Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. If you could go to please stand with me, turn to song number 194.
"Since Jesus came into my heart."
Song number 194.
194, on that first verse.
What a wonderful change in my life has been brought
Since Jesus came into my heart.
I have lied in my soul for which long I had sought
Since Jesus came into my heart.
Like the sweet billows raw from my wandering and ghost trade
Jesus came in your middle way
Soul like the sweet that is dead uptown now my path is pure
Since Jesus came into soul like the sweet billows raw
Jesus came into like the sweet billows raw
That's it, the sweet
Thank you for this wonderful and beautiful night that you've given us.
Thank you for the opportunity and privilege it is.
And truly it is a privilege to come into your house and be able to hear your word.
We are so honored and be able to hear your word and I pray that we be attentive and please
bless the preacher with your Holy Spirit.
And of course may our singing glorify you.
We love you in Jesus name.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Song number 160 crown him with many crowns him with many crowns.
Song number 160 on that first round him with many crowns singing welcome to First Works
Baptist Church.
Just a few announcements here before we see our next song which will be song number 41
we buy and buy if you want to get that ready in your songbook song number 41 if you did
not get a bulletin raise your hand one of the ushers can get one for you important information
on there.
So we welcome you to come not this week but the following week to our Thursday evening
service and the reason I say not this week is because we're switching our services this
coming week to Friday and I'll give you more info on that in just a bit you see the soulening
times in teams the list of expecting mothers and the stats for salvations and baptisms
there at the bottom left hand corner on the right hand side is the upcoming church events
of course tonight we have our watermelon Sunday and that'll be after the service so it's basically
the way we did it last week just everyone line up right here through that door and there'll
be people there to kind of lead you and guide you into where the watermelon is at and then
of course just please pick up after yourselves so we keep it nice and clean in here and then
we have our youth rally coming up this Friday July 18th and as I mentioned we're not going
to have a midweek Bible study on Thursday that'll be switched to Friday for our youth
rally and so keep that in mind that'll still be at seven o'clock and the schedule is still
the same for the youth rally if you have any questions about that just go to the guest
center all the schedules there and if something's not on there that you're you have a question
about you can talk to myself my wife or brother Hernandez and we can help you out with that
we're looking forward to the youth rally it'll be our first youth rally and so they'll be
preaching at 10 30 in the morning and then of course the evening preaching at 7 and Camelot
in between so we're excited about that mini soul winning marathon will be next Sunday
on the 20th and so we're gonna go to Pomona and the soul winning will be from 1 30 to
3 and service will begin a little later 5 30 because we're gonna have lunch for everyone
when they come back and we had a great successful soul winning marathon mini soul winning marathon
when we first did it in the beginning of the year and so we're looking forward to this
one pray that we get a lot of people saved and we're looking forward to it TJ mission
trip is on Saturday July 26th leaving the building at 9 15 a.m. and just make sure you
bring your passports and if you have any questions about that you can see brother Hernandez of
course the the van leaves here at 9 o'clock approximately and so or 9 15 and so if you
need a ride just you can catch that with us just make sure you talk to brother Hernandez
I do want to mention one last thing here brother Hernandez if you can mute it on the live
stream because we by and by looking for that heavenly shore amen on that first there's
a land that is fairer than day and by faith we can see it a far for the far so the wayful
shore the sweet shall see that view mellow souls of the offering please turn your bibles
of Jonah good evening tonight we're in Jonah chapter one Jonah chapter one the Bible reads
now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai saying arise go to Nineveh
that great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me but Jonah
arose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa and he
found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to
go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord but the Lord sent out a great
wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be
broken then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God and cast forth the
wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them but Jonah was gone down
to the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep so the ship master came to him
and said unto him what meanest thou oh sleeper arise call upon thy God if so be that God
will think upon us that we perish not and they said everyone to his fellow come and
let us cast lots so we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us so they cast lots
and the lot fell upon Jonah then said they unto him tell us we pray thee for
whose cause this evil is upon us what is thine occupation and whence cometh thou
what is thy country and what of what people art thou and he said unto them I
am an Hebrew and I fear the Lord the God of heaven which hath made the sea and
the dry land then were the men exceeding afraid and said unto him why hast thou
done this for the man knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he
had told them then when they told when they when they they said then they said
unto him what shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm unto us for the sea
wrought and was tempestuous and he said unto them take me up and cast me forth
into the sea so shall the sea be calm unto you for I know that for my sake this
great tempest is upon you nevertheless the men rode hard to bring it to the
land but they could not for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them
wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said we beseech thee O Lord we beseech
thee let us not perish for this man's life and lay not upon us innocent blood
for thou O Lord has done as it pleased thee so they took up Jonah and cast him
forth into the sea and the sea ceased from a raging then the men feared the
Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows now the
Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the
belly of the fish three days and three nights let's pray dear Lord God just
thank you for the King James Bible Lord and the truths that we find in your word
Lord just thank you for pastor please bless him right now as he preaches your
word unto us Lord and pray this on Jesus name amen amen okay we are in the book of
Jonah this evening and the title of my sermon tonight is a stubborn prophet a
stubborn prophet I'm gonna give a synopsis of the book of Jonah tonight
we're gonna go through each chapter of course it's a very short book but this
is an incredible story and of course it's reiterated in the New Testament to
signify the death of Jesus Christ and the fact that his soul went to hell for
three days and three nights but we're gonna look at some principles tonight
from the story of Jonah and look at some of the things that we can learn from his
disobedience his trial his obedience and of course his attitude thereafter look
at verse number one it says now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of
Amitai saying arise go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it for their
wickedness is come up before me now the first thing I want you to notice here
is the fact that hard preaching condemning preaching can save a nation
right because of the fact that you know the Ninevites are very wicked obviously
it's a nation that's gonna be destroyed God's judgment is gonna come upon that
nation yet God comes to Jonah he tells him hey go and tell them that they're
gonna be overthrown he's not telling him to go over there and preach lightness
and exhortations and everything's gonna be okay and God's not mad at you no in
fact he goes to him and he tells him I'm gonna destroy you I'm gonna overthrow
this nation what does that teach us? it teaches us that we need negative
preaching obviously we understand that we need exhortations we need positive
preaching we need to be encouraged in the Lord we need to be exhorted and
encouraged not to quit the Christian life to continue to go forward that a
just man followed seven times and rise it up again but let me just be real
honest with you the majority of preaching that we need as Christians are
rebukes and reprovements why is that well because of the fact that our
natural inclination is to disobey God our natural inclination is to commit
