Is There A Little Bit of Jonah In Me?

All right, well good morning Chapel family. And by Chapel family, I mean my Chapel family obviously here in Getzville, Chapel family in Niagara Falls, Chapel family on Lockport, Chapel family online. It's certainly my Chapel family in Cheektowaga. Great to be here this morning. My name is Leroy, and I'm the campus pastor at Cheektowaga, and it is my privilege to be able to bring the Word of God to you this morning. So if you're like, "I thought Pastor Jerry was gonna be speaking?" And you get up and walk out, I will follow you to your car, and I will talk to you at your car. And it won't take me too long to do that. So grateful to be here this morning. Listen, we're gonna be in the book of Jonah this morning, the Old Testament. Now, there are many books in the Bible that are really easy to find. You can get Genesis there easy, you get Revelation easy, you'll get Matthew easy, but Jonah, you ain't gonna find that one too easily. I mean, listen, it's one page, right? One single page. So don't frustrate yourself. Don't try to impress anyone 'cause you can. Just go to the table of contents, okay? See the number, and then go to it, okay? Just do that. Start making your way there. So many of you, if you grew up in church, you're familiar with the story of Jonah, right? As a child, maybe you heard it. Being a child of the '70s, I heard it in what they called Sunday School at the time. Maybe if you're an adult, excuse me, if you're an adult, maybe you've read that story to your children, awesome. But if you have the privilege as a grandparent to not only read that to your children, but to also your grandchildren, that's super, super cool. Continue to do just that. And speaking of children, we wanted to get our kids involved. So some of the kids from our children's ministry put together a little recap, if you will, of the book of Jonah in a minute and 30 seconds. Take a look at your screens and take a look.

- [Kid] One day, God told Jonah, "Tell the people in Nineveh to stop doing bad things." Jonah didn't like the people in Nineveh and he didn't want to go. So he got on a boat and ran away. God sent a huge storm and the boat was about to sink. Jonah told the people on the boat, "The storm is because of me. Throw me into the water and it'll stop." They didn't want to, but the storm was so bad. So the sailors did what Jonah said. They threw him overboard. Jonah sink into the water, but God sent a fish to swallow Jonah. And he stayed inside that fish for three days and three nights. From inside the fish, Jonah prayed. He asked God to hear him and to save him. And God did. He made the fish spit Jonah out on land. When he finally got out of the fish, God told Jonah again to tell the people of Nineveh to stop doing bad things. This time Jonah said yes.

- Okay.

- [Kid] Jonah talked to the people of Nineveh and they listened. They said they were sorry and they started to do what God wanted. And God forgave the people in Nineveh.

- Not bad, huh? Not bad. So here's the challenge. They just did that in a minute and a half and you're saying, "Leroy, why do I need 40 more from you?" Right? But you do need 40 more from me. But here's what I want you to do. While you have your Bible in your hand, if you don't have a copy in your hand, I really do want you to grab a Bible. We have them in the seat backs in front of you at all of our campuses. I want you to grab that Bible. We probably don't have enough for everyone. So if you have your phone with you and you don't have a Bible there, I want you to hang onto that phone 'cause I know you have a Bible there. And when you have that Bible in your hands, I want each one of you to repeat after me, okay? That this is the inherent Word of God. Go ahead.

- [Audience] This is the inherent Word of God.

- Inspired by the Holy Spirit.

- [Audience] Inspired by the Holy Spirit.

- Written by man.

- Written by man.

- To tell the story of salvation.

- [Audience] To tell the story of salvation.

- Through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

- [Audience] Through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

- Every word is true.

- Every word is true.

- [Leroy] And I believe it with all my heart.

- [Audience] And I believe it with all my heart.

