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Jonah-The-Reluctant-Prophet · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The Book of Jonah. Please turn in your bibles to
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  Speaker 1: this Old Testament prophet. It's probably been a long time
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  Speaker 1: since you have heard a message out of Jonah. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: if Jonah is ever referred to, it is often with
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  Speaker 1: a skeptical kind of comment or even a joke. I
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  Speaker 1: spoke with a young man who was taking a religion
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  Speaker 1: course along with his other involvements in the university here
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  Speaker 1: in the Metroplex several years ago, and he said, I'll
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  Speaker 1: tell you, our religion prophet has had quite a time
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  Speaker 1: going through the Bible and picking on places like Noah
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  Speaker 1: and the Arc and the whole idea of Jesus raising
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  Speaker 1: Lazarus from the dead. But he said, I'll tell you
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  Speaker 1: when he got to Jonah yet a field day, when
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  Speaker 1: he came to the fish that swallowed Jonah, it was
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  Speaker 1: like half the class is in laughter. Regrettably, some books
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  Speaker 1: are battered and bruised. If it bruises could show Jonah
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  Speaker 1: would be black and blue, because most folks don't have
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  Speaker 1: a clue what the book is about behind the scenes,
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  Speaker 1: and don't realize how relevant and real the message is,
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  Speaker 1: even the miracles in it. Notwithstanding, most don't realize the
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  Speaker 1: greatest revival in the history of the world is recorded
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  Speaker 1: in Jonah, and there it is for us to see
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  Speaker 1: and not and that was enough to convince Jonah to
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  Speaker 1: break free from his prejudice, which was severe. Anyway, there's
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  Speaker 1: a lot here, and our hope today is to survey
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  Speaker 1: the book and then come back with chapter one and
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  Speaker 1: work our way through it bit by bit. If you
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  Speaker 1: found the Book of Jonah in your Bible, I would
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  Speaker 1: ask you to stand for the reading of excerpts from
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  Speaker 1: the four chapters that bear the name of the man
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  Speaker 1: who is the main character of the book. I'm reading
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  Speaker 1: from the New Living Translation. The Lord gave this message
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  Speaker 1: to Jonah, son of Amateai, get up and go to
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  Speaker 1: the great city of Neneveh, announce my judgment against it,
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  Speaker 1: because I had seen how wicked its people are. But
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  Speaker 1: Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to
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  Speaker 1: get away from the Lord. He went down to the
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  Speaker 1: port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarsish.
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  Speaker 1: He bought a ticket went on board, hoping to escape
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  Speaker 1: from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish. Verse four, the
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  Speaker 1: Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a
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  Speaker 1: violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. Fearing
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  Speaker 1: for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods
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  Speaker 1: for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the
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  Speaker 1: ship verse twelve. Throw me into the sea, Jonah said,
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  Speaker 1: and it will become calm again. I know that this
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  Speaker 1: terrible storm is all my fault verse seventeen. Now the
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  Speaker 1: Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah.
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  Speaker 1: Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.
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  Speaker 1: Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside
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  Speaker 1: the fish and said, I cried out to the Lord
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  Speaker 1: in my great trouble, and he answered me, I called
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  Speaker 1: to you from the land of the dead, and the
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  Speaker 1: Lord and Lord you heard me verse nine. But I
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  Speaker 1: will offer sacrifices to you with song praises, and I
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  Speaker 1: will fulfill all my vows. For deliverance comes from the
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  Speaker 1: Lord alone. Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit
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  Speaker 1: Jonah out onto the beach. Then the Lord spoke to
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  Speaker 1: Jonah a second time. Get up, go to the great
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  Speaker 1: city of Ninevah, and deliver the message I've given you.
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  Speaker 1: This time, Jonah obeyed the Lord's command and went to Ninevah,
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  Speaker 1: a city so large. It took three days to see
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  Speaker 1: it all. On the day Jonah entered the city, he
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  Speaker 1: shouted to the crowds, forty days from now, Nineveh will
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  Speaker 1: be destroyed. The people of Ninevah believed God's message. From
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  Speaker 1: the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and
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  Speaker 1: put on burlap to show their sorrow. Verse ten. When
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  Speaker 1: God saw what they had done, and now they put
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  Speaker 1: a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind
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  Speaker 1: and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.
