The Danger of Bargaining with God: A Lesson from Jonah

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Welcome back. Welcome back to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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I'm your host Connie Morris and I am so grateful you're here as we continue

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our series, The Games We Play With God.

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Today's episode is called Negotiating with God.

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Have you ever found yourself trying to bargain with God?

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Maybe you said something like, Lord, if you just do this one thing,

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I promise I'll never do that again.

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It's a game we all play at some point.

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But the truth is that negotiating with God shows a lack of trust in his wisdom and plan.

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So today we're going to dive into the story of Jonah.

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You all, we all know Jonah, right? And so who tried, Jonah is the one who tried

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to run from God's call and later negotiated from a place of anger and pride.

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If you ever resisted God's will or tried to strike a deal with him, this episode is for you.

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I, you know, sometimes we find ourselves in a place of Jonah.

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So you have to read the book of Jonah to get the full scoop.

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God told, he wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh.

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I can't think of it. I can't say it right. But Nineveh, go to Nineveh.

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So, and then he went the other way.

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Jonah ran the other way. How many of us have done that? And then God knows the

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other way you're going, so he interrupts your flow.

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So let's go to Jonah 1, verses 1 to 3, and let's see how Jonah tries to bargain with God.

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It starts out with, The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amatea.

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Go to the city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has

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come up before me. But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.

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So we see here that God gave Jonah, which was a prophet, a word for Nineveh

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to go and preach against his wickedness because God had plans to save Nineveh, the people there.

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But no, Jonah had his own plan and he went the opposite way.

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So instead of obeying God, Jonah ran in the opposite direction.

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Later in the story, after reluctantly delivering God's message to Nineveh,

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Jonah tried to bargain with God, expressing anger when God showed mercy to the Ninevites.

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So if you read the whole story of Jonah, God showed great mercy to the Ninevites.

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They end up fasting and praying, and God did not destroy the land like he had said,

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prophesied through Jonah, and Jonah at the end of the story was upset that God had a heart to save.

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That God's story, the story didn't end as he thought it was.

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How many of us has that? We don't have the heart of God.

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We want our enemies to perish and burn up, but God decides to save them and

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send them to your church.

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Come on now, send them to your church, and then they end up getting ordained

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and preaching the word to you.

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Am I speaking to someone out there? Hello, that God has called them to your

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church to serve in your ministry, right?

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And so Jonah negotiation wasn't about obedience or faith.

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It was about trying to manipulate God to fit in his preference.

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We have a way that we want God to serve justice on our enemies,

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but God has another way he wants to serve grace on our enemies.

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And so negotiating with God often reveals our reluctance to trust his plan over our own desires.

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Have you ever resisted God's will because it didn't align with your preferences?

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We all have. It's a good chance to just say, God, your will, your will is best.

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I'd rather not go that way, but I'm going to go that way because you said so.

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We see here that negotiating with God often stems from fear,

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pride, or misunderstanding of his character.

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We think we can trade something to get what we want, but God doesn't need our deals.

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He wants our trust.

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God says in Isaiah 55, 8-9, it says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

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neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

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As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways,

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and my thoughts than your thoughts.

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So God's thoughts are higher than our, his ways are higher, his thoughts are

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higher. So he's way ahead of the game.

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So when we negotiate, we limit our faith to what we can see or understand.

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But God's plan, God's plan are always better.

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I like to say they're bigger than ours, even when they don't make sense at the time. So good.

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Are you trying to convince God to, God, are you trying to convince,

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are you trying to convince God instead of trusting in his plan?

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And are you trying to get him to go your way instead of just following his way?

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We already read here in Isaiah 55, 8 through 9, that his thoughts are not our thoughts.

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Neither are our ways his ways, right, declares the Lord.

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And so we want our thoughts to be what God wants. We want our ways to be his ways.

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So what are some dangers when we try to negotiate with God?

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Number one, when we try to bargain with him, it undermines trust.

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You ever have your children do that? Even your best friend. You know,

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if you do this, I'll do that. And you know the deal is not equal.

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And you're just laughing like, dude, you're trying to rip me off.

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You know that's not equal.

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Or, you know, dude or mom or you tell your kids, you know, however that language goes.

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But it undermines trust.

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Negotiating often reveals a lack of faith in God's wisdom and timing.

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So we undermine God's trust when we try to negotiate with God.

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Number two, it delays obedience.

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Jonah's refusal to obey God immediately caused a storm that endangered others

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and delayed God's mission.

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So God had to call the big fish to get Jonah.

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I mean, first of all, Jonah went the other way.

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So we had to get Jonah to turn around, get the fish, get the people.

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It was just a lot of unnecessary events to get Jonah to do what God had told him to do originally.

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We know what that means, right? When we disobey what God has called us to do,

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If you really think about the time that's wasted, it's pretty much delayed obedience.

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And we know that delayed obedience is really disobedience. So we're not negotiating with God.

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We go back to disobeying God. Amen.

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And number three, it puts us in the driver's seat.

