1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,360 Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. 2 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:18,720 This season of messages takes us through some of the great comeback stories in the Bible. 3 00:00:18,720 --> 00:00:23,820 Pastor John Metter of Cross City Church will show us how God can take any situation in 4 00:00:23,820 --> 00:00:27,800 any life and bring hope and victory out of hardship. 5 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:32,200 These messages will inspire you to trust God in your own challenging seasons. 6 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:36,560 We are looking at God's Not Done With You. 7 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,280 That's an encouraging title to me, God's Not Done With You. 8 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:45,480 And today the message title is called Saying Yes to God out of the book of Jonah. 9 00:00:45,480 --> 00:00:49,460 So if you take your Bibles and turn to the book of Jonah today, Jonah chapter 1 beginning 10 00:00:49,460 --> 00:00:51,000 in verse 1. 11 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:56,120 And as you find the book of Jonah, let me just open up by simply saying I have lots 12 00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:03,560 of conversations with people who say no to God instead of saying yes to God. 13 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:07,960 Sometimes there are things that God has specifically told them to do and they said, you know, I 14 00:01:07,960 --> 00:01:10,560 just don't want to do that in my life. 15 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:14,760 At other times people that have said no to God talk to me about the fact that they read 16 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:21,040 something in the Bible that they were to do or not to do and they disobeyed and they found 17 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:23,920 themselves far outside of God's will. 18 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:28,840 And either situation when they talk about that moment of disobedience which often turns 19 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:33,960 into a season of disobedience, they talk with a lot of pain and a lot of heartbreak and 20 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:39,040 a lot of sadness and regret over saying no to God. 21 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:42,400 Recently I talked to a woman that I call Angela. 22 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:47,080 That's not a real name but she is someone that told me about her story. 23 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:51,120 She told me about being angry with God because of the loss of her husband. 24 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:55,680 She didn't feel like God intervened to save his life and as a result of that she was angrier 25 00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:00,720 and angrier with him and began to go further and further away from God. 26 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:04,840 As she walked into the details of her life there was a lot of pain even on her face at 27 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:10,040 being so far away from God for so long a period of time until finally she came to the place 28 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:14,400 of saying, okay God, I'm going to have to come back and trust you because being away 29 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:20,120 from you is worse than being close to you even if I don't understand why what happened 30 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:21,680 happened. 31 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:26,280 And her story is one just like Jonah's if it's always best to say yes to God, never 32 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:28,760 good to say no to God. 33 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:31,320 So let's stand together and look at Jonah chapter one. 34 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:34,880 We'll read the first four verses and then we'll come back and look at other chapters 35 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:39,000 in the book of Jonah as we walk through it. 36 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:43,120 Jonah chapter one verse one, the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying 37 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:48,360 arise and go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come 38 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:50,520 up before me. 39 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:54,960 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 40 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:59,480 So he went down to Joppa found a ship which was going to Tarshish paid the fare and went 41 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:04,440 down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 42 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:08,400 The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that 43 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:10,920 the ship was about to break up. 44 00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:15,780 Now we'll pause there and come back to what happens in that storm in just a few moments. 45 00:03:15,780 --> 00:03:16,780 Let's pray together. 46 00:03:16,780 --> 00:03:24,680 In Jesus name help us see ourselves in Jonah's shoes but also help us see how the story could 47 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:28,400 be different if we are to say yes instead of no. 48 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:33,960 Father I pray that this Old Testament prophet will be an incredible example to us of how 49 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:36,000 not to respond to you. 50 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,520 And Father I thank you that you're a gracious God a loving God in the same way you demonstrated 51 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:44,840 your compassion for Jonah and for the city of Nineveh. 52 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:49,320 You show your compassion for us help us to respond to your loving kindness and your tender 53 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:53,840 mercy and your compassion and I ask this together in Jesus name we pray. 54 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:56,160 And all God's people said amen. 55 00:03:56,160 --> 00:04:00,120 Please be seated if you would. 56 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:05,160 Some prophets are known for their message primarily. 57 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:10,440 Obviously if you walk through the Old Testaments you see the message of Isaiah or Jeremiah, 58 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:11,440 message of Malachi. 59 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:14,320 It's very very clear what they're saying. 60 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:18,080 Jonah's not known best for his message but for his example. 61 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:19,280 But not a good example. 62 00:04:19,280 --> 00:04:23,200 He's known best for being a bad example for how you respond to God. 63 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:27,840 I mean his life is a car wreck compared to every other prophet in the New Testament. 64 00:04:27,840 --> 00:04:32,840 In fact in the Old Testament prophets nobody stands out quite like Jonah does when it comes 65 00:04:32,840 --> 00:04:35,240 to how he disobeyed God. 66 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:40,640 And yet at the same time the Bible gives us this story of Jonah's disobedience in a book 67 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:44,280 that's filled with compassion and the loving kindness and the mercy of God. 68 00:04:44,280 --> 00:04:49,280 So you've got all these things going on in the book of Jonah. 