Jonah (Jonah 1-4 Tim Robinson)

Who, O Lord, could save themselves?

Their own soul could heal.

Our shame was deeper than the sea.

Your grace is deeper still. You alone can rescue.

You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave.

You came down to find us, let us out of death.

To You alone belongs the highest praise.

You, O Lord, have made a way.

The great divide You healed. For when our hearts are far away,

Your love went further still. Yes, Your love goes further still.

And You alone can rescue. You alone can save.

You alone can lift us from the grave.

You came down to find us, let us out of death.

To You alone belongs the highest praise.

We lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes.

You're the giver of life. We lift up our eyes.

Lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life. we lift up our eyes lift up our eyes you're the giver of life we lift up our eyes lift up our eyes you're the giver of life you alone can rescue you alone can save you alone can lift us from the grave you came down to find us let us out of death to you alone belongs the highest praise you alone belongs the highest praise to you alone belongs the highest praise to you

Lord we are so thankful that we are able to stand before you and sing praises to your name thank you for the song they give to us in our hearts we know

Lord that if we trust in you with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding and in all our ways we acknowledge you you will direct our paths and that is what we're asking

Lord Jesus direct our paths to go wherever you lead us wherever you want us to go you make it easy to love you you are good and you are kind you bring joy into my life you make it easy to trust you you have never left my side you've been faithful every time all

I want is you Jesus all

I want is you you are the refuge

I run to you are the fire that leads me through the night

I'll follow you anyway there's a million reasons to trust you nothing to fear for you are by my side

I'll Jesus you came to my rescue took my place upon that cross you redeemed what

I lost now my whole world revolving around you you're the center of the treasure all

I want is you Jesus all

I want is you you are the refuge

I run to you are the fire that leads me through the night

I'll follow you anyway there's a million reasons to trust you nothing to fear for you are by my side

I'll follow you anyway wherever you lead me whatever it costs me all

I want is you Jesus all I want is you wherever you lead me whatever it costs me all

I want is you Jesus all I want is you all

I want is you Jesus all

I want is you you are the refuge

I run to you are the fire that leads me through the night

I'll follow you anyway there's a million reasons to trust you nothing to fear for you are by my side

I'll follow you anywhere follow you anywhere follow you anywhere you may morning everybody let's pray good to see everyone father

God you truly are the God that saves salvation truly belongs to you thank you for giving us an opportunity to have eternal life and forgiveness of all our sins through your son

Jesus Christ thank you for sending him to the earth to die a death that we deserved thank you for raising him from the dead and giving us such hope of eternal life and hope that we might be with you forever and that our life isn't a waste but we have purpose now and you've called us to do things for you you've called us out of the world to live for you and you have ordained many things in life to accomplish your will we pray that you would be able to use us and give us the

Holy Spirit to do the things that you've called us to do and I just pray today that you would speak through us and spree speak to us by your word and that we would be able to apply what we read today and that we would go out and be able to be a light into a dark world and that you would cause a revival to happen because you can do it

Lord and you are the one that can orchestrate that thank you for all you do for us and we pray that we would truly have hearts that would follow you anywhere in Jesus name

I pray amen alright so today we're gonna be speaking or I'm gonna be teaching through the book of Jonah it is a story that I've really come to love some people say this story sounds a little fishy they would be correct actually big fishy it's the world's greatest fish story and some of the the themes of Jonah are revival and revival is a doing of the

Lord and we thank God for for the revivals he's had and we think that revival could happen now and we're seeing victories won now even at the abortion mill a lot of people from our church go out and we try to save innocent lives and we're seeing some victories being won lately if you've been watching the news

Roe vs. Wade has been overturned and a lot of people are stirred up about that right that's good that's something we can clap for yeah and that's really excited to see but the cool thing is that we know who wins in the end if you guys watched

Pastor Jeff's message through the email I you guys should watch that video because it was really encouraging

