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You can be setting in the Lord's House and think, "I should have prayed first." Before I picked them, I should have prayed. Before I talked to y'all first before I said yes to the opportunity, I should have prayed first.
Pastor Mike helped us unpack last week how most people never fulfill their purpose because most people never commit to prayer. Your prayer is your purpose. Your purpose is why you were created here.
There are two important days in the life of everyone: the day you were born, and the day you discover why. If you never discover why you were born, you're not living—you're just existing.
If your purpose is your why, you know it's your purpose because you have a burden for what other people overlook. Here's the thing: if your why does not make you cry, the cost of commitment will always be too high.
Purpose will stretch you. When Jesus was on the cross, he was in purpose, and we always highlight the hanging but overlook the stretching. They didn't just hang him high; they also stretched him wide because purpose will stretch all of you.
I wonder if some of you in this service today can praise God for the stretching season that he may have you in. Let me submit to you: no stretching, no blessing. What you may have been calling stress may actually be stretching—God trying to stretch your faith, stretch your patience, stretch your level of thinking.
It's a sad thing to see God right but see yourself wrong. Purpose! Most people want to be outside in purpose without ever committing to go inside for prayer. Be careful when they're loud when it's time to party but silent when it's time to pray.
I need God to send me a prayer partner—people who won't just pray for me but can also get a prayer through for me. Everybody prays, but not everybody is praying effectively. I need some people in my life who God actually hears and answers when they pray.
When we work, we work. But when we pray, God works. In this season, I'm going to work like it all depends on me, but pray like it all depends on God.
How's your prayer life? Have you been more consistent with getting your hair and nails done than you have with prayer? Have you been more consistent with scrolling than seeking? What if God has been calling you like he called Jonah, saying, "We need some FaceTime because you're so busy trying to get what's in my hand. I need you to spend time at my feet."
God calls Jonah and says, "I have an assignment for you. I need you to go to Nineveh—your enemies—and I want you to preach to your enemies so that I can deliver them." Jonah says okay and runs the wrong way.
He's prophetic and petty at the same time. He's saying, "God, I know you gifted me with the gift of being prophetic, but you want me to go and help the people that are hurting me?" You're sitting here like you never had a Jonah moment in your life, like God never challenged you to go help some people that were gossiping about you.
You know you've gone to another level—not just when you forgive people, but when you also learn how to bless those that cursed you. God says, "Go to Nineveh." Jonah runs away from God.
Could it be that some of the people, places, and pain that you're avoiding is not about avoiding it but rejecting God? The Bible doesn't say Jonah ran away from the Ninevites; it says he ran away from the Lord.
While he's running away from the Lord, he gets on a ship and a storm comes. When you get outside of the presence of God, you lose his protection.
I praise God for the hedge—the protection around me and my family. We know about the hedge because the devil said to God, "I've been trying to find somebody's life who I can mess up," and God said, "Have you considered my servant Job?" The devil said, "Every time I try to attack him, I can't get to him. Every time I try to mess up his family, I can't get to him. Every time I try to ruin his career, I can't get to him." Why? Because you have a hedge around him.
I have anybody in the room that's learned how to thank God for protecting you from danger that you didn't see? For this moment, I want you to praise God for the attacks you didn't see. When the devil tried to get you and you didn't even see it coming, God blocked it.
Look at your neighbor and say, "He blocked it." I should be dead, but he blocked it. I should be in jail, but he blocked it. There was somebody driving drunk on the freeway that could have hit you, but God blocked it. That wasn't your ex leaving you—that was protection. You losing your job—that was protection. I have anybody in the room today that can praise God for the stuff that you thought you wanted, but he kept you away from it, keeping you only with the stuff you needed.
But when I begin to live my life my way, I step outside the hedge. So some stuff we're saying is the devil—it's not the devil, it's your decisions. You can't cast out bad decisions; you can't rebuke bad decisions. At some point, God has to send a crisis to get your attention.
While he's outside the hedge living in a bad decision, a storm comes, and he's sleeping while everyone else is suffering. They're suffering because of him. He's sleeping while people are trying to fix what he started.
Isn't it a trip when people bring all type of chaos and drama into your life, and you can't get no sleep at night, and here they are relaxing, sleeping? You're trying to save you and them, but they sleep. When you make bad decisions, you decrease your discernment. Jonah can't even discern that he's in the midst of a storm because of his own decisions.
