WEBVTT - What About The Worm 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.120 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:04.840 Church and. 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:05.840 This is our podcast. 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:07.800 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:10.960 Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:11.360 it gives you. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.160 Perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.360 the message today. 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:19.479 I want to preach about Jonah. Are you excited about 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.200 the Word of God? Praise the Lord. 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:26.680 I am to Jonah chapter four, verses five through eleven 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:28.480 where I want to pick up today. 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:30.760 God help me do this the right way. 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:34.760 It says in Jonah chapter four, verse five, that Jonah 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.800 had gone out and sat down in at a place 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.760 east of the city, and there he made himself a shelter, 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.640 sat in its shade, and waited to see what would 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:50.440 happen to the city. So he is in a passive position. 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.000 He is not in a proactive position. He is waiting 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.560 to see what would happen. And I guess we could 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.000 just say off of that one verse that that is 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.440 one way to live your life, to wait to see 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:10.240 what's going to happen, or somebody say, or you can 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:14.680 make it happen. Touch somebody and say you might as well. 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:15.479 Make something happen. 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.880 Then the Lord provided a leafy plant and made it 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:24.680 grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:29.919 to ease his discomfort. And Jonah was super happy about 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.200 the plant. But at dawn the next day, God provided 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.120 a worm which chewed the plant so that it withered. 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.839 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.480 and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.959 grew faint, and he wanted to die, and he said 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.480 it would be better for me to die than to live. 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:51.680 But God said to Jonah, is it right for. 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.080 You to be angry about the plant? 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.040 How many of you get upset about stupid stuff sometimes? 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.520 And Jonah said it is and I'm so angry the 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:07.240 wis our dead. But the Lord said, you have been 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:10.840 concerned about this plant, though you didn't. 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:14.320 Tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:15.720 and died overnight. 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:20.000 Some of the stuff you're worried about is temporary, and 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.280 it'll be over before you can even get good and 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:28.440 mad about it. And should I not have concern for 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.280 the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.680 than one hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.560 their right hand from their left, and also many animals. 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.560 With that antichlomactic conclusion, the Book of Jonah is over. 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:44.720 But I just want to ask one question of this 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.360 text today is also the title of my sermon. I 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:53.880 want to ask the question, what about the worm? 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.679 Amen? What about the worm? You may be seated. 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.079 One of my friends went through something so horrific a 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:11.600 couple of years ago when he lost his daughter. She 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:16.600 was five years old. My daughter Abby is currently five. 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.560 So while it is impossible for me to understand his pain, 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:26.560 I have some frame of reference. And when he lost 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:31.120 his daughter, the knight that I called him, I was 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.920 telling him how God was somehow. 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:37.200 Going to get him through it, and all of these words. 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:39.080 You've struggle to find a way to say something that 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.160 hopefully has some meaning to somebody at a time like that, 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.720 and fumbling around to try to find some words to 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:46.960 comfort my friend. 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.000 I told him he was a hero in our generation. 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:54.640 God would use him. 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:57.800 In a great way because he is an exemplar of faith. 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:00.560 That's all I could think of to tell him at 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:00.920 the time. 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.440 One of the things that I told him later, because 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.119 we had many conversations and he taught me much more 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:13.680 than I taught him. But with one particular conversation we 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.440 were talking about how eventually he would tell his story. 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.279 But one thing we agreed upon, and I said it 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.760 to him and it resonated, is make sure you don't 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:30.960 tell the story too soon, because if you tell the 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.960 story too soon, you won't even know what the story 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:39.240 is about. And my friend, he pastors a great church 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:43.480 in Montana. He has a church of thousands in Montana, 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.520 which I didn't even know. Thousands in Montana went in 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:50.400 the same sentence. But God's used him. He wrote a book. 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:52.880 He's been here to preach, and his book is all 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.520 about the pain that he experienced. 