Prodigal Prophet, Persistent God

Praise the Lord, everybody.

As you see, Hunger Conference is coming up on the 9th, 10th, and 11th of October.

We're asking you to clear your schedule and be here for a great move of God.

How y'all doing on the 21 days of prayer and fasting?

Doing good?

Some of y'all didn't look as thin as I thought you were gonna look this week.

So I'm wondering if y'all are actually, no, I'm just playing.

But pray, praise the Lord.

Will you stand on your feet with me so we can get ready for the word?

As you're standing, let me just make one announcement, and it really is around the number one.

How many of you know one is a very important number to God?

You know that?

One.

Why is one an important number to God?

Well, first let me remind you of a date.

November the first.

Everybody say it loud with me.

Come on, say it like you really mean it.

November?

On November the 1st is our annual fall festival.

It's gonna happen right after church on Sunday, and we're gonna have everything that we normally have for families to enjoy themselves, rides and ferris wheels, and food and game and all of that kind of stuff.

And you know, we do that just as an outreach to the community.

But that's not why I'm talking to you about that day.

Because the number one in God's kingdom is the most important number.

The scripture says in Luke chapter 15, verse number 10, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that comes to repentance.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

How many of you know somebody, one person that's far from God, one person that could use an encounter with Jesus Christ, one person who has drifted in their relationship with God.

That one person is your assignment from now until November the first.

We're asking that everybody praise and pursues one person to invite them out to the house of God that day, not so they could just enjoy fall fest, but so that they can have an encounter with Jesus Christ that can change their entire life.

One, one person.

That's the assignment.

Be prayerful now and let's see what God would do.

I've already invited 27.

Okay?

Now, you don't have to invite 27, but I'm telling you, our job as believers is to be ambassadors for the kingdom of God.

I believe with all my heart that when I invite somebody to come out to the house of God, I'm not just inviting them to come out so that a church could be full.

I'm inviting them to come into the greatest experience that they can have in their entire life.

And I believe that from the core of my being.

I believe that the best way to live life is with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

And so I'm passionate about it.

And I want you to catch the heart of that.

So November 1st, the mission is one.

Everybody bring one.

That means not one per family.

That means if you're married, your husband brings one, your wife brings one.

Your teenager brings one, your young person brings one.

Everybody can be an evangelist for the kingdom.

Can you say amen?

Do you have your Bible?

Would you take it on out?

I want to welcome everybody that's tuning in at all of our locations, online, television, wherever you're tuning in from.

We know God is going to speak to you.

Hold it up nice and high.

Say it out loud with me.

This is my Bible.

It is my primary source of spiritual nourishment.

I will read it every day and become all that God wants me to be.

My mind will be renewed, my life will be transformed.

I will become fully surrendered to Christ.

Therefore, I will hide his word in my heart so I can be all God has destined me to be.

Amen.

Y'all sound great.

Would you remain standing in honor of the Word of God?

We are going to the book of Jonah, the book of Jonah, chapter number four.

One other thing.

Y'all know about movie night this coming Friday to support our school.

Check this out.

We have had 80 tickets paid for in advance for free.

So if you want to go and you don't want to pay, okay, which is probably everybody, right?

You can go out the doors, right in where the connections area is in between the two TVs and sign up.

First 80 people, you get to go for free.

How's that?

Somebody just paid for it.

Isn't that amazing?

But come on out and support our school.

Great, great cause.

We have a great Christian school where we get to teach kids the word of God and educate them at the same time.

Jonah chapter number four, verse number five.

So Jonah went out of the city, and he sat on the east side of the city, and there he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade till he might see what would become of the city.

And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery.

So Jonah was very grateful for the plant.

But as morning dawned the next day, God prepared a worm, and it so damaged a plant that it withered.

And it happened when the sun arose that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat on Jonah's head, so that he grew faint.

Then he wished death for himself and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

Then God said to Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?

And he said, It is right for me to be angry, even to death.

But the Lord said, You have had no you have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in the night.

And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and much livestock.

And that's how the story of Jonah ends.

Now I wouldn't have ended the story that way.

I like happily ever afters.

I like stories that don't just leave on cliffhangers.

I like stories where, and Jonah finally got it, and Jonah gave his life, surrendered completely to God, and he went out and he became this great prophet of Almighty God.

But that's not how the story ends.

The story ends with Jonah throwing a pouting party underneath a plant that was eaten by a worm, and God asking him the question how could you have pity on a plant when I shouldn't have pity on people?

How many of you know there are people out there today that have more regard for quote unquote plants, pet things in their life than they do for people?

And I want you to know the most important thing to God in all the world is people.

So today I want to preach for you to you from the subject prodigal prophet, persistent God.

Let's pray.

Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, would you speak to every heart like only you can?

We give you all the praise, and everybody said, You may be seated.

A few weeks ago, we looked at the story of the prodigal son, and we learned that that story is not so much about the behavior of the son as it is about the love of our father.

That he is somebody who loves us no matter what, that he'll keep on loving us, that he'll keep on pursuing us.

And matter of fact, the story of Jonah is very simple similar.

Jonah is the prodigal prophet, not the prodigal son, but he's the prophet who ran from God.

And in the story, we find out it's more about God's persistence, not to pay Jonah back for his disobedience, but to bring Jonah back so that Jonah could be everything God has designed him to be.

And I don't know about you, but I am glad that one of the characteristics of God is that he is persistent, that God will pursue us and pursue us and pursue us and pursue us and never give up on us.

There's an old uh poem, it's called The Hound of Heaven.

It's about the Holy Spirit, how he'll never give up on you, how he'll chase you down, how he'll sniff you out.

Why?

Because God is that concerned about each and every one of us.

And so this story is really about our persistent Heavenly Father.

Now, I know when it comes to the book of Jonah, there are some of you who have a hard time swallowing this well of a tail.

Okay, let me go over here.

Some of you don't get my corny jokes.

Some of you are like, Pastor, are you serious?

Do you really believe that this big fish swallowed Jonah and that Jonah lived in the belly of a fish for three days and three nights and lived to tell about it?

I mean, come on, Pastor.

Now I understand why you feel that way.

And some of you, you feel that way though, because you suffer from small God syndrome.

Say, what is small God's syndrome?

You believe that there are certain things that God can't do.

You believe that there are certain things that are impossible for God to do.

And so you don't just have a problem with the big fish, you have a problem with the virgin birth, you have a problem with Jesus walking on water, you have a problem with Jesus turning loaves and fishes into a feast for 5,000, and you certainly have a problem with the resurrection because you suffer from small God syndrome.

But if you don't suffer from small God syndrome and you believe in a God who can walk on water, you believe in a God who can do the impossible, you believe in a God that has answers when humanity runs low on their answers or runs out of answers, then you have no problem with any of this.

And I don't know about you, but but I can't believe in a God who can't do those things.

Like if I can't if I believe in a God who can't do those things, then I don't really believe in God, I believe in another human being.

Then I then then then I'm limited in where I could go when I run out of humanity.

Because how many of you know you will come to the end of humanity at some point in your life?

You will come up against things in your life that human beings cannot solve, that you cannot deal with.

Where do you go when there are no solutions?

I'll tell you where I go, I go to the rock that is higher than I.

I go to the one who nothing is too hard for.

And so the fish really isn't a problem, but let's not get hung up on the fish, because the fish isn't really the point of the story.

It's Jonah.

Jonah is our story.

He's every single one of us.

Every single person in this room, every single person watching, wherever they're watching from, you've been Jonah.

You have run from God.

We all have.

And some people they run from God generally, right?

And so there's an event, there's a situation, there's a pain, there's a there's a tragedy, and you draw a line in the sand.

You say, That's it, that's it, I have nothing to do with God anymore.

But in a room like this where you're actually in church or you're watching church online, you you haven't run from God generally, but you've run from God specifically.

In other words, you you you said, God, I I love you, I believe in you, but but but you you you can't have that part of my life.

God, God, you've given God the Heisman.

It's it's football time, right?

You know, the Heisman, the the stiff arm, you know?

Some of you have given God the stiff arm in certain areas of your life.

You said to God, God, no, you can't you can't have in my marriage.

God, you you can't have in into that habit of my life.

God, you can't have into my finances.

God, God, don't tell me how I'm supposed to spend my Sundays.

Sundays are my only day that I get, and you know, I could if I I rest in, why is that such a bad thing?

Do I really have to go to church and is church really necessary?

And all this kind of stuff, right?

And some of you, you've given God the Heisman specifically in areas of your life.

And then there are other people who they they actually schedule their surrender.

They're like, you know what, God, um, I'm gonna wait till I have a baby, and then we're gonna get serious with church.

Sorry, I didn't mean to talk about you all over there like that.

Others of you, do you like it, God, when I get out of college?

When I after after I have an opportunity to sow my wild oats, I gotta get it all out of my system, God, and then I'll surrender to you.

And some people schedule their surrender, and that's why this kind of message, this kind of series, white flag, where we're learning how to surrender, not part of us, but all of us, is so important because God is not looking for partial white f uh flags.

God is not looking for flags that are half-massed.

God is looking for you to wave the white flag of surrender in every area of your life and of my life.

And so Jonah is our story.

And as we come to Jonah and we look at both he, the prodigal prophet, and God, our persistent heavenly father, we learned some things about surrender.

