(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

We're in Jonah chapter 2 here this evening, and before we get into the sermon, I want to give you a little bit of an introduction to what we have in Jonah 2. Now at the beginning of the book of Jonah, you see that God has a burden for the Ninevites. God wants to give those people a chance. He wants to give them a chance to turn back to God, He wants to give those people a chance to get saved. You know, the Bible says that the Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We know when it says repentance, there means to change your mind about what you believe and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but God's not willing that any should perish. He doesn't want to see people go to hell. God cares for people, whether it's in this country or whether it's in another continent. All over the world, God cares for people out there. He wants to see them get saved, and so God has a burden for the Ninevites. He wants to give them a chance, even though this Assyrian empire and these Ninevites were very wicked people for a long time. And what we see, though, is that Jonah is the perfect guy to reach them. God knows that Jonah, whatever it is, whether it's his personality, whatever it is, he's the perfect guy to reach them, and we know that because when Jonah does get right with God in Jonah 3, I mean, imagine the king of Nineveh turning to God. Can you imagine Donald Trump turning to God? Or Barack Obama? Or Hillary Clinton? I mean, it's amazing to think, but you know, Jonah preached boldly, he preached the Word of God, he was a perfect guy for the job, but Jonah didn't want to do the job. He didn't want to go and preach to them. He didn't like the Ninevites. Now, what God is trying to do is get Jonah to catch a burden for these people like God had for these people. And in our lives, we need to catch the same burden that God has. We need to get the same burden that what God has of what he wants to do. That's why we go out soul-winning, because we care about what God cares about. We want to do what God wants us to do. Now, here's the thing about Jonah, though. Jonah was a great man of God, he was a great prophet, but you start Jonah with him rebelling against God, and you end with him kind of whining and rebelling against God. I kind of wish that it ended on Jonah 3, you know? When he gets right with God, you know, he does this great thing, and then they turn back to God. It would be kind of nice if it kind of ended there, but we see that Jonah goes back to his old ways. But what I want you to understand is this, that in Jonah chapter 2, we see a great comeback story that isn't often preached, because we see that the things highlighted in Jonah's life is his failures. But he was actually a great man of God who did a mighty thing in Jonah chapter 2, when he got right with God, and Jonah chapter 3, when he preached to them. The name of this sermon is The Revival of Jonah. The Revival of Jonah. Now, before we get into the revival of Jonah, though, let's see the rebellion of Jonah. Let's turn to Jonah chapter 1, and in Jonah chapter 1, let's look at the first verse where it says, 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 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 thereof, and went down into it to go with him unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So basically, God tells Jonah, preach to the Ninevites, and he rejects it. Now it's interesting the wording here in verse 3. It says he went down to Joppa. See whenever you rebel against God, you're going down. You're going against God's wishes. And notice this, that when you rebel against God, he paid the fare thereof. Isn't it interesting that when people get into a life of sin, they actually pay? Physically, they pay money for the choices they make. I mean, being a drunk is actually pretty expensive. I mean, they spend a lot of money on their booze every single day, every single year. Living a life of sin is actually very expensive. And Jonah actually pays money to rebel against God. This is what we see in verse 3. Now notice verse 5. Word says this, 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. Now when it says they cried every man unto his God, is it the true God of heaven, the living God? No, it's not. These people are not saved. They're crying unto a false god. These people are unbelievers. They're scared they're going to die. Now if I was an unbeliever, you know, I was an unbeliever when I was 18 years old before I got saved. I was scared to die. You know, I worried whether or not I was going to hell for a couple of years before I heard the gospel. And I'd imagine if you're an unbeliever that you might be at the end of your life, you'd be kind of scared. It's amazing. People say they're an atheist, but I guarantee a lot of those people, they're drowning in the water. They're going to be crying out to God to save them. And these people, they're crying out to a false god. These are unbelievers. Yet Jonah, a mighty prophet, he's asleep. He's not trying to win them to the Lord. And he is all the time in the world with these people. They're traveling on a ship. He has the opportunity to preach the gospel, and he's not preaching it. It's kind of interesting that Jonah rejects what God says to go out there and preach, and then in his own life, he doesn't preach the gospel. Boy, it's interesting, this lifestyle evangelism thing. Because what they say is this, you know, instead of preaching the gospel door-to-door like God says, we're going to just