I mean we know who wins in the end we know how the story ends we know that the

Lord is gonna return and judge the earth we know that we're gonna have eternal life we know that we're on the side of truth so we can go out and we can proclaim it boldly and preach it like it's the truth because it actually is right and another theme is compassion we need to warn people about judgment and speak the truth but also to reveal the compassion of the

Lord this story really does reveal just how compassionate the Lord is even in the

Old Testament he's very very compassionate some people think the Old Testament God is a

God of wrath and then Jesus came and he's this God of love but Jesus says you know if you've seen me you've seen the

Father so God really truly is there one so if you have seen

Jesus and you've come to know Jesus you know the one true God and you know his one and only

Son that is eternal life so themes are compassion and revival and another theme is that God has truly created the world

I know that's obvious to a lot of us because God has opened up our eyes but even if he hasn't it's kind of just you know take a look out and see all the wonderful things that God has made all the trees and the stars and the moon and the sky and just me and you and how we're able to talk some people think that happens by chance and they got it you got to be crazy to think that obviously after we heard drew last week

I think we're all convinced of intelligent design that God is in control so that is a theme that God not only created the world but he's completely in control of it that he could interact anytime he wants and that he is completely sovereign and that he ultimately is the deciding factor of how things play out and how the future unfolds and then also he not only created and controlled the world but God also cares for the world he has deep compassion on people some people more than others and to people who come and believe in his son we know that he has great great compassion on us because we have sinned against him but he is still willing to be patient with us he's willing to be kind to us he's willing to love us and he's willing to forgive us of our sin if we're willing to repent and believe the gospel the gospel is a message that saves anyone who hears and believes that message is granted eternal life if they truly truly believed

God will change their heart God will open up their eyes to see the truth and they become a new creation the old has passed away and the new has come so I have no story but I guess we'll just get right into reading the word if you were seeking a story the only story be given to you is the story of Jonah so let's just start reading now the word of the

Lord came to Jonah the son of Mitziah saying arise go to Nineveh that great city and call out against it for the evil has come up before me so the great city of Nineveh God calls it great and God is calling

Jonah the prophet the man of God to go and preach a message of judgment to the

Ninevites and this should be an easy task right because Jonah is a prophet he's supposed to be a man of God and God's calling him to go preach that's what prophets do right not so much for Jonah but Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the

Lord he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the

Lord so this man Jonah is apparently a prophet of the Lord but he is in rebellion against God he wants nothing to do with what

God has called him to do he's clearly getting a clear call to go to the Ninevites and preach a message of judgment but Jonah runs from the presence of the

Lord I don't think it's possible since the Lord is omnipresent wherever you go the Lord is there you can suppress the truth and suppress what he's called you to do but he's always there you can't run from him he will find you because he's already there so Jonah actually does the complete opposite of what he's called to do he's called to go to Nineveh so Jonah is here in Israel Nineveh is about here and the

Mediterranean Sea is a huge sea right here and then Tarshish is here so Jonah is supposed to go here but he says no

I don't want to go there like a child and then runs the other direction so Jonah kind of has a childish rebellious attitude it's kind of like when you are with a disobedient child and you tell him like Johnny go clean your room and then he doesn't want to clean his room but he just runs and goes and sits and watch cartoons or does whatever he wants to do right he's called to go do something but he doesn't want to listen so that's kind of how

Jonah is he's he knows that God is calling to do it it's clear and he's just does not want to go and he leaves flees and gets into a boat and tries to run from God trying to go all the way the opposite direction to Tarshish so he gets on a pagan ship and but the

Lord when he got on the ship you would think that the Lord would just let him go do whatever he does he can go serve pagan gods now because you know it's all the same no not really the

Lord the Lord but the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and then there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship threatened to break up so the tempest is just a violent windy storm that the

Lord sent and this is no just violent windy storm that we've seen but this is from the

Lord so it's a supernatural violent and windy storm and the people on the ship know that is a violent and windy storm and they know that it is a supernatural storm they know that someone's

God is offended and they know that God is angry or some sort of God is angry with them and it's obvious to them and I know that because the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his

