← ArchiveSunday, June 29, 2014DateJune 29, 2014Speaker—TextPsalmsPassages in this sermon1 Thessalonians 28:28Psalms 188:49Psalms 611:32Psalms 3311:32Luke 22:6112:57Ephesians 415:17Romans 1029:14TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00If you have your Bibles with you, I want you to turn with me to the book of Jonah. I know that you are familiar with that book. You know all about that book. And why in the world would I be preaching on a book that everybody knows so much about?0:27Because sometimes we know too much about things and we don't know enough about things. Amen? Sometimes we overlook some of the best things. And so I just want to talk about Jonah and talk about what's listed in his book here, some of the subjects of his book. It is an awesome book because it reminds us of what can happen in our own lives. It reminds us. Let's just stop for just a minute. Let's think about it. When I say the book of Jonah, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?0:57And you know, I had nowhere in the Bible mentioned whale in the book of Jonah. See there? Y'all already messed up. Now, the young people know because they were a part of Operation Change. And I preached this just, I just, a synopsis of this message. Some of y'all were asleep, so now you can wake up and hear the rest of it. But it's a great fish. But that is, that's basically all we know.1:25Jonah and this great fish. And, you know, there's a tremendous message in these chapters. And they're not just about a great fish. And a great fish is a great part of the chapter. And it's a great subject in the chapter. But there are some other subjects that we just kind of look over and we take for granted when we read the book of Jonah. And so, let's just, instead of reading all the book, and let me just tell you, the book is rich. All of it's rich. You need to go home and read the whole book because it's a beautiful book.1:56Especially when God and Jonah are having a conversation and God talks about his long-suffering, his kesed, the Hebrew word kesed, his long-suffering toward his people. In other words, God is long-suffering for us because he doesn't annihilate us. If God wasn't long-suffering, America would have already been washed up and gone away. If God wasn't long-suffering, the human race would have already suffered annihilation some other way than flood, but it would have suffered.2:24But God, in his great and infinite love, is long-suffering. In the book of Jonah, we have, The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittiah, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.2:53So he went down to Joppa, found a ship, which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, went down into it to go with him to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. I'm just kind of wondering what kind of preacher Jonah was, that he didn't know any theology better than he knew. The Lord hurled, the Lord hurled. Sometimes we just don't like to think of God hurling or throwing anything.3:20But the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea, so that the ship was about to break up. Doesn't say it was going to break up, says it was about to. Then the sailors became afraid, and every man cried to his God, little G. And they threw the cargo, which was in the ship, into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, laying down, and fallen sound asleep.3:47So the captain approached him and said, How is it you're sleeping? Get up, call on your God. Perhaps your God will be concerned about us, so that we will not perish. Each man said to his mate, Come, let us cast lots, so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us.4:10Someone's at fault here, and we've got to find out who it is. So they cast lots, and the lots fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, Tell us now, on whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? I like this, Baptist preacher.4:39No, I didn't say that. And where do you come from? What do you do for a living? Where do you come from? What country do you belong to? And from the people, who are you? And he said to them, I'm a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men became extremely frightened. And they said to him, How could you do this? Isn't that what they're asking the church today? