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Um, yeah, you wouldn't know the service. I want to show who you're talking about. I have the mic. She has the mic. Alright. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'm going to go back. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. 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So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. So I'll have to get my mic. Alright brethren, welcome to church tonight. If you've got your hymnals, please take them. And let's turn to hymn number 157. Hymn number 157, 157. We'll begin by singing, Come Thou Almighty King. And if you are able, please stand. And let's sing it up to the Lord. 157, Come Thou Almighty King. Alright, sing it up. Come Thou Almighty King, Help us Thy name to sing, Help us to praise, Father all glorious, All victorious, Come and reign over us, Ancient of this. Come Thou incarnate Word, Good on Thy mighty sword, Our prayer attend. Come and Thy people bless, And give Thy word success, Spirit of holiness on us descend. Come holy Comforter, Thy sacred witness bear, In this glad hour, Thou who Almighty art, Now rule in every heart, And there from us, Depart, Spirit of power, To the Great One in free, Eternal praises be, Hence evermore, His sovereign majesty, May we in glory sing, And to enter, Let in love and adore. Alright, let's go to a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, Lord, I just thank You, Lord, for being the Almighty King. Lord, we come to You tonight, Lord, to be in Your house, to be amongst our brothers and sisters in the Lord. And Lord, we come to give You worship and praise. We love You so much, Lord, for Your sacrifice for the Lord Jesus Christ, for salvation, the free gift, Lord, that has been paid for by the blood of Christ. We thank You, Lord, for giving us a home in heaven, for making us Your children. And I pray that Your Holy Spirit will work in our hearts and in our minds and help us not to be distracted tonight, Lord, as we give You praise and we learn more things from Your word. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Okay, let's turn to hymn number 359. 359, 359. Thy word have I hid in mine heart. 359. Thy word have I hid in my heart. Thy word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my powerful way, to guide and to save me from sin and show me the heavenly way. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee, that I might not sin, that I might not sin. Thy word have I hid in my heart. Forever, O Lord, is Thy word established and fixed on high. Thy faithfulness unto all men abideth forever nigh. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee, that I might not sin, that I might not sin. Thy word have I hid in mine heart. And morning and noon and at night, I ever will give Thee praise, for Thou art my portion, O Lord, and shall be through all my days. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee, that I might not sin, that I might not sin. Thy word have I hid in mine heart through Him whom Thy word hath foretold, the Saviour and Morning Star. Salvation and peace have been brought to those who have strayed afar. Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against Thee, that I might not sin, that I might not sin. Thy word have I hid in mine heart. All right, beautiful singing. All right, let's have one more song before the Bible reading. Let's turn to hymn number 312. 312, open my eyes that I may see. We might do a cappella, actually. We might not have the music. I kind of want to just hear your voices. You know, I haven't seen you guys from Fortnite. Just want to hear your voices. Let's sing it up to the Lord. Let's just try a cappella. 312, open my eyes that I may see. Okay, ready? You know what, brother? Can you just play the... Just play the music as a... I can't remember how it starts. Open my eyes that I may see. Okay, turn it off, brother. Open my eyes that I may see. Glimpses of truth thou hast for me. Place in my hands the wonderful key that shall uncast and set me free. Silently now I wait for thee. Ready, my God, thy will to see. Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine. Open my ears that I may hear. Voices of truth thou sendest clear. And while the wave notes fall on my ear, everything false shall disappear. Silently now I wait for thee. Ready, my God, thy will to see. Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine. Open my mouth and let me bear gladly the warm truth every web. Open my heart and let me prepare love with thy children thus to share. Silently now I wait for thee. Ready, my God, thy will to see. Open my heart, illumine me, Spirit divine. Beautiful singing. Okay, please take your Bibles now and turn to the book of Jonah. Jonah chapter one, please. Jonah chapter one and brother Tim is coming up for the reading. Thank you. Here we go, Jonah chapter one. Jonah chapter 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 is 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 ship master came unto 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 thy 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 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 was wrought and the tempestuous against them 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 please 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 bows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this evening that we could all be gathered here once again to hear your word preached. I thank you for this portion of scripture, Lord. I pray that you fill Pastor Kevin with your Holy Ghost as he teaches us from it. And may we take in everything, may it sink deep into our heart and our minds, and please bless the service. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Before I get into the sermon, let's just sing one more song and I'm going to ask Brother Matthew or Carissa, since you're our... you know, first time I see you guys as a married couple, congratulations. Praise God for such a... for such a union. All right, so how about you guys, if you've got a favour for us. Have you got a song that you'd like us to sing? 102. 102. The height of my soul. And I'm very thankful to Pastor Piper as well from Liberty Baptist Church for conducting that ceremony. But 102, he height of my soul. Let's sing that one together. A wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Lord A wonderful Saviour to me He height of my soul In the cleft of the rock Where rivers of pleasure I see He height of my soul In the cleft of the rock That shadows are dry In my thirsty land He height of my life In the depths of His love And covers me there with His hand And covers me there with His hand A wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Lord He taketh my burden away He holdeth me up And I shall not be moved He giveth me strength as my name He height of my soul In the cleft of the rock That shadows are dry In my thirsty land He height of my life In the depths of His love And covers me there with His hand And covers me there with His hand With numberless blessings Each moment He crowns And filled with His fullness divine I sing in my rapture Oh glory to God For such a redeemer as mine He height of my soul In the cleft of the rock That shadows are dry In my thirsty land He height of my life In the depths of His love And covers me there with His hand And covers me there with His hand When clothed in His brightness Transported I rise To meet Him in clouds of the sky His perfect salvation His wonderful love Oh shouts with the millions on high He height of my soul In the cleft of the rock That shadows are dry In my thirsty land He height of my life In the depths of His love And covers me there with His hand And covers me there with His hand The last sermon that I preached two weeks ago I ended the series on the seven churches of the book of Revelation And so what I decided to do now Is we're going to go chapter by chapter through the book of Jonah And most likely when we're done with Jonah We're going to go to the book of Nahum Which deals with the same city of Nineveh That both these prophets are preaching to So Jonah chapter 1 verse number 1 It says there 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 And so this is one of the more rare times that we see in the Bible Where God is