2 Kings 14:25 - He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.
Matthew 12:38-41 - Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 16:4, Luke 11:29-32)
- Rebellion is a Choice to disobey God (Jonah 1:1-3)
- Rebellion makes use want to Avoid God (Jonah 1:3-5)
- Rebellion saps our Boldness to Witness (Jonah 1:6-10)
- Rebellion drives us to more and more Desperate Choices (Jonah 1:11-16)
- God pursues His rebellious children with Discipline
- What is discipline?
- Why is discipline a good thing?
- How does God discipline us?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:12
Have you ever had somebody say to you, "You know, I think God's out to get me." Did you ever hear somebody say that? "I think God's out to get me." Like a good newsreader. He is.
00:14-00:20
And that's basically our sermon for the next four weeks as we're going through the book of Jonah.
00:21-00:22
God is out to get you.
00:23-00:25
Okay, turn in your Bibles. Let's get right to it.
00:25-00:39
The book of Jonah. The title of today's message is "God is out to get you even if you rebel." While you're turning to the book of Jonah, turn nice and loud so I know that you're getting there, okay?
00:41-00:43
Make sure your pages make lots of noises.
00:45-00:50
If you have one of those electronic Bibles, make sure you program it so it makes little beeps or something.
00:52-00:56
But this is actually not Jonah's first appearance in scripture. I have on your outline.
00:57-01:05
Jonah comes up in 2 Kings 14.25 where it says, "He restored the border of Israel." He is referring to Jeroboam II.
01:06-01:54
"Restored the border of Israel from Laban-hamath as far as the Sea of Araba, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Emetai, the prophet, who was from Ga-hefer, which is actually a place three miles northeast of Nazareth. Okay, so Jonah, as we see in 2 Kings 14.25, prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam the second. So, as we get into this book, we kind of place it, place the date rather, We're looking about 793 to about 758 BC, roughly, is when Jonah would have been doing his ministry.
01:55-02:02
Sometime after Elisha and starting a little before Amos, actually, is where you find Jonah.
02:03-02:06
And he's unique for two reasons.
02:06-02:14
One reason is, he's the only prophet in the Old Testament that was actually sent to another nation.
02:15-02:24
You know, a lot of times you see the Old Testament prophets pronouncing judgment on another nation, but Jonah was the only one that was actually sent.
02:26-02:29
But Jonah has another distinction that you've probably heard of.
02:29-02:33
He was the only prophet who refused his ministry.
02:34-02:48
that God says, "Here's what I'm calling you to do." And Jonah said, "Nah." He's the only prophet in Scripture that we know of that just flat out refused His ministry.
02:49-02:51
Why did he refuse His ministry?
02:51-02:58
Well, in chapter 3, verse 10, to chapter 4, verse 2, Jonah tells us why he refused the ministry.
03:00-03:02
We're going to be getting to that in a couple of weeks.
03:02-03:04
So what is the book of Jonah about?
03:07-03:09
When I say Jonah, what's the first thing you think of?
03:11-03:12
The whale, right?
03:12-03:25
Actually, the Bible says it's a fish, and there's different scholars get into, "Was it a fish? Was it a whale?" Sometimes that word is used different ways in the Old Testament, but a lot of times we think of Jonah getting swallowed by the fish.
03:25-03:27
So Jonah's like the ultimate fish story, right?
03:28-03:33
Actually, no. The fish is only mentioned four times in the book of Jonah.
03:34-03:36
So, what is the book of Jonah about?
03:36-03:38
Well, oh, it's about Nineveh, right?
03:38-03:40
No, Nineveh is only mentioned nine times.
03:41-03:46
Well, Jonah, surely it's about Jonah, right? It's got names on it.
03:47-03:49
Actually, Jonah is mentioned 18 times.
03:51-03:53
Jonah is actually a book about God.
03:54-04:01
There are 48 total verses in the book of Jonah and the Lord is mentioned in 38 of those.
04:01-04:04
So really Jonah is a book about God.
04:06-04:07
And what about God?
04:08-04:10
Well here it is, this is going to be our next four weeks.
04:14-04:16
He is a God who is in pursuit.
04:19-04:20
He is out to get you.
04:21-04:21
Okay?
04:22-04:24
So mark that down.