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.5:07So they said to him, What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us? For the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. And he said to them, Pick me up and throw me in the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that on account of me, this great storm has come upon you.5:33However, the men rode desperately to return to land, but they could not. For the sea was becoming even stormier against them. Then they called on the Lord. You know, it's always the last result. And, you know, Steve talked about it a little bit last week. It seems like the last thing we always do is call on God, when in the first place, the only person we should ever have called on was God.6:00He said, So we earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man's life, and do not put innocent blood on us, for you, O Lord, have done as you have pleased. So they picked up Jonah, threw him in the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made a vow, and the Lord appointed a what? Thank you. It wasn't a whale, was it? You know, they always say, you know, whales' throats are too small to swallow people.6:29I want to tell you, if God wanted to use the whale, he could have used the whale, and it would have swallowed him. But anyway, to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. Now, that's a synopsis of the story, in that that's how it all begins for us. I want you to notice, first of all, in the story, the one thing that we often overlook to get into Jonah's life, and start picking it apart, and get into the fish, and the miraculous story there, and the men in the boat, is the word of the Lord.6:59The word of the Lord came to his prophet. The word of the Lord came to his preacher. The word of the Lord came. In other words, God came to his servant, and he said to his servant, hey, I've got a task for you. Now, all this has some meaning with it as well. In other words, Jonah is a Hebrew, and Jonah is called out. That means Jonah has the call of God on his life. He's a prophet. He's a man whom God has chosen to proclaim his message.7:27He's a man who has supposedly got an ear for God at all times, so that God can use him at any time to proclaim the message of salvation to whomever he would, or a message of judgment to whomever he would. But the idea is, is that Jonah is God's and not his own. And I want to ask you here today, do you belong to anybody else? If you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, and Jesus is the Lord of your life,7:53who do you belong to? You belong to Jesus. In other words, you belong to God. You don't belong to yourself. You don't belong to the company. You don't belong to your dreams and aspirations. You don't even belong to your children, and your children don't belong to you, even though we have that family concept. We belong to God. And Jonah forgot that for a moment. The Bible says, and it's very powerful, the word of the Lord came to him. I want you to look at the word of the Lord.8:23In the New Testament, it's often used for this reason. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, We also constantly thank God that when you received the word of the Lord, which you heard from us, you accepted it. In other words, a prophet, a preacher preached the word of the Lord to these Thessalonians, and they believed, and they trusted, and they were saved. The psalmist writes in Psalm 18, verse 30, As for God, his way is blameless.8:52The word of the Lord is tried. He is a shield to all who take refuge in him. In other words, the word of the Lord can be depended on. If you hear the word of God, and you hear the gospel proclaimed, which is the word of God, you trust that gospel message and the work of the Holy Spirit that's doing in your life, you confess Christ as the Lord of your life, you can be assured you're gods. You can be assured of your salvation.9:22They received the word of the Lord. And as a preacher stands and preaches, the thing that we want to make sure that he's doing, is he preaching the word of the Lord to us? Is he preaching the word of God to us? Is he teaching us the word of God? Or is he sharing his own input, his own ideologies, his own thoughts, his own aspirations? Well, the one thing we see very clearly is there is no go-between man, between Jonah and the word of the Lord,9:51because in Jonah's day, in Jonah's day specifically, Jonah hears from God directly. In other words, somebody says, did he hear the voice? I believe that God said, Jonah. Jonah said, yes, Lord, because he did the same thing to Samuel. He did the same thing to other prophets. If you look back in the scriptures, we will here in just a minute. But I believe, he said, Jonah. Jonah said, yes, Lord.10:20He said, I've got a mission for you. And I've got a task for you. You're my servant. I've chosen you. And Jonah says, oh, good, God. What is it? What do you want me to go do? It's kind of like a Navy SEAL. He's ready to go at any moment. God, what do you want? He said, I want you to go to Nineveh. And Jonah says, do what? And God said, you know, I don't stutter. Folks, God don't stutter when his word comes to us. God's word is not about explaining away the truth.10:51God's word is about obeying the truth. God's word is about listening and hearing the truth. So Jonah heard the word of the Lord, and Jonah discerned that there was a better thing for him to do than to do what God was asking him to do. Now, we can conjure up, and we later on can see, if you study the second, third, and fourth chapters of the book of Jonah, you kind of see what's taking place and why Jonah is doing the thing he is.11:17You can do a little history study. You begin to realize kind of why Jonah decided that he didn't want to go to Nineveh. But listen to all the prophets and also the other prophets that heard the word of the Lord. The psalmist says in Psalm 6, or Psalms 33, verse 6, he says, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made. Wow, God's word is a very powerful, creative word. But so Jeremiah picked up on it in verse 33, or chapter 33, verse 19. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, thus says the Lord.11:46In other words, Jeremiah, the prophet of God, heard the word of God and preached the word of God. And you know what it got him? It got him a cistern. What's a cistern? Well, that's this big old rock hole in the ground that they hold water in over in the Middle East. And the shepherds would keep water in there, and people in cities would keep water in these cisterns. And when they got tired of Jonah preaching the word of the Lord, or Jeremiah preaching the word of the Lord, they threw him in a cistern. They kind of just got to get away from him.12:15They didn't want him to be around. Listen to Ezekiel. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, God spoke to Ezekiel. Ezekiel wasn't even in Jerusalem at the time God spoke to him. Ezekiel was on the banks of Babylon. He was a missionary. By captivity, he was a missionary. And he was on the banks when he saw his visions for God. And the word of the Lord still yet came to him. God, you can't go anywhere that God's word is not going to come to you. And I think that's what we see that's kind of interesting in a minute as we talk about Jonah.12:42Is Jonah being a man of God, being someone who had been experienced with the word of God, and experienced with God, determined that he could run from God. In Luke chapter 22, verse 61, the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord. Now, that was a challenging word because Peter remembered that the Lord said, You will deny me three times before the cock crows. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord.13:11The word of the Lord. My friend, today, there is no greater foundation for you to build your life on than the word of God. There's no greater truth for you to live by to raise your children than the word of God. There's no greater way to build your aspirations and convictions for life than God's word. You want to build a conviction on marriage? Go to God's word. You want to build a conviction on relationship? You go to God's word. You want to know how to raise your children? You go to God's word. You want to know how to care for your husband? Go to God's word.13:41You want to know how to kill your wife? Care, care, kill your wife? No. Care, care, care. Care for your wife. Yeah, I'll get it out in a minute. You go to God's word. You see, the word of the Lord is applicable for every experience in your life. Every experience in your life. It's not to be twisted. It's not to be taken out of context.14:09It's to be kept in the context that it is. And it is to be taken from Genesis to Revelation and understand that God is truth. And His truth is the same from one book to the other. Somehow, Jonah forgot that. But that's one of the subject matters that we often overlook as we study the book of Jonah, is that the word of the Lord was constantly coming to Jonah. And God was speaking to him.14:37I think that God is still speaking to the church. I think that the Lord is speaking to the church today. I think the Lord spoke to the church yesterday. I think in your heart and in your life, God's speaking. But I'm not sure we're listening. And that's not a good thing because we see that same type of personality in the life of Jonah. He's our next character. Jonah. Jonah represents the people of God. As God seeks to give them direction and purpose, He calls them out.15:06He shares truth with them. And then He expects them to go out and do what He's done. We talked about this in our Sunday school classroom. If you go back in the New Testament to Ephesians chapter 4, you will find that God has prepared good works for you beforehand for you to be a part of. So God's already planned your life for you. The problem is we don't want nobody planning our life. We want to plan our own life. Well, folks, I'll tell you what. I like the fact that God will plan my life. If I'll just listen to Him, He'll keep speaking to me.15:34If He keeps speaking to me, I can keep following Him. If I keep following Him, I'm going to find glory and joy in Him. And I'm not going to need acclimades of people to do that. All I'm going to know and need is that I'm doing what God wants me to do. And not everybody's going to like that about you. But Jonah represents that people group, I believe, that know the Lord. You. Me. Because he did. He was the servant of the Most High God. He could sleep through