Christian Ministry Seminars 2016 (Audio)

In this session we will see the difference between the “tribal heart” of Jonah and the “missionary heart” of our God. God’s missionary heart must inform and motivate our ministry. At the same time, we should reflect upon Jonah’s run from God’s commission. Our approach to ministry can also be informed, by a reflective profile on Jonah’s disobedience.

The book of Jonah is full of Irony. Jonah is commissioned by God to confront idolatrous Nineveh, yet we discover along the way that God is confronting Jonah with his own idolatry. In this session we will see that there’s some Jonah in all of us. The gospel becomes relevant to our lost friends, when we help them to see the offense of “soul idolatry!”

God’s sovereign grace is no more dramatically demonstrated in the book of Jonah, than in the great revival of chapter 3. In Jonah 3:5 we read, “And the people of Nineveh believed God!” God used a reluctant and rebellious prophet to rescue more than 120,000 souls. In this session we will reconsider our potential and our responsibility in light of God’s sovereign grace.

In Jonah 3 we were witnesses to a national revival! Nineveh responded to Jonah’s message with repentance. How have we responded to God’s greater messenger, to one “greater than Jonah?” In this message we are challenged to heed the sign of Jonah, and live a life marked by the same faith and repentance expressed by Nineveh! In this session we will also be reminded of our ultimate ministry resource.

In this session we will be warmed in the glow of God’s missionary heart and consider some of the reasons why our missionary heart is often found wanting.