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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 So listen. My name is Jim Shekelton. I'm the location pastor in Woonsocket, and, they've loosened their grip on me from Woonsocket and allowed me to be here this morning. So I'm very excited, excited to0:12 welcome you online, all locations, in TV, wherever you're streaming or tuning in or whatever location you're in, welcome to Waters Church. Right? Yeah. Welcome.0:23 So if you're online, please go to Waters Church dot guide for the digital bulletin. There is a little place for you to take notes. It's called today's message. Scroll to that. Click on it. Yes. You can fill it out.0:35 Yes. You can save it, and you can even read it later. So enjoy it. So I am here today, and, man, am I excited to be here. I'm excited because it's always a blessing0:47 to preach God's word wherever I am. And so, you know, pastor Tim, thanks for the investment in me. Thank you for your investment into young men preaching the gospel. And, you know, it's just0:59 awesome to have a leader like that, isn't it, church? Isn't it? So I'm here today to talk about Jonah. And Jonah has so many stories, so many little parts, and there's so many lessons.1:11 But before we go into that, I wanna start with what this quote says. And you it might it might sound familiar to you. Wise men learn from their mistakes, but wiser men1:23 learn from the mistakes of others. Who likes to learn from other people's mistakes and problems? Yeah. I'm not the only, you know, honest 1 in the house today. So there's1:35 actually a scripture, Proverbs 21, it says this, when a scoffer is punished, the simple become wise. When a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge. That's the ESV. And I went to The1:47 Message. Usually, I don't go to The Message version, but I like it because it's in 1 sentence. It says this, simpletons learn the hard way, but the wise learn by listening.1:59 Who's tired of learning only from the hard way? Yeah, me too. I see your hands in the locations. I know they're up. So let's together. Here's the invitation. Together,2:12 let's become more wise today, all locations online wherever you're streaming, and let's listen to what God has. Amen? Amen. So Jonah's story,2:24 it's here for us to learn from. It's here for us to learn from. So Jonah is is a prophet in the bible. That's what the bible calls him out as. He's a prophet. And in another old2:36 testament book, second Kings, he's he's believed to have been in, like, the the ministry group, with Elisha that they ministered to 1 of the most powerful kings of Israel. This is the2:48 Jonah that we have 4 chapters in the Bible to read about. He once ministered to the most powerful king of Israel. But we don't have any stories about that.3:00 We have the story that we have in the bible. And and why is that? Why like like, if I if I, like, ministered to a huge world leader, I would hope3:13 that the legacy story of myself and the impact that I've had would be something better than my worst time in ministry. I hope. But that waits on you guys to3:24 share those stories, not me. Okay? So, but listen, there are so many small messages, so many small little pieces in Jonah, but there's 1 consistent theme, and it's God's grace. God's grace is3:36 all through these 4 chapters, so thick and so prevalent. So here's the cliff notes version. Who likes cliff notes? Me too. Here it is about Jonah. So Jonah was called to a place called Nineveh. God3:48 came to him and said, you, I want you to go to Nineveh. Nineveh, let's start there. It was in enemy territory. Enemy territory. These enemies of Israel were annihilating and attacking4:00 Israel. So God calls them to an enemy city. To do what? Wag his finger at them and tell them I'll whore them and go slay them? No. He says go preach4:12 a message I will give you. So let's think of it this way, don't answer this question. All locations, don't answer this question. The only people that can answer it if you're alone online and nobody can hear you, okay?4:23 Think of us think of a country that you would consider an enemy. Think of that country, and now think of God calling you to go to that city4:35 in that country, not to poke him in the face and punch him in the throat and annihilate him and take him out, but to preach God's repentance message.4:46 That's where Jonah was when he was called to Nineveh. It wasn't riding the wave of God's glory into a city where God's already been moving. Now,4:58 Jonah, here's the cliff notes. God calls Jonah, hey, you go there, preach, a message I will give you, will give you. Wasn't even given the message. Just kind of a I I imagine like a kick in the pants. Go,5:10 Jonah. Now Jonah says, nope. Not doing that. You want me to go there? I'm going here. Not going. So he runs, and he flees, and he pays5:22 people to go on their boat to get as far as humanly possible from where God had called Jonah to go. Now, what happens? There's a huge5:34 storm, and these sailors that own this boat, and it's a big boat, because scripture says that Jonah went below to sleep. And I don't know anything about boats, but I know it's gotta be pretty big5:45 to have a basement. Okay? So it's a big old boat. Jonah's down there sleeping, big old storm. All of the people on the boat are freaking out, and Jonah's sleeping like a baby. They wake him, I'm like, what's wrong with5:57 you? They're like, was it your God that caused this? Did you do something? Did you do something? Is it you? Is it you? Is it you? And and it comes down that that they say, Jonah, what'd you do?6:09 You told us you were trying to flee your God. Look at this storm, what did you do? He's so angry. And so he gets tossed over the boat, and the storm stops.6:21 That's a pretty big wake up call, amen? Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully I get woken up before that happens, Amen? Then a big fish gobbles up Jonah. He's in there for 3 days,6:33 and then he repents, and God commands the fish, go throw him up on the shore. That's a pretty clean deliverance, amen? Fish goo everywhere, and you're thrown up on a beach and said,6:45 go now to Jonah, to Nineveh. And he does, and Nineveh responds, and Nineveh repents, and God holds back his destruction. And then6:57 Jonah does what every good prophet does. He sits there and does a pity party about how upset he is. I was right in the first place, God.7:09 That's Jonah after going through prophet 1 0 1. That's the story of Jonah. Why is it this story? He ministered to the most powerful king of Israel,7:21 but the recorded story of Jonah is probably something he's a little ashamed of. But somehow God is glorified through it. So let's stand for the reading7:33 of God's word. All locations, let's stand together as we read God's word. And we pick up the scripture on the tail end of this scripture after Nineveh responds, and it goes like this. We started, chapter 3 verse 10 of7:43 Jonah. It says this, when God saw what they did, talking about Nineveh, how they had turned from their evil way, god relented from disaster that7:55 he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. And and here's the good prophet 1 0 1, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was8:07 angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, oh Lord, is this not what I said when I was in my country? That is why8:19 I made haste to try to flee to Tarshish, That's where he was trying to go on a boat. For I knew that you were a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast8:30 love, and relenting from disaster. This is God's word. Let's, join me in prayer, please. Heavenly father, we thank you for today. We thank you for your word that it is alive. We thank you that8:42 it's alive right now. We thank you that you are alive. Holy spirit, would you fill this place? Would you use me as your instrument in your hand to preach the message that you have for your people here today? God, we just8:51 wanna see your son Jesus, so please please just reveal him. That's all we want. It's your precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat, all locations. So I've titled this message9:03 life Jonah's life lessons because, again, we become more wise from listening. And so maybe you've lost someone in your life close to you or pseudo close to you9:14 or or what have you, but you have this point of reflection over that person's life, and you ask yourself, is there something that they've taught me, something that I can carry on, something that impacted my life?9:27 I've done it. So I have to ask you, when have you done that? And this is why we look to Jonah, because he lived a life, and there are life lessons9:39 here. Number 1 life lesson, sin is in all of us. Sin is in all of us. And and and throughout the whole book of Jonah, there's 2 people. There's Jonah and there's Nineveh. Well, and there's God. He's like the overarching9:50 umbrella. He's through it all. Okay? But under God, there's there's Jonah and there's the Ninevites. And both of them both of them have sinned.10:02 The book of Jonah starts out with Jonah's sin or or a reflection or a depiction of his sin, but we don't find out the root cause until the tail end of Jonah. Okay.10:14 So so here and Jonah represents God's people. He's God's prophet. He's a mouthpiece. He speaks on behalf of God to God's people and to people that are not God's people. Okay? So Jonah in the story, he represents10:26 Christians. He represents God's people, those that have put faith in God. Christian, sin is in all of us. On10:38 location too, and online. Christian, sin is in all of us. Now, Ninevites, or those that are far from God, or or lost in sin,10:50 or you're in you're you're you're in the ways of the world, or you're curious this morning, or you're not yet a Christian, or or you're just figuring out what's it mean to to believe in Christ. You're not the only11:00 sinner, but you do have sin just like us, just like everybody. Sin is in all of us. So Jonah 1 3, I am gonna go through the11:12 first 2 verses, but the the verse 3 is gonna be in your notes and on the slides here. Verse 1 says, this is how the story starts. It says, now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of, Amittae. I don't know how to11:23 pronounce things like Tim. He's really good at it. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for the evil has come up before me. And verse 3 picks up11:35 here, but Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid them the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish,11:46 away from the presence of the Lord. So verse 3 opens up right away. In this instance, running from God is a sin because God told him go here and he goes there. If you have children11:58 and you say do this and they do that, you know it's disobedience. Okay? But the question we have to ask is what's the root?12:11 Because running from God in and of itself is not always a sin or the only sin. It is a reflection of something causing, that's causing you to run from the12:22 presence of God? And the answer is the same across all people, all time, it is 1 thing, sin. Now sin has many many12:34 masks. Many masks. So yours is not mine, and mine is not yours, and yours looks different than mine, but it's still rooted in the same12:46 evil, and we call it sin. Now, what was Jonah's sin? We're gonna hear about that in a little12:57 bit. But it wasn't just the running. It was the why behind the running. The why is that he was called to his enemies to preach a message of13:09 repentance, and Jonah said no. Disobedience number 1, sin number 1. Number 2 is the why, because I hate him. I hate them,13:21 and I don't want any part of their salvation. I hate them that much. I don't even want to contribute to13:33 the message of the good news of God's grace to that sinful people. That's the why behind Jonah's running. Now remember there's 2. The13:45 Ninevites also have sin. Okay. And this is what Jonah 1 2 says, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it for their evil has come up come up before me. Their evil is their sin.13:57 Well, what was it? Great question. The bible doesn't care to share that with us right now. Because your sin and my sin and your sin and your sin and your sin and my sin, the mask14:09 it wears is not the important part. The important part is what it is and what God came to do with it. So the focus is not on Nineveh's sin, it's14:21 that it was so thick that it came up before the Lord. I mean jeez, if something I do goes before the Lord, I pray to God for his grace that it's not that.14:34 I hope it's something better. Now Romans 3 says this, the Ninevites were considered Gentiles to the Jewish people.14:45 Gentiles are just simply not Jewish. Okay? This is what Roman says, there is no difference, Jew and Gentile. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified14:57 freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. There's no difference. Sin is sin. Life lesson number15:09 2, god responds to repentance. And guess when he does it? All the time. All the time.15:22 Again, there's 2 people, Jonah and the Ninevites. We look at them. So Christians Christians and those that are far from God, that's who the Ninevites represent, need15:34 to repent of sin. Need to. It wasn't negotiable then. It's not negotiable now. We need15:46 to. Now now sometimes we think, as Christians, we think the storms that come in our life and the big fishes that gobble us up and the problems that it's evil and is15:58 trying to take me away from God's purposes. I'm here to tell you that God is the 1 that appointed the storm to the sailors that Jonah was in that boat to. God is the 1 that appointed that fish to go gobble up Jonah. God16:09 is the 1 that put it in place. So Christian, before you start rebuking the storm in your life, don't ask me, ask God, is this to bring me16:21 back to repentance? Is the fish I'm in Jonah was in the fish for 3 stinking days. Had to be gross.16:33 Had to be. Number 1 question I have for Jonah in heaven, what were you waiting for, man? Like, Straight up fish gobbles me up, get me out of here, I don't want16:45 any part of this. Jonah, 3 days. And then he's like, oh my God, I need to repent. Yes, why'd you wait so long in the grossness? Christian, why are you waiting so16:57 long in the grossness? Non Christian, what are you waiting for? The belly of the fish doesn't get any cleaner. The storm doesn't get any more17:08 settled. Sin does not get any more pretty. It doesn't get any more fulfilling. It doesn't make us It doesn't turn your frown upside down. The ways of the world are dead. It makes17:20 you feel good now, and then when you die, what do you have to hold on to? You're gone from the world. What are we waiting for? What are we waiting for?17:32 So God appointed the storm. He appointed the fish to Jonah to bring Jonah to repentance. And then check this out. After that repentance happens, God appoints and tells the fish, go throw17:44 him up now. And so that happens. Pretty gross. Then God appoints Jonah again. Go to Nineveh and17:56 preach the message I will give you. I will give you. He didn't he still didn't even have the message. Maybe Jonah was thinking this whole18:08 fish story was the message. I don't know, maybe it was. But God says to him, go. You ask if God is patient, I think he just18:19 demonstrated it. You ask if God is gracious, I think he just showed it. You ask, does God give second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh chances? I think Jonah demonstrates that. Now18:33 Jonah, his repentance is in chapter 2. It's 1 through 9. It's this glorious prayer. In the belly of the fish, it's glorious prayer. And he ends remember, the cause of him running18:46 is that he didn't want any part in the salvation of Nineveh, because he hated them, because they're enemies. This prayer ends with Jonah saying, salvation belongs to the18:57 Lord. Now Nineveh, also repentance. We see that in in chapter 3. So God appoints the storm. God appoints the fish. God appoints19:09 