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  Speaker 1: This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became
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  Speaker 1: very angry. Verse four. The Lord replied, is it right
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  Speaker 1: for you to be angry about this? Verse nine. Then
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  Speaker 1: God said to Jonah, is it right for you to
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  Speaker 1: be angry? Yes? Jonah retorted, even angry enough to die.
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  Speaker 1: Then the Lord said, you feel sorry about the plant,
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  Speaker 1: though you did nothing to put it there. It came
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  Speaker 1: quickly and died quickly. But nine h has more than
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty thousand people living in spiritual darkness,
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  Speaker 1: not to mention all the animals, shouldn't I feel compassion
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  Speaker 1: for such a great city? Not often the book of
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  Speaker 1: the Bible ends with a question. But all the way through,
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  Speaker 1: you will feel the questions crowd in on you as
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  Speaker 1: you probe your own heart, and as you see yourself
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  Speaker 1: not just Jonah in the book, Father speak to us
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  Speaker 1: through this time we spend in the pages of this book,
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  Speaker 1: though only forty eight verses. May we see these words
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  Speaker 1: as timely and timeless speaking to us not just about
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  Speaker 1: Jonah and his life, but about us and our lives. Today,
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  Speaker 1: as I address all who hear, some running from you,
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  Speaker 1: others running to you, many running with you, others running
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  Speaker 1: against you, may we realize you have a message for
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  Speaker 1: all of us, a message of hope and compassion that
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  Speaker 1: comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you for the
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  Speaker 1: privilege of giving to your work. We do so with
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  Speaker 1: gratitude in the name of Jesus. As we ask these
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  Speaker 1: prayers and everyone said, amen, you may be seated. There
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  Speaker 1: are some people we just cannot imagine ever being reluctant.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, think about a chattergory of those we would
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  Speaker 1: never think of as reluctant. How about head coaches ever
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  Speaker 1: being reluctant about anything? Are cheerleaders while we're in the subject,
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  Speaker 1: or even Olympic athletes actively engaged in whatever they're planning
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  Speaker 1: for or how about a Marine Corps drill instructor never reluctant.
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  Speaker 1: I mean life is full of energy, full of enthusiasm.
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  Speaker 1: They're up early, they are they see the morning as
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  Speaker 1: one of life's greatest moments. And then there are others
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  Speaker 1: they feel like, if the morning is so nice, they
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  Speaker 1: ought to make it later in the day. Some time ago,
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  Speaker 1: I read about a mother who was having a quail
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  Speaker 1: of a time trying to get her son to get up.
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  Speaker 1: And I've been watching through the week as his energy
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  Speaker 1: level had been draining day by day. Toward the end
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  Speaker 1: of the week he was just downright depressed. So she
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  Speaker 1: wasn't fully surprised, but never expected he'd be hitting the
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  Speaker 1: snooze button on the alarm about six or seven times
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  Speaker 1: that morning, and she was badgering him to get up,
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  Speaker 1: Get up, get up, I mean the time is being wasted.
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  Speaker 1: Get up. And he finally, with one eye open, said
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  Speaker 1: to her, if you can give me three good reasons,
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  Speaker 1: I'll get up. She said, okay, okay, it's Sunday morning
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  Speaker 1: and you need to get up and get dressed for church.
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  Speaker 1: Number two. You're forty three years old, and you ought
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  Speaker 1: to know by now and you need to get up
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  Speaker 1: out of bed number three. You're the pastor of a church.
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  Speaker 1: You need to be up. They expect you to be there.
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  Speaker 1: Now that strikes us funny because you cannot imagine a
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  Speaker 1: pastor being reluctant about anything, or how about a prophet,
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  Speaker 1: until you get to Jonah and right out of the
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  Speaker 1: choote he's running in the wrong direction. Not because he
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  Speaker 1: didn't understand, because he understood and didn't want to go there.
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  Speaker 1: It was a deliberate, self centered act of disobedience. He's
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  Speaker 1: more than reluctant. Last time we were together, we talked
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  Speaker 1: about that characteristic that marks those who walk with God.
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  Speaker 1: We called itself less humility. Jonah is an illustration of
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  Speaker 1: the opposite. All the way through the book, you'll sort
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  Speaker 1: of cluck your tongue, thinking how self serving can you be?
