By
Rev. Juliet Schimpf
Rev. Juliet Schimpf is the Minister of
First Baptist Church in Perth, Ontario:
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LINK to CFRA broadcast of
Sunday, March 10th, 2013)
http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/11779/good_news_043_mar10.mp3
http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/11779/good_news_043_mar10.mp3
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Broadcast Notes:
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'On Jonah, and obedience'
1. Sin will
take you farther than you wanted to stray.
2. Sin will
leave you there longer than you wanted to stay.
3. Sin will
cost you far more than you wanted to pay.
1. Sin will take you
farther than you wanted to stray.
Jonah 1:1
Now the word of the Lord came
to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2‘Go at once to Nineveh, that
great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before
me.’
·
Non-Jews (non “church-folk”)
·
Jesus Christ our Lord, who said, "Love your enemies,
and do good to those who hate you, and bless those who curse you, and pray for
those who abuse you" (Luke 6:27, 28).
·
Jonah is a prophet to Israel—people like
him……NO! Don’t send me to people not
like me!!!!
·
Who does God want you to speak with—but you are
unwilling????
3But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
·
Jonah doesn’t want to
go to ninevah because he doesn’t want the country to repent; to receive mercy.
·
Does that remind you of anybody in the New Testament? The
NT Jonah is the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son. And the
lesson of that parable is the same lesson as the book of Jonah. The younger
brother squanders all the father's bequest in immoral living and heads for
home. All the while the older brother has been thinking of how superior he is
to this black sheep of the family and how much he deserves from the father. But
when this no-good brother comes home, what happens? The father puts a ring on
his finger, a coat on his back, kills the best calf for him, and throws a
party. Then the older brother hears about it and what does he do? He refuses to
go in. He is angry that the father has shown mercy. Just like Jonah outside
Nineveh, the elder brother sulks outside the father's house.
·
Who does God want you to extend grace and mercy toward, but
you are unwilling?
Verse 3
continued…..He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he
paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the
presence of the Lord.
·
DOG-SLEDDING
·
Some of us are running from god in opposite
direction; even though we go to church and sit in pew!
·
Disobedience is a sin!
·
Not obeying God is a sin: not doing what God is asking you to do is a
sin—notice Jonah repents in chapter 2!
o
Sins of commission!
o
Sins of omission!
·
We can be like Jonah! God asks us something…we don’t do it….
·
What is God asking you to do?
·
Sometimes people say—I have no idea what God is
asking…..in reality, we have a suspicision:
·
in a sense, Jonah is
not like us: a prophet: a unique calling: a clear instruction from God and a clear
message from God
·
in our case….we don’t
receive the same kind of instruction
·
in another sense,
Jonah is just like us:
·
in conversation,
people will say:
o
“I think God is
asking me to tithe more….”
o
“I think God is asking
me to become a member….”
o
“I think God is
asking me to give up x or y….”
2. Sin will leave you there
longer than you wanted to stay.
Jonah 1:4 But the Lord hurled
a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the
ship threatened to break up.
·
God is Lord of everything—sea, wind included!
·
Psalm 139:7 “Where can I go from God’s Spirit? Where can I flee from God’s presence?”
Jonah 1:5
Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the
cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah,
meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was
fast asleep.
Jonah 1:6
6The captain came and said to him, ‘What are you doing sound
asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so
that we do not perish.’
·
Ironically, the captain—non Jew and
non-church—knew to pray; Jonah did not!
·
sometimes the ‘non-churched’ know the
right thing better than the churched!
Jonah 1:7 The sailors* said to one another, ‘Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know
on whose account this calamity has come upon us.’ So they cast lots, and the
lot fell on Jonah.
Jonah 1:8
Then they said to him, ‘Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What
is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what
people are you?’
Jonah 1:9
‘I am a Hebrew,’ he replied. ‘I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry
land.’
Jonah 1:10
Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, ‘What is this that
you have done!’ For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of
the Lord, because he had told
them so.
·
But you can’t escape God!!!!
3.
Sin will cost you far more than
you wanted to pay.
·
Always easier to obey
·
sin will always cost
something….down road
Jonah 1:11 Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may
quieten down for us?’ For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous.
Jonah 1:12 He said to them, ‘Pick me up and
throw me into the sea; then the sea will quieten down for you; for I know it is
because of me that this great storm has come upon you.’
·
There is always a cost to sin! Don’t be misled….you might not be paying now,
but you will always pay a cost down the road.
Jonah 1:13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard
to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and
more stormy against them.
Jonah 1:14 Then they cried out to the Lord, ‘Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on
account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you,
O Lord, have done as it
pleased you.’
·
Notice the
sailors—not Hebrews (not “church folk”)—pray and Jonah does not!
·
Jonah doesn’t pray to God……ironically, sailors
pray to God
·
sometimes the non-godly are more sensitive to
doing the right thing than the godly
Jonah 1:15 So they picked Jonah up and
threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging.
Jonah 1:16 Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a
sacrifice to the Lordand made
vows.
·
Notice the
sailors—not Hebrews (“church folk”)— make a sacrifice and vows to God; Jonah
does not!
·
Non-Jews
(non-church folk)—worship God………..God can turn any situation around so that He
receives the glory!
Jonah 1:17 *But
the Lord provided a
large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for
three days and three nights.
·
the elephant in the
room: whale: Whales come in 2 main groups: plankton-eaters with a small gullet,
incapable of swallowing a human (Spermaceti), and the great toothed-whatles
(Odontoceti) which eat gian squids and large seals, and are therefore fully
capable of swallowing a man…….
o
plus, modern accoutns
of sailors surviving innards of a large fish
o
drama inside whale
isn’t essential; drama inside Jonah is what counts!
·
Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love
him.”
·
Jonah thought he was
finished! Do you think you’re finished?
·
god was not done with
Jonah; he had more plans for him; he offered grace and a second chance
·
GOD OF SECOND
CHANCES!
CLOSING QUESTIONS
·
“In what area of
your life is God asking for obedience?”
·
‘Who does God want
you to speak to, but you’re afraid?’
·
“Who does God want
you to show grace and mercy, but you don’t want to because you don’t think they
deserve it?”
·
“In what area of
your life are you ‘running’ from God?”
Would
you join me in prayer?
Heavenly Father, We
thank you for the real life story of Jonah. Thank you, for this is a prophet
with whom we can relate. Thank you, Lord, that the Book of Jonah teaches us so
much. And so, first of all, I pray for the listener who’s trying to discern how
to obey you. And someone out there, O Lord, is feeling your nudging; is feeling
your tapping on their shoulder; is feeling you speaking into their heart, to
say, “Obey me this way.”
I pray that the
listener this morning would have the courage to do just that.
I also pray for the
listener who is challenged by the fact that Jonah had to go speak to his
enemies; that Jonah had to go speak to people who were not like him. And I pray
Lord that you would direct all of us who need to go to those who need to hear
the good news, despite our prejudices.
I also pray Lord, for
the person who feels that their life has hit rock bottom; that their life is at
the end of its journey. I pray for that listener that they would know that God
is always willing and able to intervene, and that they can never run from God,
for He will never leave us, nor forsake us, and His presence is everlasting.
We pray all this in
the strong name of Jesus Christ, the name above every name. Amen.
Rev.
Juliet Schimpf
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To listen to
the above broadcast, click on the following link:
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