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Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – God Bends a Stubborn Wil... · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Just before Christmas arrived, I began a five part mini
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Speaker 1: series on the work of God in our lives, and
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Speaker 1: I called it God Knows what He's About. We looked
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Speaker 1: for three Sundays at the blessings of God, and we
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Speaker 1: saw how the Lord had his way in the promises
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Speaker 1: that were given in the Old Testament, predicting and pointing
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Speaker 1: toward the coming of the Messiah. God knows what he's
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Speaker 1: about as he's blessing us by choosing those who will
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Speaker 1: serve his purposes, as he did in the case of
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Speaker 1: Mary and Joseph. And then in the Third Message, we
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Speaker 1: saw his blessing and how he sends his son for
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Speaker 1: our salvation, for our spiritual rescue. Like every coin has
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Speaker 1: two sides for it to be authentic, the work of
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Speaker 1: God has two sides, not only his blessings, which we've
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Speaker 1: now looked at, but also his crushings. His crushings. So
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Speaker 1: today we began the last part of that five part series.
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Speaker 1: While looking at two men whom God crushed in the
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Speaker 1: right sense for his purposes. We see how the Lord
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Speaker 1: has done that. As we look at the Book of
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Speaker 1: Jonah together please turn to Jonah chapter one. We see
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Speaker 1: how God can bend a stubborn will. And then next
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Speaker 1: Sunday we will look at another life. As the Lord
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Speaker 1: crushed Saul of Tarsus to become his spokesman, as he
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Speaker 1: humbled an arrogant man, a proud man. But Jonah is
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Speaker 1: the one with the stubborn will. Most of us are
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Speaker 1: familiar with the story, but it may have been a
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Speaker 1: long time since you have read it. Let me read
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Speaker 1: for you the first chapter of this story, and we
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Speaker 1: will see how it all unfolds along the same line
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Speaker 1: as the theme I mentioned earlier. Please stand for the
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Speaker 1: reading of God's word. I'm reading from the New Living Translation.
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Speaker 1: The Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of AMATAI
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Speaker 1: get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.
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Speaker 1: Announced my judgment against it, because I have seen how
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Speaker 1: wicked its people are. But Jonah got up and went
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Speaker 1: in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.
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Speaker 1: He went down to the port of Joppa, where he
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Speaker 1: found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket
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Speaker 1: went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by
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Speaker 1: sailing to Tarshish. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind
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Speaker 1: over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to
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Speaker 1: break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives, the desperate
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Speaker 1: sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the
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Speaker 1: cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time
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Speaker 1: Jonah was sound asleep in the hold, so the captain
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Speaker 1: went down at him. How can you sleep at a
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Speaker 1: time like this, he shouted, Get up and pray to
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Speaker 1: your god. Maybe he will pay attention to us and
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Speaker 1: spare our lives. Then the crew cast lots to see
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Speaker 1: which of them had offended the gods and caused the
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Speaker 1: terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah
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Speaker 1: as the culprit. Why has this awful storm come down
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Speaker 1: on us? They demanded? Who are you? What is your
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Speaker 1: line of work? What country are you from? What is
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Speaker 1: your nationality? Jonah answered, I'm a Hebrew and I worship
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Speaker 1: the Lord, the god of heaven, who made the sea
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Speaker 1: and the land. The sailors were terrified when they heard this,
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Speaker 1: for he had already told him he was running away
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Speaker 1: from the Lord. Oh why did you do it? They groaned,
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Speaker 1: And since the storm was getting worse all the time,
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Speaker 1: they asked him, what should we do to you to
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Speaker 1: stop the storm? 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. Instead, the sailors rode
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Speaker 1: even harder to get the ship to the land, but
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Speaker 1: the stormy sea was too violent for them and they
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Speaker 1: couldn't make it. Then they cried out to the Lord
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Speaker 1: Jonah's God. Oh Lord, they pleaded, don't make us die
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Speaker 1: for this man's sins, and don't hold us responsible for
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Speaker 1: his death. Oh Lord, you have sent this storm upon
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Speaker 1: him for your own good reasons. Then the sailors picked
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Speaker 1: Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and
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Speaker 1: the storm stopped at once. The sailors were awe struck
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Speaker 1: by the Lord's great power, and they offered him a sacrifice,
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Speaker 1: and they vowed to serve him. Now, the Lord had
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Speaker 1: arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah
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Speaker 1: was inside the fish for three days and three nights.
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Speaker 1: We'll leave Jonah there and we'll learn some things from
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Speaker 1: his foolish stubbornness. Please be seated. I was thinking about
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Speaker 1: the turn of the years naturally this morning, and when
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Speaker 1: I read again this story early this morning, I thought,
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Speaker 1: what a wonderful analogy. A ship at sea is for
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Speaker 1: our leaving one year and then beginning a voyage into
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Speaker 1: the new year. And to my delight, I found in
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Speaker 1: the Valley of Vision, which is a book, a collection
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Speaker 1: of the Puritan prayers and devotions, I found these words
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Speaker 1: that apply to year's end and also to the new year.
