Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
And so this idea of being macho, and this idea
of being self made and self centered. I can do
my own thing. I don't need anybody else. I want
to tell you, my friend, there's a bullseye right across
your heart. God is after it to break it and
to bring our emotions and our body and our spirit
in submission to what.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Is best for us.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
God's only looking out for us.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
And yet we resent and we keep running.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
God allows us to go through pain if that's what
it takes to mature us naturally. We don't usually submit
to suffering willingly, but protesting only extends the process. Today
on in Touch, the teaching ministry of doctor Charles Stanley,
will see what can happen when we try to escape
our trials instead of looking for God's lesson.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Why is it that you and I resist God's breaking
process in our life? Remember what we said? The process
goes something like this. He targets the area in your
life which he knows is hindering what he wants to
do in your life.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Then God arranges.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
The circumstances or allows them to be arranged in which
you feel the pressure.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Then he chooses the tools.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It may be somebody and maybe something financially, it may
be a relationship.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
He chooses the.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Tools, He governs or controls how much pressure is to
be placed upon you. And he also controls the time.
Now you know, I think about that in our own lives.
Why do we resist him? Well, probably for this reason.
(01:52):
Some people are very strong. There's strong personalities, they have
a very forceful will. Some people are emotionally very strong.
They can take a lot of heat, a lot of persecution,
a lot of criticism. They can take a lot of rejection.
They can do without a lot of loving. And then
some folks are very strong minded. They know how to manipulate,
(02:16):
weasel their way out. They can figure out how to
deliver themselves even from God's breaking process in their length,
the pressure turns on, they get busier, they've sent some
set back in some failure, and their sense of self will,
self determination, their pride and rebellion just motivates them to
(02:38):
go on and on, and in spite of everything God does,
they just keep on moving on. That's what Jonah did.
Just think what happened. God sent him a storm, threw
him overboard, swallowed him up, spit him out, had a revival,
send him a sunstroke.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Nothing heat did all. He said.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
I want to die, but I don't want to be
obedient to God, my friend.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Listen to me carefully.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Some of you have already drawn yourselves a circle around you,
and you've said, I'm not letting anything in the circle,
but what I want not even God.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Now you've not put in those terms, but that's what
you've said.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Or you've drawn a line and you've said, this is
committed as I want to be. This is as committed
as I'm going to be. I want to do whatever
God says up to this point, but not beyond that.
There's the second part of this problem. Why we respond
the way we respond. You look at old Jonah. God
said to him, cry against the wickedness of Nineveh. And
(03:41):
what does he say? The Bible says, he says, I'm
going to Tarsha's I'm leaving town.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Now here's the problem.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
We fail to see God's hand in our life when
he's trying to break us. And so the pressure comes
on from somebody, maybe somebody we live with, maybe a
husband or wife, or children of parents, employer, a friend.
We feel great precious, some circumstance, some situation we're in
the pressures on instead of acknowledging that God is behind
(04:17):
my circumstances, God is in my environment. And God may
be using somebody whom I love dearly, or maybe even
my enemy, as a tool to chisel and sand and
cut away. What do we do Instead of seeing the
hand of God in it, We blame and we create
(04:37):
our own avenues of escape.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Now, what we don't realize is.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
This we're running from God. We're blaming it on people.
We're blaming it on the circumstance. We keep running, rebelling
and rationalizing. Then there's a second problem. Not only do
we fail to see God's hand, but another reason is
it's just self love. Now, what I mean by self
love is that unhealthy, unhealthy, unscriptural.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
View of ourselves.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
God, I want it my way, self centered, self seeking.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Prideful, my way.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I want to do it my way, when I want
to do it, where I want to do it. It
is making him as if it hurts anybody else. And
so this idea of being macho, and this idea of
being self made and self centered, and I.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Can do my own thing. I don't need anybody else.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I want to tell you, my friend, there's a bullseye
right across your heart. God is after it to break
it and to bring our emotions and our body and
our spirit in submission to what is best for us.
God's only looking out for us. And yet we resent
(05:50):
and we keep running, and we manipulate our way out
of it, and we think we've escaped.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
And I want to say again, there.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Is always a price to pay in rebelling against God,
in resisting God, in running from God, always not sometimes,
always a price to pay. Now, let's look at one
other aspects here, and that is the result of this
kind of resistance.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well, it's interesting that God didn't give up on Jonah.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
He just kept on pursuing him and kept on adding
the pressure, changing the circumstance, kept on putting pressure on him.
