At The Movies // A God that is Pursuing You

You've seen Finding Nemo before.

Finding Nemo, oh, yes, yes, so you know.

You know, it's a story about a dad that pursues after his son because he loves his son and he values his son and he cares about his son.

Now, what I want us to do real quick, is I want you to think in your mind of something that you value, something important to you.

Maybe it's a purchase you recently made, maybe it's a family heirloom.

Maybe it's Michael Jordan tennis shoes oh wait, that's just me.

Maybe it's a person.

You got it, got it, okay.

Does somebody want to say what it is came to their mind?

Family, okay, something else, somebody else.

His motorcycle, that's what I'm talking about.

Motorcycle, that's right.

Keeping it real, yep, somebody else.

Anybody else.

Convertible, her convertible, let's go.

That is valuable.

Yeah.

Your dog yeah, that's valuable.

Absolutely Somebody.

Anybody in the younger generation.

Younger generation, what's that?

Shoes, that's right.

Shoes, that's what I'm talking about.

Anybody in the more experienced generation Tools, tools, tools, tools, right, tools, right.

These are children.

These are all things that are really valuable.

Now, what would you do if you lost one of these things?

What would you do if you couldn't find one of these things?

Well, the length and how much energy you would spend to finding that or getting that thing back would be dependent on how much you value it.

Now, chances are you probably have some loose change around your house, probably have a penny somewhere.

Now, if you lost a penny, what I can almost guarantee you wouldn't do is you wouldn't say I lost that penny.

Where's it?

At Like, let's look under the couch, let's look in the couch cushion.

Is it in the junk drawer?

We got to find that penny.

It's worth a cent.

No, you wouldn't, because it's not that valuable.

No, what if you lost your dog, though?

To what extent would you go to find your dog?

What about this?

What if you lost your child?

What about this?

What if you lost your cat?

That's a bad example.

I'm sorry, guys, not the cat.

If you lost something of value, you would go great, to great extent, to find it.

You are valuable to God.

You're valuable to God, and God went to great lengths to find you.

He gave his son Jesus to come and die on the cross for you, and he didn't just give his son Jesus to come and die for us, but he pursues after us, even in the moments in our life when we aren't pursuing after him, even in the moments in our life when we're not as after him, even in the moments in our life when we're not as lovable.

You guys ever had a moment like that where you're not quite as lovable?

Is the person sitting next to you ever had a moment?

No, don't raise your hand, okay?

No, even in those moments when, if you were God and you're honest, you would give up on you and you're honest, you would give up on you.

But God, god doesn't give up on you and God pursues you.

This actually takes us to a place where God pursued somebody in a very unlikely way.

It takes us to the book of Jonah, and the book of Jonah is all about a prophet.

Does anybody want to guess what the prophet's name is in the book of Jonah?

The prophet's name is A bunch of intellectually smart, bright people in the room today Jonah.

And growing up, I was rightly taught that the book of Jonah is about a man that ran away from God.

God wanted Jonah to go to a city called Nineveh and Jonah said I don't want to go.

But as much as it's about a man that walked away from God, it's about a God that pursued after a man, and even though Jonah walked away from God.

God pursued after Jonah and God didn't pursue him.

Because God said I'm mad at Jonah, I want to put him in a headlock and let him know you don't run from me.

God pursued him because he valued him and God pursued him because he valued him and God pursued him because he loved him.

And my prayer this morning is that some of us, maybe for the first time in a long time, or maybe for the first time in our entire lives, that we'll see a picture of a loving, gracious God that pursues after us and will stop at no lengths to find us.

So we're going to pick it up in Jonah, chapter 1.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

If you're ready for the word, would you say amen?

Jonah 1, verse number 1.

It says the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai.

Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh.

Everybody say Nineveh ready.

Go to Nineveh and preach against it, because their evil has come up before me Now.

The city of Nineveh was a part of the Assyrian Empire and these people were ruthless and these people were cruel.

They had a thirstless desire for blood and violence and they wouldn't just kill people, but they would torture them and they would put it on display for their friends and family to see, and they were experts at figuring out how to make torture as painful as possible.

Yeah, these aren't very nice people.

If they lived today, they would be considered a terrorist state.