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Speaker 1: Listen to these excerpts from the Valley of Vision. Thy
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Speaker 1: Goodness has been with me during another year, leading me
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Speaker 1: through a twisting wilderness in retreat, helping me to advance
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Speaker 1: when beaten back, making sure headway. Thy Goodness will be
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Speaker 1: with me in the year a head I hoist sail
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Speaker 1: and draw up anchor, with thee as the blessed pilot
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Speaker 1: of my future, as of my past. I launch my
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Speaker 1: bark on the unknown waters of this new year, with
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Speaker 1: thee O Father as my harbor, with thee O Son
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Speaker 1: at my helm, with thee O Holy Spirit filling my sails.
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Speaker 1: Guide me to heaven with my loins, girt my lamp,
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Speaker 1: burning my ear, open my heart full of love, my
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Speaker 1: soul free. Give me thy grace to sanctify me, thy
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Speaker 1: comforts to cheer me, Thy wisdom to teach me, Thy
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Speaker 1: right hand to guide me, thy counsel to instruct me
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Speaker 1: thy presence to stabilize me. May thy fear be my
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Speaker 1: alle May thy triumphs be my joy. I don't know
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Speaker 1: where you find yourself in the transition. But the good
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Speaker 1: news is that the God of the past is the
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Speaker 1: God of the present, and our God of the present
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Speaker 1: is the God of our future. One thing is true
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Speaker 1: of every person here today. Not one of us knows
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Speaker 1: what a day will bring forth. We do not even
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Speaker 1: know it. We will be alive by the end of
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Speaker 1: this year. Some of us may not be sobering, though
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Speaker 1: it is to think like that. The good news is
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Speaker 1: that our God is our God, and we voyage with
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Speaker 1: Him in this journey as we make our way from
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Speaker 1: Earth to Heaven. Unless, of course, you're here without Christ,
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Speaker 1: and your future should you pass this year, is bleak
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Speaker 1: beyond telling. The future of the lost is portrayed in
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Speaker 1: the scriptures in the starkest of terms. But there's no
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Speaker 1: reason to dwell there. Today, being the first day of
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Speaker 1: the rest of your life, you can make the most
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Speaker 1: important decision you will ever make. That is to move
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Speaker 1: them from the mediocrity of your present estate to a
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Speaker 1: purposeful future. Through faith in Jesus Christ, you'll gain a
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Speaker 1: relationship with God, not by the money you've give in
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Speaker 1: a few moments at an offering, not by some series
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Speaker 1: of resolutions you make to be living a better life.
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Speaker 1: As the new year dawns, you'll turn from darkness to light,
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Speaker 1: and from a life of waywardness and aimlessness to a
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Speaker 1: future of purpose and meaning and definition. If you will
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Speaker 1: simply turn your life over to Christ. I invite you
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Speaker 1: to do that, as we pray, may we bow together
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Speaker 1: we launch our bark on the unknown waves and waters
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Speaker 1: of this new year. Father, But with you as our harbor,
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Speaker 1: and your son as our helm, and your spirit filling ourselves,
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Speaker 1: we have nothing to fear, nothing to fear. We count
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Speaker 1: on you to guide us, to give us grace, to
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Speaker 1: remind us over and over that You are in charge,
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Speaker 1: not we. So I pray for all sitting in this
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Speaker 1: room today, and all who love you, that there might
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Speaker 1: be an awakening this year, a reminder often that our
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Speaker 1: God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases,
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Speaker 1: whether it is what we call blessings or crushings, whether
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Speaker 1: it is in pouring out your favor upon us, and
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Speaker 1: we enjoy the comforts and delights of that favor. Or
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Speaker 1: you put us through a time of testing where we
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Speaker 1: do not know how things will wind up. We trust you,
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Speaker 1: our Father, We trust in your son Jesus. We rely
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Speaker 1: on your spirit to be the one who energizes and
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Speaker 1: comforts and inspires and instructs and illumines. And with all
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Speaker 1: of that we have nothing to fear. Now. For those
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Speaker 1: without the Savior, I pray there will be no relief
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Speaker 1: from the restlessness and aimlessness of the lives that are
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Speaker 1: being lived. May they find themselves as miserable as Jonah,
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Speaker 1: who ran from you rather than toward you, And may
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Speaker 1: they know the relief of your salvation, even as Jonah
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Speaker 1: found rescue in that strangest of all places. We commit
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Speaker 1: ourselves to you today, our Father, and I pray that
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Speaker 1: you would speak to every stubborn heart today and make
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Speaker 1: this book truly relevant, help all of us to see
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Speaker 1: how relevant it is in light of what you have
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Speaker 1: written long ago as direction for this very day. These
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Speaker 1: offerings are yours, and we give them to you with
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Speaker 1: gratitude and great delight. In the name of the Savior
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. We pray everyone said amen. It was with
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Speaker 1: biting sarcasm that Wilber Reese wrote these words, I would
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Speaker 1: like to buy three dollars worth of God, please. Not
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Speaker 1: enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but
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Speaker 1: just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or
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Speaker 1: a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of
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Speaker 1: God to make me love a black man or pick
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Speaker 1: beats with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I
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Speaker 1: want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
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Speaker 1: I want about a pound of eternal in a paper sack.
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Speaker 1: I would like to buy a three dollars worth of God, please.
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Speaker 1: That's the kind of thing Jonah would have said, that
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Speaker 1: is before the fish. What do you mean, God, go where?
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Speaker 1: Why on earth would I ever want to go there?
