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God's Love was Shown Through a Vine

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But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" [Jonah 4:10-11]

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This city was called Nineveh.
God planned to destroy this city because they had committed too many sins.

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One day, a prophet called Jonah came from Israel and shouted, "Everyone, if you don't repent God will destroy this city!" When the people from Nineveh heard this they panicked.

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So starting from the king to every person living there they fell to the ground and declared a fast and put on sackcloth and asked for forgiveness.
"God, please forgive us. We will not commit sins anymore."

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God is a loving God. God forgave them seeing that they had repented from their evil ways.
So he decided not to destroy Nineveh.

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The people of Nineveh were so happy. However, the prophet Jonah was not so happy about this. Because Jonah wanted all the people of Nineveh to die because they had attacked Israel many times.

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So he shouted to God saying, "If you were not going to destroy this city then why did you make me to speak like that? If you want to forgive these people of Nineveh, then kill me instead." Jonah was so angry.

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Then he went to a place where he could see the city of Nineveh well enough and there he built a hut. There he decided to wait and see what God would do to the city of Nineveh.

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God made a vine to grow where Jonah was staying. He made some shade for Jonah. Jonah felt really good because of the shade. He was thankful that the vine made it cooler for his little hut.

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However, the next dawn God sent a worm and made it to chew on the vine.
So the vine quickly died.

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When the sun rose, God made a hot wind to blow from the east. The sun shine was really hot above Jonah`s head. Jonah was so mad that the vine had died and it became really hot.

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Jonah blamed God for the dead vine by saying, "God, I think it's better for me to die!"
Jonah felt so wasted that the vine had died.

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God replied back to Jonah.
"Jonah, do you think blaming me for the dead vine is right?"
Jonah shouted back. "Yes, God. I am angry enough to die."

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God said to Jonah again."You did not plant that vine nor did you take care of it. And that vine appeared in one day and died, yet you still felt wasted and got mad at me, so is it not correct for me to care for the city of Nineveh that has more than twelve thousand people and many more animals there?

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The prophet Jonah was truly ashamed. God does not like to punish us.
God loves us so much that he takes care of us dearly.

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However, Jonah did know how to love other people more than the vine. We should not be selfish like Jonah. We should also love other people whom God loves and care for them very much.

(You can change the conclusion of this sermon best suiting to your listeners of this sermon. We want to make it clear that the provided conclusion is only a sample conclusion provided by CTM.)