get people saved in our personal lives. Show me the person that actually gets a lot of people saved in their personal life that doesn't go door-to-door. I would love to see that person. It doesn't happen. You'll never find those people. Before you reject God's commandment, you rebel against God, you're not going to get people saved in your personal life. You know, we got back from soul winning yesterday, my wife and I, and we went to Subway to eat, and we were amazed at how receptive the area was. And we were talking about soul winning, we were talking about how great it was and everything like that. And we had just gone soul winning, we were talking about soul winning. So we got back to our hotel, and when we were pulling up there, I noticed two teens that were just sitting right by the hotel doing nothing. You know, just had a skateboard, just sitting around doing nothing. And I went up to them, I started talking to them, their names were Caden and Christian. So I go through the Gospel with them, and right when I'm getting to the end, where they answer everything correctly, they have friends Brandon and Shelby come out. Now Brandon, he was kind of a funny guy, but he was a smart-out. He came out here with a Gideon's Bible, and he was trying to disrupt things. He was trying to be a cool kid, I guess. And his sister Shelby said, no, you came out here, you've got to listen to the man now. So she actually gave everyone an opportunity to hear the Gospel. So I preached the Gospel again, and Caden and Christian heard the whole thing. Shelby and Brandon heard the whole thing. And Brandon went from being a smart-out to the end. He was thinking about it. Now the other three, I believe they got saved. They prayed, they said they understood eternal security, you can't lose your salvation. Three got saved, and the other guy, Brandon, who was a smart-out, he actually prayed as well. Now I'm assuming he didn't believe it, you know, but I'm hoping he was just still trying to be prideful and not admit to the fact that he had changed his mind during the conversation. But three people got saved. Now I would love to see the lifestyle evangelism person win people like that to the Lord. It never happens. But here's the thing. It's no secret why I preach the Gospel to them. Think about this. We went soul winning. We're talking about soul winning. So what's on my mind when I get back to my hotel? Soul winning. So when I get out of the car, it's just natural. I see two people that look receptive, two teens, and obviously young people are more receptive to the Word of God, and I preach the Gospel to them. But here's the thing, if you never go soul winning, is soul winning going to be on your mind? No, it's not. And so this lifestyle evangelism idea is a joke, and here's the thing. People that believe in this lifestyle evangelism, I don't even know if those two people would have been there for them. Because if God knows they're not going to preach the Gospel, why in the world would He put them there? You know, the thing is, if you honestly pray for God to give you opportunities to preach the Gospel, and you're willing to do it, God will give you those opportunities. We see that in Acts 8. We see that in lots of situations. God will give you opportunities to preach the Gospel. He just needs somebody who's willing to do it. And not only that, these lifestyle evangelism people, even those that are saved, honestly, if somebody came down and bent down on their knees and said, what must I do to be saved? Most of them probably wouldn't be able to win them to the Lord. They wouldn't know what to say to them. They'd fumble around and say, well, you know, you've got to have a relationship with Jesus. It's like, eh, wrong answer there. And honestly, if you don't go soul winning door to door, you're not going to know what you're doing. You know, it's sad because every once in a while, somebody will, I can think of a situation where a guy, you know, messaged me and he was frantic because he was worried about, you know, his dad might pass away and he's saying, you know, how do I preach in the Gospel? And in my mind, I'm just thinking, you know, if you haven't been practicing, you know, it's going to be pretty hard. You know, I mean, if you've never done it before, I'm glad that, you know, through trial and error, I learned at the door. So when people in my own personal life, friends, family members, co-workers are people that I can preach the Gospel successfully to. Look at Jonah chapter 1 verse 17. The first thing we see is this. We see the rebellion of Jonah. But what we see is the rebellion of Jonah leads to repulsiveness. Look at verse 17. 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. I'd imagine being inside a fish is pretty miserable. I did my best to research online what it's like to be in a fish's belly for three days. I couldn't really find anything that I thought was reliable, so I don't know, but I do know this. Jonah said, out of the belly of hell, cried I. So I'd imagine it was pretty miserable. It was pretty disgusting. I'd imagine it was probably pretty dark. I'd imagine the smell was disgusting. I'd imagine he was obviously very dirty. He was probably itching. I mean, he was probably panicked. You know, I don't like being in, if you're in absolute dark conditions, that's a scary thing. And I imagine he probably was. And he said, out of the belly of hell, cried I. It was obviously very miserable. It was disgusting. And see, that's where your sin will lead you. See, when you rebel against God, you might say, well, I