And here's a man who lived his life and absolutely
refused to be obedient to God.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
He never broke.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Wonder what God would have done with Jonah if he
had broken under his stubborn, rebellious resentment, his prejudice, his anamosity,
and hostility to those assyrians. I want to talk about
the kind of price Jonah had to pay, and then
I want to come back and apply it to us.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
But I want to say at this point.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Jonah's resistance to God's breaking power in his life endangered
someone else and caused them to suffer on board the ship.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That ship was about to sink. All these sailors were
scared to death.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
They didn't want to throw Joan overboard, but they finally
did it in order.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
To save themselves. They suffered.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
They had to throw everything on board over was that
lost all the cargo. They finally threw him up aboard.
Here's what I want you to watch. I want you
to watch what it cost Jonah to resist and rebel
against God. And my friend, with all of my heart,
I want you to listen carefully, because what you don't
realize is what your resistance and rebellion to a God
(07:46):
is costing you. It is a very foolish person who
thinks that his ledger sheet is going to come out gaining.
When he's running from God, you're always losing. And if
you look at this passage, Jonah went down to Joppa,
down into the hull of a ship, down into the sea.
(08:10):
Because you see, the day you start running from God,
I don't know where you may have been or where
you are, but the day you start resisting and running
from God. You start down, and the price tag starts
up right there. The meter on your life begins running
the day you say God, I'm not gonna do it,
or the day that you just ignore what you know
(08:32):
is the will of God and decide to do your
own thing. Brother, the meter starts running right now, and
I guarantee.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
You your losses will be several.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Times your game.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
And look at Jonah.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
First of all, it cost him separation from his family.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
He had to leave.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
The Bible says he went down to Jappa bought him
a ticket heading out two thousand miles in the other direction. Secondly,
his conscience became very guilty. He was being God. Thirdly,
he had this estrangement between he and God. He had
no relationship, no fellowship, no wonders with God. He was
(09:10):
living in rebellion and resisting God's will. The Bible says
he went down and paid the fare thereof No, I
don't know how much it costs to go from Jopata Tarshes,
but two thousand mile tripping those days cost him some money.
My friend, it's costing a lot of you more money
than you realized to live in sin and rebellion toward God.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
He paid the fair thereof got on board ship. And
what happened. He's bound to have been frightened.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
This tremendous storm, rocking this boat, throwing everything overboard. Can
you imagine what Jonah must have felt. And they picked
him up and threw him into a stormy Mediterranean sea.
Can you imagine the agony and the horror that he
fl elt when all of a sudden he realized he
(10:02):
was being swallowed up by something.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Well, he describes it. Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
In the Belly of the Fish Chapter two. Then Jonah
prayed to the Lord, his God from the stomach of
the fish, and he said, I called out of.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
My distress to the Lord.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
And he answered me, I cried for help from the
depth of shioh or hell.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Thou didst hear my voice?
Speaker 1 (10:26):
For thou hast cast me into the deep, into the
heart of the seas. And the current engulfed me, and
thy breakers and billahs passed over me. So I said,
I have been expelled from thy sight. Nevertheless, I will
look again toward thy holy temple. Water encompassed me to
the point of death. The great deep engulfed me. Weeds
were wrapped around my head, seaweed, I descend into the
(10:49):
roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was
around me forever. He thought he was dying, this terrible death.
I descend into the roots of the mountains. The earth
was with its bars, was around me forever. For thou
hast brought up my life from the pit, O, Lord,
my God. While I was fainting away thought he was dying.
I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to Thee, into.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Thy holy temple.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness. But I
will sacrifice to THEE with the voice of thanksgiving that
which I have vowed. I will pay salvations from the Lord. Well,
now he made a promise to God, but didn't have
a change of attitude. In the moment of the depth
of overwhelming fear and unbelievable pressure and excruciating pain, he said,
(11:43):
I will pay. Then the Lord commanded the vision. It was,
and a vomited Jonah up on the dry land. God
gave him another chance, not because he deserved it, but
because God had a job to be done. Think of
the horror of the experience, Think of what he paid.
