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My God is mighty to save. He is mighty to save forever. Author of salvation, heroes and conquered the great. Jesus conquered the great. Everyone needs compassion, a love that's never failing.
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Let mercy fall savior he can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save, he is mighty to save forever. Author of salvation He rose and conquered the grave. Jesus conquered the grave.
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All right, you guys may be seated. Thank you Renzi Group, excellent job up here And excellent job out here. Welcome everybody. Good morning. Good morning.
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See this smile? God has a smile bigger than this from hearing those praises. So we need to keep that up this morning. It just brings joy to his heart. So it's very cold out this morning.
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It's our first cold morning of the year, I think, nine degrees. When it gets below 10, I call that cold. And so I hope everybody was able to stay warm. It's gonna be warm in here as we keep on singing praises to our God this morning. And anyway, a quick few announcements.
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There is going to be a church directory being passed around. Do we have that church directory coming? Yes? No? It will be.
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And when you see it, please check it for correctness if you would, just for your family. Don't be marking anybody else's family if you wouldn't mind. And so, put a check mark if everything is correct, and you can contact Judy Wales who will be here during the second service if you see any corrections or you would like a different photo for that directory. There is also some stuff in your bulletin. Please look at that.
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We have Operation Christmas Child today. We have a discovery class going on at 10AM in pastor Don's office for anyone who would like more information on becoming a member here at First Be. So please it's a it's a great class. It tells you a little bit about us and we get to hear a little bit about you. And, we'd love to have you attend that.
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Also, I had kind of a unique request, I got via email. It seems our neighbor across the street has been having some issues with parking. There is a very small curb section between the driveway over there on the north side of the street. If all of us in here could be considerate and try to refrain from parking right next to those tight driveways over right across the street from the church, we would really show good neighborly love to that renter over there and she could back out of her driveway with confidence that she won't wreck into anyone. So I would ask for everyone's cooperation with that.
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So with that, I would like to just open us here in a quick word of prayer. If you'd all bow your heads, please. Heavenly father, we praise you. We praise your name, oh God. Thank you for the love that you give us each and every day.
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The love that Christ so freely gave to us. Taking our sins away with his sacrifice. For the love of the spirit that washes over us to fill us so we can spread that love, your love to all those around us. Father, you are the savior, mighty to save, and we just praise you for that. We ask your blessing upon this worship service.
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May it bring glory and honor to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Elder Mike Mayer would like to come up this morning and give us a brief update on search committee pros progress. And so if, tune your ears, he's only gonna say this once. Till the next time.
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Good morning. Just a
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quick update. We had our second, meeting as a search committee. We are working through about five or six candidates at this time. One thing I did wanna mention too is we asked you guys, you know, to be involved in the process, we are looking to mentor or not excuse me, not mentor, but network with candidates, meaning that we, somebody can vouch for their character integrity. We're not opening this up to a national type advertising campaign.
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We do not have the resources, most of us have full time jobs and and things like that. So we can't go through stacks of papers and resumes, and that's not really what we're after anyway. And so if you do know of somebody, please approach one of the search committee members and we will start working through that process. Again, we're this will be a cyclical process as we are trying to work through several candidates, as we're looking for our next pastor. So, with that, that's about all the information I have right now.
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But, I am gonna segue into, a ceremony this morning. We do have a new member covenant ceremony this morning. So I would like to ask Frank and Kathy Lyons to please come forward at this time. And as they're up here, I'm gonna read a little bit of scripture in regards to membership. At first Corinthians 12, for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.
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For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. Jews are Greeks, slaves are free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.
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If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hear where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the one body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
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We only have one condition to become a member of this church, and it is to have a belief in Jesus Christ as your savior. We do offer the discovery class that's gonna happen today right after this service, and it's just a chance to
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get to know you, to tell you about the church, and to to make sure it's
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a good fit for for both parties involved. And with that, I would like to ask Frank, would like to share a little bit, I think. Frank?
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Like is a strong word, anyway. Know, Kathy and I have been attending here for probably seven years, and so it's probably about time. But we we've actually been members of the body of Christ since the mid seventies when we both got saved, and we're happy to be worshiping here with everyone. And we've been involved with mister Kaufman and life group, and, we were involved in another life group previously. And so, you know, we we we don't spend a lot of time mingling after church because we have three little grandkids that we take on the weekends, so we're pretty busy, but running around with them.
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But anyway, we're very happy and committed to you all, and I hope you will be to us as well as as members of the body. Don't wanna say anything? Nope. I knew that.
