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Jonah and the Whale
14th September 2025 • Springhouse Church Sermons • Springhouse Church
00:00:00 00:37:12

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Step into the story of Jonah and the whale with Pastor Barbie Loflin as she uncovers deep lessons from Jonah’s journey. Find practical wisdom about turning from disobedience, letting go of judgment, and embracing compassion over personal grudges. Take this opportunity to realign your heart with God’s purpose and offer mercy to others, just as God offers it to you.

Scriptures Referenced

Psalm 139:7-12; Proverbs 26:11; Jonah 1:1-3

Key Insights

  • Jonah’s story reflects our tendency to run from God’s calling.
  • We often seek distractions to avoid facing God’s purpose.
  • God’s mercy and grace pursue us even in disobedience.
  • The Holy Spirit’s conviction comes with a promise of restoration.
  • God’s compassion isn’t limited to those we find easy to love.
  • Sometimes, our healing requires facing the mess we’ve created.
  • True transformation can happen in the most difficult places.

Prayer Targets

Please join us in prayer for:

  • A hunger for the Word.
  • Tears for the lost.
  • Testimonies to share.

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We would love it if you would consider joining us in person for one of our Sunday gatherings.

Gathering Times

  • Sundays, 9:00 AM
  • Sundays, 11:00 AM
  • Thursdays, 6:00 PM

Contact Info

Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167

615-459-3421

Additional Resources

CCLI License 2070006

Transcripts

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Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.

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It is a good morning. I'm listening to them talk about

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there being an abundance and overflow with tithes. And

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I was thinking about growing up in my

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mom and dad's church. Once a month we had, they would

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do a. What was called a pounding for the pastor. It

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means a whole different thing now, but

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back then you would walk out and there'd be some

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groceries on the steps of the porch or there might be a chicken casserole,

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which you probably needed to be careful about eating. But anyway,

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tithing sometimes looked different

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out there where there wasn't much money and people would bring the little and then

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they would bring the extras. And that was always such a blessing to see what

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God was going to do. We are going to

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open with just for a second. I want us to pray for Pastor Kevin,

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who's still on sabbatical and I'm not bitter and.

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But we miss him so. Father God, I thank you so much for our pastor.

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I thank you, Lord, for this season where you've offered him rest. And I pray

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that he get that. I said in first gathering, Lord, it would be

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awful nice if he had a hammock somewhere where he could

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just spend some time, Lord, in your presence. And I just ask that you cover

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he and Shari and the girl. I just ask that you bring him that

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back refreshed. We know when he comes back, Lord, he'll be up to something.

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So Father, help us. In Jesus name, Amen.

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That came out wrong.

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Sometimes you just put the comma in the wrong place.

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I have to tell you, I got tickled. Last week Pastor Allen

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had shared, you know, he said, you know, in his benevolent

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heart, he did not send in his request for

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which book he wanted to teach on. And he said that he would sit back

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and let everybody get it. And he wound up with Hosea.

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And I saw nothing wrong with that. But anyway, I

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just wanted Alan to know that none of us got what

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we asked for, but what we

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did get was what Pastor Kevin prayed about and

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said, no, I think you are carrying the word for this one. And that's what

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we always want, right? So I got Jonah

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and

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it's been so good and it's all for you guys.

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And no, it has just been so rich. And

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I'm so encouraged by what the Lord has to share with us.

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And I love that God always has an

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on time word. And

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nothing has surprised him about this day, this

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week, this month. Nothing has surprised

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him. And he sends his word. To do what? To heal

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his people. Amen. So we are going to stand up, we're going to read a

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couple of verses, and then we are going to turn off the

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slides and we are just going to dig into this for a

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minute because I need a word from the Lord. Do you need a word from

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the Lord this morning? That's what we're going to do today. We are going to

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talk about being so much like Jonah,

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so much like Jonah. And man, I'm owning that this

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morning. To go, God, I see myself in these scriptures and I ask, Lord, that

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you help me to overcome this. So let's read it. As Pastor

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Kevin would say with gusto. The word of the Lord came

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to Jonah, son of Amitti, go to the great

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city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its

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wickedness has come up before me. But

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Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for

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Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he

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found a ship bound for that port. After paying

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the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish

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to flee from the Lord. Father. God,

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help us. Help us, Lord, to see

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ourselves in your word, Lord, and to see your instruction in the

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Word. Father, this morning we're going to come under your truth. Father. God,

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there's a whole lot of opinions and a whole lot stuff in the world right

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now. But Father, what we need is your truth. And so, Father, that's where we're

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submitting ourselves. Today I ask, Lord, that my

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stuff fall and your stand. And Father, I'm asking for hearts that

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are teachable. You said you would awaken our hearts morning by morning

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to be taught of you. And today we have come to learn from you,

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Father, settle us, Lord, I ask in Jesus

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name. Amen. I find it so

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interesting that Jonah.

