Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: How many have you are ready for the Word of God? Well,
Speaker 1: I am Tim Summers and I am the I'm the
Speaker 1: youth pastor here at Elevation Church. So today it's gonna
Speaker 1: get a little crazy. It's okay, I'm the youth pastor.
Speaker 1: I can do. That gives me a license, gives me
Speaker 1: a license to be a little crazy. What an honor
Speaker 1: it is to be able to be on this stage
Speaker 1: and on this platform. I consider it one of the
Speaker 1: greatest honors because if I if I have to like,
Speaker 1: if you got to like I mean, I guess you
Speaker 1: do get to pick your pastors. But in an alternate reality,
Speaker 1: I got to pick any pastor in the world, no
Speaker 1: doubt in my mind, no matter what season, time, it
Speaker 1: would be the verdicts. Okay, Pastor Steven and Holly, your
Speaker 1: entire family so grateful for you. Our family is grateful
Speaker 1: for you. You have helped carry us through some tough seasons,
Speaker 1: some great seasons, and uh, and we're ready to do
Speaker 1: this for twenty five more years. Let's go. So we
Speaker 1: love you. Thank you for all your sacrifice, the time,
Speaker 1: the energy, the effort. Assignment after assignment, you have proven
Speaker 1: yourself faithful. And we we we get to we get
Speaker 1: to bask in all of that. And so thank you
Speaker 1: so much. You know, the Word of God says that
Speaker 1: I'll be held accountable for the things that I say
Speaker 1: and that that I don't say, And so I don't
Speaker 1: take this moment lightly. And if you've never heard me
Speaker 1: preach before, if you've never come to a rhythm night,
Speaker 1: buckle up everyone, just like you know, just maybe just
Speaker 1: do this. There you go, y'all remember back in the
Speaker 1: day King of King's Lurida. Okay, Bucca, that's for you parents. See,
Speaker 1: I can do both. Buckle up because we are about
Speaker 1: to go crazy. And I gotta let you know if
Speaker 1: I am extra, I am very very extra. But this
Speaker 1: is really me. Every time after get up preaching, people like,
Speaker 1: are you really like that? I'm like, go ask my wife.
Speaker 1: I really am like that. Now. I like to be
Speaker 1: quiet sometimes, but you don't see that, okay. And so
Speaker 1: I'm a little ad d. Okay, I'm a little adhd right,
Speaker 1: I like to be all over the place. I'm a
Speaker 1: little odd odd Oh, y'all got y'all gotta wake up.
Speaker 1: Y'all gotta wake up for this. Y'all gotta wake up.
Speaker 1: And if you're ready to hear it, like I'm ready
Speaker 1: to appreciate, it's gonna be a good one. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a good one. It's gonna be a really good one.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be in Jonah. Ha ha ha oh, the key standing.
Speaker 1: You might not sit down the whole time. Jonah, Chapter one,
Speaker 1: Verse one. Welcome to all of our epham. I'm glad
Speaker 1: you're here. All the campuses shout out. Lake Norman's really
Speaker 1: gonna like this one. Lake Norman's gonna like this one. Jonah.
Speaker 1: Chapter one. Have you found it? You found it? Some
Speaker 1: of y'all are going, yeah, hunh. You ain't got nothing
Speaker 1: in your hands, okay. Jonah Chapter one, verses one through four.
Speaker 1: This is what it says. The word of the Lord
Speaker 1: came to Jonah, son of Amati. Go to the great
Speaker 1: city of Nineveh and preach against it because it's wickedness
Speaker 1: has come up before me. But Jonah, Everyone say, but Jonah,
Speaker 1: you know what, how about you say your name? Say
Speaker 1: but but Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed
Speaker 1: for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found
Speaker 1: a ship bound for that port. Everyone say, port, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be really, really key. After paying the fair, some
Speaker 1: of us will pay to run away from God. Jonah,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? You ain't making any sense right now?
Speaker 1: Whoa we can relate? Can we relate? After paying the fair?
Speaker 1: He went aboard and sailed for Tarsish to flee from
Speaker 1: the Lord. And then the Lord send a great wind.
Speaker 1: Everyone say wind, Then the Lord send a great wind
Speaker 1: on the sea. Every time I hear but then the Lord,
Speaker 1: I know it gets me crazy every time I hear,
Speaker 1: but then the Lord, I feel like it's a walk
Speaker 1: out song that sounds a lot like this ship. I
Speaker 1: because God to win, no matter what him on my mind.
Speaker 1: Then retire for Fenu. And that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. And I'm when Jesus walks on
Speaker 1: the scene. You know that man got a theme song? Ah,
Speaker 1: I do is I don't know if he said DJ,
Speaker 1: but he said, like DJ Gabriel or something. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I mean, Jesus needs that theme song. And and
Speaker 1: just like every character in the Bible needs a theme song,
Speaker 1: every preacher needs a title. And so my title is this.
Speaker 1: All I do is wind. All I do is win.
