When God Gives A Thought To You

0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:02.800 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.840 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:08.320 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:10.680 this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:12.840 Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:13.480 in your life. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:14.680 Enjoy the message. 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.360 I'm working on a sermon series and I'm going to 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.640 pick up this week with the momentum that we had 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:24.439 last week. 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.120 Now, last week was so good that if. 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:30.400 The person you're sitting next to wasn't here, tell them 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:37.960 I'm sorry, were you here last week? The title of 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:44.880 the series listen to this. That's what I thought. That's 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.360 the title of the series. And however, you say that 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.000 with whatever attitude you say it with. You might say 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.360 it like one of your kids was talking back to 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.680 you and you give them a look and then they 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.400 shut up, and then you say, that's what I thought. 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:04.800 Maybe like that, or maybe you're just confirming some things 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.119 in your life right now, just checking you know, Oh 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:08.959 that's what I thought. I just wanted to be sure. 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:11.520 But really the heart of what I want to teach about, 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.399 as you'll see today, is tracking back the actions in 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:19.399 our life to the thoughts that produce them, and then 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:24.000 bringing God into those thought processes, so that rather than 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.200 just always giving God our problems, we bring Him into 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:34.200 our thoughts. Clap your hands if you'd like to have 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:39.680 less problems to give God. And this series doesn't say 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:41.880 that we can always avoid the problems of life. But 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.360 I want to show you something today that I think 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:49.040 is really really easy to understand, but so difficult to apply. 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:51.840 I'm going to be reading from Psalm one thirty nine, 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:56.000 verses seven through seventeen. This will be the foundation, and 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.080 then I'll share a story from the Old Testament to 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:00.120 illustrate this. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:04.040 Thought today that God gave me. 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.360 Every sermon starts as a thought, and so I want 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.120 to talk to you about thoughts from a thought that 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:13.080 God gave me, which is, by the way, why I 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.320 keep stacks of notebook paper all around my house in 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:17.600 case God gives me a thought. 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:20.080 I need to be ready to catch it, just in 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:21.160 case I can give it to you. 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:24.079 And this is so powerful. If you look at psalmone 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:29.200 thirty nine, David is speaking about the wonder of God. 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.200 I was going to read only verse seventeen to set 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.080 up my thought, but I feel like it'll be so 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.240 much more effective if I start at verse seven. So 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.560 listen to this. The Psalma says, everyone's standing please for the. 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:42.560 Word of God. If you're physically able, thank you. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:52.200 Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.519 I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, 0:02:56.040 --> 0:03:00.680 you're there. If I make my bed in shield, or 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:05.119 some translations say hell. If I make my bed in hell, 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.160 you are there. If I take the wings of the 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.080 morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.160 even there, your hands shall leave me, and your right 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.000 hand shall hold me. If I say surely, the darkness 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.600 shall cover me, and the light about me be night. 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.520 Even the darkness is not dark to you, the night 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.480 as bright as the day. For darkness is as light 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:35.600 with you. For you formed my inward parts. I heard 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.000 we had some mary Kay people here today, and we 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:44.200 celebrate you here. Mary Kay is good for the outward parts, 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:55.320 but I got something for the inward parts today. You 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.240 formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:00.680 mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:05.040 wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.680 very well. My frame was not hidden from you. When 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:12.280 I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:16.560 depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed substance. 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.320 In your book were written every one of them, the 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.200 days that were formed for me, when as yet there 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.080 were none of them, Verse seventeen, as our key today, 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:31.040 How precious to me are your thoughts? 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:35.479 Oh God? How vast is the sum of them? 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.960 Let's read that together, repeat after me, How precious to 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:42.400 me are your thoughts? 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:43.919 Oh God? 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:50.159 How vast is the sum of them? Today I want 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.040 to talk to you on this subject. When God gives 0:04:53.160 --> 0:05:01.000 a thought to you, When God gives a thought to you, 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.400 could that be possible the Holy One of Heaven would 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:08.760 condescend and give a thought to little old me, little 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.719 old you. We're going to talk about that today. When 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:16.640 God gives a thought to you, this I recall to 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:18.120 my mind. Therefore I have hope. It is because of 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:20.320 your mercies that we are not consumed, Because your compassions 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:22.840 feel not they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:25.320 Faithful God, I thank you that your word has spoken 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:26.360 through generations to. 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:27.760 Land at our doorstep. Today. 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.719 We receive it, we want it, we need it. It 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:34.080 is our necessary bread. It is our living water. Come 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.800 now like a flood, Come now like a fountain. Quench 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:41.360 every soul, give a thought to us in Jesus' name. Amen, 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.039 please be seated. Put the title in the comments, please, 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:54.960 if you're watching online, when God gives a thought to you? Lately, 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.200 I've been saying things in rooms full of people that 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.920 are younger than me, and they don't know what I'm 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:05.400 talking about, and it's making me feel awkward and uncomfortable. 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:06.839 Why. 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.400 Just the other day, I walked into a songwriting session 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:11.719 with some of our very own in house songwriters and 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.880 I said, last night I took Holly to a concert. 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:16.800 We went to see Counting Crows. 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:22.279 They all just looked at me, and I realized something 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:24.400 very sad in that moment. They had not heard of 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:27.760 the Counting Crows. How do you not hear of the 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.760 Counting Crows? How many of you have not heard of 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:36.560 the Counting Crows? See now, I just feel ostracized, abandon betrayed, 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:40.679 never heard of the Counting Crows. 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:43.880 I had to tell them about mister Jones. 