calling for judgment upon a Gentile city The city of Nineveh was a significant large city In the kingdom of Assyria It was a city of the Assyrians So obviously Gentile nations You know as we read through the Bible most of the time God is passing judgment upon Israel Upon Jerusalem, upon the Jews But this is one time when God actually Is looking at other nations Just a Gentile nation And is commanding judgment to come out of the mouth of Jonah To go and preach against that great and that wicked city You know it's quite interesting that it says at the end of verse number 2 For their wickedness is come up before me You know the wickedness had gotten so bad That it's just like a stench In the nose of the Lord God And it says Jonah you need to go and preach against this city And a lot of you are very familiar with the story of Jonah Most often than not You know I remember being a child in Sunday school This is one of the stories that you hear about the most You know Jonah being swallowed up by a whale Now I want you to just consider who Jonah is You know this is not the only time that we hear of Jonah If you keep your finger there and go to 2 Kings Please turn to 2 Kings chapter 14 We are actually introduced to Jonah in 2 Kings chapter 14 I just want to show you what it speaks about here about his name In 2 Kings 14 verse number 23 Give me a moment to turn there 2 Kings chapter 14 and verse number 23 It says So this is speaking about King Jeroboam Who's Jeroboam the second And he's ruling in the northern kingdom of Israel Alright Verse number 24 So Jeroboam the second is following after Jeroboam the first All the sins that he committed back when he was the king And of course it's about bringing the golden calf They were worshipping idols They were worshipping false gods And Jeroboam the second is doing likewise But then it says in verse 25 What does this Jeroboam the second do? It says And so this king, yes he did weakness in the sight of the Lord But he was also successful in winning back certain areas that belonged to the Israelites So areas that were taken over by the enemies of Israel He had gone to war, he had been victorious in gaining back some land back to the nation of Israel Then it says this So you see this is the first time we read about Jonah in the Bible Alright So you see that he was obviously a prophet at this time of Jeroboam the second king of Israel But he had prophesied that Jeroboam would be weakened by the sight of the Lord And had prophesied that this king would win back this land, this territory And so when it actually happened The Bible just recalls for us that this year this was prophesied This was preached by Jonah the prophet And so you can see the book of Jonah is not the first time we meet him We meet him here, he's being used by God He's an experienced preacher You know when we get to the book of Jonah this isn't his first sermon This isn't the first time that he's stepping out to preach for the Lord God He's an experienced preacher He has prophesied in the past, God has used him And what he has prophesied of has come to pass Proving that he was a legitimate good prophet of God Often we read about the book of Jonah and we know how weak he was You know the book of Jonah is at a point when he's kind of backslidden He's a little bit cold to all the things of God But there was a time when he was a powerful preacher for the Lord God So that's just the introduction that I want to show you there But also if you're still there and seeing Kings 14 In verse number 25 it says At the end of it the prophet which was at Gethhepa And so this area Gethhepa is in the region of Galilee You know what we read about as Galilee He was off that land, off that area Now why is that kind of interesting, why am I pointing that out? Please go to another passage, go to John chapter 7 Go to John chapter 7 verse 50 John chapter 7 verse 50 We're going to the book of John here where basically The chief priests, the Pharisees, the religious leaders They've come together to discuss Jesus Christ And they want to judge and they're trying to stop the ministry Of the work of Jesus Christ And we know that the story of Nicodemus Obviously in John chapter 3 Nicodemus came to Jesus at night Asking him, hey how does one get saved, how does one get born again? And Christ of course teaches him the gospel message But it says here in John chapter 7 verse 50 So for the religious leaders, the chief priests, etc They're having this meeting discussing Jesus And it says here in verse number 50 So he's coming out to bat for Jesus They're all just basically condemning Christ And he says look, according to our law Are we really right to judge Jesus before we even hear what he's saying? You know, before we even know exactly what he's doing You know, are we really going to run and make decisions based on rumors You know, on second hand information And so he's coming out defending Christ And look how they answer, verse number 52 It says here What? We just read, Jonah's come out of Galilee And if you read the Hosea Hosea came out of Galilee, 100% And you know, there are some other, I'm not sure You know, there are some other prophets that have come out of Galilee But I just find it interesting That these false religious leaders They're telling Nicodemus, man, if you just If you search the scriptures You know, if you just spend time reading the Bible You will know that no prophet has come out of Galilee What about Jonah? What about Hosea? You know, and look We've got to be careful about the religious leaders that we listen to You know, I mean, they'll say, look If you go to the Bible, it'll say X, Y, and Z It doesn't really say X, Y, and Z You know, and look You know, just be mindful That people can use the scriptures against you Without knowing what it actually contains Obviously, these people have not read the Bible They're saying, look Nicodemus, you go and read the scriptures You haven't even read the scriptures You haven't even, look, the prophet Jonah Jonah, he's not like a Yes, he's considered a minor prophet But it's a very famous story I mean, not everyone gets swallowed by a whale And to forget that he's come out of Galilee Is just ridiculous, alright So anyway, the reason I showed you that Is because as we read through the book of Jonah You'll find parallels To Jesus Christ You know, Jonah is used symbolically As a type, a picture Of who Jesus Christ was And the first thought we can get out of here Is that come out of Galilee, alright Go back to Jonah chapter 1 Jonah chapter 1 verse number 3 Jonah chapter 1 verse number 3 So again, this is not Jonah's first sermon God's asked him to do a work Hey, he is a prophet, alright He's a seasoned prophet This is his job, this is what he's supposed to do Go and preach the word of God But what does Jonah do in verse number 3 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 Look, Jonah's backslidden Jonah's gone cold Toward the things of God You know, and I You know, I encourage you brethren You know, you need to pray for me As your pastor, as a preacher And you know, any man that serves in the house of God You ought to be praying for If you've been influenced by great pastors of the past You know, you've been part of good churches Hey, pray for those pastors It's not impossible for a pastor To go cold about the things of God Right, some of that was being used by God Greatly in the past And now they've lost that love, they've lost that excitement You know, he'd rather run away From the presence of God And he starts heading toward Tarshish Now Tarshish is Understood to be in Spain There are different views as to where Tarshish was But I think the majority view Is that it's toward Spain Okay, but the city's been renamed now Obviously in modern times Now when you think about where Israel is If you're familiar with the map of Israel You know, traveling to Spain or Tarshish Would be traveling to the west Okay And traveling to Nineveh Would require Jonah to travel to the west Sorry, to travel to the east, sorry Travel to the east So not only is he not doing what God wants to do He's going the completely opposite direction God says, go east He says, I'm going west I'm getting away from the presence of the Lord You say, why, why has he taken that view Well, we'll have a look at that shortly We'll decide