God can use us in Spite of Ourselves

Jonah - The Unwilling Prophet  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  23:23
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“Winners...”

Jonah 3:1–10 NET
1 The Lord said to Jonah a second time, 2 “Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the Lord had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city—it required three days to walk through it!)4 When Jonah began to enter the city one day’s walk, he announced, “At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!” 5 The people of Nineveh believed in God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 7 He issued a proclamation and said, “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water. 8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly to God, and everyone must turn from their evil way of living and from the violence that they do.9 Who knows? Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we might not die.”10 When God saw their actions—they turned from their evil way of living!—God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and he did not destroy them.
Last week we left Jonah on dry ground. He had just been vomited out there on the beach by a great fish. According to this chapter Jonah had learned his lesson and followed God’s directions.
On the surface as per these verses, if we apply human thinking here, Jonah had every right to be pleased with himself. Hearing his message, Nineveh repented, God relented and an entire city was saved from the wrath of God. Now tell me the truth, if you spent a day walking through San Francisco or any other big city, preaching the judgment of God, wouldn’t you be pleased with yourself if the city repented of their sins and became known for its righteousness instead of its immorality? Anyway you want to keep score, Jonah’s mission was successful. Why? What was the secret to his success?
You’ve heard of business conferences where executives and persons of influence or people wanting success go and pay large sums of money to learn the secrets of success. The brochures for the events will lists things like strong motivation, communication sills, leadership, vision and a winning attitude as essential elements to be a strong CEO in the twenty-first century. Can we find these kind of traits in Jonah’s ministry? Let’s look closely.

Was he successful because of his work ethic and superior skills?

Actually, no. Jonah was a reluctant missionary. He went because he now knew God was serious! So he and did go an preach. We are not told what the full extent of his prophecy was. We are told at least the central message. Look again at Jonah 3:3–4
Jonah 3:3–4 NET
3 So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the Lord had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city—it required three days to walk through it!)4 When Jonah began to enter the city one day’s walk, he announced, “At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
The travel to Nineveh was a fur piece to walk indeed. From looking at the map you see how Jonah’s story would have had to happened over a fair amount of time.
Nineveh is one the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity. Jonah delivered the prophecy talked about here somewhere just before or during the reign of Jeroboam II (somewhere during 793-753 B.C. range) On the first day after he got into the city, he began to proclaim the message that God had given him.

Did he succeed because of his skill as a communicator?

We are told that he went and proclaimed God’s message. It was a short message, at least what we are told of in the Bible. Jonah grew up a long way away from Nineveh. It is unlikely that he knew much of the Assyrian language, and I doubt the common place person of Nineveh knew how to speak or understand much Hebrew. So it’s probably safe to say that his oratory ability did not bring the success seen.
There was a section that i read that talks about communication. The gentleman stated: During my term on the California State Executive Board a few years ago, we were discussing how to get the Ethnic Baptist Churches involved in the State Mission promotion. We identified almost 40 language groups, and knew we couldn’t print the study material in all the languages but we decided to provide the material in English and three other languages.
We felt the churches were more likely to use material printed in a language they could read. Common sense, right? Personally, I was surprised to learn the next year that it didn’t work-there was no greater participation in the study as a result of the translation process?
“Was it properly advertised?” I asked. “We mailed a letter to every pastor in the state,” was the reply of the worker in charge of the project. “In what language?” I asked. “What do you mean ‘what language?’ ” “What language did you write the letter in?” I clarified. “English,” was the answer I received.
How you communicate has a lot to do with whether you message is understood or not.

Was it because of his captivating message?

“ At the end of forty days Nineveh will be destroyed?”
It wasn’t a message of much hope or promise was it. Jonah’s message, even if they understood it, offered no hope. Even the darkest sermon should point people to the light. A sermon on judgement should always end with a plea for repentance and a message of forgiveness. Jonah if you have read ahead in our story wants his prophecy to come true!!
The only joy in his message is his hope that it is true. He relished the thought of the punishment of his enemies in Nineveh.
If Jonah didn’t succeed because of his work ethic, communication skills or captivating message, what was it?

Jonah was obedient.

He didn’t want to go. He tried to outrun God and conspired with others to try to out-row Him. After a three day seminar at the bottom of the ocean, Jonah finally agreed to go. Jonah’s attitude wasn’t great. His work ethic left something to be desired and his message dire, but God still used him.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying good attitudes, communication skills and motivation aren’t important, they are, but it is clear from reading the Scripture that Jonah was lacking in most of these. But he did obey!
God can even use rascals. Remember Paul’s response to his disciples’ complaints that some preachers were preaching out of wrong motives? He said,
Philippians 1:15–18 NLT
15 It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. 16 They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.
God requires obedience from His followers. Saul tried to justify his disobedience to God by saying he had pure motives-he was going to offer a sacrifice to God with the plunder he didn’t destroy. Samuel set him straight in
1 Samuel 15:22 NLT
22 But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.
How is our willingness to serve and obey our Master? Do we follow His clear instructions? It begins by following the instructions we find in the Bible which is God’s word to us and then continues with a willingness to faithfully attend worship, diligently study the Bible, regularly pray and cheerfully give.

