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00:00 Listen, this message is for the wounded. If you have ever in any way been impacted
00:06 by the actions of other people, betrayed, manipulated, gaslighted, lied on, abused,
00:12 this message is for you. It's called "I Can't Believe They're Getting Away With This."
00:18 I want to help you heal from the inside out. He sent his word to heal you.
00:23 Receive this word, be blessed by it, and if it adds value to you, I only ask you for
00:28 one thing, and that is you share it with somebody else. I love you. Enjoy the message.
00:35 Alright, well, I want to read a few verses of scripture found in the book of Jonah, chapter
00:39 number 4, verse number 1. I'm going to read from the New International Version. It says,
00:45 "But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, saying,
00:56 'Is this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? This is what I tried to forestall
01:01 by fleeing to Tarsus. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to
01:06 anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away
01:15 my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.'"
01:24 I want to stop reading right there and tag a title to this text. We're going to talk
01:27 from this subject and our time together today. "I Can't Believe They Are Getting Away With
01:32 This." "I Can't Believe They Are Getting Away With This." Clap your hands, 12 o'clock.
01:41 It's a little dreary. Either y'all been outside this weekend, or you're on your way
01:50 outside. It's a little... Family, I recently came across a quote that I thought was an
02:00 asset to what I'm going to be attempting to talk about in our time together today. And
02:05 the quote went something like this, "How people treat you will determine their harvest. How
02:15 you respond will determine yours. How people treat you will determine their harvest. How
02:26 you respond will determine yours." And this phrase is a powerful principle I think we
02:37 should all put into practice when we are navigating seasons where we are experiencing the inevitability
02:48 of adversity. Did I just hear you correct, Pastor Darius? Did you just call adversity
02:54 inevitable? Yes, I did. I did because I eavesdropped on a conversation that Jesus was having with
03:02 his apprentices. And in John chapter number 16, he says these words to his apprentices.
03:08 He says, "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace." In other words,
03:15 if you are unaware of what I'm getting ready to articulate, it's going to create the absence
03:20 of peace. In other words, that your lack of peace is going to be based on your lack of
03:25 information. He says, "I want you to know this because I understand the power of ignorance.
03:31 I want you to know this because ignorance is expensive. I want you to know this because
03:35 whatever area you are ignorant in, you are vulnerable in. I want you to know this because
03:40 the prophet Hosea put pen to paper and said this in Hosea 4, 6, 'My people are destroyed
03:45 for a lack of knowledge because the enemy operates in the arena of ignorance.'" As a
03:52 matter of fact, one of the metaphors that the Bible uses to describe the enemy is he's
03:57 called the prince of darkness. Darkness is not just a metaphor for evil. Darkness is
04:03 also a metaphor for ignorance. When someone is ignorant, they are in the dark. And the
04:10 apostle Paul says if we are ignorant of Satan's devices, he gets an advantage over us. Please
04:17 don't mishear me. Ignorance is not the same as intelligence. Intelligence speaks to your
04:23 capacity to comprehend. Ignorance speaks to the accuracy of the information you've acquired
04:29 on a given subject. So ignorance is not just when I don't have any information. Ignorance
04:35 is when I got the wrong information. So this means the devil works diligently not just
04:42 to keep us uninformed. The devil works diligently to keep us misinformed. He wants to give us
04:49 bad information, but in order for us to accept bad information, he's got to send it through
04:55 good people. In order for us to accept bad information, he's got to send it through good
05:02 sources. So a lot of the time, one of the places that the enemy engages in the dissemination
05:08 of misinformation is the church. Y'all aren't talking to me. And some of us are uninformed
05:17 about the inevitability of adversity because we received information that has reduced and
05:22 relegated our ability to have victory to avoiding trouble. We have been mistaught that you can
05:29 rebuke everything, that you can bind everything. You can rebuke the devil and you can bind
05:36 the devil, but you can't rebuke God and you can't bind life. Are y'all here in this trouble?
