Good Morning Saints of Sunrise! Have you ever been called a saint before?
Why or Why not? [Allow Responses]
It is no mistake that I called you that this morning because Sunrise is filled with either saints or people on their way to becoming saints.
Here’s why I say that. In most theological circles, a saint is defined as 
1) One who is in Heaven
2) Exemplary Teacher
3) Perfect Model
4) An Intercessor
5) Worker of Miracles
Now as far as I plan to go this morning, we are going to deal with the last four and hopefully save the first one to identify with for a long time off.
Let’s spend just a moment looking at these last four and see how we might fit into these descriptions.
Who has some experience that you would like to share as an example of any of these?
[Allow responses]
Now if we look at these last four for just a moment, what can we notice about them?
What commonality do they share?
[Allow Responses]
They all are outward focused. They all point beyond ourselves.
This morning, we are continuing a series of messages entitled Life Worth Living
In this series we have spent some time defining what it mean to live a good life.
So far, we have discovered that life, as God would have us live involves:
1) Letting Go of things that hold us back
2) Seeing God in the Ordinary
3) Getting ME Out of the Way
4) Slowing Down
Over the last few weeks, we have also seen that God really does intend for us to live the best life possible because Jesus exclaims it best by saying this:
John 10:10
My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.
Sometimes, there have been some people who believed in God, who just couldn’t quite comprehend what it meant to be a follower of God.
Who here knows the story of Jonah?
[Allow response}
Most of us have heard about Jonah being swallowed by a big fish, but what caused him to become fish food?
What happened after he was hurled up?
[Recap all of the Jonah story]
11 The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh! Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are." 3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the LORD. He went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping that by going away to the west he could escape from the LORD. 4 But as the ship was sailing along, suddenly the LORD flung a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to send them to the bottom. 5 Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. And all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. 6 So the captain went down after him. "How can you sleep at a time like this?" he shouted. "Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will have mercy on us and spare our lives." 7 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, Jonah lost the toss. 8 "What have you done to bring this awful storm down on us?" they demanded. "Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?" 9 And Jonah answered, "I am a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." 10 Then he told them that he was running away from the LORD.The sailors were terrified when they heard this. "Oh, why did you do it?" they groaned. 11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, "What should we do to you to stop this storm?" 12 "Throw me into the sea," Jonah said, "and it will become calm again. For I know that this terrible storm is all my fault." 13 Instead, the sailors tried even harder to row the boat ashore. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn't make it. 14 Then they cried out to the LORD, Jonah's God. "O LORD," they pleaded, "don't make us die for this man's sin. And don't hold us responsible for his death, because it isn't our fault. O LORD, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons." 15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! 16 The sailors were awestruck by the LORD's great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. 17 Now the LORD had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.
21 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish. 2 He said, "I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the world of the dead, and LORD, you heard me! 3 You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. 4 Then I said, 'O LORD, you have driven me from your presence. How will I ever again see your holy Temple?' 5 "I sank beneath the waves, and death was very near. The waters closed in around me, and seaweed wrapped itself around my head. 6 I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was locked out of life and imprisoned in the land of the dead. But you, O LORD my God, have snatched me from the yawning jaws of death! 7 "When I had lost all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to the LORD. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple. 8 Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God's mercies. 9 But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the LORD alone." 10 Then the LORD ordered the fish to spit up Jonah on the beach, and it did.
31 Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time: 2 "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message of judgment I have given you." 3 This time Jonah obeyed the LORD's command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. 4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: "Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!" 5 The people of Nineveh believed God's message, and from the greatest to the least, they decided to go without food and wear sackcloth to show their sorrow. 6 When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in sackcloth and sat on a heap of ashes. 7 Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city: "No one, not even the animals, may eat or drink anything at all. 8 Everyone is required to wear sackcloth and pray earnestly to God. Everyone must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. 9 Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will have pity on us and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us." 10 When God saw that they had put a stop to their evil ways, he had mercy on them and didn't carry out the destruction he had threatened.
41 This change of plans upset Jonah, and he became very angry. 2 So he complained to the LORD about it: "Didn't I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people. 3 Just kill me now, LORD! I'd rather be dead than alive because nothing I predicted is going to happen." 4 The LORD replied, "Is it right for you to be angry about this?" 5 Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see if anything would happen to the city. 6 And the LORD God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head, shading him from the sun. This eased some of his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant. 7 But God also prepared a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant, so that it soon died and withered away. 8 And as the sun grew hot, God sent a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. "Death is certainly better than this!" he exclaimed. 9 Then God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?""Yes," Jonah retorted, "even angry enough to die!" 10 Then the LORD said, "You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. And a plant is only, at best, short lived. 11 But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city?"
What can we get from this story?
Jonah forgot what God told Abraham many years before and what God says to us today
Genesis 12:2b
I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others.
When God blesses, you are blessed to be a blessing to others.
Have to move beyond our comfort zones, our own little world.
Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you."
Too often, people say, “I believe we should help others, but I think we should mainly focus on our nation, our community.”
Folks, that is bad theology and you will not find one scrap of justification for it in scripture.
One of the best loved passages of scripture, John 3:16 says what? “For God so loved Winston-Salem? For God so loved the United States?”
No, say it with me, “For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son…”
Also, take the time and read the book of Acts. Actually, we will be covering most of that book in a series after Easter. But let me give you a hint of what it’s about – The spreading of the love of God and the grace of Jesus Christ through the expansion of the Church throughout the known world.
God calls us to be see the world as God sees it and to be actively involved in making it a better place.
This morning, we have a great opportunity to be a part of sending a couple of our own off to be missionaries. Kandace Thomason and Rick Washabaugh are going to the Dominican Republic later on this week to be short-term missionaries. Jimmy Williams will explain what they will be doing.
[Call on Jimmy Williams]
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