69 00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:52,960 It says so much to us about how we ought to be responding to God. 70 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:56,420 Basically if you get to the heart of the book, the heart of this book is specifically about 71 00:04:56,420 --> 00:05:00,920 telling other people about God's love and his redeeming ways. 72 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:05,200 But also it's about saying yes or no to God. 73 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:11,200 Today I hope you'll come to the place of seeing where you are compared to Jonah in this saying 74 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:13,120 yes or no to God. 75 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,600 Now I'm going to approach this a little bit differently today than I normally do. 76 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:23,240 I'm going to approach this passage by asking the question why should we say yes to God? 77 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:27,080 Say, all right pastor isn't the theme of the book why say no to God? 78 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,860 And I think you're going to see that yes the theme of the book is why does someone say 79 00:05:30,860 --> 00:05:33,900 no to God and what happens when you say no to God? 80 00:05:33,900 --> 00:05:38,920 But I'm going to approach it from the angle of you ought to be saying yes to God just 81 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:41,720 like Jonah should have said yes to God. 82 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:45,800 We often see the blessing side of that and I hope that we can see it just a little bit 83 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:50,840 today and to see what God is up to in the big picture when we think it's all just about 84 00:05:50,840 --> 00:05:52,280 us. 85 00:05:52,280 --> 00:05:55,880 So for a reason today to say yes to God. 86 00:05:55,880 --> 00:06:01,640 First of all we say yes to God because his direction is always best. 87 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:07,360 Not good, not better than, but best of all options that are in front of us. 88 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:10,800 Now we open up with chapter one, verse one, and I read it again. 89 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:16,000 It says the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying arise, go to Nineveh 90 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:22,160 the great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me. 91 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:24,600 Jonah knows exactly what God is doing. 92 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:26,240 He knows what this is about. 93 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:31,040 This is about Jonah taking the message of a lie and saying yes to God. 94 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:36,400 The message of a loving compassionate God to a wicked evil city that desperately needs 95 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:37,800 the message. 96 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:42,840 It's really about God's focus on people who are wicked and far from him. 97 00:06:42,840 --> 00:06:48,000 It's really about God's love for people that are so far from him they have no idea how 98 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:52,840 to get to him and God's compassion is being poured out in that direction. 99 00:06:52,840 --> 00:06:58,120 In fact later on in the book of Jonah he actually says this in chapter four, verse two. 100 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:03,760 He says Lord I didn't want to go because I know you are a compassionate and a gracious 101 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:08,720 God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and basically said to God I don't 102 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:14,160 like those people and I know that if I went and preached to those people they would repent 103 00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:16,920 and you would rescue them and I didn't want that God. 104 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:20,080 I didn't want that at all. 105 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:21,880 Now I wouldn't want to be best friends with Jonah. 106 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:25,120 I don't know about you but he's not my kind of guy. 107 00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:26,620 He has no compassion. 108 00:07:26,620 --> 00:07:27,760 He has no grace. 109 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:31,560 He has no love for people that he literally hated. 110 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:32,680 He hated the Ninevites. 111 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:34,320 He wanted judgment upon Ninevites. 112 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:38,800 If you knew something about the Ninevites you might tend to agree with him just a little 113 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:45,880 bit but at the same time Jonah knew it was God's best for Jonah, for the Ninevites and 114 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:50,580 for all involved that he obey God. 115 00:07:50,580 --> 00:07:56,600 God had in his mind the hundreds of thousands even millions of people in the city of Ninevites 116 00:07:56,600 --> 00:08:03,520 that needed desperately to hear what the compassion and the loving kindness of God is all about 117 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:08,720 and if Jonah had of immediately gone and he ultimately did go then they would have found 118 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:14,200 life and hope and forgiveness and repentance but Jonah didn't want that to happen. 119 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:18,800 Now if I can make this kind of personal today let me just say that of the hundreds and thousands 120 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:23,780 of millions of people around you if God is wanting to use you in some way to impact them 121 00:08:23,780 --> 00:08:29,800 positively either by your message or by your example or by your lifestyle or about your 122 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:35,400 decision wouldn't it be best for you to consider the whole picture instead of just saying no 123 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:39,800 I don't like them I don't want to go. 124 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:45,400 Jonah didn't want what God wanted him to do and he ignored it all and that became the 125 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:50,960 disobedience that caused God's discipline to kick into gear and also that's what disobedience 126 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:52,280 is for us isn't it? 127 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:56,920 We know what God wants but we don't want to do that it's not our preference it's not what 128 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:01,240 we like we're not really thinking about anybody else at the time we're simply thinking about 129 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:07,360 us and we're saying no to God because we don't want it to happen that way for us. 130 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:12,760 If I can go through the reasoning that Jonah must have been having in his mind it was all 131 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:21,080 about the Ninevites or me and he chose Jonah he chose himself and we often do the same 132 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:34,520 thing my family or me my community or me my workmates or me my neighbors that's what disobedience 133 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:38,520 is at the heart instead of looking at the whole picture of what God wants to be doing 134 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:43,640 in our lives we're looking at our lives which is what Jonah was doing and just like Jonah 135 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:48,280 we're called to bring a redemptive message to the people all around us but instead of 136 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:54,600 God's plan Jonah did his plan and it wasn't best and we can see later on that it could 137 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:56,120 have been the best possible plan. 138 00:09:56,120 --> 00:10:00,520 Now I know that you realize just like I do that we live in a wicked world in a wicked 139 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:05,280 city and we're reminded of that all the time and I think it'd be important for us as the 140 00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:10,840 Church of Jesus Christ as followers of Jesus as conveyors of the gospel that God is always 141 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:16,280 going to be positioning us so that when we obey him we have opportunity to shine light 142 00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:21,880 in dark places to shine light in dark workplaces to shine light in dark neighborhoods and so 143 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:27,720 forth and so when God asks us to obey him whatever else it is he may have in mind someone 144 00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:35,160 else besides just us at receiving the benefit of obeying him keep that in mind that's Jonah's 145 00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:39,880 life that's our life to a very large degree we are conveyors of the message of God we're 146 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:46,040 ambassadors of Jesus Christ just like Jonah was called to be an ambassador of God. 147 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:50,400 So why should we obey God why should we say yes to God number one