Whale-y god | Pr Steven

You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

We hope this message will light up your tea.

Okay, so time to go into the world, all right.

So today we're gonna look at Jonah. Hopefully the slides work. Yeah,

the slides work. Okay. We're gonna go through the Book

of Jonah. And this is what we're gonna do. Okay,

We're gonna read the whole Book of Jonah today. Huh

preaching need to read Bible and man, yes, you know,

I'm just encouraged us, and I want to tell you this.

It's actually quite short, the Book of Jonah. I don't

know how many of us have read the Book of Jonah,

but it is quite short. And that's what we're gonna

do today. Are we okay to do that? To read

the word of God? It is good to read the

world of God, all right. So we're gonna flip open

our Bibles to the Book of Jonah. Okay, I'm sure

it's a book that you don't flip too often. It's

in the Old test the Man it's after Obadiah, which

I'm sure you also rarely flip open to that book.

But you can look at the index of your Bible.

You know, if you're using digital devices, hey, I want

to encourage you bring your physical Bible. That's when you

know where to flip to. All right, okay, if you're there, samen, okay,

not oh there yet, Okay, okay, let's see. Let's see.

Get yourself there. It's only four chapters, very short, very short,

and we're going to read through this four chapters. Okay,

slowly get there, slowly get there. Some of you are

slowly getting there. Some of you are there. Okay. It's important,

okay that we are all there and we go through

this together. Okay. I'm going to be reading from my

NLT version of the Bible, and whichever version that you

are reading from, just follow along. It won't run two

far off. You should be able to follow. Okay, I'm

gonna start all right. So Jonah Chapter one, verse one,

the small little title above that says, Jonah runs from

the Lord. Here we go. The Lord gave this message

to Jonah's son of Amitai, get up and go to

the great city of Miniveh. Announce my judgment against it,

because I have seen how wicked its people are. But

Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to

get away from the Lord. Now Jonah is a prophet, okay.

He went down to the point of Jopa, where he

found a ship living for Tarshish. He bought a ticket

and went, hoping to escape from the lord by selling

to Tashish. How many of you think that is foolish,

by selling to another place thinking that we can run

away from the lord. But that was what this prophet did.

Vers fall, but the lord hurled a powerful wind over

the sea, causing a violence storm that threatened to break

the ship up. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors

shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo

overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah

will sound asleep down in the ship's hold, So the

captain ran down after him. How can you sleep at

a time like this, he shouted, cannot and pray to

your god. Maybe he will pay attention to us and

spare our lives. Then the crew caught lords taking votes

to see which of them had offended the gods and

caused a terrible storm. When they did this, the lords

identified Jonah as the culprit. Why has this awful storm

come down on earth. They demanded, who are you, what

is your line of work? What country are you from?

What is your nationality? Jonah answered, I am a Hebrew,

and I worshiped the Lord, the god of heaven, who

made the sea and the land. The sailors were terrified

when they heard this, for he had already told them

he was running away from the lawn. Oh why did

you do it? They've groan, And since the storm was

getting worse all the time, they asked him, what should

we do to you to stop this storm? Throw me

into the sea, Jonah said, and it will become calm again.

I know that this terrible storm is all my fault. Instead,

the sailors wrote even harder to get the ship to

the land, but the stormy sea was too violent for

them and they couldn't make it. Then they cry out

to the Lord. Jonahsked, God, Oh Lord, they believe it.

Don't make us die for this man's sin, and don't

hold us responsible for his death. Oh Lord, you have

sent this storm upon him for your old good reasons.

Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into

the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once. The

sailors were all struck by the Lord's great power, and

they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.

Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to

swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for tree

days and three nights. All right, that is the longest

chapter in the fourth chapters. Don't worry, it gets shortter.

Chapter two. John asked prayer. Then Johnah prayed to the

Lord is God from inside the fish. He said, I

cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and

he answered me. I called to you from the land

of the day, and Lord you heard me. You threw

me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to

the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me.

I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. Then

I said, oh, Lorden, you have driven me from your presence.

Yet I will look once more towards your holy tempo.

I sank beneath the waves, and the waters close over me.

See weed wrapped itself around my head. How poetic. I

sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I

was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shot forever.

