Thank you, Pastor. Well, good evening. There you go. That's almost better than last night, but not quite. Anyhow, I'm glad you're here this evening. And you know what? I appreciate the fact that I'm able to be here this evening. Honestly, and I mean that. Listen, when you've been close to death's door, you praise the Lord for every breath. okay for every day and for every ounce of energy that you possess to be a part of a day and uh the lord's giving us a good day today and boy i appreciate that uh more than i can possibly say i appreciate so much the uh love and christian hospitality that has been shown to us these past few days through this church. Folk, I told you last night, and I mean it from the very depth of my being, we have never been pampered so in all of our lives. Now, I do my best to pamper my wife. Say amen right there. There you go. There you go. There you go. You know what you get for lying, right? No, but honestly, folks, you have truly, truly, truly pampered us this week, and man, all this delicious food, it's just been marvelous. I thought about waiting till Sunday to say this, but I thought, hey, some of these people might be dead by Sunday, so I might as well go on and say it, amen. I might be dead by Sunday, so I'll go ahead and say it. So I do appreciate all you've done, and I'm sure you do as well, but I appreciate Baptist World Mission. Dr. Steadman, the administrators, the staff, they constantly prove their love and their support for the missionary family. That's a part of Baptist world mission. They're always concerned about what's best for us, okay? And folks, I'm gonna tell you, I appreciate that. I appreciate it from the very depth of my being. I appreciate the love and devotion of these folks. I appreciate their love for Christ and their willingness to give themselves in the work of Christ for the support missionaries, and that's a tremendous need and a tremendous blessing to missionaries. So, having said all of that, if you would, turn to Jonah chapter number one. Jonah chapter number one. I'm gonna do my best to be nice tonight. Is that okay? And I'm saying that for a reason. I'm just a southern preacher from North Carolina. Good, bad or ugly, that's just all I am, okay? I normally do most of my preaching right up here and over there and over there. Why? I don't want you ever to go to sleep. I tell people, if you go to sleep, I'm gonna come back and sit in your lap. And who was it told me a while ago, don't you come back and sit in my lap? Who was it said that to me a little earlier tonight? Who was it? I can't see her. These lights are bright, okay? Anyhow, Joyce knows who she was, I guarantee it, but anyway. Anyhow, I won't do that tonight, I promise. I'll try to stay up here where the people that are online can see and hear and everything will go well. So we're just asking you to ask the Lord to help us tonight. I only want to honor him. Folks, that's what this life's about. It took me a long time to come to that realization. I'll have to be honest, I lived a lot of years doing what I wanted to do in total contrary to what God wanted me to do. And I'm saying that for a reason, folks. Out of a number this large, I would be disappointed and I'd also be surprised if God was not talking to somebody about full-time service and has been for quite some time. I want to say to you unequivocally, without a doubt, you'll never find great joy until you're absolutely in the center of the perfect will of God. There's times that it's hard. I'd admit to that. But I'm going to tell you right now, when you can lay down your head on your pillow at night and know that you have been obedient to the Lord and doing His will, you see the results are up to Him. Results are none of my business. Okay? My job is just to be faithful to do what He's asked me to do. I pastored a church several years ago. Let's see, I've got, that's 25, I got 40 minutes, so that's good. I don't never preach over 45, most of the time, okay? I was preaching at a church up in the mountains one time, they sung for an hour and 45 minutes. And everybody was just hooping and hollering, shouting all over the building. They gave me the pulpit, I said, folks, you sang for an hour and 45 minutes, and I'm gonna do the same thing preaching. You could have heard a pin drop. I didn't, I only preached to Aaron 15 minutes, but I ain't gonna do that tonight, I promise. What was I saying? You remember what I was saying? I don't remember. See, when you get above 20, that's the way it is. Senior moments are not few and far between, they are quite often, okay? I love some of the little sayings this lady right back here in this office has got on her desk, okay? She was talking about Tark as a shack, I think it was. It's supposed to be smart as a tack, if you don't understand, okay? Anyhow, when you get over 60, you will. Jonah chapter number one. Let's look right quick at verses one and two. 