FRUIT OF FAITHFULNESS
John was born in London on July 24, 1725. His father was the captain of a merchant ship and his mother died of tuberculosis when he was young. In 1744 he was forced into military service on a man-of-war, the H. M. S. Harwich. Finding conditions on board intolerable, he deserted but was soon recaptured, publicly flogged and demoted to common seaman. Finally at his own request he was exchanged into service on a slave ship, which took him to the coast of Sierra Leone. He became the servant of a slave trader and was brutally abused. Early in 1748 he was rescued and ultimately became captain of his own slave trade ship.
On May 10, 1748 he was traveling homeward in his ship the Greyhound when they encountered a violent storm. When all seemed lost and the ship was taking on water he cried out to God and exclaimed, “Lord, have mercy upon us.” God spared his life. For the rest of his life he observed this day as the anniversary of his conversion, a day in which he subjected his will to a higher power. John Newton would later go on to write Amazing Grace. “Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ’tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” Eventually, John Newton left the slave trading business, and over a period of time, he became a minister. For the last 43 years of his life, he was a preacher in the Church of England. Right before he died, he said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.”
The Bible and history is full of stories of how God used sinful imperfect people to bring about positive change and blessing in the world. We are continuing in our series in Jonah, an imperfect person who God used to save a city. Today we come to chapter 3
Jonah 3:1-10 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you. 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city--a visit required three days. 4 On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." 5 The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish." 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.
This is just another example of an ordinary person who made a terrible mistake but was still able to be used by God to do amazing things. Today you may be here and thinking “yes, but Jonah was still a prophet. Yes he made a mistake, but it wasn’t a big mistake. God could still use a person like Jonah, but not me. I am too far gone…”
Today as we look at the story of Jonah I want to also look at the life of another man, a story that comes from the New Testament. If ever there was ever anyone in the Bible that we could say had gone beyond the reach of God’s love and mercy, it was this man;
Luke 8:30 Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. 32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. 34 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.
This is a very simple message I want to preach to you today as we plan to gather around the communion table. I want to simply remind you of 3 truths that probably you already know;
1. God Loves You
No matter who you are, no matter what you have done, God loves you. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life – but we also have an enemy who hates us and has a terrible plan for our lives. In this passage we see what can happen to all of us when the devil calls the shots in our lives. This passage says that for a long time this man had been living in the tombs. He was naked and the Mark account said that he would cry out night and day and cut himself with stones.
Luke 8:27-29 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torture me!" 29 For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.
This man had nothing. He had climbed as far down on the ladder of humanity as a human can go and then fallen off. That is exactly where the devil wanted him. And that is exactly where the devil wants you, too. The devil wants us to suffer because we remind him of God, we were created in the image of his enemy and so he seeks to hurt God by hurting us. E.g. my brother getting the ticket because he was a Sheane.
Matt 17:14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 "Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water.
Maybe you are thinking to yourself – that poor man, I'm glad I'm not him! In some ways there is a little of that man in all of us. I don't mean to say that you are possessed by a legion of demons but there is satanic attack and bondage that we all face from time to time in our lives. There are times when we find ourselves in the tombs spiritually. We rebel and throw off attempts of restraint and sometimes allow self-destructive habits to cut us.
Sin place us in bondage. It will take you, and it will try its best to kill you.
The world will tempt you with sins that look so acceptable.
On a cold night on January 13, 1864 a man was brought into New York’s busy Bellevue Hospital. He had been brought in from the Bowery, an area of filth, loneliness, disease, and the dead end of many a life. This man looked like all the rest. Years of alcohol abuse had taken their toll. His health was gone and he was cold and starving. The man who looked twice his age, had been found lying in a heap, nearly naked. A doctor was called but man died before he arrived and was sent to the morgue. In his pocket was 38 cents and a note with these words on it: “My dear friends and gentle hearts…….” The man was Stephen Foster, the father of American music. He was 37 years old. Foster had written joyful songs that people sang everywhere including “Oh! Suzanna”, “Camp Town Races” and “My Old Kentucky Home”. He had published more than 200 songs that most of us are familiar with.
Nobody knows what all lead Mr. Foster down that road to his lowly death. Ironic that a man who had brought joy to so many through his musical gift would die alone and forgotten. Surely sin played a major role in his death. It took him right to the bottom, and it kept him there until it killed him.
2. God has a Plan for your Life
No matter who you are or what you have done, God still has a plan for your life. God is sovereign, which means that he is in control. It does not matter who you are or what you have done, God has a plan for your life. You are still useful to Him.
This is because God is almighty. When the demonized man saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, don’t torture me!” There is power in the name of Jesus.
These demons were powerful. Many times it had seized the man, and though he was chained hand and foot, and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. However, with one word from Jesus they had to flee. Remember that this story follows Jesus rebuking the storm. He spoke "quiet, be still" and the wind and the waves were still.
1 John 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
An old Baptist preacher was visited by Satan. "Oh, It's only you" and went back to sleep. No matter what storm you are facing in life – no matter how great of trouble – one word from Jesus can heal you and restore you. Not only is God almighty, He is also all loving.