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Speaker 1: Nine not only is in the middle of the worst
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Speaker 1: kind of people, gentiles, it is the capital of a Syria.
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Speaker 1: Even the name has a hiss in it. You forget God.
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Speaker 1: I'm a Jewish prophet, flag waving, right wing, zealous Jewish prophet.
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Speaker 1: Send me to Jerusalem or Joppa, not Ninevah, where all
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Speaker 1: the swine live. Now, before we take up stones to
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Speaker 1: stone Jonah, I suggest we stop and think about an analogy.
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Speaker 1: What if God had told those who were stump out
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Speaker 1: of Dachau to go to Berlin and to bring the
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Speaker 1: message of hope and forgiveness to the Nazis of Germany.
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Speaker 1: What if God had asked a group of them three
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Speaker 1: years later to go and meet with those officers awaiting
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Speaker 1: trial in Nuremberg and meet alone with them and their
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Speaker 1: cell and offer them the hope of forgiveness in spite
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Speaker 1: of what they had put their people through. You see,
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Speaker 1: prejudice has a different face when you put it in
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Speaker 1: a different context. All of us are able to be
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Speaker 1: very objective about Jonah living so long ago and in
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Speaker 1: a world we know little, if anything about out Most
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Speaker 1: could not even pick a place on the map where
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Speaker 1: Nineveh was in light of today's geography. But when you
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Speaker 1: put it in those terms, it's amazing if I might
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Speaker 1: use these words, how much prejudice makes sense if you
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Speaker 1: have a stubborn will? And who of us doesn't When
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Speaker 1: told to go o where we don't want to go
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Speaker 1: and to do what we don't want to do, very
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Speaker 1: few of us quickly respond yes, sir, I am on
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Speaker 1: my way. No, let me hit the pause button and
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Speaker 1: put the context in a broader light. Most people, when
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Speaker 1: asked the main theme of Jonah. Would tell you it's
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Speaker 1: about a prophet who tried to escape his calling wrong.
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Speaker 1: Or they would say it's about a fish who swallowed
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Speaker 1: a man wrong. The story of Jonah is about God
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Speaker 1: who meant the will of a stubborn prophet. That's the
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Speaker 1: story of Jonah. Never forget that your life isn't about you.
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Speaker 1: Your life is about your God, who made you. It
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Speaker 1: isn't about what you and I want. It's about what
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Speaker 1: He wants and is determined to carry out, whether we
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Speaker 1: like it or not. When asked about the main message
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Speaker 1: of the Book of Jonah, most would probably miss that too.
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Speaker 1: Let me cut to the chase and say it is
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Speaker 1: about the crushing hand of God. The crushing hand of God,
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Speaker 1: we love it when He blesses us and we applaud it.
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Speaker 1: We find great pleasure in His making us comfortable and
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Speaker 1: giving us what we want and what we've asked for,
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Speaker 1: and the joys at a company that are innumerable. They're
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Speaker 1: called God's blessings. We've all been recipients of them, far
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Speaker 1: more than we deserve. But His crushings are our plague.
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Speaker 1: There's nothing pleasurable about them. We not only fear them
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Speaker 1: more often than not. We resent them. Even though both
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Speaker 1: blessings and cursings are for our good and for His glory.
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Speaker 1: We like the former, we'd love to do away with
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Speaker 1: the latter. No one understood that better than Job's wife,
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Speaker 1: who simply said to her husband, in misery, covered with boils,
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Speaker 1: having lost all of their children, having lost his means
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Speaker 1: of making a living, having lost his home and all
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Speaker 1: the family, curse God and die take the easy way out.
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Speaker 1: Job's response reveals the depth of Job's maturity. Maybe you've
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Speaker 1: forgotten what he said. I quote, should we accept only
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Speaker 1: good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?
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Speaker 1: As the new year on rolls and it will one
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Speaker 1: moment at a time, one day, one week at a time,
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Speaker 1: will you remember that question. You'll need it, and you'll
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Speaker 1: need to ask yourself that question over and over, because
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Speaker 1: I can assure you this year will include God's blessings
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Speaker 1: and God's crushinges. If you forget the question asked by Job,
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Speaker 1: your response will be just like Jonahs. So before we
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Speaker 1: cluck our tongues and wag our fingers at this stubborn prophet,
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Speaker 1: I'll suggest we imagine ourselves in front of a full
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Speaker 1: length mirror and not forget the cause of most of
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Speaker 1: our problems, all of them as they relate to a
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Speaker 1: bad attitude, but most of them as they occur. It's
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Speaker 1: time now to take our finger off the pause button
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Speaker 1: and return to the prophet who preferred three dollars worth
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Speaker 1: of God. He really preferred mediocrity. He liked the name prophet,
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Speaker 1: he just didn't like what it required. He enjoyed some
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Speaker 1: of the benefits that came from being one. He just
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Speaker 1: didn't like the assignment that he was given. And so
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Speaker 1: we see the call in verses one and two, and
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Speaker 1: please observe God does not stutter. The call is not vague,
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Speaker 1: it's clear, it's precise, it's brief. And the Lord gave
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Speaker 1: this message to Jonah get up and go to the
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Speaker 1: great city of Ninevah announced my judgment against it because
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Speaker 1: I've seen how wicked its people are, And that was true.
