Jonah chapter one verses one through 3 says the Lord gave this message. I’m reading in the New Living Translation says the Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of a mighty. Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.
Announced my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked the people.
Be Aware Of Jonah In You – God’s Will Be Done
00:00:22 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Car. But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarsus. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by selling to Tarsus. Praise the Lord and what I’m going to do is just go back and forth between my notes.
00:00:43 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And the scripture normally I read it first, but for the sake of time I’m just going to go right through it. So none of it was the capital city of Assyria.
00:00:52 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
That’s why it was called a great city, built by Asher, who was from the family of Ham. It’s all the way back in Genesis.
00:01:00 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
They had huge statues made of pure gold and they had stunning palaces and all of this good looking stuff. But then if it was also known as lawless.
00:01:11 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And they were home to people who were wicked and violent, even God himself called them wicked. However, it was still home to over 120,000 people.
00:01:26 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Now God’s handpicked Jonah.
00:01:30 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
To go and prophecy a warning to them that will hopefully lead them to repent of their evil ways.
00:01:38 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise the Lord, but again, we know Jonah went in the other direction. Praise God, but his name means duh.
00:01:49 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And some of the biblical representation of a dove are.
00:01:53 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
A new creation.
00:01:55 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
New possibilities, new beginnings and the presence of God. God was sending Jonah to represent him, to give Ninova a chance to repent, and to have a new start in life and to avoid being utterly destroyed. A man.
00:02:15 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise the Lord.
00:02:17 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Now in and I won’t read it. But in Second kings, the 14th chapter, the 25th through the 27th verse, there is a part in there where Jonah had to give a message to the children of Israel. He was glad to do that one because you know why they were his people. Amen. Praise God.
00:02:37 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But then let’s go on down.
00:02:40 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Two well. Oh, no. I’m going to read this first, but just like Israel needed deliverance.
00:02:50 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
None of it needed to be delivered too.
00:02:53 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
So why wouldn’t he want to go to them? Well, here are some reasons they were violent, unmerciful people.
00:03:01
Right.
00:03:01 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
So why should he want them to be spared and saved sometimes? Have you ever heard somebody say that person is going to hell in a handbasket?
00:03:11 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Right. And they say that not when somebody is nice, not when everybody likes them, not when they’re doing good. They say that when they feel like that person is bad enough to go there, when they’re evil, almost like it’s a satisfaction that they’re going to get what they deserve. Praise God, but.
00:03:30 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
They were violent and unmerciful.
00:03:32 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
They weren’t God’s people and they weren’t Jonas people either. He didn’t feel any kind of an obligation to Minister to them. They weren’t his people. And we know even in the New Testament there were times that they didn’t think that Jesus should have been speaking to the ones that he was because they felt like it wasn’t the time for that. The salvation belongs just to the.
00:03:54 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise God.
00:03:57 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But also Jonah may have been thinking, well, what if they do repent?
00:04:03 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
What if they repent?
00:04:05 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And this backfire zone? Israel.
00:04:08 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And then they come in and conquer.
00:04:10 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
The Israelites, so he don’t want to give be the one to minister to them, they repent and then they go and destroy Israel again. They were merciless people. They were ruthless. They would they. I read some commentaries, said they would kill you. They would. They would just have you out there. They didn’t care.
00:04:31 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise the Lord so Jonah would rather see them destroyed than to give them a chance to continue destroying others, right?
00:04:45 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
So Jonah decided to go to Tasha’s and Tarsus is a place that represents a place that God had not yet revealed himself. He he wanted to go to a place that was truly void of the presence of God, really trying to get away from him.
00:05:04 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Also I want to say this really quick. Those songs that you all sang tonight went to me right along with this message. Get up out of that grave and I speak. Jesus, I thought about some of the lyrics that says shout Jesus from the mountains. Jesus in the streets. Jesus in the darkness. Jesus over my family speak Jesus.
