Cry of the Lost - Part 1

From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.

He said, In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me

from the depths of the grave. I called for help, and you

listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep,

into the very heart of the Seas, and the current swirled about

me. All your waves and Breakers

swept over me. I said.

I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look again

towards your holy temple. The engulfing waters threatened

me, the deep surrounded me. Seaweed was wrapped around my

head to the roots of the mountains.

I sank down. The earth beneath barred me in

forever, but you brought my life up from the pit, my Lord.

When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my

prayer rose to You to your holy temple.

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that

could be theirs. But I, with a song of

Thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You what I have vowed I will

make. Good salvation comes from the

Lord, And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto

dry land. Alrighty.

Roman, thank you for reading that passage of Scripture.

And if you have your Bible or your iPad or your electronic

devices with you turn to Jonah two.

We're going to look at that a little bit later on this

morning. And if you have a pen, just get

a pen because every single one of those verses or most of those

verses comes out of the Psalms. And I want to give you the Psalm

scriptures that they relate to so that you can go and read it.

And when you're downcast and and and hard pressed, you go and

read those scriptures and God will revive your spirit.

God will revive your spirit. Is that all right?

So we are in the book of Jonah and the the theme for the series

is I am Jonah and she's boy, Oh boy, that I discovered that I am

Jonah. Oh, you know, hey, even me.

Thank you, Steven. I am Jonah.

I tell you, it is been the most humbling time this season.

Friends, if we rent our hearts, God is going to change the life

of your the people in your household, the people at your

workplace, the people in your class, the people in your

lecture room, and it's going to change this nation.

So I'm not going to read recap the whole story.

I want to ask you go and read this chapter for yourself three

or four times. But I am going to make some

points and I trust that you will be able to follow as we go.

But please go and listen to the messages up to now.

If you've missed them, it'll it'll do you good.

Now the book of Jonah starts like this Jonah one verse one,

the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amitai.

Some translation says now not yesterday, not tomorrow, now go

to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its

wickedness has come up before me.

In the first verse we see something of God's heart.

God will not send somebody to go and preach against somebody if

he doesn't care about that person immediately says go.

Why? I want to give you a second

chance. Please turn.

I want to give you a second chance.

And he comes to Jonah and said, hey Jonah, I've chosen you, my

boy, come on, get off your backside and go.

And what does Jonah do? We'll get there.

That's the beginning of the story.

The end of the story is this Jonah 3 verse 10.

Jonah 3:10

When God saw what they did and how they turned from the evil

ways, he relented and did not bring them, bring on them the

destruction he had threatened. So on the one side we've got go

and in the middle we had a little bit of a wobbly, wobbly,

wobbly, wobbly, wobbly. And on this side we have

repented hearts, friends, the the fate of a nation has been

changed. The fate of a nation has been

changed and in the middle friends is Jonah and in the

middle is you and I. You know when when God called

Jonah, you heard Nineveh and all the memories of the past came up

and his first reaction was I will not go.

God looked past the memories of the past and saw the person.

When God says go, it's always got to do with people.

Whether you're a mechanic, whether you're a teacher,

whether you're a politician, whether you're a preacher or a

doctor, it's always got to do with people.

When God says go, he doesn't say go for animals, He doesn't say

go for cars. He says go for people.

Always, always people. And Jonah missed it.

Jonah missed it, friends, right in the middle of this is Jonah

and right in the middle of This Is Us.

So the question I'm going to try as best as I know how, just to

answer one question this morning, what is on the other

side or not What, who? He's on the other side of your

yes, for Jesus. There's a city that's crying out

for God. There's an individual and

there's a country that's crying out for God, as Mitch so

beautifully said this morning. What is our response?

Who's on the other side of our yes for Jesus?

The answer to that is not very difficult.

It's people. It's my neighbour.

It's the person that I'm still to meet.

It's the person that I have met. It's people.

OK, so let's let's start. So God says go and what does

Jonah do? He runs.

That's a good way to start. If you don't see the people,

you'll run. And he ran, and he came to a

place called Joppa. The second thing that happens,

there's a vessel there, a ship there destined for Tarsus.