just started missing some services at steadfast. And eventually it's going to lead to more and more. And eventually it's going to lead to a disgusting lifestyle. Because if we're honest, a lot of us, before we got right with God, a lot of the things we did were pretty disgusting. You think about drinking and smoking and all these things. It's a disgusting lifestyle. It's sick. It's perverted. Turn to Isaiah chapter 28. Now, sin in general is just repulsive, but I think alcohol is a great, great example of this. It's amazing to me when people try to justify drinking and they say, well, I don't think it's a sin. You know, it's funny because one thing that comes to mind, people kind of bring up in Proverbs where it says, give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. You know, it's interesting, at Verdi Baptist Church, we have a welfare office right by our church. So there's a lot of homeless people, a lot of drifters, you know, moving in and out. Some of the same people that are standing by the corners asking for money, you give them money, they just drink their life away. They're a bunch of losers and derelicts. Now, here's the thing. It's not hard for me to understand what that means in the Bible. It says, give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. It's not justifying drinking. It's basically saying, give strong drink unto the homeless bum who's about to perish because he's drinking away his life, who's miserable because of the alcohol. It's not justifying it or saying it's a good thing or allowing it. What it's doing is basically saying how stupid it is. God made his kings and priests, and it's not for kings or limnio to drink, you know, strong drink. It's not about, let's say, forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. That's what the Bible says. It is wrong to drink at all, and if someone's ready to perish, you know, that's not what that's saying there. It's basically saying, you know, the homeless bum, let him drink away his sorrows. That's what it's saying. You know, don't care about that person because, honestly, we're better than the homeless people that are out there just wasting their lives. They need to fix their lives. In Isaiah chapter 28, look at verse 7, it says, but they also have erred through wine and strong drink and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink. They are swallowed up of wine. They are out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment, for all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so there is no place clean. Can you really think of something more disgusting than vomit? I mean, it's pretty gross. It's amazing to me, you know, I got saved at West Virginia University, and West Virginia University, back at least when I was in school, every year won the competition, I don't remember if it was from Playboy or Penthouse, of being the number one drink in school. And, you know, at WVU, it's cheers, beers, and mountaineers, you know, praise God. That's the way people act. They think it's like a great thing, like, oh wow, we won the award again. You know, they think it's a great thing. And you're on a college campus, you know, honestly, you wake up on a Monday morning or Sunday morning, and you see, like, dried puke just on the ground, and sometimes it's still moist. It's disgusting. And you got to watch where you walk, and it's like, how can these people live this way? And every single week, they do the same thing. It's disgusting. And that's the road that sin is going to lead you down. And I mentioned it this morning, but, you know, kids see this when they go door to door, they see these houses where there's like 50 bud lights, you know, there's a bud light after bud light, or Budweiser, or whatever, and you see that these people's lives are just completely messed up. You know, almost without fail, these people are living in pretty messed up houses. You know, the people, when they come out, you can tell they have just a lot of problems in their lives that they need fixed, and, you know, you just see the effects of going down, drinking, and cigarettes, and all these different things. Other sins you can think of, you think of pornography, adultery, fornication, those sorts of, you know, intimate sins. It's filthiness. And, you know, when people live those sorts of lifestyles, they shorten their lifespan because they get diseases by doing these things. It's a disgusting, filthy life. You think about the sodomites. You know, there's a reason why they're called animals. You know, it's disgusting. It's filthy. Their lifespans, you might as well just divide by two. That's what the Bible shows us. Because of their lifestyle, they get these diseases, you know, and your sin, and obviously as a saved person, you're never going to go down that road, but here's the thing, you know, as a saved person, you can still go down the same sins that you committed, you know, before you were saved. Same sins of the flesh. You know, if you used to, and I tell this to people door to door, that if a drunk got saved right now, they are still a drunk because they still have the exact same desires. You have to understand, even though you've won that victory now, if you start missing church, you start missing reading the Bible, and you end up quitting this church, because you get mad at Pastor Romero for something he preached, eventually you could go down right to your old life, and it's going to destroy your life. Let's look at Jonah chapter 2. The first thing we saw is the rebellion of Jonah, and we see that the