Speaker 1: You can find your way to your seat. All I
Speaker 1: do is wind. All I do is win because it says,
Speaker 1: then the Lord sent a great wind. Everyone say wind.
Speaker 1: And here's what I want to do today is I
Speaker 1: want to go through the Book of Jonah. Now I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna read every single verse because I probably can't
Speaker 1: keep your attention that long, okay, and only got a
Speaker 1: certain amount of time. So but we're gonna go through
Speaker 1: the Book of Jonah. And the thing about it is
Speaker 1: that we all know, even if you're knew to church,
Speaker 1: I can guarantee it. We all know about the story
Speaker 1: of Jonah and well, thank you, I was really hoping
Speaker 1: you were gonna get that Jonah and the Well, But
Speaker 1: do we know about Jonah and Nineveh? Do we know
Speaker 1: about Jonah and the place that he did not want
Speaker 1: to go? The amount of opportunities that Jonah has to
Speaker 1: follow God in this book of the Bible, just four chapters,
Speaker 1: and I think there's only twelve verses per chapter. That's
Speaker 1: a short amount of time. It's astonishing the amount of
Speaker 1: opportunities given to Jonah a class participation. How many of
Speaker 1: you like assignments, tests, homework projects? Okay, okay, okay. How
Speaker 1: many of you like new opportunities, promotions, challenges? Come on? Right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah right. There's a lot more hands for opportunities than
Speaker 1: there are for assignments. Okay, okay. I was talking to
Speaker 1: Bishop Rios over here and he helped me with this.
Speaker 1: He said, you know where the word opportunity actually comes from.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, man, educate me. He said, it actually
Speaker 1: is a nautical term. It's like boats, you know, water. Okay,
Speaker 1: y'all were looking at me like what, yeah, we're going
Speaker 1: to class today. It's a nautical term and it comes
Speaker 1: from the phrase ob obi portunum. Okay, ob portunum. And
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is this is what it means. It
Speaker 1: means when your sale hits the perfect wind to get
Speaker 1: you where you need to go, ob portunum. That's where
Speaker 1: the word opportunity comes from. Interestingly enough, the first that
Speaker 1: God gave Jonah wasn't an opportunity. It was an assignment
Speaker 1: right verse one. It says, go to the great city
Speaker 1: of Nineveh and preach against it. That was the assignment.
Speaker 1: And parents understand this concept thoroughly. I know I look young,
Speaker 1: but I do have three kids. And okay, you were
Speaker 1: supposed to laugh. Okay, I guess I'm getting older. I've
Speaker 1: got kids. And how many of you have kids? If
Speaker 1: I just put it in there, if you got kids,
Speaker 1: this is very interesting. Anytime I try to tell my
Speaker 1: five year old Genesis to go clean his room, I say, son,
Speaker 1: you need to go clean your room. This happens daily
Speaker 1: because he is a savage. Okay, he doesn't care, all right,
Speaker 1: and I like it and I'm okay with it, but
Speaker 1: I'm like, I need to teach you a little bit,
Speaker 1: so please go up upstairs and clean your room. It's like, okay, Dad,
Speaker 1: can't wait, all right, I'm going goes upstairs there for
Speaker 1: about ten minutes. If you're a parent for long enough,
Speaker 1: you know he's not cleaning his room. It's not having it,
Speaker 1: so you know it's a ten minute mark. All right.
Speaker 1: Jennie says, Yah, Dad, what are you doing cleaning my room? Liar? Okay,
Speaker 1: you walk up the stairs. You go into his room, son,
Speaker 1: no progress has been made. I told you to clean
Speaker 1: your room. He's like, I got distracted. I'm playing with
Speaker 1: some toys. Look, I built a spider Man lego, right,
Speaker 1: and then I go I proceed to say, if you
Speaker 1: don't clean your room, you ain't getting the iPad tonight.
Speaker 1: I feel a lot of judgment happening right now. Can
Speaker 1: you give your kid an iPad? Yes? I did. I
Speaker 1: don't need that right now? Okay, what is that? What
Speaker 1: did I just give him? I just gave him an
Speaker 1: opportunity to be able to get out of the situation
Speaker 1: that he put himself in after I had given him
Speaker 1: a assignment. Oh, parents are the great wind in which
Speaker 1: teenagers and children go where they need to go. You
Speaker 1: know you've heard the phrase dilayed obedience is disobedience, right,
Speaker 1: I want to I want to say it a new way.
Speaker 1: Your maturity in the Lord is how fast you will
Speaker 1: obey God. Your maturity in the Lord is how fast
Speaker 1: you will keep his commands. Obviously, Jonah didn't want to
Speaker 1: go to Nineveh. Genesis doesn't want to clean his room.
Speaker 1: We don't want to forgive our neighbor, We don't want
Speaker 1: to have empathy for people who have experienced other things
Speaker 1: than us. I'm stepping on toes too early, too early,
Speaker 1: isn't it? And did not want to necessarily do that.