sin our natural propensity is to do that which is displeasing unto the Lord and
so we need a prophet to come to us and tell us we're wrong fornication is evil
adultery is wicked don't gamble don't drink don't run with those that do why
because destruction can come upon your life and you shall be overthrown right
so the point that I'm making here is that condemning sermons can save a
nation and let me say that condemning sermons can save a church as well you
know if you don't preach hard sermons in a church sin will permeate that church
you know a little leaven leavened at the whole lump the Bible says in 1st
Corinthians chapter 5 and in its context is referring to fornication if
fornication goes unfettered unchecked people are unrepentant people are not
excommunicated or threatened to be excommunicated for the sin of
idolatry for the sin of fornication of drunkenness of railing guess what
happens aside from the fact that that person will end up destroying their own
lives they end up affecting other people in the church because then other people
see well I guess I can commit that sin and nothing will happen to me since
nothing's happening to them but the Bible tells us that they that sin
rebuke before all that others may fear so aside from the punishment that comes
upon the person who's committing that sin other people see that punishment and
say oh man I'm gonna depart from evil because I don't want to suffer the
consequences of my sin I don't want to suffer the consequences of disobeying
God because this may come upon me and make no mistake about it my friends the
Bible is filled with condemning content so how do you know well let's just talk
about hell for example hell's mentioned old New Testament and in fact it is the
driving factor as to why people get saved right they get saved because they
don't want to go to hell they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because of the
reality of it of a literal hell where the where the fire is not quenched where
the worm dieth not it's an eternal punishment hell is a very negative
message but yet it moves people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ right
and the point that I'm making here is that sometimes people think well if you
preach like that you're gonna scare people away from church no quite frankly
we end up scaring people to God because of the fact that knowing the judgment of
God people are led to repentance the Bible tells us that of some have
compassion making a difference others saved with fear pulling them out of the
fire right essentially saying that hell is often used as a great motivator and
incentive for people to be saved I don't know about you when I read the Bible
there's times when I read some pretty crazy stuff and I'm just like Lord
search me examine me Oh Lord see if there be any wicked way in me because I
don't want to fall under the same condemnation that other people fell into
because they were unrepentant the Lord is telling Jonah hey go to Nineveh and
tell them they're gonna be destroyed why because God knows that that message
will hit home and people will get right with God okay so the word of the Lord
came into this Jonah the son of Amittai and of course Jonah is a prophet that's
mentioned one other time in second Kings chapter 14 and he's a great preacher
he's a prophet of the Lord he has this responsibility to go and
preach the word of God to Nineveh and you would think that he would behave as
in other times or behave himself like other prophets and just go and preach
right but no what do we see look at verse number three but Jonah rose up to
flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa and he
found a ship going to Tarshish for he paid the he paid the fare thereof and
went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord so
right off the bat God's like go preach and he's just like no I'm going to
Tarshish now why did he disobey well obviously we can speculate as to why
obviously he's just stubborn and disobedient but based upon the entirety
of the story all four chapters it sounds like Jonah just doesn't like
Ninevites he's like anti Ninevite you know I mean he just has this thing
against Ninevites he's like a racist against Ninevites he has this prejudice
against him for whatever reason okay he has like a bone to pick with them and
the only reason I would say that that's probably the case is because of the fact
that even though he still goes and he preaches to them and they repent he's
like mad that they repent he's mad that they get it right with God and he's just
like man I just wish they were destroyed or something you know and it's obviously
a wicked attitude and it's causing him to disobey the word of the Lord right
because of his prejudice against the Ninevites let me say this you know you
may have your opinions about other races okay it's not an opinion it's pattern
recognition or whatever let me say this hey keep your opinion if that's what you
want but let me say this may never hinder you for going out and preaching
the word of God to them though for God is no respecter of people you know the
gospel is the power of God into salvation to everyone that believe it to
the Jew first and also to the Greek you know and God is not willing that any
should perish but that all should come to repentance so you know what who
cares you have your opinion all right but let me just say this first and
foremost may not hinder you from preaching the gospel to them when you
meet them at the door okay from expressing the love of God and to them
you say well of course pastor aren't there you know isn't that what every
Christian believes folks I remember being in in the city of El Monte when
our church first started and we were going we're having a marathon a
soul-winning marathon in Compton and Compton is primarily black some
Mexicans there because Mexicans we just take everything over but there's black
people there you know and and and there's I announced to the church we're
going to Compton because you know we want to preach the gospel to those in
Compton and there's a guy was just like Compton he never came back after that he
left the church and never returned but that's not the only time that happened I
mean one time I think it was South Central that we're going to and we're
gonna go to South Central there's a guy in our church who refused to go to South
Central because he was white and there's black people there and it's like oh man
don't you know what's gonna happen if I go there I'm thinking myself yeah you're
gonna get people safe if you preach the gospel plain and simple you know he was
fearing his own shadow and you know lo and behold this guy was like a hardcore
racist I mean this guy just like hated black people and this wasn't known until
after he left our church but this man had these opinions and it hindered him
from actually reaching out to black people to preach the gospel to them you
know and so it's just like it's nonsensical to have this type of attitude
to say well you know because I don't like this group of people or I have
these opinions about this ethnicity they don't even deserve to be saved or
something that's a wicked attitude preach the gospel to everyone because at
the end of the day let me tell you something doesn't matter how white you
are if you're not saved you're gonna split hell wide open and the black
person that you hated that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ will enjoy the
eternal presence of God not because of his skin color but because he believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ you know it makes me think of J. Frank Norris you
know J. Frank Norris was like a fundamental Baptist of the 1920s and he
had two of the largest churches during that time in Fort Worth Texas and
another one was I think it was in Detroit and he had these large churches
and he attracted a lot of Ku Klux Klan members like he had a lot of KKK
members in his church because they really liked his preaching against the
Catholics but they had this one beef with him and that was that he baptized
he saved and baptized his janitor that was black and they're like I can't
believe you're gonna baptize this guy and you know he got up there and he's
like though this man's skin is as black as coal his heart is made has been made
white by the blood of the lamb and he baptized them you know and people think
well man they shouldn't be allowed in our church these types of people folks
if you don't like it you're not gonna like heaven because heaven is filled
with different ethnicities of every tongue nation and tribe you know at the
end of the day it's just important are they saved and I have more in common
with the guy from India who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ not with not the
food but I'm saying the guy who believes on Lord Jesus Christ I love him more and
have more in common with him than the nationalist American who's not saved and
believes on on the Lord Donald Trump or something and rejects Christianity okay
the point that I'm making here is the fact that Jonah has a wicked attitude
he's not going he's literally disobeying God because of his prejudice