rebellion leads to the repulsiveness, but eventually it leads to rock bottom. Basically the very bottom. Jonah chapter 2, look at verse 1, 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 heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, into the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. He says, I cried by reason of mine affliction. Basically Jonah has hit rock bottom in his life at this point. He started off just wanting to rebel against God, just didn't want to preach to the Ninevites, and look at his life now. And eventually when you hit rock bottom, sometimes that's what you need to get you right back on the right path. Sadly we're pretty foolish. We think we can get away with our sin, no big deal, and sometimes it hits absolute rock bottom, and that's what it takes for us to quit being stubborn, quit being rebellious, and just say, man, I need to go back to what I used to do, I need to just get back in church, just read the Bible again, just pray to God again, and just get back to my old life. You think in the Bible of the story of Naomi. Naomi, I don't believe it was her fault that she went to Moab, but her husband Elimelech, her sons Malon and Chileon, and they all die in her life. They went because of money, and all of a sudden they have nothing. Her husband's dead, her sons are dead. I can't imagine it just being a mom who has neither of her kids left. My dad told me one time, my dad worked in social security in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and somebody came to the office one time, I guess, from Georgia, they moved to West Virginia because they had a distant cousin, and they said that they had several kids, and they said they had outlived all their kids, and she told my dad, she's like, you know, the saddest thing in life is to outlive all your kids, and I'd imagine that is a pretty sad thing. If you outlive your kids, I mean, that would be a pretty miserable thing, and see, that's the situation with Naomi. She went down to Moab, they went for money, and then her life is messed up, but you know, you see with the story of Naomi that God will go to great extremes to get you back into the will of God, because Naomi's the one who's kind of innocent in that situation. It's really Elimelech and her sons that are held accountable for that situation, and you see that God will go to great extremes to get you back into the will of God. You think about the prodigal son, man, his life got really messed up before he turned back to God. It got worse and worse and worse, and eventually, rock bottom, and that made him fix his life. You know, in my personal life, I can think of times I've been more zealous than other times, and I remember, you know, a time in my life where I was just on fire for God where I was just all about soul winning, reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, that's all I cared about, and then I started to lose a little bit of my zeal, and I remember, you know, my favorite hobby is to play soccer, and I remember I started playing soccer, you know, once a week, and pretty soon it was like twice a week, three times a week, four times a week, and I was playing in leagues and tournaments and everything like that, and I was still going soul winning, but I wasn't going soul winning as much. I was still reading the Bible, but not as much as I used to, and I remember I tore my ACL and my meniscus in my left knee when I was playing soccer. Now, I personally believe that God basically, you know, shot down my knee, because God looked at me and said, you know what, you're not doing what I want you to do, you know, your feet are supposed to be walking door to door to preach the gospel, and, you know, could I be wrong? Maybe I could be wrong, but in my mind I looked at that event and I said, man, you know, God basically looked down at my life and said, I'm not happy that you're losing your zeal. I'm not happy that you've decided that you don't really want to go soul winning as much. You're not as zealous and excited about possibly being a preacher one day. I looked at that event and I said, man, that's what I needed. I had a friend of mine who just a couple months ago, he told me that he had a similar sort of thing, that, you know, and I've known him for a long time, really zealous soul winner, and he told me that a couple years ago he got a really bad staph infection in his leg. This guy is in, I believe he's in his 50s, but he's in incredible shape, you know, for his age, absolutely incredible. He'll almost run from door to door, he's so excited to preach the gospel. And he got a staph infection in his leg, and he said, you know, he was very close to losing his leg, and at that time he kind of quit soul winning. He had gotten out of the will of God, and, you know, he said he was very, very close to losing his leg, and he couldn't find work anymore, you know, he works as a welder, and he was struggling finding work, but that's what it took. Once he hit that point, he's like, man, I need to fix my life. Got back in church, started reading the Bible again, got back to soul winning, and then everything ended up recovering. You know, God will go to great extremes to get you back into the will of God. It's funny because sometimes you'll hear IFB preachers preach about something like this. Usually they don't use personal stories, though, and, you know, one story of a guy, you know, you guys have probably heard your pastor preach against this guy before, Al Lacy. You know, when I first got saved, because Al Lacy actually used to go to Pastor