The Silver Spoon

Do you have any Father, Thank you today that Jesus

is alive, your love is real, the word of God

never fails, and that you're with us. Help us to

be with you the most profound action of our life,

to not go down, but to go up, to go forward,

not the other way, and to learn the lesson of

Jonah's life in our lives.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

The title of the message today is the Silver Spoon Prophet.

Now what does it mean to have a silver spoon

in your mouth? Does everybody know what that means? It

means you're kind of born with privilege. You're the greatest

thing that ever happen in your own eyes, and you

probably inherit a lot, and that you're writing on that

rather than doing things from adversity and growth and character.

The silver spoon Prophet. The silver spoon Prophet grew up

in the northern king of Israel, in a town called Heifer,

only seven miles from what would become the future city

of Nazareth, the bad town that Jesus grew up in.

Geth Heifer means the wine press of digging or the

wine press of shame. Have you noticed how the Bible

names always have meaning. Perhaps it was the place that

people dug deep into God's word and they found God's

grace there. That would make sense the wine press of digging,

or perhaps the wine press of shame. Perhaps they didn't

dig into God's word and they didn't find grace because

they left God.

Both are possible.

In fact, I have found that when the Bible is

preached and taught in any setting, choices are made for

God are against him. Judgment occurs because the Word of

God commands it. Jonah is famous in the Old Testament,

is one of the twelve Minor prophets who completes the

Old Testament list of prophets in the Bible. Jonah lived

during the reign of King Jerobaum in the eighth century BC.

Even though the mighty Assyrian Empire was an oppressive power

for Israel, during the days of jere Baum and the

prophet Jonah, Israel had the upper hand against their enemy.

So this wasn't a bad time for Israel. It was

a hugely successful time for them. The kingdom prospered under Jerebam.

He won the conflicts, he suppressed the Assyrian threat. He

reigned forty one years during an eventful and prosperous reign

period of time, and so if you look at his

reign politically speaking, Jerebaum was a successful king. In Second

Kings fourteen twenty four, the Bible says that Jerebam did

what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Then

it tells us what kind of evil he was guilty of.

The Bible says that Jereb Bauam continued to allow compromise

to infect the religion of the Northern Kingdom without addressing

it in truth and repentance. In Second Kings fourteen twenty four,

the text reads that Jeremiah did not depart from all

the sins of Bauham of Nabat, who made Israel to sin.

He brought idolatry into the nation. Jeb Sin was the

sin of disobedience and neglect. He failed to choose to

seize his opportunities to change. He didn't want to repent

and turn the tide of a faithless and corrupt generation

and a nation back to God. He was in the

status quo of doing wrong and leaving it that way.

In the church of his time.

He was content to leave no impact of faith, to

not use his influence to make a difference. He was

content to compromise to get ahead. He was guilty of

encouraging the people of God to reject reform to harden

their hearts toward God. Yet when you look at his

life politically speaking, he was an utter success. So in

a sense, Jeribaum was the king who had better things

to do than repent, better things to do than help

people move forward in faith with God.

He had no place for the Lord in his life.

He was rigid.

He settled into a stubbornness, so he could not be saved.

Jerebaum feed to reform the faith of Israel because he

failed to allow reform in his own life.

And when God wanted.

To reverse the curse of spiritual decline, he really couldn't

call on Jeroboam.

The evil king who refused.

To be a spiritual success, was paradoxically a political success.

He was the king everyone could be proud of and like,

if you're only concerned is worldly success. In Second Kings

fourteen twenty five, the Bible says that Jereboam restored the

border of Israel to its former glory that existed under

King Solomon.

He was a.

Knockout politician, but he didn't have a knockout faith for God.

The king who restored the border and kept the order

didn't have enough courage or conviction in his heart to

restore the faith of Israel and to honor the God

of Israel. May that not be true in our lives.

Friends. I don't know about you, but I know right now.

We're living in a time of world history that's much

more troublesome than what the Assyrian Empire threw at ancient Israel.

