I just wanted to pass this on to you. We mentioned weeks ago that we were starting a special program to help people, young, middle-aged, retired, who had a dream of doing something else, to formulate business, to find a different kind of job where they were in charge.
It’s drawn people from as far away as Mississauga. There aren’t a lot of us. I think there’s about 20 of us in total right now to start off with nothing, and to have 20, that’s pretty good. But we incorporate Christianity into the process. And not all of them have made a firm decision in Jesus, but I believe they will. And we always conclude with prayer. We take prayer requests. So it would be over two weeks ago that, as we were closing, I said, who has a prayer request? We went around the circle. People were mentioning challenges. One said that he had a business to run. He had several people on staff. And his biggest, I believe it was his biggest contract, was fading, and it was alarming to them.
So we prayed about that. And another, a lady who has her PhD, who’s got her doctorate in biology, said, I need more clients. I started a business. I need more clients, and I need to move forward. And then there was one other fellow. I forget what his prayer request. So this past Tuesday, I inquired. Any praise reports? Well, yes. The one fellow said, I saw my contract fading. He said it came back, this is my word, sounds like it came back with a vengeance. And I can’t go into the details, but I think he’s hit a tsunami. It’s a wonderful thing that’s unfolding. And for the lady with the PhD, she said, I have new clients that joined this week, and promise of something more to unfold. So the Lord is answering prayers.
The Lord is doing wonderful things. Say amen. I just want to read a little series of scriptures for you this morning. Again, my message is Jonah, four chapters. It’s not about a man and a whale. It’s about a man who needed to repent. And he was known throughout the country as a man of God. He was a man who knew and had experienced the Shekinah glory of God in the temple. This was in the age when the spirit of God was in the temple in Jerusalem. He knew the presence of God. And yet when God gave him a command and go and speak to the Gentiles of the empire of the Assyrians, it says he fled, endeavoring to run away from the presence of God. That little statement is repeated several times. Jonah ran for Spain to get away from the presence of God. And did he actually believe that God is not omnipresent? I don’t believe that he had abandoned that idea.
But he certainly was thinking about the awesome presence of God, where the presence of God was maybe visible, tangible in some way. But as he got away from that, it would be like somebody deserting the church to get away from God. You can’t get away from him. What he needed to do was to repent of the attitude, which was this, I don’t want to prophesy to the Gentiles. And we’ll get to that forthcoming as I continue to dig and research. But the message I want to speak about today is the need to repent. To repent means to turn around, to change your mind, and go completely diametrically opposite to the way that you were going. You were living unto your own self. You were being your own little God. You were dismissing any notion of getting right with God and of considering God to be your guidance system. But hear now what the word of the Lord says in Acts chapter 238. Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins. Luke 13 and 3. Let’s go to 2 Corinthians. Oh, my little computer here has gone wacky, so much for that.
Anyway, the Bible says you better repent. So I guess I better repent from this thing here. So we’ll go to another computer, though, and I’m sure that’ll straighten things out nicely for us. So this morning, we will have a look at a repentant prayer. What does repentance mean? And if you want to know, you turn to Psalm 51. Psalm 51 is a prayer of David, who had just been confronted by the prophet, because David had spotted a young woman that he desired, and this young woman was the wife of one of his best soldier leaders. A leader, let’s call him a colonel or a lieutenant, somebody who had jurisdiction over many. And he was a valiant soldier, and he was loyal to David the king. But David sent that man, sent word and said, I want that man to be in the front lines, and under his breath, he said, I want him dead. I want his wife. He thought he’d got away with it, covered up his sin, and now he could have this woman named Bathsheba. But it came terribly to him, because a prophet came and told him a little parable, a little story about somebody in the kingdom has taken away a farmer’s prize lamb. What should be done about this? And King David said, that man should be killed.
And the prophet said, you’re the man. You are the man I’ve just described. And so now David is crushed, because he has not just sinned against Bathsheba, this woman, he said, doesn’t just sin against her husband, but he sinned against the country, and he sinned against God. And so it’s important that we understand what repentance is. And I never talked to Al about this. He just led us in a psalm, creating me a new heart. I never mentioned to him what my passage was today. But this is the psalm, 51. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness and according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight, that you might be justified when you speak and be clear when you judge. Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin my mother did conceive me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and the inward part you shall make me to know wisdom. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
Hide my, hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with your free spirit. Then I will teach others, transgressors, your ways. I will teach sinners, and they will be converted. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. Thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips, that my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For you desire not sacrifice, else I would give it. You delight not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God. You will not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion.
Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you’ll be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then shall they offer bullocks upon your altar. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. What’s this got to do with Jonah? Jonah was a man of God. He knew the purposes of God. He knew the design of God. But he turned and he ran. Very opposite of Isaiah. Isaiah gets a vision of what God wants to do. And Isaiah says, choose me. Choose me. He was anxious to be a servant of God. But this man, this man doesn’t offer.
He specifically commanded. Remember, God did not ask Isaiah. He gave him a vision. He opened things up for Isaiah. And that which God showed him inspired him. He said, I want to be that man. The Lord says to Jonah, you are the man. I’m calling you. And Jonah starts arguing with God. And he ran. Jonah had a theological problem. And he had a heart problem. What was his theological problem? This was it. And if this has not occurred to you, you haven’t been thinking.
How can a just God overlook sinfulness? How can a just God forgive? Just wipe it clean. How can God do that and still be just? He had a big problem. The mystery of God’s mercy and forgiveness. He was happy to receive forgiveness for his failure. But he was in no mood to see those nasty Gentiles experience forgiveness. What was troubling him? The Ninevite city was the capital of all of Assyria. Assyria took in Iraq and Iran. That a huge swath of land. They had conquered and conquered and conquered. And Nineveh was kind of like Washington DC. It was the seat of power.
It was the seat of the economic strength of this massive empire. Now everybody in that empire who was still alive had to give taxes. Unbelievable taxes. And how did this Assyrian empire look upon Israel and other countries that they’d not yet conquered them? They would have called out just like some people not long ago were in the streets of Toronto and also in Washington DC. From the river to the sea. What’s your problem with it? We just don’t like them. Kill them. And why? And why? They had no reason to be so ugly and so hurtful. They would have come into Israel and just ravaged the place. Beheaded everybody for no reason other than we want this property out you go. They had done that all over the place.
Now I have read up on the Assyrians and I couldn’t read any further. It was like watching a horror movie. They didn’t just kill people. They tortured them immeasurably. Like horrendous things that I dare not repeat from this pulpit today. No wonder Jonah did not want to go and say God loves you. He said how can you love them? And you know Lord that they’re going to come and they’re going to take on Israel. You know they’re going to come. So Lord if I preach to them repent and God will forgive you. You’re going to let them off the hook. But Lord I don’t believe that they’re going to be off the hook for long. I think it’s in their nature. They will never sit down and sign an accord. They will say we won’t bomb the streets of Hormuz.
They will say we won’t hurt our own people in Tehran anymore. But they’re liars and the moment you turn your back they will head into it again. So Lord you’re making a mistake. I don’t want any part of this and you ran for Spain. That was his theological problem. Why would you forgive such a person? How would the Americans, the British, the people who were defending Europe, how would they have responded if Adolf Hitler had gone on radio all over Europe and broadcast it into England? I’ve had a change of heart. I’m going to the last citadel, the last sanctuary, the last church cathedral. I’m going there on Sunday morning. I’m going to walk the aisle and I’m going to repent of my sin. And here’s all the soldiers of Europe, their guns loaded ready to defend themselves and Hitler says, oh forget it. I know I bombed the living daylights out of you. I know I was ready to kill everybody in England but I’ve changed your heart. How would we have responded as the allies?
You say, David, I don’t even want to think about it. Jonah was thinking about it. He also, I think, was a little afraid. It would have been like a Jewish theologian walking into Berlin and asking for an audience with Hitler and to walk in before that Hitler and say, I’m here on behalf of God. You better stop killing the Jews. You empty all those death camps. This is what Jonah felt God was asking him to do. You want me to go to Nineveh? It’s a nest of hornets like they’ll kill me at the gate. Why would I go and speak to them as though they were the chosen people of God? You see, he had a heart problem. And as long as you’ve got a heart problem, you can’t deal with the things of God. You won’t understand mercy. You won’t understand redemption. You won’t understand this stuff because you don’t know him.
And if you don’t know him, you don’t know his heart. You don’t know his desire. You don’t know his justice. He had a heart problem because of his own sin. Those Ninevites are sinners. Well, look at yourself, Jonah. Here’s a mirror. No, I don’t want to consider that. Lord, their sin is far worse than mine. So here’s Jonah measuring up there. Their sin is bad. Mine is like little gray lies. They’re the guys who speak terrible lies. He had a sin problem and it was borne out by how he didn’t just argue with God. He ran for it.