05:44 So Jesus says, "I want to say this to you so you can have peace. To be surprised by
05:53 the inevitable is to be naive. So let me say this to you so that when it happens, you won't
06:00 think it's abnormal." Because when you think it's abnormal, you personalize your pain.
06:11 You say, "Man, why is this happening to me?" No, this happened to everybody. Let me say,
06:20 come on now, come on. It's not that you're glad that it's happening to somebody else.
06:27 You just happy you're not the only one. This side not giving me realness today. I said,
06:33 it's not that you're glad it's happening to everybody else. You just happy you're not
06:39 the only one. So Jesus said, "All right, I'm saying this to you so that you have peace.
06:52 In this world," that's what it says, "In this world, you will," I got a witness. Somebody's
07:04 going to help the preacher preach today. "In this world, you will have trouble." Right?
07:19 I love it. He says, "In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart." Here's what
07:26 the King James Version says, "Be of good cheer." Because I'm not finished talking yet. "Be
07:34 of good cheer," because I got something else to say. "Be of good cheer," don't put a period
07:40 there, put a comma there, "because I have overcome the world." In other words, he's
07:47 saying, watch this, that your victory doesn't come by you always avoiding trouble. He says,
07:55 your victory comes sometimes by you overcoming it. The gospel is not a gospel of avoidance.
08:03 The gospel is also a gospel of overcoming. If you avoid, you win, and if you endure,
08:11 you win. Y'all missed it. Either way, all I do is win. Sometimes I have a pass over
08:22 victory where things pass me over, but then there are some seasons where it doesn't pass
08:29 me over, and I end up in the fiery furnace like the Hebrew boys. But here's the revelation.
08:38 If he doesn't stop me from going in, it's because he plans to get in with me. If he
08:51 doesn't bring you out, that means he's on his way in. Is there anybody honest enough
08:58 to say 2023 has not been without trouble? I've been in the middle of some fire, but
09:06 I'm still in my right mind. I'm still in one piece. The Bible says the Hebrew boys
09:17 came out of the fiery furnace and didn't smell like smoke. I'm telling somebody, when God
09:25 bring you out, you don't smell like what you've been through. Be of good cheer. I have overcome
09:36 the world. He said, but as long as you got residence in this world, you're going to have
09:47 to deal with some sort of adversity. He said, I want you to know that so that when it happens,
09:54 you have peace. I want you to know that so that when it happens, you're not saying, this
09:59 isn't supposed to happen to me. He said, I want you to know this because some peace doesn't
10:07 just come through prayer. Some peace come through preparation. I don't have time, but
10:14 some of us would have more peace if we were more prepared. Come on and talk to me. I said
10:23 some of us would have a little more peace. It's like, if we was more prepared. So I'm
10:30 telling this so you have peace. As long as you have residence in this world, you're going
10:34 to have adversity. Why? Because you live in an imperfect world, so life happens. It means
10:41 that this world is not functioning according to the original intent of the creator. That
10:48 makes us all of the created order is impacted. And as a result of that, life happens in ways
10:59 we can't control or predict. Economic downturns, tornadoes that blow away everything you spent
11:09 your whole life building, tsunamis, unexplainable illnesses that come out of nowhere. Sometimes
11:17 we got to deal with adversity because life happened. Then sometimes we got to deal with
11:21 adversity not because we live in an imperfect world. Sometimes we got to deal with that
11:24 with adversity not because life happened because, but because we happen. Come on and talk back
11:35 to the preacher today. I said, because we happen as an imperfect person living in an
11:41 imperfect world, we have the ability to make imperfect decisions and every decision is
11:45 pregnant with the potential to produce a season. And some seasons we live in are a result of
11:49 decisions that we made. Sometimes the inner me is the enemy. So life happens, I happen.
12:01 But then also there's some adversity we deal with. This is where we're going to land today
12:05 because people happen. Yeah. Sometimes we deal with adversity not because life be lifin'
12:12 but because people be peoplin'. Did you hear what I just said? It's not just that life
12:19 be lifin' but people be peoplin' because God has the human species living with interdependence.
