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The Prodigal Prophet | Lessons From a Faith Detour

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie
The Truth Network Radio
September 25, 2024 3:00 am

The Prodigal Prophet | Lessons From a Faith Detour

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie

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September 25, 2024 3:00 am

Ever made a wrong turn and ended up going the wrong way on a one way street? Things don’t go well, do they? People are honking, shouting, waving their arms. Not usually smiling either. Seems kind of hostile. Well . . . things don’t go well when we go the wrong way in our faith either. People seem hostile . . . or maybe it’s us. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie shows us the effects of Jonah going in the wrong direction.

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A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.

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Greg, Lori, and Harvest Ministries would like to send you the movie Unsung Hero, the back story of the music group for King and Country. It's a story of a mom and a dad and their seven kids putting their faith into action. You're going to be deeply moved by this story of the amazing small-bone family that have gone on to impact so many through their music, and we are offering this film to you for your gift of any size.

Get the DVD and digital download of Unsung Hero at harvest.org. What I'm concerned about is with a person who has known the Lord for years and stopped changing a long time ago. And they've got crankier, and they've got meaner. We're thinking, what happened to that person? And that's what was happening actually with Jonah. Coming up today, Pastor Greg Lori points out anyone can go backward in their walk of faith. Even an Old Testament preacher, Jonah was the prodigal prophet.

He was angry with and bitter toward God. Jonah made a wrong turn and ended up going the wrong way on a one-way street. Things don't go well, do they? People are honking and shouting and waving their arms, not usually smiling either. Seems kind of hostile. Well, things don't go well when we go the wrong way in our faith either.

People seem hostile, or maybe it's us. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Lori shows us the effects of Jonah going in the wrong direction. We're in our final message in the book of Jonah. Jonah chapter 3 and Luke chapter 15. Jonah 3 and Luke 15.

And the title of my message is The Prodigal Prophet. And we all know about Jonah and the whale. Now I want to talk about another creature in the story of Jonah that is often overlooked.

I am talking about the worm. You have heard of Jonah and the whale. But have you heard of Jonah and the worm? Well you are going to hear about it tonight because a worm plays a significant role in the life of the prophet toward the end of the story.

But before we look at that part, let's sort of get the big picture. What is Jonah about? It is about the largest spiritual awakening in biblical history. And what is significant is that it happened in the most wicked of places. The city of Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria. As I have mentioned in earlier messages in this series that Nineveh was renowned for its wickedness. And the Ninevites were well known for their horrific atrocities and they would conquer other nations. They were destructive and especially cruel and would literally build monuments made out of human skulls to their accomplishments. They were incredibly awful people. And yet this is who the Lord calls Jonah to preach to.

This wicked group of people. And so he was reluctant obviously. And he did not want to go. But yet he went and to his credit this great spiritual awakening breaks out. The Lord says, go and preach to them. Jonah effectively says, Lord they drink haterade in Nineveh. I don't want to talk to them.

In fact I want you to destroy them. But he went. Reluctantly I might add. And then of course we all know the story. He boarded the ship and the great storm came because he was going in the wrong direction. And all of these sailors called out to their various gods and somehow they determined that the storm had come as a result of this strange guy that they had never seen before. And they brought on deck and he identified himself as Jonah. He said, I am a Hebrew and I serve the Lord God that created all things. And they are thinking, ok dude. Why would you run from a god this powerful?

Are you out of your mind? In a sense he was at this point. And as we also mentioned the reason the Lord allowed Jonah to go into this storm and ultimately be swallowed by the great fish or the whale was to discipline him. You know when you are one of God's children and you go astray the Lord is going to chasten you. Another way we might put it is give you a little swat. Not because he is against you but because he is for you.

Not because he hates you but because he loves you. Let me illustrate. If you start to go off course and think something you should not think or do something you should not do and you are convicted in your heart that is not a bad thing my friend. That is a good thing. The time to be concerned is when you can go and overtly sin. Do something the Bible says you should not do and have no pain of conscience. No sense of guilt or no remorse afterwards.

That is scary. But if you are a true child of God you will be unhappy while you are living in sin. And Jonah was certainly unhappy as he was running from the Lord. But the Lord of course worked on his heart while he was in the belly of the beast.

You might say that Jonah had a personal revival in the stomach of the whale if it was a whale. So first he had revival. Then God used him to bring revival.