04:25-04:26
It's like right on the top of my outline.
04:27-04:27
Circle it.
04:29-04:31
God is out to get you.
04:34-04:36
Alright, well let's deal with another elephant in the room.
04:37-04:41
The book of Jonah comes under a lot of attack.
04:42-04:56
Right? Maybe you've heard some scholars say, "Well, maybe Jonah's just a parable." terrible. Or maybe it's just a kind of a story with a message and it didn't really happen.
04:57-05:19
How can you be sure that Jonah happened? Well, you can read this stuff. It's funny because I read some things this week, right? When I study for these things, I get on and I read what different scholars and commentators have said. Some people have said, "Well, you know, We have accounts of people that have actually been swallowed by fish and survived.
05:21-05:22
So Jonah could be true.
05:24-05:28
And there are different instances in history where that's cited.
05:30-05:32
That stuff doesn't mean a thing to me.
05:32-05:39
I'll give you one good reason why you can believe that the book of Jonah is literally true.
05:39-05:41
And really it's the only reason you need.
05:43-06:17
Jesus believe right doesn't that settle for you that settles it for me I've never like tossed and turned like I do I really believe Jesus believed it yeah that works if Jesus says it's true are you gonna come alongside God in the flesh and say well I don't really think so well I have this in your outline to Matthew 12 just look at this quickly this is what Jesus said about Jonah he He spoke of Jonah as being a real person, a real part of the history of the nation of Israel.
06:19-06:36
And some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, answered Jesus, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
06:37-06:46
For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
06:49-07:05
The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here." Again, Matthew 16, Luke 11, Jesus references Jonah some more.
07:06-07:20
Jesus said that Nineveh was this real place where people really repented because this real prophet really went there and preached after this real prophet was really swallowed by a real fish.
07:20-07:23
So that settles it for me.
07:26-07:27
So let's look at Jonah chapter 1.
07:27-07:28
Is everybody there?
07:30-07:33
God is out to get you even if you rebel.
07:33-07:39
If you're taking notes on your outline, today we're going to be talking about rebellion.
07:41-07:43
So mark this down first.
07:46-07:50
Rebellion is a choice to disobey God.
07:51-08:01
You're like, "Wow, that's profound." Listen, the key word here is "choice." Rebellion is a choice to disobey God.
08:01-08:27
Let's look at the first three verses. It says, "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.' But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
08:28-08:31
He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.
08:32-08:41
So he paid the fare and went on board to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
08:43-08:47
Now here we see in the first couple of verses Jonah's call was crystal clear.
08:48-08:52
We see the how, the rise and go. Where? To Nineveh.
08:53-09:16
What? Call out against it. Why? God says their sin is so out of control. He says literally, "Their evil has come up before me." Kind of like we say, "I'm fed up to here." God says, "Their evil has risen up before me. I want you to go call out against it." Pretty clear call, right?
09:18-09:55
I admit there are a few passages of the Bible that are hard to understand. This is not one of them. I don't think Jonah was sitting there going, "Wait, wait, wait, back up, back up, what, what, what?" Little thing about Nineveh, first of all, it's the capital of Assyria. Originally it was founded by Nimrod, which was Noah's great-grandson, Genesis chapter 10, and depending on which scholar you read, Nineveh at this time would have had a population of somewhere between 600,000 to over a million people.
09:55-09:57
A huge city back in this day.
09:59-10:11
And Nineveh was known, get this down, this is important, Nineveh was known for its cruelty and it was known for its animosity towards Israel.
10:14-10:26
For an Israelite to hear Nineveh, or to think about the city of Nineveh, would be like us Yinsers thinking about, what?
10:28-10:28
Cleveland!
10:29-10:29
Amen!
10:31-10:32
Who said that?
10:35-10:37
Oh, look at Jay now, we're just throwing Taylor right under the bus.
10:39-10:42
I was thinking Philadelphia or Baltimore, but Cleveland works.
10:45-10:46
Israel hated Nineveh.
10:49-10:51
So Jonah receives a clear call.
10:52-10:53
Also get this down.
10:53-10:55
This is really important as we go forward too.
10:56-10:59
Jonah is a prophet of Israel.
