Jonah Part 1

Intro:

· Jonah was a prophet. His job was to tell people messages that God gave him.

· What’s funny is Jonah’s name means dove. Birds know when a storm is coming and they try to flee before it gets there to escape harm.

· God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people that the Lord has seen their terrible sins and they are doomed.

This is a very well known bible story but the details are not common knowledge.

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Overview of Jonah 1:

God tells Jonah to go give his message to Ninevah and Jonah’s like no thank you and Instead, Jonah ran from the Lord. He went to the seaport of Joppa, bought a ticket and got on a ship going to Tarshish. 2500 miles in the opposite direction. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and a violent storm came, about to break the ship apart. All the sailors were afraid and cried out to their gods. They started throwing cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. Jonah was below deck sleeping through this. The captain of the ship went and woke him up and said “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god. Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.” The sailors got together and said let’s ask our gods to show us who caused all this trouble. Turned out to be Jonah. Jonah had already told them he was running from God so they were all super scared and said Do you know what you’ve done?! The storm kept getting worse so the sailors said what should we do with you to calm the sea? Jonah said throw me into the sea. I’m the cause of this terrible storm. They threw Jonah overboard and the sea calmed down. Then the Lord sent a big fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was inside the fish for 3 days and 3 nights.

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Application:

· God is going to tell you things he wants you to do. You aren’t always going to like those things.

· When you avoid these things…God may use a storm to wake you up.

1. Question: Who or where is your Ninevah?

· God gave Jonah a job. He didn’t like it. He went the opposite direction. Then God let a storm come to wake up Jonah.

2. Question: What have you felt like God wants you to do that you don’t want to do? Stop gossiping? Stop lying? Start being nicer to people?

· It’s hard to love our enemies but that’s what God calls us to do.

3. Question: Who or where is your Tarshish? Where do you go or who/what do you turn to escape dealing with difficult situations?

4. Question: How is God using storms in your life to show you where you need to make changes?

· The storm woke Jonah up. Helped remind him of his identity. A child of God. With a purpose.

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· I love to blame the devil. Like man devil is trying hard today.

· Or sometimes we like to blame other people for the bad stuff. Like well if they wouldn’t have done that…

· what we need to recognize is that sometimes we are the problem.

· We need to take credit for the mess ups and recognize that we need Jesus.

· Jonah went on that boat and fell into a deep sleep. Some of you are sleeping through your destiny or what God has spoken to you.

· Recognize the storm so that you can get out of it!

· Jonah was finally willing to surrender to God and God rescued him with the fish.

· The fish wasn’t a punishment. It was a rescue mission.

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Overview of Jonah 2:

Growing up hearing the story of Jonah, I also associated the big fish that swallowed Jonah as his punishment for disobeying God. But the fish wasn't a punishment, it was a rescue mission! Jonah immediately recognized the fish as a rescue not a punishment. And he immediately prayed.

Don’t know what to pray? Pray scripture. Pray songs. That’s what Jonah did. He had 3 days of no distractions and what did he do? He prayed.

Look at Jonah 2:2 vs Psalm 30:3 and Jonah 2:3 vs. Psalm 42:7

Psalms is all over Jonah 2

*Why is it so important to memorize scripture? Because it gives you words to pray when you don’t have the words.

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Prayer:

1. Think of 3 things God has rescued you from, thank him for being a God who rescues

2. Think of something you feel like God has wanted you to do that you have avoided, ask God to help you do it, to give you the desire and strength to get it done

3. Identify a mess up that has happened to you that you tried to blame others for, acknowledge that you messed up. Talk to God about how you need him right now.

4. Think of one person who needs to hear this story of Jonah. Pray for the words to say and pray for them right now, maybe let them know that you prayed for them.