God and they so each cried out to his God so there's no atheists in foxholes apparently and apparently there's no atheist on a sinking ship right in a storm so and there was no atheist on this ship they're all trying to call out to their pagan

God or whatever God they follow or whatever of their God of their own making whatever they're doing they're calling out and they recognize that they need to be saved they're in danger of death one thing that we all can be afraid of is death right with especially if you don't know the salvation of Jesus Christ and you know in the salvation of the

Lord I mean everyone is afraid to die everyone has to come to terms that ten out of ten people eventually die and that this life isn't all there is but that there is a sense that death is scary and these people are scared for their lives and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them so they're hurling cargo out of the ship because you know cargo doesn't mean anything when you're scared for your life it's

I mean what does it profit a man to lose his or was a profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul right so possessions are not that valuable when you're talking about your life saving your life and it's the same way with our soul that nothing out there is more valuable than your eternal soul everything here is just so temporary that's just a message inside a message but verse the end of verse 5 but Jonah had gone and had gone down to the inner part of the ship and laid down and was fast asleep so why everyone's in a big panic scared that God is mad at them running around throwing things off the ship

Jonah somehow just is sleeping in the inside of the boat

I mean this man doesn't have a care in the world everyone else is woken up realizing they're in danger and Jonah just does not care he's not even thinking about anything he just is if he dies he dies he's just there but Jonah had gone down in the inner part of the ship and laid down and was fast asleep so the captain came and said to him what do you mean you sleeper arise call out to your

God you would think this would be a wake -up call for Jonah not just physically but spiritually that he's supposed to be a prophet a man of God and he's running from God and he finds himself on a ship and he's sleeping he's woken up to a violent storm realizing that God is angry and then some pagan captain is yelling in his face to call out to his

God and this is a guy that's running from God so this should have been a wake -up call to start calling on his

God but Jonah does not he's rebellious and doesn't see the danger like everyone else is seeing the danger so and the captain also says perhaps the

God will give a thought to us that we may not perish so the captain is still hoping that maybe

God can rescue him and Jonah should know that the God can rescue and his God can save but Jonah doesn't pray and it's ironic because the captain of the ship of the pagan ship is calling an

Israelite prophet to prayer it's the prophet that should be calling people to prayer and to worship the

Lord and to follow the Lord and and relay his message but it's actually Jonah who is being called by this pagan to to pray to the

Lord so there's a lot of irony in the book of Jonah verse 7 and they said to one another come let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us so of course they're trying to figure out whose

God is angry all the people serve a different God all kind of different gods Jonah is the one that serves the one true

God who's actually real and back then in the ancient times they would cast lots to decide the to determine what the will of God really is or the divine will and it might have just been a pagan way of finding things out but God is in such control that he's going to use this lot casting and casting lots is me basically just if I walked around with a a bag of rocks and a hundred of them were black and one of them was white and we all picked one out the one with the the white stone would be the the lot fell on them right so Jonah it just so happens that the lot lands on Jonah from the one true

God who made the sea and the dry land and he's running on the sea which God created so how is he going to escape the presence of the

Lord then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him what is this that you have done for the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the

Lord because he had told them so the men on the ship realized like what is this guy doing fleeing from the

God and they begin to be afraid of Jonah's God and Jonah's just saying that he's afraid but the pagan sailors actually are afraid they're experiencing the fear of the

Lord and that's kind of where we all begin right the fear of the Lord then they said to him what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us you would think that he would say let's just pray to the

God because he's able to save us the one true God Yahweh but he just says for the sea grew more and more tempestuous he said to them pick me up and hurl me into the sea then the sea will quiet down for you for I know it is because of me that the great tempest has come upon you and it was because of Jonah that the great tempest has come upon him so he gets hurled into the sea nevertheless well he wants to get hurled into the sea so Jonah just wants to die he doesn't really care he doesn't do the right thing he just says

I want to get thrown into the sea and he makes a prediction that the sea will stop when he gets thrown in so he's a prophet so let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood for you oh

