Jonah

If you could keep the Jonah passage open in front of you, that would be fantastic.

Let me add my Happy New Year to those who I haven't had the chance to see in the last

five or six days or whatever it's been.

Hopefully you have started well and hopefully this year will be a year in which you grow

in your love of God and your knowledge of Him.

And we're going to try and do that together tonight by beginning a series in Jonah.

And I did challenge you last week, I understand if you forgot, but I did challenge you that

we're actually going to look at Jonah, kind of all of it, every week.

So even though we read Jonah 1 just then and we're going to read Jonah 3 next week and Jonah

4 the week after, we're going to look at all of it.

So it would be a good idea to at some point in the next three weeks sit down and have a

crack at reading all of Jonah.

It's not a big ask and it will bless you as we work our way through the passage.

I'm going to pray and then we will start having a look at what it is God wants to teach us

from this.

Father God, we thank you for the chance to gather this evening.

We thank you for your word and the power that it has to shape us and to change us.

And we ask that tonight as we sit and as we reflect on the story of Jonah, that you would

give us a bigger vision of you, that the result of tonight would not be that we know more things,

but that we are different people.

We ask that your spirit would make us more and more like Jesus so that you get the glory.

Amen.

Amen.

When you truly believe something, it has to actually affect the way that you live or your

actions.

It's not enough to just say, I believe something.

You can always tell when the rubber hits the road whether or not this is something you have

a genuine conviction about.

I remember it's nearly 10 years ago now, for my 21st birthday, I was given a round the world

ticket.

And I was sitting on the plane struggling to sleep.

And one of the movies that I decided to watch in that plane was a movie called Super Size

Me.

I don't know if you remember this movie, but the basic premise is a guy called Morgan Spurlock,

cracker of a name, decided that it would be a good idea for a month to eat only McDonald's,

breakfast, lunch and dinner.

And the rules were, whenever a McDonald's employee suggested that he upsize his meal or would he

like fries or he had to say yes.

And he had to eat all of whatever came to him over the course of the month.

And so, you know, obviously there were people around him, his girlfriend, his friends that

were concerned about what might happen over the course of this experiment.

And the experiment went roughly like you would expect.

There's lots of him vomiting in it.

By the end of the month, he's fatter.

He's got a worse heart.

Everything's going bad for him.

And you can watch a movie like that.

And even I can watch a movie like that and say, McDonald's is bad for you.

McDonald's is going to do you damage.

But for some reason, the first thing I did when I got off that plane was go get a Big Mac.

I'd spent 45 minutes watching him eat and throw up and eat and throw up.

But all it did was make me want to eat McDonald's.

And so I could articulate that I believe McDonald's was bad.

But what I was doing actually betrayed that I believed something different.

I believed that this guy was an idiot and it wouldn't happen to me.

When you truly believe something, it changes your actions.

It changes what you do as well.

And so what about some of the things that we believe as Christians, as followers of God?

We believe that God is sovereign.

We believe that God is in control.

The Bible says it.

We claim it.

We encourage one another with it.

But do we live like God is in control?

Would people look at our lifestyle and the decisions we make and the priorities we have

and would they conclude from us that we believe God is in control?

When you hear about things like the earthquake in Haiti or the various tsunamis that have happened,

the global financial crisis, children dying of starvation,

can you still, when you hear that, say with confidence, God is in control?

Or do you feel a little bit embarrassed when your neighbours ask you, where's your God in that?

When your school friends or maybe even your family ask you, where's your God with all this stuff going on,

can you still confidently say he's in control?

Or do you start to feel a bit apologetic?

What about in your own life?

When difficult times come, do you feel like God is losing his grip?

As you wrestle with the stress of paying bills,

as you deal with the death of someone close to you,

as you wrestle with the loneliness of being the only single person

when all your friends have husbands or wives or boyfriends or girlfriends,

in those moments, do you still act like God is in control?

Or do you start to wonder whether or not he's actually powerful enough

to be in control of everything that's happening in the world?