Then he had that long walk to Ninevah. And then
(12:09):
think about him up here on the mountain, looking down
on Ninevah. Think of the anger and the hostility. Have
you ever been anger and hostile and resentful? Imagine all
the emotional turmoil. This man is an emotional bondage. He
is a prisoner of his own making, sitting there on
(12:29):
the hillside, watching to see if God's judgment is going
to come upon Ninevah, knowing that it's not really because
they're repenting of their sin. Imagine the emotional bondage that
he's going through, the suffering, the pain, or that the
churning inside of this man. Can you imagine a man
getting himself in that mess? Yes, you can, because that
(12:50):
is exactly where some of you are. You've rebelled against God.
You said, I don't want something to do with the Church.
I don't want a thing to do with Jesus Christ.
I don't want a thing to do with God. God.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I'm going to live my own life.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, you're living it, and look what a mess you've made. Now,
let's be honest, don't turn it off. Listen, think about
what you feel, your emotions, your entanglements, your relationships, the anger,
the hostility, the resentment, the bitterness, the emptiness, the loneliness,
(13:25):
the estrangement from God, the hopelessness, the times of despair,
those moments of depression. How empty your future looks. And
all the relationships that you've cultivated and created, and all
the affairs you've had, none of them have satisfied you.
You just keep looking and longing and searching and running
(13:48):
and trying and dipping into this and dipping into the other,
trying to find something that will satisfy that awful, nauseating
emptness in your heart. My friend, you'll never find it.
There is only one place where all that can be satisfied.
(14:10):
It is in a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ.
Look what it's costing you, and you see, I want
you to put a circle around this. You can't sin
against God, rebel against him, resist his breaking power in
your life without hurting somebody. And usually we hurt the
(14:32):
people who are the dearest to us. So I want
to ask you this question, and I want you to
be honest. Who's hurting today because of your resistance to
the will of God.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Who's feeling the.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Pain and the hurt and the despair and the hopelessness
because you are running from God, whose heart is aching,
who's anxious and fearful for their future, because.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
You're running from God.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Now, I wonder how many of you have small children,
maybe eight, nine or twelve, or maybe teenagers, and they're
hurting because their dad's rebetting against God. They're hurting because
their mom is resisting the will of God.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Or you say, you know it'll all work out.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
It sure will, listen, work out of you into them,
and for years in their life, they are going to
bear the weight of your sin and your rebellion and
your resistance of the will of God. Your children suffer
as a result of your rebellion. You see, that's the
part of the legislat you've not tabulated. You cannot resist
(15:57):
and rebel against God without paying an awesome price. And
oftentimes the hurt and the damage to others is worse
than to ourselves. Likewise, when you and I resist the
will of God, we delay God's purpose in our life.
(16:18):
You know, a lot of people are going to stand
before God and the judgment and realize that they never
did They never found out God's will for their life,
and they just sort of mosed their way through life,
or rushed their way through life. They never stopped to
ask God, what do you want to do with my life?
Some people are going to resist him until it is
(16:38):
eternally too late. The clock's going to strike. It's going
to be all over all, no second chances. Life will
have been spent and wasted. But then for some others,
listen carefully. You can run and resist and rebel. God says,
(17:01):
all right, you win, but you lose, and God just
puts you on the shelf.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
And there you are.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
But here's what I want you to see most of all,
listen very careful.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Jonah did what God told him to do finally by
going to Ninebah and preaching the message of repentance. They repented,
but look what happened. Jonah missed the blessing. If he
had submitted himself to God and gone there trusting the
Lord and obeying him, think of the joy and the
(17:40):
excitement and the testimony and the story he would have
had to tell to other people as a result of
how God used him.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
He had nothing to tell. He's up there wanting to die.
You know what's going to happen to some of you?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Because God puts the pressure on you. You're going to
go through life and you're going to do a lot
of things God wants you to do, but you will
have missed the blessing and the joy, and the peace
and the contentment that only comes when you say all
to Jesus, I surrender all to you, I freely give,
(18:21):
I will ever love and trust you in your presence.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Daily live.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Or you weasel your way out. But look what it's
cost you. It's cost you the joy of living. So
I ask you one final question. What is it that
you've put such value on in your life that you
are willing to miss God's best? You willing to resist
(18:50):
and run from God's brokenness, You are going to insist
on having your way. What is it that you've put
such value on that you are willing to pay the
awesome price of disobedience to a loving father. What is
it that you hold to that's so valuable as that,
(19:14):
My friend, when you stand in the judgment, you'll recognize
your hand was full of dust. Nothing you and I
hold to that keeps us from the will of God,
nothing has any more value than a hand full of dust.