anything.16:05I tell you what, I've met some of the best Baptists in the world that could sleep through some of the most fiery sermons I've ever preached. You know, and they do it well. I've had some people that tell me, I'll listen with my eyes closed. Pull. You doze with your eyes closed. You sleep with your eyes closed. Now, I could be freaked out by somebody that sleeps with their eyes open. Could you imagine what that would be like? Well, I'm not so sure that's not where we are.16:33Jonah was sleeping with his eyes open. God had spoken. Jonah listened. Jonah heard. Jonah understood. Jonah knew. But Jonah ran. This whole section is about how Jonah ran. Jonah heard the word of God and determined that he had a better plan for his life than God had.16:57And so the Bible says that when God said go north, Jonah went south. If God were to say go east, Jonah went west. Jonah's going to get away from God. And isn't it interesting that here's a guy that was brought up in Bible college, in seminary. And he brought up in church. Probably had a good Sunday school teacher. Probably had great preachers encouraging him.17:24And Jonah is what? Who is he running from? What is the one thing that we learn in vacation Bible school, in the kindergarten class, and that is you can't run from God. God is where? He feels everything. There is nowhere in the universe God's not. Jonah's forgot that. He's in the bottom of a boat, in the dark bottom of a boat. And he thinks he can get away with it because he's going to go in the opposite direction from where God is.17:54And the Bible explicitly says he's running from God. I want to tell you something. I believe today, hear me, there are believers that are running from God. God has laid a claim on your life. You know him. He's converted you. He's changed your heart. But you're scared to death to give in to his purpose and call and plan for your life.18:21Maybe God's called you to be a missionary. Maybe God's called you to be a Sunday school teacher. Maybe God's called you to be a preacher. Maybe God's called you to work in the nursery. Maybe God's called you to be a deacon. Maybe God's called you to be an usher. I ran into a preacher friend of mine this past week. I was talking to him.18:50He's a great guy. I won't say his name. You probably know him. He's from the Birmingham area. Been around Birmingham all his life. His wife was in the hospital. I was visiting over at Brookwood and just happened to run into him and was talking to him. And he's no longer in the pastoral ministry. He's still in evangelism type of ministry with someone else. And he said, you know what I do today? He said, you may disagree with what I do today. He said, but you know what I do every Sunday now? And I said, no, what do you do? He said, I'm an usher in the church.19:21I said, really? I said, you got tired of seeing all them deacons steal money out of the collection place. So now you're getting your part. Kidding deacons. Just kidding. Now he said, I am. He said, I'm an usher. He said, you know what? I love it. He said, I love serving in the church. But he said, that's what God is allowing me to do. He said, now you might. I said, how can I differ with what you believe God's led you to do? Because he's still serving the Lord.19:50He's serving God in another capacity, in another ministry, in evangelism. And he's doing a great job. So we see the word of the Lord. We see the prophet Jonah. He is confusing. He shouldn't be. He is a believer. He is someone in whom God has set aside. He's someone in whom has been given the message of God. He's someone in whom God anticipates and expects to complete his task. Let me give you the title of my message, which I didn't do earlier. And I think it will bring some work.20:19The work, Jonah is the work of a sovereign God. In other words, God is sovereign over Jonah's life. Jonah's not going to outrun God. I don't care how fast you are today. I don't care how quick-witted you are. I don't care how busy you are. If God has a purpose for your life, he's not going to let go till he gets you. Unless he takes your life. I think that's the other option that God gives.20:49We'll go there another day. The next thing that we note in this first chapter that's important for us to note is the boat. Well, what's the boat? Well, to me, and now this is conjecture, okay? This is something Brother Chris said. It's not something that the Bible says, but I think it's a means. The boat represents our ability and means of escaping God's purpose. Why do I say that?21:17Jonah looked at thought and saw the boat. So he goes to the boat. The greatest, quickest means of transportation was the boat. You could get on a boat like a cruise liner, and you could go to the bow of the boat, and you could buy a ticket, go to the bow of the boat. Nobody would bother you. You'd be down there. He'd be all by himself. He could stay there, and he could hide out until this thing got him