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And really, membership is about a covenant or commitment, to the body. You know, we were able to see see some of that as as my wife had a little surgical procedure, and we're, very blessed to have, this body of believers come around us with with meals and well wishes. And personally, I just like to say thank you for that as well. But so First Baptist would like to make a covenant with all of you in the obedience in the Lord. Do you have formed before this congregation that Jesus Christ is your savior and lord?
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Yes. Yes.
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Do you believe that God is adding you to this body of believers?
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Yes.
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Will
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you open your life to allow this congregation to minister to you as we serve Christ together? Yes. And now to you as a congregation, from the response of these new members, do you believe that God is adding these people to this church? If so, please signify by saying we do.
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We do.
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Will each of you personally open our open your lives to these people to allow God to work through you to help them to become all that he has purposed them to be? If so, please signify by saying we will.
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We will.
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First John three sixteen says, this is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Now, I'd like to ask as a church family, please join hands for a moment of prayer. Let's each one thank him for the body of believers and for the blessing of these new members that he has added. Dear heavenly father, we do thank you for Frank and Kathy, for their commitment to step forward, to become members of this body, to be committed, to to to offer help and serve this body as Jesus Christ in their hearts did for his church.
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Lord, we thank you for loving us. We thank you for loving this congregation and all that's in it. We do believe that you add to this body, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Fantastic.
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Now as Frank mentioned, they were in, LifeGroup I shared with them, and I bugged them every week to become members. So that's a warning to all my LifeGroup partners now. If you're not a member, I will be on you. Amen, Frank and Kathy. Welcome.
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So with that, could I have our ushers come forward and, prepare for this morning's offering? Heavenly father, we come before you this morning to just give back what you leave our lead our hearts to do. Father, you give us so much each and every day. We are blessed with plenty of food, warm homes, clothes, shoes on our feet. We have so much when so many around us have so little.
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We praise you and we thank you for your many blessings. Let us use your blessings that you give us to serve you and let us take this opportunity to give back to you abundantly the way you abundantly give to us. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay.
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Now, since everybody has been sitting for a few minutes, let's all stand and worship and praise our lord with some more song. I know my fidgety friend back here is ready to sing loud.
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Clouds are sailing, heavens along. Oh, praise him. Hallelujah. Vial rising moon in praise rejoice. Praise praise the father, praise the son.
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Praise praise the spirit three in one. Oh, praise him. Oh, praise your child your grace For when your eyes are on this child, your grace abounds to me. For when your eyes are on this child, your grace abounds to me.
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You may be seated. If if you don't know, pastor Don is in China as we gather here this morning. So, we just want to remember him and Marlon continuously in our prayers as they travel and missionary over there and speaking of China and missionaries, we have this morning as our guest speaker, mister Ron Turpin, who has been to China extensively over the years and pastored and mission. And I want to add storyteller to that introduction because he visited us back at the end of August or first part of September, and my two sons 12 and 13 came home exclaiming how their attention was riveted to the message that was being told up here that morning and I think that was a first, my wife, I had to defibrillate her after the boys gave her that message. So, Ron, please come up and share the good word with us this morning.
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Thank you.
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12, you don't need to turn there. Then, certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered saying, master, we would see a sign from thee but he answered and he said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign but no sign should be given into it. But the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold a greater than Jonas is here.
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If you think with me back to the Old Testament book of Jonah, you realize that Jonah was given instructions. He was one of those individuals that had been a prophet for a long time. I believe he was a senior citizen. I believe he was a senior prophet. And all of a sudden, I believe he had the habit of every morning getting up and he'd get down on his knees and he'd say, good morning, Lord.
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And God would meet him that day and give him the message for what he was to do. Well, one day, God came to him with a very unique and unbelievable mission. That unique and unbelievable mission was simply this, to go to Nineveh. Now, that name, the name of that town must have sent chills through his body because you see, if you go back to the book of Genesis in chapter 10, you realize that the founder of the city of Nineveh was the same founder of the city of Babylon or Babel. And so what happened is, God said, I'm going to talk to you this morning in your prayer time about going to Nineveh and I want you to go there and I want you to preach.
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Now, realize that this time, Nineveh was the greatest, the largest city in the world. It had a history of being absolutely totally wicked. So, here's Jonah. Maybe he did like many prophets did. They would take notes and he said, okay, lord, now, what is it you want me to go where to Nineveh?