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Speaker 1: It was a city that was the capital, as I
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Speaker 1: said earlier, of Assyria, and the Assyrians were brutal, cruel,
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Speaker 1: cruel victors, known for their torturings, for all of their
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Speaker 1: mistreatment against their enemies. Once taken captive, Jonah knew all
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Speaker 1: about those Assyrians. It was not bad enough that they
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Speaker 1: were Assyrians, they were gentiles. Well, because most of us
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Speaker 1: are that, we don't se it was wrong with it.
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Speaker 1: But we're not Jewish prophets living in that era who
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Speaker 1: are being called to go there with God's message. There
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Speaker 1: was nothing wrong with the call, everything right about it.
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Speaker 1: But Joe wanted God to remember he's Jewish. He's not
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Speaker 1: a world evangelist. He's a Jewish evangelist. What the world
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Speaker 1: would you send me to a place like this? I'd
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Speaker 1: go over like a bust of Luther in the Vatican
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Speaker 1: if I showed up there in Nineveh. Jewish prophet comes
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Speaker 1: with God's message. Oh yeah, so he's got it all
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Speaker 1: figured out in his mind. You see, when you have
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Speaker 1: a stubborn will, your logic makes sense to you, even
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Speaker 1: though you don't realize how illogical it is to fight
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Speaker 1: against God. In fact, the Lord states, I know how
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Speaker 1: wicked they are. Don't think I'm blind to that. I
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Speaker 1: know where I'm sending you. Just like this year, I'm
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Speaker 1: going to say to you on various occasions, do this.
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Speaker 1: It won't be what you had wanted go there was.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't a destination you had in mind. Whether it's
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Speaker 1: a hospital or a funeral home, or standing beside the
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Speaker 1: bed of your sick child, or some failure that is
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Speaker 1: a part of this new year. But you're there. So
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Speaker 1: Jonah doesn't like it, so we're not surprised Verse three
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Speaker 1: with his response, he got up, good, he said, to
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Speaker 1: a rise. So he got up and he went good.
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Speaker 1: He said to go. But he went on his way
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Speaker 1: to Tarshish. Again hard to find today. It's near Gibraltar
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Speaker 1: in southern Spain, due west from Joppa, and Nineveh is
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Speaker 1: northeast five hundred miles Tarsish is twenty five hundred miles
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Speaker 1: west in the opposite direction. Jonah knew what he was doing,
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Speaker 1: and can't you imagine how he rationalized. He gets to Joppa,
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Speaker 1: he finds a ship going to Tarsish. Oh, thanks Lord,
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Speaker 1: and he has the money for the ticket. It wasn't
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Speaker 1: inexpensive pages for providing the money. Lord has nothing to
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Speaker 1: do with any of the negotiations. But Jonah in his
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Speaker 1: mind has got it all figured out. You do that
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Speaker 1: when you're stubborn and you're running. And we find in
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Speaker 1: this third verse, interestingly, two references to an impossibility. He
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Speaker 1: went in the opposite direction a to get away from
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Speaker 1: the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa,
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Speaker 1: where he joined a ship leaving for Tarsish. He bought
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Speaker 1: a ticket went on board two or B, hoping to
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Speaker 1: escape from the Lord. I ask you how easy it
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Speaker 1: is it to escape from omnipresence. That's like getting out
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Speaker 1: of air by being on earth. It's everywhere you can't
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Speaker 1: run and hide. I remember as a little kid when
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Speaker 1: I was afraid. I thought if I just pulled up
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Speaker 1: the covers, I would be protected from the booger man.
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Speaker 1: I called him the Boogerman. My dad tried to get
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Speaker 1: me to change the way that was pronounced, but I
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Speaker 1: like booger better than bogey man. So I'm hiding from
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Speaker 1: the booger man, and that cover no more protected me
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Speaker 1: than that ship would protect Jonah from the Lord. Wherever
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Speaker 1: Jonah went, God was, wherever Jonah ran, God was already there.
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Speaker 1: Let me show you this. Hold your place and look
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Speaker 1: at Psalm one thirty nine. It's really worth the excursion.
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Speaker 1: Psalm one nine I want to read for you. Verses
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Speaker 1: seven through twelve talk about a passage that's written for
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Speaker 1: Jonah to remember. One nine seven begins, I can never
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Speaker 1: escape from your spirit. I can never get away from
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Speaker 1: your presence. Then he goes into several possibilities. If I
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Speaker 1: go up to heaven, the Hebrew says you you are there.
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Speaker 1: Has been added by our English translators simply says, if
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Speaker 1: I go up to heaven you. If I go down
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Speaker 1: to the grave, you, If I ride the wings of
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Speaker 1: the morning, and if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
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Speaker 1: even there, your hand will guide me. Your strength will
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Speaker 1: support me. If I go to the farthest ocean, dwell
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Speaker 1: in your Bible reads the uttermost part or the remotest
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Speaker 1: part of the sea, like Tarshish. If I go to
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Speaker 1: the most distant place, I can even imagine He's there.
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Speaker 1: I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. When Wa
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Speaker 1: Chris Weld was preaching and there had just been the
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Speaker 1: Sputnik that had orbited the Earth, and they were so
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Speaker 1: pleased Russians were to announce that they were up there
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Speaker 1: and they didn't see God. Chris Wal's response the following
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Speaker 1: Sunday was, had you stepped out of your space suit,
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Speaker 1: you would have seen God. You may think you're getting
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Speaker 1: away from God's presence by going to Are you kidding me?
