SomeTimes It Takes A WORM!
With Pastor Tim Porter
Introduction:
Have you ever made a mistake? Have you ever messed up due to your on stupidity or disobdience?
Has there ever been a time when you were rescued because of your disobiedance and you couldn't explain it?
The prophet Isaiah had this to say about the mysterious ways of the Lord,
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”, Isa. 55:8-9.
The sooner you realizes this, the better off you'll will be! Of course, even though we can read this truth and we know that it is right, sometimes, the ways of God are still hard to stomach.
This was the case for Jonah. Jonah watched the Lord work His sovereign will in the city of Nineveh and Jonah did not like God's way at all!
We all have heard about Jonah and God’s call upon his life. Most of the time when we hear a sermon of Jonah, the first thing that pops into our mind is the story of how he was swallowed by a whale, spent three days on the belly of the whale, and then was thrown up on the beach at the closest point to Nineveh where he was supposed to go in the first place.
Consider this thought as my title "Somtimes it takes a WORM!
As we work our way toward the worm I need you to understand two other vital aspects or parts of this story.
I.} The Whale (rescue)
The bible says Jonah herd the word of the Lord didn't like it and headed to Tarshish. God wanted Jonah to go to this great city and preach repentance to the Ninivites (everyone there was lost) which is in todays terms is Asirya.
The Asirains were barbaric people, you could say they were terriost! This is the same place ISIS came from.
Just a few things they were famous for
1.} Impale people on sticks through their mid sections
2.} bury people standing up w/ a stick pushed their toung, scalp their head
3.} Skin people alive
4.} reach into their mouths a pull their toungs out
5.} They would build pyrmids out of human skulls
someone once said it like this Jonah’s reaction about going to Nineva has been described this way…
“…calling Jonah to go to the Ninevites was like asking a Jew in 1942 to go from New York to Hitler, and tell him that God loved him, and that everything he did would be forgiven if he would just repent. So the Jew got on a train, all right, and went to San Francisco; then got on a ship to Antarctica! He wanted nothing to do with it.”
?So Jonah heads to Tarshish to flee from the Presence of the Lord (don't you know you can't flee from the presence of the Lord) boarded a ship and paid his fare.
keep in mind anytime you disobey the Lord it will cost you something
when he got on the boat he went down under the deck ... anytime you run from God you go down.
Here they are on the boat he is going 2500 miles out of the way instead of going a days journey to do what the Lord ask ( Isn't funny we work harder trying to get out of what God ask us to do instead of obeying Him)
Everything is hunkeydory until the wind begins to blow and the storm comes! The ships crew people realize it has nothing to do with them and all to do with Jonah. They tell him to pray to his god and Jonah says "I can do that but it will do no good because this has to do with He and I. Here is what you have to do. Throw me over board and the storm will go away." So off the boat with Jonah.
? some of you need to get Jonah off your boat - You in the storm you in b/c who is on your boat - You running with people you got no business with - You living with someone you not married to - You in a abusive relationship - Jonah needs to go so the storm will calm down - You are dating the wrong person - working at the wrong place - Jonah has got to go! { take your phone swipe it right now and start deleteing the jonah's off of you fb, instagram, and your contacts! If you want the storm to stop get rid of the Jonah's.
?Jonah 1:17 (NKJV) 17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
I find it amazing the whale obeyed the Lord but Jonah didn't ! Can you imagine God communicatig with the whale ( Illustrate how whales commuicate with vibes)
? Now God has this great fish at the right place at the right time - the whale Got Jonah right when he was about to drown. The whale had more trust in God than Jonah
.....thats a miracle in its self...... Jonah the running prophet is swolled up and now in the belly of the great fish! God puts us in dark places so we know what disobedience feels like.
That dark place is actually provision and we don't see it. That dark place you are in right now, it's actually your saftey net but you are being picky.... sometimes we are too picky for God's provisions ... we want our way .. like Burger King... hold the mayo... hold the pickels.... and supersize it!
? God's provisions comes at the right time, at the right place.... Don't be picky look for the recue
? we can ask to be rescued and then not like the rescuer
he is grumbling, griping, complaining, vs.2:2-8 but in vs.9 we see a shift (say shift) Jonah seemes to be crying out to the Lord! I beleive he gets saved! he becomes greatful ! It's when you get greatful that your gratitude becomes the gateway to the provision of God. You see His will doesn't need to seem perfect to us to be perfect for us
- sometimes it takes time to see the problem as a provision
The Whale seemed to be a big problem it seemed to be over for Jonah but when he got greatful he got released ..... I beleive some of you may be like this you have been released from your sin but not from yourself!
The Whale was a rescue for Jonah!
II.} The Plant
We find Jonah in chapter 4 sitting outside the great city where he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, but it was hot not S.C. HOT BUT MIDDLE EAST HOT! 125 deg.
God prepares this plant, He plants it and makes it grow to full vine in one night to bring shade to Jonah. To deliver him from his misery (he must have been bald) and Jonah was greatful! He was liking this plant!
This was not your everyday plant it was a castor plant the same plant used to make castor oil, it had very large leaves and grew very fast and very large, it was known as palma Christi meaning the hand of Christ. So, I find it intersting that this plant covering Jonah was a symbol of the hand of God!
Jonah is liking this palnt ..... as a matter of fact he likes the plant more than he does the people of Nineva. ( Have you ever been angry at God, but He still provided for you? )
I see this plant as a comfort zone we all have one we will never do what God has called us to do until we get out of that comfort zone.
III.} The Worm
vs. 7 says God prepared and sent a worm "The next day, God also provided a worm that ate and killed the tree Jonah used for shade.
This worm is just as miraculous as the fish. This worm cut the vine down because worms just don't fall in love with vines -- they like to eat them.
God did this to direct Jonah back towards his purpose. Has God ever allowed something to be taken from you so that you could turn back to Him? What was it?
“Jonah was miserable because he got out of the whale, but he never got outside of himself.”
God sent the worm to get Jonah moving, the worm always comes when we are comfortable
When you’re struggling with something, what are some ways you can get outside of yourself to shift your perspective?
The worm is the thing in your life that comes along just about the time you are comfortable . To move you to deliver you from yourself.
The same God that rescued me with the whale delivered me from myself with the worm!
What is the worm in your life? your way may not be reality, and if you can't deal with it, you will be miserable .... our idea of reality, may not be God's idea
I would have loved for Jonah and Jesus to meet each other ... I wonder how the conversation would have went........
What is the worm in your life? Wht is the one thing you see as a pest but it is really God's provision?