The first thing we learn about surrender is this that running from God is refusing to raise our white flag.

Jonah chapter one, verse number one says, Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.

But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshus from the presence of the Lord.

He went down the Joppa and found the ship going to Tarshus, so he paid the fare, went down into it to go with them to Tarshus from the presence of the Lord.

Now, if you don't understand where Tarshus is geographically, you don't understand what with what Jonah did.

Jonah didn't just go somewhere else.

Jonah went in the exact opposite direction as Nineveh.

In other words, he didn't just veer off a little bit.

He was like, God, yeah, I'm not doing that.

And he turned and he went this way.

I don't know about you, maybe maybe you're better than me, maybe you're more holy than me, maybe you weren't as bad as me.

But there have been times in my life where I didn't just veer off, I was just like, Yeah, I'm not doing that.

Exact opposite direction.

He's like, God, I love you, God, I God, I I believe in you, but I'm not doing that.

And I think what God is saying is, what is your that?

Because everybody's got a that.

The apology God has asked you to give, that might be your that.

The forgiveness God is asking you to extend, that might be your that.

The tithe God is asking you to put him first in, that might be your that.

The unproductive habit that God has told you to surrender to him, that might be your that.

The relationship that God said is no good for you, that might be your that.

The person that is far from God, that God has been putting on your heart to share the gospel with and invite out to the house of God, that might be your that.

Your church commitment, you know the average church person goes to church one once at every four times a month.

Imagine if God treated us the way we treated him.

Imagine if he was like, eh, one out of four.

I'll just answer your prayers one out of four times.

I'll just let you into my throne room one out of four times, right?

What is your that?

It may not be an out and out sin, but it's the area of your life where you've refused to pull the white flag out of your back pocket.

Whatever it is is, God is after our that's, and we all have reasons for our that, are that's right?

And the reasons really sound good to us.

Have you ever told yourself a story that you convinced yourself that it was okay when you knew God said it wasn't?

Jonah had his reasons.

I mean, this was Nineveh.

If you read about ancient Nineveh, this was one of the most violent cultures of Jonah's day.

This was a culture that actually filleted their people that they captured in war or that they didn't like and hung their skins out for everybody to see, and then had their families, check this out, carry the heads of their loved ones on poles all throughout the city.

That was the Ninevites.

And they hated Jewish people, and Jewish people didn't like then.

And so God comes to Jonah, a Jew, and he says, I want you to go to Nineveh, 500 miles, by the way, through a hot desert, right?

Could be gone for a little while, and I want you to stand in the middle of the city of people that do these kinds of things and hate Jews and call for them to repent.

Maybe like somebody going to the Germany during the Nazi regime, Jewish person standing in the middle of going, you all need to repent.

And Jonah's going, I'm not doing that.

There's no way I'm doing that.

And it's it's a pretty good reason, isn't it?

A pretty good reason.

And besides that, Jonah didn't want to be that guy.

You know what I mean by that guy?

He didn't want to be the guy that had to explain to all of his Jewish friends what he was doing.

Hey, Jonah, Jonah, Jonah, Jonah.

Where you been for like the last month?

Nineveh.

Jonah, where you been?

Jonah, take the marbles out of your mouth.

Where you been?

Nineveh, okay, Nineveh, Nineveh.

Well, what were you doing now?

Preaching.

What were you doing there, Jonah?

Preaching.

Preaching what?

Telling them to repent so that God wouldn't turn the lights out.

So that God wouldn't send.

You were doing what?

You were actually warning those people.

I mean, they deserve judgment.

Judgment needs to come on them.

Jonah, you did that?

Yeah, what happened?

They repented.

They did what?

They repented.

What what?

They repented, and what did God do?

He let them off scot-free.

You mean because of what you did, Jonah?

The people who did do all those kind of things, they got off scot-free.

That's it, Jonah.

You are the subject of our Facebook and Instagram posts for the next year.

We are gonna post about you and post about you and post about Jonah didn't want to be that guy.

Jonah's got his reasons.

And we got our reasons.

We come before God and we're like, God, I don't know about that.

God, that's hard.

That's too difficult.

God, I don't feel like it.

That's too high of a price.

God, I'm afraid to do that.

I like doing that, God.

We all have our reasons, and the worst kind of reasoning is the theological reasons.

This is when you really know that you're that you haven't surrendered to God.

When you try to come up with a twisted theological reason to excuse you from not surrendering an area to God that you know God is asking you to surrender.

And those are the worst kinds of people because they are deceived religiously, and religiously deceived people.

It takes a lot to get them back.

Because the apostle Paul, remember, he was one of them.

He didn't think he was fighting God, he thought he was killing Christians for God.