12:26 And as a result of that, I can be directly or you and I can be directly or indirectly
12:31 impacted by the activity of other people. It means that some of the adversity that you
12:37 and I experience isn't just tied to the decisions that we make. Some of the adversity that you
12:42 and I experience is also tied to the decisions that other people make. And so when other
12:47 people are making good decisions, we can be blessed by the decisions that they make. But
12:52 when other people are making bad decisions, we can be burdened by the decisions that they
12:56 make. And this means you're going to hit a season in life where you become the victim
13:01 of somebody else's imperfection. Where you become detrimentally impacted by somebody
13:08 else's dysfunction. And this is why I said this in the first service, but I just feel
13:12 like I need to spin the block and say this one more time. And that is this is why you
13:17 got to be so conscious and so careful when you start entering into covenantal relationships
13:23 with people. Because you, watch this, you shouldn't just enter into covenantal relationships
13:30 based on what their body looks like and what's in their bank account. I need to know what
13:36 kind of choices do you make? I need to know, are you responsible with your decisions? Because
13:43 when I come into relationship with you, I am not just joining with you in a sense that
13:50 I benefit from your good choices. I am also joining with you because I'm impacted by your
13:56 bad choices. I want to know what kind of decisions do you make?
14:11 We are impacted by the imperfections of other people. And it's one thing to navigate through
14:21 a season of struggle because of what you did to yourself. It's another thing. I can handle
14:31 it when I cause it. Who's going to wave at the preacher and talk? Yeah, it's one thing
14:37 to navigate through a season of struggle and I did it. It's another thing for us to have
14:49 to navigate through a season of struggle because of what was done to you. Did you hear what
15:00 I just said? It can be uniquely upsetting, agitating, and unnerving when you experience
15:14 the agony of injury from individuals who are not only doing it, but don't care. Who are
15:32 doing it and become upset and angry when you set a boundary and refuse to allow them to
15:46 keep perpetuating the behavior that you've been tolerating for way too long. So you're
15:58 doing things that are not considering me. So when I finally make a decision to set a
16:04 boundary and consider myself, because obviously you're not considering me, you mad at me for
16:13 considering me. Advocating for me is not attacking you. You can be impacted by the activity of
16:36 other people. Reputation injured because of people speaking recklessly. Y'all aren't talking
16:46 to me at this 12 o'clock service. Yeah, yeah. Reckless conversations, gossip about things
16:54 they are misinformed or uninformed about. Embezzlement, not just embezzlement economically, embezzlement
17:03 emotionally. You taken and ain't giving nothing. It's bad English, but good theology. I said
17:12 taken, but not giving anything. Embezzlement and manipulation and gaslighting and exploitation
17:22 and abuse and betrayal are all weapons of mass destruction used to injure our soul.
17:43 It is an inward wound and those are much more difficult to deal with than outward wounds
17:50 because when I'm bleeding outwardly, I see it. But when I am bleeding inwardly, I don't.
18:03 Injury is an inevitability. Emotional injury is inevitability. You can reduce the likelihood
18:17 of it with wisdom, but you cannot avoid it. To avoid risk means to avoid love. Did you
18:35 hear what I just said? I said to avoid risk. To avoid risk means to avoid love because
18:44 you can't love without risk. Did you hear what I just said? I said you can't love without
18:53 risk. Love is taking your heart out of your body and putting it on the altar of somebody
19:06 else's actions. Did you hear what I just said? It means that what happens with my heart is
19:16 no longer just based on what I do. What happens with my heart is impacted by what you do because
19:26 love means I got to give you my heart. Am I making sense? It's inevitable family. And
19:48 when we are dealing with these kinds of injuries to our soul, these injuries in our soul produces
19:55 a sore in our soul called offense. And offense never stays offense. Offense mutates into
20:05 something else. And just like a cold can become pneumonia if you don't address the cold. Are
20:13 y'all hearing what I'm saying? Offense can mutate into something else if it is not immediately
20:20 and properly addressed. And here is the issue with offense. Offense doesn't always show
20:29 up looking like pain. Sometimes when you've got unaddressed offense, it shows up looking
20:36 like a personality trait. We think because I'm not hurting, I'm healed. When the truth
20:43 of the matter is, am I making sense? When the truth of the matter is sometimes that
20:48 offense that was unaddressed became an infection, but the infection doesn't show up in the form
20:54 of pain. It shows up in the form of personality traits. So now people become numb, unengaged,
21:01 not vulnerable, not generous, hard, mean. Y'all aren't talking to me. Guarded. And they
21:08 say things like, that's just the way that I am. And I'm not disputing whether or not
21:13 that's just the way that you are. I am saying something made you that way. And the question
21:19 you have to ask is, did the potter make me this way or did pain make me this way? Have
21:28 you allowed the hands of pain to replace the hands of the potter in shaping you into who
21:36 you've been called and created to be? And this is why you have to know. This is why
21:41 John Bevere calls offense the bait of Satan, because this is why you have to know that
21:48 offense is never about offense. That what happened in your past is never about your
21:53 past. It is always about your future. The devil wanted to use something that happened
21:59 in the past to make you adopt a personality trait that you would carry into your future
22:05 that would stop you from being who you've been called to be.