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:56.760 And the purpose of the pain. 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.880 But if you tell your story too soon, sometimes you 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.440 will only see the pain, you won't see the purpose. 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.200 Then you won't have the perseverance that is needed to 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.839 accomplish the purpose of God. Now we come to Jonah, 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.479 and it is impossible to do Jonah justice in one 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:24.520 little sermon, this legendary loser of the Bible. 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.719 Boy, we're really hard on Jonah, aren't we. This guy 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.000 ran from God. You would too. 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:35.400 He had to go to a people that were well 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:40.039 we could call them in modern day terminology terrorists to 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.120 the capital city of Assyria, to a barbaric people and 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.160 preach a message of the potential of repentance. Now, when 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:50.680 you preach about Jonah, usually you're going to hear something 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.360 about how he ran from God. The Bible says that, 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.200 I believe it's in verse three. I didn't look it 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.560 up this morning, but I believe this in verse three. 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.200 Is it verse three where it said that Jonah ran 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.560 away from the Lord. So when you're preaching to people, 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:10.159 you're always preaching to somebody who is running somewhere. I 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.760 realized that everybody in this room is running from something 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:15.240 to something. 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.400 Running from the Lord is how they put it. 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.280 I just want to suggest I want you to do 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.080 don't want you to leave the church when I say this. 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:27.440 But Jonah probably didn't see it at the time, like 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:28.919 he was running from God. 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:31.880 Do you know what I'm saying. It's not like how 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:32.320 many of you. 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:34.520 Have ever run from God's purpose for your life before, 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:36.440 even if you just did it for fifteen seconds. I 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:38.760 know you're really holy, but how many of you have 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:40.680 had a season where you knew God wanted to do something, 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:41.720 you don't want to do it, and you kind of 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.320 did everything possible to do it, not do it, and 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:45.960 sometimes it just be easier to do it. 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:48.960 Like in the story of Jonah, he goes to a 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:49.799 port called. 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.240 Joppa and he finds a ship, and the Lord. 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.080 Told him to go to Nineveh. Well, Jonah decides to 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:57.640 go to a place called Tarsis. 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:01.520 Here's what interested me in studying the math of Jonah's journey. 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.400 When I looked and traced where he went, I found 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.240 out where God told him to go was only five 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:09.520 hundred miles away from where he was. 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.160 Where he went to get away. 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.120 From where God told him to go was twenty five 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.880 hundred miles from where he was. You know, sometimes you 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:21.800 gotta work harder to disobey God than it would be 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:23.360 to just do what he told you to do in 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:24.160 the first place. 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.080 No, I'm serious. I wish some of us. 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.600 Would apply as much creativity to obeying God as we 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:36.200 do to disobeying him. Some of you are really creative sinners. 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:44.960 You got alibis and allies. You got two phones to 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:45.960 help you sin. 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.360 I'm gonna come to this side. I think I wore 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.360 them out already in as early in the sermon. 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.680 But sometimes it would just be easier to forgive than 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.280 to hold on to the grind. Why is it that 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:03.960 we would rather run twenty five hundred miles away from 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:09.240 God than five hundred miles to our assignment? It's I 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.200 think it's I think it's because when we're in our 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:13.840 story it's not as simple. And I've been preaching this 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:15.480 all year. I hope you're not getting tired of hearing it. 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:17.960 But I've been understanding the blessing of perspective, and the 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.480 usually perspective only comes with reflection. 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.760 That is, the Bible was not live tweeted. Do you 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:27.080 understand this that. 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.560 The Book of Jonah was not written while Jonah was running. 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:36.880 It wasn't written. 