Disobedience Is Not An Option

First Baptist it's good to be here this morning to worship with you. We have your Bibles this morning if you take your Bibles and turn it over to Jonah, the book of Jonah, this morning, the book of Jonah, why you turn in there I was going to say thank you for your partnership at Scriven Baptist Association. This summer we have taken taken two mission trips. Me my wife and several team members went to Alaska. And he's like what kind of mission is in Alaska? Well, Alaska is a beautiful place, but there's a lot of missions. There's a lot of unreached people groups there. And we went there and served on the J dock served boat cabin. We build on bunk beds for people who need a bunk bed for a mission house. And we also build a lean tube. And we did some stuff around the mission house that we stayed in. And we were able to share the gospel. Cook a home cooked meal. We stayed there 12 days and then just a few weeks ago, we went to Kentucky. We had a group of 10 folks who went to Kentucky had eight adults and two kids went to Kentucky on a Monday we did VBS and an apartment complex. We did a diaper drive and give out diapers and newborns. We give out things to a senior adults there. We went to a school and took up I think it was 90 baskets to the local public schools to the teachers. And then we give over 1000 tennis shoes away to the public school system there. They had a block party that on the Thursday, but because of your partnership, hey, we were able to touch this summer, I would say at least 1500 2000 people with the gospel Amen. And so I just want to I want to I want to let you know and I want to let our churches know every time we go somewhere staff every time we go somewhere Scriven bad association, we bring our churches with us. And so first Baptist, even though you might have been there personally, he was represented. And I just want to say thank you, thank you. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your partnership. Thank you for everything you do. Amen. And I wanted to get the book of Jonah this morning. I was glad I was able to fill him for brother or pastor Charlie. He gave me a text yesterday and asked me if I'd be on standby. And I told him I was available and then he said hey, can you just go ahead breaks I was like, amen, I can go out and preach. And so it's probably easier for that but Jonah chapter one, I'm gonna look at the book of Jonah. Just kind of look at as a quick synopsis this morning of the book of Jonah. Jonah chapter one, start reading in verse one. The Bible says this Now the word of the Lord came into Jonah the son of a midday saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry against it. For the wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee and Natasha from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa. And he found his ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare there up and went down into it to go with them and to the Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, I just thank you. I praise you, Lord to be here this morning. Actually God just for a few moments that my words will be your words, my thoughts, even your thoughts and Lord Asha God, Lord, you'd help us not only to hear Your word, but take heed to Your Word this morning, Lord as we looked at the prophet Jonah, Lord as He had a word for you, but he disobeyed Lord Ashley, God, help us not to be like Jonah, but be obedient to what you have for us. When you call us, Lord, we just thank him we praise You. And the saints we ask in Jesus name, Amen. And Amen. I want to speak on this subject this morning. This obedience is not an option. They mean this obedience is not an option. As we look at the book of Jonah, you know, it's interesting, God gives Jonah a command. It was very simple. He said, Just go to Nineveh preach what I tell you to preach. But the problem was Jonah didn't want to get an antibody man. God wanted to do what Jelena wanted to do. First about Jonah resisted God, God told you to go and do something. He didn't want to do it. And then Jonah rebelled against God, Jonah didn't care what God wanted to do. So he decided that what he wanted to do, and then Jonah ran from God, don't really understand the interim, estimated God, you think about Jonah tried to run from God, but let me be honest with you, church, there's no way you can hide from God. But Jesus said, Jonah has a lot of describes a lot of people when God tells us to go do something, we just think God's commands are optional. But God's called the church to go into the world. God's called the church to go and share the Gospel. And if we don't do that, we're no better than Jonah. And so I just want to think about that said that this morning. Disobedience is not an option and look at what Jonah did and look at some principles here, laid out in the book of Jonah. First of all, we'll look at this first principle, this obedience always leads to discipline. Now if you if you were raised in a generation And I was raised in, you understand what this bill is. I mean, I was talking to some teachers when we're in Kentucky, and the, I'll never forget when I was a kid that they would send this little note home from the principal's office, and there was asking permission to spank your child, if he got out of line, and I never forget, my daddy would always sign it very quickly. And then put a little note, if you do spank him, let me know so I can make him when I get home. He did want to make sure I got taken care of. But we live in a different world doing when it comes to discipline. But I want to just look at this that you know, look at what Jonah did. Like