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 their wickedness is come up before me. As I began to look at these verses, that just jumped out at me. Arise and go. And that's what I want you to think about with me for a few moments tonight is arise and go. In verse number two, we see the message to Jonah and Jonah's mission. Arise and go. Think about this. To arise requires a physical change. You'll never do anything for God till you get out of your comfort zone. I'm just like you, I like to take it easy. I like to kick back and kick my shoes off and do nothing. You know, men have a nothing box, you know that, right? Women don't, but men do, okay? We have a nothing box. Women, their brain is a ball of wire like this and everything has something to do with everything else. Men's brain is boxes and nothing touches each other, so nothing has anything to do with anything else. and the box we like the most is our nothing box, okay? I like that box. But if you're ever gonna do anything for God, you're gonna have to get out of that box. You're gonna have to get away from that comfort zone because to arise will require a physical change. To arise requires a spiritual change. Wait a minute, preacher, I know why I'm saved. Great. Are you in the center of the will of God? Jonah was already God's prophet. You find back in the second Kings 14 verse 25, that he had already prophesied to idolatrous Israel about the mercy of God. And that was 40 years earlier. He was already God's prophet, but there had to be a spiritual change in Jonah's life. In other words, he had to grow. Now, physically growing's not hard. It took me 47 years to ever get 16. That was three months ago. Okay? Growing physically, there's no problem. But growing spiritually requires diligence, requires you making decisions that require you to get out of your comfort zone. Okay? I pastored small churches for 26 years, so I was bivocational. Anybody in here ever done any brick and block masonry work? You hadn't lived. That's why you've got good normal bodies, okay? I would get up at least 15 minutes early every morning to spend some time along with God, asking God to bless my work. I had my own business. I worked for myself and by myself. Why? Because nobody worked as hard as I did and they wouldn't work for me. You see, I'd be a fool to ask God bless my work and go out there and just sit around and goof off all day, right? We just sang about The Lord saying, well done, faithful servant. You can't live your life in your comfort zone and hear God say, well done. It's not going to happen. It's going to require some diligence on your part. It's going to require some physical changes, as well as some spiritual changes. God requires of us to grow. 2 Peter 3, 18, he said, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You want to know why so many people are worried about COVID? They're refusing to grow. How do I know that? Call 2 Peter 3, 18, God said, through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, I give unto you all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. But if you're gonna know him, it's gonna require some effort on your part. It's gonna require you making some changes, getting out of your comfort zone, Okay? Spending time alone with God in His Word and allowing the Spirit of God to teach you and train you and grow you so that you can be used for the glory of God. Here's the thing I want you to think about too, and we see it here in verse two as well. A great crisis always calls for a revelation of God. God said it's a wicked city. You go cry against it. Okay? God said, you go do what I tell you to do, and let me do what I want to do. Okay? Think about it. God calls the church the bride of Christ, or the body of Christ, right? Right? This means yes, and this means no, and this means I don't know, right? God calls the church the body of Christ. That's significant. Crashes a head We're the body Will you agree with me that a body without a head cannot function? Don't call me a heretic. Will you agree with me that a head without a body can't function? I See two or three of this and one child said yes a Head without a body cannot function Let me take break it down just a minute for you God can do anything he wants to without me or you, right? But by his choice, he calls the church his body. So what does that mean? The head is not going to do anything apart from his body because the body is required to do what the head wants it to do. Does that make sense to you? So God's not gonna do anything on this earth apart from the church. Because we're his body, right? Now, I feel like a little hair on a little toe most of the time. But you know what a little hair's got to work to do? Every part of your body has its own gift. Every member of the body of Christ has its own gift. When you got saved, God gave you at least one gift, at least one. He didn't give it to you so you can buy a Greyhound and run all over the