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.240 If Jonah had written this when he was running, he 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:44.960 would have said, I'm being logical, I'm being practical. That's 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:47.120 how he would have said it had he written it 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.120 while he was on the run. Touch somebody and say, 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:55.200 don't tell your story too soon, because it is only 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:58.880 after Jonah has done the will of God and experienced 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.840 a lot of different things and seeing the results of 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:06.679 his rebellion as well as experiencing the transformative power of 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:11.880 repentance after his resentment, that he is able to say, 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:16.839 I was running from God. I wouldn't have known I 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.880 was running from God until that storm hit. See, because 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:23.360 we always want to blame every storm that we face 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.040 in our life on the devil, especially however long you've 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:27.800 been in church. Usually you end up talking about the 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:30.080 devil more after being in church twenty years than you 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.360 talk about God, because everything is the devil. That's one 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:35.640 advantage that people who don't go to church have over 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:37.840 us and getting their lives together. They don't have a 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.560 devil to blame. We just put everything on him. We 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.720 don't have to deal with ourselves. I am preaching, Lord, 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:50.760 you hear me. So Jonah, the Bible says, can I 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:51.720 preach about Jonah? 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.040 Can I preach about Jonah? 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.960 The Bible says that Jonah went to Joppa and he 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:00.880 got on a ship, and he he paid the fare 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.200 because somebody said, when you run from God, it'll always 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:06.040 cost you something. 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.560 I'm not preaching about that today, but I could. And 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:10.880 then the. 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.599 Bible says that he went down from Joppa down to Tarshish, 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.360 and somebody said, when you run from God, you'll always 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:17.880 go down. 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.600 But when he got about I don't know. 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.840 Let's say, let's say he got about halfway there, and 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:28.840 it seemed like he was working. 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:30.120 He was asleep under the debt. 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:32.800 He was sleeping while the storm was happening because God 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.080 sent this storm, because God will allow things to come 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:38.880 into your life to get your attention, because He's not 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:46.120 going to allow you to be content in your complacency. 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:50.679 All of a sudden, the sailors realized that the. 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:55.480 Reason that they were experiencing the storm was not because 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:59.520 of something they had done, but something that this prophet, 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:04.120 this rebellious prophet, and he was asleep under the deck. 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:06.760 And when they woke Jonah up and said, call on 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:08.560 your God, he said, well, I can call on him, 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.080 but it won't do any good because if I pray 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.880 while I'm headed in the wrong direction, my prayer is 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:19.120 just a pretense. So what you've got to do is 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.840 throw me off the boat and the storm will stop. 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.719 And so I have thought about that, one thought that 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.520 some of you are going through a storm not because 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.120 of something that you did, but because of who you. 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:34.839 Have on your boat. 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.400 In fact, I preached it, I appreciated at a youth 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:41.160 convention one time, at a Pentecostal youth convention one time, 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:45.079 and my message was called throw Jonah off your boat, 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:47.880 and I was preaching it to girls who are dating 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.439 guys that are dragging them down, and so I would 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:52.280 encourage some of you. 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:54.000 Maybe you don't have Jonah on your boat. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:55.839 But maybe he's in your phone, and I think some 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:58.800 of you. The most spiritual thing you could do while I'm. 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:00.360 Preaching, and I don't eve in mind. 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:01.760 If you do it, you don't even have to listen 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:06.200 to me, is use that swipe feature on your phone. 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.320 And you know that red one that says delete. Some 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:13.080 of y'all got Jonah in your phone. You've been texting Jonah, 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.800 talking to Jonah and wondering why your life's going down, 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:23.440 But today is your day touch somebody say delete. So 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.520 when you preach about Jonah, can you tell I like 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.600 to preach about Jonah because. 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:30.640 I see myself in Jonah. 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.240 I've seen myself rebelling against something God has called me 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.560 to do. I've seen myself go twenty five hundred miles 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:39.079 before I realize. 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:40.559 This is ridiculous. There's no way that. 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:42.040 I'm going to be able to run from the presence 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:43.679 of God. Where can I go from your presence? If 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:45.080 I send the heavens, You're there. If I make my 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:46.880 bed in the depths. You were there, so I know 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.280 what it's like to run, and then find out after 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:50.680 you run you can only run so far, for you 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:51.920 hit a roadblock, And. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:53.120 So I know it's like to run. 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.599 And I know it's like the having some relationships that 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.320 probably I don't need anymore, And all of that is 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.680 good as well as preaching on the object of racial reconciliation. 