Speaker 1: That's not necessarily what I prefer necessarily anything that I
Speaker 1: like or that I want. Right, this is what we
Speaker 1: find out. You know, the best place in life is
Speaker 1: when your wants line up with God's wants. And this
Speaker 1: is what begins to happen in these four chapters with Jonah.
Speaker 1: Because a side note, God's wants don't change, right. It
Speaker 1: says he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His
Speaker 1: wants don't change. His assignment's m his opportunities my, but
Speaker 1: his wants do not change. Do you think David wanted
Speaker 1: to fight Goliath? Do you think Abraham wanted to sacrifice
Speaker 1: his son Isaac? Probably not. Do you think Daniel wanted
Speaker 1: to be thrown in the lions den? Do you think
Speaker 1: Paul wanted to go to Rome where he would be beheaded?
Speaker 1: Do you think Jesus wanted to go to the gross? No?
Speaker 1: But these were people of obedience, And I'm just realizing
Speaker 1: that I just expressed that that was all men's stories.
Speaker 1: There are women too in the Bible. That say that,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, women, I'm sorry. That's my fault. They were
Speaker 1: given an assignment and then they obeyed. Everyone say obeyed.
Speaker 1: Put John on the other hand, well, his journey was
Speaker 1: a little different, and that's how I think maybe we
Speaker 1: might be able to relate to him today. His journey
Speaker 1: was a little bit different. He decided to take a
Speaker 1: different path than maybe what was intended. And so let
Speaker 1: me get you through this first chapter. I'll give you
Speaker 1: a little summary, because again, only have a certain amount
Speaker 1: of time. Jonah was trying to run away from the Lord.
Speaker 1: Notice I said trying. I gave some of it away.
Speaker 1: He gets on a boat. Okay, a storm begins to rise.
Speaker 1: Everyone's panicking on the boat. They're freaking out. Jonah's below deck.
Speaker 1: They're in complete fright mode. And Jonah is straight chilling.
Speaker 1: He ain't worried about it at all. You can read this.
Speaker 1: It's in Jonah chapter one. He ain't worried. He ain't,
Speaker 1: he ain't, he is not worried at all. Like, this
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense to me? How how does this
Speaker 1: begin to fold out? Let me tell you something. You
Speaker 1: know the name Jonah, Do you know what it means?
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean sea or boats or watters. Jonah means dove,
Speaker 1: d ove like the bird, not the soap. It means
Speaker 1: dove right now. Birds have an ability to see a
Speaker 1: storm coming, right, they see harm and then they escape.
Speaker 1: But you know what's interesting is that the dove is
Speaker 1: also the symbol of the Holy Spirit. Scripture says that
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you
Speaker 1: power to conquer anything. Jonah saw himself like a bird,
Speaker 1: but God's asking him to see himself like the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: How do you perceive yourself? How do you talk about yourself?
Speaker 1: You know, you get to choose your name, You get
Speaker 1: to choose what your name means, and you get to
Speaker 1: choose what it's going to be like. So they're on
Speaker 1: the boat, chilling but freaking out. Jonah's chilling. Everyone else
Speaker 1: is freaking out, and they realize, oh, Jonah is disobeying
Speaker 1: the Lord. He's running away from God. Storm wakes up
Speaker 1: Jonah because how many you know that sometimes it takes
Speaker 1: certain storms to wake you up, like why am I
Speaker 1: going through this, well, maybe even sleeping through your life.
Speaker 1: There's a storm rising. They're all freaking out. Jonah officially
Speaker 1: wakes up and it's one vicious cycle after another, because
Speaker 1: we've already gone through storm after storm after storm after
Speaker 1: storm after storm, and how many other storms aren't fun
Speaker 1: to be woken up by? Right? Have you ever been
Speaker 1: working on by the storm. It's kind of scary, especially
Speaker 1: as a kid. I'm experiencing that with Genesis right now.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, rain starts seating. He's like worm mounted, Like,
Speaker 1: good lord, son, it's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: You know what else? Is it fun to wake up to?
Speaker 1: Long division? Do you know what long division is? Jay?
Speaker 1: You do? Because I didn't. My fourteen year old Brody
Speaker 1: came it to me, Dad, can you help me with
Speaker 1: this problem? I'm like, yeah, I'm a master, a math boy.
Speaker 1: What's up? What's you got? A big dog? He's in
Speaker 1: math still, he's not in algebra. Once it gets to algebra,
Speaker 1: I'm done. Okay, comes out. It's like, I need to
Speaker 1: know how to solve this problem. Looked at it. It's twelve.
Speaker 1: It's like, Dad, I don't care that it's twelve. I'm like, what,
Speaker 1: it's twelve. He's like, no, Dad, it is long division.
