May I Have Your Attention Please
Jonah 1:1-4 & Jonah 3:1-3
Brothers and sisters I am sure a lot of you have been in places where you have heard a voice come over the intercom; or in perhaps in a crowd that said, “May I have your attention please”. Usually, no matter what you are doing, you stop and listen. There are some companies that use flamboyant advertising stunts or things that capture the senses of seeing, hearing and even smelling and all they are saying is, “may I have your attention please”. All these situations are normally used to show or tell you something of vital importance.
Brothers and sisters, looking at these different ways to get attention, it seems that at different moments in our lives God is trying to get our attention. When we go through our trials and tribulations it not only strengthens us but it is sometimes God’s way of saying, “may I have your attention please”. There are times in our lives that we have downfalls and setbacks, which some people will call bad luck, or unfortunate consequences.
Yet if we were to stand still and think about it, we see God saying, “May I have your attention please”. Many sites we see and sounds we hear are God’s way of getting our attention. In our text this morning we see God getting the attention of Jonah. When God first called Jonah, Jonah tried to run away. The people of Nineveh were enemies to the people of Israel. Jonah, knowing that the mercy of God may follow his preaching, doesn’t want to because it would be like helping the enemy.
Jonah found that his failure to pay attention to God only caused a mighty tempest to come upon him and the ship on which he sailed. Brothers and sisters some of us have developed a Jonah complex today. We hear God speaking to us yet we fail to give Him our undivided attention. Instead we try to run and hide when He speaks to us. Jesus told us in the 28th chapter and 19th verse of Matthew, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations”.
Instead what we do is stay in our own fold and forget about those outside. Our job as Christians is to share our faith with others. We must go out into the highways and byways to tell others of the goodness of God no matter what the consequences.
When God speaks to us we should drop everything and listen. We need to be like those old E.F. Hutton commercials; “when E.F. Hutton speaks….” When we neglect paying attention to God, Satan steps in and begins to sway us in the wrong direction. There are many times when we have troubles and God tells us what to do. But we decide to do it our way. Brothers and sisters, this is a blatant disobedience to God’s word. We see that due to Jonah’s disobedience, he was cast into the sea and swallowed up by a great fish.
Because of Jonah’s disobedience he began a downward spiral. When he fled from the Lord he went down to Joppa; he went down into the ship; he went down into the sides of the ship. Just like Jonah, when we disobey God we too go down. It may be that we go down in health; down in wealth; down in happiness and even down in the joy of the Lord. Brothers and sisters just as Jonah had to face the consequences of his disobedience so must we.
Like a child that must pay a price for rebelling against its parent, so must we pay a price for rebelling against God. Now why is it that God wants our attention? God has something important to tell us. God stated in 2nd Chronicles 7th chapter and the 14th verse, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Brothers and sisters God wants our attention because he wants to correct and heal us. But without our attention and our seeking the kingdom of Heaven, we cannot be corrected because we are not listening. God also wants our attention because He loves us. In fact we see in John 3:16 just how great God’s love is. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
This one reason alone should be enough to make us pay attention and be obedient to God. Yet there are still those who are not convinced of their need to give their attention to God. The sad thing about man is that he has selective hearing. We pay attention to what we want to, when we want to. We listen to everyone from Dr. Phil to Oprah. We take their advice as fact and follow what they say. Oprah even tells many what books to read.
Brothers and sisters we need to realize that none of these people can heal you or save you. We need to our ears to station G-O-D. We need to listen to his broadcast daily. We should be still and listen without any commercial interruptions. Commercial interruptions are any distractions that keep us from being in fellowship with God. We have to learn to tune God in and tune evil distractions out. We need to get rid of our “what’s in it for me” attitude.
God has a job for everyone to do and in order to do it we must open our hearts and pay attention. The word of God is instructions to live by. Without it we continue to make errors without even knowing. But then how can you do right if you don’t know what right is? We need to pay attention to God’s voice. My bible tells me in Romans 10:14; “how then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
Brothers and sisters our attention is being sought today. We are living in a time where evil abounds all around us. We are living in a time where unity and family values have become a thing of the past. We are living in a time where everyone wants to be right and no one wants to be wrong. A time of disobedient children, street gangs, murderers and dope dealers ruining the neighborhoods. A time we need to spend paying attention to prayer and pushing away Satan and sin.
We need to pay attention like Noah, who was instructed to build an Ark and did so even when all around him thought he was crazy. We need to pay attention like Abraham, who was willing to offer his son Isaac as God had commanded and because of his obedience was supplied with a ram as a substitute. We need to pay attention like Moses, who was used to perform miracles in Egypt land and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.
My brothers and sisters, I come to tell you this morning that I am so glad that Jesus paid attention. It makes me feel good to know my salvation did not depend on man paying attention. We can rejoice this morning because Jesus focused His attention on the will of God and not the will of man. If the will of man was the focal point of Jesus then our souls would still be lost. But Jesus would not come down from the cross to save Himself. Instead He paid attention to the will of God and died to save you and me.
But not only did He die the records states that early Sunday morning He got up with all power in His hands. Brothers and sisters I ask you today to pay attention to God and His word. I ask you to learn how to stop, look and listen. We don’t know the day or hour when the Lord will come. But we need to be ready and have our house in order. We need to stop all our backbiting, backstabbing and backsliding. We can’t expect the world to pay attention to us if we don’t pay attention to God.
It’s a shame that when we want something from God it is easy for us to pay attention. But when God wants something from us we turn a deaf ear. Jonah turned a deaf ear to God but once God got his attention, Jonah prayed and repented and went to Nineveh. Let us repent of our disobedient ways and start paying attention. Brothers and sisters think about this; what if God didn’t pay attention to us when we pray? Where would we be if he were not there when we needed Him?
What would our lives be like if God turned His back on us? We need to start paying closer attention to how we treat one another. We need to pay closer attention to what we say and do. We need to pay closer attention to the examples we are showing others. No matter who you are or where you are somebody is watching you. When we pay attention we make our load a little lighter. When we pay attention we make our day a little brighter. When we pay attention we stay closer to God.
When we pay attention we learn how to love one another. That problem on our job; pay attention to God and He will work it out! That wayward friend or family member; pay attention to God and He will turn them around! Pay attention to God and know that He can and He will do just what He said! Let’s stop just hearing God and learn to listen to Him!
