God Will Get Your Undivided Attention-Jonah 3:1-5 Sermon

God Will Get Your Undivided Attention
Jonah 3:1-5 Sermon
Pastor Kevin Bullock
Payne Chapel AME Church
Houston, Texas

Controversy in any form makes for a captivating spectacle to grab millions of eyes; and as our media gets faster and faster, it becomes more fragmented; to where now the most miniscule public slip of the tongue or passive-aggressive celebrity comment or hypocritical political image can become a spectacle. More collectively, spectacles take the form of public protests and riots framed for the camera and published to hold a collective gaze for a particular purpose.

Spectacles can be a brilliant photograph, an eye-catching billboard, a creative animation, a sexualized advertisement for deodorant, a witty commercial for fast food, or a new music video. Spectacles can be mind-blowing digital landscapes in a video game, or a celebrated network TV show, a blockbuster movie or horror film or even a sports clip of an athlete’s glory or injury. All of these are spectacles. Today there’s stiff competition for eyes in this “attention driven world,” all driven by the waves of new spectacles to grab our attention. Many of us know how this dynamic works when we make our own spectacles online in social media, hoping we will grab some attention and be celebrated, liked, shared, or re-tweeted

God however always wants the best for us, and He is committed to showing us how to follow the specific plan He has designed for each of our lives; and to listen for His voice to hear what He wants us to do and how He wants us to do it. And when we begin to wander from the course God has set for us, He will take all kinds of measures to capture our attention and protect us from harm by disrupting our plans; and this isn’t God being mean; but He is forcing us to slow down and to focus more on Him. And to do this God will sometimes use extreme circumstances and situations to get our attention and the circumstances can be so unusual that we can't help but stop and listen.

Sometimes, God steps in and tries to catch our attention in situations which we are unable to pay attention: because in some way we are blocked from perceiving the truth of a situation, because our vision is skewed and cannot give us the information we need. Sometimes God uses our intense emotions to pull us toward compassion and comfort when we encounter events that shake us up or lead to a potential tragedy or disaster. God steps in to catch our attention not because He is irritated with us but because He understands how life and our own internal turmoil can get in the way of our progress. So God allows mercy to surprises us, or a sudden thunderstorm or even a winter storm helps us cry and finally say an honest prayer. And the iconic motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar shares his winning philosophy said that a — “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”



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