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Speaker 1: Jonah get a life. When you want only three dollars
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Speaker 1: worth of God, then you've got three dollars worth of theology.
31:33
Speaker 1: But when you think clearly, you realize you can't run
31:39
Speaker 1: from omnipresence continuing even there, your hand will guide me,
31:44
Speaker 1: your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness
31:47
Speaker 1: to hide me, and the light, the light around me,
31:52
Speaker 1: to become night. But even in darkness I cannot hide
31:56
Speaker 1: from you. To you, night shines as bright as day.
32:01
Speaker 1: Darkness and light are the same to you. Wow. I
32:05
Speaker 1: love that with God there's no darkness. He is all light.
32:12
Speaker 1: Darkness ends when we passed from this earth to Heaven.
32:16
Speaker 1: There is no light there because the Sun is the
32:20
Speaker 1: light of it. It's the place of constant light. And
32:25
Speaker 1: as Jonah will find out, even God goes on the
32:30
Speaker 1: ship when he buys the ticket. Let's go back to
32:34
Speaker 1: the story. It gets better. The reason I like it
32:38
Speaker 1: is because, for a change, the sailors have a better
32:41
Speaker 1: theology than the prophet. I love that story. Look at it.
32:46
Speaker 1: He bought a ticket, went on board, hoping to escape.
32:50
Speaker 1: Now look closely at verse four. The lord hurled a
32:57
Speaker 1: powerful wind over the sea. Isn't interesting? The wind cooperated
33:03
Speaker 1: there's no such thing as stubborn elements. When God speaks, blow,
33:09
Speaker 1: it blows, rain, it rains, turn up the sea, it turns.
33:16
Speaker 1: And so it caused a violence storm, and that threatened
33:19
Speaker 1: to break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives, the
33:23
Speaker 1: desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help, sort of
33:27
Speaker 1: throwing the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. Now, it's
33:32
Speaker 1: hard to imagine that sitting here, I could ask you
33:35
Speaker 1: to rock back and forth. That's kind of dumb. There's
33:39
Speaker 1: nothing like it. But if you've ever been in a storm,
33:43
Speaker 1: I mean a real storm in an ocean, forty fifty
33:48
Speaker 1: foot waves, no matter how how large your ship may be,
33:55
Speaker 1: you feel like you're you're going to capsize. I've been
34:00
Speaker 1: in a few of those storms. I often think of
34:03
Speaker 1: this storm that appears in Jonah chapter one. This is
34:09
Speaker 1: this is one of the one of the worst, because
34:12
Speaker 1: the sailors, salty sailors are now fearing for their lives.
34:20
Speaker 1: But now I'm sure their sails are torn apart. I'm
34:23
Speaker 1: sure a master or two has broken and and it's threatening,
34:29
Speaker 1: and so fearing for their lives, they shouted to their
34:32
Speaker 1: gods for help, and they threw the cargo overboard, and
34:36
Speaker 1: all this time Jonahs sound asleep in the hole. Isn't
34:39
Speaker 1: that interesting? Don't buy don't pass that up. You can
34:43
Speaker 1: be so stubborn, you can be so carnal that you
34:46
Speaker 1: can sleep through the danger you cause other people because
34:50
Speaker 1: of your carnality. Because he's disobedient, other lives are threatened
34:58
Speaker 1: when you and I are disobedient. We don't live all alone.
35:01
Speaker 1: No one is an island. We're like concentric circles. And
35:06
Speaker 1: that disobedience affects those close to us, and often those
35:10
Speaker 1: who are even further distant from us. It has a
35:15
Speaker 1: riffling effect. And now the sailors, who are in this
35:19
Speaker 1: sense totally innocent, are now suffering from the storm. Jonah's
35:24
Speaker 1: disobedience is causing. But he's asleep in the hold of
35:28
Speaker 1: the ship. When the captain went down, all he heard
35:34
Speaker 1: was that's the way I sounded. Nothing, that's the way
35:40
Speaker 1: it is. That's kind of like that. I sometimes snore
35:45
Speaker 1: both ways, and you got to you gotta be gifted
35:49
Speaker 1: to snore both ways, you know. So Jonahs sound asleep?
35:56
Speaker 1: Why because he is a stubborn man, and he has
36:01
Speaker 1: convinced himself he can get away from this call to
36:07
Speaker 1: the swine in Ninevah. I mean, that's the kind of
36:14
Speaker 1: theology you build when you just want a cup of
36:17
Speaker 1: warm milk and a snooze in the sunshine. Captain wakes
36:24
Speaker 1: him up, says, get up, pray to your God. Maybe
36:27
Speaker 1: he'll pay attention to us and spare our lives. What's this?
36:33
Speaker 1: It's almost a reversal of roles. You wonder who the
36:36
Speaker 1: prophets are. The crew cast lots to see which of
36:40
Speaker 1: them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm.
36:43
Speaker 1: When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit.
36:50
Speaker 1: Why has this awful storm come down on us? They demanded,
36:54
Speaker 1: Who are you, Jonah? What is your line of work?
