Jonah Part 1 - Avoidance

Last Sunday, we kicked off the new series - Jonah! It's a story many of us heard about growing up but may have not gotten into the true significance of what God is trying to say behind this timeless tale.
God has a calling for all of us and we may not always respond the right way. We may even run like Jonah! The running usually happens when God is trying to stretch our faith through His word. We need the word of the Lord in a time where people’s word don’t mean anything. Our society is filled with alternate truth and the WORD of God is the unhindered, unbiased, and inspired word of truth.
We must remember, our lives are not our own according to Romans 8:9 and God wants to use us in mighty ways.
We must ask ourselves, do we live by human speculation or divine revelation?

There are 3 Things we must realize.
ONE: The Word of the Lord will NOT always be what we want to hear.
The last thing Jonah wanted to hear is to go to Niniveh and try to save the people that is a direct enemy of the Hebrew nation.
We may have a script of how our lives should be, but if you belong to God, you must let Him rewrite that script.

TWO:
If you want to run from God, there’s always a SHIP that will take you in the wrong direction.
There’s always a RelationSHIP, PartnerSHIP, counselorSHIP, listenership or friendSHIP going in the wrong direction.

It all depends which SHIP you are boarding: Are you underGod’s LordSHIP or on your Stubborn SHIP.

​THREE:
If you avoid (run from) God, expect to be swallowed up by your circumstances.
(see Jonah 1-3)
The point of this is not that a Fish swallowed Jonah, but of God’s faithfulness in the midst of Jonah’s unfaithfulness. Jonah willfully and willingly wanted to go His OWN way, and God pursued Him.
It is during the Storm that Jonah begins to really understand WHO he is in Christ!

If it wasn’t for the storm Jonah would have kept sleeping and kept going in the wrong direction.

So how do we avoid avoidance and running the other direction? Surrender! The cure for avoidance is surrender. Jonah eventually surrendered to God's plan that ultimately saved him and a whole city!

Join us this Sunday at 1 PM as we continue with Part 2. God wants you to be in fellowship and communion with him and no better way to do that then when we gather together!