And as I pointed out earlier nothing can happen through you until it first happens to you. So God was getting him ready for something that was to come. Now we come to Jonah 3. Verse 4. I am reading from the New Living Translation. On the day that Jonah entered the city he shouted to the crowds, 40 days from now and Nineveh will be destroyed.

Now here is the surprising part. The people of Nineveh believed God's message from the greatest to the least and they decided to go without food and wear sackcloth to show their sorrow. Drop down to verse 10. And when God saw that they had put a stop to their evil ways He had mercy on them and didn't carry out the destruction He had threatened. Now this is a stunning spiritual awakening.

An entire city turns to God. It is also worth noting that as I mentioned they were known for their acts of violence. And that is the very thing that they repented of in particular. And this was from a guy who simply said, 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. I mean that is not the most hopeful message I have ever heard. But yet God used that message to bring these people to Himself. There was no offer of forgiveness or any other thing but they somehow got the memo that they had 40 days to get right with God and they believed.

And I think this is an important thing to bring to mind. And I have mentioned this before but no one is beyond the reach of God. These Ninevites were so bad but yet God reached them. And I bet you know somebody that is really bad.

Bad to the bone. A person that doesn't want to hear about the Lord. They don't want to hear you talk about the Bible. They don't want to hear about an invitation to church.

And so you have kind of written them off haven't you? I am not going to invite them. Because every time I engage them in a conversation it turns into a conflict. I am going to ask you to focus your prayers in particular on those difficult people. Because in fact they may be closer to coming to Christ than you realize. Sometimes one of the reasons a person will strike out at you when you share the gospel with them is because they are actually under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

And that very reaction could be a good sign rather than a bad sign. So be praying for those people. And maybe that is one of the people you will invite to church.

And so I think that we should go out when we share the gospel and expect God to bless it because He says His Word will not return void. You know most preachers quote T. H. Spurgeon. He is a guy who lived quite a number of years ago in England. He is called the Prince of Preachers.

A really fantastic communicator. But he had a very successful church in the 1800s. And many people attended it there in London. And so a young pastor came to Spurgeon once and he wasn't having the results Spurgeon was having. And he wasn't having people come to Christ in his church like Spurgeon was having.

So he said to Spurgeon, I don't understand it. He said, we never have people come to Christ. And whenever I preach no one comes to believe in Jesus.

And Spurgeon asked him, let me ask you a question. Do you expect people to come to Christ every time you preach? And the young preacher said, well of course not. Spurgeon said, and that is why you don't have people coming to Christ. See when I speak I expect people to come to Christ. Not because I am a great preacher but because I have a great gospel and there is power in the gospel and it impacts people. So I expect it. You know we need to attempt great things for God and expect great things from God.

That is not an original statement to me but it has been said many times. Attempt great things for God. Expect great things from God.

Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everyone, I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a Harvest version of Netflix.

We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen, The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash, The Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions and much more.

So go and download the Harvest Plus app. And now Pastor Greg continues his message called The Prodigal Prophet. Now we shift gears in the narrative and we come to the surprising finale of the book of Jonah. How many of you believe that the Bible is inspired by God?

Raise your hand up ok. I believe it too. I believe the Scripture is inspired by God for many reasons. I believe that the Bible is given to us from God because it is the one book that dares to predict the future. Not once. Not twice.

But hundreds of times with 100 percent accuracy. I believe the Bible is the Word of God because everything it has promised to me I have found to be true. And I believe the Bible is the Word of God because there is a Jonah chapter 4. Because if I was Jonah and I was writing my own story and most scholars believe Jonah wrote the book of Jonah I would definitely not have put in chapter 4. The book would have ended on chapter 3. Epic ending.

Thousands of people believe probably upwards of a million in a great revival. Thank you very much. Good night. God bless. Drop the mic. Exit stage.

But no. We have Jonah chapter 4. And to Jonah's credit he wrote it.

He literally throws himself under the bus in chapter 4 and shows how ridiculous he was after this revival happened. So I know this is an inspired book because why else would a story like this be in it. Jonah 4 verse 1.

Now remember the backdrop. All these people have believed. It is a spiritual awakening.

It is amazing. And this is what Jonah does. This change of plans upset Jonah and he became very angry. And he complained to the Lord about it saying, didn't I say before I left home that you would do this Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish. Because I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God.

Slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people. So just kill me now Lord.

I would rather be dead than alive because nothing I predicted is going to happen. I love God's response. The Lord replied, is it right for you to be angry about this?

