God has promised that if we draw near to Him, He will draw
near to us. The Bible tells the story of a Father longing to
be reunited with his wayward son. And of the Father's joy
when his son finally returns home.
This touching illustration reveals God's desire to have us
come close to Him. Let's draw near to God and He
will draw near to us.
Good evening again everybody!
Welcome! Good to see you here tonight!
We're glad that you came out to join us.
This revival series it's called "Drawing near"
And we are claiming the promise that if we draw near to God,
what will He do?
He will draw near to us.
To those of you who are joining us Live via Satellite, we'd like
to extend a very warm welcome to you as well.
Thank you for joining us.
We trust that you'd also receiving a reach blessing were
you are just as we are here in Forth Worth.
Now, one announcement we want to remind you of this coming
Saturday, there will be a very special broadcast at 10:30
Central standard time, a special Sabbath morning service, and we
hope that those of you who are watching, and those of you who
are here, will join us this coming Sabbath morning.
And then at 6:00 Saturday afternoon, it's going to be a
special musical program, that will also be broadcast live.
So be sure to be here at 6:00. Then 7:00 we will have our final
meeting to wrap up this revival series.
And even though the meetings will be finishing this weekend,
I hope the revivals that have started in your heart and in
your life will continue for the weeks and the months ahead.
Cause that's what's the point of this.
Not only to come here for one week and to be spiritually
filled, but rather we want that filling to go on; as we make
those changes in our life to bring us closer and closer to
to God.
Tonight pastor Doug's ceremony is entitled "Stuck in reverse"
But before we have Him come and share with us let's stand and
sing our theme song together once more "Revive us Lord."
This evening our prayer will be brought to us by Dr. Willis,
who is the chairman of the religion department at South
Western Adventist University. We'll kneel together on the
platform you remain standing as go before the Lord in prayer.
Our loving Father in Heaven. What a privilege it is for us to
be here tonight. To be able to participate in
this revival. To be a part of it.
You have made promises to us. And so we come in expectancy
knowing that you wish to draw us into a closer relationship with
You.
We pray for a special blessing on the speaker that elder
Bachelor will be able to lead us in the understanding of
Your word and the commitment of our lives.
We know that decisions have been made and are being made and we
pray that that will be a part of service this evening in our
hearts. Not only those of us who are here, but those who are a
part of this program far and near who are also participating
with us here.
This is a troubled world. There are so many tragic things
happening in the world around us, so much of terror, and
desisted, and yet through these meetings we can be drawn into a
relationship with You that gives us security.
Gives us peace of mind.
Gives us hearts that are set not just on this world, but far more
on the world to come. So we pray tonight for Your
presence to be here, to be felt by each of us.
We asked these in Jesus name Amen!
You may be sited!
Thank you John, Kelly, Dr. Willis.
Want to welcome everybody again tonight both here in the
Will Roger's auditorium in Forth Worth and our friends who are
watching on television, on Hope Channel, 3ABN, the internet.
And we're just very thankful that you are participating with
us. Are you reading your Bibles?
Yes!! Amin!
Are you praying more? Yes!
Are you sharing your faith? Yes!!
Pray every day. Say Lord, give me that heavenly radar.
Help me to recognize people who are opportunities to share You
with.
And He'll do that for you. If you ask Him.
The Bible says: The harvest is great, the labors are few.
If you say: Lord I am willing to be a labor for You.
And your faith will get stronger as you share it with others.
Amen!
Well, we've got some important things to do tonight, to share
tonight, we have some free offers, but pastor Rots we want
to get to our Bible questions again.
Yes. Thank you everybody to sending your Bible questions.
Those of you here in the audience if you have questions
that you would like pastor Doug to answer be sure to get them
to the ushers as the offering is collected this evening or in the
back there will be someone to collect it.
Pastor Doug our first question is: "The Bible says that the
Second Coming of Jesus will be like the days of Noah and only
a few were saved." The question is: Will only the 144,000 be
saved?
Well. In the days of Noah there were only 8 saved. We don't know
exactly what percentage that 8 was of the existing population
in the world.
But I don't think when Jesus said: "as it was in the days of
Noah, He does not go on to accentuate how few they were,
meaning just Noah, He goes on to talk about the condition in
the world will be similar as they were.
And the Bible does not teach that the only one saved when
Jesus comes back is the 144,000 in number.
I do think that there is a special significance to the
number of 144,000, matter of fact I think we have a book,
we're going to give away before our series is over on that
subject. But the 144,000 are the last day
apostles if you were, who under their spirit filled influence a
great multitude is converted. When Jesus comes back again,
and catches the redeemed up in the air, it is not going to be
a defeat, it is going to be a victory.
So there will be a great multitude who were saved
from those who've come out of tribulation and that's in
Revelation Chapter 7 I believe.
The next question comes from Luke chap. 17. And it's verse
34-36 you're familiar with the passage that talks about two
man being one bed, one taken the other left, two women
grinding together at the meal, the one is taken the other is
left, and then two man in the, field one's taken the other is
left. The question is: What is this mean?
And how is it relate to the second coming?
Ok thank you! This scripture is frequently
use; you'll find this also in Mathew 24 except Luke mentions
two man sleeping in the bed, then in Mathew 24 does not
mention that. It's often use as support for the secret rapture.
Teaching that two people will be hourly doing the same thing,
and puff one of them disappears and he's caught up the rapture.
And the other one is left behind.
And two man sleeping in the bed, two man working in the field.
I don't think this is what Jesus is talking about at all.
Those three analogies are very vivid symbols in Bible symbols.
A woman is a symbol for a church. How many kinds of
woman in Revelation? Two!
Revelation 12. God's church. Revelation 17. Babylon and her
daughters. Is 2. Two oaths. two choices. There is two kinds
of messages out there. The Truth and the False. That's all there
is. Some people say:
Oh, all rivers lead to the ocean, it doesn't matter what you
believe as long as you're sincere. That's just not true!
When Jesus comes is only two groups. One group has the seal
of God, one has the mark of the beast.
Two man sleeping in the bad. What the sleep represent in the
Bible?
Death. "Our friend Lazarus is asleep."
How many kinds of people are asleep now? Two!
The dead in Christ and the others.
Which are the wicked right?
When Jesus comes back one is save, one is lost. The dead in
Christ rise first.
Two man working in the field. What's the field?
Jesus said: "The harvest is great, the labors are few, pray
the Father to send more workers into the field, the harvest.
How many kinds of Gospels are being preached out there?
Two. True and the False.
And so this is all that Christ is saying.
That hourly they appear to be doing the same thing, but God
looks on the heart.
And some will be lost and some will be saved.
It doesn't mean... it doesn't say puff anywhere in the text.
So hope that helps.
The next question: Do you have to be a vegetarian
to be saved?
Well God practice for Heaven, because everybody there is a
vegetarian.
Obviously there's going to be a lot of people in Heaven that
were not vegetarians including Jesus, who ate fish.
It is the ideal diet Biblically, cause it was the original diet
for man and I'm glad I'm living in a generation...
you know, few generations ago, people thought that you
just can't survive without meat, and now, you know the evidence
pretty clear that those who go to a fruit and vegetable, grain
nut, legume diet they have a lot less of all types of cancer
practically, they live longer, they have less disease
they have more energy. So the evidence is pretty strong in
favor of that now. But when you connected to the salvation issue,
God looks on a person's heart to see if they're walking in the
light that God is giving them. Whatever that light might be.
And just know, your maize will get ready for Heaven
because there's going to be no Burger King up there.
Less is a veggie burger cake.
Are we going to eat vegetables in Heaven?
Tofu vegetables... No!