Romero's old church, and I used to listen to him all the time when I first got saved. Now, I didn't understand the repentance topic that well. Now I definitely believe the guy was a heretic. You know, going back, I heard a couple of his sermons just a couple years ago to check, you know, really double check it, three kinds of believers and unbelieving believers, and it's very clear that he's preaching repentance of sins for work salvation. Not a gray area, but for sure, I mean, he split hell wide open when he died a year ago. But it's funny, I used to listen to him when I first got saved, and he was a very dynamic speaker. That's why a lot of people liked him. And he told this story about how this woman was playing the piano at church, and, you know, really faithful, godly lady, and then all of a sudden she decided she needed a little bit more money, so she played in a bar one night. There's a massive car wreck, and then her hands, she lost complete use of her hands. She could never use them again. And you hear these stories from IFP preachers, they're always saying, I heard of this story one time. And I remember when I heard it, I was like, I don't know if I believe this. I think it sounds a little bit ridiculous. And then you hear another IFP preacher repeat the same story. And they get the names different. You know what I mean? So it's obvious that these stories aren't really real, they're just trying to like entertain you, you know, it's like I caught you, buddy. For my own personal life, though, I just feel like God's judged me before in a major way where it's just kind of like until I was willing to get right with God, then that's the situation I was in. Same with my friend. And so we see that sometimes rock bottom, sadly, is what we need to get us right back on the right path. Turn back to Jonah chapter 1. Now I have six points tonight, and I really want to focus on the good news last, so I'm kind of rushing through these points. We first saw that we see the rebellion of God, we see the repulsiveness of results, we see eventually that Jonah hits rock bottom. But one thing we need to understand is this, there are permanent repercussions for the actions you choose. You know, if you go down a certain road, you are going to pay for those actions. In Jonah 1 verse 3, I know we saw this before, but where it says, So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it to go with him on a tarshish from the presence of the Lord. That money that Jonah paid was gone. It was a permanent decision he made. And then we see that, you know, not only that, you know, Jonah paid money, he also lost time in his life. You know, every day is extremely valuable. The Bible says to teach us to number our days. You know, every single day is valuable. That's your opportunity to learn more from the Word of God. That's your opportunity to get a soul saved, which lasts forever. Every day is valuable, and he lost days out of his life. And the Bible says, Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. It's a guaranteed thing that if you go down a life of sin, you will pay for your actions. Now Jonah didn't suffer major permanent consequences, because honestly, what he did was not that big compared to some of the things we do. I mean, you think about what Jonah did. He refused to preach the gospel. But you know, I've had times where I could tell God wanted me to preach the gospel to someone on the street, and I didn't do it. I've had times where it's like, you know, man, I know it should show up for soul winning, but man, it's like, I already went, you know, earlier this week, I feel lazy today. I've had times where I knew God wanted me to preach the gospel, or certain maybe co-workers or family members, and I chose not to preach the gospel. I knew very clearly God wanted me to preach the gospel, because I knew I was the only one who could do it, because there's nobody else saved that knew how to preach the gospel. And all of us, we refused to preach the gospel sometimes. So honestly, what Jonah did, it wasn't really the worst thing in the world that he didn't preach the gospel. But there were still permanent repercussions for his choices. Turn to Jonah chapter 2. So the first thing we see is the rebellion of Jonah. We see the repulsiveness that results. We see that he hits rock bottom. We see the repercussions. But I want to show you the redemption of Jonah. And I want you to understand something about redemption. The only way you're going to get redemption, that results from repentance and regret. You have to actually turn back to God. That's the only way you're going to get redemption. Look at Jonah chapter 2 verse 4. When we see what Jonah says, I believe he fully got right with God. It's sad that it didn't stick, but when we see what he says, I think that he got right with God. I think it's kind of clear that he got right with God, he turned back to God fully. It's honestly not that surprising that he turned to God and then rebelled later. Because honestly, you know, there's people that hear the preaching and they start reading the Bible every day for a couple weeks, and in a few weeks roll by, and what do they do? They start skipping their Bible reading. That happens to us as well. But I want you to notice verse 8. This is the verse that really sinks into me, that Jonah meant it when he got right with God. Verse 8. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with a voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. He says, I'll be thankful. He says, I want to be happy with what you're giving me in life. It says they that observe lying vanities. Basically, Jonah was willing to admit, I screwed up. He didn't pretend like he didn't screw up. He didn't want to just say, well, I didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't my fault. I shouldn't have had to do it. It should have been somebody else. He does not observe lying vanities. If he had, he would have forsaken his own mercy. Think about it in our lives. Let's say somebody gets kicked out of church for being a railer, or they get kicked out for fornication. That's a terrible thing. But here's the thing. There's still redemption there for them. But it's only going to come. It will only come if they're truly sorry, they have true regret. If they observe a lying vanity, if they say, well, it's not really my fault. I should have never been kicked out. It's not really my fault. It was Brother Alberto, it was Brother so and so. I shouldn't have been kicked out. It wasn't my fault. Pastor Ramirez should have never done that. He shouldn't have embarrassed me. They want to come back to church, but they're not willing to admit they screwed up. You know what? They've forsaken their own mercy. They're not going to be allowed back because I know your pastor, he's going to make sure that this church practices church discipline. And if someone's not truly sorry, they're not going to be able to come back. Now, if that person would just get right with God, then they'd be able to come back. You think about 1 Corinthians, and you think about someone committing fornication with his father's wife. I mean, that's pretty extreme. But there was mercy for him because he was truly sorry, and he got right with God. But if you get kicked out of church, and you're not willing to admit that you messed up, and you're not willing to say you're sorry and admit it, you're forsaking your own mercy. Or you think about, you offend a fellow brother in Christ. Let's say you offend somebody at this church. Do you realize that when you offend somebody, if you're truly sorry and you say, hey, I'm sorry, I should have never done that, I should have never said that, please forgive me, they're going to forgive you 90 plus percent of the time. And if they don't forgive you, then they're the ones that are wrong and not right with God at that time. If you offend someone, hey, just humble yourself and admit, hey, I screwed up, I was rude, I should have never said that, I should have never done that, I'm sorry. But you know, if you're not willing to do that, you're forsaking your own mercy. They are not going to forgive you then, if you're not willing to admit that you screwed up. You know, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 12. I think one of the great examples of this is David versus King Saul. We see that David committed adultery and murder, now that's pretty serious. I'd say what he did was worse than what King Saul did. But David's the one that got mercy, and we're going to see why. In 2 Samuel chapter 12, look at verse 13, where it says, And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. You see that David is truly sorry for what he did. He is sincere, he says, I've sinned against the Lord. He doesn't say, well, it's not my fault. He could have said, well, you know what, it's Bathsheba's fault. She shouldn't have been walking there, you know, she shouldn't have had, you know, it wasn't my fault. You know, I shouldn't have been able to see her. That was her fault. Or he could have blamed someone else, like Uriah or Joab, or made up all kinds of excuses. But you know what, David did not do that. David just said, you know what, I have sinned against the Lord. Not somebody else, but he said, I have. Not once does he make an excuse for his action. He just says, I screwed up. I was wrong. And you know what, it says, The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 13. But here's the thing, let's say David was too arrogant or too prideful to admit he screwed up and wasn't willing to say he was sorry when Nathan confronted him. What would have happened to David? He probably would have been struck down dead by God. That's what I assume. You know, he would have forsaken his own mercy. You know, I guarantee you that angered God quite a bit, you know, what David did. And if he was not willing to get right with God, he forsook his mercy. In 1 Samuel chapter 13, look at verse 11, it says, And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash. Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord. I forced myself therefore an offer to burn offering. Notice in verse 11, three excuses. Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash. He doesn't say once, I screwed up. He blames all those people, and he's like, man, I got to make supplication to the Lord. And he said, I forced myself therefore. It's like, man, that's great of you, Saul, that you forced yourself. You didn't want to do it, but you had to do the godly thing. It's amazing how when people sin, they try to justify it and make it look like they're doing the right thing. But you know, Saul is not sorry. He's not really sorry. He only cares about being seen by men and having them look up to him as a leader. He forsook his own mercy. And he could have been forgiven if he was truly sorry, but he was not sorry. And if there's one verse I want you to remember from this sermon, we got another point, but I want you to look at Jonah 2.8, that verse, They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. That is a great verse. When you understand what's being said there, when