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When we negotiate, we essentially say that we know better than God,

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which is a dangerous place to be.

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And so what are the dangers of negotiating with God? Number one, it undermines trust.

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Negotiating, it just shows you lack faith or I lack faith.

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It undermines trust. Number two, it delays obedience, which puts you in that disobedience pile.

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And we talked about that in one of our episodes.

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You don't want to be disobedient towards God. And number three,

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it puts us in a driver's seat. It makes you God.

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It makes you the God of your life.

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And if you don't have a heaven and hell to put yourself in, you're kind of out

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of your zone. So you might want to step back. It's a dangerous place to be.

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Proverbs 3, 5 to 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not

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to your own understanding.

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In all your ways, submit to him and he will make your path straight.

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So it's always so quick to just

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turn around and say, oops, I was trying to be God. I'm sorry. I'm not.

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And so I'm going to get out of the driver's seat and...

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Get out of my disobedience cycle, and allow you, Lord, to just be God in my life.

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How do you stop this negotiating with God?

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Number one, you want to, and if it's a habit, you want to kind of break that habit.

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A lot of times, you know, we might get away with, well, God,

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if you do this, I'll do this. And then God, somehow he does it.

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And then it becomes a way that you have this communication with him.

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And in reality, it's not a good way to have a community.

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It's not a good way to always be with God.

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Lord, if you save me from this and I'll do that. And somehow it happens, right?

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He's just like, okay, my daughter, my son, okay, I'll do that one thing.

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And then you make that your habit to keep doing it. And so when I mention it

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for the first one, you want to break that habit.

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So how do we stop negotiating and start trusting? How do we break that habit

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of negotiating with God?

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A lot of times, just like kids, when we get away with it once,

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we keep doing it over and over again.

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Number one, you want to make it a habit to just surrender fully.

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Instead of bargaining with God, surrender your plans to God's will.

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Luke 22, 42 says it best. It says, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.

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Yet, not my reward, but yours be done. That was Jesus and the God in the Gethsemane.

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He was like, okay, this is going to be hard. But he asked the Father,

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if you're willing, take this cup from me.

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But if you're not, then let your will be done.

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That's the way you become fully surrendered. God, if you can do it, do it.

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If you don't, then hey, then your will be done in this situation.

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Number two, seek God's perspective. And so that's a powerful one.

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I like this one because when you spend time in prayer and scripture to align

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your desires, your desires with God's will.

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It's similar to say like, you know, the more you get to know God's heart,

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the more it's easier for you to see his perspective and the direction he wants you to go.

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You may not like it, but you can better understand it as you understand.

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OK, I got to do that to get to there. He might not tell you a whole story,

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but at least you got the first two steps.

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Right. And then if you are connecting with them all the way,

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you might be able to skip some steps, but you're walking in obedience.

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You walk in and fully surrender.

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And then he's guiding you all the way.

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Psalms 37, 4 says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

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But, you know, there's a lot of times when you, not a lot of times,

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but many times as you read the Bible, you see in the book of Genesis,

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the Israelites, they spent 40 years in the wilderness.

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Why did they spend so long going around the same, I call it mulberry tree, right?

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Because they did not want to listen to God. They wanted to do their own thing, their own way.

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And we knew that one generation died that never got the chance to see the promises of God.

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Why? Because they kept wanting to do their own way.

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And God is patient with that. He says, this generation is going to die,

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and then the next generation is going to grow up.

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And so we know the Joshua generation grew up, and they were able to see the

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promised land and cross over and saw the Red Sea open, saw a lot of miracles and signs and wonders,

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saw God at his best.

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It's always at his best, but he's always at his best, but saw things that their parents did not see.

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So we want to be able to see God's perspective.

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And how do we do that? Get to know him by spending time in prayer and reading his word.

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Number three, you want to take the first step in obedience.

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We talked about delayed obedience is disobedience. So you take that first step.

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Even if you don't understand the whole picture, trust God enough to take that

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first step. You're negotiating with him.

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Jonah went the opposite way.

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What could he have done differently? He could have said, okay,

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Lord, I really don't want to go to Nineveh.

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So tell me, what's the story in Nineveh? Why do you like these people so much?

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And maybe he will, maybe he won't. But at the point, you didn't just spend your

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whole day running the opposite way.

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And God spent his whole time getting you to go the right way.

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Because at the end of the day, you're going to go God's direction, period.

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So you go the long way or you can go the short way.

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He's called Jonah for that specific assignment. But did you notice that after

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Jonah did that specific assignment, God could no longer use him for anything else.

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His story ended in Jonah. That was his book.

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That was his story. That was his assignment, the end, right?

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You know do you want your story Just to be one chapter one verse Do you want

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God to continue To use you.

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I know, take a pause and think about that. Ah, that kind of sat with me too.

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How do you break free from the habit of negotiating with God?

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You surrender to Him fully, you seek God's perspective, and you take the first step of obedience.

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Decree is to trust God fully. Let's just do some quick decrees here.

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This is a hearty one because many times if you are the one that always want

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to negotiate with God, it puts you in a place where you just need to begin to trust God.

