The Fugitive | Pastor Scott Blanchard

Wow. Hey, you may be seated. Thank you. Man, it's so good to have you here, and thank you for being here. And we're just thrilled to be here. My family is not here yet. They'll be here in the second service. And so, you know, unfortunately, you'll miss them. But, yeah, my wife Karen, we've been married 23 years. Got my two kids, Nate. Oh, yeah, there we go. All right. But, you know, divorce is never a conversation. We've never said the D word. But murder? A couple of times. Okay. She wanted to kill me, not me, her. It's always, you know, Tim, you understand what I'm talking about? Yeah. So, but, man, it's good to hear. And I've got two kids, 18-year-old son, Nathan. Nathan, and then my 12-year-old daughter, Abigail. And so we're just having a great time. And the past week, we were in Orlando doing the whole Universal Studio thing. And I averaged, like, 20,000 steps a day. That's a great weight loss, you know, project right there. Oh, yeah. I mean, I sweated off so much there. But we just had a great time. And it's so good to be back here at Momentum. And, you know, I've been at every location, I think, except for Navarre. I haven't been at Navarre yet. Okay. So maybe next time I go to Navarre and hang out with the Navarre crowd. And Blackwater. I haven't been to Blackwater either. But we're just so glad to have you guys here. But I've been at the elementary school back in Gulf Breeze. I've been at the Little Theater, Pensacola Theater Little. Not Sanger, but the Little. And I've been to the movie theater down in Gulf Breeze. And I have been at the Assembly of God church.

I've been there. And then in April of 2024, I've been in here. You know, I walked in the building before it was purchased. I just happened to be in town to do a wedding. And I did a wedding for a couple that was at my church, but was from Pensacola. And they came, they moved up there, and they worked up there. And they got their heart right with God and fell in love with Jesus. I said, okay, we're great people. And then they told me earlier this year they're moving back to Pensacola. And so I called them up the past week. After I saw them a few weeks ago, they popped up to grab a few things. I said, I'm going to be in Pensacola. And so I am a bringer today. They're so shy. But Don, Don and Bailey, there he is. All right. Yeah, there you go. Bailey's right. So good to have them here. And so glad to see them. They're great people. And I baptized Bailey, you know. So praise the Lord for that. And so I did a wedding out in the farm, out in the middle of nowhere, north of Pensacola. But it was a beautiful, beautiful wedding. And then I came over here and saw this space. And I was so excited for you guys. And then God makes it all happen. And they went from five months from April to now, you know, a year ago. You guys were in this place.

So it's just an honor. I'm just glad to be back here with you all. And I'm just so thankful to be here. Last time I was here, it was 2023, the last time I preached. In 2023, I was at the Little Theater. And I talk about, you know, that was the year Michigan, you know, football. And, you know, Pastor Tim is a huge Tennessee fan. And it was a good weekend for him because Tennessee played Kentucky that weekend. And they won the Hillbilly Bowl. And I was so happy. I'm happy for Tim when he wins. And so, and then I look in the room. I said, do I have any friends in the house that are Michigan fans? And Jason, there he is. And so, maybe you know this, maybe you don't. But I'm just going to love on Jason for a minute. But Jason, after the service, went to me and said, hey, you know, I'm going to be up there at the whole Ohio State game. I said, man, that's going to be awesome. That's going to be the game. you know that could be it and he said yeah I've got an extra ticket and you want to come? I'm like are you kidding you asking me? I said yeah it's like seven rows you know from the 30 yard at the 30 40 yard line right behind the Michigan bench I mean I was like yeah we're in and so we got connected I had you know there at the game of course you know I was the first I was early there was nobody sitting in my section and I sat in row six not row seven and so anybody will come to me wasn't very clear about rows and so people say hey are you in row you know what row are you? So I'm in row seven I was in row six and I just messed up that whole section. Thankfully there was another deaf guy next to me and so I believe it on him and so it was great and so yeah he had no clue and he was