We often only preach about the fish, but what about the storm? Most of us are drowning or having to be swallowed by a great fish—a great problem—because we couldn't discern why the storm was coming in the first place.
He looks at them and says, "Just pick me up and throw me into the sea." Last time I checked, he was a grown man; he could throw himself into the sea. But some people are so unhealthy that they need you to help put them back on track.
As he gets thrown into the sea, the Bible says the Lord arranged a great fish. It's tight, but it's right.
I went on a date night with my wife the other day. When we got there, we got there at a certain time, and if they don't speak to you in a certain time, it's like, "Oh, this ain't for me." I done walked up here looking like the king of Zamunda, and y'all aren't even going to show me hospitality? We're about to go take our business somewhere else.
We had a great waiter; he talked to us, knew everything we wanted before we could even say it. We're sitting at the table, and food comes out, but they got there after us—oh no, they didn't! I'm going to be patient. Two more tables came after us; they're getting their food, laughing, joking, eating. I just got water and lime.
So I raised my hand and when the waiter came, I said, "Hey, we got here before everybody that has their food already, and we still don't have our food." The waiter said, "Well, what you ordered has special arrangements."
So even though they may have got what they wanted first, they got what everybody else will get. But you're getting something tailor-made just for you. They may get it first, but they're not going to get what you get.
Do I have anybody in the room today that said, "You may get your promotion first, but what God has for me—eyes have not seen, ears have not heard"? Why? Because he has special arrangements. I'm not just getting any type of blessing; I'm getting specially arranged blessings. I don't just want any type of marriage—Lord, give me a special arrangement. I don't just want any type of house—God, give me a special arrangement.
So instead of complaining about who got it first, say, "Lord, I'll wait on you."
He's swallowed up by a great fish, and while he's in the belly of the fish, Jonah does something he should have done in the first place: he prayed.
In Jonah 2:1, it says: "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish."
He's inside of something that he should have never been inside of if he would have prayed first. Has prayer been your steering wheel or your spare tire? For some of us, we may have to repent to God for only going to him when things break down.
He prays in the belly of a fish. Even though he didn't pray first, I'm glad he prayed. And watch this everybody: don't know how to pray in the middle of trouble. He didn't wait until God got him out of it. He said, "God, I'm going to pray while I'm in the middle of it."
Pastor Mike declared that 2024 is the year that we will be strong. You cannot have a strong year with a weak prayer life.
Jonah is praying in the belly of a fish. As long as he was outside the fish, his commitment was inconsistent. So God had to send a crisis to renew his commitment. The immature will always need a crisis to stay committed.
He stays in the belly of a fish for three days and three nights. I know Easter was a couple of weeks ago, but I feel a resurrection praise break in my spirit, because he said we're shifting from a Resurrection Sunday to a Resurrection season. The resurrection is a recognition that God has the ability to turn what's a tomb for others into a womb for us.
When other people get buried, we give birth from it. Some people are looking at you like you're crazy: "I thought you were done." No, I wasn't buried; I was giving birth. They're wondering, "How did you make it out of that crazy situation you was in?" Because what's a tomb for others is a womb for me. I'm giving birth to new seasons, new joy.
Jesus said in Matthew 26:41: "Watch and Pray so that you will not fall into temptation."
Here's what he says: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." The spirit in you wants to believe, but your mind is struggling with unbelief. The spirit in you wants to wake up and pray, but the flesh in you wants to hit that snooze button. The spirit in you wants to love your enemies, but the flesh in you is saying, "I remember what they did to me last week."
He says, "You have to pray because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Prayer is important because it crucifies our flesh. There are some fleshly desires we have, not because we're evil, but because we're human. When we pray, we take the places that life has shaped us and allow God to shift us. The things that are like us—our natural human behavior—becomes more like God when we pray.
You have to be careful if you only pray for God to change things but not to change you. How are you speaking in tongues and praying in your prayer closet but cussing me out in the parking lot?
Power flows to those that pray.
We often trust God with our salvation, but we don't trust God with our satisfaction. This is how we can be saved in public but addicted in private.
Do we trust that God really knows what it takes to make us happy? Most people in America who are Christians only come to him to make them holy but don't go to him to make them happy.
John 10:10 says: "Jesus said I came so that you may have life and have life more abundantly."
The devil is saying, "I came so that you may not have the abundant life, but that you may have the addicted life." The devil doesn't care about you getting saved; what he will do is try to sneak in some private addiction so that you don't fulfill the full satisfaction of your salvation. You're saved and depressed. You're saved and stuck.