Lord have done as it pleased you so they they don't really want to throw

Jonah in because these men are not actually horrible horrible men they actually do not want innocent blood to be shed on their account so they try to row even harder and not want to listen to Jonah and try to save Jonah even though Jonah is saying to throw him in but they were fighting a fight that they could not win the sea just became to get more and more violent this is a supernatural storm eventually verse 15 says so they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging then the men feared the

Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows this was like the most amazing part of the story for me because this is something

I missed when I read it a few different times that Jonah was called to go to Nineveh but he rebelled against God went the opposite way to Tarshish and God still used him on the ship to preach to these people and these pagan people were praying to other gods serving other gods and now they're worshiping the one true

God and it says they even made sacrifices and made vows to the one true God that was an amazing thing like there was a revival on the ship that even though he wasn't supposed to go there the

Lord saved the people on the ship anyway because even though Jonah might have planned that trip to do evil or plan that ship out of his own doing the

Lord used it for good and that was an amazing thing to me that the people on the ship actually repented but they threw

Jonah in and it says when they threw him in um the the tempest stopped so Jonah was correct the

Lord did stop the stop the rain stop the wind but it says and the

Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights so if you've ever been on a ship and you get seasick

I can't imagine what it's like to be in the belly of a fish for three days and three nights

I mean that's that sounds horrible but Jonah gets swallowed up by the fish that's just so it wasn't the fish that saved him right but the

Lord has appointed this all to happen he's in control um so Jonah is in the fish three days and three nights he's very rebellious unrepentant but he finally prays to the

Lord um and he is reflecting on a on a prayer that he prayed right away when he first got cast into the sea

I caught and it says I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me out of the belly of Sheol I cried and you heard my voice so he was heading for death

Sheol is a place of death said I am driven away from your sight yet I shall again look upon your holy temple the waters close in over me to take my life the deep surrounded me weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains

I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever yet you brought up my life from the pit oh

Lord my God when my life was fainting away I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love but I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you what

I have vowed I will pay salvation belongs to the Lord so Jonah kind of repents inside the well and he has a time of worship and he prays this prayer to the

Lord and it ends with salvation belongs to the Lord and he also knew in this prayer that it wasn't just the men that threw him in but he knew it was the

Lord that actually casted him into the water and he thanks God for saving him and he says that salvation belongs to the

Lord and he knew it wasn't just by chance that the fish captured him and saved him and he didn't start praising the fish or anything like that but he knew it was

God who was orchestrating things and he knew it was God who saved him and it's God who's having such great compassion on this man who doesn't want to do anything for him he's running away from God he's suppressing the truth of God and yet God is still showing him grace even in the belly of a fish so God so Jonah prays to God and makes a vow that he's going to start following him that he repented and he's making a commitment to actually do what the

Lord has called him to do and the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah upon the dry land so I don't know how close

Jonah was to the land or how far the fish could spit but this man probably got projected onto the dry land and it just so happened that he landed three days journey from Nineveh so where he was supposed to go and it says that actually he made it there in one day so he made it so the

Lord ordained it that the fish spit him out and now the Lord in in verse three is going to recommission

Jonah and then so verse three says then the word of the

Lord came to Jonah the second time saying arise go to Nineveh that great city and call out against it the message

I tell you so the Lord still has the same purpose for Nineveh he wants and the same purpose for Jonah he wants

Jonah to go to the Ninevites and preach a message of judgment and it's the word of God the word that God has told

Jonah to preach that's what we do today we preach the word of God it isn't our made -up words that save people but it's the word of God that people hear that word and then it gives them faith and it's through the preaching of the word that God saves people and it's it's always been that way and it's

God supernaturally working through the word of God going out and it's and the word of God is sharper than any two -edged sword so when they hear the word of God that the words that God tells people to preach that's when people start being saved and people repent but let's talk about Nineveh Nineveh was a great city

God called it a great city it was huge it was probably over 600 ,000 people total but Nineveh did represent everything that God hated it represented everything that Israel hated they were

Israel's enemies any sin you can think of was probably present in Nineveh and the