you go against God, if you're not willing to humble yourself, you are forsaking your mercy. God's going to be merciful with you if you're willing to admit that you screwed up. But if you're not willing to do that, what are we talking about this morning? Lie not against the truth? Same sort of thing there. Look at Jonah chapter 3. So so far tonight what we've seen is we saw the rebellion of Jonah. But we also saw the repulsiveness that resulted from the rebellion, and eventually that leads to rock bottom for Jonah. And we see that there's permanent repercussions. We saw the redemption of Jonah, but I want you to understand this. There's a requirement for that redemption. The requirement of Jonah. You see, in Jonah chapter 1, we saw that God told Jonah to preach to Nineveh. In Jonah chapter 3, God did not change his mind. He says the same thing. Jonah 3, verse 1. Jonah 3, verse 1. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. I want you to understand this, that God did not use somebody besides Jonah. You know, and you wonder why didn't he just use somebody else? Maybe there was nobody else to use, for one. I mean, think about it. How many... God would love great churches started all across this country. But there's nobody to send. That's just the reality. There might have been nobody else that God could send. Or you know, Jonah was just the best guy for the job. Look at Jonah chapter 4. It says in Jonah chapter 4, starting at verse 10, verse 10, Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd for the which thou hast not laboured, neither mayest it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh that great city, wherein are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle? God cares about these people because he says there's more than 120,000 people that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand. What that means is there's 120,000 very young people. They don't know the difference between their right and their left, because kids at a young age, they don't know the difference between those things. It's interesting, I heard an interview, not an interview, but I listened to part of Saddam Hussein's trial online where they had a translation underneath where he was speaking right before he was executed, and he actually used that phrase of not being able to discern between your right hand and your left hand. It's kind of interesting because I've never heard anybody use that phrase in America other than in a Bible setting where the Bible talks about it. It's kind of interesting that that is actually a phrase that's actually used in other parts of the world. People that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand. But God cares about the Ninevites because he says there's 120,000 very young people in that city. And he said, I want to be merciful to this city. And God wants Jonah to catch this burden. God knows Jonah is the perfect guy for Nineveh. You see, I believe in life. God can give you various burdens of things that he wants you to accomplish. I think of my good friend, brother Jason Robinson, who just started a church in West Virginia. He's had a burden for West Virginia for a very long time. He never thought about starting a church anywhere else. He always wanted to start it in West Virginia. I believe God gave him that burden to start that church in West Virginia. I think God looked down at Jason and said, you know what? I want you in West Virginia. You're the guy for the job. I don't believe anyone can do a better job than him there. I believe he's the guy designed for that job. And I believe all of us, we have certain jobs that God wants us to do. And if we don't do it, it will not get done. You think about people you know in your life. You think about your cousin that you're not preaching the gospel to. I will probably not win your cousin to the Lord. It's very unlikely. If God gave you a burden to preach the gospel to him, if you don't do it, it's probably not going to get done. If Jonah didn't get right with God and he didn't go and preach to the Enovites, it probably wouldn't have happened. There probably would have been nobody to sin for that job, or there wouldn't be somebody who was as good at that job as Jonah was. I think of my pastor. Pastor Jimenez has a burden for California and the West Coast. If you listen to his sermons, you'll hear him talk about that. He wants to get a lot of churches started in California and along the West Coast. I believe God gave him that burden. And I believe that Pastor Jimenez does the perfect job for that. I believe there's a reason why God gave him that burden. And why it's not a burden that, you know, your pastor, he probably has a burden for this area. I don't know all the burdens he has. But you know, there's a reason why God gave Pastor Jimenez that burden, whereas Pastor Romero has been placed here. I believe Pastor Romero is the perfect guy for this area. I don't think anyone could do a better job. I believe that God provides certain people with certain tasks in life that God wants them to do. Jonah was the perfect guy. You know, I think in my life that my desire is to start a church in the Philippines one day. I think a lot of people know that. I believe that's a burden that God's given me. Now, I know that there's a lot of flaws in me. I have a lot of things that I need to fix. There's plenty of people that are better preachers. They know the Bible better than me. But I believe that God designed me to be the guy that could actually do a big work there. And obviously, it's a big country. You know, we