country. Don't get quiet on me. He gave it to you for the benefit of Calvary Baptist Church. He gave it to you so this church can function at its fullest capacity and accomplish everything that God has raised this church up to accomplish. It requires everybody part exercising its gift, doing its work in the power of the Holy Spirit. Okay? And that requires you getting out of your comfort zone. I was asked to teach a teenage class when I was 18 years old, and I said, whoo, God, I'm only 18. Hey, I'd been saved 12 years. Surely I learned something. Scared me to death. I've been studying this book since I was 18 years old, and I praise God for everything he's taught me. Okay? But hear me, folks. Jonah's mission was to arise and go. It requires a physical change. It requires a spiritual change. It requires growth. Hey, I just said a great crisis requires a revelation of God. America's in a great crisis right now. You know what I believe? I believe God's gonna work through his church to bring about his will for this thing. I don't know what God's plan is. I don't know, but I know he's got a plan. And I learned, listen, I learned at least 12 years ago, God always has a purpose and a plan with everything he brings into my life. And I told the young people yesterday, I guess it was yesterday, I said, God never does anything to you. Everything God does is for you. It's for your growth and your maturity so that you can accomplish what God has you in this world to accomplish. So you can accomplish what God saved you to accomplish. He didn't save you just to keep you out of hell. He saved you to serve. I don't mean to sound ugly. You got these charismatics, they think they're filled with the Holy Spirit so they can jump up and down and holler and shout and do all. God fills you with the Holy Spirit for service. Not just so you can shout, but for service, okay? But that requires you getting out of your comfort zone. making a physical change and making a spiritual change. God always uses his servants to accomplish his plan. Boy, I like that. I like that. But he's, hey, he's forever merciful. His mercy endures forever and no one is outside the reach of the mercy of God. Boy, I like that. I like that. So we see Jonah's mission. Number two, in verse number two, we see God's motive. Look at what God said. He said, that great city cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me. Cry against it. There was two things here about this cry. Number one, God sent Jonah because of his compassion on sinners. His cry was to be a cry of judgment. but it was also to be a cry of grace and mercy. How do you know? Because God spared none of it, right? It was a cry, yes, God judges sin, whether you're saved or lost, God judges sin. But I thank God that all of my sin was laid on Christ, past, present, and future, amen. All of it was laid on Him. I don't have to beg God to forgive me. Let me make a statement here and you go home and study it out. I don't find anywhere in the Word of God where God tells a believer to beg and ask God to forgive him. Do you? If you can, help me at your service. You know what I find he says? Confess. Confess. What's that preacher? That means I agree with God, he's right, I'm wrong. That's all that's about. Okay, he's right, I'm wrong, look at it. Compassion on the sinners, cry out in judgment against their sin, but cry out in grace and reveal God's heart and God's mercy toward wretched sinners. Listen, Nineveh's wretchedness had filled up and God couldn't stand it any longer. We were with the little ones yesterday and I've got this long poem that I brought with me about Jonah and the whale. It starts out, come and listen, dear children, and listen real well, and I'll tell you how Jonah got caught by a whale. That whale caught old Jonah, and bless your dear soul, he not only caught him, but he swallowed him whole. Then I go through the whole deal, okay? But get a hold of this, folks. God couldn't tolerate Nineveh's wickedness any longer. And Jonah was the only prophet that God sent to Gentiles. But he sent one, why? Because of his mercy and his grace and his compassion on sinners. That's God's motive. Look at verse number three at this missed opportunity. Assyria ruled the world at that time. And Nineveh was the capital that was founded by Nimrod. There was probably a million Syrians at that time. It was a capital founded by Nimrod, whose whole life was against God. The scripture says that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. If you look at word before up in the Hebrew, it says against. He was against God. Everything he did was against God. So Nineveh was founded against God. The Assyrians were a very, very cruel people. So Jonah fled from the face of the Lord. You know what the Bible says? It says the wicked flee when no man pursueth. I want you to understand something. God knows where you're running to. He knows where you are right now and He knows where you're