00:05:24 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Everywhere, right. This is something Jonah was having to do. And he was going somewhere he didn’t want to go and speak. Jesus, praise the Lord.
00:05:34 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Verses 4 through 6.
00:05:37 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help, and through the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all the time. Guess where Jonah was.
00:05:57 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Sound asleep down in the hold. So the captain went down after him. How can you sleep at a time like this? He shouted. Get up and pray to your God. Maybe he will pay attention to.
00:06:13 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And spare our lives.
00:06:16 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Now what I want to ask us is do you have a tarsus? Do you have a place that you want to run to in order to avoid obeying what God told you to do and to avoid ministering to those he chose to send you to?
00:06:35 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
If so, keep in mind that you’re running away from God is not going to only affect you.
00:06:41 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
It will affect others.
00:06:44 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And sometimes, you know, we might say, well, I don’t have a tarsus.
00:06:48 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
What if it’s somebody that you don’t like?
00:06:51 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Whatever somebody that did your kids wrong.
00:06:55 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
What if somebody has spoke against your pastor?
00:06:59 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You know what? If it’s somebody that spoke against your mother, what if somebody tried to get you fired off your jaw but spread all kind of evil against you? You ready to go to them?
00:07:08 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
What if it’s a type of people? Do you have a type of people that maybe there’s a bias against?
00:07:15 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You think that they don’t deserve it because they’re not the kind of people that seem like they would be saved. They seem like they would go after God. So instead of going to them, you’d rather back up.
00:07:30 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Let somebody else do that. But you know, God tugs at your heart.
00:07:35 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
If that’s the case.
00:07:38 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
God is if he has something for you to do and you don’t want to do it. We know people who they we say they’re running from God. They’re running from their calling. They don’t want to do what God has for them to do. And a lot of times you see that those people are going through disaster. They’re going through rough times.
00:07:58 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But while they’re going through those rough times, maybe it’s their family watching them and they can’t really help them. They don’t know how to help them because what they’re doing is disobeying.
00:08:07 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
God. And so sometimes you’re just going to have consequences that man can’t get you out of. You’ve got to turn back and go back and do what God told you to do. Praise the Lord. Sometimes when people are following God, but then they stop following God. You see that their children are affected by it, by those things that they choose.
00:08:27 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You know when they choose to walk away from the thing God told them to do? So maybe it’s not even just going to Minister to people that you don’t like, but maybe, you know, God has a ministry that he is calling you to maybe you know that there’s something that the Lord has put on your heart to do, but for whatever reason.
00:08:46 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You back up, you shy away and you don’t do what God has for you to do. I guarantee you life is not exactly the way that you want it to be. If you’re running from whatever God has for you to do so. This is a challenge, not just out to.
00:09:00 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You all but.
00:09:01 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
To me, first I was reading this and I was like, Oh my God, Lord.
00:09:06 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Help me, Jesus. To do what you called me to do. Help me, Lord, to cast off intimidation. Help me, Lord, to go forward into the things that you have called me to do. I remember a prophecy that Pastor Bates gave me.
00:09:23 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
A couple of years ago, I think now and one of the things that the Lord had him to say to me is you, you don’t think that you you say people will not want to hear me and things like that and God knows that’s the that was the honest to God truth. I have a book that probably should be already published right now.
00:09:43 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But I’m thinking who’s gonna want to read it if I write it, but in the meantime, I have people say when are you writing your book? Just on things that I post or comments that I make and that’s not to toot my own horn, but that’s just to say, sometimes the Lord has things for you to do, and I have to look at it another way and say.
00:10:01 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Who am I not blessing?
00:10:04 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Because I haven’t written it.
00:10:07 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And sometimes we look at things and we make.
00:10:09 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
It about us.
00:10:10 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
We make it about us like if I do this, am I trying to be? Whatever? But what if you look at it a different way?
00:10:21 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And by you not doing what God has for you to do.