more deaf than I was and so anyway I mean it was kind of madness. So Jason shows up and I worked in here and then we win and I'm gonna take Jason out to dinner hey let's go Buffalo Wild Wings or something and and he took off to run on the field and I was like what are we doing are we doing this and so but he had like a five-second jump start and and then I lost him and we had no cell phone service none so until you're like two miles away and by then you know he was going one direction and I was in the other direction so it's good to see you again. I was looking for you in a sea of humanity on the field you know but anyway I joined him and I was on a field too and I was like you know a bunch of 20 year olds and this you know 50 year old guy you know it was quite a sight but anyway I was so glad to be here and thank you for allowing me to be here this morning and always an honor to be here with you guys you know I just mentioned I'm deaf if you haven't it's just your first time with me you know I'm 80% deaf and in my church I'm the only deaf person in my church and because I'm 80% deaf that means I only hear 20% of the complaints. I made a sweet ride as a pastor when you can't hear them you know so it's all good. God has blessed us so well and in Michigan and it's good to be here in Pensacola to be with you guys. Today I want to dive into the book of Jonah. No puns intended but we're gonna dive into it and I want to think about the book of Jonah. What is the book of Jonah? What is it a picture of? And some people think Jonah is a picture of a whale. The Bible calls it a great fish and the word fish in the book of Jonah is mentioned four different times. Others would say that the book of Jonah it's a picture of a great city called Nineveh the most influential most powerful city of this day of this era and some say it's about Nineveh and Nineveh is only mentioned nine times in the book of Jonah. Many people say what the book of Jonah is really about the prophet. It's all about Jonah and Jonah is mentioned 19 times in the book of Jonah. But at the end of the day the book of Jonah is a beautiful beautiful picture of a loving God who is mentioned 38 times in the book of Jonah. The God of the second chance. The God who commands us to obey him not to make our lives miserable but that you can live a life

that he had for you to the best of your ability and he has a life made for you but he just wants you to obey him so that you can live that life. That's what he wants for you and for me. He wants your best more than you know what your best is. He wants it for you and so we're gonna look at Jonah today and if you don't know where that is in the Bible it's right between the book of Obadiah and Nahum. That helps right? Actually it's right there and all those books at the end of the Old Testament some of them sound like Star Warnings right? You got Jonah, you got Obadiah, you got Jonah, you got Obadiah. We won. You got Micah, you got Nahum, and Chewbacca. It's all right there. So if you have to use a table of contents, there's no shame in that, OK? But find Jonah. I think we've got them posted on the screen as well. Bible says in Jonah chapter 1. That's where we're going to start this morning. Jonah chapter 1. And before we do, can we pray? Can we ask God to bless this message and let God speak to our hearts this morning? Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing me to be here today. I don't know who's here that needs to hear this message. But God, you do. God, I pray that we not only listen with our ears, but we listen with our hearts. May we be challenged. May we be provoked. May our toes be stepped on, not to feel more guilt,

but to live a life that you want us to live. And so God, I pray for the Holy Spirit to speak to us. In your name, I pray. Amen. The Bible says in Jonah chapter 1, verse 1, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness had come up before me. Two things real quick about Nineveh. It's a great, great city. Jonah says that it took three days to go from one side of Nineveh to the other side. Three days of walking across this metroplex. It's huge with big architectures. It is the leading edge of technology. If there was technology back then, they were the leading it. They had the first library of the ancient time. They had the walls were so big and so wide that three chariots, side by side by side, could ride along the top of the wall of this big, big city. And so it was a huge city, but it was also extremely wicked, very wicked city. They were known as some of the cruelest people in the ancient world. In fact, they boasted about how wicked they were. They were proud to be bad. They were glad to be bad. And so they kind of boasted about it. And you might wonder, OK, Jonah's a prophet, and that's what he does.

He preaches God's word. He goes to places and evangelize. And so why didn't he just obey this very simple assignment from God? And when you understand the history of Nineveh, the Assyrian empire, you will understand a little more why he ran, why he hated them. The Assyrians were so brutal in the way they would handle the prisoners. They were so brutal. When it was rumored that the Assyrians, the Ninevites were coming, the whole village, when they hear about it coming, they would just take their own life. Because they just thought it would be better to take our own life than to go through the horrors of the Assyrian army and what they would do to us. And so they would just do that. They were so hated. You read this in the history books. The Assyrians, they would take over a town. They would take over a city. They would kill all sorts of people. They would rape the woman in the village. They would torture the children. They would kill the ladies. They would kill them all. They would take the prisoners of war, the men, and they would take them outside the city. They would skin them alive. And then, while they're still alive,

they would bury them in the desert sand up to their neck. They would yank out their tongues as far as they can go. They would drive a stake in the tongue right into the ground. And then they would just sit there and they would suffer. And then to make it even worse, the Assyrian empire and a loudspeaker would play Nickelback music all night long. Torture, the whole thing. I mean, I don't know if you can imagine the horror. By the way, I was lying about the Nickelback, OK? That didn't happen. But anyway, most of these men, they would just go crazy. before they die and then once they were dead the Assyrian guys, the Assyrian army, they would behead them and they would take the heads of all these men and right outside the city gate they will make a pyramid of heads and they were making a statement to everybody that walked by it. The statement is, hey this is a city that we conquered and when you know this maybe you should have a little more understanding, a little bit more mercy in the mindset of Jonah. Jonah said I don't want to go there. I hate these people. It could have been that he had a family member that suffered at the hands of an Assyrian or a friend or someone that he loved suffered at the hands of the Assyrians and God said to Jonah, Jonah I want you to do something and I want you to go to Nineveh and in Jonah's mind he had a legitimate reason why he didn't want to obey God in his mind and maybe this morning you can relate. Maybe you can relate. Perhaps the Spirit of God has come to you and you've heard him specifically calling you to do something. He said hey this is what I want to do and in your mind you thought okay I understand that's what you want me to do but I don't want to do it. I got reasons why I don't want to do it. I don't want to have anything to do with it. Maybe someone that's wronged you. Maybe someone that's hurt you and the Spirit of God is speaking to you and say hey I want you to forgive that person. I want you to