(19:36):
Foolish is the man a woman who resists God's breaking process.
Wise is the man a woman who says, Lord, not
my will, but thy.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Will be done.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Thanks for listening to in Touch, the teaching ministry of
doctor Charles Stanley. Rebellion against God always has a high price.
It affects not only your life, but the lives of
those around you. In your pain and confusion, choose to
surrender to the Lord and trust him. Our online resources
can help you get to know Jesus better. Visit us
(20:13):
at InTouch dot org and replay this message by following
the link to Today on Radio. Connect to our online
bookstore to order a copy of doctor Stanley's complete message,
Brokenness the Protest or order his teaching set, Brokenness The
Way to Blessing Again. That's in touch dot org. You
can also call or text what eight hundred in touch
(20:37):
if you prefer to write our addresses in Touch Post
Office Box seventy nine hundred, Atlanta, Georgia, three zero three
five seven. You've told God what you need, but does
it look like he's moving slowly right now or not
at all? Find encouragement in today's moment with Charles Stanley.
(20:57):
It's coming up.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
We're not the.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
First to seek a life of purpose. The Bible tells
of many who followed a specific path, step by step,
with courage, with surrender for a deeper purpose, a stronger passion.
A lasting piece introducing your path to purpose, passion and peace.
A new ninety day devotional inspired by the timeless teaching
(21:22):
of doctor Charles Stanley, available now at InTouch dot org
slash store.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
You've got to be willing to set aside time.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
That's real victory.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Just imagine what it would have been like to look
over doctor Stanley's shoulder as he was spending time with
the scriptures. Doctor Stanley spent hours in preparation for his sermons.
With photos of his Bibles, resources, and handwritten notes, This
new book will give you an intimate look into doctor
Stanley's daily walk with the Father God turned the light
on Charles F. Stanley's personal Bibles, books and notes Available
(21:53):
now go to InTouch dot org slash store.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
If you're listening to in Touch. If you're a believer,
you know that waiting on God is not always easy.
Renew your trust and your creator, sustainer and friend in
a moment with Charles Stanley.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
God knows better than to give us everything we ask
for when we ask for it. Otherwise we just say, Lord,
here's my need, thank you very much, and move on.
And God would just get left out and so waiting
upon him, and sometimes he seems to be awfully slow,
and it just maybe that's where you are today, that
you've been asking God to show you this or give
you that, or provide that 'll make this possible, and
(22:35):
it just looks like he's just not doing a thing.
When he's the quietest, just what I believe, that's when
he's working the most diligent for us. You don't see
anything going on, doesn't mean that he's not working and
you're not. Can look up in the sky and we
can see stars, moon, sun or whatever it might be,
and they all look real steel. But something's going on.
And you think about how fastest Earth is revolving and
(22:58):
all that's going on out there, but it looks like
it's all still. Sometimes God looks the same way. And
if that's where you are, I just pray and trust
that God will give you the wisdom to realize when
everything is silent and everything looks still, God isn't work
in your behalf Father. We just pray the Holy Spirit
will enable us to understand this simple principle. You said,
(23:20):
be strong and of a good courage, that we're to
wait upon you. You are silent oftentimes, and we know this
always for our good. And I pray that you will
encourage someone's heart today who's about to act before the
right time, because they don't see, and they don't feel,
and they don't hear. Give them the courage to be still,
to pause, to wait until you say, this is it
(23:43):
in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
You'll find more insight on waiting on God and trusting
Him at InTouch dot org. And if you have a
story about what you've learned through this program, please share
it with us next week on in Touch. No one
likes pain or hardship, but each time we respond to
God's breaking process correctly, we grow spiritually learn about brokenness
(24:08):
the Promise Monday on in Touch, the teaching ministry of
doctor Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of in
Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia and remains on this station through
the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.