But you Oh Lord, my God, snatched me from from

the jaws of death. As my life was sleeping away,

I remembered the law God, and my earnest prayer went

out to you in your holy temple. Those who worship

false gods turned their bags on all God's mercies. But

I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise,

and I will fulfill all my vows, for my salvation

comes from the Lord alone. Then the Lord ordered the

fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach. Now chapter three.

Now hanging there, hanging there, focusing. I know you're not

used to looking at so many words for such a

long perial time. We're usually on devices watching videos, right,

But hanging there Chapter three, Chapter four, two more chapters ago.

Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time. Get

up and go to the great city of Nineveh and

deliver the message I have given you this time. Jonah

obeyed the Lord's come on and went to Ninivee, a

city so large that it took three days to see

it all. On the day Yonah entered the city, he

shouted to the crowds forty days from now, meaning if

there will be this the people of Niniveh believed God's message,

and from the greatest to the least they declared a

fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. When

the King of Niniveh heard what Joonah was saying, he

stepped down. The king stepped down from his throne and

took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap

and sat on a heap of ashes. Then the king

and his nobles send this decree throughout the city. No one,

not even animals, from your hearts and flocks, may eat

or drink anything at all. People and animals alike must

wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God.

They must turn from their evil ways and stop all

their violence. Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will

change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from

destroying earth. When God saw what they had done and

how they had put a stop to their evil ways,

he changed his mind and did not carry out the

destruction he had threatened. Four final chapter of this book

Jonah's anger at the Lord's mercy. Wow. This change of

plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. So

he complained to the Lord about it? Didn't I before

I left home? Didn't I say before I left home

that you would do this? Lord? That is why I

right away to Tashish. I knew that you are a

merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry, and filled

with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from

destroying people. Just kill me now, Lord, I'd rather be

dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.

The Lord replied, is it right for you to be

angry about this? Then Jonah went out to the east

side of the city and made a shelter and sit

under as he waited to see what would happen to

the city and the Lord God arranged for a lify

plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad

leaves over Jonah's head, shading him from the sun. This

is his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant,

But God also arranged for a worm. The next morning,

had darned the worm ate true the stem of the

plant so that it withered away, and as the sun

grew hard, Got arranged for u scotching his wind to

blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head

until he grew fain and wished to die. Death is

certainly better than living like this, he exclaimed. Then God

said to Jonah, is it right for you to be

angry because the plant died? Yes, Jonah retorted, even angry

enough to die. Then the Lord said, you feel sorry

about the plant though you did nothing to put it there.

It came quickly and died quickly. But Niniveh had more

than one hundred and twenty thousand people living in spiritual darkness,

not to mention all the animals. Shouldn't I feel sorry

for such a great city. God bless the reading of

his word. Congratulations, you've read one book in the Bible

this year. Hallelujah. All right. I pray it won't be

the only book you read this year, but at least

you know today you finished one book out of sixty

six books in the Bible. Okay. I pray that we

will always read the word of God. But hey, I

wanted to do this because I want to encourage us. See,

it's not that hard, isn't it. It's not that hard,

all right. Some books are longer, some books have feel

very dry, especially talking like genealogies. When we talk about

you know, chronicles talking about kids and all that. Sometimes

talking about Leviticus or how to wear the rope, how

to wear certain things. You're like, how does this relate

to me? I know, I know sometimes it gets boring,

but hey, it's not that hard and the word of

God brings life. Okay, so why do we read the

Book of Jonah? Before that? I titled this message as

wally God. I know Michelle appreciates his joke. I learned

this from Michelle. Actually, yeah, welly willy God. Now, the

Bible did not say that the fish was a whale,

but he's always depicted as a whale, right, and then

Jonah is always depicted to be in the whales belly,

but we don't know. The Bible just says a big fish.

We don't know what that fish is, and we don't

know if it's extinct already or it's still here. But yeah,

for just illustration purpose, we will use a whale today. Okay,

welly God, And that really is how I see Jonah

respond Try the whole four chapters. I see Jonah respond

that way. Welly God. You know when I grew up

reading this story. You know, Sunday School X kids, we

love this story right to teach children about obedions. So

when I grew up reading this story, I always thought

this Junah is such a coward. Maybe he's scared of

the people in Ninivah. They are wicked people. The Bible

says he run away because he's scared. But in recent years,

when I read this, I realize he's actually not a coward.

