Growing Through Grace.

Good morning Church!

Announcements:

11/13/2022 - Business Meeting

We have also decided to team up with Lighthouse Christian Camp this winter for their Christmas Missions Project. We will be taking up unwrapped Christmas presents for boys, girls, and even adults. These gifts will all be placed in their gymnasium with price tags. The kids are given so much monopoly money to buy gifts when they arrive, but so much of their money has to be spent on someone else within their family. They are given large trash bags to go around and collect/or buy, the gifts that they want. The kids are also fed in the fellowship hall and then also read the Christmas story by local pastors while there.

All donations are due by Sunday, November 13th. See flyer in foyer for gift ideas.

They also welcome volunteers to help with the children during these events as well, so please let me know if you are interested in serving during this Christmas Missions Project.

11/18-11/20

Catching Fire Youth Retreat

11/20/2022

Bro. Hunter Stanfield will be here to preach for you guys next week. We will be at the youth retreat, so he will be coming to bring the Word.

The “Community Thanksgiving Service” will be held here at Dowelltown this year. We know that many are preparing meals for Thanksgiving dinner, so we will be having the service on Tuesday evening, November 22nd at 7 pm.

12/11/2022

Christmas Play during our Sunday School hour.

There will be a youth party afterwards.

12/18/2022

Thanksgiving/Christmas Dinner after the service.

Praise Reports:

Prayer Requests:

Tithes

Children’s Church

Doxology:

This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart that I might not sin against God! Amen!!!

Open Bibles To: Jonah 1:1-3.

Last week, we talked about “The Intention of Missions”. We discussed some things that one might say when being called to participate in the evangelistic effort of God’s Kingdom.

This week, we are continue that thought, but with a different question. Instead of asking “Who am I?”, we are going to ask, “Who are they?”

The aim of the text today is to show us that God wants every single person that He has created to hear the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ, regardless of who they are, where they are from, or what they have done. Furthermore, we are to see that we are the ones that God has chosen to tell them about Him!!

Jonah 1:1–3 NKJV

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah arose 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 from the presence of the Lord.

Context

Much like last week, God has heard and seen a people. Because of what He has seen and heard, He has decided to send a man with a message to this group of people so that deliverance might take place.

Last week, God heard the cries of mercy from His own people and decided to send Moses with a message of deliverance. This week, we see that God has seen the sins of a nation and decided to send Jonah with a message of repentance (V. 2). Hopefully between the both of these accounts from Scripture, you will believe that God sees everything, good and bad.

Jonah, like Moses, was hesitant to go where God was asking him to go. Moses did not feel that he was adequate for the task at hand, but Jonah did not feel that the people of Nineveh deserved the salvation of God.

We know this from the last chapter of the book:

Jonah 4:1–2 NKJV

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.

Jonah says that he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that if he went to Nineveh and preached the Gospel of repentance, that God would show up, show out, and save the entire people. Isn’t that great news? Is that not what we want to hear? Do we not believe that we serve a merciful savior? So, what’s the problem?

The problem is, Jonah did not want them to be saved.

See, Moses knew the people in Egypt needed to be delivered. He just didn’t think that he had what it took to be the guy to go and set them free.

Jonah on the other hand, knew that God would save the nation, he just didn’t want them to be saved.

I want to ask you something this morning. Is it possible that some of you in here today are not sharing the Gospel with those in your circle because you feel that they do not deserve it?

I know this isn’t for everyone, but maybe....just maybe, it is for someone.

When you look at others, do you struggle to find the positives in their life? Is their need for a merciful God overshadowed by what you call dumb decisions? Do you look at other’s problems and say, “They got what they had coming to them?” When you see others living in sin, does it hurt your heart or harden it?

If that is you, and only you would know if that is you or not, then this message is for you.

Content

Jonah’s Grudge

2 Kings 14:25 NKJV

25 He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher.

Jonah lived about 2 miles from Nazareth. This means that Jonah was a Galilean. Jonah was an Israelite.

Nineveh was an Assyrian province.

Two times throughout the history of Israel, God poured His wrath out upon them by allowing them to be overthrown by other nations and become completely captive unto them. During one of these treacherous times, God used Assyria to do his bidding.

The nation of Israel was in bondage unto Assyria for 70 years before God allowed them to return home to their land.

For this reason, Jonah had a serious grudge against these people. Even though this did not happen during Jonah’s lifetime, the feud between these nations was still very much active nonetheless.

It was for this reason that Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh and tell them of God’s looming judgment that would soon be passed upon them.

I wonder if there are any of you that are experiencing something similar in your own families.

Are there people in your circles that you purposefully do not like simply because you have been told not to? Are there people that you have never even given a chance because of something that happened long before you even met them? Are there people that you have never even given a chance because of something a parent, grandparent, or some other extended relative did years and years before you were even born?

I remember several years ago when I played sports, every time we went to Cannon County a fight would break out. DeKalb County and Cannon County are bitter rivals. Funny thing is, I have never had anyone that could tell me why. The crowds at those games always disliked one another simply because they were told to. The worst part was that the actual kids playing the games, never had any issues with one another. It was just the crowds.

Do you remember when Jesus sat down at the well and the Samaritan woman came to draw water. When the disciples came back from getting food and saw Jesus talking to this woman, they were outraged. A Jewish Rabbi was not supposed to be talking to a Samaritan woman. Jews and Samaritans hated one another still in Jesus’ day. Why? because of something that took place centuries before.

I hear so many people talk about how they can’t stand other people and they have never even spent any time with them. Why do they not like them then? Maybe it is because a friend does not like them. Maybe it is because they heard some buzz going around about that person and decided they didn’t like them based on what they had heard, cause we all know that everything we hear is the truth, especially from those who like to talk the most.