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  Speaker 1: He seems like an adolescent, still trying to learn how
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  Speaker 1: to share life with others. No, no, now he's a prophet.
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  Speaker 1: We'll look later at this, but you find him over
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  Speaker 1: in Second Kings as being a prophet in the days
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  Speaker 1: of a king during times of prosperity. Quite likely he
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  Speaker 1: had predicted such times. Jerebaum the Second in his days
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  Speaker 1: of prosperity. He wasn't a godly king, but he was
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  Speaker 1: a prosperous king, and probably was grateful for the prophecies
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  Speaker 1: of Jonah, who had told of the days of prosperity
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  Speaker 1: that we're coming. But Jonah's an enigma. He falls in
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  Speaker 1: the category of these other great prophets, who who stand
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  Speaker 1: like a steer in a blizzard when all others are
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  Speaker 1: moving in the wrong direction. Here's the prophet standing firm,
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  Speaker 1: standing strong, except Jonah, and right out of the chute.
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  Speaker 1: We find him at a harbor looking for a ship
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  Speaker 1: that will be just the one he wants to get on,
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  Speaker 1: not to go to Nenepha, that's five hundred miles to
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  Speaker 1: the east. He finds a ship bound for Tarshish in
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  Speaker 1: South Spain, literally to the west of the rock of
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  Speaker 1: or Braltar, twenty five hundred miles to the west of
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  Speaker 1: the land of Israel. He deliberately chose that. My imagination
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  Speaker 1: kicks in as I think of Jonah walking along the
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  Speaker 1: port city of Joppa looking for the ship, and finally
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  Speaker 1: is attracted to the name someone painted on the back
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  Speaker 1: of this one in Hebrew plot, that's the one that
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  Speaker 1: means escape, escape. He gets a ticket, there's room for
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  Speaker 1: him on board. Not only does he get on board,
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  Speaker 1: it isn't but a matter of a brief period of
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  Speaker 1: time before he's down in the hold of the ship,
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  Speaker 1: sound asleep. His conscience doesn't bother him. The amazing thing,
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  Speaker 1: he's not only running away from that calling, which is
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  Speaker 1: so clearly revealed, he's running from the presence of the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Did you hear that? Can't do it? God is omnipresent,
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  Speaker 1: great big four bit word, for He's everywhere at once.
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  Speaker 1: The Psalmist writes of that if I go into heaven,
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  Speaker 1: you were there. If I go to the grave to shield,
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  Speaker 1: you were there. If I take the wings of the
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  Speaker 1: dawn and dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
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  Speaker 1: even there, your hand will leave me. Your right hand behome.
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  Speaker 1: Jonnah knew that Psalm David had lived and died and
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  Speaker 1: left the solemnon his legacy. And if I traveled as
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  Speaker 1: feet of light, that's the wings of the dawn, and
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  Speaker 1: I wind up the farthest removed in the midst of
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  Speaker 1: the sea, even there I find God. When I come
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  Speaker 1: to a moment like that, I always remember the early cosmonaut,
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  Speaker 1: that's what they called him in Russia when they went
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  Speaker 1: into space, and they were the first ones to make
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  Speaker 1: the cycle, remember, and they were so proud of it,
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  Speaker 1: and they were especially glad to announce that we did
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  Speaker 1: not see God. Wa Chris Well the following Sunday at
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  Speaker 1: First Baptist Church in Dallas made the announcement if one
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  Speaker 1: of those cosmonauts had stepped out of his space, he
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  Speaker 1: would have seen God. He's there. He's there. You can't
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  Speaker 1: get away. You're trying to run from him. Don't waste
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  Speaker 1: your time. You'll find he'll be there waiting for you.
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  Speaker 1: But Jonah, of course, is caught up in himself, so
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  Speaker 1: he gets on board the ship. And you know, I've
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  Speaker 1: asked you to read the story. These Phoenician sailors are
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  Speaker 1: all troubled by the storm, and these are no these
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  Speaker 1: are salts. These guys know their way around the sea.
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  Speaker 1: But Jonah forgot that God also goes to the sea.