Ninevites were were so so wicked they they even tortured their enemies and in crazy different ways and they they weren't compassionate people they weren't good people and the wickedness that was going on there has caught up to the

Lord and the Lord and this is a serious thing because this is the same type of wickedness that has came up to him from Sodom and Gomorrah and God did not have mercy on Sodom and Gomorrah and none of those people repented and God destroyed the whole city and so this is a very serious thing that Nineveh is in danger so the

Lord calls Jonah again to go preach so no Jonah actually goes this time and Nineveh is actually the residence of Nimrod and it also means

Nunu and Nunu means fish so and Nineveh is also 500 miles from the water so so why is it called a fish town if it's 500 miles from the water it's because the people there worshipped fish gods and goddesses and gods that were part fish part god and things like that so they worshipped fish basically so and and it would seem like Jonah you know being in the belly of the fish probably had a good fish story for him right so he's gonna go and preach to these fish people and to make it even better Jonah probably since he was in the belly of the fish the great fish for three days and three nights his skin was probably bleached white and then so he's appearing to them and he probably appeared like a little ghostly to them so he's coming with this fish story and he preaches to them and what he says to them is yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown so he's going around preaching a message when he goes through Nineveh it's only five words in Hebrew so he's preaching yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown no message of hope or anything like that it's a message of judgment not elaborate

Jonah doesn't really even like these people um so he's not really preaching very good he's just doing it because God told him to do it he doesn't have a good heart about it he's just doing it and the people of Nineveh believed

God that's amazing the people of Nineveh believed

God he didn't have any mention of God or anything they he just said that yet 40 days

Nineveh will be destroyed and the people began to fear and they believed in God they called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them that is amazing the word reached the king of Nineveh and he arose from this throne removed his robe covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes and he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles let neither man nor beast herd nor flock taste anything let them not feed or drink water but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands who knows

God may may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish so they repented in Nineveh from the king on down they all feared the

Lord 120 ,000 plus people probably 600 ,000 people all feared the

Lord repented and turned from their evil ways that's what repent means turn from evil and they believed

God all of them and just like there was no natural explanation um for the storm and there was no natural explanation for the fish just so happened to get

Jonah and then vomited onto dry land right near Nineveh there was no natural explanation for this revival that happened in Nineveh it was a five -word sermon and it was the

Lord who's God of salvation who saved and had compassion on this on these wicked people

God has compassion on whom he has compassion and he will show mercy on whom he wants to show mercy he didn't show mercy on um

Sodom and Gomorrah but he did show mercy on these people of Nineveh they repented they turned from their sin and they put on sackcloth and ashes to show mourning they were they were deeply affected by the preaching of Jonah and it wasn't just the preaching it was the

Lord working supernaturally in the hearts of these people to change their hearts God can do that God is the creator of the world he can interact with his creation anytime he wants but he does it through the preaching of the word it was

God's words that he told Jonah to preach and Jonah wasn't like he was preaching it good it was

God working in the hearts of people and the word of God convicting them so this is amazing revival so Jonah just completed every modern day missionary's dream you go to a nation that doesn't know the

Lord and you hope that some people might believe Jonah went there didn't care if they believed or not and everybody believed everyone turned the king his servants everyone in the whole nation repented and believed in God you would think

Jonah would be happy about this I mean after all in Luke 15 7 it says that Jesus says

I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents so the angels in heaven rejoice when just one sinner turns from his wicked ways and follows the

Lord and yet there's thousands of people that just did this out of Jonah's preaching and you would think

Jonah would be ecstatic about this right you would think Jonah's joy would be complete you would think that he would be amazed in all of God that God has saved his people and that he used him to do it and that he would just be praising

God nope in in verse one of chapter four but it displeased

Jonah exceedingly and he was angry and he prayed to the

Lord and said oh Lord it is not this what I said when I was yet in my country that is why

I made haste to flee to Tarshish for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster therefore now oh

Lord please take my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live and the

Lord said do you do well to be angry so Jonah is angry that the people repented this is why

Jonah ran from God to begin with he wasn't because he was afraid of God it was because he did not want these

