JONAH: God Who Seeks, Pursues & Calls

 God Who Seeks, Pursues & Calls Jonah 4:7-11 As we close off this study through the book of Jonah - it’s important to remember a few key points about this book: 1: It starts with a call from God (this is unique) God demands our attention here because we’re His creation and he pursues us. This world can feel isolated sometimes; maybe you’ve felt that. As people to God’s glory we’re not like one of those preplanned communities where all the houses all look the same (I call it neighborhood seed) but rather we’re unique and different characters that glorify and magnify a mighty, creative God. Rather we twist those to be basis for separation rather than celebration. In that environment, our environment, we can begin to wonder, “does God even care for all that happens here - it feels so Godless” after Jonah we’ll wonder no longer. 2: God sends Jonah on a mission to go find God’s people - who don’t yet know they’re his people, this is unique - no other book shows a mission from God’s hand to go get gentile (non-Jew) people, in mass and this is important as this is a book that draws a laser line to Jesus. This book starts with God and ends with redeemed people, that is our God - we need that encouragement and that reminder. Maybe you’ve felt too far from God to be redeemed. Maybe you can see clearly that there is a God but you feel; he’d have no interest in me. Jonah is here to demonstrate that he is, both the man and the book. Why study it today? Why do we need to look to Jonah? Because we need to see that it’s God who seeks, and pursues, and God who calls - we who respond in faith. We see that God cares for us and that his plan rests on Jesus who we now know who calls us to redeemed living - but do we have a Jonah heart closed to those who don’t yet know God aren’t yet redeemed by God or worse yet are we closed off to our bothers and sisters who know God but look different. What about you - have you seen God’s call, have you responded in faith? If not - I pray you will before today is over and if you have - I pray you’ll see through Jonah and now into Habakkuk how to live as someone transformed and redeemed to God but sometimes feeling stranded in a world that neither knows God nor lives to his standard… but This is where it comes full circle - this is where you have to test yourself for a Jonah heart - do you become bitter to the world around you, do you judge it’s actions and judge it’s heart and become bitter towards it? It’s easy to read Jonah and see wrong on Jonah - but how about you, can you find wrong on you? I’m not saying there is any, but there may be. Could you see it if there was? Are you open to finding it if there is? I think we’ll see God leading Jonah to a changed heart - are we open to the same? Maybe just maybe that’s why Jonah is there for us today - so that we’d be open to being grown even as we’re born again? Do you hear God’s final words here in Jonah - lets read 4:7-11 Jonah 4:7–11 (ESV) 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” Do you see what our seeking, pursuing, and God who calls us is saying… Do you notice that the book ends abruptly without a conclusion? A few interesting observations from my prayer and meditation over Jonah: · Jonah ends open endedly · Jonah ends open endedly with God showing that He cares for His people · Jonah ends with Jonah’s mission completed, the people have repented God has relented from what he has said he would do - but the story isn’t over because God is still growing and caring for and walking with and stretching Jonah · Jonah now has a people who are joined to God just like Him we’d call them brothers and sisters in Christ - but he doesn’t care for them. What about us - how is our heart? Like Jonah’s or??? Look again to verse 11 where God looks to Jonah and bears his heart to show across all time: Jonah 4:7–11 (ESV) 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” We’re creatures of creation - and the God who created us also loves us and so He seeks after us, He pursues us, and He calls out to us - what will we do with the call? I was at a conference this week and a pastor pointed out that people like to say that Jesus came to be with sinners - he said duhhhh what other kind of person is there to hang out with? We’re all sinners, then he saves us and transforms us and sends us out as disciples - and we get to share great news. I pray that Jonah has inspired you. Not simply to do better than Jonah - but rather inspired you with the scandalous grace of a God that loves creation who resists Him, and who calls to us - will we respond - because if we will, if we’ll be faithful to respond to Him and trust Him he will send His spirit to indwell us His son will purchase our forgiveness and God will relent of judgment we were due while we were outside of Jesus. Do you see how Jonah points squarely to Jesus, how it leaves open the way to the Gospel, and how Jesus would come along later in the book of Matthew and say all the sign you’ll get about me is the sign of Jonah, which would leave us with a lingering question: Jonah 4:11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” Guys, Church - that’s what we’re invited into. To be transformed by God and indwelled by God and then to extend his pity for creation as we’re open to bringing this scandalous grace Imagine now as you go to live this out. To live as a transformed person in a dark world, I pray you remember Jonah - that you’re called back to Jonah to remember that there were times where Jonah didn’t do this perfectly, he even specifically resisted what God called Him to - and God didn’t let him go, rather he prepared a storm and a great fish - and we see this as a story about a fish, rather this is a story about a creator so loving even when Jonah would rather die at sea than carry out God’s will to bring grace to an entire nation of people, he’s scoop him up in a great fish and send time with him, and send him back out on mission Maybe that’s you - maybe you need to be loved back out into mission? Do you see your job in that way - is it mission? How about your friendships in your neighborhood, is that mission? How about with your family and personal friends and sphere of influence - is that mission? Be encouraged as you go on the mission that God is working on you as he’s working in you. We’ve seen that in Jonah. This is a book of encouragement about a relentless and scandalous God who seeks, pursues and God who calls… Today we finish this encouraging message that leaves the story open for Christ who’d bring that mercy of God to the entire world, and we get to celebrate it as a finished mission. Under the banner that says, “mission accomplished” Jesus himself proclaimed it, “it is finished” and so we benefit from Jesus suffering on the cross for our personal sins, does that move you - celebrate today and do it so that you’d remember and be re-encouraged this week to live for Him. Live differently because if you’re a believer you’re different, your sanctified and made holy - and Church this week read Habakkuk - you’ll see someone with uncertain circumstances living in the real world and learning to trust - maybe you need that - I know I do. Lets keep walking this out together. Live Differently JONAH: God Who Seeks, Pursues, & Calls Pastor John Weathersby Transcend Church 4 of 4 Sunday 11/5/2017