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

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Are you guys okay? Don't run again here. That's what happens when you run. You might as well not come into the movie at all. Where is he? Let's have some time. Take him. Take him. He's crazy. He's crazy. Come on. On that first verse together. The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. Hymn 262. Let's sing it out. Unto our Lord this morning. Hymn 262. Sing it out now. The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus. My sunshine and new day. His glory shone in. The light of the world is Jesus. Unto the light. It's shining for thee. Sealing the light. Has dawned upon me. Once I was blind. But now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. No darkness have we who in Jesus survive. The light of the world is Jesus. We walk in the light when we follow our guide. The light of the world is Jesus. Unto the light. It's shining for thee. Sealing the light. Has dawned upon me. Once I was blind. But now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. He dwellers in darkness with sin blinded eyes. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light. It's shining for thee. Sealing the light. Has dawned upon me. Once I was blind. But now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. The lead of the sunlight in heaven were told. The light of the world is Jesus. The lamp is the light in the city of gold. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light. It's shining for thee. Has dawned upon me. Once I was blind. But now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. Amen. 244 is next. 244. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound. Him 244. We'll sing it out together on that first verse. 244. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost. But now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. The light of the world is Jesus. Once was lost. But now I'm found. Was blind. But now I see. Was grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. The hour I first believed. Through many dangers, And snares I have already gone. His grace that brought me safe thus far. And grace will lead me home. On the last. When we've been there 10,000 years. Bright shining as the sun. We've no last days to sing God's praise. And when we first begun. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week will be in 2 Chronicles, chapter number 18. We've got the soul winning times listed there below. As well as salvations and baptisms across the page. Congratulations to the Ventura family. On the birth of, I want to make sure I pronounce this right. Who knows the right pronunciation here? Does anyone know for sure that can help me out with this? Call it out. Is it Ga-da? Ga-da? Ga-da? Gee-ah-da? There's no way that's right. Based on this word, I'm looking at it in front of me. What is it? Is it spelled wrong? Okay, all right. This explains everything. Gee-ah-da. See, if it would have been spelled right, I would have instantly known how to pronounce. So, congratulations to the Ventura family. And if you want to, of course, make sure that you congratulate them. If you want to help out with the meal train, talk to the usual people on that. Mrs. Amanda Wright. Don't we usually talk to Sarah Ventura about the meal train? But this is Sarah Ventura. Why does it say congratulations to the Ventura family? Why are people conspiring against me? Who has done this to me? What? Wow. Okay, you guys are just trying to make a fool out of me up here. Okay, just real quick, everybody. Everything about this announcement is wrong. Just totally disregard this announcement and we're going to get this fixed. I thought Lee is the middle name. It's also blue when it's the girls. All right, this is the worst announcement ever. All right, let's move on to something that's where we're on firmer ground here. We'll come back to this. Okay, so all ladies and teen girls are invited to a baby shower in honor of Olivia Stiles. That is this afternoon at 2 o'clock. Please RSVP to Mrs. Jenny Akinoso. Even if you have not RSVP'd, of course you can always show up to stuff like this. But it's nice to RSVP if you can. Nurslings only are preferred, so mainly we just want ladies and teenage girls to come to this. Don't be shy if you don't know Olivia. Everybody's invited, so come on out for this. Below that, we've got the donuts next Sunday in honor of all those celebrating their birthday in the month of September. Below, or on the back, we've got the note about the Don't Go Back to School party. This is on Monday, September 2nd at 4 p.m. It's at Schwab Park that's just a half mile south of here. There's a park just a half mile south of here. Right there at 48th Street and I think it's called Vineyard. The name of the street there, right? 48th and Vineyard. Schwab Park, 4 o'clock. Next Monday, September 2nd. And then everybody who has a child from K-5 to 12th grade is invited. And then below that, we had a great trip to the Navajo reservation. Looks like 11 soul winners went out there and had 10 people saved. And so if you want to be a part of any future trips, including the small town soul winning trip to central Arizona. Not central Arizona, but central Arizona. That's going to be on Saturday, August 31st. Talk to Brother Raymond Cooper for details, as always. The tall blonde guy. And then below that, we've got the note about the Navajo soul winning trip coming up on September 20th and 21st. This is a big one because it will include a trip to the world class destination of Canyon de Chelly. So if you can get that day off on Friday and go out there on Friday and Saturday, I know you'll have a great time with that. Do a bunch of soul winning and see some beautiful countryside. And then below that, of course, the big missions conference is coming up November 6th through 10th. And then there's also a missions trip to Jamaica coming up in December. And again, Brother Raymond Cooper would be the one to speak to about that. That's about it for announcements. So let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. We're going to skip the insert this morning. Take your hymnals. Go to hymn 396. 396, so little time, hymn 396. Again, so little time, the harvest will be over. Hymn number 396. Lift it up on that verse now. So little time, the harvest will be over. Are we being done? We reap our stake and hope. We pour our word to Jesus, Lord of Harvests. And hope they'll smile and have your say well done. Today we reap, harvest our golden harvest. Today it's given us our souls to win. Oh, then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. How many times I should have strongly pleaded. How often did I feel too strictly warned. The Spirit moved, though had I fled for Jesus. The grain is fallen, lost once not reborn. Today we reap, harvest our golden harvest. Today it's given us our souls to win. Oh, then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. Despite the heat, the ceaseless for the hardship. The broken heart for those we cannot win. Understood because we're all peculiar. Still no regrets, we'll have but for our sin. Today we reap, harvest our golden harvest. Today it's given us our souls to win. Oh, then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. A day of pleasure or a feast of friendship. A house or thaw or garments fair or faint. We'll all be trashed where souls are brought to heaven. And then how sad to face the spikers' flame. Today we reap, harvest our golden harvest. Today it's given us our souls to win. Oh, then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. The harvest's white with green fursuit is wasting. And many souls will die and never know. The love of Christ, the joy of sins forgiven. Oh, let us weep and love and pray and go. Today we reap, harvest our golden harvest. Today it's given us our souls to win. Oh, then to save some dear ones from the burning. Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. Amen, let's go back to hymn 392. A soul winner for Jesus, hymn 392. We'll lift it up on that first verse together. 