Ninevites to repent he hated them and when you do not want people to repent and these these were

Jonah's enemies right the Bible teaches us to love our enemies no matter how hard it is we're supposed to love people but Jonah has a deep deep hate for people and deep deep hate for especially these

Ninevites and if you ever find yourself in that position where you don't want someone to repent even if he's your enemy you yourself need to repent right so Jonah right now is the only one in the story that actually hasn't truly repented and the crazy part about this is that everyone he went to weren't even people of God they were pagan people they were they weren't

Israelites they weren't Jews back then um in the Old Testament a lot of people think that you know the

Jews are the chosen people and they were but even in the Old Testament people who were not

Jewish did get saved and Jonah is a is a story to prove that people in the

Old Testament were getting saved who weren't Jewish but people who did come to know the Lord to know the one true

God that is how you have eternal life and now today to know the one true God and to know his son is the way to eternal life so Jonah basically chews out

God for being good he's like this is why I didn't go to Nineveh because I knew you were good

I knew you were compassionate I knew you were going to save those people that's why he didn't want to go to Nineveh he didn't want them to be saved so God asked him do you do well to be angry do you think that's okay

Jonah for you to be angry right now so Jonah doesn't answer Jonah went so Jonah went out of the city because he's angry and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there so Jonah is actually still hoping that the city is destroyed he leaves the city and he sets up a little booth so he can watch the city and he still has this hope that it's going to be destroyed for its wickedness even though they just repented so Jonah is a poor attitude bad attitude prophet who wants nothing to do with what the

Lord wants him to do but he's just trying to make things happen the way he wants to happen and he's still hoping for evil things to happen to Nineveh which is very sad so Jonah went out of the city and sat down to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there he sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city now the

Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade over his head to save him from the discomfort so the

Lord saves Jonah again the Lord saved Jonah with the great fish and now he saves

Jonah from the sun scorching him so the Lord is showing grace upon grace upon grace upon grace to Noah even though Noah doesn't deserve it because that's how good the

Lord is so Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant so Jonah comes to love this plant he's so happy that the plant saved him he's so happy that he has this plant that he can sit in the shade and he can hope that Nineveh is destroyed but when dawn came up the next day

God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered it must have been a powerful little worm that the

Lord sent because the plant that was shading Jonah was destroyed now by this worm so God is kind of giving

Jonah a little object lesson so when the sun rose God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and he asked that he might die and said it is better for me to die than to live

Jonah throughout the story wanted to die many times but God said to Jonah do you do well to be angry for the plant so he's asking him are you is it okay for you to be angry about this plant

Jonah and he said yes I do well to be angry angry enough to die so Jonah still sounds like a little kid to me and he's arguing with God and he's not winning because the

Lord's going to show him that it's not okay for Jonah to be angry at all and the Lord said you pity the plant for which you did not labor nor did you make it grow which came into being in the night and perished in a night and should not

I pity Nineveh that great city in which there are more than 120 ,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also much cattle so Jonah is angry with the

Lord and the Lord is showing him you're allowed to be angry by this little plant that I grew for you and it died in the day and it's just a plant but you wouldn't be basically happy that the

Ninevites repented and the Ninevites weren't destroyed so the Lord says you're allowed to have compassion on the plant am

I not allowed to have compassion on Nineveh that great city who I created who I love and not only he's still trying to reason with Jonah not just the people that you hate but also the cattle if you have compassion on the plant how come you don't love everything else in Nineveh right so the

Lord is still being so patient and so kind with Jonah and Jonah is probably the author of this book which is only our only hope for Jonah the story ends just like this with the

Lord showing him this object lesson Nineveh did not get destroyed right then and there and the

Lord saved them because they repented when people repent the Lord relents his anger but the story of Jonah is meant to really reveal the

Jonah in all of us who we might actually have hate for enemies or hate for people especially wicked people people who do the wrong thing you know what's wrong but you hate them and you don't understand why they're doing it and it might be because they don't know their right hand from their left

