Turn to God
Jonah 3:1-10 - Victory Fellowship
May 22, 2022 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
Healing Service
I. Introduction:
In his book, America the Beautiful, former neurosurgeon and past United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson talks about the decline in the great world powers of the past – Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Great Britain, France, and Spain. He says that as they began to decline they all shared some peculiar similarities – they ALL had an inordinate emphasis on sports and entertainment, a fixation with the lifestyles of the rich and famous, political corruption, and a loss of a moral compass. Ben Carson suggests that the United States seems to be copying the mistakes of former world powers.
a. I couldn’t help but notice that an emphasis on worshipping God is not on the list. The nations that turn to God thrive.
II. Relating the text:
a. Jonah was a prophet. He was a teacher. Prophets were sent to Israel to go and to preach God's message to Israel because they did not have the Bible at that time, and so Jonah takes the message and he goes to Israel whenever God tells them to, and he preaches a message.
b. These events take place sometime from 793 BC to 753 BC under king Jeroboam, who reigned over Israel. Jonah gets a very interesting request from God, something that he wasn't expecting.
c. Here's what God says to him. "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me." Now, you would think this is something that Jonah would want to do because Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Assyria was a sworn enemy of Israel. Assyrians were brutal. The Ninevites were brutal.
They tortured people. They mistreated, they killed people. They loved killing Israelites for fun. They tried to attack Israel time and time again. These people, in Jonah's mind, were awful, evil people, and they had undergone some very, very difficult times. They were having this inward strife in the city of Nineveh during this time were their own morals of how they were treating other people were influencing how they were treating themselves, and it was breaking down their culture within the walls. The people of Nineveh knew they might not get another chance to repent.
d. Isn’t it interesting that people suddenly get receptive to God when their backs are against the wall. When it has all crumbled – then let’s ask God to bail us out.
III. Conclusion:
a. Turning our nation back to God begins with each person taking the responsibility to worship God and to share the good news.
Think about the last time you were excited in a very good way. Maybe you yelled/sang out loud or raised/clapped your hands. Maybe you jumped up and down or even danced. When was it? Cheering your favorite team? At a concert or play? Winning the lottery? Seeing a find or loved one who you had not seen in a while? Finding money on the ground? Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t in church. The average person who calls themselves a Christian gets more animated at sporting events or concerts then they ever do at church. And that’s not a good thing.
b. We all have people in our lives that we need to be concerned about, that God is concerned about. We all have people in our lives that we need to be inviting to church. If God is telling us to be kind, and loving, and gracious to the people that we don't like, how much more should we be kind, and gracious, and loving, and care enough about people that we love - to invite them to something like church?
c. Who knows? One by one we may turn a nation back to God.
PRAYER and ANOINTING
SONG: God Only Knows
Jonah 3:1-10 HCSB
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command.
Now Nineveh was an extremely large city, a three-day walk. 4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!” 5 The men of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least. 6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. 8 Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish. 10 Then God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster He had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it.