Surprises // Pastor Brad Johnson

California Community Church

WHAT CATCHES THE EYE AND HEART OF GOD Part 6 – Surprises! He loves SURPRISES! 1. It’s Surprising That God Let’s Us Choose Him, or Not! “The Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of Amittai; ‘Get up and go the great city of Nineveh! Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.’ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the Lord. He went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping that by going away to the west he could escape from the Lord.” Jonah 1:1-3 NLT “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away.” Romans 8:38 NLT 2. IT’S SURPRISING THAT GOD GIVES SECOND CHANCES (and third and fourth and…) “I will take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead.” Ez. 11:19 NLT “Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said, ‘I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and He answered me. I called you from the world of the dead, and Lord, you heard me…When I had lost all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to You…Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit up Jonah on the beach, and it did.” Jonah 1:17; 2:1-2, 7,10 NLT 3. IT IS SURPRISING THE LENGTHS TO WHICH GOD WILL GO IN ORDER TO BRING US BACK TO HIM “Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time.” Jonah 3:1 NLT God desires to forgive more than He desires to judge. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.” John 3:16,17 NAS