running to. And I can promise you, you're not going to hide from Him. You can't hide behind your social position. You can't hide behind your job. You can't hide behind your family. You can't hide behind your spouse or your parents or your children. If God puts a call on your life, you're gonna be wise to answer, yes, Lord, you tell me where to go and I'll go, okay? You're gonna be way ahead of the game if you'll do that. Tarsus was not Nineveh. But I want you to think about something. I read what Scofield says and he says that Jonah was a bigoted Jew. I don't know so well about that, but here's what I do know. Jonah's patriotism overruled his spirituality. I'm a Christian before I'm an American. Thank the Lord for my amendment rights and our constitution. But this book takes precedence over it all. Where I'm from, where I lived for 18 years up in the mountains of North Carolina, every church I went to had a church constitution on the wall. There's not one thing in that constitution that's not in this book. Amen preacher, that's the best constitution I've ever seen right there. We found this work on what this book says and that settles the issue. Well, I better move on. Some of you getting quiet on me, that ain't good. Jonah's patriotism overruled his spirituality. His prejudice overrode his love. You need to think on that one, because that's what we're dealing with in America. As bad as we hate to admit it, we have been a prejudicial nation. That's not God's plan, and it's not God's will. His prejudice overrode his love. His preconceived notions overtook his common sense. What are you saying? He thought he could hide. He went out of Tarsus, he got on a ship, and he went down in the lower part of the ship so he could take a nap. Jonah is so far away from God that he is so insensitive to the storm, he's sleeping right through it. And let me make a statement to you. If you say no to God, you can expect a storm. Because if you're genuinely saved, I promise you, God is gonna take you behind a woodshed and tan your hide. This younger generation don't know what that means. I used to take my belt off when I was preaching something like this, and I'd take it off and let it make that flip-flip-flip through the loops. And I said, that used to be the scariest sound when I was a child was that belt coming through them loops. I'll get off of that too. You can't hide from God, folks. You're going to find He's there wherever you're running to. And wherever you're running from and everywhere in between, you're gonna find God is still there. You find in verse three as well, the misguided prophet. He rose up to flee. God had told him to rise. He didn't say rise up and flee. He said rise up and go with a direction, to go in a direction. But he's misguided. God chased Jonah in order to get him to a place that he could use him. You might feel that you're running from God, but I'll guarantee you God's hot on your trail. And when he catches up, I promise you from experience, it's not gonna be fun. It's not going to be fun. Jonah hid among the semen. But you know what? God knows you from the semen. He identifies you. You can try to hide among the world, but God can identify you among the world. He identified Jonah among these semen. There was not a problem. And Jonah, he didn't hear anything. He didn't hear what was going on. He didn't know what God was doing until a little bit later on. In chapter three, verses one through 10, we're not gonna turn there, but there I like to call that mission accomplished. After all Jonah had been through, he's finally obedient. I can't imagine what he looked like when he got down to Nineveh. You gotta remember, he'd been three days and three nights in the belly of a whale and all them gastric juices are working on him. Can you imagine what he looked like? Can you imagine what he smelled like? But at that point, he didn't care. He had a message from God, yet 40 days, and none of us shall be overthrown. And you know what happened? The people didn't repent because of Jonah's preaching. They repented because of the Word of God. I have no right to go up to a person that's possessed of a demon and cast that demon out. What are you gonna do? Preach the gospel. Preach the blood of Christ. There ain't no demons gonna hang around and go in the blood of Christ being presented. It was the word of God that brought Nineveh to repentance. They took the word of God at face value. It'd be a great day when you and I do the same thing. You take the Word of God just for what God says, okay? Rightly divided, okay? I'll just tell you this and I'll move on. You can't just jerk a verse out and build a doctrine on it and say, woo, this is what we believe. And we believe in the Word of God. Not if you're not studying in context and rightly dividing it, you're not. Okay, that's how so many false doctrines get and so many churches get established. But anyhow, there you have it. Mission