Or what about in the good times?

You get a promotion, you get a pay rise,

you celebrate the birth of a child, an anniversary,

you're feeling healthy, you're secure financially.

At that point, do you stop and thank God for what he's given you?

Or do you reflect on how hard you've worked

and how wise you've been with your finances

and how much exercise you've done

and how you've looked after yourself health-wise?

Yeah, we believe God is in control, we say it,

but what about our actions?

Do our lives actually speak that we believe that truth?

Or is it just a trite theory that we throw out there occasionally

because that's what we're supposed to believe as Christians?

If there is a difference between what we say we believe

and how we're living,

then we need to ask God to show us what is really true.

And we need to ask him to show it to us in such a way

that our life matches up with what we claim to believe

so that our words and our actions become one.

And so tonight, maybe for you,

you need to humbly come before God

and ask him to shape how you live

in light of the truth that he wants to show you tonight.

I want to ask two questions as we wrestle with Jonah.

Basically, can God and will God?

Open up to Jonah chapter 1.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

Is God really in control?

Jonah is a man in a privileged position when it comes to God.

So, bit of background, Jonah's a prophet,

which means God speaks to Jonah

and then, like, personally speaks to Jonah

and then Jonah goes and passes that message on to other people.

So, out of all the people,

you would expect Jonah to have a level of confidence

in God's sovereignty and power more than anyone else.

He's got the direct line to God who created everything.

He knows stuff.

Jonah would speak to God's people.

He knows that God is in control and he believes it.

It's part of being a Hebrew.

He would have memorized the Scriptures.

He would have learned big chunks of the Old Testament

so that he could have confidently quoted Scripture to you.

But does his life actually match his so-called belief

in God's control and God's sovereignty?

Look at verse 1 with me.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai.

Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it

because its wickedness has come up before me.

But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.

He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port.

After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish

to flee from the Lord.

Jonah knows that God is in control.

That would have been one of the messages

that he was told to keep proclaiming to the people

and yet, given a specific instruction from God,

he thinks he can run away.

God sends him on a very specific mission.

There's no possibility that he just got the city wrong

and accidentally went in the wrong direction.

God says, go to this city with this message

and Jonah says, actually, no, I don't want to do that

and I'm going to run away.

It's kind of ridiculous.

God, who created the whole earth,

has given Jonah a job

and he thinks by going to a city

other than the one that God sent him to

that he'll be able to get away from the God

who created the whole earth,

including the city that he's trying to run away to.

It's kind of like when little kids play hide and seek

and the way they hide is they cover their eyes

and say, you can't see me.

It doesn't actually work like that.

I can still see you.

I don't have the same limitation that you have.

And Jonah is basically doing that to God.

It's like covering his eyes and going,

you can't find me.

I've gone somewhere else.

God knows exactly where he is.

God is not limited like us.

He is everywhere all the time.

He is all-knowing.

He knows Jonah's plans

before he even decides to run away.

And it is ridiculous

that Jonah thinks he can run away

from the God who has been speaking to him

and giving him messages his life.

But as ridiculous as it sounds,

you and I do the same sort of thing.

We get to the point in our life

where we think we're more powerful than God.

When we face struggles,

when we face decisions,

it is amazing how self-absorbed we can be

to think that we will be better

looking after ourselves.

I mean, it doesn't take a lot of comparison

to understand that we are fairly unimpressive

when we stand next to God.

Yet somehow we just block that out of our mind

and act like I can handle this better than you, God.

I'm struggling to pay rent,

but I'm pretty sure I can somehow come up with it.

And God is sitting there going,

I made money.

I made everything.

I own everything.

Yet we choose to trust ourselves.

It doesn't take much looking at yourself

to realise you're actually not in control of anything.

One of the things that reminds me of this regularly

is our inability to control the weather.

Not that long ago,

a fair few of us went to an engagement party

for our resident meteorologist.

It rained and we had to move the party to a house.

You are not in control no matter how much you want to be.