We're close, really, if you do the calculus. Politically speaking,

we are closer to a nuclear event, nuclear nuclear event

in the history of this world than since the Kennedy crisis.

What transpired in the least twenty four hours is devastating.

We are the peace of this world, friends, is held

together by God and God. Only sometimes we coast thinking, Oh,

things are gonna be the same, We're gonna be all right.

Friends.

In a single day, world history could change, our Church's

history could change, and our faith would be.

On the line. Right then and there.

In the middle of King Jerreboem's story, the prophet Jonahs

introduced as the significant prophet of Jeremiah's time. Jonah's ministry

was a bright spot for a king and a kingdom

that was stuck on itself, sick deep inside and holy evil,

where selfishness reigns supreme. For this reason, Jonah was the

silver spoon prophet. Look at verse twenty five of Second

King's fourteen. The Bible says he Jereboam restored the border

of of Israel from the entrance of Haymouth as far

as the see of Araba, according to the word of

the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by

his servant Jonah, the son of Amanti, the prophet who

was from Getheifer. Now we get a hints here as

to what Jonah was about in these verses, no missing it.

Jonah was the prophet who directed the political success of

King Jerebam, So in a sense he was a successful prophet.

Politically speaking, Jonah was the one who helped Isra return

to its future glory, to where it looked like it

was Solomon's days.

All over.

Jonah inspired the successful plan that made Jerebaum a success,

and so he was jeed Baham's prophet in a way,

But was he God's prophet in every way. God had

given Israel a promise in the Old Testament that he

would never allow persecution to get so bad that he

would not intervene to save his people. And Jonah shows

up as the answer the prayer. God had previously given

this promise to Moses. It was right there at the

end of the Tara, and so the writer of Second

Kings draws it out.

To show how important Jonah was.

To understand the prophet Jonah, you really have to understand

the message that Jonah preached. Jonah was the prophet that

God raised up to confirm the promise that God would

deal a.

Heavy hand against his enemies.

Turned to Second Kings fourteen, twenty six and twenty seven,

for the Lord saw the affliction of Israel was very bitter,

for there was none left bond or free, and there

was none to help Israel. But the Lord had not

said that he would blot out the name of Israel

from under heaven. So he saved them by the hand

of Jerebaum, the son.

Of joe Ash. That's an amazing statement.

God used this evil king Jerobam to fulfill his word

and save his people.

So people said, well, how can God use this.

Political leader of that political leader friends in about eleven

you know.

Ten or how many days till the election?

And help me, I haven't done the calculus ten or eleven.

I mean, our country is going to choose a president,

and I'm not going to ask you who you're voting for,

and I'm not going to say who you should vote for,

but whoever God chooses allows to be voted.

Shouldn't we be praying for the leaders of our country.

Shouldn't we think?

Can God work through impiffercent people, be the Democrat or Republican?

Yes or no? So do we need to lose.

Our life and get bent out of shape if the

election doesn't go the way we voted? Are you paused

on that one? We need to let it go and

let God be God. God used the evil king Jerrebam

to fulfill the word of God for his people. What

was Jonah's message that moved the evil king to action?

We find a clue in the next verse. Look at

Second Kings fourteen twenty six. For the Lord saw that

the affliction of Israel was very bitter, and there was

none left bond or free, and there was none to

help Israel. So when there was none to help Israel,

he used a king to get it done. Seven King's

fourteen twenty six is a direct quote from Deuteronomy thirty

two thirty six, some of the last words given to Moses,

where God says, if you mess with Israel, You're gonna

mess with me. Let's begin with verse thirty five. God says,

vengeance is mind and recompense for the time when their

foot shall slip, For the day of their calamity is

at hand, and their doom comes swiftly. And then I

like verse thirty six, for the Lord will vindicate his

people and have compassion on his servants when he sees

that their power is gone and there is none remaining

bond or free. You see, when you can't save you

is when God steps in to save you. When you

have no power to get ahead, is when God comes

to the head to take the reins of your life.