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Yes, I want you to go. I want you to go east to Nineveh and I want you to preach to em and I want you to tell them that I'm going to bring judgement on their town, on their city. I'll give you more more instructions as we move along, says God. Chapter one and verse one of the book of Jonah. Now, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amatai saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry against it for their wickedness is come up before me.
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Well, I can so identify with Jonah because God said, go east and Jonah went where? West. Have you ever done that? God says, go right. I go left.
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God says, go up. I say, go down. That's how I found in my Christian life. Well, all of a sudden, Jonah goes, oh no. I didn't say it out loud but he did it and all of a sudden, he got up, he went down, he booked him a ticket, he got on a boat, and he was heading as far away from Nineveh as possible and he got in the boat and the Bible, if you notice, there's some interesting words.
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Verse three, and he went down to Joppa and he went down into the sides of the boat. Down, down, down. That's the way and the direction of it but I love this because all of a sudden, you find Jonah and he's just exactly in the opposite place God tells him to go and so all of a sudden, he leaves. What does he think? Well, I got out of that one.
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What does God think? I believe God got off of his throne and he went like this because you see, before ever he can minister through a person, he's gotta get the person and where's Jonah? Just like that, getting away from him and all of a sudden, he's there and he's down on the side of the ship and he's sound asleep. Ship moves out and all of a sudden, God goes like this. The Bible says that God is covered in clouds.
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It says, God, when he stands, he's all mad, almighty, all of heaven watches. The Bible says that angels stand on tiptoes with the awesomeness of God and so God gets up and he goes like this, wind and here's the wind. Yes, God. I want you to go down there. I want you to create a storm.
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You got it. Now, think with me for a minute because the Bible says that all of creation obeys his voice except for one of his creator creatures, only one. The wind will ablate. We're going see that there's going be obedience in all of creation but the one person, the one creature is man. Because God's given us a choice to obey or disobey.
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Well, I love it. Here's Jonah. Imagine, this is the ship. No Nineveh. And all of a sudden, it starts to jostling.
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Glad I brought my sleeping bag. Meanwhile, it's on top. The wind The guys in the boat go, oh my gosh. What are we going to do? And they start throwing the stuff overboard and they start looking to each other and they go, what's happening?
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Why is this evil come upon us? What's going to take place? And look, but the Lord sent a great wind into the sea. Verse four, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea that the ship was about to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man to his God.
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Cast forth the wares into the ship, into the sea, enlightened it, but Jonah was counted to the sides of the ship, and lay was fast asleep. So, the shipmaster came to him and said, what meanest thou, oh sleeper? Arise and call upon my God. Here's Jonas down to sleep. The shipmaster comes down.
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He says, what are you doing? We're going to perish out here in the storm. What's the storm do? God is so good. God is so faithful.
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You see, the wind is totally obedient to almighty God. Totally. So, Jonah wakes, he goes up there and they cast lots and Jonah says, okay, the lot fell on me. I'm guilty. God told me to go.
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Told me to go east. I went west. He told me to go to Nineveh. I went to Tar I'm going to Tarsus. Best thing for you to do, throw me overboard.
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Why? Why did he want to be thrown overboard? He doesn't want to go to Nineveh. Ever thought about suicide? It's throughout America today, throughout the world He said, it's better than better to die than to have to go to preach in Nineveh.
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Now, remember, Jesus said, the sign of the prophet Jonah. We're going to see the sign in just a moment. Throw me overboard. Oh, they reluctantly do it. They pick him up and they go, we're, God, what, with this?
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We're Meanwhile, in heaven, almighty God stands up, looks at the wind, and says, You did a great job. Thanks, God. God says this, hey, Tippy. I call him Tippy. You can claim whatever you want to call him.
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It's called a great fish. Here's Tippy. Yes, God. Tippy, I want you to get to the Mediterranean Sea, and there's some cargo being dumped overboard. The name of the cargo is called, Made in Israel, Jonah.
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You'll know it because you'll see it on the tag. Yes, God. Whatever you tell me, you'll do. Why? I will do.
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Why? All of creation every animal, the wind, the stars, the moon, everything that God threw into being. Every single, every single living creature obeys but one. One. And that's because God said, I'm gonna tie my hands behind my back because I want them to love me because of who I am.
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I wanna give them a choice. If they wanna waste their whole life, they can waste it. If they wanna fall on their knees, look into the face of a god that came to die, that that came and died for em, rose, and went into heaven. I'll I'll respond. Getting rid of all the stuff because why?