392, I want to be a soul winner for Jesus every day. Let's lift it up on that verse now, 392. I want to be a soul winner for Jesus every day. He does so much for me. I want to make the lost sinner believe his every claim and heed from bondage free. A soul winner for Jesus, a soul winner for Jesus. Oh, let me be each name. A soul winner for Jesus, a soul winner for Jesus. Jesus, he's done so much for me. I want to be a soul winner and bring the lost to Christ that they, his grace, may know. I want to live for Christ ever and do his blessed will because he loves me so. A soul winner for Jesus, a soul winner for Jesus. Oh, let me be each name. A soul winner for Jesus, a soul winner for Jesus. He's done so much for me. I want to be a soul winner till Jesus comes for me to lay my burdens down. I want to hear his say, searching death and many sheep, receive a starry crown. A soul winner for Jesus, a soul winner for Jesus. Oh, let me be each name. A soul winner for Jesus, a soul winner for Jesus. He's done so much for me. All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Jonah chapter one. Jonah chapter number one. Toward the very end of the Old Testament, you have all those small books of the minor prophets. Jonah chapter number one. And as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter. Follow along silently with brother Corbin as he reads. Jonah chapter number one. 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 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 into the sides of the ship, and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. And they said every one 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 thine occupation, and whence comest thou? What is thy country, and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am in Hebrew, and I fear the Lord the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto 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 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, hast 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 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. Our Father in Heaven, we love you, Lord. We thank you for the time you've given us to gather this morning. We ask that you would please bless the preaching of your word. Will Pastor Anderson with your spirit, and give us ready minds to receive the word of God, and be made better Christians by it. We ask for your blessing upon this preaching, and upon this day. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Men, this morning I want to preach on Jonah, and I specifically want to preach on the subject of fleeing from the presence of God, because right away at the beginning of Jonah here, we see Jonah attempting to flee from the presence of God. What does that mean, and how does that apply in our lives today? Now let's start out at the beginning here in verse number one. 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 is come up before me. So of course Jonah is a prophet in the nation of Israel, and he's being asked to go to a distant foreign country, a powerful capital city to the east in Assyria that's known as Nineveh. It's a great city, meaning that it's just giant, powerful, and so forth, and he's being told to cry against it, for their wickedness has come before me. Now why does it, what does it mean cry against it? Well the word cry in the Bible, it's not talking about weeping like crying tears. It's talking about crying in the sense of yelling or shouting, right? And so the idea here is that Jonah is supposed to preach against the city of Nineveh, but he is supposed to do so with a loud voice, with a strong voice. And you know, today a lot of people are offended by preaching that gets loud, right? They want preaching to be really mellow and gentle and nice. But all throughout the Bible, we're told, you know, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions, the house of Israel, their sins. We're supposed to cry aloud when we preach. Jesus Christ, when he preached, the Bible talks about him lifting up his voice and crying with a loud voice. We see John the Baptist, of course, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. And so we need preaching today, not just loud and volume or a pastor that's raising his voice, shouting, maybe slamming his fist down on the pulpit or kicking the pulpit or something like that. We need the preaching to also be in your face kind of preaching because this is what it takes to wake people up today. And that's what it's always taken to get people's attention. We don't need a mellow message today in 2024 America. We need some preachers that will get up and cry against the wickedness of our nation itself. And so Jonah is being told to cry against Nineveh because their wickedness has come up before God. And today I guarantee you that there's a lot of wickedness in America that has come up before God where God is looking down and he's disgusted by some of the things that he's saying. The Bible says that God is angry with the wicked every day and we need preachers to cry against it, to speak out against the sin in this world. And so God is calling Jonah to specifically cry out against sin, to preach hard against this wicked city of Nineveh even in a foreign country. But Jonah, verse 3, rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Now at this point in the story we don't necessarily understand why Jonah is disobeying. Why is he refusing to do the will of God? Why is he refusing to obey this direct command? We're going to find out later in chapter 4 when Jonah explains and says, this is why I disobeyed, this is why I didn't do it. But right now that's not really important to the story. Right now what we need to focus on is just the fact that Jonah is rebelling against God. He's been given a commandment, he's been told what to do, and he is simply refusing to do it. That is the relevant thing to the story here in chapter 1. And so 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 let me just briefly explain the geography a little bit here, okay? So Jonah is in the nation of Israel. He's being told to go to a foreign country to the east in Assyria. Instead he goes to Joppa, which is on the west coast of Israel. Modern day Tel Aviv would be close by. Today this place is called Yaffo, but it's the same place, Joppa, right there on the sea next to Tel Aviv. And he's going to Joppa to get on a boat to go to Tarshish. Well Tarshish is in modern day Spain, right? Which if you think about it, before people came to the New World and were thinking about places like North America, it's pretty much the most western extreme that you can think of when you're looking at Europe or something like that, right? As far as just an extreme west edge of the Mediterranean Sea. So Jonah's idea here is just I'm going to go in the opposite direction that God has told me to go and I'm going to go as far as I can possibly go. It's like he goes to the station and says, hey, you know, give me a ticket for just the end of the line, the furthest point that I can go. I want to get as far away from Israel as I can possibly get and as far away from Nineveh as I can possibly get. So he goes to Joppa. He finds a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare thereof and went down into it with them under Tarshish to go with them under Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Now I want to stop and talk about this idea of fleeing from the presence of the Lord because to us today in 2024 as Christians with the entire Bible in a nice leather bound cover where we can just open it and read the whole thing and search things and use Google to find things. You know, we have a lot of knowledge about the nature of God. I mean, we have everything we need right here to be totally furnished unto all good works. We've got all the information right here in front of us. And so to us, this idea of fleeing from the presence of God in the New Testament with the whole Bible at our fingertips, it seems a little bit absurd to us right away. We're looking at this like, how can you flee from the presence of God? Because, of course, we know that God is everywhere, right? God is everywhere. And if you would keep your finger and flip over to Psalm 139. So go to the left in your Bible. Right in the middle of your Bible is the Book of Psalms. Look at Psalm 139. This is a really famous passage in Psalm 139. Not the one that you're thinking of. It's earlier in the passage. Not the famous song that we like to sing. But look if you would at Psalm 139 verse 7. It says, Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? So he's saying, look, where could I possibly go to flee from the presence of God? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day, and the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. And so the psalmist is telling us here that no matter what extremes we go to, we could never really escape the presence of God. We go all the way up to heaven, all the way down to hell. We could go to the uttermost parts of the sea. We could turn off all the lights and be in total darkness, but God can see us in the darkness as if we were in broad daylight, according to scripture. And so based on Psalm 139, you could look at that and say, Well, there's no way that you can flee from the presence of God. It explicitly says that. Now, it's easy to just assume that Jonah knows this Bible verse, or that Jonah has access to this Bible verse, but that is an assumption. And let me tell you why. First of all, if you look at the heading of the Psalm 139, your Bible probably says, To the chief musician, a psalm of David. But here's the thing about that is that, you know, I am not convinced that that is actually an inspired part of scripture. And apparently the King James Bible translators didn't think so because they don't include it in the text of scripture. They just have it as a little separate heading at the top. It's a traditional attribution of this psalm, but I believe that if it were part of the text of scripture, it would be down in the verses. And some other foreign languages will do that, where they'll stick it down in the verse itself and think that those headings are inspired by God. But, you know, I personally don't think that they are because if you read all of them, if you look from start to finish, some of them are a little bit dubious on their face and don't really seem accurate with what's actually going on in this psalm. But, so all I'm saying is that we don't really know for sure that this psalm is written by David. Okay, and if you would, go back just a couple of psalms to Psalm 137, okay? Look at Psalm 137 and look what it says in verse 1. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. Now, we're talking here, and I'm not going to read the whole psalm for sake of time, we're talking about the Babylonian captivity, okay? Now, the Babylonian captivity took place many centuries after David lived. So, of course, this psalm is way after David and it's also way after the life of Jonah. So, Psalm 137 is being written centuries after Jonah lived. And so, we cannot really say for sure when Psalm 139 was even composed. It might have been composed by the time Jonah lived. It might have been composed much later. So, it's an assumption to think that Jonah knew this scripture. Maybe he did and maybe he didn't. But, whether he did or didn't, there are actually lots of scriptures in the Bible about being outside of the presence of God, departing from the presence of God, or fleeing from the presence of God. Go back if you went to Genesis chapter number 3. Genesis chapter number 3, because we don't necessarily know for sure if Jonah was familiar with Psalm 139, but he probably would have been familiar with something from Genesis and he certainly would have been familiar with something from Leviticus. There's, you know, there's really no doubt about that. And so, let's look at some of the things from other parts of the Bible about fleeing from the presence of the Lord. Because what you have to understand is that even though God is everywhere, even though we understand that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present, and that there's no way to really flee from his spirit or his presence, because no matter where you are in this entire universe, God is there, he sees you, he knows about you, there is still another aspect of the presence of God. For example, we talk about the famous New Testament quote where Jesus said, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I also in the midst of them. Now, we don't want to look at that and say, Well, yeah, of course, because he's everywhere, I mean, so what? Obviously, when he says that he is in the midst, when there are two or three gathered together in his name, he's there in the midst, that is a different level of God's presence. That's different than just his omni presence, the fact that he is obviously aware of everything and everywhere, but then there's God actually being present with a capital P when two or three are gathered together in Christ's name, Christ is there in the midst. But look at Genesis chapter number three, verse number eight, the Bible reads, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. So here's a really similar situation, because you have people that have sinned, and so therefore they don't want to face the presence of God, they want to hide themselves from the presence of God, just like Jonah is sinning, he's rebelling against God, so he wants to get away from God's presence. So in light of Genesis chapter three, verse eight, Jonah's mentality becomes a little bit less absurd when you think about it in these terms. Look over at Genesis chapter four, verse 16, and we're not even going to have time to look at all the examples on this, because there are so many verses about this throughout the Old Testament, we're just going to look at some of the highlights here. But Genesis 4, 16 says, And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. So by leaving the dwelling with Eden and Adam and Eve and his family, by going out to this country east of Eden in the land of Nod, the Bible calls that Cain, you know, going out from the presence of the Lord, right? Because he was there communing with God, and then he leaves that conversation with God, and so he goes from the presence of the Lord to the land of Nod. You don't have to turn to all these for sake of time, but I'm just going to crank through some of these. Leviticus chapter 22, verse three, and this is one that you could guarantee that Jonah would have known about, Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things which the children of Israel hallow unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, watch this, that soul shall be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord. So there's this idea of being exiled from Israel as being cut off from the presence of God, because God's presence is most keenly felt at the temple at that time, right? At the house of God, the tabernacle, or the temple, or what have you. Again, I'm just going to read these quickly for sake of time. Second Kings chapter 13, verse 23, it's obviously way after Jonah, but it says, And the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet. Later in Second Kings, verse 20 of chapter 24, For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. So when the children of Israel go into captivity in Babylon, the Bible calls that them being cast out from God's presence. By being exiled into Babylon, they're being cast out from God's presence. Of course, the famous words in Psalm 51, Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. We could go down through the list of all these different examples. I don't want to belabor that point, but go back if you would to Jonah chapter 1. The point is though, that there is obviously the idea that God's omnipresent, that he's everywhere, that he sees everything, that he knows everything. You can't really escape from him, but at the same time though, what you can get away from is communion with God, intimacy with God, closeness with God, fellowship with God, because that is associated with God's house. And so if you are exiled from Israel, if you're away from the temple, if you're away from the tabernacle, if you're away from God's house, you are in a sense away from God's presence. And then we think about the New Testament house of God. When we're gathered together in Christ's name, Christ is there in the midst. So coming to church is in a sense entering into God's presence, right? The Bible says in Psalm 100 verse 2, Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing. And even