Steps

(sermon notes from Dr. Chris, FBC Ruston)

Steps lead to a destination...
What steps lead to revival?

Jonah 3:1-5
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 large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning 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 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals 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 relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.



1. BELIEVE ... despite a wishy-washy preacher (Jonah), the Ninevites believed the Word of God. They were
a. coverted
b. stood firm, convinced (v. 5: "...the Ninevites believed God..."
* What is God telling me I should be doing?

2. HUMILITY v 5 -- fasting..the King sat in the dust ... they all sat in sackcloth
* God detests pride, responds with love toward humility.
Humbled...
a. before God ... 1 Peter 5:6 "Humble yourselves before God's mighty hand..."
b. before others 1 Peter 5:5 "...coothe yourself in humility ... God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

3. REPENTANCE v. 8 -- "Let all give up their evil ways and their violence."
Turn swiftly and surely and decisively, as you would from a snake or skunk

4. PRAYER v. 8 'call, cry out urgently on God."
Storm the gates of heaven; Jesus told us his house would be called "a place of prayer."

5. OBEDIENCE -- v. 10 "...they turned."
"The slightest request of my supreme ruler is a supreme command to me." Gen. Stonewall Jackson to Gen. Robert E. Lee, after Jackson had ridden all night to get to Lee, who had asked for a visit.

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