This would be a place I'm going to kind of go out on a limb and guess that you probably wouldn't want to spend a weekend there.

And God told Jonah to go to that place.

So guess what Jonah did?

Verse 3, he did what probably most of us would do he got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord's presence.

Now, is Tarshish Nineveh, yes or no?

No, he went down to Joppa.

He found a ship going to Tarshish.

He paid the fare and went down into it to go with him to Tarshish from the Lord's presence.

Did you notice that Jonah didn't even respond to what God told him to Tarshish from the Lord's presence?

Did you notice that Jonah didn't even respond to what God told him to do?

He just jumped on a ship and went to Tarshish.

Here's a question Where's Tarshish at?

Let's check it out.

That's the end of the known world.

Literally, you couldn't go any further.

There's no America yet there's none of that stuff.

Christopher Columbus had not sailed the ocean blue, yet he went as far away as he possibly could.

Here's what happened Jonah walked away from God.

So he did.

Jonah was a prophet, a prophet, somebody that would speak to the people on behalf of God.

2 Kings chapter 14 tells us that Jonah was a successful prophet.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

He had spoken the truth to God's people.

Jonah being a prophet, he had spent time with God.

Jonah being a prophet, he had spent time with God.

He knew God's ways, he knew God's laws.

And on the surface, we could say Jonah, don't you know better than this?

You knew the law, you knew.

You talked to God Like why would you run from God?

Why didn't you trust God and go to Nineveh?

Well, I mean, the answer is pretty simple think about where God was asking him to go.

Would you volunteer to go there?

Jonah walked away because, well, god asked him to do something that he didn't understand, he didn't sign up for and was not easy.

That's why God asked him to do something.

That it's like Nineveh Of all places.

When Jonah was going to the school of prophets, he didn't say I want to go to Nineveh, I sign up for this, and it wasn't easy.

This was unbelievably inconvenient and hard.

You know that sometimes what God will do is God will come to us, whether that's through his spirit, whether that's through his word, whether that's through a message.

It could be a whole host of ways and sometimes what God will do is God will tell you to do something that you don't understand, that you didn't sign up for.

That is not easy.

Some of you know what I'm talking about.

Maybe you're spending some time in the Word, maybe you're on that YouVersion devotional Bible app and something comes up about.

Maybe in your life there's some, maybe some bitterness or some resentment from something that happened and you know, based on Scripture, like you should forgive.

God's telling you to do that, but you're like I don't understand why I would forgive them for what they did.

It was so.

I don't understand why would God ask us to do that?

Maybe there can be a time in your life where God's leading you to take a step out of your comfort zone.

Maybe somebody here at FCC, maybe a leader, does a little shoulder tap where they ask you to take a step and be involved in something here and serve somewhere here.

And you think I can't be a growth group coordinator, I can't serve in a ministry, like I didn't.

I didn't sign up for this.

Get your hand off my shoulder.

I didn't sign up for this.

Get your hand off my shoulder.

But you know in your heart that God's leading you to do something.

Maybe you're in your life and you're growing in your faith and you come to church most of the time when you don't get the invite to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom or you don't, and you know that God is leading you to prioritize gathering with the local church because you understand the importance of it for your spiritual health, to make church not just be something that you do out of convenience but something you do out of priority, kind of like we brush our teeth out of priority, not just out of convenience.

Well, except for the middle schoolers and we're like this isn't easy to prioritize this and what God will do is God will ask us to do things that we don't understand, that we didn't sign up for.

That is not easy and if you're like me, what I tend to do is, when I'm at that place where God is leading me to take a step in a place I don't understand, I don't sign up for or it's not easy, I tend to justify reasons why I can't take a step or why I won't take a step.

Are any of you guys like me?

And you're really good at justifying things?

Okay, there's like four of you are honest.

Okay, right, I think as humans, we're pretty good at justifying things right Justifying why we can, or justify why we won't go to our proverbial Nineveh.

I know God's word says this.

I know God's spirit is leading me to do this and when God leads us to take a step it's really important to know this when God guides you to take a step, it isn't about the step that he wants you to take.

It's not about the specific step, but about trusting and obeying him.

Sometimes, what happens is we can get so caught up in the step, that specific step that God's letting us take.

