​     The sermon covers Jonah 1:6-12.  Everyone on the ship is terrified that the ship will wreck.  Except for Jonah, he's asleep.  The shipmaster wakens him and wants to know why he isn't crying out to his God.  They draw straws to see who has brought this calamity on them.  Jonah draws the short straw.  They want to know what Jonah has done and who he is.  He tells them he's a Hebrew and fears the God of heaven.  They already knew that he was fleeing from his Lord.  Now they know exactly which God he is running from and ask him what he was thinking and how will they get the sea calm.  Jonah tells them to throw him overboard.  That's a brief recap of the story that Pastor Josh built the sermon on.  It goes something like this:
     "Underline that phrase 'O sleeper'.  The Captain finds Jonah fast asleep and he wakes him up.  What are you doing?  What do you mean by sleeping in the middle of this storm?  Call on your God that we perish not."  Today, that is exactly what God has done for us.  He's fixed it so that if you'll arise from your sleep, oh sinner, and be made aware of what's going on around you, you'll see what's leading us into the eternal flames of hell.  Arise, call on God while you have the chance.  Don't wait until it's too late.
     In verse seven, the lot fell on Jonah.  The reason you're in the shape you're in, you got there all on your own.  Sin affects all of us just as it did on the ship.  Ask Adam how sin affects us.  In verse eight the world asks, "Who are you?"  The lost world sees what you're doing and questioning you, I promise you. they're watching.
    In verse nine the world wants to know, "If Jonah feared God, why didn't he do what God told him in the first place?"  Don't run from God.  God is in charge.  We've got to decide just like Jonah but don't make the decision he made.  We have to decide, do what God says or do what I want?
     What are we gonna do?  The rule of God is my only rule for faith and conduct.  It is the roadmap to heaven.  The old saying goes, “The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it.”  It should really be, “The Bible says it and that settles it.”  In verse ten the men asked, “Why did you do this?”  Think about that.  A ship full of heathens, they literally believe in all different kinds of gods.  They ask why he did it.  It begs another question:  Was it worth it?  Today, we would just be a whole lot better off to do what God said in the first place.
     As time goes on we’ll get back together.  For now use the means you have to serve God.  Phone people, pray for them, write.  Why am I in this?  I love you enough to tell you the truth.  Let me ask you:  Is it worth it to turn your back on God?  Don’t turn a deaf ear to the preaching of God.  Verse eleven asks, “What shall we do with you?”  And Jonah replies in verse twelve, “Throw me overboard.”  This morning, throw yourself on the mercy of Christ.  Throw self overboard and turn to Jesus.  Arise, O sleeper, Why have you done it?  Was it worth it?  It’s time to call on God.  Get rid of self and call on Him.  I can’t save you but I can tell you about one who can.”

​     A thirty-minute sermon, at least one of Pastor Josh's, averages around 5,000 to 5,700 words.  Curiosity drove me to figure it out one day.  Since taking notes of his sermons has been a cherished pastime of mine, I was curious to see how many words I actually retrieved of those 5,000 or so.  A good note-taking day will yield about 500 words.  From that comes these articles.  I pray each time that God helps me write the necessary ones.  The April 19 sermon centered on Jonah 1:1-3.  It follows. 
     "The building is not the church, it's the people.  Be the mouth of God, the feet of God to show the world the love of Jesus Christ.  We're going to be preaching out of the book of Jonah and about how he had to come back to God.
     I saw on the computer this week that said concerning this virus situation, "Whoever was supposed to go to Nineveh, would you just go already."  I thought that was pretty good, made me think of Jonah.  The word of God came to Jonah.  We could do a lot worse this morning than hearing the word of God.  Hearing from God can change our lives.  We can have orators to inspire us and comedians to entertain us but we need the spirit of God to come and change our lives.  Our minds can be changed.  If our hearts are changed, we can find no better friend than Jesus and no greater truth than the word of God.  God can satisfy the longing of your soul.
     Don't give place to the devil in your life or in your family life.  During this quarantine or stay-at-home order, get with your family and pray together, sing a hymn, and get your family into the word of God.  It's important.  Listen, when the word of God comes to you, pay attention.
     "Cry against Nineveh.  Their wickedness is come before me." said God.  You'll find when Christ first came preaching in Mark, the first message that he preached was "Repent."  Why?  Because man has sinned and come short of the glory of God.  The message to Jonah was specific.  He had to do something.  He had to go to Nineveh to accomplish something for God.  He couldn't say stay where he was.   And today, for you to hear the word of God, you cannot stay where you're at spiritually to be obedient to God.  I wonder today.  Would you be willing to go for God?
     Listen, the world is desperately wicked.  The sin in the world needs to be cried against.  It needs to be preached against.  Get your eyes off this world and on Jesus.  Jonah, Jonah, Jonah, why couldn't you just do what God said?  It's twenty-nine hundred years later and we say, "Why didn't you do what God said?"  If we could talk to Jonah today, he would say, "Just do what God says.  Follow his word."  Jonah, much like us, decided he would not.
      Jonah paid the fare to run from God.  If you dance before the devil, you're going to have to pay him someday.  Don't fall for that.  Don't pay the fare.  Sin has to be paid for.  Don't take the wages of sin and run from God.  Repent.  Be redeemed.  God wants to save you from your sins.
     Christ has already paid the price.  Think about our souls being on the auction block.  The devil bid high, he gave man all he could want.  God came along in Jesus Christ and said, "I'll go all in."  All you need to do is repent.  The price is paid."