11:02-11:16
Jonah is someone that God spoke directly to, that God gave direct revelation to, This is someone that God had used, someone that God had spoken through, a real deal preacher who was faithful.
11:17-11:21
Jonah is somebody who knew better because he knew God.
11:21-11:33
I think it's important to get that down because sometimes we can kind of skim through Jonah and be like, you know, thinking that God just picked this random guy and like this guy's like, "No, I don't want to go preach here," and then the story ensues.
11:34-11:36
This is a real deal preacher.
11:37-11:44
Okay, this would be like the Lord calling like John MacArthur to a ministry and he's like, no, I am out of here.
11:45-11:46
That's sort of what's going on here in Jonah.
11:48-11:50
He knew better because he knew God.
11:52-11:54
Now, also getting the geography down here.
11:55-11:57
We're going to do this stuff when we start a book, right?
11:57-11:59
Important Bible students.
11:59-12:03
Nineveh was about 500 miles northeast of Israel.
12:04-12:06
But it says that Jonah went to Joppa.
12:06-12:11
Where's that at? Well, that's actually on the Mediterranean coast, somewhere between Judah and Samaria.
12:13-12:15
And where does your Bible say Jonah was heading?
12:16-12:17
Shout it out.
12:17-12:18
Tarshish.
12:18-12:20
Tarshish. What's it say, like three times in there?
12:21-12:26
He's like, "I'm going to Tarshish." "I'm going to Tarshish." Not because it's fun to say.
12:27-13:01
Go ahead. See? But why Tarshish? Well God told Jonah, "I want you to go 500 miles northeast." And Jonah says, "I'm going..." Tarshish was actually 2,000 to 2,500 about miles west. So do you see what's going on here? Actually in Jonah's day, most scholars believe that Tarshish would have been the furthest edge of civilization.
13:02-13:30
Like, "How far away can I get?" was basically what Jonah was saying. "How far away can I get?" Well, Tarshish is like the end of the world, so to speak. "Okay, I'll take one ticket to Tarshish." All right? You're like, "Well, okay, can you put it in perspective for me?" Well, let's pretend that Jonah is right here from the So to put it into perspective, it would be as if God called Jonah to go preach in Boston.
13:31-13:34
Go to Boston and preach.
13:35-13:40
Because Boston is about 483 miles northeast.
13:41-13:43
So go to Boston and preach.
13:44-13:54
And Jonah goes to the Pittsburgh International Airport and catches the first flight to Bogota, Columbia, which is 2,491 miles south.
13:55-13:56
OK, that's what's going on here.
13:57-14:00
Basically, I want you to take a little road trip here.
14:00-14:04
And he goes, no, I'm going to the end of the world, the other direction.
14:04-14:05
You see that?
14:07-14:11
So rebellion is a choice to disobey God.
14:11-14:13
Look at verse 3 again.
14:13-14:14
Is it a choice?
14:15-14:19
Seven words in verse 3 all indicate that this was a choice.
14:20-14:27
Okay, he rose to flee, he went, he found, he paid, he went to go.
14:27-14:30
Seven words, they're all choice words, they're all action words.
14:30-14:32
This is a deliberate choice.
14:35-14:38
That's what rebellion is, it's a deliberate choice to disobey God.
14:39-14:40
Rebellion is not ignorance.
14:41-14:46
Like, "Oh, I didn't know he wanted me to do that." Not knowing, that's ignorance. Rebellion is not ignorance.
14:48-14:59
Nor is rebellion discouragement, as if I really want to do the right thing, but I'm just really struggling, I need some help, I need some people to come alongside and kind of give me a boost.
15:00-15:01
That's not rebellion either.
15:03-15:05
Rebellion is a choice to disobey God.
15:06-15:09
So let's pause here and let me ask you, are you running from God in a certain area?
15:13-15:15
Are you running from God in a certain area?
15:19-15:24
I guarantee you right now, many people in this room, as soon as I said that, and hit you know.
15:25-15:28
You know that you've made some choices.
15:31-15:34
For it to be very clear what God has called you to.
15:36-15:39
But you've made the choice, I'm not going to.
15:41-15:57
Or maybe someone here, it's God saying, "You know what? You need to forgive that person." And you've said, "I'm not gonna." Or God has said, "You know, I gave you a Holy Spirit." God gave you a gift to be used in ministry.
