25 January 2009
U.S. Army Chaplain (MAJ) Ken Harris
Fortress Chapel
F.O.B. Sykes
Tall-afar, Iraq
BIG IDEA: God is a God of love and mercy, who would rather forgive and save our enemies rather than punish and destroy them.
REFERENCES: Third Sunday after Epiphany; Hebrews 6:1-3 (GNB) “Let us go forward …” Psalm 139:1-9 NIV (O Lord, you have searched me and you know. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast)., (A Wisdom Psalm); Romans 10:14-15 (NIV) How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? Matthew 12:41 NIV (For the men of Nineveh will rise in judgment with this generation and they will condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold a greater than Jonah is here); Acts 10:9-22 (Peter’s Vision on the Roof Top);
I. ANNOUNCE THE PERICOPE: Jonah 3:1-5, 10 (ESV)
II. READ THE PERICOPE: Jonah 3:1-5, 10 (ESV)
III. READ THE TEXT: Jonah 3: 1-2 (ESV) Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.
IV. PURPOSE: To motivate the hearers to Walk in Obedience to the Voice of God in all things.
V. SERMONIC THEME: “Back to Zero”
VI. INTRODUCTION: It’s so good to see all of you on this Third Sunday after Epiphany.
As we indicated last week, the season of Epiphany is about Revelation – and Opening our Spiritual Eyes and Ears - to see who Jesus is, what he does, and what he says.
Neither the crib nor the cross alone can truly explain the significance of Jesus. Therefore, during the season of Epiphany, Christians everywhere discover the meaning of the “Crib” and the meaning of the “Cross” through Jesus’ life and mission.
For Jesus’ life gives us details of the meaning of the manger and the cross, while His Resurrection reveals the Significance of His life. However, if we think Epiphany is a Tour of Discovery about Jesus ONLY – we’re missing the MRAP.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******
MOVE 1: In our Old Testament Reading of Jonah, for this Sunday, we find a model example of God’s patience with us.
a. We discover that God is a God of love and mercy, …
b. … who would rather forgive and save our enemies … rather than punish and destroy
them.
c. Now, my brothers and sisters, I’m not sure if I ever shared with you that Southwest Airline is my favorite airline.
d. I even love their commercials.
e. Their commercials almost always imply that if you really need to ESCAPE or get away … for whatever reason … their airline is the airline of get-a-ways.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******
MOVE 2: In fact, I can almost hear the phrase: “Do You Want Get Away?” …
a. … then just seconds later … viewers can sublimely imagine themselves arriving at their destination of choice;
b. … whereby … a beep is heard … then a voice suggesting that they may safely disembark the plane.
c. I love the Southwest Airline Commercials!
d. Likewise, in reference to get-a-ways …
e. … the Lord has laid a question on my heart that I would like to share with each of you for your consideration.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******
MOVE 3: As believers, have you ever been so angry and disappointed with God, that you just wanted to … escape … and get as far away from His presence as possible?
a. Have there been time in your life when you thought, to yourself, for whatever reason, I know better than God - what will make me happy; and what is good for me.
b. As you may recall, the Psalmist reminds us all, in Psalm 139:7-8 (NIV), ….
c. … that there is no where to escape the presence of the Lord. For don’t you remember the Psalmist said – “Where can I go from your Spirit?
d. Where can I flee from your presence?
e. If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
f. … if I make my bed in the depths, you are there;
g. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******
MOVE 4: Well, as I look back over my life, a particular situation comes to mind when I tried “to get-away” from the path that God had set before me;
a. … because I thought that I could find greater happiness and greater pleasure by leaving the path of God.
b. Well, I look back upon that experience, today and I realize it was the most miserable experience of my entire life.
c. The misery that I brought to myself when I thought I knew better than God … what would make me happy.
d. And yet, I don’t believe that I’m the only one – in here today - that has had an experience like that.
e. Many in attendance today may have been in similar situations.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******
MOVE 5: For instance, I can recall my circumstance as if it was just last evening. I was 16 years old at the time.
a. I had been appointed (a few years earlier) as the youngest Missionary Baptist Sunday School Superintendent in the State of Florida.
b. My family and I lived in an impoverished, drug polluted neighborhood, and God had just allowed my father, the head of our household; and our protector - Kenneth Sr. (at the age of 48) to die from a massive heart attack.
c. I was devastated! I was both angry and disappointed with God.
d. In fact, I made up in my mind that I was going to find peace and solace by leaving the path of God; I was ending my Sunday School Experience.