why But, you know, before we figure out exactly why Jonah's feeling this way You know, maybe some of you have grown cold toward the things of God You know, hey, maybe some of our church members Maybe, you know, some Are just not actively in church Not actively serving God But, you know, what I love about the story of Jonah Even someone that can be backslidden Even someone that is ashamed to preach for the Lord God You know, God can still use them God can step in And, you know, even though Jonah's gone cold He still uses Jonah a great way To preach to Nineveh I mean, it's one of the great stories That this Gentile city eventually You know, turns to the Lord God In the fear of the Lord And God has mercy upon this city I mean, that's a great preacher I mean, that's a great preacher Could you imagine, like, you know, if I'm preaching here And by the effects of my preaching All of Sydney turns to the Lord God All of Sydney Stops committing the great weakness that they've done You say, hey, what a great, what great preaching Look how God used this preacher To turn Sydney Back to the Lord God I mean, that's basically what Jonah was able to accomplish A complete Gentile city Bring them back to the Lord God So he was able to be used by God Mightily in the book of Jonah But notice his backslidden Notice that he's cold Notice that he kind of wants to quit the preaching He wants to quit that task And so, again, just keep your pastor in prayer You know, I'm a human being And you know what, that's what I love about Jonah He's a human being You really see, even though he's an experienced preacher You see that he has weaknesses You can see there are times that he's not excited for the Lord In fact, he wants to run away The completely opposite direction 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 a significant storm on the sea, right? Even the ship started to fall apart Verse number five Then the mariners were afraid And cried every man unto his God So notice the mariners on the ship They don't worship, they don't love the Lord God of Jonah Of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob They've got their own false gods that they're praying to They're crying unto for help It says, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea So you can see what the ship was used for It was being used to transport wares You know, objects Whatever items they were selling And so, hey, there goes their profit They're trying to keep You know, life is more important Hey, they're trying to lessen the burden on the ship So they're just casting things off hoping that it's going to have an effect To keep this ship on the sea It says they had to lighten it of them Look at this But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship And he lay and was fast asleep Now, you know, there's another story in the Bible, in the New Testament You're all very familiar with it, I'm sure When Jesus Christ goes on a ship with his disciples And a great storm hits And the disciples, they're all afraid Where's Jesus? Well, he's sleeping There's another parallel, there's another typology there There's another picture there There's two completely different approaches They're doing the same thing But look, Christ is sleeping He's calm The storm's not bothering him He knows he's in control He knows that if he just says the words The storms will settle But this is a totally different situation The reason this ship is going through a hard time And the mariners are so afraid Is because of Jonah's disobedience And, brethren, let me remind you That your disobedience When you get cold toward God It doesn't just affect you It affects those that you love It affects those that you're close to In this case, you know, it affects the mariners I mean, look, they could potentially Lose their life at sea Because the prophet of God was disobedient Because the prophet of God had gotten cold And had taken himself out of the will of God Trying to remove himself from the presence of God What a foolish thing To think that you can escape the presence of God You cannot, brethren There's nothing, there's nowhere we can go To escape the presence of God Keep your finger there And let's go to Psalm 139 Psalm 139 Psalm 139, verse number 8 Psalm 139, verse number 8 The Bible reads If I send up into heaven Thou art there Yep, we know that, amen, I can't wait to get to heaven That's where I want to see the Lord Then it says this Listen, even those that die and go to hell Without Jesus Christ They haven't escaped the presence of God God is in all places at all times Alright I know, I've heard bad teaching Basically saying when you're cast into hell If you die without Christ You've been eternally separated from God That's a false teaching That's nowhere taught in the Bible Even those that go to hell They're there in the presence of God In fact, the book of Revelation teaches That the fires of hell are coming from The presence of Jesus and the angels Alright, so Look, hell is a place of God's wrath Of God's anger The fires of hell come from the Lord God He created that place Like Satan is not in charge of hell And when he's cast into that place He's going to be tormented day and night Like anybody else that's cast into that place You cannot escape God You're on the earth You've got God If you go to heaven, you're with the Lord You go to hell, the Lord is there You cannot escape him It says in verse number 15 Sorry, verse number 9 Psalm 139 verse 9 If I take the wings of the morning And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea Jonah's trying to do Dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea He's trying to get away from land He's trying to get to Even there shall thy hand lead me And thy right hand shall hold me If I say surely The darkness shall cover me Even the night shall be light about me Even if you think you can hide God in nights Jonah, he's gone into the ship He's gone to sleep Maybe God can't see me As I sleep inside the ship there in the middle of the sea God sees him God sends a storm God sends in trials and tribulations Jonah's way There's no way you can go I love the fact, surely Surely the darkness shall cover me Even the night shall be light about me Yeah, it might seem dark to you But when God looks down, it's all light He sees it all He sees everything that happens, brethren Verse number 12 But the night shineth as the day Doesn't matter if it's dark or light, God, it's the same to you You see all things Isn't that a scary thought, though That God sees all things That he knows all things, though I mean, it's wonderful to know Our God is mighty and powerful But what about when we've gotten called toward God? How about when we haven't picked up our Bibles? How about when we haven't gone and preached the gospel to the lost? How about when we've Gone and Given into our lust and into our sins And we've gone down the path Of darkness Probably with the hope of thinking Well, God, I hope you don't see this And I hope, God, you don't see what's in my heart And in my mind and what I'm doing And when that happens, brethren You know, we're taking the same approach as Jonah You're going a little bit called toward the things of God You're trying to hide yourself from God But just remind yourself That whether it's dark, it makes no difference God sees it all God sees your sin So don't try to cover it You can't run away from God Why run away from God? You're only going to make things worse You know what? When you've done wrong When you're cold When you've lost the zeal to serve God Just remind yourself, God knows God's seen it all already So I might as well just go onto him humbly Bow my head and say, God, I'm sorry God, forgive me God, I've messed up again God, I'm a human being I've got a sinful nature I'll be back in fellowship with you There's no way you can go to run away from the presence of God And I guess Jonah's forgotten this He's backslidden, you know when you get backslidden You kind of forget the most basic things That you can't escape the presence of God Verse number 6 Jonah chapter 1 Verse number 6 So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God If so be it that God will think upon us And we perish not Obviously Jonah does not want to call upon God He's trying to run away from God And so he's being pushed by the shipmaster