- Awesome, thank you very much. Now notice I didn't have you say, and I understand all of it, right? 'Cause I don't understand all of it and neither do you understand all of it as well. But one thing I do know is that every time I do read it, that God continues to reveal Himself to me, and I have every reason to believe that when you read it, He continues to reveal Himself to you. So I have prayed over this message this morning that hopefully God will continue to do the exact same thing this morning and reveal Himself to us today. And I wanted to, wanted you to repeat what I just asked you to repeat because over the next month we're gonna be in the book of Jonah. I'm gonna cover chapter one. Pastor Dan is gonna cover chapter two. Pastor Jerry's gonna cover chapters three and four. And the reason I wanted you to repeat that is this. That Jonah is one of those books that when you read, there's this little tiny part of you that says, "Nah, that ain't true. That didn't happen." Right? Isn't it so when you read that book, there's something that says, "This really didn't happen." But here's the deal. I just heard you say that you believe every word of it. You did say it, didn't you? So every word of that is true. You see, scripture, it doesn't have to justify itself to us, it testifies to itself. There is no greater authority than God. So who are we to question it? Who are we to say anything about it that isn't right? God said it. It is there, it is true, it is the inherent Word of God. But there are many things that you read in the Bible that you just have to say, "Come on, did that really happen?" What if we look into numbers? There's this interaction with a non-Israelite prophet, Balaam, and a donkey. Let's take a look at it here, Numbers 22. "Then the Lord gave the donkey the ability to speak." 'Cause like Balaam was beating his donkey. "Then the Lord gave the donkey the ability to speak and, 'What have I done to you that deserves you beating me three times?' it asked Balaam." Okay, come on. You've seen a donkey. You believe that? That the donkey spoke? It's in the Word of God. What about here in Joshua? As the Israelites are walking around the the wall, great wall of Jericho, right? Check this out here. "When the people heard the sound of the rams' horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly the walls of Jericho collapsed and the Israelites charged straight into town and captured it." All right, come on. So the battle plan was to walk around the wall, scream and shout and blow your horns, and the wall falls down? You believe that? So let's get out of the Old Testament 'cause it's easy to say, "Okay, well, the Old Testament's the Old Testament, Leroy. That's just different." What about in, anything happen in the New Testament? Oh, come on. How about here if we go into the the book of Mark where Jesus heals a death and a mute man? "Jesus led him away from the crowd so that they could be alone. He put His fingers into the man's ears, then spitting on His own fingers, He touched the man's tongue. Looking up to heaven, He sighed and said," I can't say that word, "which means be opened instantly. And instantly, the man could hear perfectly and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly." So you're telling me that Jesus just took His finger, stuck it in the guy's ear, spit on the other fingers, touched his tongue, and next thing you know, this guy can hear and this guy can talk? You believe that, right?

- Yes.

- I like them over there. What about here in Mark seven? Jesus, again, as He heals the blind man, "Then He spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man's eyes. He told him to go wash yourself at the pool of Siloam. So the man went and washed and came back seeing." Okay, listen, I don't even know how much spit it takes to make mud, but Jesus spit. He made mud, wiped it on the man's eyes, "Hey, go wash that off," he washes it off, and he comes back seeing. You believe that, right?

- Yes. Let's wrap it up with this one though here in Mark where Mary and company are at the tomb. "But the angel said, 'Don't be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who is crucified. He isn't here. He is risen from the dead.'" You believe that, don't you?

- Yes!