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:47.799 And round here, and they didn't want to know about 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:52.720 Counting Crows. So we just wrote a song The other day, 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.720 I was riding in the car with Abbey. Now she's fourteen, right, 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:00.359 so she was kind of quiet, kind of doing that 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:02.960 fourteen year old thing that fourteen year old girls can 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:07.239 sometimes do, or unless she's talking sixty miles a minute, 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.360 she's totally quiet. And she was totally quiet, and I 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.640 looked over at her and said something I thought she 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:18.480 would understand. I said, a penny for your thoughts. Well, 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:20.559 she looked at me just as confused as the counting 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:24.680 crows just walked in the room. She said a what 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.160 I said, A penny for your thoughts? She said, what's that? 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:33.120 I said, it's a colloquialism. It's an idiom. 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:35.680 I think it has its roots somewhere in British origins. 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.840 But it's just a way of saying, tell me what 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:39.920 you're thinking. Like you're kind of quiet, I can tell 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:41.760 you're thinking about something. The wheel seemed to be turning, 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.320 A penny for your thoughts, and she goes, that's weird. 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.600 She's quiet for about ten more seconds, and then she goes, 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:52.000 A penny. 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:53.680 That's all. 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:58.960 I thought, Yeah, you're right, that's kind of cheap, isn't it? 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:06.440 A penny for your thoughts? She's like you at least 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:08.880 got to adjust this for inflation. If I'm gonna give 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:13.240 you a whole thought or plural thoughts, multiple thoughts, it 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.600 needs to be multiple pennies at least a dime for 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.400 your thoughts. Probably needs to be about five dollars for 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.720 your thoughts. But just to set it up as an 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.560 illustration and not to be silly. And I knew God 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:30.040 wanted me to use this illustration because I thought of 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:32.160 it last minute and there was a penny sitting by 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.360 my door today. So I want to hold it up 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:44.040 and talk about how sometimes we think too cheap, and 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:49.760 sometimes we undervalue our thoughts because we live in a 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:57.559 world that values things more than thoughts, things more than thoughts. 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:02.280 So if you have a nice pair of sneakers, you 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:06.120 would not dare wear them to a dirty Love Week event. 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:12.599 You would never wear your clean sneakers through a dirty atmosphere. 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:18.040 But let's talk about where your mind goes on a 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:21.600 daily basis. And the fact of the matter is some 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.840 of the places that we take our minds our place 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.440 is that we would never take our shoes because we 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:33.640 value things over thoughts. I did have a small victory 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:35.880 the other day usually I'm a catastrophizer. 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:37.920 I think of the worst scenarios. 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:39.640 And this is why I wanted to preach a series 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.600 called That's What I Thought, because God has helped me 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.920 so much to begin to label and identify the ways 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:47.360 of thinking that don't come from Him. 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:49.920 And I'm still a work in progress. 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.040 But I try to share with you every time that 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.640 I get it wrong, so that I can occasionally share 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.360 with you when I get it right. I lead mostly 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:00.920 by failing forward. But the other I was proud. I 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.439 had ordered a new guitar online. I went to the 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:05.360 post office to pick it up. It didn't quite fit 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.320 in the back seat. I put it in my jeep 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:09.400 with the roof down cheap way. 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:10.080 And I. 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:14.920 Was talking to Abby because she was in the front 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:16.839 seat and she had bow on her lap, and Bo 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.880 was kind of hanging out the window because he enjoys that. 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.280 And I had this vision right as we were pulling 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:27.520 down the driveway of Bo tumbling out the window and 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:29.800 I didn't want him to. So I've come a long 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.559 way since we first got the dog. I didn't want 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:34.640 him to. I said, have you got him securely? She said, 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.160 I got him, but just something about the fact of 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.920 me thinking about him falling out the window and then 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:44.520 pulling in the garage with the guitar still sticking out 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:50.160 the top of the jeep, and hearing the crunch of 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:55.520 a very expensive guitar, very expensive guitar. 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:00.680 And hearing the crunch and not cussing. It's a victory. 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:07.280 I did't cuss. I didn't cuss. Tell your neighbor. I 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:08.079 didn't cuss. 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.160 Now, I didn't speak in tongues. I didn't praise the Lord. 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:18.800 I just didn't cuss because I had a thought. And 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:23.840 here was the thought. It wasn't the dog. It was 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.280 just a guitar. I can get another one of those. 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.719 It's just a thing. Tell your neighbor, because they might 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:33.959 be stressed out whatever they're stressed about. Tell them it's 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.760 just a thing. It's just a thing. When it's just 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.760 a thing, it's just a thing. If it's a Boston Terrior, 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.000 it's a Boston Terrier. And if my Boston Terrior falls 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:44.840 out of the window of my jeep on my watch, 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.880 I might be divorced. Now. She loves me more than 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:50.800 she loves the dog. She would never do that to me. 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:54.160 But there was something about the contrast. It wasn't bo, 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.400 It wasn't Abby. I can't get another Abby. Abby didn't 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.560 go decapitated through the garage. And the Lord is a 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.160 rewarder of those who diligently seek him. 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:06.720 Because there was bubble wrap at the top of the 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.040 box and the guitar was fine, Thank you Jesus. 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.280 And then I did start praising God after I opened 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:15.640 the box and didn't cuss, and. 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:17.080 We were all fine. 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:19.439 But there have been so many times in my life, 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:21.400 no matter how much of your time I waste telling 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.080 you what seems to be random stories about guitars and 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.679 dogs falling out of windows hypothetically, or even telling you 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.560 about old sayings and old rock stars as I start 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:37.160 my sermon, there are times where we do not value 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:44.000 God's thoughts enough. David in psalmone thirty nine gives a 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.480 different perspective, and he helps us to understand two things. 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.199 One the value of a God thought. 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:52.520 I want to talk to you about that for a 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.280 few moments today, and you may want to write some 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:54.959 of this down. 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:56.640 Buddy. 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:59.960 God might give you a thought today and you won't remember. 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.559 You'll be thinking about your order at the pizza hut. 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:05.000 Write it down. 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.520 The value of a God thought, But I also want 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:10.280 to talk to you about what Abby said. She said 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.079 just a penny, that's all. I want to talk to 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:18.480 you about the cost of a wrong thought. So he 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.640 begins by saying, I can't escape your presence God, even 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:22.839 if I try. 