right before that, the verse before it says, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. So speaking to all geographies, all lands, all countries, he's saying enter God's presence with singing, right? And so when we come to the house of God, when we come to church, we are entering into the presence of the Lord. Sure, he's omnipresent, but obviously walking into the casino and walking into church, God is there in two different ways, right? If you walk into the casino, yeah, God's there in the sense that he sees what you're up to. He sees the sinfulness of what you're doing, but when you walk into the church house, God is present in the sense of fellowship, communion, closeness, actually being there present with a capital P. And so with that in mind, let's go back to Jonah chapter 1. It says in verse number 3, But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So his intent is to get away from the presence of God. He finds the ship, et cetera, at the end of verse 3, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So what's he trying to escape? He's trying to escape fellowship, closeness, communion with God because he's in sin. He doesn't want to face God. And let me tell you something. When people are living a sinful life today as Christians, they want to get away from church. They will also flee from the presence of God. They will get out of church. Okay? Because we don't have a special geography today in 2024 that represents the presence of God. Remember the woman at the well said to Jesus, you know, our fathers worshiped God in this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. And Jesus told her the time is coming when men will worship God. Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, they're going to worship God in spirit and in truth, and it's not going to matter where. That's where we are today in 2024. God's presence is wherever God's people are gathered together in God's house. It's not one place in Jerusalem, but every local church is the house of God. And so people today, when they get into sin, will flee from the presence of God. And they think that by not coming to church or not being around God's people, that somehow they don't have to face the sin that they're living in or face the consequences of their backslidden condition. And so that's what Jonah is trying to accomplish here in verse number three. Maybe he knows Psalm 139, maybe he doesn't, but that's not the point because you have all these other verses about God's presence being in a special way in his house or in his land or in his, you know, nation there of Israel. And so it says in verse number three, Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and he went down to Joppa. And you'll notice this kind of pattern of going down, right? He goes down to Joppa. He found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare thereof, and he went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And the idea here is that when you're living in sin, when you're rebelling against God, you are on a downward trajectory. Your life is not getting better. Your life is not improving. Your life is getting worse, okay? And a lot of people think that somehow going out there and seeing what sin has to offer or trying some different lifestyle other than what God has prescribed in his word is going to improve their life, but it's always going to bring you down. It's always going to drag you down and take you to a lower place as far as where you're living. And also notice that it says he paid the fare thereof. The symbolism here of paying the fare is that it's always going to cost you something to rebel against God. When you disobey God's commandments, there's a price that you pay, physically speaking, in this earth. You pay a price for rebelling against God. So that's the first three verses here. Then in verse number four, it says, 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. So here we're seeing the consequences of disobeying God, right? You decide to go out and disobey God, and you're going to, let's say, divorce your spouse, or you're going to go out and get into drinking or get into gambling or get into drugs or get into partying or get into fornication or whatever it is that you go out there and do, and you're going to go out and start mutilating yourself in various ways, and you're going to print marks on your body, and you're going to go out and start living like a heathen. All the things that God told you not to do, you know, God is going to send after you a mighty tempest, right? God will ultimately send troubles, problems, tribulations to come after you, and so there's a great wind, there's a tempest, so that the ship is like to be broken, okay? So whatever your plans are, you know, you've got this plan of, well, here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to go to Tarshish, right? You're not making it to Tarshish. You can make all these plans that you want, but if God is not for you, if God's not on your side, your plans are going to be foiled, okay? And so he thinks he's going to Tarshish. You think that your life is going to be a certain way without serving God, right? You know, hey, I'm not going to church, I'm not soul winning, I'm not reading my Bible, here's what I'm going to do with my life instead. God's up in heaven saying, oh no you're not. Now here's what you have to understand, there are lots of people in this world who get on boats and go to Tarshish all the time, and they have no issue. The reason why Jonah's having an issue is because he is God's child, okay? And here's the thing, it is possible for unsaved heathens to go out and drink and party and carouse and do all these things and totally get away with it. But that's because they're not God's children if they don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But when a child of God, one who believes on Christ, goes out and does these things, what does the Bible say? Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. And so if you're one whom God loves, if you're a child of God, and then you go out and do these kind of things, maybe other people are getting away with it, but you won't. Other people are going to Tarshish, but you're not going to Tarshish. You're going down, and you're not just going down to Joppa, you're not just going down into the bottom of the ship. That's where you think that the downward descent stops. You think, okay, I'm going down to Joppa, I'm going down into the ship, this is as low as I'm going to go. Oh no, you're going lower because you're going way below sea level, right? Because he's going to go down even further to the depths of the sea and be swallowed by a whale. And so the Bible says that God sent out this great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken. It was likely to be broken, it was about to be destroyed. Then the mariners, mariners are of course sailors or seamen, 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. And this is what Joppa noticed about people that are rebelling against God or backslidden, is that they can't even see the fact that their life is being destroyed or that things are coming crashing down around them. They're just totally unaware of the fact that they are ready to crash and burn. Everyone else around them sees it, right? We see people that are going down this dark path and getting into all this sin and we're thinking, wow, you're going down, you're about to be destroyed, you're about to crash and burn. But then they're just fast asleep. They just don't see it, they're just completely unaware of what's going on. And of course sleep in the New Testament is a metaphor for a couple of different things. Sometimes it's a metaphor for being ignorant and not knowing the Bible, not knowing the signs of the times, not knowing what's happening at the end of the world and so forth. That is sometimes referred to as being asleep. But the Bible also tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame, right? The Bible says that we should wake up, we should, you know, they that sleep, sleep in the night, they that be drunken or drunken in the night, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for in helmet the hope of salvation. And so being awake has to do with