-Transcript-
00:27 Amen. Welcome to the cafe, welcome to the program. My name is Pastor Clark Covington, Heartland Community Baptist Church here in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.
00:38 I’m so glad you’re joining me here today at the cafe. I’ve got my coffee here. We’re on episode three.
00:45 We’re just plugging along. You hear these episodes maybe once a day if you’re listening on the radio. Of course, we launched a podcast recently and on all the major podcast apps, just search up KJV Cafe and subscribe, amen.
01:02 We’re on once a day there, so more than likely you’re hearing us once a day, but I typically will record three, four, five of these in a row, amen. So we’re on number three here, amen.
01:13 Just kind of getting warmed up, and I’ll tell you, by the time I’m done with this, I’m like, Lord, let me preach another one.
01:19 Let me preach another one. I get all excited. I’m just so thankful for this opportunity.
01:30 I’m thankful for you listening, and I hope and pray that you’re blessed by KJV Cafe, amen. I hope and pray you’re blessed by it, that you take this study that we do, and you apply it to your life, and God works in your life, and you say, yeah, God did something.
01:37 From that program, which simply just opens God’s word, there was something done there, amen.
01:43 Today, we’re looking at the third part in a five-part series on a healthy fear of God. We’re looking at the book of Jonah in that light. The book of Jonah is four chapters.
01:54 We’ve gone through chapter one. We’re now about to go through chapter two. Jonah starts by not fearing God.
02:03 Fearing God, it’s our duty, it’s the beginning of wisdom, it’s literal fear, it’s reverential fear. We’re made safe by fearing God, and there’s so many other aspects to fearing God.
02:12 It’s more than just what you would think of like fearing, taking a test or something.
02:18 It’s much deeper than that. But Jonah, he’s not doing good. He doesn’t fear God.
02:22 God gives him a command, and if he had feared God in all the ways that the Bible tells us to fear God, he would have answered God’s command, which was spoken to him directly by the Lord, which tells me that he was a man of God, and he had a connection with God, and that God had a duty for him.
02:39 If he had just answered that call of God, he would have been successful, and he would have avoided some great, great trials. But instead, he runs from God, he ends up on a boat.
02:51 The sailors are very upset because a massive storm comes, and it looks like that ship is going to get cracked in two, and they’re all going to die.
02:59 And so they said, we’ve got to get this storm under control, and they’re praying to their gods, it’s not working. They’re asking Jonah, hey Jonah, who’s your God?
03:03 Where are you from? Who are you about? What are you about? He says, oh, I’m a Hebrew, I’m a Jew.
03:08 I believe in the Lord, that’s the one that made everything. That’s who I believe in. They’re saying, okay, good.
03:16 Well, you believe in the real God. Well, then get your real God to stop this, and he said, well, you guys have to throw me over. And they said, well, we’ll just keep rowing, because the world is going to align with those that don’t fear God.
03:26 And that didn’t work. And so then they say, fine, okay, last-ditch effort, we’ll throw you over, just like the world in the last-ditch effort oftentimes turns to God.
03:29 And guess what? God causes the storm to cease, and then Jonah ends up on dry land, and that’s what we’re going to pick up here in chapter two, Jonah 2:1
03:35 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God, out of the fish’s belly, and said, I cried by reason of mind affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods can pass me about, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
03:45 Thence I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters can pass me about, even to the soul. The depths closed me round about.
04:15 The weeds wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottom of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever, yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption.
04:27 O Lord, my God, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed.
04:48 Salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.Wow.
04:58 Chapter two really gives us a picture of the preacher Jonah, of the Jonah that now has that healthy fear of God, that is reverencing God, that understands that wisdom starts with God, that understands that God has all power, might, and sovereignty.
05:23 A humbled Jonah fears God sufficiently. And as we see, there’s so much to point out here.
05:27 And I know oftentimes there’s reference to Jonah being a picture of Jesus. He was in the belly of the whale three days. And Jesus was in the depths of the earth three days.
05:41 They cast lots for Jonah to figure out what was going to go on. They cast lots for Jesus, I believe his clothes. Okay.
05:48 Yes, there are similarities there. And yes, there could be, there’s like, you can draw those comparisons. A lot of preachers have, and they’re accurate.