Speaker 1: Like we're supposed to show our work. I'm like why
Speaker 1: you gotta show your work. I want him to make
Speaker 1: sure he knows the why. Okay, well you got to
Speaker 1: show your works. Huh, EXAIDT, Well, the teacher wants to
Speaker 1: know that. I know how to get to the answer.
Speaker 1: I said. She that a bacon. I said, I might
Speaker 1: have to preach on that boy. I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: interestingly enough, we didn't even get to the problem. I
Speaker 1: started preaching to him. I said. Christians think they got
Speaker 1: the answers all the time. They're like, Jesus is the answer.
Speaker 1: It's Jesus. It's Jesus. But you know what, sometimes we
Speaker 1: don't know the whole equation. You see, you might be
Speaker 1: the square root of your problem and Jesus is the answer,
Speaker 1: but you gotta admit that I might be the problem.
Speaker 1: They're like, Ryan and I came going storm after storm
Speaker 1: after storm after storm after storm. There's a common denominator.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. It won't always be what
Speaker 1: you like. It don't when God asks you to do something,
Speaker 1: he gives you an assignment, it won't always be and
Speaker 1: most of the time it won't always be what you want.
Speaker 1: You think about it. It's like God's like, all right, look, Ryan,
Speaker 1: you need to stop gossiping. You're like, okay, yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what You're right. Next day, your friend comes to
Speaker 1: you with the juiciest news and you're like, abiding your cuticles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's cool, man, that's cool. You're like a god's telling you, hey,
Speaker 1: you should probably pay off your debt. This is probably
Speaker 1: a good time to be mature in the Lord. Let's
Speaker 1: pay off your debt. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you're walking through sears and the man comes by. I says,
Speaker 1: I'll finance this fridge for seventy two months for you. Hey,
Speaker 1: You're like, oh my gosh, are you serious. Okay, I'll
Speaker 1: do it right. Like it's like when you ask God
Speaker 1: for patience. Then the next morning you get in traffic
Speaker 1: and you saying things that I can't say on the stage. Right,
Speaker 1: this is this is what happens. This is what happens.
Speaker 1: It's even little things like that. And if you don't
Speaker 1: know where you're going, there will be people who will
Speaker 1: gladly take you where they're headed. So you got the
Speaker 1: people on the boat freaking out. JOHNA wakes up. Jonah's like,
Speaker 1: just throw me over the boat. It's my fault. So
Speaker 1: they do throw them over the boat. I'm like, do
Speaker 1: I want to be in the storm in the boat
Speaker 1: or do I want to be in the storm out
Speaker 1: of the boat. I've seen deadliest catch. I'm choosing in
Speaker 1: the boat. Okay, I'm not doing this. So all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, a fish that's the theologically correct term fish.
Speaker 1: More unlikely is probably a whale of some sort. So
Speaker 1: you can't fit in a trout. But the fish swallows
Speaker 1: up Jonah. And this man is in the belly of
Speaker 1: the fish for three days, right, And you can realize
Speaker 1: this is the point where Jonah starts to figure out
Speaker 1: it's not all about him. Now we are in Jonah two.
Speaker 1: All of Jonah two, all of this entire chapter is
Speaker 1: a prayer to God. That's good. It's it's just a
Speaker 1: it's just that's it. That's it. It's a prayer to God.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you the first two verses. It says,
Speaker 1: from inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
Speaker 1: He said, in my distress, I called to the Lord,
Speaker 1: and he answered me. From deep in the realm of
Speaker 1: the dead, I called for help, and you listened to
Speaker 1: my cry. Have you ever cried out to God? You
Speaker 1: know what that means, that means you just starting to
Speaker 1: get a little bit deathsperate for God. And this is
Speaker 1: where Jonah is. He's getting deathsperate. Okay, he's running away
Speaker 1: from the uh, from the assignment. He gets in the boat.
Speaker 1: Now the storm's going crazy. He gets thrown out of
Speaker 1: the boat. Now he's swallowed up by a fish, but
Speaker 1: he's still alive. He's getting a little bit desperate for God.
Speaker 1: And he begins to cry out, how many you know
Speaker 1: that desperation can lead to determination? And this is what
Speaker 1: happens to Jonah right here in chapter two. Because when
Speaker 1: you get grateful, you get faithful, and when you get faithful,
Speaker 1: you get fruitful. This is where Jonah is at. He's
Speaker 1: getting grateful, Lord, Lord, Lord, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm desperate.
Speaker 1: I need you. Why did I do this? Then he
Speaker 1: begins to get faithful, and then he begins to get fruitful,
Speaker 1: starts out with this gratitude to God. Could it be
Speaker 1: today that what you are facing, whatever campus that you're
Speaker 1: at Epham all over the world, could it be today
Speaker 1: that whatever you are facing is a setup for you
Speaker 1: to step up? Because in this moment, Jonah realize it's
Speaker 1: time for me to step up. It's time for me
Speaker 1: to get out of the way. It's time for me
Speaker 1: to begin the assignment that God has asked me chapters ago.
