Sent for a time like this

Introduction

Recap last week

So we are discussing this week the fact that we have been sent for such a time as this. There is a difference between going somewhere and being sent somewhere. Two weekends ago, I got home from work on a friday afternoon and I was exausted. My in-laws were coming in town and I was looking forward to that but I had 2 hours to kind of relax. I opened my truck door and my wife says “ Hey i forgot to tell you but we have a kids birthday party we need to be at in about 30 minutes.

So let me tell you, I went to that party. But I did not just go to the party I was sent. I had instruction, that regardless of my desire or feelings, I was sent with purpose to go to that party.

Another illustration is like going to walmart. When we first lived in Brookhaven mississippit. It is a small southern mississippi town with nothing to do. There are a few more things there now, but I am not kidding when I say there was nothing to do. The kids on friday night would literally get in their big pickup trucks and ride from one end of the BLVD and back, about a mile and hang in the walmart parking lot.

As you know I was newly married and also spent most days with my best friend chase. So if we werent going to jackson or to new orleans. There were many many many many many many many evenings we would just go walk around walmart. Would we buy stuff? Sometimes but not most of the time. Were we there for something specific? nope. Just the fact there was nothing to do. That was the most exciting thing we could find to do.

Fast forward to now in present time. There is plenty to do in knoxville. There are things I am going to constantly with kids. and honestly, most of you can relate, I HATE GOING TO WALMART. Its nit my kind of place, it just isnt. If I am going there it is because I have to. I am going in there to get the one or two things I was sent there for and I am getting out. No longer am I going and meandering down every aisle wasting time checking prices in the electronics or sports section. I am going because I am sent.

As I have tried to make clear, there is a vast difference between going somehwere and being sent.

Last week, we looked at a story in the old testament in the story of Esther. It was a description of what it means to know you were made for something, even when you dont see it.

Today we will go to another familiar character in the Old Testament and look at a man we know well named Jonah.

The New International Version Chapter 1

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

The Lord sent Jonah and Jonah made a major life decision and a huge mistake. The biggest mistake may not have been him saying no, although it was a huge mistake. The biggest mistake, and if I can be frank is the BONEHEADEDNESS of Jonah to think he could be in ultimate control of his life.

When God is going to act, he is going to act. When God is going to redeem he is going to redeem, regardless of what you do. Like mordecai TOLD ESTHER......

You can run but you cant hide. If you go to the waters, you are there, to the deserts, to the depths, The psalmist meant that as encouragement but it is also the magnitude of God’s sovereign hand.

My prayer is that God will absolutely turn this community to Him and his Glory and revival will take place. My prayer is also that you and I will live our lives as if we were sent here on mission and not just passing by.

We can no longer view this as optional. If we view it as optional we are not different then bonehead Jonah.

What if we parented this way

marriage this way

worked this way.....?

The New International Version Chapter 1

But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him 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.”

people even look and say HEY ARENT YOU A FOLLOWER OF GOD

I believe the same happens now

JONAH IN THE FISH__________

He prays and God uses circumstances to turn Jonah and send him.

Peter before Jesus go and make fishers of men

Peter runs go and make fishers of men.

The New International Version Chapter 4

4 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

4 But the LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10 But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

do we really want to see people turn. What were you sent to do

Jesus did not come into this world to condemn this world but to save the world through him. If Christ did not then how can you. So what have you been sent for for a time just like this.

9/11 ground zero