could have lots of churches there. You could have lots of churches in Texas, obviously. You know, there's lots of people to reach with the gospel. But I believe that God can give you certain burdens in your life. And if you don't do that, who's going to do it? And obviously, starting churches is one of those things that maybe you have a desire to start a church, and if you don't do that, it's probably not getting done. But you know, other areas of life as well, whether it's preaching the gospel, whatever it is, I believe God gives certain people burdens for certain things. And you have to understand that if you don't do it, it's not going to get done. I have a friend of mine who, he's always had a burden to start a church in Italy one day. You know, he was born in Italy, and that's always been his desire. And I remember trying to convince him to go to the Philippines one day, because he has a lot of connections there. And I remember this is what he told me. He said, you know, he's like, I just feel like, you know, God's given me that burden. And he said, you know, I speak the language. I'm from that area. He's like, if I don't do it, then who's going to do it? And that's the truth, because honestly, I don't think too many people have a burden to start a church in Italy. I don't believe God's given too many people in our movement a burden to go to Italy to start a church. Now, it makes sense, because he was born in Italy, but obviously, you know, I don't have a burden to go to Italy. You know, I doubt anyone in here does. And if he doesn't do it, he's right. Nobody's ever going to do it. If he doesn't keep that vision in front of him and that burden and that desire and that dream that God gave him, it's never going to get done. And it's the same way in your life, it's the same way in my life. If I backside on God, you know, the great work that I hope to do one day in the Philippines, it's probably not going to get done in that exact area. You know, and it's such a big area, we need lots of people. We need everybody in this fight. And you need to understand that there is a requirement for us all to get right with God. God has a mission for you in this life. You might say, well, Brother Stuckey, you know, who am I? You know, I've only been saved for a year. You say, I can't preach like Pastor Amer. I don't know the Bible like him. You know, I can't preach like the other guys, the preaching guys. What can I do? You have to realize that God designed you for a purpose. And God can use you in a big way. You have to realize that God can use you in a big way. God doesn't need the talented people. If God needed the talented people, you know, there'd be a whole different group of pastors probably in our movement. But, you know, the thing is, it's not about who has the talent. It's not about who's whatever. It's just someone who's devoted to God. Someone who's willing to go all in for God. If you're willing to go all in, God can give you that desire and you can do something big on God. But you have to realize this, that if you turn your back on God, whatever it is in your life that you say that you need to do, that desire you have, it's not going to get done. That family member, that aunt, that uncle, that grandmother that is not saved, if you don't preach the gospel to them, they're not going to hear the gospel. They're not going to get saved. If you don't do it, it's just not going to get done. That's what we need to realize in our lives. The first thing we saw with Jonah, we saw the rebellion of Jonah. We saw the repulsiveness of Jonah. We saw that he hits rock bottom. We see that there's repercussions to this. We see the great redemption in his life and we see the requirement for that redemption, that if he didn't do that, nobody was going to do that. And recapping, I want you to understand this, three things. If you turn on God, you are going to pay for it. You're going to destroy your life. You've got a great church here and you don't just have a great church here, you have a great church family. You have people that love you. You have people that care about you, people that will pray for you throughout the week, people that will do whatever you need if you need help. I'm glad in my church that I can easily call on someone if something happens in my life. If I need help from someone, there's people that would be willing to take off work to say, hey, I'll be there to help you out. And I believe you guys have that here. I can tell just how friendly everybody is and how much you guys love each other here. It's great to have that, but if you turn on God one day and you quit this church, you're not going to have that anymore. It's not just that you're missing the preaching. It's not just that you're not going soul winning anymore. The great friends you have here, they're going to be gone from your life. You're not going to have them anymore. But I want you to understand, there is an opportunity to return to God, but if you return to God, you need to understand this. You must be willing to humble yourself. There's one verse I want you to remember from this sermon. It says, they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here tonight and just this great story of Jonah and the great work that he did to preach in the name of Christ God. Help us to all remember this message that we need to stay on fire for God and that if we do turn on you, God, there's going to be a great void that is probably never going to be filled, God. We ask you to help us all remember these things, God, in Jesus' name, amen.