22:12 I don't have time, but I do a teaching on this using Paul when he got bit by snakes,
22:23 when he got snake bitten. And I've taught you this before, that it's like snake bite.
22:28 It can be the words or the actions of people. And it's never a snake bite that kills anybody.
22:34 Right. Nobody ever dies from a snake bite. They die from the poison. And some of us think
22:46 we winning because you survived the bite. And the devil's like, I didn't bite you to
22:53 bite you. I bit you to put poison in your system. You survived the bite, but you're
22:59 still walking around with emotional poison. So it's some personality. And so some of us
23:20 have been this way so long. You think it's you. I'm going to say that one more time.
23:31 You have been this way so long. You think it's you because you don't remember the thing
23:42 that happened that made you the way that you are. Therefore, we've got to learn the life
24:02 skill of addressing offense immediately. Did you hear what I just said? We've got to learn
24:17 the skill of addressing offense immediately. I wish I could tell you you would never be
24:22 used. But if I were to tell you you're never going to be used, that mean I would have to
24:30 tell you you're never going to be successful because you can't be successful without at
24:40 some point being used. I wish I could tell you that you can never be exploited. But the
24:48 only way I can tell you that you'll never be exploited is to tell you to never be a
24:52 good person. Because your goodness to someone else never makes them grateful. Only their
25:17 character does. You can't out good bad character. And some of you just keep trying to do more
25:27 and you're giving more and you're showing up more and you're releasing more because
25:32 you think if you keep doing more and giving more and showing up more, then they're going
25:37 to be grateful. But your generosity never makes anyone grateful. It makes them entitled.
25:49 Now they think they owed what you never had to give. So when you stop doing what you never
25:57 had to do in the first place, now they act like you're actually doing them wrong. Let
26:03 me say that one more time. When you stop doing what you never had to do in the first place,
26:14 then they act like you're doing them wrong. You like, wait a minute. Wait, I gave you
26:35 all these yeses. All these yeses I gave you all of a sudden become irrelevant because
26:49 I gave you a no. When you ain't deserve the other yeses. Let me go to this side because
26:57 if it had been somebody else, they would not have been as generous as I was. They would
27:03 have not as been as patient as I was. It can't happen. It can't happen. You can't avoid.
27:24 I wish I could tell you could avoid. You can't avoid it. You can't. I wish I could tell you.
27:36 I wish I could tell you. You never be misunderstood. But for me to tell you you'll never be misunderstood
27:45 means I have to tell you that you never need to reposition a relationship. See, reposition
28:03 relationships doesn't mean you move people off your relational bus. Sometimes it means
28:09 your season in this seat has come to an end. And it doesn't mean you wrong. It just means
28:21 this is no longer right. But people will treat your repositioning as abandonment. All these
28:40 years I felt that I felt I felt all these years I can't believe. You can't believe I
28:57 move you from a seat that I only kept you in because of loyalty. You questioning my
29:12 love? It is inevitable. And because it's inevitable, it is incumbent upon us to learn. This is
29:27 a life skill. Releasing offense quickly is a life skill. Because Jesus said in Luke 17
29:37 1, it is impossible to avoid offense because it's impossible to not be injured. Why is
29:47 this important, Darris? Y'all all right? I got 11 minutes and 48 seconds. Y'all all right?