15:58-16:15
God says, "I've given you a gift to use in ministry. Use it." And you say, "I'm not gonna." Or maybe there's someone here that you know the Lord has been pressing on you, you know, you need to honor me with your finances. You say I'm not gonna.
16:16-16:36
You've made deliberate choices to not obey a clear area that God is calling you to. Now our obedience is yielding to God's will out of love. That's what the New Testament describes as walking in the Spirit, it's yielding to His will.
16:38-16:44
But when you refuse to yield, you're going to find yourself in a state of rebellion, like Jonah.
16:48-16:55
And you're like, "Well, how bad can that be?" And all the people that have read Jonah before are like, "Yeah, it gets bad, right?
16:56-16:57
You read Jonah?
16:57-17:02
It gets bad." Well what does it look like when I rebel?
17:03-17:05
Well just jot these things down. First of all, letter A.
17:08-17:10
Maybe somebody here is convinced I'm not really rebelling.
17:11-17:15
Okay. Letter A. Rebellion makes us want to avoid God.
17:16-17:19
Just flat out simple. You want to avoid God.
17:19-17:21
Look at verses 3 through 5 again.
17:24-18:38
verse 3 Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish what's the next phrase your Bible has say it out loud we'll try again verse 3 Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord okay good so he went to Joplin found a ship according to Tarshish, paid fare, went on board to go with you ready here we go we're gonna do it again to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord then we get down to the verse 10 you see that same phrase again from the presence of the Lord verse 4 it says but the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and there is a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his God and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep." So rebellion makes us want to avoid God, make no mistake why he fled.
18:39-20:04
Jonah wasn't like, "You know what? I have some vacation time saved up. I'll get to a Nineveh thing when I get back or you know I guess I got a sister in Tarshish that I you know she just had a baby I don't want to go see it a little taget. It's very clear why he went there right? Why did he go there? He was trying to get away from the presence of the Lord. Is that crazy or what? You know maybe he was thinking you know back in this day, the unique presence of the Lord was in the temple. Maybe he was thinking, "If I just get out of Jerusalem, God's fear of influence seems to decrease." Well, Psalm 139, verses 7 through 8 say, "Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there." Now you know Jonah, I know that he knew that song. This is a prophet of the Lord. He probably preached from this song. He knew that there was nowhere he could go to get out of God's presence, but that's something about rebellion, is once it starts, the crazy thoughts start too.
20:07-20:11
You And you get down to verse 5.
20:11-20:14
Okay, so the Lord hurls a great wind.
20:14-20:15
We're going to talk about that in a second.
20:15-20:17
And you know, you can see the scene.
20:17-20:24
The waves, the ship breaking up, and then all the sailors are like, "Let's unload the cargo." I mean, this had to have been pretty serious.
20:25-20:36
You know, imagine if you were driving down Route 79, and you see a Mack truck pulled over, an ATV puller pulled over, and they're unloading all of this stuff.
20:36-20:38
just throwing their stuff along the side of the road.
20:39-20:45
You're like, "Aren't you supposed to deliver that?" "Yeah, but we can't carry it." That's what was going on here.
20:47-20:54
It was, "Forget our jobs, our lives are on the line." And what's Jonah doing during all this?
20:55-20:56
It says he was sleeping.
20:57-20:58
Well, is it that nice?
21:00-21:04
Everyone else is fearing for their lives, and Jonah is sleeping.
21:04-21:05
Why was Jonah sleeping?
21:06-21:08
Tired from the trip to Joppa.
21:09-21:10
Well, here's what I think.
21:13-21:15
I think it's an escape from reality.
21:16-21:18
That's what depressed people do, right?
21:20-21:23
Anybody testify that you've been in a funk and all you want to do is sleep?
21:24-21:26
Anybody else? That's me.
21:26-21:33
If there's an area where I'm depressed or what we're talking about today, an area of rebellion, let's be honest.
21:34-21:38
Sometimes sleeping is easier than wrestling with God.
21:40-21:47
Sometimes sleeping is easier than facing up to our guilt of our rebellion.
21:49-21:57
Sleeping is easier than wrestling with our conscience, than thinking about our sin, than admitting we were wrong.
21:58-22:00
That's what I think was going on there.
