Keith Battle - The Jonah Story - Part 3

Today, we are in the third part of this series called «The Jonah Story: Part Three.» I want you to turn to the third chapter of the Book of Jonah so you can track along with us in today’s message. Jonah chapter three. In part three of this series, I want to thank all of our readers who read through the scripture and set the tone for us early on in the service. Thank you all for what you did. I’m not going to read the whole chapter, but I want to read the first three verses just to set the stage for where we’re going today. It starts off in verse one of Jonah chapter three by saying, «Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and deliver the message I have given you.» In verse three, it says, «This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh.» I want to use the subject today, HBO—Hear, Believe, Obey. That’s what Jonah did; he heard God speak to him a second time. He trusted what God said, he believed it, and he obeyed it. Not just Jonah, but the people of Nineveh and the king of Nineveh, as we’ll see in this chapter, had the same experience. They heard through Jonah what God was saying; they believed it. The Bible says they believed God and they obeyed: HBO—Hear, Believe, Obey.

Wow, just think about that. Wouldn’t it be awesome if that’s how we responded every time God spoke? If all of us just HBO’d everything God said? If every time God spoke, we listened, put our trust in what He said, believed it, and obeyed it. Hear, Believe, Obey—wouldn’t that be great? Every time God spoke, we would say, «Okay, God, I hear you. I believe what you say. I trust you, and I’m going to do what you say»? That would be fantastic! But the problem is that there are many interferences that come into that dialogue between us and God, and I want to talk about those things today. In fact, I have five points I want to give you today from this third chapter, and I’m going to provide some questions to help us navigate through this whole concept of HBO—Hear, Believe, Obey.

The first point is found in verses one and two, where it says, «The word of the Lord» or «God spoke to Jonah a second time.» I’m calling this first point «Jonah’s Recall.» Jonah got a recall. Years ago, I preached a message in our church called «Recall,» and the concept behind the message comes from something related to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the car manufacturing industry. Whenever there’s a malfunction in a vehicle, they’ll recall that vehicle. It means something does not meet industry standards for safety and is putting lives at risk. So they’ll recall that vehicle and repair whatever is damaged for free. However many people own that vehicle, they’ll recall it. The interesting thing is that they usually only recall vehicles after there’s been an accident or a tragedy. So it comes as a surprise; they didn’t know something was wrong with this apparatus in the car. When they discover it due to an accident or a tragedy, they then recall the vehicles and repair them.

But with God’s recalls, it’s totally different. When God recalls us, He doesn’t have to wait for us to mess up before He knows something is wrong with us. God knew something was wrong with us when He first called us. In fact, before God called us, He knew all of our proclivities, idiosyncrasies, and flaws. Yet He still called us! The beautiful thing about it is that when God recalls us, He usually does so after we discover what is jacked up about us. See, Jonah got a recall because he realizes that he doesn’t even deserve to represent God. It’s sort of like Peter in the New Testament when Peter was at that dinner talking to Jesus. He said, «I love you to death, Jesus! I’m willing to die for you!» Yet, before that night was over, he denied even knowing Jesus three times. But after he was broken by that experience, when Jesus died, rose from the dead, and came back, guess who He was looking for? He said, «I want Peter,» because now I can use him; he’s better for me to use now because he’s broken.

One of the things that I believe happens is God recalls a lot of people during this series, and one of the reasons why He’s recalling you is that you finally realize that you don’t even deserve to be His representative anyway—neither do I. And we’re better broken. There are many people who are ambitious about serving God; they want to spread the word of God, they want the microphone, and they want opportunities, and that’s wonderful. But you know what? You may have a call to the ministry, but you haven’t been crushed for the ministry. Ministry is different when the vessel is shattered. It’s just different when you understand that you don’t even deserve to be His representative.