29:51 All right. Here it is. Here it is. This is important because if we don't learn the life
29:55 skill of immediately addressing offense, we're going to hit a season in life where we're
30:02 dealing, Marlon, with the accumulation of offense. Remember compound effect last week?
30:09 Yes. We're dealing with the accumulation of offense. Listen to this. And if we don't learn
30:17 how to avoid the accumulation of offense, we'll find ourselves in a season where we're
30:25 managing a meltdown because some meltdowns are a manifestation of the accumulation of
30:34 offense. You let too much stuff go on for too long. And it is compounded to the effect
30:44 now. One trigger. Are you hearing what I'm saying? And an example of what I'm trying
30:58 to articulate is seen in this text with this gentleman named Jonah. We read part of Jonah's
31:04 story in Jonah chapter 4, but to understand contextually what's happening in chapter 4,
31:08 we got to pick up with this story in Jonah chapter number 1 because Jonah chapter number
31:13 1 allows us to eavesdrop on a conversation that God is having with this prophet named
31:16 Jonah. And he tells Jonah, "I want you to rise and I want you to go to Nineveh because
31:21 I've got a message I want you to give to the people in Nineveh." And the Bible says that
31:26 Jonah hears the word from God, he gets up and he goes down to Joppa. God says, "Go to
31:32 Nineveh." He goes down to Joppa. God says, "Go to Nineveh." He goes down to Joppa. God
31:40 says, "Go to Nineveh." He goes down to Joppa because whenever you go in a direction that
31:46 is opposite the direction God's calling you to go, no matter what direction you going,
31:51 you are going down. The money might be going up, but you are going down. The influence
31:57 might be going up, but you are going down. He says, "Because I never send you in a direction
32:04 that is not mutually beneficial for the people I'm sending you to." So the Bible says he
32:11 goes down to Joppa, he goes down to Joppa Tario and he pays a fare and gets on a ship
32:17 going to Tarshish. So he goes down to Joppa, then he pays a fare and gets on a ship going
32:23 to Tarshish. Now, if he would have went to Nineveh, he could have went to Nineveh for
32:27 free because God underwrites your obedience. He says, "If you will obey me, watch me underwrite
32:39 it. If you will obey me, watch me send provision. If you will obey me, watch me swing a door
32:45 open." So you obey me, I'm going to underwrite it. If I send you to a brook called Cherith,
32:55 I'm commending ravens to feed you there. But if you're looking for ravens at a place other
33:01 than Cherith, you're not going to find them because your provision is where you're supposed
33:04 to be. God, when are you going to show up? I'm going to show up when you show up at the
33:10 place I sent you to. I'm waiting on you where I sent you. Did you hear what I just said?
33:16 Favor is waiting on you where I sent you. Opportunity is waiting on you where I sent
33:22 you. I got eight minutes. Are y'all all right? He paid a fare, goes down to Tarshish, and
33:35 the Bible says in verse four that the Lord sends a great wind, a great wind. The wind
33:42 is blowing an unusual storm. Watch this. It's a sign, but Jonah doesn't see the sign because
33:52 later God's about to send a whale, but he always sends the wind before he sends a whale.
34:01 He says, "I'm going to send you a warning in the form of the wind. If you ignore the
34:07 warning in the form of the wind, then you're going to have to deal with the experience
34:13 of the whale." Now, the wind is blowing. He can't get it because when you're determined
34:22 to disobey, your discernment is impaired. Stuff you would pay attention to, you explain
34:31 away. They've been shysty. You've just been explaining it away. Let me go. Y'all, I feel
34:39 they've been selfish. You've just been justifying their selfishness. They have been manipulative.
34:46 You've just been attributing their manipulativeness. God's like, "You saw the wind."
