when you run from God is when you run from your calling I want us to see from
the scripture that disobedience is not limited to doing something that harms
you it's also doing something that hurts others
Jonah wasn't doing anything that was harming himself but by not going out in
his calling he was hurting other people I want you to write this down
disobedience to God's call puts people close to you in great danger
Jonah put people around him in great danger when he disobeyed God's call your
co-workers will probably go to hell if you disobey God that's the way it is your
family members how many people and I will not ask for raising up the hands
when you started to obey God's call in your life your family is now in church
what would happen if you would have been disobedient they wouldn't be here and
this is only in the year or two what would happen if your continuing in the
call of God other family members because you're praying and you're
fasting for them they will come to know God when we are not living out our call
guys we are causing people to go to hell we're putting in danger those around us
it's like wearing a suicide vest in the marsh pit and thinking it's only gonna
hurt you it's gonna hurt those that are close to
you when you disobey the call of God for your life God calls us out of response
to people calling on him in their pain God calls us in response to people
crying to him out of their pain we don't hear the cry of people when God talks on
our heart and tells us you know invite your co-worker pray for your friend when
God talks on your heart pray for your family fast for your family to know the
Lord when God tugs on your heart if God doesn't call you until his voice
messages have been overloaded with the cries and tears of the people he's
calling you to reach when God called the Moses after
40 years of wilderness is because the cup of tears of Israelites in Egypt has
reached to overflow and God called the number dialed Moses numbers and Moses
you have to go to Egypt and Moses starts coming up with excuses he says I can't
speak I can't go back there I'm most wanted man in Egypt I don't have the
ability I don't have the connections I don't have the army I've tried it it didn't
work my God says Moses you don't hear the cry I don't call you because I have
nothing to do I don't call you because now you're just in a wilderness wasting
your life I called you because so many calls came in and I can't ignore that
that you don't hear that that's why I'm calling you when God called our church
is because God heard the cries of families and young people in tri-cities and
now we hear their testimonies but we also hear that when God was calling us
to pray for them they were calling God to send someone to reach them you know I
remember when I was trying to invite my neighbor to church I live very close to
church and I kept postponing it until I find the right time and one time I went
rollerblading with my wife and she said that I feel this heaviness that
something is not right with her neighbor we haven't seen him in a few
few weeks we came back home and I quickly googled his name and looked at
the newspaper and I found out his obituary and when the real estate agent
who was selling the house invited me to see the house which is also kind of
weird but I went into the house and I saw a cut carpet in the middle of the
living room in the real estate agent told me that he committed suicide he was
a retired vet who committed a suicide in his house and that's why for two months
I haven't seen him now something really hit me hard because at that moment when
God was tugging say God didn't push me he just tugged in my heart invite him
God was seeing that he was contemplating to kill himself
God was seeing that he was medicating himself with alcohol God was healing the
cry so when God whispers to you it's because somebody's been screaming to
we don't hear that when God whispers to you it's because he's responding to
somebody crying to him when God whispers to our church thousands locally and
millions globally it's because thousands and millions are already crying out to
God it's because mothers are saying who how my son is on drugs
my daughter is strangled my daughter is doing all of this stuff
somebody please there is a God please somebody help me and God goes into a
church he dials the number and he says could you please go reach out to others
but we don't hear the cry in the voice of God we hear the whisper so we think
it's not urgent because God is not beating us and God is the screaming
because God doesn't let us God filters the cries of the generation and lets you
hear his whisper but in reality that whisper has a cry behind it and I don't
want us to live a life I lived with that regret and I made a promise to myself
there will be not one service whether it's in a small house which has ten
people or whether it's in a large camp or a crusade I will give an altar call
all the time because this is my platform and how we see people come to know the
Lord because that person's life could be the last time there will be that person
to walked in see I think I know almost everybody here but I don't know those
people who came for the first time or the second time who honestly on the last
straw and they have a gun loaded in the house or a bottle of pills to end their
life with and so I make a decision to myself and I ask you that you do the
same when God calls we pick up we pick up why because we are an answer to
someone else's scream are you with me I want you to see this God will give you
success if you sacrifice your life that sailors don't lose theirs in the storm
I always looked at Jonah as being a selfish perk selfish spoiled brat he
didn't want a see revival ran from God but my perspective changed this week
because I asked myself why did Jesus compare himself to Jonah in the Bible
but no other prophet now we understand because Jonah spent three
days in the belly of the fish Jesus spent three days in the ground but there
is something about Jonah that is always missing there is always ignored is the
fact Jonah without God telling him to do this without sailors giving him the idea
he told the people he didn't know they were not his family he said this storm
will end if I die and I volunteer and God in heaven saw a man who was
willing not only to give give up his snapchat and Instagram he wasn't willing
to take a break from watching Netflix Jonah wasn't just willing to give 10% to
the missionary Jonah was willing to step and literally commit suicide so the guys
he did not know will have a chance to live and God when he saw that he said
that's exactly what my son will do thousands of years later he will step
from the corridors of heaven he will come on this earth and people that
abandon and rejected him he will kill his life for them and because of that
Jesus came on this earth and he says God will not give you any other sign than a
sign of Jonah Jonah died the people he didn't know will find safety and Jesus
died the people he loved will find salvation