And what does he do? He pays.

So first he runs, then he pays, then he gets onto the ship.

Now he's tired of running, start of paying.

Now he's sleeping. Just get me away from all of

this. I'm not going to Nineveh.

It's too much for me. Friends, let me tell you

something. If we hear the voice of God to

go and we run, it'll bankrupt you.

You'll pay. And when you paid and when you

ran and when you're out of breath, you'll think, oh Lord,

let me just sleep. Let me just sleep.

Because when my eyes are closed and I don't hear anything and

I've put the cushions, yeah, that it all will disappear.

It'll all be OK. And we miss what God has for us.

But God doesn't give up on Jonah.

The Bible says God sends a storm.

Why? Because he's jealous for Jonah.

He wants to wake him up. No, no, no, my boy, you're

travelling in the wrong direction. 2500 kilometers in

the wrong direction. Want to wake you up before it's

too late. But Jonah sleeps.

The sailors, they panic the captain, he panics.

The sailors cry out to their God lowercase G the sailor says,

where's Jonah? He ran downstairs.

He found finds him to sleep downstairs.

He said, what the heck are you doing?

Get up, cry out to your God friends When we're asleep, don't

be surprised if whoever is going to come your way to wake you up.

We blame the enemy for a lot of things.

It's our own fault. Don't give the enemy enough

credit. Credit for for for our mistakes.

Cars. Yes, there is a war.

It is against flesh and not against flesh and blood.

It is about get the principality.

I know those things. I know the warfare thing.

Like Ross says, please don't send me an e-mail, but God sends

things our way to wake us up. The longer we serve, the more

excited we need to get about Christ.

We shouldn't get get to sleep, shouldn't get to sleep.

And he said to him, pray. And I don't know about you if

you've ever met the captain of a ship, but you don't argue with

the captain of a ship. If he says pray, you get on your

knees and you go so loud down and you pray.

But we don't see this of Jonah. I don't read that he prayed.

I just read that he came up with quick answers.

When the guys confronted him, what did he say?

Oh, no, it's my fault. I'm so sorry.

I so sorry. He doesn't even say sorry I

dragged you into this. He's just said it's my fault,

throw me overboard because he thinks, OK, now I can't sleep, I

might as well die. I just want this to go away.

God wakes him up. God wakes him up and at the end

of the day, because he's at the wrong place at the wrong time,

the sailors and the captain ends up paying.

They throw their provisions overboard.

They throw their cargo overboard.

They waste energy. They try rowing to the side.

It's actually got nothing to do with it.

It's actually got everything to do with Jonah.

And he doesn't have the decency of apologizing, of repainting,

just this throw me overboard. And before they throw him

overboard, they realized who His God was, because he told them

and they got a fright. And now they don't pray to their

gods. They pray to His God, the God of

heaven and earth that created the sea and created the land.

So God don't hold this against us, because they didn't know

what to pray. And they threw him overboard.

And God heard their cry, friends.

God heard their cry and he saved them.

The sea was calm. And then and then God provided

this fish. So go and listen to Stevens

preach from last week. It's, it's a, it's a, it's a,

it's a significant fish. I think it was last week or the

previous one it it was a significant fish.

So the issue is not what kind of fish or whatever the case might

be. The issue is the fish was born

at the right time. It ate the right food so it

could grow the right length to be at the right place in order

to swallow Jonah. God at this tapestry all worked

out. Don't try and work out what

features was whether it was big or small or whatever.

It was dark and it was ugly, bottom line.

And I think it smelt, I think it's smelled.

And Jonah is in the belly of this fish.

And now you can turn to Jonah too, because I want to show you

something. I'm just going to read it.

And I'm going to tell you which Psalms to go to.

And you're going to go to those Psalms in your own time.

But this is the Scripture that brought a turn in Jonah's heart,

in Jonah's mind, verse one from the inside, the from inside the

fish. Jonah prayed to the Lord.

He's God. He said, in my distress, I call

to the Lord. That is Psalm 18, verse six.

Write that down 18, verse six. And he answered me.

