Welcome to
Zion Bread of Life Christian Church

Sunday 28 April 2024

Rev Daniel Xi An Poon

Be Blessed While Following God 在跟随神里得祝福

When we say “abundant life”, we know that it’s not by our way. However, why should we follow God’s way? Often we feel it’s quite boring to follow God’s way, and serving the community or going to the cell group sounds dry to us. How can we follow God and be blessed?

Jonah 约拿书 3:1-10

Jonah was a prophet chosen by God. We come here because we are chosen by God. We can see our life from learning about Jonah’s life. Jonah heard God telling him to preach God’s word to Nineveh, but he ran away in the opposite direction, totally against God. Still, Jonah was the prophet, and God was still talking to him, as recorded in the Book of Jonah, Chapter 3.

1.Follow God in Doing 在doing跟随神 (v.1-4)

When Jonah ran away from God, God never judged or punished him. So God talked to Jonah the second time, and asked Jonah to wake up (V1). When we hear the word of God and do not follow, God does not judge or punish us. But when God talks to us the second time, He is telling us to wake up. We have filled our mind with too much of our own assumption about God and our love towards this world. God was reminding Jonah, running away from Him did not bring him anything good. In the New Testament, the prodigal son ran away from his father, his life was then in total mess. When we ran away from God, we will be totally confused. We know what we should do but do not do it. However, God wants us to do the things we should do, because He wants to bless. It is Satan who lies to us that we lose our right and freedom when following God’s will. The freedom that world gives us is not true freedom, the true freedom that God gives us enables us to choose not to do the wrong things, but we use our freedom to choose to do the wrong things.

Jonah used to follow God by doing. He listened to God’s instruction and walked three days to Nineveh. After Jonah arrived there, he yelled to Nineveh’s people to proclaim the destruction of their city. In Jonah’s eyes, he was a “Gentile” to Nineveh’s people, when he did what God told him to do, who would listen to him? We are like Jonah, not feeling blessed by following God. We feel pressured to come to church or read the Bible. We carry complaints and bitterness, not happy about losing freedom to do lots of things on Sundays. When what God asks us to do is not what we want to do, we showed our anger, just like what Jonah did when he preached to Nineveh. When we follow God by doing, we can’t be fruitful.

2.Follow God in Being 在being跟随神 (v.5-9)

It took only one day after Jonah’s message, the who city of Nineveh repented. They did not know God, and they used to think God would deal with them according to what they did. They might wonder why God would give them a notice period of 40 days because they did not know God’s mercy. If God really wanted to punish Nineveh, He would not have warned them in advance. The message was preached to Nineveh because God wanted to give Nineveh a chance, and this make them start to understand that their relationship with God was not by doing. However, do we Christians follow God by doing? Jonah spent 3 days to walk to Nineveh, but in every step he took, he only complained and never understood God’s heart. What is our attitude in the place where God has put us? In our family, work, or church, do we see blessing, or only complain? We need to be simple, and just follow God in being. After Adam and Eve were created, they did not see the blessings in the whole garden of Eden, but only saw the freedom of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and in the end, they are away from the tree of life. God gave us the being to be able to appreciate. Do not listen to the devil or ourselves, but only listen to God, and God already said “very good”.

Jonah did not like God’s way, but Nineveh city responded differently. Even though they did not know God, they learned that God is a merciful God, so the whole city fasted to repent.

3.God Sees What We Do 人在做神在看 (v.10)

A lot of times we do not think God will know what we do. When we were young, we did many naughty things and thought our parents or teachers would not know, but did they really not know? God knows everything we do. We might enjoy our sin in darkness, but that can never bring us true happiness. When we truly repent in front of God and people, we may need to pay a price, but we will gain back our freedom that we can choose not to do the wrong things.

The king in Nineveh chose to repent together with his people, God changed His plan and did not destroy Nineveh, because He is a loving God. When we follow God, how do we see God? What kind of God do we believe He is? He doesn’t bring judgement but wants us to return to Him. Let us be humble and not try to fight for our right, but just be simple to follow God, because He is love.