Speaker 1: You see, the fish represents discipline here. Now, when I
Speaker 1: say discipline, don't be freaking out like I don't thank
Speaker 1: my kids, don't don't don't, I don't need, I don't
Speaker 1: need the negative connotation of discipline. Okay, everyone should have
Speaker 1: some form of discipline. But this isn't a parent conference
Speaker 1: or anything like that. So if the fish represents discipline,
Speaker 1: here's what we have to understand. If God delivers us
Speaker 1: but never disciplines us, how will we ever learn If
Speaker 1: you have kids, you really really really really really understand this. Right.
Speaker 1: If God saves you but never disciples you, how will
Speaker 1: you ever begin to discover your purpose? Okay, So deliverance
Speaker 1: comes with discipline, and salvation comes with discipleship. What we've
Speaker 1: got to understand is that the greater the anointing, the
Speaker 1: greater the attack. The greater the anointing that Jonah had
Speaker 1: on his life, the greater the breaking he had to
Speaker 1: go through. The greater the anointing that Jonah had on
Speaker 1: his life, the greater the crushing that he had to
Speaker 1: go through, and Jonah is feeling all of this in
Speaker 1: the belly of the fish. At this moment, Jonah is
Speaker 1: completely helpless, but not completely hopeless. Let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: You might feel like you're completely helped less, that you
Speaker 1: do not have the answers. You don't know where to go,
Speaker 1: you don't know who to turn to. You are at
Speaker 1: a loss of words. You've got doubt overfit feeling your
Speaker 1: mind and your soul and your spirit. I'm telling you
Speaker 1: you might be helpless, but I guarantee you're not helpless.
Speaker 1: I guarantee it. I guarantee it. It is not over yet.
Speaker 1: It is not done yet. He is not through with
Speaker 1: you yet, no matter where you are, no matter what's
Speaker 1: your fac seet. So then we get into Jonah three,
Speaker 1: and that three does the prayer. It says, then the
Speaker 1: Lord vomited him on to dry land. Obviously it was
Speaker 1: the fish, but the Lord made him do it. So
Speaker 1: Jonah three, it says, Then the word of the Lord
Speaker 1: came to Jonah a second time. Go to the the's
Speaker 1: a city of ninevah and proclaim to it the message
Speaker 1: I give you. Does this look familiar? It's the same
Speaker 1: exact scripture in Jonah IE. So if we continue within
Speaker 1: this chapter he obeys this time around, everyone give it
Speaker 1: up for Yonah. Thank you Jesus, hallelujah. He goes to Ninevah, right,
Speaker 1: He lets him know that within forty days the city
Speaker 1: would be overthrown. The king finds out. The king of
Speaker 1: Ninevah finds out, orders a fast. He say, all right,
Speaker 1: no more eating, no more drinking. We're having a prayer night.
Speaker 1: We need to get with the Lord. We need to
Speaker 1: turn from our evil ways, and God might show compassion
Speaker 1: towards us. This is what's happening in Jonah three. I'm
Speaker 1: just kind of running through it. Okay. Now, what you
Speaker 1: gotta understand is that NINEVH was ruthless, Okay. Ninavah was barbaric.
Speaker 1: Ninevah was what the kids call savages. Okay. This was
Speaker 1: not a city that you want want to live in,
Speaker 1: nothing like Charlotte. Okay. It was not a city you
Speaker 1: wanted to live in. And what you got to understand
Speaker 1: is that if God never presented Jonah with all of
Speaker 1: these opportunities, we would know nothing about Jonah. Literally all
Speaker 1: of these opportunities in the Book of Jonah. If he
Speaker 1: never did that, we would only have one verse in
Speaker 1: the entire Bible about Jonah in Second Kings. That's it.
Speaker 1: If God never presented those opportunities, we would not know
Speaker 1: much about Jonah. Jesus would have never mentioned him in
Speaker 1: the New Testament. So the whale was an opportunity, the boat,
Speaker 1: the storm was an opportunity. What you got to understand
Speaker 1: is opportunities are directions back to the assignment. Opportunities are
Speaker 1: directions back to the assignment that God has first given you.
Speaker 1: And so at this moment, Jonah begins to fulfill his assignment,
Speaker 1: and we get into Jonah three, verse ten, and this
Speaker 1: is what it says. When God saw what they did
Speaker 1: and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented
Speaker 1: and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Speaker 1: But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong. Have you ever
Speaker 1: thought God was wrong? And he became angry. He prayed
Speaker 1: to the Lord. Isn't this what I said, Lord? When
Speaker 1: I was still at home? This is what I tried
Speaker 1: to forestall by fleeting to Tarshis. I knew that you
Speaker 1: were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, and
Speaker 1: abounding in love, A God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord,
Speaker 1: take away my life, for it is better for me
Speaker 1: to dive into lef add just angry, dramatic diva? Right? Just?
Speaker 1: I mean obviously none of us are anything like that.
