All right, appreciate Brother Tim doing that for me. Brother Marty's not feeling well this morning, and Brother Bobby also not doing good. I'm gonna start a new book. Hopefully, y'all got your paper. On Jonah, give me just a minute to get this pulled up on here. I'm gonna do things a little different than the way I've been doing it, so it's taking me just a minute to get set up here. So we'll be in this book about Jonah. First we're gonna have a little overview of the book of Jonah. So if y'all wanna go ahead and go to that first slide there. We're trying to work at changing, okay. So our key verses to start with this morning are Jonah 1, one through three. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for the wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarsus from the presence of the Lord." Now, when God speaks, it is absolutely essential that we listen. Many voices cry out to us today in an attempt to pull us away from the will of God. Failure to hear and obey God's voice spells disaster every time. It's never going to be good to fail to heal to God's voice. The old hymn has it right. When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way. While we do his goodwill, he abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Once we have received Christ as Savior, he leads us in his will. We have to follow him if we're going to be happy. Obedience brings God's blessing in our lives, while disobedience to the will of God results in disaster. Our objectives for this lesson will be to help the student understand that God has a plan for every person's life, to enable the student to identify the personal rebellion that is part of our sinful human nature. I remember once, years ago, years ago, in, we didn't call it Kid's Sanctuary then, we're still calling it Junior Church, a little girl, I guess she was kindergarten, first grade, And I asked them all, had they ever done wrong? I was trying to explain to them what sin was. And this little girl, I think she was a visitor. I think this may be the only time she'd come, maybe once or twice. And she said, no. And I said, well, have you ever told a lie? No. Have you ever disobeyed your parents? No. And I guess she thought maybe she was going to get in trouble if she said she'd done something wrong. But we, as adults, we don't need to get the idea in our head that there's not rebellion in our hearts as well. That we still have this human nature and we can still disobey God. And then to cause the student to realize that our disobedience has a negative ramification on others as well as on ourselves. And then to encourage the student to make decisions that will form a pattern of obedience to the will of God. Many skeptics of the Bible use this story to support their arguments against the inerrancy of the scriptures. Jesus himself, however, prophetically pointed to this story as an accurate fact of history when he stated in Matthew 12 and 40. Y'all click that next one. It'll give y'all some kind of signal. Let's get this straight that a great fish swallowed Jonah, and the fish was a whale. Have you ever heard anybody say, The Bible doesn't call it a whale. Well, let's see what Jesus said. Picture that next one. Matthew 12 and 40. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly. I'm gonna take his word for it. So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now, we sort of chuckle, you know, the fact that somebody may be at a, at Jonah being in the belly of the whale. And what does that have to do with us in the 21st century? It really is important to do exactly what God says every time he speaks. To the Christian, that question Or, I'm sorry, is it really important to do exactly what God says every time He speaks? Now, to the Christian, that question really should be rhetorical, but if we answered it, we would say, of course it's important to do that. But instead of me asking, you ask yourself, do I do exactly what God says every time He speaks? Does God really know what's best? Yes, of course He knows what's best in our lives. If we do obey God, will it make a difference in our society? Yes. It will make a difference in our society. It doesn't just affect us, but it affects everybody around us. It will affect people that we don't even realize it will affect when we do not obey God. When Jonah disobeyed God and went down and got on that ship, he had no idea that he was going to endanger the lives of the people on that ship. But there are some things, when God tells us to do it, he's going to bring it to pass. or we are going to suffer great consequences because of it. The book of Jonah teaches us what the writer John reiterated eight times in the book of Revelation. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith. First one in your outline there is Jonah's name. Our names are important when we receive them at birth, but it is essential that we build good reputations with the names we have received. Proverbs 22 and 1 says, a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7.1, a good name is better than precious ointment. We are responsible for our good name. It doesn't take long in our lives at all for people to form an opinion about us by what we do. We can come from a bad background and somebody may have a bad opinion about us. But if we live for God, we can change their opinion. Same thing, we can come from a good background and somebody may have a good opinion of us, and we cannot live for God and change their opinion that way also. Proverbs 10, seven states it well, the memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot. In your letter A, the son of truth, the name Amittai, Jonah's father, means truth. So Jonah is the son of truth. Therefore, Jonah was literally the center of truth. Unfortunately, as we shall see from this series of lessons, Jonah was not very faithful with the truth he received. In John 14, 6, Jesus declared, I am the way, the truth, and the life. In John 8, 32, Jesus tells us, and we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. So therefore, every child of God in reality is a son of truth. God has given us his word and he demands that we be faithful with it in our lives. John 17, 14 through 18, I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world. Even as I am not of the world, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so I also sent them into the world. I think I had another slide there. The Bible says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, John 1.14, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. One more click there. So if we are saved, we are the sons of God. If the Word is God, we are the sons of the Word. If the Word is truth, we are the sons of truth. So we are the sons of truth and we should portray the truth. We should portray the Word of God. We should portray Jesus in our lives. Then letter B, the solution to turmoil. There has never been nor will ever be a problem that the preaching of God's Word cannot solve. Now we didn't say that the problem would be solved. It just can be solved. God's Word can solve the problem that you have. But we have to be following God, we have to listen to God and listen to the Word of God. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, This is Isaiah 55, 10. And returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth in bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Man is often unaware of his condition or need. Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So God tells us in the word of God that we're not good, that there are things in our hearts that we don't even realize. Just like there's things in Jonah's heart before he was given the command to go to Nineveh, If anybody had asked him, are you going to disobey God? He'd have said no. If somebody asked you, are you planning on disobeying God? Hopefully you'd say no, you're not planning on it. But what happens when you are like Jonah and you get the command that you didn't want to hear? For whatever reason, Jonah did not want to go down to Nineveh. He did not feel that they were worthy of the Word of God. He did not feel they were worthy of his time, but that was the command that he had. Hebrews 4.12 declares, the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So God's Word is able to open up our hearts to perform a spiritual surgery on our hearts. And if we listen to God's Word and ask God to show us, then He can show us the direction that we're going in, whether it's right or wrong. We might think we're going headstrong in the right way when God's Word tells us we're going the wrong way. God uses the preaching of his word to change lives. Titus 1 and 3, but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching. So we all have, if we have the Bible, we have the word of God, and so somebody might say, well I've got the Bible, I can just decide on my own, I can just do what, I can read the word of God, I've got the Holy Spirit, I can discern the word of God. But God has said, God put in His Word, God called preachers to preach the Word, and through the power of the preaching of the Word, our hearts are touched. Now, you may not like that, I may not like that, someone else might not like that, but that's what God's Word says. The very argument that somebody might put up, I can discern the Word of God on my own. We'll discern what God's Word says and hear that He says that they're preaching of the Word of God. It pleases God, by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Just like it reaches those that are lost, that they may understand the Word of God of how to be saved, We need preaching to show us the direction in our lives and what God would have us to do. Number two, Jonah's negligence. Jonah was not very faithful to the truth he had received. Emerson once said, the greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it. You ever heard anybody say, oh, I know that's right, but what you're doing when you say, I know that's right, but I'm not going to do it, or that's right, but I don't want to do it, or that's right, but I don't like it, you are saying you're bringing down the truth, whether it be God's word or anything. If it's true, and you just say, I don't believe it, or I don't want to believe it, or I don't like it, you're not being very good to truth. John Locke declared, error is none the better for being common, nor truth the worse for having lain neglected. So error, what is wrong, you cannot make it right by doing it. You cannot lift it up. You cannot make it good. Error is wrong. It's no worse just because you neglect it. You cannot make the truth wrong by not doing it. It's still the truth. Paul wisely admonished us in 2 Corinthians 13 and 8, for we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth. It doesn't matter what you do, you're not going to make the truth wrong, but you can portray the truth and you can live the truth and you can promote the truth, but you're not going to make it wrong. Letter A, a willful deafness, a willful deafness. When God said go, Jonah said no. Again in Jonah 1.1, now the word of the Lord came into Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh. Now, let's read that with the meaning of Amitabh there, the truth. Now, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of truth, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh. He's sending truth. He wants to send truth. God, in his omniscience, in the word of God, is saying, Jonah, your truth, go tell the truth. Go tell your truth. Go tell the truth that I give you. Sadly, we also know exactly what God is saying. We know exactly what he wants us to do, but we willingly turn a deaf ear. 2 Peter 3, 5 speaks of this negligence with respect to the Lord's return. For this they willingly are ignorant of. God was well aware of this condition in Jeremiah's day as well, in Jeremiah 5.21, Though it's not new that people don't listen, it wasn't even new. And now Jonah is a prime example. I mean, there's no question that this is an example of not following God's word. But all through the Bible, there's people that did not follow God's word and it did not turn out well. Have you ever heard a parent say to a child, did you hear me? The parent's not asking if the child physically heard what was said, but rather emphasizing whether or not the child was going to obey what was heard. Now, we may actually have an instance where we've told our children, or you've told somebody to do something, and maybe they didn't hear you. Maybe they didn't understand what you meant. But you can't do that with God. He knows what you hear. He knows if you understand. And He will give you the understanding. Be a woeful disaster. Disobedience never has a happy ending. Ask Adam, Cain, Achan, Samson, Saul. All of these men in the Bible are known for disobeying. Some of them obeyed. Some, but some are only known for disobeying. Samuel reminded King Saul of the disaster of his disobedience in 1 Samuel 15, 22, and 23. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of God, he hath also rejected thee from being king. Now, when we disobey, we say, well, what do we think? Maybe somebody else should do it. Well, it'll be all right. Well, it's not the first time I didn't do it. It don't have to be done right now. God says that's as bad as witchcraft. Now, we wouldn't even think about going out and finding a bunch of witches and ask to join them. But God said, rebelling is just as bad as witchcraft. Our sin affects not only us, but many others as well. Jonah's disobedience eventually brought about a storm that impacted many. The number three, Jonah's nation. God saved us and left us here on this earth for a reason. John 15, 16, you have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. Ephesians 2, 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Pull up the next screen there. Remember these from last week, I think it was. God didn't save us to sit soaking sour, but he saved us to stand, strive, and serve. If we're not doing anything for God, we're disobeying somewhere along the line. Letter A, the nemesis of indifference. God reveals how repugnant apathy is when he scolds the church of Laodicea in Revelation. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou were cold or hot, So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth, because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesale, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent." Now, when we study, we read through the book of Revelation, and we read about the seven churches in there, and we get to the book of Laodicea, and we say, oh, those terrible people. All they did was disobey. All they did was do what they wanted to do. All they did was hang out with the wrong crowd. Where are most Christians at today? They're not in the Church of Philadelphia. They're in the Church of Laodicea. Martin Niemöller stated, in Germany they came first for the Communists. And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews. I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists. And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics. And I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me. And by that time, no one was left to speak up. So when are we going to take a stand? How far down are we going to slide before we start doing what God says to do? How many people are we willing to see slip away? The letter B, the necessity of involvement. In truth, we are our brother's keepers. We're all missionaries, and every person we meet is a candidate for the gospel. Ezekiel 33, 8, when I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die. If thou does not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Someone is coming for your friend at work. Someone far more terrifying than the Nazis. Someone is coming for your neighbor. Someone from which they cannot hide. Someone is coming for your cousin, your aunt, your uncle. Has anyone spoken up for them? Have you? Satan will not stop. We must get started. The Great Commission is not a suggestion, it is a mandate. Like Jonah, we may not think that the world deserves this message, but we must remember that God loves the whole world. Every child of God is an ambassador for Christ. And then number four, Jonah's notoriety. Sadly, Jonah is remembered for his disobedience. Jonah is a prophet. And yes, he did eventually obey God. He did eventually do what God said. But nobody really remembers him for that. The first thing that comes to your mind is that he disobeyed. Not exactly what the average person wants on his resume. If your life ended today, for what would you be remembered? Would there be people in heaven because of you? Or would there be people in hell because of you? I wish I could say that I have always witnessed everybody that I should have witnessed to. And every time I think about this, there's one person in particular that I think about. His first name was Jeff. I can't remember his last name right now. And I guess maybe because it was actually in a period of my time when I was trying to witness to the people at my work and when I had the opportunity. And for whatever reason, I don't remember, there was two, three, or four times that I had opportunity to witness to this person. And I guess another reason I remembered is because he quit work. He went somewhere else and I never saw him again. But I know I had opportunity. I don't know that he was lost. I don't know either way. But I know I didn't say anything to him when I could have said something to him. Now, that's not the only person, but that is the person that comes to my mind. And I believe at the judgment seat of Christ, if he's lost and he doesn't get saved, he may be in hell now. I'm going to remember it again. And there's going to be others that I'm going to remember. The legacy of disobedience. People do not typically think of preaching or revival when they think of Jonah. In reality, however, perhaps the greatest revival in history took place under the preaching of Jonah as the entire city of Nineveh repented after one sermon. Still, we remember Jonah for his disobedience. Obedience to God has long-range ramifications that are positive and productive, while disobedience leaves a tough stain that is rarely removed entirely. Isaiah 1, 19, 20. If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land, but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with a sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Before disobedience brings a legacy of disaster in our own lives, we would do well to heed the verse that precedes Isaiah's warning. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your stains be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If we will heed what God says and follow him, or be a lesson in decisions. What can we learn from the life of Jonah? There is a law in life called the law of cause and effect. Nothing just happens. Every decision determines a direction which leads to a destination. No one intends to end up in hell. No one intends to ruin his life. No one accidentally ends up in heaven or in the will of God. You may not turn 100 degrees away from the will of God today, but making a decision that is just one degree away from complete obedience will cause you to miss God's best by miles in the end. So when we stray in the wrong direction, the longer we stay in that direction, the harder it is to get back to the right direction. Use hunting, for example. If you don't have a scope and you've got a sight, you've got a sight on this end and this end. You've got a little V over here, right? You've got a little thing sticking up here, and you turn them in the right direction. Okay, so if that's on aim right there, that's not going to hit anything. If I move my finger 1 16th of an inch, I'm not going to hit anything past 15 feet. Just a little bit. Just be off a little bit. And you're not going to be where you could be. Deuteronomy 30, 19, 20. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both thou and thy seed may live. that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him. For he is thy life, and the length of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. So we'll be going in detail for the next 12 weeks, I think it is, in the book of Jonah. And that's just an overview today of the mistakes of Jonah. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the day that you've given us. We thank you, Lord, for each one that is here. We thank you, Lord, for all your many lessons. Lord, help us to do your will today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.