We're like I can't do this.

When it's not about the step.

It's about us learning to trust and obey God.

You know Nineveh for Jonah wasn't about Nineveh.

It really wasn't.

It wasn't.

Like God wasn't up there in heaven saying man like I need the only person that I can find to go to Nineveh would be Jonah.

If Jonah doesn't go to Nineveh, I'm out of options, I'm in trouble.

What's going to happen?

Jonah like please go to Nineveh, please go.

No, it wasn't that God could have used anybody he wanted.

God could have raised anybody up he wanted, and God wanted Jonah to learn to trust him.

And the step, the specific step of going to Nineveh for Jonah was not about going to Nineveh but about trusting and obeying God.

Has it ever occurred to you that God cares more about your trust and obedience to him than what you do for him?

Has it ever occurred to you I'm going to humble some people right here that God really doesn't need you?

God doesn't need you, but God wants you and God wants to grow you.

And the way that you're going to grow is by taking a step of faith, a step of obedience to your proverbial Nineveh.

And there are some times in our life where we don't take that step and what God will do is God will pursue us like he pursued Jonah.

Let's pick it up.

In verse number four it says the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea.

The word through here is also the word that's used in different places to communicate somebody throwing a spear or throwing a weapon, so throwing something at somebody.

So get this.

Jonah is walking away from God.

He doesn't want to take this step, so what God does is God says I'm going to pursue Jonah by throwing this great wind, this great storm, onto the sea.

Now check out how big of a storm this was.

It was such a great storm that arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart.

It's not one of those little california rainstorms we get, you know.

I mean, the rain comes down a little bit and we all like freak out and we're like hiding.

Yeah, now this, this is a major rainstorm here.

The sailors they were afraid each cried out to his God.

These were pagan people.

They didn't worship the God of Israel, so they're all crying out to their God.

They threw the ship's cargo into the sea to lighten the load, because they're scared.

The ship is going to sink.

Meanwhile, good old Jonah.

Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel.

Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep.

Now, I don't know how many deep sleepers there are in the room, but Jonah was a deep sleeper.

The ship is about to tear apart.

The ship is about to sink and Jonah's, down at the bottom of the ship, is about to tear apart.

The ship is about to sink and Jonah's down at the bottom of the ship.

He's just sawing logs, he's snoring away, he's knocked out cold and the captain verse 6, approached him and said what are you doing?

Down to sleep?

This is urgent.

Winds are blowing, storms coming.

They're like throwing things off the boat because the ship is going to sink.

What are you doing?

Sound asleep, get up.

Get up, call your God.

Maybe this God will consider us and we won't perish.

Is it not ironic that a pagan sailor is telling a prophet to pray to the God of Israel?

Is that not ironic?

Come on, the sailors said to each other let's cast lots, then we'll know who's to blame for the trouble we're in.

So they cast lots and the lot singled out Jonah.

Lots and the lot singled out Jonah.

Then they said to him tell us who's to blame for this trouble that we're in.

What is your business?

Where are you from?

What is your country?

What people are you from?

What's your social security number?

No, I'm just adding that they want the details on Jonah's life.

He answered them I'm a Hebrew.

I worship the Lord, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.

Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him what have you done?

The men knew he was fleeing from the presence, from the Lord's presence, because he told them.

So they said to him what should we do to you so that the sea will calm down for us?

For the sea was getting worse and worse.

And he answered them verse 12, pick me up and throw me into the sea so it will calm down for you, for I know that I'm to blame for this great storm that's against you.

Then they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea and the sea stopped its raging.

And here's what happens raging.

And here's what happens Even though Jonah ran from God, god didn't give up on Jonah.

You see, it wasn't about the storm.

The storm was the means to God pursuing Jonah, just like in the movie Finding Nemo.

Dad did not give up on Nemo, he didn't stop pursuing him and God didn't stop pursuing Jonah, even though Jonah had premeditated disobedience.

You guys watch crime shows and crime docuseries.

How many of you guys watch those?

You watch, okay, let's go right, man, I got a whole.

I just watched a good one this past week.

It just came out.

I get sidetracked, okay.

So there's a difference.

If there's a murder that is premeditated or versus, just like I got really emotional and you know I mean now that's still bad, don't get me wrong, you still took a life.