The Bible says that in the end days, Jesus actually prophesied about this, that they are gonna kill people who believe in Christ, thinking that they are doing service to the Lord.

That's what's gonna happen.

And so they're not gonna see it as wrong, they're gonna see it as right.

Justified behavior.

And watch this scripturally justified, wrong behavior is a deception that you gotta pray to God that never falls upon you.

Jonah is deceived and he's running from God.

And here's the reason why you and I run from God.

Really boils down to one reason.

We doubt God's goodness and God's wisdom.

We think that when God tells us to do something, that He doesn't have our best interest at heart.

We think that God really doesn't have a good plan for us, a plan to prosper us and not to harm us, a plan to give us a hope and a future.

And so we think if we do it our way instead of God's way, life is not gonna be as good as if we did it, if God's way.

And so we refuse to do it because we care more about plants than people.

Or we care more about ourselves than the plan and the assignment of God.

And so we all have these reasons, and we at the at the end of it, it's because we doubt God's goodness and we think we know better than God.

We think, well, God, that doesn't appear if I do it that way, think it's gonna go good for me, but you're telling me to do it anyway, and so I think I know better than you, God.

And it's as old as time, right?

It's the way that the enemy of our soul got Adam and Eve to sin in the garden.

God said, Don't eat of that.

The day that you eat of that, you're gonna die.

Satan comes along and says, That's not why God doesn't want you to eat that.

God doesn't want you to eat that because in the day you eat that, you're gonna become like God, knowing good from evil, and God doesn't want you to be like him.

Meanwhile, they were already created in the image and likeness of God.

And so if he can get us to doubt the goodness and the wisdom of God, we will not raise our white flag.

But the second thing we see from the story is running from God always leads to dangerous places.

Notice the direction of Jonah's life.

It says he goes down there, he pays a fare, and he goes down into the ship.

Later on, we find out that he goes down into the lowest parts of the ship and down into the lowest parts of the sea.

Because running from God, listen, always takes you down.

And it always costs you something because he had to pay a fare.

Jonah boards the SS Disobedience cruise liner.

2,500 miles in the opposite direction, 2,500 miles to disobey God, 500 miles to obey God.

Can I tell you something?

It is always in the end harder to disobey God than it is to obey God.

Doesn't seem like it is in the beginning, but in the end it's so much harder, right?

In the beginning, it seems like, well, that's easy, that's easy, that's easy.

But if you're a Christian and you disobey God, guess what happens?

You can't live with yourself.

Your conscience starts talking to you.

And if your conscience doesn't talk to you, then you're probably not a Christian.

Because if you're a Christian and you can live with known sin in your life and it not bother you, you need to come to the foot of the cross and get washed in the blood of Jesus all over again.

But as a Christian, it's hard to continue.

Remember what God told the apostle Paul?

He said it's hard for you to kick against the pricks.

Has God ever pricked you?

Has God ever bothered you inside of your spirit?

That's actually good, that's not bad.

If you're bothered in here, it means you're a child of God.

If you're not bothered in here, I don't know what's going on.

And so he's doing this.

He's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he goes down, he's in disobedience, he's sinning against God.

It's harder.

And some of you know it's harder because you're creative sinners.

Don't look at your neighbor right now.

I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about you.

Right?

You you sin, and then you gotta do all this stuff to cover it up.

Got to make sure your story is straight.

Got to make the blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

That's hard work.

Who wants to live like that?

And in Bible times, what's really crazy about Jonah boarding this ship that was going to Tarshish, in Bible times, ships would only go to faraway lands every four to six weeks, and only if the wind was right.

And on the exact day that Jonah decides to disobey God, he walks down to the dock, and it just happens to be a ship going to Tarshish.

Can I tell you what will happen when you decide to disobey God?

The devil will line everything up for you.

Line everything and you you'll think, wow man, this is this must be God.

Because you know, God just straightened everything out.

God must be okay with this.

I mean, it's not coincidence that there's just a ship going in the opposite direction.

You don't realize that the captain of that ship is Satan.

And so Jonas just gets on it, and we see we we get all this mixed up because we know that God does line stuff up for us.

But when God lines something up for you, there's also a witness of the Holy Spirit that says, walk through this door.

And there will also be stuff lined up, and the same Holy Spirit will say, Don't walk through that door.

Because then you don't go by whether the door is open or shut.

And then there'll be other times where nothing is lined up, and the Holy Spirit will say, knock down that door, because that's your door.

You see, it's not so much the alignment that matters as much as the assignment that matters.

And we don't go in life by alignment, we go by assignment.

We go by what does God say about the situation?

Whether the circumstances line up or don't line up, it's the word of the Lord that matters because the word of the Lord is given to us because it changes circumstances.

Every promise is given to change something that is out of line with the word of God.