36:56
Speaker 1: What country are you from? What's your nationality? What's this
37:00
Speaker 1: all about? Never seen a storm like this? Jonah answered,
37:05
Speaker 1: I'm a Hebrew. I wonder how this felt coming out
37:08
Speaker 1: of his throat. I worship the Lord, the God of heaven,
37:13
Speaker 1: who made the sea and the land. The sailors must
37:20
Speaker 1: have stared at him in disbelief. What are you thinking?
37:29
Speaker 1: In fact, we read here when they ask why did
37:34
Speaker 1: you do it? They've grown and since the storm is
37:37
Speaker 1: getting worse, What should we do to stop the storm?
37:41
Speaker 1: Throw me in the sea, says Jonah. That's the first
37:46
Speaker 1: smart thing he said since we started reading the book.
37:51
Speaker 1: You need to toss me overboard. I'm the problem, and
37:55
Speaker 1: it will become calm again. I know that this terrible
37:58
Speaker 1: storm is all my fault. They have enough integrity not
38:05
Speaker 1: to want to kill him, so they don't cooperate it
38:08
Speaker 1: right away. They they row harder to get the ship
38:12
Speaker 1: to the land, and they're not able to do that,
38:14
Speaker 1: And then they cry out to the Lord Jonah's God.
38:19
Speaker 1: Their gods aren't working, and so they go to Jonah's
38:22
Speaker 1: God and they plead, don't make us die for this
38:26
Speaker 1: man's sins. Don't hold us responsible for his death, Oh Lord,
38:30
Speaker 1: And you've sent this storm upon him for your own
38:33
Speaker 1: good reasons. Look at that theology. This is crushing time
38:38
Speaker 1: for this man. You've got your reasons. We don't want
38:44
Speaker 1: to kill him, however, we'll die if he doesn't go overboard.
38:49
Speaker 1: So heav hoo. The sailors picked Jonah up and threw
38:56
Speaker 1: him into the raging sea at that moment. At that moment,
39:00
Speaker 1: the crushing began to have an effect. Earlier, when he
39:04
Speaker 1: said what he did. It's my fault. He's not repenting.
39:09
Speaker 1: But when he hits that sea in the cold waters
39:12
Speaker 1: of the Mediterranean wash over him. Something else happened. The
39:19
Speaker 1: storm stopped at once. Remember what we said earlier, The
39:22
Speaker 1: storms never give God problems. It's people who sail on
39:26
Speaker 1: the storms they give him the problem. The sailors were
39:33
Speaker 1: awe struck. Now here we are a great moment for
39:38
Speaker 1: the word awesome. This is awesome. It really was. I've
39:47
Speaker 1: seen many a storm, but I've never seen one stop
39:50
Speaker 1: on a dime. Ever, they kind of grind down, take
39:56
Speaker 1: some time, days off an hour's but this one stops.
40:03
Speaker 1: And this old ship that had been creaking and groaning
40:07
Speaker 1: under the waves in the crest of the sea is
40:14
Speaker 1: now still. However, there was something going on under the
40:20
Speaker 1: sea that was very interesting. The Lord had arranged for
40:28
Speaker 1: a great fish to swallow China. Guess when he had
40:34
Speaker 1: tapped the sort of see on his shoulders. Fish don't
40:37
Speaker 1: have shoulders. Guess when he tapped him on the nose
40:39
Speaker 1: and said, get on your way over there, and it's
40:42
Speaker 1: near Joppa, I'm gonna need you. And the fish doesn't argue.
40:47
Speaker 1: Fish are always cooperatives. Problem is not fish. His problem
40:51
Speaker 1: is not storm. This problem is stubborn prophets and the
40:58
Speaker 1: great fish. While Jonah, you know what comes to my mind?
41:06
Speaker 1: What proverb I think of? Right here? The way of
41:09
Speaker 1: the transgressor is hard. That's another statement you need to
41:15
Speaker 1: remind yourself up of as the year unfolds. Not only
41:22
Speaker 1: shall we receive good from the hand of God, but
41:27
Speaker 1: also the bad. When I run and when I disobey,
41:34
Speaker 1: misery is on its way. The transgressor suffers hardship. This
41:44
Speaker 1: is the only way Jonah would have given in. I
41:49
Speaker 1: don't know what the fish will be in our lives,
41:53
Speaker 1: of course I don't, But I know that God has
41:57
Speaker 1: never run short of fish methods of dealing with us.
42:05
Speaker 1: There's another verse I want you to look at that
42:08
Speaker 1: ties in with the same story. Two books ahead, you'll
42:13
Speaker 1: pass Micah, then you'll get to the Little Book of
42:18
Speaker 1: nahum Nam. Look at Nam chapter one. I love it
42:25
Speaker 1: when I have you look at places like this. Those
42:27
Speaker 1: little dust pockets come up from the seats as you nam.
42:34
Speaker 1: What in the world is name? Look at chapter one,
42:40
Speaker 1: Verse three talk about relevance. The Lord is slow to
42:46
Speaker 1: get angry, but his power is great. He never lets
42:50
Speaker 1: the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the
42:55
Speaker 1: whirlwind and the storm, the billowing clouds, or the dust
43:04
Speaker 1: beneath his feet. I can almost see him on the
43:11
Speaker 1: horizon of this new year, the billowing clouds as they
43:18
Speaker 1: hover over different ones of us who have resisted, and
43:24
Speaker 1: truth be told resented. We've resented what God wanted and
43:33
Speaker 1: was determined to get from us. Naam one three says
43:38
Speaker 1: it well, he displays his power in the whirlwind and
43:42
Speaker 1: the storm. When he makes the transgressor's way hard. God
43:49
Speaker 1: is all over that it doesn't just happen, and he
43:53
Speaker 1: suddenly wakes up and realize, no, it's under his direction.