00:10:25 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Your whatever somebody is supposed to get from you or from what you’re supposed to do, they’re not able.
00:10:30 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
To receive it right now.
00:10:33 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
That’s the case with, you know, the people in and then at this point, they’re just walking around, oblivious to the fact that they could be destroyed in 40 days because no Jonah had shown up yet. Amen. Let me move forward. Praise God.
00:10:52 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Verses 7 through 12.
00:10:54 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And says then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offered. The gods had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did, the light identified Jonah as the culprit, praised God, and then they asked him some questions. They say why, they say, who are you?
00:11:12 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
What is your line of work? What country are you from? What’s your nationality? Jonah said. I’m a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land. So wait a minute. The sea is the problem right now.
00:11:26 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You worship the God.
00:11:29 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
They created the scene. You sleep.
00:11:32 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
We about to be destroyed. What? You mean you sleep?
00:11:37 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And mind you, he had already said get up and pray to your God at this point. Jonah had not prayed. He still had not prayed.
00:11:47 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But the sailors were terrified when they heard this, for they had he had already told them that he was running away from the Lord. Ohh, why did you do it? They grow. And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, what should we do to you to stop this storm? They didn’t want to be in John the storm.
00:12:07 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
This was Jonah storm. It really had nothing to do with them. This was Jonas Storm. But they were caught up in it because they were transporting him away from the presence of God. They didn’t even know that he involved them in his storm.
00:12:24 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Sometimes you got to be careful that somebody is just storm after storm, after storm, after storm, things going on. You might have to see gonna say Lord.
00:12:34 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Am I supposed to be where I am right now? Don’t get caught up in somebody else’s storm when they running away from God. Praise the Lord.
00:12:44 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise God.
00:12:46 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And so.
00:12:49 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
He said throw me into the sea and it will become calm again. Lisa acknowledged his wrong, he said. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.
00:13:02 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
They rode even harder to try to get the ship to land, but the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it.
00:13:10 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise God. So Jonas disobedience. Put the lives of others in danger. They could have been destroyed, but he was so removed from God’s will for him that he could naturally and spiritually sleep through a deadly storm.
00:13:25 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
The captain had to tell him to get up and pray because none of their none of the other prayers had worked. They tried, they prayed to their gods. None of them answered. So he asked Jonah to pray.
00:13:37 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But again, he didn’t. So 13th through the 16th verses I read the 1314 says. Then they cried out to the Lord Jonas. God ohh Lord, they plead it. Don’t make us die for this man sin and don’t hold us responsible when he does die.
00:13:58 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons. Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once. The sailors were all struck by the Lord’s power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. Praise the Lord. Isn’t that something?
00:14:18 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
After failed human attempts to get the ship to land, the sailors cried out to Jonas. God. He didn’t do it.
00:14:27 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But they did, and they cried out in the pre repentance for what they were about to do to him. They didn’t want to do it. They tried to spare his life. Now look at that. They they don’t know Jonah anymore than Jonah knows. The people in Geneva. But they were willing to spare his life. They were willing to try to save.
00:14:48 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Him, whereas Jonah did not want the people of Nineveh.
00:14:52 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
To be spared.
00:14:55 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise the Lord.
00:14:59 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Let me go down. Let’s see. Where am I?
00:15:04 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
OK, so these men didn’t know God, but God did answer when they threw Jonah overboard, and they stopped the storm. Praise the Lord. And like I said before, the storm was never about them. It was about Jonah, but it did offer these men an opportunity to see the power of the God of heaven.
00:15:24 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
At work.
00:15:26 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
To see that he is the only God that’s able to answer, praise God, and so that they could offer him their own sacrifices and have an opportunity for a new beginning. Because guess what? They vowed to serve him.
00:15:41 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise God. They were all struck. They saw what powerful God this was. Hallelujah. So then we’re going on to the second chapter. Like I said, I’m going to try to move through here quickly.