Vengeance is mine, God says, So don't be in the

revenge business. Don't be so politically minded. You're trying to

manipulate your own outcomes. Recompense for the time when they

will slip and fall. God says, it's coming calamity and doom.

So Jonah, quoting these verses, working off of them in

Second Kings was a fire breathing, brimstone kind of preacher

and prophet who proclaimed the destruction of God's enemies with fireworks,

storm power, the mighty vengeance of God. I mean, if

you'd heard Jonah preach, I'd have to sit down, probably

get up there and say it's going.

To be bad. It'll be over in a hurry.

And he just said it with a boom that people

would have been terrified. He preached a message of divine

vengeance in the nations that harassed Israel. So I imagine

they could have nicknamed Jonah Nukum, Jonah, nukem Jonah to

get it over with as soon as you can. God's

going to Nukia if you don't repent. He made nuki anyway, dude,

My thirty two thirty seven Moses wrote, then he will

say where are their gods?

The rock in which they took refuge.

It's very clear in the con text that God's judgments

are meant to awaken the nations to their need of God.

God isn't in the terrifying business. He's in the business

of bringing men and women to a relationship with Him.

That means Jonah's message had two parts, not just one.

The first part was a message of judgment. God will

judge you for your evil. But the second part was

a message of mercy. God wants to save you from

your evil. God wants to come into your life. He

wants to bring grace into your life. But when judgment

was over, Jonah should have remembered that there was a

second part to the message. He was not just to

preach about gloom and doom and destruction. He was to

preach that God wants to save the Assyrian Empire. He

wants to save the children of that realm. The nations

needed to know that God is above all. He's above

all the false gods. He delivers any nation or people

who call upon his name. In Deuteronomy thirty two thirty seven,

Moses calls God a rock in which anyone in the

world can take read future. Jonah preached the message of

doom with joy. Oh, I like preaching a message to

get rid of those Assyrians. You ever heard people do

that God's going to judge the evildoer.

Isn't that good?

You should hear Amns rolling through the church right. No,

the silver Sprum prophet Nukeom Jonah didn't like the last

part of the prophetic call, which was a call to

preach a gospel of mercy and grace to unbelievers. He

wanted his enemies to be destroyed without a savior. He

wanted some exciting and moving, politically active, but he wasn't

in tune with the fact that God wanted to save

the adversary. And as for the nation of Israel, let

the whole nation drop dead and let nine A be

vaporized and divine mushroom cloud, just get him gone.

That's what he liked about the message. But that wasn't

all of God's message. This is the.

Context in the setting for the Book of Jonah, when

the word of the Lord came to Jonah to reach

out to save that evil nation of Nineve look at

Jonah one verse one. The Bible says, now, the word

of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amti.

And what does it say next saying every word matters

in your Bible. If you go back to Genesis fifteen one,

and you don't have to go here on the screen,

the Bible says, the word of the Lord came to Abraham,

and a vision saying this is the formula for Jesus

Christ showing up in the Old Testament to reveal himself

to the prophets. You see, the word of the Lord

here is not some abstract thing. The word of the

Lord is a person who speaks to the prophet Jonah.

So when we read our Bible, Jesus Christ is speaking

to us. Christ is the one who personally spoke to

the prophets. So the word of the Lord John one

one in the beginning was the word. The word is

Christ in John one. Here he is speaking to Jonah.

What does he say Verse two, arise, go to Nineveh,

that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness.

Has come up before me.

God could just as easily have said, the wickedness of Jerobaum,

the son of the Bat, has come up before me

through this new Jerobaumb. So stay home and clean your

own house up. I'll take care of it.

But he didn't do it. Israel was just as bad

as Nineveh.

May be worse when you consider that they sacrifice their

babies to demons.

According to Psalms one O six.

You go to Gezer, where the excavations have occurred, you

see how horrific it was. In fact, no greater evidence

can be that someone has lost their soul to demons

than their willingness to sacrifice children for freedom, fancy personal

rights or anything else. Does every child matter to the

great God of the universe. It was this sin that

brought Israel to judgment, among others.