the fish to throw him up. God appoints Jonah to go to Nineveh. Now he goes to Nineveh, he goes, Nineveh, it's gonna happen in 40 days. You're all gonna die. God's gonna destruction is coming. You need to repent of your19:19 sin. And what does Nineveh do? Get out of here, we don't like that. No. All the way through the whole city, all the way it got the attention of the king. The king of this great city, it's thought to have19:31 been 600000 people strong this city. And in that day, that was a city. Okay? It gets to the king and he puts a decree through the whole land. Everybody stop eating, even your19:43 animals, stop it. We're gonna cry out to God. We're gonna cry out to God. And this is my favorite part about Nineveh's repentance, is that this is what the king says.19:55 Let everyone turn from their evil and from the violence that is in his hand. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.20:07 Who knows? Maybe he will. And they did. And God saw their repentance, and he said, I'm gonna hold back my destruction because of20:19 your repentance from your sin. Luke 5 says this. This is what Jesus says. I've not come to call the righteous,20:31 but sinners to Repentance. Repentance. Not a better life, not a polished view, not a better thought process. Repentance. Life20:43 lesson number 3, God is full, full of grace and compassion. Full of it. Again, the 2 people, Jonah and the Ninevites. Jonah sees20:55 grace and compassion, and the Ninevites see grace and compassion. Christians, non Christians, I'm here to tell you21:08 that repentance brings grace and compassion of the king of kings and the lord of lords, the creator of heaven and earth, the creator of you.21:24 Turn. Turn from your evil, wicked ways. Pursue God through Jesus. That is the only way. The21:35 only way is through Jesus. Jesus says this. He said to them, to the Pharisees, the Pharisees were those religious and the21:47 Sadducees, those religious people that had that thought that they knew it all and knew how to expect the Messiah and all these things that were right and holy and all of that. They thought they were so right because of21:55 their practices and because of their diligence to those things. And Jesus said to him, this is what he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No 1 comes to the father except through me. You see, I'm not22:07 sharing this message saying Jesus is the only way. I've put my faith in it, and Jesus himself says it about himself.22:19 Jonah receives God's grace throughout this whole entire book of Jonah, and it starts with the very first verse. Jonah was called to Nineveh. And he apparently wasn't called22:31 to Nineveh because his great belief that Nineveh could be saved. Okay? So it's nothing that he earned. It's nothing it wasn't a transactional. God, I've done, call me here.22:42 God's grace, and and he looked down and he said, you, Jonah, go. God's grace number 1 in Jonah's life in this story. Number 2 is the22:54 storm. The storm is another thing of God's grace that he sent because he could have looked at Jonah's sin and disobedience and said, you got what's coming to you.23:06 He didn't. He sends a storm. He sends the great fish. He lets them be there in 3 days, and he listens to them. From the belly of the fish, the cry of God's people rose to23:18 heaven and God responded to it. So you ask, I ask you, are you in the belly of the fish inside of an ocean right now, literally? You got 1 up on Jonah then. You're a little closer to heaven.23:32 If he can hear Jonah in the grossness of a fish's belly, he sure as heck can hear you, and when you cry out, and when you repent. But,23:46 you have to do it. I can't do it for you. Your mom can't, your dad can't, your grandma, your grandpa, your aunt, your uncle, your guardian, your small group leader,23:58 pastor Tim, the worship team, everybody can't do it for you. You need to do that. Now,24:10 oh, God's compassion and grace we see on the tail end of Jonah, the closing part of Jonah. So so Jonah again does what prophet 1 0 1 does. After he goes to Nineveh and he preaches the repentance, and he24:21 goes, and then you know you think that he'd be like part of the celebration, or like part of the ministering at the altar, or part of the you know small group discussion or what. No. He does this. He picks up his ball24:31 and he goes home. That's what he does. Little piddle party. Piddle party. Jonah does this. I'm gonna go outside the city. I'm gonna sit right here, and I'm gonna watch for the destruction24:43 of Nineveh. This is what he did. You think the belly of the fish would've worked that out in him? Right. Right. He's watching for24:56 the destruction of Nineveh. And what does God do? He he appoints, again, appoints a plant to grow and provide25:07 Jonah's shade so he could be cool and comforted in his whining. Okay. And then what does God do the next day? He appoints a25:18 worm to eat that plant so the plant decays, and the Lord sends an Easter wind, a hot scorching wind like a blow dryer in your face, and now Jonah's like, I'm all hot and sweaty. He's probably like me. Like, if I were25:30 down in Florida, that'd be me. Okay? Like, it's all hot and sweaty. Don't like them. K? That's Jonah. What does God do? He uses that to25:42 demonstrate his compassion and his grace to Nineveh and to Jonah. And this is what it says in in