against the Ninevites now I want you to notice here that when he's commanded to
go and preach to Ninevah what does he do he flees from the presence of the Lord
now this is pretty nonsensical is it not why because you can't really flee from
God's presence God is what we would refer to as being omnipresent you know
if I make my bed in hell thou art there you know if I if I go up to heaven if I
ascend into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell thou art there Psalm
139 God is everywhere at all times and in fact we obviously know that God's
presence is distinctly different in different situations for example in the
house of God he's meeting with us here because we're two or three are gathered
together in my name there I am in the midst right but we also know that God
permeates all of society his eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth
beholding the evil and the good referring to his omnipresence his
omniscience right so it's kind of nonsensical to think that oh man he
thinks he can run away from God but I submit to you that when it says that
he's running from the presence of the Lord the presence of the Lord is
synonymous with his word okay how do I know that well think about back in
Genesis chapter 3 when Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit and then say Apple
so the forbidden fruit right he eats it they eat of the forbidden fruit they
recognize that they're naked and then the Bible says that they hear the voice
of the Lord walking in the garden in the midst of the day right they hear the
voice of the Lord and what do they do they hide from the presence of the Lord
showing us that the presence of the Lord is is clearly tied to the voice of the
Lord the commandments of God because what is he running from literally he's
running from the precept the commandment to go and preach the word of God to
Nineveh so he's fleeing from the presence of God in that way he's
disobeying the word of God and you know what it's the same today think about
this when someone gets out of church they backslide they're essentially
running from the presence of the Lord why is that because they don't want to
hear the preaching of God's word you know when they backslide what do they
do they stop reading their Bibles why because they're fleeing from the
presence of the Lord that's strongly tied into his word you know they don't
want to come to church because they know they're gonna hear preaching that's
gonna provoke them to get right with God to get sin out of their lives to get
saved or whatever it may be they're fleeing from God's presence which is
synonymous with his precepts his statutes his commandments so Jonah is
running from the commandment of the Lord okay another thing I want you to notice
here is that when you flee from God's presence when you disobey God there's
only one direction you can go and that's down you're going down look what it says
in verse number three again Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the
presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to
Tarshish so he paid the fare thereup and went down into it to go with them unto
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord skip down to verse number five it says
then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God and cast forth
the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them but Jonah was
gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep kind of
giving us this this picture here that Jonah is not doing well spiritually
speaking because he's going down and we see later on that he goes further than
just a ship he actually goes into the ocean into the depths he's swallowed by
a whale he's swallowed by a great fish and so what's the point that I'm making
here is that when you backslide when you choose to disobey the word of the Lord
there's only one direction you can go well no I'm disobeying the word of the
Lord so I can make more money on my job so I can move up the ladder no you're
gonna go down the ladder no no you don't understand I'm gonna stop coming to
church I'm gonna stop reading my Bible I'm gonna take a break from Christianity
so that I can move up in life I can move up in my finances I can move up and
improve myself there's only one direction when you flee from God's
presence and that's down you're going down so we see here he's going down
he's fleeing from the presence of the Lord look at verse number four but the
Lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the
sea so that the ship was like to be broken now what I want you to notice here
that when you flee from God's presence his word God often sends trials because
the wind in the sea the mighty tempest in the sea is often synonymous with
symbolic of trials and tribulations right when everything just seems to be
overflowing you seem to be overwhelmed you're drowning in financial problems
you're drowning in depression you're drowning in relational conflicts what is
that that's the tempest that God is allowing into your life to kind of wake
you up which is exactly what it needs to do to Jonah since he's down in the ship
sleeping what's God trying to do he's trying to wake him up and the sad thing
about this is that he doesn't wake up who wakes him up the unsaved people wake
him up the unsaved people have to come there and say hey wake up we're about to
die in this thing now look folks this is not to say that as a Christian you're
not going to experience trials and tempestuous when we all do even when
we're serving God right when you're serving God when you are in church when
you are reading your Bible you're winning souls to Christ you will
experience tempestuous winds trials and difficulties you will feel like you're
drowning in trials for a fact think it not strange concerning the fiery trial
that shall try you the Bible says why because it's gonna happen to you because
ye all that will live God in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution the
difference is often trials come into our life number one because maybe we might
have sin in our lives and God is trying to sanctify us he's trying to get us to
get right with him but number two even if you don't have some secret sin in
your life maybe you're not disobeying the Lord God is pruning you to make you
more useful and meet for the master's use and you know how does God use
someone well they have to be humble and you know what humbles us trials because
you know what trials do it exposes our vulnerabilities it exposes how weak we
really are it shows us that we're not all that we thought we were cracked up
to be and so winds and trials and tempestuous things come upon us even as
a Christian but there's a difference though the difference between our
trials and their trials is God's trying to get Jonah to get right with God to
get to obey the Lord and go to Nineveh and go preach the word of God so the
mariners come to him and they see him sleeping look at verse number six so the
shipmaster came to him and said to him what meanest thou oh sleeper arise call
upon thy God if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not and he
said everyone to his fellow come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose
cause this evil is upon us so they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah then
said they unto him tell us we pray thee for whose cause this evil is upon us
what is that occupation whence cometh thou what is thy country and of what
people art thou so what's going on here so the shipmaster comes and he's like
wake up call upon your God this doesn't mean that the shipmaster is a believer
in the in the God of the Bible what he's dealing with it are polytheistic people
right so you know you got this dude calling upon Baal this other guys
calling upon his false God so they're just thinking oh hey what are you doing
wake up and call upon your deity to save us from this they're being
superstitious about this whole thing okay so obviously he gets up and they
begin to cast lots in order to determine whose fault is it that we're in this
mess in the first place now we don't know exactly what casting lots would
look like you know the Bible doesn't really give us a very strong visual
description of what casting lots is we would think of like drawing straws right
you guys ever drew straws before you get four or five straws or whatever and you
have one that's really short but you kind of level them out when you stick
them out of your hand and whoever has the shortest shortest straws loser well
in this case is they cast lots and the way the lap falls it's supposed to
determine you know okay this is the person that's gonna go this is the
person that's gonna be the Apostle as with Matthias and this was a common
practice in the Old Testament in order to determine the will of the Lord and
you know coincidentally it actually does work and it falls upon Jonah so they
want to know whose fault is it they were in this mess and the lot is fallen upon
Jonah and you know the Bible talks about that the lot is cast into the lap but
the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord so you know obviously we don't cast