God has revealed things to us that the world has not come to know yet so we ought to have compassion and mercy on people just like the

Lord had compassion and mercy on us when we didn't yet know him we didn't know his truth so anyone out there whether they're your enemy or people that are just so so wicked we are really hoping that the

Lord does call these people to repentance and they actually do repent and we're praying for revival that God could do that because eternity in hell is a very real thing and a lot of people are not aware of it but us as a church

God has revealed the truth of heaven and hell and we know the the weight of rejecting

Jesus Christ and we know that you if you reject Jesus Christ and reject his word and reject the truth your whole life you will be you will be punished but the good news of the gospel is that Jesus did come and die on a cross for our sin and that he did pay the penalty that we deserve so our penalty for sin we're all we all have sinned against God and we all have have been rebellious against God and ran from God in our life but we our sin has been paid for by Jesus Christ and either your sin has been paid for by Jesus Christ God's one and only son whom he sent to save the world

Jesus wouldn't have to come to the world if we didn't need to be saved right so Jesus came and died on a cross for our sin so Jesus paid the penalty that we deserve and if Jesus didn't pay the penalty that you deserve on the cross then you're gonna have to pay for that penalty yourself in hell forever and that's the reality and that's part of the judgment that we need to go warn people um about that there's hope that you don't need to go to that place that God has ordained it that if you believe in his son and that he will give you everlasting life and he will forgive all your sins your sins can be forgiven past present and future by putting your faith in Jesus Christ alone and Jesus actually did talk about Jonah when he was here on earth he referred to Jonah a few times and one of them was

Matthew chapter 12 verse 39 to 42 he says he's talking to the pharisees and the scribes and he's and they're asking him to see a sign because they want to believe in him if they see a sign and to be honest with you

Jesus has already done very a lot of miracles and signs and they didn't believe but they're still asking for a sign and Jesus says to them but he answered them an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign sounds like our generation but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet

Jonah for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with the generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here so Jesus said that to Israelite Jews and they probably hated the story of Jonah because the story of Jonah everyone who wasn't a

Jew got saved and the only Jew in this story never repented so they probably hated hearing those words but Jesus is saying that he's a greater prophet than Jonah and Jonah preached and we know

Jonah wasn't that good of a prophet and he preached to Nineveh and the whole city repented but Jesus is is saying to these people that the city of Nineveh is going to rise up in the judgment and condemn the

Israelites Jewish leaders the religious leaders because Jesus is there and he's better than Jonah and the

Ninevites repented at Jonah's teaching so Jesus is here so that means that if they have any clue at all that they should repent and they should believe

Jesus teaching because Jesus is much better than Jonah and Jesus also says that he's much better than Solomon if you continue in verse 42 the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here so the queen of the south came to Solomon because Solomon was the wisest man on earth and his fame was growing and and Jesus is here now and he's saying that basically he's wiser than Solomon the wisest man that's ever lived

Jesus is claiming to be wiser and he's saying I'm better than Solomon and this lady searched far and wide for this wisdom and she's actually going to come up and condemn us who have known

Jesus Christ and have been and Jesus has revealed himself and to these Jewish people he's come to Nineveh and the queen of the south are going to condemn these people for not believing so the greatest sin that you can commit in in life is actually rejecting

Jesus Christ those who reject Jesus Christ will not make it but those who accept

Jesus Christ as savior and believe in his name and keep the faith till the end who are truly his his sons or daughter of God will remain and there's just so much that happened in in the book of Jonah that the

Lord you can tell the Lord was completely in control and you there's just truth in the book of Jonah and truth out there that you just can't suppress um it just so happened that God hurled a great wind upon the sea and it just so happened that the men um cast lots of to see whose

God was angry and a lot just so happened to fall on Jonah and it just so happened that the storm stopped right when they threw

Jonah overboard and it just so happened that the fish came right when Jonah was about to die to eat him and save him and it just so happened that Jonah was spit out right near Nineveh where he was supposed to go rather it all these things didn't just happen but that God is in control and the people recognize that God was in control in this story and then um