we should say yes because 148 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:55,160 his direction is always best number two we should say yes to God because the detours 149 00:10:55,160 --> 00:11:00,660 are never good the detours are never good. 150 00:11:00,660 --> 00:11:04,560 Have you ever experienced a detour in your life from obeying God and all of a sudden 151 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:09,960 you realize some days or weeks or months in that the detour is not a good place to be 152 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:14,100 would you raise your hand if you've had some bad detours in life I hope that you'll remember 153 00:11:14,100 --> 00:11:18,040 some of those in fact I hope you'll feel some of those same feelings and emotions you had 154 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:22,820 when you were wandering from God and you were on a detour and you were realizing I'm getting 155 00:11:22,820 --> 00:11:27,860 further and further away from God with this detour where did I go wrong well you went 156 00:11:27,860 --> 00:11:34,000 wrong by saying no to a plan God had for your life a direction he had for your life you 157 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:38,840 see it spelled out in verse three look at what it says about Jonah but Jonah rose up 158 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:43,720 to flee to Tarsus from the presence of the Lord to me that's the most significant line 159 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:49,920 there in that verse from the presence of the Lord so he went down to Joppa found a ship 160 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:55,760 which was going to Tarsus paid the fare went down into it to go with them to Tarsus from 161 00:11:55,760 --> 00:12:03,200 the presence of the Lord it's always like this when we just obey God we always go down 162 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:09,600 we always pay for it on our own we always go from the presence of the Lord not to the 163 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:16,000 presence of the Lord what a wreck this is in his life when I was in high school an enterprising 164 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:23,000 principal found a car that had been totaled because of drunk driving it was a local story 165 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:27,280 so everyone knew about it and he took that car he towed it left it in front of the front 166 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:32,480 door of our high school near the office where everyone came in and out during the course 167 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:37,440 of a day in that high school and we knew the story so it was a vivid reminder of what would 168 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:46,120 happen if we were drunk drivers and his message was very very clear if you choose to do this 169 00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:51,300 that could be one result of your life and I mean it was unforgettable to see that wreck 170 00:12:51,300 --> 00:12:56,880 and truth is Jonah's life is like that wreck he simply totals his life out in that short 171 00:12:56,880 --> 00:13:04,260 period of time until God finally brings him back to obedience but the detours are awful 172 00:13:04,260 --> 00:13:08,920 it's like one collision after another in his life and the detours are never were running 173 00:13:08,920 --> 00:13:14,480 from God look at what Jonah did in his life first of all it says he ran to Tarshish from 174 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:19,920 the presence of the Lord that's 2,500 miles opposite where he was supposed to be going 175 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:25,960 to Nineveh over and over the scripture says he goes down down down never does he go up 176 00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:29,700 and that's the play on words that's just a reminder of how bad of a deal it really was 177 00:13:29,700 --> 00:13:34,600 for him but again the greatest thing as he was running from God's presence from the presence 178 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:40,320 of the Lord is twice in that verse that line is important and he's lost his mind because 179 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:44,240 he's trying to run from the presence of the Lord even though he's a prophet and knows 180 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:52,080 that God is everywhere all at once now you know doctrinally speaking that God is omnipresent 181 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:55,640 you know what that means don't you it means that there's never a moment in your life where 182 00:13:55,640 --> 00:14:01,440 God is not present somewhere around you he's ever present he's omnipresent he's everywhere 183 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:06,560 all the time now there's another sense of the presence of God that is more like the 184 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:11,160 manifest presence where we can realize that he's there we can sense he's there where we 185 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:16,920 sense his conviction where we understand what he's trying to communicate to us and what 186 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:22,160 Jonah was running from was that intimate presence of God that allowed him to hear in the first 187 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:28,680 place rise and go to Nineveh so he knew how God spoke and he was running from that manifest 188 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:33,520 presence of God trying to get away from that omnipresence of God. 189 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:39,720 In Psalm 139 we have a great reminder from the psalmist where can I go from your spirit 190 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:44,640 where can I flee from your presence if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea even there 191 00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:50,200 your hand will lead me and your right hand will take a hold of me. 192 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:54,080 Let me just remind you that you can never fully get away from the presence of God and 193 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:56,640 that's a really really good thing in your life. 194 00:14:56,640 --> 00:15:01,080 No one can carry you away from the presence of God you cannot run far enough to be away 195 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:06,480 from the presence of God but you can be away from the presence that's recognizable the 196 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:11,320 presence that's communicating with you you can be far far from knowing what he wants 197 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:12,460 in your life. 198 00:15:12,460 --> 00:15:17,520 You can be in a season of confusion and doubt you can be in the season of silence where 199 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:23,000 you're not hearing God say anything because you've chosen to move far away from him instead 200 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:24,640 of running to him. 201 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:31,280 That's part of the detours that are normal in the life of someone that says no to God. 202 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:35,960 Had no friend years and years ago who said this you know if you're if you're not walking 203 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:41,520 with God in his word and obeying him day in and day out after one day you know it after 204 00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:45,960 two days your family knows it after three days everybody knows you're moving away from 205 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:47,800 the presence of God. 206 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:53,040 Its point was you're never sensitive to Christ you're never sensitive to the Lord when you're 207 00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:56,600 intentionally walking in the opposite direction. 