Life can be tough, but this message is about how God is always there for us during hard times. It talks about Jonah from the Bible, showing how sometimes we resist or don’t understand what God wants for us, leading to difficult situations. Trying to avoid what God is calling us to do can mess things up for us and those around us. The key is to trust that God has a plan, even when it doesn’t make perfect sense to us. When God calls us, we should believe that He will help us figure things out, even if we’re not sure how it will all work out right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The <\/em>Lord<\/em> gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai:<\/em> \u201cGet up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.\u201d But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. So the captain went down after him. \u201cHow can you sleep at a time like this?\u201d he shouted. \u201cGet up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.\u201d Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. \u201cWhy has this awful storm come down on us?\u201d they demanded. \u201cWho are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?\u201d Jonah answered, \u201cI am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.\u201d The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. \u201cOh, why did you do it?\u201d they groaned. And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, \u201cWhat should we do to you to stop this storm?\u201d \u201cThrow me into the sea,\u201d Jonah said, \u201cand it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.\u201d <\/em>Jonah 1:1-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. <\/em>Proverbs 14:12 (NKJV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, <\/em>Proverbs 3:5-6<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus replied, \u201cYou don\u2019t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will. <\/em>John 13:7<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. <\/em>John 1:4-5<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,\u201d says the <\/em>Lord<\/em>. <\/em> <\/em>\u201cAnd my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways <\/em> <\/em>and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.<\/em> Isaiah 55:8-9<\/p>\n\n\n\n The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.<\/em> The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, \u201cWho has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?\u201d But we have the mind of Christ. <\/em>1 Corinthians 2:14<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won\u2019t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one\u2014for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one\u2014for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God\u2019s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ\u2019s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, \u201cFor your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.\u201d) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God\u2019s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow\u2014not even the powers of hell can separate us from God\u2019s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below\u2014indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. <\/em>Romans 8:28-39<\/p>\n\n\n\n Life can be tough, but this message is about how God is always there for us during hard times. It talks about Jonah from the Bible, showing how sometimes we resist or don’t understand what God wants for us, leading to difficult situations. Trying to avoid what God is calling us to do can mess things up for us and those around us. The key is to trust that God has a plan, even when it doesn’t make perfect sense […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"ctc_sermon_topic":[],"ctc_sermon_book":[],"ctc_sermon_series":[],"ctc_sermon_speaker":[110],"ctc_sermon_tag":[],"class_list":["post-8915","ctc_sermon","type-ctc_sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ctc_sermon_speaker-jesse-loew","ctfw-has-image"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/8915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ctc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8915"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/8915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8936,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/8915\/revisions\/8936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_topic?post=8915"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_book?post=8915"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_series?post=8915"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_speaker?post=8915"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loah.org\/marsd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_tag?post=8915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}When You\u2019re Called (and you are), God Will Work It Out<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It won\u2019t always make sense<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
We shouldn\u2019t be Surprised<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
This is How God Works It Out<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This is how God works things out!<\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"