lots today because of the fact that we don't need to figure things out by
chance or you know by straws we have the Bible like if we need to make a
decision we just go to what the Bible says we don't go to our feelings we
don't go to our emotions and in fact the Bible literally says lean not into
thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy
paths it begins to say trust in the Lord with all thine hearts and lean on into
thine own understanding you know a lot of you were like oh no just follow your
heart oh that's funny because the Bible says that the heart is deceitful above
all things desperately wicked who can know it it sounds like the heart is not
very reliable to lead us in different matters therefore we need the Word of
God to override our logic override what we think is best and just go with what
the Word of God says so we don't cast lots today but that's what they're
doing and it falls upon him and you know they're just like hey you know so what's
going on where you from what is your occupation look at verse 9 he said into
them I am a Hebrew and I thought this was funny and I feared the Lord oh really
what the heck are you doing here the God of heaven and here's the kicker which
hath made the sea and the dry land so you know obviously throughout the Old
Testament you hear different descriptions of the Lord as being the
creator the God of heaven and earth here Jonah saying that he's the one who made
the sea and the dry land well that sea part you know kind of hits them and
it's just like oh man his God is the reason why we're in this mess to begin
with and again they're not believers in the God of the Bible they're
superstitious people but because he said that his God is the God of the sea
therefore they're like oh that lends veracity as to why we're experiencing
this we're in the ocean there's a tempestuous wind we're suffering because
of this guy's God verse number 10 says then were the men exceedingly afraid and
said to him why hast thou done this for the men knew that he fled from the
presence of the Lord because he had told them then said they unto him what shall
we do unto thee that the sea may be common to us for the sea wrought and
was tempestuous he said unto them take me up and cast me forth into the sea so
shall the sea be common to you for I know that for my sake this great
tempest is upon you now you got to give it to Jonah right to even say that like
here's the solution just throw me overboard me I would have been like I
don't know okay can't help you there you know even though you know you're the
problem right now what's the principle that we can learn there well you know
obviously not everyone is a Jonah but sometimes you got to throw out a Jonah
because sometimes Jonah is the reason why the church or the group or the family
is experiencing tempestuous seas and trials and tribulations and sometimes
you just got throw them overboard right you cast out the scorner and the simple
will be where right and so you know he's like throw me over and everything will
be alright now these guys are pretty should I say empathetic they're
compassionate towards Jonah because they actually refused to do so because it
says in verse 13 nevertheless the men rode hard to bring it to land but they
could not for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against him so even after he
tells them like hey just throw me over they're just like nah we're not gonna do
that bro that's messed up you know we're just gonna try to make it to land I
think everything will be alright well no it's not gonna be alright verse 14
wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said we beseech thee O Lord we beseech
thee let us not perish for this man's life and lay not upon us innocent blood
for thou O Lord has done as it pleased thee so they took up Jonah and cast him
forth into the sea and the sea ceased from her raging then the man feared the
Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows now I still
don't believe that they became believers in the Lord I still think they're just
superstitious people they obviously recognized that God the God of the
Bible even though they wouldn't refer to him as such that he's the one
responsible for the tempest but he's also responsible for the calming of the
sea after Jonah was cast out so they in a ritual ritualistic manner are offering
this you know thing unto the Lord to appease him okay now I want you to notice
verse 17 it says now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah
and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights so he's
cast into the ocean okay and you know within the ocean is not calmer than
what's on top of the ocean so you have these waves crashing because of the wind
it's even more wild in the actual ocean itself so you know this guy Jonah's
tossed over and I'm sure he's being pummeled in the ocean but God prepares a
great whale to swallow him up now I do believe personally that this whale is
possibly referring to Leviathan okay and I preach other sermons in times past in
that regard when you look at the Genesis account for example in Genesis chapter
1 God talks about in Genesis chapter 1 the creation period and he describes all
of creation but he gives a very general description of what he's making for
example he makes the beast of the field he doesn't give a specific species a
specific type or a specific kind of beast he just says the beast of the field
however when you get to the marine life it almost as though it seems as though he
actually does get specific because he calls it the great whales now we thought
that was interesting like he's so general about all of the other creations
but when it comes to the marine life he says the great whales which we would
classify as you know a specific type of marine life blue whale you know sperm
whale things of that nature killer whale we think that that's what it's referred
to referring to you know a mammal of the ocean right but what I believe is
taking place in the Genesis account is that God classifies any marine life
specifically if they're very large or as the Bible puts it great as being a whale
okay because the whale is just the way you describe something that's very
enormous right so when he says he makes a great whale he's referring to marine
life that is just very large and so and I preach other sermons about why I
believe when the Bible talks about Leviathan he's actually could would be
classified as being a great whale because he's a very large marine life
creature and we also see from a spiritual perspective then when God
punishes the righteous he sends Satan to go and punish them right I mean we see
that with Job even though he wasn't in sin you know God Satan was given access
to go and plague Job and and persecute him and destroys flesh and his family
and we see that you know Leviathan in the Old Testament though a literal
creature also symbolically represents Satan right various instances where
that takes place so I do think that this is possible that this is referring to
Leviathan that God prepared to go and swallow up Jonah in order to punish him
for his disobedience okay now this is gonna show us here that even though
Jonah disobeyed the Lord he's in complete rebellion to the Lord he's
refusing to go to Nineveh all things work together for good to them to love
God and you said why is that well because his disobedience led him to
getting swallowed up by a whale which would ultimately picture and represent
the Lord Jesus Christ going to hell for three days and three nights which is
why it specifically says that he was in the belly of the fish three days and
three nights Oh pastor fish you know you keep saying a whale but it says fish God
just calls him fish you know anything in the ocean is just a fish or a great well
okay so he's in there looking for chapter 2 now now you know I don't think
that Jonah was like Geppetto where it's like there's all kinds of space in the
whale and he's just in the boat there and waiting for Pinocchio to come save
him or whatever you know and obviously there's instances even today where
literal whales swallow up people and end up spitting them out and there's even a
video circulating like a couple years ago of someone who swallowed up by well
in a I think it was a kayak and ended up spitting them out or whatever so it is
definitely possible for this to happen the supernatural occurrence here is that
he actually stayed in the belly of the well and that he ended up coming out now
we could conjecture all day long that he really died I would say possibly he
didn't die but it's possible that he did we don't know the Bible is not very
clear regarding that I would say that he probably stayed alive the entire time
but he is in the stomach of the whale and if you're in the stomach of the whale
you're essentially bathing in aside from all of I'm not trying to be like nasty
here but you know everything that that that marine life has eaten but also the
stomach acids because stomach acids are meant to break down whatever is being
consumed so if he's there for three days and three nights he's essentially