- I know you do. I know you believe that one. Now, we don't fully understand how all of those things have transpired because we believe by faith, right? This isn't about, you don't have your, you're not saved by your intelligence, you're not saved by your knowledge as good as those things are, but you are saved by grace through your faith in Jesus Christ. So if God can raise Jesus Christ's mutilated body from the grave three days later with just a couple scars being seen by 500 people, if He can do that, I think having a donkey talk and a wall fall down and a blind man see and a deaf man hear and a mute man talk, man, that's child's play. Absolutely child's play. So as we walk through the book of Jonah for these next few weeks and that little voice in you wants to say, "No, that didn't really happen," let's approach the word of God for these next weeks and going forward with the same heart of the psalmist in Psalm 1:19. Listen here. "Your eternal word, oh Lord, stands firm in heaven." All of it. Now, let's get to Jonah. Jonah one. Here we go. "The Word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai." So let's stop right there real quick. The Word of the Lord. So scripture was given to man in a number of different ways. Sometimes God appeared in visions, sometimes of his dreams, sometimes God appeared in the vision Himself, but God also revealed Himself to us by speaking to man. I think of Moses in the way that the law was given to him. God actually spoke to Moses. In other places, what we hear is we hear the words God said and that simply means just that. God said it. Another form of God said that we hear here and we read throughout scripture like in Jeremiah and Hosea and Micah is the word of the Lord came. And that's what we read here in Jonah. That the Word of the Lord came to Jonah and wherever and however and whenever the Lord wants to speak to us, it is true, it is accurate, it is unquestionable, and it is authoritative regardless as how He wants to share that with us. So going back to Jonah one, "The Word of the Lord came to Jonah's, son of Amittai. Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come before me." Basically, "Hey folks, judgment day is coming." Going back to Jonah 1:3 here. "But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed to Tarshish to flee from the Lord." So just a little bit about Jonah before we kind of go too much further. So Jonah is what you would be considered to be a minor prophet. There's major prophets and minor prophets and that's kind of demonstrated by the fact that he's only got one page, right? Yeah, you can't get much minor than that. So he had his one page as a minor prophet. We don't really know who wrote the book, but it sounds as if maybe Jonah wrote this or maybe if Jonah was telling this story to someone, it's, so that's what it sounds like. We don't really know definitively who actually wrote that, but we know that it reads like it's coming from Jonah. The timeframe is around 800 BC. And although Jonah is a minor prophet, he is spoken about in other places in the Bible. He's spoken about in 2 Kings, and Jesus Himself spoke about Jonah also. So that little voice that says, "Now, I don't believe this happened," let me ask you if you're gonna raise your hand. Are you ready to say then that Jesus is a liar? I didn't think I'd seen any hands raised this morning. But it's funny though because earlier this week, I was out in Cape Cod with a bunch of guys doing some fishing. You'll hear those stories later, I hope. And one of the guys there, he grew up around church. His mother was a solid believer. He's in his 60s. He said to me, "Leroy, man, what you guys do as pastors, man, it's gotta be tough 'cause you're trying to take God's Word, hoping first that people are listening, and then their actual lives are being changed." And so he said, "That's gotta be tough. How do you do that?" So I kinda shared that I'm gonna be talking about this week. I said, "Hey, I'm gonna be talking about the book of Jonah." And man, his eyes went like, "Oh goodness gracious." Right, so he heard about Jonah, he knows what he's talking. I'm getting ready to say. So I'm talking about Jonah and I talk and he's just rolling his eyes. And then I said, "You know, Jonah's also mentioned in the New Testament and Jesus actually spoke about Jonah. So are you saying that you think Jesus is a liar?" And his head goes like this. And he's just looking out of the front of the car. "No, I can't say Jesus is a liar." Okay. But I'll see him in September, so maybe the Lord's doing something in his life right now that might be able to do something with. So just wanted to share that with you. So we have this minor prophet Jonah. The Word of the Lord comes to him to say, "Hey, go 500 miles east to the city of Nineveh." Jonah says, "No, I'm gonna go 2,000 miles to the west to avoid having to go to Nineveh." So, but why run from Nineveh? Well, Nineveh was the capital of this area of Assyria. And there was a really, really bad past with Israel and with Ninevites in Assyria itself. It came, they were just a brutal, brutal people to live around. And Israel actually paid the price for that and some of their captivity. And by brutal, I mean this. That even in scripture and outside of scripture, Nineveh is described as a really, really wicked place. And the way that they treated the people that they captured, and Israel was part of that. You could read that they were known for rape, prostitution, sorcery, witchcraft, gruesome punishments, torture, and mutilation of a body before they would even execute it. That was the area that God was actually sending them to. So needless to say, when Jonah says, "No, I'm going this way, 2,000 miles away," humanly speaking, we're saying, "Well, there's no way I'm gonna do that. That's an unreasonable thing to you to ask of me." But here's the deal. God will often ask for us to do something that is humanly unreasonable. He will do that. I mean I think when I go back in scripture to Abraham, listen