You are not in control of how many cars will be on the road

when you're trying to get somewhere in a hurry.

You are not even in control of your own health.

You can try and do things like exercise and eat well

that you think will make all the difference,

but the reality is you're still not in control.

I remember the day quite distinctly,

several years ago,

when after a series of tests and a whole bunch of issues,

I was told that I had a disease

and I would have it for the rest of my life.

Now despite what some people would like to say,

it's not the result of my lifestyle.

It has nothing to do with what I have or haven't eaten.

I just have a disease because that's the way God decided for my life to go.

I am not in control and neither are you.

No matter how hard I try, no matter how hard you try,

no matter how fantastic you think you are,

God alone is in control.

He created heaven.

He created earth.

He did it just by speaking.

God can make people sick.

He sends plagues on Egypt.

He can heal people.

We see it over and over again in the gospel.

He can part the Red Sea and people walk across as if it's dry land

and he defeats even death in his son when he raises him.

God can forgive sin and we are reminded over and over in scripture from Job 42.

I know you can do all things.

No plan of yours can be thwarted.

Psalm 135.

I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods.

The Lord does whatever pleases him.

There is nothing and no one that can stand between the creator God

and his design and his desire.

And yet, when we get faced with situations,

we still think that we are more trustworthy than God

when it comes to handling what is happening in our lives.

Listen to how God achieves his purpose in Jonah.

Look at verse 4.

Jonah is running away and it says, verse 4,

the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose

that the ship threatened to break up.

All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God

and they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

But Jonah had gone below deck where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

Jonah is running away and God could have sent somebody else to go get Jonah.

He could have forgotten about Jonah and sent somebody else to go to Nineveh.

But God is so in control of every aspect of creation that he can just make a storm happen in such a way

that sailors who spend their lives on the sea are so fearful for their life that they know this is not normal.

They know somebody has made this storm happen.

And straight away they start to ask questions.

God can create a storm.

God can provide a fish to swallow Jonah.

It could have been judgment.

It could have been him saving him.

It's probably a bit of both.

But what really matters is that it's God who provides the fish.

It's there explicitly.

Verse 17.

The Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah

and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

It's God's mighty hand that guides these events.

It's not an accident.

It's not chance.

It's not unlucky.

It's God.

Because God has a plan and that is for Nineveh to hear that they are living in a way that angers God

and he has a plan to use Jonah to tell them

and so he will do whatever he needs to do

to make sure that Jonah gets to where he's supposed to be.

When we grab even the smallest amount of how much greater God is than us,

how much more powerful, how infinitely sovereign he is,

suddenly our attempts to look after our own lives seem kind of stupid.

The Bible describes our life as being like a mist

that appears in the morning for a moment and then is burned up by the sun.

Our God is eternal.

We are less than a drop of water and he is more than an ocean.

There is no comparison between our God and us.

He is indescribably powerful.

Powerful beyond our comprehension.

There is absolutely nothing that is too big for God.

There is no situation you will face that he is not powerful to change.

So why is it that we still presume in our lives

to think we can control things better than he can?

Why is it that we hold on to things till the absolute last minute

until we've been proved powerless before we give them to him?

Why is it that we are so fearful of possibility and circumstance

when God has shown himself time and time again

to be all-powerful, to be in control?

But maybe your issue isn't whether or not God can control things.

Maybe your question, maybe the doubt in your life is,

will God control things in my life?

Will he control things in a way that is good for me?

Maybe you can acknowledge God is powerful

and his big plan of sending Jesus and saving people.

Yep, I get that.

He's in control.

But whether or not I get picked on at school,

whether or not I can afford to pay my rent,

those are just kind of minor details

and God doesn't have time for those.

Maybe you're not confident that God cares enough

to work into your specific day-to-day moments.

I remember just after Sal and I got married,

we moved into a fairly small house in Newtown.

When we got there, there wasn't any furniture

and being an old house, there wasn't any storage either.

So I survived what most young married men fear,

an afternoon trawling the aisles of Ikea.