Remember Jonah's paraphrasing? Yeah, he doesn't have a Bible to

read from. He just quotes it as he as he

remembers it. So some words, you hear what I'm

saying. That's Psalm 120, verse one.

From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help, and you

listen to my cry. You hold me into the depths.

That's Psalm 88, verse 6. Into the very heart of the Seas.

Psalms 88:6

And the current swirled about me.

All your waves and Breakers swept over me.

That is Psalm 42, verse 7. I said I have been banished from

Psalms 42:7

your sight. That is Psalm 31, verse 32.

Psalm 31, verse 22. Yet I will look again toward

Psalms 31:22

your holy temple. The engulfing waters threaten

me. The deep surrounded me.

Seaweeds was wrapped around my head.

That is Psalm 69, verse one and two, to the roots of the

mountains. I sank down, the earth beneath

bought me in forever. But You, O Lord my God, brought

my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I

remembered You, Lord, Psalm 77, verse 11 and 12.

Psalms 77:11

And my prayer rose to you, to Your holy temple.

Psalm 11, verse 4. Those who cling to worthless

Psalms 11:4

idols turn away from God's love for them.

But I with shouts and grateful praise, grateful praise will

sacrifice to You. Psalm 50, verse 14 and 23.

Psalms 50:14

What I have vowed I will make good.

I will say salvation comes from the Lord.

Psalm 3, verse eight. And the Lord commanded the fish

and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Friends, the point is this. In the belly of the fish where

Jonah had nobody to turn to, he didn't pray on the vessel

because he didn't face loss, the others face loss.

But now in the belly of the fish, he remembered the Psalms.

Why did he remember the Psalms? He was familiar with the Psalms.

Why does he remember the Psalms? I believe, I believe there's two

reasons. The first reason is he couldn't

believe he's alive in the belly of a fish.

I think throwing over, swimming, going down.

He did go down, but he didn't go down dead.

He did go down in the belly of a fish and he was alive.

So he's, he's saw his prayer that he prays is Thanksgiving

just thank you God. There's how many times there's

thank you and Thanksgiving. The second thing is he realized

if God could send a fish and get me into a belly of or allow me

to go into a belly of a fish, he'll Get Me Out of the belly of

a fish. That's why he says again, I will

see your holy temple. God can't rescue him.

God can't take him out. So friends, Psalm 119, verse

five says this. Your word is a lamp unto my feet

and a light unto my path. When things are heart pressed,

get God's word in your heart and He will show you.

Yeah, and he'll show you a little bit further.

There will be a lamp on your foot and it'll be a lot on your

path. Get the word of God in your

heart. Meditate on that word.

Pray that word. Write it down.

Keep a diary and God will show you what to do.

Don't run like a chicken without a head.

Don't run left and right looking for guys to bail you out.

No way. You got yourself into it.

God will get you out of it. You can't get you out of it.

People can't get you out of it. God will get you out of it.

Get the word in our hearts. That's why I give you the Psalms

and you're going to discover a lot more.

Just go and look at the cross references.

It's there, it's there. It'll show you what to read.

So the sailors prayed and God rescued them.

Jonah prayed, God rescued him. He ended on dry land and after

he prayed and after God rescued him again, the word Jonah 3

verse one through 3. Then the word of the Lord came

to Jonah a second time, not before he prayed, after he

prayed because now he's hearing God's voice again.

Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I

give you. Jonah obeyed the word of God and

went. Jonah obeyed the word of God.

I don't think he obeyed because he really saw the people.

I think he obeyed because there's somewhere it says what I

have vowed I will make good. And he was a prophet.

He was destined to proclaim God's word.

And I don't know for what reason he went, but but later on we'll

see. I don't, I don't think it's

something that lived in his heart.

He still saw the issue. He didn't see the people.

He still saw his past. God saw past the past and he saw

the people. And he's showing Jonah, I will

rescue, I will rescue you. I will rescue the sailors.

And man, if you just get on the page with me, I will rescue

Nineveh and you'll rejoice with me.

But he misses that. He goes to Nineveh and he

preaches an 8 word sermon. He does the bare minimum.