to this interaction with Abraham and God. Then God said, "Take your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will show you." So basically, God is saying to Abraham, "I want you to kill that precious son. I want you to sacrifice that precious son that you got in a miraculous way. Sacrifice that son for me." And then Abraham actually says, "Yeah, I'm gonna follow through on that command." As unreasonable, as humanly unreasonable as it is, Abraham follows through on that request. And as he's about to slay his son, listen to where God steps in. "Do not lay a hand on the boy," He said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Now God of course knew that, but He was putting a test there. So God, the Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, provides the lamb in the thicket then to snick. And the lamb is therefore sacrificed. The blood of the lamb, right? So God knows exactly what he is doing. Let's go back to more Jonah. "Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid of each and each cried out to his own God, to their own God, and they threw cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck where he had laid down to fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, 'How can you sleep? Get up and call on your God. Maybe He will take notice of us so that we will not perish.' Then the sailor said to each other, 'Come let us cast lots.'" Basically, shoot some dice, rocks, paper, scissors, that kind of stuff, right? "'Let's cast some lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.' They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah." I mean you talk about God's sovereignty, right? Rocks, paper, scissors, cast lots, boom, it fell on Jonah. So they cast lots and it fell on Jonah. "So they asked him, 'Tell us, who is responsible for making all of this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?' And then he answered, 'I'm a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.' And this terrified them. And they asked, 'What have you done?' They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had already told them so. The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, 'What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?' He answered, 'Pick me up and throw me into the sea,' he replied, 'and it will become calm. I know that it's my fault that this great storm has come upon you.' Instead, the men did their best to row back to the land, but they could not for the sea grew even wilder than before, then he cried out to the Lord, 'Please Lord, do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man. For you Lord have done as you please.' Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the man feared the Lord and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him.'" Here you had these pagan sailors that earlier on in this passage, were crying out to any God they possibly could find. "Hey, you pray to your God, you pray to your God, you pray to your God. Everybody pray to God, help us get out of this." But Jonah talks about his God as being the God that made the heavens, the earth, and the sea. And the sea is where they were, so when that sea stopped, boom, they knew that that was the God that they need to worship as well. So as I'm doing a bunch of research on this and better understanding what this story tells us and what its placement is in scripture, there's a lot that comes up with this story, that there's some representation of that we should be aware of. That the sailors, the sailors on this ship, because they worship many different gods, that represents the many, many nations of the world that represent the many gods, little G gods that they worship to. And then the storm that was ensued, that represents judgment. God's judgment upon the peoples of the earth, the many nations in which are worshiping false gods. And then Jonah, Jonah represents Israel, God's chosen people given to share God's redemptive story with the rest of the world. And if Jonah representing Israel doesn't share the story of repentance to the rest of the world and nations as sailors, that they will die and Jonah will have caused them harm. So without getting into chapters two, three, and four, you're gonna hear a lot more about that over the weeks to come. But without getting into those, what can we actually see just here in this short chapter one that we can learn about what God is sharing with us? What can we actually learn from this to apply to our lives? 'Cause as we read God's Word, it'll always be the, now what? What can I do with what I'm being taught here? 'Cause I know one thing that sometimes, when we read God's word, it becomes really, really clear that God is crystal clear of what He is saying. But other times, we gotta dig. And it's okay to dig in God's word because I know that the deeper that we dig into God's Word, He will review those nuggets of truth that can be placed into our lives. And we view that, we hold His Word even that much more precious in our lives. So what is it that we see here in Jonah that we might actually see in our lives as well? How about the first thing we see here maybe? That the lengths that you go to to flee God's instruction. So Jonah was literally fleeing God's instruction, right? Now, Jonah being a prophet, okay, now you should know you can't leave God. You can't. He's always with you. He's a prophet, he should know that. But he literally was fleeing God to avoid God's instruction in his life. And I know what you might be saying to yourself was like, "Leroy, well, I know that I can't literally flee from God because He is always there. He is always with me everywhere I go." But I think we have to ask ourselves this question. When we read scripture, remember that scripture that you said you believe? When we read scripture and God has said something to us, how quickly and easily do we all of a sudden come up with, "Yeah, but that doesn't apply to me"? That we flee from what God is saying. We will do many, many things to flee