God’s Call upon Your Life
Pastor Phil Derstine 11-5-23
Jonah – 4 Chapters – 4 Lessons (More than just a BIG Fish Story)
• Today God is giving you a chance to RESET, REBOOT, your Life to embrace HIS CALL
1. God’s Call is upon your Life – Don’t run from it. Discover it. God created you for it.
• Jonah 1:1 “The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai.” – God knows your name.
• John 15:16 “You have not chosen me, I have chosen you…”
• Psalm 139:13 “…you knit me together in my mothers womb.”
• Matthew 20:16 “Many are called but few are chosen…” Last shall be first…Never too late to start!
• I Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
• Peculiar people – people who know they belong to God!
• God uses the pressure of our problems to motivate us to greater levels of Spiritual maturity.
2. The Power of Praying with Thanksgiving - As an Act of Faith, putting demand on the Promise of God.
• Jonah 2:1 “Then Jonah prayed… (9) I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.”
• Thanksgiving – It is a POWERFUL tool in the Spiritual realm… releases the POWER OF GOD.
• Psalm 50:14-15 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on Me in the
day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.” – The Promise of God!
• Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” – Asking by Faith
• I Thessalonians 5:18 “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
• In the middle of everything – God shows up in the middle! (In the Fire… in the Storm)
• Praying with Thanksgiving – Not based on what you have NOW, but on God’s Promise.
• Prayer with thanksgiving opens a Spiritual Gate to bring a Seasonchange in your Life!
3. The Depth of God’s Love & Forgiveness
• Jonah 3:1 “Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time.(10) When God saw what they did
and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened.”
• II Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
• Proverbs 24:16 “For tho a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.”
• Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
• God never gives up on you. His forgiveness is as far as the East is from the West.
4. The Danger of Self-Centeredness
• Jonah 4:1 “But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. (4) But the Lord replied, Have you any right to be angry?”
• I Corinthians 6:19 “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God and ye are not your own? (20) For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
• You belong to God. Honor Him in your spirit, soul, and body.
How many need a RESET today? Need to REBOOT? Embrace the CALL OF GOD.