to Tarsus, and then he would be all right. He would not be where God wanted him to be.21:46Now, you know, we don't use boats like that nowadays. Some people do. I think some people buy a boat, and they take off to the lake, and they start worshiping God on a set of skis. It beats all I've ever seen. What would that mean every time you fail, and you busted the water, and we won't go there. But anyway, we use all kinds of means of running from God. We use boats, but we also use the economy. We use wealth to run from God. We have our desires for a certain wealth or a certain style of living, and we determine that we're going to get there no matter what.22:16Or maybe it's an occupation. You know, it doesn't matter what occupation that you're going after in life. All of them require your undivided attention in a lot of cases, but I want to tell you, no occupation ought to require more of you than God, than you can give God. God is your first person to give your attention to. Now, that's not to say that you can't be whatever God will allow or call you to be, and there are a lot of things that aren't in the church preaching, for instance, that God calls other people to.22:45God may call you to, my dad was a welder, and I believe my dad was a great welder. I don't believe God had a problem with my dad being a welder, but I'll tell you what I believe God would have had a problem with if my dad had put welding before God. If you decide that your economic status is going to require more time of you, so you're going to work on Sundays, you're going to work on Wednesdays, you're going to work on here, and you're not going to spend time with your family, and you're not going to spend time with God.23:09Let me tell you something. Sooner or later, that vessel is going to come to a storm. Debt can do the same thing. We can get ourselves in such debt that we go, I can't give to the church like I want to give because I'm in such debt.23:37You know, I tell people, get rid of stuff. You know, get rid of it. Don't buy stuff. You don't need it. You got a good pair of slacks. You got some blue jeans. I don't care. You know, we've seen a change. You don't have to be dressed up to come to church. You don't have to use that as an excuse anymore. You don't have to have a certain, drive a certain car to be in the church.24:06All you have to be is available for God and a born-again believer in Jesus Christ. So Jonah ran to this boat, and Jonah, the Bible says, hid down into the bottom of this boat. He got down as far, and I think it's interesting, I've preached a sermon. From the time Jonah starts running from God, everything is down. He goes down, down, down, down. And in that boat, he's going down. My friend, you can be in the church every Sunday and be going down.24:35You cannot be paying attention to the message. You cannot be studying the Word of God outside the church. You cannot be serving God as God has gifted you to serve Him. You cannot be living for the Lord as a man, a woman, a mother, a father, a son, or daughter, or a child. You can be in your own self-contained boat, hiding from God.25:03What is it that can be education, can be profession, can be family? I think some people put family ahead of God, and they try to hide it. I'm a good dad. I got my family. Are you a good dad? You know, do you show your children? Mom, Dad, do you show your children the love of God in your life? Do you show them obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ?25:33Do you set the example? Do you open your Bible first for your children and read to them at night? Or do your children come and read to you? Now, I just challenged Sarah Beth that she's going to go home. She's got a new Bible, and I thought that was sweet. She's going to go home and read it to her mom and dad, and she's going to read a psalm a day to them. Isn't that right, Sarah Beth? That's what you're going to do. She's going to sharpen her reading. I'll tell you what, Sarah Beth. You probably need to read it to your granddaddy more than you need it to your mom and dad. But anyway, the reality is that we set the example.25:59But if we hide in the darkness and refuse to serve God, how are we any different than Jonah? And then we find the crutch of it all. Nineveh. Nineveh is here. What is Nineveh? Well, if you go back and study history, it was one of the larger, most wicked cities in the day, an Assyrian city.26:27It would, you could say, kind of like today's Las Vegas or some other city that exploits people. But it was such a wicked city that the Bible says God, it got God's attention. And when it got God's attention, I love this because it makes me think that there may be hope for America. When the sin got so bad that it got God's attention, God sent a prophet to Nineveh.26:55Now, the prophet didn't want to go to Nineveh because Nineveh was a city of Assyrians and Jonah was a prejudiced Hebrew. He was so prejudiced that he did not want to see