(My notes from Sunday if you trust my note taking. From Dr Chris at FBC Ruston.)
PROPHETIC OR POLITICALLY CORRECT?
Jonah 3: 1-4
1 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."
We live in a 'day of political correctness.'
In the original way, political correctness was a good thing, as it was defined. It was a case of being sensitive to others. Now, it has moved to silly degrees and most people seem TOO sensitive. Now we're asked to compromise the truth.
Christmas tree = Holiday tree
Loudmouth = Verbally Abundant
And on like that.
Political Correctness is not new. In Jeremiah 28, a prophet downplays Jeremiah's prophecy. (If you don't want to go to that chapter, I can tell you that in the final verse, the false prophet buys the farm.)
Our World Needs Prophetic Voices
Jonah 3:1-4 ... Jonah tells Nineveh to 'duck!'
* A prophet's main job is to proclaim God's truth, AND also sometimes to prophecy (of particular coming events.) ... So, ALL of us are called to speak God's truth to the world around us.
* True prophets have, in the Bible, always been politically correct. They kept getting killed.
* We need prophets ... in our homes, schools, at work, in our churches ...
FOUNDATIONS OF BEING A PROPHET
1. God's Truth (v.2) "...give them MY message..."
a. Tell it as God's word and truth reveals it
b. Get God's Word IN you
2. Love -- don't steamroll people;
"speak the truth after it's baked in love..."
(v 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."
(v 4:11 --God says to Jonah, "But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
I Corinthians 4:11 -- "..do everything in love..."
3. Redemption -- v. 10 - compassion
* God sent Jonah not so He could destroy them but so He could redeem them
* Don't talk of hell as if you are glad people are going there! Share redemption instead!
Love, Redeem, Restore, Help
A good prophet is like a good parent
A. Will you be a prophet? Can you have the will/guts/understanding that, sometimes to people, it might be loving to say, "I'm afraid of whwere you're going to spend eternity" or "I'm seeing some things in your life that are far from God's Word and that's not how you should live."
B. Will you HEAR the truth? -- Nineveh did and was redeemed. Hear the prophets...
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