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God said, I'm going to have you pick up this man and you need to have an empty stomach. Fast. Okay. We don't want to throw him overboard. Jonah, here's Jonah going overboard.
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Yes. I'm going to die. It's all over. Here's Tippy. Here's Jonah.
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Pitch black Now, there's a message here and it's tucked
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away at the last verse of chapter one.
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Now, the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Anybody stubborn here in the relationship with the Lord? Jonah is a great picture. First day, seaweed. Oh, jeez.
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Ever been there? Not a word. Not a prayer. Nothing. First day.
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Second day. This is terrible. He didn't say it because the Bible said, it was three days until what? He came to then. Ever been there?
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Oh, I have. Ever been like that in your Christian life? You know there's something between you and God. You know you shouldn't do it. You know you shouldn't go there.
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You know you shouldn't see that. You know you shouldn't be involved. You know you shouldn't talk to them. You know. You know.
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You know. And guess what? The Holy Spirit says, don't go. Don't do it. Don't get involved.
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Don't send that Email. Don't do this. Don't do that and what do we do every single time? I do. Third day.
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He came to the end. He came to the end.
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I want to share something with you that I shared in love. If you're here today and you've never received Christ, He'll search you like the hound of heaven. He'll look for you. He'll send you sign after sign after sign. He'll search you down, and he'll wait for you to respond to him.
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And if you're a Christian here today, and you haven't been with God in a long time, and you know your heart's not right, you know you're involved in things that you shouldn't be, You know you're doing things that God would not be pleased with. He'll wait. He'll wait till you're in your twenties. He'll wait. If you say, you know what?
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I'm going to live it up. I'm going to have all the all the fun I want. I'm going to do everything I want to do and then I'll get my heart right with God. He'll wait. He'll wait.
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And all the time, he'll send a messenger. He'll send a message. He'll send the Holy Spirit. He'll seek you. He'll pull you.
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He'll look for you. He'll wait for you. He'll come down. He'll search and he'll search and he'll search and finally at the end, if you say I'm going to wait till I get on my deathbed. On my deathbed, I'm going to give all my stuff to God.
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He'll wait. He'll wait. He'll wait for you. But if you're here today, it only takes a moment. Look what happened.
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After three days, it says in chapter two verse one, then, ain't that great? Then, Jonah prayed. When I read that, I laughed to myself. I said, man, is that me? Sometimes, I get down to the very end.
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Every exhaust, every resource exhausted, the very last thing, here's Jonah. Third day, the end. God. Okay. Oh, go to Nineveh.
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Ever been there? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
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Okay. God was thrilled. The fish was what? Oh, Now, this is beautiful. Watch.
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The whole second chapter is a prayer. You can study it and go through it on your own. Turns toward Jerusalem. He looks toward the throne of heaven. He realizes the Savior.
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He realizes in the Old Testament, they look forward to the cross. In the New Testament, they look back to in other words, you look back and you see all those saints looking forward to the cross in the New Testament after the New Testament. We look back to the cross and so all of a sudden, he looked and then what happened? I love this verse. This is a lot of my life.
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Verse 10, and the Lord spake unto the fish. And it vomited Jonah upon dry land. Now, I don't want to be or going to supper, going to lunch here saying, I I don't want to be. Here's the fish. Where is he getting him?
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Certainly not Tarsus. Where? Shores Of Israel. Where's Jonah? Have you ever had your hand in water for four hours?
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He's already old. What color is his hand? Good. I was going say blue white. Here he is.
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What's he slapping around? Vomit. That's us. That's us. You see, When I was 11 years old at the First Baptist Church in Chickasha, Oklahoma and I heard a preacher preach.
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I realized that God looked down and saw me and he said, there's not one thing in that voice worth salvaging. Nothing. And we never get beyond that. Oh, we make it to the place some days that we think, man, we're pretty pretty good. We're pretty great but God will always let us fall into a pile of vomit to prove nothing's changed.
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Not like that. I love it. All of a sudden, he gets up and he goes, whoo. Long journey to go and watch what happens. Remember, when you're disobedient with God and you get off of the trail he has you on, he takes you right back where you got off.
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And he goes like this. Look at it. Verse one of chapter three and the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, arise. Get up. Get out of the vomit.
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Go to Nineveh. That great city and preach undo it, the preaching that I shall bid thee. What do you think he did? Yes, sir. You bet.
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He hit that largest city in the world and he started and he said, got news for you. Forty days. Forty days in the God of all the earth. The God of all heaven, the judge, the king is gonna come down and he's gonna judge you. Forty days.