He ran for it. So you had a theological problem. Why would you forgive them? And he had a personal sin problem because not only did he argue about, I don’t want to do it, but he actually ran from God. Kind of like Adam and Eve. As the Lord was walking in the cool of the evening. I’ve delved into that just a little bit. How God came and walked in the evening. That wording about how he did this strolling. He did this walk in the evening. It literally means that he wasn’t coming to walk alone. He was coming by his very presence. He was inviting Adam and Eve to walk with him. Let’s go for a little walk and talk about it. And the Lord knew very well that the man and the woman had sinned against him.
Horrible sin. And look at the outcome of that now. What they brought upon the world. And yet God knowing what they had done and they not understanding what they had done. God was willing to say to them, you’ve let me down. You’ve let me down. But let’s go for a walk and let’s talk about this. Jonah would have nothing of it. And yet even as he’s emerging from the belly of the whale and he’s experienced like a divine resurrection, God put his person back together again. He did not survive the belly of the whale. Nobody ever could. You’d say, well, but God by miraculous could do that. Yeah, God by miraculous could save Jesus from going into the tomb. He could have spared Lazarus. No, God allowed these things to happen that his glory might come forth.
And Jonah coming out of the belly of the whale is a picture of the resurrection of Jesus. He was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights. Calling upon God from the bosom of Abraham, give me another chance. I will respond this time. I will be obedient. But asking for that for that opportunity. Saying, I want to go through. I want to do what you’re asking me to do. But not really wanting to repent. Not really wanting to follow through on what God was requesting that he would do. And yet he was expecting God’s mercy, was expecting God’s merciful grace. But he was off. He was off limits. He was off balance. And so even when he went to Nineveh and walked in and his message was, you know, repent and whatever, I believe that his mind was, look, I know you’re not going to do it, but he told me to say so, so I’m saying it.
But you’re probably not interested, right? I think he was blown away by the response. Prophets of God went to the people of Israel, of Judea, Samaria, all of those places. Those prophets said to the chosen people of God, put away, put away those sacrifices that you’re, put away the false gods that you inherited from. You do this. And they turned their back. They took Jeremiah and threw him into a pit of human refuge. He spent months, I guess, down in a latrine. That’s how they treated him. But when he got to Nineveh, the people wept and the people said, God, forgive us. God, forgive us. And you know what Jonah’s response was that he became despondent. He became despondent. He became discouraged. God did what God wanted to do.
And you see, this man had an attitude and he had a bigger problem than the people of Nineveh. Think about this. He did not want to preach to the pagans. He wanted nothing to do with those pagans. But he ended up on a ship and the entire crew were pagans. And think about it some more. The ship starts tossing, being thrown about. Because if you dig down into the original text and you dig down into the Hebrew, and I get help from that. I’m no scholar, but I dig. I listen to scholars. And where it says that a strong wind came, it means that God hurled like a harpoon. It was God’s judgment against Jonah. God was going to break up the ship and all those pagans were going to be lost. They were paying for Jonah’s sin. Pray to God you’ll not become so hard and deef.
I had a guy in our church in Toronto, Mack Jennings, and he’d never say deaf. He came from another part of the country. He’d say, if ye are deef, if you are deaf. And I had to help translate what he was saying to some of my friends. Jonah was deaf to the things of God. He ends up on a ship crewed by pagans, of every people he has no use for. And he ends up surrendering his life for them. Throw me in the sea. He ended up answering to them as they said, hey, we’ve talked to our gods and our gods are not listening. We think it’s your God behind this. You see, they concluded that this sin was, this raging weather was not, there was nothing normal about it. They said some power is behind this and we think it’s your God. Now you deny it right now. They call him to account. And so no, no, Jonah fesses up and he says, okay, you got me.
I’m a bad guy. Well, what are we going to do? They’d already tossed all their cargo overboard, lighten up the ship, but it’s about to break in two. They’re all going to die in this storm. What should we do? He said, throw me overboard. They were, they were scared to death to do that. If God could send a storm like this to tear this ship apart and kill all of us, what’s he going to do if we torment, if we kill that God’s prophet? So before they threw him in, they actually talked to the God of Jonah. And what were they really doing? We know you’re real now. Our gods are dead. Our gods are no gods. Our gods are refuse. They’re garbage.
They could never, they could never do this storm up like this. You are the powerful God. But we’re afraid to throw your man overboard. Will you forgive us? This is, they were believing in God. These pagans were believing in God, not because of a message of redemption or repentance or forgiveness, but because they feared Jonah’s God. God ended up answering the pagans. And that frightened them even more. The word says that the moment he was tossed into the sea, the sea became calm. It says they were terrified. What kind of a God is this? Don’t go to those pagans, Jonah. They’ll never believe a word you say. But they did. He refused to go to a great city.
