1 The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” 3 But Jonah got up and WENT IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION TO GET AWAY FROM THE LORD. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish. —Jonah 1:1-3
Trust God even when you can’t “see it.”
Walk in obedience with God even when you don’t “believe it.”
17 Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. —Jonah 1:17
1. Sometimes
can appear to be
God is not paying Jonah back FOR HIS SIN, this was God bringing Jonah back FROM HIS SIN.
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. —Jonah 2:1
10 Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach. —Jonah 2:10
1 Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a SECOND TIME: —Jonah 3:1
2. God is a God of
1 Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.” 3 This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh… —Jonah 3:1-3
No matter how many steps you take away from God, it still only takes one to get back.
8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you… —James 4:8
3 This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. 4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” 5 THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH BELIEVED GOD’S MESSAGE, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. —Jonah 3:3-5
10 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. —Jonah 3:10
3. God uses
people to
people
18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. —2 Corinthians 5:18-21