Jonah Series - Part 3: Jonah Preaches

0:00 Today's message is entitled Jonah Series Part 3 Jonah Preaches. I'm in this series on Jonah. So today is part three of Jonah. I want to talk about Jonah part three, chapter three of the book of Jonah. So if you have your Bibles, go to chapter three of Jonah. chapter one of Jonah part one we talked about Jonah's predicament he was in a predicament of a situation because God had given him some instructions and Jonah decided not to submit to the instructions from God he went in a different direction and we spent some time looking at what happened in chapter one in chapter one he disobeyed God God told him to go to Nineveh and preached to Nineveh, but instead he went, got on board and headed toward Tarshish, a different place. And unfortunately, he caused drama for everybody that was on board the ship that he joined on. And eventually the sailors of the ship got wind that he was the culprit and they threw him overboard. I think I tried to challenge you to throw some people overboard out of your life.

1:14 And when he got thrown overboard, waiting on him was an aquatic Uber. and while he was in this belly of this great fish chapter 2 part 2 talked about his prayer Jonah prayed in the middle of this great fish that lets us know that when you get in trouble, we do have a God that we can call on and pray. I want to remind you, I don't care what your dilemma is, how rebellious you've been, how disobedient you've been, how much you have missed the mark from God. He's always waiting with his heart open to receive and accept you if you just repent and say yes to God.

2:16 And that's an important thing because look at your neighbor and say, you know you messed up. Go ahead. thanks be to God we serve a God that we can cry out to you in the midst of our dilemma doesn't matter what it is doesn't matter how long you've been in it doesn't matter how deep you're in it you approach God about your dilemma he will and can respond and it was in the midst of that whale that great fish that he prayed and the great fish deposited him on the seashore, took him and deposited him, vomited him out. And today it's part three and I'm titling part three today, Now Jonah Wanna Preach. Now he preaches, Jonah preaches.

3:09 Don't make God have to put you in the belly of a whale for you to be willing to do what he told you to do. Some of you gotta go through hell before you make the decision to say yes to God. So much easier to be submitted and say yes to God than for God to have to drag you through hell for you to say yes to God.

3:31 And so Jonah is here in the, been deposited outside of the fish and here we are verse, there's 10 verses in chapter three. Verse one says, Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. Let's stop right here. Here's my first point. God will give you a second chance.

4:00 I'm starting off right out the bed to thank somebody or to thank God that he gives you a second chance. How many of you can look back over your life and you disobey God and God should have took you out then, but he gave you another chance. I really shouldn't say he gave Jonah a second chance. I probably should say God gave him another chance. Because some of y'all can testify with me that I done had a second chance about a thousand times. Somebody say, thank God he keeps on giving us another chance to obey. Another chance to get it right. Another chance to do what he told us to do. Another chance to be obedient to what he said. Thanks be to God he doesn't run out. People will run out. People will run out of chances. People will run out of giving you another opportunity, but thanks be to God. He's a patient God, and he will give you another chance and another chance and another chance. Somebody ought to give God praise right there.

4:56 Give you another chance. That's the nature of God. The nature of God is to be patient with you. The nature of the God we serve, his character is to recognize your journey, recognize your weaknesses and your shortcomings and he keeps on giving you another chance. Now don't take, look at your neighbor and say, don't keep trying to think that you have an eternal second chance. Go ahead, tell him, you don't have a second chance eternally. At some point in history, God's patience will run out. Somebody say, at some point he recognized this joke ain't going to do right. Let me just go ahead and take him out. That's important to know. It's important to understand that God kept giving him. Now here's something else about this passage that I think is very, very important. It says right here, again in verse one, the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. Now this is an important deal because not only does God give you another chance or a second chance, if God says something to you, he will tell you again.

6:00 Now, when I was a teenager and I felt God calling me to the ministry, I was 14 or 15 years old and I felt the call of God in my life. I didn't even know what the call of God was. I just know I felt this burden to communicate the gospel to my friends and my coworkers. And I went to the pastor. Pastor Johnson was our pastor here at First Baptist Church of Leonardo at the time. And he told me at 14 years old, he said, go back and pray about it again.

6:40 And I did. I went and prayed about it again. And God affirmed to me that this was the call on my life. Amen. At 14 or 15, my call on my life at 14 was to go make up my bed and clean up my room. but God kept that passion, that burden to share the gospel. He kept it on me and I went back and I prayed about it again and sure enough, God told me that's my assignment.

