Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - When You’re Waiting on God | Jonah | Part 2

Episode Date: September 15, 2024

No one wants to deal with problems, but you can’t avoid them. You might be waiting for God to step in and fix things, but what if He doesn’t? Does that mean He doesn’t care? Let’s talk about i...t.If you're facing something difficult, you don’t have to carry it alone. If it’s on your mind, it’s on God’s heart. We want to pray with you and support you through whatever you’re facing. Share your prayer request: https://www.life.church/getprayerABOUT THIS MESSAGEEver wanted a do-over? We all want second chances but sometimes struggle to offer them. What if that reluctance is hindering our own fresh start? Discover how one man found his second chance in the most unexpected way in our new series, Jonah.ABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appNEXT STEPSHave you made the decision to follow Jesus? You might be wondering what’s next for you. We want to help! Check out these resources to ​​discover what saying yes to Jesus means: https://www.life.church/yesFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@life.churchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #jonah Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 At all of our churches, for those of you that are believers, your followers of Jesus, would you take a moment and raise your hand if you believe in the power of prayer? Raise your hand high if you believe in the power of prayer. Online, you can type in the comment section, I believe in the power of prayer. Leave them up, I believe in the power of prayer. Go ahead and put them down, if you will, and I want to ask you another question. How many of you know you should probably pray more? Raise your hands.
Starting point is 00:00:25 Interesting, right? Check it out. That's kind of funny to me. Like all of us, if we're followers of Jesus, we really do believe in a God who hears and responds to our faith. And yet almost all of us would say we really should be more engaged talking to and praying with, praying to God. More on prayer in just a moment. What I want to do is I want to review where we've been. We're in a message series through the book of Jonah.
Starting point is 00:00:52 Last week we looked at Jonah chapter one. And we looked at what we might call a reluctant prophet. If you remember in verse one, the word of the Lord came to Jonah and said, go and preach to the people of Nineveh, those wicked people, their wickedness has come before me. And basically, God said to Jonah, go. And Jonah said, no. So God said, whoa. You like that? I made it up myself. Actually, I probably didn't even make it up. I probably saw it somewhere. But God told him to go to Nineveh and preach. And Jonah instead, found a ship and went as far as he could in the other direction. In fact, I want to show you the map again, just so you'll get it. He was in Joppa. God said go east and then about 550 miles. He didn't go east. He went the other way on a ship, 2,500 miles as far as he could in the other direction. And we learned the principle of that last week. If you want to run from God, the devil will
Starting point is 00:01:53 always offer you a ride. You can always find a ship sailing. in the wrong direction. So Jonah's on this boat and God sends this really big storm. Now I'm going to show you a storm. We're not going to leave it up there long because last week we found out some of you got seasick. So hang on, I'll go fast. So there's a storm about to tear apart the boat and Jonah says it's my fault. Throw me overboard. And the sailors who didn't want to do it, they tried everything else possible, but they realized it was Jonah's fault. So they threw Jonah overboard. And when they did the storm completely went calm. And all of the sailors looked on and said, oh my gosh, if God can do that, we want to know that God. We want to serve that God. And they turned their hearts to God.
Starting point is 00:02:41 Good news for them, but Jonah was still all alone in the ocean. And it looks very, very hopeless for him. And so there Jonah is overboard because he was disobeying God. And there's an unusual verse at the end of chapter one we didn't look it last week, I saved it for you this week, but there's this unusual verse that says this. Now, the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Let's make sure we understand where we are. Chapter one, Jonah ran from God. Now he's down in the belly of the fish. Chapter two, Jonah prayed to God. Jonah 2-1 tells us this. From inside the fish, what did Jonah do?
Starting point is 00:03:31 Everybody say it loud. Jonah prayed to the Lord. What did Jonah do? Jonah prayed. You can type it in online in the comment section. Jonah prayed. Chapter 1, Jonah runs. That's a summary.
Starting point is 00:03:45 Chapter 2, Jonah prays. That's a summary. At this time, I would normally announce my title. But there were so many good options I couldn't. figure out which one to use. Jonah praying from a fish. There are so many possibilities, so I thought just for fun,
Starting point is 00:04:03 maybe you guys could help me. You want to vote? Which title do you want? I'll give you the titles. The first one is, fishy prayers. How are you like that? I mean, there are so many.