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Ah, Jonah. I look at

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that passage of scripture and it says that Jonah decided to

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flee from the Lord. And I just have to tell you, Psalms was

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written before Jonah. And I'm Pretty sure the

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139th Psalm says this, starting with

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verse 7. Where can I go from your

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spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If

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I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed

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in Sheol, behold, you are there. If I take the

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wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even

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there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will

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take hold of me. If I say, surely the darkness will

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cover me and the night will only be light around

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me. Even the darkness is not dark to you and

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conceals nothing from you. But the

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night shines as bright as the day darkness

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and light are alike to you.

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You can run, but you can't hide. You

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can run, but you can't hide. And we're good at running, aren't we?

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We're really good at deciding that the word that the Lord has given us

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is not the one that we wanted. And so it's obviously wrong.

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I look at this book of Jonah. If you got your Bible, just go there

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with me. It says in chapter one,

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verse one, it says, now the word of the Lord came to

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Jonah, the son of Amitti, saying, go to

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Nineveh,

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but Jonah ran away to Tarshish.

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I don't like that word. That's hard to say. Tarshish. Say

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it three times. No, don't. Tarshish.

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So we're going to say that city. So they ran. He ran away

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to that city. And actually, that's probably better anyway, because

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there are a lot of places that we like to refer to as that city,

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right? We look at it and we

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go, the word of the Lord. He had a word from the Lord

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and he ran. I mean, was this an audible word

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from the Lord? Was this in the middle of the night, dream from the

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Lord? It doesn't clarify that. But he had a word from the Lord. And we're

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like, how do you turn away from a word from the Lord?

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And he wasn't just, you know, he was a prophet.

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He was a prophet of the Lord, and he

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had a word from the Lord.

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And we can look at that and go, what? But you see, Jonah only had

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one instruction. We got the whole manual. We

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got it all right here, the last Will and Testament.

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These are the words he left for us. And there are instructions for

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every single situation we may find ourselves in. And

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there are instructions for how we comfort ourselves

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and how we respond to situations, especially

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situations that are hard and that we don't understand.

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But it says that Jonah gets up early.

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One of the translations says he got up early and

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headed for Joppa, and he paid the fare

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to get on that boat to go to Tarshish. Shush, shush.

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He wasn't just, like, detouring just a little bit off the path.

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He wasn't like, I'll go to La Verne and then the Lord won't be able

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to see me over here in Smyrna. No, he

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went so far. He got as far away from God as he could

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possibly get. It is literally the mileage

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from New York City to Los Angeles within about six miles.

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He went all the way to the other coast. He's like, maybe

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If I'm over here, maybe God won't see where I am.

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Isn't that funny? But we do it all the

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time. He can't see me

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here in this mess that

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I have paid good money to get myself into.

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But it says he wanted to get as far away

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from the Lord as he could get. Why? Because he didn't like the word that

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he'd been given. And he had his reasons for not liking that word that he'd

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been given. And we're going to talk about that a little bit. But if you

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look down a little bit further, you'll find in chapter one

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that a storm comes, a bad

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storm. And everybody on the boat is

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frightened and they're terrified, and they don't like this situation.

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And I think it is so interesting that it says

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all of this is going on all around. And Jonah went

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to the deepest part of the boat and was sound asleep.

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Sound asleep. You know what I do? I look at that and I go,

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jonah knew the Lord. And sometimes when

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we're running and we're trying to get as far away as possible,

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yet we know the voice of the Lord. We have

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this tendency to try and shut down everything on the

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inside. If we can just buffer that voice for a little bit. If we can

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just medicate that voice for a little bit. If we can just step

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into this place where we can dull our ears. And enough

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that we don't hear the correction or the call of the Holy

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Spirit. So we go as deep as we can get,

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and we put ourselves to sleep. Spiritually,

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we do, because it's the only way we can go on in our

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disobedience. It's the only way that we can do it.