22:01-22:03
We just embrace sleep.
22:03-22:06
Like, I'll just get into a place of unconsciousness.
22:08-22:09
So I don't have to think about what I'm doing.
22:11-22:17
Well, from the Garden of Eden to today, that guilty feeling we have makes us want to escape.
22:18-22:20
But you know, it was foolish when Adam and Eve hid in the bushes.
22:21-22:26
And it was foolish for Jonah to think that he could hide from God in the belly of the ship.
22:26-22:32
It's foolish, but again, it's insanity is what it is.
22:34-22:36
But you know what's even more foolish?
22:37-22:45
Or I would say most foolish, is for you, who are born again, to think that you can flee from the presence of God.
22:46-22:48
Why? Because where is He?
22:50-22:51
He's in you, right?
22:52-23:01
If you're here this morning and you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, the Bible says that God fills you with His Holy Spirit.
23:01-23:04
The Bible says that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
23:05-23:07
You know, in the Old Testament, the temple was the building.
23:08-23:08
Right?
23:08-23:12
It was actually a building where God's unique presence dwelt.
23:12-23:23
John 1:14, "When Jesus came on the scene, the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us." God's unique presence, so to speak, was found exclusively in the person of Jesus Christ.
23:24-23:28
And Jesus said when he leaves, he was going to send another helper, another comforter.
23:29-23:32
So now in our day, where's the temple?
23:33-23:34
The temple's right here, right?
23:35-23:36
Where does God live?
23:37-23:38
God lives in the heart of every believer.
23:39-23:44
So how foolish is it for you to think that you can escape from the presence of God, because he's right there?
23:45-24:02
for a second think that when you're in rebellion he leaves you. That's not the case at all. He promised to never leave us or forsake us. There's no sin that you can commit even as a believer where God says okay that's it we're breaking fellowship. You can't.
24:04-24:24
You are sealed in the Holy Spirit. You're an heir of the promise. You are born again. Eternal life. Nothing can undo that. How foolish us to think that we can get out of God's presence. But we try, don't we? How do we do that?
24:26-24:42
You might not jump on a ship. It's harshish, but here's what I see believers doing when they want to escape from the presence of the Lord. Drop these things down and stop going That's one thing, you just, I don't want to go to church.
24:46-24:47
I just, I don't want to go to church.
24:48-24:48
Why?
24:48-24:50
Because, who do they talk about at church?
24:51-24:52
Usually God.
24:55-25:00
I don't, I'm not there, I'm in a place of rebellion right now, I've made some choices.
25:01-25:04
Or, here's another one, you stop going to your small group.
25:06-25:07
Stop going to your small group.
25:08-25:23
Somebody's gonna ask me how I am and you know we're gonna be you know having our prayer time together and I just don't want to deal with it man. You stop talking to your Christian friends at all. I don't want to answer the phone. I'm screening my calls.
25:23-25:34
I'm not replying to emails. Here's another one. When you see a drought in and your prayer life and your time in the Word.
25:34-25:38
That's a sign when you see a drought.
25:39-25:43
That's a sign that maybe your heart's in a place where you're trying to avoid God.
25:45-25:45
Rebellion does that.
25:47-25:47
Did it to Jonah.
25:49-25:50
Passed asleep.
25:52-25:56
Secondly, rebellion sacks our boldness to witness.
26:00-26:01
Look at verses 6-10.
26:02-26:10
Okay, so you have to see the storm's coming, they're throwing all their cargo overboard, and they're fearing for their lives, Jonah's sleeping, alright?
26:10-26:15
So we get to verse 6, "So the captain came and said to him, 'What do you mean, you sleeper?
26:18-26:34
Arise, call out to your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish.' And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
26:36-26:42
Then they said to him, "Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us.
26:43-26:44
What is your occupation?
26:44-26:45
Where do you come from?
26:45-26:46
What is your country?
26:48-27:12
And of what people are you?" And after the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land, then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, "What is this you have done?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them.
27:15-27:19
Rebellion snaps our boldness to witness. Look at verse 6 again.
27:21-27:23
It says that they cast lots.
27:24-27:26
I'm sorry, that's verse 7. Back up to verse 6.
27:26-27:31
What do you mean? I was like, "But call out to your God. Call out to your God." They were just like...