The question is because you know... You get the nuts and the
fruit in the Garden of.. I hope not... I hope we don't
have any... No Brussels sprouts!
Oh no!
That is a result of sin. No is not...
We'll remember our earthly falls and short comings when we in
Heaven? And the regrets and the poor decisions that we made here
on Earth?
Well there is that passage in Isaiah 65 speaking of the New
Heaven, where he tells us that the former will not come into
mind. And I think he is talking about after the millennium when
we enter eternity. It's after the millennium God wipes away the
tears from our eyes. In Revelation 21.
Right when we're raise God is not goanna completely brain wash
us where we don't noticed that some people aren't there.
Right when we're raised their may be times when we think
you know..there could be some regrets but we think: Oh I wish
I had done more share, more... God is not just going to make
us zombies where we don't remember any of these things.
If He' going to brain wash us, I wish He brain wash me now,
And I won't remember the mistakes I've made.
So there may be a period of time between the resurrection
and the end of the millennium, where we are pondering things
on this earth. But as we enter eternity and God's wiped away
all the tears, none of those painful memories will ever
plague us again. And we won't be pinning forever over friends
or loved once who aren't there. Amen!
No sadness then! No sadness...
Next one has to do with the tithing.
Two parts of the question.
The first one is: Is the tenth percent tithe
thought in the New Testament? And the second part is:
Can we pay tithe to the poor?
Ups! Big question. I hope I'll have time to cover that.
First of all. Yes the New Testament supports the
10% tithe. Jesus said. I think is Mathew 22:23:
You pay tithe of mint, dill and cumin and you've omitted the
way to your matters of the Law. Justice, Mercy and Faith.
These you ought to have done and not leave the other undone.
The very fact He says not leave the other undone, he says don't
forget to pay tithe! But don't neglect the priorities of
justice, mercy and faith.
And the very fact that no place in the New Testament is tithe
nullified or abrogated. It's very clear in the New Testament
that circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing,
but keeping the commandments of God, it dealed with a lot of
the ceremonial laws, but tithe predates Moses.
Tithe goes back to Abraham and Jacob.
And so it is a principle for the support of ministry. And do we
still need the support of ministry?
But I would submit to you that the New Testament teaching is
much more than tithe not less.
The New Covenant does God require less, or does it says in
Acts chapter 5 that the disciples, and Acts chapter 4
the last few verses. They sold their possessions.
Houses and lands. No man said that of that he had
was its own. Brought it and laid it at the disciples' feet.
The degree of sacrifice in the New Testament was much more
then 10%. Tithe is like, you know, kindergarten for Christian
now. And so is it still thought in the New Testament? Yes is
it the basement it's a bear minimum.
You look at the sacrifice of our movement of the New Testament.
Teachers and... You're almost embarrassed to talk to people
about...you know, God owns a 100%. You might not give Him 10%
back? Amen!
What about paying tithe to the poor?
I believe is in Deuteronomy and I don't have the scriptures
tip of my tongue, but there is a passage where it talks about
a going up to the Feast of the Lord, and they used to spend a
second tithe on the provisions for the feast, and some of that
could be given to the Lord, but scholars I've talked to have
said they thought that that was a second tithe and it's not
the tithe that was of the first fruits for the ministry.
All right. Next question has to do with baptism.
Two parts. The first part: How old do I have to be
to be baptized? And the second part:
When is rebaptism acceptable? Or when should a person be
rebaptised? Ok very good! Good questions!
Matter of fact I'll mention at this point that Amazing Facts
does have a book you can read for free online.
Baptism is it necessary? And there is a lot of information
there. These questions we just sort of give you the tip of the
iceberg, there's always a lot more to some of these questions
then we're able to cover.
What was the question again?
Oh! How old do you have to be to get baptized?
There is no distinct age given in the Bible.
And I remember hearing James White said somewhere...
When some children were getting baptized somebody elbowed him
as they were going to the river and they said: Elder White
aren't some of those children a little young to get baptized?
And He said: Are they old enough to be lost?
And they said: Oh yes! Well then, they are old enough
to be saved!
So when a child reaches the age of accountability where
they understand the demands of Christ and the gospel they are
able to comprehend the basics of salvation, they should be
able to have their own personal devotional life. I think they
should be old enough to be able to read the bible. And one of
the things I asked children is: Do you have your own devotional
life? I think they should be old enough to do that.
Jesus went to the Temple when He was twelve.
If you wanted me to give you a specific age. That might be a
guiding point. But different children mature at different
ages. And some people let's face it never mature!
I don't even mean to be funny. I'm talking about people who
are born with birth defects. God will probably judge them as
children before the age of accountability. You know what
I'm saying? So it varies.
Girls sometimes tend to mature spiritually faster than boys.
Alright second part of that question. What about rebaptism?
Oh, Thank you! Is it appropriate? Yes!
Acts 19 talks about when 12 believers were rebabtised,
they've been baptized by the John the Baptist, by immersion
the right kind of baptism. They came into a whole new
understanding of the truth, and then they were baptized
accepting Jesus. Paul preached to them about Jesus.
There might be baptisms like marriage to the Lord.
It might be appropriate to be rebabtised if a person has
forsaken the Lord, and gone off in the world and reproached.
Basically they've divorced the relationship with Jesus and the
church. When they come back they should be remarried and
robotized as a public expression of that.
There's really three reasons I think the Bible supports for
rebaptism: One is: If you're not baptized Biblically by
immersion you should follow the example of Christ and the
teaching of the Bible and be baptized by immersion.
The type of baptism is important the symbols.
If you've have been baptized but you left the Lord, and I don't
mean that you missed church a couple weeks and you lose your
temper so you run... Some people get robotized for
I think minor things. Communion will cover that.
When we celebrate the Lord's supper and foot washing.
And the third reason for rebaptism is: You just have
coming into a whole new understanding of the truth and
a new beginning and it could signal, be significant of that
and symbolize that. That should be Acts 19.
With all of the things happening in the World today. The natural
disasters and just violence and so on. A lot of folks are
wondering about the battle of Armageddon. Are we in the bring
of something, some battle taking place in the Middle East. What
is the battle of Armageddon?
A lot o churches think that the battle of Armageddon is the
battle that is going to rage between Russia and China.
Karen and I went to China with the boys this year and I sure
hope we don't get to scrap with them.
That's the Country that it is exploding with people and
technology and resources, but that's really a myth.
It's springs from something that general Douglas McArthur said:
He said that "if we don't develop a way for peace,
Armageddon is at our door". Because he spoke of Armageddon
in the context of World War III, everybody picked up on that.
But biblically the battle of Armageddon is explained there in
Revelation chapter 12 it says: "The dragon makes war with the
woman."
It is not a battle that is fought in the valley of Megiddo,
but God is taking us back to I think two things:
The word Armageddon is only one found in the Bible.
And Moffat the bible scholar connected it with Armaghidion.
The hill of Gideon which also happen to take place in Megiddo.
And here you've got an example where God's people are
completely outnumbered by a threefold enemy:
The Amalechites, the medianites and the people of the East.
Revelation says there will be a threefold enemy:
The beast, The false prophet and the dragon.
And it looks like they're completely outnumber, but God
fights for them using the declaration of the trumpet, that
the word, the sword that's the word, and the lamp that's the
word. Those three symbols in the battle of Gideon.
So God's fights for us and we're victorious by staking our stand
And I think God will do for us in the battle of Armageddon
what He did for the Israelites. Stand still and see the
salvation of God. What He did for Gideon.
So that's the battle of Armageddon. Is when the dragon
tries to eradicate the church, at the very end and God fights
for us.