forgive like I have forgiven you and you're like I don't want to. They deserve it. They don't deserve my forgiveness. I don't feel like forgiving. Hey God I know that's what you want me to do but I'm not gonna go there. I know a lot of us you hear the teaching from Pastor Tim and Pastor Stephanie all the time about the teaching of the tithes and how important tithing is and how we're to return not give 10% you return 10% because it wasn't yours to begin with. You know it all belongs to God and you've heard all this and you hear that hey God said in the Spirit of God said hey I want you to be faithful in the tithing. People say well tithing is Old Testament. No we're in the New Testament. In the New Testament tithing is the floor. It's the floor. Tithing is the floor. We're to give above and beyond. In the New Testament we're to give the shirt off our back in a life of generosity and you hear the Spirit of God speaking hey I want you to step up in the way you should be given. I want you to step up in tithing and you say hey I don't want to do that. Hey I know that's what you said. Hey I know hey you know that's the Old Testament. You try to justify all you want but the Spirit of God is asking you to do something. You do it but we run. We run. Maybe hey maybe you're a single person this morning and you're dating somebody and you're getting close to that person and before you know it you're doing some stuff that you should not be doing in the dating life and you've been messing around and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit it's like hey save your body. Save it for marriage. It's gonna be so much better if you wait and and probably say yeah yeah yeah I hear you but you know it just feels good. It feels right. You know I know what I know what the Word says. I know what the Word said about this but God I'm just gonna do it now. You see here's the reality. There's a Jonah in all of us. There's a Jonah in all of us and the Lord has spoken to some of you and he's like hey I know what I'm supposed to do but I'm going to do it later. I'm not gonna do it now. God said do it now. I'm not gonna do it now. I'm gonna do it later. I pushed it off. I'm gonna push it off. I'm gonna push it off. I don't know if you've ever heard this but delayed, delayed obedience it's really disobedience and the Holy Spirit of God will come to you. He'll often tell

you to do something that you don't want to do and Jonah said hey I don't want to go there. God I hate these people. I'd rather not deal with them. They make me angry. So verse number three. The Bible said that Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. So begins Jonah's rebellion against God. See, God clearly told him to go this direction, and he ran the total opposite direction. Tarshish is far. Let me just tell you where Nineveh is. Nineveh is in Northern Iraq. It's now modern-day Mosul. That's Nineveh. Tarshish is on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea in the southern coast of Spain, at 2,500 miles away. That's the distance from New York City to Los Angeles. That's quite a way. He ran as far as he could. He headed to Tarshish. So a couple of things I want to talk about here. Rebellion is simply saying no to God. That's what rebellion is. Now, here's what you need to know about Jonah. In 2 Kings Chapter 14, it tells us that Jonah was the premier prophet, the premier evangelist, in one of the best times of Israel's period. I mean, this is a good time to be a prophet. Things are thriving, and he was considered the Billy Graham of his days.

I mean, he is highly respected, highly revered. This is Jonah, and yet Jonah rebelled. What is the message for not just the low and those who are coming in with heavy burden, but it's a message for people like me, people like Pastor Tim. Because it's so easy to just say no to God. Say no to God. You see, we tend to evaluate our walk with God by comparing how godly we are to other people. That's how we do it. We look at someone and say, hey, I'm more godly than that person. I'm not rebelling. I go to church more. I serve more. Hey, I serve in one, and I worship in the other hour every Sunday. I do it every week. That person does it once a month. Hey, I'm not rebelling. Hey, I give more. My life has more integrity. I'm more moral. We tend to evaluate our godliness by comparing ourselves to other people. Listen, you're never farther from God than when you're close to Him, and you say no. That's right. So good. Y'all with me? Yeah. That's right.

You can be doing all the things, and at the same time, be farther from God. The second thing I noticed in it first, is that Jonah found a ship ready. That's right. He found a ship ready. You ever noticed that people assume the readiness of the ship? It's like God's okay on a plan of action. Right. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with people over the years. Pastor Tim, you've had these same conversations, where people are clearly against the will of God, and they're like, hey, but Pastor Tim, but Pastor Scott, listen, it'll all work out. It'll all work out. I've talked to people in the middle of adultery. They say, hey, you know, Pastor Scott, I was miserable in my marriage, but God provided a ship, another woman or another man, and she loved me, or he loved me better than the first one, and hey, it was like it was made, she was there when I needed her, and she was there when I needed him. A ship was ready for me. And sometimes we think of ship, the readiness of the ship is like God's okay on a plan of action, on his will.