Starting point is 00:04:13 The second one is deep sea drama. The third one is a whale of a prayer. I need you to vote online. I need people here, make some noise. Raise your hands. Fishy prayers, fishy prayers. Deep Sea drama, a wail of a prayer. And the title of today's message is,
Starting point is 00:04:34 A Whale of a Prayer. Let's look at the text again. The very last verse of chapter one, Jonah ran from the Lord, and who is the main character of the book of Jonah? The main character is? The Lord. The Lord.
Starting point is 00:04:50 And the very last verse of chapter one says this. the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah. That's funny to me. Can I be real with y'all? If I'm on a cruise ship with Amy, and let's say I get drunk on cookies because I don't drink out, I ate too many, whatever, it gets rocking.
Starting point is 00:05:17 I fall off the boat. I'm into water. If I'm overboard on a cruise, I am not hoping for a big fish, right? If the Lord's going to provide something, I'm thinking like, the Lord provided a life jacket. The Lord provided a dingy boat with someone to pull me in. The Lord provided an island.
Starting point is 00:05:40 I don't know, the Lord provided a mermaid. An ugly mermaid, an average-looking mermaid, one that can swim, just making sure you're working with me. The Lord didn't provide a big fish. I mean, if you're in the middle of the ocean and this something like a whale swallows you, that doesn't feel like a praise report. Right? Come on.
Starting point is 00:06:01 You guys are acting like, oh yeah, praise the Lord, I'm in a fish, okay? That feels like a punishment. If I'm in the middle of this, like, you know, I don't even know what's in the middle of a fish, like fish juice, fish acid, fish belly, fish, guts, fish, dead other fish, you know, I don't know. I'm thinking like, God, why did you let this happen? Why in the world am I going through this? And if we can take a little rabbit trail, there may be some of you who tend to think
Starting point is 00:06:28 what I thought for a long time, and I always thought that pain is always punishment. Think about it. To Jonah, the big fish seemed like nothing but a big problem. Here I am in the middle of it. I didn't want this. I didn't call on this. This fish is a problem.
Starting point is 00:06:48 but who provided the fish? The main character of the story, the Lord provided the fish. I want to tell somebody here that sometimes what we call a problem, God calls provision. Sometimes God may provide in ways that we didn't choose and we didn't expect. And God provides a fish and it swallows Jonah.
Starting point is 00:07:13 And Jonah never planned on being fish food. It isn't what I wanted. And what I know, because I know many of your stories, and I know just because of the number of you, there are many of you right now that you're in a similar place. You're going through something that you would have never, ever chosen. How do we get here? I didn't want to be here in my marriage. I don't want to be in the middle of faith crisis.
Starting point is 00:07:40 This isn't what I wanted. I didn't choose to be in the belly of this mess. And I want to remind you that our good God doesn't always give us what we want, but our God does give us what we need. And what we need most is always him. Him. From the belly of a fish, Jonah remembered he needed the Lord. God always gives us what we need, and what we need most is him. So the Lord provided a fish and swallowed Jonah up. He's by himself. He's about to drown.
Starting point is 00:08:28 You can imagine in a situation like this, he can't, I mean, how long can he, you know, paddle, do whatever, how long can he do that? He is completely helpless. He couldn't do a single thing to save his life. He couldn't dog paddle or whatever for, for something. seven day, he couldn't do a thing. Whatever he was proud of in his life, maybe he, let's just say he had a great degree, college degree. His college degree couldn't save him. Maybe he had had a lot of friends on Facebook, right? If we modernize it, all those friends on Facebook couldn't save him. Maybe he'd finally gotten his fully funded emergency fund and his savings account that he was proud
Starting point is 00:09:08 of it. It could not save him. Jonah got to the place where some of you are right now. and that is to the place where only the Lord could help him. Only the Lord could help him. On his own, he was completely helpless. But just because Jonah was helpless, he was not hopeless. Because there's a big difference. Just because he was helpless didn't mean that he had run out of hope in the God who always gives us what we need.
Starting point is 00:09:41 Now, was he in a mess? dang straight. He's in big, big trouble. And some of you, unfortunately right now, you may be in a spot in your life where things are not going well right now. And you say, like, my marriage, someone might say, is in bad shape. If God doesn't do something soon, I don't know what's going to happen. You might say my marriage is in trouble. Someone else might say, have you seen inflation? My paycheck hadn't caught up. Financially, we're in trouble. There are people close to me that I love that would say,
Starting point is 00:10:18 we are in trouble with our health. Some of you, you got kids, and they're not a part of switch right now. And your kids might be doing something crazy. He said, I've got a child in trouble. I want to say this, no matter why you might find yourself in trouble, it might be your fault, it might not be your fault, no matter what's going on.
