NWYM Supt. Jim LeShana joined Woodland Friends Church this morning in person to encourage us to be building together! (Audio was not captured first few minutes, look at Woodland Friends Church YouTube Page for this sermon if interested).

NWYM Supt. Jim LeShana joined Woodland Friends Church this morning in person to encourage us to be building together! (Audio was not captured first few minutes, look at Woodland Friends Church YouTube Page for this sermon if interested).

Is disobedience worth it? “Well. I don’t have to answer to God, so.” Yeah, now. And if He isn’t sending a fish after you that isn’t lucky-you. You’re missing out on so much more if He’s not reeling you in anyways. It’s telling God no to adventure. It’s telling God no to something both hard, and so totally worth it when you’re in the center of God’s will, plan and purposes. It’s telling God no to the fullness of joy. Listen: you can be in the most comfortable, lively, vibrant, distracting place ever with a million things at your fingertips, and inside you’ll still hear the screaming about the void in your life. Because you’ve maybe gone down, down, down to Joppa so as to go to Tarshish, instead of choosing Nineveh. And no matter how inviting Tarshish seems or how ominous Nineveh is, God has ways of making Nineveh your joy anyways, right?

Is disobedience worth it? “Well. I don’t have to answer to God, so.” Yeah, now. And if He isn’t sending a fish after you that isn’t lucky-you. You’re missing out on so much more if He’s not reeling you in anyways. It’s telling God no to adventure. It’s telling God no to something both hard, and so totally worth it when you’re in the center of God’s will, plan and purposes. It’s telling God no to the fullness of joy. Listen: you can be in the most comfortable, lively, vibrant, distracting place ever with a million things at your fingertips, and inside you’ll still hear the screaming about the void in your life. Because you’ve maybe gone down, down, down to Joppa so as to go to Tarshish, instead of choosing Nineveh. And no matter how inviting Tarshish seems or how ominous Nineveh is, God has ways of making Nineveh your joy anyways, right?

Reading the text I was supposed to be preaching on - and even beginning a sermon - maybe felt less than accomplished. I was distracted. When I finally brought those distractions to God and asked, "So what does a smelly bunch of sailors on a boat in a storm have to do with anything? Why is this even in the Bible, period?!" God told me why!

Reading the text I was supposed to be preaching on - and even beginning a sermon - maybe felt less than accomplished. I was distracted. When I finally brought those distractions to God and asked, "So what does a smelly bunch of sailors on a boat in a storm have to do with anything? Why is this even in the Bible, period?!" God told me why!

I want to share with you a tale of three storms. Because as we compare these very similar storms in the Bible, we get a glimpse of the Gospel actually. Jonah says his life is required to calm the storm. For the storm to be calmed in Jesus’ story? His Word was all that’s required. And in Paul’s storm? It requires faith. “Believe me, God said I and the entire boat will be saved. Just the boat will be lost.” Life was required. Christ’s Word was required. Faith is required. This is the Gospel.

I want to share with you a tale of three storms. Because as we compare these very similar storms in the Bible, we get a glimpse of the Gospel actually. Jonah says his life is required to calm the storm. For the storm to be calmed in Jesus’ story? His Word was all that’s required. And in Paul’s storm? It requires faith. “Believe me, God said I and the entire boat will be saved. Just the boat will be lost.” Life was required. Christ’s Word was required. Faith is required. This is the Gospel.

Jonah is not lukewarm. In other words there’s still a passion. He’s not lazy. He’s not indecisive or struggling with unbelief. It’s simply that he’s adamantly against what God wants him to do. And while he’s not willing to travel 550 miles to a city, rather he’d board a ship and sail 2500 miles away from everything and everyone he’s ever known to just disappear. All because God has told him to arise, and I don’t know about you, but unlike me, Jonah is at least rising, right?

Jonah is not lukewarm. In other words there’s still a passion. He’s not lazy. He’s not indecisive or struggling with unbelief. It’s simply that he’s adamantly against what God wants him to do. And while he’s not willing to travel 550 miles to a city, rather he’d board a ship and sail 2500 miles away from everything and everyone he’s ever known to just disappear. All because God has told him to arise, and I don’t know about you, but unlike me, Jonah is at least rising, right?