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.040 I can take wings or scuba gear. Either way I go. 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.640 You're there, And after framing us in with that kind 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.160 of poetic language, which is very different than what we 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.000 read last week in Psalm seventy seven, which was a 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:38.359 psalm of lament where he thought God had abandoned him, 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:40.959 this song is the complete opposite. He saying, I can't 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.839 abandon God. He keeps showing up. And how many have 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.920 that testimony in your life? That God keeps showing up? Oh, 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.280 come on, in ways that you didn't even ask him to. 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:58.079 Sometimes God shows up and spoils your whole party. And 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.640 in this song, particularly verse seventeen, listen what he says, 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:07.360 How precious to me are your thoughts? Oh God, how 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.080 vast are some of them? So he gives us two distinctions. One, 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:16.480 God's thoughts are valuable. A God thought is valuable. That's 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.480 why I keep paper all around my house, because a 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:20.960 God thought is valuable. 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:21.720 Y'all. 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.400 What I do with my life from my calling is 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.720 preach God's word to you. So I can go from 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.200 thinking I have nothing to say and I don't feel 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:31.880 the Holy Spirit, And how am I going to preach 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:32.760 Sunday to like? 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.560 Can we gather them together even though it's already Friday. 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:37.040 I've got to tell them right now this thing is 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:38.520 on fire and I don't have a back burner. 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.000 Can they come over right now? There are times where 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:41.480 I wish I. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.520 Could bat signal you or Bible signal you and call 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.040 all of us together to fight the devil, because the 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:51.840 Word comes through a thought and it can happen that quickly. Therefore, 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:55.560 I've learned that the thoughts of God are valuable. How 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:58.960 valuable is a God thought to you? Is it something 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.120 that if a Bible verse comes into your feed you 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.920 might read it, or is it something that you seek 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:08.280 out in your life? Because if the God thoughts are 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.120 just right there in your scrolling beside all of the 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:15.240 other thoughts, they're not very set apart. And if the 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:17.040 only way I ever hear from God is if I 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:19.000 trip over something that He says on my way to 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.960 going somewhere else, I'm missing out on some very valuable 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.880 God thoughts. God can give you one thought that will 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.440 help you parent that special needs child differently. God can 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.920 give you that one thought that can help you parent 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:37.360 that child that isn't diagnosed with special needs differently, because 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:41.400 we all have special needs, and God knows what that 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.680 child needs more than he knows what you want that 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.920 child to be. And one God thought can show you 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.920 something about your child. One God thought can show you 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.480 somebody to reach out to who's already been through what 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:54.360 you're going through. 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:56.800 And they know stuff that they can download on. 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:01.040 Bluetooth in two minutes that would have taken you two years. 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.240 One God thought, I'm telling you the power of what 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:04.680 I know. 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.360 God can flip something on you so fast that you 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:12.560 will wonder why didn't I think of that sooner? It's 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.360 a God thought. I did not come to church today 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.440 to have a PEP rally. I did not come to 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:19.680 church today to have a PEP talk. I did not 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.280 come to church today for a social occasion. I did 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:24.440 not come to church today like it's a country club. 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.000 I did not come to church today for a concert. 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.600 I did not come to church today for a handclap. 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:31.920 I did not come to church today to show off. 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:33.960 I did not come to church today in hopes that 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:35.680 I might get a date. Although, Lord, if you want 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:37.520 to do that too, you can throw it in. I 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.200 won't turn anything away for free. 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:40.800 Lord. You may pray if you're single. 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.040 But what I came here for more than a person 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.200 that I might meet, is a God that will meet 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:48.240 with me and in one meeting, one moment, one second, 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:52.960 one thought. I'm telling you you can think a thought, 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.880 which is what happened to the Sons of Asaff last 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.640 week when he said I thought that it was through 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.400 and then I thought it through because a God thought 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:08.000 is valuable. Not only is it valuable, LJ, but it's vast. 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.640 He says, how precious are your thoughts to me? Oh God, 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:15.399 and then put the verse up again, how vast is 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.080 to some of them? That means God doesn't just think 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:24.439 things about church things. God doesn't just have thoughts to 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:29.600 offer you about your spiritual life. His thoughts are vast. 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:34.680 God is very well connected. God is very integrated. God 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.159 is very well versed. God is very multifaceted. God is 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.399 very multi lingual. He can help you in areas you 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.080 haven't even thought to pray to him about. He can 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:46.800 help you with parts of you that the therapist can 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.719 dig at for five years. I'm saying, get the therapist, 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.800 but take God to the couch with you, because God 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.560 can whisper something that the therapist said in a way 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:58.919 that only he could say it, because He knows the 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:03.680 inward hearts, so it's vast. He can speak to me 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.560 about a situation. He can speak to me about a change. 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:08.959 He can speak to me about a physical decision. I 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:10.840 do not believe that God has to help you pick 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:11.840 out every outfit. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:12.800 When you get dressed in the morning. 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:15.240 I think people who pray about which kind of toothpaste 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.040 to use are kind of weird personally. But I want 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:22.159 to say that God's thoughts are vast, They are valuable, 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.840 and they are vast. How much do you value the 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.159 God thought when he gives you a word? 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:30.360 Will you sit with it for a minute? 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.280 Will you seek out a word for him rather than 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:35.679 waiting for him to bring you one. Will you have 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.439 a place that you go to get a word from God? 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.919 Or are you going to think the thoughts that are 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:49.520 automatic and miss the promises that are attached to the 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:54.119 thoughts of God which the Psalmist has already said, are precious. 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:59.119 To illustrate this for you today, about the value of 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:01.960 a god thought and the cost. 