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Forty days. The next day, thirty nine days. Thirty eight, thirty seven. Is that not our time? Is that not our time?
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A volcano erupts off the coast of Spain. A tsunami hits Japan. The earth is being shaken. It's our time. Fortunes are being lost.
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It's our time. The Bible says that the Lord Jesus is coming with 10,000 angels, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus. He's coming. He's coming. And that's he preached.
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He preached his heart out. Well done, that good and faithful servant. Don't you wish the book ended there? I do. What happened?
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This is the Ninevite. God? Oh my goodness. God, forgive me. What'd Jonah say?
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Oh, Drance. I knew it. I knew God would bless His Word. I knew it. All these guys are going to get straightened out.
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Man. Because he see, he could see the future because he was a prophet and he knew that crowd was going to come and pour vengeance out on Israel. But God met him. God answered their prayers. What did Jonah do?
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Oh, man. Went up overlooking the city and he was sad. He was mad at God. Got up there and he said, this is terrible. Ever sulk?
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Now, you guys probably don't. I do. Sometimes, I'm a sulker. Ask my wife. If we have a fight, she is ready for total silence.
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It's punishment kind of. What bugs me is she's learned how to deal with it. Let him get over it. Right? Here's Jonah.
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It's a what's God do? Seed Grow a plan over him. As he's on that hilltop over the city and cover him. What does a little plant do? Okay, God.
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Here's Jonah. Here's the plant. Oh. Good. What's Jonah do?
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Well, this isn't bad. I like this. Sun's off my head. You see, the circumstances dictated the relationship. Ever been there?
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If it's going well, your relationship to God is what? Good. Going bad? Why are you so mean to me? For me?
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And you probably don't do that. Any whiners here? Oh God. I just don't
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know what's gonna happen. Why are you letting this happen to me? You're God.
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Right? Here's Jonah. So, now, he's comfortable and so God calls upon who? Ewie. Didi.
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Ewie Didi. Who is that? Ready? A little worm. Yes, God.
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How are your teeth? I didn't know worms had teeth but from this passage, it must be a tooth full of mouth, a worm with a mouthful of teeth. They're fine. Go eat that plant. Yes, God.
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Here's the plant. Keeping him cool. Oh. Oh. God told me to eat you.
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Jonah, what? I can't even believe it. Ever been here? The few things that I have left, God's taken em away. Can't even enjoy this little plant.
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Ever been there? It seems like God just keeps whittling me down. I lost my job. I lost this. I lost that.
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Why? He's not after anything but you. He's only after you and me. God is jealous. He wants to pull us to himself.
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He wants us to come to the place that we are so taken up with him that we see that he is the way, the truth, and the life. You could study this afterward on your own, the end of chapter four. Turn with me to chapter five of the book of Jonah. Come on. Oh, come on.
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Let's just pretend like we're sitting around the fire. Turn to chapter five. Come on. Somebody help me. There is no chapter five but there is.
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Chapter five is the sign. What's the sign? I'll give you an illustration Sometimes my wife says to me, honey, you know what? It's Saturday. I don't think I'm going to wash my hair today.
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So, I kidded her this morning. I said, hey, honey. You going to wash your hair today? Go to church? What do we
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want to do when we meet people? We'll look our best, don't we?
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Let me read chapter five to you. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah and said to him, Jonah,
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write all the ugly details.
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Put it in a book. So that those at the First Baptist Church, Jackson, Wyoming, will know that there's a god in heaven. Put all the details. Put the details about running away. Put the details about it taking you three days.
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Put the details about the way you became up over upset over the victory and people turning to God. Put the details. Put em all in and he did. He put all the details in. Every single one and it's the book of Jonah and it's the sign but what was the sign Jesus was talking about?
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This is it. As Jonah was in the belly of the whale or the belly of the fish, pardon me, for three days, The son of man is going to be where? He's going to be in the depths of the earth for three days. Know the story? This is the story.
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The story is cruel men, not sailors. This is the story. Cruel men hung him on the cross. Not thrown overboard. Cruel man hung him on the cross and the place came where all of a sudden, all of heaven stood around and said, it's Jesus.
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It's the son of God. The angel stood there and went like this. How? What's happening? They didn't understand.
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They understand the the ministry of redemption and all of a sudden, there's the son of God hanging and guess what the father does? He looks at him and he says, he's guilty. He's guilty. Why? Because the Bible says that one man's sin brought one man's sin brought sin into the world.