Speaker 1: We don't get angry, we don't get dramatic. We're definitely
Speaker 1: not divas when it comes to what we want or
Speaker 1: our preferences. Am I right? Amen? Okay, got quiet. Here's
Speaker 1: a deal. Had we been writing this chapter, we probably
Speaker 1: would have shown Jonah in the city of Nineveh, carefully
Speaker 1: teaching the people all of the spiritual decisions. Interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: God did not write it this way. In fact, instead
Speaker 1: of meeting a rejoicing preacher, we meet a rebellious preacher.
Speaker 1: We see him angry at people and angry at God.
Speaker 1: We see an adult acting like a child. Here we
Speaker 1: see a believer acting like a un We see Jonah
Speaker 1: sitting outside the city, waiting for the judgment of God
Speaker 1: to fall on this city. And here's an amazing thing,
Speaker 1: and just a little side note that God sent a
Speaker 1: great awakening, in fact, one of the largest revivals in
Speaker 1: history under the preaching of a man who did not
Speaker 1: even love the souls of the people. He preached to. Now,
Speaker 1: what that does for anyone who puts God in a
Speaker 1: box is that breaks the box? Can God do that?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't really know. You know, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a god who restores. But we sound a lot like Jonah.
Speaker 1: But Jonah ran away from the Lord. So Jonah literally
Speaker 1: leads one of the biggest revivals in history. But now
Speaker 1: he is mad about it. He's angry, right, not only
Speaker 1: that the sun is boiling him to death. Okay, this
Speaker 1: is when we get into chapter four. How many of
Speaker 1: you know that there is nothing worse than being hot
Speaker 1: and angry. Okay, that's the devil's version of angry, like
Speaker 1: being hungry and angry. That's one thing being hot and angry.
Speaker 1: Who oh my goodness, some of y'all be turning into
Speaker 1: some damn its hot and angry. It's a little different, right, Like. Okay, so,
Speaker 1: how many of you ever done hot yoga before? Somebody
Speaker 1: are like, I've never shared this with my wife before,
Speaker 1: but I have done hot yoga one time we were married.
Speaker 1: Then I wanted to keep it in the past, but
Speaker 1: the Lord told me to bring it forth. I have
Speaker 1: done hot yoga time, and that'll probably be the last time.
Speaker 1: But how do you know how many you know that
Speaker 1: when the temperature rises, your true color start to show.
Speaker 1: It starts getting a little weird, right right, Like the
Speaker 1: temperature impacts your tolerance, and Jonah was not tolerating anything
Speaker 1: at all. So then the Lord provides a plant for shade. Okay, now,
Speaker 1: if you've read chapter four, you know you know where
Speaker 1: I'm going with this. Okay, he provides a plant for shade,
Speaker 1: and Jonah's like, Okay, yeah, I was angry. I was mad.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not thank you for the shade. I'm a
Speaker 1: little more comfortable. I appreciate it. The next night, the
Speaker 1: Lord provides a worm to eat the plant. Jesus just
Speaker 1: be having fun out there. He just be like, let's
Speaker 1: see what he's gonna do, And all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Jonah is angry again, right in a vicious cycle, one
Speaker 1: after the other, right, Like, like it's kind of like
Speaker 1: what we experience. We experienced a promotion, but then we
Speaker 1: realize we got to work twice as much, Right, I
Speaker 1: got the shame. Yeah, I'm ready, let's go party Monday.
Speaker 1: What you want me to sixty seventy hours this week?
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? Right? Like he provides an answer
Speaker 1: for you, but then that just gets you more questions
Speaker 1: that you have for him. And so you're like, oh wait,
Speaker 1: I would have been happy about that, but now I'm
Speaker 1: upset because now I have more questions than I had beforehand.
Speaker 1: Right he like, he provides a significant other for you.
Speaker 1: Come on, somebody all to single people saying, hey, that's
Speaker 1: me tonight. He provides a significant other. But now you
Speaker 1: have to change right now your accountability is well, maybe
Speaker 1: I should change because this is not going to work.
Speaker 1: This is something I had to do. I remember when
Speaker 1: I got married with my wife and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, I just struck the jackpot. Okay, this
Speaker 1: is amazing. Oh my goodness. Two months in. Oh I
Speaker 1: am completely jacked up. I am ambassed up. Oh so
Speaker 1: you're not just gonna fit into my schedule. We have
Speaker 1: to create a new one. Oh okay. I can't just
Speaker 1: think about me. I gotta think about us. Oh okay.
Speaker 1: This is starting to make a lot a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: And then we get into the last two verses of
Speaker 1: Jonah for and it says, but the Lord said that
Speaker 1: you have been concerned about this plant, though you did
Speaker 1: not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up
Speaker 1: overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern
Speaker 1: for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are
Speaker 1: more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot
Speaker 1: tell their right hand from their left. A lot of
Speaker 1: times we tend to be concerned with the things that
Speaker 1: weren't meant for our concern. In this Book of Jonah,
Speaker 1: in these four chapters, God was using everything in his
Speaker 1: power to get Jonah back to the assignment that he
Speaker 1: had given him. From the very beginning, God was pushing
Speaker 1: Jonah back into his will, one opportunity at a time.