This is amazing. Jonah is angry because God did not wipe out the Ninevites. A clear translation of what God said would be, you are very angry aren't you? The word that is used here means to burn with anger. He was fuming. He should have been rejoicing and instead he is really mad.

He was preoccupied with himself. Just kill me now God. Not really. Someone is getting dramatic here. Yeah I just don't even want to live anymore because nothing I predicted happened. Well actually what you were predicting was really horrible.

So you should be happy it didn't happen. But Jonah knew what he was talking about. He said, I knew you would do this Lord. You are gracious. You are full of mercy. I know you would do something like this.

And this is why I did not want to speak to these people. Think about this. Here is a guy who survived three days and three nights in a vicious stomach. A man who repents and prays and preaches the truth and the people of Nineveh come to believe and now look at the condition he is in at this point. Now this just reminds us that no matter how powerfully you are used by God you can still crash and burn. No matter how powerfully God blesses you you can still self-destruct.

You can still sin and sin horribly. If you don't believe me just ask Abraham. Ask Moses. Ask David. Ask Samson.

Ask Simon Peter. All people that were remarkably used by God who made big mistakes and committed sins afterwards. And so that is what was happening with old Jonah. Now sometimes people worry about new believers not changing quickly enough. I am more concerned with older converts who have stopped changing.

Listen. We all know new believers. They are kind of figuring this out.

It is all new to them. And maybe they are a little rough around the edges. And maybe some profanity slips out or there are some old vices that haven't completely dropped off yet. Or something happens and you think yeah they have a little growing to do. That is understandable.

I actually find myself pretty patient with that sort of thing. What I am more concerned about is with a person who has known the Lord for years and stopped changing a long time ago. And they have got crankier and they have got meaner. But yet they quote the Bible all the time. They are thinking what happened to that person.

How do they end up in that state. They have literally stagnated in their walk with Christ and no longer are making the changes. And now instead they are becoming bitter and very critical. Their new form of ministry it seems to be is tearing other people down. That passion they used to have for evangelism is now used to critique other Christians.

And this can happen. And that is what was happening actually with Jonah. Jonah was a mature believer. He should have known better. But he was having a relapse. Jonah was the prodigal prophet. He was angry with and bitter toward God.

Let me ask you. Have you ever felt like God has let you down? You had certain dreams. Certain aspirations. Certain hopes.

And those things didn't pan out as you had planned. And you feel like God let you down. And that is what is happening with Jonah. He felt like God had let him down. And he was angry with God. Have any of you ever been angry with God? Where did you do this Lord? Or why didn't you do that Lord? Where were you Lord?

He was angry with the Lord at this point. And we can be that way as well. Maybe sometimes that is when God blesses somebody and we think He should have blessed me instead of them. They shouldn't have that blessing. I should have that blessing.

Maybe that is one of the very reasons they haven't. And you don't. Because you thought you were deserving. Excuse me. Deserving? Friend you deserve judgment. Not blessing. So when God gives you a blessing be thankful for it. And if God gives someone else what you perceive as a greater blessing be thankful to God.

He gave it to them. You know the Bible says, Rejoice with those that rejoice and weep with those that weep. I found it is a lot easier to weep with those that weep than rejoice with those that rejoice.

Does that make sense? You know maybe someone comes to you and says, Oh man my fiancé broke up with me. Oh I am so sorry. I am so sorry.

Let's pray. Then somebody else comes up to you and says, My boyfriend just proposed to me and you have been single for a long time. And you are like, Oh praise God. You know.

You are not rejoicing with those that rejoice. Oh yeah your heart went out to the person who was having trouble. Oh man I just checked into the hospital. I am having medical issues. Oh man I will come be there with you. I will bring you something to eat. I will weep with those that weep. Oh man I just got a raise at work and I got a brand new car.

Oh praise God. You know. You are mad. That is not fair you say.

I deserve that actually you didn't. Nor did they. But I think that we need to just get things into perspective. And this is the problem.

Jonah was actually falling into sin. Here is a little app on my phone. I don't know which grand kid ordered it. But these weird games appear on my phone. And sometimes like I get little updates in the middle of the night. Ding.

I pet hotel just something. I don't know. How do I get this thing off my phone. And one of the apps on my phone is Dumb Ways to Die. Have you ever seen that? And it is kind of funny actually.

It is these little cartoon characters and they have all these dumb ways to die and some of them are setting fire to your hair. Poking a grizzly bear. Getting toast out of a toaster with a fork. Those are bad ideas. Ok. Well listen I can tell you there is a lot of dumb ways to fall into sin too. Because sin makes you stupid.