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  Speaker 1: And he suddenly came to the realization. When they finally
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  Speaker 1: woke him up, he says to them, it's it's it's
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  Speaker 1: it's it's my fault. It's my fault. Throw me over. Well,
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  Speaker 1: they think they couldn't imagine doing such a thing to them.
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  Speaker 1: In their religion, it's called murder, but for Jonah it's
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  Speaker 1: called relief. Finally they do it, and the sea is
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  Speaker 1: immediately calm, and and Jonah is turning down below and
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  Speaker 1: finally rescued by the by the fish. It's a strange book.
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  Speaker 1: I admit Jonah's an enigma. And anytime I speak about
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  Speaker 1: other preachers or a prophet, I want to tread softly
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  Speaker 1: and carefully. I don't want to be unfair. As a
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact, this will surprise you. Among all the patriarchs,
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  Speaker 1: and all of the prophets, and all of the apostles,
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  Speaker 1: and all of the saints from both the Old and
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  Speaker 1: the New Testament whose features appear on the ceiling of
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  Speaker 1: the Sistine Chapel, the most beautiful and the most notable,
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  Speaker 1: beyond all question, is that of Jonah. If you've not
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  Speaker 1: been there, you'll need to note it when you go.
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  Speaker 1: If you have been, I hope you didn't miss it.
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  Speaker 1: You would think Jonah would be cowered in a corner
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  Speaker 1: covering his face or the hoodie, hiding out in shame. No,
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  Speaker 1: not Jonah. There's something more to this, and this the
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  Speaker 1: artistic masterpiece by Michelangelo. He picks it up. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: next time you have chance to do so, check Matthew
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  Speaker 1: twelve forty one. Jesus himself says, when referring to his ministry,
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  Speaker 1: tells his critics in front of him, a greater than
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  Speaker 1: Jonah is here among you. Not a greater than Isaiah,
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  Speaker 1: not a greater than Ezekiel, not even a greater than Daniel.
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  Speaker 1: He picks Jonah. So let's face it, we're missing something.
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  Speaker 1: If all we see in the book is a rebel
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  Speaker 1: prophet and a weird fish swallowing him, vomiting him out
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  Speaker 1: on the beach, and then his proclaiming a message from God,
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot here we've missed. I provided a chart
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  Speaker 1: for you, and you should have found it in your
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  Speaker 1: worship folder. I want you to pull it out if
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  Speaker 1: you will. It's what I call a horizontal chart of
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  Speaker 1: the book. You read it top to bottom, left to right.
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  Speaker 1: I call him the reluctant Prophet. In chapter one, Jonah
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  Speaker 1: is running from God, as we've seen on the ship,
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  Speaker 1: Off the ship into the sea. He's on a mad
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  Speaker 1: dash to get away from the presence of the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: The fish comes and he comes to a sudden realization
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  Speaker 1: that the fish is his deliverance, not punishment. The seamen
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  Speaker 1: know nothing of this. They're up on the ship, grateful
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  Speaker 1: that the storm is calm. But down below a man's
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  Speaker 1: life is being changed, or at least his mind. In
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  Speaker 1: chapter two, Jodah is running to God. On the chart.
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  Speaker 1: You'll see it, because in the fish you will find
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  Speaker 1: Jonah offering up a prayer. It's one of the strangest
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  Speaker 1: places in all the Scripture to find a person in prayer.
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  Speaker 1: It's a messy place, it's a dark place. It's hot.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, as I did my homework and found among
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  Speaker 1: those few who have been pulled from the innards of
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  Speaker 1: a fish. When they were found and found alive, their
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  Speaker 1: bodies were bleached in places from the acid of the
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  Speaker 1: fishes digestive system. Must have been a grotesque site. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: some of his, if not all, of his hair, is
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  Speaker 1: gone as he comes the end of this chapter. Chapter
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  Speaker 1: two ends with the Lord ordered the fish to spit
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  Speaker 1: Jonah out onto the beach, first amphibious landing in the
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  Speaker 1: history of time. Right there, chapter three we have Jonah
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  Speaker 1: foughtly running with God gets the same commission, the very
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  Speaker 1: same commission he was given in chapter one, and he
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  Speaker 1: hears it again, but this time he doesn't think of Tarshish.
