“THE WAKE-UP CALL”
Jonah 1:4-6
Preached in the wake of September 11 terrorist attacks.
INTRO: 1. In the past week, I’ve heard many refer to what’s going on as a wake-up call for our nation.
a. A call to turn our hearts back to the God that this nation was founded on.
b. Although, I believe this to be true, I believe that this is also a wake-up call for the church…a rallying cry to the body of Christ to do our part in this crises time.
2. We’ve witnessed unbelievable things in our nation… but I’ve also been witness to some things I thought I’d never see again in this nation.
a. Ministers on the news not to be mocked but for advise and comfort.
b. Public schools opening it’s gymnasiums for prayer.
c. Businesses holding memorial services, prayer vigils and starting prayer meetings.
d. Survivors’ families testifying of God’s grace without being cut-off.
e. What a fertile field God has given us to be a blessing to our nation.
3. As I prayed and asked God what should be our response, I was directed to the storm that Jonah got caught up in.
a. And as I read verse 6, I believe that this is the hearts cry of our nation today for the church of Jesus Christ.
4. There can be no doubt that Jonah was the man God had chosen to use for the hour at hand.
a. He was the one anointed for this purpose.
b. He was the one commissioned for this purpose…not by the king, but by God himself.
d. He was the one best-suited for this purpose.
5. But instead of facing the challenge, God had given him head-on, he decided to choose an alternative route.
a. Maybe he just wanted to delay his mission for awhile.
b. Maybe he felt he needed more time to pray and fast.
c. Maybe he felt he needed more education, more training, more experience.
d. Maybe he felt he needed more rest - found sleeping in the bottom of the boat.
6. But what God had in store for Jonah was a wake-up call he’d never forget, a moment in his history that he’d have to come to a final choice between doing God’ will or doing his own thing.
a. Now in our nation’s history we must decide whether we’re just going to be witnesses to all that’s going on around us, or if we’re going to be channels of God’s grace to a hurting nation.
b. We’re called to be more than merely witnesses.
c. We have an advantage over the world.
ILL. One of the golfers on the pro tour some years ago was a pompous egomaniac with the emotional maturity of a six-year-old. He could do nothing wrong and always had a quick excuse for any loss: it was a lousy course, the other golfers were cheating, the weather was terrible, etc. As if these faults were not enough, he was also not above hustling a few extra dollars playing amateurs in cities on the tour for $50 a hole. One day he was approached by a man wearing dark glasses and carrying a white cane who offered to play him for $100 a hole. "Why, I can’t play you," the professional protested. "You’re blind, aren’t you?" "Yes, I am," replied the man. "But that’s all right. I was a state champion before I went blind. I think I can beat you." Now the conceited one had not been doing well lately--he needed the money. Anyway, blind or not, if the guy was crazy enough to challenge him...well, why not? "You did say $100 a hole?" The blind man nodded. "Well, all right. It’s a deal. But don’t say I didn’t warn you--you’ll lose your money. When would you like to play?" "Any night at all," replied the blind man. "Any night at all." We follow one that works best in the darkest hour.
7. The Church Of Jesus Christ stands today where Jonah stood on the deck of that boat - the choice is “do or die”.
8. But now, it’s obvious that we are entering a season of a divine shaking, a season to choose to be what we claim we are, or to die in our sleep.
a. The coldest, most calloused heart is the believer who refuses to wake up when the world needs them.
9. What is God calling the church to wake-up to? 10. Jonah’s was facing the same circumstances we are today, and God demands the same response.
I. A CALL TO WAKE-UP TO THE STORMS AROUND US.
a) For too long the church has lived in it’s own little world.
b) Like Jonah, for too long the church has been going in the directed it wants to go instead of asking God what direction it needs to be heading.
c) Jonah woke up to the reality and the dangers of the storms around him.
c) Jesus didn’t commission us to leave this world, but to disciple it.
d) My prayer is that God will let us see the real condition of the world around us.
A. THIS WAKE UP CALL IS COMING FROM THE WORLD AROUND US.
1. This wake-up call didn’t come from a sound from heaven, but from a heathen shipmaster.
2. For the first time in my lifetime, I’m seeing the most unexpected people turning to the church for answers.
3. The world’s demanding that we be what we profess to be—that we awake
4. It’s not time to be about ‘business as usual’ God has opened a door of ministry and we must step through it.
5. The captain shook Jonah and ask
Vs. 6 …What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
6. The world has run out of answers, and will come to us asking, “How can you sleep?”
7. The world will want to know if we have the solutions we boast we do.
8. The world has already began to make the church answer for it’s hypocrisy.
B. A CALL TO FACE THE REALITIES.
1. Jonah’s vacation was soon turned into a fire drill.
ILL. Our nation began with minute-men who at a minutes notice could be dressed and ready to serve. No doubt they drilled often… but one day as Paul Revere rode through their villages crying “The British are coming!!” they knew this time it wasn’t a drill.
2. The church needs to realize that this isn’t a drill, this could be our greatest hour.
3. The last day revival could come on the wings of war.
4. A storm of confusion…so many questions that don’t seem to have answers.
5. A storm of insecurity…not so long ago felt safe, but that security is now gone.
6. A noisy storm…so many voices, so many opinions.
7. A storm of uncertainty…we have no idea where this will take us.
8. A storm with the highest stakes… “that we perish not.” (Both physically and spiritually)
9. Some churches will face the realities with boldness, others will comfort themselves and hide from the problems.
10. When we face realities, it will mean getting our hands dirty.
C. A CALL TO CONFRONT THE COUNTERFEITS.
1. If we don’t respond to this spiritual need with the message of Jesus Christ and hope to this world, somebody else will!
