Obeying God Matters!
March 9, 2024 / Brian T. Anderson / Vineyard Church North PhoenixAn Unexpected Hero
Obeying God Matters!
I. Introduction
A. Jonah 1:2 (NAS) “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
B. Jonah 3:1-2 (NAS) 1Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”
1. The word “” is one of the most fundamental words in the Christian faith!
C. Matthew 28:18-20 (NAS) 18“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
D. Jonah 3:3a (NAS) So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD.
1. No matter how big or how small, your obedience to God !
2. God !
E. Jonah 3:3b-4 (NAS) 3bNow Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. 4Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
F. Jonah 3:5a (NAS) Then the people of Nineveh believed in God.
G. Jonah 3:5b (NAS) And they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
H. Jonah 3:6 (NAS) When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.
I. Jonah 3:7-9 (NAS) 7He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. 9Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”
J. Jonah 3:10 (NAS) When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
1. The joke is on those of us who that God can reach the unreachable!
2. Our God is the God of possible!
K. Ephesians 3:20 (NAS) Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.
1. And if we don’t believe that anything’s possible with God—then the joke is on !
2. Will you go to “”—like Jonah finally did?
3. The question is, “ ?”
II. Conclusion