I think we have time for one more question:
Why don't we see miracles today like the disciples did in their
days? Ok! Good question.
Speaking of Gideon I chuckle sometimes when I read the
account in Gideon. I think is Judges chapter 6 when an angel
meets with Gideon and Gheden says to the angel: "How could
we don't see miracles like we use to see?"
Think of all the great waves and ages of miracles that came after
Gideon! It appears in the Bible that the miracles of God
come in waves during times of revival. And by the way,
a lot of miracles happen for Gideon.
So, and here he was saying: "Where are all the miracles?"
Miracles do happen today. How many of you would say that
I've have experienced a miracle in my life.
And I mean there are things of God's deliverance and angelic
intervention. But some of the miracles of healing, and you
know the part in devotion maybe we haven't seen those in a while
but God does the work miracles. And I see you're going to see
more before Jesus comes back. Amen!
Well, I think we're out of time. Thank you pastor Doug.
We'd like to remind you folks. Those of you who are watching
us if you would like to send in the question.
You can do so by simply going to www.05Revive.com
And you can post the question there and we will get it. We'll
try and work it in to the question answer period.
We have a free offer that we'd like to make available to you.
And it's entitled, the little booklet it's entitled "The sign
of Jonah written by pastor Doug Bachelor. And sometimes you've
come across people and they've asked you: "What is it mean when
Jesus said: I will give you the sign of Jonah. As he was in the
belly of the whale for three days, three nights so also shall
the Son of man be in the heart of the Earth.
This little book addresses that question and help to explain it.
It's called "The sign of Jonah.' If you'd like to get this book
You can go to our website again www.05Revive.com. You can get it
there or you can call our resource number.
It's 866 905 Revive. That's 7384.
And ask for offer 149. And you'll be able to get "The sign
of Jonah."
Well at this time we'd like to give you an opportunity once
more to help cover the expenses of these meetings. And so I'm
going to ask for ushers to come forward. Those of you in the
various sides if there's an offering taking up there, this
will be a good time to do it. And once more if you're watching
online and you'd like to help meet some of the expenses
of this meeting. You can go to the website 05Revive or Amazing
Facts or 3ABN to help cover some of the costs.
John is going to lead us in our song for our worship.
Thank you Kelly for accompanying him on the piano.
We know not the hour, of the Master's appearing.
The signs all foretell that the moment is nearing.
When He shall return, tears of promise most cheering.
But we know not the hour.
But He will come. So let us watch and be ready.
He will come.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, He will come in the clouds of
His Father's bright glory. But we know not the hour.
There is life for the wives who are seeking salvation.
There is truth in the book of the Lord's revelation.
It's prophecy points to the great consolation,
But we know not the hour.
He will come.
So let us watch and be ready. He will come.
Sing Hallelujah, Hallelujah, He will come in the clouds of
His Father's bright glory. But we know not the hour.
He will come.
So let us watch and be ready. He will come.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, He will come in the clouds of
His Father's bright glory. But we know not the hour.
Yes we know not the hour.
Amen!
Thank you John, Kelly!
Jesus is coming soon.
No man knows the day and the hour, but it is soon.
And it is sooner than it ever has been. Amen?!
I do believe... You won't think I'm setting dates if I tell you
I think this is the generation it's going to witness the second
coming. Amin!
Do you believe that? Amen!
Some of you may pass away first, but not too many from old age.
I think Jesus is coming very soon.
I want get right into our study for this evening.
"Stuck in reverse"
More specifically we're going to be talking about Jonah
chapter 1.
We've talked a little bit last night, I know it sounds like
got it backwards about Jonah chapter 2.
But there are some other lessons here that I think will be
productive. And... So, would you join me again let's
ask for God's blessings as we specially focus on the Holy Word.
Dear Lord You've promised to speak to us.
And the primarily vehicle is: The Word.
And then you are using human humble instruments as vehicles.
Preach us Lord. I pray that you will use this one. Please touch
hearts. We ask that the power of the word will not be obstructed
in anyway, but Christ will be both seen and heard through
this message.
And decisions will be made, life will be changed that could
be measured in eternity. We asked this in Christ name,
and we thank You. Amen!
You know Jesus made some very important statements.
The generation when He was ministering frequently came to
Him and said: "What sign do you give us?"
Sometimes He said: "No sign is going to be given!"
Mathew 12. "An evil and adulterous generation seeks
after a sign, but then He goes on and says: "No sign will be
given but the sign of the prophet Jonah!"
And in Like chapter 11 verse 29,30. Jesus said: "No sign will
be given but the sign of the prophet Jonah!"
As Jonah was a sign to the ninivites.
And then in Mathew chapter 12 Jesus said:
"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the
great fish so the Son of man will be three days and three
nights in the heart of the Earth.
And I'll tell you right now I think it's unfortunate the
people will do get so hanged up in three days and three nights
which was really not the enfaces of what the Christ was saying.
The enfaces was: The sign of Jonah.
And many have wondered: Why would Jesus chose that reluctant
prophet to be the primary sign given to that generation?!"
Well I'm not going to give you the answer right away you got
listen.
It's coming. Why don't you turn with me to this book.
Jonah chapter 1. There is only 4 chapters you can read it very
quickly. Probable 15 minutes.
And I want to start with the first verse.
"Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai
saying:
Arise and go to Nineveh that great city and cry out against
it. For their wickedness has come up before Me.
First notice that the word of the Lord says: Arise!
God's word lifts us. It directs our attention upward.
Jesus says: "If we will lift up our eyes and look at Him. If He
is lifted up all men will be drawn to Him."
The word of God elevates people.
It ennobles people, it restores the dignity that sin has robbed
us from. And the whole purpose of the plan of salvation is to
restore us into the image of God and that is an elevating
experience.
The word of God says: Arise!
Arise and go!
Now, I've told you that the Gospel is summarize very simply
in two great utterances: Mathew 11-The great invitation.
"Come on to Me!"
Mathew 28-The great commission. "Go and tell!"
The purpose of life is revolving around loving the Lord;
Come to Me! Loving your neighbor.
Go tell him!
The cross deals with the vertical love relationship.
And the horizontal love relationship.
And this is what God is trying to teach us.
The purpose of life is to learn to love God and each other.
Every commandment can be summarize in some way;
loving God and each other. And if you can't explain any
commandment in loving God and loving your neighbor.
It's probable not worth much.
He said: Arise and go!
But!
But! It's too bad! It's in there!
You know sometimes you'll talk to someone about accepting
the Lord. They come to a meeting, I made an appeal, I go
visit him. And they say: Oh these meetings have been really
good and these subjects have been really interesting and I
start listening. You know what I'm listening for?
I can tell by their body language they are getting ready
to give me that three letter word. - BUT!
Well, you know, I don't know what my wife will think if I
make this decision right now or my husband. And you know my
job I could lose it. And then they began to give the excuses
and it always breaks my heart when I hear that.
But!
God called him to go, but instead of going East to save
people and work for the Lord, he turned around and went West.
The word of the Lord said: Go to Nineveh!
Now you can understand his reluctance. It's a scary charge.
Because you know, its like asking an Israelite today to go
to the Palestinians or Iraq or something. It might not be
welcome.
And the innovates and the Israelites war at war as much
back then as they are today.
Of course they are not called ninivites today.
And so just would not have been a popular thing to do.
So not only does he not go; he goes in reverse.
No face up! Show me your hands!
How many of you have been driving and you come to a stop
and instead of getting the automatic the stick shift in
the forward gear you get it in reverse? And it takes you
a moment to realize you're going the wrong way? Come on!
Never?! I saw someone... - I never done that!