He was actually an angry prophet. The reason why he

didn't want to go to Nineveh was because he was

angry at the people they don't deserve God's salvation. And

also I wanted to say, when I read through this,

especially in the analytic translation, I felt that Johnah is

such a dramatic person. He has a flat for dramatism. Seriously,

one moment God said go and do this, he happily go,

I'm gonna buy a ticket to bought a ship to

go elsewhere. And then after disobeying God, a storm came,

which he definitely knew it was from the Lord. A

storm came. He can happily sleep in the ship very calmly. God,

you do what you do, and after the people like

screaming for help, he can then go and tell the

people you throw me offline. My fault, throw me offer,

and he was turned over and then the big fish

swallow a swallowed him up. And then he goes, God,

help me, Lord, you delivered me, you can't help me.

And then the fish sped him out. And then this

time God say you want to go on paraphrase this

is one Malaysian version. And then and then they the

Bible did not recall how what he said, but we

knew that Jonah obeyed and went. When he went and

he declared, I think that it was his favorite part.

Oh you you are going to die in forty days.

I think that's his favorite parlor because he's angry at them. Right.

He didn't even say repent. He just said you're gonna die,

not even saying repent. Right. So after that the people repented,

one hundred and twenty thousand of them in the king.

The king actually came down from his throw and took

off his royal robes. That shows that he is humbling

himself before God and recognized that he is not God.

The God of Israel is God. The God of Jonah

is the one true living God. And that was what

he did, and they repented. And what did the Bible say?

The Bible say the Lord changed his mind and forgave

them and preserved them. They're dramatic.

Jonah stopped to somewhere nearby, overlooking a city, built a shelter,

or angry, and they built shelter, built a shelter, sat there.

And watched the city angry. Angry at the Lord complained,

The Bible said, complain, Lord, I knew you were gonna

do this. That's why I want to disobey you. I

knew you were compassionate, that you won't really bring too

That's why I'm angry at you. God dramatic. And then

after that, God was so kind to grow a big

leaf to cover Jonah an angry woman. And then Jonah felt, oh,

it's okay. He was comforted by the big leaf. He

was okay. Then God sent a woman eat up the leaf.

Then it was hot. You know how dramatic Jonah is.

It's so hard I'm gonna die. How many of you

have said that before? I have sometimes when I go

to Malaca, Jason laughed the loudness. It's true, but Malaca

is a good place, is so very hot sometimes. Yeah,

I'm from Pang, so so hard I'm gonna die. I

wish I would die. That was that was what Jonah

said to the Lord. You know, I even say this, right,

kill me, Lord because what I predicted didn't happen. When

I predicted that, you know, the city will be destroyed

did not happen. Kill me, Lord, because my prediction was wrong.

So dramatic, and you know, the whole chapter four ended

with a cliffhanger. Do you realize that I was a

bit like God, why are you end like that? Andfanger

because God just said, should I feel sorry for such

a great city? It felt like the conversation was cut short.

We don't know what happened after, right, But man, this

this guy, Jonah is such a dramatic person. He had

a flaf for just jumping from one emotion to the other.

And man, I think he also has quite a good relationship.

We've got to doctor God like that, right, kill me now,

Lord and complain, complain, complain, right, And this is really Jonah,

just give you. That's how I imagine Jonah to be

when I read this this book. You know, not the

cowardest Jonah, but Jonah who is just dramatic, emotional, very

angry person, someone who is like doom and gloom towards

people who seen against God. Right, and this was Jonah.

But I want to bring our intention to two points

today talking about Jonah something that we can learn from him.

The first point is this we ought to guard our

hearts against stubbornness. Jonah was really stubborn. How stubborn is he?

So stubborn? They can fall asleep in the very storm

that God brought to him most of us, many of

us are when the storm hits, we'll go okay, God

is a render. Sorry sorry. Jonah was so stubborn, so

adamant to go with how he felt. Did you sleep well, God,

you do what you wanta for all? I can break

the sh into pieces for I care, I can die

dramatic Yonah right, He was so stubborn in how he

felt he wanted to go like, no, what I felt,

I am sure of it. They don't deserve to be saved,

these people. I'm not going to care what you say. God,

so much soul, he can sleep soundly in his disobedience

to God. How scary is that this is a prophet

we're talking about, And this is an encouragement to all

of us to not be like Jonah when it comes

to this area. I pray it will never come to

a place where our heart is so hardened that this

obedience is just like that and we can sleep soundly.

