After the Message

Consequences, Part One

If…Then

If you ignore your laundry piling up and up and up, you will run out of clothing to wear.

If you eat junk consistently, then you’re going to gain weight and have health issues.

If you spend more than you make, then you will end up in debt.

If you betray someone you love – a friend, a family member, your spouse – then you will lose trust.

And yet we…Do it anyway

(We know if we stay up late, we’ll be tired in the morning – but just this one last show on tv, a few more chapters in my book, a little more time on facebook, hey what about these other internet sites…)

Why? When we’re young we think we’re invincible (that bad stuff won’t happen to me, no one else will be affected, I have plenty of time to turn things around…). We get older and we figure we can manage things (I can take care of it, I’m in control…). Then we get really old and we think, who cares, what’s it going to hurt now.

Bottom line is we do it anyway because it feels good, it looks good, it sounds good and, after all, it’s my life anyway.

Nahum

- a minor prophet (minor as opposed to major b/c of population addressing and size of the book)

- Remnants of the Jonah story re-emerge - Jonah is the if…then… - goes to Nineveh, tells them to repent or get destroyed, so they repent

- 100 years later, Assyria is the world power, Nineveh is the capital – Judah is a vassal state

- Nineveh had heard the if..then, but yet they chose anyway to live in disobedience and rebellion to God

- What happens? Chapter 1:1-8, God tells Nineveh they’re going down, which they do (about 50 years after Nahum’s prophecy, Nineveh is destroyed, shortly after Assyria falls to Babylon)

Consequences are real. Not just an OT thing.

And still God…

Romans 5:8 - God proves His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

It's time to stop running from God and instead run toward God.