And so this idea of being macho, and this idea
of being self made and self centered. I can do
my own thing. I don't need anybody else. I want
to tell you, my friend, there's a bullseye right across
your heart. God is after it to break it and
to bring our emotions and our body and our spirit
in submission to what.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Is best for us.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
God's only looking out for us.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
And yet we resent and we keep running.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
God allows us to go through pain if that's what
it takes to mature us naturally. We don't usually submit
to suffering willingly, but protesting only extends the process. Today
on in Touch, the teaching ministry of doctor Charles Stanley,
will see what can happen when we try to escape
our trials instead of looking for God's lesson.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Why is it that you and I resist God's breaking
process in our life? Remember what we said? The process
goes something like this. He targets the area in your
life which he knows is hindering what he wants to
do in your life.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Then God arranges.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
The circumstances or allows them to be arranged in which
you feel the pressure.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Then he chooses the tools.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It may be somebody and maybe something financially, it may
be a relationship.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
He chooses the.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Tools, He governs or controls how much pressure is to
be placed upon you. And he also controls the time.
Now you know, I think about that in our own lives.
Why do we resist him? Well, probably for this reason.
(01:52):
Some people are very strong. There's strong personalities, they have
a very forceful will. Some people are emotionally very strong.
They can take a lot of heat, a lot of persecution,
a lot of criticism. They can take a lot of rejection.
They can do without a lot of loving. And then
some folks are very strong minded. They know how to manipulate,
(02:16):
weasel their way out. They can figure out how to
deliver themselves even from God's breaking process in their length,
the pressure turns on, they get busier, they've sent some
set back in some failure, and their sense of self will,
self determination, their pride and rebellion just motivates them to
(02:38):
go on and on, and in spite of everything God does,
they just keep on moving on. That's what Jonah did.
Just think what happened. God sent him a storm, threw
him overboard, swallowed him up, spit him out, had a revival,
send him a sunstroke.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Nothing heat did all. He said.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
I want to die, but I don't want to be
obedient to God, my friend.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Listen to me carefully.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Some of you have already drawn yourselves a circle around you,
and you've said, I'm not letting anything in the circle,
but what I want not even God.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Now you've not put in those terms, but that's what
you've said.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Or you've drawn a line and you've said, this is
committed as I want to be. This is as committed
as I'm going to be. I want to do whatever
God says up to this point, but not beyond that.
There's the second part of this problem. Why we respond
the way we respond. You look at old Jonah. God
said to him, cry against the wickedness of Nineveh. And
(03:41):
what does he say? The Bible says, he says, I'm
going to Tarsha's I'm leaving town.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Now here's the problem.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
We fail to see God's hand in our life when
he's trying to break us. And so the pressure comes
on from somebody, maybe somebody we live with, maybe a
husband or wife, or children of parents, employer, a friend.
We feel great precious, some circumstance, some situation we're in
the pressures on instead of acknowledging that God is behind
(04:17):
my circumstances, God is in my environment. And God may
be using somebody whom I love dearly, or maybe even
my enemy, as a tool to chisel and sand and
cut away. What do we do Instead of seeing the
hand of God in it, We blame and we create
(04:37):
our own avenues of escape.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Now, what we don't realize is.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
This we're running from God. We're blaming it on people.
We're blaming it on the circumstance. We keep running, rebelling
and rationalizing. Then there's a second problem. Not only do
we fail to see God's hand, but another reason is
it's just self love. Now, what I mean by self
love is that unhealthy, unhealthy, unscriptural.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
View of ourselves.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
God, I want it my way, self centered, self seeking.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Prideful, my way.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I want to do it my way, when I want
to do it, where I want to do it. It
is making him as if it hurts anybody else. And
so this idea of being macho, and this idea of
being self made and self centered, and I.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Can do my own thing. I don't need anybody else.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I want to tell you, my friend, there's a bullseye
right across your heart. God is after it to break
it and to bring our emotions and our body and
our spirit in submission to what is best for us.
God's only looking out for us. And yet we resent
(05:50):
and we keep running, and we manipulate our way out
of it, and we think we've escaped.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
And I want to say again, there.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Is always a price to pay in rebelling against God,
in resisting God, in running from God, always not sometimes,
always a price to pay. Now, let's look at one
other aspects here, and that is the result of this
kind of resistance.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Well, it's interesting that God didn't give up on Jonah.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
He just kept on pursuing him and kept on adding
the pressure, changing the circumstance, kept on putting pressure on him.