Oh they're so scary, guys. Do you know in the

Old Testament, this obedience to God's voice, suppressing God's voice,

ignoring God's voice every time results in really bad concept

consis jo nas one possibly is a very light consequence

where the palm came and all that, there was a lot,

a lot of destruction that happens when someone decides to disobey.

Look at the Israelites, you will know God always sends

something to remind them, Hey, you gotta obey me. Such

heavy consequences. But yet today it seems to be so

easy to disobey God. It seems like it's okay if

I in all God's voice, it's okay. I want to

remind us the God that brought destruction upon people who disobeyed,

it's the same God yourself today, but in his own

reasons that we may not know of. And thankfully, because

of Christ we are readeemed. But I want to remind

us don't take it for granted. You know, there are

campus students that I'm discipling who kept asking me pass justly? Even?

How do I hear God's voice? I really want to

hear God's voice. I really want to experience a bad

prison or spirit. I really want to. And some of

them pray for a long time before they were actually

able to do it. But yet for some of us

here we can actually hear God's voice daily, but we

choose to ignore the sweet voice of the Lord. Joe

now is like that, and I pray that we won't

be like that. I know it sounds very doom and gloom,

but don't worry. Later we'll end with hope. So the

question I have for us when we talk about stubbornness

is this, how many times, and don't voice out your answer,

but how many times, just reflect, have we disregarded God's

voice in our lives? When God ask us to do something,

we go like God, no need la. So troublesome, God,

you will understand, I got a lot of things to do.

Sometimes God ask us, hey, it's not your fault, but

go and reconcile with this person. Say sorry, Go this

person is the one that did wrong, Say sorry, ignore

this person. Or sometimes we may even say this this

person doesn't deserve to be forgiven familiar that was what

Jonah did. This person is evil, and maybe certain political

figures that we see on social media, especially now. I'm

not gonna name names. If you're not careful, we may

actually be judging and condemning friends. It is not our place.

God still loves them. I have to guide my own

heart and be very careful of what I curse, because

who are we to decide who can be saved who cannot.

Who are we to decide who can be forgiven who cannot?

Because God clearly has shown us that Jesus died for

all all sins, multitudes of sins since that to us

we see as unforgivable. But let's be very careful not

to become God ourselves and decide for God what he

should do, because that was what Jonah did. Let's always

have a posture and heart of openness to what the

Lord says. Let's listen. That's here, And for many of

us who have the privilege of being able to hear

God's voice, don't drown it out. It's a privilege. It's

a privilege to be able to hear God's voice. Amen.

And as a campus pastor, I also have to address

the campus students here. Hey, that classmate that everybody hates,

Please include that person into your assignment groups. Who are

you to say this person doesn't deserve to be God,

say love your neighbor, right. I know when I was

preparing this, this just popped up, so I'm just gonna

share it as it is now. Point of iss got

our heart against stubbornness. And the second point is this

got our hearts against self righteousness. Jo Noaw was a

prophet and unfortunately he fell into this trap of self righteousness.

But Joa was that bold to tell God that he

is wrong. God. They don't deserve it. But God says no,

and you can see it, God saying two times, is

it right for you to be angry? I have forgiven

them Jonah four two says this. So he complained to

the Lord about it. Did then't I say before I

left home that you would do this? Lord? This is

why I ran away to Tashish. I knew that you

are a merciful and compassion of God, slow to get angry,

and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn

back from destroying people. Jnah. For this moment thought that

he knew better. No, this person, this city deserves to

be destroyed. Yet God responded, is it right for you

to be angry? Almost like saying who are you? Jonah?

Who are you? If I decide that I love them

and I'm going to forgive them, who are you to

say otherwise? You see, the Book of Jonah speaks of

God's love, compassion, and mercy. If you read about it,

you realize the whole part is just god one thing

to save. Even though God gave Jonah a message to say,

go and say that they'll be destroyed, do you realize

Jonah actually brought God's character out to say, God, I

knew that you are a love You're full of love,

you have unfailing love and your compassionate God, and you

don't want to destroy people. That is actually God's intention

from the first place and to the end, From beginning

to end, you actually see it in action, God extending

his love and mercy and compassion. The book is a reminder.

