Jonah 1:7-16 | Part 2
Jonah part 2
- What mandates your life? Emotion or Call?
- Do you respond more out of what you feel, sense, or desire, or
respond to calling, duty, and what you have promised?
People can be misled by their own emotion which satisfies their need to FEEL like something has changed
- which is right?
- Scripture says this:
Matthew 15:19 | For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
1st John 3:20 | for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
Psalm 28:7 | "The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him."
Trust the world with your heart, and you will be lied to, betrayed, and lose everything. Trust God with your heart and you will be saved, loved, and given purpose.
Jonah 1:7-8 | And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. [8] Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
People believed that lots were a way of discerning God’s will
Mentioned 70x in the OT 7 in the NT
Modern day equivalent: flipping a coin, rolling dice
Instead of relying on CALLING, they would leave it to Chance
Jonah was unwilling to come clean with his sin
Proverbs 14:12 | There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Proverbs 28:26 | Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
I. EMOTIONAL ACTIONS AFFECT THOSE AROUND YOU
Jonah 1:7-9 | 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 does not tell them his occupation (prophet of God)
Jonah is following his feelings, not his call
Jonah acknowledges who God is, but does not fear him
II. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF GOD DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE A FOLLOWER OF GOD
Jonah 1:10-11 | Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. [11] Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.
Jonah had said that he feared God.
These men proved that they did
Isaiah 8:13 | But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
III. FEAR OF GOD RESULTS IN RIGHTEOUS ACTIONS
Jonah 1:12-14 | 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.” [13] Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. [14] Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.”
Jonah’s hatred (feelings) of the Ninevites were greater than his fear of God(his call)
Jonah knows that God is a merciful God. He will forgive, but Jonah does not want to do what God has commanded him to do
Why didn’t Jonah cry out to God? Feelings had completely deceived him
Jeremiah 17:9 | The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
IV. FEELINGS OF ANGER AND HATRED WILL TAKE PRIORITY OVER LOVE FOR GOD
Jonah 1:15-16 | So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. [16] Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
The men refused to throw him overboard (feelings) but leaned into their calling, which was to deliver Jonah safely to shore
When they realized it was futile, they finally relented
Does God always have to take us to a place of futility before we come under the authority of his call?
The men became followers of God
Not through Jonah, but through the direct contact and witness of almighty God and what he can do
God saved these men regardless of Jonah
Outro: As God calls us to get up, to go, and to speak, we must come under the authority of our call in Christ Jesus, not our emotions/feelings. This can only be accomplished by focusing on the cross
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