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:05.680 The cost of a wrong thought. 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.240 I want to use a person in the Bible that 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.600 I bet you've heard of before. His name is Jonah, 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:22.440 the most unfairly villainized person in the Bible. The Lord 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.400 told the boy to go preach to terrorists, and he 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:29.439 didn't want to do that, and we preach to him, like, 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:30.280 what's wrong with you? 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:34.080 Jonah? Obey God? If God says go, you got to 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:39.280 go Jonah, Go Jonah, Go Jonah. Be obedient, Go Jonah. 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.160 And this is actually in the Bible, I think one 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.399 of the easiest to read stories and the hardest to 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:50.360 understand as it pertains to us, because in this story 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:55.280 is prejudice. In this story is revenge. In this story, 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:59.359 is self pity. In this story is assumption. In this 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:03.359 story is resentment. In this story is regret. All of 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.399 that is in the story. But there's one thing I 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:08.560 want to show you today in this book of the 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.040 Bible that you could probably read in eight minutes when 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:15.640 you went home. In Jonah, Chapter one, the Bible gives 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:17.480 us a frame and please try to pretend like, you 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.600 don't know that. Jonah gets swallowed by a fish and 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:23.560 spit out and preaches to Nineveh and they have a revival. 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.040 But even after they have a revival, he's not happy 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:28.199 because he didn't want God to forgive him, and he 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:30.960 secretly knew that God was merciful, and he didn't want 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.159 God to have mercy on them. He only wanted God's 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:37.080 mercy for him. Pretend like you don't know any of that, 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.840 and look with me for a moment at Jonah chapter one. 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:44.840 It's coming up on the screen, and this first phrase 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:48.760 is really important. Now, the word of the Lord came 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:54.160 to Jonah. Stop Now, the word of the Lord came 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:58.480 to Jonah? What did that look like? What did that 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:03.240 sound like? Was it a dream that he had? Because 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.480 God is about to give him an assignment. God's about 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.520 to give him a thought. God is about to plant 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.879 something in Jonah's mind that is relative to his purpose, 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:19.919 and not only his purpose, but it was beyond Jonah's scope. Now, 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:23.480 the word of the Lord came to Jonah. Was it 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:25.399 a vision that he saw while he was awake? Was 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:26.640 it an audible voice? 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:29.879 We don't know. And one thing that I'm glad that 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:37.320 we have that Jonah didn't have. Is this because I 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:39.000 got good news for you? If you feel like. 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:41.600 God isn't speaking to you right now, and you're like, 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:43.760 I don't have any God thoughts. I just have all 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:46.800 the worried thoughts and the fear thoughts and how am 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:49.320 I going to pay for this thoughts? And you know, 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:51.720 I wish they would just leave me alone thoughts and 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:52.920 when is this ever going to change? 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:53.120 Thoughts? 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:56.240 I don't have any God thoughts. The Bible says the 0:21:56.280 --> 0:22:01.040 word of the Lord came to Jonah. But because we 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:05.399 have God's word, you don't have to wait for the 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:06.879 word of the Lord to come to you. 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:11.200 You can come to the word of the Lord. Isn't 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:13.960 that powerful? I'll try it again. 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:17.040 If you are in a situation where you don't know 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:19.199 what to do, you don't know where to go, you 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:20.960 don't know where to turn, you don't know how it's 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:23.560 gonna work out, you can't really get your mind around it, 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.440 and the enemy is tormenting you. You don't have to 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:30.440 wait for the word of the Lord to come to you. 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:34.439 You can come to the word of the Lord. And 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:35.840 everybody in church. 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:39.080 This morning clap because that's what you did when you came, 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.840 come on, clap. You got to celebrate sometimes, right. I 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:48.679 didn't cuss, And I came to church because I'm not 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:50.520 gonna wait for the word of the Lord to come 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:50.720 to me. 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:53.480 I'm not gonna wait for a goosebump. I came to. 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:57.320 Church today because I value the thoughts of God. 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:00.920 I value what God thinks about my real relationships. 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:04.880 I value what God thinks about my possessions. I value 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:08.359 what God thinks about my identity. I value what God 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:11.879 thinks about my career. I value what God thinks about 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:16.719 my emotions. I value the thoughts of God. And the 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:20.000 Word of the Lord came to Jonah. And we may 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:21.760 wonder sometimes, how. 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:24.760 Does God speak to me? Does God speak to me? 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:26.760 Is this God speaking to me? 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:31.760 And I have discovered three very specific and repeatable ways 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:34.439 that God seems to speak. I'll give them to you 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:43.840 right now. Number one, he speaks through impressions impressions. Number two, 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:51.840 he speaks through instructions instructions, and number three he speaks 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:52.919 through interruptions. 0:23:55.600 --> 0:23:58.840 The Word of the Lord came to Jonah. The Word 0:23:58.840 --> 0:23:59.320 of the Lord. 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:01.480 The Word of the Lord isn't always a preacher preaching 0:24:01.480 --> 0:24:03.760 the word of the Lord isn't always at your devotional time. 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:08.080 Sometimes the Holy Spirit, if he lives in you, will 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:12.680 show you something that you shouldn't say, show you something 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:14.920 that you should say, show you a way you should 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:17.160 see the situation that you hadn't been seeing the situation. 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:22.919 It's an impression. Can't explain it, but it's an impression. 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:27.720 But then sometimes we get so heavy on that and 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:31.199 that I think we just run around just following whatever 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:35.000 impression we get. And the problem with my impressions is 0:24:35.040 --> 0:24:40.080 that sometimes my impressions are imposters and they pretend to 0:24:40.119 --> 0:24:42.639 be God, but they're really just what I want dressed 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:45.840 up as God. That's what we're going to talk about 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:51.520 from Jonah, because God gives impressions, but he also gives instructions. 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:54.720 And one thing I love about God is he will 0:24:54.760 --> 0:24:58.359 never give you an impression that violates his clear instruction. 0:25:02.080 --> 0:25:04.520 So I don't care how attracted to her you are, 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:08.919 if she is married, you have received an instruction on 0:25:08.960 --> 0:25:12.199 that situation. And I don't care that her name is 0:25:12.240 --> 0:25:15.359 Cindy and so was your grandmother's. That is irrelevant to 0:25:15.440 --> 0:25:19.120 this situation. There is an instruction. 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:20.040 You know. 0:25:20.200 --> 0:25:23.080 Sometimes I think we're waiting on God to give us 0:25:23.080 --> 0:25:25.000 a feeling or a thought because we don't want to 0:25:25.040 --> 0:25:28.600 obey what we clearly saw that he said. And I'm 0:25:28.600 --> 0:25:30.280 gonna stand here and preach this like I've been a 0:25:30.320 --> 0:25:34.440 pastor for twenty years. Y'all ain't going to timidate me today, 0:25:35.200 --> 0:25:37.720 reading all up in the Book of Revelation, trying to 0:25:37.760 --> 0:25:41.080 figure out which one is North Korea and which one 0:25:41.280 --> 0:25:44.040 is Israel and which one is Iraq, and you're all 0:25:44.080 --> 0:25:47.480 over there translating that, while meanwhile the Bible says in 0:25:47.520 --> 0:25:50.160 First Corinthians something that you don't really want to read 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:52.879 in First Corinthians, chapter six, this's pretty clear. This is 0:25:52.920 --> 0:25:57.800 an instruction flee from sexual immorality. 