208 00:15:56,600 --> 00:16:00,840 Another reason we really do that is because we're prideful or we're stubborn prideful 209 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:06,360 in the sense of saying I think I have a better plan or stubborn in the sense of saying I just 210 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:09,160 don't want to do that plan God. 211 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:13,480 I wrote this in my book and I really believe it's true pride and stubbornness are twin 212 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:16,920 devils they urge each other on. 213 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:22,720 The pride urges on the stubbornness the stubbornness urges on the pride and for long we find ourselves 214 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:28,040 moving like Jonah far far away from the presence of God. 215 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:33,320 When I had the conversation with Angela who told her story I asked her why did you keep 216 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:40,280 running and she answered the fact that she was so angry so frustrated that she just didn't 217 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:41,640 want to deal with God. 218 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:46,120 She didn't want to come back to God because things weren't working out the way she wanted 219 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:48,520 them to work out. 220 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:53,040 I've been away from the presence of the Lord like that most of you have been away from 221 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:57,120 the presence of the Lord like that and the detours that we take when we go through those 222 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:01,360 times are not worth the destination we're on. 223 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:05,480 But if you're proud or if you're stubborn you're going to experience detours like this 224 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:11,300 where you find it hard to hear God and hard to understand what he wants of your life. 225 00:17:11,300 --> 00:17:15,080 You know the old line we've said it before many times sin will take you further than 226 00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:20,840 you want to go keep you longer than you want to stay cost you more than you want to pay 227 00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:21,840 and that's true. 228 00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:27,040 Somebody in the room today would say nope that's what's happened to me. 229 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:31,120 That's why James in James chapter four verse six says God is opposed to the proud that 230 00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:32,480 gives grace to the humble. 231 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:38,640 Man I don't want to be in any game where God is supposed to me and I'm opposed to him and 232 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:40,460 I don't think you do either. 233 00:17:40,460 --> 00:17:41,460 We want to be on God's side. 234 00:17:41,460 --> 00:17:45,680 We want to be following God and doing what he's told us to do. 235 00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:52,440 So here's a good reason for you to say yes to God and that is the detours are never good. 236 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:57,640 Then number three very close to that is our discipline is always difficult. 237 00:17:57,640 --> 00:17:59,640 Our discipline is always difficult. 238 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:01,740 Here's what the Bible promises you. 239 00:18:01,740 --> 00:18:08,320 If you are a child of God the promise of scripture is that as a good heavenly father he will 240 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:11,760 discipline you if you're out of his will. 241 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:13,920 You say is that a good God? 242 00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:17,720 Oh it's a good God and a good father that disciplines us. 243 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:23,920 We look around our culture today and we see sometimes we see some lawlessness among the 244 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:27,120 next generation and we say where are their fathers? 245 00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:31,120 And the implication is those dads ought to step up and help those kids understand right 246 00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:35,600 and wrong and what's good and what's bad and what's wicked and what's good. 247 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:37,360 We need the fathers to do that. 248 00:18:37,360 --> 00:18:43,240 We have a heavenly father that is always on time and always interested in helping us be 249 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:44,800 in the right place in life. 250 00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:50,920 And when we run from God the discipline is going to come from God the father and Jonah 251 00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:56,600 is a pretty intimidating picture of how God might discipline our lives. 252 00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:02,080 It might be one of the most detailed set of circumstances of how God disciplines his children 253 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:03,960 that we can find in the scripture. 254 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:05,800 And of course you know what the story is. 255 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:07,400 You know how it unfolds. 256 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:12,680 So as you jump over to verse four you see first of all that God sent a storm. 257 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:14,400 What does it say in verse four? 258 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:19,200 The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea. 259 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,600 Now you can't identify with this at all if you've never been deep sea fishing and never 260 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:24,720 been deep sea fishing in a storm. 261 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:26,640 Has anybody ever been deep sea fishing before? 262 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:30,680 Would you raise your hand if you've been off the coast on a boat somewhere? 263 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:34,180 Have any of you been in a storm off the coast in a boat? 264 00:19:34,180 --> 00:19:37,240 Would you raise your hands as well? 265 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:43,840 And has that been one of those situations where hurl is a good word in the context? 266 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:46,560 The Lord hurled a storm. 267 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:48,600 I remember an experience I had years ago. 268 00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:54,520 A group of guys who were part of the discipleship ministry we went to off the coast deep sea 269 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:57,480 fishing, rat snapper fishing. 270 00:19:57,480 --> 00:19:59,760 And there was a boat that was 110 foot long. 271 00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:03,080 There were 90 of us men on that boat. 272 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:06,860 And most of us lived in the Dallas Fort Worth region which means we'd never been in a wave 273 00:20:06,860 --> 00:20:09,000 bigger than a lake could generate, right? 274 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:10,520 So we're on this boat. 275 00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:11,880 We're 50 miles off the coast. 276 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:13,800 We don't see land anywhere. 277 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:18,040 And all of a sudden a storm comes up and all I could see was sea then sky. 278 00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:19,840 Then sea then sky. 279 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,800 That's all any of us saw for about an hour. 280 00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:27,280 And I'm telling you the word hurl applies to that particular boat at that particular 281 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:28,280 time. 282 00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:32,440 I mean it was one of those moments where I couldn't wait to get back to land. 283 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:35,360 And most of us kissed the ground when we got back to land. 284 00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:39,240 Now Jonah's in a storm except this storm. 285 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,760 He's not sure he's going to live or not. 286 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:45,560 This is a storm that hasn't just sprung up. 287 00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:47,800 God sent this storm. 288 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:52,800 And the only one who really knew that God sent this storm was Jonah. 289 00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:57,160 He was fully aware that all the discipline that was happening was happening because of 290 00:20:57,160 --> 00:20:58,160 his disobedience. 291 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:04,400 And what was going on in that boat was so frightening that even the seasoned sailors 292 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:09,520 were believing that the ship was about to break up and they were wondering what must 293 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,600 we do in order to be rescued. 