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One man brought life into the world. Jesus Christ hung on that cross guilty in your place and mine. Guilty. He wasn't thrown overboard. All of a sudden, suspended between heaven and earth.
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He gave up his life, and he said, heavenly father, not I am finished. It's finished. It's finished. And redemption was finished and Jesus, he died. Where did He go those three days?
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There was a place in hell called Abraham's bosom. And all of a sudden, guess what He did? He took the keys to Abraham's bosom. He went down there and He looked at the people of the antediluvian period, the people of Noah's age, and He preached to him a message of victory. And he preached a message that said, God is victorious in his son, Jesus and guess what he did?
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He gathered all those in Abraham's bosom, the thief on the cross and he said, what? Heaven bound we're there and he went to heaven and the exciting thing about it is, if you're here today and you've never met Jesus Christ, he'll wait but the invitation is to you. If you're here today and you say, you know what? I'm just not ready to turn my life over to the Lord. I'm too young.
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Oh, we need a message. We need a message today to the young people that says what? You're right. You're ready. Take the message of this gospel.
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Take it to the far ends of the earth. If we can see, get the vision. Jesus what? Jesus rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven.
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He said, you know, I've got a great plan for you. I'm going to send my Holy Spirit to live inside your heart so that every single day, you can rest in the victory that is mine. I won't slap you on the back and say, go into the world and do something for me. I will go with you and I will be the power that gives you the life to live and I will live through you. We close with this verse.
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The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgement with this generation and
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shall condemn it. Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. Behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
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You know the greatest compliment a speaker can ever get after a message? Oh, he's a ready preacher. No. The greatest compliment is this. I can't remember that guy's name, but it was all over.
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I saw Jesus. Ain't that cool? I saw Jesus. Did you realize today?
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Come in, Nicodemus. I've been waiting for you.
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You know, Lord, I've been
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watching you and the things that you do and the things that you say, nobody can do them or say them unless he's from God.
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The great thing about this book is it speaks to us right where we are. We live in the age
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of the Internet, of smartphones. But the greatest communicative tool there is is God's word by his Holy Spirit speaking to our heart.
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Let's bow our heads. If you're here today and you've never invited Christ into your heart, I'm gonna pray a little prayer.
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And I'm gonna give you
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the opportunity to pray that prayer with me. It's very simple. Dear Lord Jesus, just in the quietness of where you sit, nobody's going to come to you. I'm going ask you to raise your hand. I'm going ask you to come forward.
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Just pray this prayer if you've never received Christ. Dear Lord Jesus,
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I know I'm a sinner. And I know you're coming back. And so right now, I ask you to forgive me of my sins and invite you into my heart. Thank you for coming in. Maybe you're here today and you're Christian and you know you're involved in stuff you're not supposed to.
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You know your prayer time. You know God's saying to you, I want to be with you. I want you to go someplace, to do something. I don't know, but
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you
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know. Would you pray this prayer with me? If you're a Christian here today, dear Lord Jesus, Right now, I thank you for the story of Jonah. I thank you that he told all of the details God, you know all the details of my life. I ask you right now.
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Would you take my life? I'll go wherever you want me to go. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll be like the fish. I'll be like the wind.
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I'll be like the the plant, the little worm. I wanna be totally given to you. Dear God, I thank you for this time together. What a privilege. What a privilege to open your word together.
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To see Jesus. Thank you for meeting our hearts. In Jesus name, Amen. Alright.
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Let's stand together for one lesson.
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Is jealous for me, looks like a hurricane. I am a tree bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory. And I realize just how beautiful you are, how great your affections are for me. Oh, how he loves us.
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Oh, how he loves us. How he loves us all. Is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane. I am a tree bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. And of a sudden, I am unaware of these is an ocean where all sinking.
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So heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss. My heart turns violently inside my chest. I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about Wade. Oh, how he loves us
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Anything, Carl?
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Alright. Let's oh, right here, actually. Last thing. You guys may be seated. Thank you, Renzi.
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Thank you, Ron. Fantastic message, a great story. Let's all carry those words with us through the week and remember, let's be attentive to hear God's voice in all we do. Please bow your heads and word of prayer. Thank you, heavenly father, for blessing us.
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With the opportunity to meet together, to fellowship together, to worship together, to bring praise and lift up praise to you, father. Let us all keep our hearts, our ears, and our eyes open for what you would have us do. So I would ask you, be alert, stand firm in the faith, be valiant and strong, let all you do be done in love. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Thanks. Have a great week.