So if you're constantly going, whether something is lined up or not lined up, you get fleeced.

Remember Gideon in the Old Testament?

He put the fleece out.

God, if you wet the fleece, then I know it's you.

If you dry the fleece, then I know it's you.

And we think, well, it's in the Bible, but that was before they had the Holy Spirit.

Guess who you have living on the inside of you?

You have the Holy Spirit, God, living on the inside of you.

He's your witness, he's the one who tells you you don't need the the wind, the the wool to be wet, the wool to be dry, you don't need this to happen, that you need a word from God.

And if you got a word from God, you watch your situation change as you stand on that word from God.

And so what happens is Jonah, you know, he's he's hard-headed, he's he's stubborn, and and so the enemy obliges him, he gets on the boat.

And as we're watching Jonah, we're like, no, Jonah, what are you doing?

Stay on dry land.

Jonah, not the boat.

Sharks in the water, Jonah.

Actually, whales in the water, Jonah, sharks in the water.

You know, there are sharks every time you disobey God.

There are sharks that are out there, and we could see it in everybody else's life, and we're like, no, not that relationship, not that relationship that's bad for you.

No, not that theological understanding, not that path, not that new journey, not those crystals, not the no.

God is not in all of those.

There aren't many paths to get to the same place.

I don't know who confused you and who told you that.

That's not true of life, and any of you can't just take any path you want and wind up at the same place.

You need instructions.

And Jesus gave you the instructions.

Like, no, but in our lives, we can't we can't see it.

But it always leads to dangerous places and always causes us to hurt the people that are around us, doesn't it?

The sailors, they were innocent, they're throwing all their livelihood overboard to try to try to save the ship because that's what happens.

You always hurt the people that are closest to you.

But I want you to notice this this is more about God than it is about Jonah.

Jonah's done some things, and if this was all the story was about, is his disobedience, it would be a tragic story.

Here's a man with tremendous potential that never reaches his potential because he never surrenders to God.

But how many of you know that you are not the only person involved in your story?

Yeah, your choice matters the most, but can I tell you God is involved in every single one of your stories, even when you are making the wrong choices?

Because he is a persistent God.

I want to tell you a story about persistence.

Years ago, we were in Disneyland with the kids.

The kids were young, Joey was six at the time, um, and Nicole is, you know, obviously older than that.

And um, Joey was running on ahead, and we were at this hotel we had stayed at before, and we we we were going to the monorail, and there were two paths one path that went this way and one path that went that way.

And they met only about 20 feet as you kind of walk down.

So they kind of looped around and met.

And Joey ran on ahead, he went down that path, and we thought nothing of it.

We'll just meet him on the other side.

We got to the other side and he wasn't there.

And so we start calling loud.

All of a sudden, panic step sets in, all of a sudden fear stepped sets in.

But do you know what else stepped in?

Persistence.

All of a sudden I started yelling, didn't care what anybody thought.

All of a sudden I started running different places, bumping into people without saying, excuse me.

There was a guy on a golf cart that was working there.

I stopped the golf cart, jumped in the golf cart without even saying, just go down here right now, like this.

And he was like, What are you doing?

I said, lost my son, need to find my son.

We're gonna do whatever it takes to find my son.

Why?

Because I knew that the safest place for my son to be was underneath my care and underneath my protection.

And here's what I'm telling you: God doesn't hunt you down to pay you back, God hunts you down to bring you back because he knows that the safest place for you to be is under his care and under his protection.

And so as we come to the next part of the story, we find out some things about surrendering God, and that is that God will shake up everything to bring us back.

Everything.

Notice Jonah chapter 1, verse 4.

Jonah 1:4

But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.

And I want you to notice who sent the wind?

God, not the devil.

God respects our free will.

He let Jonah buy a ticket and board the boat.

But when we run, God persistently and consistently and supernaturally watch this, begins to manipulate circumstances so that we would choose to come back to him.

I'm gonna make a statement and explain it.

God is the master manipulator.

So you're like, what?

Manipulation is not always wrong.

Let me tell you what manipulation means.

Manipulation could mean it means to twist something in a desired way.

And so it so it winds up in a desired form.

And there's bad manipulation.

Some of you have been on the receiving end of that.

I've been on the receiving end of that.

But then there's good manipulation, like when I cut my finger off in a lawnmower.

Yeah, I did.

Man, his blood was just going.

Wrap that thing up, go to the hospital.

They finger was all mangled and everything.

They had to put plates in, sew it all back together, cast on it.

When the cast came off and anything, then I had to go to physical therapy.

And when I went to physical therapy, you know what the physical therapist did?

They manipulated my finger.

Because my finger wouldn't go on its own where it was supposed to go.

