JONAH 3:5-10: Running Into God's Grace Part 6

If you’ve been a parent for any length of time, or maybe you’re not a parent but you’ve spent time around kids, you probably have learned a couple of things.  Obviously, you learn how to change your share of diapers.  You’ve learned how to burp a baby. If you have girls with long hair you’ve learned how to do hair, which isn’t a great feat for most women, but for someone like me who has little experience with hair, that can be a big deal. You’ve learned how to be quick at catching that arm as they go to throw the toy, or how to grab them as they try to run off into the road.  But one thing I’ve learned that usually goes all across the board is that when a baby cries, you respond.  When a baby cries it’s a sign that they need something.  It could be a bottle, or a diaper change, or just some cuddles, but when they are screaming we try to figure out why.  And we have certain ways of figuring out what a baby needs and making sure we don’t miss a crying babe. I brought with me a little something to illustrate this.  I have a baby monitor.  Baby monitors are great.  Today there are video monitors so that you can actually see the baby.  I remember ours as children—we used to pretend they were walkie talkies and it was so cool that you could talk to the person on the other end, only they couldn’t talk back because they were one way. And these have developed over the years.  Someone told me that growing up their monitor used to interfere with the neighbor’s and they would pick up conversations from the neighbors house.  But we use baby monitors because we understand the importance of hearing a baby when he or she cries and making sure there isn’t a problem.  Wherever we are and whatever we’re doing, we want to make sure we can hear the cries of the baby.   What about our spiritual lives?  Sometimes we cry out to God.  And we might tend to wonder—is he listening?  Does he hear?  Will God hear the cries of his children?  This week we’ve been reminded again that our world is broken. Violence and hatred spill across our screens, and many of us are left asking—does God even hear when we cry out? Does He care about what’s happening? Now here’s the good news—God doesn’t just hear the cries of the ‘super-spiritual’ or the people who’ve got life all figured out. He hears anyone who calls out to Him. That’s what we’re going to see today. As we come to our passage today we learn the answer to the question of if God hears us—the answer is yes.  God does hear the cries of those who call out to him—he hears the cries of anyone who turns to him in trust.  Just like we have baby monitors to help us hear the cries of a baby, so God hears the cries of those who turn to him!  That’s our big idea today—if this is the only thing you remember this morning, remember this.   Big Idea: God hears the cries of anyone who turns to Him!