This book is a reminder of really God's love, that

his love covers all multitudes of sins as long as

you are willing to turn away from our sinful ways.

You know, interestingly, was also mentioned in the New Testament

in Luke chapter eleven, verse thirty. This is what is

mentioned in scripture, what happened to him to Jonah. What

happened to Jonah was assigned to the people of Nineveh

that God had sent him. What happens to the son

of Man will be assigned to these people that he

was sent by God. So whatever happened in Jonah was

also a four shadowing of Christ's sacrifice so that people

may turn back to God. So coming back to the

question I had this now, how many times and God

asked us to forgive those who have done wrong, we

decide for God that they don't deserve to be Some

of us harbored that kind of unforgiveness towards our family.

I want to tell you this, God loves them. It

hurts to think that way. They don't deserve it Lord,

after what they have done, after how my dad treated

my mom, after how my parents treated me. But I

want to tell you this, God loves them. God wants

to redeem them. And if God were to forgive, we

ought to forgive. As difficult as it is, how many

times have we decided on behalf of God that certain

people don't deserve our kindness. But you see, God has

given us two great commandments. One to love our God.

We saying that just now, Lord our God, with all

our minds, soul, mind and strength. And second, as important

is to love our neighbors as ourselves. That means we

just ought to love and give kindness everyone around us,

even if we feel they don't deserve it. And with this,

I am coming to my conclusion so fast, yes, coming

to the conclusion that I say, just now, that this

story ends with hope. Thank God, He's gracious and merciful.

They gave Jonah another chance. And the second time he obeyed,

and you know what, was the fruit of his obedience,

even though he did it unwillingly. A whole city was saved,

not only saved from physical destruction. One hundred and twenty

thousand came to the Lord, a whole city faster and pray.

Think about it, it's crazy. There was the fruit of

his obedience, even though he was unwilling. Many times God

made challenges to do things, speak to us to do things,

and we may be unwilling, we may feel very small.

Or sometimes there's a famous one. Lord, you may go

talk to that person. God I'm an introvert, a very

shy but all you have to do is to just

do it, even though it may not be perfect, even

though you may start here and there, even though your

presentation is not polished. But your role is just obey,

be faithful, be faithful in what you're called to do.

Fruitfulness will come from the lot. We don't have to

worry about the results. Results is not up to us.

Our role faithfulness. There's also a saying that I like,

you know, it's similar today. I've seen it different ones

shared about it. God has not called us to be successful,

you know. God has called us to be faithful. So

that really reframes the way we see success in God's economy.

I just want to end with how much time do

I have? That didn't mean how many minutes I can share?

Fifteen minutes, okay, can share? Maybe two. I want to

share a testimony of something happened last year. Somewhere in March,

we had Salt the leaders We had decentralized Salt is

our leadership training, and one of the things that was

being taught was that was being taught to us, was that, hey,

how can you reach out to someone in the following week,

who can you reach out to take action? So when

I was praying, God impressed upon my heart my mom's

second sister, second older sister my mom's side. Most of

the family, especially in terms of her siblings, are actually

staunch Buddhists. Okay, this second sister is the most staunch

of them all. It's the type where she even told

my parents Michael Wacom, Yeah, saw, that's how can for

don't tell talk to me about Jesus. Don't talk to

me about Jesus. Very hard. And then God said, I

want you to go and share the gospel with them.

My God, you're crazy. I don't even usually visit them,

and you want me to visit them and to share

the gospel. How would that look like? God? And worse still,

I have to share hockin. I've ever done that before

because the whole family they speak howkin, they're not really

fluent in other languages. But God put that into my

heart and idly in that salt, I knew that I

had to obey, and I even as a change my

coordinator helped myself accountable to them. I told the leaders

God asked me to do this. I don't know how

I'm going to do it, but pray with me. I'm

keeping myself accountable. You keep me in check, and you

make sure I do it. Inside trembling, really really trembling.