But somehow the fate of.

God's people who needed true reform was wrapped around the

need for them to reach out to a nation that

didn't have a clue about God. God had wrapped their

fate up in the fate of people who never heard

so much is found in this introduction of the Book

of Jonah. The Bible says, the word of the Lord

came to Jonah, saying, Jesus is speaking.

Friends.

It's impossible to have a message that means anything if

it doesn't come from Jesus in his word. It's impossible

to change our lives for God if we do not

seize a hold of the personal presence of Christ in

the Word of God. A person has a meaningful message

when that message comes from Jesus. Through the Bible, the

Bible says, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying, friends,

we have no right as Christians to share a philosophy,

a culture, a creed an idea that is not from

the Word of God to get up in the pulpit

and proclaim things the Bible doesn't teach. Jonah's message was

a message clearly from God's word, the Living Christ who

spoke to him. There's only one cure for an arrogant

latesty and unbelief in the Church, and it's the unsheathed

truth found of Jesus in the naked Word of God.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah saying speaking,

and nothing else came to Jonah that mattered for the

people that he needed to preach to. Jonah was named

in Hebrew Yonah ben Amati, Jonah, the son of Ameti.

It's translated. Jonah's name is significant in the context. Jonah

is the Hebrew word for dove, so when you say Jonah,

you're really saying dove. In Hebrew and the Song of Solomon,

the word dove is used as a term of endearment.

I'll just give you the verses Song of Solomon two fourteen,

Song of Solomon five twelve, Song of Solomon sixt' nine,

Oh my dove in the clefts of the rock, Oh

my Jonah, his eyes are like doves. Like Jonah's my dove, literally,

my Jonah, my perfect one, the only one, the darling

of her mother. So when you say Jonah, you're saying

something like darling. Have you ever said darling to your

spouse lately? Is that a good thing to say today

in modern culture?

Darling? What are some other things you can say? Sweetheart?

Come on, guys, give me some ideas. You shouldn't be

bereft of information out there. But my hearing's a lousy

You have.

To telp me.

But sweetie, soney, sweety pie me at work.

It matters what kind of pie? Okay?

But you know something nice and all these verses. The

word for dove is Jonah, and Jonah won one. The

name for Jonah's father's Amati. That's just a significant This

name is derived from the Hebrew word for truth and faithfulness.

Jonah's father's name can be translated literally my truth. Literally,

Jonah was named the dove, the son of Amittai, meaning

the beloved son of my Truth.

He's the silver spoon prophet. I mean he had it all.

He just was born into the church.

He was the prophet born with that silver spoon in

his mouth, the beloved son of my truth had a

work to do for God, but God had a work

to do in him that was just as important as

the work he had to do.

God commanded Jodah.

To stop preaching to the preached, to stop teaching to teach,

to stop reaching the reached, and go to that place

that doesn't have a clue and give them the word

of God so they can be saved. Get out of

the pew and get into the world that I sent

you to share my message with. God told Jonah to

take God's word to Nineveh, the greatest city of the north,

the very heart of the evil Assyrian Empire. Go there

and change some lives with gospel truth.

Jonah, go.

There was a very important reason why the Assyrians weren't

messing around with Israel during the days of Jonah.

The Syrian Empire was an empire.

On the brink of ruin in the eighth century, political

divisions wrap them. God had sent one famine after another

to teach that mighty Assyrian empire that man shall not

live by bread alone, but by something else that.

They didn't have.

And they were a people on the brink, a people

prepared by hardship and calamity to hear it last, the

word of God from the silver spoon Prophet Jonah, the

beloved son of My Truth. Now we've had it pretty

good in America, haven't we.

Yes or no.

We've had prosperity in this country. Now guess what the

day's coming. One of these days when we won't have

that prosperity, God will humble this mighty nation, and through

that humility, men and women will begin to listen to

God again. It's an opportunity for reform and revival. That's

what happened back then. Jonah want two arise, God said,

go to Naneva, that great city, and cry against it,

for their wickedness has come up before me. God said, arise.