43:57
Speaker 1: He knows what he's doing. When the prodigal took off
44:01
Speaker 1: with all the money he had coming to him, and
44:04
Speaker 1: he lived it up for who knows how long, and
44:07
Speaker 1: then the money ran out, and then the friends ran away,
44:11
Speaker 1: and then he lost his place to live, and finally
44:14
Speaker 1: he's living in the street and then needy in big excrement.
44:21
Speaker 1: He comes to his senses, it says, when he came
44:27
Speaker 1: to his senses, he said to himself, I will rise
44:33
Speaker 1: and go to my father. And then he practiced his speech.
44:40
Speaker 1: I will take all the responsibility of all the carnality
44:46
Speaker 1: that I've exhibited. I won't blame my older brother. I
44:50
Speaker 1: won't blame my dad, I won't blame my home. I
44:54
Speaker 1: won't blame any friends. I'll blame He's got that full
44:57
Speaker 1: length mirror in front of him. Appropriately, there's the problem.
45:05
Speaker 1: That's what happens to Jonah. But it doesn't happen until
45:09
Speaker 1: he's inside the fish. And I want to suggest to
45:13
Speaker 1: you chapter two is the strangest place of prayer you
45:16
Speaker 1: will find in all the Bible. From inside the fish.
45:25
Speaker 1: My Bible reads in verse one of chapter two. I
45:29
Speaker 1: cried out to the Lord in my great trouble. You know,
45:34
Speaker 1: the beauty of this is that the Lord does not respond.
45:37
Speaker 1: Get out of my life, or Jonah tried to get
45:41
Speaker 1: your attention earlier, I made it clear where I wanted
45:45
Speaker 1: none of that. God, being a god of grace and patience,
45:50
Speaker 1: here's his wayward prophet, and the crushing lets up in
45:59
Speaker 1: three days when Jonah verse ten, chapter two, the fish
46:07
Speaker 1: spits Jonah out on the beach first amphibious landing in
46:15
Speaker 1: the Bible, Yes, sir, that's the response same destiny, Yes, sir,
46:26
Speaker 1: go to net yes, sir, interesting, same man, But what
46:31
Speaker 1: a difference his heart changed. When God wants to do
46:38
Speaker 1: an impossible task, he takes an impossible individual, put your
46:44
Speaker 1: name there, and crushes her or crushes him. Never doubt it.
46:53
Speaker 1: In the end, God wins every time. Every time, I'll
47:02
Speaker 1: find four lessons from what we have uncovered in our
47:06
Speaker 1: time in Jonah, and let me give them to you. One, two, three, four,
47:12
Speaker 1: Number one. No will can be more stubborn than God's will.
47:19
Speaker 1: You can't outstubborn God. He means business, or as they
47:28
Speaker 1: say in Texas, he means business. God means business when
47:35
Speaker 1: he determines he wants you in an area that whether
47:39
Speaker 1: you want to go or not is not important to
47:42
Speaker 1: him because it isn't about making you or me happy.
47:47
Speaker 1: When will we ever learn that it's about fulfilling His
47:51
Speaker 1: will for us? May this new year be marked by that.
47:56
Speaker 1: May we give up this idea that it's about my
48:00
Speaker 1: what I want. That's why I'm making these strong resolutions
48:05
Speaker 1: about this new year. Careful, careful, make your first one
48:13
Speaker 1: answering yes every time it's clear what God wants from me,
48:20
Speaker 1: because no will can be more stubborn than God's will.
48:23
Speaker 1: Here's the second lesson, no resistance can be less effective
48:29
Speaker 1: than our resistance. Don't waste your time and energy. Train
48:37
Speaker 1: yourself to think yes, preferably yes, sir. Train yourself to
48:43
Speaker 1: say that. By the way, it's important to remember that
48:49
Speaker 1: an open door does not constitute a call. Learn that principle.
48:53
Speaker 1: Years ago, there was an open door to Tarshish. I mean,
48:59
Speaker 1: Jodah could have convinced himself. Uh, it's great how God works.
49:02
Speaker 1: Must not be nine uh, or I wouldn't have been
49:04
Speaker 1: able to get a ticket. Wrong thinking God's will hasn't changed,
49:11
Speaker 1: it's just now being rationalized. And you think it's Tarshish.
49:16
Speaker 1: You'll never get anywhere near there. Your resistance is completely
49:21
Speaker 1: ineffective when it comes to something like God's plan. Here's
49:27
Speaker 1: the third lesson. No relief can bring greater relief than
49:34
Speaker 1: being in the center of God's will. It is the
49:40
Speaker 1: greatest place to be. I have resisted God's will. I
49:46
Speaker 1: have fought with him. I have stubbornly refused to accept
49:53
Speaker 1: a particular direction he had for me, and I've said
49:57
Speaker 1: no several times, all of it futile. And then I
50:02
Speaker 1: finally yielded and said yes, sir. And then I got
50:06
Speaker 1: what I had never gotten before, and that is a
50:09
Speaker 1: sense of peace, because there is no greater relief than
50:18
Speaker 1: the relief that comes from being in the center of
50:22
Speaker 1: His will. For this new year, it's not asking too
50:26
Speaker 1: much of any of us. Seek His will, then, do it.