Want to be successful in God’s eyes? Then obey, don’t second guess Him-do what He says.

So we’ve discovered that Jonah was successful in his missionary effort. We’ve also discovered that the success-fullness wan’t really by what he thought, taught or did that made the people of Nineveh change did it.
The only reason that Jonah’s mission was successful as far as Jonah’s part in it was that he was obedient. God expects our obedience if we claim to be followers Him. That said, in all fairness, there’s much more to it than that. Let’s go back to some of those verses again.
Jonah 3:5–6 NET
5 The people of Nineveh believed in God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes.
What is happening here? What does the first part of vs 5 say? The people believed Jonah.....?
Nope, it says the people believed God! Jonah was just the vessel for God’s revelation.
When a person finds out what God can do for them or in this case about to do to them, they have to what? Make a decision! Does it usually stop there if they are convicted? They feel a need, they have to share what they’ve found. That’s what happened here isn’t it. They started talking, communicating and it spread like wild fire.
When they believed, they repented. They put on sackcloth, the sign of mourning and began fasting, a sign of commitment. They took care of their own spiritual condition and called on others to do the same. The people talked about God-not Jonah & his short comings—not how much they hated the Jews. They talked about God-they were “gossiping” about God, “gossiping” about the gospel.
Jeremiah talks about what can happen if people and nations repent.
Jeremiah 18:7–10 NET
7 There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom.8 But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, I will cancel the destruction I intended to do to it. 9 And there are times when I promise to build up and establish a nation or kingdom. 10 But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it.

What happens when a nation repents?

Jonah 3:7–8 NET
7 He issued a proclamation and said, “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water. 8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly to God, and everyone must turn from their evil way of living and from the violence that they do.
Like a row of dominoes falling-one pushing down the next, repentance spread. When the word came to the King, he decreed compliance with God’s will.
God heard their cries of repentance, He forgave their sin and He healed their land.

Is repentance needed my life?

Have you heard the legend about the man who was hurting because he was sitting on a tack? He wanted relief, so he called for a psychologist who said, “sir, the reason you are hurting is rooted in a childhood trauma. You need therapy.”
Next he called a sociologist and he suggested, “you have a problem and it is obviously the result of the kind of environment in which you grew up. Hurt is from an improper environment.”
Then he turned to an economist who said, “money is the root of all hurt. Let me help you with your portfolio.”
Finally he called a minister. His suggestion was, “If you learn to praise the Lord in all things, you won’t hurt so much. Your spiritual life leaves something to be desired. Start reading your Bible and praying every day and you will get better.”
But even with the advice from all the helping professionals, the man still hurt. Finally a little girl came along with her suggestion. She said, “Mister, why don’t you get off the tack.
”Learning to cope with our sin or throwing money at it or using some spiritual platitude to hide it doesn’t work. Therapy, change in environment, money, religion won’t help. Only one thing will bring relief from our sin: repentance. We must confess our sin and turn from it. We need to get off of the tack.
C. S. Lewis said that repentance “is not something God demands of you before He will take you back …; it is simply a description of what going back is like.”

God’s response

Jonah 3:9–10 NKJV
9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? 10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

Who can tell...

It is doubtful that Jonah had given any assurance of a possible reversal of the divine decree. His anger at the sparing of the city (ch. 4:1) indicates that he had not. Nevertheless he was well aware of God’s merciful character.
The king of Nineveh was hoping against hope that, if God was a God of love like he might have heard, God might have some compassion and change His mind.
What about that word relent or repent as the KJV uses? We’ve all grown up with the idea that God doesn’t change. He is the same today, tomorrow, yesterday and forever.
God does not change, but circumstances do.
Ezekiel 33:13–16 NLT
13 When I tell righteous people that they will live, but then they sin, expecting their past righteousness to save them, then none of their righteous acts will be remembered. I will destroy them for their sins. 14 And suppose I tell some wicked people that they will surely die, but then they turn from their sins and do what is just and right. 15 For instance, they might give back a debtor’s security, return what they have stolen, and obey my life-giving laws, no longer doing what is evil. If they do this, then they will surely live and not die. 16 None of their past sins will be brought up again, for they have done what is just and right, and they will surely live.
The fact that God relents or is “repentant” is an expression referring to the pain of divine love occasioned by the sinfulness of man. It presents the truth that God, in consistency with His immutability( this means that God’s perfection does not change), assumes a changed position in respect to changed man.
They turned from their evil ways. God saw their change of heart and chose to remove the disaster that awaited them.
Jonah preached, people had the chance to repent, they did and God was able to save a whole city. It’s amazing how God used Jonah and He can use us in-spite of ourselves. Next time I get to be with you we will learn the circumstances that created a “Pouting Prophet”.
Until that time, join with me as we leave this place asking God to help us “gossip” about the wonderful things the Lord has done for us and how they can save themselves from destruction.
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