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Jonah Could NOT Do It! · Bible Tract Echoes Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey friend, welcome back to Bible Attract Echoes.
• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Mike and we're career host.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm so thankful for the opportunity.
• 0:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have to speak to you right now.
• 0:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're in the book of Jonah.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a small book of the Bible.
• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's it about?
• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Four chapters you're so.
• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you open your Bible up right to the middle, actually about two thirds to the right.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: You might just lay in on Jonah.
• 0:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you have problems, just go back to the table of contents.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's right after Amis.
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry, right after Obadaya, which is only one chapter.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's really hard to find.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Amis is nine chapters.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Amis or what I had Jonah Micah, the book of the Bible I was named for.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Micah is only, let's see here, it's only seven chapters, so it's in those minor prophets.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's not easy to find, but there's a good thought in here that I believe the Lord has for us today.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about working.
• 0:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: beyond your power.
• 0:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: You ever done something you thought, how did I pull that off?
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: You hear stories about mothers?
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: The children of their car accident and maybe a child is is pinned by wreckage and mothers will lift a car off of their child And you marvel how could that have happened that that lady a hundred and twenty pounds could never have done that She could have trained as a power lift or whole whole life and never done that and somehow without that adrenaline She's able to do that
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Friend, those physical feats may be impressive.
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: They may cause us to ponder and wonder in an amazement.
• 1:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: But what God does with his people, people like you and me, so, so very undeserving.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: what he does with us beyond our power is most certainly worth marbling at.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: We talked about yesterday by way of introduction in the book of Saint Corinthians about those Macedonians and how they Paul tells the Corinthian church how the Macedonians beyond to their power and yay beyond their power
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: they were supporters of the work of God.
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to look at an old testament illustration.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: This has done a long thought.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to take all week to share.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: But right now I do want to share with you this thought from the book of Jonah.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jonah chapter number one.
• 2:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jonah one verse number one through for the Bible says this.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the Son of Amatize, saying, O rise, go to Nineveh.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Pause here for just a moment.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: We talked yesterday about the privilege of the word.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's an incredible thing that God would speak to His man Jonah.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's an incredible thing that God would speak to us.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll preach to myself for a moment, but so often we take the priority of prayer, the priority that prayer should have, and we put it on so many other things.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: We get busy.
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: We do a good job of staying busy.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you ask me to show you my calendar, I could pull it up and it's all color coded.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know what everything means.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I could show it to you and you think that guy is busy, but you know what?
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: If I speak to a couple thousand people and I've had the privilege of doing so.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was over in another country not long ago, I got to preach to 2,500 people.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: But if I talked to thousands of people, but I haven't talked to God.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not prioritizing the privilege of His Word.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: God wants to speak to us.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And through His Word He does so in this day, He may not be specifically, He may not be calling on the phone, He may not be speaking to you in dreams.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's not how God speaks to you.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: He speaks to us through His Word.
• 3:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: He has given us this book to for our good for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction
• 4:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what we have the privilege of prayer to speak to God, but we so often de-prioritize, we put that power.
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: We put it on the bottom shelf and we say that that's not that you know it is when you go through a book store and when you go through the grocery store The thing is that they really want you to buy They are at eye level they're right about right about where your hands can easily reach about shoulder height right about there, you know Because the stuff that's on the bottom shelf I mean it's there it's available you can buy it
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's not the priority.
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if it has to do with just mark up.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if it has to do with margin, but that's that stuff that's right there easily accessible.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's we, there's a reason is there and it's because we default to that that's the main thing we grab.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: But prayer, I don't even know if it's out on the floor.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's on a pallet in the back.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: I used to work in a grocery store one of my first jobs.
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And someone might come up to you.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I worked in the dairy section.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: So hey, do you have this particular yogurt?
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to, I've got a coupon for this yogurt.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then I realize,
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we just got that in, it's on a, it's on a palette in the back and you have to go all the way in the back and get them a box of it and say, hey, here's all the ones, but you didn't get grab the right flavor with the right box with the right flavors, you're going to all the back then get the raspberry one and bring it out there, how sad would it be, if prayer should be the that potent weapon of prayer.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: The only offensive offensive weapon we really have, all the way back on a palette in the back, not even out on the floor.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: The privilege of the word, Jonah, was spoken to by God.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: The people's wickedness, verse number two, rise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry against it for the wickedness has come before me.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, Nineveh hated enemy of Israel.
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: They were violent, cruel, and pagan, but I'm so glad Romans 5, 8.
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: applies to each every one of us, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: People think, oh, I've got to give up the alcohol before I can come to Christ.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to give up the pornography.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to be more faithful.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to attend church.
• 6:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to be a giver.
• 6:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to put money in the offering plate.
• 6:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to stop cursing so much.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Frank, can I tell you?