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And God hadn't forgotten

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or lost sight of Jonah. Just as God has not

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forgotten us and lost sight of where we are, whether

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in obedience or disobedience in the planet,

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God has not missed one thing. And

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all of the men up there, they're all up, they're despairing

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because it looks like they're getting ready to go down. Things look bad. You know,

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sometimes when things look bad, we can panic and we can respond in a way

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that we shouldn't respond. When what we really need

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is to get to the core of the matter, right? And

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so I actually really respect this

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about Jonah. They wake Jonah up

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and they cast lots, basically draw straws. And

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the short straw falls to Jonah, and Jonah

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fesses up. He said, it's me,

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it's me. And there's something on the inside of us that

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Holy Spirit of God that will bring conviction, that will cause us

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to go, it's me. It's me. I'm in

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disobedience. But then there's this other element here that takes place

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that to me sounds like the Enemy because it says,

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Jonah says, throw me overboard. You know,

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sometimes when we've really, really messed up, when

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we've really missed God, one of the things

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the Enemy does love to do is tell us how bad we are.

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And he wants you to despair to the point of death.

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And he wants you to go, I don't deserve to live. I have messed this

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up so many times. I have run from God, and now I'm

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in this ditch and I'm in this mess, and I do not deserve to

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survive this.

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Throw me overboard. Throw me overboard. Let me

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tell you the difference. The convicting work of the Holy Spirit

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will go. Kurt, you missed it. Tina,

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you missed it. But if you'll return to me, I will

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return to you. If you will call on me, I will heal

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you. There is promise in the convicting work of the

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Holy Spirit. The promise of the Holy Spirit is, well, if you

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will correct this, if you will allow me to change, if you will

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repent, I will heal this area of your life. But the voice

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of the accuser of the brethren, which is Satan, will come and go,

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you're not worth saving. You are worthless.

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You are pitiful. Nobody wants you to get out of this.

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Nobody thinks you should be healed. And everybody sees what you have done.

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You're not worth it. But you are

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always worth it. God loves

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you. God loves us. Even when

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we are in the depth of the boat, when we've gone to so much

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disobedience that we're still trying to hide. When that realization comes

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of what's actually happening in our lives, it would be my hope and it would

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be my prayer that we would go, God save me.

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God help me. Not that we would despair of life.

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He is a life giver. But here's something else, guys. You know what? I

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see this

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scripture says that the men didn't want to throw him overboard.

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They didn't want to do that. They didn't want to be held accountable for this,

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for his life. And

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sometimes there have been

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situations in my office where I'm

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watching a family go down for the last

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time because they refuse to release something

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or someone that God has another plan for, that

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God has a plan of rescue that maybe they can't quite get

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under your roof or within your advice or

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whatever. When you've done everything that you can do. Sometimes we have to release

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things to God. We just have to go. God, I don't know what to do

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here. But these men, they finally reach the point

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and they're like, okay, we've got to throw him. We've got to throw him over.

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We've got to let this go. But God.

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But God. Can you say that? But God. But God. Now

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look at this. In the very last verse of the

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first chapter, it says, and I'm reading from the amplified

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version, it says, now the Lord had

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prepared, appointed, destined,

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a great fish to swallow. Jonah.

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Appointed, destined, prepared.

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Guys, if he can appoint, prepare, and destine a fish, what do you think

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he's got for you? What kind of plan do you think he has for

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your life? I listened to Pastor Wayne sharing a few weeks

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ago about God destining a woman on the other

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side of town, a medical worker, to be in front of his house at the

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very moment that he had his accident.

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God prepared that. And I think about this fish being

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on the other side of the ocean going, I don't know why. I just feel

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like I need to turn left.

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I feel like I'm just supposed to be over there for some reason.

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Guys, pay attention to that. Turn left.

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Whatever. God di. Unction. If he can prepare and

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destine and send a fish, how much

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more? How much more does he have

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for you? And then this one cracks me up. I

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so love this. Guys, you can't. As Joseph says, you can't make

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this up. Well, some. Well, never mind.

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Isn't this just like us? So much like Jonah.

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Jonah. I gotta get as far away from the Lord as I can possibly get.