Nineveh. And he met a great storm. And that storm convinced him he needed to turn around and go to the great city. When you think about it, you’ve experienced this. Every act of disobedience to God comes with consequences. Consequences. Always. Always. There’s always a storm attached to disobedience. Be careful. Don’t turn that sentence around now and say, I said every act of obedience has a storm. No, you don’t turn that around and say, ah, so every storm is from an act of disobedience. No, no, no, no, no. Disobedience has consequences, and it’ll bring a storm into your life. And if you can discover in your own heart, the next time a storm comes, it’s good to ask the Lord, is there something you want to teach me out of this?
Create in me a new heart. We’re going to sing a song before this service is over. Search me, oh God. And see if there be a wicked way in me. That’s the cry of a person who’s sort of like Jonah, who thinks they’re sort of okay. But they cry out and say, what if I’ve got a blind spot? What if there’s a car passing me on this on the left hand side? That’s going to be a cause a great collision. If I pass into that lane, what if I’ve got a blind spot? Lord, is there any, is there a blind spot in my life? And if we’re not willing to pray that prayer. Then we need to read Peter’s message again in Acts chapter two. We said, do you realize what you’ve done to Jesus? And every act of disobedience hurts Jesus. Jesus arrested the man called Saul of Tarsus.
And God says, Jesus said to him, you’re not hurting those people, you’re hurting me. When you hurt those people, you’re hurting me. The man who became the apostle had a blind spot. He knew the book. He knew the word of God. He could quote it. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. He could quote it for you verse by verse by verse by verse. You could never trick him with a question. Who was Moses’ mother? What was her name? You could not trick him with anything because he knew the word. But he was wrong. There was a blind spot. And what was the blind spot?
When he heard about this Jesus, this Jesus did not line up with his theology. So Saul of Tarsus had a problem with theology, but Saul of Tarsus had a sin problem. Once he dealt with the sin problem and acknowledged Jesus as his personal Savior and was filled with the Holy Spirit, his theological problem was gone. His theological problem was gone. Good things always happen to good people. No, no, no. That is very bad theology. And let me add to that. If something bad comes along, just confess something good and the good will cancel the bad. Be careful who you listen to on the television. These preachers who preach to masses, one’s down in a place called Lakewood. I’m not going to trash him, but I can’t stand to listen to him because he says things. I literally heard him the other day. I listened to about five minutes is all I could handle. He said, if you will just consider what you need to happen in your life and you say it and you say it and you say it and you say it and you say it again, what you say will become your reality.
Do you know who believed that? Mary Baker Eddy. She did not believe that you are actual flesh and blood, that this is all sort of a mirage. So you could confess your way and say, this is not reality. My reality is something else. I’m not sick and I just confess it. And that makes this what you call reality go away. And then I live in a new reality. Do you know where she is right now? She’s sitting on a chair that’s on fire in the midst of hell and she’s confessing. Go ahead and confess it, brother. Joseph is in prison. An allegation against him. You tried out going after the Pharaoh’s wife. He got thrown into prison.
Daniel, those lions are a figment of my imagination. Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty. Throw him some catnip. Everything’s going to be fine. Paul had a thorn in his flesh. Did he confess it out of his way? He did not. He found out that God’s grace would sustain him regardless of whatever that pain was. And I don’t want to run down the silly road. What was his thorn? Who cares what his thorn was? He didn’t tell us and therefore we’re not supposed to know. And you waste your time arguing and debating what was his thorn. The element that was troubling him is not the issue and it’s not the lesson. The lesson is God will sustain you through your storm.
God will sustain you through your thorns. And if we were in the will of God, this would never happen. Disciples are with Jesus. They’re in a boat. He’s been preaching all day. He’s very physical. He’s the God man. And that man part of him, his flesh would grow weary. He got hungry. He got thirsty. He got tired. He falls fast asleep in the boat. And I believe when he went to sleep, both eyes were closed. And when this storm came up, I think he was dreaming of a nice little bamboo shack. In Hawaii, I don’t know.