The bare minimum. He preach 40 days and Nineveh

will be overthrown. Full stop.

OK, imagine you came this morning and I stand in front of

you. I say, guys, 40 days and

Pretoria will be overthrown. Let's go and have coffee.

You will say, what the heck is this?

When Stephen asked me to preach, he says, Eugene, cry of the

lost. Those was the word.

Those are the words that he gave me.

And I could have come here this morning and say cry of the lost.

That's what Jonah did. But I went and I meditated on it

and God brought things alive in me.

Imagine if Jonah went and he did bring that word and they did

repent and he went and sat on a hillside the Bible says, and he

watched to see what happened to the city.

Imagine if he started rejoicing with God instead of being a

grumpy old man. Stay God.

Can't we start a church there? Hey God, why don't you want to

send me again for a prophetic word for Otter?

Lord, don't you want to send me again so I can go and put

courage in Robbie's heart? Can't.

Can't you send me again? Please, Lord, I want to be part

of what you're doing. Sure.

Instead, he left them up to their own demise.

God saw their cry, and the Bible says this.

Jonah Thieverstein. When God saw what they did and

how they turned from the evil ways, he relented and did not

bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

Why? Because Jonah 4 verse 10, I knew

Jonah 4:10

that you are gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger

and abounding in love. A God who relents from calamity.

The sailors prayed for themselves friends, Jonah prayed

for himself. I don't know if you picked it up

in that Jonah two that we read 25 times.

It's me, my, and I in 10 verses, not Jonah or not Nineveh, not

sailors, nobody else, just Mima and I.

There is a place for Mima and I, but the problem is that's where

Jonah stopped. That's where he stopped.

And then we see Nineveh. When they prayed, it was just

all about their destruction. Let's bring this whole passage a

little bit closer to home. There's a God in heaven and sent

his one and only son and the cry of his wrath was Father forgive

them for they don't know what they do for you and me and that

Savior Jesus Christ. Save the young man by the name

of Ashley Bell and Ashley read the scripture in Joel 2 verse

Joel 2:13

13. Joel is a prophet for our time,

eh? He's speaking into our days says

rend your heart and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God. For he is gracious and

compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and relent

from sending and relent from sending calamity.

Exactly the same words, but he added rent your heart.

What does rent your heart mean? It means recognize that you are

in need of a Savior. My heart is broken, my heart is

torn, it needs repair, it needs to be mended, and there's only

one person that they can do that and that's Jesus Christ.

So it does start with rendering, with rending.

There you go. Rent our hearts.

Rendering is something else. Rent our hearts.

So, so I'm going to encourage you rent your heart.

Rent your heart because who's on the other side of your yes for

Jesus. If you just say yes and your

hearts and you didn't rent your heart, you're not going to see

the people. You're going to see everything

else, but you'll stop short. You'll stop short.

Rend your heart for yourself and rend your heart.

Let your heart start breaking for the people of Pretoria.

Let your heart start breaking for the family member that's not

saved, for your colleague, for our country.

Rend your heart. There's a young man that read

that scripture and his name is Ashley Bell and Ashley Bell and

his wife Nadine. He was almost 40 years old at

that stage. And 29 years ago, God laid in

his heart to plant the church and he got in his combi.

Most of you know the story, but he's got his in his combi in in

Durban. And his steering wheel broke and

he had a wrench and he took a wrench as a steering wheel and

he drove all the way to Pretoria to come and plant the church.

English man in Afrikaans community.

People were laughing at him. So what the heck are you

thinking? But he did it.

Friends. I had the privilege of speaking

to Ashley this week, Sure. And his voice almost filled with

tears. I could hear the tears in his

voice when he recalled those days.

What stirred me most was Ashley never aspired to be a pastor or

leading a church or being leadership of any kind.

And his heart was a heart that was rendered.

It's just a heart to serve people.

He said, Lord, I want to serve people.

And in that I want to serve people.

God started stirring his heart, But S what if I want to send you

to people? And he said, oh, sheesh, Lord,

not a bad idea. I'm a surfer, by the way.

