Preaching Series January
God has laid it on my heart to preach on the book of Jonah in January. For the four Sundays of this month, we will walk through the book chapter by chapter. The sermon series is entitled We Respond
with ?, …, !, or *%$# which reflects Jonah’s responses to God’s calling on his life. We also are prone to respond in each of these ways. Sometimes, we question (?) God—as Jonah fled in the opposite direction that God wanted (chapter 1), our questioning may be a form of escaping our responsibilities. Sometimes, God’s call on our lives overwhelms us, and we just give up and give in (…) as Jonah did in the belly of the whale (chapter 2); we follow and obey only because there is no other direction for us to go. Third, there are times when we forcefully (!) respond to God’s call on our lives, and we boldly proclaim His message as Jonah did in chapter 3. However, we do not always like the outcomes of God’s love and mercy when we see its implications lived out. We may ask, “How can you save that person?” or “How can you let that person prosper when good people and little children languish?” Sometimes, we shake a defiant fist at God like Jonah in chapter 4 with an attitude of “Oh *%$#, how can you God allow such things to happen in this world?”
As part of this sermon series, I have in the back of my head a song by Jason Upton that has longed challenged me. The song is Lullaby for a Petrified Sacred Society (the lyrics). I am sure it can be found on YouTube, but I know it through the album Beautiful People, which contains faithful inspiration contained within Spirit-filled songs.
We Respond with ?, …, !, or *%$#
06 January
James 3.13-18
Jonah 1.1-17
We Respond with ?
Turn and Run
13 January
James 5.13-20
Jonah 2.1-10
We Respond with …
Safe in our Panic Rooms
20 January
Hebrews 2.5-12
Jonah 3.1-10
We Respond with !
Turn or Burn/Fly or Fry
27 January
Hebrews 4.12-16
Jonah 4.1-11
We Respond with *%$#
Cut to the Quick