Because Jonah was in the business of going down. The

beloved son of the Truth needed to do something more

than just so on the truth and do nothing for

others to just expect the word of God to come

to him every Saturday or morning, but instead of taking

it to those people who never heard of a word

of God. Jonah had preached to the preached. He had

reached the reached for so long that he was himself

emotionally down inside because his life was all about him.

His people his church instead of mission and outreach. Whenever

you focus on yourself or an in reach or personal

growth as the emphasis of ministry. Now it's important, but

when it becomes the emphasis of ministry, you get down

in your walk with Jesus Christ. Because Christ is not

in the selfish business. He's in using you to save others.

You get lays in your faith and Christianity becomes boring.

If there's all there is to faith is feeding you

and your friends in a clubhouse kind of Christianity.

God told Jonah to arise. A rise means get up.

If you're down, God says, get up.

God says get up.

If you came to church today trying to be fed

and you're down because you've been fed too much, or

you think you have been fed in the right way,

or you think you should be fed differently, it doesn't

work for you, then try something new and unique. Take

the little truth you have in you and go find

someone who's never heard of Christianity, who doesn't have a

clue about the prophecies, who doesn't know the Gospel, and

share something with that person, that man or woman, And

once your life become alive, God says, arise get up

off the pew, stop relying on the pastor, and start

sharing the Word of God with someone else as best

you can who doesn't know a thing about the Word

or how to be saved. I guarantee to you that

you're an expert in God's Word compared to most of

the people in your life. You may feel like you

can't give a Bible study, but you can share something

they have never heard, and you can make a difference

by praying for them in the marketplace of life. God's

command to Jonah is specific a rise to go to Neva,

that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness

has come up before me. The Hebrew word used here

for wickedness means evil and is used nine times.

In the Book of Jonah.

The Hebrew word can mean both evil or disaster. The

Book of Jonah teaches us that evil brings disaster. Jonah

lived in the country, and God called him to the

great city that was on the edge of disaster. Sometimes

cities are hard to work in. So how does God

feel about people who are disobedient to His will, who

live in the great cities on the edge of disaster?

How does God feel about them? God loves them. He

loves the dear people of the world.

You know the song.

It's kind of profound. You don't need an orchestra to

sing it. Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Jesus loves the little chun all the children of the world,

red and yellow, a little black and white. They all

are precious in his side. Jesus loves the little children

of the world.

Well, he loves you too, He loves everybody. In the story,

God calls Nineveh.

That great city, not a bad city, the great city

for God. That great city is a place of great opportunity,

for his great grace and marvelous mercy. The prophet that

lived in that great city needed God's great grace, God's truth.

Just like people who live in the great cities in

both red and blue state America and our country and

in the world today, God desires to raise up urban

churches that are true to him. You know, I've heard

people say, we just got to get out of the cities.

We just can't go to the cities. We got to

get out of cities because the mark of the Beast

is coming. You ever hear that, Well, what did God

tell Jonah get out of the city or go to

that great city. We're here to make a difference, not

to run from the calling of God in our time.

There come a time to leave the cities, but that's

not now. The time now is to engage for the

cause of God. God desires to raise up urban churches

that are true to Him. Our conference is working in

collaboration with the Alogies Conference in twenty twenty five to

reach the city of Baltimore, the inner city, to raise

up churches, to baptize people, to bring people to Jesus Christ.

It's a great undertaking God's.

Message to Jonahs, the message to be true and transparent

with his word in the middle of the great city.

God doesn't tell Jonah to adapt the truth so the

city people will be able to hear it. He doesn't

tell Jonah mix it up with a little philosophy or

humanistic theology so the intellectuals will like it more. God

doesn't tell Jonah to get a rock band going so

it will sound sweeter, it feel good and away that'll

entice them. God doesn't tell Jonah develop a postmodern theory

for the city to pick and choose what part of

God's word is relevant to.

Preach so there can be community.

