When God loves your enemies | Jonah 4

01 Witness + Service | What does the Bible say?

The church bears witness through practicing justice and righteousness. We bear witness to the Kingdom in what we say and how we live. Meaning, not only is it unkind to preach the gospel without demonstrating the gospel (justice and righteousness), but biblically speaking, you actually are not witnessing if you neglect practicing justice and righteousness.What if we shared and lived the gospel in such a way, that even if our friends didn’t believe it, they walked away wishing it was true?Teacher: Caleb SprinkleTexts: Various

00 Witness + Service | An Introduction

Robert Mullholland defines spiritual formation this way: "Spiritual formation is becoming like Jesus for the sake of others”. Spiritual maturity is not measured by how much we know, but how we love others. The invitation into a life of apprenticeship to Jesus is to come and die. An invitation to be with him, become like him, and do as He did. What did he do? He preached and demonstrated the gospel of the Kingdom. Teacher: Caleb Sprinkle

When God loves your enemies | Jonah 4

In Jonah 4, God’s call to Jonah was a kind of love towards people that don’t deserve it.  One that would cost Jonah something: releasing bitterness and contempt in his heart towards Nineveh. It was a call to love his enemies. The book ends with a question: should I not care for them? Jonah doesn't answer, so the question is for us. Can we love our enemies? Teacher: Caleb Sprinkle Text: Jonah 4

Nineveh repents. And God does too? | Jonah 3

In Jonah 3, we see that Jonah does the bare minimum of what God asked him to do, doesn't even mention God in his gospel presentation, goes in reluctantly and angry, and the entire city repents. What is going on here? Remember, Jonah is satirical. This passage shows 1) How little the mission of God depends on us, but it does still seem to depend on us…? and 2) God is not static. He responds to faith and repentance. He changes his mind (yup, that's what it says). Somehow, God's will of the “renewal of all things” will come to pass. Somehow, the timing of His will is determined on the work and intercession of His image bearers. And somehow, God changes his mind. Maybe we can't really understand Him like we thought we could? And maybe that's for the best? Teacher: Will Solomon Text: Jonah 3 ** Sorry for the audio quality

Jonah's "prayer" | Jonah 2

In Jonah 2, we wrestled with the reality that Jonah may have been just paying lip service; not really repentant of his tribalism and racism and disobedience. And while the author is not clear, in the context of the entire book, it would seem Jonah is simply regurgitating (no pun intended) Scripture. Especially when you juxtapose his story with Jesus' similar storm stories in the gospels. It seems the author is leaving us with a question to ponder for ourselves: In our prayer life, are we reluctantly paying lip service? Or as the maxim goes: “going through the motions”? Or is there earnest struggle, honesty, and ultimately trust, that is grounded in a real relationship with Jesus? Teacher: Brittni Ratliff Text: Jonah 2