accomplished. They took the word of God at face value. I don't like to call that a revival, but I don't know what else to call it. Whatever took place in Nineveh that day lasted about a hundred years. And let me just say this about the word I just used. Did you know that the purpose of a revival is not about getting people saved. The church we was members of at that time, I was working with the youth and leading the music and Mays Jackson come preach a revival. We had a man saved on Friday night. He said, woo, the revival just started tonight. And I thought, well, wait a minute, brother. Revival is not about getting saved or getting people saved. It's about getting saved people right with God. That's what revival is about. And God knows we need revival in America, okay? But listen, I'm gonna close here in about five more minutes. We all have our Ninevehs, or have had our Ninevehs. God calls and we rebel, because I've got a better idea. God called me to preach when I was 16. There was a missionary preaching and that night he made a statement, he said, there's some of you young men sitting in here right now that God wants to be preaching and pastoring and God wants on the mission field. Have you ever seen the one in pictures that's got this great big finger coming down out of heaven and a man standing there like this because of that great big finger? That's exactly what God was doing to me, it was you. I remember, I remember sliding down in my pew as far as I could get because everybody in that church was looking at me. And there wasn't nobody looking at me but the Spirit of God. But like a fool, I said, God, I got a better idea. There's other things that I want to do with my life besides preach. And for eight years, I was a fool. There was 232 graduates the year I graduated high school in 1972. 47 of them are already dead. I wonder if I could have led one to Christ. I wonder how many I could have preached before and they could have seen Christ and understood their need and they would have come to Christ. I'm afraid there's many that I'm going to see again at the judgment seat, and they're going to point their finger at me and say, you didn't tell me. And now I've got to go to hell. What are you saying, preacher? We've all got our none of us. God calls, and we reject and rebel because that's not what we want to do. But I'll say this, God is faithful. God's faithful, boy, I praise the Lord for that. He always chastens his children for disobedience, always. That's one way you can know if you're genuinely saved or not, is when you do wrong and God beats you half to death, you'll know you're saved. If you can get by with it, no problem, you're not saved. Because God chastens his children for disobedience always, okay? But he always receives the repentant, okay? Always receives the repentant. And he's always ready to save whosoever will. See, he said God's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That all should be saved. I don't know the heart of any one of you in here tonight. I don't know your relationship with God. You may be here tonight and you've never trusted Christ. You may be here tonight and you've never humbled yourself before Him and trusted Him as your personal Lord and Savior. and repentant of your sins. You're just going on living life like the way you always have, because you think it's the way it's supposed to be, because it's the way everybody else lives. That ain't the way it's supposed to be. God's got a life for you that you can't imagine. He's always ready to save whosoever will, and he always restores the humble. That's what he said in James four. He said, draw not of God and he'll draw not of you. He said, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and in due time, he will exalt you. Okay? Boy, I think about Jonah here. And I look at him and I think about us. All of us have been called to be missionaries by our fellowship in the gospel. In Philippians 1, 1 through 6, you'll find in verse 5 that Paul praised these people for their fellowship in the gospel. That word fellowship, it means association, participation, and partnership. He said, I praise God for your partnership. in the gospel. If you're saved tonight, we're partners in the gospel from verse five in Philippians one. In verse seven, we're partners in grace. Verse 11, we're partners in glory, in his glory. And in verse number 29, you're like this, we're partners in the gift of suffering. Suffering is a gift, yeah, biblically. What makes you say that? First Peter 5, 10. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you." See, all that suffering, God's got a plan. And God's got a purpose to grow you and prepare you for the work that he has for you. It is the privilege and opportunity of every believer to fellowship in the gospel or to be partners in the gospel of Jesus Christ. God told Jonah, arise and go. Let's stand our feet with our heads bowed just a moment, please, if you would.