He’s sleeping. And a storm comes up and the boat’s being thrashed here and out. And they feared for their lives. And I can hear some one of those disciples saying, whose dumb idea was that we’d be out here in the middle of the night? And somebody says, as I recall, it was Jesus idea. As soon as my boat’s in trouble, I decide, OK, what have I done wrong? Don’t go there. Don’t go there. When a storm comes, just rest in him and cry out like the psalmist. Search me, oh God. Is there something I’m to learn from this storm? I believe a storm can come in your life and bring out good objectives. I believe that sometimes a storm will come because of disobedience, because disobedience is always, always, always followed by a storm. But there will come storms in your life. That are meant to teach you.
To firm up your faith. To stand with God. To cry out and say, search me, oh God, and see if there be. And if there’s nothing there that God reveals to you. OK. We need to learn how to deal. With storms in our life. And if you haven’t been in a storm lately, it’ll probably hit you by Friday. You know, every one of us either coming out of a storm in the midst of one or going into one. That’s an old saying, and I believe it’s true. Is your life storm less? Then you’re a deaf mute. You have no idea you’re even alive. Storms are a part of life. Not every difficulty is the result of sin.
But every sin has a consequence. If we violate the laws of God. We’re violating the very design he created for us to be. Consequences. The results of Jonah’s disobedience were dramatic. The storm was directed at Jonah. But those pagan sailors were now paying for Jonah’s sin. Even the pagan crew recognized. There’s a supernatural power that’s up against us. This is not normal. And so the storm for him was not immediate. He got on the ship, had the money to pay. Heading for Spain, probably dragging some rum that night. Probably got with the sailors and sat around singing kumbaya. I don’t know.
He was having the time of his life. He was sailing some couple of thousand miles. You don’t do that overnight. And if you’ve got a good tailwind, you can pick something sometime. But the storm never hit him for some time. It was not immediate. Yet. But there was a lull. And the storm was on the way. And here’s what to remember. When we get into the place that Jonah’s in. And we are living, knowingly being disobedient. It’ll harden your heart. It’ll stiffen your conscience. And I think you know this.
If you don’t want to repent and you don’t want to walk with God. Your conscience, seared and troubled. Will with your mind start to fix this. It’ll start to fix it. Say, I think it’s okay. Remember that the Satan came to Adam and Eve. And spoke to Eve and said, Are you sure you understood what God meant? You don’t think that he will be that hard. He’s a loving God. Have you ever heard this? How can a loving God do thus and so? Satan said to her, he won’t do that. Her conscience was beginning to become troubled. As she bit into that thing. The first taste of the juice of whatever that fruit was.
And her understanding truly got hit with a double whammy. Her understanding of God was now clouded. And her understanding of sin. Which she had never tasted, never heard of. It had never occurred to her. The only thing she heard was don’t do it. She had a clean conscience when she touched it. But the moment her mouth bit into that. Her conscience was seared and she felt guilty. And what did she do? She and the man ran and they hid from God. They had suddenly the knowledge. Of there’s something other than good. They found out that there was something called bad. They’d only known light.
And for the first time, they experienced darkness. They’d only known life. And when God found them and confronted them. In order to cover their sin, they saw blood. Think about this. How long were you in the garden before you tasted of the fruit? We don’t know. But as long as they were there. They never had an ingrown toenail. They never stubbed their toe. They had never seen blood. But now that their understanding is clouded and darkened. The relationship with God was broken. And now they know about sin. And they know about darkness.
And their conscience is tearing them to shreds. God to give them relief from that. Why are you hurting? Because we’re naked and we felt bad. Here, I’ll fix your nakedness. But it’s going to cost something else. And so for the first time, they saw blood. They saw blood. When we refuse to repent. The sin that you harbor will turn into a jail cell. You’ll be locked in. And you’ll go into denial. Pastor, why are you talking to us about this? I know you’re fine. It’s your grandchildren.
You need to know about this so you can help them. We need to know all truth. We don’t segregate truth and say. Well, I’m never guilty of segregating truth. A fellow who’s now gone to be with the Lord. Showed up at a nursing home on Manitoulin Island. It was my first night to preach there. I found out when I took on the little church of Espanola. That every other Tuesday night, I had to be at this nursing home. And speak to these people. When I got there, most of them were in wheelchairs. Had to be brought in. And most of them went to sleep soon as they saw me. The rest were terrified. So the fellow that did the opposite week.
I did every other. He did the other. And somehow I got mixed up. He was fine. I was there. I guess I was just too excited about going. So I went the first Tuesday. I should have waited until the second Tuesday. And so his story. And he would tell people at conferences. This is Dave Forrest. This is the guy that’s not afraid to teach the whole Bible. To no matter who’s sitting in his audience. I walk into a nursing home. They’re all in their 90s.