0:25:57.880 --> 0:26:00.840 So we can read all the revelation we want, read. 0:26:00.640 --> 0:26:04.600 It, Underline it, highlight it, circle it, star it, smell it, 0:26:04.840 --> 0:26:08.000 sniff it, take it, eat it, whatever you want to do. 0:26:08.240 --> 0:26:11.560 But you still gotta do this because this is an instruction. 0:26:11.960 --> 0:26:16.040 And he is God, and he is not my buddy, He's. 0:26:15.840 --> 0:26:17.159 Not an influencer. 0:26:17.560 --> 0:26:22.919 He is alpha and Omega, God don't want me to preach. 0:26:23.600 --> 0:26:27.320 I need to go back on break bust. Somebody high 0:26:27.400 --> 0:26:29.600 five your neighbors, say, because he said so. 0:26:32.600 --> 0:26:39.480 Because he said so. Because he said so, his definition, 0:26:40.280 --> 0:26:41.800 his description. 0:26:43.800 --> 0:26:47.840 Fleet So I need a word from the Lord. There's one. 0:26:48.560 --> 0:26:52.280 Do that all week and check in with me. Take 0:26:52.400 --> 0:26:55.199 seven days of that. Well, I don't really struggle with 0:26:55.240 --> 0:26:56.639 the So what you got for me? 0:26:56.760 --> 0:26:57.120 All right? 0:26:59.119 --> 0:27:02.439 No? I looked up some scriptures because we said we 0:27:02.480 --> 0:27:07.000 want a god thought. All right, there's another one in 0:27:07.160 --> 0:27:11.479 Ephesians for thirty two. This one says, be kind to 0:27:11.480 --> 0:27:23.439 one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ 0:27:23.520 --> 0:27:24.080 forgave you. 0:27:26.000 --> 0:27:29.360 Bo don't feel like forgiven. But this is not about 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:30.280 an impression. 0:27:31.040 --> 0:27:35.320 This is about an instruction, because you have a father 0:27:35.359 --> 0:27:38.680 who knows that you can never be free until you forgive. 0:27:39.720 --> 0:27:42.520 So if he tells me to flee, I've got to go. 0:27:42.960 --> 0:27:45.640 If he tells me to forgive, I've got to love. 0:27:45.760 --> 0:27:51.400 It's an instruction. Those are just some of the things 0:27:51.760 --> 0:27:54.880 that God will use to speak to you. But then 0:27:54.920 --> 0:27:58.160 there is like Jonah, where God will give you an interruption, 0:27:58.240 --> 0:28:00.520 an interruption to the way that you think and to 0:28:00.520 --> 0:28:02.480 the way that you see the world, and interruption to 0:28:02.520 --> 0:28:04.560 what you think is important, an interruption to the path 0:28:04.600 --> 0:28:07.040 that you laid out for your own life, and so 0:28:07.160 --> 0:28:09.199 Jonah is a prophet, and the Bible says that the 0:28:09.200 --> 0:28:11.120 word of the Lord came to Jonah. And I got 0:28:11.119 --> 0:28:12.800 to say this one more time in case you didn't 0:28:12.800 --> 0:28:14.919 get it. The word of the Lord can come to you. 0:28:15.920 --> 0:28:19.159 Do you come to the word of the Lord. I 0:28:19.160 --> 0:28:22.480 will ask you that every week, do you come to 0:28:22.520 --> 0:28:24.359 the word of the Lord, so that the word of 0:28:24.359 --> 0:28:26.720 the Lord can come to you, because there he will 0:28:26.840 --> 0:28:30.960 give you instructions that will then mold your impressions so 0:28:31.000 --> 0:28:33.280 that they are in His image, not yours. 0:28:34.480 --> 0:28:35.160 Praise the Lord. 0:28:37.080 --> 0:28:38.360 Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son 0:28:38.400 --> 0:28:43.360 of AMATAI saying, here's the details of the conversation. Arise, 0:28:43.520 --> 0:28:48.080 go to nineve that great city, and call out against it. 0:28:48.600 --> 0:28:52.640 Nobody wants to preach against it. Nobody wants to go 0:28:52.760 --> 0:28:55.920 to a place that is against them. Ninevah was the 0:28:55.920 --> 0:28:59.720 capital city of Assyria. They were brutal. They wouldn't just 0:28:59.760 --> 0:29:01.840 kill you, they would impel you to send a message. 0:29:01.880 --> 0:29:06.680 That's what I thought, Come try us again. They were brutal, barbaric, 0:29:06.760 --> 0:29:10.920 and unrepentant, and they had personally oppressed the people that 0:29:11.040 --> 0:29:14.080 Jonah was identified with. So when the Lord said go 0:29:14.120 --> 0:29:17.080 to Nineveh and preach against it, for their evil has 0:29:17.120 --> 0:29:22.080 come up before me, the Bible says, But Jonah rose 0:29:22.160 --> 0:29:25.440 to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 0:29:26.800 --> 0:29:29.200 We know because we just read someone thirty nine that 0:29:29.240 --> 0:29:32.840 what he is trying to do is impossible. He went 0:29:32.920 --> 0:29:37.440 to flee from the presence of the Lord. And we 0:29:37.480 --> 0:29:40.520 know because we have someone thirty nine that if you 0:29:42.640 --> 0:29:45.000 ascend to the heavens, he's there, and if you descend 0:29:45.080 --> 0:29:47.720 to Hell, he's there. And you can't flee from Jonah, 0:29:47.760 --> 0:29:51.120 but he from God. But Jonah thought he could, and 0:29:51.200 --> 0:29:56.680 so he arose. And uh, I won't break this all 0:29:56.720 --> 0:30:00.360 down for you. But Ninevah was five hundred miles from 0:30:00.400 --> 0:30:05.719 the port where he was supposed to go, and Tarsish, 0:30:05.800 --> 0:30:09.680 where he tried to go, was twenty five hundred miles, 0:30:11.320 --> 0:30:13.640 So it was going to take him five times longer 0:30:14.760 --> 0:30:16.640 to get where he had decided to go than where 0:30:16.640 --> 0:30:19.280 God told him to go. But he kind of thought 0:30:19.280 --> 0:30:25.120 he could get around it. He thought, that's what I thought. Now, 0:30:25.560 --> 0:30:26.080 let's talk. 0:30:27.480 --> 0:30:29.280 There are some ways that you have tried to run 0:30:29.320 --> 0:30:33.080 from some things in your life, and you thought, well, 0:30:33.480 --> 0:30:35.120 if I just moved to a different city. 0:30:36.400 --> 0:30:38.120 And it's not always bad to move to a different 0:30:38.160 --> 0:30:44.600 city long as you realize you go with you get 0:30:44.640 --> 0:30:47.960 at least a two bedroom apartment, because there's at least 0:30:47.960 --> 0:30:48.720 two of you's. 0:30:52.360 --> 0:30:56.920 He tried to go to Tarshish. He thought he would 0:30:57.000 --> 0:30:57.880 run from the Lord. 0:30:58.320 --> 0:31:02.200 And every word of this is so instructive, but just 0:31:02.280 --> 0:31:05.160 for the sake of time, focus in with me. On 0:31:05.320 --> 0:31:10.560 verses three through five, he went down to Joppa. Pastor 0:31:10.560 --> 0:31:12.440 Mickey used to say, when you run from God, you 0:31:12.520 --> 0:31:13.600 always go down. 0:31:14.800 --> 0:31:15.320 I like that. 0:31:16.080 --> 0:31:20.480 He went down to Joppa and found a ship going 0:31:20.520 --> 0:31:23.400 to Tarsish. Pastor Mickey used to always say, if you 0:31:23.480 --> 0:31:25.640 ever want to run from God, the devil will always 0:31:25.680 --> 0:31:26.640 give your ride. 0:31:27.920 --> 0:31:28.280 Anyway. 0:31:28.320 --> 0:31:30.640 That's just old preacher stuff that I used to hear. 0:31:32.160 --> 0:31:36.600 So he paid the fare and went on board. I'm 0:31:36.600 --> 0:31:40.360 holding up my penny'll He paid the fair, went on 0:31:40.440 --> 0:31:43.719 board to go with them to Tarsish, away from the 0:31:43.760 --> 0:31:45.000 presence of the Lord. 0:31:45.200 --> 0:31:46.520 Surprise verse four. 0:31:46.560 --> 0:31:52.479 You can't You can't run from any of it. You 0:31:52.480 --> 0:31:55.800 can't run from it. Well, you can run from it, 0:31:56.600 --> 0:32:00.360 just not very long, especially if the Lord really you. 0:32:01.520 --> 0:32:06.680 Because those he loves, he disciplines those he really loves. 0:32:06.760 --> 0:32:10.360 He does what it takes to bring them back. Those 0:32:10.400 --> 0:32:13.440 that He really has a purpose for. He will even 0:32:13.560 --> 0:32:18.800 punish you short term to prevent you from something in 0:32:18.840 --> 0:32:21.240 your future that would be worse than the pain of 0:32:21.280 --> 0:32:25.360 the present. I am not saying that every bad thing 0:32:25.520 --> 0:32:29.920 happens so God can teach you a lesson. Please understand 0:32:30.120 --> 0:32:32.240 that the number of people who I have watched die 0:32:32.280 --> 0:32:34.600 of cancer and the number of people that I've seen 0:32:34.680 --> 0:32:37.880 have their lives senselessly taken from a drunk driver would 0:32:37.960 --> 0:32:40.040 prohibit me from ever skewing. 0:32:39.640 --> 0:32:41.560 That kind of nonsense from the pulpit. 0:32:41.960 --> 0:32:43.920 But I need to point out to you that the God, 0:32:43.920 --> 0:32:49.800 who speaks by instructions and impressions, also will sometimes come 0:32:49.880 --> 0:32:52.840 into your situation through an interruption. 0:32:53.520 --> 0:32:55.320 Because the Bible says that. 0:32:55.440 --> 0:33:00.560 The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and 0:33:00.600 --> 0:33:03.840 there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the. 0:33:03.840 --> 0:33:05.480 Ship threatened to break up. 0:33:06.000 --> 0:33:08.240 It is not the fact that there was a storm 0:33:08.320 --> 0:33:09.920 that made me bring this passage up. 0:33:10.480 --> 0:33:13.160 It was who sent it that made it noteworthy. 0:33:13.960 --> 0:33:17.280 I am used to God calming storms, I am not 0:33:17.520 --> 0:33:20.680 used to God sending them. But there was something that 0:33:20.760 --> 0:33:24.120 God wanted to do in this situation that was important 0:33:24.200 --> 0:33:27.680 enough for him to send a storm to stop Jonah. 0:33:27.800 --> 0:33:31.360 Somewhere along the way he thought he was going to Tarshish, 0:33:31.680 --> 0:33:34.000 But before he could get where he thought he was 0:33:34.080 --> 0:33:37.440 going to go, a storm was sent upon the sea. 0:33:38.000 --> 0:33:40.960 Now we're ready for verse five, The Bible says. Then 0:33:41.000 --> 0:33:44.600 the mariners or the sailors were afraid. Now remember, these 0:33:44.640 --> 0:33:47.720 men don't know God, not Jonah's God. They call on 0:33:47.840 --> 0:33:52.160 many gods. They're polytheus. They have gods for everything. They 0:33:52.160 --> 0:33:56.000 have God's for feasting, God's for fasting, God's for droughting, 0:33:56.080 --> 0:33:57.200 God's for storms. 0:33:57.480 --> 0:34:00.360 And as they're calling on all their many gods. 0:34:00.120 --> 0:34:03.280 Many little gene, many gods that can't do anything for 0:34:03.360 --> 0:34:05.920 you when it really counts like some of the gods 0:34:05.960 --> 0:34:08.520 that we worship and serve, only to find out that 0:34:08.600 --> 0:34:11.960 they are so small in the face of a great storm. 0:34:12.280 --> 0:34:14.400 And is this why God has brought you to this 0:34:14.560 --> 0:34:17.120 point in your life, so that you can call out 0:34:17.160 --> 0:34:18.560 for something bigger. 0:34:18.640 --> 0:34:20.560 But the Lord hurled the wind on the sea. 0:34:20.960 --> 0:34:24.239 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to 0:34:24.360 --> 0:34:27.799 his God, and they hurled the cargo that was in 0:34:27.920 --> 0:34:29.480 the ship into the. 0:34:29.440 --> 0:34:31.200 Sea to lighten it for them. 0:34:31.520 --> 0:34:36.600 But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of 0:34:36.640 --> 0:34:39.080 the ship and had lain. 0:34:39.000 --> 0:34:47.160 Down and was fast asleep. So the captain get ready. 