Jonah 4. We pick up it at 10 and 11. The last 2 verses of Jonah, and we don't know where it goes25:54 from here. And the Lord said, you pity the plant for which you did not labor. You did not, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night, and26:06 perished in a night. And should I, this is God talking, should I, should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, which there were more than 120000 persons who did not know26:17 the right hand from the left hand as much cattle? What he's saying is should I not pity that there were 6 figures, hundreds of thousands of people in Nineveh that had no moral scriptural truthful teaching about26:29 God himself. Jonah's fighting over the little plant and all this nonsense in his enemy, and God is saying, I am so full of grace that it's not just about you Jewish boy, it's about those other people that are lost in26:41 sin. Now Jonah's story is not about Jonah, it's not.26:53 From the beginning of Jonah, God's intention through this book was to save the Ninevites. That's what this book is about. It's about God's grace and saving27:07 that city, that person to you, that enemy, that horrible person, that sinner. That's who God saves through Jonah.27:18 Man, Nineveh receives compassion and grace. How do I know this? Because it starts in verse 2. It says, Nineveh did some evil. So much evil27:30 that it, like I I imagine like a like that cloud over Linus, but like bad evil ascending to the Lord, like like this is bad. That's what it starts out with, that they're they were so full of27:42 evil and wickedness that it came before the Lord, and the Lord could have just gone vaporized. But he didn't. He appointed Jonah to27:54 go preach hope and deliverance and repentance to them. And what did28:06 God do? He relented the destruction after repentance. After repentance. What is repentance? It's28:18 remorse. It's guilt. It's I've wronged you, and that that's just a confession. But repentance is is rooted in a confession that drives your action28:30 away from what you're confessing. You see, I'm going in my evil ways this way, going and going and going and going and going and going. And now by the power of28:42 God and the grace of God, it falls upon me that I I can't do this I need God. There's a better way. There's no there's better than evil. Okay? And so I say, man, all I've done28:54 is evil. I've just I've I've committed sin against you, God. That's the confession. Repentance drives the action to go to God and pursue him just29:05 as much as you were pursuing evil in the world. You see repentance does not make you perfect. Repentance is saying I have committed wrong before you God.29:18 And there's my confession, and repentance starts when that confession drives action. Action29:30 to the 1 you're confessing to. Romans 6, it says this, for sin will no longer have dominion over us, since you are no longer under the29:42 law, but under grace. Grace means you can try to add up all your Girl Scout cookies and your gold stars of what you do, that does not29:54 earn you more grace. That earns you earnings. It's called a paycheck. Hopefully, you work for your paycheck. If you don't, get your act together, Christian. Work for your30:06 paycheck. K? But doing good does not equate to grace. Otherwise, it wouldn't be called grace. It'd be called you deserve it.30:20 Ephesians 2. Paul says this, but God being rich in what? Judgment? Rich in in scorn? Rich in embarrassing you? Rich in mercy?30:32 Because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, dead in that fish, dead in the sea, dead drowning in30:43 the sea. You were you were dead like Jonah was dead. You see when before Jonah was in the fish, do you know where he was? He was dying in the sea. Literally.30:56 What happens when you get thrown over a boat? Down. I could only imagine, maybe that'll be the second question I asked Jonah. What were you thinking before the fish gobbled you up?31:09 You're drowning. The light of the world is going and getting darker and darker and darker and darker. We know that he confesses this because it's part of his prayer. Go read it. Go read his confessions of repentance in31:20 chapter 2. He said he was thinking the seaweeds are wrapped around my head. Dead in our trespasses is what Ephesians says. Made us31:32 alive together in Christ is what God's mercy does. By grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,31:44 so that in the coming ages we might know I'm sorry. He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.31:58 Wow. That is a mouth load. You wanna know the grace and kindness of our God and creator? It's known through Jesus Christ.32:10 If you've experienced it now and you're outside of Christ, that's what we call the tip of the iceberg. That's common grace. That's common mercy. And I'm here to tell you that there's salvation mercy. There's salvation32:22 grace that you only know when you've been saved through Christ Jesus. And I I haven't seen your side of the fence outside of Christ, I've seen mine,32:33 okay? But I'm telling you the grass is greener on the Jesus side. Okay, life lesson number 4, I gotta go quick, because we got 2 services here. I only got 1 in in Woonsocket right now, so work with32:45 me here. Life lesson number 4, Jonah points to the perfect prophet, Jesus. Jonah points to the perfect prophet. Jonah was a32:57 