it feels like danger is near or, you know, I'm at the end of the rope and things aren't going to go the way that I desire or hope that they will, I wonder at times, God, after you being so good to me, after you've been so faithful so many times, why? And it just brings me to to to question, you know, why did the man in scripture say what he said to him? He says, I believe, but help my unbelief. There's a part of all of us that that has that human side of us. That's why I don't hold it to account of the people in scripture, right? So often we see the people in scripture and we judge them because we say, I don't understand how they could keep on making the same mistakes or, you know, how can they keep on questioning God when he fed them with mana and when he, you know, gave them water out of a rock and, you know, now all of a sudden they feel like he's going to let them die because they're hungry or they're thirsty and but it's who we are. It's how we are. That is why we have to guard our hearts with all diligence because out of it flows the issues of life.
These hearts are desperately wicked. No one knows them. That's why the Bible tells us that so that we are aware that you are not you're not exempt.
I don't care who you are.
There's something that could rock your boat. There is something that could hit you in a place that that causes you to to begin to question God. And so that's why it's so important to build a strong relationship with him, to build that foundation on solid rock so that when the storms come, right, we're not drifting and shifting away. Okay? That's why it's so important. But yeah, that's why that's the only reason why cuz he's just like us.
He's just like us. God can be good to him and and then he forgets the depth in which he came from. We do it all the time in the church. Somebody walks in and we think that they're too far away for God to do something for them. Like, oh, they're too far gone. You look at them and you judge them, but you forget how far you came from. You forget all of the stuff that you used to do, all the things that you couldn't stop doing, and all of a sudden, you know, they got one little issue that they, you know, keep getting them and and and we judge them, right? I think these things are in scripture for us to get our hearts right. Okay. All righty. All right.
There is another question. Is Jonah's experience a reflection of Jesus death and resurrection? Um I think so. I think I think uh the Bible is, you know, especially when it says three days and three nights, right? You know, you you have to catch those things. And I on purpose didn't go into that cuz I knew it could take me another 15 minutes to start digging into something else. But yes, I think that um there are types and shadows that we see in scripture, especially when you're reading Old Testament scripture. It's types and shadows of things to come. Um and yes, right, Jesus Jesus was down for three days and three nights and and then would would array would raise back to life. Um and so I think in a lot of ways, yes, um it's it's indicative and gives a picture um of of the things to come and and creates um the validation of prophecy, right? So yeah, in some ways, and I'm sure we can go deeper and probably pick some more out of that, but but I won't do so tonight for the sake of time. But I want to say thank you to you all. Um thank you so much for joining us on this evening. Um want to say God bless you.
uh and a reminder um that we are back together again obviously. So Friday morning we got our Friday morning prayer call. Um if you have that information, somebody go ahead and put that in the chat for us. Um the phone number and the access code, but every Friday morning 5:00 a.m. uh we'll be together for intercessory prayer uh with our behind the veil prayer team. Praise God for them. Um and then also again on Sunday morning, Salt Sunday service, we are together yet again um at um what is it?
333 North Rancho Drive. All right.
Follow the signs from the street to your seat. 10:00 a.m. We're together uh for a time of worship and we're inviting you to come and invite someone and bring someone along with you. Again, want to say thank you again and God bless you.
If you desire to sew, um you can find us at tithely. Um you can also go to uh giveto salt.com. So that's g i v number two salttos.com and uh you'll be able to specify your gifts there. I'm going to pray and close and send us all home. But again, I'm praying for you all. Um and thank you again for joining us. Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for the opportunity for us to uh just circle around your word. I pray that we learn something that we were able to grow and be challenged through the word on this evening. God, let it continue to uh work on our hearts, God, as we meditate on it day and night, being careful to perform everything in it. I pray for your people, God, that you would help us all, God, that we would um learn how to obey you, God, that we would look beyond um what makes us comfortable, God, or what we even understand at times, God. And that we would be more willing to perform your will and do what you're calling us to do than what it is that we desire to do or what we may understand, God. We thank you. We praise you and we honor you, God. Because we know that on the other side of obedience that there is indeed blessing. Help us, God, to endure the tough times, God, that in the midst of obeying you, that there are times, God, that you will allow us to come up against trial, God, and and struggle, God. But help us not to give up and know that those things come to make us strong and to build us up in our most holy faith, God, that we may be mature and complete and lacking nothing. God, we thank you. We praise you. We honor you.
Continue to be with us as we leave this space in this time together, God. but certainly never your presence. May we all uh follow your standards and your word daily. We honor you. We praise you.
And it's in Jesus name we pray. God bless you and stay salty. God bless you guys.
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