​     How close is eternity?  How close is heaven?  How close is hell?  It might be today.  No one knows what is coming…(part of Ecclesiastes 10:14, NIV).  “I’m here to tell you the truth.  Not my truth” said Pastor Josh, “but The Truth.  Christ rose for you so you can have eternal life.
     The lyrics of the song, Nobody’s There, begins with a little ditty about placing flowers where Budda is or hear children pray to Mohammed’s bones.  But, go to Jerusalem and look for Jesus’ body and nobody’s there.  
     The story in the text begins with Jesus hanging on a cross between two thieves (Luke 23:39-47).  Now, one thief was giving Jesus the business.  He told Jesus that if he really was the Christ, that he should save them.  This guy was a thief.  He had broken the law.  And, yet, he held no idea of his sin and whether or not he deserved to die.  
     The other thief pipes up and says, “What is wrong with you.  Don’t you know  that we deserve what we get?  This man (Jesus) has done nothing and is innocent.”    Two thieves with two different viewpoints.  One thief is hedging his bets.  If this is the Christ, Jesus should save him.  It’s true that the death of Christ on the cross was to pay for the sins of all including this thief.  It’s also true that we all stand guilty before Christ.  The soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Ezekiel 18:20).  Sin is not going to be in heaven.  Forgiveness of sin is for those who seek it.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us. (I John 1:9)
     The other thief is of a different ilk.  After admonishing the reckless thief, he turns to Jesus and asks him to remember him when Jesus comes into his glory.  This death-bed confession of who Jesus is leads him to his salvation.  Jesus tells him that he will be with him in paradise.
     The death on the cross paves the way for our salvation.  The resurrection from the grave leads us into eternal life.  “How death finds you eternity will hold you.”  A  scary thought proposed by our pastor.  But, it’s true, whatever is going to happen for us in eternity is already settled when lying on our deathbed.
      “We have church on Sunday because Jesus rose on Sunday.” said Pastor Josh.  “It’s the first day of the week--a new beginning.  Justice owes Jesus because there was no reason for Him to die.  He paid a debt He didn’t owe.  It’s a debt we couldn’t ever pay back.”

​     It's nearing the end of Jesus' life on earth.  He sends the disciples to bring him an unbroken colt.  "Should anyone stop and ask what you're doing, say, "Because the Lord has need of him."(Luke 19:31)  God didn't need me to accomplish His will.  He didn't need disciples to go get the colt.  He just has it figured that way.
     Way back in Genesis, God spoke the world into existence.  But not man,  Man was created from the dust of the earth, breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7) The things we do in this world is because God has need of it.  What does he need?  Our obedience.  God didn't need me to accomplish His will.  He didn't need the disciples to go get the colt.  He needs our obedience.
     Whatever part you play, do what God bids you to do whether you're great or small or the most or the least.  Do as God leads you to do.  It may not seem like much but if God has called you to do it, then it's everything.  Be willing to follow the leadership of God.  If you do go and there's a Goliath or a Red Sea in the way or the world's against it, say "Because the Lord has need of it."  God does not call on us to perform miracles.  He knows we can't.  He will do the miraculous.  We just need to be obedient.
     This is a strange time dealing with coronavirus.  I talked to a couple who had been in business for many years and asked them if they had ever seen a time like this.  They said, "No" that this was the only time they had seen anything like the present.  "We may see it again next year but this is the first time."  People aren't sure what to do.
     Pastor Josh said, "I preached a funeral for my father-in-law this week.  People came to me and said, "We don't know whether to shake hands with you, to hug you, or to wave at you.  We don't know what to do."  People don't know how to interact."  Here it was at the saddest time, maybe the lowest point in their life and we're not even sure how we're supposed to act in public.  It's a tough deal."
     "God just calls us to be obedient.  God just calls us to be obedient.  He doesn't call us to know all the answers.  He gives us the only answer we need.  He doesn't call on us to do the miraculous.  He knows that he will do the miraculous.  God doesn't need you to do the extraordinary.  God just needs you to be obedient."