Reaching The City

Introduction: Why do ministry in the city?

What’s so good about the city?

The metropolitan city I mean

I like the city because you can do thins in the city.

New York City for example is known as the city that never sleeps.

But NYC is little bit too big for me personally.

The city has museums.

The city has things going on such as clubs and restaurants.

We see a lot of people in the city.

Religious “nones”- a shorthand we use to refer to people who self-identify as atheists or agnostics, as well as those who say their religion is “nothing in particular”- now make up roughly 23% of the U.S. population

Overall, religiously unaffiliated people are more concentrated among young adults than other age groups

According to Pew Research Center, the reasons that there has been a growing number of American’s who do not identify with a religious group are as follows:

Don’t Believe- 49%

Dislike Organized Religion- 20%

Religiously unsure/undecided- 18%

Inactive believer- 10%

Other- 1%

Transition To Body

Jonah 1:1 ESV

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

Jonah 1:2 ESV

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

Going Away From the Presence of the LORD

Jonah 1:3 ESV

3 But Jonah rose 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, away from the presence of the Lord.

Body

Running From The LORD’S Assignment (Jon. 1)

Illustration: Jonah’s Goard, first novel published by Zora Neale Hurston

The story of the main character John running away…

“Jonah’s Gourd Vine tells the story of John Buddy Pearson, ‘a living exultation’ of a young man who loves too many women for his own good. Lucy Potts, his long-suffering wife, is his true love, but there’s also Mehaley and Big ‘Oman, as well as the scheming Hattie, who conjures hoodoo spells to ensure his attentions.

Even after becoming the popular pastor of Zion Hope, where his sermons and prayers for cleansing rouse the congregation’s fervor, John has to confess that though he is a preacher on Sundays, he is a ‘natchel man’ the rest of the week.

Zora Neale Hurston used this passage as the origin of the novel's title. She saw the life and position of the lead character John Pearson as the gourd vine and his weaknesses and destructive tendencies as the worm that destroyed the vine.

Gourd is occasionally used to describe crop plants in the familyCucurbitaceae, like pumpkins, cucumbers, squash, luffa, and melons.

More specifically, gourd refers to the fruits of plants in the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita, or also to their hollow, dried-out shell.

Psalm 139:1–12 ESV

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

When the LORD hurls a storm

your way to break up the ships of our lives

Jonah 1:4 ESV

4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.

Crying Out To Our gods

Jonah Was Fast Asleep

Jonah 1:5 ESV

5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

Jonah 1:9 ESV

9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

Jonah Said Throw Me Into The See

Jonah 1:12 ESV

12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”

Submitting To The LORD’S Assignment (Jon. 2)

Jonah 2:2 ESV

2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.

Jonah 2:5–9 ESV

5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

1 Peter 5:6–7 ESV

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Performing Of The LORD’S Assignment (Jon. 3)

The WORD of the LORD Came to Jonah

Jonah 3:1 ESV

1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,

Jonah Went According To The LORD’s WORD

Jonah 3:3 ESV

3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.

Jonah Went Into The City

Jonah 3:4 ESV

4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

And The People Of Nineveh Believed

Jonah 3:5 ESV

5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The People Repented

Jonah 3:8–9 ESV

8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

God Saw What They Did

Jonah 3:10 ESV

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Miracles start to happen

People get saved

Communities are changed

Police & Politicians get rith with the LORD

Nations repent

Reflecting Upon The LORD’S Assignment (Jon. 4)

Jonah’s Exceedingly Great Displeasure

Jonah 4:1 ESV

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

Jonah Knew God Was Gracious & Merciful

Jonah 4:2 ESV

2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Slow to anger

Abounding In Steadfast Love

Relenting from Disaster

Better for Jonah To Die Than To Live?

Jonah 4:3 ESV

3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Do you do well to be angry?

Jonah 4:4 ESV

4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

Jonah Pities Plants

Jonah 4:9–10 ESV

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.

The LORD Pities People

Jonah 4:11 ESV

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?”

Greater is He Who Is In You….

1 John 4:4 ESV

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

You Did Not Choose Jesus…

John 15:16 ESV

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Transition To Close

In 1891 off of the Falkland Islands, there were two fishing boats that were whale hunting. They came across a huge sperm whale. One fishing group shot harpoons into the whale. The other boat came around and began to do the same thing to get this whale, but the whale’s tail hit the second boat and knocked it over.

There were two men on the second boat. One of the men drowned. The other man was not found. Two days later, a few other boats got this same whale and killed him. They brought the whale up to the shore, slit it open, and found the second man.

The man was unconscious but still alive, and after care, resumed his life. This “Jonah and the whale” story isn’t that far-fetched. Similar things have happened before. People read the Bible and say that the story of Jonah and the big fish doesn’t make sense, but it does.

The miracle is not that a fish swallowed a man, because that has happened before. The miracle is that the fish paid attention to the Lord.

Evans, Tony. Tony Evans' Book of Illustrations (pp. 173-174). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

When you:

Run From The LORD’s Assignment For Your Life

Submit Yourself To The LORD’S Assignment For Your Life

Perform The LORD’S Assignment For Your Life

And Reflect Upon The LORD’S Assignment For Your Life

You will be like the great Negro Hymnists of our past:

When I think of the goodness of Jesus, and what he has done for me, my soul cries out, "Hallelujah!" Praise God for saving me.

Close- The WORD Incarnate

John 1:1–3 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:9–13 ESV

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Everybody Weeping Over Lazarus

John 11:31 ESV

31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

LORD, if you had been here

John 11:32 ESV

32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Jesus Will Let You Die In Order To Resurrect You

John 11:14–15 ESV

14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

John 11:25 ESV

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

Jesus Weeps...

John 11:35 ESV

35 Jesus wept.

Jesus Gives Life To Our Mortal Bodies

Romans 8:11 ESV

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Philippians 1:3–6 ESV

3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.