00:15:56 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Sorry about that.
00:16:02 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
All right.
00:16:03 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Verses chapter two, one through 4.
00:16:07 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Then Jonah pray to the Lord his God from inside the fish.
00:16:11 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Now, why he wait to wait till he get to inside the fish to pray?
00:16:18 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And did he?
00:16:19 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Know that God had a fish prepared.
00:16:23 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
He just knew he was going to get thrown overboard, but it says he prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish, he said. I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead and Lord, you heard me. You. You threw me. You threw me into the ocean depths.
00:16:43 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
When I sank down to the heart of the sea, the mighty waters engulfed me. I was buried beneath your wind, your wild and stormy waves. Then I said, oh Lord.
00:16:54 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You have driven me from your presence.
00:16:57 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Yet I will once more look towards your holy temple. Now. Did God drive Jonah away from his presence? Last I read, Jonah paid.
00:17:08 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
His own money.
00:17:10 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
For it’s all fair. So he get away from God.
00:17:14 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And then he said, Lord, you drove me here and that somehow we don’t want to take responsibility for the things that we did. Oh, God. You. You caused all this pain to come on me so I could come back to you. No, he didn’t.
00:17:27 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
God didn’t do that. Don’t blame him for that. Don’t lie on him. Praise God. That was Jonah. He did it to himself.
00:17:38 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Sometimes we do that too.
00:17:40 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
We can wait, but we don’t want to wait and blame God for being that far away from him.
00:17:50 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Before a person gets away from God and again I’m not talking about just, we walk away. We don’t want to serve God. I’m talking about walking away from the things that he has called you to not being willing to do the things that he has asked you to do, you have to make a decision to do that. That’s not just the all of a sudden you. Oh, wait a minute.
00:18:09 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I’m on a boat. I’m headed the other direction away from God. No, he had to first make a decision that he was going to go on the boat. He had to have the fare to.
00:18:18 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Be able to pay when he got there.
00:18:20 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
So it starts with our thoughts. And so we have to watch our thoughts so that we can stay in line with whatever it is that God has given.
00:18:28 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Us to do.
00:18:30 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Thank you, Jesus.
00:18:37 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise God and so we have to be careful so we don’t keep ourselves self-centered.
00:18:44 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
That even when we’re out and about that God can’t slow us down to minister to people, have you ever let I’m just giving this real quick example. My husband and I were in a grocery store one day and this woman had on a shirt. I can’t remember what it was, but it was a T-shirt with the gospel on it. Scripture.
00:19:00 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
All over it, my husband says.
00:19:03 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I like your shirt and you know you would think that she would at least say thank you. You wearing a you wearing a whole gospel all over your shirt. And she looked at him like.
00:19:15 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And didn’t say a word. What kind of an example is that?
00:19:20 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
What kind of an example is that? Do we move so quick? Are we so much on our own agenda that if the Lord wanted to slow you down, to speak to somebody, that could lead to changing their entire life? Are you too busy that you can’t you you only got the 5 minutes that you came in the grocery store with?
00:19:40 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But what if the Lord has somebody there for you to Minister to?
00:19:45 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
What if and you know, I don’t know who who indeed is homeless and who’s not? I don’t know. But what if some little guy come in and say, hey, I’m so hungry.
00:19:55 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Can you give me some need? I’m not even ask you for money, can you? Can you buy me a sandwich?
00:20:01 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
What if God is trying to use you to change his entire life?
00:20:06 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And you just say.
00:20:08 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You go work, you can.
00:20:10 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Eat. That’s what the Bible say. You use the word.
00:20:15 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You know, sometimes we got to be careful that we are not going opposite of what God has set up for us to do.
00:20:26 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Let me move along here.
00:20:31 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
The 7th through the 9th verse I’m skipping.
00:20:34 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
He said as my life was slipping away, I remember the Lord and my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy temple. Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies, but I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise. I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord.
