What do you stand for? (Lessons from Jonah on Taking a Stand in a Lost and Hostile Culture)

Old Fashion Dad Podcast

It's hard to take a stand for Christ and truth in today's lost and hostile culture. Today we look at lessons from the Book of Jonah on what it means to bring the saving message of God to your enemies, through being obedient to God... even if like Jonah, you'd much rather see your enemies destroyed and "get what they deserve".

NOTES:

• This Weeks Whiskey:
• • High West Double Rye
• Show Notes:
• • Why Jonah (what does Jonah teach us about this topic - since we are not a "bible study" podcast).
  • • A call to stand for truth
    • A call to love your enemy
  • Our desire to be "liked" by the world (and how that can cause us to be silent)
  • What does it mean to "represent Christ" in a post-Christian / Critical Theory culture?
  • What does taking a stand mean?
  • • What does it NOT mean?
  • Helpfull Podcasts / Podcast Episodes
  • • Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Episode 275 | Exposing and Opposing Social Justice Theology
    • Just Thinking Podcast - Black Lives Matter? Episode
    • The Briefing with Albert Mohler
  • History of Nineveh (capital of the Assyrian Empire)
  • Who was Jonah?
  • Jonah’s racism, prejudice and elitism
  • Why Nineveh?
  • Nineveh’s response to God’s judgement
  • Jonah’s response to God’s mercy
  • • Observation: Jonah's selfishness (only thinking about saving himself & not thanking God for saving the sailers) vs. the pagan sailers (who didn't immediately throw Jonah overboard to save themselves).
  • Why did Nineveh incur God’s judgement?
  • Why did God use Jonah?
  • What does God value?
  • What should we value as believers?
  • Your response to your enemies reveals your understanding of God and His character.
  • Standing for truth, in love, as a means of changing our enemies hearts.

Why use the book of Jonah to address today’s current events and as a foundation for standing for God’s truth. Jonah is a prophet of God, called to speak on behalf of God and call people to repentance. Jonah is sinful and responds to God’s commands in a disobedient way that exposes his racism and prejudice, as well as the hate in his heart. The story of Jonah shows us, the reader, we are like Jonah in many ways. We are prejudice, discriminatory, racist, sinful etc. We have all been enemies of God at some point and God reaches down and picked us up out of the depths and gave us new life. The story of Jonah shows us that God has mercy on his enemies and that we should also have mercy and love our enemies. Standing for “truth” needs to be God’s truth, not a truth you make up. Standing for truth needs to have a theological understanding of what our spiritual circumstances were prior to Christ saving us...otherwise we are a noisy “gong” (1 Corinthians 13)

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