27:33-27:35
Like, Hail Mary prayers.
27:35-27:39
There might be a God somewhere out there. Let's just address all of them.
27:39-27:41
And that's what they were doing, and it wasn't working.
27:41-27:45
But like, maybe the guy that's sleeping, maybe he's got a God that we haven't tried.
27:46-27:48
Get on it. Get on it!
27:48-27:54
Like what are you doing? We're like having this prayer thing going on up here. Did you try praying to your God?
27:54-27:55
Why are you just down here sleeping?
27:58-28:07
You know when I read that this week, I was thinking, you know, that's like I'm like come on preacher That's like the ultimate witnessing opportunity, isn't it? You know, call out to your God. Maybe the God will save you.
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Ultimate witnessing opportunity. Jonah should have stood up and said let me tell you There's only one God and there's no one like him and he is the awesome Sovereign of the universe who has compassion on and he could have just like perfect perfect preaching opportunity, right Well, look at the end of verse 6 beginning of verse 7 what was Jonah's reply he didn't say anything Why do you think he didn't say anything Because when you're in rebellion, not only do you think you want to leave from God's presence, but you're not very effective talk about it. Right?
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Well look it says let's cast lots. What's that? Well that was something that God used in the Old Testament. Sort of like rolling dice or drawing straws. There's been different debates on what exactly casting lots looked like. Some people thought it was a couple of stones that depending on how you rolled it one way meant yes, the other way meant no. The last time it was used is actually Acts chapter 1 before the Holy Spirit came. Pentecost Acts chapter 2. But you saw the barrage of questions in verse 10. You know, they're like, "Dude, you gotta talk. What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? What people are you?" They're like, "We know there's something going on with you so spit it out spit it out come on tell us everything come on come on come on come on tell us the marriage had to force the preacher to speak isn't that crazy forcing a preacher to speak well Jonah said okay don't miss this this would have been such a kapow moment in scripture. Jenna's like, "Alright, I'm Hebrew." What?
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And I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. They would have heard of the Lord, right? But what do you think they would have heard of the Lord? You mean the one that took the nation out of Egypt and the plagues and the Red Sea and that one, the one that flooded the earth in judgment and the one who created all this by speech, they would have known some things.
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And it's obvious when you get to verse 10 because when Jonah said that, it says, "Then the men were exceedingly afraid." Look again at what they said.
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What is this you have done?
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Jonah's like, "Yeah, you know the Almighty Sovereign?
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I'm kind of running from Him." And they're like, "What?!
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You're running from Him?! Are you nuts?!
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We know who you're talking about, and that is the God you're running from?!
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Like, what is the matter with you?!" Well, again, when you're running from God, you're not very likely to talk about it.
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If there's someone here who's rebelling, I'd just like to ask why.
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Have you made some choices to rebel?
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I'd like to ask you why. Did God provoke you?
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Have you experienced God to be harsh?
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Is that why you're rebelling?
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Are you tired of Him?
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Has He disappointed you?
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You know, stand up, give me the convincing reasons that you would have to rebel and to continue in rebellion against God.
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Give me your convincing reasons.
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Come on, stand up, we'll take you one at a time.
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Give me the reasons why you would persist in rebelling against such a sovereign and loving God.
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Then letter C, one more thing about rebellion.
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Rebellion drives us to more and more desperate choices.
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Rebellion drives us to more and more desperate choices.
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Then they said to him, oh by the way I love the end of verse 10, It says, "For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them." I just love verses like that in the Bible.
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Right? Because you can imagine how that conversation went.
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Like, you can imagine these guys are like, "What's with this Jonah fella?" I imagine that's how they talk.
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"What's with this Jonah fella?" And the guy's like, "He's fleeing from the presence of the Lord." He's like, "How do you know?" And he goes, "Because he told me." Isn't that what it says?
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At least that's what I got out of it.
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Rebellion drives us to more and more desperate choices, verses 11 through 16.
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Then they said to him, OK, obviously you're the problem.
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So they said to him, "What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us?
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For the sea grew more and more tempestuous." He said to them, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea, then the sea will quiet down for you.
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For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you." Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but they could not.
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For the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.
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Therefore, they called out to the Lord-- ah, a little different here, right?