e. Because at 16 years of age, I knew better than God … what was good for me.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS ******
MOVE 6: It didn’t dawn on me how dangerous it would be for me to be out of fellowship with God.
a. And I didn’t think about where my eternal destiny would have been, had I died outside the fellowship of God.
b. I was angry; and there was Nothing in the world that anybody could do about it. My dad was dead! No one could bring him back to life. I was both angry and disappointed with God.
c. Likewise, in the Book of Jonah, Chapter 1:1-2, we find the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
d. Now, my brothers and sisters, Historian say Nineveh was the largest city in the ancient world.
e. It has been said that the population was so colossal that there were 60,000 children in Nineveh alone that couldn’t “tell their right hand from their left hand”.
f. So, it is believed that these children were under the age of five.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******
MOVE 7: Nineveh – is modern day Mosul; right here in Iraq.
a. And Mosul was the capitol of the “Assyrian Empire”.
b. The Assyrians were historically extremely cruel people.
c. For they were known to desecrate the bodies of the victims of war, maiming them, cutting off the ears of their prisoners, or cutting off the noses of the prisoners, and or pulling out their tongues.
d. The people of Mosul were very cruel and heartless. The Bible described them as being wicked. In other words evil, bad, and depraved.
e. Yet, Jonah was call to minister to them.
f. And because of his own foibles, believing “Salvation was of the Jews Only” he refused and failed to do what God wanted him to do.
g. So, Jonah fled and ran to the port City of Joppa.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******
MOVE 8: The very same city that Peter saw his vision on the roof top (in Acts 10:922).
a. Therefore, in our text today, we discover that the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
b. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh (Jonah 3:1-3).
c. My brothers and sisters … God brings us back so many times to the place of failure, and that is where we start again.
d. I call it “Back to Zero”.
e. For “Back to Zero” is an opportunity for a Fresh Start and to Start Over.
f. “Back to Zero”.
g. I wonder how many times God has brought me back to zero, back to that place of failure and then He says, “Okay.” And here is where we start again.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******
MOVE 9: “Back to Zero” represents not being able to GO ON … until we have victoriously conquered and pass the Spiritual Test we have failed.
a. We can’t continue on, in God, until He has strengthen this particular area or our lives that we’re having difficulties in.
b. And when God brings us back to it, then we’re facing the same issues again, but this time we have an opportunity to be obedient and to Spiritually… Move On to higher heights in God.
c. For God is a moving God. He’s a progressive God.
d. When we have God in us; we should not be stunted; but we should be progressive.
e. For God desires for us to move on and to move forward!
f. But, in order for us to move on – we have to go back to zero – in order to pass the initial test that we failed. We can’t go forward until; until we have correct some things.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS ******
MOVE 10: We can’t allow ourselves to get stuck in the past.
a. We are only “Back to Zero” in order to OBEDIENTLY move forward – with God’s blessings.
b. For don’t you remember, in Hebrews 6:1-3, the Apostle Paul warns us against abandoning the Faith and getting STUCK “Back to Zero” by suggesting to us: “Let us go forward,…
c. So, Jonah arose, and went to Mosul according to the word of God.
d. Now Mosul was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey (Jonah 3:3).
e. In other words, back in the day, it would take the average Soldier three days to walk from one end of Mosul to the other end.
f. The Bible says Jonah enter into the city.
g. After walking for only a day, he cried out: Yet forty days, and Mosul shall be overthrown. So the people of Mosul believed God (Jonah 3:4-5).
h. What a revival! What a remarkable message.
i. But, Jonah wasn’t happy, because in his heart he wanted the people of Mosul to be destroyed.
j. In his sermon, he didn’t laid out any hope. He didn’t conduct any altar calls; and he didn’t share any words of exhortation.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS ******
MOVE 11: He just shared a message of Judgment.
a. Still … the people of Mosul believed God.
b. So much so that they proclaimed a fast for the Lord.
c. And God was pleased with their acts of repentance.
d. For don’t you remember, it was Jesus himself that said in Matthew 12:41 - … the men of Nineveh/Mosul will rise in judgment with this generation and they will condemn it.
e. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold a greater than Jonah is here”.
******* TAKE 5 BEATS *******
CELEBRATION: Now, my brothers and sisters …
Jonah had be the only chaplain in history to
hope that he didn’t have a successful deployment ministry.
Nevertheless, Jonah was reminded of what he already knew about God:
God is a God of love and mercy, who would rather forgive and save our enemies …
rather than punish and destroy them.