You see, whenever God speaks to you, whenever God tells you to do something, just know this, there will always be, you will always find a boat sailing in the wrong direction. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. If you wanna run from God, there will always be a ship. Always be a chip ready to touch it. You have an enemy whose role, whose entire role is to ready the chip for your disobedience. That's what he does. If you want out of your marriage, there will always be a too-good-to-be-true relationship that present itself. If you tolerate greed in your life, there will always be a great deal on something to buy or a way to cheat or a way to steal. They'll always provide that for you. That's what Satan does. I've heard people say, well, I had a peace in my heart about it. God gave me peace. A peace in your heart is God's okay

on a situation that overrides his word for you and for me. Peace of God. One of Satan's primary role is to give you peace about doing the wrong thing. He started that in Genesis chapter three. He goes to the woman. He goes to Eve and says, hey, it's okay. You won't die. It could be great. Just eat up that apple. He's offering her a ready chip. He's offering her a peace of God. You won't die. He gave her peace about disobeying God. And that's what he does. That's how he operates. So don't look to peace in your heart as a guide to live your life. You live by the word of God and what he said to be true. The peace in your heart can change based on what you ate. Bad taco, bad burrito from Taco Bell at the middle of the night. What kind of mood you're in. Peace of God up and down, but God's word never changes. Look at verse number four. Let's keep moving along here. Then the Lord,

Bible said in verse four, sent a great wind on the sea. By the way, the problem with running from God is God is already there. He's already ahead of you. You can't run. You can't hide. Such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. And all the sailors were afraid and they each cried out to his own God. So here's the situation. You got all these pagan sailors. They're scared out of their mind. They're like, okay, we're going to die. So they're like, hey, everyone pray to their God. And hopefully one of the gods will pick up the phone, answer it and save us from this mess. And so that's what they're doing here. They're pulling out the crystals and the amulets and the hankies that were blessed from the television evangelist. I mean, they're pulling it all out. Pulling all the stops. Meanwhile, the Bible says in verse five, you know, verse five, they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah, look what Jonah's doing. He'd gone below deck where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

He's taking a nap. Up on the top deck, they're having, all these pagan sailors, they're having a theological discussion about what's happening here. And meanwhile, the prophet of God, the one that has the answer is sleeping inside the boat. First time a citizen, the captain went to him and said, how can you be sleeping? You know, get up and call on your God. Maybe he'll take notice so that we will not die. And the sailors said to each other, come let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for the calamity. And so they cast lots and the lot fell on, surprise, Jonah. And so they spin the roulette wheel again and every time God keeps dropping the ball on Jonah. And so they asked him in verse eight, tell us who's responsible for making all this trouble for us. What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What's your country? For what kind of, for what people are you? And Jonah responded, he said, I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord. Really Jonah? He said, I worship the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Couple of things I want to highlight here.

The first one is this, and don't miss this. Jonah says, I'm a Hebrew and I worship the Lord. Jonah says he's worshiping God, but sadly he's not obeying God. And this represents one of the biggest problems in our churches today. We claim to love God. But we don't obey God. So let me ask you this, where in your life right now, are you rationalizing sin and running from God? What is it that the Holy Spirit is pointing out to you? I'm rationalizing this. I'm justifying it. I'm tipping the scale to have the peace of God. I'm jumping on that ship. I'm running from God, though. I've said no. Here's the second thing I want to highlight from this, is that your disobedience, my disobedience, affects others. There's no such thing as private sin. Your sin will affect your family, your friends, those that are close to you. Your sin, there's no such thing as private sin. Maybe you saw it a couple weeks ago, Coldplay. Whoops. We laughed, but lives were ruined in that moment. Lives were ruined. The greatest gift that I can give to everyone who knows me,

my wife, my kids, my co-workers, my friends, my church, the greatest gift that I can give them is being close to God. Yes, I do it for God's sake, but I also do it for them. See, my friend, the greatest gift that you can give to anybody is your own holiness. Think of it like this. You know how you get on a plane? You sit down, and what's the first thing they do? They start pulling away from the gate, and the stewardess, they get up in the aisles. Or the video now, it's a video, but they've got the stewardess up there kind of doing the thing. And no one pays attention to it anymore. Once you've heard it, you've heard it off, right? So you're just kind of ignoring it. But one of the things they say is that when the oxygen mask comes down, that you're supposed to put the mask on first before you put a mask on somebody else. So if you have little kids, don't help them first, because you're no good helping them if you're dead. Right. So good. And so you've got, hey, if you want to bless others, you need to take care of what's going on in your own heart. And many people around you, some of you, they're dying, because you're not walking with God. Your impact, you're not leaving a spiritual impact in their lives. God wants to use you in their lives,

