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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Chelsy Schauer

Arise, Go To....

How many of you here have recently heard a sermon on the book of Jonah raise your hand all right very few It seems to me that when we're a child if you were raised in a Christian home We hear so much about Jonah how he disobeyed God so he was swallowed by this big fish, right?

Recently I've been studying this book and the Lord has inspired me, the Lord has rebuked me and impressed me with much in my own life and that's what I wanna share with you this morning.

The title of the sermon is Arise, Go To, dot, dot, dot.

That's what we're gonna fill in the blank.

Precious Heavenly Father, I'm in need of you.

Lord, I know that each 1 has come here today for different reasons.

There's different things going on in their life, and even in my very own.

But Lord, right now we ask that your Holy Spirit be poured out upon us, that all distractions be taken from our mind that your angels will be sitting amongst us.

And Lord, I pray that I will not be seen at all.

I pray that only you will be glorified and lifted up.

Lord, I just pray that you will convict our hearts, you will challenge us, and may we leave here changed because of you.

Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Jonah.

Jonah is a very interesting book because of, out of all of the 12 minor prophets, the book of Jonah is written very differently.

It's this historical account of what happened in Jonah's life.

And the only prophecy really written there is the 40 days that he speaks to Nineveh.

And so we find this account of Jonah, and it starts in verse 1.

It says, now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah.

God has a message for him, this is not man's words, this is a word from God.

Verse 2 tells us what he said, he says, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry against it for their wickedness is come up before me.

God calls Jonah and he specifically tells him 2 things to do.

This is a very specific message that God gives him.

The Bible tells us in Amos that it was a bloody city, an evil city.

And throughout history, many times Nineveh had been the capital of the Assyrian cities.

And God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, this great city, maybe like Las Vegas or Detroit or LA of today.

And he tells him to go there and proclaim this very bold message for God.

God tells him to cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.

This same phrase is used for Sodom and Gomorrah, and what happened to Sodom?

And when we start verse 3, it looks hopeful.

Right, he's following the first half of that commandment.

He was told to arise and go, and when we start it says Jonah rose.

We could close our Bibles and say amen, Jonah gave the message, right?

But there has to be the next couple words.

When I read this verse, this is what strikes me.

How often do we only follow part of the commandment of God?

We only follow the part that we want to do.

We read things in the Bible and we find the things that are easiest for us to do and we follow those and then we preach them at other people and judge them if they aren't doing them.

But we ourselves are not following the second half.

How often do we rise to disobedience instead of obedience?

Do we get up in the morning and we arise to obey God?

We are fully surrendered to God when we start our day, and we arise that morning to obey God.

I pray that is true most of the time, but it seems that so often we arise and we get stuck in the rush of the day.

I'm too busy for God, I'm too busy to read my Bible, I'm too busy to pray.

We know that God is impressing us to do something, there's a calling on our life, but it's easier to flee.

And we go about our day with us leading the way instead of the Lord.

Fleeing from the very calling that he would have upon our life.

Tarshish was a city where much was going on.

It was in the opposite direction of Nineveh, very conveniently.

And when I was looking at some verses on Tarshish in the Bible, it was talking about how this was a city of much trade, it was very busy there, there was much wealth, and here Jonah could go to escape the duty that God had placed on him in a place where there were many distractions.

It's easy to put ourselves in those situations where we're caught up in the busyness, so we do not have to hear the duty God has called us to.

Jonah rises to disobey and we see that after this, there are many circumstances where Jonah went through many bitter times, many difficulties, many trials, because he chose not to obey God.

Thursday night, I was invited to go to the Souls West graduation.

And so I went over to La Sierra Spanish Church, and I had never seen their graduation before, and I was very, very blessed.

Young people got up and gave testimony how God had changed their life.

They had been into drugs, living on the streets, into alcohol, they had been into things of this world, unsatisfied, looking for purpose, And God called them, and they responded.

And they had testimonies of going into a home and giving Bible studies, and the person would offer them 2 waters, and they were just 1 by themselves.

I was so encouraged and I saw in these young people dedication, purpose, they were committed to knocking on doors, call portering, giving Bible studies, anything the Lord would call them to do, they were ready to go.

I went home that night and I got home and I was impressed with his urgency to cook, silly as it may sound.

So I was like, what, you know, why do I just feel like I need to cook?

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Arise, Go To....

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