Psalms 37:4 speaks to this: "Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."
There are three levels of blessings: needs, wants, and desires. When you take delight in God, you shift from God just meeting your needs—you're not wanting for nothing—to now having the fulfillment of your heart's desire. He's taking you from just enough to overflow.
But many of us never shift from prayer being a duty to a delight. Is prayer a duty or a delight for you? It's coming to church, praising God, pouring out your heart, trusting him in your everyday life and decisions. Is that a duty or a delight?
He says, "I will give you the desires of your heart." In other words, he's not saying, "I'm not going to give you what you want." He's saying, "I'm going to give you what to want. I'm going to put desires in your heart that you didn't even know existed inside of you."
Once you begin to delight in God, there are some dreams that you thought you had, but once you begin to recognize his dream for you, you'll say, "That's nothing."
Success will get you possessions, but success won't get you peace. Success will get you the job, but success won't get you joy. Success will give you the marriage, but success won't give you meaning. This is how many people are successfully unsuccessful. They got the job, they have the square footage, they have the money, they have the stuff, but they're empty on the inside.
Jesus says, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his soul?" True prosperity is from the inside out, not the outside in. Only purpose can give you that type of fulfillment, but you have to seek the Creator for your purpose.
For some of you, you're not where you used to be, but you're also not where you should be. When you begin to pray, God will start putting some wind behind your back that'll help you get further faster.
Do I have anybody in the room today that's saying, "I feel like I should be further along by now. I feel like there's more in me"? When you truly tap into prayer, God will give you speed. He will make your feet like hind feet.
How do we know that? Because this happened in the life of Jonah. He was going nearly 5,000 miles the wrong way. He got swallowed up by a fish. But the text literally says in Jonah 2:10: "Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit him out onto the beach."
The fish didn't spit him out in the sea; the fish released him where he should have been in the first place. God will use the mistakes of your past as transportation to your future.
I wonder if I have anybody in the room today that knows you haven't been perfect, you've made some mistakes, you've made some bad decisions. You can't blame your ex; you can't blame the devil. You have to look in the mirror and say, "It was me, myself, and I." I'm taking accountability. But God will use the mistakes of my past to accelerate me into my future.
He spit him out on dry ground. He got him further, faster. He would have never arrived there swimming in his own power. But while he was praying, God was using the fish to give him speed.
While you're praying, God was using that bad situation to give you speed. It looks like you're behind right now, but when you pray this week, you're going to look up and say, "All I know is one moment I was in it, and in the next moment I was out of it."
I'm coming out of depression. I'm coming out of debt. I'm coming out of stagnation. Somebody said, "I'm coming out of this."
He prays, and God does not even speak to Jonah first. God has a conversation with the fish. God speaks to the fish.
I'm not just talking about a fish; there's some stuff that's holding you. When you start praying, God will start speaking to what's holding you and command what's holding you to let you go.
I'm declaring: Depression has to let you go. Debt has to let you go. God will speak to what's holding you back and command what's holding you to let you go—even without your permission.
Your purpose does not require you to be perfect, but it does require you to be free.
Paul said, "Owe no man nothing but to love her." He's praying, and God starts talking. The first conversation he has is about what he's stuck in.
What are you stuck in the middle of that you need God to command to let you go? Have you ever been stuck in something where you saw no way out? Nobody in your family could help you get out of it. Nobody in your phone could help you get out of it. You scrolled through every contact in your phone, and you saw no solution. You said, "The only way I'm getting out of this is God."
Sometimes you don't realize that God is all you need until God is all you have.
He's praying in the midst of a fish. God speaks to the fish and commands the fish.
There are different types of prayers. In the belly of the fish, Jonah is praying a prayer of faith. But after he's done praying, God shows us what it's like to pray a prayer of authority. He says, "I have authority over you, so I command you to let my child go."
You'll start praying and fighting different when you stop praying and trying to fight power with power. Start fighting power with authority.
The enemy has power; you have authority. If I were in a bank and someone tried to rob it with guns, the gun represents power. But if I was a policeman, I have something they don't have—a badge, authority. So even though they have power, by law the power has to submit to my authority.
Even though they have plans to rob something, when it comes into the presence of the right authority, it has to drop what it has and cancel their plans.
I may not have a badge, but I have a name, and his name is Jesus. At the name of Jesus, every knee has to bow. At the name of Jesus, demons start trembling. I dare you to start speaking the name of Jesus to everything that's trying to attack your life.