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  Speaker 1: He thinks there's only one place for me. Nine Uh,
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  Speaker 1: quite a place for a zealot like Jonah. Maybe you've
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  Speaker 1: not thought of it that way, but it's true. Jonah
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  Speaker 1: ran with his own people to him. God was exclusive
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  Speaker 1: exclusively for the jew and Jodah is told you're to
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  Speaker 1: go into gentile territory. It's like telling a Jewish prophet
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties to go to Berlin, or like
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  Speaker 1: telling one today to go to a cave where the
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  Speaker 1: isis leaders hide the people who behead you for whatever
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  Speaker 1: reason or whim of the moment, and you're a Jewish
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  Speaker 1: prophet and you're going to go to Mussel. I don't think,
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  Speaker 1: honestly of us would feel comfortable about that call. So
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  Speaker 1: I'm not here today to attack Jonah for saying I
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  Speaker 1: can't do that. Now. Clearly he's disobedient, but I'm not
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  Speaker 1: Yonah's judge. I've never been asked to walk into territory
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  Speaker 1: that dangerous, such as one of the worst of the prisons,
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  Speaker 1: with a cross around my neck talking about Jesus. Have you? Now?
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  Speaker 1: This gives us some opportunity to hats off to Jonah.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter three. He's running with God and he doesn't stutter.
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  Speaker 1: God said get up and go, and he got up
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  Speaker 1: and went. This time we read Yonah obeyed the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: commanded Lord's command, and he went to None of the
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  Speaker 1: city so large it took three days to see it.
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  Speaker 1: It's a massive city. On the day Jonah entered the city,
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  Speaker 1: he shouted, so he's not reluctant. Here he is on
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  Speaker 1: the street. No one knows him. Here is this guy
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  Speaker 1: fresh from the fish's belly, announcing disaster. Jonah entered the
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  Speaker 1: city and shouted, forty days from now, nine of Uh
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  Speaker 1: will be destroyed. Allow me just a moment for our
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  Speaker 1: preacher's imagination here deep within him, there was some sense
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  Speaker 1: of satisfaction in that message. I'd love to see all
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  Speaker 1: of you killed, every last one of them. When we
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  Speaker 1: get to this book and closer looks, you'll learn of
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  Speaker 1: the Assyrians. In this case, the Ninavit's brutality. They were well.
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  Speaker 1: The atrocities were almost beyond imagination. Stacks of skulls were
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  Speaker 1: left in their wake after a war, as the victims
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  Speaker 1: were beheaded, skulls boiled and then stacked. People were filleyed men,
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  Speaker 1: women and children mercilessly by the Assyrians. They were known
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  Speaker 1: for this. So when Jodah announces forty days you will
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  Speaker 1: be destroyed, he keeps on the move. No one throws
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  Speaker 1: anything at him, no one assaults him. On the contrary,
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  Speaker 1: verse three, verse five, the people of Nineveh believed God's
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  Speaker 1: message from the greatest to the least. They declare the
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  Speaker 1: fast put on burlap to show their sorrow. And the
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  Speaker 1: next verse as even the king comes from his throne
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  Speaker 1: and dons burlap and sits in ashes, the mark of
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  Speaker 1: bankruptcy and ultimate humility, and sends out a decree to
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  Speaker 1: the city. No one, not even the animals from your
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  Speaker 1: herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all.
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  Speaker 1: People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning. And
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  Speaker 1: he goes on to declare this edict. I mean, this
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  Speaker 1: is a genuine repentance, a wholesale repentance, and the city
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  Speaker 1: experiences revival. As I said earlier, this is the greatest
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  Speaker 1: revival in the history of the scriptures, and perhaps even
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  Speaker 1: of time. One hundred twenty thousand souls. Now that is
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  Speaker 1: enough to give an evangelist a real swell head but
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  Speaker 1: Jonah's head isn't swelling. He's back at it. I knew it.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I knew that would happened. And because you wondered why
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: he ran like he did, he tells us right here
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: in chapter four, verse two, that is why I ran
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: to Tarshish. I knew that you were merciful. I knew
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: that you were filled with compassion, meaning Jonah was not. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I knew when I declared your message you would do that,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: you'd do a work in their lives. Just just kill
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  Speaker 1: me now I can't bear to see it. Goes out
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  Speaker 1: on the edge of the city and sits under a
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  Speaker 1: gourd plant that grows rapidly with wide leaves, and it
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  Speaker 1: shelters him from the searing hot sun, and he finds
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  Speaker 1: comfort in that. And and then a worm comes, and uh,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: I can just see Jonah trying to stomp that worm out,
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  Speaker 1: and he eats that gourd, and that that baby drives up,
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  Speaker 1: and he's now under the sun, the heat of the sun,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: and he is in one childish pout. How dare you
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  Speaker 1: do that? I wanted them dead? God said to Jonah,
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  Speaker 1: is it right for you to be angry? And to
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  Speaker 1: be angry that the plant died. You're worried about a plant,
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  Speaker 1: and Jonah has impudent is enough to shake his fists
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  Speaker 1: in God's face and say, yes, I have every right
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  Speaker 1: to be angry. I'm angry enough to die. The Lord said,
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  Speaker 1: you feel compassionate about the plant, though you did nothing
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  Speaker 1: to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly.