294 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:17,840 In fact it's the sailors, it's the godless pagan sailors that are crying out whatever 295 00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:23,160 God they can while Jonah is ignoring what's happening all around him. 296 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:25,440 The more I read about Jonah the less I like this guy. 297 00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:27,440 I mean he's a bad deal. 298 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:33,480 So God sent the storm and everyone was suffering. 299 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:39,040 Let me just say this even though you see it in the text yourself, when we disobey God 300 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:41,280 others suffer too. 301 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:42,960 It's not just you that goes through the pain. 302 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:46,680 It's not just you that goes through the heartbreak and the distance from God. 303 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:48,960 Often it's those closest to you. 304 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:53,920 In this case it was just a group of innocent sailors that didn't have any idea who Jonah 305 00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:55,800 was at the moment. 306 00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:59,240 They were going through the difficult time as well. 307 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:02,800 I like to say it like this disobedience never stays in its own lane. 308 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:06,920 It wanders and crashes into innocent travelers on a whole other journey. 309 00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:10,080 Why do we think we can do it? 310 00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:14,640 So God sent the storm as a form of discipline for Jonah. 311 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:20,320 And then the Bible says in verse 17 that God appointed a fish. 312 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:21,320 God appointed the fish. 313 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:24,800 I love the word appointment here because the word appointment says a great deal about how 314 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:28,960 this fish knew where Jonah was and what the fish was supposed to do. 315 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,360 And there's nothing random about the word appointment. 316 00:22:31,360 --> 00:22:36,080 The Old Testament, that original language tells us that God specifically called the 317 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:41,440 whale to go do the deed of swallowing Jonah. 318 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:45,920 Now we sometimes will argue about the idea of a fish swallowing a man. 319 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:49,360 Certainly we don't doubt that a whale is big enough to swallow a man but we don't hear 320 00:22:49,360 --> 00:22:54,600 of it happening often even though there are some historical examples apart from Jonah. 321 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:59,920 But here we have a prophet who writes the book itself and who from his own perspective 322 00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:05,440 describes what's happening in vivid detail and it gives us authenticity to the whole 323 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:07,240 story. 324 00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:11,160 So I want you to look in chapter two for a moment and here's what it says about what's 325 00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:13,560 going on with Jonah. 326 00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:17,600 Chapter two begins by saying that Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the 327 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:18,600 fish. 328 00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:25,480 And he said, and then he gets into first person statements, I called out of my distress to 329 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:26,640 the Lord. 330 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:30,640 He answered me and I cried for help from the depth of Sheol. 331 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:33,360 You heard my voice. 332 00:23:33,360 --> 00:23:36,660 The Jonah is recording this and he's saying this is what I did. 333 00:23:36,660 --> 00:23:40,000 Verse five, water encompassed me to the point of death. 334 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:41,720 The great deep engulfed me. 335 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:44,360 Weeds were wrapped around my head. 336 00:23:44,360 --> 00:23:45,840 Again, specifics. 337 00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:51,400 Again, verse seven, while I was fainting way, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to 338 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,600 you into your Holy temple. 339 00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:55,600 What a description of prayer. 340 00:23:55,600 --> 00:24:00,880 At this point you're wondering why did you take so long to remember the Lord? 341 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:03,480 The theory is remembering the Lord and praying. 342 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:09,000 And then in verse 10 it says, and the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah up 343 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,200 onto the dry land. 344 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:18,560 I just love those sequence of verses because it says so much about how specific Jonah understood 345 00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:21,840 God acting in discipline in his life. 346 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:25,880 And I suspect you and I know that too. 347 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:30,480 When you go through discipline, you normally know this is not chance, this is not random, 348 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,400 this is not just some circumstance. 349 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:36,520 I'm away from God and God is doing something to bring me back. 350 00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:40,320 And maybe you feel like you're sinking and maybe you feel like weeds are wrapped around 351 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:41,320 your head. 352 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:44,040 Maybe you wonder why am I waiting so long to call out to God? 353 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:48,840 But somehow our pride and stubbornness keeps us in that place of that sinking and that 354 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:55,200 drowning and that being away from the presence of God so long until we finally think there's 355 00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:59,080 no other hope but to reach out to God. 356 00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:04,440 Literally Jonah waited until there was no other hope for him to reach out to God. 357 00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:08,560 And what I'm saying to you today is you don't have to wait that long. 358 00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:12,160 And aren't you glad that at any moment you can turn to God and say, God, I've had enough 359 00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:13,160 now. 360 00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:14,400 I think you're going to win this battle. 361 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,200 I think in the end I'm going to have to say yes anyway. 362 00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:20,800 So I'm going to kind of let go of my pride and I'm going to lay down my stubbornness 363 00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:22,800 and I'm going to call out to you. 364 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:26,440 And that's a key moment because Jonah is calling out to God. 365 00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:31,000 And when Jonah calls out to God in verse 10 of chapter two, we are reminded that everything 366 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:37,740 God is doing is not just discipline, but it's also grace. 367 00:25:37,740 --> 00:25:41,400 Please understand that discipline is grace. 368 00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,420 Discipline is grace. 369 00:25:43,420 --> 00:25:48,360 When the whale swallowed Jonah, it's certainly discipline, but it's God's grace because God 370 00:25:48,360 --> 00:25:52,280 stops Jonah from going further than he already has. 371 00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,160 It's not the worst thing God could have done. 372 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:57,660 God could have let him die in the depths. 