35:03 The Bible says the storm was so great that the mariners, the sailors, were afraid. This
35:09 means people who were accustomed to traveling were afraid because the storm was so great,
35:13 so they started throwing their cargo overboard in an attempt to lighten the load. The recovery
35:18 translation of the Bible says they're actually throwing their equipment over. Now, these
35:23 are merchants, so they are literally responsible for transporting things from one place to
35:30 another. This is the Amazon Prime on the sea. Got me? So they're carrying merchandise that
35:39 comes from someone to someone that's paid for it. They're having to throw those valuables
35:48 overboard to keep Jonah on. They aren't doing wrong. They aren't going in the wrong direction.
35:59 They aren't on the wrong boat. Y'all hear what I'm saying? They aren't operating in
36:04 disobedience, but they've got somebody on their boat that is. So they are being adversely
36:10 impacted because they're harboring a fugitive, and they don't even know it. Some of us are
36:18 having to throw our values overboard to keep Jonah on. If I got to throw my values overboard
36:25 to keep you on, you on the wrong boat. The Bible says they in a storm. They throwing
36:39 their stuff over. Read the text, "And Jonah sleep." If you don't wake up, how am I panicking
36:50 because of you and you sleep? How am I doing work I shouldn't have to do because of you
36:56 sleep? How am I throwing cargo overboard and you sleep? You are irresponsible and sleep.
37:04 I'm responsible and up, but I'm responsible for your irresponsibility. So these men say,
37:15 "Hey, something happened here. Some of the God's mad at us." So they engage in this superstitious
37:24 practice called casting lots. And even though it wasn't a spiritually sanctioned practice,
37:29 it was something that God used because he's trying to get a message across. They say,
37:32 "We got to cast lots, and whoever this thing point to, that means that's the person that's
37:37 responsible for what's going on." It ended up pointing toward Jonah. How many signs do
37:46 you need? This man literally looks at them and says, "Okay, I'm the problem. You just
37:56 not realizing you're the problem after all you've cost me? My cargo gone." This was,
38:13 "I'm the problem." Then he say, "Okay, guys, throw me overboard." You know where the edge
38:21 of the ship is? But even in your apology, you're still operating with codependency.
38:42 The Bible says they help him though. They help him. They throw him overboard. And the
38:56 Bible says God had prepared a fish, a whale. So the same time that Jonah's thrown overboard,
39:06 God had a whale heading in the right direction, traveling at the right speed, so that at the
39:13 very time Jonah got thrown overboard, the whale just happened to be in the vicinity to swallow
39:21 Jonah up. This is a powerful picture of the gospel, ladies and gentlemen, because the
39:26 gospel summarized is God making divine provision to rescue humanity out of a mess humanity
39:34 got itself into. It is God saying, "Adam, you broke it in one garden, but I'm going
39:40 to fix it on another. You were man enough to get yourself into it, but I'm God enough
39:46 to get you out of it." Because the whale is not a picture of judgment. The whale is a
39:53 picture of grace. Darius, how do you know? Because if he wouldn't have been swallowed
39:58 by the whale, he could have drowned in the sea or died of hypothermia. But the Bible
40:04 says when he's swallowed, he's in the belly of the whale for three days. I'm like, "Wait
40:10 a minute. Let me do some research." And I did some research because I'm like, "How
40:15 are you in the belly of a whale whole?" I did some research and I saw that whales have
40:26 teeth. And I also saw that whales have digestive acidic enzymes that break down and decompose
40:34 food just like we do. So I'm like, "How in the world are you in the whale and you're
40:40 not torn to pieces?" That's grace. I'm in it and I should be falling apart, but God
40:49 is keeping me together. I got to get out of here. But is there anybody here today that
40:55 can look back over your life and say, "I am in the middle of it right now and I should
41:02 be falling apart, but somehow, someway God is keeping me together." I'm done, Tarrio.