7:17 Now I tell you that because, you know, when people come and tell me that God told them something, I learned from my pastor then that it's okay to tell people to go back and pray about it again. Because if God said it one time, he'll say it again. Now, some of y'all felt God told you something. You had a dream, and you felt the Lord was leading you, and I tell you to go back, and the truth of the matter is you had too much peace of that night. Come on, somebody. because the truth of the matter is God shows us a part of his character is he will repeat himself. As a matter of fact, in the scriptures, there are multiple passages of scripture where God repeats the whole chapter again, multiple times throughout scripture.

8:10 God has told people something again and again and again. And so if you would feel God's telling you something, And it's okay to go back and ask God and say, can you affirm what you're telling me? That's an important thing to know. Because if I tell you to go pray about it and ask God to tell you again, and you keep coming back telling me that you had a dream, and that's the only dream you had, something ain't quite right. Amen. Thank all five of y'all for saying amen. I see there's a bunch of y'all think that it's okay. No, God will repeat himself. Tell your neighbor, God does not mind repeating himself. You know why he's got to repeat it to you? Because your head is harder than a rock. If you come over here, this is my section over here. This is my section.

9:11 Ask God to tell you again. Whatever it is you think God's telling you, ask God to tell you again. Because he will tell you again. It's the nature of God. It's repeated throughout scripture time and time again. We see God repeating himself. He doesn't mind. And I'm telling you today, in your communication with God, in your walk with God, in your relationship with God, it's okay to look for God to repeat himself to you. If you only got one sign, only heard it one time, only had one dream, only heard one voice, only one time, something is wrong. Do I need to go here from that point right there? Somebody tell your neighbor. God will keep on telling you. He'll tell you again and again and again. so God tells Jonah again a second time arise verse 2 go to Nineveh that great city and preach to it the message that I tell you so Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord now Nineveh was an exceeding great city a three day journey in extent I thought I ought to throw this thin here when you first obey God if Jonah had just went if Jonah had just went to Nineveh when God first said it it would have been a short trip but because he decided to do something else he got deposited in a place where now it takes him three days to get there you know what I'm trying to tell you it's going to take you a much longer time to get where you're trying to go where God's trying to get you if you just don't obey what God told you to do Let me let that sink in on y'all for just a moment.

11:00 That's the reality of the fact that it's going to take him now. It's three days journey. He's going to have to walk for three days to get to where he needs to go. If he had just obeyed God and went the first time, the first day God told him, went where he was before, if he had just did what God told him to do, he would have made it out okay. But instead, his head is hard. But here's the deal. Here's the deal. Look at verse 3. Let me read verse 3 again. So Jonah arose and went. Oh, thank God. He finally obeyed God. What is it that God has told you to do that you have not done? What is it that he told you to say? What is it that he, what instructions has God given to you that you haven't done yet? But the thanks be to God, Jonah finally got to a place where he obeyed what God told him to do. I suspect that there's somebody in your role. I suspect somebody in your section, hold up, maybe somebody sitting in your seat that God told them to do something that they have not done.

12:00 And God is trying to give you another chance and another opportunity because Jonah had a hard head. He didn't do it at first, but now he finally goes, he arrives. Jonah arose and went. I'm thanking God he finally got to a place where he was willing to do what God told him to do. Who am I preaching to today? I know I'm preaching to somebody. Somebody in here today has made the whole church have to sit through this Jonah series because you are hard-haired and I got to preach to everybody just to get to you. He told you to do something. He told you to get involved in a certain ministry. He told you to go preach the gospel. He told you to share the message with somebody. He told you to serve a servant. He told you to do something and you haven't done it yet. Because that devil done convinced you and lied to you that you got to get this straight.

12:54 You got to do that and you got to go here and you got to finish this and you got to do that. And so this has to happen and that has to happen. You know what happened? Jonah did finally deal what God told him to do. And when he did what God told him to do, when he obeyed God and God gave him another chance, something happened when Jonah obeyed God. And guess what? Your circumstance will change when you start obeying to God. Your dilemmas will change. There's a joker right there. You're making everybody else have to sit through this sermon. There he is right there. Why you didn't obey God? Why you make the whole church have to sit through this sermon? Here's my second point on this. Obedience causes change.

13:50 I need y'all to get that. Obedience causes change. When you obey God, your circumstances change. God loves obedience. I know some people say, well, I'm going to make a sacrifice. But no, God's not interested in your sacrifice. He's interested in your obedience. scripture says obedience is better than a sacrifice what is it that God has commanded you to do? Verse 5 so the people of Nineveh believed God proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them a change was created in the city in the nation among the people when Jonah obeyed God I wonder what would happen in your family, in your finances, when you obey God.

