September 13th & 17th
Say Yes
YES!
And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
—Jonah 4:11 (NIV)
Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete.
—2 Corinthians 1:20-22 (MSG)
God does not need an audience but an army!
The law [OT] is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. [the reality is Jesus]
—Hebrews 10:1 (NIV)
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
—Colossians 2:17 (NIV)
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” 39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.
—Matthew 12:38-41 (NIV)
Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
—Jonah 3:9 (NIV)
Jonah’s “YES” may feel like a question mark, but Jesus’s “YES” is an exclamation point!
God doesn’t need your YES!
Salvation belongs to the Lord!
—Jonah 2:9b (NIV)
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
—Acts 17:24,25 (NIV)
…it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
—Romans 12:3 (MSG)
God decides to need your YES.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai…
—Jonah 1:1a (NIV)
God defers to your YES.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
—Jonah 3:1,2 (NIV)
But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.
—Jonah 3:1,2 (NIV)
Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.
—Matthew 24:12 (NLT)
You can be certain that in the last days there will be some very hard times. 2 People will love only themselves and money. They will be proud, stuck-up, rude, and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, 3 heartless, and hateful. Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity. These people will hate everything good. 4 They will be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. 5 Even though they will make a show of being religious, their religion won’t be real.
—2 Timothy 3:1-5 (CEV)
FILL OUT YOUR CONNECTION CARD HERE
Next Steps:
1. I say ‘YES’ to Jesus for the first time.
2. I say ‘YES’ to being in church consistently till the end of the year. (3 out of every 4 weeks)
3. I say ‘YES’ to catching up in my NT reading and completing it before the end of the year.
4. I say ‘YES’ to completing a ‘YES’ CARD in the foyer.