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  Speaker 1: But none of uh has more than one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: twenty thousand people in spiritual darkness, not to mention all
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the animals. Shouldn't shouldn't I have compassion for such a
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  Speaker 1: great city. What you have read in excerpts from Jonah's
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: own account, and by the way, he gets high marks
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  Speaker 1: for vulnerability as he writes his story. But these are
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  Speaker 1: the words of a blind, obstinate, selfish man filled with prejudice.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I'll address that more in depth next week, and some
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  Speaker 1: of you will not like hearing it, because some of
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: you harbor racism and prejudice to this day. And because
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: of that, in Jonah's life, he's cultivated this bitter attitude
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  Speaker 1: that not even the salvation of an entire city could
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: melt his heart. Jodah can only think of himself, and
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: probably is thinking, what am I going to tell the
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: people back home. I gave him God's message, and of
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: all things, they believed it. So he's in the ultimate
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: catch twenty two. He doesn't think he's going to be
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: received by the people, and he is, and he wonders
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: if he will be received back home. We're never told.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: I'll find four lingering lessons in this book. Maybe if
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: you could just turn your chart over on the back
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: it's blank. You might want to write these down. You
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: just may need them sooner rather than later. Who knows
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: what tomorrow holds. Here's the first. Running from God is
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: a theological impossibility. Running from God is a theological impossibility.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: You cannot, as I said earlier, you cannot outrun omnipresence
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: everywhere at once. Wherever you go, he is there. It
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: only complicates things. And today some of you are running
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: as fast as you can run. You have an affair going.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: It's the secret of your life. Your mate does not
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: know it, your family does not know it. Others of
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: you hidden in pornography is not known in the home
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: that it's going on. But it's going on, and in
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: that every time you view it, you're running further, You're
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: going deeper and the addiction is grabbing a greater hold
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: on you. It's impossible to think that all of that
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: is secret. So let's start here. Jonah knew better, but
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: he didn't act better. So he ran trying to escape pallot,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: trying to escape the presence of God. Here's the second.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Running to God is a personal necessity. I waited patiently
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: my cry, writes David in Psalm forty. He lifted me
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: up from a horrible pit, from the muck and mire
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  Speaker 1: in the mud, and put my feet on a rock
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  Speaker 1: and established my going. He put a new song in
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: my mouth, even praise to our God. Many will see
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: it in fear and will trust in the Lord. That's
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: a testimony of a man who has run to God,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: far from perfect, a flawed, scarred individual pulled up from
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: the muck and mire, who simply says, I run no longer.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: I've come to my senses. I'm of the impression that
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: all prodigals are temporarily insane. Seriously, things are said, things
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: are thought, things are done that are marked by insanity.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Husbands will do the most insane things in a state
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: of carnality, sovil wives, so will kids. We're quick to
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: say the kids will. We're not as quick to say
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: we will. Here's a man who is coming back to
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: his senses. Remember the prodigal knee deep in pigs slop
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: and excrement, starving, eating the pods that were going to
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: be fed to the hogs. This young man said, I
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: I will go to my father. But before we read that,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: it says he came to his senses, meaning what meaning
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: he had been out of his senses? Today there may
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: be just enough being said to arrest your attention and
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: make you aware that you are free to return to
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: your God, or to come for the first time if
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: you've never come before. What is beautiful about the Lord
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: God is the gracious way he will deal with you,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: rather than shaming you with hands on hips. How could
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: you act like that? Or didn't you know better that?