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What happens if you just say, okay, take step number three.

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Okay, I'm just going to do it this time. I'm not going to ask any questions.

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Some of us got that, why, Lord? Why do we got to do it this way?

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Why do we got to do it that way? We're still wasting time. We're still wasting time.

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God's trying to get you to do ABC and you're still up there.

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Let me pray a little more. Let me do this a little bit more.

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And you're just still wasting time.

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So let's get our trust in God and let's just do what he asks. Ready?

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Let's decree this and then let's take the first step of obedience.

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Number one, I decree that I trust God's plans and will obey his call without hesitation.

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I say that again. I decree that I trust God's plans and will obey his call without hesitation.

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I decree that I will not lean on my own understanding, but will seek God's wisdom in all things.

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The key here, that I will seek God's wisdom in all things.

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So he's not asking you to take a blind step.

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He's asking you to, oh, can you talk to me about this?

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Get in the habit of a habit of meeting with God every day and then these sudden

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moves won't seem so sudden,

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I remember a time I was just talking with God he said my moves are not sudden remember the story of.

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Of Abraham with the ram in the bush, the ram in the thicket.

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Remember, the ram was already in the thicket. He was just waiting for Abraham

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to get to that set point, to do that set thing, and it was ready for him.

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How many of us are, God is waiting for us to get to that set point,

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to do that set obedience move so that we can receive that set award from God?

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Right? Because we have to seek his way, seek his wisdom.

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It says, I decree, repeat after me, I decree that God's timing and ways are perfect.

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And I surrender fully to his will.

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However you say it, when you say it, just go, just move. When you're new at

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it, it takes a little bit.

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But after a while, you begin to trust his voice. You'll be like, okay, do it now.

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Quit now, resign now, write the paper now, do this now, hand it in now,

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right now, Lord. Yes, right now.

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Do it now. Oh, wow.

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And then things just start to roll. And sometimes you'll sit and you're just

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being amazed how God works.

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He's like, I just need you to move your ram in the bushes over here.

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I just need you to get to that spot so that you can receive your reward.

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Amen. And so what I want you to do this week is I want you to reflect on areas

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where you have been negotiating with God.

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I want you to ask yourself, am I delaying obedience because I don't trust God's plan?

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How can I surrender my desire to align with his will?

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And I want you also to remember that delayed obedience is disobedience.

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I want you to also, with this practical challenge, I want you to write down

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one area where you've been trying to bargain with God.

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A lot of times there's a silence.

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You know, a lot of times, I keep saying a lot of times, but I don't know a lot

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of times because I don't know what you do in your times.

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But I can say in my life that I never really try to bargain. I just don't do it.

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I'd be like, I'll just wait and see if that thing passes, right? Is that you too?

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So write down one area where you've been trying to bargain with God or pretty

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much ignoring it, hoping it just go away.

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So just pray over what he's asked you to do and asking him to help you trust

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his will and take the next step of obedience.

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Just do it. It's similar to, you ever went to like a pool party?

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And you coming over there, you all cute with your hair down and everything.

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And you don't plan on getting wet. You're trying. You're not even trying to get near the pool.

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But you had a pool party. Why did you come to the pool party, right?

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And somehow, someway, somebody has pushed you in the pool. But now you're wet.

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You're like, I'm wet? And so now they can't even pull you out the pool.

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Is that being you? And that's pretty much how it is when you walk with God.

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Once you take that first plunge in faith, there's no way ever,

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ever can you not get wet with God again.

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Because you know that you came to the pool party. You came to God in faith.

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Why not continue in faith?

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All this tiptoeing around it, putting on the act like you're walking in faith

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and not doing nothing but just walking in disobedience, negotiating on the sidelines with them.

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Remember, when you went to the pool party, if you ever went to a pool party,

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beautiful pool, they got the hors d'oeuvres and everything.

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You're not even dressed to get wet, but yet they put you in the pool.

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They might push you in the pool, thought it was funny, But then by the end of

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the day, you are just, I'm not getting out the pool. You're just enjoying the pool.

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You can't be upset because once your hair is wet, you're wet.

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It's just going to have some fun.

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And that's what I'm trying to say with you. Take the first plunge and then enjoy

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your time with God in this faith walk.

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Why not? Right? So let's close this out with prayer.

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Heavenly Father, thank you for your patience with us. even when we resist or

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try to bargain with you, help us to take the first plunge.

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Help us to trust your plans and surrender fully to your will.

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Teach us to walk in obedience, knowing that your ways are higher and better than ours.

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Strengthen our faith as we follow you wholeheartedly. In Jesus' name.

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Alrighty, thank you for joining me, your host Connie Morris,

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for this episode of the games we play with God.

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If today's message encourages you, share it with friend or foe,

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hello, and subscribe so you don't miss the next episode, where we'll be discussing game number eight,

00:22:33.357 --> 00:22:36.297
misusing God's grace.

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Until next time, I'll say take the faith plunge, stay trusting,

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stay obedient, and be blessed.