Speaker 1: And the reality is is that God was trying to
Speaker 1: make disobedience to the assignment as uncomfortable as possible. And
Speaker 1: we wonder, why, oh my Goddess, why is this? I
Speaker 1: mean to me, y'all think I'm exaggerating, But this is
Speaker 1: what we do. Ah, No one loves me, No one
Speaker 1: texted me on my birthday. That happened to me once.
Speaker 1: I'm not here to tell you that opportunities are bad.
Speaker 1: That's not the sermon here. I'm not here to say
Speaker 1: that opportunities are bad. But disobedience is disobedience is, and
Speaker 1: we tend to overlook the assignment and overpay for an opportunity,
Speaker 1: do we not. I found myself doing this. Wait, God
Speaker 1: told me to do that when I was fifteen, and
Speaker 1: at nineteen I now start walking in it. What why,
Speaker 1: why do we tend to do this? So you know
Speaker 1: about Jonah and the whale, about him running away, We've
Speaker 1: heard about Jonah and the worm. But when I read
Speaker 1: through this book, I realized Jonah led one of the
Speaker 1: biggest revivals in history. Mind you, it was the Ninavites,
Speaker 1: and one hundred and twenty thousand people were saved and
Speaker 1: delivered because of this assignment. This was the assignment from God.
Speaker 1: This was the plan all along for Jonah. The reality
Speaker 1: is is that we glorify opportunities and flee from assignments.
Speaker 1: We have got to be a generation that when God
Speaker 1: says to do something, yes, sir, how can I make
Speaker 1: it easier? What can I do now? We have got
Speaker 1: to take the assignment and begin to take a step forward.
Speaker 1: But it's nice to preach, it's really hard to live
Speaker 1: out because we begin to then like like we've begin
Speaker 1: to wrap opportunity in thinking that that is the assignment. Like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't. I don't like like j J
Speaker 1: gets up. Hey guys, we should uh we should probably
Speaker 1: you know, churches, churches coming back in person. It's time
Speaker 1: to serf whoa, Let me get out of this building,
Speaker 1: let me get home, and no one's gonna ask me
Speaker 1: about it. I mean, it's as simple as that, fleeing
Speaker 1: from something that could be the very thing that leads
Speaker 1: you to the ultimate cause. What's interesting is that again
Speaker 1: I'm not saying opportunities are bad, but I am saying
Speaker 1: this is that that we do serve a God that
Speaker 1: even when we do flee from the assignment, God gives
Speaker 1: us opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to lead us back
Speaker 1: to the very thing that God asks us to do
Speaker 1: at the beginning. You know, this is why we do
Speaker 1: what we do here at Elevation Church for fifteen years now.
Speaker 1: This is this is this is why we we we serve.
Speaker 1: This is why we are opening up campus. This is
Speaker 1: why in the middle of the pandemic we were able
Speaker 1: to you know, continue to push things forward online with EPHAM.
Speaker 1: This is this is this is why we do kids ministry,
Speaker 1: this is why we do e Group's ministry, and to
Speaker 1: be honest. This is why we do youth ministry. This
Speaker 1: is this is this is it. It's not to fill
Speaker 1: a seat. You come only once a month anyways. It's
Speaker 1: not that sorry, I'm getting loose. It is to help
Speaker 1: you and to provide you an opportunity so that you
Speaker 1: can experience the fullness of the assignment God's given you.
Speaker 1: And we're passionate about it. This is why I love
Speaker 1: youth the industry. This is my twelfth year being a
Speaker 1: youth pastor and it's absolutely amazing. Why Because I love potential. Now,
Speaker 1: the thing that frustrates me the most is when kids
Speaker 1: walk away from their potential. But when they realize, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I can do that. I don't have to be this tall,
Speaker 1: I don't have to be this smart. I can do that,
Speaker 1: and they're walking in opportunity, out their opportunity. They're realizing
Speaker 1: they're living out their assignment. You know. A week from now,
Speaker 1: on July eleventh, we're doing what we call Youth X
Speaker 1: in Youth Acts. If you've been fleeing from Tarsius or
Speaker 1: living under a rock. Youth AX is our annual summer
Speaker 1: camp and it's gonna look different this year, but we're
Speaker 1: doing a one hundred and sixty eight hour live stream
Speaker 1: continuous for middle schoolers and high schoolers for the youth
Speaker 1: of Elevation Church. And I'm telling you as a parent,
Speaker 1: this is easy. This is easy. My life was changed
Speaker 1: this summer camp. Most of your lives are changed. This
Speaker 1: summer camp. You realize something that doesn't fix everything, but
Speaker 1: you realize some things. And I'm like, they're really good
Speaker 1: ways that you can be involved. Tell your kid about it,
Speaker 1: make them go, my mom's going to be here. It's okay,
Speaker 1: that happens every time for me. I don't care. I'm
Speaker 1: here for you the parent. Okay, this is the best
Speaker 1: thing that you could And you know what's cool, It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're opening up balance tine for all the services. We're doing,
Speaker 1: like twenty one services within seven days. It's gonna be astronomical.