373 00:25:57,660 --> 00:26:03,360 God could have let him run further and further away from the presence of the Lord and prolong 374 00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:10,480 not only Jonah's own reunion with God, whatever reunion that might have been, or cut the Ninevites 375 00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:13,000 from coming to faith through Jonah's ministry. 376 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,880 I mean, God could have let something worse happen, but he didn't. 377 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:19,280 It's grace because God stops Jonah. 378 00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:24,360 It's also grace because God brings him back, the whale puts him back to the place where 379 00:26:24,360 --> 00:26:26,320 he should have been in the first place. 380 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:30,440 It's also grace because God is still going to save the Ninevites. 381 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:34,240 And through that disobedient prophet, God's still going to be able to bring his message 382 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:38,840 to a group of people that are so lost and so dark, they have no other hope than the 383 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:41,120 mercy of God. 384 00:26:41,120 --> 00:26:43,160 It's all grace. 385 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:44,160 Pain is grace. 386 00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:46,080 The whale is grace. 387 00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:50,880 And we rarely see lives, we rarely see in our lives when we see whales or storms, we 388 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:57,560 rarely see them as grace, but it's all grace to keep us from going further from God. 389 00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:03,640 God may not send a whale for you, but he may do something else to bring you back to him. 390 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,000 You should listen when he does that. 391 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:13,800 So Jonah responds by getting out of that well and getting on the beach and outwardly obeys 392 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:18,000 God walking through the city of Nineveh and preaching the message that God wanted him 393 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:19,000 to preach. 394 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:25,320 And lo and behold, the Ninevites repent and all of them come to faith in God. 395 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,240 And God spares the judgment on the nation. 396 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:32,480 Now if you read the whole book, you know, that Jonah is only obeying on the outside, 397 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:35,480 he's not obeying on the inside. 398 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:38,440 Anybody that's ever had children know that they know how to obey on the outside but not 399 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:40,840 the inside, right? 400 00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:45,660 You tell your child to sit down and they sit down, cross their arms and say, no, on the 401 00:27:45,660 --> 00:27:50,500 outside I'm sitting down, but on the inside I'm still standing up. 402 00:27:50,500 --> 00:27:52,040 We do that in life sometimes. 403 00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:56,320 God, I'll do that, but I'm gonna have a chip on my shoulder about it. 404 00:27:56,320 --> 00:28:02,600 All right, God, I'm gonna lay side that's it, but I'm still mad because I want it. 405 00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:03,600 I want it bad. 406 00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:09,220 Okay, God, I'll go where you tell me to go, but I'm gonna be angry the whole time because 407 00:28:09,220 --> 00:28:12,160 I really wanna go in the other direction. 408 00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:13,900 That's what we do with God. 409 00:28:13,900 --> 00:28:19,000 We negotiate with God, we argue with God, we do all these things and we obey on the 410 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:26,640 outside sometimes and we disobey on the inside, but when Jonah even obeyed on the outside, 411 00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:30,860 when he stopped running from God, everyone around him was blessed. 412 00:28:30,860 --> 00:28:33,600 Remember how everyone went through the pain when he went through the pain? 413 00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:40,240 Now he's obeyed God by bringing the message to the nearby and everyone around him is facing 414 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:46,280 changed lives because of the message that God gave him, but on the inside he's still 415 00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:50,960 miserable, still angry, still arguing, still unrepentant. 416 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:56,920 Did you know that 99% obedience is still disobedience? 417 00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:01,880 99% obedience is still disobedience. 418 00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:07,000 We can obey God a little bit of the way, but hold our heart back and still disobedience 419 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:11,840 and that's why the argument keeps on going between Jonah and God. 420 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:16,680 So pick it back up at the discipline part, chapter four, the first six verses, the Bible 421 00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,880 says, so then God appointed a plant. 422 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:23,720 Here's what it says in chapter four, verse one, but it greatly displeased Jonah, that 423 00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:27,640 is, that the Ninevites repented and he became angry. 424 00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:32,920 He prayed to the Lord and said, please Lord, was not this what I said was still in my own 425 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,400 country while still in my own country? 426 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:40,680 Therefore in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish for I knew that you were a gracious 427 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:46,480 and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and one who relents concerning 428 00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:47,480 calamity. 429 00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:52,720 Therefore, now, oh Lord, please take my life from me for death is better to me than this 430 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:53,720 life. 431 00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:55,840 I mean, think about this guy. 432 00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,320 I mean, we don't want to be best friends with Jonah, right? 433 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:02,080 I mean, here's a guy that saw the repentance of the whole city and he's angry about it. 434 00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:05,400 He's mad because he doesn't like those people. 435 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:07,760 The Lord said to him, do you have good reason to be angry? 436 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:10,760 And Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. 437 00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:14,200 There he made the shelter for himself and sat under the shade until he could see what 438 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:16,040 would happen in the city. 439 00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:20,920 So the Lord appointed the plant, there's a guy appointing things again, and it grew up 440 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:26,440 over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. 441 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,400 And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 442 00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:32,080 Man, I don't like this guy at all. 443 00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:37,480 I'm liking him less as the story goes on and I've read through it several times. 444 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:39,920 What about the repentance? 445 00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:44,200 Happy about a plant, extremely happy about the plant, excited the fact that he's not 446 00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:46,400 going to have the sun beating down on his head anymore. 