05:54 But Jesus feared God completely because Jesus was God in the flesh. And Jesus did all that the father wanted him to do. And Jesus was obedient unto death.
06:07 So as we look at Jonah waxing on and off from fearing God to not fearing God, and then fearing him again and so forth, you know, that’s not applicable to Jesus because Jesus is and was perfect. Amen. So we see those similarities.
06:16 You can’t ignore those. But you see in chapter two, it starts with a prayer. So it’s kind of funny because in chapter one of the book of Jonah, it starts with God commanding Jonah to go do something.
06:29 In chapter two, Jonah says he’s praying unto God. I cried by reason of mine affliction. And he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
06:42 You know, one simple lesson here is, you know, in chapter one, God’s talking to Jonah. In chapter two, Jonah’s talking to God. You know what? We’re a lot better off in that chapter one mentality when, you know, if we feel that Holy Spirit conviction, let’s go ahead and follow that before we get into a place of great humbling.
07:02 The example I gave our congregation when I was preaching this recently was preacher Ronnie Dale, who was one of the individuals involved with me surrendering to the Lord to my call to be a preacher.
07:17 He told me he was running from the Lord for a long time. He was in church, but the Lord wanted him to preach, and he was refusing to do it.
07:23 And he said in that block of time, he had, I think, two or three strokes and a heart attack. And he literally looked at me and said, don’t let that be you. And I looked at him and said, I’m not.
07:43 I’m surrendering right now. Because that’s a perfect example of like, I hear what God did to you, and that’s awful, but I will learn from your mistake, brother. Count me in.
07:44 I’m on the winning side. I’m ready to go preach. It may be awkward.
07:48 I may not feel prepared and all of these other things, but God’s calling me to do it. Here you are. You’re a living testimony.
07:54 You went into the belly of the whale, so to speak. You went through a literal health kind of type of hell. Amen.
08:00 I was like, count me in. Amen. That is the attitude we need to have.
08:10 Again, and brother Ronnie’s doing great. Holland Memorial Baptist Church there in Bessemer City, North Carolina. Stop in if you’re ever in the area.
08:15 He’s doing great over there. I love brother Ronnie Dale, and I believe the spirit is on that man. Amen.
08:18 I’ve seen him preach great messages where souls have been saved, and I’m just so thankful for brother Ronnie. But that’s a true idea there. It’s better when God calls to respond accordingly with a healthy fear rather than say, okay, I’m going to run from God.
08:30 Because if you’re running from God, some may say, oh, well, you fear him, so you’re running from him. But no, not a biblical fear, because a biblical fear is just like reverence. You know, it’s like fearing the king.
08:42 Amen. You don’t run from the king. You’re in the king’s chamber.
08:48 The king says something. You say, oh, king, live forever. That’s what they said in the Bible.
08:51 Oh, king, you know, the book of Esther, I believe it was, she was afraid to approach the king on a day that wasn’t scheduled for her to speak, because that could lead to her death. Right. And that’s crazy, because she was his wife.
09:00 Amen. And I’m like, you can’t. Wow, you know, my wife comes and talks to me anytime she wants to.
09:05 Amen. But that is a reverential fear. She’s not going to run from the king.
09:10 She’s just going to say, okay, I fear him. I respect him. And so we have to have that level of fear of God that Jonah now exhibits so well in chapter two.
09:17 And the description of being in the belly of the whale, I mean, certainly it does sound a lot like hell. And when we don’t fear God, that is our destination. And I believe, you know, the Bible says, you know, the fool doesn’t believe in God to some extent.
09:30 And I believe that, that there’s no real, like, it’s people can’t really with a straight face say that God isn’t real. When they look at the complexities of nature and the universe, it all testifies to an intelligent creator.
09:42 So what they do is they act in unbelief and willful disobedience and willful ignorance.
09:51 And that, and what they’re doing is they’re not fearing God. They’re not saying that he’s mighty enough to cast them into hell. Amen.
09:57 So what do they do? They don’t fear him and they end up in hell. And that’s, I think the message Jonah is kind of communicating from the belly of the whale. I’m a claustrophobic person.
10:03 Amen. I don’t love crowds at all. Not in love with elevators or tight spaces.
10:08 Amen. I don’t even like small cars as a big guy. I don’t like small cars.