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I'm gonna take my money and I'm gonna give it to these people, and I'm

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gonna go with them over to the other side. We look for a group

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to run with, don't we? When we're ready to run from the

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Lord, we don't like to do it by ourself. So we will immerse ourselves

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in people who are going in that same wrong direction. Don't you think?

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I was telling the first gathering many years ago,

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I vacuumed in

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and I was

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vacuuming a white rug, okay?

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Everything else was a brown rug, and I was vacuuming a

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white rug. And there on the white rug was a brown

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penny. And I was able to see that penny and

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go pick that penny up and vacuum around it. And me

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being the master cleaner that I am, I tossed it onto the brown

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carpet because I wasn't vacuuming there

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yet. Then I turned around and I

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couldn't find the penny. Cause it blended so

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well with the rest. And sometimes

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that's what we want, isn't it? We just want to go blend in with the

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brown carpet for a while. We don't want to stick out like a

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sore thumb in the middle of a white carpet.

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Stick out, stick out. And

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don't become deluded to think that you're actually part of that, because

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you're not. You might be laying on top of it, but you ain't part of

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it. And so

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Jonah and his buddies, the ones going as far away from God as they can

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possibly get. Now Jonah has been swallowed up by a predestined

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whale. There's the quote for next week's Facebook.

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And don't you know you find Jesus in the storm.

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I titled this next portion whale song.

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Yeah, because I'm just that warped anyway. But there he

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is. He's drowning. He's in that water. And

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who knows how long he's been in that water. It doesn't give us a time

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frame. But Jonah finds Jesus because he

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says, oh, Lord, my God. When my

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soul was fainting within me, I remembered the Lord. You think,

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I'm not making fun of Jonah. I'm making fun of all of us

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because this is what we do. Everything's great. I'm having

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a wonderful day. This is. Oh, and there's a storm. Jesus, I need you.

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And then he says,

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but as for me, I will sacrifice to you

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with the voice of thanksgiving. And I shall pay that

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which I have vowed.

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The translation. Okay, I'll go do what you asked me to do in the first

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place. That's the translation.

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I love this. I was thinking about him

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out there, you know, Jonah, let's get as far away from God as

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we can possibly get. Hove him in the waves. Draw near,

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oh, God, draw near. Send the angels, send the

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trumpets. God, get us close. I need you, Jesus, to come to my rescue.

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Suddenly we want him as close as he can get

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right now. Let me show you what the grace. I believe

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this is such a marker of grace

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in the life of Jonah. Because in chapter 2, verse 10,

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it says, so, Jonah. So the Lord

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commanded the fish, and it vomited

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Jonah up onto the dry land.

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Now, see, God could have gone just Mr. Well, just ease up next to

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the shore, open your mouth and let Jonah walk out, couldn't he?

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But that isn't what he did. Why? Cause

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sometimes our deliverance doesn't need to be pretty.

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Sometimes when we're coming out of those situations and those hard places,

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sometimes it needs to be remarkable. Sometimes we

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need to remember why Proverbs 26:11 says, As a dog

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returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to

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his folly. And sometimes it might

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take the smell of vomit to cause you to not go back there

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again. Sometimes. You know,

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one of my favorite quotes by Bishop Garlington was, I'm so grateful for

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every time that God has delivered me in the privacy of my own

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mind. But sometimes deliverance

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doesn't look like that. Sometimes it shouldn't look

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like that. Sometimes that day needs to be marked

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to remember and not go back. Amen. Well,

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I know that for me. And now it says

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chapter three, verse one. Now, the word

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of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, go to Nineveh,

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the great city, and declare to it the message that I'm going

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to tell you. And it says,

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and Jonah got up and went straight way to Nineveh.

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Picture it with me,

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I'm going to Nineveh. I'm on it, God.

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Straightway to Nineveh.

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And Jonah goes to share this message

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that the Lord has given him. And there's a part of me that kind of

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wonders a little bit. See, Jonah didn't want Nineveh to be

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saved. And he says that. He says, this is the whole

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reason that I didn't wanna go. Why?

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Because Nineveh was bad.

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Nineveh was bad. They couldn't stand people

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who didn't agree with them. They didn't like people who didn't worship their same gods.

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If they had somebody come into their land that they didn't want there,

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they cut off their ears and they cut off their nose and they would send

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them back. There was human trafficking. There was

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all kinds of sexual immorality. There were murders that says there were bodies in

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the streets. They

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were a people that

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Jonah had decided weren't worth saving.