from what God is sharing with us about what He would desire from us to do or desire from us not to do, to live a life that brings Him glory and honor. Just read Romans 12, just read Galatians five, just read through Colossians three and ask yourself with what I read in these scriptures, what doesn't apply to me? So there are many things that we do that don't literally take us away, but we will do things in our lives as well to run from God's instruction. I would encourage you, and I would challenge you to think about that, consider those things. What is it you're running from that you shouldn't? And what are you running to that you should be running away from? Because there is something in all of our lives, and this is what it takes. A little bit of self-evaluation up against God's Word that you said that you believe is inherent to see what those things are and what they might be, but the lengths that you go to to flee God's instruction. What about your disobedience, right? 'Cause your disobedience can potentially cause harm to others. We see that clearly here in the story of Jonah, right? That His disobedience put the lives of all of those sailors in harm. And what I don't want lost on us is this, is that your sin, your disobedience can cause harm and loss to the people in your life that you say that you love so well. Your sin costs more than just to you. It is rare that you can be disobedient to God and sin against God and only impact you. It will impact the other people in your life as well. You know, in our Ministry Fight Club that we have for men, one of the things that we do every chapter is we spend two weeks on what we call purity weeks. And for two solid weeks, intently, intensely, and intentionally, we talk about, we discuss, we challenge, and we share of what it means for a godly man to live a life of purity the way God has defined it. We just ended that a couple of weeks ago, but here was the assignment that I gave the guys. Here's what I want you to do, guys. All 130 of you, and then share. Write the names of everyone who would be negatively impacted or harmed should you decide to live your life outside of what God says sexual purity is. Write them down. I don't care how much paper it takes. So I write Eliana and Vanessa and Olivia and Leroy Sr., and Bernice, and Angie, and Doug, and Norma, and Santos, and Renee, and Oscar, and Gabriel. This list goes on and on and all of the guys had to write their list. So he wrote this list of all the people whose lives would be harmed should I decide, Leroy, to live outside of the boundaries, what God said sexual purity is. And then look at that list, then pray over that list, and then ask yourself, am I really willing to lose those people and potentially harm them for zero gain and sexual purity? Am I really willing to lose all of that for nothing? You talk about a sobering experiment. Maybe your thing isn't sexual purity, but you have a thing, I would encourage you in your area of disobedience there to do that exact same thing. I don't care what it is. Write down those names, pray over those names of the people that you would hurt if you decide to continue living in disobedience what the Lord has said. Pray over those names, and then ask yourself. Sir, madam, are you really willing to lose and harm all of these people over your disobedience? Man, you talk about a sobering assignment. So again, I encourage you and challenge you to do just that.
- So you have the lengths that you go to flee God's instruction. Your disobedience, how it can potentially cause harm to others. What about your disobedience may be the storm that you're going through right now? That your disobedience may actually be the storm that you are going through? We see this in the story of Jonah. I truly believe that if Jonah would've said yes to God, I'm gonna go these 500 miles and go Nineveh, I bet the sea would've been smooth as glass and he would've had a nice little tailwind, and would've gotten there like that. He decided to be disobedient, go in the other direction, and a storm ensued in his life. Maybe, just maybe, just maybe, the storm that you're experiencing in your life right now is because of your disobedience in an area or two. I remember a gentleman in one of our groups had shared the story about when he was much younger in his career, he's doing well and just doing well. But he could do weller or better if he quit that job, picked up the family, and moved to another part of the country, made considerably more money, and have a better life. So he tells his wife about this opportunity and his wife, who I know is a super godly woman, was like, "This just doesn't sound like the right motivation to really make this move and do that." And he literally came home, said, "Pack your bags, we're moving." So they packed their bags, they moved to another part of the country, they get to the other part of the country, and this storm ensued so much so in this man's life because of the reasons and the motivations of his heart to move that he ended up quitting the job before even having a new job and moving his family back to Buffalo. That's the storm because of his disobedience to one, listen to Godly wisdom, listen to God's Word, to spend time in prayer. He's praying for money, and that's all it was. So maybe, just maybe the storm that you have in your life right now is because of your disobedience in that area as well. Or it could be any area. What I would encourage you to do, and again, challenge you to do, is to get into God's Word, to get on your knees and pray and ask God to reveal things to you, to get in community with other believers so that they can share things with you as well to be challenging you. Iron sharpens iron so that you're not making silly, foolish decisions on things that mean absolutely nothing. But I'll tell you what. When they moved back in, he got into some wisdom with some people, talked about this more openly, and the motivation behind things. God provided for him. Jehovah Jireh. God gave