Doesn't do that, God tells Joanah, exactly the opposite of

a feel good kind of faith and to please the

people kind of evangelism. Jonah, go to that great city

and tell them, I'm going to nuked if they don't repent. Now,

if they don't repent, it is kind of intrinsic. Here

the Hebrew word. In forty days, none of it will

be destroyed, and the Hebrew's overturned. But the word ha

fak and Hebrew can also mean repent, So you figure

out what the word means by your choice. Jonah, go

to that great city and tell them I'm going to

nuked if they don't repent, but they can repent. Tell

them an earthquake might hit it if they don't turn

around and stop doing those gross evil things. Tell them

I control the weather and global warming, and that I

might bring a global freeze if their hearts don't warm

up toward me and my holy word. Tell them that

evil leads to disaster inside the great city. Tell them

I've had enough of the rebellion. They need to turn

around for my sake and theirs and repent. Tell them

I care enough about them to not play games with them.

I speak the truth because I want them all to

be saved. Tell them I'm personally offended, but what they

do and it hurts me inside as it did in

the days of Noah and their wickedness. And I want

to prevent a flood of evil from coming on in

that city. Tell them that a flood of evil brings

a flood of disaster. But I want to pour a

flood of grace and mercy on them. The Silver Spoon

prophet Nukem Jonah liked that judgment part of the message,

but Nukem Jonah didn't like the last part of the message.

That is God's mercy of grace. God said, arise and go.

That is a mission of mercy. Jonah obeys God's sort

of you ever made God's sort of in your life?

Sort of I'm a bye, But you know.

He arises and then he goes, But he goes in

the opposite direction he should have God. He goes away

from the great city of God that needed the word

of God.

He goes to a place that didn't need anything.

Jonah won three, but Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish

from the presence of the Lord he went down to

Japa and found a ship going to Tarsish. So he

paid the fare and went on board to go with

them to Tarsish. Away from the presence of the Lord.

Jonah fled to Tarsish. Now the word Tarsish appears three

times in verse three and second Chronicles nine to twenty one,

and in one Kings ten twenty two. King Solomon set

up trade with Tarsish. He imported three things ivory, which

comes from elephants, apes, and peacocks from Tarsish. So I

I to ask you what is Tarsish famous for?

Would you say? Ivory, apes, and peacocks.

So instead of going to where the people were, where

you can make a difference in their lives, Jonah decided

to go preach to the apes. Imagine preaching to the apes,

the peacock, the elephants in the land of Tarsish. The

outback that the believer who's not willing to do what

God is saying is doomed to pursue a course of

action that gives him an irrelevant ministry.

Two times.

It says in verse three that Jonah fled from the

presence of the Lord. Have you ever done that in

your life. Have you ever fled from God's presence, ran

away from him when he was calling you closer to him.

It also says Jonah went down to Japah, He went

away from the Lord and he went down. God had said, arise,

he went down. Friend, when you don't obey God's word

to reach out to others, when your religion is all

about you and not about the God who cares about

those in need to be saved, when you choose a

different direction than God's direction for you, when you insist

on your way instead of God's way, that's when you

go down in your life, and only God can get

you up. God told Jonah to rise, and when he

got up, what do you do?

He went away from the Lord and he went down.

He went down to Joppa instead of going up to Nineveh. Friends,

if you're down on your walk with Christ and you

study the Bible heart, it could be that you don't

share your faith with unbelievers. Could be your isolated, your insular.

You're not living for others. You're not trying to bring

people to a closer walk with God. Therefore you don't

have a closer walk with God. Active spirit filled evangelism

will lift your spirits up. Passive, lukewarm parishioners who sit

in the pew feeding off the preacher will sooner or

later feed on each other. Friends, God's not going to

keep on feeding you food if you don't share it

with others. You know what happens when you just hear

truth and you don't do anything with it.

You shut it off in your head. You cut it off.

You don't hear anymore. You may sit, but you don't hear.

God said a rise, And what what does he say?

Go?

Jonah got up, but he went down. He went the

wrong way, nukem. Jonah ran away from God. So I

ask you, what does God do when you get up

and you insist on going the wrong way in your life?

