Jonah Week 1 - How to Walk in the Love of God
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Jonah 1:1-16
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.” 3 Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. 4 But the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea, and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. 5 The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep. 6 The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god. Maybe this god will consider us, and we won’t perish.” 7 “Come on!” the sailors said to each other. “Let’s cast lots. Then we’ll know who is to blame for this trouble we’re in.” So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us who is to blame for this trouble we’re in. What is your business, and where are you from? What is your country, and what people are you from?”
9 He answered them, “I’m a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him, “What have you done?” The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord’s presence because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us?” For the sea was getting worse and worse. 12 He answered them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that it will calm down for you, for I know that I’m to blame for this great storm that is against you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn’t because the sea was raging against them more and more. 14 So they called out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.” 15 Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 16 The men were seized by great fear of the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
Summary
Today we will be staring a four-week series on the book of Jonah. But before we do that, I would like to celebrate all that the Lord is doing in the life of His church. As of this past weekend, the Lord has allowed us to see 163 people come to accept Christ as Savior through the ministries of BT Church and we have seen 108 people enter the waters of baptism. It has been an incredible year so far and I don’t think He is done yet.
This week we find ourselves in Jonah chapter 1 verses 1-16. But before we start let me give you a quick introduction. Jonah is the only prophet that we see run from God. He was being sent to Nineveh which was a part of the Assyrian culture, these people were cruel and were known to skin or fillet their enemies. In one instance, the burned 3,000 captives. An example for today would be God asking a missionary to go preach to Isis. Jonah is a great story of revival. It is a story of God’s mercy, not just to Nineveh, but to Jonah as well. Here at BT, we don’t believe this is an allegorical story because Jesus points to the evidence of Jonah. This book is a true account of the life of the prophet Jonah.
We had four points in the sermon, the first was, we walk with God when we pay attention to God’s Word. In verse 3 we see the Lord speaking to Jonah, He still speaks to us. The question would be are you in a place where you can listen to what He is saying. Being surrounded by the people of God is one place He will speak.
Our second point was, we walk with God when we obey His will. Jonah heard from God, but decided to obey. We know for certain that he listened to God, because He chose to go the opposite direction. A trip that would have been 550 miles, he took a 2,500 detour. God did not stop loving Jonah, we don’t earn God’s love, we walk in His love. Jonah was following his own agenda, but in His love, God was determined to rescue Nineveh and Jonah.
Our third point was, we walk in God’s love when we look for God’s work. In verses 4-15 we see suffering. Jonah was asleep, in a spiritual slumber, when he should have been following God’s direction. The sailors were more aware of God than Jonah was. They were looking at what God was doing and attributing it to other gods. They even told Jonah pray to your God! God never stops working, we lose awareness of His work and His presence. These sailors didn’t let Jonah’s disobedience from allowing them to see God’s work. God uses Jonah, even though he did not want to be used.
Our final point, found in verse 16 was, we walk with God, when we give Him our worship. The sailors had to make a choice, do they spare Jonah, or worship God by delivering Jonah to Him.
Discussion
What is one thing that stood out to you from this week’s message? Share
How have you run from God’s purpose and plan for your life? Share
What were the consequences of your running from God? Share
How do our actions impact the people around us? Share
What would keep you from running toward God rather than running from him? Share
How can you pray for each other?
Announcements
Join me as we pray, that everyone who calls BT their Church will be a part of our Renovation Initiative.
Pray that we meet and exceed our secondary financial goal.
We are planning a series to promote Community, please help me pray for new CG leaders that will lead new CG’s that will form during this next series!
Let’s continue to pray for each other and send prayer requests through our WhatsApp thread. If you are a CG Leader and are not on our WhatsApp thread please contact Meichelle at meichelle.vasquez@bt.church
Pastor Isuaro Medina
Isauro.medina@bt.church
Cell: (956) 984-9380