Unfortunately, if we cannot figure out how to get past this judgmental, never-give-a-person-a-chance attitude that plagues so many of us, millions of people are going to die and go to hell. Why? Because they were never given a chance.

This is not the way of God. This is not fulfilling the Great Commission or the Great Commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.

I am so thankful that God is a merciful God! I am so thankful that God forgives me when I make mistakes! I am so thankful that God hears me when I beg for forgiveness and repent of my sin.

God also commands us to do the same.

Luke 6:37 NKJV

37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Colossians 3:13 NKJV

13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

We must be willing to forgive others for the wrong they have done, even if others tell us not to, for this is the love of God.

Jonah’s Grievance

Because of Jonah’s grudge against the Assyrians, he also had a grievance with God’s request.

When God asked Jonah to go to Assyria to preach the Gospel of repentance, Jonah went the other direction.

I don’t even like them.

We look at others all the time and say that they need some serious help with their:

emotions, attitude, work ethic, ambitions, decisions, faults, failures, weaknesses....they got problems.

If we truly believe so many people in our daily lives need some serious spiritual direction, why in the world would we not introduce them to the one thing that can truly help them?

That person needs some Jesus in their life.....Hello......Give Him to them.

That person needs to go to church.......Hello.....You are the Church.

That person needs to read their Bible......Hello.....Show them the scripture by how you live your life.

If you do not like someone because of their problems, introduce them to Jesus. Jesus will help them get their life together. Who knows....maybe it will help you straighten some things out in your life as well along the way. And maybe, just maybe, you make a new lifelong friend as you both grow together in Christ.

God can send someone else.

We all want to be closer to God. At least I hope you have that testimony. I truly believe that many times we are held back from growing in Christ simply because we will not do the things that allows to do just that.

Did you know that when we allow someone else to take our place in expanding the kingdom of God, that we are missing out on the very thing we are actually seeking for. Let me show you.

Jonah 1:3 NKJV

3 But Jonah arose 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 from the presence of the Lord.

Did you see it?

It says that Jonah is running from the very presence of God Himself.

God wants to see people saved. This was the whole reason He sent Jesus to die in our place. He became death so that we might have life.

When an individual goes to another individual to share their faith, it will always be in the will of God as long as the person is in the right spirit. How do we know this? God wants all men to be saved.

With that being said, when you go to another person to share your faith, you are not only in the will of God, you are also in the presence of God. God must be present if there is going to be any spiritual movement. We can speak to someone’s intellect, but we cannot touch someone’s spirit. God has to do that.

When I am sharing my faith through conviction, I am not alone. If we want to grow spiritually in God, we must be willing to do those things that are in the will of God.

We grow in Christ as we talk to others about Him. When we are able to engage in those conversations, we get to see God move. We get to hear the testimonies of others and begin to understand why they are the way that they are, or why they struggle with what they struggle with.

When we begin to understand what someone else is going through, it allows us to have compassion for them, pray for them in a very specific way, and even be intentional about sharing our faith with them as we understand what that needs to look like.

This all comes together when we begin to pray for opportunities to share our faith with a certain individual that we are burdened for concerning salvation.

When we have the attitude of Jonah, we say things:

I don’t have time right now.

I will talk to them next week.

Someone else is better for the job.

I don’t ever go by that way.

We must get away from this mindset if we truly want to grow in Christ.

God works in and through us to reach others. As we are faithful in sharing our faith, we are blessed and they are blessed.

They don’t deserve grace.

I don’t think i have ever heard someone say this directly concerning salvation, but I do hear the spirit of this from time to time.

I hear people say things like:

They are just digging their own grave.

That person will never change.

There is no hope for them.

I hope they get what they deserve.

People, please hear me loud and clear..... “These are dangerous words.”

Not a single person in this room deserves God’s Amazing Grace, but we got it. And even though we would admit that none of us deserve God’s grace, we still have this mentality that others do not deserve it either.

We must more careful with our words. We must be more careful with our accusations and our judgments.

Matthew 7:1–2 NKJV

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

God’s Grace

I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful that in spite of Jonah’s grudge and grievance, God still had grace.

This is third point I want to show you today.....God’s Grace!!!

Jonah runs and gets onto a ship that is headed in the opposite direction of where God has asked him to go.

Notice with me what all God did in order to grab Jonah’s attention:

1:4 says that He hurled a great wind upon the sea.

1:17 says that He appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah.

2:10 says that God commanded the fish to spit Jonah out on dry ground.

3:1 says the Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.

3:3 says Jonah got up and went to Nineveh.

Are you not thankful for God’s grace? Are you not thankful that God is patient with us?

Not only was God gracious to Jonah, but he was gracious to Nineveh. Do you remember why God sent Jonah there to start with? It was because he saw the multitude of wickedness in that place. He wanted them to know that He was going to pour out His Almighty Wrath upon them if they did not repent. He gave them another chance and that chance came by way of the preaching of Jonah!!!

Tell story about preacher and co-worker who was a BIG FELLA! Stop cussing because you are going to stand before God one day. Car wreck and teenager almost died. Been to the doctor and had skin cancer. “Do you think God is trying to speak to me in all of this? No, I think He is yelling at you!!!”

Commitment

2 Kings 14:25 NKJV

25 He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher.

Do you think this verse would have ever made into scripture if Jonah never went to Nineveh?

I cannot help but believe that God used this man, to reach this city, which in turn brought Israel through one of its greatest revivals and expansions of territory that it had ever known.

What about you today? Does this message speak to your heart? Are you guilty of being like Jonah? Maybe you are guilty of being like Nineveh. If that is the case, I pray that God has used me here today to be your Jonah.

God loves you! God wants to save you! God will save you if you simply ask Him.

Would you bow with me as we close out this message?