But if you premeditated your murder, like you planned out how you're going to do it, that's different.

That's just different.

Jonah here, his disobedience, it wasn't like he got emotional and he did something.

He disobeyed God and he regretted.

Emotional and he did something.

He disobeyed God and he regretted.

No, like bro was premeditated and planning it right.

Like he went to Joppa, he pulled out his smartphone and he found a ship that was going to Tarshish.

He bought the ticket on his app, he went and jumped on the ship.

Hey guys, we're going to Tarshish, right the opposite direction of Nineveh.

Yeah, okay, I'm going with you.

It was premeditated disobedience.

It was like God, I'm done, I'm going this way.

Now you think about this Jonah, that's a four-chapter book, could have been a three verse book.

God could have said okay, jonah, you want to go to Tarshish, have a good life, see you later.

It's a wrap.

And we could be like why in the world is there a three verse book of the Bible?

But that didn't happen.

God didn't give up on Jonah.

And even though Jonah gave up on God, god didn't give up on Jonah.

And just like God didn't give up on Jonah, can I just say that God doesn't give up on you?

Give up on Jonah.

Can I just say that God doesn't give up on you when you, in your life, have had premeditated disobedience.

You have when you in your life, have justified reasons why you can't take that next step of faith and you've told God.

No, he doesn't give up on you.

When there are times when you know the right thing to do but you choose not to do the right thing and you do the wrong thing instead.

It's just us here today.

In those moments, god doesn't give up on you.

In those moments, god doesn't stop caring about you.

In those moments, god doesn't stop pursuing after you.

When, if we're honest, if we were God, we would give up on us.

But God is a God of grace that doesn't give up on his people.

That doesn't give up on people.

That's who God is.

And God doesn't give up on your family members.

God doesn't give up on your co -workers.

God doesn't give up on the people that are under your roof.

He doesn't give up because God wants to see in your life what happened in Jonah's life.

It says in verse 17 of Jonah, chapter one the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish.

The belly of the fish, for how many days?

How many nights?

Four, three, three days and three nights.

So Jonah's in the belly of this fish and Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish.

Now, there's a lot of places you can pray that's got to top the list for like most unusual prayer spots.

In the belly of the fish.

He called to the Lord in my distress.

I called to the Lord in my distress and he, what's it say?

It says, and he answered.

He answered me and the rest of Jonah, chapter two.

There's this spiritual awakening that happens in Jonah's life that causes Jonah to surrender to God.

Jonah, in that fish, realized his condition, he realized where he was at and he said God, I'm not running from you anymore.

He said, god, I'm not justifying my disobedience anymore.

And when Jonah surrendered and you could read the rest of chapter 2, when Jonah surrendered, in that moment he wasn't met with God's anger and condemnation.

He wasn't met with a God that said okay, well, prove it to me and then I'll give you mercy and then I'll give you grace.

He wasn't met with that.

And maybe you're at a place right now in this room, or maybe you know spiritually things aren't quite right in your life.

Maybe you've been on the run from God.

Maybe there's a calling that God's put in your life that you've put up on the shelf.

Maybe there's a place in your life where you aren't what you know God wants you to be, where maybe you've justified or you've rationalized, and maybe there's a voice in the back of your mind as the Spirit's convicting you, a voice that's saying you've done too much, you've gone too far.

A voice that's saying you've done too much, you've gone too far.

God doesn't want you.

Can I remind you that God's response to great sin is always greater mercy.

God's response to great sin is always greater mercy that you can't run to a place where God's grace won't find you.

You can't run to a place where God runs out of grace, like his fuel.

Tank of grace never hits E the light of God's mercy tank.

Like it's running out.

It never comes on.

He's filled with that tank.

Like it's running out, it never comes on.

He's filled with that God wants to pursue us and give us mercy and grace, because God wants to use us.

It reminds me when I was a kid I'd go on the airplanes of my parents and the flight attendant would give the safety talk you know the one that none of us listen to, that one and she would say the flight attendant would say, before you put the mask on, the child with you or the people with you, that if you're a parent, or however they would say it, you know you need to put the mask on your face first, and as a kid I'd be like that's cruel face first, and as a kid I'd be like that's cruel.