And so they would begin to pull on it and push it and so on and so on.

And I'd pull my hand away and be like, yeah.

There were times I'd be clenching my other fist, be like, I'm gonna hit you if you do that again.

Because it didn't feel pleasant.

But can I tell you at the end of the day, that because they manipulated my hand in the way that it was meant to go, I got back into alignment, and God is the master of that kind of manipulation.

See, there was nothing wrong with the sailors going Tarsus.

They can go in the opposite direction.

But you and I, we're favored children of God.

Just because it's right for them, just because they're going in the wrong direction, doesn't mean it's right for us.

Because God has an assignment for our life, and God will do whatever it takes so that we get back to what God has called us to do.

But Jonah is stubborn.

It's a lot like you and me.

Stubborn is the worst characteristic anybody can have.

You could be ugly, but if you're stubborn, stubborn is worse.

Stubborn will make you ugly, by the way.

Yeah, some really good-looking people, stubborn, they ugly.

Ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly.

Right?

Because stubborn distorts you.

And the Bible tells us don't be stubborn like the horse or the mule.

And so Jonah is stubborn, and instead of raising his white flag when the storm comes out, they come, they try to wake him up.

They're like, Come on, Jonah, come on, pray, come on, where you from?

Pray, pray, pray, pray.

And he's like, Nope.

He's like, throw me overboard.

He'd rather die than obey God.

But here's the thing that I love about God, number four in your outline.

God saves us even from the stuff we started.

Isn't that amazing about God?

Saves us even from the stuff we started.

Jonah chapter 1, verse number 5.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

So they picked up Jonah, they threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

And swallow, although it's an accurate uh description of what happened, it doesn't tell why God prepared the fish.

The fish wasn't prepared to swallow Jonah, the fish was prepared to save Jonah.

The fish was not punishment, the fish was protection.

Watch this, watch this, watch this.

The fish wasn't said to be fatal, the fish was favor even in the midst of disobedience.

Y'all didn't get that.

See, because y'all still think that favor is earned.

Y'all still think favor flows only in your life when you deserve it.

But the definition of favor is undeserved grace.

And I don't know about you, but I am grateful for the undeserved grace that God has shown me when I have been disobedient to him.

And so God sends the fish, and the fish, God waiting for Jonah at the low point so that God could save him and stop what Jonah started.

All throughout the Bible, God stops what people started.

The woman caught in adultery, Jesus stopped it when he said he was without sin, cast the first stone.

Peter denied Jesus, right?

Started the falling and the failing and the losing of the faith.

And Jesus stopped it when he said, Peter, do you love me?

Feed my sheep.

Jonah started it when he decided to go in the exact opposite direction.

But God stopped it when he sent the wind and when he sent the whale.

God will stop the things that you start in your life in order to bring you back, not to pay you back.

And God will use whatever means is necessary.

Here's what I love about God.

And when he listens is when we have no leverage.

See, we have this these funny little religious things that we believe, which have partial truths, but but are more dangerous than they are helpful.

And one of the things that we believe is that God answers our prayer because we have leverage.

And so oftentimes we we feel confident before God if we've been good.

And that is a spiritual principle, by the way.

There will be a confidence when you are living holy, and there will be a conviction and a separation when you are not living holy.

But what we do when we're living right before God is we enter God's throne room and we it's almost as if we have like a resume with us.

And God just wants you to know, this month, I actually did go to church four out of four times.

And God, this month, I actually did give my whole tithe, not just when I had enough left over, God.

And God, this month, I actually didn't curse, and I actually didn't swear, and I actually didn't do anything that was sexually deviant.

And God, because I look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look.

And we think that we have leverage in that moment, and because we think we have leverage in that moment, we kind of walk in there with this expectation that God owes us.

But watch this, watch this.

Jonah chapter 1, verse 15.

Jonah 1:15

So they picked up Jonah and they threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.

And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, chapter two, verse number one.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the fish's belly, and he said, I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and he answered me, out of the belly of Sheal I cried, and you heard my voice.

Imagine Jonah praying like us.

God, if you just give me this one more chance, I'll do what I'm supposed to do tomorrow.

Problem is he's in the belly of a fish.

Maybe that's not going to be tomorrow.

He has no leverage whatsoever.

But yet God answers his prayer anyway.

God answers his prayer anyway.

Can I tell you what your leverage is with God?

Your leverage with God has nothing to do with your behavior.

It has everything to do with your relationship with Jesus.

And you could try to punch in whatever access code you want in order to get God to answer your prayer.

You can punch them all in, but unless you punch in J-E-S-U-S, he's my Lord and King.

J-E-S-U-S, he's my everything.

You have no access to the God of heaven.

It's only by him.