Jesus, you have authority. They just have power.
The fish spits him out on dry land. We're not preaching about Jonah; we're preaching about us. God called us to do something. While we're gifted, blessed, and highly favored, we're petty like Jonah.
"I don't want to go and help people that keep hurting me, so I'm going to disobey you and try to do it my own way." Even so, he says, "You want me to go to Nineveh? I'm going to Tarshish. Tarshish represented a seacoast that had metals, silver, all type of wealth. So I'm going to go and coast and dive into my pleasure because purpose is too painful."
Because he does that, he goes through a storm. He's swallowed up by a fish. He's experiencing what it looks like to be in hell. Then the fish spits him out on dry land.
You missed everything I just said. I'm not talking about Jonah; I'm talking about you. You're still sitting here like you're not a walking testimony today—that you made some bad decisions, your bad decisions took you through a storm, took you through some great pain. But in the middle of it, you learned how to pray. And what was holding you back, God made it release you.
Now in chapter three, the Lord spoke to you. You mean to tell me after I almost blew it, after I disobeyed you, after I rejected you, you're speaking to me a second time? If you don't know how to praise God for nothing else, why don't you praise him because he gave you another chance.
After all that chaos and drama, Jonah finally gets to chapter three. The Lord speaks to him again. Can you imagine? After he almost blew it, after he disobeyed, after he rejected God—God is speaking to him a second time.
If you don't know how to praise God for nothing else, why don't you praise him because he gave you another chance? This message is for people who know they're not perfect. Praise him that he gave you another chance. You should have been dead, but he gave you another chance.
Jonah shows us what it looks like to recover from fumbling favor. Sometimes your heart can be so unhealthy that you have favor and don't even know it. Favor is when God gives you what you don't deserve.
He fumbled favor, but God gave him another chance. Some of us didn't obey the first time, but God gave us the grace to make up for lost time. You might think you missed your opportunity, that it will never come back around. You might feel disqualified to be used by God. But God is saying: I am the God of another chance.
We praise God for gifts, but in this season of life, learn to praise God for grace. Just like a grace period in school or work—a set time when you didn't do what you were supposed to do in the assigned time—God gives you more time to make up for what you messed up. But once the grace period is over, you miss out on the opportunity.
What if you're sitting in the grace period right now? God is looking at your life and saying: "I love you, but I can't keep covering your foolishness if you keep choosing foolishness. I can't keep wasting favor."
In chapter three, Jonah finally gets to Nineveh and obeys God. He preaches throughout the entire city, reaches the king, and the king calls for the entire city to fast, pray, and repent. Nineveh repented and God relented. The destruction headed their way was removed and they were delivered—because they repented.
Repentance is not a bad thing; it's a gift from God. It's a change of mind that changes the direction of your life. When I repent, I'm saying: what I'm turning toward is greater than what I'm turning from.
So here's the question: Are you Jonah or are you Nineveh? Are you the one avoiding the assignment and purpose God has for you? Or are you the one ready to receive what God wants to do in your life?
Some people here have been on the run—running from the assignment and purpose God has for you. You feel like "I'm not fit. It's too much for me." But that's exactly why God wants to use you, because you know it's not about you. It's about what he wants to do through you.
Jonah went through all that chaos and drama—the storm, the fish, everything—to preach one sermon. And Nineveh repented immediately. They didn't need all that chaos; they only needed a sermon.
Maybe the Book of Jonah is not just about God delivering Nineveh, but about God delivering the hearts of people who already believe. God is trying to show Jonah: "What I did in the belly of the fish, I now want to use you to do in the city of Nineveh."
It took Jonah three days to pray in the fish, and then three days to preach in Nineveh. After he was done preaching in Nineveh, they obeyed God. Here's what God is teaching: You teach what you know, but you reproduce who you are. People couldn't experience a turnaround if you didn't have a turnaround yourself.
Maybe what you're going through is not even about you. God wants to get glory out of your life because what he's doing in your life, he wants to use you to do in the life of other people.
Father, I pray that you're using them to be all that you called and created them to be. I pray a special prayer: like Jonah, the first time you spoke to us we didn't listen. But this time when you speak, we're ready. We've learned our lesson. We're ready.
Open the eyes of our hearts and the ears of our hearts to receive all that you want to say and do. May we not leave from here the same way we came in. May our prayer lives be revived. May our hearts turn toward you.