anything good happen to this Assyrian city. He did not want to see God move in that city. He did not want to see God do anything in that city. Because Jonah was such a prophet of God that he knew that if he obeyed God and went to the city of Nineveh,27:26and if you'll read the book, it'll tell you, if he went there and he were to preach and the people were to repent, that God would have mercy. Nineveh is whatever God has called you to do that you're running from. Nineveh could be your lost neighbors. Nineveh could be your lost children.27:55Nineveh could be your lost parents. Nineveh is a wicked city that needs God, and God wants Nineveh. Isn't that amazing? Because God is glorified when the people of God take the word of God to the lost and the dying and share that truth, God is glorified. God is glorified in missions. God is glorified in the proclamation of his word.28:25God is glorified when his lives are changed, when people are saved. God is glorified. God is going to be more greatly glorified by this city changing its heart than Jonah could ever glorify God in anything that he could ever do. So what's your Nineveh? What is it that you refuse to do for God that God has called on you to do? Maybe it's give your life to him.28:55Maybe God is saying to you right now, you've never given your life to me. I am not the Lord of your life. You say, but preacher, I prayed the sinner's prayer. That's okay. Have you called on Jesus as Lord of your life? Romans 10, 9. If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, I shall be saved. I tell you, there are a lot of lost-believing people.29:22Demons believe and tremble. Your Nineveh may be your own soul. Your Nineveh may be your husband. And you know, you're just too afraid to share the truth with him. You're just too afraid to tell him that you love him so much that you don't want to see him die and go to hell. And so you've determined that it's easier to run from God and hide in being a parent or being a wife or being a secretary or being a joint heir with your husband and you're building a life for yourself, whatever.29:54Your Nineveh may be your wife. Your Nineveh may be your wife. It may be your girlfriend, your boyfriend. Your Nineveh may be your children. Your Nineveh may be that guy that works next to you that you despise because he is nothing but a jerk.30:22But he's your Nineveh and God is putting beside you because God wants you to share the truth with him. You see, Nineveh is whatever you're running from when God is calling you. And I want to tell you something. It's easy to do from this pulpit as it is from that pew. But can I tell you something that's really good about this story?30:52And that's the fish. And now, you can say what you want to, but I want to tell you, the fish represents grace. You go, what? Yep, it represents grace. Here's why I believe it represents grace. Now, this is my opinion, okay? So you can differ with me and be wrong and walk out of here and say, he's a heretic. That's okay.31:22That's okay. I don't mind that. But here's why. When they throw Jonah in the sea and there's such a storm going on like there is, how long do you think Jonah can tread water?31:41I don't think Jonah's going to tread water very long because I don't think anybody treads water very long. Even the Coast Guard and their best equipment, when they're tossed into the Baltic Sea to rescue people, their lifespan is considered very short before they can get that person out of the water and get them in the helicopter or back on the boat. And so God says, Jonah, you've run from me. You've rebelled against me. But I love you. And you see, that's what grace is.32:11That's grace is God's unmerited love toward us. And he says, I love you enough that I'm going to send this fish to swallow you. Now, how many of y'all would say, okay, God, I think I'll send me a fish and swallow me up. Now, you know, I don't think I want to be swallowed by a fish unless I am in the midst of the sea and there's no help around. And that fish saved Jonah's life.32:38Can I tell you, Jesus Christ saved your life. Now, how is it grace to the Ninevites? Well, the fish, God's grace, doesn't just say, you know, I'm going to take Jonah and I'm going to let all these gastric slime things that digest all these other things I eat just digest Jonah and we'll eat him up and we'll go on and the Ninevites will die and go to hell.33:06No, that's not what happens. God gives that old fish a bellyache. Because you see, God has a purpose for Nineveh. And he has a purpose for Jonah. And God's not going to let Jonah get away in his life without going to that Nineveh. And he's not going to let you get away. Now, here's the problem. You may go through storm after storm after storm until you listen to God.33:36But until you are willing to listen to God, don't expect God, God, please get me out of this storm. Lord, we need this financial help. God, we need this physical help. We need