Jonah 1

My name is Ben, you may recognize me as the guy walking around with a camera and I am your speaker for this week. I am a Youth Pastor in a town called Brentwood and I used to sit to go to RC. Crazy enough, I graduated RC before any of you were born.

Romans 12:2 NIV

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

But this week, we are going to talk about the story of Jonah. Does anyone here know that story?

Your school theme this year is steadfast. If you are steadfast it means that you are not going to move or change. It means that you are firm in what you believe or what your mission is. Maybe you have heard this story or Jonah at children's church or your parents have read this story to you. But this story is super cool because it reveals some very special things about our God.

This week we are going to take a look at who God wants you to be because of who he is.

Today we are going to talk about how….

We are to be Grace Givers

Undeserved favor

How many of you have ever gone through something hard?

School, friends, test, reading, game, siblings, etc

Story of the mean lady who kept telling me what to do.

God calls us to be grace givers just like he did in the bible with the man named Jonah.

Jonah 1:1–3 (nlt)

The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

Jonah was a prophet (someone that was called to share God’s commands with the people). Jonah was called to go to a very bad very hard place to go to share God’s grace. A place with a lot of violence and mean people. Everyone knew that the people of Nineveh were not to be messed with and that if you told them something they didn’t like they might even kill you.

So God calls Jonah to go there and Jonah does what most of us would do and says, “Nope!” I am not goin over there. Those people are bad and mean and I like my life.

(Show map) He doesn’t actually say that, but Jonah gets up and instead of going towards Nineveh he goes in the complete opposite direction. In fact he sets out for the farthest possible place for a person to go. CAlling you to go to tracy but you fly to denver instead

You see God was calling Jonah to do something hard. Like that would have been super scary to do. I know I would have been scared. But rather than following what God asked him to do, Jonah runs away.

Jesus calls each of you to something that to some may seem hard or scary. But Jesus has called each of us who love him to share of his goodness with everyone around us. He calls us to be Grace Givers. Our neighbors, friends, teammates, classmates, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, the person on the train or plane. To be kind, compassionate, patient, slow to anger, and abounding in love. Basically Jesus calls us to share of what he has done with every single person around us.

Matthew 28:19–20 (NIV)

19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Just like Jesus called Jonah to go to nineveh and share of the coming desturction, we are called to share of JEsus and his great love for the world.

He lets you and I be part of one of the coolest missions every! In

Luke 10:27 (NIV)

“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Luke reminds us that we are to love the Lord, but also our neighbors. The Gospel or good news, that Jesus came and died for our sins and that we are called to share is not just for the people we like, but it is to be shared with all.

Sometimes sharing Jesus can be scary and hard because we are nervous about what people might think about us, we may be fearful that we might say the wrong thing or lead someone in the wrong direction.

When I first became a Pastor these were some of my biggest fears, but I’ve realized that God calls me to do hard things and to be obedient, but that he will be with us.

So the story goes on…

He boards this ship and as they are on their way, a big storm comes and the rest of the people are on the boat wondering whether or not they were going to survive. They woke up Jonah and said, call out to your God and Jonah knew right away that he had messed up. But rather than go to God and say sorry, Jonah says guys this is my fault. He doesn’t turn to God, but Jonah says, hey just throw me in the water to die and you’ll be okay.

and the people on board cry out to God

Jonah 1:14–17 (NIV)

4 Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! 16 The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.

17 [a]Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

When I was a kid, I remember being so mad at my mom one day that I ran away from my house because she wanted me to do my chores. I packed my rolling suitcase with a days of clothes and walked down the street to my friend Jordans house. I ran away because I didn’t want to clean my room and didn’t want to listen to my parents.

When we run from the lord, maybe it isn’t because he is calling us to a scary nation, but maybe its to be like Jesus to the kid in your class that is getting made fun of and defend that kid. Maybe it is sharing how good Jesus is with your teammates or the other kids in your neighborhood.

These things can be scary and sometimes we run from them just like Jonah did. But my hope is that as you learn more about who God is this week that you would run to be part of this great mission. To be a grace giver. That his Spirit would so empower you, that you would desire to go out and share of just how good our God is.

Who is someone that Jesus may be calling you to share his great love and grace for?

You are not the future of the church, but you are the church now. I have seen many kids be the reason that someone comes to know Jesus because you guys are amazing and the Lord has blessed you with the chance to bring his light to the world around.