2. Jonah woke to find the deck full of people praying to their own gods.
3. Our country is quickly filling with the deceptions of many false gods, we may have to stand and tell them like Jonah did:
Vs. 9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
4. Confront the counterfeits by simply declaring who we are and who He is!
5. The counterfiets have been working, while the church has been sleeping.
D. THE CHURCH WILL BE FORCED TO PROCLAIM IT’S SOLUTIONS.
1. The church like Jonah will be forced to come out of hiding.
2. Jonah’s old sermons didn’t work like they used to, they wanted answers now.
3. Old Cliches and tired Christian jargon won’t work anymore - we need to bring the world the solutions to there problem.
4. This season will throw many of you into the spotlight as your businesses, neighbors and friends who want to get in touch with God.
5. We’ve got to get back in the book so we can give them answers and point them to God.
6. Like Queen Ester… who knows but God didn’t prepare you for such a time like this.
7. Time to speak while we can.
ILL. With the Second World War behind him, the German Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemoeller, wrote his now famous confession called "I Didn’t Speak Up," and it is apropos: In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.
II. A CALL TO WAKE-UP TO THE POWER OF OUR PRAYERS.
a. Jonah was the only one on board that knew how to get through to God, but he was asleep below decks.
b. A chaotic world is in desperate need of a prayer that can get through to the real God.
c. When will our prayers know the power that we claim they do?
A. A CALL TO LEAD IN PRAYER
1. There was a whole lot of prayer going on board that ship, but no one was getting through… because only one man seemed to have the right experience.
2. Jonah knew how to talk with God and how to hear from God.
3. Our nation is doing a whole lot of praying…but their hungry to find those who know how to pray.
4. Their not looking for some empty liturgy, but prayer that reaches heaven.
ILL. Abraham Lincoln was president during one of the most difficult season’s in this nation’s history and he confessed…”I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.”
B. WHEN PRAYER STOPS BEING A CRUTCH AND STARTS BEING A FORCE.
1. When our prayer life stops being something we fall back on, but something we learn to rely on.
2. Don’t wait until the crises hits to cry out to God.
3. The most under-used power in the body of Christ, is the power of prayer.
4. Our prayer can make a difference in the storms we face.
5. My greatest concern in this conflict that we’re about the face is that we will become overconfident and rely more on the arm of flesh than on the hand of God.
6. This may not be a ‘holy war’ to America, but it is a ‘Spiritual War’ to the church.
7. When we pray like this… it will mean unexpected encounters.
ILL. Dodie Gadient, a schoolteacher for thirteen years, decided to travel across America and see the sights she had taught about. Traveling alone in a truck with camper in tow, she launched out. One afternoon rounding a curve on 1-5 near Sacramento in rush-hour traffic, a water pump blew on her truck. She was tired, exasperated, scared, and alone. In spite of the traffic jam she caused, no one seemed interested in helping. Leaning up against the trailer, she prayed, "Please God, send me an angel ... preferably one with mechanical experience." Within four minutes, a huge Harley drove up, ridden by an enormous man sporting long, black hair, a beard, and tattooed arms. With an incredible air of confidence, he jumped off and, without even glancing at Dodie, went to work on the truck. Within another few minutes, he flagged down a larger truck, attached a tow chain to the frame of the disabled Chevy, and whisked the whole 56-foot rig off the freeway onto a side street, where he calmly continued to work on the water pump. The intimidated schoolteacher was too dumfounded to talk. Especially when she read the paralyzing words on the back of his leather jacket: "Hell’s Angels-California." As he finished the task, she finally got up the courage to say, "Thanks so much," and carry on a brief conversation. Noticing her surprise at the whole ordeal, he looked her straight in the eye and mumbled, "Don’t judge a book by its cover. You may not know who you’re talking to." With that, he smiled, closed the hood of the truck, and straddled his Harley. With a wave, he was gone as fast as he had appeared.
C. WHEN PRAYER STARTS WITH REPENTANCE.
1. Jonah knew that he had to first make it right with God.
2. He hadn’t broken any of the ten commandments, or any of the levitical laws, he’d simply failed to fulfill his God-given commission.
3. The church need not repent so much of immorality as complacency.
III.A CALL TO WAKE-UP TO A NEW DIRECTION.
a. Jonah would go no further on his plans or on his programs—a change in direction.
b. Although the way the church has been going isn’t a bad way, I believe that God is at work putting us on a New Way, a New Vision, A New Anointing.
A. A DIRECTION OF TOTAL DEPENDENCE.
1. Can you imagine how helpless Jonah felt when he was thrown overboard into a violent raging sea?
2. I believe the church will return to total dependence on God, where plans, programs, and schedule of service are all dictated by the moving of God’s power.
3. We too must throw ourselves in the midst of a stormy world and let God lead our next step.
4. What a powerful place to be…in the hands of God!!!
B. A DIRECTION OF RESURRECTION LIFE.
1. Like Christ, Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days, but then was resurrected with a new power, a new strength.
2. I believe we will also experience the miracle of resurrection in the body of Christ.
3. I believe God is about to resurrect the church afresh and anew, like we’ve never seen before.
4. It’s been said that the sleeping giant of America has been stirred… my hearts cry is that the sleeping giant called ’the church’ will also rise to meet the challenge.
a. As the church of Jesus Christ we have a role to play in this vital hour.
b. New heroes are moving from mediocrity to the spotlight…may God have some spiritual heroes as well in this hour
CONCLUSION: Lord, Let the Church Arise! Let your hand be upon this nation. Let us not stay hidden in the background, but make us vessels of revival and channels of your healing grace.