sitting in stomach acid that entire time which would eventually just
completely destroy his body right remove his pigmentation you know just make him
look like a freak okay and and I'm gonna say more about that later because I do
think there's some significance to that now look at chapter 2 verse 1 it says
then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly and said I cried
by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly
of hell cried I and thou hurtest my voice this is powerful so first and
foremost just to kind of show you how stubborn Jonah is bro waits until the
third day in the third night to pray unto the Lord okay I mean did anybody
think about that you know if I got swallowed up like immediately and I knew
it was because of my disobedience I would want to get right with God like
immediately like I'm just like slithering in there I'm just like God
get me out of here but it sounds like according to the passage he didn't cry
out to God until the third day or the third night right the third night excuse
me you know he's there and then he's just sick and tired of being in there
and then he ends up crying unto the Lord to rescue him and what does the Lord do
he actually does save him from that now let me give you a biblical principle
that we can learn from this God is long-suffering very patient patient with
you he's patient with me and you know God as high as the heavens are from the
earth so great is his mercy towards them that fear him the Bible says you
know what God's mercy is not getting what we deserve right and you know this
should be a lesson to you and a lesson to me that when someone backslides and
gets out of church or maybe they're excommunicated maybe they're being
chastised by the Lord in that manner you may think to yourself like man why
doesn't this person get right with God already it's been so long well it's
probably because God's just being really merciful to that person and God in his
foreknowledge understands that this you know it's gonna take some time for this
person to get right with God now if you're that person you might get right
with God one day in you might be the person that gets right with God two days
in but there's Jonah's out there they don't get right with God until the third
night so you got to understand as people out there it takes time for them to get
right with the Lord and this is not to say that we should enable them right we
should never be enablers of people who have been kicked out of church or
involved in in wicked sin we need to make sure that we don't enable in them
we don't approve of what they're doing they need to receive the full
chastisement the punishment of their doings but at the same time we need to
recognize God may be merciful to this person he's being gracious to them
because at the end of the day the Lord loves them and believe it or not you
know the Lord loves Jonah as stubborn as he is as rebellious as he is the Lord
still loves him and so he's just kind of waiting the fish is just you know the
whale is just in the ocean just doing his thing and then Jonah's just in there
just soaking in in in stomach acid and you know there's people out there that
are just soaking in sin they're soaking in the stomach acid of the consequences
of their actions they're burning away the pigmentation of their flesh losing
their hair just miserable as the day is long and God's just waiting for them to
get right with God and obviously there's there's various ways that people get
right with God you know as we see with Jonah here sometimes people just need to
recognize the goodness and forbearance of God leadeth us to repentance right
and you know I would much rather get right with God just because I recognize
his goodness in my life but some people need to are like Jonah though or they
need to spend a couple nights in the wells belly in order for them to realize
man I need God to save me from this now that's one thing I want to mention but
the second thing I want you I want you to notice here is the fact that this is
reiterated in Matthew chapter 12 to talk about the death of Jesus Christ
because in Matthew chapter 12 you have the Pharisees coming to Jesus Christ
demanding for him to perform a sign a miracle right and the Lord says that a
wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no
sign be given into it but the sign of Jonas the prophet for as Jonas is three
days and three nights in the wells belly so shall the Son of Man be three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth so he's making a parallel here to
Jonah and this shows us that Jesus Christ when he died went to hell for
three days and three nights he said how do you know well because if he's calling
back to Jonah in Jonah chapter 2 Jonah specifically said in verse number 2 out
of the belly of hell cried I that is symbolically representing the Lord Jesus
Christ because Jonah did not go to hell right Jonah wasn't in hell he was in the
well's belly but he's prophetically prophesying of the coming Christ that
would eventually descend into hell for three days and three nights just as he
was in the well's belly for three days and three nights as well you say oh man
that's crazy I can't believe that you would say that Jesus went to hell for
three days and three nights well here's the thing folks is that if the Bible
says that if the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is our substitute that he
took our place that would mean that he took our punishment as well and if you
died to pay for your sins where would you go you'd go straight to hell and
you'd be there for all of eternity okay and so the substitute that Jesus Christ
made is that when he died we're like oh no he just paid for our sins you know
that's all that was necessary for our salvation well that's interesting
because the Bible says in Romans chapter 4 that he was delivered for our offenses
and listen to this and raised again for our justification clearly showing us
that we need both right so everything of Jesus Christ is needed to be saved the
perfect life of Jesus Christ is needed to be saved his obedience to God's
command is necessary to be saved his sinlessness is necessary to be saved
his death is necessary to be saved him going to hell is necessary to be saved
because the Bible specifically says in the book of Isaiah that his soul was
made an offering for sin so he went to hell and look folks this is why the
sacrifices of the Old Testament were perpetually made they were burned to
signify the fact that Jesus Christ would go to hell for three days and three
nights you know he is the Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the
world and you know what people like to preach that all the day long but can we
also accept the fact that those offerings were burnt just as Jesus Christ would
suffer that and we obviously know we have a ton of scriptures to back this up
Psalm 15 being one of them that will not leave my soul in hell neither without
suffered that Holy one to see corruption reiterated in Acts chapter 2 and it
says this spake he of the resurrection right referring to the fact that though
David is penning down those scriptures in Psalm 15 he's prophetically referring
to the fact that Jesus Christ would resurrect from hell and let me just say
this you in my opinion it's hard for you to make a case of being King James
only when you don't believe that right because what what is the alternative of
that interpretation although he didn't go to hell he went to Abraham's bosom
but it says hell though my King James Bible says hell and in the original
languages says hell as well okay there's no such thing as the second
compartment of hell referred to as Abraham's bosom Abraham's bosom is
Abraham's chest cavity that you know Lazarus went to and he was hugging him
and he's in his bosom like this it's not a second compartment of hell and you
know that doctrine is nonsensical for various reasons one being that they call
it prison but they also call it paradise which one is it how do you call prison
paradise it's like a motel in hell or something like that you know but we see
that this signifies the fact that Jesus Christ went to hell for three days in
three nights okay he says in verse 3 for thou hath cast me into the deep in the
midst of the seas and the floods can pass me about all thy billows and thy
waves passed me over then I said I am cast out of thy sight yet I will look
again toward thy holy temple the waters can pass me about even to the soul the
depth closed me round about the weeds were wrapped about my head I went down
to the bottoms of the mountains the earth with their bars was about me
forever yet has thou brought up my life from corruption oh lord my god so you
know obviously Jonah is given this visible description of what he's
experiencing in the Wellesville and you can think about the fact that the whale
is going deep into the ocean he's going into the marine trenches to the to the
depths of the mountains in the ocean but in like manner when Jesus Christ went to
hell he went below that right he went to the depths and the Bible specifically