but they're not breathing. They pass out. Your failure to walk with God has eternal, devastating consequences, not just for you, but for them. Your kids are growing up. For some of you, your kids are growing up in materialism. Frankly, because you're all about materialism. So you think about, you live selfish, you live a life that's all about you, and guess what? Your kids, they're watching. They're looking in. You don't live a generous life, you're selfish, they're leaning in. Hey, your kids don't prioritize God, frankly, because you don't prioritize God. You're not walking in holiness. Your kids don't have a strong faith in God, because you don't have a strong faith in God. You don't model it to live out the faith-filled life. Your disobedience, your rebellion affect not just you, but everyone around you, and that's what we see in Jonah's life. Look at verse 11. The sea was getting rougher and rougher, and so they asked Jonah, you pagan sailors, they said, what should we do to you to make the sea calm down? And Jonah said, pick me up and throw me in the sea, and it will become calm. I know it's my fault. I know that this great storm has

come upon you. Instead, the men did their best to row back to shore, but they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Hey, I want to give kudos to the pagan sailors, because they don't want Jonah to die. But now they're in a rowing contest against God. and they're not going to win all right and the bible says in verse 14 they cried out to the lord after they tried everything they could they cried out to the lord jehovah you know jehovah god jehovah lord you know please lord do not let us die for taking this man's life do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man for you lord have done as you pleased and it took jonah that threw him overboard and the raging sea grew calm everything calmed down just like that when the minute jonah hit the water the sea became like a stagnant pond jonah looked around and said okay well that did the trick so at this point jonah's thinking y'all bring me back in throw in the life ring you know that did it okay bring me back in and verse 17 happens bible says now the lord provided a huge fish one more time what did the lord do the lord provided a what a fish to swallow jonah and jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights the lord provided the fish what jonah would see as the worst worst possible scenario god provided it and here's what you need to know jonah's worst nightmare was exactly what he needed some of you right now you may be facing what you might be considering your worst nightmare man financially things are falling apart you're like man i'm done it's over but god may say hey do i have your attention some of you right now you might be facing what you might be considering your your worst nightmare in a relationship and god may be saying to you do i have your attention we got our friends in blackwater you've hit your worst nightmare but it's in that moment that god says hey do i have your attention and here's what here's what we're gonna learn from this it's in this worst nightmare it's exactly what you need it's what all of us need when we go through the worst time of our lives now by the way i don't believe that every bad thing's happening because god is bringing in

you know uh punishment but i do believe that god brings things into our lives to get our attention those worst nightmare moments so that we can wake up and smell the coffee and say man i'm i'm in the pig pen yeah i'm i'm i'm the prodigal son i'm eating i'm eating from the food from the pig you know from the pig trough i'm eating what they eat i'm here i've hit rock bottom and some of you hit rock bottom and that's where you're at this morning jonah's worst nightmare in the belly of a fish is god's way of saying do i have your attention jonah jonah he's on the run it's all finally catching up with him he thought he could outrun god he thought he could get as far away from god in a mission 2,500 miles away he thought man if i get there i'll be good i'll get my drink with a little umbrella in it i'll be just getting a relaxing life on the coast of spain he thought man that was the plan he was on the uss disobedience now he's in the belly of a fish rock bottom you know one of my favorite actors is harrison ford in fact my dad back in the 1980s we had the first one the first vcr in the neighborhood i didn't even know what a vcr was and my dad told me he said son i got surprised invite some of your neighborhood friends to come over and and it's okay i didn't know what the surprise was i'll bring some friends over here cook some popcorn and he had that vcr where it pops up like a jack-in-the-box you know i mean we're talking the classic here and uh you put the vcr It looked like a book, you know? And if you're under the age of 30, you're like, I have no idea what you're talking about. Hang with me. You go to a movie store, you go in, and you rent it if it's available, all right? You take it home, you watch a movie, and then when you're done with it, be kind, please. Rewind. And I was a kind person. I always rewind.

All right? The first movie on VCR was Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Oh, man, in my own home. It's a Harrison Ford, right? It's one of my favorite actors, and played lots of great movies, Star Wars, Air Force One. I love The Fugitive. I love that. I love that movie. If it pops on, I just watch it. You know, if I'm channel surfing, I see The Fugitive. I've watched it. I've seen it hundreds and hundreds of times. It's a great movie. There's a huge difference between Harrison Ford, The Fugitive, and Jonah, The Fugitive. Harrison Ford was on the run for something he didn't do. He was innocent. Jonah was on the run for something that he would not do. Let me do something weird. I'm almost done here. Let me do something weird. Can I teach you for the next few minutes how to fail in life? Can I teach you how to blow it? Can I teach you how to be a fugitive like Jonah? Tim, you know, we've done many weddings. Tim's done many weddings. I've never had a groom, right before he gets married,