him also a lamb there. And he's been really successful, but I'm not as concerned about that because the thing is what changing his heart is, man, that is a family that is extremely generous. There are many, many benefactors that people that they have blessed because how God has blessed them. So maybe, just maybe that storm that you're going through is because of your disobedience. You need to consider it, folks. The lengths you go to to flee God's instruction, your disobedience can potentially cause harm to others, your disobedience may be the storm you're going through, your unwillingness to share God's redemptive story. I don't wanna jump too, too far into chapters two, three, and four. You're gonna hear some great teaching on that next week. But Jonah, he was reluctant to share God's redemptive story into the pagan world. You'll see that emerge. And again, you'll have some teaching on that. And I wanted to though mention it now because as we navigate that through these next few weeks, I want you to be thinking really, really intently on that as well. Because maybe something consciously or unconsciously in you, maybe you have a little bit of Jonah in you as well. You see in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, one of the things we see is that God's people, Israel, did not want to share the redemptive story with others. We see that in the Old Testament. We see it in the New Testament. We see that there is this divide, this hostile divide between Christians or not Christians, but Jews and Gentile. And Paul even talks about that. That when Christ came, He split that wall of hostility between the two. So there was a wall of hostility between the two. And the Jews wanted no way of sharing God's redemptive story with anyone. They wanted to hold it to themselves. And I wonder, and I just wonder that if you and me, these Gentile Christians, maybe we have our own Ninevehs that we don't wanna share the gospel with. That maybe we have these little Ninevehs in our lives. There's a little Jonah in you that doesn't wanna share the gospel, doesn't wanna share God's redemptive story with those around you. And you're probably saying to yourself, right? Like, well, let's see. Let me run through. Nah, I can't think of anyone. Everybody needs the gospel. Hold on before you go there too quickly. Maybe just maybe your little Nineveh, the little Jonah in you says, "The people on the other side of the political aisle are my Nineveh." Right? They think differently, they talk differently. They want this and I want that. Maybe the people on the other side of the political aisle are your Nineveh that you would refuse to go share the redemptive story of Jesus Christ with. Maybe your Nineveh might be the homeless people that you see as you drive about town, that you look down at them like, "I'm not gonna go help them. They're there for a reason. There's something that they must have done that put them in that place right there. So why don't they just pick themselves up by the bootstraps? But no, I'm not going over there. I'm not gonna be nice. I'm not gonna be kind. I'm not gonna be loving, I'm not gonna be compassionate. I'm just gonna walk by them and just kind of discard them." The Jews and the Gentiles. Maybe the homeless is your Nineveh. Maybe those of a different ethnicity are your Nineveh. Right? They look different. They dress different, they talk different, they eat differently than I do. No, 'cause you don't look like me, talk like me, dress like me, walk like me. Maybe someone of a different ethnicity might be the Nineveh that you refuse to share the redemptive story of Jesus Christ with. Maybe your Nineveh is the gal that found herself to be pregnant unexpectedly and she had an abortion and you're like to her. Maybe that's your Nineveh. That she doesn't deserve to hear the story, the redemptive story. Yes, she deserves to hear that story. Maybe that is your Nineveh, that group of people that might do something like that. Maybe your Nineveh is someone in a different socioeconomic class. You're on this side of the tracks, they're on the other side of the tracks. I don't wanna go on the other side of the tracks, leave that alone. I'm not going someplace where I'm not comfortable. Whether it's up or whether it's down. Maybe, maybe, just maybe your Nineveh are the immigrants that are fleeing another country, that are being tortured, that are being harassed, that are being persecuted for a ton of different reasons. They just wanna come to a country where they have a little bit of hope. But maybe your Nineveh says, "We have nothing for you. Go back to where you are. Resolve it over there." Folks, when these things get bad in this country, you will do anything to cross the mighty Niagara to get to Canada. So maybe, just maybe, we need to have a heart that God would have to share with those that might be coming to seek hope in their lives. Maybe, just maybe it's the incarcerated, right? They're in prison. Who cares about them? And if they get out, they're never gonna be redeemed. You just saw a story of redemption. They're getting baptized, so amen to that. But maybe the incarcerated or your Nineveh that you refuse to go to. You're your own. And maybe, just maybe, when the rainbow flag comes out, maybe the LGBTQ community is your Nineveh, you want nothing to do with them. No love, no compassion, no kindness, no willing to hear their story, no willingness to share the redemptive story of Jesus Christ. So folks, I challenge you as I challenge myself. If you got a little bit of Jonah in you, you gotta get that little bit of Jonah out. There is a redemptive story that God has given us to share with others about His son Jesus Christ. And loving, and kindness, with compassion, we are to share that with other people so that we can be the gospel presence in a world where people are worshiping other little G gods that they would die separated from the true God, the God of the heavens and the earth, the same God that Jonah believed in. So over the past couple weeks, we've had this envelope challenge. And this challenge is been something that has been really, really helpful. And our encouragement to you is this. Get into those challenges. 