I said, disobedience leads to discipline. The Bible says, Now the word of the Lord came into Jonah, the son of a midday Saint arrives, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it for the wickedness as it come up before me, then command was simple, but Jonah didn't want to do it. You know, if you look at the city of Nineveh, and that time, it was one of the greatest, most powerful cities in the area of his Syria, the king's palace of Nineveh covered over five acres, 71 rooms with hallways, over 180 foot long and 40 foot wide. Then it was a huge city, but it also had about 175,000 people at the time. In spite of his greatness, they've had wickedness. The Bible says a weakness has come up before me. And so God wanted him to go preach the gospel to him preach judgment to him. Like I said, it was simple, but he didn't want to go. The Bible says But Jonah rose up to flee upon under George says on top Anta Tarsus from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa. And he found his ship going to torches. So he paid the fare there up and went down and did to go with them and the torsion from the presence of the Lord. So why did Jonah disobey God? Think about that? Why didn't Jonah just go preach? And do what God asked him to do? I'm gonna put it plain and simple this morning and bluntly, Jonah was a racist. Jonah didn't like the Ninevites. Jonah was a Jew, and the Gentiles were enemies of the Jews. So he didn't want to go preach to the, the Ninevites. He didn't want to go preach to those, because he knew that God was a gracious God. Do you know he knew God might send Reviva we'll find out about it later in the chapter. So Jonah didn't want any part of it. Jonah was afraid that if he preached that that rebellion returned to repentance, and that repentance returned into revival, and Jelena didn't want anything to do with that, you know, he might have said this, they might get saved, but I got nothing to do with it. You know, that's an awful attitude that Jonah had, you know, he's terrible, and he's selfish. But think about it for a moment. Church. If you refuse to be a witness, if you refuse to go share the Gospel, when Jesus tells you to, you know, different Jonah, because God called us to go and be witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and uttermost parts of the world. You know, so easy to pick on Jonah. But God's called us to do the same thing. And a lot of times we blame it on culture, we may blame it on race. A, there's only one race that I find in the Bible as a human race. That's what God's called us to go, that, that the Jesus died for you that for everybody in the world. They all need hope. They all need help. And it's our job as a church to go. But Jonah disobeyed God and becomes a man on the run. He ran hard, the Bible says that he was going to tortious now think about this. Nineveh was 550 miles east of Israel, while Tarsus was 2500 miles west of Israel. There was two cities meeting his book Nineveh and tortious. Nineveh represents the will of God for Jonah Tarshish represents the will of Jonah so he went when he wants to go, but think about this this morning. Every day, you have a decision. You either gonna go to tortious where God wants you to go to where you want to go, are you gonna go to Nineveh where God wants you to? You know that you're gonna be in God's will? Are you gonna be in your wheel? Every every morning we get it, we get up we have to make a decision. Are we gonna do what God wants us to do? Are we gonna do what we want to do? You know, think about this. Every time you run with God, he pays the fare. But when you run from God, you pay the fare. The Bible says he paid the fare. In other words, you're saying over and over and as a child sin, will take you further than you want to go keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay. You know, but think about this. And Jonah's disobedience. If we continue reading it said this in verse four, but the Lord sent had a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempers and it seemed that the ship was like to be broken. That you know, many people think when they disobeyed God, that it's that there's no one else to be affected. That's where we wrong church. When we disobey God, it affects every one, everything around us. If you look at this context that Jonah got on the ship when he got on the ship, everybody on the ship was in danger. Now, because of Jonah's disobedience, you know, there's so many families that have a family, generational curse because of one person seeing, and it goes on and goes on and goes on and goes on. And we just say, well, it's not going to affect anybody. That's where we wrong. Our Finn, our sin will affect everyone around us. As they look at Jonah's life here, they are on the boat and everybody begins to call out to their God, everybody gets to cast out things into the sea. And then they realize it's all because of Jonah. Look in verse eight. Then he said unto him, tell us, we pray thee, for whose causes he was upon us? What is an occupation which comes down? What is a country and what people aren't them? And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which has made the sea in the dry land, then the men weeks leading freight and sending him Why hast thou done this? But the man knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because He had told them you know, Jonah was running from the Lord, but he affected everybody around him. You know, there's one thing that God wants from me, when he when he causes a good do something. When he speaks, he just wants one thing, obedience. You know, one of my favorite songs is trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy and Jesus. You know, he wants us to say, Yes, Lord, whatever you ask, I'll do, just like he's dead was Samuel. He said, Speak for thy servant here. And as he said, Here I am, sin me into the Lord wants us to be obedient men, and even in First Samuel when Saul given offering but he disobeyed the Lord. This is what Samuel said, it says that the Lord is a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice, as an obeying the voice of the Lord. He said, This Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. And to hearken than the fat of rams. You know, a lot of times we say what we give, we do this, we do this, we do that, but you can do all those things. And still be able to God's word because you're being disobedient, for what God's calling us to do. When we say disobedient, leaves the discipline number two, this will lead to deliverance. You know, as you finish out, chapter one, they're trying to figure out what to do with Jonah. And Jonah says, told me to see and they didn't want to throw Jonah and say, so they tried to get back to land and can't get the land. So finally they throw Jonah in the sea. And then the last verse, it says this, Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Now, a lot of people think this story is fix it all. A lot of liberals say how could a fish Swallow Man, but you know what my Bible tells me with all With God, all things are possible. And even Jesus said it he quoted in the New Testament, but this is no ordinary face. The Bible says it was a face to the Lord prepared to swallow Jonah. It was what it was, you know, it was Jonah gotta wellhouse for jailhouse. God took Jonah to the woodshed in the fish's belly, you know, and then you find in chapter two, verse one, this is what it says. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God out of the fish's belly. Now think about this for a moment if Jonah wouldn't did that, the first thing, instead of running from God, he wouldn't be in this mess, amen. But a lot of times what we do is we get, we get a command from God, and we do it our way. And we get in over our head, we say, Lord, can you help me? You know, all John had to do was say, Lord, what do you want me to do? When he when he gave him the word? He said it prayed the first time but it didn't. And then that now the Bible lists his prayer. In chapter two, he begins to pray and ask God to forgive him, he begins to cry out to his afflictions. And verse two says, and I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, he heard me out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. You know, Jonah learned his lesson. But he learned it the hard way. And I can tell you and just look at my life. I'll be 50 this year. There's a lot of lessons I learned the hard way. When people told me how to do it the easy way. And you know, it's sad but we all have probably experienced life one way or another. When your mom and your dad say Don't touch that it's hot. How many of you would touch it? You send it here Is it really hot? You know, we we would test that. And it's so important that when it comes to God, oh God wants His obedience. Oh, God wants us to be obedient. You know, there's a lot of storms that come our way because of this obedience, but let's be honest, there's a lot of storms that come our way because of obedience as well. You think about the, the guy named job in the Bible, he was serving God. You know, and and I hope that the Lord and the devil had never had a conversation about timing, say, look here, what about my servant time, amen. But Job was writing God's will do and everything God wanted him to do and he got tested. But he passed a test. You think about the apostle Paul, how he did everything God called him to do but his shipwreck he was beat, he was stoned, he was left for dead. But he did exactly what God wanted him to do. You know, those times is when he they're designed to draw us closer and closer to Him. And so important, whether it's because of our own sin, or because God's using it, to draw us close to him, that we're obedient to what God wants us to do. Bible says all things work together for good Amen. Even though we don't see the good in it, sometimes, we may see to get it 1015 20 years down the road. But then we see disobedience leads to discipline, discipline leads to deliverance, the number three, deliverance leads to devotion. And Chapter Three after he repented, the Bible says isn't the word of the Lord came into Jonah? The second time? You know what I love about that verse is I love it. Church that we serve a God of second chances, amen. We serve a God who's merciful. We serve a God who will give us a second chance, no matter how bad we mess it up. He's merciful. He loves us enough that he will he give us a second chance. You know, when we fail him when we do hear it, forgive us, if we come back to him, broken with a repentant heart. And this is what he said, after he got a word, the second thing he says, Arise, go in an inverse to champion through your eyes go into Nineveh, that great city and preaching it there preaching that I bid the So Jonah rose went in the NIV, according to the Word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was exceedingly a great city of three days journey. So what Jonah preach was 40 days that the Lord's gonna destroy the city 40 days, they got to get right with God. Jonah was not politically correct. He wasn't sacred friendly. He basically said what God told him and say, Amen. You know what we need every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night. We need God's man to get up in the pulpit, and preach