You must not drive!
If you have driven for any length of time.
And I seem to remember having one or two vehicles. A lot of...
You know! Cars have done a lot for my faith.
Because the first few automobiles that I owned I had
to pray every time I turned the key.
Any of you had of those vehicles?
I'm serious! I had couple of vehicles I always had to park
them on a hill cause I had to jump start them.
Anyone have been there before?
And I found out you can jump start some of them in reverse.
That's a little harder.
But Jonah got stuck in reverse.
He not only didn't go, he went the other way.
Hopping that God wouldn't notice that he wasn't there anymore.
Running from his conscience.
And He rose to flee to Tarses.
A little trivia for you.
My mother's made name, my grant parents were Tarses.
And that's the Jewish side of our family.
And my grant father tells us he says: We're related to Jonah
and the apostle Paul.
Cause it's says Paul is from Tars and they're wondering if
that's a Greek derivative of Tarses.
I don't mind so much baying related to Paul if that's true,
but it worries me that I could be related to Jonah.
Because he went the wrong way.
And Jonah rose to flee to Tars from the presence of the Lord.
Now here's a question:
Can you really flee from God's presence?
Where do you go where God doesn't see you?
Let me read something to you from the Psalms. And you know
this one Psalm 139. I'll start with verse 7.
"Where can I go from Your spirit?
Where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to Heaven You're there!
If I make my bed in Hell, Behold You're there!
If I takes the wings of the morning and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me
and Your right hand shall hold me.
You can't run from God!
But some people, somehow, forget that God is always there and
He's watching.
You know I think one of the keys that separates the
genuine Christian from a hypocrite is the genuine
Christian is living before an audience of One.
They're more concerned with what God thinks, and they know
that God always sees.
Christ dealed with that when He began His ministry by identifying
these areas of hypocrisy. He said to the religious leaders:
"You fast to be seen of men.
You give to be seen of men. You pray to be seen of men.
You're so preoccupied and consumed with what people
think of you and you're not worried about what God thinks
of you. And they had it so bad,
that even when Jesus rose from the dead they've paid off
the soldiers that witnessed it to say; they didn't see it.
Because they were more worried about what the people saw and
though than what God saw.
What kind of insanity is it for us to...be doing these
ridiculous pantomimes for humans... they... you can't save
anybody and I can't save anybody; and forget what God
sees.
He always sees us.
He not only sees where you are and what you're doing,
He sees what's in your heart; what you're thinking.
God and God only knows the thoughts of the sons of men.
He can't flee from His presence. What kind of prophet
was he? Its theology.
Must have been off a little.
Can't flee from the presence of the Lord!
But that's what he tried to do.
You know! I don't want rush pass a very simple truth.
Jonah had some hard experiences ahead of him.
And it's very simply because he did not do what God told him to
do. Would you think that's being
legalistic from me to draw that conclusion?
God said Go East! He went West and he got into trouble.
God wants us to do what He asks us to do.
And you will not be happy if you know what the will of the Lord
is and you're not doing it.
Jesus said that in the last days one of the big things that
separates the save from the lost it's not that the lost don't
know the truth. Did you noticed that?
He said: They're fools! But why are they fools? Cause they don't
know? Or they don't do what they know?
He said: "The wise man is the one who hears these words of
Mine and does them. He is building on the rock.
The fool. He hears the words too, he builds on the send.
You noticed that they all hear His word and a storm comes to
wise man and the fool.
But the difference is; the wise man is not afraid of the storm,
cause he's build on the rock. Cause he is a hearer and a doer
of the word. Jesus said: "Why do you say
to me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say!
And not everyone that says Lord. Lord, will enter the kingdom of
Heaven but they that do the will of my Father in Heaven.
Why are we hearers of the word and not doers. If we hears only,
we're deceiving ourselves. We might then be deceiving
some other people. But we're not deceiving God.
Are there areas in your life where you're fleeing to Tarses?
You know what God wants you to do and you're trying to ignore
His voice hopping it will go away?!
Oh! What happened to Jonah?
"So he went to flee to Tarses from the presence of the Lord,
and He went down to Jape.
And he found a ship going to Tarses and He paid the fare and
he went down into the ship."
Now he's going down twice so far just in two verses.
The word of the Lord said Arise! And he is going down, down.
He's getting ready to go down into the ship. And then he goes
down into the belly of the fish, he goes down to the bottom of
the mountains. When he doesn't do the will of
the Lord he goes down, down, down, down, down and no one
ever went farther down than Jonah.
Why?
Cause he knew what God wanted him to do and he didn't do it.
Your life is going the wrong direction.
Jesus came to lift us up.
He wants us ultimately to be cut up to meet Him in the air.
Amen!
If you're not doing the will of the Lord you're going down.
And it says: "he went to the ship and he paid the fare."
He was willing to pay.
To not do the will of the Lord.
Sin is expensive.
There's a cost.
And if you run from God, you'll have to pay.
The devil will take you the wrong direction and then he'll
bill you for it.
That's right!
And he paid the fare, and he went down to the ship,
verse 4: "but the Lord". I like this.."but Jonah", but the Lord.
Jonah didn't want to do the will of the Lord,
but God didn't want to lose Jonah.
So it says: "but the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea.
And there was a mighty tempest on the sea. So the ship was
about to be broken up."
Now why did God send the storm?
The Lord sent the storm right?
Why did the Lord sent the storm?
Was it to be a judgment to show His anger and His wrath?
If you read the whole story it's quick to discern that God
sends the storm because He wants to save.
Have we've seen some storms in the last few years?
Just think about how things have changed since 9/11.
Of course there are storms of terrorism that are this very
night. More bombs today. Jordan, France is terrorism
around the world. And of course we remember what happened.
And everybody remembers where they were for 9/11.
And I think that may be more disturbing for some than others.
It's hard for me in a special way, because I grew up in New
York City and in '99 Amazing Facts as you know, we went there
and we went to the top of the World Trade Center three times
and looked over the city and prayed. And sense that
something ominous was happening, but we didn't think it'll be
that!
And, then after we went back and broadcast the program and John
and I went down to ground 0. We thought. You know this is
like the beginning of the end.
And then you look at the natural disasters. The tsunami.
Here in North America, you know we became preoccupied with our
hurricanes and they were devastating.
I remember when we came here a few weeks ago next door they
had refugees. But the Tsunami...
What is the last count? 250,000 people?!
Can you imagine the scope of that? Died!
Many have to figure they're still up and not even sure.
They're still.....? from that on that part of the world!
Now we know about the string of hurricanes that we've had,
and people ask me the question frequently:
Doug is the Lord sent this storms as a judgment?
Yes! It is a judgment. But is not a judgment to destroy
it is a judgment to save.
Amen!
I've seen the hurricanes. Several of them. The floods and
New Orleans and different parts of the Country.
Tornados just since we've been here; deadly tornados went
through in Nebraska.
Since we've been here they've had more earthquakes.
The earthquake in Pakistan. Just a couple months ago.
Even still a matter of weeks ago. 80,000 people.
And then you look at the images that were seen...
Of military vehicles rolling up and down the streets armed
in our country. It's not hard to imagine things can get to the
place where the final events in the small time of trouble could
materialize very quickly.
Why is God doing this? Is it just me?
No! The news reporters. Who many of them are very secular,
are saying: What does all this mean? Why has nature going
wild? That's an exact quote from several of them.
FOX, MSNBC, CNN. I was flipping through and I heard them all say
What is these mean? Is nature going wild?
Is it a normal cycle? Why is this happening?
They see that something is happening.
You know I'll submit to you that the Bible teaches that
before the coming of the Lord the world will be delivered.