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They called out to the Lord, "O Lord, let us not perish through this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you." So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
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Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows.
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That's great hope for me. Jonah basically did everything wrong and a revival broke out.
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That gives hope.
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But notice here, rebellion drives us to more and more desperate choices.
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Jonah's like, "Okay, here's the problem. I'm the problem." Jonah would have known of the goodness and mercy of God.
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At this point Jonah should have said, "I'm the problem, "and here's what I know about God.
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"He is a God who is gracious and compassionate, "and he loves to pour his mercy and grace.
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"He's a God who restores.
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"He's a God who calls us to repentance.
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"Even when we blew it, he's a God that says, "Hey, hey, I'm not done with you." Jonah knew that.
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But you see, the more and more desperate choices-- basically, what Jonah was asking for was assisted suicide, right?
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This wasn't like a plan he didn't think through.
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Throw me in the water, and the storms will stop.
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Well, Jonah, then you'll probably drown.
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Oh, yeah, yeah, back up.
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Let's not do that.
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He knew exactly what he was asking for.
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He knew exactly what it was.
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He didn't say, it's my fault, I need to repent.
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He said, it's my fault, just kill me.
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While verse 13, a sailor still trunks, nevertheless the men rode hard to get back to dry land.
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It's interesting here that these men cared more for one foreigner than Jonah did for 600,000.
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So Jonah was thrown overboard while the men planted Harvest Bible Chapel in Tarshish.
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(audience laughing) The end.
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Right?
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No.
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Actually, that's not the end.
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Just be careful in your rebellion.
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Not even be careful.
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Scratch that.
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You're going to make more and more desperate choices the more you persist in it.
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God just cranks up the response.
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Look at verse 17.
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And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah.
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And Jonah was at the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
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So it's not the end.
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So that's a little bit about rebellion.
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As we close, this is really about God.
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I wanna give you a few things about discipline.
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Jot this down.
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Number two, God pursues his rebellious children with discipline.
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God pursues his rebellious children with discipline.
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Jonah leaves town, God didn't just say, "You know what?
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I got like a thousand creatures, I'll just grab another one." Not at all.
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verse 4 it says the Lord hurled a great wind understand that it wasn't like God was like I gotta get Jonah's attention and all of a sudden coincidentally a storm breaks out and God's like oh no literally your Bible says he hurled what do you think that looked like? God was like oh look he's running and he throws a storm at them.
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And then as we saw on the ship as it grew you know more and more the vocabulary word of the day tempestuous.
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What God was doing was backing Jonah into a corner.
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You don't want to deal with me?
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You're going to deal with me.
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I'm coming to get you Jonah. I'm coming to get you.
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So, three quick things about discipline.
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What is discipline first of all? I'll jot these things down.
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Discipline is God's direct intervention in the lives of believers to correct an area of rebellion.
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It's God's direct intervention in the lives of believers to correct an area of rebellion.
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I also put this in my notes, it's never a pleasant experience.
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God can calm the storms of life in his submissive children, or he can bring the storms of life onto his rebellious children.
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But discipline isn't a pleasant experience, right?
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At least it wasn't at our house growing up.
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But it was discipline time, that wasn't pleasant.
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I would just hope and pray that Mom would be so worn out disciplining Darren that she'd be too tired to take care of me.
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It works sometimes.
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But it's not a pleasant experience.
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It's not meant to be soft and easy.
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And the more we rebel, as Jonah learned, the more God fires up the discipline.
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What's he doing? He's trying to get our attention.
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See, the Lord wants us in that place where we realize every moment, every second, every breath of every day is complete and utter and total dependence upon Him for everything.
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That's where He wants us.
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Where we realize it's not us, He's living in us and through us.
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He's going to get us to that point.
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When we start making these choices to do our own thing, God says, "Okay, I'm going to bring my children back in line." Letter B, why is discipline a good thing?
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Why is it a good thing?
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Proverbs 3, Hebrews 12, verse 6 says, "Those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines." That's the best news about discipline. If God's disciplining you, that means He loves you.