41:19 The Bible says from inside the fish, I got to go. It says from inside the fish, I'm getting
41:30 ready to run. It says from inside the fish, Jonah prayed to God. This is powerful because
41:41 some of us would have allowed the guilt to silence your prayers. Some of us would have
41:50 been sitting in that whale saying, "I deserve to be here. I got myself into this situation
41:57 feeling so bad and so guilty that there's no communication." But the Bible says he lifts
42:04 up his voice and prays. He has the unmitigated gall and audacity to be sitting in a season
42:11 he got himself into and still say, "God, I need you to help me." He had a revelation
42:19 of Psalms 103 7, which says God made his ways known to Moses and his acts to the children
42:25 of Israel. He understood that God specializes in getting us out of things we got ourself
42:31 into. This is why he refused to remain silent. He was sitting in a situation that he created
42:38 himself, but he did not allow the enemy to silence him. The enemy wants to silence you
42:44 by arresting you with guilt. And the enemy wants to use your silence because he doesn't
42:50 want you to think that God's going to hear you because of your current condition. It
42:55 works against you because the only way you're going to get out is if God gets you out. Now
43:00 I have no other choice but to approach God and say, "I don't deserve to have this conversation,
43:08 but the only way I'm getting through this is if you bring me out." I want everybody
43:14 that deserve deliverance to be quiet, but I want those of you... I don't deserve, but
43:31 I need you to get me out. I got myself into it, but I need...
43:52 I need you to get me out. He asked God to get him out. The Bible says, he said, "I'm
44:15 sorry." He stayed in there. He said, "I'm a sacrifice." He stayed in there. Then he
44:23 said, "I'm a pay what I vowed." It says when he said to God, "I'm a pay what I vowed,"
44:34 God spoke to the whale and the whale spit him out. He said all that he said and God
44:42 didn't speak to the whale until verse 10 when he said, "I'm a pay what I vowed." In other
44:49 words, God let him sit in it long enough until he was ready to keep a vow he would normally
45:01 break once he got out of trouble. Y'all missed that. He said, "I'm a let you sit in this
45:08 three days because if I get you out in one day, you promised me on day one you're going
45:13 to keep a vow, but because I delivered you too quickly, once you get outside the whale,
45:18 you go back on your word. I'm a let you sit in this long enough so that this time you
45:24 really mean what you say." He said, "I mean it this time." The Bible says God spoke to
45:39 that fish. I got to go, but it doesn't say he spoke back to Jonah. Jonah saying, "God,
45:52 get me out." There's nothing in the text that says God says to Jonah, "I'm getting ready
45:58 to get you out." It says Jonah spoke to God. God spoke to the fish and the fish spit Jonah
46:06 out. Jonah spoke to God. God spoke to the fish and the fish had to spit Jonah out. Jonah
46:13 spoke to God. God spoke to the fish. Maybe God's not talking to you about your problem
46:20 because God is speaking to your answer. All Jonah knew is one moment he was in and the
46:33 next moment he was out. I don't know who this is for, but you need to receive this word
46:41 that one moment you're going to be in. We got to go. God's going to do it without a
46:58 warning. God's going to do it without a word. God's going to do it without a prophecy. You're
47:05 going to wake up one day, "I was here, but now I'm out. I'm out. I'm out." Weeping
47:23 may endure for a night, but joy is coming in the morning. I don't know who I'm preaching
47:38 to, but I came to tell somebody, "You getting ready to come out. God's speaking to your
47:51 well and you get ready to come out." Yeah, I'm on my way. Yeah, it's my time. God is
48:08 getting ready to do what my eyes have not seen, my ears have not heard, and I will not
48:19 wait until the battle's over, but I'm going to shout right now. Yeah.
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51:33 - Jonah got out of that well. He goes and preaches to Nineveh does in one day what it
51:42 should have taken him three days to do. Jonah 3, 1 says, "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time."
51:51 And he preaches. And he goes back and watches to see what God's going to do with Nineveh.
52:00 And God does nothing. And Jonah's upset. He's so upset he says, "I just want to die."
52:15 Why would he say that? It's because Nineveh was the capital of Assyria and the Assyrians had a generational history of literally opposing,
52:24 decapitating, and engaging in acts of violence against Israel. So there's years of accumulated offense.