And the apostles compare it to the world grown in travails.
And that's the language of birth.
And you know before a baby is born. There are occasional pains
and even sometimes a month or so before the baby is born.
Mother might have what they called Braxton Hicks contraction
the sort of preparatory contractions getting the body
ready. That doesn't mean that's going to come yet!
But then you start having the contraction every now and then
and then they really start coming close together and they
get closer and closer and closer Well friends I think what're
seeing is like the labor pains begun.
But God is not sending these storms to destroy, He is
sending them to save!
Of course the economy it's been very valent. It just seems like
is up and down. Pretty pathetic when you get excited about
gas $2/gallon?
Wau it went down to $2/gallon!
Is Jesus trying to tell us that time is running out?
He is trying to get our attention.
These signs that we see I believe are being sent by God
to awaken the church, because the church is doing the same
thing that Jonah did.
What did he do?
Paid the fare, went down into the ship and the Lord sends this
great storm. And it was a storm that even terrorize the sailors.
They can hear the boat creaking and growing as was as dough
was about to explode in the smite rims from the crushing
waves as they rose and fell in the truffle.
And the mariners were afraid.
It says: "Every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo
that was in the ship into the see the lighten the load, but
Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship and it
laying down and was fast to sleep."
Now evidently as you read through the whole story of Jonah
Jonah is the only believer in the true God on the ship.
And everybody on the ship knows that the end is near
except Jonah.
Everybody on the boat is praying.
Except Jonah.
Might be praying to the wrong God, but they're praying.
They know they need to pray.
I mean, most people even atheists seem to pray in a
foxhole with bullet buzzing over their head.
And Jonah is sleeping.
They're making sacrifices.
They figure: You know, this ship is growing through these waves
because we've got all this cargo, and even though the cargo
was very valuable; it probably had a lot to do with the purpose
of the trip. They were hopping to make a profit.
But they realized what profit it is if you gain the whole world
and lose your soul. So in order to live they were willing to
unload and they begin to throw everything overboard.
You now they tells similar story in the New Testament.
The book of Acts end with another storm at sea.
A matter of fact Bible begins with a storm at see.
Noah!
Right?
Only took what was precious on the ship...
And then the book of Acts. Paul is in the ship that's bound
for judgment and they get caught in the storm.
And when they realized they were going to perish, they threw
everything overboard little by little until finally they're
even throwing over the tackle ling, the robs that help
them to manage the ship and then finally they realized
we're going to perish, they eat their last meal and they throw
the wheat overboard, their food.
The things that we tend to collect, that keep us from doing
the work of the Lord. I know I've touched on this, but
there's a lot more I could say.
Materialism is suffocating the church.
We are being buried under an avalanche that is paralyzing us.
You know what an avalanche does?
Is even though you think snow is so harmless and soft;
and a little bit. It's fluffy and pretty.
But if you get covered with it it packs like concrete and you
can't move you can't dig your way out, if you get covered
in an avalanche.
It's hard.
And a lot of people all their stuff has paralyzed them.
They become a prisoner to the possessions, they got spend
all their time watching, worrying, girding, oiling,
increasing their possessions.
And they can't serve the Lord cause they got so much stuff.
We become prisoners.
These men realize the end is near and all of a sudden that
stuff was worthless and they begin to hive it overboard
because they have their priorities recalibrated.
What profit is it if you gain all these stuff and you drown!
Reminds me of a story of a ship called The California.
They discovered it. I was a steam ship that had been doing
some gold mining in South America.
And on the way back they spring the leak.
And some of the people. A lot of more minors who were returning
and they hidden their gold in their clothes, because there was
no where else safe onboard. And they knew they had to jump
in the water and swim to the life boats, but they won't let
go of their gold and of course they went down like an anchor.
Because they won't let go of their gold.
And that's happening to a lot of people in the church.
We don't know when to unload.
And I think God's calling upon us especially in these last days.
To invest in His Kingdom to convert our resources into the
currency of Heaven. Amen!
I mean where is your treasure?
It's like this wealthy ? I read about who took John Wesley on
a tour of his ranch which took several hours to just see the
small portion of it. Got back to his home in New England there
and he asked pastor Wesley: So what do you think?
And Wesley said: I think you're going to have a hard time
leaving these behind!
And some of us our treasure is here.
We're not looking forward to Heaven because we can't let
go what is here and is going to sink us.
There are so many resources to do the work of the Lord.
That's the good news. The bad news it's still
in the pockets and the accounts of the people.
And our knuckles are white because we don't want let go.
The mariners prayed and they threw overboard.
To lighten the ship.
Ship sails a lot better when it's not heavy.
"But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship."
and then lying down, and was fast asleep."
He is in a deep sleep.
Now the problem with sleep is:
That when you're doing it, you don't know you're doing it.
Have you ever had a problem going to sleep?
And you're laying there... I struggle sometimes sleeping.
And don't send me all your curers! Last time I mentioned
You stand on your head for 5 minutes pastor Doug, before you
go to sleep and it just clears your head and sleep better.
I tried standing on my head, I couldn't get my foot up there.
But I got all these stuff you're suppose to drink.
But anyway. When you try to go sleep, if you have trouble
sleeping you're laying there and you're going:
Am I sleeping?
When you ask that question, you're obviously not asleep.
And sometimes I'm worried so much about Am I sleeping?
That I know. I'm not sleeping cause I'm asking myself if I'm
sleeping! Right? Come on am I the only that's done that before?
So the problem with sleeping is: You don't know when you're doing
it!
And whenever I tell the church: You need to wake up! The people
who need to wake up they're not hearing me!
It's the Holy Spirit who's got to wake us up!
The disciples were sleeping it seems always at the critical
moments. On the mount of transfiguration when
Moses and Elijah are there they slept through part of it.
Jesus wanted them to pray. In the Garden of Gethsemane
Jesus said: "Pray with me!" Several times. And they went
back to sleep. Just before the cross they were sleeping.
That was during the first coming.
Jesus tells us in Mathew 25 with the 10 virgins: "What percentage
of the 10 virgins were sleeping when their bridegroom call came?
100%! So friends don't say: Pastor Doug you're being
negative! Its Biblical friends. The church is asleep.
But it needs to wake up. And does something wake up the
church? There is a call that says: The bridegroom is coming!
Well friends, if you haven't heard it before let me tell you
now the bridegroom is coming! We need to wake up!
Jesus is coming soon! No before I rush pass this point
of Jonah sleeping it's probably a good place to talk about the
sign of Jonah that Jesus talked about.
What did Jesus mean when He said: "No sign will be given,
to this evil and adulterous generation except the sign of
Jonah."
Think about it for a moment.
Jesus was asleep in the boat during the storm.
And He was awaken that they might be saved.
Jonah end up being the vehicle to save those in the storm on
the boat.
I'll get to that in a minute.
You know I after Jonah's episode and the fish I hope I'm not
ruining the story for everyone here. Do you know that happen?
Ok! When he was swallowed, and the fish burped him back up and
he went to Nineveh. It says Nineveh was a great city, of
three days journey.
That means from wherever he was deposit it by the fish it took
three days to get to Nineveh. And then it says He entered the
city a day, half a days journey. And he preached that in forty
days it would be destroyed. Isn't that right?
Now follow me! No sign will be given, Jesus said to the Jewish
nation except the sign of Jonah. Jesus like Jonah came to worn
them of impending judgment. He ministered three and a half
not days, three and a half years.
And he said: "This generation will not pass away until these
things are fulfilled been, not one stone left upon another and
the Temple cause it was destroyed forty years latter.