447 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,360 He likes the shade the plant provides for him. 448 00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:54,520 And God sent that plant to illustrate that particular thing in his life. 449 00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:55,920 But then God did something else. 450 00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:57,600 God appointed a worm. 451 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:03,920 That's what the scripture says in chapter four, verse seven, God appointed a worm. 452 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,920 It attacked the plant and it withered. 453 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:09,960 And then verse eight, God appointed a scorching wind. 454 00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:14,200 It says when the sun came up, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down 455 00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:20,040 on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all the soul to die saying, death 456 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:22,080 is better to me than life. 457 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:26,120 I mean, you're seeing this unfold and you've got to be wondering at this point, how is it 458 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:31,480 that God can use a storm and a fish and a plant and a worm and even the wind and they 459 00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:35,840 all obey him, but only man disobeys him? 460 00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:38,280 Why is that? 461 00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:43,680 And of course the answer is that God has given us a free will and we exercise it so often 462 00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:46,000 in adversity to God. 463 00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:50,800 We want that free will and that free will is important and yet we have the opportunity 464 00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,280 to say yes to God instead of no to God. 465 00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:56,800 We often just get it wrong. 466 00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:00,920 And we even get to the point like Jonah where when things happen to us in disobedience, 467 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:02,540 we get angry. 468 00:32:02,540 --> 00:32:03,960 We get angry at the storm. 469 00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:05,200 We get angry at the fish. 470 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:08,040 We get angry at the plant or the worm or the east wind. 471 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:13,080 And then we get angry at God because all those things happen. 472 00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:20,560 We never seem to get angry at ourselves for being so stubborn, so pride, proud, so far, 473 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:22,120 far from God. 474 00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:25,800 This is what's happening in Jonah's life. 475 00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:30,720 You know, God may not discipline you the way he did Jonah, but he always has a way of getting 476 00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:32,500 your attention. 477 00:32:32,500 --> 00:32:36,080 I think it's such an important thing in life to recognize that if he's doing that, that 478 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:39,920 we ought to listen really, really, really well. 479 00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:43,600 Because even the small thoughts we have in life, the attitudes we have, and then the 480 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:49,040 actual outward acts of disobedience to God are things that are markers in our life that 481 00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:52,500 we're having some discipline that's going to be difficult in the days ahead because 482 00:32:52,500 --> 00:32:55,160 God does love us. 483 00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:59,460 But the fourth reason that we shouldn't say yes to God is because the destination is ultimately 484 00:32:59,460 --> 00:33:05,520 surrender, that in the end, we're going to surrender anyway. 485 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:06,720 In the end, we're going to surrender anyway. 486 00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:10,280 Now, at the end of the story in the book of Jonah, Jonah's still complaining and he's 487 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:11,760 still arguing with God. 488 00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:15,820 And as I'm reading this over and over, I'm thinking it would have been so much easier 489 00:33:15,820 --> 00:33:21,560 for Jonah to say yes the first time instead of no the first time. 490 00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:24,920 What would Jonah's life have been like if he had said yes from the beginning? 491 00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:30,240 Whatever else, we might conclude it wouldn't involve fighting with God in any way. 492 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:35,160 But here's what it says in the last few verses of Jonah chapter four, verses nine through 493 00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:36,160 11. 494 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:39,480 And God said to Jonah, do you have good reason to be angry about the plant? 495 00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:43,000 And he said, I have good reason to be angry even to death. 496 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:47,320 The Lord said, you had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did 497 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:51,160 not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 498 00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:54,800 But I have not had compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 499 00:33:54,800 --> 00:34:00,120 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right hand and left hand as 500 00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,960 well as many animals. 501 00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:08,880 You know, surrender to God is inevitable for all of us sooner or later. 502 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,600 It might not be in this lifetime. 503 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:17,160 You might run your whole life from God as Jonah may have done. 504 00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:21,280 But at some point you're going to bend the knee and you're going to declare Jesus Christ 505 00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:24,160 as Lord to the glory of God the Father. 506 00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:26,600 That's what Paul said in the book of Philippians. 507 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:31,780 Paul, who knew what it was to oppose God and God's ways, eventually said these words in 508 00:34:31,780 --> 00:34:36,360 Philippians chapter two, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess 509 00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:39,760 of those who are in heaven and on earth and underneath yore. 510 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:45,400 Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 511 00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:46,400 You know what that means? 512 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:51,320 Every single one of us at some point will get on our knees and we'll say Jesus Christ 513 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:53,560 is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 514 00:34:53,560 --> 00:35:00,640 It always ends one way or another in surrender, so why not let it happen now? 515 00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:08,080 You see, saying yes to God means that you can be at that moment of surrender while you're 516 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:11,760 still on the planet to enjoy it. 517 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:16,520 But until that happens, God peels back the outer layers of our lives, exposing everything 518 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:23,120 on the inside, so we eventually get the idea, here's the problem right here in my heart. 519 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:30,200 And when I take my heart and surrender it to God, that's when everything changes. 520 00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:32,720 Have you ever experienced this? 521 00:35:32,720 --> 00:35:36,120 Have you ever experienced that moment of surrender? 522 00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:41,080 Maybe you're all by yourself and you realize that you've got personal and private issues 523 00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:45,400 in your life as you struggle with God and you're far more concerned about your personal 524 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:50,640 comfort just like Jonah was than you are about the grace of God on the nations or the grace 525 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:52,040 of God in obedience. 