What does he do? Does he just cut you off?

In verse four, we encounter a spiritual principle that applies

to believers who don't want to share their faith in

the real, suffering world. When you get up and you

choose to go the wrong way from mission and outreach,

God hurls a storm into your life. God disrupts your life.

God suddenly engages you. This idea that God does not

discipline us is nonsense. God cares enough about us to

trouble the life so that we can return to God.

Jonah one four continues the story. But the Lord hurled

a great wind upon the sea, and there was a

mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened

to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each

cried to his God, and they threw the wares that

were in the ship into the sea to lighten it

up for them. But Jonah had gotten down into the

inner part of the ship and laid down, was fast asleep.

He went down, down, down, down down. Because of Jonah,

the ship threatened to fall apart. Just as one person

can make a difference for the positive, one person can

sabotage the work of God and the fate of many.

Jonah was a problem.

The Bible says the mariners were afraid, and their fear

was a religious and pious kind of fear. While Jonah

sleeps in the belly of the boat in fear, they

call upon their gods to save them. The Hebrew says

God hurled a great wind upon the sea, and it

reads literally the sailors hurled their wares into the sea.

The light they lightened up the boat to save their lives.

They prayed and hurled the stuff they could take their

lives away into the sea.

So should we.

The Bible teaches that there is a storm that is

coming in this world at the second coming of Jesus

and France. God has given us time to lighten up

the boat to throw that stuff that gets into the

way into the sea. And people everywhere need to cry

out to the Lord for salvation because this is the

time of God's mercy. And verse three, the Bible says

that two times Jonah left the presence of the Lord

twice and then he went down to Joppa. In the

same verse, you leave the Lord, you go down. Leaving

the presence of the Lord becomes a trend in Jonah's life.

So what happens to the man or woman who resists

God's presence found in the Call to Share the Word

of God. And verse five, we discovered what happened to

the second time when Jonah went down. Jonah had gone

down into the inner part of the ship and had

laid down and was and what does the text say,

it was fast asleep. When leaving the presence of the

Lord becomes a trend in your life, then going down

becomes a trend in your life. Also, two times the

text says that Jonah left the presence of the Lord,

and two times the text says that.

He went down. We need to stay with Christ.

Friends, there are times in life when God uses people

who are unbelievers who are open to His Holy Spirit

to jar the unbelieving believer back into relationship with God.

Look at Jonah one six. So the captain came and

said to him, what do you mean, you sleeper?

And what does he say? Arise? Now?

Who had said arise earlier in the storyline God had

So who is God speaking through Jonah or the pagan

captain of the ship. The pagan captain the ship is

speaking the message of God that God had given to Jonah.

A rise, call upon your God.

Perhaps the God will have a thought to us that

we do not perish.

And notice, he says, the.

God God told Jonah to rise when he called on

him to go on a mission of mercy to Nineveh.

The pagan captain called on Jonah to arise. That call

was a gift from God to Jonah to wake him up,

to hear the voice of God and to do his will. Friends,

soul winning is not about us winning them. It's really

about us and we, which means all of us finding

God together them and me is we that becomes the

Church of Grace and mercy. I have found that when

God brings people to the church, sometimes seas and church

members can't stand it when they get baptized. Sometimes sees

and church members will work against the pastors so He

can't win those people. Sometimes seas and church members will

feel jealous that the new person may take their place

in teaching and preaching. Sometimes sees and church members don't

know that they need to be in the baptismal tank

as much as the new person. Sometimes seas and church

members don't know that you can be the lost coin

in the house, not just the lost sheep on the hillside.

So Evangelis is not about us saving them. It's about

God saving us all He sends us so that they

can make a difference in our life just as much

as we make a difference in their life. I'm going

to speak to a reality here at our church. When

we rented our church, chose to rent it. We need

to rent our church for the financial viability of our project.

At this time of our history, we had a person

lined up to come here.

That God had not lined up.

