God Calls Jonah to Do Hard Things

In one paragraph

Van Jones preached through the entire book of Jonah, tracing six things God called Jonah to do, all of them hard. The thread running through the whole message was that we are more like Jonah than we want to admit, and that the grace God showed Nineveh is the same grace we depend on. Van opened by sharing that ten years ago he was sitting in this congregation on a path he thought would let him...

Read together

1. Jonah 1:1-3 God's call to Jonah and Jonah's flight to Tarshish
2. Jonah 1:11 Sailors ask Jonah what they must do to quiet the sea
3. Jonah 2:5-9 Jonah's prayer of repentance from inside the fish
4. Jonah 3:1-2 God gives Jonah a second chance to go to Nineveh
5. Jonah 3:4 Jonah's proclamation that Nineveh will be overthrown in forty days
6. Jonah 3:5-9 The people of Nineveh believe God and the king calls a fast and repentance
7. Jonah 3:10 God relents from the disaster he had planned for Nineveh
8. Jonah 4:2 Jonah protests to God citing God's mercy as the reason he fled
9. Jonah 4:5 Jonah sits east of the city hoping to see its destruction
10. Jonah 4:6-11 God appoints a plant, a worm, and wind, then questions Jonah about pity for Nineveh
11. Exodus 34:6-7 God's proclamation of his character to Moses, contrasted with Jonah's partial quotation of it

Talk about it

1. Van said that when he was younger, his instinct toward enemies was to go fight them, and that God redirected him toward loving people he considered enemies. Has there been a time when God redirected your instinct toward someone you saw as an enemy or opponent? What did that feel like?
2. Van pointed out that Jonah runs as far from God's call as he possibly can, and that God refuses to let him quit. When have you tried to get as far as possible from something you knew God was asking of you, and what did it take to turn you around?
3. Van described Jonah's prayer in the fish as only a partial repentance, noting that Jonah calls out other people's idols without recognizing his own patriotism as an idol he is holding onto. What are some ways we hold onto things, whether patriotism, personal comfort or something else, that keep our own repentance partial?
4. Van used the speeding car illustration: we want mercy for ourselves in the same situation where we want justice for someone else. Where do you notice that double standard in your own life, and what does it reveal about how you see people God is calling you to love?
5. The book of Jonah ends without telling us how Jonah responds to God's final question. Van suggested the author leaves it open so that we ask the question of ourselves. How are you, right now, like Jonah, and what is one step of obedience you are avoiding?