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.360 It is interesting to note that Jonah was effective a 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:06.839 ministering to people that he didn't even like, for when 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:08.599 he finally did open up his mouth and preach to 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.040 the Assyrian people in the capital of Nineveh, there was 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:13.280 great repentance in the land. I don't think that the 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:15.760 Book of Jonah's about racism, but I think it does 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.720 apply because we see here a guy on the outside 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.439 judging what it's like to be people on the inside, 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.080 and from his own perspective inside of himself. 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.720 He comes to all kinds of conclusions. 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.800 About what kind of people God can bless, and what 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.600 kind of people God can't bless, and what kind of 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.679 situations God can work in, and what kind of situations 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.600 God can't work in. Jonah finds out in the midst 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.320 of that that to the ends of the earth, the 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:44.000 compassion of God will reach to anyone who will call 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:46.600 on the name of the Lord. And so we see 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:54.760 that picture of reconciliation in the Book of Jonah. But 0:13:54.880 --> 0:14:00.480 mostly what we know about Jonah is that he spent 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:07.160 three days in the belly of what the Bible calls 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:12.720 a great fish, which we usually call the whale. 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:14.800 Let's get a look at the whale. 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.760 Right about the time that the storm started raging in 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.080 Jonah's life, God sends. 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.520 A whale to pick him up. 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:29.600 And I don't know, because I am not privy to 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:30.880 the communication. 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.720 That took place between the whale and God. How God 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:34.920 got the whale in the right. 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.560 Position at the right time to know that this is 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:39.800 where Jonah's going to be when he's about to drown. 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:42.760 That the whale, I don't know how God spoke to 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.120 the whale to go get Jonah. If it's anything like 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:52.360 finding Dory, God used echo location and maybe God said 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:52.680 to the. 0:14:52.640 --> 0:15:01.240 Whale, come on, people, come on that section right there, 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:02.600 no love, Come on. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.440 Did you see the movie? You know certain types of 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:12.320 whales they admit a south. So God said to the whale, 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:17.840 good June, and the whale said to God, Oo. 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.040 Isn't it interesting how the whale had better sense to 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:31.160 do what God said than Jonah did. And the whale 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:36.280 swallowed Jonah up and delivered him. So the Book of 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.520 Jonah is a book about rescue. 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:43.120 Now I need to know i'm preaching to because there's 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:45.560 a chance I've got the right sermon, but I'm preaching 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:48.760 it to the wrong people. Has there been a time 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:49.600 in your life. 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:54.360 I'm just asking where God rescued you. 0:15:55.880 --> 0:16:01.840 From a situation that your own obedience created. 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:07.960 Anybody, anybody, anybody? 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:09.480 Has God ever sent a. 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.680 Whale to pick you up? Now, it's an important thing 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:16.880 to note that God saved Jonah, but the accommodations weren't 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:17.680 that luxurious. 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:20.800 Could have sent a cruise ship. 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:26.320 Royal Caribbean, he could have sent a he could have 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:27.680 sent a freight liner. 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.480 But instead he put him in a deep, dark place. 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.840 See, because if God rescues from your trouble and makes 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.640 it too comfortable, you'll be quick to get back into it. 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.720 So God said, I need to put you in a 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:45.720 dark place for a minute so you'll remember what disobedience 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:52.560 feels like. What I've noticed, though, is that sometimes we 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:59.280 miss God's provision because we're so picky, we don't like 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:02.400 what God's says to pick us up with, and we 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:09.320 would rather drown by ourselves. One time, in the first 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.399 year of our marriage, I. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.520 Got really got really sick. It wasn't serious. 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:18.800 It turned out not to be serious, but it felt 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.240 serious at the time because I couldn't eat. Every time 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.320 I would eat, it would just burn all down in 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:26.080 my insides, even when I would drink water. 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.480 And so this went on for like seven days. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.440 I didn't know what the problem was at the time, 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:36.639 and I was really enjoying putting on fifty pounds in 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:38.960 my first year of marriage, and this interrupted my plan. 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:42.600 That really is true. 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.840 I put on fifty pounds in the first I think 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.080 it was eighteen months of our marriage, because Holly is 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:55.280 a fantastic cook and she is also a temptress. 