says in Ephesians chapter 4 what is it that he referring to Jesus ascended and I
want you to notice this but that he first descended into the lower parts of
the earth okay and so he's obviously referring to the fact that that's where
he went into the heart of the earth referring to the earth's core which
would be rightly described as being hell even scientists can tell you that there's
lava brimstone and fire in the in the center of the earth regardless of what
flat tards think about that verse 7 says when my soul fainted within me I
remember the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee into thine holy temple they
that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy but I will sacrifice
unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving I will pay that that I
have vowed salvation is of the Lord and so we see you know Jonah singing a
different tune now you know he's talking about the mercy of the Lord he's talking
about the voice of thanksgiving he's like I have paid my vow salvation is of
the Lord I mean he's in there like saying all this stuff so what does God do
he shows him mercy and verse number 10 the Lord spake into the fish and it
vomited out Jonah upon the dry land so this is great you know the the whale
apparently beaches itself or something and just throws up Jonah into the beach
now I'm sure Jonah's really happy right he's like I'm alive he's alive he's not
dead he's you know he's just he's no longer in the wells belly but you know
he probably smells really bad and he looks worse right I mean wouldn't you
agree with that he probably looks absolutely he looks like Michael Jackson
right and who knows maybe there's some deformities in his flesh because of all
the stomach acid he smells but let me say and we said what's the point you're
trying to make with that pastor well the point that I'm making is that you know
sometimes when people get right with God it's great but it doesn't come without
consequences it doesn't come without scars and you know what if you decide to
flee from the presence of the Lord it's possible the fish might vomit you out
yeah for sure it's possible that God will show your mercy but it's also
likewise possible that you're not going to look at like your former self why
because the whale chewed you up and spit you out Satan chewed you up and he spit
you out and you know one thing that God can't remove is the consequences of your
actions that you face while you're out in the world disobeying God right now
praise God you know he's out of the whale praise God he's gonna go back and
preach the word of God but hold on a second bro losses pigmentation I'm sure
there's some major health you know problems that he has and you know what
the same goes for anyone who gets out of the will of God they flee from the
presence of the Lord they will Lord willing they'll come back but I'm just
gonna tell you right now they're gonna come come back with baggage now they
can work through those things amen they can work through the problems work
through the baggage but there's still baggage so let me just say this stay
right with God just stay in church just keep reading the Bible if you're
depressed just be depressed and serve God and it'll eventually go away if
you're sad if you're distressed if you feel disillusioned keep serving God
because I'm just telling you right now as difficult as it is serving God in
that particular state it's just a thousand times better than what you'll
get if you get out of God's will and you come back to church looking like Jonah
because you might get a second chance for sure but you're gonna have some scars
you're gonna have some some some problems you're gonna have baggage you
can have disease you can have health issues you're gonna come back looking
like Jonah thank God if you come back but I'd rather just I'd rather have just
gone to Nineveh in the first place put it that way if I'm gonna get some scars
man I get scars from serving God right if I'm gonna go through hardships I
rather go through hardships because I'm serving the Lord Jesus Christ if I'm
gonna suffer some consequences maybe the consequences of being a Christian you
know I rather suffer the consequences of a bombed building because I preached
against the sodomites I'll gladly take that I bear in my body the marks of the
Lord Jesus Christ and one of them is a bomb building but I'd rather get that
than a drive-by because I disobeyed the Lord and I'm at some party or something
doing that something I'm not supposed to be doing and you know someone takes my
legs or something and I'm paralyzed for the rest of my life you know what I'm
saying but the point that I'm making here is that at least he came back but
let me just be real honest with you you probably had some baggage along with
that look at chapter 3 now and I love this verse here in chapter 3 and the
word of the Lord came into Jonah the second time isn't that great you know
he's like go to Nineveh is like nope he goes this whole series of disobedience
he's punished of God he gets right with God and what happens next God the word
of the Lord came a second time you know what this shows me is that God can still
use Jonah and you know what maybe you're the person who did come back and the
world did chew you up and spit you out here's here's your second chance you
can serve God again the word of the Lord you know God can use you once again not
just in your family not just with your friends but with your church and
complete strangers God can use you in a great way as you use Jonah the second
time because the word of the Lord can come back to you the second time and you
know what let me just say this is that sometimes people don't come back to
church because they're ashamed they're ashamed right they've been out of church
for so long they're like oh man I was gonna be asking so where you been are
you finally decided to come back but you know what quite frankly that's not gonna
happen when you come to our church people don't shame you if you've been
out of church for a long period of time most likely you're just gonna hear that
people miss you the transition for you to come back we'll just pick up where we
left off so he comes the second time look at verse 2 arise go to Nineveh
that great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee so Jonah arose
and went into Nineveh according to the word of the Lord now Nineveh was an
exceeding great city of three days journey and Jonah began to enter into
the city a day's journey and he cried and said yet 40 days and Nineveh shall
be overthrown now one thing I want you to notice here is that even though Jonah
was backslidden he gets right with God and he still preaches hard you said
what's the point what are you trying to say sometimes when people backslide and
they get back in church they can get a little soft right because they're like
well I messed up so how can I preach against sin if I messed up but hold on a
second the Lord is bidding you to do it though right he's telling you to do it
and in fact often you can carry more weight in your preaching carry more weight
in your admonishments because you're an example of someone who disobeyed God was
punished and guess what now you're right with God so it's like don't do what I
did right and you know there's speculation as far as verse four is
concerned about like is this the only thing that he said I would possibly say
it probably was the only thing he had to say okay some people say no there's more
in this sermon than just that I'm sure you preached an hour-long sermon I
personally think that he literally just said that 40 days Nineveh shall be
overthrown you so how do you know because once everyone looked at Jonah
right he's just like I mean he just looks like trash and everyone's like and
and I'm sure someone in the crowd was like bro looks like he was
overthrown you look like you're overthrown off a ship and then you look
like a whale swallowed you and overthrew you out of its mouth so they're
probably thinking like you know oh I'm assuming this is all he had to say and
one of the reasons I believe that is because in Luke chapter 11 when it
talks about Jonah being swallowed by the whale when Jesus Christ talks about it
he the wording is a little different it talks about the fact that Jonah was the
sign right there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah's the
prophet but then in Luke chapter 11 it says that Jonah was the sign essentially
saying that he himself was that epistle known and read of all men right the way
he looked probably communicated a message of being overthrown you understand
what I'm saying so he's like Nineveh shall be overthrown yet 40 days Nineveh
shall be overthrown verse 5 so the people of Nineveh believed God and
proclaimed to fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the
least of them I'm assuming that known Jonah probably looked like trash because
they were so highly motivated to get right with God to the point where the
leader we'll see it just a bit he even makes the animals repent now that's some
repentance they're putting sackcloth on the animals are pouring ashes on the