14:53 Oh, I felt something right there. I felt a quickening down in my spirit that God's trying to tell somebody, obey him. Be obedient to what God wants you to do. And it produces change. This scripture says in verse number five, the people who never believed God and they proclaimed the fast and they put on sackcloth from the from the greatest to the least of them verse six then the word came to the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes and he and he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his noble saying let neither man nor beast herd or nor flock taste anything do not let them eat or drink water but Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

15:51 Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? I love that right here. Here's the deal. Because of Jonah's obedience, he came and preached the message. You know what? Let me back up for a second because I didn't even tell you what Jonah said. Look at verse. let me back up to verse number four verse four and Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk then he cried out and said yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown this is what he said he cried out this was his sermon an eight word sermon I think my first sermon I preached was six minutes when I was fifteen I preached six minutes I ain't preached six minutes since he preached an eight word message yet 40 days and then none of us shall be overthrown y'all better get yourself together what he said in a few words y'all better repent and turn around or else the city is going to be overflowing and when he overthrown and when he obeyed God change happened the city believed God they proclaimed the fast they put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least even the king got right even the king turned his heart to God Even everybody, the animals, the dog bowed down and got right with God.

17:11 Everybody got right with God. Your obedience will change the circumstances around you. Y'all better stop blaming everybody else for the drama in your life and start looking at what you ain't doing that you're supposed to do, what you're supposed to say, how you're supposed to live, how you're supposed to behave and respond to God. obey God and see what change God will bring in your life. Obedience brings change. Look at your neighbor and say, Obedience brings change. And the people believe God. They trusted God. When they heard the message, they turned their hearts to God. They turned their hearts to the Lord and said they didn't want God to judge them. They obeyed God. I don't know who I'm preaching to today, but my word to you today is obey God. Repent.

18:05 Turn your life around. Y'all do know God. See, everything you do, every place you go, everything you say, repent. repent, repent, repent. And here's my final point, point three. Y'all got my first point? What was that? Second chance, point two. Here's number three. God can change his mind. I like verse 10. This is the last verse in the passage. Then God saw their works. Stick a pin right there. God doesn't see what you say. He sees what you do. I think it's interesting that the scripture didn't say then God saw their faith.

18:55 It doesn't say that. It says God saw their works. That they turned from their evil way. And then it says this, and God relented from the disaster that he had said he would bring upon them and he did not do it. Amen.

19:16 I want to give God a shout right there. And here's, I need you to see, God sees your works. He sees your actions. He sees your choices. He sees your behavior. I was, some of y'all know I cover pastors. And I have a pastor, one of the pastors that I cover. His behavior was inappropriate and I had to sit him down. I had to tell him you have to sit down for a minute you need to just step away from the pulpit and sit down so he wrote me a text he said you got my hands tied he says I want to preach I want to go back to pastoring I want to go back to doing my job and you got you got my hands tied and I said to him y'all supposed to say what did you say to him pastor I said, I didn't tie your hands.

20:17 Your choices and your behavior tied your hands. It's your actions that cause me to sit you down. That's it. You sitting up in a strip club as a pastor. My Lord. Sit yourself down. Excuse me for just a second, I feel. I didn't tie your hands. Don't try to put that on me. You ought to be thankful that somebody loves you enough to help you get your life together. And if you just turn your life around, we serve a God that gives you another chance. He'll give you another chance. He'll give you another opportunity.

21:09 No, God, you know, here's the thing about God. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Let me tell you what that means. It means that once God decides to give you something, he will never take it away. Because you know what? When he gave it to you, he already knew what you were going to do. He already knew what your shortcoming was going to be. And so he chose to give it to you even though he knew you were going to fail. So once God gives it to you, he doesn't take it away. But listen, please, please, please, even though he won't take it away, once he gives it to you, it's always there. Don't go and act and behave as though you think that God can't punish you or sit you down. Don't think God can't sit you down. I wish I had a praying crowd with me here today. I don't know what's going on in your life. I don't know what the dilemma is in your life. I don't know what's happening in your realm.

22:02 I don't know what's going on in your family, in your marriage, with your finances, on your job, in your career. I don't know what's going on. But the main thing I'm trying to drive home to you today is I want you to understand and know that we serve a God that will give you another chance. We serve a God who loves you and cares about you. who serve a God that if you just obey Him, He will turn your situation around. Obedience brings about change, and He might change His mind about what He might have done to you. Now, I don't know who I'm preaching to today, but I believe there might be somebody here today who's not right with God, not walking with God, not obeying God, not submitted to God, not doing what it is God called you to do, and he's given you another opportunity. Here's the great thing about Jesus. He came and shed his blood so that his blood would give God the ability to forgive you of what you have done, what you have said, where you have been. He will give you another chance.