being aware, knowing what's going on, especially knowing spiritual truth from the Bible, and also it has to do with waking up to the fact that obviously sin is taking you down a dark path and it's not worth it. You want to awake to righteousness and sin not, okay? And so people who are backslidden, they don't see the destruction and the carnage that's coming. They're just totally oblivious to it, foolishly going down that path and the ship's about to break and they don't even know it because they're asleep. But then it says in verse 6, Then the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not. And you notice it takes someone else coming to him and rebuking him and telling him in order to snap him out of this lethargy where he's in the bottom of the ship fast asleep. It's funny because of course Jesus sleeps in a ship in the New Testament. He sleeps for a different reason. He sleeps because he knows that he's right with God. He knows that everything's fine. He knows that everything is going to be good because he's already said that they're going to go across to the other side. He has faith that they will reach the destination. And so he's relaxed and resting and asleep. That's a good kind of sleep that Jesus has in the bottom of the ship in the Sea of Galilee. This is a bad kind of sleep. A kind of sleep where no, you're not going to be okay. You're not going to make it to the other side. But you still are just totally at peace about it. Right? And look, you'll run into Christians that are right with God and they're just at peace in their lives because they know that all things work together for good to those that love God. But then you'll also see this false confidence of the backslidden, of the rebellious against God that just says, like, oh, it's fine. Nothing bad is going to happen. God's not going to punish me. It's all good. I'm fine. It doesn't, nothing matters. God doesn't care. God doesn't see. And you know what's funny is that a lot of backslidden people just think, oh, God doesn't really care what I do. I don't really matter that much. God's got other things to worry about in the universe. Well, the Bible says the hairs of our head are numbered. And that mentality that says, well, God doesn't really care or know what's going on in my life, it's the same mentality that says, oh, I'm going to flee from the presence of God outside of God caring. Well, God apparently does know and care because he is shaken up your ship here with a great storm. And so the ship master has to come and wake him and shake him out of his sleep. And then it says in verse 7, they 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. Of course, this is not necessarily a legitimate way to determine the will of God, but yet God can still use things like this just to show his purpose. You know, the Bible says in Proverbs, the lot falleth into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. And so obviously God can influence something like this, even though it's heathen people casting lots or whatever. He wants them to get the message. So he causes the lot to fall 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 comest thou? What is thy country and of what people art thou? So they're starting to investigate and figure out, okay, we're in trouble here. The whole ship is going down and we cast lots and apparently it's your fault. Okay, which is ironic because you're down there sleeping while we're actually trying to fix things and throw things overboard and trying to row the sea, row the thing to shore and everything. But they say, you know, tell us all about yourself so that we can figure out why this is happening. You know, so tell us, you know, what do you do for a living? Where are you from? What's your nationality and so forth. And he said unto them, verse nine, I'm in Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said unto them, why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Now this is very surprising, isn't it? He'd already told them that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord. That's a little bit strange, isn't it? First of all, why would he tell them that? Well, one of the reasons why he told them that is because we as human beings, it's in our nature to want to tell everybody everything. This is just kind of how we are. It's like we just can't help but just tell everybody everything. I remember one time I was out soul winning and I walked up to this lady and I give her an invitation to church and I asked her if I can share the gospel with her and she said, no, I'm busy. You know, I don't have time. I don't want to talk right now. And she just said that she didn't want to talk. And then she just starts telling me how she had an abortion and just starts crying and bawling and confessing how she had this abortion. And it was like I didn't ask about anything. I didn't bring anything up like that. I had no intention to talk about anything like that. She just blurts out to me, apropos of nothing, a complete stranger, I murdered my child and just bawling and whatever. Why? Why is that? Because this is in our human nature to want to express ourselves and to tell people, especially when people feel guilty about something, sometimes they want to get it off their chest, you know, and they want to confess that and tell that. And of course, when that lady told me that, you know, I tried to explain to her the gospel and show her, hey, we're all sinners and Jesus died for all of our sins, not just the little sins. He died for the big sins too and he can forgive all our sins if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then we'll be saved and forgiven of all our sins and so forth. But the point is that she said she didn't even want to talk to me, that she had no interest, and then the next thing you know, she's just blurting that out to me. And I'm sure you've probably had similar situations where people are just blurting things out to you and you're like, wow, I did not need to know that. I did not ask you about that. You know, why are you telling me that? But it's just in human nature to want to tell people, especially stuff that we feel guilty about, right? This is why the Roman Catholic Church has made a whole business of this, right, with their little confessional booth which is obviously totally unbiblical. It's not in the Word of God, but they have this little setup where you go and tell some guy wearing a dress behind a screen. You tell him, you know, whatever you did wrong and then he tells you to go chant a bunch of Hail Marys and Our Fathers and whatever as if that's gonna somehow fix it, okay? Obviously it's nonsense, but what are they doing? They're capitalizing on human nature that wants to go into that confessional booth and just tell somebody all the bad things that they've done. And so that's what Jonah's doing. He's just telling people. He just tells them, yeah, you know, I'm supposed to be preaching in Nineveh, but I don't want to so I'm just fleeing to Tarshish. Now, here's the question here because when you're reading this and you see like, okay, he's already told them, he's already told them that he's fleeing for the presence of the Lord. Then why are they confused or why are they asking him questions? Why are they wondering? Why are they asking him what nationality he is? There seems to be a little contradiction here right on the surface at first. It's a little bit confusing to understand how this works, but if you stop and think about it, basically what he had told them was that he was in some kind of rebellion against God, but he had not told them which God. They did not know that he was a Hebrew. They didn't know that he's worshipping Jehovah God, the Lord. They just know that he's some kind of a religious dude that is fleeing his responsibility or shirking his religious responsibilities. When they find out that it is the Lord, now they are shocked and horrified. And the funny thing here is that apparently they seem to realize that rebelling against some other minor deity isn't as big of a deal as rebelling against the Lord. Apparently to them, the Lord is a scarier God than whoever they might have thought that he was serving. Whatever temple or whatever cult they thought that he was in, they didn't