chihuahua like everyone's repenting it's a powerful message here now some people
think that this is referring to the fact that like Noah not Noah Jonah got
everyone saved in Nineveh I don't believe that I don't believe he's
preaching salvation of individual people I believe what he's preaching is the
salvation of the nation okay because the nation is being wicked and the
salvation of the nation is not referring to the justification of the
individual it's referring to the fact that nations need to get right with God
by turning from their wicked sin and God will not suffer them to you know to have
that punishment of their nation being overthrown and destroyed okay so it
doesn't say anything about the salvation of the individual Nineveh was spared
from God's judgment now when you read Nahum you actually see the Nineveh
eventually gets destroyed so even though Nineveh was spared at this time
eventually got destroyed now what does that tell us it tells us that we can
save America in our generation but it doesn't mean the next generation will you
know that it will be spared sometimes we can only do enough righteousness to
withstand the judgment of God withhold the judgment of God for a few
generations but eventually judgment will come okay so they proclaim a fast they
put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them verse
number six for the word came into the king of Nineveh and he arose from his
throne and he laid his rope from him and covered him with sackcloth and sat in
ashes and he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the
decree of the king and his noble saying let neither man nor beast herd nor flog
taste anything let them not feed nor drink water but let man and beast be
covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God yea let them turn everyone from
his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands who can tell if God
will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not so
this is what's commonly we would commonly refer to as a reformation right
because it may not be that the people here were in agreement with the king but
they're obeying the king causing them to fast repenting sackcloth and ashes this
is an outward reformation which is still good we want outward reformations in our
country as well we want people to do right even if they don't think you know
the Bible's right about this we want everyone to behave in a certain way and
this ultimately turns God's wrath from them now verse number 10 is a key verse
here it says in God saw their works and I want you to notice this that they turn
from their evil way now what can we learn from that well we see here that
when they turn from their evil way that is also known as what repenting right
and according to the Bible repenting or turning from your evil way is considered
a work to work you know people often preach a false gospel and they say oh
you have to repent of your sins to be saved we tell well that's a work but no
that's not work yes it is God literally viewed it as a work now obviously
repentance in the Bible varies based upon its context right so we're not
saying that repentance only means a change of mind there are instances where
repentance means to turn from sin or to turn from you know committing a certain
action or even a good action repentance just means to turn the context of what
we're turning from is what's what's debated the point that we're making is
that it doesn't mean to turn from your sin conclusively all the time throughout
scripture because the Bible records God repenting and in fact the proof of that
is actually found in verse 9 who can tell if God will turn and repent right
well for repentance meant to turn from sin what do we have here we have God
turning from sin God can't sin okay so this is proof that turning from your
evil way meaning repenting of your sin is considered a work according to the
Bible now the reformers and stuff they hate that they hate when you bring up
Jonah 3 10 because it completely demolishes their false gospel as it
should it says and God repented of the evil there you go again that he had said
that he would do unto them and he did it not so God is very much concerned for
the welfare of Nineveh now let me just say this before I before you conclude
with chapter 4 and chapter 4 is not very long and that is that the reason it's
important for a nation to repent of their evil deeds is not just so that
nation is not overthrown but it's also because it creates a culture that is
conducive or receptive to the gospel okay when you create a society a culture
that is fearful of the wrath of God you create individuals that are ultimately
receptive to the gospel right and you know I think of for example the nation
of Belize and we're gonna go to Belize in March to go preach the gospel there
but when we first started going to Belize man we would consider it to be
like a Christian nation because there's just like King James scriptures
everywhere. The kids that we preach the gospel to can recite the Romans road
they just weren't saved but there are God-fearing people though. When you would
ask the people what's a really bad sin they're just like adultery. I mean when
will you ever hear that out here? It's like what is a really bad sin? Disobeying
your parents. They're God-fearing and it's for that reason that a lot of them got
saved because of the fact that they were right for the picking. Now I will say
that as the years have gone by you know more tourists are going there it seems
that they're being more I don't know gentrified or whatever and more American
cultures coming and it seems as though they're less receptive. Whereas when we
started going in 2019 it was just a lot more receptive to the gospel because of
the fact that the Word of God permeated that society. Point that I'm making here
is important for a nation to repent to remove wickedness from their land
because ultimately it produces individuals in that culture who are
receptive to the gospel. Now look at chapter 4. So God spares Nineveh and
Jonah throws a party? No. This is but it pleases Jonah exceedingly and he was very
angry and he prayed unto the Lord and said I pray thee O Lord was not this my
saying when I was yet in my country therefore I fled before unto Tarshish
for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful and slow to anger and of
great kindness and repentance thee of the evil therefore now O Lord take I
beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live. What a
What a stinking crouch.
The nation gets spared.
He's like, man, I knew it.
I knew that was gonna happen.
How'd you know?
'Cause God is gracious.
God's merciful.
And I knew if I went, the preaching was gonna work.
And you know, he's praying this to God.
He's like, I knew you were gonna do this.
And this is why I believe that he's probably
prejudiced against the Ninevites.
He didn't want them to be spared.
He wanted Ninevah to be destroyed.
That's what he wanted.
He wanted India to be destroyed.
He wanted Israel to be destroyed, right?
He wants this to happen.
He's just like, I just know that
God's gonna be merciful though and he's not gonna do it.
And let me just show you the extent of his prejudice.
Because let's just put ourself in his sandals real quick.
And let's just say we hold
that same prejudice towards Ninevah.
And we're like, I knew that was gonna happen.
We would just walk away and be like, whatever.
Have a nice life, bunch of Ninevites.
And walk away.
No, what does he say?
Can you just kill me now?
I'd rather die than see Ninevah get saved.
I mean, this is strong prejudice, right?
I'm like, Jonah, you know, really?
Why don't you just go home?
Just go back to Israel.
Just go back to your homeland, you know,
get some coverings, you know what I mean?
Get some plastic surgery or something.
Move on with it.
He's like, I'd rather just die.
Crazy.
Now why is he like this?
Because he's just a grump.
Bro's just a disgruntled, stubborn prophet
who obviously has strong prejudice against the Ninevites
and it's affecting the way he's thinking.
Luke in verse four says,
"Then said the Lord, 'Do us that well to be angry.'"
Man, God is gracious.
Like, God's being nice to Jonah.
You know, Jonah's just like, "I can't believe you.
I knew you were gonna do this.
I knew it.
So just kill me."
And what does the Lord do?
"Hey, do you think you have a right to be angry?"
Like, God is like super like,
God could just be like,
they just pick him up and throw him back into the ocean
if you wanted to.
But he's like,
"Do you think you're doing right to be angry?"
So Jonah went out of the city.
He didn't even answer God.
What a rude man.
So Jonah went out of the city
and sat on the east side of the city
and there made him a booth
and sat under it in the shadow
until he might see what would become of the city.
Crazy.
So, you know, he leaves the city.
He makes a little makeshift booth
'cause it's hot out and he doesn't wanna burn
'cause now he has no pigmentation.
He's Michael Jackson.
And he's just sitting there
and he's just hoping that something bad
is still gonna happen to Nineveh.
He's like, "Let's see what happens."
Crazy.