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: God wants you just as you are.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now that doesn't mean he's going to leave you as you are heard a man say I'm going to try not to butcher this quote.
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: There was someone up.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to get political here, but it is a hot button for these days.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: a communist was trying to shout down, this was decades ago, but was trying to shout down a preacher.
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was preaching in public on a tree stump, you can imagine that, and this communist saw the crowd is here, communist is trying to shout down this preacher, just preaching the gospel.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: in a drunk staggers by, and he's got nothing but rags on, and you can tell he's been down and out.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the communist is having this kind of back and forth with the preacher a little bit, and the preacher's trying to stay on topic about the gospel.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the communist says about this drunk as an illustration, he said, communism would put a new suit on this man here, basically installing how great communism is.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: and the preacher very quick where it looks at the man and the communist and looks the drunk and says Christianity, God would put a new man in that suit.
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you realize that is the difference.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: God is looking to give grace, but we are not going to stay the same grace does not mean he signs and gives you a license to keep doing all of that, the licentious and the serious things that you have been doing to live a lie and play a game is not with you son up for Christianity, you are giving your life to God, but you don't change before you come to him, you go to him and he will change you.
• 8:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what Nineveh needed, they needed the people's wickedness was so great, but thankfully, God's man got God's word, but there's a problem here.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: The preacher's weakness.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: What a sad thing it is.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: When God's people are the straingler, are the ones that's stymie, that slow, that suffocate, God's word going out.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what happens here.
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jonah, deep seated.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: ingrained, national bitterness, prejudice, personal hatred toward Nineva.
• 9:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: He didn't.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: He didn't struggle to obey and just begrudgingly do the right thing.
• 9:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, he ran the opposite direction.
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think of the great missionaries, the past, Hudson Taylor, overcoming immense cultural barriers
• 9:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: But Jonah, he wasn't acting the part of a good missionary going to a hard place.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was purposefully running the other direction.
• 9:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: And this is where we really get to the thought about beyond your power.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jonah, chapter 1, verse 4.
• 9:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken.
• 9:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: win.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: God used nature itself to push Jonah back where he needed to be.
• 10:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: When we resist God, he knows how to get our attention.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes, storms of life are not punishments, but their course corrections.
• 10:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Proverbs 16 verse 9 says, a man's heart devises his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.
• 10:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: We think we've got it all figured out, don't we?
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: We think everything is just peachy-cain, we think we think we've got our GPS set exactly where we want it to go, but we forget about the master of the sea.
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: We forget about the fact that God sees us everywhere.
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is immutable.
• 10:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: That means he's unchanging, but he's omnipresent.
• 10:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: That means he's everywhere.
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's omniscient.
• 10:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: He knows everything.
• 10:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's omnipotent.
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: That means he's all powerful.
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that same power, the God of the universe that is all powerful.
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is also willing and able to use that power.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: to allow us to help us do things we didn't think were possible.
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I'm not going to lean into this and say, man, you better be careful about going fishing when your out of God's will because God might capsize your boat, I'm not talking about that.
• 11:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: God can do whatever he wants, wherever he wants, however he wants, but I will say this, no matter where you are in life.
• 11:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you are outside of God's will, be careful of that thing, get right with God immediately.
• 11:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: But even if you are inside God's will,
• 11:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we need a little more help.
• 11:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: We look at a situation thing.
• 11:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: How can I do this?
• 11:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: How can this church make budget?
• 11:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: How can we fill this church building up?
• 11:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: How can we see some more kids come to Sunday school?
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to do it myself.
• 11:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: How can I reach my father or my mother?
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: How can I friend the only way is with God?
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think back to those amazing stories of George Mueller and the way God provided for him and those orphans so many years ago he would pray as the orphans were sitting down to eat but there was no food on the table, there was no drink in their cup and just long behold the milk man with his wagon would break down outside.
• 12:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: The bread truck would come on by and it would just happen to lose a wheel right outside a Mr. Mueller's orphanage.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: No quintzons with God.
• 12:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: He can do amazing things with weak people and that's what we're going to be talking about tomorrow.
• 12:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's a call from God to live beyond our power.
• 12:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: The same God that enables us to give, serve, and love beyond what we think is possible.
• 12:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm looking forward to sharing a little bit about how He allows us to go beyond our power, tomorrow here on Bible Trek Tacos.
• 13:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great day for His glory.
• 13:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll plan on talking to you soon.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for listening.
• 13:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: God bless.
• 13:13
  [UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to Bible Tract Echoes, the radio ministry of Bible Tracts Incorporated.
• 13:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Want to see our gospel tracks and other resources?
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Visit us online at BibleTracksInk.org that's BibleTracksInk.org or follow us on social media to learn how you can partner with this ministry.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for listening.
• 13:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord richly bless you as you live for Him.