Hey, what are you doing sleeping? Wake up! Pray to your God Our gods haven't sorted things out Our gods haven't stopped the storm Maybe your God will As I said to you When you're outside of God's will When you sin you affect other people Your sinful lifestyle Is going to be hurtful to others You know if I just decide As a husband, as a father If I just decide to not walk in the ways of the Lord And I'd say you know what Let's just enjoy the pleasure of the world And you know it's just I'm tired just trying to live a holy life I'm tired just trying to please the Lord You know it's just much easier If we let our hair down and just enjoy And we just live worldly You know what I mean it might satisfy My lust but it's going to affect my wife It's going to affect my children My children aren't going to see the importance Of serving the Lord and walking off these paths You know what and if you make that decision To leave the presence of God And you seek the worldly pleasures And the ways of the devil brethren You're going to hurt yourself You're going to cause damage You're going to cause long lasting damage You know if I just decide Well you know I'm sick of my wife I'm just going to get divorced You know I'm going to find someone else You know it's going to affect my children It's going to hurt my children They're not going to know the importance Of maintaining relationships And many times when people come from a broken home They end up in a broken home Their children end up in a broken home Their children's children are in a broken home And it's like this downward spiral It's so hard to break out of that And make things right And that would be an encouragement to you Just to remember hey walk In accordance to God's paths You know walk you know one day God may very well if you have children already Or don't have children God may give you children How you live your life is going to affect The next generation Be mindful about this again The ship master, the mariners on the ship They're being affected Because of the disobedience of Jonah Verse number seven Verse number seven 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 The lot fell upon Jonah So like you know Look and again These are experienced mariners Okay They're experienced at the sea I'm sure they've faced storms before I'm sure there's been rough seas before But they're at a point This is not a normal storm Alright I mean we've cried to Every god possible And it hasn't stopped This is not a normal storm And the only solution they can think of Well let's just cast lots And it falls upon Jonah I mean obviously God had a hand I don't know what they did roll dice or Pull out the shortest stick or the longest stick Whoever pulls out this stick You know you're at fault Tell us why And so Jonah's trying to hide from God He's disobedient He's sinned against the Lord He's not doing what God wants him to do And you know that reminds me of a passage in Numbers 32 I'll just read it to you, you don't have to turn there Numbers 32 verse 23 It says Behold you have sinned Against the Lord And be sure your sin Will find you out Be sure your sin Will find you out How many sins do we have That we just want to keep secret We just hope nobody finds out You know what brethren We're all sinners We've all done wrong Alright, if you try to hide You know and you don't go before God And open up that you're a sinner And open up that you need help You know what and you're just continuing in sin After sin after sin Eventually it's going to come out Eventually it's going to destroy your testimony Eventually everybody's going to know what you've done So look When you've done wrong Go straight to God Instead of being secret and hiding it And being stubborn and rebellious Just go God I'm sorry You know be open about it towards your Lord God Before you destroy your reputation Before you destroy your testimony Hey, Jonah's been found out Okay I mean obviously this is superstitious in that sense for them You know casting his lots But for them it's real and of course God had a hand You know they're pointing out Jonah's at fault The reason you're suffering The reason you've lost your prophet throwing your wares The reason your ship is badly damaged is because of Jonah It's his fault Verse number 8 Verse number 8 Then said they unto him Tell us we pray thee For whose cause this evil is upon us What is thine occupation? What's your occupation? We know he's a prophet And it says then whence comest thou? We know it's from Galilee And what is thy country? And of what people art thou? We know he's of the Jews He's an Israelite Alright so they're asking the question like what's going on Jonah? You know why is this happening? Why is it that all these problems You know that these storms would actually Be the cause of you Jonah Who are you? Where did you come from? Why is it that this has happened? Why is it that Jonah had fled? Do you guys know the answer to that? Why did Jonah flee? You know from the presence of the Lord Why did he not do what God asked him to do? Well the Bible tells us if you go to Jonah chapter 4 Go to Jonah chapter 4 please Jonah chapter 4 and verse number 2 Why did he flee? Jonah tells God here It's recorded for us in Jonah chapter 4 Verse number 2 It says and he prayed unto the Lord and said I pray thee oh Lord Was not this my saying When I was yet in my country? Look at this Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish Why? For I knew that thou art a gracious God And merciful Slow to anger And of great kindness And repentest thee of the evil Do you see what he's saying? He says look God this is why I fled Because I know you're a merciful God In other words God If I preach against the Ninevites I know you're going to be gracious to them I know you're going to forgive them Lord I know you're long suffering What's he saying? He says God I don't want you to forgive the Ninevites God I want you to destroy them He says look I preach Lord I know they're going to get things right with you And you're going to be patient with them You're going to be kind You're going to be slow to anger toward them And Jonah does not want that So he says therefore I'm going to flee I don't want to preach against them God Because I know what kind of God you are You're going to forgive them If they get things right with you Listen Jonah did not care for the Ninevites He was an Israelite He did not care for those Gentiles I just want God to destroy those wicked people That's how Jonah felt And so God says look go and preach against them And in his mind Well if they get things right with God God's going to forgive them and I don't want that So I'm going to run away I mean Jonah had gotten so cold That he doesn't even want people to get right with God Brethren We ought to be soul winners We ought to preach the gospel Look Sydney is a Nineveh There is great weakness I'm sure the weakness of Sydney Has reached the heights of heaven The stench of the weakness Has reached you know the nose The stench to the Lord God But hey Are we then to turn around and say well God You know it's just a wicked city Just destroy this place No you know what we know what God is We know he's a gracious God We know he's merciful We know he's slow to anger We know what God is going to do You know this is why you're saved This is why you know you've not Died and been sent to hell You know God has given you the chance the opportunity To believe in him and he's forgiven you Right Christ has paid for all your sins God was long suffering towards you If you're saved God has given you the time To hear the gospel and be saved To call upon Christ for salvation But then we don't want to give it to Our wicked Sydneyites Is that the right word? I don't know Sydneyciders Here's the thing When you stop soul winning When you don't have a heart to give people The gospel You're basically saying God I want to wipe them out That's what you're communicating To the Lord God Yes Nineveh is a preacher But we've all been given the ministry of reconciliation We've all been made witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ We all have the words of eternal life If we hide that brethren We're just being like Jonah Running away from the responsibility That God has given each one of us And so He's a quitter He doesn't want to see God bless These