March 15, 2026
Be Bold
- Matt Nickoson
Sermon Notes
Jonah 2:8 NIV
“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.”
“…an idol (is) anything that we come to rely on for some blessing, or help, or guidance in the place of a wholehearted reliance on the true and living God” – John Piper, Desiring God: What is an Idol?
Dagon (Originally: “Dagan”) - He was the fish god, and is sometimes represented as a half-man, half-fish creature.
Jonah 2:9 NIV
“But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
Jonah 2:10 NIV
And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Be Bold: You never know how God is using your story to communicate His!
Jonah 3:1 NIV
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
Jonah 3:2 NIV
“Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
Jonah 3:3 NIV
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.
Jonah 3:4 NIV
Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
Matthew 10:32-33 NIV
“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”
Be Bold: God is worth the risk!
Jonah 3:5 NIV
The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
Jonah 3:6 NIV
When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.
Jonah 3:7 NIV
This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.”
Be Bold: Real repentance produces real transformation.
Acts 19:18-20 NIV
Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
Be Bold: Tell your story with your words and your life!
Jonah 3:8 NIV
“But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.”
Acts 2:21 NIV
“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
Jonah 3:9 NIV
“Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
Jonah 3:10 NIV
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Jonah 3:19 NIV
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,”