Jonah 3:1, “1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,”

• Isn’t that good news, “The word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time?” Sometimes our culture today will tell us that the God of Scripture in the Old Testament is cruel, blood thirsty, vengeful, but in the life of Jonah we see the God of Scripture is full of limitless compassion, and the “word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.”

Jonah 3:2, “2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”

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In Jonah 1 we see the God of Scripture call Jonah to extend biblical compassion to the people of Nineveh, and Jonah runs in the opposite direction.  Jonah ends up on a ship heading to Tarshish, and the God of Scripture hurls a great wind and a great storm to draw Jonah back to Himself.

But, instead of Jonah responding to the God of Scripture in repentance, awe, and obedience, we actually see the sailors responding in repentance, awe and obedience. What!

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Jonah 1:10-11, “10 the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, “How could you do this?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?”—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy.”

• In verses 10-11 the focus of the story pivots toward the sailors on the ship in the storm, and we need to remember the chaos of the storm.I  f you look back to verse 4 we see the ship is falling apart in the storm.  In verse 5 the sailors are afraid, throwing cargo overboard, and in verse 8 the sailors ask Jonah, “Why is this happening?”
• In verse 9, “Jonah says, ‘Because I am fleeing from the presence of the Lord.’” So that in verse 10 the sailors say, “How could you do this?” Do you see the progression?

Now, you need to know these sailors do not know the God of Scripture. They are worshipping rocks, clouds, statues, and animals, and all they have as a reference to the God of Scripture is Jonah’s profession of faith in verse 9, “I am Hebrew, I fear the God of heaven who made the sea and the land” and still these sailors know “fleeing from the presence of the Lord” is a bad idea.

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Jonah 1:1, “1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying”

• In verse 1 we see the name “Jonah” and the name Jonah means “dove, a messenger of peace.”
• We don’t know a ton about Jonah, but Jonah would have been raised just like every other Israelite in history, which is to be a blessing to others. Did you know this about Israel?
• Abraham in Genesis is established to be a blessing to all the nations. Moses is raised up for Israel to be a blessing to all the nations. David is set apart to lead Israel to be a blessing to all the nations, so that Israel is established to be like a mirror that reflects the glory of God to the nations, so that the nations of the world might see Israel, see the beauty of Israel, and that it would peak their curiosity about the God of Scripture.

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It is possible we see so many sexual wounds in our lives today that we think these sexual wounds are just a normal part of our lives, but in Genesis 2 actually teaches us sexual wounds and sexual brokenness isn’t what God intended for in the very beginning.

Now, our culture today hears that description of sexuality, and is deeply offended. Our culture says, “We aren’t sexually wounded.’  In fact, all of the sexual shame in our culture today is because of some ill informed puritans.”

We just need to break off those sexual shackles. We need to become sexually enlightened, we need to become sexually free, and at first glance it kind of sounds wise until you realize our culture has been running that play since the 1960’s, and the promise of sexual liberation seems really confusing.

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Today our culture is talking about really complicated subjects more than ever, and one of those subjects is sex, therefore, wouldn’t be awesome to grow in confidence and boldness around any subject in our culture today, especially in the subject of sex?

Imagine becoming the type of people that men and women pursued at the office and the playground for gentleness and wisdom, not only around sex, but in all areas of life?

Genesis 2:18, “18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

• In Genesis 1 we see a macro view of creation, male and female He created them in His image, and in Genesis 2 we see the God of Scripture zero in on His prized creation, humanity, and we see the foundation for marriage when it says, “It is not good for man to be alone.”
• When you see the phrase, “It is not good for man to be alone” it should jump off the page, because Adam isn’t alone. Adam is walking with the God of Scripture in the cool of the garden in perfect union.
• It is in Genesis 3 we see sin enter into creation and destroy everything God created to be good, but in Genesis 2 everything is perfect, and yet we still see the phrase, “It is not good for man to be alone.”
• Do you know why? It is because the God of Scripture created marriage to be a gift. It is because the God of Scripture created man and woman to come together under the commitment of marriage, and He created marriage to be good.

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Current studies show:

• Sex is the number 1 topic searched on the internet
• In 2017 sexually driven sites are reporting 81 million visits a day.
• In 2017 the most popular day to look at sexually driven sites is Sunday.
• Yet at the same time, studies show 1 of 10 married couples sleep alone in separate rooms.
• The average age of first sexual experience is 17, 10 years ago it was 16.
• Teen pregnancy is in decline.
• Studies show marriage is taking place later in life, and virginity is becoming more common.
• In addition, studies are showing that viewing sexually driven sites are re-wiring our brains and creating sexual dysfunctions in the process. (www.yourbrainonporn.com)

It means in 2019 we are seeing more interest in isolated sexual experiences, and a decrease interest in physical sexual experiences, and as a result there is a lot of confusion in our culture around sex.

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