Once when Charles H. Spurgeon, was riding in the country, he saw on a farmer's barn a weather vane and on the arrow of it was inscribed these words: "God is Love." He stopped at the gate and asked the farmer, "What do you mean by that? Do you think God's love is changeable; that it veers about as that arrow turns in the winds?" The farmer said, "Oh, no! I mean that whichever way the wind blows, whatever happens in life, God is still Love."
Someone asked Billy Graham once what the difference was between the gods of other religions and the God of Christianity. Rev. Graham said "our God is the only god who strived to have a personal relationship with each one of us. Our God is the only god who would listen to everything we told Him. Our God is the only god who let a Son die; just because He loved us so much."
According to an old legend, a man became lost in his travels and wandered into a bed of quicksand. Confucius saw the man's predicament and said, "It is evident that men should stay out of places such as this." Next, Buddha observed the situation and said, "Let this man's plight be a lesson to the rest of the world." Then Muhammad came by and said to the sinking man, "Alas, it is the will of God." Finally, Jesus appeared. "Take my hand, brother," he said, "and I will save you."
Jesus is the only leader of any religion who has come out of the grave to live eternally. All the rest are just a bunch of dusty bones in some hole in the ground, and that’s all they will ever be.
God has a plan for your life. In 1857 there was a 46 year old man named Jeremiah Lamphere who lived in New York City. Jeremiah loved the Lord tremendously, but he didn’t feel that he could do much for the Lord until he began to feel a burden for the lost and accepted an invitation from his church to be an inner city missionary. So in July of 1857 he started walking up and down the streets of New York passing out tracts and talking to people about Jesus, but he wasn’t having any success. Then God put it on his heart to try prayer. So he printed up a bunch of tracts, and he passed them out to anyone and everyone met. He invited anyone who wanted to come to the 3rd floor of the Old North Dutch Reform Church on Fulton St. in New York City from 12 to 1 on Wednesday to pray. He passed out hundreds and hundreds of fliers and put up posters everywhere he could. Wednesday day came and at Noon nobody showed up. So Jeremiah got on his knees and started praying. For 30 minutes he prayed by himself when finally five other people walked in. The next week 20 people came. The next week between 30 and 40 people came. They then decided to meet every day from 12:00 to 1:00 to pray for the city. Before long a few ministers started coming and they said, "We need to start this at our churches". Within six months there were over 5000 prayer groups meeting everyday in N.Y. Soon the word spread all over the country. Prayer meetings were started in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington D.C. In fact President Franklin Pierce started going almost every day to a noonday prayer meeting. By 1859 some 15,000 cities in America were having downtown prayer meetings everyday at noon and thousands were brought to Christ. The great thing about this revival is that there is not a famous preacher associated with it. It was all started by one simple man wanting to pray.
3. God can Use You to Change the World
Luke 8:39 "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.
Jonah 3:10 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.
In both these cases, God used an imperfect individual to change the lives of people around them. God want to use you. He wants you to be His means by which he touches a broken world. The problem is that so often we ignore the needs of the world around us.
Jesus has a job for each of us, and that job is to reach other people. The demonized man was saved by Jesus and then sent by Jesus. Jonah was saved by God and then sent by God to bring salvation to others.
Likewise, God wants to change the world around us. Once our lives have been transformed; once we have professed Jesus as Savior; we receive a mission. That mission is to “return home and tell others how much God has done for us.”
Jonah went through a storm and then spent 3 days in a fish before God could use him to save Nineveh. Jesus went through the fury of a storm to heal that man. When he stepped onto that beach everything in that man's life changed. Jesus endured the storm of the cross to get to the tomb that you have been living in. How will you respond to his arrival? This man ran to him and fell down on his knees before him. And how will you respond to the healing touch of Jesus in your life. Following Him is a good first step but remember that He has a job for you to do.
Let me close with a story. I started by telling you about the great prayer revival of 1857. It moved from New York to Detroit, Buffalo, Washington D.C. and it moved to Philadelphia in a powerful way. One of the leaders in Philadelphia was a young man named Dudley Ting. He started a noonday prayer meeting at the YMCA, and some days 5000 people would come at noon and pray. One day Dudley stood up and he read Exodus 10:11, "Go ye … and serve the Lord." He then said, "I had rather my right arm were cut off than not give you that word." Later that week Dudley went out into the country to see some friends. While in a barn at his friend’s place he got his arm caught in a corn threshing machine and the main artery in his are was severed. They took him to a bed and tried to save his life but he had lost too much blood. So his friends gathered around him and asked him what he would like to say. He said, "Tell them to stand up for Jesus." So the next Sunday his good friend George Duffield stood up at church and preached in memory of his friend. He said, "I just finished writing a poem in honor of Dudley and I want to read it to you."
Stand up, Stand up for Jesus, ye solders of the cross. Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory His army shall He lead, till every foe is vanquished, for Christ is Lord in deed.
Stand up stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long. This day the noise of battle, the next the victor’s song. To him that overcometh a crown of life shall be, he with the king of glory shall reign eternally.
Out of great tragedy came something that touched and changed the hearts of so many people. All across America, city after city people would meet for one day and pray for their country, and sing Stand up Stand up for Jesus.
God loves you. He has a plan for your life. God wants to use you to change the world. Will you let him? It only requires obedience. No matter who you are or what you have done, God can use you to change the world, if you will only let Him.
