EDGE Spring 2008 – Lessons from Jonah

Anger or Disappointment

Welcome

The first person says a word...for example, "The." The second person says the first word and ADDS a word... "The clown." And so on. At the end you might have a complete sentence, something like, "The clown was in the pool when an ant bit his toe and made chocolate pudding squirt from his eye." It has to make sense, but not GOOD sense. The really fun thing is putting twists in the sentence on your turn so that other people have a hard time coming up with a word that fits.

Make the point that Jonah is a book with a series of twists, and in chapter 4 we have another one!

 

Worship

Psalm 36: 5-9

Read it, then look again at the different images. What one speaks most to you? Tell each other...

Praise God

 

Word

Have a quick recap of Jonah 1-3. Ie what was the message Jonah told the Ninevites?

Read Jonah 4

Looking at verses 1-4 – God asks ‘is it right to be angry about this?’

In what ways does Jonah have a right to be angry? What was it that made him angry?

 (Was it with God, or something to do with his own reputation?)

Why should Jonah not have been angry?

 Does this ever happen to us?

   We get angry or frustrated because God is blessing others more  than me / us

  We get angry cos our reputation will be damaged in some way?

Look at verses 5-9

What makes you happy? What makes you angry? What makes you ready to give up?

 How much are these in line with God’s values?

Compare Jonah to the older brother in the story of the Lost Son (Luke 15:25ff)

 For those of you who ‘grew up in a Church family’ – how can you protect yourselves against    becoming the older brother or a Jonah

Look at verse 10-11

What do you have compassion for? The world gets this completely wrong and shows more compassion for  a beached whale than a million trafficked children. Are you more concerned over a broken mobile or a  friend who doesn’t know Jesus?

 Can you answer God’s question with a positive yes – and yes I do too, I am concerned for the countless  millions, I rejoice when people come to know you, I am telling others, I am making it possible for others  to hear about you....

 

Witness

Pray for one another – that our anger and disappointments would be consumed by God, that we would have passion and compassion for the lost