look at me and say, man, I'm looking forward to a great marriage. And I'm also looking forward to the day where I blow it. And in about 20 years from now, I'm hoping to divorce and find me another person. Never. No one ever planned to fail. Jonah, in fact, Jonah never planned to be at this point in his life either. So how do you get here? How do we get here? And there's a progression here. And there's a progression. Number one, it's that God demands. That's the first thing. It starts with the command of God. God demands it. Tim Payne, you know, Pastor Tim and I have been friends now for 30 years. Almost 30 years. Go way back. We used to work together at Marcus Point. And I served there. And, man, we had a lot of great times, too. So one time, we were driving. I don't know if you remember this, Tim, but we were driving. We were on Highway 29. I remember the church, and I'm not going to say it because it could have been your church back then.

But this was early 2000. We're driving. Tim is driving, and that's north of Nine Mile. And one of Tim's jobs at Marcus Point was the church marquee sign. Before digital, you had to go in. And Tim, listen, Pastor Tim was the best at the marquee. I mean, he would be there at midnight updating. I'm like, Tim, we can't wait until the next day. He's like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to get this done. This event was over two hours ago. I can't wait. So he does it. And it's humid. It's hot. He's sweating. And it's what he does. And he did a really good job at this. And so we're driving by the church, and the church had a marquee very similar to Marcus Point. You know what I'm talking about? And he pulls into the parking lot of the church. And it's about 10 o'clock at night. He pulls in. I'm looking at Tim. I said, what are we doing here? He said, I've got to fix the sign. I said, it's not your sign. That's your job.

He said, no, I've got to fix it. He said, the sign says, God says it, I believe it, and that settles it for me. I said, what's wrong with the sign? It's fine. I know how to spell, grammar, everything's fine. The spacing is perfect. And he said, no, no, no, I've got to fix it. So he hops out, and he takes out the middle line. And he stacks up letters from the middle line and places it right there. And then it read. This, God said it, and that settles it for me. It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. Now, there was nothing wrong with the first statement. Him just make it more truer. And I thought, OK, they're going to fix it. I drove by that church for two years, and they never fixed a sign. They either didn't notice, or they thought, yep, that's right. Hey, when God demands, we do it. And that settles it, whether you believe it or not, whether you like it or not. And so that's the first step of how to fail. It starts with the command of God, the Holy Spirit of God speaking into our lives. And then the second step is we decide. Decision point. Decision point.

And see, God does not force us to obey His demands. He gives us a free will. And then how do you fail? Number three, you disobey. You disobey. It's real easy. Oh, I want you to remember this about disobedience. And Jonah learned a hard lesson. Whenever you decide in any area of your life, whenever you decide, big or small, to run from God, you're about to take a trip that's always longer, harder, and costlier. Disobedience will take you farther than you want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay. And it will cost you more than you want to pay. And you disobey. That's down the path of being a fugitive. And number four, God disciplines. God disciplines. God's not being mean. In fact, this is God showing His mercy. Jonah's worst nightmare is not God paying Jonah back for his sin. Rather, Jonah's worst nightmare is God bringing Jonah back from his sin. It's all about restoration. And the same thing is happening to some of you this morning. God is trying to get your attention. He's waving a flag. He said, don't go there.

Don't go there. Turn around. Turn around. Get off the USS Disobedience. Don't go to Tarsus, because that's not the way you want to live. He's trying to turn you around. And some of you this morning, it's time for a turnaround. In chapter 2, Jonah repented. God forced the fish to vomit Jonah. And then notice the very first verse in Jonah chapter 3, one of my favorite verses in the Old Testament. In Jonah chapter 3, verse 1, then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Let me say that again. The word of the Lord came to Jonah a what? A what? A second time. When Jonah was in the belly of a whale, he thought his life was over. He thought, God can't use me no more. I've blown it. I'm paying the price for my actions, for my disobedience. But God, in his beautiful discipline, gave Jonah a second chance. He was on the USS Disobedience. Now God put him on the USS Mulligan. He said, what's a mulligan? I'm a golfer. How many of you like to golf?

You have any golfers in the room? All right. I'm a scratch golfer, which means I'm terrible. And when someone says take a mulligan, it's like a do-over. It's like the first one don't count. And I take the mulligan. The other day, my wife went golfing with me. She doesn't golf. She just wanted to ride in the car. And she was just handing out mulligans left and right. So she said, God, just take another mulligan. Thank you. I had the best golf score ever. I'll take mulligans all day. Hey, mulligans. One time, it was so bad, I almost killed a person. It was bad. It was a mission conference. And the missionaries were with us. And they were in a golf cart next to me. Aim in that direction, I hit the ball, it went through the golf cart, right underneath his nose. The island of Granada had almost one less missionary because of that. I took a Mulligan and I told him to back up. The U.S. Mulligans, hey, God offers you a Mulligan, a second chance, a second chance. Here's the good news for you and for me. The God of the second chance in the book of Jonah is also the God of the second chance for you today. Not only did God give Jonah a second chance, He gave Nineveh a second chance, they repented, revival broke out, but here's what you need to know, God is offering you a second chance. Now you're a fugitive and some of you, you're running, you're on a boat, the USS Disobedience. My friend, it's never too late for a comeback. It's never too late to get on the USS Mulligan and go back to God.