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: You will read nothing of that. On the part of
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: our you read God asking Jonah questions, you will see
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: the arms of the Father wide open, waiting for his
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: son to come over the horizon, ready with the fatted
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: calf and the feast. Running to God is a personal necessity.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Running with God is a remarkable discovery. That's the third
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I see here. Whenever you run with God, you are
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: in for some remarkable discoveries, amazing results. The Assyrians didn't
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: assault him, They in fact believed him, even though his
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: lips spoke truth, but his heart was in another place,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: which gives new meaning to the fact that God blesses
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: his message in spite of the messenger. That explains how
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: you can read of an individual who is ultimately exposed
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: and discovered and found to have been in open sin,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: and yet over a period of time God used him,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: I should say, used his message to reach others. He
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: says he will bless his word, he will bless the truth.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: But if a heart is not right, the one delivering
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: the message is not the example. The remarkable discovery is
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: that God blesses his word in spite of a messager. Often. Finally,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: the fourth, which becomes really a sad ending running against
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: God is a pitiful catastrophe. Rather than being thrilled with
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: the results, Jonah sulks like a nine year old boy
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: that doesn't get his way. Nothing was more important to
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: him than his own comfort, his own will, and his
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: own plan, And you find Jonah absorbed in pathetic narcissism
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: at the end of the book, and God still pleading
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: with him. Shouldn't I have had compassion on this city.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: That's what caused me to give you the commission to go.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: I saw the Assyrians. I know what they're doing. I
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: know how empty their lives are. I know if they
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: continue to operate like that, there's only one ultimate destiny
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: for them. But Jonah, you go. I'll use what you say.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: He goes. God uses it. Jonah's spirit of exclusivity kicks in,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: and you just can't find any way to rejoice. That's
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: a mind twisted by prejudice. No matter how you desire
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: to paint the picture, it's a twisted mind. You see.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: So much of what I've talked about today starts with
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: an attitude, which brings us back to our opening line.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: This may describe your reluctance, only you know now with me,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: Will you just close your eyes, just sit right where
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: you are, just for a few moments. How faithful of
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: God to see you through all the things you've been
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: through to this point. How good of God who've stayed
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: right there with you. The one who knows us the best,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: loves us the most, and he does love you. God
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: is not looking for a way to beat you into submission.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: He's in the rescue work. If it takes a fish
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: in the sea, he'll send a fish. If it takes
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: an overcast day in the little town of Frisco, He'll
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: use this overcast day to reach your heart. I'll speak
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: to you who have never come to Christ. I won't
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: beg and I won't plead, and I won't embarrass you.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: I will simply promise you. And if you trust in
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ and you come to this cross
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: where he died, made the complete payment for your sin
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: once and for all, you will never ever regret coming.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: If you do not, you may never have another chance
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: again to consider the offer. Trust in the Lord Jesus
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: Christ with all your heart, you will be born again.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: We're here to help you as you struggle to make
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: a decision that may bring some fear to you, maybe
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: some confusion. Let us help you. Or you may wish
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: to simply write us, connect with us and say I've
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: heard enough to know I don't have what I need
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: to be right with God. What the pastor says is true.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: I am a person of prejudice. I really am one
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: whose attitude is soured by my times. I have become
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: a cynic or, I am hiding sin in my life,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: and I realize my life is an open book before
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: God and I come to Christ today. If you connect
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: with us, I give you my word will help you
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: move from where you are to where you want to
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: be in your journey from earth to Heaven. Thank you,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: Father for the assurance of your truth and the truth
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: of your book. And thank you that, though written centuries
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: ago about a man we've never met, in a setting
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: where we've never been, to reach a group of people
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: we've never known. Thank you for the relevance in the
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: way it's spoken to us directly. I pray for those
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: today running from you, running to you, running with you,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: and running against you. Speak to them and their need
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: and connect us. I pray through the power of the
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Spirit of God in the name of Jesus. Everyone said Amen. Amen.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: The preceding message Jonah the Reluctant Prophet was copyrighted in
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, and twenty twenty five, and the
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty five by Charles
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Arswin Dahl Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.