Jonah went three and a half days from the fish to the city, and
then preached in forty days it will be destroyed. But the
people in Nineveh repented! Jesus said: "They're going to
rise up in the Judgment against this generation cause they
repented at the preaching of Jonah, but a better than Jonah
is here and you're not listening.
So what is the sign of Jonah? Jesus said that Jonah is a
hey to understand what my ministry is, but I've come to
give a warning that you might be saved.
But there is more!
Now maybe, just in fairness I ought to deal with the three
days and three nights that you find in Mathew.
People I think have really misunderstood that.
When Jesus said in Mathew chapter 12:
"As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the
great fish so the son of man will be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth."
Everybody automatically assumes that must mean:
That he'd been in the tomb three days and three nights.
And if He was crucified Friday and He was;
and He rested in the tomb. Even on the Sabbath, Jesus kept the
Sabbath even in death. He died before the Sabbath and rose
right after it. He rested from saving us on the Sabbath.
Isn't that wonderful?
And then He rose Sunday morning. You can say part of three days
but no matter how you cut it, there were not three nights in
it distinctly says three nights.
So people get very worried and they try to move the date for
the crucifixion and they say the Bible can't be trusted and..
First of all a little tip! Don't ever build a theology on one
verse!
It's a bad practice in the mouth of two or three witnesses, you
don't stand on one leg very well, it's easy to get pushed
over with a finger. And some people will build theologies on
one verse. I tried to avoid doing that!
But what does it mean?
Well I submit to you that there's nowhere else in the
Bible that the heart of the earth is called the tomb.
Nowhere!
Comes from the word cardia in Greek. It's where you get
the word heart and the world the earth.
The devil is called the prince of this world.
When did Jesus begin bearing our sins?
Let suppose that when you say the Lord's prayer: "Thy will be
done in earth. You're not talking about the tomb...
Are you talking about the tomb when you say: "Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven?" King James Version. No!
And it does say that!
In the earth means in the midst of this lost world.
When did Jesus began bearing our sins?
Was it when they drove the nails through His hands? Or it was
before that?
Did He start suffering... You see the penalty for sin is not
just death. The penalty for sin is suffering and death.
Will the wicked who are judged just expire. Or do they suffer?
Is it suffering involved?
Did Jesus suffered for our sins or just died?
When did His suffering began?
After He sealed the New Covenant, Thursday night.
He went to the Garden. Three times He says, you look at the
gospels where it says: "Now was the hour, now was the hour,
now was the hour."
And when the mob came to arrest Him for the first time in His
life, the Heavenly Father did not intervene. No angels
intervene to protect Him.
Other times the mob tried to stone Him, or throw Him of the
cliff He passed through their midst.
But now it didn't happen! As a matter of fact Judas was
hopping He'll do something like that.
Instead He was bound and they began to abuse Him!
And He began to suffer the humiliation and the physical
agony or our sins. In the garden of Gethsemane He began to suffer.
Perspiring blood.
Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, He was in the
heart of the earth. As Jonah went were the whale took him,
Jesus went where the mob took Him.
Is not talking about just the tomb. Tomb was certainly
part of that. Is talking about He was in the clutches of the
devil.
He was like the property of the devil and the demons were
able to vent all of their rage against the Son of Man Jesus
for three days and three nights.
In the heart of the earth. In midst of the world, in the hands
of the clutches of the devil. You got it?
Everybody automatically assumes that it's talking about the tomb
and then they change the theology and I think it's very
confusing that way.
As Jonah so Jesus.
Jonah is teaching us something about the plan of salvation.
So the captain comes to Him verse 6.
and he says to him: He probably going down to the
wholes of the ship, but... Jonah is in the lowest parts of
the ship. O by the way it says: Jesus was in the stern when He
was sleeping during the storm. Which is the lowest part.
So he says, "What do you mean, oh sleeper?
Captain is looking for something to throw overboard and He finds
another sack and it turn out is not a sack it's Jonah.
And you can see the indignation and the shock that here is one
of the passengers and there is so... You know...
a frightened by this storm, this supernatural storm and they are
throwing overboard. How could someone be sleeping
through that!?
I remember in 1964 I was living with my father in Miami Beach.
And hurricane Betsy came through.
And you couldn't sleep through that it was very loud.
Except one of my neighbors. I had a friend named Gland Beret.
His bedroom was in the second storey of their house there in
the island and a palm frown from a coconut tree blew horizontally
through his window lend it on his bed. Everybody in the house
rushed upstairs and Gland was still asleep.
They thought it did kill him, he was just sleeping and huh...
Sleeping through the storm.
But you know when you're 10 years old you sleep like that right!
"What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, (here's where things
begin to turn). Arise, and call on your God; (capital G),
perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish."
You remember when they woke up Jesus:
They said: "Lord carriest not that we perish!"
Probably one of the strangest questions ever asked in the Bible
that you'd ask Jesus: Don't You care that we're going to
perish?" Call on your God that we may not
perish. And friends; what that captain said to Jonah, Jesus
says to you. Call on your God!
It may be that He'll hear you and you will not perish.
If we don't call on Him. Pray.
It's a storm. Things aren't going to get better friends!
Cheer up is going to get worse!
The labor pains are going to get closer together.
The Bible has told us there is a time of trouble coming.
And in many cases. And preachers are notorious for this. We try
to frighten people, take a mole hill and turn it into a mountain.
But when it comes to the time of trouble and things ahead of
us that's not possible.
And I'm standing on the words of Jesus who said:
There never has been a time like it before.
There's also in the book of Daniel chapter 12.
Nor will there ever be again.
There's going to be a time of trouble such as it never has
been and it's coming. I believe during this generation.
And now it's a time for us to arise and call upon our God
especially for asleep. Amen!
And ask Him to wake us up! That's what this revival song
"shake us and wake us". Makes me think of Peter there
on death row. Chained between two soldiers and the angel had
to... hit him, wake him up.
Sometimes God sends storms and trials to save us.
I'm not just talking about the environmental things and
the terrorism. I'm talking about trials and storms that God may
send to your life. Because He loves you. And he wants to save
you.
You know there is a popular, but false teaching that circulates
through a lot of the churches, that because the Lord loves the
church too much we're going all to be raptured, you know,
He wouldn't want us to suffer.
Acts 14:22. Paul said: "We must through much tribulation enter
the Kingdom of God. Not we may with the little."
I don't want to frighten you friends, but there is
tribulation. And we go through personal tribulation and it's
through that God is shaping us and making us jewels for His
use. It is through pressure and hit you take a lump of coal and
make a diamond.
And if you want to be fit for God's use then He's going to
hammer you. And you need to just invite it.
But don't get discouraged by that.
There are trials for the saved and there are trials for the
lost. Don't forget! Jesus said: The fool builds on the sand,
storm hits him too. Amen!
Jesus said: "I send not only the sunshine to the good and bad,
He sends the rain, the storms, to the good and bad so don't say
Well Doug, I don't want to go through tribulation, I don't
want to be a Christian! Well it's going to be worse for you!
Another words. There is trouble in lives. But God wants to use
the trouble to shape you if you cooperate with Him.
And you know. It's always a lot easier if you draw near
the one who holds the rod.
I know my mother became infuriated with me one time.
And it was sort of laughable when she wanted to spank me
because she was only 5 foot 3. My brother and I both got bigger
than her eventually.
And she physically was not an athlete.
She was an actress.
Don't critic.
And so her trying to spank us, like I said, was almost
laughfable.
One time she got frustrated, she just tried to choke me cause she
didn't have no what else to do.
And I'll never forget she was shaking me, didn't even hurt.