52:34 And Jonah's looking at what's happening to them saying, "God, I can't believe they're getting away with this.
52:43 How are they going to do me like that?" And they not pay. And in the middle of Jonah's anger, God asks him a question.
52:57 He says, "Is it right for you to be angry?" It's like he's saying, "Jonah, I understand that you've been injured
53:12 and you've been upset, but you are mad at me doing for them what I just did for you.
53:21 You are alive because I didn't give you what you deserved. So Jonah, what you're really upset with is my consistency in my character
53:33 to those that you don't like. What you're really upset with is the fact that I am as good to them as I am to you."
53:51 He says, "They're not getting away with this because their actions don't stop your destiny."
54:00 So Jonah, I need you to do three things. I need you to release the expectation for answers.
54:05 You think you need answers to have closure. Closure's a choice. You decide when you close the door on that chapter of your life.
54:19 And if you are waiting for information to close the door, it's not the information, it's you.
54:27 Because you want people to give you answers they don't even have. They don't even know why they did it.
54:37 Jesus is on the cross. He's like, "They dumb. Forgive them." They don't even know what they're doing.
54:42 So if I ask you for a reason, you're not going to give me one. I can't get an answer because some of you,
54:50 you the perpetrator and you still feel like you the victim. You did me wrong.
54:59 So I got to release the need for an answer. I can't have my future held up on your answer.
55:06 So I'm going to close the door. Closure. Close the door. You can close the door right now.
55:13 Because closure is your choice. So release the need, release the expectation for answers.
55:21 Re-examine your assumptions about its impact. See, sometimes we're so upset because we're making assumptions
55:29 that this is going to have a greater impact than it actually is going to have.
55:34 We're thinking, "They messed up my life." They can't mess up your life.
55:42 Their actions won't have the impact you're assuming they will. No matter what happens,
55:47 your actions right now have more bearing on what your future is like than what they did in the past.
55:57 They can't stop you if God before you. Who can be against you?
56:05 They can lie, but they can't stop it. They can spread rumors, but they can't stop it.
56:10 They can write posts and blogs, but they can't stop it. Because what God has for you, it's for you.
56:17 And here's what you need to hear. I learned this a long time ago.
56:20 God restores your reputation in the minds of those that are critical for your destiny.
56:29 He don't need to restore your reputation with everybody, because everybody not critical for your destiny.
56:34 He said, "But I'm going to restore your reputation in the minds of those that matter."
56:41 And if they can't see the new you, then they don't matter when it comes to your destiny.
56:51 And number three, rejoice in God's willingness to redeem. He redeems.
56:58 He said, "I will take what should have taken three days, Jonah, and I'll do it in one."
57:05 It should have taken him three days to do that job in Nineveh, but God redeemed time.
57:11 And that's one of the things that hurts us the most. We feel like we lost so much time.
57:17 And we say things like, "God, I'm never going to get that back." And God's like, "I redeemed that, you know. I do redeem that."
57:26 And remember, the redemption of time isn't God giving you more time. It's God saying, "I'm going to take the time you got left.
57:32 I'm going to do so much in the time you got left. It's going to make up for all the time you wasted."
57:39 He said, "I'm getting ready to swing one door, and this next door is going to be so crazy, it's going to make up for the ten doors that you missed."
57:49 He redeemed time. But you can't let that offense accumulate. You got to release forgiveness, which is a pardon.
58:07 It is writing off what they did to you as bad debt. It is saying, "What you owe me, you can never pay."
58:15 "You can't give me back what you took from me. All them bad days I have, you can't give me them back when you tell me you're sorry."
58:27 "The nights I had to cry myself to sleep, my heart torn into pieces, you can't give that back to me."
58:36 So I got to write it off as bad debt and say, "You owe me nothing, because somebody else has paid your debt in full."
58:50 Jesus paid it all. So I received the blood of Jesus as full and satisfactory payment for what you did to me.
59:04 You owe me nothing. Not because you deserve to be forgiven, but because I deserve to be free.
59:18 Clap your hands all over this house. You received this Word.
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