0:34:47.200 --> 0:34:51.560 Luck In came and said to him. 0:34:52.760 --> 0:35:01.200 What do you mean, you sleeper, arise, call out to 0:35:01.280 --> 0:35:08.279 your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to 0:35:08.520 --> 0:35:14.960 us that we may not perish. I'm talking about when 0:35:15.040 --> 0:35:20.480 God gives a thought to you. I know what he 0:35:20.560 --> 0:35:21.440 meant when he said it. 0:35:22.120 --> 0:35:24.879 Maybe if you call on God, he'll remember that we're 0:35:24.880 --> 0:35:28.040 in this situation. Maybe if you call on your God, 0:35:28.080 --> 0:35:31.800 he'll do something our gods can't do. When translation says 0:35:32.040 --> 0:35:36.600 maybe he'll take notice, another translation says, maybe he'll throw 0:35:36.640 --> 0:35:41.479 a thought our way. Maybe he'll give a thought to us. 0:35:42.160 --> 0:35:45.840 But the phrase was so rich man, I couldn't just 0:35:45.960 --> 0:35:47.560 take it at face value. 0:35:48.160 --> 0:35:53.000 I realized when he said, perhaps your God will give. 0:35:52.800 --> 0:35:56.840 A thought to us and this storm will stop. 0:35:57.600 --> 0:36:03.080 That your God can give a thought to you that 0:36:03.239 --> 0:36:04.520 will stop. 0:36:04.640 --> 0:36:07.080 The storm in his tracks. 0:36:07.719 --> 0:36:10.520 And he can do it today, and he can do 0:36:10.640 --> 0:36:13.920 it right now, and he can do it even though 0:36:13.960 --> 0:36:16.840 you're in your thirties, and he can do it even 0:36:16.880 --> 0:36:20.360 while you're in your teens. Because what the captain said 0:36:20.360 --> 0:36:23.960 that was so profound. He said, we need a thought 0:36:24.400 --> 0:36:27.520 from God. I don't even know if you've got the 0:36:27.640 --> 0:36:31.440 right one, but we need God in this situation. And 0:36:31.640 --> 0:36:34.080 is it possible that you are in a storm right 0:36:34.120 --> 0:36:37.080 now in your life? Not to be overly generic, but 0:36:37.280 --> 0:36:41.080 everybody in here has some kind of storm or is 0:36:41.160 --> 0:36:44.680 journeying with someone through a storm. And would it be 0:36:44.760 --> 0:36:47.160 a good prayer for you to pray right about now, 0:36:47.560 --> 0:36:54.040 God give a thought to me. See, because God's thoughts 0:36:54.280 --> 0:37:01.040 are precious. God's works are wonderful, but his thoughts are 0:37:01.160 --> 0:37:05.680 also precious. So it means that sometimes we're praying God 0:37:05.880 --> 0:37:09.360 do something and God is speaking for us to think something, 0:37:10.000 --> 0:37:13.120 because until we think something different than we've been thinking, 0:37:13.560 --> 0:37:17.680 he can't do anything different than what he's been allowed 0:37:17.680 --> 0:37:21.000 to do. For instance, the ship is not going to 0:37:21.040 --> 0:37:23.960 turn around just because God wants Jonah in Nineveh. 0:37:24.480 --> 0:37:26.080 God did not turn the ship. 0:37:26.480 --> 0:37:29.120 God sent the storm, and in the middle of the 0:37:29.160 --> 0:37:30.960 storm he had a decision to make. 0:37:31.400 --> 0:37:34.399 Not will God give a thought to me. God had 0:37:34.400 --> 0:37:36.719 his eye on this boat from the moment Jonah got 0:37:36.760 --> 0:37:39.000 on it. The whole reason they were. 0:37:38.800 --> 0:37:42.279 In this predicament was because of the sleeping prophet. And 0:37:42.320 --> 0:37:46.080 now we've got some panic pagans, and now we've got 0:37:46.080 --> 0:37:50.040 a self pitying prophet, and we've got a sovereign god 0:37:50.440 --> 0:37:53.959 sending a storm on a raging sea, and we're used 0:37:53.960 --> 0:37:57.160 to him calming storms. But the God of the calm 0:37:57.239 --> 0:38:00.560 is the God of the chaos. And into the chaos, 0:38:00.600 --> 0:38:03.759 the captain says something that the prophet should. 0:38:03.440 --> 0:38:06.200 Have known for sure. We need a God thought. 0:38:06.600 --> 0:38:09.560 We need God to do something in our family. We 0:38:09.600 --> 0:38:12.800 need God to do something in this relationship. I need 0:38:12.840 --> 0:38:15.680 God to do something in my business. I need God 0:38:15.719 --> 0:38:18.200 to do something in my body. I need God to 0:38:18.280 --> 0:38:21.320 walk in with me to this doctor. I need God, 0:38:21.600 --> 0:38:24.000 and I'm not ashamed to cry. 0:38:23.760 --> 0:38:24.480 Out to him. 0:38:24.760 --> 0:38:25.839 And I can't. 0:38:25.480 --> 0:38:36.160 Sleep down here. Get up and call on God and 0:38:36.239 --> 0:38:40.160 maybe God will give a thought to us. 0:38:43.239 --> 0:38:46.000 And Jonah said, yeah, I'm real sorry about this because 0:38:46.040 --> 0:38:51.960 this is all my fall. See. I worship Yahweh, and 0:38:52.040 --> 0:38:54.040 Yahweh told me to go to Nineveh, and I said, 0:38:54.080 --> 0:38:57.480 no way. I'm just trying to keep it light because 0:38:57.480 --> 0:38:59.360 it's kind of a hard sermon to preach if you 0:38:59.360 --> 0:39:02.720 want to know the truth. But after he got done explaining, 0:39:02.760 --> 0:39:04.439 and they cast lots which is kind of like drawing 0:39:04.440 --> 0:39:06.360 a straw. And they realized it was Jonah's fault that 0:39:06.360 --> 0:39:07.760 they were in this storm. 0:39:08.080 --> 0:39:10.399 They realized, listen to this, that. 0:39:10.320 --> 0:39:13.479 You can throw all the cargo overboard that you want, 0:39:14.239 --> 0:39:17.000 but until you deal with the real thing that's going on, 0:39:19.560 --> 0:39:26.880 it will stay chaotic. You can't fix chaos by losing cargo. 0:39:28.719 --> 0:39:32.040 How much more stuff are you gonna throw overboard before 0:39:32.080 --> 0:39:35.399 you realize Jonah has got to go? 0:39:37.480 --> 0:39:39.520 What do you mean Jonah's gotta go? 0:39:40.000 --> 0:39:42.920 I'm saying anything that is on your boat that is 0:39:43.000 --> 0:39:45.440 keeping Jesus from being the captain of your peace and 0:39:45.480 --> 0:39:46.600 your soul has. 0:39:46.440 --> 0:39:50.359 Got to go. You can rearrange all the. 0:39:50.320 --> 0:39:53.280 Deck chairs you want, it's still the Titanic. If Jonah 0:39:53.320 --> 0:39:56.759 doesn't go, you can continue to throw things off and 0:39:56.800 --> 0:39:59.279 spend money and waste money and buy stuff and buy 0:39:59.320 --> 0:40:02.000 more square foot so y'all can sleep at opposite ends 0:40:02.040 --> 0:40:05.840 of the bigger house. But until the attitudes that the 0:40:05.920 --> 0:40:11.920 root of it change, nothing does until God gives a thought. 0:40:12.360 --> 0:40:15.120 And it costs Jonah. Did you see how it said 0:40:15.160 --> 0:40:17.760 he paid the fare. He paid more than a penny 0:40:17.840 --> 0:40:24.680 for this. He paid his peace. He almost paid his purpose. 0:40:26.480 --> 0:40:27.480 Because of a wrong thought? 0:40:27.560 --> 0:40:34.759 How much have the wrong thoughts cost you? Because God, 0:40:35.440 --> 0:40:39.640 your God, the God who speaks by impressions, instructions, and 0:40:39.719 --> 0:40:45.560 even interruptions, might be using this storm to give a 0:40:45.600 --> 0:40:52.359 thought to you, to you, to you, And don't try 0:40:52.400 --> 0:40:55.720 to talk to your neighbor about this sermon after church 0:40:56.160 --> 0:41:01.920 if they weren't really listening, don't try to explain it 0:41:01.960 --> 0:41:02.279 to them. 0:41:02.520 --> 0:41:04.799 When God gives a thought to. 0:41:04.880 --> 0:41:11.920 You, Jonah, I just want to show you how merciful 0:41:11.960 --> 0:41:13.920 God really is. Not only is he going to forgive 0:41:14.200 --> 0:41:17.600 the barbaric Ninevites over there in chapter three when Jonah preaches, 0:41:17.719 --> 0:41:20.640 and Jonah's not even that great of a preacher, the 0:41:20.680 --> 0:41:22.399 only thing he says that they record in the Book 0:41:22.440 --> 0:41:24.920 of Jonah is forty more days in Ninevah will be destroyed. 0:41:26.160 --> 0:41:32.040 Can you imagine coming to church for that? Y'all got 0:41:32.040 --> 0:41:32.839 it pretty good, man. 0:41:32.920 --> 0:41:35.480 If Jonah was here, that'd be the whole sermon, and 0:41:35.600 --> 0:41:37.239 he just say it over and over again and say 0:41:37.280 --> 0:41:41.040 it louder. But God used it. God did something through Jonah. 0:41:41.040 --> 0:41:42.879 He always wanted to do something through Jonah. He wants 0:41:42.880 --> 0:41:45.360 to do something through you. But the question is do 0:41:45.480 --> 0:41:50.040 you value the God thought because the cost of the 0:41:50.120 --> 0:41:53.120 wrong thought. What you trade with the wrong thought is 0:41:53.160 --> 0:41:58.000 the god thought that replaces it. So God calls you, 0:41:58.040 --> 0:42:01.919 but you turn yourself into a castaway. So God calls 0:42:01.920 --> 0:42:03.640 you righteous by the blood of Christ, but you keep 0:42:03.719 --> 0:42:07.320 hiding in shame from even your own friends and family. 0:42:08.200 --> 0:42:10.400 It's the cost of a wrong thought. Oh, he paid 0:42:10.440 --> 0:42:13.040 the fare to get on the ship, but he paid 0:42:13.080 --> 0:42:16.719 more than that. And as a matter of fact, it 0:42:16.840 --> 0:42:19.800 got so bad that the sailors, after doing everything they could, 0:42:20.600 --> 0:42:21.839 said what do you want us to do? And look 0:42:21.840 --> 0:42:23.880 what he said in verse twelve. This is the cost 0:42:23.920 --> 0:42:27.920 of the wrong thought. He said to them, pick me 0:42:28.000 --> 0:42:31.200 up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea 0:42:31.200 --> 0:42:32.400 will quiet down for you. And now I'm going to 0:42:32.440 --> 0:42:34.000 show you something. You've been in church all your life, 0:42:34.040 --> 0:42:35.640 but I don't think you've ever seen this before. 0:42:35.760 --> 0:42:38.840 God gave it to me. Fresh the sea will quiet 0:42:38.880 --> 0:42:43.439 down for you. I know it's because of me. I'm 0:42:43.440 --> 0:42:45.040 the problem. It's me. 0:42:47.480 --> 0:42:49.520 I know it's because of me that this great tempest 0:42:50.120 --> 0:42:53.440 has come upon you. Nevertheless, men wrote hard, try to 0:42:53.440 --> 0:42:55.200 get back to the dry land. They tried everything they could, 0:42:55.200 --> 0:42:57.759 they could not, for the sea grew more more tempestuous 0:42:57.760 --> 0:42:59.319 against them. You're not going to row your way out 0:42:59.320 --> 0:43:02.440 of this one. There's some situations you can strain as 0:43:02.520 --> 0:43:04.000 much as you want to in the storm doesn't stop. 0:43:04.000 --> 0:43:07.440 But watch this verse fourteen. Therefore they called out to 0:43:07.440 --> 0:43:08.920 the Lord, Oh Lord, let us not perish for this 0:43:08.960 --> 0:43:11.600 man's life, not on an instant blood for you. 0:43:11.640 --> 0:43:14.200 A lord has done as it pleased you verse fifteen. 0:43:15.280 --> 0:43:18.279 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, 0:43:18.960 --> 0:43:21.640 and the sea ceased from its rage. And right about 0:43:21.680 --> 0:43:24.480 now you're thinking, where are you going with this depressing, 0:43:24.520 --> 0:43:29.839 weird series sermons series right now? Well, the Bible says 0:43:29.920 --> 0:43:31.640 the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a 0:43:31.680 --> 0:43:33.040 sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 0:43:33.080 --> 0:43:35.640 So that's good, right, they knew he was God. 0:43:36.440 --> 0:43:40.040 But the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, 0:43:40.120 --> 0:43:42.600 and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three 0:43:42.719 --> 0:43:48.399 days and three nights. Now here's my favorite verse. Then 0:43:48.480 --> 0:43:56.520 Jonah prayed. You see what I'm saying. I think you 0:43:56.600 --> 0:44:04.360 know where I'm going with this. You're overstaying. You're welcome 0:44:05.600 --> 0:44:10.040 in the belly of the fish because this didn't have 0:44:10.120 --> 0:44:14.760 to happen in Jonah chapter two, verse one. This could 0:44:14.760 --> 0:44:19.839 have happened in Jonah chapter one, verse six. And if 0:44:19.880 --> 0:44:22.239 it had happened in Jonah chapter one, verse six, when 0:44:22.239 --> 0:44:23.680 the captain came and said. 0:44:23.560 --> 0:44:26.280 Wake up, man, what's wrong with you? We're all gonna die. 0:44:26.400 --> 0:44:29.280 Get up, don't you care? Call on your God. Perhaps 0:44:29.320 --> 0:44:31.719 he will give a thought to us. Perhaps he'll get 0:44:31.800 --> 0:44:34.200 us out of this, perhaps he'll notice us, perhaps he'll 0:44:34.200 --> 0:44:34.520 do something. 