wicked people And remember when we go knock doors Alright The Bible says to preach the gospel To every creature I don't care how wicked they look to you Alright in fact some of the people that have been saved Have looked the most wicked to me Some of the people that I think are going to get saved Because they look righteous and holy or whatever They don't get saved You know there was once I was preaching the gospel To a woman and I gave her everything she got it all And she said to me but I think it's too late for me To get saved And I said why? And she showed me her back She had a tattoo of the devil on her back She goes this is why And I said what? Because of your flesh? And I had to teach her Your flesh is going to rot in the grave It's got a sinful nature Who cares what markings are on your flesh? It doesn't matter in the long run One day God's going to give us a new resurrected body That cannot be tattooed Cannot have any markings, cannot have any sin And so if you just believe the gospel You too can be saved She caught upon the Lord and got saved Praise God But yes some people might think oh look how wicked she is She worshipped the devil at some point But no listen we're commanded To give the gospel to every creature To every creature So we see this is a prophet That wants to quit He doesn't want to do the work He'd rather see God destroy the wicked And I understand sometimes I see the wickedness And I just think God please destroy the wicked But the time's not yet The time is when God pours out his wrath We read about all that in the book of Revelation One day that is coming And God's going to pour out his mighty wrath Upon this wicked world We've got a job, we've got a job to reach The Sydney siders We've got a job to reach this wicked generation And this wicked city Alright verse number nine please John chapter one verse number nine 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 What hast thou done this? I'm sorry why hast thou done this? The man knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord Because he had told them Because he had told them Alright can you keep your finger there Turn to John chapter 10 Turn to John chapter 10 I told you the title of the sermon was Jonah rose up to flee Jonah rose up to flee What was he doing? He was running away from his responsibilities He was running away from what God Wanted him to do And we need to be careful That you know it's again Me as a pastor you know I never want to Run away from the responsibilities that God Has given me you know I passed The New Life Baptist Church I'm there brethren I'm at the moment I'm the pastor of Blessed Help Baptist Church I wasn't here last Week but I've not run away from my responsibilities Brethren alright I'm your pastor I love you I know you guys love me If there's anything you need please reach Out don't think I'm too busy for you Okay I certainly Love each one of you okay And the Bible tells us here in John chapter 10 Verse 12 notice this John chapter 10 verse number 12 It says but he that is an hireling What's a hireling? Basically it's someone that does Something for money okay Now is there anything sinful We've been a hireling No if you work a job you are a hireling You've been hired to make money Okay you don't go to work You know Monday to Friday 9 to 5 To walk away without a paycheck Alright you've been hired There's nothing wrong with that in of itself Alright but let's keep going there But he that is an hireling and not The shepherd whose own the sheep Are not seeeth the wolf coming And leaveth the sheep And fleeth and the wolf Catcheth them and scattereth The sheep the hireling Fleeth because he is an hireling And careth not for the sheep Jesus Christ says I am the good shepherd And know my sheep And am known of mine Alright so some pastors Some people get into the ministry Because they're a hireling They're not doing it for the sheep They don't care for the people of God It's for themselves It's about having a paycheck How much money can I make by being a pastor I tell you but if you want to be an independent Fundamental Baptist pastor who preaches In sermons who preaches the truth of God's word You're not going to make much I tell you now you're not going to make much It better not be for the money In fact one of the qualifications of a pastor And of a deacon is not to Love Filthy Luca Not to be covetous people We're not here to serve money We're here to serve the Lord God Now is anything wrong with a pastor getting paid Of course not but that's not the priority The priority is the sheep Is the flock, is the church God to further his kingdom And they say these things Because you know again You guys are familiar Probably looking on the news You understand the economy, inflation Things are becoming more expensive You know interest rates are going up You're paying a mortgage that's going up You're putting petrol in your car that's going up I mean pretty much everything is going up I had to purchase a new PC for myself recently I was surprised it was like 40% more expensive for a new PC Than it was a few years ago And I said to the person selling me the PC Why? What's so expensive? There's just not enough computer parts now It's all been used with Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin A lot of people have purchased chips For cryptocurrency And all that processing Mining, mining I'm not using the right terminology But mining coins or whatever it is And there's just not much on the market And because of covert there's been a restriction On how much merchandise has travelled From China and from the Asian countries There's just a lack of things so everything's going up And I think sometimes You know when we see costs going up You know for myself as a pastor You know I'm definitely not making What I used to make when I worked a full time job And that concern might fall upon the mind And say well you know I need to earn X, Y and Z I need to earn this much money and then all of a sudden Your mind starts to go towards finances But this is why, we've got to be careful We've got to be careful that we're in the ministry To serve God's people To serve His sheep And I have no doubt if we do things faithfully God will take care of our needs God will take care of this pastor's needs You know if one day God uses you to become a deacon Or to become a pastor Or to go and start a church one day I know God will supply your needs As long as you put His kingdom and His ministry first And not money Not money So we've got to be careful We don't want to run away from our responsibilities Because what does it say, the hyaline, what does it do? When the wolf comes, when there's danger When there's problems, he runs away He doesn't care for the sheep Jonah did not care for the Ninevites He ran away from the responsibilities Again because he's just grown cold at this point in time in his life Okay You know the Bible also says, and this is just for I'm not talking about pastors here, I'm not talking about religious leaders here I'm talking about just your everyday man Who's out there, you've got a family You've got a wife, you've got kids Please keep this in mind The Bible says in 1 Timothy 5.8 But if any provide not for his own And especially for those of his own house He have denied the faith And is worse than an infidel What's an infidel? An unbeliever Men if you don't work and provide for your family The Bible says you're worse than an unbeliever You know you're running away from your responsibilities And again when you run away from your responsibilities We know this is God's word We know God has created man to work And get busy and be productive When you run away from your responsibilities You run away from the will of God And again you're not just hurting yourself You're going to hurt others that are around you You're going to hurt your families You're going to hurt your children You're going to hurt your friendships You're going to hurt the church You're going to hurt people when you run away from the responsibilities That God has set before you I hope you can see that as Jonah has run away from the Lord Let's not be the same Let's be in the will of God Let's serve the Lord God Let's try to live that holy life Let's be witnesses of him Let's not have this attitude Who cares if they die and go to hell If God