think it was a big deal. He's some kind of a religious guy that's fleeing and trying to go to Tarshish just to get away from his responsibilities. He obviously hadn't gone into detail because now that they find out that he is a Hebrew and that he's serving the Lord, now they're more horrified. Another possible explanation is that he's told this to maybe one or two people. Another way to understand this is he told this to one or two people maybe, one guy, and then now all of a sudden it's coming before the whole crew and it's getting exposed and people are putting the pieces together and connecting the dots and basically multiple people are putting their information together and saying, wait a minute, this guy is serving the Lord God of the Hebrews and he's rebelling against God and he told us that he isn't supposed to be here and whatever and they're kind of like maybe sharing notes with one another and putting it all together and now they're shocked and horrified. But either way, they tend to have respect for the awesome power of God and they seem to think that they're in big trouble as a result of this because it says they're exceedingly afraid. They're like, why'd you do this, you idiot? Now, an interesting thing here is that we see that in this case, the heathen have a better sense of what's going on than the backslidden Christian, right? The backslidden Christian's asleep in the bottom of the boat. The heathen, they get it that there's a problem. And then when they talk to Jonah about it, it's like they're having to explain to him how bad this is and how stupid he is for what he's doing. And you know what I've found is the case in my life is that unsaved heathens typically have more sense than backslidden Christians because backslidden liberal Christians are pretty much the stupidest people on the planet. They are. And look, that's why I would rather live in Libtardia itself, wherever that is, than to live in one of these fake Christian, fake conservative areas. They're even worse. I mean, look at our friend, Pastor Jonathan Shelley, getting so much persecution in Texas in a supposedly conservative area and he's literally being persecuted by so-called conservatives and Christians and everything. It's other churches, it's other fake Christians that are persecuting him, getting him evicted from his buildings and getting him in trouble with the law and all these things for just simply preaching the Word of God. If you look at the people who are actually persecuting him and actually supporting his enemies, they are fake watered-down Christians. I mean, he's preaching against the homos and you got all these wicked, perverted, disgusting homos coming and protesting his church and then the church down the street is literally coming and giving sandwiches and waters to the sexual perverts that are gathered outside of his building and they're literally feeding and saying, hey, we love you, God loves you and everything, just propping them up as they persecute a man of God. And by the way, that pastor was some pastor of some Nazarene church. That same Nazarene pastor, if you listen to his sermon where he preaches against Pastor Shelley, he has no biblical answers, he has no biblical proof for what he believes. Basically, this is what his message consists of. Can you believe this guy? Can you believe that? I mean, I know that's what the Bible says, but can you believe it? He literally reads Bible verses where he proves himself wrong and says, yeah, when we were in Bible college and seminary, we really struggled with these verses, but can you believe this guy? And I mean, look, most of the enemies of the word of God and the enemies of truth and the enemies of the Lord, that's their favorite argument. Well, yeah, but I mean, come on. That's pretty much their argument. Like, come on, I mean, come on, this is crazy, right? I mean, we all know, right? We can all see, right? It's so obviously right. It's like, well, yeah, but what verse is that? Because guess what? A lot of things that people just assume are true or take for granted as true aren't true. The word of God is truth. Well, yeah, but I mean, we all know. No, we don't all know that. Because some of us are reading the Bible and we know what the Bible says and we don't care what everybody knows or everybody thinks or everybody should understand. You know, it's this emperor's new clothes mentality that just says, well, you know, if everybody kind of agrees on something, it must be right. If everybody's saying it, I mean, then come on. Well, it's like, well, no, we got to get back to the word of God. If somebody is preaching the word of God, you got to fight fire with fire. You know, show us the Bible. If you can't show us the Bible, then, you know, we don't care what you think. And so the point is, though, why is I mean, think about it. You got you got Pastor Jimenez in Sacramento, California, in the capital city of California. And everybody thinks of California as being the super liberal leftist state. And yet I don't see Pastor Jimenez going through the stuff that Pastor Shelley is going through. I mean, don't be wrong. He's been persecuted. He's gone through stuff. But it's worse in the so-called conservative area. Define irony. Okay. But it's almost always like that. Okay. I, in my personal life, end up getting along better with just unsaved heathens, just total just left wing liberals. I end up getting along better with them than the fake watered down, backslidden Christians, because the fake watered down, backslidden Christians are the worst. They are the most oblivious to truth. They are the most self-deluded people. They are the people that are the most asleep when it comes to what's going on in this world. And so Jonah, in the bottom of the ship, asleep, represents the fact that sinful, rebellious, backslidden Christians don't get it. Okay. And then the heathen sometimes even have to explain it to them, because they are so out of it that even unsaved heathen are better at discerning the situation and discerning the will of God and discerning what the Bible even says, which is bizarre and laughable. But it's true. Backslidden Christians. And look, when you are backslidden, when you're rebelling against God, when you're quitting the church and going out and living a sinful life, you are the dumbest man on the planet at that point. Even dumber than the person who's never been to church. At least the person who's never been serving God, never been right with God, you know, they may just not know any better. But when you've been here and learned everything and understood everything, and you've actually even felt the presence of God and gone through, and then now you're leaving and going off to see what is in the cesspool of the devil's, you know, world out there, you know, it's just so dumb. And so that's what we see here. The mariners are having to slap some sense into Jonah himself. Because he represents the backslidden, watered-down Christian. Verse number 11, it says, Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And this is where Jonah comes to his senses after being spoken to by them. 