And here's a man who lived his life and absolutely
refused to be obedient to God.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
He never broke.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Wonder what God would have done with Jonah if he
had broken under his stubborn, rebellious resentment, his prejudice, his anamosity,
and hostility to those assyrians. I want to talk about
the kind of price Jonah had to pay, and then
I want to come back and apply it to us.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
But I want to say at this point.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Jonah's resistance to God's breaking power in his life endangered
someone else and caused them to suffer on board the ship.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That ship was about to sink. All these sailors were
scared to death.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
They didn't want to throw Joan overboard, but they finally
did it in order.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
To save themselves. They suffered.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
They had to throw everything on board over was that
lost all the cargo. They finally threw him up aboard.
Here's what I want you to watch. I want you
to watch what it cost Jonah to resist and rebel
against God. And my friend, with all of my heart,
I want you to listen carefully, because what you don't
realize is what your resistance and rebellion to a God
(07:46):
is costing you. It is a very foolish person who
thinks that his ledger sheet is going to come out gaining.
When he's running from God, you're always losing. And if
you look at this passage, Jonah went down to Joppa,
down into the hull of a ship, down into the sea.
(08:10):
Because you see, the day you start running from God,
I don't know where you may have been or where
you are, but the day you start resisting and running
from God. You start down, and the price tag starts
up right there. The meter on your life begins running
the day you say God, I'm not gonna do it,
or the day that you just ignore what you know
(08:32):
is the will of God and decide to do your
own thing. Brother, the meter starts running right now, and
I guarantee.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
You your losses will be several.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Times your game.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
And look at Jonah.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
First of all, it cost him separation from his family.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
He had to leave.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
The Bible says he went down to Jappa bought him
a ticket heading out two thousand miles in the other direction. Secondly,
his conscience became very guilty. He was being God. Thirdly,
he had this estrangement between he and God. He had
no relationship, no fellowship, no wonders with God. He was
(09:10):
living in rebellion and resisting God's will. The Bible says
he went down and paid the fare thereof No, I
don't know how much it costs to go from Jopata Tarshes,
but two thousand mile tripping those days cost him some money.
My friend, it's costing a lot of you more money
than you realized to live in sin and rebellion toward God.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
He paid the fair thereof got on board ship. And
what happened. He's bound to have been frightened.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
This tremendous storm, rocking this boat, throwing everything overboard. Can
you imagine what Jonah must have felt. And they picked
him up and threw him into a stormy Mediterranean sea.
Can you imagine the agony and the horror that he
fl elt when all of a sudden he realized he
(10:02):
was being swallowed up by something.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Well, he describes it. Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
In the Belly of the Fish Chapter two. Then Jonah
prayed to the Lord, his God from the stomach of
the fish, and he said, I called out of.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
My distress to the Lord.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
And he answered me, I cried for help from the
depth of shioh or hell.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Thou didst hear my voice?
Speaker 1 (10:26):
For thou hast cast me into the deep, into the
heart of the seas. And the current engulfed me, and
thy breakers and billahs passed over me. So I said,
I have been expelled from thy sight. Nevertheless, I will
look again toward thy holy temple. Water encompassed me to
the point of death. The great deep engulfed me. Weeds
were wrapped around my head, seaweed, I descend into the
(10:49):
roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was
around me forever. He thought he was dying, this terrible death.
I descend into the roots of the mountains. The earth
was with its bars, was around me forever. For thou
hast brought up my life from the pit, O, Lord,
my God. While I was fainting away thought he was dying.
I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to Thee, into.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Thy holy temple.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness. But I
will sacrifice to THEE with the voice of thanksgiving that
which I have vowed. I will pay salvations from the Lord. Well,
now he made a promise to God, but didn't have
a change of attitude. In the moment of the depth
of overwhelming fear and unbelievable pressure and excruciating pain, he said,
(11:43):
I will pay. Then the Lord commanded the vision. It was,
and a vomited Jonah up on the dry land. God
gave him another chance, not because he deserved it, but
because God had a job to be done. Think of
the horror of the experience, Think of what he paid.
