for you engaged in the mission of God (not all of you are called “I am Jonah” // Castaway, #1 // like me) and, are you? Is your family engaged in the mission of God? And what does that even mean—the mission of God? Is this Jonah 1:1–16 the creepy “how to be an evangelist” sermon series? • When I was in college I had a guy explain in a series about evangelism… “tract bombs.” No, that’s not what this is Introduction about. Happy 2012 everybody. Just wanted to commend this church But I do want to see you equipped to engage your world for the again for its generosity. In the month of December this church gospel. gave just under $1.5 million dollars to Kingdom work. • That’s the vision of this church: not a bunch of you, like • Some of that went to our ministries here; some of it was sheep, who come in here and gather around while I do the given to our Believe project (which goes to expand our work of God in your life; our vision is seeing you facilities to reach more people); a huge chunk of it (about empowered to live in fullness of your spiritual gifts. The half a million thus far) was given away to our Christmas vision is not a big audience for me; it’s a more greatly Missions Offering: money we give away for church planting empowered and released you. The way we say it is, “We and to bless our community. don’t want an audience; we want an army.” • Let me say that again: You gave nearly a million and a half, ½ million of that was money we just gave away! Thank you. So, I want you to avail yourself of this whole experience. (At all of our campuses, can we celebrate what God has • Not in a small group? Great time to get into one. done, again?—Applause) • Pick up a study guide • Our goal for that offering is $625K. But we always get a • Prayer guide for your family bunch more in during January so let’s finish this. OK, let’s dive in to Jonah. No pun intended. I’m reading from the If you have your Bibles, open them to the book of Jonah. ESV. • If you don’t know where that is in your Bible, it is right between Obadiah and Micah. I’m sure that helps. [1:1] Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah, the son of • No, Jonah is tucked in there with all those books that sound Amittai, and said [2] “Arise, go to Nineveh … like Star Wars characters: Obadiah, Jonah, Obi Wan, Micah, Nahum, and Chewbacca Now, stop right there. If people know anything about Jonah, they • Table of contents; no shame in that know it’s got something to do with Jonah telling God “no” about going to Nineveh and then being swallowed up by a big fish. And a For the next several weeks we are going to be in this book. And lot of people get hung up right there and say, “This can’t be true. this is one of those times where we bring the whole church How is that even possible? Staying alive in a fish for 3 days? It’s got together to all study the same thing. Our small groups; our kids to be a myth.” ministries; our student ministries; everybody—is going to be studying this book together and discovering what it means for you, Well, I would remind you that this is not a story about a big, personally, to be engaged in the mission of God. What does it mean magical fish; it’s a story about God. • Honestly, I would not even put this in my “top 10 hardest [2] “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for things to believe in the Bible” list. their evil has come up before me.” • Genesis 1:1? God spoke the worlds into existence with a • 2 things about Nineveh: it was a very great, and very word… Luke 2, God born as a baby who heals the sick, wicked, city. raises the dead, is crucified and rises again?” • It was huge. Jonah says it took 3 days to walk from one side • Why would you pick this out and say, “This is of the metroplex to the other. Historians tells us that the impossible?” If God created all the galaxies with a word, walls of Nineveh big enough to ride 3 chariots across. Huge he can pull off stuff like this. with big architecture; best singers and culture were there. • Somehow in our family devotion time this week we got • Second, it was also extremely wicked. Which is a lot of off on the resurrection from the dead… I explained… times true about great cities. Kharis: “A Jesus that we’ve never seen is going to come o The Ninevites were known as some of the cruelest back to earth and raises people’s bodies from the dead? people in the ancient world. Nineveh boasted in This all seems kind of ‘mystical’ to me, Dad.” their own histories about how cruel they were… I • Yes, if you believe in a God who spoke everything into was looking at this book of pictures (hieroglyphic existence by the word of His mouth, you believe some looking stuff) from Nineveh; the most graphic things that are mystical, and there’s no way to escape pictures of cruelty. that unless you want to get rid altogether of the idea of § When they would conquer another city, they God who works on earth. would skin alive a lot of the men women and • That’s the question. Is there a God who works in the children, and spread out their skins over the world or not, and was He present in Jesus Christ? If so, city walls. Then they would bury these skinned then this stuff shouldn’t be a big problem. people while they were still alive up to their heads in the sand, and pull their tongues out • People say, “Well, maybe it’s supposed to be read as a parable.” and drive a stake through their tongue into the • The problem is that it’s just not written that way. The ground, so they would just languish in pain and names; the dates; the details; it’s written in the genre of dying of thirst. And then at night they would history. It says, “Jonah, the son of Ammitai?” not “once make them listen to Paris Hilton CD’s over and upon a time there was a guy named Jonah…” Plus, the over. I made that last part up, but they were book of 2 Kings tells you about some of the other stuff unspeakably brutal. 1 Jonah, the son of Ammitai, did. § They would rape the women and kill them; they • The other thing is that Jesus thought of this story as even boasted about raping and killing little girls. actual history; he referred to the historical events as a One account describes how they would the very important prophetic sign for his own ministry. See soldiers and impale some of them alive outside Matthew 12:41 and Luke 11:30. of the city gates. They would behead all these And I feel like he would know. • people and make a mountain of heads outside the city so they could say, “This is what 1 2 Kings 14:25 happens to those who dare oppose the o You’re never farther from God than when you’re Assyrians.”2 close to Him and say “no.” o These were the people that Jonah was asked to go o There are a lot of godly people who look like they are and preach to (and, btw, if you read the OT, you’ll walking with God in every other way… but there’s some see that one of Nineveh’s primary targets was it’s area they are saying “no” to Him in. neighbor to the South, Israel, which means Jonah § Maybe, for you, it’s a relationship that you know and people he knew were victims of Ninevite is not pleasing to God but you won’t quit it… cruelty)… and so naturally Jonah doesn’t want to do § Maybe there is a sacrifice God has put on your it… heart to make (money—God has placed a need o In chapter 3, Jonah says the reason he didn’t want to on your heart but you don’t want to give up the go preach is because he was afraid they’d repent and money… or He’s convicted you about your God would forgive them. lifestyle… your poverty of spirit is enough to let o Can you blame him? Let’s not be so judgmental on you know you shouldn’t be indulging yourself poor old Jonah. the way you are, but you persist on); o Jonah has a great deal of personal bitterness against § A sin you need to confess these people. § Maybe a sacrifice of your time He’s leading you to make; [3] But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. § Maybe it is to go, like Jonah, to leave family and He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he friend and go somewhere paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, o You’re never farther from God than when you’re away from the presence of the LORD.