Jonah 3:1

Introduction: Have you ever failed? At times, do you feel like a failure? 

* Today many Mothers feel like failures?
* Today numerous Fathers feel like failures?
* Today young people feel like failures
* Preachers feel like failures 
* CHRISTians feel like failures

Jonah failed the Lord miserably. Instead of going to where God commanded him (to Nineveh), he headed to Tarshish – in the opposite direction. Consequently, he learned a VALUABLE lesson, namely, “YOU CAN RUN, but YOU CANT HIDE”! Let’s follow in his steps and let him lead us from “FAILURE to FREEDOM.”

“Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. 3But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD,” (Jonah 1:1-3).

1. Will you Let Go of your PAST FAILURES? (Jonah 3:1, 2)

“And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.”

2. Will you Go Back to your 1st Love? (Jonah 2:1)

“1Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly.”

    • Turn our troubles into trust (Jonah 2:2)

“2And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.”

    • Get right what’s wrong! (Jonah 2:9)

“But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.”

3. Will you Follow thru what God tells you to do? (Jonah 3:4)

“4And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

   • Be sure to be on guard with God’s peace (Jonah 1:5)

“5Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.”

   •  Disobedience (Jonah 1:15-17)

“15So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. 16Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. 17Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

   • Jealously (Jonah 4:1-10)

“1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. 3Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. 4Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? 5So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. 6And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. 7But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. 8And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. 9And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. 10Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: 11And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”

  • Be ready to Go when our Lord calls you! (Jonah 3:1-4)

“And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 3So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. 4And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

Conclusion:

* The worm obeyed
* The gourd obeyed
* The wind obeyed
* The fish obeyed

Are we obeying? The way we Turn our “FAILURES into FREEDOM” is by……