And this Bible tells us that's for through him that we both have access by one spirit to the Father.

And so this finally gets Jonah calls out to the Lord.

God answers him, and here's what he says: He says, Salvation is of the Lord.

So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

God spoke to the fish, and I like to say it this way the fish spit them up on dry land.

Now, I just want you to know God will leave some vomit on you sometimes.

Some of you get a little stink on you still.

But that's not because you're bad.

That's because God's just trying to keep you.

Because God knows once you get all washed up and cleaned up and you got no stink on you no more, you start thinking your stuff don't stink no more, and all of a sudden you forget about God.

You start walking in a complete opposite direction.

So God got at least some stink on some of you.

You remember Jacob?

You remember him?

He wrestled with God all night, and then he came for Esau.

He didn't know how Esau was gonna receive him.

And everybody looking at him going, oh, this boy can't be too bad.

He got a limp.

And Jacob was like, Don't underestimate this limp.

Watch out now.

This limp means that I've been with God.

This limp means I know what God has delivered me from.

This limp tells me that I gotta rely on the Lord every step of the way.

Don't you drift in good seasons.

Stay close to God all of the time.

Because in the middle of your seasons, God is simply looking for a white flag.

And when you raise that white flag, God is waiting to tell your well, spit them up.

Whatever your well is, your addiction, your physical ailment, your relationship, your whatever.

The word God wants to speak is spit them up.

But God can't say spit them up until you surrender.

See, some of you want out, but you still want to be autonomous.

And God doesn't want you out unless you're dependent.

God wants you out, understanding that there's nothing that you can do without his help and his intervention in your life.

And so he spits him out, and then God speaks to him again.

Jonah chapter 3.

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

It's now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh.

I bet he did.

He likes, yeah, yes, uh, going to Nineveh.

And Jonah gets Jonah gets out there, and notice God doesn't change the assignment.

Same God, same assignment, different prophet.

See, God, God, we think that we can strong arm God into changing his word in his mind.

I just want you to know this is a promise you could take the I am God, I change not.

God is not changing because you threw a pity party, God is not changing because you decided to strike him.

God is not changing because you decided to do whatever you were gonna do and throw a pity party and and get as much attention as because some people are attention mongers.

They're not they don't want to change, they want enough attention so they could stay the same.

Something the worst thing that you could do for people is give them attention in their disobedience because it prevents them from changing.

Sometimes you gotta do it.

The father did to the prodigal.

He said, Go.

Go ahead.

I've tried everything I can, but you gotta find out for you.

That's okay.

You're gonna go and you can think you're gonna be distant from me.

But guess what?

I'm gonna be right behind you.

You don't know it, but I'm gonna be there every step of the way.

I'm gonna be hounding you, I'm gonna be persistent, I'm gonna be manipulating circumstances, but I'm gonna cause you to come to the end of yourself so you can finally get right with me.

And so Jonah goes, and the people of Nineveh, watch this, believed God, proclaimed a fast, put on sackcloth for from the greatest to the least.

God saw their works that they turned from their evil way, and God relented from the disaster that he said he would bring upon them.

They repented, God relented.

Watch this, watch this.

Simple, y'all.

Simple, simple, simple, simple, simple.

Don't complicate it.

Repent, God relents.

Repent, God relents.

Repent, God releases.

Repent, God relents.

Repent, God releases.

You you don't understand.

See, we're trying all these other ways.

All those other ways are not how it works.

The way it works is we come to the end of ourselves.

And when they repent, God relents.

What Jonah didn't know is that God had been working on their wicked hearts for years.

Because before Jonah went there, there were two major events that happened in Nineveh.

One was a solar eclipse and one was an invading army that caused Nineveh to say, We, we, we, we, we gotta get right.

We got God was working behind the scenes even though they can't see it.

I want to tell you, even when you think God has forgotten about you, even when you think God is not answering your prayers, even when you can't see him working, he's working, he never stops working, he's working, he never stops working.

And so they repent.

And guess what happens?

The Bible says, verse number one of chapter four, we're getting ready to close.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry, and he prayed to the Lord, said, Ah Lord, was not this what I said was going to happen when I was still in my country.

Therefore, this is Jonah speaking, I fled previously to Tarshish.

God, I was justified in my behavior.

For I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, so the anger and abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing hard.

Do you guess that Jonah is mad not because God was too bad too evil, it's because God was too good.

The only time we get mad at God's goodness is when God shows goodness to people we don't think deserve it.

Every other time we mad because God doesn't give us what we want, but now God gives somebody goodness and we're like, No, you were gonna do that, God.

Wouldn't I forgave him if I knew you were gonna do that, God.

I want to pray for him if I knew you were gonna do that, God.

And Jonah goes from he goes from prodigal prophet to pouting prophet.