Speaker 1: But if you're like, well, I don't only know, I'm
Speaker 1: just don't know. You know, that's too much town. Guess
Speaker 1: what It's gonna be live on our YouTube channel, Elevation
Speaker 1: Youth YouTube for the entire seven days. So create a
Speaker 1: moment in your home with them to go, all right,
Speaker 1: let's get the word of God in our lives all right,
Speaker 1: let's get the understanding of scripture in our lives. It's
Speaker 1: just a huge opportunity. It's a big one, and I
Speaker 1: don't want you to miss it, because when you look
Speaker 1: at Jonah and I end with this. God could control
Speaker 1: the wind and the waves in chapter one, he controlled
Speaker 1: the whale in chapter two, and he controlled the worm
Speaker 1: and the wind in chapter four. But he could not
Speaker 1: control Joan without the king's surrender. He couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: Everything in nature obeys the word of God accept human beings.
Speaker 1: Yet human beings have the greatest reason to obey the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. We have the greatest reason. You don't have
Speaker 1: to do another thing for me. Lord. I know that
Speaker 1: you are taking care of my family. You're protecting me.
Speaker 1: And even when I flee from some things, You're gonna
Speaker 1: send some whales my way. You're gonna send some folks
Speaker 1: my way. You're gonna help me. You're gonna send people
Speaker 1: my way. You're gonna send a church my way. Continue standing,
Speaker 1: and if you're not staying at campuses, you know do that.
Speaker 1: Here's what I want to do. What I believe is
Speaker 1: the most important part of what we do every single weekend.
Speaker 1: So I want to give you the coortunity to come
Speaker 1: into a right relationship with Jesus Christ. When you do that,
Speaker 1: you are coming back to the assignment that God has
Speaker 1: given every single one of us. And it says the
Speaker 1: scripture that you are to go into all the world
Speaker 1: and preach the Gospel with your life, with your actions,
Speaker 1: with how your kindness, with your love. And I think
Speaker 1: there are many people, maybe in this room, maybe at
Speaker 1: other campuses, maybe watching online, that you're saying, you know what,
Speaker 1: I have been fleeing. I've been taking a boat in
Speaker 1: the other direction when God has told me this is
Speaker 1: where I need to be, this is what I need
Speaker 1: to do. This is the next step. Today is an
Speaker 1: opportunity from the Lord, a divine appointment for you to
Speaker 1: get back on assignment. And so here's what gonna do.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have everyone close their eyes and bow their heads.
Speaker 1: And if you're saying, you know what, I want to
Speaker 1: take this opportunity. I want Jesus to come into my life.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you to pray this prayer for the
Speaker 1: benefit of those who are praying it for the very
Speaker 1: first time or people who are returning back. I want
Speaker 1: our church family to say it out loud, say, Dear Jesus,
Speaker 1: I thank you for who you are. I thank you
Speaker 1: for who the Bible says that you are. I believe
Speaker 1: that you died on the cross, you rose from the grave,
Speaker 1: defeating all sin, defeating all shame. Come into my life,
Speaker 1: make me a new creation. I'm ready for the assignment
Speaker 1: in Jesus' name. Amen, Come on, can we give it
Speaker 1: up for everyone? Put it in a chat. If you
Speaker 1: just came into a relationship, if you took the opportunity
Speaker 1: to come into assignment, you weren't here by mistake today,
Speaker 1: on this July fourth weekend. It's not a mistake. It's
Speaker 1: an opportunity. It's an opportunity. And I think I love
Speaker 1: moments like the moment we just had because I know
Speaker 1: we're like hey, people, it never gets old. To angels,
Speaker 1: it never gets old. They thrown apart. They probably, they
Speaker 1: probably play. All I do is win when when when
Speaker 1: them hands are going up, when the sales hit a
Speaker 1: perfect wind to get you where you need to go.
Speaker 1: Come on, raise your hands. I want to pray for you,
Speaker 1: and we'll go into worship. God. Thank you for the
Speaker 1: assignment of this moment right here. I pray that you
Speaker 1: would continue to pour out your spirit and pour out
Speaker 1: your love and pour out your encouragement through every parent,
Speaker 1: every teenager, every employee, every son, every daughter. Help didn't
Speaker 1: understand that we are building the church one assignment after another.
Speaker 1: We are grateful for you. We love you and Jesus same.
Speaker 1: We pray everyone said amen, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 1: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 1: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 1: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends. You can click
Speaker 1: the share button, take a screenshot and share it on
Speaker 1: your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening. God bless you