10:13 Amen. When I go looking for a big car, when I go looking for a car, I’ll ask someone, what should I get to like, get you a big car, get you a room, you know, I need shoulder room in there. Amen.
10:19 I need room. So look, I don’t like tight spaces. I can’t imagine being in the belly of a whale, you know, stomach being kind of elastic, amen.
10:26 And kind of just covering you and it’s dark and you, you know, you’re underwater, but you’re still breathing in that belly. And it’s just gotta be absolutely terrifying.
10:33 And that is what, uh, hell, I mean, will be like for those that, uh, reject God’s free gift of salvation.
10:41 It’ll be much worse than that. Amen. There’ll be burning torment.
10:46 There’ll be fire and flames. And the worst part of all of it will be a separation from God. Cause inhale.
10:54 I believe you realize your full need for God and he will not be there because he, I mean, technically he’s there cause he’s everywhere, but he will not be close to you because you rejected him and there’s no way out. So what is Jonah? He’s repentant in the belly of the whale. Amen.
11:01 He’s repentant. He acknowledges his own sin. You know, when we don’t fear God and we, by the way, this doesn’t have to be a big, massive thing.
11:12 Like God’s calling us to preach a revival. We run away. It could be that God’s calling you to tutor somebody after school and you don’t want to do it.
11:18 That God’s calling you to witness to a coworker that you’re good friends with. And it wouldn’t be that hard that God’s calling you to get on social media and testify, or that God’s calling you to get off of social media completely.
11:30 You know, whatever God’s calling us to do, it may not be this big thing, but we need to be repentant and realize that, Hey Lord, you know, maybe we haven’t feared you sufficiently.
11:39 Maybe we haven’t acknowledged your sovereignty and your greatness enough to then go and do what you want us to do. And I’m a preacher, amen. And I’m preaching nearly every day.
11:47 And I go to God and ask him to help me with that. And I pray, I pray to God and say, Lord, please help me because I know, you know, there’s things I’m doing that wouldn’t be what you want me to do.
11:59 And there’s things that you want me to do that I’m not doing.
12:04 And maybe sometimes I’m too casual, amen. And I don’t ever want to be that way. And that’s me.
12:07 And so I’m saying it starts from the top down. I’m not preaching saying, Oh, you better get right. Cause I’m right.
12:12 I’m saying we all need to realize who he is. And you’re saying, brother Clark, how do I have that fresh reminder who he is? Get into his word, get into his word. When you’re saved, you have the Holy spirit living within you.
12:23 And that’s a big, if you have to be saved. Once you accept Christ as your savior, you realize your need to be saved. You realize that he paid that price at Calvary.
12:32 You accept him as savior is saved by the blood. Amen. Once you’re saved, you have the Holy spirit living within you.
12:38 You start reading the scriptures. That scripture will come alive and it is terrifying, you know, and it is yet. This is a mystery of God.
12:45 It’s terrifying and it’s soothing. You know, you, you read the word and it can be the most terrifying passage in the Bible, but you’re soothed by the Holy spirit. You have the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.
12:54 You have knowledge and discernment over the word. And as you study the word, it’s so good. I mean, I just absolutely love the word of God because it is potent.
13:05 It explains God’s power. It gives us an idea of who this God is that we have accepted as our personal Lord and savior. But many will just throw around that idea of having a personal Lord and savior, not be repentant.
13:14 I believe they could actually be saved and just be living in the world and just being fine with that and using justifications. Like so-and-so lives like that. My neighbors live like that.
13:31 So I can, or it’s not against the law. What kind of justifications are these? You can find that the Bible will tear a hole in all of these things. And the Bible should be our source of truth.
13:49 And a Holy righteous, fearful God is one that we should turn to and worship. And as we see in the book of Jonah, as we’ll see in the next two episodes, God’s merciful and loving.
13:53 And so when we show this fear and reverence to God, He responds in great mercy and love, in incredible forgiveness, in incredible patience and long-suffering nature.
14:04 He responds so gently. And this is the great mystery of our God. So fearful, so powerful, so holy, yet so loving and so kind and so tender.
14:17 That’s the God we serve. That’s the God Jonah was serving. That is the God we’re called to worship today.
14:25 So for time’s sake, got to stop. Tune in next time. Take care. God bless. And amen.