'Cause here's what we want you to do with those challenges. We want you to be stepping into relationships and conversations with people that might not necessarily be so safe anymore. Not to always go to those that are safe for us to talk to, but to maybe step across the aisle, step into a new community, step into a new people group to begin to at least have conversations and relational capacity with people so that should the Lord provide, and I know He will, that He'll provide an opportunity in which the gospel can be preached, where the story of redemption can be shared. And that's the heart behind the envelope challenge. So as you get your other envelope challenge as you leave today, and it talks about your talents, I believe, how do you use your talents maybe to be a gospel presence in the lives, maybe a community or people that you're a little bit uncomfortable with? So that's my challenge to you, and it's my challenge that I have to myself as well because the gospel is for everyone. 'Cause last I read in the Bible, it's for everyone, and you won't see this on your screen, but in 2 Peter, is that God not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. There are real people that have real lives that are in your circles of influence that need to hear the redemptive story of Jesus Christ, regardless of whether it's a safe place for you to go into or not. We've been given a mission, and you heard it just a little while ago that every man, every woman, and every child to have repeated opportunities to see and to hear and to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We didn't make that up. That's what God gave us here in His scriptures. And that's captured so sweetly here in Romans 10. Check this out. "How then can they call on the one that they have not believed in, and how can they believe in the one in whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.'" Folks, we have been sent to bring the good news. God does not have a plan B. Jesus did what Jesus had to do and He left us here to do what He has charged us to do, commanded us to do. And that's share the gospel with the rest of the world. And when we do that, we do that in love and kindness. We do that with compassion, with our conversation seasoned with salt. And as in 1 Peter 3:15, as we close, "But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." Folks, we gotta crush that little Jonah that's inside of us so that we can share the redemptive story to a lost and dying world. Let's take a moment and go before the Lord in prayer. If you would bow your head and close your eyes, maybe take a time to reflect on what the Lord may be saying to you this morning. Maybe you're here this morning right now and you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you have never received Christ as your Lord and Savior, that you're walking your own way in storms of life and all of this, you know that you've never received Christ as your Lord and Savior. We've prayed for you today. We've prayed for you all week that today would be the day in which you would surrender your life to Jesus Christ knowing that this is the only time you will ever be able to surrender your life and gain your life. Without Him, there's death. So today, may this be the first bold move you will ever make toward accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior. We'll have some prayer partners and some folks that are gonna be coming up front here in just a moment, and they would love to spend just a few moments with you. Maybe you're like, "I just don't know, Leroy. I'm scared to get up." Don't worry, just grab the hand of anybody near you and you could come down front. If someone's with you, don't worry. They'll wait for you. Don't worry. But our heart is that today would be the day that you had received Christ as your Lord and Savior. Yes, you are loved, but until you accept Christ, you're not his child. He loves you. He sent his son to die for you. He paid the price you could never pay so that you could be forgiven, redeemed, restored, reconciled to God through His blood. And today could be the day that you would do just that. My hope and my prayer is that there would be nothing standing in your way from doing that this morning. Maybe you're here and you've already received Christ as your Lord and Savior. I know many of you have. But as we talk through things this morning, maybe the Lord poked and prodded somewhere that that storm in your life is because of your disobedience. Come on back, brother. Come on back, sister. That maybe, just maybe, that fleeing in your life. you need to come back. That your disobedience that might be harming others, you need to stop whatever that is and start to do what doesn't harm them, but demonstrate your love for them. Maybe that's what the Lord has placed on your heart. Or maybe the Lord is placed on your heart that community of people, the people group, that whatever, that God's pointed out as you got a little Jonah in you and that has to go. So whatever that would mean going forward, that you would step into those communities and share because that's God's heart, and God's heart has to be our heart. So Father, we thank you so much for this morning and all that you have shared with us in just this one chapter of this one page in the Bible. It's all true, it is your inherent Word, and we believe it with all our heart. So I pray, Father, that you would move in the hearts of those this morning that may have a decision to make or would like prayer and just come forward for that move in their heart so that today would be the day that you have revealed more to them about themselves as they draw closer to you. So Father, we love you, we thank you, and we praise you. In the precious name of Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior. And the church said amen.