what God says to preach. Hey, we don't need somebody's opinion, hey, we don't need some A's. What they think's better. We don't need somebody to tickle our ears. What we need is somebody to preach the whole counsel of God did he preach on heaven that he preached on hell that he preached on mercy to preach on judgment? Hey, the preach on salvation and preach and repent. It's a way to preach what God tells the preach, hey, this is not an option when we get behind this pulpit. Amen. It's what God commanded the man of God to preach. The Bible is clear when he went when young Timothy and Paul was writing to young Timothy, what did he tell him he said, Preach the Word. Amen. be entered in season out of season. And that's what Jonah was to do was to go preach what God told him to preach, whether he liked it or not. But only see, the leverage leads to devotion. But lastly, and I love this, it says devotion lead to delight. Jonah did exactly what God told him to do. He preached the word to the Ninevites. And in verse 10, of chapter three, it says this, And God saw their works, that they turn from the evil way and God repented the evil that he had said, and he would do it to them and he did it not, you know, Jonah, we think a lot of times it's a it's a physical miracle involving a fish while in the man. But you know, this is more of a spiritual miracle, because hey, God graciously, hey, Synod, a prophet to preach repentance to a place called Nineveh, and over 175,000 people get right with God. Now, if you've never studied the Word of God, this is the greatest revival ever recorded in the Word of God, where one whole city God saved a man with one oh city turned to God because Joan obeyed God he had the privilege of seeing the biggest revival ever recorded in the Word of God. But you know what? If we go to chapter we could stop at chapter three and have a great revival and really get stirred up. But chapter four says is but it please don't exceed He was very angry. The Bible says in verse two and he prayed unto the Lord and I said, I pray the Lord, was this not my same when I was yet my country therefore I fled into torches for I knew that they weren't a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and great of kindness and repentance then of the evil. You know, he was upset. Let's let that sink in from him. God was gracious. But Jonah was ungracious Hey, God sent mercy, but Jonah won't a judgment. It just shows us that Jonah still has a lot of work cut out for him in Job God got a lot of work to do on Jonah. You know, but this is what this wonderful count is this. If you're obedient to God, God can use you to do wonderful things. But Jonah definitely needs a lot of work. And let's be honest church. There's times in our life where God uses in a mighty way. And when I tell people, I'm like Peter, a lot of times, I can say something spiritual. And then the next thing is I can insert foot in the mouth. I don't know if you've been like that before. But I've been like that several times in my life. And John was just like that Jonah just preached the greatest revival instead of celebrating these pouting, he went from the, from the, from the powerful preacher to the pouting preacher, because he wasn't excited because he still had some work to do in his own life. But let's be honest, church, we all have a little bit of work that God still needs to do in our life. We're not going to be perfect on this earth. We're not gonna be perfect to God calls us home. But all God calls us to do right now is to be obedient to his Word. James says it this way, be you doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves with any be a hearer of the word and I do where he is liking the man beholding his natural face and the glass. For him, he holds himself go his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was, but who so look into the perfect law of liberty, and continuous there and he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This man should be blessed in his deed. You have simple here this morning. The simple if you take anything for the message this morning, just take this simple lesson. When God speaks, he expects obedience. Amen. When God speaks, he speaks obedience. Obedience is what God wants from us, as his children is his church. Let's pray. Father, I just thank you. I praise you, Lord, to be this morning, Lord, I actually got it. As we go into an invitation in a few moments, Lord. Lord asked you, God, you would speak to our hearts. As we looked at the book of Jonah, we took a prophet that was called, but then he ran. But then he finally submitted. And he could have celebrated the greatest revival ever recorded in the Word of God. But He pouted he still wasn't right. How often Lord, you call us to do something or we do it? Maybe because we want to get out of the storm we're in or we do it because we know it's the right thing but our hearts still not right with you, Lord, actually, God this morning you'd speak your heart score and we would be people of obedience would be people that would serve you no matter what. It would be the people if you called us to be the church would go into all the world. No matter what their skin color is, no matter what their language is, no matter what your culture. Lord, we would go and tell them about you. We wouldn't use uses but we do to call us to do so. And maybe there's someone here this morning, Lord, it's like the Ninevites they need you they need salvation. They need to repent of their sins Lord, whatever it may be Lord asked you got that you will be done and their lives. We just thank Him and praise in the same way asking Jesus name, Amen.