is long suffering and merciful Let's take that God that we love and worship And share that with other people Jonah 1 verse 11 Sorry, not verse 11 Verse number 9 Is that right? Verse number 11 We're up to it My apologies We're up to verse 11 There's one more passage I wanted to read Philippians 4.13 Philippians 4.13 says I can do all things Through Christ which strengtheneth me Sometimes we do get a little fearful brethren There are times that we do run away from the will of God There are times that we run away from our responsibilities The task that God has set before us And you know what If that's you If that's you right now You know you ought to be doing something And you realize I just run away all the time From the responsibilities that God has given me I don't want you to beat yourself up I don't want you to say I'm just a loser then I might as well just give up on life then I'm just a reject and I'm not I'm just worthless That's the attitude brethren You're saved You've got the Holy Spirit of God living in you You're a child of God You just press that reset button Say God forgive me And it says there I can do all things through Christ Which strengtheneth me Life is hard There are times you want to quit I'd be lying if I said I've never thought of quitting church I've never thought of quitting being a pastor When there's problems and issues Those thoughts cross your mind But you know what when those happen And you realize you're weak in the flesh You remind yourself that you're in Christ Jesus And it's Christ who strengthens you It's Christ who gets you from point A to point B It's Christ that we need to set our eyes upon And look upon him And follow after his steps Being strengthened by his power By his might We cannot do anything in our flesh brethren We need to do things by the Spirit of God Following after the steps of Christ So brethren if you're a Jonah right now If you're a Jonah tonight and you feel that way Please remind yourself just strengthen yourself in the Lord You're not some loser We're all sinners We all make mistakes We all have weaknesses This is why the Lord has to step in And give us that strength That supernatural strength that comes from him Verse number 11 And by the way, don't forget Jonah, don't forget Got this whole city back to the Lord God Okay, in his weak state Why could he do this? Because it's the Lord that strengthened him Okay, it's by the power Of the Lord that's given him the ability To convict the hearts Of the Ninevites to be brought back to the Lord God Verse number 11 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 for my sake This great tempest is upon you So it's Jonah that says look The only way we can get over this is if you just throw me overboard It kind of surprises me Because if I was Jonah I mean, I'm not a good swimmer I know I'll be able to paddle water for a while But eventually I'll sink Or eventually some shark will get me or something If I was Jonah And I'll be like look, we've got to turn the ship around You know, can you help me Get back to where we need to be Look, I'll cover the cost for everything you threw overboard I'll start making payments toward that That's probably the approach I would take But I think what we see in Jonah He's still trying to run away from God Just throw me overboard then Like he's going to perish, he's going to die He still doesn't want to go and preach to Nineveh Jonah We see how we have all these different men in the Bible We see how different they are We see times of weakness and struggles And again, I'm reminded I've been in many churches I've been under many pastors And I've seen pastors struggle I've seen pastors get stressed I've seen pastors have weaknesses I've had pastors say things to me that I just thought Man, a man of God should not have said those things But you know what, I'm not like Oh, then you're just a horrible pastor Or I'm just against You know what, I'm just going to turn the church against this pastor Pastors make mistakes Preachers make mistakes Men of God make mistakes Because we're human beings We're human beings If I've done something to upset you, brethren Just come up to me and I'll probably apologise I'm sure I've done something I'm sure I've forgotten to greet you maybe one day Who knows, maybe I've offended you With a few words But you know, brethren, I'm just flesh and blood You know Men of God, prophets, pastors They're just human beings With the same sinful flesh that you have With the same struggles that you have We're the same, okay And so we've got to be careful We don't want to just be attacking men of God Every time they fail Every time they have weaknesses We just have to be careful with that But let's keep going there Verse number 13 Jonah tells him, just throw me overboard Verse number 13 To bring it to land So they don't want to throw Jonah overboard They don't want to do that Like, kill a man, you know But they could not For the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them So they refuse, they don't want to throw Jonah overboard They know Jonah's a problem But they're trying to defend Jonah They're trying to defend him as is contrary to God's will They're trying to go back to land Now again Just a thought here About defending or attacking the man of God Look, again Pastors are not perfect Pastors make mistakes, preachers make mistakes I've seen plenty of them We don't want to get into the habit of Every time someone makes a mistake That we just go and we just criticize them We just go and attack them In fact, keep your finger there Please go to 1 Timothy chapter 5 Please go to 1 Timothy chapter 5 And verse number 1 Say, Pastor Kevin, what did you do recently? Nothing, I don't know, maybe I've done something But 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse number 1 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse number 1 Because I've seen this Church after church after church When a pastor does not live up to Someone's standard They just want to go against them They want to turn people against the pastor The Bible says in 1 Timothy 5.1 It says Rebuke not an elder But entreat him as a father As the younger men, as brethren And I know the primary application here Is about older men If we have people with grey hair In our church that are seniors We ought to be respectful toward them Not rebuke them because they did something we don't like But we should treat them as a father We shouldn't treat them Be careful how we speak toward them But don't forget one of the titles given to a pastor Is an elder as well So a secondary application If a pastor has done something Like run away like Jonah for a period of time Just attack him and criticize him And just have a go And destroy his reputation Destroy his ministry We're commanded not to act that way We've got to be careful with how we treat the pastors But at the same time If a pastor or a prophet Or a man of God Has done something so wicked We don't want to be like the men on the boats That are trying to defend Jonah God has set this storm We know that eventually God does want Jonah from above Because there's going to be a whale that's going to swallow him up And that's going to be God's lesson toward him So we know that's the plan That's the will of God It will happen eventually But hey they're trying to defend Jonah They're trying to defend him while he's against the will of God And brethren if this pastor Is ever contrary to the will of God If I'm ever preaching heresies And I'm preaching damnable things Alright guys I'm sick of the King James Bible Let's go to the NIV because it's easier to understand If I start making these Major errors, major mistakes Then you've got to call out Please don't just defend A man out of loyalty Because you start defending a man Then that man's going to feel like Oh then I can just continue on this way Instead of learning the lesson that God has for them Look you're there in 1 Timothy 5 Drop down to verse 19 Within the same chapter 1 Timothy 5 verse 19 It says against an elder This time the context is a pastor here Against an elder received not an accusation But before two or three witnesses Them that sin Rebuke before all That others also may fear Brethren if this pastor Ever commits adultery against his wife Alright You need to call that out If any pastor has disgraced