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And isn't that just how it goes sometimes? We

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pray God mercy for me and justice for them.

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When God is going, what if I have compassion on

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everybody? What if I decide? And

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so Jonah, I'm thinking about this. He doesn't want them to be

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saved. He is moving and going to do what he's called to do. You know,

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sometimes we can go and be obedient and not do it with the best heart

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that's possible. But it says that Jon went to the

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heart of the city and he began to share the message that if you don't

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repent in 30 days, this city is going to fall. And

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it says that the people began to repent. It says

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this it says, the king says, when the word reached the king of

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Nineveh. This is verse six, chapter two. When the word

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reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, he

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tore off his robe, he covered himself with sackcloth, and

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he sat in dust and in repentance. And he issued a

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proclamation. And it said, in Nineveh, by the decree of the king,

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no man, animal, herd or flock is to

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taste anything. They're not even to drink water. They

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must be covered with sackcloth. And everyone is to call on

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God earnestly. And who knows,

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God may turn in compassion and relent and

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withdraw his burning anger.

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It says in verse 10, God saw their deeds.

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It says God had compassion and he relented

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concerning what he had said would befall them.

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But here's the thing.

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Once we make up in our hearts who God needs to

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judge, it's hard for us to let go of that.

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And we'll justify it and we'll move in

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that and go, lord, these people deserve mercy and

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these people deserve judgment. But we don't get to make that call.

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Because the word of the Lord tells me that he would, that none.

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None should perish. None should perish. He's

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not slow. He's not being held back by anything other than

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his love and compassion for humanity.

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And it's interesting to me because it says

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at the beginning of chapter four,

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it says, God had compassion in chapter three and relented

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concerning the disaster he had declared. He didn't do it.

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Then it says this, but it greatly displeased

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Jonah. And he became angry.

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He became angry how, Lord, you've seen

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what they've done. You know the people's lives

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that they've destroyed. You know the pain, you

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know their wickedness, and you have had compassion

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on them. I have to wonder if maybe the

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smell of the whale vomit had dimmed just a bit in his life.

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He wasn't as willing and as open to what God

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had in that moment. But here's the cool thing. Well,

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it's not necessarily cool, says Jonah does.

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If you read the passage of Scripture, Jonah basically does what he did in the

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beginning. He takes off to the outskirts of town.

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He takes off to the outskirts of town and he sits down in the hot

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sun. And I

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will just call it sulking. That's the

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Barbie amplified version. But he sits down in the

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sun and it says he is angry to the point that he wants to

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die because the Lord has had

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compassion on these people that he's already formed

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his opinion about and probably already had

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Experiences with. And he was right. They

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were wicked. They were bad. They had no morality to

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them. They had nothing good

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to recommend them. Except when

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this king heard the word of the Lord, he did what Jonah

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didn't do. He obeyed it. He

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obeyed it. And the Lord had compassion on him. Now, this is

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interesting to me. I'm gonna get the worship team to come out. Cause I'm going

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to do this very long.

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Jonah's sitting out there. God has had compassion on these people

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that Jonah didn't want compassion extended to. Guys,

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we got to constantly check our hearts. We got to

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constantly check our hearts. Because we

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judge and we pray down curses on people

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that perhaps God is wanting to save. Maybe God's

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wanting to do something here. And that's what we see. He even has compassion

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on Jonah. Jonah's sitting out here in the dirt and the sun's beating down on

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him. And the Word tells me that the Lord caused a plant

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to grow up over Jonah and to shelter him.

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And Jonah loved that plant. It brought him comfort.

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And he loved that he now had a covering in that plant.

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That was God's grace. His mercy

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took. Son, that was acting out again.

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But then it says this. The next morning,

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the Lord sent a worm to eat the plant.

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And it ate the plant. And once again, Jonah is

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mad enough to want to die,

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to want to die over this plant.

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And God steps in and he says,

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you will grieve and you will be angry.

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This plant. But there are

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120,000 people.

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120,000 people. And one of the translations

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says that doesn't know their right hand from their left.

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They are innocent. Not because they haven't done anything, but because

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they don't know. They don't know. And God says, you

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are going to invest your anger and your frustration

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in this one thing when the picture is much

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bigger. The picture is much bigger than this

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one moment, this one thing that's happening in your world that

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casts away. You know what else it tells? This is just me.