0:44:34.560 --> 0:44:37.480 Perhaps he'll give a thought to us. And Jonah's thought was, 0:44:37.520 --> 0:44:40.719 throw me overboard. What if his thought had been call 0:44:40.800 --> 0:44:47.560 on God. What if he would have done this chapter two, 0:44:47.680 --> 0:44:51.640 verse one, but didn't wait until he got in the 0:44:51.680 --> 0:44:53.000 belly of the fish to do it. 0:44:55.160 --> 0:44:58.000 What at the moment the captain would have said, wake up, 0:44:58.080 --> 0:45:00.960 call on God, he can stop it. Jonah had prayed 0:45:01.000 --> 0:45:01.600 to the Lord. 0:45:02.640 --> 0:45:05.680 And I'm trying to say that some things you can 0:45:05.719 --> 0:45:09.680 pray before you get in the belly. 0:45:11.560 --> 0:45:12.400 Do you hear me? 0:45:12.600 --> 0:45:19.480 Pray to this God word today? Then Jonah prayed with 0:45:19.719 --> 0:45:24.120 seaweed around his neck. Then Jonah prayed, smelling like a 0:45:24.200 --> 0:45:28.200 fish market. Then Jonah prayed in the belly of the whale. 0:45:28.920 --> 0:45:33.280 And here's what I noticed, he said verse one. 0:45:33.560 --> 0:45:35.640 He prayed to the Lord his God from the belly 0:45:35.640 --> 0:45:38.520 of the fish, verse two, saying I called to the 0:45:38.560 --> 0:45:43.040 Lord out of my distress, and he answered me out 0:45:43.040 --> 0:45:45.520 of the belly of shield, I cried, and you heard 0:45:45.520 --> 0:45:47.759 my voice. Leave it right there. God will hear you 0:45:47.840 --> 0:45:51.360 when you cry to Him from the depths. But you 0:45:52.160 --> 0:45:54.200 also do not have to go to the depths to 0:45:54.280 --> 0:45:57.560 cry to him. 0:45:57.600 --> 0:45:59.920 God will hear you if you cry. 0:45:59.640 --> 0:46:02.279 To Him from the depths, but you do not have 0:46:02.320 --> 0:46:05.120 to go all the way down to reach all the 0:46:05.160 --> 0:46:09.040 way up, Because the Bible says, I called to the 0:46:09.040 --> 0:46:12.280 Lord out of my distress. And there are two choices 0:46:12.320 --> 0:46:15.680 you have to make. One you can call on God 0:46:16.000 --> 0:46:20.799 in your distress, or you can bring God into your decisions. 0:46:29.840 --> 0:46:31.960 And the other day I was praying about a problem, 0:46:31.960 --> 0:46:34.799 like I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, and 0:46:34.880 --> 0:46:37.360 the Lord showed me something that was so kind and merciful. 0:46:37.719 --> 0:46:39.719 Y'all think, when God gives your thought, it's always going 0:46:39.800 --> 0:46:41.080 to feel like a precious moment. 0:46:42.560 --> 0:46:45.400 But sometimes it feels like the pain of surgery. 0:46:45.960 --> 0:46:48.640 And as I was praying about this problem, it was 0:46:48.680 --> 0:46:50.319 as if the spirit of God said to me, not 0:46:50.320 --> 0:46:54.520 not loud, just done on my spirit he said, you know, 0:46:55.760 --> 0:46:58.719 you wouldn't have to bring me into this problem if 0:46:58.719 --> 0:47:04.040 you would have brought me into those thoughts. Because the 0:47:04.120 --> 0:47:09.480 problems are the wake of the thoughts. The behaviors are 0:47:09.520 --> 0:47:13.200 the wake of the thoughts. And sometimes we are so 0:47:13.360 --> 0:47:16.480 guilty over that's what I did that we don't go 0:47:16.560 --> 0:47:21.319 back to That's what I thought. Jonah thought he could 0:47:21.400 --> 0:47:25.080 run to Tarsish. Jonah thought he knew who was worthy 0:47:25.080 --> 0:47:29.000 of God's love. Jonah thought he knew his calling. But 0:47:29.080 --> 0:47:32.480 when Jonah prayed, God gave him mercy. And when he 0:47:32.600 --> 0:47:35.359 prayed and made a vow to the Lord, and when 0:47:35.400 --> 0:47:38.600 he prayed and remembered the hand of God, when he 0:47:38.719 --> 0:47:42.440 prayed and asked God for forgiveness, and when he prayed 0:47:42.480 --> 0:47:45.480 and looked to heaven, and when he prayed and recommitted 0:47:45.480 --> 0:47:48.319 his life in his calling, and when you pray and 0:47:48.400 --> 0:47:51.319 look to God. The problem isn't has God given a 0:47:51.360 --> 0:47:54.040 thought to you? Have you given a thought to God? 0:47:55.840 --> 0:47:58.360 Because you can give a thought to God before you 0:47:58.520 --> 0:48:01.080 go into the belly of the prayers. You can give 0:48:01.120 --> 0:48:03.480 a thought to God before you are spent. You can 0:48:03.520 --> 0:48:06.279 give a thought to God before you are splinter. You 0:48:06.360 --> 0:48:09.000 can give a thought to God before your life is wrecked. 0:48:09.280 --> 0:48:11.239 You can give a thought to God when you're at 0:48:11.239 --> 0:48:14.160 your lowest. You can give your thought to God before 0:48:14.200 --> 0:48:17.920 you go all two thousand, five hundred miles. God can 0:48:18.040 --> 0:48:26.600 interrupt it today with one God thought, with one God thought? 0:48:27.160 --> 0:48:29.960 Why go all two thousand and five. 0:48:29.880 --> 0:48:32.880 Hundred miles when God has a fish for you to 0:48:32.920 --> 0:48:36.440 pray for today? But see, I'm a little different because 0:48:36.440 --> 0:48:38.360 I believe that the same God who will hear you 0:48:38.520 --> 0:48:42.360 from the fish watch. This is also saying, if you 0:48:42.440 --> 0:48:45.280 will listen to me right now, if you will obey 0:48:45.320 --> 0:48:48.040 me right now, if you will put your heart in 0:48:48.200 --> 0:48:51.440 my hands, not other people's hands, right now, if you 0:48:51.480 --> 0:48:54.320 will guard your heart, for from it flow the issues 0:48:54.360 --> 0:48:57.600 of life, if you will resurrender this thing to me, 0:48:58.480 --> 0:49:03.280 you can skip the fish. In other words, I feel 0:49:03.280 --> 0:49:06.440 like fighting the devil today. You don't have to lose 0:49:06.520 --> 0:49:09.879 everything to look up, and you don't have to keep 0:49:09.960 --> 0:49:12.320 shedding stuff to turn to God. 0:49:12.920 --> 0:49:14.680 You can skip the fish. 0:49:14.960 --> 0:49:18.080 I'm saying to a teenager, you don't have to drink 0:49:18.160 --> 0:49:20.719 until you're a drunk and it takes you ten years 0:49:20.760 --> 0:49:23.839 of rehab to undo it. If God has to come 0:49:23.840 --> 0:49:26.920 get you in rehab. He'll get you in rehab. But 0:49:27.040 --> 0:49:30.600 let's try a little prehab. Want't you taste and see 0:49:30.920 --> 0:49:33.560 that the Lord is good? And I don't need that 0:49:33.719 --> 0:49:36.240 to go norm because I don't have to pray every 0:49:36.280 --> 0:49:39.319 prayer from the belly. I can pray before I get 0:49:39.360 --> 0:49:46.319 in the belly. High five three people say, I'm gonna 0:49:46.320 --> 0:49:47.960 skip the fish. 0:49:48.440 --> 0:49:50.280 I'm gonna do it different this time. 0:49:50.719 --> 0:49:53.000 I'm gonna pray to the Lord before. 0:49:52.680 --> 0:49:53.640 The pain is great. 0:49:54.120 --> 0:49:56.200 I'm gonna pray to the Lord when I wake. 0:49:56.120 --> 0:49:56.880 Up in the morning. 0:49:57.320 --> 0:50:00.200 I'm gonna say stuff like this is the tast the 0:50:00.280 --> 0:50:03.000 Lord has made order my death. 0:50:03.560 --> 0:50:05.000 In your word, dear. 0:50:04.920 --> 0:50:08.600 God, if I have said to Heaven, you are there. 0:50:09.080 --> 0:50:10.560 And the same God. 0:50:10.360 --> 0:50:12.640 That'll send a fish to get me out. 0:50:15.480 --> 0:50:17.719 Is the God who will give me wings to get 0:50:17.760 --> 0:50:22.480 me over. And I'm trying to say that God wants 0:50:22.520 --> 0:50:28.000 to give a thought to you. Say it, God, give 0:50:28.040 --> 0:50:32.400 a thought to me. I thought my thoughts long enough. 0:50:32.600 --> 0:50:36.200 They cost too much. My thoughts lead to insecurity. My 0:50:36.320 --> 0:50:39.960 thoughts lead to greed, My thoughts lead to selfishness, My 0:50:40.080 --> 0:50:42.880 thoughts lead to despair. I thought, and I thought, and 0:50:42.920 --> 0:50:44.719 I thought, and I thought and I thought if I 0:50:44.760 --> 0:50:46.520 paid the fair, I could get the tartish and I 0:50:46.520 --> 0:50:47.440 didn't have to do it. 0:50:47.680 --> 0:50:49.600 God, I thought I knew what was best for me. 0:50:49.920 --> 0:50:52.400 But I need you to give a thought to me. 0:50:53.200 --> 0:50:55.520 And I'm not going to compare myself to my neighbor. God, 0:50:55.560 --> 0:50:59.399 give a thought to me. Tell me how you think 0:50:59.440 --> 0:51:02.359 of me, Tell me what you see in me. Tell 0:51:02.400 --> 0:51:02.920 me what. 0:51:02.760 --> 0:51:05.480 You've called me to do. How have you gifted me? 0:51:05.920 --> 0:51:07.279 How have you anointed me? 0:51:07.840 --> 0:51:11.040 What is my smooth stone that can bring down a giant? 0:51:11.520 --> 0:51:15.120 What is my staff that can split a red sea? 0:51:15.719 --> 0:51:18.759 Who have you called me to be saved again? God, 0:51:19.680 --> 0:51:24.960 give a thought to me. How precious to me are 0:51:25.000 --> 0:51:25.680 your thoughts? 0:51:26.120 --> 0:51:28.520 Oh God, where can I go from your presence? If 0:51:28.560 --> 0:51:31.200 I go to Tarshish, you were there. You cut me 0:51:31.239 --> 0:51:33.520 off in the middle of the sea to swallow. 0:51:33.160 --> 0:51:35.600 Me up, because you had a fish at the right 0:51:35.680 --> 0:51:38.600 time to swallow me, and even the fish was mercy. 0:51:38.640 --> 0:51:41.680 But I realized that if next time, instead of fleeing 0:51:41.760 --> 0:51:44.560 with you, God, I will lean into you. God, I 0:51:44.640 --> 0:51:46.839 may not have to go into the fish at all 0:51:46.960 --> 0:51:47.680 to begin. 0:51:47.480 --> 0:51:53.640 With, because God gave a thought to me. 0:51:56.239 --> 0:52:04.360 And when God gives a thought to you, expect the 0:52:04.680 --> 0:52:11.560 enemy to give an opposite thought. Sometimes you can tell 0:52:11.560 --> 0:52:14.440 what God is speaking by what your mind is saying. 0:52:16.280 --> 0:52:18.440 And if over and over again the enemy is telling 0:52:18.480 --> 0:52:22.280 you something that's so diabolical, God is saying exactly the opposite. 0:52:23.600 --> 0:52:27.440 So if it looks like quit, then stay. 0:52:28.560 --> 0:52:30.600 I can point to so many times in my life 0:52:30.640 --> 0:52:33.399 and I did not get here overnight, and I am 0:52:33.440 --> 0:52:34.400 not perfect at it. 0:52:34.520 --> 0:52:37.120 And next time my guitar almost breaks at the top 0:52:37.160 --> 0:52:39.040 of the jeep on my cuss if that he's not 0:52:39.120 --> 0:52:39.680 in the car. 0:52:43.480 --> 0:52:45.800 But the number of times listen to me, listen to me, 0:52:46.840 --> 0:52:49.400 the number of times that then Jonah prayed in my 0:52:49.480 --> 0:52:55.360 life happened too late, taught me to lean into God sooner. 0:52:58.960 --> 0:53:01.640 I don't want my kids to go through avoidable storms. 0:53:04.000 --> 0:53:08.200 I don't want to create them. I want them to 0:53:08.200 --> 0:53:12.520 skip some fish, you know what I mean. I feel 0:53:12.520 --> 0:53:15.480 like that phrase right there is a God thought. Now 0:53:15.480 --> 0:53:17.799 I'm ma skip the fish. I know where this goes. 0:53:17.960 --> 0:53:20.280 The next time you go to through a little pity party, Now, Ima, 0:53:20.280 --> 0:53:24.279 skip the fish. I don't like how it smells in there. 0:53:27.440 --> 0:53:29.480 I don't want to go to my meeting Tuesday smelling 0:53:29.640 --> 0:53:32.040 like fish. I'm not going to think like this, God 0:53:32.400 --> 0:53:36.759 give a thought to me. Perhaps the God will give 0:53:36.800 --> 0:53:39.640 a thought to us. He already gave a thought to you. 0:53:39.960 --> 0:53:42.239 Have you given a thought to him? Or is this 0:53:42.360 --> 0:53:44.919 just simply still all about you and what you want? 0:53:45.239 --> 0:53:49.719 Because the cost is to give your thought for His thought, 0:53:49.920 --> 0:53:50.400 and that's. 0:53:50.280 --> 0:53:51.839 What happens when we come to His word. 0:53:53.560 --> 0:53:56.680 How many times did God give me a thought that 0:53:56.800 --> 0:53:58.400 was greater than anything. 