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. So now he gets it, he sees what's going on. Nevertheless the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them. Therefore 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 men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. So these people, they end up now, as a result of this whole incident, they end up sacrificing the Lord, making vows, now they believe in the Lord, now they fear the Lord. Whereas in the past, they're all crying every man to his individual God, now it seems like they're all worshipping the Lord, they're all calling upon the name of the Lord now. Right? And so, you know, it's at least a happy ending for them. But, the Bible says in verse 17, 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, the last thing I want to point out here in this passage is that Jonah, when he's thrown overboard, right, he ends up going to a horrible place. Alright? Because being in the belly of the whale is compared to being in hell. It's actually a metaphor for being in hell. That's why even in the next chapter, he says, out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice, in verse 2 of chapter 2. Of course, Jesus is later going to use this as a picture for his own death, burial, and resurrection. He says, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And so, we see here that the whale's belly is a place of darkness, pain, torment, suffering, right? It's a horrible place. I mean, he's in there, and he's probably feeling the burning of all that stomach acid or whatever. I don't really know what's going on in the belly of this fish. Some people would try to appeal to biology and maybe talk about the anatomy of whales or something like that, but at the end of the day, the Bible says the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. So I don't think this is just an ordinary whale. It's a custom model that God has created, you know, to be able to be a receptacle for this disobedient preacher. Okay, so God has prepared this special fish. Now, some people say, is it a fish or a whale? Because a whale is a mammal. Obviously, that's a modern idea, classifying whales as mammals, because obviously, there's no absolute mammal, reptile, amphibian, whatever. I mean, these are all just human distinctions, man-made things. We know it's a whale because the New Testament specifically calls it a whale. It uses a word that specifically means whale. Okay. Here, it's just a great fish, not in the sense of our modern understanding of what a fish is, but in the sense of just, it's swimming in the ocean with fins, folks. Get over it. Somebody called it a fish thousands of years ago. You know, it's not supposed to be a biology textbook. Okay. But again, I would not appeal to biology and say, you know, because some people are like, could a human live in the belly of a whale? And they're doing all these calculations and trying to figure it out. I mean, I'm surprised that some guy hasn't tried, or maybe he has, in some kind of a reality show, go in there with a GoPro and a light and be like, I'm going into this whale's belly. I'm going to see if I can make it for three days. I mean, it's kind of a cool idea to be honest. You know, get a giant whale, go in the belly. And again, I brought this up the other day, but we sometimes forget how big whales are because we're thinking Shamu, which is really just a glorified dolphin. Whales are like 80, many whales are like 80 to 100 feet long. Right? I mean, we're talking really long, huge, plenty of room for, you know, a whole, everybody on the boat probably could have gone in there, you know, especially if God's preparing a great fish to swallow up Jonah. It's obviously a special whale that's swallowing him. So I don't need to know about the chemical composition of the inside of a whale's belly. I'm just assuming that it's a bad place if he's comparing it to hell. So, and there's probably acidic things going on in the belly of any creature. I would think that there are those kind of reactions going on, burning, darkness, confinement. That's what we're looking at. And so he goes to this horrible place. And from the whale's belly, of course, he's going to pray and get right with God. And then the whale is going to ultimately spit him out onto the dry land. And then he's going to go do what he was supposed to do. Now, the moral of the story here is that for the backslidden Christian to get right with God, he needs a couple of things. First of all, they often will need an intervention from other people. Because they're too stupid sometimes to see what's going on. And they're being foolish. That's how they got in this situation in the first place. But also because of the fact that, you know, they need other people that are not as emotional about the situation to just from the outside tell them what's going on. And so the moral of the story, number one, is listen to other people. Right? When people are warning you about the trajectory of your life, listen to other people. Don't just blow them, oh, it's my life. You don't know anything. You know, the knee jerk sometimes reaction is just that we don't want to be criticized. We don't want to be told anything negative about ourselves. And so we don't want to just blow people off when they're telling us that we're wrong. We need to listen to other people. Okay? The Bible says that, you know, a reproof, meaning like a verbal correction, a reproof enters more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool. Right? And so it's better to just be verbally corrected than to have to actually be beaten and whipped in order to get the point of what's being said. And so we need to listen to other people. Sometimes it takes an intervention from other people. But secondly, you know what else it often takes to get people right with God? Is that they have to hit rock bottom. They have to hit rock bottom. Think about the story of the prodigal son. You know, in the story of the prodigal son, he goes off into a far country. He spends all his money on riotous living. And when things are going good, he has no thought of returning to the father. He's just partying and doing all of his wicked things. But then it's when he totally loses everything and ends up feeding pigs on a farm and he's so hungry that he's literally craving to eat of the husks that the swine are eating. That is when he hits rock bottom. And he realizes, wow, I am at the bottom. I mean, even the hired servants in my father's house are doing way better than I am. I am at rock bottom here, lusting after pig slop because I'm doing so bad and I'm so hungry and I'm in so much misery. For Jonah, rock bottom is literally going to the bottom of the sea and being swallowed by a whale. Okay, and being in torment and in this horrible torturous situation for three days and three nights. You know, this is rock bottom for him. And here's the thing, is that when people are living a super sinful life, I'm not talking about minor sin, but I'm talking about people who are just in total rebellion against God. You have to let people hit rock bottom because rock bottom is where typically they end up getting right with God. But the problem is that oftentimes when people are going down a sinful or dark path, we're just constantly propping them up and just helping them. We're financing their drug habit. We're financing their drinking habit. We're constantly being a safety net for them as their sinful consequences keep trying to take them to rock bottom. We just keep throwing them a life raft and bringing them back. We're throwing them in with a life jacket. But there is a time and a place where we need to just let people hit rock bottom. And a lot of people think this is unloving or sinful or wrong. But if you look at the story here in Jonah chapter one, these people don't seem unloving to me at all because in fact they're doing everything that they can to try to save Jonah. And they don't want to throw them overboard. They're not just like, well, we were looking for an excuse to get rid of this bozo anyway. They don't want to throw them overboard. Even after Jonah says, throw me in, guys. They're like, nah, we don't, you know, we don't want to do that. And they keep trying and they keep trying. And then once they realize, though, this isn't going to work, finally they throw them overboard. And they don't want to. And they do it reluctantly. And they say, God, we're sorry that we're doing this, you know, but you, this is what you've said. This is what you have judged. And so they end up throwing them overboard. And then, of course, their life ends up going well. And so does his because, you know, after three days of torture, then he's doing great. But the point is that we have to let people hit rock bottom. In the New Testament, we have this explicitly taught that if some Christian in the church is living in fornication or drunkenness or these other major sins, the Bible says, with such a one, know not to eat. And it says, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. And so if you think about throwing Jonah out of the ship, you could also think about the fact that sometimes we are called upon by God to throw people out of the church and to put away from ourselves people that are not, that are just way out of bounds, right? People that are not right with God. And I'm not