Jonah eventually recognized that that God was in control the whole time too and there's things that happen in our life that have been mysterious that we need to to recognize as well um when

I was I'll tell you a story when I was um on the beach for Father's Day a few years ago

I was um with my dad and my brothers and sisters and I see my dad sitting next to me and he's laughing and I'm wondering why why is he laughing he's clapping his hands he's laughing and I'm just like dad what are you laughing at he was like and he's looking out into the sea we're on the beach and he's like my life was planned out before ahead of time that's what he said my life was planned out ahead of time and I'm just looking at him like how did you come up with that conclusion he's looking out on the beach and he says well and I don't remember the story completely but it was something along the lines of he went out with when he said well when

I was your age I was here on the beach with my friends and I went out into the ocean and I was with your uncle Mike and they went out in the ocean and I think they were trying to get to a sandbar or something like that and they were in the middle of the water and they realized that the water was stronger than they were and they were pretty strong men my uncle

Mike's one of the strongest dudes I know my dad used to be pretty strong and but the water was stronger and they could not um get free from the water so they needed help and eventually the lifeguard came and they were really struggling and my dad was really struggling he said but the lifeguard came to my uncle

Mike and my uncle Mike said oh no you he's gonna need your help pointing to my dad and then um my dad said that's why uh my uncle

Mike has been his best friends over this years because he put his life ahead of him when they were both in danger and I'm thinking to myself well yeah the bible says um there's no greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends and they both ended up making it my the lifeguard

I think came and rescued both of them if I remember correctly but I'm thinking like my dad doesn't like he's no theologian he's no expert in the bible or anything like that but he was able to figure out just by somehow remembering that story realizing that God was in control and that his life was somehow planned out ahead of time and that was amazing to me because I was thinking like I knew that because I know the bible and I know that from other situations but I was like for him to realize that I thought that was that was grace from God revealing to him that he was able to discern that but there's some great theologians out there and there's a lot of people that do not realize that that God really is in control of every single thing in life and he really is behind everything and mysterious things happen and a lot of people suppress that truth but some people recognize it and they realize that there is a

God up there and God does love us and he really did have such great compassion and mercy on his people and that he really did send his son

Jesus Christ for salvation and those that do trust in his son and do believe the words of Jesus and believe the words of God and believe the words in the bible they do receive eternal life and all their sins are forgiven and then now we have such a greater message than what

Jonah had we have the whole old testament and new testament and we should be going out preaching the message of the gospel to people and proclaiming the good news of what

Christ has done for us because otherwise we're just wasting our lives right this life is so temporary and God is so real and hell is so real and it's all going to end and we have this great message of hope in Jesus Christ so as a church we know the truth and we can't act like we don't know it we can't rebel we need to go preach and we might not have the results that Nineveh had but people might throw stuff at us or hate us for believing the word of God but our allegiance is to God now who saved us and saved our soul and loved us from the beginning and planned out our life so there's a message out there that God wants us to send to people and it is the gospel so we as a church need to go send that message and hope that God could cause a revival just like he did with the

Ninevites and the people on the ship and everyone in the story so that's what we ought to be praying for church revival amen okay lord thank you so much for this day thank you for the word of God thank you for your servant

Jonah we pray that people would go out and preach a message that you would want preached and that you would work in the hearts of people that they might believe the message and they might give your life to you that they would make a commitment just like the people on the ship did a commitment like Jonah made in the ship to follow you even though we may not like it all the time it might not be what we want to do but we want to please you so give us hearts that want to follow you anywhere you want us to go and please send us wherever you want us to go lord and that we might be a light to people that they might come to know you and that we might see revival lord how amazing would that be that's what we live for lord we want to see you work and we we know that you're going to come and judge the world one day and there's judgment coming so I pray that we would go out and warn people of this judgment and that we might see people get saved and give their lives to Jesus Christ realizing that he is the only way the truth and the life and no one does come to the father except through your son

Jesus lord thank you for for all that you've given us and we pray this in Jesus name amen by faith we see the hand of God in the light of creation's grand design