Starting point is 00:10:40 The Bible says in this, James 513 says, Is anyone among you in trouble? Say it aloud with me. Let them pray. Is anybody here in trouble? Scripture says, let them pray. I want to declare to you that if you are in trouble, it's time to pray. I'm going to tell you again, if you are in trouble, it's time to pray. I'm going to say it one more time for those of you in the back, whenever you are, are in trouble or even if you're not in trouble, it's time to pray. Somebody say it's time to pray. Nudge your neighbor. Tell them it's time to pray. Type it in the comment section, it's time to pray. Notice what James doesn't say. James doesn't say when you're in trouble, it's time to worry.
Starting point is 00:11:28 He doesn't say that. He doesn't say it's time to complain. He doesn't say it's time to write a long post and post it on social media. Talking about all that's going on. He doesn't say it's time to blame everybody around. He says, when you are in trouble, it's time to pray. It's time to pray. What did Jonah pray when he was in trouble? Let me show you exactly what he prayed. Jonah 2-2. He said, in my distress, Jonah said, I called to the Lord. And what did God do? He answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead, Jonah said, I called to God for help God. and you listened to my cry. Jonah chapter one, he calls out,
Starting point is 00:12:15 and the first thing he does is he prays to God. When you are in trouble, it's time to pray. It's time to pray. The rest of the chapter, chapter verse one, says he prays. Verse two, he starts to pray all the way down. The next nine verses is his prayer. And I want to show you his prayer.
Starting point is 00:12:37 I won't read it all. but I'll just kind of start at the top. He prays God, you hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me. All your waves and breaker swept over me. Go down the next paragraph. He praised the roots of the mountains,
Starting point is 00:12:51 I sank down, the earth beneath, barred me in forever, go to the bottom. He says, but I with shouts of grateful praise will sacrifice to you. When I vowed, I will make good. I will say salvation comes from the Lord. What I like about their prayer, he's like, that sounds spiritual.
Starting point is 00:13:05 How many have you ever been around somebody that when they pray, they sound spiritual, raise your hand. Type in the comment section, I know what you're talking about. I know what you're... They sound... If you could sponsor someone to pray,
Starting point is 00:13:15 they'd be sponsored by the Holy Ghost. You know what I'm saying? Like, when they pray, you just think, like, God, is going, that's a good prayer. I think I'll listen to... Sometimes I feel like when I'm praying, I'm like going, oh, God, it's me again.
Starting point is 00:13:28 And, oh, yeah, God, I'm trying not to lose focus because I often lose focus. Some people, when they pray, they really know how to pray. why they often know how to pray. What is the most effective thing that we can pray? In many cases, the most effective thing you can pray is actually pray the word. You pray the word. A lot of times when you look at someone like, I really like the way they're praying. You know what they're praying?
Starting point is 00:13:56 They're actually praying God's word. They're declaring the word of God to God over their situation. Because the word of God is living, active, powerful, sharper than any doubt. The word of God never returns void. One of the most powerful things that you can ever pray is you can pray the word. And that is exactly what Jonah was doing. In Jonah 2, Jonah was praying, and what do you think he was praying? He was praying the Psalms. That's what he did you do in. He was praying God's Word.
Starting point is 00:14:32 He was praying the Psalms. And I want to show you this because this could revolutionize your prayer life. Let me show you how he prayed the Psalm. in verse two he said i called the lord and he answered me psalm three four said i called down to the lord and he answered me he's praying the psalm i'll show you another one he says deep in the realm of the dead god i called you for help psalm 16 you will not abandon me in the realm of the dead he said this i have been banished from your sight the psalm says i'm cut off from your sight he said this the waters close over me psalm 69 the waters have come up to my neck he said those who cling to
Starting point is 00:15:09 worthless idols. And Psalm says, I hate those who cling to worthless idols. Over and over again, what I have vowed, he said, I will make good. Psalm 116 says, I will fulfill my vows to the Lord. It's time to pray. It's time to pray. It's time to pray. It's time to pray. It's time to pray. Whenever you're in trouble, it's time to pray. And when you don't know what to pray, what should you pray? You pray the word. Jonah prayed the word of God. Some of you say, but I don't know the word of Well, a really good place to start. If you don't know the Word of God, open up the U-Version Bible app, which by next year toward the end of the year will be on one billion devices around the world.