talking about just somebody sinning because everybody sinned. We'd all get thrown out of church every week if just sinning got you thrown out of church. We're talking about people that are committing major sin, people that have major problems that need to be dealt with. And so it is biblical to throw people out of the church. The Bible says, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. If somebody that's called a brother, and this is just one example, there are lots of reasons given for throwing people out, but the Bible just, to give one example, 1 Corinthians 5 says, if anyone that is called a brother be a fornicator with such a one, know not to eat. Put away from among yourselves that wicked person, right? And what does the Bible specifically say in 1 Corinthians 5? To deliver such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. And the idea here is that in the long run, casting this person out or delivering them over to Satan is going to be a wake-up call that would eventually bring them back around to getting right with God. And here's the thing, you know, obviously we all have mercy and compassion and we feel bad for other people and everything like that. And so sometimes we don't want to necessarily throw anyone overboard. You know, these people didn't want to throw anyone overboard either. Obviously we shouldn't just be flippant about this and just wanting to just throw everybody overboard. What we want is people to get right. We want people to get right. That's what we want. If it takes hitting rock bottom, so be it. That's what it takes, that's what it takes. But you got to be willing to let people hit rock bottom. And so, you know, and I've seen it my whole life where people will have a child, an adult, not a child, but an adult son or adult daughter who's basically addicted to drugs or, you know, living a life of drunkenness or fornication or whatever. And basically they'll just keep helping them, helping them, helping them, helping them. You know, you don't see the father of the prodigal son, you know, going after him and taking care of him and propping up his sinful lifestyle. He's waiting for him to come back, but he's not necessarily chasing after him either. Because people have to sometimes learn things the hard way, right? Would to God that people would just not rebel, that people would just not disobey the Lord, that people would just not go down that dark path in the first place. But when they do, they often have to learn the hard way. They often have to hit rock bottom before they get right, okay? And so that's what we see happening in the book of Jonah here. And so although this story is obviously, you know, it's from the Old Testament, it happened thousands of years ago, it's extremely relevant to our Christian lives today because anybody can become a Jonah at any time. Anytime you're just blatantly rebelling against the clear teaching of Scripture and living a life of sin, committing major sins, anytime you do that, you're being like Jonah. And then next thing you know, what do you try to do? You try to flee from the presence of the Lord. And what does that look like in 2024? Here's what it looks like getting out of church, not going to church, not being around your Christian friends, not being around your Christian family, maybe not even wanting to read the Bible or even think about the things of God because you're trying to escape that fellowship or intimate relationship with God because of the fact that it reminds you of the stupidity of what you're doing. You don't want to think too much about it because you want to do what you want to do and you think you're going to Tarshish and it's going to be so cool, but you're not going to Tarshish, you're not going anywhere, you're going down. And when you go down, you go down deeper than you thought you were going to go. You're like, well, I'll go down a little bit. No, no, you're going to go down a lot, right? Because sin takes you further than you want to go. It keeps you longer than you want to stay and it costs you more than you're willing to pay. And so that's what happens with Jonah here. And then what does it take in order for him to get back on track? Well, the same thing it's going to take to get backslidden Christians back on track in 2024. It's going to take one of two things. It's going to either take an intervention from other people or it's going to take hitting rock bottom. Now, if you're smart, you'll listen to the intervention and you won't have to hit rock bottom. But if that's not enough to get you right, then it's going to take something more. And again, when you see Jonah here on the ship saying, hey, throw me into the sea, you know, that's why this is happening. I know that for my sake, this evil has come upon us. Although he's come to his senses a bit, we don't really necessarily know that he's fully repented yet, because we don't really necessarily know that he's actually willing to obey God. He might just be like, kill me now. But what we're going to find later is that kill me now and doing the will of God are kind of two different things. Because Jonah, again, in chapter four, even when he's not on a boat, even when there's not a storm going on, is basically going to look to God and say, kill me now. Okay, so here's the thing. People wishing for death or people, you know, being upset or people acknowledging that they're living in sin isn't necessarily repentance as far as actually getting things right. Because there's the sorrow, there's the godly sorrow that worketh repentance of actually getting things right, and then there's the sorrow of the world which worketh death, which is just, I'm an idiot, I'm stupid, kill me. You know, but that doesn't necessarily translate into, hey, I'm going to obey God now. Because guess what, there are a lot of people out there living a sinful life that are depressed about it. Doesn't necessarily mean they're ready to start doing right. Okay. And so there's the intervention and maybe that wakes him up a bit, but he's not really totally ready to obey until he spends three days and three nights in the whale's belly. Now he's ready to obey. He comes out of that whale's belly, he goes straight to Nineveh, and he does not pass go, he does not collect $200. Why? Because he's been in the whale's belly for three days and three nights. And when people hit rock bottom, sometimes that's what wakes him up. So that they will actually do right. So we've got to, number one, when we see people going down a dark path, intervene, speak to them, correct them. And number two, sometimes we have to allow them to hit rock bottom if they don't listen to the correction. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this passage, Lord. Help us never to be like Jonah, and if we do find ourselves being like Jonah, help us to realize it and listen to other people and take other people's advice and get things right before we crash and burn irreparably, Lord. Please help us to hearken to your word, take heed to your word, and do your will, Lord. And if there are others that are going down a dark path, Lord, help us to lovingly correct them. And Lord, if we have to cast them overboard, Lord, help us to have the courage to cast them overboard. And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Men, take your song books with me, please. Go to Hymn 375. Hymn 375. We'll close our singing with Work for the Night is Coming. Hymn 375. We'll lift it up on that first verse now. 375. Work for the night is coming Work through the morning hours Work while the dew is sparkling Work midspringing flowers Work when the day grows brighter Work in the glowing sun Work for the night is coming When man's work is done Work for the night is coming Work through the sunny new We'll rise up with labor Rest on shore and soon Give every flying minute Something to keep in store Work for the night is coming When man works no more Work for the night is coming Under the sunset skies While their bright dings are glowing Work for daylight flies Work till the last beam faded Faded to shine no more Work while the night is darkening When man's work is worn Work till the last beam faded Faded to shine no more Work for the night is coming Work for the night is coming