I have a few questions to ask as we close out. Question number one, are you headed in the wrong direction? Are you headed in the wrong direction? As you take a minute to self-reflect, am I heading in the wrong direction? Question number two, have you gotten on the wrong ship? Are you on the wrong boat? Question number three, is there any area in your life where you are saying no to God when you ought to be saying yes? If you answer yes to any of those questions, I want you to know that there's a loving God. He's waiting for you. He's waiting on you. He wants to bring you full circle back to himself. That's why God sent Jesus 2,000 years ago to die on the cross for you and for me. He died for every fugitive in the room so that we can live a life of second chances. That's grace. That God's given us mercy. A new life found in him. And so, my friend, you've got a choice. You can keep on running. You can keep on running. Just know that payday is someday. You're going to hit rock bottom. Maybe God is using this service, this message, as a flag, warning, warning. Turn around. Don't go there. Not too late. You have a choice. You can keep running or you can come back. You can come back to a waiting arm of Jesus who's waiting for you. What an awesome message. Message like that kind of brings us to a place of conviction. But how many of us would say, I want revival? How many of us would say, I want God's will? How many of us would say, man, I want God to move? God doesn't move without conviction. And conviction is not always fun, right? Because it feels like correction. How many know what correction? Do you know the Bible? There's like four hands up. Okay. Memo. Here's the truth. The Bible says that the Word of God, the Word of God is powerful. And part of the Word of God is to point us in the right direction. And I believe today, I believe that message was timely. I believe there are a lot of people. Boy, spoke to me. Did it speak to you? Boy, convicted me. Did it convict you? Here's the question. It's going to change me. Will it change you? Because we don't want to just be hearers. We want to be doers. Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes? How many of you would say, you'd say, Pastor Tim, I'm a Christian. That is, I am a child of God. And I know that I know that I know I'm a child of God. But I'm running from God.

There's an area in my life, what a message. There's an area in my life where God has spoken clearly. And I'm procrastinating. I'm waiting. And you say, today, I'm making the decision to do what Jonah did, and that was to eventually obey God. And you're saying, you know what? Today's the day, pastor. I'm making the decision. I'm going to obey God today. I'm going to make that phone call. I'm going to have that conversation. I'm going to let go of bitterness. I'm going to forgive that person. Whatever it is. You say, God has spoken, and you say, I'm going to obey. I'm going to stop procrastinating, and I'm going to obey. My dad always said, obedience is doing what you're told to do when you're told to do it with a right heart attitude. And he said, if any of that's missing, it's not obedience. I wonder how many today you would say, God, forgive me. And thank you for your mercy, because God is merciful. I love that point, how that the very thing he thought was going to kill him, the very thing that swallowed him was the very thing he needed, was that fish, because that provided a space for him to repent. And someone's here today, and you've hit rock bottom. Someone's watching online, and you, you're like, I'm right in the middle of rock bottom. Some of you are like, I just moved in to rock bottom. Some of you are ready to move out from rock bottom, and you say, God is working in my heart today.

And you say, I'm going to obey. If that's your hand all over, I want you to hold your hand up. This is not a church shame on you. This is a church that is shame off you. Hold that up high. Would you put it up high? Some of you. Hold it up. That's right. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Hands everywhere. From the front to the back side, left side. Navar, I believe there are hands in the air. Raise it up. Hold it up. Come on, Blackwater. Hold it up. You say, I'm going to obey God right now.

I'm going to obey God right now. And then I want to ask this question. How many of you would say, you say, Pastor Tim, I'm just going to be honest. We're in church after all. I'm not ready to obey God. God has spoken and I'm right smack dab in the middle of running from him. And so I need God to help me right now. Because I don't, I just still running. And I know I need to stop running. I know I need to start obeying, but I'm just going to be honest, man. I'm still on the journey away from God's will. And as crazy as it sounds, Pastor, I'm trying to get away from God, but through this message, I'm realizing, boy, I need the mercy of God and I don't want to wreck my life. If that's you, I believe the Lord wants me to ask that question. I believe there's people here. I believe there's people watching you say, that's me, Pastor. Would you pray for me? Would you hold your hand up? Any honest people in the house of God today? I see your hand. God bless you. I see your hand. God bless you. God's spoken clearly. I'm not obeying immediately and I need to, I just don't want to. Anybody else? Come on. Navarro, Blackwater online. I want to pray for you. God, I pray for those that first raised their hand, said they're a child of God and they

are going to obey. They're going to go back to what you said. We're thankful for your mercy and your grace and how you're the God of the second chance and the third chance and the fourth chance. Thank you, Jesus. God, thank you. I pray they would make that decision today. I pray that you would seal the decision to obey, seal their heart today. God, don't let them turn back. Don't let them go back. God, I pray for people who are running and they don't want to obey, but they know they need to obey. God, I pray that you would change their heart. I pray. And then lastly, God, I pray for those watching online, those in Navarro, those at Blackwater, those here in Pensacola, that Lord, they're not a Christian. Someone hurt them. Someone dropped them. Someone misrepresented you, God, and their life. Like if that's what God is like, I don't want anything to do with God, but today is their day of salvation and you are calling them from death to life. I pray today, Holy Spirit, that today would be the day that they cross the line of faith, that they accept you as savior and Lord, and they surrender their life and allow you to change their life. I pray that in Jesus name, with heads bowed and eyes closed. I want to ask the question, is that you? Are you here today and you're not a Christian? Are you watching online and you're not a Christian? Someone invited you to come. Someone invited you to watch online. Someone sent you the link and you're watching right now and you're like, you know what? I'm not a child of God, but I want to be. If you want to be, here's the gospel.

The gospel is God made everything perfect and beautiful. And then man disobeyed. One man messed it up. And because of one man's disobedience, sin spread. And the wages of sin is death. That's half the story, but the story gets better. The Bible tells us, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. What does that mean? That means we, in our disobedience, chose death. And God in his holiness and his tenderness said, well, the soul that dies must sin. But I'm going to die for you so that you can live again. And Jesus took the hit. Jesus took the nails. Jesus took our sin. Jesus took our shame. Jesus took our cross. And on that cross, he who knew no sin became sin so that you and I could be made right with God. In other words, on the cross, Jesus absorbed the wrath of God, the judgment of God, so you and I could receive the love of God. And that's why we say, no wonder they call him the Savior. And if you need that Savior today with heads bowed and eyes closed, how would you just pray with me? You know, Jonah prayed in the belly of the fish. You can pray right where you're at. You're in the car driving. You're at home watching this. You've come for the first time at Blackwater. You're in Navarre. You're here in Pensacola. Today, you're one prayer away from surrendering your life to Christ and God making all things new. If you're ready to do that, I want to lead us in a sinner's prayer. And here at Momentum, we pray out loud together so no one prays alone.

Let's pray together. You ready, church? Would you say, Jesus, I am a sinner. I've run from you just like Jonah. But today I'm stopping the running. But I'm going to now run to you, not from you. Thank you for loving me, bleeding for me, dying for me, and rising again for me. I accept your life. I receive your life. I give you my life. Would you make me new? Would you teach me how to live? In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Would you look up, everyone looking up, look up Navarre right here, right here. Blackwater, look up. Online, you're watching Pensacola. You know, at our Rise Up Youth Conference last night, we gave the first invitation and there's a middle school girl, I would guess, maybe high school, eighth, ninth grade. Young lady sitting right over there, 127 kids. And one girl, when the invitation was given, she raised her hand immediately, said, I need Jesus. I want Jesus. You know, God said he would leave the 99 to get, because 99 is not good enough. He wanted the one on top of the 99. And if just one person today prayed that prayer for the first time and you put your trust in Christ alone, not your religion, not how good you are, but in the fact that Jesus loves you, bled for you, died for you, and rose again for you. And you said, I'm putting my full faith in that and I'm accepting his gift and I'm surrendering my life. If just one person did that today. Is worth it if one person just one person did that today, you know, what heaven is striking up the party If just one person in the whole world did that today heaven throws a party and I believe people all over the world today are coming to Christ I Believe that and I believe people in momentum today. You made that decision

You won't go to heaven because you're a good person. You won't go to heaven because you went to church You only go to heaven if you have Jesus if you receive Jesus if you did that today Would you raise your hand? Heaven knows we want to know heaven is celebrating. We want to celebrate so on the count of three I'm gonna ask you don't be shy. I'm gonna ask you hold it up high right like unashamed like yes today is my day I cropped that line of faith. I don't care if you're in Blackwater in Navarre in Pensacola. You're watching online We're gonna celebrate you on the count of three. Don't be shy. Hold it up. Hi. Here we go. Ready? One, two Three right now. Hold it up. You pray that prayer said yes to Jesus. Come on. Let's go to the bar Come on, Pensacola. We got a hand in the air. Come on. God bless you. Let's go Blackwater. Let's go online Let's go church Never gets old. Thank you, Jesus That's what it's all about right there That's what it's all about right there