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Sovereign Over All: In the series introduction to Jonah's story, we see all sorts of unexpected things. We see a prophet running from God. We see pagan sailors praying to and praising God. Most importantly, we see a God who is sovereign over all of creation, including the wind and the waves, the seas and the storms. Recorded on June 5, 2022, on Jonah 1, by Pastor David Parks. This message is part of our "Sovereign to Save" sermon series from the book of Jonah in the Bible. Jonah's story is well-known both in and outside the church for his encounter with the great fish. But Jonah is really about the incredible heart of a sovereign God to save even his enemies. Sermon Transcript All year, we’ve been focusing on, The Greatness of God. And today, we’re starting our last sermon series under that annual theme called “Sovereign to Save.” This series is from the book of Jonah in the Bible. The basic story of Jonah is well-known in and outside the church. But when you dig into what it actually says, you find a God who is sovereign, with divine power/authority over all. In Jonah, we see that this is a very good thing, because we find the great compassion and love of God, even for his enemies, and we see the lengths he went to save them. Our God is sovereign to save. Today, we’ll start the story by considering the sovereignty of God over all of creation. If you have a Bible/app, please open to Jonah 1. Jonah is a narrative, but since we’re working through a whole chapter, we’ll unpack it as we go. V. 1. Jonah 1:1-3 (NIV), “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.” Ok, let’s pause here. So why in the world would a prophet of God run from God? The answer really is because Jonah had a major problem, not with the message of God’s word, but with the intended audience. You see, God had called Jonah to go and preach to the great city of Nineveh, which was not in Israel. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. To give some context, we know from 2 Ki 14 that this was happening during the reign of Jeroboam II of Israel who reigned from around 750 - 800 BC, in other words, Jonah lived during a time of utter chaos/crisis for his people. The Assyrians were the most powerful empire in the world at that time and would eventually conquer Israel and kill many friends and family members of Jonah. Historians sometimes point out that the Assyrians were the first empire we have who used phycological warfare to terrify and subjugate the peoples they conquered. Let’s look at a map here. But when Jonah, son of Amittai, a prophet from the city of Gath Hepher in the northern kingdom of Israel was called to go some 700 miles to the northeast to Nineveh, instead, he flees to Tarshish, a city somewhere in the far west in the Mediterranean, perhaps in modern Spain, some 2,000 miles in the other direction. Why would he do such a thing? Later in chapter 4, we learn that Jonah did this because he knew what God was like, that God was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. And he knew that if the Assyrians listened to his preaching and repented (the goal of any good preacher), the Assyrians would receive the grace/mercy of God. And Jonah would rather disobey God than see his hated enemies receive the grace/mercy of God. How would God respond? Would he throw up his hands? Would he stomp his feet? Would his plans be somehow frustrated? Not for a second. v. 4. Jonah 1:4-6 (NIV), “Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten t...