all these things. And God says, if you'll just go to your Nineveh, it'll be well. So Jonah spit up on the shore. And the Bible says, you read the rest of it.34:05He makes his way to Nineveh. But he is an old-fashioned hellfire and damnation preacher. He's not some contemporary that comes along and thinks that a good story is going to do the same thing that a biblical message will do. And so Jonah starts preaching hellfire and damnation to the city and not caring whether they liked it or not, and went all the journey of several days from one end of the city to the other end of the city,34:31preaching, and all the people that God is speaking to are listening. And the Bible says that the king of this great city said, this man is preaching the truth. I need to repent, and he repents, and the people repent, and God saves the city. And Jonah, in his prejudice-hardened heart, walks outside the city, ticked off, because he said, I knew that's what kind of God you were anyway.35:01Aren't you glad that's the kind of God we serve today? And then Jonah went back under, back out there in the hot sun, and got miserable again. Just like we Baptists do when God saves somebody we wish that he wouldn't. You know, God saves a childhood friend we knew wasn't worth saving. Or we go to church one Sunday, and there it said, so I'm not here,35:30and we think to ourselves, good gravy train. How in the world did they get here? How in the world did they get here? My question for you today is, what is your Nineveh, and have you been there? And are you doing what God asks you to do while you're there? Because if you're not, get ready to live in the belly of a stinking fish,35:58in the darkest places. But know this, no matter how dark it is, or how bad it smells, God is there too, Jonah. So the challenge for us today is, is maybe the reason that I'm not so happy, and maybe the reason that my heart is breaking, is because I've been hiding in a boat of desire.36:27And I haven't been to my Nineveh. Before you can go to your Nineveh, you must first go to your Savior, Jesus Christ. And He will forgive you your sins, change your life.36:57And can I promise you something? He will give you a Nineveh. And it ain't going to be the most exciting place on earth. But until you go there, you're going to stink. You know that? You're going to smell like the belly of a fish. Until you get where God has called you to be. Let's pray.37:28Let's pray. Father, thank you for this message. It spoke to my heart. And I thank you, Lord, that we can know today that we can go to our Nineveh. That, Lord, Jonah is in here for a reason. It shows the goodness and the kindness of God because it also shows the great love that God has for people, even though these were Assyrians, and even though they were pagans, Lord, their sin came to you and you sent a preacher to them.37:57And God, there may be a lot of people in this room today that are running from their Nineveh. And it's time to stop. And it's time to give up and surrender. Lord, some people need to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and confess Him as Lord of their life. You take care of that. That's your job, not mine. God, I want to pray38:26for the believers that are here today that are hiding in boats because, God, they've been hurt or they've been challenged or they're busy and they're building a life and, God, they don't realize that to build a life without Jesus is like building a life on the sand. And when the storms come, the ships will sink. And when they sink,38:56there may be no hope. So, God, I pray for the hopeless. And I pray for the running, those that are running. And I pray, God, for your will to be done in Jesus' name. Amen. I want you to hear just briefly and quickly our instructions. This is our invitation time. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior today, can I invite you to step out? If God is speaking to your heart,39:25now, don't do it because of me because that won't do you any good or me any good. But if you sense the Holy Spirit is speaking to you today and you want to confess Christ as the Lord of your life, I want to invite you to come. If you know you're running from God, I challenge you right where you are to pray, God, stop my running. I want to know what my Nineveh is and I want to go there. Really, you probably already know. Thirdly, if the Lord has led you39:55to this church and you believe God's led you here to be a part of the fellowship, to be a part of this church as we reach out to our Nineveh and Ninevehs, then we invite you to simply step out and come that we may get the information from you and share you with our congregation that you become a part of it. But during this invitation time, I just pray you'll stay right where you are standing and praying for the people around you that God's work will be done as Greg leads us in our hymn of invitation. Would you stand? I'll see you next time.More sermons on Psalms →
