Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

ILLUST - Ignoring Phone calls

used to be that you took the handset off the hook.

- “Do not disturb” is great.

It allows us to keep doing what we want to be doing without being distracted by annoying calls.

- It allows us to get to the call when we are good and ready.

- It puts us in control.

“Do not disturb” is a great new feature for our phones, but it is a horrible feature for our spiritual lives.

I’m convinced that many Christians today go through their lives today with the “Do not disturb” on.

They want to keep on doing what they want to do.

They will get to God when they are good and ready.

God Calls.

(1:1-2)

God speaks to his people.

“ Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai.”

“ Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai.”

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai

This idea of God speaking shows up seven times in the four chapters in Jonah.

This is perhaps one of the most important truths not only in Jonah, but of your life.

God speaks to people.

He is not an impersonal force, God knows, sees, and involves himself in the world.

You may feel he ignores you, your prayers, the sin and pain you see and feel, but God knows, sees, and acts.

*Where is the Word of the LORD in your life?

The fact that God speaks means two things:

God wants people to know him.

God wants to be involved in their lives.

The Word of the Lord is to be obeyed.

There is nothing more authoritative than the word of the Lord.

God spoke everything into existence.

God spoke his words to his people through the prophets.

God sent Jesus who is called the Logos or the Word.

God left us with his word.

*What place does the Word of the LORD have in your life?

* Are you truly open to God’s call?

I am praying for God to call you to a land you never expected so that he can show up in ways you never imagined.

God calls his people to those who are not his people.

God calls to invite and involve us.

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city

It is important to point this out not because we don’t think that God COULD call people to those who do not yet know him, but because I believe many people in the church today don’t think God would call THEM to those who do not yet know God.

Imagine Jonah at this point:

God has already used him to prophesy to his own people - to give them good news - to “preach to the choir.”

Now God has asked him to give God’s message OUTSIDE of his normal boundaries.

It will almost seem as though Jonah never considered the possibility of taking God’s Word would have him leave his comfort zone.

To be like Jonah would be to limit where God would send you.

Jonah was ok where it was comfortable, but he ran when it required more.

*Where are the limits you’ve placed on God’s will for your life? - the places you WON’T go, the things you WON’T do, the people you WON’T talk to, the stuff you WON’T give up.

To limit what God might do with your life is for God to not actually have your life.

It all needs to be on the table.

God calls to invite and involve us.

Because, what Jonah is missing is that. . .

God calls to invite and involve us.

Sometimes God’s call is as much TO us as it is FOR us.

If you take the whole picture of Jonah what we see in these verses is that God is calling Jonah FOR a task, but what we will see in the end is that God was really calling Jonah TO himself.

What Jonah saw as a call that he believed would be harmful to himself actually turned out to be helpful.

God didn’t NEED Jonah - He could have sent his word to Nineveh from the sky, but he chose to invite and involve Jonah so that he could change Jonah.

Could it be that whatever it is that God is calling you to do that it could be as much for you as it is for those to whom he is calling you to reach?

ILLUST - Just Do It.

ILLUST - Adoption

God’s call may be costly.

go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

The authority of the call is not in the cost or lack thereof; the authority of the call is in the One who called.

If God is asking you to do something than simply do it.

You are always safer risking everything for what God has called you to do, than you are attempting to control everything for the hopes of safety.

Risk with God is always safer than running from God.

This means if God has called you to sell everything, and move your family to Iraq to share the gospel, you are ultimately safer there than you are running away from him anywhere else.

It is better to risk your job, that relationship, the money, your children, your life for God than to hold onto it for yourself.

*What cost is too great for you to not to do what God is calling you to do?

What are you not willing to give up so that people who don’t know Jesus and are ravaged by sin can be saved?

I’m convinced that the church in America is too safe.

We don’t know what it is like to risk for Jesus.

The greatest risk we face is trying out a new small group or switching brands of coffee.

But what there was a group of believers who were truly willing to risk EVERYTHING for the sake of the gospel - even life and limb?

What if we, as a church, were willing to risk: our budget, our building (give it away), our leaders, our children.

What if there were a bold, committed, sold-out group of Christians who made Jesus-first in everything in their lives - what could they NOT accomplish?

I long to be that committed.

I know many will say, “But God never asked me to do anything like that.”

Have you ever asked?

Have you ever offered everything to God? Maybe God has never called you to risk these things because he already knows the answer of your heart.

Think about the risk Jesus took in coming to Earth.

He left heaven KNOWING the cost and still went through with it.

*What cost is too great for you to not to do what God is calling you to do?

What are you not willing to give up so that people who don’t know Jesus and are ravaged by sin can be saved?

There is no greater cost to your spiritual life than when you attempt to stay safe apart form God.

Jonah shows us this because in verse three. . .

3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.

So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

Jonah Runs.

(1:3)

Jonah, the great prophet, the national hero, the super-religious guy hears from God and . . .

runs.

God called him to “Arise and go,” and Jonah “Rose and fled.”

The exact opposite.

(It’s crazy how Jonah heard God, dropped the mic, and ran away!)

Hearing God is not the same as obeying God.

(It’s crazy how Jonah heard God, dropped the mic, and ran away!)

There are many people who will “Amen” a sermon but not amend their life.

Just because you hear from God does not mean you will automatically obey him.

There was a close relationship of hearing to obedience in the Jewish culture of the Old Testament.