And he he he makes his little stand.

I love people who think they're gonna strong arm everybody by making their little stand.

Let me see what you're gonna do now.

He's watching.

So God gives him a plant and he gets shade.

And the Bible said he loved that plant because he gave him shade.

The next day God said, I know you like that plant too much.

I'm gonna give you a worm now.

And the worm eats the plant up, and it's not the plant can't provide no more shade anymore.

And then God said, Now that you ain't got shade, I'm gonna scan a scorching wind that's gonna cause you to feel the heat a little bit.

And Jonah is feeling all this stuff, and this brings me to my last point.

God provides whatever we need to raise our white flag.

Notice the NIV says it like this.

It doesn't say God prepared a great fish.

It said God provided a great fish.

And when you think of provision, what do you think of?

When I tell you God provided, you're thinking checking the mail, baby.

You're thinking cure for the sickness, baby.

You're thinking, told somebody who I've been telling is wrong that they're wrong, and they said they sorry.

God provided.

What do you mean?

He provided a well.

What do you mean?

He provided a worm.

What do you mean?

He provided a scorching.

Wind.

Can I tell you what provision at its core is?

Watch this, watch this.

And I'm going to clarify it.

It's not God giving you what you want, it's God giving you what you need.

Watch this, watch this.

At the risk of taking the scripture out of context, and God shall provide all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.

That's not to say God doesn't want to give us what we want, because God does.

The Bible tells us that over and over again.

But something has to happen in our heart in order for God to give us what we want.

And that's something that has to happen in our heart is we have to come into contact with what we need.

And God will provide what you need in a big way according to his riches and glory.

In other words, that fish was not small.

That was a big fish because Jonah had a big need.

And so here's what God does: God begins to use whatever means is necessary in order to bring Jonah back and get him to raise his white flag.

And so the first thing he does is he gives him a well.

Because how many of you know sometimes God has got to provide some things that swallow us up or swallow up the parts of us that are standing in the way of God.

And then other times, God's got to provide some worms to eat away at the stuff that is standing in the way of us in God.

And other times God's got to provide some winds in order to blow all the garbage out of our life that is standing in the way of us in God.

And other times he gives us plants.

Because he wants his goodness and his kindness to bring us to that place of repentance.

And so now that flag that was kind of coming up when he came out of the well, it's kind of going back down again.

Because listen to me.

Surrender is a lifelong experience.

See, because you and I, let me just talk about me because maybe you're better than me.

You and I, we got more than one thing we got to surrender.

And God is patient, He doesn't work on everything all at once.

God doesn't overwhelm us.

God zeroes in.

He's like, oh, let's deal with this.

And then that white flag goes up, and God's like, okay, we got that now?

Okay, now this.

And so that flag is constantly going up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down.

And God is wanting us to eventually get to the place where we are fully surrendered to him.

And he'll use whatever it takes to get us to that place.

And so we come to this point.

Jonah's got his flag in his back pocket again, and he's sitting underneath the tree.

That's where we started the message.

And God says, Jonah, I got a question for you.

My question is, um, you care a lot about that plant.

You're mad about a plant.

You had pity on a plant.

You don't have pity?

You don't think I should have pity?

And by the way, you didn't even create the plant.

I did.

You don't think I should have pity on 120,000 people?

I know you don't think they deserve forgiveness.

I don't I know you think they've done too much.

But I just want you to know, Jonah, that I care about my people way more than I care about plants.

So, Jonah, what do you think?

And then the story ends.

No conclusion.

No answer from Jonah.

God points the arrow at Jonah or shoots the arrow at Jonah, but he points it at us.

Because basically, what he's saying to us is this He's saying, Are you gonna care more about plants than the things I'm asking you to surrender in your life?

Now, here's what I think.

I think Jonah got it.

See, how do you know that, Pastor?

Well, I don't, but I think.

And here's the reason why I think who wrote the book of Jonah?

Only two choices Jonah or somebody Jonah told.

Because how else did they know about Jonah's prayer in the belly of a fish?

Nobody was there to witness it.

Jonah had to tell Jonah had to spill the beans.

And then the only way that you tell, the only way that you come clean about how you walked away from God and your sin is when you fully are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, because then it doesn't have power over you no more.

And I think Jonah did it.

And I don't know about you, but here's God, and here's what he's doing.

God is saying, I want to give you another chance.

The well is another chance, and the worm is another chance, and the wind is another chance, and the plant is another chance, and I want to give you chance after chance after chance after chance.

I'm not a god of just another second chance.

I'm the god of another chance.

No matter what you've done, here's a chance for you to surrender, here's a chance for you to raise your white flag, here's a chance for you to get right with God.

Chance after chance after chance after chance.