Then he had that long walk to Ninevah. And then
(12:09):
think about him up here on the mountain, looking down
on Ninevah. Think of the anger and the hostility. Have
you ever been anger and hostile and resentful? Imagine all
the emotional turmoil. This man is an emotional bondage. He
is a prisoner of his own making, sitting there on
(12:29):
the hillside, watching to see if God's judgment is going
to come upon Ninevah, knowing that it's not really because
they're repenting of their sin. Imagine the emotional bondage that
he's going through, the suffering, the pain, or that the
churning inside of this man. Can you imagine a man
getting himself in that mess? Yes, you can, because that
(12:50):
is exactly where some of you are. You've rebelled against God.
You said, I don't want something to do with the Church.
I don't want a thing to do with Jesus Christ.
I don't want a thing to do with God. God.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I'm going to live my own life.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, you're living it, and look what a mess you've made. Now,
let's be honest, don't turn it off. Listen, think about
what you feel, your emotions, your entanglements, your relationships, the anger,
the hostility, the resentment, the bitterness, the emptiness, the loneliness,
(13:25):
the estrangement from God, the hopelessness, the times of despair,
those moments of depression. How empty your future looks. And
all the relationships that you've cultivated and created, and all
the affairs you've had, none of them have satisfied you.
You just keep looking and longing and searching and running
(13:48):
and trying and dipping into this and dipping into the other,
trying to find something that will satisfy that awful, nauseating
emptness in your heart. My friend, you'll never find it.
There is only one place where all that can be satisfied.
(14:10):
It is in a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ.
Look what it's costing you, and you see, I want
you to put a circle around this. You can't sin
against God, rebel against him, resist his breaking power in
your life without hurting somebody. And usually we hurt the
(14:32):
people who are the dearest to us. So I want
to ask you this question, and I want you to
be honest. Who's hurting today because of your resistance to
the will of God.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Who's feeling the.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Pain and the hurt and the despair and the hopelessness
because you are running from God, whose heart is aching,
who's anxious and fearful for their future, because.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
You're running from God.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Now, I wonder how many of you have small children,
maybe eight, nine or twelve, or maybe teenagers, and they're
hurting because their dad's rebetting against God. They're hurting because
their mom is resisting the will of God.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Or you say, you know it'll all work out.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
It sure will, listen, work out of you into them,
and for years in their life, they are going to
bear the weight of your sin and your rebellion and
your resistance of the will of God. Your children suffer
as a result of your rebellion. You see, that's the
part of the legislat you've not tabulated. You cannot resist
(15:57):
and rebel against God without paying an awesome price. And
oftentimes the hurt and the damage to others is worse
than to ourselves. Likewise, when you and I resist the
will of God, we delay God's purpose in our life.
(16:18):
You know, a lot of people are going to stand
before God and the judgment and realize that they never
did They never found out God's will for their life,
and they just sort of mosed their way through life,
or rushed their way through life. They never stopped to
ask God, what do you want to do with my life?
Some people are going to resist him until it is
(16:38):
eternally too late. The clock's going to strike. It's going
to be all over all, no second chances. Life will
have been spent and wasted. But then for some others,
listen carefully. You can run and resist and rebel. God says,
(17:01):
all right, you win, but you lose, and God just
puts you on the shelf.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
And there you are.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
But here's what I want you to see most of all,
listen very careful.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Jonah did what God told him to do finally by
going to Ninebah and preaching the message of repentance. They repented,
but look what happened. Jonah missed the blessing. If he
had submitted himself to God and gone there trusting the
Lord and obeying him, think of the joy and the
(17:40):
excitement and the testimony and the story he would have
had to tell to other people as a result of
how God used him.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
He had nothing to tell. He's up there wanting to die.
You know what's going to happen to some of you?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Because God puts the pressure on you. You're going to
go through life and you're going to do a lot
of things God wants you to do, but you will
have missed the blessing and the joy, and the peace
and the contentment that only comes when you say all
to Jesus, I surrender all to you, I freely give,
(18:21):
I will ever love and trust you in your presence.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Daily live.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Or you weasel your way out. But look what it's
cost you. It's cost you the joy of living. So
I ask you one final question. What is it that
you've put such value on in your life that you
are willing to miss God's best? You willing to resist
(18:50):
and run from God's brokenness, You are going to insist
on having your way. What is it that you've put
such value on that you are willing to pay the
awesome price of disobedience to a loving father. What is
it that you hold to that's so valuable as that,
(19:14):
My friend, when you stand in the judgment, you'll recognize
your hand was full of dust. Nothing you and I
hold to that keeps us from the will of God,
nothing has any more value than a hand full of dust.