The only incentive to get me over the line

was the $2 hot dog and Pepsi that was waiting at the end.

And it's been incentive to get me back a few times as well.

But somehow I survived our journey to Ikea

and we managed to buy a cupboard that would house my clothes.

And once we got home,

people who know me know that I'm not particularly handy.

I'm also not a details person.

So I saw the picture on the front cover of the instructions

and put that to the side and set to work

putting together this flat pack cupboard.

Now, I got to the end feeling pretty proud of myself

with a handful of screws and nails left over.

That is never a good sign.

I also decided that putting the back on the cupboard

was going to be a waste of effort

because there was a lot of nails that had to go around that.

And it already had sides in the top and bottom.

So I put it up against the wall

and it was kind of a little bit slanted.

I could push it back straight

and then I tried to hold it, but I gave up.

So I had a slanted cupboard for a few years.

But it held clothes.

So that's what a cupboard's supposed to do.

So I was content.

It didn't look great.

It was kind of broken really,

but it was holding clothes and that was enough.

Is that how you think God looks at you?

Do you think he is only interested in you

so long as you're breathing and a person

and then from his perspective, he's ticked the box?

Do you think that his interest in you finishes

so long as you're alive?

Do you think God doesn't care about the details of your life,

that he's got bigger things to worry about?

You need to understand that God is a master craftsman.

God lovingly and carefully moulded you and shaped you.

Before you were even born, before the earth existed,

he planned every minute of every day that he would give you.

The psalmist reminds us that God knits us together

in our mother's womb.

And as your heavenly father,

God is intimately involved in every second of your life.

God, as your heavenly father,

is heavily invested in every second of your life.

Parents don't give birth to their children

and then shrug their shoulders and say,

good luck, it's up to you now.

Parents feed their children.

They bathe their children.

They clothe their children.

They help them when they fall.

They laugh with them.

They cry with them.

Even when children move out,

parents continue to ride the bumps

that go with kids having their own kids

and all the other joys.

God is our heavenly father

and he cares so much more

than any human parent.

He can't and he won't leave us alone.

Even when it seems like the details of your life

are mundane and unimportant,

God, as your heavenly father,

cares so much for you

that he cares so much about those details.

Look at the way God manipulates

and directs and guides minor details

in Jonah's story

so that he gets where he's supposed to get to.

Verse 7.

Then the sailors said to each other,

come, let us cast lots

to find out who is responsible

for this calamity.

They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

So they asked him,

tell us who is responsible

for making all this trouble for us.

What do you do?

Where do you come from?

What's your country?

From what people are you?

He answered, I am a Hebrew

and I worship the Lord,

the God of heaven

who made the sea and the land.

This terrified them

and they asked,

what have you done?

They knew he was running away from the Lord

because he had already told them so.

The sea was getting rougher and rougher

so they asked him,

what should we do to you

to make the sea calm down for us?

Pick me up

and throw me into the sea,

he replied,

and it will become calm.

I know that it is my fault

this great storm has come upon you.

God makes sure

that the lot falls with Jonah.

It's not chance,

it's not accident,

it's not fluke.

God makes sure

that the lot falls with Jonah.

God even guides Jonah's words

and his conversation

so that while Jonah

is in the middle

of running away

from God's plan for his life,

God can use him

to proclaim to a boat

full of scared sailors

that the God in heaven

is the one

who controls the wind

and the waves.

In chapter 4,

we see God grow a small tree

to give Jonah shade.

In 1 Samuel,

we see God hear

the individual prayers

of a barren woman

and he gives her a son.

God has painstakingly

planned out all of creation

from day dot in the garden

until it comes

to its rightful conclusion

and not one day,

not one minute,

not one second

has been left to chance

in God's plan.

There is no maybe

in God's design.

Such is his infinite wisdom

and power

and such is his love

and care

that he is perfectly

in control.

There is nothing

that can stop God

but he is so loving

that even the unimportant

or mundane details

to us

matter to him.

Now I need to warn you

before we move on

just because God can

and just because God loves you

doesn't mean

he will always do

what you want.