And the Lord God prepared a gourd
and made it to come up over Jonah
that it might be a shadow over his head
to deliver him from his grief.
So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
It's like, on top of the fact
that the guy's just a grump.
He's just stubborn, he's angry, he's disgruntled.
God allows a gourd to supernaturally grow quickly
in order to provide shade for Jonah to protect him
because he's obviously burning very easily,
which is why I believe, you know,
his pigmentation is just completely gone.
He's burning a lot.
And, you know, Jonah's just like really happy
because of God, and he's happy for the gourd.
So at least there's some relief in this whole thing.
And, you know, God has a sense of humor.
Why? Because look what it says.
"But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day,
and it smote the gourd that it withered."
So it's just like, this guy's not even going to be grateful
for the gourd I just made.
I'm going to create a worm, just eat it up,
and you just burn and get somber.
"And it came to pass when the sun did arise
that God prepared a vehement east wind,
and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted
and wished himself to die and said,
'It is better for me to die than to live.'
God said to Jonah, 'Do estal well to be angry for the gourd.'
And he said, 'I do well to be angry, even unto death.'"
Damn boy, you better chill out.
What's wrong with this guy?
Well, I think the Lord is trying to teach him like,
you know, you're getting upset over the wrong things here.
And your value system is just completely mixed up.
You seem to be more happy over the fact
that you have a gourd that's protecting you
over the fact that there's an entire nation
that will spare the wrath of God.
You know what this kind of shows us here?
Is that we need to make sure
we get our priorities straight as Christians.
And let me tell you,
you need to get mad about the things
that God gets mad about
and allow your heart to break
over the things that break God's heart
and set your prejudices, your ideologies aside.
Okay?
"Oh man, I can't believe the Epstein files
and Trump and all, what am I gonna do?"
I'm not even batting an eye at that.
I don't even care.
I just use it for memes.
Just make good memes.
But I lose no sleep over it.
You know why?
'Cause I don't care for the Gord.
I care for Nineveh.
You know what the problem with Jonah is?
He's too concerned about things that just don't matter.
Right?
The Gord doesn't matter.
"No, you don't understand though, Pastor Mejia.
You know, it probably means that President Trump
was on the Epstein list."
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So what are you gonna eat afterwards?
What are you guys going after?
I don't really care.
It doesn't really bother me.
But if it bothers you,
it's because your priorities are mixed up.
Because the things that should bother you
are the things that bother the Lord.
Like souls going to hell, right?
Prioritize things that are actually important
in the eyes of God.
And the reason I say this because on social media,
you have all of these Christians online
that are super pro-Trump.
They're all about defending Trump.
And they're all about-- they're gung-ho about Trump
and everything.
Mag of this and mag of that and the name of Christianity.
All of a sudden, this stuff comes out.
And then these same people are like, you know what?
I'm just going to start a Bible study.
Oh, very noble of you that studying the Bible
was an afterthought.
It was on the back burner.
Why didn't you do the Bible study before that?
Why didn't you go to church before that?
Why didn't you go read the Bible before that?
I'll tell you why, because it's not as important to you.
That's why.
But now that one savior didn't work out,
you're kind of falling back to your previous savior.
Doest thou well to be angered for the gourd?
God's trying to tell him, like, gourd means nothing.
It's temporary.
It's to offer you temporary relief.
Your house means nothing.
It offers temporary relief.
Your vehicle means nothing.
It offers temporary relief.
Your money means nothing.
It offers temporary relief.
It's things that we need while we're here,
but let me just remind you that we're to be eternally minded.
He says in verse 10, "Then said the Lord,
'Thou has had pity on the gourd, for the which thou has not labored,
neither made it grow, which came up in the night,
and perished in the night.'"
He's like, you're getting mad for things
that you can't even control.
Oh, man, I just can't stand black people,
as if they can control being black.
You think people can control where they were born?
You think people can control how they were raised?
You know, if you ain't white, you ain't right.
You can't even control that you're white.
You just came into this world as such.
Do us that well?
You can't control that.
How are you going to brag about something
that you just had no part in?
The only thing you had a part in is finding the egg,
and that was it.
And even then, you don't remember that.
The Lord is telling them, why do you have pity on the gourd?
You have not labored for the gourd.
You didn't do anything to earn the gourd.
I made the gourd for you.
I put you in that family.
I put you in-- I gave you that job.
I gave you the resources.
I gave you that mind.
Verse 11 says, "And should not I spare Nineveh,
that great city, wherein are more than six-square thousand
persons that cannot discern between their right hand
and the left hand and also much cattle?"
Now, here's the thing I love about the Bible.
There's no happily ever after.
The story just ends.
We didn't even know if Jonah got right.
Bro, it's like sunburn right now,
and that's the last thing you heard.
And he probably walked himself back to Israel or whatever,
wherever he's from.
And you know, and that's it.
God is leaving us with this thought.
You need to make sure that you value souls
more than the gourd and more than your own prejudice
and ideologies that you've been molded to believe
because of your upbringing or whatever.
We need to value souls a lot more is what he's saying here.
So what's the sermon tonight?
The sermon is simply this, you know,
be a Jonah and that you obey the Lord
even when you don't feel like it.
You know, you might be like a prejudiced person,
but you're still gonna go to Compton and preach the gospel.
You're still gonna go to South Central
and preach the gospel.
But you know what?
Have a better attitude about it though.
Don't be such a grump.
Don't be such a sour puss.
You know, serve the Lord and recognize
that the gourd is not that important.
The city that was spared is important.
Rejoice over the fact that people get saved.
Rejoice over the fact that, you know,
people are believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
and being turned to righteousness.
Don't be a person that just wishes that just,
oh man, I just wish they were just completely destroyed
'cause I just can't stand them.
Obviously there's haters of God out there
that deserve to be greatly punished.
And you know, they deserve the wrath of God.
But you know what?
The vast majority of the world is not like that.
And so don't be that way.
Don't be like, don't be a stubborn prophet like Jonah.
Let's pray, Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for the example of Jonah.
Help us as your people not to be stubborn.
And maybe we were raised with certain prejudices
and opinions and ideologies.
I pray that you would help us and the spirit of God
that dwells within us to transcend those ideologies.
And that it would not hinder us from preaching the gospel
to every creature, every person,
to have the love of God in our hearts for them.
And I pray that Lord, you would use us as Jonah
to be a sign unto the Ninevites, Lord,
to bring a lost and dying world to Christ.
We love you, we thank you,
we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
- Psalm number 185, my Savior's love, amen.
Psalm number 185.
Psalm number 185, on that first verse.
♪ I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene ♪
♪ And wonder how a sinner condemned a queen ♪
♪ Thou ever wonderful is my Savior's love for me ♪
♪ I saw the glory of the Lord ♪