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That means He cares about you. That means even the rebellious choices we make, God says, "That doesn't affect how I love you." that just affects how I'm gonna bring you back on course. But write this down discipline is not punishment. Drop that down because that's so important. People think that when we mess up God's going to punish us. God's not going to punish you if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. If you're here today and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, if you're not born again, all you have to look forward to is God's punishment. Because He's going to pour out His wrath on your sin, on you.
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But if you're here this morning and you've received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, understand that God is not going to punish you. Because all of the punishment went on His Son.
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Do you understand that? That's why the Bible uses this word a couple of times.
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It's the word "perpetuation" talking about the death of Christ.
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What that means literally is God was satisfied.
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When God punished Jesus, when God the Father punished God the Son when He was on the cross, He says, "I'm satisfied. My wrath has been appeased." So discipline is not punishment.
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But discipline is a good thing because parents, loving parents, discipline their children.
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You ever been to Walmart?
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You know where I'm going with this.
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You're like, "Yeah, I've been to Walmart." No, no, no, that wasn't like the end.
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And somebody's kid's acting up?
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You're like, "Yeah, that was yours, actually." We've all been there.
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You're going to Walmart and you hear the kid acting up, right?
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And you think to yourself, "That kid needs discipline." Right?
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sure hope to heaven that none of you have ever done that.
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Like, I'll step in and do it, right?
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Well, why don't you?
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That kid needs discipline.
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Why don't you step in and do it?
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Because it's not your kid.
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And laws and stuff.
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But it's not your kid.
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[LAUGHTER]
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Well, it's the same way with the Lord.
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God says, do you know why I discipline you?
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Because you're my son.
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Do you know why I'm out to get you and discipline you, rebellious daughter?
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Because you're my daughter.
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That's the awesome thing about discipline. It's not like God's mad.
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God says, "My children need some correction." And I love them so much. I'm not going to let them destroy themselves.
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I'm not going to let them hurt their testimony.
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I'm not going to let them affect other people.
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I'm going to bring discipline in their lives to correct them because I love them.
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That's discipline. That's exactly what God was doing for Jonah.
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He's out to get you.
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Last thing, how does God discipline us?
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Well, the Bible doesn't say, you know, "Here are the six most common ways God disciplines us." It doesn't say that.
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I am not going to attribute every single hardship we face in life as being directly caused by the Lord.
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Understand that. We live in a fallen and cursed world.
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And it is true that God is sovereign and He uses everything. That's true.
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He uses everything in our lives.
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But, as we see in Jonah's case, sometimes the discipline is directly from the hand of God.
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The Lord hurled the wind, the lot fell on Jonah, the Lord appointed a great fish.
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Those were all God stepping in, directly acting, personally involved statements of terminology.
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So you might not get swallowed by a fish.
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Here's something you will find. God's discipline is tailor-made for each person.
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Now parents of multiple children, have you noticed?
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This is what I'm learning, my kids are still pretty young, 7 and 6.
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I'm about to pray for us, but have you noticed that discipline isn't a one size fits all thing? Have you noticed that?
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You can't discipline all your children exactly the same.
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You know, as a parent you learn, in order to get her attention, I need to do this.
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But in order to get his attention, I need to do this.
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If I tried that with her, it wouldn't have any effect.
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She totally would miss it.
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And if I tried that on him, he wouldn't understand the lesson I'm trying to teach him.
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Well, just as parents know how to discipline each child, often very differently, so does God.
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But like Jonah, you know when you're in rebellion.
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And when you're in rebellion, you're going to know how God's trying to discipline you.
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Maybe not right away.
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But it's going to catch up to you.
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God's been trying to get my attention.
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I've been wrong.
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God's trying to teach me something.
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It may be a trial that comes upon you.
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It may be a natural consequence of sin.
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Just because you're a child of God doesn't mean that you're exempt from the natural consequences of sin.
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You know, if I drink a gallon of whiskey three times a day, every day, and I get liver failure, I'm like, "Well, wait a minute, that's a natural consequence." Alright? I'm not exempt from that. Sometimes God's discipline may come through the law.
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I'm not exempt from the law which has been ordained by God, right, when I was 13.
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Hebrews 12 teaches that God's discipline can even include death.
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Sometimes God, the most loving thing He can do for one of His children is say, "You know what, it's just time to go." God loves you too much to let you go.
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So when you rebel, God is out to get you.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Jonah 1
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.