It could be that

you don't think

or you question

God's sovereignty

because you have

prayed for something

and you didn't get it

because you have prayed

to avoid something

and you did get it.

God doesn't always promise

to do it our way.

What he does promise

is that he is

infinitely powerful,

there is nothing

that can stand in his way

and that he loves us.

That's what he promises.

He does promise

that he will always

work for our good

but he never promises

that our good

will always line up

with what we think

it should be.

God is powerful

beyond our comprehension

and he cares more

than we will ever

begin to understand

in this life.

life.

If you question

whether or not God

can work in your situation,

the answer is found

in Jesus.

If you question

whether or not God

wants to work

in your situation,

the answer is found

in Jesus.

When we get to Jesus,

we face

the most formidable foe

that this life knows,

death.

And in Jesus'

death and resurrection,

God proves that there is

nothing more powerful

than him.

He proves to you

that there is nothing

you will face

in your life

that he is not

sovereign over.

And in giving us Jesus,

he proves that there is

nothing that he will

hold back.

Let me read to you

a verse from Romans

Romans 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8.

He who did not

spare his own son

but gave him up

for us all,

how will he not

also along with him

graciously give us

all things?

In the moments

where you doubt

God's love for you

and his willingness

to pay whatever it costs

to ensure

that you are cared for,

that your life

is for your good

and his glory,

remember Jesus.

God has already

given you the most

valuable thing

he could give you.

He's already paid

the highest cost

he could pay.

And it is ridiculous

to think that

having sacrificed

his son,

he would then

hold back

on something else,

something small.

The answer

to our doubt

is Jesus.

The answer

to our fear

is Jesus.

But the question

remains,

what will it look like

for us to not

simply believe

that God is sovereign,

what will it look like

for us to live

that conviction?

What will it look like

to show others

that we are confident

in that?

Let me suggest

two things.

Firstly,

if you really believe

that God is in control

of every part

of your life

and all of this creation,

then you will pray more.

Now that sounds

counterintuitive

because we think

if God's sovereign

and he's in control,

then God's going to do

what God's going to do

and there's no point

to pray.

But if you believe

that God is powerful,

if you believe

that God loves you,

then when you are in need,

you will fall on your knees

and cry out

to the one person

who has the power

to redeem you,

to save you,

to provide for you.

The one person

who has the power

to work in every situation.

In good times,

you will stop

thanking yourself

because you will recognize

that it is God

who has given you

the blessings.

You will pray

to thank him

for your life,

for your home,

for oxygen,

for beautiful weather,

for friends,

for family,

for the countless

good things

he has given you.

When you believe

that God is sovereign

and in control,

then like Job,

you will be able

to proclaim,

naked I came

from my mother's womb,

naked I will depart,

the Lord gave

and the Lord has taken away,

may the name

of the Lord be praised.

In darkness

and suffering,

you will still

be confident

because your God

is powerful

and your God

loves you.

Second thing,

knowing that God

is in control

means peace.

Doesn't mean

that your life

will be easy,

doesn't mean

that it will be

event free

or pain free,

but a life

that is confident

in a powerful

loving God,

a life that is confident

in his unbreakable

promise to always,

in all things,

work for the good

of those who love him.

That means,

good or bad,

whether you can see

how God's working

or not,

if you know

your powerful

loving God,

you can be confident

that his plan

is still being

accomplished.

That even as you

suffer and struggle,

that God is loving

you in that moment,

that he is there

with you

and that he is

working for your

good and his glory.

We have the great

promise of scripture,

Jesus' own words

in John chapter 10,

John 10 · chapter mention

I give them

eternal life

and they shall

never perish,

no one can snatch

them out of my hand.

God's plan

for your life

finishes in heaven

with him.

And Jesus promises

here that nothing

can change that.

Once you have

trusted him,

no circumstance,

no doubt,

no suffering,

no pain,

nothing can snatch

you out of his hand.