00:20:55 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
So so this is what he said, but he waited, he said. When my life was slipping away, why wait till your life was slipping away to remember the Lord, to remember to do what he told you to do? Why wait to earnestly pray? Why waste time running from the plan of God? You will delay.
00:21:15 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
So he can use you to do while wasting time being angry against whatever it is or whoever it is. If God has called you to minister to somebody as a group of people and you don’t like him, you don’t think they deserve God’s grace, but you hold on to that.
00:21:32 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And for you, angry against people for stuff they did in the past. Things you think they could do in the future or holding on for something that they did to somebody else? Don’t you know, sometimes people they said, well, you hurt my sister 15 years ago. I ain’t never speaking to you again.
00:21:49 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I mean, let’s let’s get real to where it really is.
00:21:53 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You know things like that. But God may say, I want you to call that person.
00:22:00 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
OK, let me go even deeper. So what if God tells me? Pick up the phone. What if he some kind of way gives me a phone number?
00:22:10 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
To call my molester from when I.
00:22:12 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Was a child.
00:22:15 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And say I want you to call him and tell him that there is a better way.
00:22:20 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Cannot do it.
00:22:23 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I pray to God that I would be able to do it. There’s some things that sometimes people have done, stuff that is so horrible and you think that they don’t deserve God’s grace, but guess what? God loves them just as much as he loves you. They’re just doing the wrong things. Praise God as much as we love sister Precious. I hope your mommy.
00:22:43 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Blowing you out.
00:22:44 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
As much as we love our sister precious right here.
00:22:48 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
None of us would did not hear the gospel right now, am I right?
00:22:52 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
What about when she was sitting in prison?
00:22:55 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
If we saw her in prison.
00:22:58 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And not right here in this room. Would we still feel the same love and affection that we do for our sister? We love her in a transformed state, but she was in a different state before she was transformed, just like I was. Just like each and every one of you. You were in a sinful.
00:23:18 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
State before you give your life to the Lord. And if it weren’t for his hand of mercy, you wouldn’t be here either. My God, my God. My God. My God. I don’t know what you did in your past.
00:23:30 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Guest. You don’t know what?
00:23:32 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I did in my past, but guess what? We’re all here by the grace of God. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
00:23:42 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise God, but meanwhile.
00:23:47 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You got these men. They have already paid thou to God. They have already repented. The thing that Jonah is just now deciding to do. The sinners have already done before him on the ship.
00:24:00 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
They didn’t know. God, they didn’t know about his. They had heard something about his God because they said, wait a minute. Now you serve the that God, we all gonna pray to him. Then at first each one was praying to their own individual God. But they all end up praying to Jonah’s God, cause nobody else could satisfy. Nobody else could change it. Nobody else could turn the situation.
00:24:20 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Do you want people to call on your God? What if God send you? You might be the one that has to draw them to call his name. Thank you, Jesus. Glory be to God. Praise you God. Hallelujah.
00:24:36 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
So then the Lord spoke to Jonah second time after he had come out of the fish. Now I could go into all the details about the whale and how it wasn’t much oxygen in there. It’s a miracle. But my God, the bigger miracle is Nineveh. So the Lord spoke to Jonah second time. Get up. Go to that. Great.
00:24:56 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And delivered the message I’ve given to you now. Jonah still had to make his way to Geneva and deliver the message he still had to make up his mind to go when the king of Nineveh. This is a third chapter, starting at the six.
00:25:11 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
This verse, when the Kingdom never heard what Jonah was saying, he told them to repent or this place is going to be destroyed in 40 days. They believed him something about it. They believed him. And so the king stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He humbled himself. He dressed himself in burlap.
00:25:31 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And sat on a heap of ash.
00:25:33 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Then the King and his nobles sent the decree throughout the city. No one, not even the animals from your, hers or flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God not to a God, to God they must turn.
00:25:52 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
From their evil ways and stop all their violence. Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fear. Anger from destroying us when God So what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not.
00:26:12 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Carry out the destruction he had threatened. Thank God. Hallelujah for his mercy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank God for his mercy to an end of her. He they didn’t know. He didn’t just forgive them. He didn’t just say, oh, I’m not going to do it. He wasn’t just toying with with Jonah’s affections. These people really humbled themselves.
00:26:32 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
They really repented and this is what we want.
00:26:36 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Isn’t this what we want to see which is better, to let the sinners stand their sin, to let them continue their destructive ways? Hallelujah. What’s better to let the dope dealer continue dealing dope that’s killing kids. What’s better? My God for Hallelujah. For somebody.
00:26:56 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Up their own.
00:26:56 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Drugs to keep putting needles in their arms and putting them in the arms of other people. What’s better to let the murderer continue on their murdering spree or to get the man saved?
00:27:13 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
What’s better?
00:27:16 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But sometimes we can shy away from those people we don’t want to be the one to minister to them, but they need it probably more than anybody else you ever saw.
00:27:27 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
So this change of plans greatly upset Jonah. He became angry, so he complained to the Lord about it. Did not say before I left home that you would do this, Lord.
00:27:41 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
This is why I ran away the tarsus.
00:27:44 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I knew that you are merciful and compassionate. God, slow to get angry and fear with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Just kill me now, Lord.
00:27:57 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I’d rather be dead than alive if I what I predicted will not happen.
00:28:03 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
The Lord replied to him. Is it right for you to be angry about this?
00:28:09 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And then of course, we, most of us know the story. I’m going to move because I got a couple more scripts.
00:28:14 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I want to read.
00:28:15 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But Jonah was more upset about a gore and a plant that God allowed to grow up with him to shed because he was sitting back watching, you know, sometimes we, oh, yeah, you you did me wrong. I want to sit back and watch and see what God’s going to do to you.
00:28:31 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
He’s sitting back watching, hoping to see destruction.
00:28:37 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Nothing, because God forgave him 40 days and then the Lord did not destroy them. So he’s happy about this gore that came over him to shade him.
00:28:48 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And then God sent a worm to destroy it.
00:28:54 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And then Jonah is upset about that. He wanted to die with that too.
00:28:58 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
God said, does it do you good to be angry over this doggone plant? That’s here today and gone tomorrow?
00:29:05 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city which have over 120,000 people?
00:29:15 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You know, and so God is looking for us to care.
00:29:22 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
He is looking for us to think more of people sometimes than what we do.
00:29:27 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I’m moving forward to the New Testament now. James and John Jesus was on his way. This is Luke 954, starting at the 54th verse. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem and wanted a town of Samaria to prepare for him. But they wouldn’t do it. So here’s what to his disciples.
00:29:47 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Said when his disciples, James and John saw this, that they didn’t want to help.
00:29:52 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Said Lord, you want us to call command fire to fall from heaven and consume them just like Elijah did.
00:30:01 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But he turned to rebuke them and said you do not know what manner.
00:30:05 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Of spirit, you are.
00:30:09 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
They weren’t trying to do the same thing that Elijah.
00:30:11 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Did that was an altogether different situation.
00:30:16 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And he wasn’t just trying to call down fire from heaven just because they didn’t want to prepare something for him on his way to Jerusalem.
00:30:25 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But that’s what sometimes people the mindset goals a lot of times we do things opposite, and his disciples show us how they did things opposite. He wanted the children to come unto him, they said send your child away. He don’t have time for that. Blind Bard Mess is trying to get his attention. He just wants his sight.
00:30:45 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Today, he just wants to see what the disciples can see and they said be quiet. He don’t have time for you.
00:30:53 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But Jesus did.
00:30:55 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise the Lord, and then the last one I want to mention.
00:30:59 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
We know this story too.
00:31:04 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
My goodness, I did not even write down where what book it’s in.
00:31:08 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But I’m going to read it.
00:31:10 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went to the Pharisees house and sat down.
00:31:15 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
To eat and behold, a woman of the city who was a Sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisees house brought an alabaster black flask, A fragrant oil, stood at his feet behind him, weeping as she began to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head.
00:31:36 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And she kissed his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now, when the Pharisees who had invited him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying this man, if he were a prophet, would know what manner of woman this is. Who is touching him because she’s a Sinner.
00:31:53 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. So he said teachers say it. He said there was a certain creditor who had two debtors, 10500 denarii, the other 50. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore.
00:32:14 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Which of them will love him more? Simon answered and said. I suppose the one whom he forgave more and he said to him, you have rightly judged. Then he turned to the woman, changed his focus.
00:32:28 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And he said to her, well, he said do.
00:32:30 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You see this woman?
00:32:34 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I came to your house.
00:32:37 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss. But this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet. Since the time I came in, you did not anoint my head with oil. But this woman has anointed my feet.
00:32:57 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
With fragrant oil, therefore, I say to you her sins, which are many.
00:33:03 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Are forgiven because she loved much. Hallelujah, but to whom little is forgiven. The same loves little. Then he said to her. Your sins are forgiven. And those who sit at the table with him begin to say to themselves, who is this? Who even forgives sin? Then he said to the woman.
00:33:23 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.
00:33:29 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Go in peace.
00:33:31 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Call in peace. Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that beautiful when you can hear from God himself? Go in peace. You don’t have to worry about your sins anymore. I don’t hold it against you anymore. I don’t hold you responsible anymore for the things that you did that were wrong. Hallelujah.
00:33:51 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Your worship Hannah Basata Yamaha your worship and.
00:33:55 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Your care for me?
00:33:58 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Your attentiveness to me has cleared you of that. It took faith for you to walk in here. It took faith for you to come into another man’s house. Hallelujah. Who knows that you’re a Sinner and still be willing to wash my feet. It took faith, Sir, for you to come in.
00:34:19 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And to wash my feet with your tears, to anoint it with your oil. It took faith to do that.
00:34:27 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
And sometimes God is going to call you and he’s going to call me to do some things that take more faith than you think you’ve got, but you’ve got to get up and do it. Hallelujah because he needs you to. Hallelujah. He’s not just using you. He’s showing the people around you, his character.
00:34:48 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
He’s showing the people around you, his character, by the things that you allow him to do through you.
00:34:54 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
My God, think about that.
00:34:58 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Think about that.
00:35:00 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Who would think that a little girl from the?
00:35:06 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Places in in Chicago.
00:35:10 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
The not not the nice places, but the hood. Do I look like I come from the hood? Well, guess what I did.
00:35:19 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
You might not see Hood when you see me.
00:35:23 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But that’s where I came from. You might not see Club and going out to partying. You might not see alcohol when you see me, but I did it. You might not see probably Hallelujah sexual sin before marriage. When you see me, but I.
00:35:39 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Did it, but I’m here.
00:35:41 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I’m here now. I’m changed by the power of God. You’re changed by the power of God. Go and help somebody else and be changed by the power of God. Hallelujah. Let them receive his mercy through you. Just like you have received his mercy freely you have received.
00:36:01 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Now freely you give Hallelujah glory to God.
00:36:06 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I’m finished.
00:36:09 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I’m finished. Glory to God.
00:36:19 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
I know there’s only a couple.
00:36:20 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Of minutes left, but.
00:36:24 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Jesus said.
00:36:26 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.
00:36:49 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
He’s calling us.
00:36:51 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
To do the same thing.
00:36:53 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
He’s not hearing the flesh anymore.
00:36:57 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
But he has all of us says greater work. Shall we do? Because he goes to his father.
00:37:04 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
Praise God, he needs us.
00:37:07 Minister Latoya Norsworthy
He needs us to follow him and to do what he calls for us to do. Could I have everyone to stand, please? Glory to God.