And I went to that person's church, who was a pastor,

and I saw what was happening there, and I said, Lord,

the Holy Spirit's not in this church. The attitude is wrong.

It's focused on the preacher too much. And I said, Lord,

bring somebody else here, help us to see the way

through the woods. I was in the parking lot out here,

and I suddenly I saw it. Shortly after that, I

saw a group of people at the end of the

parking lot, hispanic, just come together walking down the parking lot.

They didn't and come and drive to me. They parked

at the far end of the parking lot, and they

walked at in humility, straight toward me. They said, we

own a piece of property down the road. We're trying

to find a place to worship, but probably you would

not consider us. I said, well, why wouldn't we consider you?

Now?

They didn't know that I'd prayed this prayer, So why

wouldn't we consider you? Well, this is such a beautiful

church and such a nice spot, and we're a struggling church.

We're not, you know, the biggest church around or anything

kind of like that. And we got the dialoguing. When

we interviewed both churches. One was humble, the other was not.

One was willing to cooperate, the other wasn't. One valued

Christian kindness. In fact, the Church of the Nazarene, if

you know anything about their theology, they're not a tongue

speaking Chrismatic church. They've rejected that as a false Holy

Spirit movement in our time. They believe the second blessing

of the Holy Spirit is kindness. It's the outpourt of

the fruits of the Spirit. So when they have classes

and instruction and when they pray fervently, they're not speaking

in tongues the praying of Spanish, but they teach their

people how to be kind to each other, how to

let the Nazarene direct the course of their life. God

had answered our prayer. He brought the very people who

needed to be here for us, that we need to

be here for them. When Pastor Oscar's brother died during COVID,

he reached out to me. I had a chance to

minister to his mother and to his family, and I

had the committal for his brother at the seminary in Beltsville, Maryland.

He didn't have to do that. What he was saying

was is that I need help.

Pastor, you're just as much a colleague in winning people

of the Lord as I am.

Are they perfect? Noor? Are we perfect? How many of

us are perfect? We're not perfect either.

But friends, God brings people into our lives for both

our sake and their sake. If we weren't together, their

church would have gone down. Our church would have two.

It's about us, not me. It's about us and we

all of us finding God. The person you preach to,

the person you reach out to for Christ in the end,

just might be you. There is a blessing in Jonah's

experience that teaches us that God reaches out to save

any and everyone who will respond to his call of mercy.

Would you like a good indicator whether not you're a

person that saved or not. If you don't have love

for your enemies and love for others and you're into

trying to get your way, it's probably a good indicator

you're lost. But if you love that person that's unlovely

that God sends into your life, into your church, that

person needs to grow, you put them ahead of you

that it's a good indicator. You're a saved person walking

in relationship with God. In the story, Jonah, the beloved

Son of the Truth, looks bad, how many of you

would take the vote that Jonah looks bad in the

story Raise your hands. Jonah looks bad, the beloved Son

of the Truth is awful.

But God looks good, doesn't he? Why?

Because God cares about the rebel inside the House of

God Jonah just as much as he cares about the

ruined life on the outside of the House of God.

And God hurls the storm to save the many, both

the pagan and the believer. Not just the few, but

the many. He cares about them all. When the fish

spit Jonah up on the sand of the sea, Jonah

went to Nineveh and preached to it, and God saved

that great city in need of God's great mercy and

grace and friend, you can do the same for our city,

but more profound you and me, He can save us

them together. God bless you, Dear Heavenly Father. It's possible

to be in the Church and to be more lost

than any pagan or unbeliever outside the Church. And Father,

arrogance is not unique to the outside world. It's here too. Lord,

give us Jesus. The dear people who come through the

doors of our church need Jesus, but we do too.

So Lord, move upon the unconverted hearts here and that

could be any of us at any time. If we're

not walking right with you, Help us to walk, help

us to live for you. And Lord, may there be

love that is the real evidence of it. And Lord,

I just pray today that you keep your people safe

in you. The world may be a very different place

next week. We don't know, So help every day to

be a good day with you. In Jesus' name.

Amen.