Starting point is 00:15:52 Come on somebody. Let's give God some praise for that. Open up the U-Verson Bible app and just type in whatever you want to pray about. You might just type in fear or anxiety or depression or whatever it is. And then God's word will come up and you just start. pray in his word. You might, you might pray, God, I'm feeling anxious, so therefore I cast my cares on you, God, because you care for me. You might pray, God, help me not to be anxious. Your word tells me that not to be anxious about anything, but with everything my prayer and petition, I submit my request to you,
Starting point is 00:16:25 and I thank you, God, that your word promises me that the peace from heaven will guard my heart, my mind, my soul, in Christ Jesus. God, your word says, you have not given me a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and of love. I have a sound mind. God, I'm praying your word. I'm believing your word. Jonah cried out to the Lord, and the Lord listened to his cry.
Starting point is 00:16:47 Jonah prayed, and he prayed the word of God. Spoiler alert, though. Jonah prayed, and he said, God heard me. But if you look carefully, nothing happened immediately when he prayed. this encourages me so much because sometimes I get so frustrated with God's timing. Anybody else to ever get frustrated God's timing? Like, God, I'm telling you it's best now.
Starting point is 00:17:16 And God says, you don't know what I know. I give it to you when it's best on my side, God says. He prayed in verse one. God heard him and there was no visible miracle. He prays in verse one. And you don't see a visible miracle until the, very end of chapter two in verse 10. You don't see the miracle in verse 10, which makes verse 9 so much more meaningful. In verse 9, Jonas says this, but I, with shouts of grateful praise,
Starting point is 00:17:49 I'm shouting to you, I'm worshiping you, I can't contain it. With shouts of grateful praise, I will sacrifice to you. He says, when I have vowed, I will make good, I will say to the Lord, salvation comes from the Lord. about this, is this is praise before the miracle. How many of you know it's easy to praise God after the miracle, but it takes faith to praise God before the provision. There is someone here, and I don't know who you are, but you're going to praise God with verse 9 kind of faith. You may still be stuck in the belly, but your praise is real praise. You're praising before the provision. what I'm doing right now, praying for my daughters, praying for my, praying for their health,
Starting point is 00:18:37 praying for healing, praying for miracles, praying for the provision and the power of God to do what I know he can do. And he hasn't done it yet. But with shouts of praise by faith, I worship him, knowing he is a good God, that he hears the cries of our hearts and that I believe by faith that God will answer. This is praising God for who he is, not just for what he's doing. done. This is verse nine kind of faith. Jonah continues in the very same verse, and then he says this. Then he says, what I have vowed, God, I will make good. I was running from you. I was disobeying you. I wasn't listening to you. But what I vowed, I will make good. I like this. At this point, Jonah didn't make a single excuse. He made it right. This is for
Starting point is 00:19:33 somebody here. You're not doing what's right right now. There's a part of you. You're being disobedient to God. It's a sin of commission. You're literally sinning against the word of God. Or it's a sin of omission, meaning God prompted you to do something and you didn't do it. Or you're just taking God for granted. You know him, you love him, but you put him on the shelf. you know you're not living in a way in some form of your life that's right. Jonah made it right. He made it right. He made it right. It's time for somebody here to stop blaming, whatever you're blaming, stop blaming whoever you're blaming, and make it right. It's time to make a right. God, you want me to go? I'm going to go. You want me to repent? I'm going to repent.
Starting point is 00:20:26 You want me to apologize to someone that I wronged? I'm going to apologize. You want me to stop sinning sexually, God? I will stop dishonoring your word in sinning sexually. You may stop taking you for granted? It's time to make it right. It's time to make it right. What I vowed I'll make right.
Starting point is 00:20:50 Jonah prayed. And then in verse 9, Jonah praised. And finally, in verse 10, the last verse of chapter 2 says this, and the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Can we pause for a moment and say two things. Number one, that's amazing. And number two, that's gross. Can we just say it?
Starting point is 00:21:20 I mean, come on. Like God, you know, he lived through the belly of the fish for three days, three nights, or he died and he rose from the dead, whatever. it is, and then you vomit him out. That's amazing. And that's disgusting. Imagine three days and three days and three nights. And he's in there praying. Verse one, what's he doing? He's praying. Verse two, he's praying. Verse three, he kept praying. Verse four, he kept praying. Verse five, he kept praying. Day one, he kept praying. Evening one. He kept praying.
Starting point is 00:21:57 Night one, he prayed. Morning two, he prayed. Midday two, he prayed. This is a message. For somebody here, you've been praying for a long time, and you're not seeing anything. I want to remind you of the power and the principle of God that while you're waiting, God is still working.
