Pastor's Corner: WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

  Repentance and Revival Jonah 3:5-10 Introduction : As we have been going through this little book of Jonah, we have been seeing some big lessons about human rebellion and divine sovereignty. We’ve been learning about God, and also about ourselves. As I considered the lessons here about fallen humanity, the opening lines from the second psalm came to mind, Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?   2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed, saying,   3 "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us."   4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.   5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury … (Psalm 2:1-5). Yahweh, the God the Bible, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, is LORD, and He has spoken. Even so, humans, since the fall of Adam, resist His rule! We know that is true of the Nin...

  His Mercies are New Every Morning! Jonah 3:1-5 Introduction : Today we’ll start Part 2 of our series on “Jonah, the Prodigal Prophet.” We tend to think of Jonah and immediately think about the great fish. We’ve seen that this is really a story about our great God. God is guiding this story for His purposes, and in the process revealing truth to Jonah, and to us, about His character, while also exposing our hearts, and our desperate need for mercy and grace. Because Jesus came and lived a sinless life, and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross, God made it possible for us to be forgiven, to become His children, by faith. John said, “ Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God, and such we are! ” (I Jn 3:1). How then, should we live? Jonah wasn’t ready to trust God. He knew what God said, but He chose to do the exact opposite: God said “Go!” and Jonah said, “NO!” He ran away. He turned his back ...

  We can pray to God our Savior! Jonah 1:17-2:10 Introduction : We took about a month to work through chapter 1 of Jonah, but I expect to move a bit quicker from here. Today we’ll cover all of Jonah 2. There is a lot to learn in this little book, a lot to learn about God and a lot to learn about ourselves. We’ve seen already the holiness of God, His wrath against sin, and also His mercy and grace. We’ve seen how He was working in Jonah to mold him into a more usable servant. We also see Jonah as a mirror that will expose our own hearts that are so prone to wander and rebellious. Last week, we had a great service by the team from Georgia, and Dr. Burnett’s message was an important reminder that God has us here for a purpose: to be His witnesses, as we share God’s story of grace with the world.   God’s grace to the world is a major theme of the book of Jonah… and Jonah struggled with that very point.        Our text today is a prayer of Jonah ...