I felt sorry for her. She says: I love you, but I don't like you!
I won't ask if you're ever...
Anyway. So she tried to spank me and I found the closer I got the
less it hurt. You get out here with a centrifugal force takes
over it really stings.
You draw near the one who holds the rod. And it's lessens the
blow. And so if you're going to some trials and it may be a
health issue, or it might be a crisis to your family, it might
be something financial; draw near to God and you'll find He
will always makes it easier.
And then praise Him for your trials.
Thank Him for your trials.
You would say: Doug, that's easy for you to say! No it's not
easy for me to do either! But I know that works and the Bible
commands it.
It just. It lessen the burden.
He is sending these trials to save us.
"Arise, oh sleeper and call upon your God!"
"Perhaps He will consider us, that we may not perish!"
And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that
we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us."
They said: "This storm..." These sailors had been the sea
before; they've done everything they can humanly do, they tried
to adjust the ship, they lightened the load, they were
praying and sacrificing, they were making vowels to their gods
promising never to do it again. And I've seen this before.
I have been in a storm on the Mediterranean with a boat load
of pagans, they're atheists many of them.
We thought there we're going to die and they become so
frightened, they become believers in something. And they
start making promises and vowels.
Lord, if You will just save me!
And they always know what it is they need to repent of...
Even people who say: "There is no God!" When they are under the
threat of death and they make a promise, it's like they say:
I've got these chips I'm willing to offer. They always know what
they are. And the chips are: Lord I promise not to do this...
and I'll do this right, I'll throw over that, I'll give my
neighbor's right back, and whatever may happens to be.
Because they know when they're hard of hearts.
And all of them; they've done everything they can do and they
say: This is a supernatural storm! Let's cast lots!
Now, you might wonder what that means and as near as they
can tell they had a variety of ways of trying to determine
somebody or pick somebody. We roll dice, even drawing
straws and whoever gets the short straw...
Evidently in the fenician world, they would have a clay jar and
they would take however many people were represented in the
survey, they take these stones and they were all white, except
one which was black. And they'd shake the jar, and
they shake out... The mouth was just big enough for one these
little rounds stones to come out. They shake one at the time.
They go to you, shake one out, hopefully you didn't get the
black stone and... So as they were casting lots for all the
sailors, Jonah got the short end of the stick, so to speak.
He got the short straw. He got the black stone.
And they all looked at him and began to fire questions at him
to explain why did God point to you?
Notice their questions:
Then they said to him, "Please tell us! For whose cause
is this trouble upon us? For whose cause is this storm?
You know, so much of what happens in this world, happens
or doesn't happen because of the influence of God's people.
You know why some cities are being spared right now?
Because there's more than 10 righteous. Amen!
Don't ever underestimated the influence of God's people on
those around them.
Isn't that what the Bible teach us about Lot and his influence?
And not only is it true that the righteous influence of the
godly can have a preserving influence on people.
The rebellion of the godly invites judgment.
Because God lost His representatives.
He's lost His ambassadors.
When a country no longer has ambassadors, they get their
people out.
A country that doesn't have ambassadors the military never
protects.
We want our government to protect another country?
We have an ambassador there! No ambassadors the army is out.
You want angels to protect you, your family, your country?
God needs representatives.
For whose cause?
He said well, what is your occupation?
Oh, prophet running the wrong way.
Explain that.
I want to...I feel impress to say something that you don't
hear very often.
We don't have enough preachers.
You think we have too many!
We'd probably have too many on the payroll.
But we don't have enough.
Let me reward that, ministers.
In the beginning every Christian in the new Testament was
a minister.
Now we sort of relegated it to a few who...I'm one of them.
So I don't need to condemn the pastors in our midst.
But I think that God's design is that every member be a minister.
God needs more workers in His field.
And I know for a fact that one of the reasons that we have so
few workers, it's because some of us like Jonah are running
away from our calling.
Now I think some of you maybe have been called the fulltime
ministry. There are young people. I think there are a lot
of young people that God is calling to the ministry.
And they got the gifts for ministry. But because of the
pressure of the world, may be their friends, because of the
materialism that they keep harping on.
That how could I ever... you know, keep up with everybody.
and have all the toys and the good life and be a success;
on a pastor salary. Well, I've got to educate for success and
good income.
And it use to be among the lot of the Christian schools.
When people went to a Christian school. Do you know Harvard
when it started was principally for training ministers?
And it's a very small part of their program if it all anymore,
I don't even know if they train ministers anymore, but you
should read some of their founding articles it was all
about training people for ministry.
And there's this trend that as schools go on they start
drifting away from what the vision is.
Is to prepare people to serve and to minister to win souls.
God needs more missionaries.
More Christian teachers. You may not have all the benefits
and of the public school teachers, but we need Christian
teachers. Some of you may work in the public schools. Amen!
We need them there too.
And I just feel impress to say that there are some people who
are listening. A lot of young people.
And God is calling you to mission work.
It's calling you to go somewhere that may not be easy, may not
be convenient, may not be comfortable.
It's calling you to minister. May be its calling you to
Evangelism or Bible work. And you're running from Jonah,
and you're wondering why all these storms are in your life?
God can't bless you, cause your out of His will.
You're going the wrong way.
And you know who you are. Let the Holy Spirit speak to
to you tonight. Call Amazing Facts and join our evangelism
college. Go to South-Western and get into theology program.
Amen! Do something! Everybody can do something.
Every member should be a minister.
God is giving us gifts for what? For ministry.
"Where do you come from?"
Well, I came from Israel, I'm running from God.
"What is your country? Who are your people?"
Now think about these questions. Are 7 questions.
For whose cause is this trouble? What is your occupation?
Where do you come from? What is your country?
What are your people? Why have you done this?
What shall we do to you?
Isn't that interesting?
Take a fresh look at these with maybe a spiritual slang.
For whose cause is this trouble come upon us?
The church is neglecting it's work.
Jonah. And even the Jewish people realize that Jonah was
type of their nation.
God have called off the Jewish nation to be a light to the
gentiles. But they neglected their work and that's why they
went through so much trouble.
Jonah is a type of the church. God called the church to share
the gospel with the world, but when she neglects her work we
get in troubles.
You know the parable of the rich man and Lazarus?
Rich man is feasting. Poor man at his gate begging.
Poor man who appreciates the brad of life he goes to
Abraham's bosom. The rich man who's got all the treasures of
truth he goes to Hades.
It seems like a measure role reversal.
What is that represent? Jesus is saying: First of all
to the audience listening: The Jewish nation was the rich
man. He'd given them the truth, but they were holding among
themselves. And not sharing it with the gentiles that lay at
their gate desiring the crumps that fell off of their table.
They had so much truth.
And today it's a symbol for the church for Christians.
We've got the bibles. We don't even read them.
We argue and feast among ourselves and the lost world
around us that are hungering for the truth, we don't invest
in sharing the gospel with them.
When Jesus comes who goes where?
Those who had the opportunities, that do not share Christ.
They don't go to Abraham's bosom. I'll leave it with that.
Right?
Jonah like us running from God.
And he said: I am a Hebrew."
What are your people?
And I fear the God of Heaven who made the sea and the dry
lend. Oh man, their knees began to smite together when he said
that because he said: "I worship the God that made everything
the storm made out off."
You got this?
For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD,
because he had told them. Then they said to him,
"What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?"
for the sea was growing more tempestuous.
You noticed it says: A great wind.
A mighty tempest. More tempestuous.
And he said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into
the sea; then the sea will become calm for you.
For I know that this great tempest is because of me."
You know why there is so much trouble in the world today?
I mean they compared Jonah to Jesus for a minute.