Starting point is 00:22:16 While you're praying and while you're believing, and while you're waiting, God is still working. Just because you don't see anything doesn't mean that God is still working. doesn't mean that God isn't still on the throne, because at the right time, God commanded the fish. At the right time, at the right time, at the right time, God commanded the fish. And the fish vomited Jonah.
Starting point is 00:22:42 At the right time. And this reminds us that when it's not God's time, you can't force it. And when it is God's time, you can't stop it. Our God is a good God. Our God is always on time. While you're waiting, our God is working. Verse one, and the Lord heard his prayer.
Starting point is 00:23:14 But God didn't do what he asked him to do until verse 10. If you're praying and you're still praying, and you're praying, and you're still praying, I need this because I'm still praying. God, did you forget? God, have you heard me? He hears you the first time. And we're like the persistent widow in Luke 18.
Starting point is 00:23:33 We just keep coming back. God, I'm just reminding you of your word. God, I just, by faith, I continue to believe. God, I just, I know you hear the cries of your people. And at the right time, God commanded the fish. Now, three days and three nights. How many days was the end of the belly of the fish? Three days and three nights.
Starting point is 00:23:55 Raise your hand if you've ever heard the phrase, three days and three nights somewhere before. Interesting. So Jonah was, he lived somewhere around 785 BC, like 750, 800 years before the birth of Christ. And here we see in the Old Testament, a foreshadow of what Jesus talked about in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 12.
Starting point is 00:24:23 When the Pharisees said, hey, Jesus, we want a sign, give us a sign. We want a sign. And Jesus answered and said this, a wicked and adulterous generation asked for a sign. But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet of Jonah. For Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish. So the son of man, that's Jesus,
Starting point is 00:24:50 will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth when, after he becomes sin for us and dies on the cross. He is buried and does battle against the forces of hell. And three days later, three days and three nights, the stone is rolled away. And when the women look in there, the tomb is empty. Why? Because our God raised Jesus from the dead.
Starting point is 00:25:16 And remember what Jonas said. Remember what he said. He said, where does salvation come from? salvation comes from the Lord when Jonah didn't deserve it when he had been running from God God saved him when Jonah couldn't save himself God saved him and everything in the Old Testament points to our need for Jesus today because when we didn't deserve it God sent Jesus when we were still dead in our sins because of his love and when we were still dead in our sins because of his love and when we couldn't save ourselves, Jesus saved us.
Starting point is 00:25:56 I don't know who this is for, but there's somebody here. Your life is a big old mess right now. And maybe you're a little bit like me. You need a little extra grace. You need a little extra forgiveness. Because maybe like me or maybe like Jonah, at some point, you've disobeyed God's command. And you've distrusted God's word. And you've dishonored God.
Starting point is 00:26:21 name. But even though Jonah turned and ran away from God, God still saved Jonah. And you're going to see next week when you better come back, because chapter three is even better than chapter two. You're going to see in chapter three that God used a reluctant and disobedient profit for his glory to reach some people. And think about how all this went down. This is so powerful to me. The fish vomited Jonah up. I love that. You have no idea how much I love it. You guys up here in the front, you're going to love this so much because there's nothing clean about his salvation. David, fish mucus, fish bile. That's gross. There was nothing clean about his salvation. And some of you, you've been through some of you. You've been through some
Starting point is 00:27:24 stuff is not clean, it's not pretty, it's nasty. In the same way God is still working in him, God is still working in you. And I want you to hear it, I want you to feel it, I want you to believe, and I want you to take it deep down into your spirit that no matter where you are, no matter what you've done, God has grace for you. And God still wants to use you. And in the same way that The sailors looked on and said, if God is that powerful and that good, then I want to serve him. I want to fear that God. I want to tell you that our God, his grace is bigger than you can imagine. And his love for you is deeper than you can ever realize.
Starting point is 00:28:21 And a God that good is a God that we want to serve. If your life is messy right now, welcome to the party. That's the perfect kind of person. that God loves to save. And the fish vomited him out. His salvation wasn't clean, but it was real. And salvation comes from the Lord. So Father, today, we ask that your Holy Spirit would do a deep work in the hearts of people who need it.
Starting point is 00:28:53 God do a deep work in my heart. I want to talk to those of you that might be in a little bit of trouble right now. You're going through a hard time. It could be somebody that you love. It could be somebody, it could be you. And you need a miracle, but you're not in verse 10 yet. There's no miracle. And you're praying right now.
