Notes from Pastor Lance Shumake's sermon on the Book of Jonah.
God pursues us when we stray in order to restore us.
“Jonah now realized that God sent him into the deep darkness, into the great fish, not to destroy him but to save him. Do you recognize God’s saving purpose as you ponder his providence in your life? God is not destroying you in your trials. The Lord is saving you. He is restoring you from sinful rebellion, from foolish self-reliance, from ignorant pride, and from unbelieving stubbornness—to which all of us are natively prone in our fallen condition—so that you learn to turn to him for grace.” — Richard D. Phillips,
Jonah and Micah
God gives second chances abundantly.
“God forgets, and never holds the thing against you. Think of how wonderful are the implications of that one fact for your life. God simply does not hold grudges against people who humble themselves and ask his forgiveness through Jesus Christ.” — O. Palmer Robertson
God gives mercy and grace as an unearned, free gift.
God uses our mistakes to patiently teach us.
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Matthew 12:38–41, "Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here."
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