Many of them are suffering from dementia. Most of them are asleep. And here’s this young whippersnapper up there. Preaching like a storm. Let no man despise thy youth. I did, Benny. I preached that no man despise thy youth. Why? It’s the only verse that came to my head. When I’m driving down Highway 69. Racing for Manitoulin Island. It’s the verse that came. I thought that must be the verse I’m to preach on. So I got it. And I wailed away.
He said, are you at the end? He says, my name is Adams. And you’re crazy. So why am I preaching to you about this this morning? I’m not preaching. Let no man despise thy youth. But I’m talking about the jail cell of disobedience and hardness. And it can get into any one of us. Come on, come on, come on. Attitudes. Attitudes. I don’t like him. I don’t care. I don’t like him. I don’t like his attitude.
She’s haughty. She’s arrogant. She’s this. She’s that. Now you’ve turned yourself into the secretary of heaven. Congratulations. Search me, oh God. And know my heart today. Try me and see if there’s any wicked way in me. Repentance should actually be a way of life. Repentance should be a way of life. There are none righteous, no, not one. Oh, I know. You’d love to preach a sermon like that. That is those pagans.
There’s none righteous, not one of them. There’s none righteous, no, not one. That’s you and me. I’m not righteous. I’m not righteous. I’m capable of stumbling at any time. I have a new nature. But my original nature is still with me. There’s sometimes, well, my poor wife. She’s never again. 60 years didn’t do it. This is only two days old. It was yesterday driving along the road. Somebody is ahead of us. The speed limit is, I think it’s 70 or 80.
This person in front of me is doing about 45 or 50. They get to a left where they want to turn a left-hand turn. They turn on their signal. They get slower and slower. And then we get to the intersection. And there’s no car coming. There’s nothing going on. We got the windows up. I guess their windows up. And it just came out of me. It’s an amazing thing what you’ll say when you’re under the anointing. I said, would you like to get out of the way? And this quiet little beautiful lady says, are you OK? So I had this momentary fit of anger. I didn’t ram the back of their car.
That would cost me insurance money. Search me, oh God. Check out my temperament. Help me with my attitude. And when we refuse to do that, we can get ourselves into trouble. Jonah’s disobedience had significant collateral damage. There were women and children who lived in the Assyrian Empire who were like those millions in Tehran and beyond in Persia, who right now, millions, teeming millions of those people believe in Jesus. And those wicked, demonized leaders don’t care a whisker about them. Those people are collateral damage. They don’t care. They’re shooting them in the streets. They’re hunting them down. You’re a believer in Jesus. Cut off his head. It’s happening today, right now, maybe.
Jonah’s disobedience had collateral damage. And God, the only way to get his attention was to harpoon that ship with a horrendous storm. Jonah had decided on his own, those people don’t deserve mercy. Let them die. It’s called collateral damage. And how much collateral damage is happening in this country right now? Mom and dad are stoned. And the child are going without food. Daddy’s appetite for physical pleasure, and he takes it all on, takes it out on his eight-year-old daughter. My mama, my mother was one of those little girls that was tampered with by the man that I learned to be my grandpa. She was collateral damage. And he lived in a jail cell created by his own stubbornness and disobedience. I learned that he was in a hospital in Toronto dying. I did not ask my mother’s permission. I raced to that hospital in Toronto, found him, found that he was in some kind of a, I’m going to use the word coma, he wasn’t aware.
And I said to the nurse, is there any use in me speaking? She said, the last thing to go is the hearing. He just might hear you. So I stood over, I said, my name is David Forrest. You are my wicked grandfather. And if you don’t repent of this right now, if you don’t say I’m sorry for what I did to little Mary, and if you don’t repent of that sin, you’re going to hell in a matter of hours. What are you going to do, grandpa? I said, I despise what you did to my mom, but you are a soul. You are a soul. And if you don’t repent, you’re finished now. I prayed a prayer and I left. I could not be a Jonah. He’s too wicked. Wicked he was. He ruined my mom.
I won’t go down the line. I want to honor her. But my mother suffered from that all during my days. And in her latter, latter days, she took me aside with tears. She apologized to me, said, David, I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I was so angry. I did. I knew why. My mama was collateral damage. Repent, repent. Oh, could we sing a song, Linda, please? You can remain seated. I just preached from Psalm 51. Search me, O God.
Sing with me, search me, O God. And know my heart today. Try me, know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some wicked way in me. Try me, O Savior. They’re different. People change the words in hymns. Peace, peace, wonderful peace. Flowing down from the Father above.
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray.
In fathomless love.