0:54:00.000 --> 0:54:00.239 I thought? 0:54:00.280 --> 0:54:02.200 If I really wanted the church to shout, I could 0:54:02.239 --> 0:54:06.719 preach when God gives a car to you, and there 0:54:06.719 --> 0:54:10.439 would be shouts. When God gives a promotion to you, 0:54:10.960 --> 0:54:13.719 and there would be shouts. Or I could go to 0:54:13.760 --> 0:54:16.279 our young adult's chapel when God gives a spouse to you, 0:54:17.000 --> 0:54:20.719 and there would be shouts. But the greatest gifts God 0:54:20.800 --> 0:54:22.600 ever gave me came with thoughts. Because if I get 0:54:22.600 --> 0:54:25.120 the things but not the thoughts of God to undergird them, 0:54:25.239 --> 0:54:26.960 the things will be a burden, not a blessing. 0:54:30.520 --> 0:54:32.640 Jonah did what God said and it worked, and he 0:54:32.760 --> 0:54:37.520 was miserable. Why because you got to have the God thoughts? 0:54:38.239 --> 0:54:40.240 Like the time she said to me after I preached, 0:54:40.840 --> 0:54:42.200 I was having a pity party. 0:54:43.160 --> 0:54:45.360 Little pity party, little preaching pity party. 0:54:46.200 --> 0:54:49.880 And Holly just wisely says, I think you think you 0:54:49.960 --> 0:54:54.040 failed in preaching today, but maybe you didn't fail. 0:54:54.960 --> 0:54:57.640 Maybe you just didn't finish. 0:54:58.000 --> 0:55:01.319 And that thought comes up here with me into this 0:55:01.400 --> 0:55:05.280 pulpit every time I preached ever since she said it. 0:55:06.040 --> 0:55:08.719 Every time I think, oh, man, I didn't say that 0:55:08.760 --> 0:55:09.360 like I wanted to. 0:55:09.680 --> 0:55:11.560 The Lord would just remind me. Then pick it back 0:55:11.640 --> 0:55:12.400 up next week. 0:55:12.239 --> 0:55:16.759 And say the rest bozo, skip the fish and the 0:55:16.800 --> 0:55:18.360 whole thing of beating up on yourself. 0:55:18.360 --> 0:55:20.480 You said it better than most of them could have anyway, 0:55:20.520 --> 0:55:25.040 So tell them to get up there and try. Come on, 0:55:25.120 --> 0:55:26.439 they'll still need you next week. 0:55:26.480 --> 0:55:35.239 You got job security. One time I was frustrated with 0:55:35.280 --> 0:55:39.319 some of our staff members. It was right before in 0:55:39.360 --> 0:55:43.960 twenty twenty, when everything had totally shifted and all the 0:55:43.960 --> 0:55:46.799 staff that had been doing one job started having to 0:55:46.840 --> 0:55:48.840 do another one because obviously we weren't. 0:55:48.560 --> 0:55:49.640 Having in person church. 0:55:50.480 --> 0:55:51.719 We were on a zoom call, and I was like, 0:55:51.800 --> 0:55:53.279 it's very important to me that we do this, and 0:55:53.320 --> 0:55:55.200 we do that, and we do that. And the next 0:55:55.200 --> 0:55:57.000 week I got on and I checked in and nobody 0:55:57.000 --> 0:55:59.560 had done successfully what I asked. I said, I'm gonna 0:55:59.560 --> 0:56:01.799 say this again, and it's very important that we do this, 0:56:01.880 --> 0:56:05.240 and we do that, and we do that, and there again. 0:56:05.360 --> 0:56:07.560 One more week goes by and I checked in and 0:56:07.560 --> 0:56:10.040 it still hadn't been done. So the third week, I 0:56:10.120 --> 0:56:12.600 was really angry and I kind of lost it. I 0:56:12.640 --> 0:56:13.280 didn't cuss. 0:56:15.239 --> 0:56:20.920 That's gonna be my memoir title, but I didn't cuss. Well, 0:56:22.520 --> 0:56:23.319 I got so mad. 0:56:23.360 --> 0:56:25.600 I kind of like lost my cool little bit, not 0:56:26.200 --> 0:56:28.840 too bad, but just a little bit, and ended the 0:56:28.840 --> 0:56:32.840 meeting abruptly, and when I was kind of closing the 0:56:32.920 --> 0:56:36.640 laptop intentionally slammed the laptop shut. 0:56:38.719 --> 0:56:42.360 I said, they don't care. They don't care enough to 0:56:42.360 --> 0:56:44.279 do what I'm asking them to do. They don't care. 0:56:44.640 --> 0:56:46.440 And the Spirit of the Lord gave me I thought. 0:56:46.480 --> 0:56:52.160 He said, they care, they just can't. They don't know 0:56:52.320 --> 0:56:55.319 how to do what you're asking them to do. This 0:56:55.400 --> 0:56:58.080 is their first pandemic too. It was a God thought 0:56:59.520 --> 0:57:02.360 because it took me from thinking that there was something 0:57:02.400 --> 0:57:05.400 wrong with them and it was me against them, to 0:57:05.480 --> 0:57:08.279 thinking it's us against it. You know, you can have 0:57:08.360 --> 0:57:16.959 one God thought that's helped me so much. Even with y'all, 0:57:16.960 --> 0:57:20.800 there are so many God thoughts that had to replace 0:57:20.880 --> 0:57:22.680 wrong thoughts. Do you know when I used to preach 0:57:22.720 --> 0:57:25.680 and people wouldn't get excited, I would feel like they 0:57:26.120 --> 0:57:27.760 were almost like. 0:57:27.760 --> 0:57:30.360 I would get mad at the people. I say something 0:57:30.400 --> 0:57:32.280 good and they wouldn't say anything, and I would get mad. 0:57:33.200 --> 0:57:35.400 Now I pretend to be mad. I'm like, y'all ain't 0:57:35.400 --> 0:57:36.720 saying nothing. I don't care. 0:57:38.160 --> 0:57:39.840 I always wonder if the crowd could talk back to 0:57:39.840 --> 0:57:42.120 you know, y'all ain't saying nothing, and they'd go, you 0:57:42.200 --> 0:57:48.720 aren't either. But the Lord dropped something in me so 0:57:48.800 --> 0:57:50.920 profound it was a download. One day I was frustrated 0:57:50.920 --> 0:57:54.040 about it, and he said, they're not here for you. 0:57:54.040 --> 0:57:58.800 You're here for them. You serve them when you preach. 0:57:58.880 --> 0:58:01.640 They're not your audience to make you feel good about 0:58:01.680 --> 0:58:03.600 your amateur hour stand up comedy. 0:58:03.640 --> 0:58:08.200 If they don't laugh, you keep preaching. You're here for them. 0:58:08.680 --> 0:58:12.160 You're here as a servant. It changed my life. What's that? 0:58:12.160 --> 0:58:20.080 That's the value of a god thought? And God wants 0:58:20.120 --> 0:58:25.840 to give you one stand up? Please? No one leave 0:58:25.880 --> 0:58:31.040 and pray it out loud. God give a thought to 0:58:31.160 --> 0:58:31.600 my wife. 0:58:32.440 --> 0:58:40.280 No, no, no, no, no, no. 0:58:38.800 --> 0:58:39.360 Try it again. 0:58:39.400 --> 0:58:48.360 Y'all weren't listening God, give a thought to me, Show 0:58:48.440 --> 0:58:53.520 me how you think about me, Show me how you 0:58:53.560 --> 0:58:54.400 think about others. 0:58:57.040 --> 0:59:02.440 Put somebody on my mind that I can help, that 0:59:02.520 --> 0:59:06.120 I can bless. Yes, yes, I'm gonna tell you this too. 0:59:07.560 --> 0:59:09.840 In twenty ten, when I started Love Week, it was 0:59:09.880 --> 0:59:13.720 a thought, what if everybody in this church served an hour, 0:59:15.560 --> 0:59:17.600 we could serve five thousand hours. 0:59:19.160 --> 0:59:24.000 Never would I have thought when God gave me that thought. 0:59:24.320 --> 0:59:30.400 You gotta realize God's thoughts are vast. God's thoughts are vast. 0:59:31.440 --> 0:59:34.440 So when I saw five thousand hours, how many have 0:59:34.520 --> 0:59:34.960 we served? 0:59:35.000 --> 0:59:39.840 Now? Over what? Over what? 0:59:41.560 --> 0:59:45.720 Over a million hours of service from this church? 0:59:45.960 --> 0:59:50.440 In outrage? Y'all ain't clapping. All right, I'm gonna give 0:59:50.440 --> 0:59:51.840 you a million dollars. 0:59:51.520 --> 0:59:56.200 Clap like that, over a million hours to our communities. 0:59:57.000 --> 1:00:05.000 We're on God's mind. God, give a thought to me, 1:00:05.560 --> 1:00:07.680 Show me how to do good, show me how to 1:00:07.720 --> 1:00:10.400 make it. And really, sometimes the problem is that the 1:00:10.440 --> 1:00:13.800 storm you're going through, it's the thoughts you're having about 1:00:13.800 --> 1:00:18.760 the storm. Because in Mark chapter four, one time Jesus 1:00:18.800 --> 1:00:20.480 was on the boat with his disciples and he said, 1:00:20.520 --> 1:00:22.400 let's go to the other side. And the Bible says 1:00:22.400 --> 1:00:24.760 when evening had come, he told them to cross over 1:00:24.800 --> 1:00:27.640 to the other side, mark four thirty five. Come, let 1:00:27.720 --> 1:00:33.160 us go over to the other side, next verse, and 1:00:33.280 --> 1:00:35.000 leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the 1:00:35.000 --> 1:00:37.320 boat just as he was, and the. 1:00:37.240 --> 1:00:39.520 Other boats were with him, and. 1:00:39.520 --> 1:00:41.640 A great wind storm arose and the waves were breaking 1:00:41.680 --> 1:00:44.640 into the boat so that the boat was already filling. 1:00:45.560 --> 1:00:50.480 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. 1:00:51.920 --> 1:00:56.200 What is Jesus doing, acting like Jonah? Only he's not 1:00:56.320 --> 1:01:00.960 running from God's will, He's rowing into it. And they 1:01:01.000 --> 1:01:05.520 woke him up and said, teacher, do you not care 1:01:05.880 --> 1:01:10.120 that we are perishing? Here was their thought, he doesn't care, 1:01:10.800 --> 1:01:13.880 he's sleeping. And he awoke and rebuke the wind and 1:01:13.920 --> 1:01:17.120 said to deceit, peace be still, And the wind ceased, 1:01:17.200 --> 1:01:20.800 and there was a great calm, and he said to them, 1:01:20.800 --> 1:01:21.880 why are you so afraid? 1:01:22.240 --> 1:01:24.160 Have you still no faith? 1:01:24.520 --> 1:01:26.720 And I want to talk to you before I close 1:01:26.840 --> 1:01:31.960 My message about a sleeping Jesus, not a sleeping Jonah. 1:01:32.320 --> 1:01:36.240 Because when the disciples saw Jesus asleep, they thought he 1:01:36.280 --> 1:01:40.880 doesn't care. But they could have thought, wait, he is 1:01:40.960 --> 1:01:46.640 God's son. If he is sleeping through the storm. Maybe 1:01:46.680 --> 1:01:51.560 it's not that he doesn't care. Maybe we're cool and 1:01:51.640 --> 1:01:55.080 I came to preach to somebody today. If God is 1:01:55.160 --> 1:01:58.320 not doing it exactly like you want in your situation, 1:01:59.360 --> 1:02:04.040 maybe it's not that he doesn't care. Maybe he's so confident, 1:02:04.640 --> 1:02:09.000 Maybe he's so in control. Maybe he is so sovereign 1:02:09.160 --> 1:02:12.240 over the storm that he will wake up when he 1:02:12.400 --> 1:02:13.480 needs to wake up. 1:02:16.080 --> 1:02:18.320 It's all in your thoughts. 1:02:19.920 --> 1:02:22.000 So God, I pray right now that as high as 1:02:22.000 --> 1:02:25.640 the heavens are above the earth, so are your ways 1:02:25.680 --> 1:02:27.000 above our ways. 1:02:26.640 --> 1:02:30.360 And your thoughts above our thoughts. How precious to me 1:02:30.480 --> 1:02:31.080 or your thoughts. 1:02:31.080 --> 1:02:34.120 So God, I pray for those who have been having 1:02:34.120 --> 1:02:38.040 tormenting thoughts, tempting thoughts, I pray that they would be 1:02:38.080 --> 1:02:40.280 replaced right now with the truth of your word. 1:02:40.920 --> 1:02:44.120 I thank you for our Savior, Jesus, who loved and 1:02:44.200 --> 1:02:48.080 died for us. Thank you for joining us. 1:02:48.400 --> 1:02:50.840 Special thanks to those of you who give generously to 1:02:50.920 --> 1:02:54.400 this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. 1:02:54.880 --> 1:02:57.040 You can click the link in the description to give 1:02:57.160 --> 1:03:01.080 now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for 1:03:01.160 --> 1:03:05.120 more information, and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. 1:03:05.400 --> 1:03:06.720 You can share it with your friends. 1:03:07.000 --> 1:03:09.280 You can click the share button, take a screenshot and 1:03:09.320 --> 1:03:11.440 share it on your social stories and tag us at 1:03:11.480 --> 1:03:12.320 Elevation Church. 1:03:12.400 --> 1:03:19.040 Thanks again for listening. God bless you.