And you don't think clearly. And we sometimes think a backslider, to use a Bible word, a backslider is someone who falls into gross sin. Oh yeah. Yeah they left their wife and they are having an affair. That is a backsliding.

Yes it is. Oh man they are back into drinking and doing drugs again. They are backsliding.

Yes they are. But that is not the only way to backslide. Well they don't come to church anymore. They are backsliding.

They could be. But did you know you can be in church every Sunday and even at a midweek study and still be backslidden? How? I am here. Aren't I? Yes you are.

It is a good thing that you are here. But there are different ways for us to fall away. And so that is what was happening to Jonah. You see he was falling. He was in a state of spiritual failure. And he was hoping to be entertained.

You know he predicted Nineveh would be judged. Pulled up a ringside seat. Got out some milk duds and popcorn.

Probably didn't have it back then. I don't know why. I like milk duds with popcorn. A little salty. A little sweet.

Right. And I go to a movie and by the way my seat looks like a bomb went off. It is just horror. My wife says, this is embarrassing. Look at your seat.

Popcorn everywhere you know. I go into some kind of weird feeding frenzy. I don't know what happens. But he is waiting to be entertained.

Ok. I am going to just sit here and watch the judgment of God fall in this city. But things did not go as planned. And he was angry with God. And so that is what is happening to Jonah. Pastor Greg Laurie with insight on Jonah's rebellion and refusal to follow through on God's directive. It is from the final message in Pastor Greg's current series here on A New Beginning called Jonah Go. Now the gospel message is an important message.

A life saving message. Even though Jonah had his priorities mixed up. But you know having our priorities mixed up is the very reason for the gospel in the first place. Have you ever re-prioritized and come to the Lord and made a decision to follow him? To ask him to forgive your sins and give you eternal life. Pastor Greg if somebody would like to do that right now make that kind of decision.

What would you say to them? I would say that God is just a prayer away. You know it does not take years to become a Christian. It does not take months. Frankly it does not even take hours.

It can happen so quickly. It just starts with you saying to God I know I am a sinner. I know that you love me. I know that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and pay for those sins and then to rise again from the dead and I want him to come into my life. So here is my question to you.

Have you done it yet? Because Jesus who did die on the cross and rose again from the dead three days later is alive and standing at the door of your life right now and he is knocking. And he is saying if you will hear my voice and open the door I will come in. Would you like your sin forgiven? Would you like to know that when you die you will go to heaven?

Do you want Christ to come into your life right now? If so why don't you just stop whatever it is you are doing and pray this prayer with me. You can pray it out loud. You can pray it in the quietness of your own heart. But pray this prayer to God. Say Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner but I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I am sorry for my sin and I turn from it now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. I ask all of this in Jesus name.

Amen. Listen if you just prayed that prayer the Bible promises that God has heard your prayer and has answered that prayer. The Bible says that we will confess our sin. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So God bless you.

You've made the right decision. The decision to follow Jesus Christ. Yeah that's right and listen as you begin to live this new life we want to send you something to help you get started off right. It's Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. It's in an easy to understand translation along with hundreds and hundreds of study helps especially for those who are new to the faith.

Millions of people have been helped by this resource. So get in touch for your own New Believers Bible. We'll send it free of charge. Just call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. And then let us take a moment to thank you for praying for this ministry and for supporting it through your generous donation.

It's an investment in kingdom business. Isn't that right Pastor Greg? Yeah it's really true Dave and I believe it's so important because you know the gospel saves lives. It saves eternal lives because when a person believes in Jesus according to scripture they pass from darkness to light from the power of Satan to the power of God. And then of course that changes the course of their future.

That impacts their children and their children's children. The gospel changes everything and thousands and thousands of people respond every single year. Thanks to the Lord. Also thanks to you for your investment in this ministry enabling us to reach people wherever they are. So if this is something you care about I encourage you to make a financial investment in A New Beginning and Harvest Ministries. Yeah that's right and we really do appreciate your support. Thanks for partnering with us today.

It can make a real difference not just for today or this week but for eternity. So get in touch with your support today by calling 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24 7 phone number 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 92514.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well next time the final installment in Pastor Greg's series called Jonah Go. Well see Jonah didn't want to go. He changed his mind. He did preach to Nineveh but he was still angry. More of the story coming next time. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible Teacher Greg Laurie.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-09-25 05:55:32 / 2024-09-25 06:05:21 / 10

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