He was he wasn't just a surfer. He was the of the top of the top

in South Africa. He served professionally, he

surfed alongside Springbok surfers, he took the President

President Cup twice. I don't know.

I know it might not mean much to us, but but that's some of his

credentials. The Gunston 500 was one of the

biggest surfing events in the world.

Steve and he made the quarterfinals.

He had a surfing school. He coached surfing the the the

Natal University surfing team. So.

So he's not a novice. And and like, like any good

surfer, God sent me. Yeah.

To the islands of Fiji, to Hawaii, to the Golden Coast, to

East London, to Jeffrey's Bay. The surf is good.

Not to Cape Town waters to cold surf is small.

And he started thinking about these things.

And then one day God sparked to him clearly and God didn't tell

him Pretoria, as she said during that time, the only thing you

could do is pray and ask God again because his own feelings

got in the way of what God was doing.

His nature is the beach and he realized God.

But I said I want to serve people.

And as she prayed this pray this is his pray word for word.

Lord, forgive me for being reluctant to respond to the call

of God on my life together with their knee with their Dean, they

they bent on their knees crowded.

Lord, here am I send me that comes from Isaiah 6 verse 8.

Isaiah 6:8

Lord, here am I send me. That sounds to me like a rent

heart. That sounds to me like a rained

out friends. And Ashley considered all these

towns and somebody asked him, said Ash, don't you want to

think of planting? He said no actually I did think

of planting. He said, well where you going to

plant? And before he could think the

word Pretoria came out of his mouth and the guy looked at him

and said what Pretoria? Why he says the only word that

came, the only words that came up in his heart was because

there's people and they need Jesus.

And he said from that moment, he was going to give up everything,

whatever it takes, He gave it up.

He didn't even have money to replace his steering wheel.

He used the wrench to drive you because you and I needed to hear

the gospel of Jesus. Sure.

They had their first meeting on the 24th of December.

I'm closing. They had their first meeting on

the 24th of December 1995 in their home in Pretoria.

And Ashley went to his daughters and say on the 23rd went to

these daughters and said, listen, we're going to have a

meeting tomorrow. And they said, dad, how are we

going to have church? He said, well, mom, mom's pretty

good, which is Nadine. She's pretty good with music.

She's a monster musician. She'll lead worship.

I know a little bit about preaching and you guys will get

saved so that's what they've done.

Next morning, 9:00 sat in the lounge and Ash said as he was

about to begin preaching there was a knock on the door.

His first two visitors arrived and he welcomed him.

And he said that meeting took a turn.

And from there on, week after week, he went into the town of

Pretoria. Wherever he went, he told them

about what he's doing here, that he's about to start a church.

He told them about Jesus, and if they showed a little bit of

interest, he said, ah, yes, are you interested?

Come from that day, friends. They never stopped receiving

visitors. They went to two meetings in

their home. They went to school halls, all

those things. Today, we don't stop getting

visitors because of Ashley and Nadine Bell that heard the call

of God. Jesus save them.

They came to Pretoria because they want to serve people.

They didn't dictate to God where they need to go.

Yeah, yeah. Who and who is on the other side

of your yes. Whenever you go to Banjo's

coffee station, may you remember this story.

It is written on the board in that coffee station.

Go and read it. Take a moment.

Every time you take a cup of coffee, may it be a reminder who

is on the other side of your yes for Jesus.

Banjo's coffee is in honor of the Bell family.

Bianca is the B Ashley is the A, N is 19.

Jay is Jordan, who wasn't born at that time.

He was born in Pretoria. OS is the bunch of OS that

joined through the years. That's us.

We just, we just got thrown in there and it's a Starla.

So it's not just the name that we came up with.

It's actually in honor of somebody.

So when you get a cup of coffee, it's not because the barista

made it. Well, yes, it is, but it's

because there's a family that paid a price because they hear

heard the cry of people's hearts and they responded, they rent

their hearts and they came to Pretoria.

So that you and I can get the word inside of us so that when

we in the fish like Jonah, we can recite the word and God can

bring us back to life. Jesus name Amen.