Why does the devil gives you such a hard time?
Cause of Jesus.
Did you ever think about it that way?
I'm not saying I want you to blame Jesus, but He is the
reason that devil hates Jesus.
And in his effort. It's almost like that storm was sent
to destroy Jonah; in his effort, why do you think that storm
came on the sea of Galilean? The devil wanted to destroy
Jesus. He didn't care if he took the apostles with him.
He wanted to destroy Jesus.
Why did the Pharaoh kill all the babies in Egypt?
He thought the Messiah is coming.
Wanted to destroy Him.
Same reason the Herod killed all the babies in Bethlehem. He hates
Jesus. The great controversy is between Michel and the dragon.
And the reason the devil brings the storm to you; is because
Jesus is in your boat.
He wants to hurt Jesus by hurting you.
If you want to hurt somebody best way to hurt him is hurt
that is precious to him.
You want to hurt me? Hurt my children, hurt my wife.
That really hurt.
If you want to hurt Jesus, hurt His children.
He said: I know it's from my sake.
"What do we do?"
Toss me overboard!
I often thought; why didn't Jonah say: Well let me save you
the trouble I'll dive!" I'll just jump!
Now he said; "that's not going to work"; he said, "you must
toss me. I can't just say I am going to jump in your behalf!
I mean wouldn't that have achieved the same thing?
He said I am the problem, so I'm going to commit suicide!
But now he said, "You must throw me overboard!"
They didn't want to do that at first.
"Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but
they could not, for the sea continued to grow more
tempestuous. It was roaring, it was raging,
it was like an animal. They got worse and worse and the boat
is getting ready to buckle and in their desperation they
thought: What've we got to lose if we don't try this we're all
going to be end soon enough.
They tried to save themselves.
They couldn't save themselves. They tried to find another way
to get to land. They rowed. There is no other way, but
throwing Jonah overboard.
You know what the message is here?
Who am I companying Jonah to?
Jesus said: "No sign will be given but the sign of Jonah!"
The only way for the people on that ship to live, was to offer
somebody.
Offer God's prophet.
Pass him overboard.
The only way for you and I to live is to offer Jesus.
You and I must take Him up and cast Him into the sea.
These were pagans and they didn't want to do that.
And even though they knew he said, "I'm a rebellious prophet,
they even not want to do it.
It was a struggle. They've waited until the very end.
Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, "We pray, O LORD,
please do not let us perish... (don't let us perish!) is that
sound familiar like John 3:16? ...for this man's life, and do
not charge us with innocent blood."
You know that Bible says that Jesus was innocent blood?
"...for You, oh Lord have done as it pleased You."
So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the
sea ceased from its raging." Just as by the word of Jesus
when He said: "Peace!" The sea flatten down it became calm.
It became calm for them.
And the Bible says: "The men feared the Lord exceedingly
and they made a sacrifice to the Lord and made vowels.
Because He was willing to lay his life down, everybody on the
boat were saved and they were convert it to the God of Israel.
They're making promises now to Jehovah.
They said: "We're going to worship Jonah's God."
He is the God that made everything else; the other gods
are made out off. We're going right to the top.
So even when He was going the wrong way, Lord used him to save
others.
You know, I am just throwing that in because I know there
were times where there've been areas in my life where I was
still out of God's will and God still give me opportunity to
witness for Him.
He'll use you right now friends, and it will be part of your
conversion process. Did it change Jonah's direction?
Yeah, He ought to change the direction.
He repents in the belly of the whale. He ultimately goes to
Nineveh. And a city with thousands of people to save
because he finally does what God tells him to do.
One person who finally submits to do what God tells him to do,
obverts judgment for a whole city. The capital of an empire.
Don't underestimate what God can do through you.
But in order for those people to have peace. The sailors did not
have peace until they've sacrificed Jonah.
You will not have peace, until you realize that you held the
hammer that drove the nails.
You must say: "Christ is not just a sacrifice, but He died
for me."
Would you like to make a decision to except Jesus tonight?
That's the sign that's given. The judgment is coming.
The only way for us to have peace through this coming storm
is to offer Jesus for our souls.
When you make His soul an offering for sin that's when you
find peace. Amen!
When you came in tonight.
You may have noticed there's a card that was planted into your
seat, I'm hoping that you were able to find that.
I'd like for you to grab that now!
Those of you who are watching you will also find this in the
05Revive website. I want to give you an opportunity do do
something tangible and make a decision tonight. To say:
I want to do something to come back to Jesus, to except Jesus.
Any here if you don't have the card, we've got some ushers that
will be happy to give you one. There should be one in about
every seat. Those who are watching, you can download this
and fill it out, or even fill it out online.
Write your name and address on there.
I'd like to ask you some questions.
Are you feeling the holy spirit speak to you?
Check that here.
Second one.
In order for this revival to be lasting and real; let's make a
commitment to do what we can. To spend time with the Lord and
keep it. It will bring a lasting revival.
Check that if you're willing to say that.
Some of you are visiting. We know we have people from
different persuasions. You've heard us. You know this is
sponsored by the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Maybe you would like to know more about SDA Church.
Check that and give us your name or phone number or e-mail.
We'll try to contact you. No one is going to push you or bother
you.
Next question 4.
Some who are watching maybe have never dedicated their lives.
There might be some young people.
We're getting e-mail from kids, that I know are watching.
Have you made a decision for baptism? You can make that
tonight and then plan it with your pastor. For baptism.
Or e-mail us if you don't know where to go. We'll try and help
you.
Some of you maybe have come back to the Lord.
You've been away. You need a new beginning.
If you're interested in rebaptism.
I want you to be praying about how you mark your card right now.
And I will invite John to come up and sing.
Main decision is:
Would you like to follow Jesus?
Go where He's telling you to go.
I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back, No turning back.
I'd like to invite everybody here to bow your heads please.
Just ask God through the Holy Spirit to isolate you from any
thing that might be around you. Please forget there is ushers,
the cameras or lights. Just you and the Lord.
Those who are watching if you do the same.
You might even be watching on TV, the internet, listening on
the radio just... if you're driving be careful, but be
praying in your heart. And that the Holy Spirit has spoken to
to you tonight. Some area of your life where maybe you are
going the wrong direction. God has told you:
I want you not only to be a hearer but a doer of the word.
But we can't do anything without Jesus.
Allow Him to activate the power of His presence and spirit in
your life. Say Lord, I'm accepting the blood of Christ,
I want to follow Jesus. I want to go trusting that You're going
help me do Your will.
Is that you're prayer friends? Would you like to lift your
hands and say: Lord that is my decision!
Mark it on your cards. Is the first question in your card.
And don't forget. John is going to sing another verse:
Tonight as you leave. For those in this location who leave
leave your cards with the ushers.
Those who are watching you can e-mail them through the
internet to us if you tilled them out there.
And we'll be praying for you and try to supply the resources
to your request.
The world behind me. The cross before me.
Though none go with me, Yes I will follow,
No turning back, No turning back.
Let's pray!
Loving Father in Heaven. Dear Lord.
Our hearts are amazed of how real the words of Jesus
were when He said that Jonah will be given as a sign of His
very life and ministry.
Lord I pray that each of us can see the only way to survive
the storm and to have that peace that passes understanding is to
accept Jesus as our sacrifice.
To embrace our culpability in His death and to toss Him over,
that we might have peace Lord. As much as it greats us to say
Lord, I am offering You for my soul and accepting the gift of
His life. Bless these people with a calm sea in their hearts.
There might be a storm raging around them, but help them know
they can have peace in Christ and continue to pour out Your
Spirit on this revival. We asked in Jesus name, Amen!