himself Has disqualified themselves From the ministry If you find out the pastor has stolen money From the church Hey this pastor's been a drunkard Whatever If there's some major sin That pastor needs to be called out And rebuked before all But if a pastor just does something It does not disqualify them If a pastor does something That you're not necessarily happy with That's not your time to just rebuke them And call them out Intrigue them as a father Realize that he's a human being But those things You need to call them out Things like we read about in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 Fornication Drunkenness I can't remember the list right now But those things We need to call them out We need to make sure these kinds of pastors Step down from their positions And I would expect that if I disgrace myself So badly in the ministry That either I would just step down automatically Which I would But otherwise you guys need to call that out We don't want to defend A man at every cost But we don't want to shoot down a pastor Just for little mistakes that they make from time to time Because everyone makes mistakes Everyone makes mistakes Pastors are not perfect Surprise Pastors are not perfect Pastors' wives are not perfect either Pastors' children are not perfect either Should pastors and their families Be held to a higher standard Of course That's why they had to meet those qualifications That's why they had to be recognized and proven by a church And sent out Etc, etc Of course a pastor is held to a higher standard Because they're meant to be an example Of believers An example to be followed after As we seek to follow after Jesus Christ But at the same time They're human beings Jonah was a human being And I love the fact that this story is recorded for us in the Word of God Jonah 1, verse 14 Jonah 1, verse 14 It says Wherefore They cried unto the Lord And said We beseech thee, O Lord Who were they crying to? The people on the ship Before they were crying out to their false gods But now they realize It was Jonah all along This storm The one that controls the storm So now they're praying to the real God Isn't that amazing? They see the works of God They see the judgment of God upon the ship And now they've become believers I'm not saying they got saved The Bible doesn't tell us that But the fact is we see here the fear in God They fear the real God of the Bible It says 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 Hey, they definitely have a fear of God now The real God, the God of the Bible They say, look God Please don't judge us Because of Jonah We've done nothing, God It's Jonah, he's the problem And he says, and lay not upon us innocent blood They've decided we're going to throw him overboard And he's going to perish, that's what they're thinking So please don't hold that against us, God Please don't hold innocent blood against us This is your doing This is your doing, right? They realise, God, this is what you want You're bringing judgement upon Jonah Verse number 15 So they took up Jonah And cast him forth into the sea And the sea ceased from her raging Immediately, Jonah's cast out, right? And the sea ceased from her raging And again, I love that parallel When you are far from the Lord And you know, if you've been far from the Lord Then you can probably relate to this Where you just feel like I'm just never going to get right with God I'm just never going to get excited for God anymore I don't think I can bring myself back To the love and joy that I had with God before And there's concerns And fears And you know, you don't know what the future holds And you feel directionless And you can feel so far away God can feel so far away And maybe you're facing the chastisement of God The rod of correction And you're going through trials and difficulties Knowing full well, it's because your heart has gone cold But again, you know what? You just cast a problem into the sea Hey, you just cast your sins before God And say, God, I'm sorry I'm a sinner God, I've not been walking in your paths God, I've been far from you God, I've not been prioritizing church Lord, I've not been prioritizing the Bible reading God, I've not been praying to you Reverend, as soon as you cast that out And you get that right with God It's like it says that the sea ceased from her raging God forgives you immediately It's already been covered by the Lord God And Christ stands as our mediator today You know, every time we go before the Lord God Jesus Christ there is, you know Reinforcing that we are children of God And that we deserve his forgiveness And so, brethren, this is what's beautiful about our Lord God He is long suffering He is merciful It's good when it's toward us It feels great that we can go before God And have those problems cast away We go before him and confess our problems before him Verse number 16 Look at this Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly And offered a sacrifice unto the Lord And made vows Now look, did they get saved? Potentially I don't know I kind of hope they did Because they're kind of doing the right thing here They fear the Lord We know the fear of the Lord is beginning with knowledge We know the Bible says In Psalm 103 verse 17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting Upon them that fear him And his righteousness unto children's children So to those that fear him His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting You can never sin your way out of salvation Once saved, always saved For those that fear the Lord We fear the Lord We knew that we're sinners We knew that God's judgment would be That we'd be cast into hellfire And that gave us great fear Great trembling We wanted deliverance from that brethren We received the Savior We received Jesus Christ And he's given us mercy From everlasting to everlasting But it all started with the fear of God These men on the ship They're no longer praying to their false gods They fear the true God The God of Jonah And they offer even a sacrifice to the Lord Again, I'm assuming That Jonah probably told them what to do How would they know? They're not from Israel They probably don't even know the practices And so the fact that they're offering a sacrifice to God Probably points to the fact that Jonah gave them some instructions Before they threw him into the sea Verse number 17 Last verse 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 And if you can just keep your finger there And go to Matthew 12 And verse number 40 Matthew 12 Verse number 40 Matthew 12 Verse number 40 These are the words of Christ He says For as Jonas 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 So again we see how Jonah is a type Is a picture of Christ He was swallowed by And by the way when it says there in Matthew 12 It says in the whale's belly And what did it say in the book of Jonah? It said Now the Lord had prepared a great fish Okay so The great fish was a whale It said whales are not fish Yeah I know that's how scientists classify things today Okay But obviously as far as God is concerned When he sees a whale He says it's a fish That's it It's not a contradiction in the Bible Alright I mean these labels of different Differentiating between a whale and a fish This obviously has come long after the Bible was translated Okay It's just modern scientific classification But as far as God is concerned A whale is a fish Alright And again You know I've heard people say Well it's impossible for whales to swallow a human being Probably You know there's a lot of things that are impossible Like a virgin birth You know the Bible's full of miracles You know The Lord God is the creator of all things Did you know he sent a miracle of a storm That was so violent That the people knew on the ship this is not a normal storm That this was the hand of some God They didn't know who he was at the time Okay God is the God of miracles What did it say there in verse 17 Now the Lord had prepared A great fish To swallow up Jonah This fish was prepared to swallow a man This whale was prepared for that God created this whale All along in his foreknowledge Knowing that Jonah would be cast into the sea Okay If this whale was born and created It could swallow a human being That's it Please explain this to me Why? God's the creator He can do whatever he