flawed prophet. He was a human prophet, full of mistakes and and not perfect. But he points to the perfect 1, Jesus. And33:09 so Jonah is mentioned again in in the New Testament, in Matthew and in Luke. It's the same story recounted 2 different ways. We're gonna go to Matthew first. But he answered them. Jesus answered them. Who's them? The33:19 Pharisees and the Sadducees. He answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given to it except for the sign of the prophet33:31 Jonah. Just as Jonah was 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the fish, so the son of man will be 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation and33:42 condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here. It's not me. It's not the band. It's not Waters Church. It's Jesus33:54 Christ. He's the 1 saying this about himself. We go to Luke, and this is what it says. When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, again, Jesus saying to who?34:06 The Pharisees and Sadducees that were so blinded in their empty soulless religious practices, they were blinded from the 1 that they were searching and waiting34:17 for, the Messiah. They thought it would come like this, and it came like that. And they said, no no, it's gotta be this way. No no no, this way, you must be wrong, it must be this way. They were so34:29 blinded from their pursuit for generation after generation and generation of a Messiah. And he's here. And they're just blind.34:41 Luke says this. This is who he's saying it to. He began to say, this generation is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people34:53 of Nineveh, the son of man be to this generation. You want a sign from God, here it is. Here, you can stop searching. Stop searching.35:05 You, all locations online, you're looking for something, you're not in Christ yet. You want a sign from God. I'm here to tell you it's right here. It's right here. Christian, you want a sign. What am I supposed to do?35:15 Where am I supposed to go? Do I have a purpose? Do I have a call? It's right here. It's in the purpose of the person of Jesus Christ. Stop looking. Stop making it more complex than it has to be. I make things overly35:26 complex. I'm so glad Shane and Tim aren't here because they'd be the first ones to say amen to that. Okay? But listen. Listen. It is that easy. It is35:38 that simple. It is. Jesus is not simply and only a prophet. He he is not Just like he's not simply35:50 a human. He's fully man and fully God. Okay. Jesus isn't a prophet that speaks on behalf of God. Jesus was God in flesh.36:02 Jesus was the word of God. The word of God that was there for the creation of everything. The word of God. You see, Jesus is sinless who took the punishment36:14 of my sin and your sin. He didn't deserve it, I did, you did. He was perfect. He was sinless. He lived a life that was perfect, and he's got the only perfect36:26 sacrifice to God in heaven for all sin. Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus is perfectly obedient, even if the scripture says, even to death, even36:38 death on a cross. Jesus is perfectly obedient. Jesus was perfect sacrifice for sin. Check this out, Jonah was rescued from the darkness, Jesus overcame it.36:52 Jesus overcame darkness, death, and sin. Just when the world around him thought they got him. He's not who he says he is. He's been dead in that tomb for 3 days. What37:04 happens? Stone rolled away, empty grave. He's alive. He appears to his disciples and to his people, and he empowers them to go preach the gospel throughout the whole the whole world. And he gives his holy spirit, the37:15 counselor. The counselor is the holy spirit. Jesus is the perfect prophet ever.37:27 And the only way to him, only way to God is through him. So sermon in a sentence here. Turn to God today and put your faith in37:39 Jesus. He is faithful to deliver you out of the darkness and into God's glorious light. Yes. It's true. Yes. It is that37:50 simple. There's complexities, and things take time to get massaged out and to get healed from and to be corrected in. Yes. Yes. And yes. But38:03 that does not take away from God's faithfulness to deliver you out of darkness into his light. Colossians says this, he has delivered us from the38:14 dominion of darkness and transferred us into his kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. First Peter 2 says this in verse 9, but you are a38:26 chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous38:38 light. Once you were not a people, now you are God's people. Once, you had not received mercy, but now,38:50 you have received mercy. Christian, I'm here to tell you, you're looking for a sign of what your purpose is. It's right there. Proclaim his excellencies of39:02 how he took you from darkness and put you in his marvelous light. And just like sin has many masks, so do the testimonies of our living God.39:13 There is 1 common theme, I've been saved from sin. Your testimony, my testimony, your story, and your story, all for God's glory,39:25 all different masks. No 1 greater than the other, because the 1 that is greatest over them all is who is exalted through these stories. Christian, you have tied theShow more
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Guest Message - Pastor Geyser Pastor Tim Hatch
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