Key Truth: God calls His people to participate in His compassionate mission for the life of the world.

In what ways did God demonstrate His compassionate character in your life in the last year?  How did you respond?

God Calls Jonah:

Jonah 1:1-2

Do you have a sense of purpose about your life? 
What are you engaging in order to develop and mature this sense of purpose?

“Few things are more important for the Christian than to have a conscious sense of God’s destiny.  That destiny may not be one of spiritual fame. That is of secondary importance. What is important is that we have some sense of what we are for. … There appears to be a direct relationship between our usefulness in the service of God and the sense of destiny we have that, whatever happens, we are doing the work to which God has called us.  Jonah must have known something of this. He was God’s man, God’s servant, God’s prophet. He had come to know God’s will for his life. When we come to meet him in the opening words of the Book of Jonah, God is once more making it clear to him what he is for. That is a privilege beyond price!”

Sinclair Ferguson, Man Overboard!: The Story of Jonah

Jonah Flees:

Jonah 1:3 

In what ways has a deeper knowledge of God’s Word challenged and changed you in the last year?

“Jonah, the ardent nationalist, attempted to flee to a place where no fellow believers would be found, hoping that this would help insure that God’s word would not come to him again.  If he stayed in Israel, he could expect to hear more from Yahweh, but if he left, he might hear nothing further.”

Douglas Stuart, Word Biblical Commentary: Hosea-Jonah

Application:

Jonah 1:1-3 teaches us that:

- God calls His people to participate in His compassionate mission for the life of the world.

Communion

Benediction:

Jude 20-25