Starting point is 00:29:13 I want to give you the chance maybe to just worship God with a verse 9 kind of faith. Before verse 9 kind of faith, we're going to have verse 1 kind of prayer. And that is we're going to go before God in prayer. And we're going to believe for miracles. We serve a God who says all things are possible with him. And then we're going to worship. with verse 9 kind of faith. If you're going through something right now
Starting point is 00:29:36 and you really need the presence and the power of God, let's take it to him and we're gonna pray. You've got some area in your life. You need a miracle, you need the presence, you need the power of God, for you, for you, for someone that you love. Would you lift up your hands right now? All of our churches, lift up your hands.
Starting point is 00:29:51 Online, you can just type in the comment section, I need the presence, I need the power of God. Father, we come to you just like Jonah did when he didn't deserve it, because we don't deserve anything. good from you. And humbly, God, we just ask that you hear the cries of our heart. And we thank you, God, that your word tells us that the faithful, affectful, passionate and fervent prayer availed much. God, we cry out to you. We pray for marriages to be healed. God, we pray for relationships to be
Starting point is 00:30:22 restored. God, we pray for financial provision. God, we pray for physical miracles. And we pray for healing God. We pray that you would show up and you would show off and that your miracles would be so real that everyone would know that this is because of the goodness of God. We trust you. And now, God, even though we may not see the miracle in verse 10, we praise you with verse 9 kind of faith, God, with shouts of joy, with adoration with praise and worship, we tell you, God, you are good. We worship you, God, not just for what you do, but for who you are. And God, even before we see the provision, will praise you because you are worthy of our praise. You're worthy of our praise. This week, I want to just encourage you, just worship him. Worship him with verse 9 kind of faith. We praise you
Starting point is 00:31:12 before we see the provision. And then, as we're talking about prayer, there is one prayer that somebody here needs to pray. The very first prayer we pray to God, scripture tells us this. Let me just be real, real clear. All of us, we're, we're, we're. We're, we're, we're We're distant from God because of our own sinfulness. If you ever done something wrong, we all have. And what happens? We feel guilty, we feel ashamed. We feel like, oh my gosh, I don't feel close to God.
Starting point is 00:31:39 Here's the good news that God became one of us in the person of his son, Jesus. God became flesh. Jesus, perfect in every way, was without sin. He died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice. How long was he in the earth? Three days and three nights, just like Jonah, prophesied 800 years before. And on the third day, when the stone was rolled away, Jesus came out because of the perfect
Starting point is 00:32:03 worth, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Now, the Bible tells us this, that anyone who, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. What are we going to do today? Some of you, you're in a mess right now. You're about to have a salvation. It may not be pretty, it may be messy, but guess what? It's from God.
Starting point is 00:32:20 Salvation comes from the Lord. Anyone, it doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter what you've done. When you turn from your sins, when you cry out to Jesus, he hears you. your prayers. He is amazing. He becomes your Savior. He saves you, not because you're good, because he's good, not because you deserve it, but because of his perfect work. And so today at all our churches, there are some of you, this is your moment. Today is the day of your salvation. Salvation comes from the Lord. You can't be good enough. You don't deserve it. In the same way, Jonah didn't deserve it, God saved him anyway. His name is Jesus. And anyone, including you,
Starting point is 00:32:52 who calls on him, would be saved. Today, at all of our churches, those who need them, Those of you online, I need them. We're stepping away from our sin. We're stepping to Jesus. We're calling on the name of the Lord. If that's you today, Jesus, I call on you, save me. I give you my life. That's your prayer.
Starting point is 00:33:06 Lift your hands high right now, up all over the place. Lift up your hands and say yes. Praise God for you. Others today say yes, Jesus, I need you. Lift your hands up and say yes, I surrender. Right back over there and over here. God bless you guys. Oh, praise God.
Starting point is 00:33:19 And up here as well. Others today say, Jesus, I need your prayers. Right back over here and here. Praise God for you. Online, just type in the comment section, I am surrendering my life to Jesus. I'm surrendering. Would you pray today with those around?
Starting point is 00:33:33 You pray, Heavenly Father, I give you my life. Jesus, forgive my sins. Save me. Salvation comes from you. Make me brand new. Be the Lord of my life. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you and serve you and be faithful to you.
Starting point is 00:33:56 Thank you for new life. I give you all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. Somebody praise God with verse 9 kind of faith, with verse 10 kind of faith. Praise God for who he is.

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