Sermon Tone Analysis

We are in this series that I’ve called Messed Up Messengers… we are studying the prophet Jonah… who was a prophet of God… a messenger of God… who had some things kind of messed up in the way he related to God and the people God called him to reach…

Our goal... our vision in this series is to allow God to work on the messes that we are through the mission he has given us…

That’s a pretty blunt goal… to say that our lives are sometimes pretty messed up because of our sin… and that God wants to do a work in our hearts to root out that mess and to deal with it…

I have to admit… that can be EASY to say in a general way… almost tongue in cheek… “I’m a mess...”

But then to have God open our eyes to really see that mess so that we can turn from it… that’s a pretty painful reality...

I don’t know about you, but God’s been showing ME some specific things… some patterns of thinking… some ways of reacting to the circumstances in my life that are pretty messed up in me…

I know that’s SOOO surprising… that God would still have a work to do in someone who’s a pastor… but it’s true!

And he’s been dealing with me on those things… he’s been getting after my heart…

In particular, that second point from last week, that we can hope in our God who disciplines us… I’ve been holding on to that truth.

And just like Jonah... he’s been USING the mission that he’s given… to do that work in me...

it’s through the ways that he has called me to make disciples that he’s showing me things that are wrong in MY OWN heart...

And so if you are like, “Man, God is just really working on me lately… it’s hard and sometimes painful… but good…”

Just know that you aren’t alone…

The same work that he did in Jonah’s life he wants to do in my life and he wants to do in your life...

And at the same time, if you are like, “Yeah, I don’t know what you are talking about… I don’t see any mess in my life…”

OR if you are like, “Yeah, there’s a mess there, but there’s just no changing that mess… I’m a lost cause...”

Then the chances are that you don’t understand the mission of God in your life at all.

Chances are that you have not stepped out into the walk of faith that God has called you to...

Because God has called you to be a disciple who makes disciples of Jesus…

That’s the mission of God for every follower of Jesus… to walk by faith in Jesus (that’s being a disciple) and to call and teach others walk by faith in him as well…

That’s your mission as a parent… as a neighbor… as a coworker… as a church member… as a spouse… as someone who is playing meeting other parents at the park...

You are called to be a disciple-making disciple...

And God wants to use THAT mission… to work not only on the people around you… but to work on YOU!!!

Do any of you parents out there see your own need for repentance as you deal with the sinful hearts of your kids?

And God is CONSTANTLY using THAT mission… being a disciple who makes disciples... to purify his people and to clean them up...

Or do you ever see your own marriage weaknesses when you have to help someone else work on their marriage?

And if you wait until you follow Jesus PERFECTLY to obey the mission of making disciples, you will never get after the mission…

And guess what?

You’ll stunt your growth as a disciple.

You see, God doesn’t wait for you to clean yourself up before he calls you on mission...

And he’s not waiting for you to clean yourself up so that he can use you...

He’s does his own miraculous work in YOUR heart THROUGH calling you on mission…

and then he wants to use the repentance he produces in your heart to MULTIPLY repentance in the hearts of other people...

That’s what we see happen in the chapter we are studying today… here’s the big idea:

Big Idea: YOUR miraculous repentance exists to multiply miraculous repentance in the people God called you to reach.

You’ll remember that Jonah was a prophet of the Lord… and he got the assignment that no prophet wants to get...

Jonah was a prophet of the Lord… and he got the assignment that no prophet wants to get...

God called him to preach to a VIOLENT, WICKED foreign people that judgment was coming upon them soon…

Naturally, Jonah didn’t want to… for him, it was the issue that he knew that if he warned them, he was giving them the opportunity to repent…

He knew God was just gracious like that... and he didn’t think they deserved that...

So he ran the opposite way from God… God used the mission to reveal that there was still a ton of REPENTANCE that needed to happen in his own heart.

So God sent a massive storm against the ship he was using to escape, and instead of crying out to God and turning back to him, Jonah was like, “Just kill me… just throw me overboard… I can’t imagine turning to God’s way on this...”

So they threw him overboard… and the storm ceased… and the sailors learned to fear God… God saved them despite his messed up messenger...

But he also saved Jonah despite himself.

He was SO gracious to Jonah and sent a great fish to rescue him...

Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of that fish… and he cried out to the Lord… and he hoped in the God who disciplined him… and the belly of the fish became a place of worship for him...

And three days later, it was time for him to come out restored... God commanded the fish and it vomited him out on dry land.

And that’s where we pick up the story this morning…

Read

YOUR miraculous repentance exists to multiply miraculous repentance in the people God called you to reach.

Repentance is an amazing miracle, isn’t it?

When God gets a hold of our hearts and changes our rebellious minds to understand that HE is God and WE are NOT… We don’t come to that conclusion on our own… it’s the work of his Spirit that brings us there.

and it is by his GRACE that we are saved through faith… repentance is not a WORK for salvation, but a change of mind and heart unto salvation…

We

But it’s so important that we understand that our repentance is NOT just a personal matter… it’s not just about us...

God uses individual repentance in a greater plan to save a whole people for himself from every tribe and tongue and people and language.

Here in Jonah, we find one of the greatest stories of repentance of all time… this is one of the LARGEST singl-moment revivals in all of world history...

Which means that God used the repentance of one of the most messed-up, backwards thinking prophets in the Old Testament as his tool to multiply repentance in the lives of thousands of others...

If THAT doesn’t give you hope as a disciple-making disciple, I don’t know what does.

I don’t have to be PERFECT… but I do need to be repentant.

Repentance multiplies repentance.

In , we see two parallel realities that we need to understand, and the first is this:

God wants to USE the miracle of your repentance (v.

1-5)

Read Jonah 3:1-3

God wants to use the miracle of your repentance (v.

1-5)

Explain: In verses 1-3, we are vividly reminded of the way Jonah messed up in the first place.

These verses are a mirror of chapter 1… except when Jonah goes the wrong way in chapter 1:3, he goes God’s way in chapter 3:3.

[show diagram]

God took him right back to the place of his original calling as the proof of his restoration and repentance.

I want you to notice that...

Because I think sometimes we disobey God, realize our wrong, say we are sorry, but then expect God to have changed his mind about his original command...

“Oh, you’re sorry, well then, don’t worry about that thing I said before… I changed my mind about what I want you to do… go ahead and do your own thing.”

Or “I’m glad you’re sorry, but now I don’t really want to use you because of how bad you messed this up...”

But that’s not God.

God took Jonah right back to the place of his original calling.

And as he repeats the command, we are reminded of four elements to God’s calling…

He called him to a place - Arise and go to Nineveh...

And you’ll remember that Nineveh was the capital of Assyria…

It was 500 miles away… which would have taken about a month to get there, traveling across the deserts of modern-day Syria and Iraq… [show map]

What God was asking him to do was NOT easy.

He had to move a good distance… uproot his life… sweat out the journey… and GO TO the people who needed to hear.

If we think that God will never ask us to do something that is physically uncomfortable or inconvenient, we are mistaken.

Maybe God’s not calling you to cross deserts, but is he calling you to cross your yard to talk to your neighbor about Jesus?

Is he calling you to cross the coffee shop to talk to the barista about Jesus?

Is he calling you to cross the splash pad to talk to that other mom about Jesus?

Is he calling you to cross your insecurities or introverted preferences to talk to ANYONE about Jesus?

God moved Jonah to an uncomfortable place...

Now in that far off place, God also called him to a People...

Remember, this is still a city full of ruthless idol-worshiping war criminals who bragged about how many crimes against humanity they had committed...

One pastor friend of mine said that this is like you walking into the heart of Iran doing street evangelism in a Taliban stronghold to the Taliban soldiers...

These were no-no people for a good religious Jew to talk to...

We talked a couple weeks ago about the “no-no” people and places for good religious people in Solanco to reach…

Have you thought any more about where you will GO and who God has put in front of you to reach who you wouldn’t naturally want to reach?

Who doesn’t look like you… who you have little in common with… who maybe is even HOSTILE to you?

Have you made any movement in that direction?

God doesn’t forget that he’s called us to GO and make disciples… he comes right back to that same command that makes us uncomfortable.

And as he calls him to the same place and a people… He calls him to the same activity: PROCLAIM

Or “Call out against...” the city…

Two different words are used in chapter 1 and chapter 3, but they mean essentially the same thing…

Lift up your voice and proclaim.