Sermon Series
Week 5
Oceans: 1 Jonah 1:1-17
Preaching Commentary
For purposes of practicality and relatability, this series considers the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea “oceans.” The point is to relate our present-day affinity for the ocean, seashore, and beach to the ancients’ experiences with expansive bodies of salt water that take a long time to…
Sermon Resources
Key Quotes
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God does not choose those who are fit. He outfits those whom He chooses.
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Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?… On the whole I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we so blithely invoke?… We should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake some day and take offence, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.
Key Illustration
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A King's Calling
In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Prior Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. “Your Majesty,” said Prior Richard, “do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king.”
“I understand,” said Henry. “The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you.”
“Then I will tell you what to do,” said Prior Richard. “Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you.” When King Henry died, a statement was written: “The King learned to rule by being obedient.” When we tire of our roles and responsibilities, it helps to remember God has planted us in a certain place and told us to be a good accountant or teacher or mother or father. Christ expects us to be faithful where he puts us, and when he returns, we’ll rule together with him.
Steve Brown, Key Biscayne, Florida.
Liturgical Resources
Call to Worship
- Adapted from Isaiah 60:1-3View
Leader: Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
All: For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples;
Leader: but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
All: And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Adapted for liturgical use.
Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway PublishingScripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Prayer of Confession
- Inspired by Jonah 3:1-5; 10View
Father, we thank you that you are a God who provides second chances. You called us to go and we ran. We ran as far from your presence as possible. You pursued us in our abandonment of your call. Like Jonah, we have often rejected your mission of mercy for others and for ourselves. Like Jonah, we would have preferred that you squash those we dislike and simply leave us out of your plans for salvation. But you have not. You have relentlessly pursued us in our rebellion, imploring us again and again to turn to you and to embrace your Gospel of grace for others and for ourselves. Today, we return to you. We ask that you would forgive us for our recalcitrant hearts. May we today, relish the second chance, the opportunity for repentance, revival, and renewal. May we, today, like those of Nineveh to whom you poured out your mercy, present ourselves humbly and gratefully before you. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
- Adapted from Isaiah 43:1-2View
Leader: But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:
All: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”
Leader: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.”
All: “When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
Adapted for responsive liturgical use.
Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway PublishingScripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Benediction
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May God make you “worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Amen
Bible Translation: WEB World English Bible eBible.orgScripture quotations marked (WEB) are from the World English Bible. The World English Bible is in the public domain.
