4. The Missional God

Jonah 4:1-11

The book of Jonah is one of the great missionary stories that we find in the Bible. Jonah was called and sent out by God to preach and proclaim God's word. The result of Jonah's preaching was simply amazing.  In this great Bible story we see one of the greatest responses ever seen to the preaching of the Word of God. 

But what makes this story great isn't the missionary, it's his God. This story is about God, His mission, His heart, and His love for His creation. The better we know our missional God, the more missional we will become.  The more missional we become, the more our hearts will be like His.  Missions is a matter of the heart!

-Pastor Terry

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3. A City Awakened

Jonah 3:1-10

Today we'll continue our study in the book of Jonah. We saw in chapter 1 that God commissioned Jonah to go to the evil city of Nineveh, but Jonah ran away. In chapter 2 God sent a storm and a great fish to rescue Jonah from his disobedience. In today's text, chapter 3, we'll see that all along the real hero of this story is God. We will see glimpses of God’s extraordinary grace and mercy shown to this stubborn and rebellious prophet, Jonah. We will also see God's relentless pursuit of lost people, like the Ninevites, and the ultimate victory of His love.

So, do you find yourself in the place of Jonah? Are you resistant to acknowledging, confessing, and repenting of your sin? Do you find yourself wanting others to experience God’s wrath while you continue to experience God’s mercy and grace? God wants us to know that there is a need for repentance from our sin with the full assurance that God will relent when people repent. Can you see the gracious and merciful work of God who awakened a city with His Word?

-Pastor Terry

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2. A Heartfelt Cry From the Depths

Jonah 1:17 - 2:10

What most of us remember about the story of Jonah is the great fish that swallowed him.  But if our focus is only on the great fish we miss seeing our Great God in this Biblical account.  My desire for each of us is to meet the God that Jonah is running from.  The God who confronts us and brings us to the end of ourselves, leads us back home in faith to Him.  Just like He did with Jonah.

In today's text we see the incredible display of God's sovereignty over His creation by sending a great fish to swallow Jonah.  It is in the belly of that great fish that Jonah has a rude awakening. God provides a window for us into the lessons the prophet has only begun to learn as a result of his running away in disobedience.  Let's look today at God's greatness and His loving pursuit of His children.

-Pastor Terry

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1. The Runaway

Today we’re beginning a new sermon series on the book of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet of the Lord. He was a preacher who ministered the Word of God among the people of the northern kingdom of Israel under the reign of Jeroboam II, sometime around the 8th century BC. God commanded Jonah to go to “Nineveh, that great city” and deliver a message to that city from God. But Jonah refused to go. The rest of the story unfolds in the wake of Jonah's stubborn refusal to submit himself to the Word of God and the call of God in his life. It is a story of Jonah's resistance to learn lessons of God’s astonishing, relentless, sovereign grace. And it is a huge challenge to all of us to care for the salvation of the world, to care for those who are not like ourselves, and to care for the lost wherever we may find them.

The story of Jonah is not just history for the sake of history. The book of Jonah is a story intended to teach the reader, you and I, some very important lessons. Did Jonah learn those lessons? Are they lessons that we, too, need to learn? Let's look together as we begin the study of Jonah.

-Pastor Terry

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