10-16-11 AM - Not Just Another Fish Story

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JONAH 1-4

1. THE CALL TO SERVICE. (CH 1) “you may run but you cannot hide.”                                                                     

Don’t mistake your comfort for God’s approval of your prayer life.

“Get up and call upon your God, maybe He will hear you and we will not perish”

“The God of heaven who made the sea and the land.”

When you serve the Lord it may cost you something.

2. THE CALL TO SURRENDER. (CH 2)

If God cannot get your attention in your comfort He will get your attention in discomfort.

Jonah 2:9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord."             

3:1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.

3. THE CALL TO SACRIFICE. (CH 3)

Nahum 3 1 Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; Her prey never departs.  2 The noise of the whip, and rattling of the wheel, Galloping horses And bounding chariots!  3 Horsemen charging, Swords flashing, spears gleaming, Many slain, a mass of corpses, And countless dead bodies— They stumble over the dead bodies! 4  harlotries, sorceries, Who sells nations  
vss5-19 the Lord rebuke.

19 For on whom has not your evil passed continually?

4. THE CALL TO SEE. (CH 4)                                

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to come here. These people don’t deserve to be rescued. Have you not noticed how wicked they are? Do you not know how many innocent lives have been brutally killed by these people?”

“slow to anger” (vs. 2)

What God wanted Jonah to see was; people are important to Him, even the wicked and disappointing ones. (Like you Jonah)

Verse 4 Have you any right to be angry?

“God” provides a worm to wither the vine,
“God” provided a scorching east wind,(the word is also translated silent, either way a hard wind blowing dust on a hot day or no wind on a hot day are equally bad) and the blazing heat caused Jonah to be faint. And again Jonah says “it would be better for me to die.”

Verse 9 Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?

Jonah 4:11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"

What was God wanting Jonah to see? The same thing He is wanting us to see! 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.