All He Would Do For Us

God goes the extra mile for His creation. Beloved tonight I want to declare to you that we serve a God that is a merciful God, just and true, glorious and marvelous in all His ways. God has in past times took drastic measures to get the attention of His people. He went above and beyond to get the attention of His people all because He loves us. Tonight I want to preach a sermon I have entitles “all He would do just for me”.

1st Point “Hearing, not listening and running away”

Jonah 1:1-3

1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me. 3 But Jonah arose 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 from the presence of the LORD.

Here in our text we find that God has chosen a man to go a particular city a great city and cry out against it, in other words witness and testify to a perverted city that they may turn from their wicked ways and flee the wrath of God. Here is God coming to man to reach man, what a tremendous privilege to be called by god to reach a people that they may escape eternal damnation. Yet He hears God and decides to not listen to God.

See beloved in our scripture we read that Jonah had a word that came from the Lord, in that word God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and cry out against it. Instead of obeying the voice of the Lord He chose to go the other direction. How many know that is like many today, hear me out God is speaking to His people with this still small voice and we hear Him yet can easily go the other direction away from His purpose away from His redemption grace away from His will, only to find ourselves in a terrible storm.

He paid to go the other direction, He paid to disobey God, hear me out tonight, your disobedience beloved will cost you more than what you bargained for. Listen to me He tried to flee the presence of the Lord. He paid to go the other direction and this is what happened: it cost others almost their lives.

Jonah 1:4-6

4 But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came to him, and said to him, "What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish."

Jonah a man that heard from God, clear directions, disobeyed and it cost Him whatever he paid but it cost others all that they had. And the sad thing about this beloved hear me out is that this man of God was comfortable in his disobedience, yet God was not. This storm that God sent upon this ship is a good indicator and should give us clear understanding that whatever we do in our lives that do not satisfy the eyes of the God we serve will affect all those around us.

The Mariners were throwing their cargo off the ship and to top it off the storm was so fierce that they were afraid the boat was going to be torn apart. Could it be possible that your disobedience or my disobedience can cause someone else their lives?

But in the midst of this beloved the good that came out of this is that God was involved and had things planned out according to His grace and mercy. First beloved these sinners were able to see the length, the distance God would go for those that He loves and secondly, after they threw Jonah into the sea they began to worship and sacrifice to God.

2nd Point “Protection in the storm”

Beloved God corrects because He loves, but in that correction there is protection. He will not correct us and disciple us without a process of healing being involved. God allows these things to come to pass to show us His divine mercy and provision for us. In addition He graciously gives us time to repent.