50:34
Speaker 1: Do it, regardless of the trouble it causes, or the
50:40
Speaker 1: difficulty or the adjustments. Do it. Don't fight it. Do it.
50:47
Speaker 1: You'll know a relief like you've not known for a
50:51
Speaker 1: long time. Here's the fourth. No time is a better
50:56
Speaker 1: time than now to say yes to God's call. If
51:04
Speaker 1: I may go back, Jonah settled for three dollars worth
51:08
Speaker 1: of God, not enough to explode his soul or disturb
51:12
Speaker 1: his sleep. He wanted ecstasy, not transformation. He wanted about
51:19
Speaker 1: a pound of the turtle in a paper sack. Well,
51:22
Speaker 1: that's not the call. That's mediocrity, and that's not good enough.
51:33
Speaker 1: Don't let that happen in your life this year. Don't
51:38
Speaker 1: let that happen. Every so often, I pull one of
51:46
Speaker 1: the books off my shelf that I keep nearby because
51:51
Speaker 1: of its relevance to my world. It's Oz Gennis's book
51:57
Speaker 1: titled The Call. At the end of each chapter of
52:04
Speaker 1: the book, there is a challenge to heed the call,
52:10
Speaker 1: or accept the call, or respond yes to the call.
52:16
Speaker 1: I love it. First of all. It's the only Osgennis
52:18
Speaker 1: book I can understand, so it means more to me
52:23
Speaker 1: than his other books that I have that when I
52:26
Speaker 1: get When I got into that book again this week,
52:32
Speaker 1: I came to the end of a chapter that had
52:36
Speaker 1: this challenge. Do you long to escape the smallness of
52:42
Speaker 1: life with no purpose higher than your own? To rise
52:51
Speaker 1: above mediocrity and the quiet desperation of so many around you,
53:03
Speaker 1: to know a purpose no odds can daunt and no
53:11
Speaker 1: failure can dismay. Listen to Jesus of Nazareth. Answer his call,
53:21
Speaker 1: Answer his call. I urge you to do that today today,
53:28
Speaker 1: first day of the new year. Today, Lord Jesus Christ,
53:36
Speaker 1: I am yours. Praise be to God you were mine.
53:45
Speaker 1: I will not fight your enthronement on my life. I
53:49
Speaker 1: give you fully green lights everywhere. I will do what
53:57
Speaker 1: you tell me to do. I will go where you
53:59
Speaker 1: leave me to go. I will say yes, and I
54:04
Speaker 1: won't hesitate, and I commit myself to you this day,
54:14
Speaker 1: let's a bow our heads. I don't know who I'm
54:18
Speaker 1: talking to today, so I'll just say, I'm talking to
54:21
Speaker 1: all of us. I'm there with you. Whatever the new
54:29
Speaker 1: year includes, I give you my word. I will say yes.
54:38
Speaker 1: When I'm convinced that it is the Lord in the
54:41
Speaker 1: leadership of my life. I urge you to do the same. Thankfully,
54:49
Speaker 1: I've come to the foot of the cross, and I've
54:53
Speaker 1: relinquished my future to him. Now it's my responsibility to
54:58
Speaker 1: relinquish every day. If you've not yet trusted in Christ,
55:05
Speaker 1: that is where you start this year. Believe in the Savior.
55:14
Speaker 1: Understand his death on the cross paid the complete payment
55:19
Speaker 1: for your sent removed all the barriers between you and him.
55:26
Speaker 1: He's ready to forgive you and to accept you, and
55:31
Speaker 1: to direct your steps into a peace you've never known before.
55:39
Speaker 1: Take care of that today. Connect with us any way
55:43
Speaker 1: you wish. That's why we're here. Let us help you
55:47
Speaker 1: on the journey. Thank you, Lord for preserving this story.
55:54
Speaker 1: Thank you for the thousands of stories that could have
55:57
Speaker 1: included our names, that have brought us to the end
56:02
Speaker 1: of ourselves and to face the consequences of our attempt
56:08
Speaker 1: to run away. Give us a sense of peace and
56:15
Speaker 1: relief knowing that you mean business and you're far more
56:23
Speaker 1: determined than we'll ever be, and that our resistance is
56:27
Speaker 1: far less effective than we could even imagine. Give us
56:32
Speaker 1: a peace in saying yes to you, regardless of what
56:39
Speaker 1: that may include. Begin with me, I pray, may I
56:46
Speaker 1: model this for the rest of my life. Now to
56:52
Speaker 1: him who is able to guard us from stumbling and
56:55
Speaker 1: to present us faultless before the presence of His glory
56:59
Speaker 1: with exceeding gres joy to the only wise God, our Savior,
57:04
Speaker 1: be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and
57:10
Speaker 1: forever and ever and ever and ever through Christ. I
57:18
Speaker 1: pray everyone says Amen Amen. The preceding message God Bends
57:32
Speaker 1: a stubborn will and the sound recording were copyrighted in
57:35
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen by Charles Rswindall, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
57:41
Speaker 1: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.