That will mean I have to make a trip to

Pinang to make it happen. So happened. I had a

speaking engagement in Pinang the following maybe two weeks later,

actually two three weeks later, and then so I happened afternoon.

I have no slots. I was planning to be in

that chemptru Outlaine from beginning to end. But God said,

I want you to just excuse yourself that afternoon and

go visit your aunt's family. Okay, Lord, that was why

I did I excuse myself. When I was driving, I

was praying in terms I have never prayed before, praying

for the howking town was help me, Lord, help me?

Lord rich there and in my heart I was a

bit like God, of all the different siblings, why this one?

Because these are hardess. There are other siblings that may

be more open because either their children have come to

know the Lord or they have had all exposure to church.

But this family, oh my tough, really really tough ground.

I'm like God, Okay, la go so one of because

they're very happiness with me. It's my first time visiting

them on my owner, first time. I've never done that

my whole life. So they were and and and I

just want to clarify, they are very loving towards me,

La Okay, they love me. It's not that they are

very cold to me. No, no, no, they really care

about me. They care about family or so myself of

the family also. And then they welcome me talk talk talk,

and they asked me how am I doing? Oh? Then

the first open door came actually was a job tom

me come talking. I work in the church. Oh cow,

it's Okami, So working in church what means? So I

got to share. I got to share the different ministries

I involved in. And then they, I think they started

talking about salary and stuff. Another open door. I got

to share that. Oh. Actually, God always provides. You know, hey,

have I told you so? In the family, they had

this daughter that is physically disabled, so she can't really

walk much and she's also going going uh. He had

some mental challenges. Basically, she had to go to electro therapy.

It's bad, it's bad, so depression. She also tried to

take her own life before, so it's a mess. Okay.

So they have that daughter, my cousin, so I knew

that I wanted to share that of my healing as

well in different occasions. So I share. I shared how

different occasions God granted me miraculous healing. They knew. Of course,

my mom, who is the sister who previously I some

of you may know this story. She went through cancer,

severe depression, severe paranoia. Doctors here know how to help her,

psychologists know how to further help her. God delivered her,

and my un actually saw it happen right here, from cancer, heal,

from depression until today clean. Right, So I got to

share about that. I say, a te second aunt, te,

you know right what happened to mom? He saw it right,

and I shared, I shared, I shared, and then in

that one brief moment, so my cousin there are two children,

so one the elder sister, the younger brother. The elder

sister is the one that's physically disabled. So she's usually

like lost in her own world and her own boss.

But in that moment when I share about healing, she

turned and looked at me, lay in the eye, and

she said this, Kaiqua, that means, what I'm going through,

how do I solve this? That moment, she was completely

sober and alert and atentative, And in that moment I

just looked at her. I said, every time I prayed

to God, he answers, and that's all I said. There

was no chance to go deeper after that, but I

just did that. I shed. Thankfully, they weren't hostile. My

parents were really shocked that they didn't kick me out

of the house because I talked about Jesus like without filter.

She had testimonies upon testaments, and they were just oh, oh, smiling, Oh,

they can't even say stuff. Well, really, this one is supernatural.

What happened? They acknowledged. Now, that's not the main point

of the story. Two months later, I received the news

that my cousin sister passed on. She had supposed to

be a simple surgery complication sudden and that was when

I Immediately, when I received the news, I looked to

God as a God, thank you for sending me, and

thank you for helping me have courage to obey because

she at least heard the gospel once. And I really

believe if God sent me there two months ago, God

must have had a plan. God must have known what

would happen two months later. I don't know if she

ever acknowledged God, but I knew that God remembered her

the fact that I was sent to share the gospel.

I hope in my heart of hearts that she would

have actually in her last moments looked to Jesus. But

I wouldn't know. Only God knows, right, But I knew

God had a plan and purpose unrailing at first. But

I wouldn't have known that my cousin would go that soon.

But what has happened was a seat of the Gospel

was soon. One last story. Just how I talk about

including difficult classmates in our group, right? I had that

in my degree and also in my diploma. I share

a short run, very quick one. I had one classmate.