526 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:56,760 And God is saying to Joseph all the way to the end of the book, I want all of your heart, 527 00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:59,160 I want complete surrender from you. 528 00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:04,360 I want you to be all in in following me, not only with what you do outwardly but also in 529 00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:09,000 your mind and your heart and your attitude and everything you do, I want you to be all 530 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,240 in. 531 00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:15,440 You know I read the book of Jonah and I actually get mad at Jonah, I get mad at him, I get 532 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:16,440 angry at him. 533 00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:20,480 And then I realize I don't need to be too quick to judge because I'm just like Jonah 534 00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:21,480 sometimes. 535 00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:25,960 There's a lot of Jonah in all of us. 536 00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:32,000 You know the interesting thing about this story that I think is so fascinating is that 537 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,000 it is a non-ending. 538 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:37,880 You know the book of Jonah doesn't really end in a way that's definitive. 539 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:43,160 We don't know exactly what Jonah did after God said those words to him. 540 00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:46,760 Should I have not had compassion on all those netabytes? 541 00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:49,960 And so it really is left to us to provide the ending. 542 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:54,600 Not that you can write scripture but you can stand in Jonah's shoes and say okay if that 543 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:59,080 happens to me then this is how the ending is going to be in my life. 544 00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:03,560 This is what I'm going to say to God after I've run from God, after I've suffered through 545 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:08,600 these detours and this discipline and I know his way is always best, always better than 546 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:10,480 I can possibly come up with. 547 00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:14,560 This is what I'm going to say to God in my life. 548 00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:18,160 And what I'm going to say to God is God you're right. 549 00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:26,040 I'm wrong again and I'm choosing to follow you 100% from this moment forward. 550 00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:30,060 I mean if somebody writes a book about your life you don't want it to end like Jonah's 551 00:37:30,060 --> 00:37:31,860 book did. 552 00:37:31,860 --> 00:37:40,640 You want it to end with the story of you being faithful to the God who is faithful to you. 553 00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:45,240 Saying yes to God is the best possible scenario in your life. 554 00:37:45,240 --> 00:37:50,920 Now overall the theme of Jonah is this and don't miss this point. 555 00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:56,320 God loves and has compassion on all people everywhere he will turn and worship him. 556 00:37:56,320 --> 00:38:03,640 But he wants to use you and I to demonstrate that love to people who don't know him. 557 00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:11,080 I've experienced this every week but isn't this week a vivid reminder of how dark our 558 00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:19,800 world is and how desperate and hopeless they are and how important it is that we like Jonah 559 00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:27,400 to be ambassadors for him in a world that is Christless and hopeless and has no idea 560 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:34,880 how to deal with issues that Christ does and he's shown us and he's called us. 561 00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:38,720 Saying yes to God is the most important thing in your life. 562 00:38:38,720 --> 00:38:40,520 Just a moment we'll have an invitation. 563 00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:43,320 Our invitation stations will be lit up. 564 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:47,560 The first time you say yes to God is the yes of salvation. 565 00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:49,600 Yes God I know I can't save myself. 566 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:53,920 I know I can't do enough to have my sins forgiven. 567 00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:57,560 I'm going to trust what Jesus did on the cross to forgive me and give me the gift of eternal 568 00:38:57,560 --> 00:38:58,560 life. 569 00:38:58,560 --> 00:38:59,560 That's saying yes to God. 570 00:38:59,560 --> 00:39:03,620 It's humbling yourself not being prideful not being stubborn and simply saying I know 571 00:39:03,620 --> 00:39:06,800 I can't earn this but I want to receive it by grace. 572 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:10,600 If you're in that place today and you're ready to say yes to God we're ready to talk 573 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:13,080 to you about that decision at our decision station. 574 00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:15,520 That's my first invitation to you. 575 00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:20,280 The second invitation is this I would invite you to come to our guest reception room. 576 00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:21,280 Love to meet you. 577 00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:24,160 Love to talk to you about Cross City Church and its ministry. 578 00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:29,720 And the third invitation is take a card with you and invite others to come with you next 579 00:39:29,720 --> 00:39:30,720 week. 580 00:39:30,720 --> 00:39:35,760 Next week's Mother's Day I'm actually preaching about the life of Abigail next Sunday about 581 00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:40,320 this incredible woman that was in toxic situations as so many are today. 582 00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:43,560 There's a lot of hope in the life of Abigail. 583 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,240 And I want to invite you to invite others to come with you next week. 584 00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:51,360 Would you stand with me as we have this closing word of prayer. 585 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:54,000 Father I am so thankful for you. 586 00:39:54,000 --> 00:40:00,800 Your work in our lives, the work in the life of Jonah to bring him to that place of obedience 587 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,720 where he could have gone all in with you. 588 00:40:03,720 --> 00:40:07,240 We don't know the answer to that but we know what we will do. 589 00:40:07,240 --> 00:40:12,280 Today Father I pray that each of us will come to the place of saying yes Lord you have my 590 00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:18,640 whole heart, my whole future, you have my attitude, my mindset, you have my obedience 591 00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:21,280 100 percent. 592 00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:24,200 And Lord I know there are those in the room that have never given their lives to you as 593 00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:29,080 Lord and Savior and Lord I pray that will take place right at the conclusion of this 594 00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:30,080 prayer. 595 00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:36,800 But that the rest of us moment by moment, step by step will continually surrender to 596 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:37,800 you. 597 00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:45,200 We bow our mouths proclaiming Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 598 00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:47,600 We commit this to you today. 599 00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:50,680 Thank you for the life of Jonah that warns us. 600 00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:53,840 And Lord I pray that we will say yes instead in Jesus name. 601 00:40:53,840 --> 00:41:08,280 Amen.