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But I'll look at this and I go, God basically gave

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him 24 hours to sit in his mess.

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24 hours to get over the fact that we

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serve a compassionate God who would not that one would

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perish, Even that one that wish would.

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The God that we serve is slow to anger.

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And he is compassionate. And sons

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and daughters of God, and future sons and

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daughters of God that we don't know what's going to happen. If God will turn

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their lives around, if God will save them, what he will do. But what we

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do have to have is a heart posture of compassion for

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humanity. Not just part of it,

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all of it. Because God didn't say

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there are 110 souls, but those other

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10,000. You just stay mad at them or you be upset with them.

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No, God said, what if there's a bigger picture?

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You grieve over the one thing

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and grief is right,

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but there's a bigger picture. There's a bigger

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picture and we're not always going to understand it.

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But what we can know is that we serve a very, very

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good God. And he is compassionate

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and he is slow to anger. And when people

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repent, he does forgive them. So how can

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we withhold that?

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Here's the thing, guys, that was

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120,000 souls we

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have.

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We have 8.2 billion people

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on this planet, a majority of which don't know

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their right from their left. The majority of which

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that we attribute evil motives to. And they don't know Him.

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They don't know Him. And it would be

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my heart that we would search our own

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hearts and find God's compassionate nature.

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Because what the enemy wants is for all of us to rise up and be

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angry, just like Jonah was angry, but it did not serve him well.

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We find that at the end of the book of Jonah, there is no resolution.

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It isn't as if Jonah says, oh, I see it, God. Everything is

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fine now, God. And sometimes you just gotta sit

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with the discontent while you're sorting through whatever

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God wants to sort through in your life. Whatever heart posture that God

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wants to sort through in our lives. But I know this much, he

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wins. I know this much,

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I know that God wins.

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If we are going to rise up, let us rise up in compassion.

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If we are going to pray, let us pray for the souls of the lost.

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If we are going to be grieved in our soul, let us grieve that there

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are people who are dying every single day and leaving

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this planet without knowing Him.

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Let our heart be like his.

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Let us be compassionate.

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8.2 billion people.

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You know, it's not the end of the story.

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Because in the book of Nahum, about 150

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years later, those same people who had

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repented that same lineage that

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had given their hearts to God turned away and

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Nineveh was destroyed. But I'm so grateful

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for the 150 years.

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God is a God of second chances and third chances

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and fourth chances and fifth chances. And we want

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all the chances for us, but Lord cut them off here.

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But may our hearts be God of compassion,

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have compassion on us and have Compassion

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on them. That none would perish.

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That none would perish. If you'll stand

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with me,

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this is what I believe. I know that there are some people that

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are kind of that are just questioning this morning

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and have pain in your hearts,

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grief in your hearts. But what I'm going to ask you to do

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is they're going to play some songs and we're going to just come into

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the altar for a few minutes

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and we're going to lay all that at an feet. All

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of the things that go. God, I don't understand

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God. And I don't. I. I don't understand. But

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God, you are faithful and you are sovereign and you have a plan. And

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Lord, just like with Jonah, there's a bigger picture.

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There's a bigger picture. So we're going to dim the lights for just a minute

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and we're going to sing. I need you, Jesus.

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Give me Jesus. And if you have a place that you need to work out

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in your spirit, it would be my prayer that when you get up from

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this altar space, that

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your heart would be for the 8.2 billion.

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That your heart of compassion would see as

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God sees. And that we would rise in our spirit

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man and become intercessors and warriors

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in the kingdom of God that speak peace, that bring life,

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that bring truth. Because that's the only way they

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know they're right from the left. It's the only

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way is when the Lord uses you

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to bring truth to a world. To offer

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compassion to those who we've decided do

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not deserve it. So, Father, that's what we're going to do. Do.

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We're going to find a knee. We're going to

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lean into you, Father God. And all of this, Father, all of the

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rebellion, all of the things, Father God, that you see not just

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in the world, but Father, in our own hearts. God, that you would

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correct those. Bring softness back where the enemy wants our

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hearts to be hard, Father. Bring compassion where the enemy

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would love to bring judgment. And Father, I ask that you bring peace

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where the enemy would love to bring turmoil. We are your kids,

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not theirs. And so, Father, we come under your hand.

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Prince of Peace. Prince of

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Peace. Fill this place with your presence. I

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ask in Jesus name. Amen.

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Amen.

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