There are seven of us in our degree. In my class,

seven of us, very small class One student has special needs. Okay,

basically he cannot sit still in class. Just contexts. I

did film production, gay video production was my degree. This

student had special needs and he's also a competitive muit

THI fighter. Okay, why did I share that? Imagine this

He would stand up in the middle of class and

shadow box Okay, you just just have that in minor

shadow box means sponging the air. He would really just

do that out of nowhere. Now I mentioned film production.

Imagine I was shooting a very emotional scene. I'm getting

the actors ready. The actors are like, oh, I'm in character,

tears are coming out ready, and then comes this guy

in front of the actors. You can imagine how the

other class meets like him so much. And the funny

thing is there's only seven of us, so we are

always one group or two groups. So if you're not

in the same guy, seem this semester or this subject,

you're about to be in the same group I see

the next semester or in the next subject. Everybody ignores him.

I was scared. I was a scholarship holder. I cannot

afford any wildcats. He was a wild card. I cannot

afford any wildcards in my in my assignments. But God

convicted my heart and said, Stephen, Remember I said I

preach about don't turn know if you like, close your shop.

God said that to me, how come you not Christian

in classmen? And then I asked you to love your neighbors. God,

my scholarship, my assignments. No, I asked you to love.

That was why I did. I included him, you know,

most of my assignments. If he doesn't have a group.

Was it easy? Oh no, it was so hard. But

I'm going to cut the long story shot again. It's

three years so there's a lot of stories there. But

basically what has happened was he actually don't listen to anybody.

But what happened there was one time he posted a

very nasty post, very insensitive on Facebook. I don't even

know how many of you use Facebook nowadays, but he

posts a very nasty thing on Facebook talking about, you know,

how people who are who have depression are weak and all.

That's very insensitive. So I actually message and I say, Bro,

what you wrote is not right. It's harmful. And then

he goes like freedom of speech, it's my social media.

You don't like it, don't like it. I can't say

whatever I want. But I know him. I say, Bro,

it's not right. There are consequences to this, and he

said this, I don't agree with you, but because it

is from you, I'll take it down. Something small, But

it showed that me caring for him has resulted in

something a change, and a lecturer actually said this. He said,

I can see that you're like the father in the group,

and that lecturer is from a majority your faith. She

knows full well I'm a Christian, and I believe that

seats have been sown. Even though I was so unwilling,

so unwilling, and really the miracle was thank God, I

still graduated well, graduated really well in spite of and

I even had my customers know what I was doing.

I thought it was crazy, and I had groupmates that

go like, why are you edding you into our group.

I'm like, you're the one you leave, That's why I

do that. They stuck true and they actually saw everything happened.

I had a really good friend who was leading another

group that time and said, bro, I I respect you.

I wouldn't have I would never include him in my group,

but you included him, and I know why you did it.

The gospel will shared true actions. And I end with this,

I hope you guys are encouraged. I'm sharing this not

because I'm very great, not on the contrary. Most of

the time I'm unwilling. But even with your unwilling obedience,

God can work through that. We just got to be

obedient at the end of the day. You see, the

more we regard the voice of God, the more we

go like really God, the harder and insensitive our hearts

will become. We will create layers and layers of walls

around our hearts. The more we disobey God. But on

the flip side, and this is where I want to

encourage us. The more we obey God, the more amazing

things He can do. Firstly in you, and they're true. You,

what has God been prompting you to do? You know it?

When I was preparing this message, that was something that

God has revealed to me. The people here, you guys

know what God has been prompting you. You're just sweeping

in under the cupboard or ignoring. I want to encourage you.

Obey whatever you can, even though it's not perfect. Do

it anyways. God is not seeking perfection. God is seeking obedience.

Perfection is only the Lord. And there's my encouragement to

all of us. Has learned from Jonah. In spite of

his unwillingness, his complaints, Thank God, he obeyed and because

he obeyed, blessings flow salvation came and wow, one hundred

and twenty thousand people safe. I really believe God wants

to do that true you as well, even if small things.

Sometimes God would have prompt you to bring someone up

for male. I have God, so my fun I bring

this person up for male. Then the person next time.

I also want to bludge, and he's an endless cycle

of blunging here and there. I hear Christmas give. I

share that story before. Right. If I give, then the

someone will be forced to give me back. Then we

just don't give us. But hey, why is God telling

you to do? Do it and you will see God

move through your life. Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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this week is going to be a good week.

I hit for you. God bless