wants I mean a whale swallowing a human being Is kind of like the least of miracles You know what Raising someone from the dead is more miraculous Right I mean Sending Jesus to You know For God to be manifest In Bethlehem's manger You know that's miraculous Right I mean there are so many great miracles Creation Create all things in six days That's a greater miracle Than a whale being able to swallow a man It's okay Right If every whale in the ocean today can't swallow a man This was a whale that was prepared by God From the very beginning God knew ahead of time That this whale would have to swallow up Jonah To teach him a lesson And how long was Jonah there Three days and three nights How would you like to be in the whale's belly For three days and three nights I don't think it would be enjoyable And it definitely wasn't enjoyable We'll read about that next week In chapter number two But in conclusion In conclusion Please turn to Romans chapter eight Please turn to Romans chapter eight in conclusion Romans chapter eight please As I said to you The title was Jonah rose up to flee Have you ever tried to flee from the Lord? Have you ever tried to hide from his presence? Maybe so ashamed Of certain sins or Just problems in life And you've forgotten about the Lord God Well I love this I love this as a conclusion In Romans eight thirty five Romans eight thirty five The Bible reads Hey what's going to separate you As a saved child of God What's going to separate you from the love of Christ What problems can you go through That will separate you from that Or the questions get asked Verse number thirty six Amazing No matter what trial you go through You are still more than conquerors You are a child of God You are saved The moment this flesh dies You are in heaven And you're going to come back one day In new resurrected bodies To rule and reign with Jesus Christ What an honour Regardless of what problems you go through in this life You have already conquered more Than any unsaved man could possibly conquer on this earth Amen The Bible says in verse number thirty eight Shall be able to separate us from the love of God Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Praise God Nothing can separate us from the love of God If you cannot be separated from the love of God You're definitely not going to be separated from the presence of God There's no way you can go No matter how badly you mess up your life God still loves you What an honour to be a child of God Knowing that not only do you love us to save us But even as a child of God Even if we mess up our lives Even if we run away Even if we get thrown overboard And get swallowed by a whale Christ still loves us What an honour That we cannot run away from his love Okay let's pray Heavenly Father Lord I just want to thank you For the book of Jonah And Lord the fact that you've put this story in the Bible Lord I know the Bible's not been written by man Because no man would want that written about himself And Lord I thank you You put these stories in to teach us Lord that Lord we are weak Lord we do fail And even great men of God Great prophets can make mistakes And mess up their lives Lord But I thank you Lord that you can still work with these men And Lord if we're far from you Lord this reminds us that you can still work with us Lord that you still love us You can still use us And Lord if we're far from you tonight If we've gone cold toward the work you've given us to do Lord I just pray you'd forgive us Lord bring us back into your presence Help us to have sweet fellowship with you And Lord we just ask that you'd bring back the love of our salvation The joy, the excitement, the zeal Lord So we can get busy for you That we can be busy preachers, preachers of the gospel And that we would not run away from the responsibilities that you've given us to do Lord Whether that's in ministry Or whether that's just our day to day life Lord we pray all these things in Jesus' name Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Let me just give you just an update So in a couple of weeks And by the way I do want to welcome Isabelle back to Blessed Hope Baptist Church We've not seen her since March So it's been a while My daughter Isabelle is here She's going to stay here for the week so she'll be here on Sunday And next Thursday as well she's going to stay a week with the grandparents And then at the end of June The whole family are going to be travelling down to Sydney to celebrate our four year church anniversary So we're probably looking at travelling either Monday the 27th or Tuesday the 28th If you guys could just keep that in prayer for safe travels I'd really appreciate that Now the other thing that I wanted to update you on Is I was looking at July the 9th for a soul winning event That's not going to go ahead the way I initially planned So what I would like to do, and I'm sorry if this is short notice But I want to change that for July the 2nd Saturday the 2nd So that I'm here Because I'm going to be here that weekend So July the 2nd, Saturday the 2nd I want to make that our soul winning marathon In celebration of our four year church anniversary So if you can be there for that If you're not going to be in Tasmania brother please join us You'll probably be in Tasmania But yeah if you can You know like brother Anthony's been doing Two hours in the morning But lunch will be provided by the church And then two hours in the afternoon So if you can be part of that Or if you can just join us for the morning or the afternoon Please let us know And again that's to celebrate our church anniversary And then on Sunday the 3rd That will be the actual day that we celebrate it I reckon that after service that we go to some type of restaurant And just enjoy each other's fellowship for the day So that's the plan that I think we should be heading for Come in July But I'll send you guys text messages We'll communicate that to the church And solidify that Alright those are the key announcements Let's take our hymnals And let's finish up with hymn number 70 Hymn number 70 Will Jesus find us watching? When Jesus comes to reward his servants Whether it be noon or night Faithful to him will he find us watching With our lamps all trimmed and bright Oh can we say we are ready brother Ready for the soul's bright home Say will he find you Say will he find you and me still watching Waiting, waiting when the Lord shall come If at the dawn of the early morning When to the Lord we restore our talents Will the answer be well done Oh can we say we are ready brother Ready for the soul's bright home Say will he find you and me still watching Waiting, waiting when the Lord shall come Have we been true to the trust he left us Do we seek to do our best If we obey all the Lord commands us We shall be truly blessed Oh can we say we are ready brother Ready for the soul's bright home Say will he find you and me still watching Waiting, waiting when the Lord shall come Blessed are those who the Lord finds watching In his glory they shall share If he shall come at the dawn of midnight Will he find us watching there Oh can we say we are ready brother Ready for the soul's bright home Say will he find you and me still watching Waiting, waiting when the Lord shall come Amen. Alright, great singing. Brother Matthew, would you call us in a word of prayer? Well, thank you for the preaching we just heard today. We pray that you'll help us to remain strong for you, Lord. That you'll keep us from backsliding. Help us to remain faithful to you and enduring this Christian life. We pray you'll bless the rest of our evening, Lord. Bless the fellowship that we have. And thank you for salvation. We love you. And as it is, may we pray this day. Amen. You're dismissed. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Yeah. Israeli Mountaineers. I think this is the most beautiful part of Australia to see anywhere. That's what you reckon. I'd say the Sunshine Festival is beautiful. Part of Australia. It's like the promised land. You can see beaches everywhere. You can see beaches everywhere. Yeah, bro. Yeah, you can go to a beach and not have to look at the mostly dressed people. It's fine. You're only quite smart. It's quite beautiful. Beautiful, clean water. It's quiet, yeah. Yeah. 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