(19:36):
Foolish is the man a woman who resists God's breaking process.
Wise is the man a woman who says, Lord, not
my will, but thy.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Will be done.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Thanks for listening to in Touch, the teaching ministry of
doctor Charles Stanley. Rebellion against God always has a high price.
It affects not only your life, but the lives of
those around you. In your pain and confusion, choose to
surrender to the Lord and trust him. Our online resources
can help you get to know Jesus better. Visit us
(20:13):
at InTouch dot org and replay this message by following
the link to Today on Radio. Connect to our online
bookstore to order a copy of doctor Stanley's complete message,
Brokenness the Protest or order his teaching set, Brokenness The
Way to Blessing Again. That's in touch dot org. You
can also call or text what eight hundred in touch
(20:37):
if you prefer to write our addresses in Touch Post
Office Box seventy nine hundred, Atlanta, Georgia, three zero three
five seven. You've told God what you need, but does
it look like he's moving slowly right now or not
at all? Find encouragement in today's moment with Charles Stanley.
(20:57):
It's coming up.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
We're not the.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
First to seek a life of purpose. The Bible tells
of many who followed a specific path, step by step,
with courage, with surrender for a deeper purpose, a stronger passion.
A lasting piece introducing your path to purpose, passion and peace.
A new ninety day devotional inspired by the timeless teaching
(21:22):
of doctor Charles Stanley, available now at InTouch dot org
slash store.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
You've got to be willing to set aside time.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
That's real victory.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Just imagine what it would have been like to look
over doctor Stanley's shoulder as he was spending time with
the scriptures. Doctor Stanley spent hours in preparation for his sermons.
With photos of his Bibles, resources, and handwritten notes, This
new book will give you an intimate look into doctor
Stanley's daily walk with the Father God turned the light
on Charles F. Stanley's personal Bibles, books and notes Available
(21:53):
now go to InTouch dot org slash store.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
If you're listening to in Touch. If you're a believer,
you know that waiting on God is not always easy.
Renew your trust and your creator, sustainer and friend in
a moment with Charles Stanley.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
God knows better than to give us everything we ask
for when we ask for it. Otherwise we just say, Lord,
here's my need, thank you very much, and move on.
And God would just get left out and so waiting
upon him, and sometimes he seems to be awfully slow,
and it just maybe that's where you are today, that
you've been asking God to show you this or give
you that, or provide that 'll make this possible, and
(22:35):
it just looks like he's just not doing a thing.
When he's the quietest, just what I believe, that's when
he's working the most diligent for us. You don't see
anything going on, doesn't mean that he's not working and
you're not. Can look up in the sky and we
can see stars, moon, sun or whatever it might be,
and they all look real steel. But something's going on.
And you think about how fastest Earth is revolving and
(22:58):
all that's going on out there, but it looks like
it's all still. Sometimes God looks the same way. And
if that's where you are, I just pray and trust
that God will give you the wisdom to realize when
everything is silent and everything looks still, God isn't work
in your behalf Father. We just pray the Holy Spirit
will enable us to understand this simple principle. You said,
(23:20):
be strong and of a good courage, that we're to
wait upon you. You are silent oftentimes, and we know this
always for our good. And I pray that you will
encourage someone's heart today who's about to act before the
right time, because they don't see, and they don't feel,
and they don't hear. Give them the courage to be still,
to pause, to wait until you say, this is it
(23:43):
in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
You'll find more insight on waiting on God and trusting
Him at InTouch dot org. And if you have a
story about what you've learned through this program, please share
it with us next week on in Touch. No one
likes pain or hardship, but each time we respond to
God's breaking process correctly, we grow spiritually learn about brokenness
(24:08):
the Promise Monday on in Touch, the teaching ministry of
doctor Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of in
Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia and remains on this station through
the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.
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