I thought my parents cared about me what my mom does care about me.

My mom needs to put my mask on first because my mom loves me and she wants me to breathe.

And I don't know what that flight attendant's talking about.

I don't know what that flight attendant is talking about.

Mom me first, then you, and then I got a little older, like 33.

I figured out that if mom wasn't breathing and didn't have any oxygen flow, then she couldn't help me have any oxygen flow, like if mom wasn't healthy, if my parents weren't healthy.

We could say it this way if my parents, if they couldn't help us be healthy, if they weren't healthy, like the oxygen had to be flowing to them before they could help me.

And it wasn't until Jonah surrendered to God that God could use him in Nineveh.

It wasn't until Jonah was spiritually healthy that he could be used to help the people of Nineveh be spiritually healthy.

Chapter 4 tells us the city of Nineveh had 120,000 people and every single one of them repented.

They all turned to faith in God.

They all turn to faith, but that happened on the other side of Jonah's surrender.

And you realize in your life that God doesn't just want to do a work in you, but God wants to do a work through you.

God wants to use you.

Now, if you think about it, that's mind-blowing to me.

Why would the creator of the world want to use me?

He could use anything he wants.

He could use rocks, he could use the clouds, he he's used it before.

Why has God chosen to use us?

Because God's a gracious God and God's a merciful God and God values us.

And he doesn't just want to do a work in us, but a work through us.

And that work is often on the other side of our surrender.

So, for some of us, this is where we are right now and this is our surrender point and God is pursuing you to get you to this point.

But you're right here and here's what you need to know.

On the other side of this surrender when you get here, the impact it's going to have on your kids, parents and on future generations is going to be a deep, deep impact.

But you've got to get here.

I'm talking to some teenagers and young adults that you have friends over here that God wants to greatly use you to impact.

You're right here right now.

It's the point of your surrender.

I'm talking to some of you right now.

God is leading you to do something that you don't understand, you didn't sign up for and it's hard, and what you need to do is you need to get to this point of surrender.

If you'll get to this point of surrender on the other side of this, god can use you greatly.

We could say it this way there are people on the other side of your surrender.

There's your family, there's hurting people, there's broken people, there's people that you don't even know.

But if you will surrender on the other side of this surrender, god will use you.

There's a quote by dl moody and he gave this incredible quote about this.

I want to share it with you.

He says the world has yet to see what God can do with the person fully surrendered to him.

By God's help, I aim to be that person.

The world's yet to see what God can do with the person fully surrendered to him.

By God's help, I aim to be that person.

This is a pretty good quote.

It's actually really good, so I don't want to jack it up, but I'm going to DL Moody.

Please forgive me for saying this, but I'm going to say it.

The world has yet to see what God can do with a church community that's fully surrendered to Him.

Solano County has yet to see what God can do with a church community that's fully surrendered to Him.

America has yet to see what God can do with the church community that's fully surrendered to Him.

And, by God's help, let's aim to be those people.

God isn't worried about our pedigree or our lack of spiritual pedigree.

God doesn't look and say they didn't have a very good upbringing, I can't use them.

God doesn't look at us and say they don't know every 66 books of the Bible, like I can't use them.

God doesn't look at us and say they don't know every 66 books of the Bible, like I can't use them.

God doesn't say they never went to seminary, I can't use them.

You know what God wants.

God just wants your surrender.

That's all God wants.

It's just a heart that surrendered.

It's not a heart that has it all together.

It's not somebody that says I know this, I know that that's called being prideful.

God wants you and God wants me to come to a place like this.

I surrender, that's it.

That's it.

And this is what I'm going to invite you today.

I'm going to invite you to have a heart posture like this, a heart posture that says God, I surrender.

I surrender to the place that I don't understand.

I surrender in the place that I didn't sign up for.

I surrender in the place that is not easy for me, and I surrender here.

And on the other side of this.

What can God do?

I'm talking to some of you that you've drifted from God and God brought you here sovereignly, by his power.

God brought you here.

Listen, god's calling you home.

God's calling you home.

So today, can we just have this posture of surrender in our heart, can we just have this posture that says, lord, I don't have it all together, but here's a surrendered heart.

Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes.