Subtle Jonahs

An annex balcony here today, thrilled to be here with you. A Harvard professor was teaching a class of entrepreneurs and he asked, he proposed a question. He said, students, what would be the best way to start a successful hot dog stand? Picture making a business, you have a hot dog stand, how do you make it, how do you ensure it's gonna be successful? And one of the students said, well, you have to have a good quality product, get the best hot dogs you could possibly have.

And the professor says, oh, that's good, that'll help. But it's not what I'm after here. And another student stands up and says, it's the branding.

You have to have a great brand of a hot dog that looks like a man walking around or something with arms and legs. And you know, you draw a crowd because of the branding's so good. The professor says, no, that's not it.

Another one said, it's advertising. You can't start a good business unless you have good advertising. Hot dog stand won't survive unless there's good advertising around the location that it was.

And on and on, these students went. Professor's saying, no, no, no, no. Finally, the professor says, I'll tell you the answer to this.

A successful hot dog stand will always be greatly successful if it's placed in a place where people are starving. Right? And I say that to say, God has positioned Times Square Church in a city that's starving for good news. That's why the doors are open and the crowd's coming.

And that's why people are listening around the world. The Bible says there's a famine in the land for the word of God. And I thank God for almost 40 years now of faithful preaching of the word of God from this pulpit, from David Wilkerson, my father, to Pastor Carter Conlin, now Pastor Tim Delena, and every guest that comes in here.

We all have the same desire, the same spiritual ambition is to present to you a starving people like me, hungry for more of Jesus, to present to you nothing but the unadulterated, uncompromised gospel of Jesus Christ. There was a, to me it's like this, there was a dinner party in New York City and a very wealthy man threw this, it was quite a soiree and everybody was there dressed up in their best outfits and there was music and dancing and food and towards the end, the man who was hosting this party turns to a Broadway actor, a very famous Broadway actor, had this amazing baritone voice and he says, sir, would you do us the honor of coming up at the end of this meeting and just something unusual we don't usually do, would you mind just quoting the 23rd Psalm and the man in his deep voice, which I don't have, but I'll try my best, went, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. You know, everybody goes, oh, that's, man, he's so eloquent, man, what a voice.

And then the party host sees an old pastor in the back and he remembers going to his church years ago and he's just kind of a different kind of man, he didn't have nice clothes on and he looked pretty old and like he didn't belong there and, but the man says, let me ask him to come up and he asks him to come up and says, would you mind quoting the 23rd Psalm as well? And the old pastor just bows his head and holds his chest and he says, tears began to roll down his face and he said, the Lord, the Lord, he's my shepherd, I will not want, he leads me and man, just tears rolling down, all of a sudden, people in the audience who didn't know God, just tears started rolling down their face and when he got done, the man who was hosting the party turned to the Broadway actor and said, why was what he said, the same words different than what you said? And the Broadway actor said, I know the Psalm, he knows the Savior. And I thank God for almost 40 years here now, the Lord has protected this pulpit and men don't get up here and women don't get up here and just mouth words from scriptures or cute sayings or funny stories, they can stand up here and say, and I pray I stand up here with you and say, I know the Savior and we're here today to do nothing but present the Savior to you. Maybe you walked into this building or maybe you're listening online and you haven't heard the word of the Lord, you haven't met that Savior yet and it will certainly change things like Psalm 23, it becomes personal.

When it says, I know the plans I have for you, Jeremiah says, those plans become personal when you meet the living Savior and we pray that you might do that today. I wanna talk to you a little bit about Jonah today, that's quite a transition there. I wanna talk to you about Jonah today.

Before I do, if you could just bear with me kindly, allow me just a few minutes with you to describe to you a little bit about what God is doing through World Challenge, the ministry that my father began and I've had the privilege of now being in leadership of it for about 12 years. Had a board meeting last December, Pastor Carter Conlin is on our board, Pastor Tim Delina is on our board. We had a board meeting in December and Pastor Carter says to me, Gary, I love you and I've loved being on this board for the past 25 years but I was walking down the hallway and somebody asked me, what does World Challenge do? And he said, I got stuck for a second, I didn't know what to say because you do so many different things.

You have pastors conferences, you have podcasts, you have a publishing company, you write books, you distribute literature, you give food to the poor, you have feeding programs, you have all these different kinds of ministries going on and I just kind of choked for a second, I didn't know what to say. And then our other board member said, maybe that's why it's a little bit of a confusion to who you are. Maybe that's why you've had a little bit of trouble finding people that want to generously give to this ministry.

Over the past 10 years or so, our finances have declined a little bit, a little bit, a little bit each year and yet the ministries we were doing around the world expanded and expanded and I went home that night, not rebuked but just challenged and the Holy Spirit said to me, get out a yellow notepad and write down every ministry that World Challenge does and I wrote down their podcast and I wrote down their pastors conferences and I wrote down their publishing. I wrote down all these different things and then the Holy Spirit said to me, I want you to, I'm not asking you to stop doing those things but I want you to cross one of them off and say, if I had to give one of these up, what would it be? I love doing podcasts but I can live without doing a podcast. I crossed that off.

I like writing books but I can live without writing books. I crossed that off. We have a publishing company, I can live without having a publishing company.

I crossed that one off one after another, after another until I got down to about three left and I was getting a little nervous. There's two at least on here that I can't stop doing. One of them is church planting among unreached people groups and the other was James 127.

This is pure religion and undefiled caring for the orphan and the widow and I knew instantaneously, that was my heart. That was my non-negotiable but I was worried, I didn't wanna give up the church planting thing. Last year, we started 400 churches and saw about 8,000 people in mostly Muslim countries, unreached people groups come to Jesus.

How could I give that up? And the Lord said to me, do what your father did. He started Tain Challenge, then he gave it to somebody else and they led it and it got even better. And then he started Times Square Church and he gave it to somebody else and got even better.

And then he started World Challenge, he gave it to somebody else and it's okay too. He gave things away. So we started another ministry called Compel International which now is on its own leg standing and reaching unreached people.

Left me with this last man standing, the one hill I'll die on, the thing that's a non-negotiable for me. My life call has always been and will continue to be, this is the last thing on my list. I've crossed everything else, but I cannot cross this off.

James 1, 27, I wanna live pure religion. I wanna see the church come alive to pure religion. I wanna see people that have a heart to say, I wanna care for an orphan and a widow, but I don't know how, I don't know where to get involved.

And World Challenge exists to help people get involved in sharing the resources God has given them to help care for people like Pure and Shabana in India, a three-year-old girl and a little baby brother who they were born to a prostitute in the red light district of Mumbai. And she was dying of AIDS, so she took these two little children and threw them onto the trash heap and said, if I'm going to die, I can't care for them and I don't want them to live in this world. And she gave them up.

And one of our missionary friends walked by and saw these two children and took them into the orphanage that we're helping support. And the little boy, the doctor said he has HIV, and he's malnutrition, he's starving, he probably won't live another few days. But he lived a few days and got nourished and strengthened.

And his sister was watching out for him and they prayed for him. And both of them at that orphanage met Jesus and their lives were transformed. That little boy lived not only a few days, not only a few months, not only a few years, but he actually went back to the doctor and he was healed of his HIV, no longer having it in his blood system.

He is 17 now, about ready to graduate, top of his class in high school. His older sister who protected him all this time is almost ready to finish medical school. She wants to be a doctor because she wants to help children who are thrown away just like she was.

That's why I say pure religion undefiled is to care for the orphan and widow, amen. Amen. Amen.

I brought a little book along with me. We have some of those at the back there. I'd love for you to take it.

It's a calendar that you can pray each day and you can read a scripture each day. And it has a little bit about our ministry there. And if you would love to pray for us, we would be so honored and so grateful.

Or you can follow us at worldchallenge.org. If you're listening online, go to our website. And we ask for people, I'm praying for not only hundreds of thousands of orphans and widows to be rescued, but for hundreds of thousands of Christians to get involved and live out that pure religion that God has for them. Would you mind praying for us? And if God puts it on your heart to give, we would be so grateful.

Thank you for letting me take a few minutes to share with you about World Challenge. Now I wanna get into the word. I wanna pray first and ask God's spirit to move mightily in this room today.

Jesus, we thank you that you have power to set us free, to do what we can't do in our own strength. So come right now in Jesus' name, amen. I wanna talk to you this morning about being a subtle Jonah, a subtle Jonah.

Three points from this message real quickly. Number one is what is a subtle Jonah? Number two, what impact does that have on our life? And number three, how do I break free and become radically uncompromised? Number one, what is a subtle Jonah? You know the story of Jonah, right? Many of you have read this from the book before. It's one of the minor prophets and it's an amazing story about this powerful, mighty prophet who had the call of God on his life.

He was living out his destiny. He was speaking the word of God around nations and nations were being transformed. And one day he gets this call and the call says, arise and go to Nineveh and call out Nineveh against the great evil that it has.

And there was something in Jonah's heart, I don't know whether it was a prejudice or he was just worn out, but he doesn't want to go to Nineveh. And yet this is what a prophet does. He goes and preaches to cities and now God's calling him.

If you'll go to Nineveh, you can help transform this city, save it. And he doesn't want to go. So he goes in the opposite direction.

It should have been acceptable. He should have obeyed immediately, but instead he went in the opposite direction. He gets on a ship, there's a massive storm.

They find out he's the one causing it. The sailors reluctantly throw him overboard. Remember the story? He gets swallowed by a whale.

He lives three days and three nights in the slime and slush and water and gurgling all this junk in his lungs. And he's there for three days and three nights. And finally cries out to God and God spits him up on the shore.

He stuck there and now God says, go to Nineveh and he's learned his lesson. Now, none of us wants to be so blatantly disobedient and rebellious to the call of God, to the destiny that God has for us, to the design that he's put on our life. None of us wants to get in this much trouble.

Nobody in this room wants to get swallowed by a whale. Nobody wants to live in that kind of bondage under a situation like that. None of us wants to be that kind of, walk in that kind of disobedience, but many of us do it in a much more subtle way.

That's why I call some of us in this room today, myself included many times, a subtle Jonah. I would never directly, rebelliously, angrily, just say no to God. I'm not going in the place you want.

I'm not gonna be the person you want me to be. I'm not gonna do that. I would never go that way, but mine is much more subtle.

I think many in this room find the same way. Few of us are radical Jonah's willing to rise and rebel against God's direction and instruction. Few of us will leave our homes and run off to a new city in direct rebellion against God.

Few of us will purposely choose to go in a complete opposite direction that God has called us to. But many of us are more subtle. We are more coy.

We are more nuanced. We are more sly. Our rebellion is calmer.

We attempt to make our lack of quick, sure, absolute obedience less noticeable by being obedient to a degree, by being partially in, partially in obedient to what God has for us. A couple examples of this would be a husband who wouldn't begin to think about committing adultery. He knows God's law against that, but he sneaks in a little bit of pornography occasion.

It's a subtle Jonah. It's not full on rebellion, but it is a way of escaping in one thing, but allowing another thing. It could be a single mother who hears God say to her, I want you to pray with your two young boys every single night.

Get on your knees with your two young boys and pray over them every single night. And some nights she gets busy. And other nights there's a movie on Netflix and she wants to watch it.

And the kids fall asleep and she forgets. And she'll say, I'll try again tomorrow. It's a subtle Jonah.

It's just missing the mark a little bit. It's not horrible rebellion, but it's just not quite living up to what God has called you and I to find out fully. It could be a retired couple that God has called to give their life and their financial resources to help missions around the world.

And they're called to go and do short-term missions in countries. But they find themselves on their fishing boat because it's so relaxing and enjoyable. And they spend more time fishing than they do in missions.

And fishing is not sinful, but when you're called and it's an acceptable form of relaxation, but when God's called you to give your life to mission and all of a sudden you're getting distracted and all of a sudden now there's a brochure on your table about a three week trip on a ocean cruise liner and you're doing that three or four. And before long, there's no more missions work. Before long, there's no even giving to missions.

It's a subtle form of being distracted from what God's called you to. This happened in a parable that Jesus taught. It's found in Matthew chapter 21 in the parable.

Jesus said, there's two sons. And they were asked to obey the father. And one son says, I will not obey you.

But then he ends up obeying him. But the other son says, I will obey you. I will do what you want father.

But then ends up not obeying him. He suddenly begins to miss the mark. He just begins to move in a different direction than what God had called him to.

He often keeps saying yes over and over again. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't go this time, but I see my error now. Now I'm gonna correct my course and go, but then he doesn't go again.

And he says, okay, let me try again. But first I have to do this. And then once I get that done, and then after that, the next time I'm on and on and on and on.

It's that same system, the same structure. The reason I didn't want to do this thing is not blatant rebellion. It's just a little thing in our heart.

It's just something. We talk proudly that we're not the kind of people that would run and get on a boat and go to a different city. But Jonah fled running as fast as he could and as far as he could, but most of us are more subtle.

We stay close as we can without actually obeying the exact command that God has given to us. Jonah was willing to rock the boat and get out of the way, but us subtle Jonah's sometimes try to keep things calm while still being disobedient to what God has for us. I wonder if some listening to me right now, whether here or online, might be wondering about that thing that God has spoken to you.

I have my own. The Lord constantly tells me about my eating habits. And I get on these things like, man, even though I hate vegetables.

I mean, I do. Don't get me started. Just, I see green on my plate.

I start having a reflex, you know, just like, and then I just have to eat. But the Lord's telling me to eat healthy. If I'm going to do the next couple decades of my life with strength, I have to eat healthy.

And so I'm on this diet, not a diet, but I'm just, I changed the way that I eat. But man, I passed the ice cream shop and I got just this one time, five nights a week. Right? Last time, just one more time.

Then I do the, only on weekends. No, it's my no vegetable weekend. No, but the Lord didn't say eat some vegetables, but then have ice cream every night.

He said, eat healthy. He said, go to the gym, keep your body in decent shape so that you can travel and you can move and you can do what I've called you to do. And the snooze button is the most exercised machine in my house.

Right? Am I the only one? No. What has God said to you? Can you even now, as I'm talking, can you think of something that God has put on your heart to pray with your children daily? And you just pass day by day and you make an excuse why that didn't happen, excuses and promises to try to do it again. Far too many of us have a simple, straightforward, do what God tells you to do.

And we say, yes, but we almost never say no way, Lord, I wouldn't do that in a million years. We say, yes, Lord, but then we don't often do what he's called us to do. When we live as subtle Jonah's, we think it's not as dangerous as being a blatant Jonah.

We're not gonna be in a shipwreck. We're not gonna be thrown overboard. We're not gonna be given over to almost suffocating the slime of a whale.

But our subtle compromises bring subtle results that are things that you and I do not want in our life at all. You might not get thrown in a whale, but you might become dull. You might become lukewarm.

You might lose your first love. You might grow close, but not close enough. You might nearly do the right things, but miss the best thing.

You might not run from the presence of God, but you might subtly drift away and slip into nearness of his presence, but not get the fullness of his presence. You might miss the destiny that he has for you. God has a design for your life, a glorious plan, a magnificent endeavor, an adventure that is beyond your wildest dreams.

And it is these subtle things that take us away from the very things that God wants to do in the destiny in our life. Many Christians are ruining and losing their destiny and their high calling, not because of some grand rebellion, but of a subtle compromise. Just something that we are unwilling to give up.

Song of Solomon chapter two, verse 15 says this, catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards for our vineyards are in blossom. I don't know if you'd have that picture up there, but I brought with me this morning, a picture of a little fox. There is a little, you're all like, oh.

The Bible says that little thing, that little thing right there can ruin the vine. When will it ruin the vine? It says when our vineyards are in blossom. These little guys know when the vineyard is at its fullest, your life is at its fullest, your calling is at its greatest, your destiny is about to be fulfilled.

You're gonna move in the thing that God has for you that is beyond your wildest dreams. And it's at that time, these little foxes come and you go like, it's just a little fox. It's really cute.

It's cute until you wake up the next morning and all the grapes are gone and that little sucker's 200 pounds. And he's destroyed your vineyard. The context of this passage is, the vineyards are in blossom.

When do these little things ruin our life? The enemy doesn't bother you when you're distracted or moving off in something you don't belong. He distracts you when you're about to reach your highest blossoming place of life. When that dream that he's put in your heart is just about ready to be there.

This vineyard represents a life that's in a state of growth and potential fruitfulness in our relationships, in our spiritual life, in our personal character, in the call that God has on our life. And these little foxes are subtle. They're sneaky problems that seem small and harmless on their own.

Examples could be an unspoken envy you have over somebody else. Or maybe words that you might say that are unhealthy or unchecked gossip of somebody else, lazy habits, slight disobediences to the high calling that God has on your life. The Bible tells us these things spoil the vines.

The grapes are not as lush or as plentiful. There's a stealing away of what you could have had. And how many of us live life saying, I wish I would had? Or why isn't my life? Or why am I downcast? Why am I not living a successful life? Why am I not thriving? Why am I not closer to Jesus? Why does he feel distance? It's oftentimes, it's what for church? Little foxes that spoil the vine.

The prodigal son in that story was not a subtle Jonah. He was an all out Jonah. I'm gonna run for my father.

And I'm gonna live a life of debauchery. But his older brother was a subtle Jonah. I'm not running away.

I'm staying close to the father. But my heart isn't all in. And that's being a subtle Jonah.

Oftentimes our subtlety allows us to slip into a kinder view of ourselves. Hi, I'm Gary Wilkerson and I preach and I write devotional books and I do mission works. And I have all people can't be a subtle Jonah.

My subtlety corrupts me. I'm a subtle Jonah when God calls me to lay down my life for my wife and I get angry that she burnt the toast last night. I'm a subtle Jonah when I'm called by God to take a trip to Nigeria in the middle of the summer when it's just so hot and I don't wanna be there and it's so crowded, I just get overwhelmed.

And somebody invites me to speak at a national conference. And I know God called me to go to Nigeria that week. But that conference, well, Lord, I know you want me to go to that conference.

And I say yes to the conference and I say no to Nigeria. That's being a subtle Jonah. Saying yes to what we want over what God wants for us.

Willing to allow subtle compromises to come into our life. Number two, what impact does this subtle Jonah have on us? Excuse me. Though these compromises may be small, the impact on our life, our calling, our destiny, and the impact on those around us of the world in the world is enormous.

You will lose an enormous amount of impact on your life. You will lose an anointing. I can't stand up here having a full anointing when I allow small compromises into my life.

You can't be the kind of worker on your job when you allow compromise. You can't be the testimony. God won't ever give you the fullness of that dream that he's put in your heart.

If you're toying with compromises that he's asked you to flee from. When God speaks to us, he's not just trying to get us to be obedient. He's not an angry God who's just saying, I'm gonna throw out this command just because I wanna see if you're gonna fail.

And when you fail, I'm gonna crush you. He's asking you to give up those things because he's know it's being spoiling of the vines that he has for you of the fullness of life that he wants you to live. It's a loving father, right? It's not an angry God.

It's a loving father that's saying yes to the things he wants to see for you. Ask yourself, what great calling, what meaningful impact in the world am I missing because of my subtle compromises? My call is from God is to lead a mission of pure religion around the world. And if I allow other compromises to come in there, it's going to diminish the work rather than advance the work.

And lastly, how do I break free from becoming radical? How do I break free and become radically uncompromised? When I ask you this, what I'm asking you is how do you live out your highest calling? How do you get back into alignment with God's best for you? How do you re-engage with a significant and meaningful destiny that God has called you to? And what has slipped away through subtle compromises? And I just want to close with two very quick things. Number one, if you want to regain that high calling that God has on your life, I think there's two things. Number one is to regain sensitivity, to regain that sense of a clean conscious rather than a seared conscious.

Ephesians chapter four, verse 18 speaks about the difference between having a sensitivity to the spirit. Look at this, having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality. There's a choice in this church today between sensitivity to the Holy Spirit or sensuality of doing what you want to do with your life.

Sensuality doesn't have to be a sexual lust. It can be preaching at the conference rather than going to Africa. It's my own sensual, my own desire for my own pleasures.

And in doing that, we lose our sensitivity to the things of the Holy Spirit. Years ago, before my father died, he took my family and I and my little kids to a movie. It was a PG rated movie.

We were sitting there and about halfway through, he gets up and walks out. And I thought he was going to get some popcorn for us or something like that, but he never came back. And at the end of the movie, I said, you know, all the grandkids were there.

We were having fun. We were laughing. It was a cute movie.

He said, I said, dad, why did you leave? He goes, because that one guy, he took the Lord's name in vain. And I'm not going to sit there and have my savior abused like that. And he walked out and all of a sudden I realized I didn't even hear him say that.

I was so desensitized. We listen to things. We hear things.

We listen to music. We see things on our computer. We download things on our television.

We are constantly bombarded by things to where we lose sensitivity to it. Thank God I saw a testimony, a living testimony of somebody who kept his sensitivity to the spirit and would not indulge in the sensuality of the world and accept it like it's nothing. And that's why I think my father was so anointed because he kept that sensitivity to the spirit.

When God said go, he would go. When God would say jump, he would say how high. It was that kind of obedience to the things that God has for.

We lose sensitivity when we live in a subtle compromises without being aware we're even compromising. Some of you may have been sitting here listening to the sermon today and saying, I'm so glad I don't compromise. I'm so glad I can't think of anything that's subtly causing me to compromise.

Give me 15 minutes with you and I'll find out. I'll ask you just a couple of questions before long we can put our finger on that thing because all of us in this room have things that God has been speaking to us and he's just asking us, my children, I love you so much and I want the best for you. And this thing is robbing you from your best.

It's robbing you from the best marriage you could possibly have, little compromises. It's robbing you from being the best kind of parents you could possibly be, the best worker you could be, having the best future you could possibly have, having financial resources that God would have for you, having the spiritual life, the prayer life, the study of scripture, a hunger for more of Jesus. It's not huge things usually.

It's oftentimes the very small things. Has he called you to a mission? Has he asked you to forgive a father who maybe treated you poorly when you were growing up? Has he asked you to diet and exercise? What does he ask you to do that you just kind of continually let it roll off your shoulders like water off a duck's back? What is he asking you to do? Could you imagine, listen, this with me, a story of a young man, if he would have not done what God said to do. He was in the 1800s in London.

He was a young man. He was working at a factory and he told the factory owner, I will not work on the Sabbath on a Sunday. And he actually didn't show up on Sunday.

On Monday, he came to work and he was fired. And he was living in a time of great poverty in London. Children were, orphans were actually starving on the streets at this time and there was disease and losing his job could be at risk for his life and his future, but he stays strong.

But while he is without finances, while he's without, he's not wondering, should I have obeyed God or did I miss out on God? No, he's actually now living with some people who are hungry and he starts trying to bring them some bread and they see some people, some children on the streets and he starts taking them into a home. And before long, William Booth starts the Salvation Army, all out of this one thing of being simply obedient to God in what seemed like a small thing. And out of that, he saw the needs of the world and God took away the things that spoil and gave him the promise of a brilliant future that has impacted the world around him.

Can you imagine if some biblical characters that we call heroes of our faith, could you imagine if they had sort of had a subtle Jonah moment in their own life? Could you imagine if Noah said, the ark doesn't have to be that big, does it? If Moses would have said at the Red Sea, how many of you guys know how to swim? I'll meet you on the other side. If Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said, you know, we can bow down physically because we're gonna, in our heart, we're not gonna bow down. But no, they didn't go there.

Could you imagine if Rosa Parks said, the back of the bus is fine for me? Could you imagine if Martin Luther King said, I had a dream last night, but I think it might've been the pizza I ate. Could you imagine if Ronald Reagan said, Mr. Gorbachev, can you at least put a few doors in the wall? Some of you are too young to get that one. These men and women would have long been forgotten if they had allowed themselves to be subtly compromised.

They are now remembered and revered because they refuse to minimize their vision. They refuse to lessen their conviction. They refuse to compromise on their mission.

They have no compromise at all. And Ronald Reagan said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall. Martin Luther King Jr. said, I have a dream.

Rosa Parks said, I will not move to the back of the bus. Nehemiah said, I will build that wall and nothing will stop me. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, we will not bow down.

Moses said, God is gonna part this Red Sea and we're gonna walk across it on dry land, every single one of us. Noah said, I'm gonna build this ark exactly the way God said it. And I'm gonna save mankind and the animals to boot.

All of these people, every single one of them could have missed out on their destiny simply by allowing a small compromise in their life. And I have been sent here by the Holy Spirit and I'm closing, worship team, if you'd come back. I have been sent here by the Holy Spirit simply a lot of words to say what I'm about to close by saying God has a wonderful, amazing plan for your life.

Something thrilling is coming your way. Things you would have never imagined. He loves you so much.

He's grabbing you by both shoulders, shaking you a little bit saying, you don't know what you're missing. There's something coming your way. That dream in your heart, and if you don't have a dream, he's saying, I'm gonna shake, I'm gonna put a dream in your heart.

I'm gonna, you're gonna cross off maybe 14 things on your list. He's gonna leave you with one thing like he left me with, an uncompromising passion to care for orphans and widows around the world. And what's your one thing passion? What's that one daring dream, that thing that seems impossible to you? That's the thing that God wants to plan in your heart.

But it's the thing the little fox wants to destroy. Now for some of us in this room, the little fox starts off by saying, I have been called by God. I felt his wooing a number of times to commit my life wholeheartedly to Jesus.

And I've never done that yet. I have explored something about Christianity. I've read my Bible occasionally, but I've never allowed the gospel to come into my life and transform me.

The gospel is simply, we're all sinners. We're lost without Jesus. And God could have punished us for that, but he loved you so much.

He said, I'll punish myself through my son, part of the Trinity, and he'll take your punishment upon himself. And all you have to do is confess your sins to him and turn your life over to him and say, Jesus, you saved me for a purpose and give your life and commit your life to Jesus. And no more half-heartedness, no more games, no more compromise.

Just turn it all over to Jesus. And I wanna pray for you now. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? And if you've never received Jesus before, and today you're saying no more compromise, no more excuses.

Today's my day of salvation. Today, I'm gonna ask Jesus to forgive all my sin, to wash me, cleanse me, no more excuses. And I want today, I wanna, in just a second, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand.

And I wanna pray for you to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, raise your hand right now. Let me pray for you.

If you'd like to, yes, all over the room here, yeah, up in the balcony. There's dozens and dozens in this room today. And online, you can pray too.

And all you have to do is pray a simple prayer, saying, Jesus, I really mean this. I really need you to come into my life. I don't wanna live on my own anymore.

I want to have your spirit living in me and me living in your spirit. So I confess you as my Lord and Savior. I commit my whole life, my heart to you.

And I trust that your saving power is sufficient to draw me into your family. I thank you now that you're making me a son and a daughter of Jesus Christ. And I will love you forever.

And you will allow me to move into the things you have for me. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's put our hands together and thank God for many that have come to Jesus today.

Now, would you stand with me, please? And I wanna pray for some other people here today. I wanna pray for some other people here today. You're reengaging in your destiny.

That's what I'm asking you to do today. Reengage in your destiny by getting rid of the subtleness of the Jonah lifestyle that has those small compromises. And if you're here today and you want to make a declaration, here's what I was thinking when I was sitting there listening to the worship today.

It was so beautiful, the worship. Here's what I was thinking. Probably don't have time to write something on a piece of paper, but just imagine if you could write something on a paper, a little piece of paper, and it says, my compromise is God told me to eat better and exercise and I'm not doing it.

My compromise is he told me to give this up or he told me to do that and I'm just not doing it. It's very subtle. I'm just kind of missing the mark a little bit.

Even though you don't have to write it down, pretend you're writing it down, and then if you want to, here's what I would love to do. If you need to get free from that, you want to just blitz that thing away from your life where it's not like subtle anymore, it's gone. What I want you to do is imagine you wrote it down and you're going to leave it at your seat and you're going to come up here at the front and I'm going to pray for you.

And when you go back to your seat, it's not going to be there anymore. That ice cream addiction will be broken in the name of Jesus. That prayerlessness, that whatever it might be, when you step out of your seat, leave behind that compromise.

And you're stepping forward to receive prayer in a form of declaration that God, it's going to be you empower me. That verse about little foxes, if you read it again, it basically, the prior verse two, it says, chase for us the little foxes. The queen is speaking to the king.

King, I can't do this myself. Would you come? Isn't that powerful? We don't know about that verse. All we know is little foxes spoil the vine.

But the first part says, chase for us. In other words, an outside source stronger than ourselves, chase for us. So come on down, if you would, right now, and I want to pray for you.

In the balcony, you can come front as well. We're going to pray in just a moment. You're going to leave behind that compromise and you're going to receive that destiny, that fullness that God has for you.

How many believe that? Wave at me if you believe that. Amen. Amen.

Let's sing this song together. ♪ A thousand generations ♪ ♪ Falling down in worship ♪ ♪ To sing the song of ages to the land ♪ Sing it, come on. ♪ And all the world before us ♪ ♪ And all the world beneath us ♪ ♪ Will sing the song of ages to the land ♪ Your name, Jesus.

♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Above them all ♪ ♪ All glory and honor ♪ ♪ All power and position ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ And the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy is your name ♪ ♪ All creation cries ♪ ♪ And I hear people singing ♪ ♪ Hear your people singing ♪ ♪ Holy is your name ♪ ♪ You will always be holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Your name above them all ♪ Are you tired of being robbed by the devil? Are you tired of him stealing the fruitfulness of your life? Well, God is here today because he loves you so much. Father, we thank you that we're in a crowd of people here, but everybody that has walked forward is not in a crowd. They are one-on-one, individually, sitting before you, and you're holding their hand, and you're saying to them individually, this is not a crowd decision.

This is you and him, and he's holding your hand, and he's saying to you, thank you for your willingness to boldly step forward and say, I will. And then he's saying to you, and I'll now give you the power to do what you cannot do in your own strength. I'll help you with those commitments you make that you never follow through.

I'll be the power in you, the source of strength that you could do what seems impossible to you to do. And so we thank you, God, that these little compromises right now are being taken away by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. And to the best of our ability, Lord, we're saying I hand it to you.

I hand this addiction. I hand this pornography addiction, this smoking addiction, this marijuana addiction, this lust addiction, this anger addiction, this fear addiction, this self-loathing, self-hateful addiction, this lack of confidence addiction, this distracted mind that doesn't zero in on the things you called me to live my life for. We put that at the cross right now and say that's all nailed to the cross.

Jesus has destroyed that by his blood. And the blood of Jesus is sufficient to cleanse us of all our unrighteousness, even the subtle forms of it. So thank you now, Jesus.

Thank you now, Jesus. We just take a moment now to say, God, I believe you are gonna do what I can't do. And you're gonna set me free.

And not only am I not gonna have this subtle compromise, but since that's gone, the little foxes are gone, and now the vineyard will be full in my life. The fullness that you have for me. Lord, every financial breakthrough is coming my way.

Every health form that you have for me, you're going to deliver everything that you have for me that the enemy's been trying to kill, steal, or destroy. We pray, God, now in Jesus' name. And I'm gonna walk out of this building right now, free from all of that.

And I thank you, and I close my prayer for you with this. Please, please listen to this carefully. None of you at this altar today, at the front of this building, or listening online, none of you should ever feel like, okay, now I have to go and be perfect.

Most likely, I'm gonna eat ice cream at least once more in my life. But it's a lifestyle of saying, no, I don't do that. I don't drink, I don't smoke.

I don't sleep around. That's not who I am. I'm a new creation in Christ.

And you might slip and eat an ice cream once in a while, but it's not your destiny. It's not who you are. And so I want you to be, I don't want you to see this experience today as being, I have to go be perfect now.

What you have to be is dependent now on the one who can come and take those little foxes from your life that you've been trying to get rid of anyway. The AA didn't help that much. It helped a little bit, but counseling helped a little bit.

But now the King is coming, and he's grabbing that thing from you and saying, I'm gonna give you strength. I'm gonna give you power. I'm gonna give you authority to do.

And the result of that, I promise you, I promise you, I've seen it in my own life. When I got rid of the distractions of multitudes of different ministries that were distracting me, we went from 2,500 orphans and widows we were caring for in January to now nine months later, 10 months later, 337,000 orphans and widows being taken care of. In nine months, why? Because we got rid of some of the distractions that came in, the things that were spoiling the vine, and we had this focus on what God has for us.

The Lord's done miracles. Our finances are up 50% this year. That's a miracle.

We've never had that in the history of our ministry. People are giving like crazy because they're catching the vision because of this focus of saying, my destiny is more important than the subtle things that take me away from it. My calling is too important to mess around on these little things that are really insignificant anyway, and I'm going all in for all God has for me.

How about you? Amen. Amen. Let's sing another song together.

God bless you all. Thank you for letting me be here with you today. Enjoy.