And so whatever

you face in your life,

you can rejoice

confidently in your

God who is

infinitely powerful

and infinitely loving.

With your eternity

secure,

it is so much easier

to live in the

temporary difficulties

that we face now

because nothing

can snatch us

out of his hand.

God's sovereignty

will lead us

to prayer

and peace

just like it did

for Jonah.

In chapter 2,

just after what

Gus read,

from the belly

of the fish,

Jonah finally

realizes he

can't run

from God.

God's plan

will not be

stopped.

And so how

does he respond?

He prays.

He prays

because in that

helpless moment

he recognizes

again and afresh

God is powerful

but God is loving.

God sent that fish

to make sure

Jonah couldn't

get away

but also to save

him

and to give him

a second chance

to fulfill the purpose

that God

had given him.

Jonah still

stuffs up,

he still questions

God,

he still makes

mistakes even

through the rest

of this book

but as he is

confronted with

his powerful

loving God

he prays

and he stops

running

and he trusts.

Just as we finish

I want to give you

two challenges.

We're beginning

a new year.

We're a week in

and maybe you

didn't make

a new year's

resolution,

maybe you did,

it doesn't really

matter.

Forget about

new year

and just see

today as an

opportunity to

start.

I want to suggest

two things

that I think

will help you

this year begin

to believe

that God is in

control.

Not to just say

it, not just to

be able to

articulate it

but to truly

believe.

Firstly,

get to know

what God has

promised you.

I think that

one of the basic

things that leads

us to doubt

God's goodness

is that we

actually don't

know what it

is that he's

promised us.

And so in our

moment of suffering

or our moment

of need,

we doubt God

because he's not

giving us what

we want and we

think that he

should.

But it might be

that he hasn't

promised that.

My disease will

continue in my

body for as long

as God leaves it

there or until

Jesus comes back.

I have a deep

desire that he

would take it

away, it would

make my life

easier.

But God has

not promised

anywhere that he

will do that.

When Jesus

comes back, I

know then,

finally, my

body will be

cleansed and

all sickness

and death

will be removed,

but until then

there is no

promise that

that sickness

will get healed.

But God

does promise

me that in

all things he

is working

for my

good.

If we don't

know the

promises of

God in our

dark times and

in our doubt

and in our

good times,

we will be

distracted, we

will doubt, we

will question,

but when we

grab hold of

what God has

guaranteed in

his son Jesus,

we will know

the peace and

the confidence

of dearly loved

children.

Lastly,

sorry, just

before I move

on, let me

re-endorse what

Janet talked about

before, the

Bible reading

plan.

If you're already

reading the Bible

another way, that's

fantastic, but if

you're like me, I've

been a Christian for a

long time and

still every year I

struggle to be

committed in the

way I spend time

in the Word.

This would be a

great thing for us

to do because we

would all be

reading it together

or even a whole

bunch of us reading

it together and

encouraging one

another with what

God is teaching

us and praying for

one another in line

with what God is

teaching us.

If you struggle and

you need structure,

please get that

Bible reading plan.

It's not perfect,

but it's designed to

help you get to know

the promises of God

so that you can

believe that God is

powerful and that

God loves you.

And lastly, pray.

Ask for God to

help you to trust

him.

No amount of

trying really hard

to trust God will

actually achieve it.

No amount of

gritting your teeth

will actually make

the difference.

For us to trust

God, we need to

see him in all his

power and glory.

We need to see his

love in Jesus on

the cross and we

need God's Holy

Spirit to do that

in us.

We need him to

transform our hearts

so that what we can

say and what we

think becomes what we

believe and how we

live.

So pray.

And not just for

yourself.

Pray for your

brothers and sisters

around you.

Pray that we would

be a people marked by

confidence in our

sovereign God.

Pray that people,

when they meet us,

before we even say

the words, God is in

control, they would

see a peace in us

that can't be explained

any other way.

Pray that we would

be a community that

declares the majesty

and glory of our

mighty, sovereign,

powerful and loving

creator for his

sake.

Give you a

â.