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:01.480 But man, what happened, and I didn't know at the time. 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:04.359 I took this pill, this antibiotic that went down and 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:07.360 got stuck in my esophagus, and then it burned into 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.040 my esophagus. So then every time I would try to 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.720 eat drink water, I couldn't. I couldn't do it, and 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:13.560 so it got real bad. And at the time, I 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.120 traveled and preached all the time, and I was always driving, 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.560 you know, up and down the road. It's usually usually 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:21.240 just driving more than flying. And so I was going 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:22.000 from one place. 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:22.120 To the other. 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:23.479 It had been about a week that I had been 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:24.919 hurting and I didn't know what was wrong. I went 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:27.040 to see this doctor and kind of said some things, 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.280 and I didn't know what's going on. And so I'm 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:33.159 driving to my next speaking engagement, right and I'm calling 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.080 Holly and I bust out my razor phone that's on, 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.439 and I'm like, man, it sucks. I can't I'm still hers. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:44.159 HER's worse and worse and worse. And she goes, you 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:46.600 are going to the hospital. You need to drive yourself 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:48.440 to the hospital. I said, I got preach engagement. She said, 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.280 you're going to cancel. They can find another preacher. Something's 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:52.760 really wrong with you. You need to go to the hospital. 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:54.080 You goanna go to the hospital. You're gonna call him 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:55.960 and cancel. And I never called him by cancel before. 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:57.840 I don't think i've done it since. And so I was. 0:18:57.880 --> 0:18:58.960 I didn't want to do it, but I did it, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.199 and I stared during the hospital. I'm drying the hospital, 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:02.760 and I remember I've got a couple of hours still 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:04.200 left to go. Because I'm out of town, I'm driving 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.240 this other town, and so I drive by this hitchhiker 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:09.840 and decided to pick him up, because that's what you 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.000 do when you're driving yourself to the hospital, you pitch 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:16.440 up hitchhikers when you are a Christian like me. I 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:17.760 don't even know why I picked him up. It was 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:19.720 a season in my life when I picked up hitchhikers. 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.800 I don't do it anymore. But this guy gets in 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.560 my car and I don't really feel like talking because 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:26.960 I'm driving myself to the hospital because I have a 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.600 hole of my esophagus, says burning my life away. This 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.960 guy's all talkative, I'll chatty and everything. And so we'd 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:35.760 ride together a couple of minutes and a long gas 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:37.919 and I pull into the gas station and I'm feeling 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.119 like cheerful, not a cheerful giver. But I decide to 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:43.440 you probably want something to eat, So I said, hey, man, 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:45.439 I said, I'm gonna pump the gas. You go in 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.080 the gas station, get yourself something to eat, whatever you 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.240 want to come in and pay for it afterwards. He goes, well, actually, 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:55.919 I see a McDonald's over there, and it wasn't like 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:57.760 one of the McDonald's that was right there in the 0:19:57.760 --> 0:19:58.320 gas station. 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:01.200 I'm gonna have to go now. I threw the drive 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:03.640 through and go to McDonald's. 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:06.479 But I said, all right, you know, Jesus said go 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:11.960 the extra mile and all that. So I'm like, all right, man, 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:13.160 I'm gonna pump the gas. 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:14.119 We'll go to McDonald's. 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.160 We're going through the drive through at McDonald's and I'm 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.600 just gonna order whatever, you know, because I can't eat anything. 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.280 And so here I am ordering food for a guy. 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:26.679 He's sitting there. I'n have to smell this food in 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.960 my car, and this delicious McDonald's food. 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:31.480 That's right. I'm not too good for McDonald's. 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:35.080 I said, it was delicious, not that health conscious freak. 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:40.240 And so I'm going to order and he interrupts my 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.160 order and he's like, no, I want a quarter pounder. 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.000 Hold the mayo, hold the onions. 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:49.280 I said, all right, he wants a quarter pound Let 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:51.400 me get a quarter pounder. Hold the mayo, hold the onions, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:57.359 he said. And some chicken selects now, listen, this was 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.760 not some skinny hitchhiker. He didn't look like he needed 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:03.520 a me that badge, So my compassion is running out quickly. 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:08.160 I said, all right, he wants a quarter pounder, hold 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:09.280 the mail, hold the onions, and. 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:10.760 Some chicken selects, he said, and. 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:16.280 Some fries, I said, and some fries please, he said, 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:23.080