Senseless and Sensible Get on a Boat

Jonah. Chapter one is where we're at, And I've got

a question. How easily can you laugh at yourself? How

easily can you laugh at yourself? Go ahead and and

and give yourself a score on a scale of one

to five. You can just mark that number in your mind.

How easily can you laugh at yourself? Five being so easy?

One being what's funny? How easily can you laugh at yourself?

You got a score? Okay, Well, if you came with

someone today, a friend or a family member, just turn

to them and ask them what your score should be.

It's lower than your thought, isn't it. Some of you

are so serious you won't ask. Listen, this is going

to be important throughout the entire Book of Jonah, because

the Book of Jonah is kind of the Bible's comic strip.

A lot of genres of literature in the Bible. You've

got you know, you've got proverbs, you've got history, you've

got theological biography, you've got whatever you want to call

the Song of Solomon, and then you've got the Bible's

comic strip, which is the Book of Jonah. The comic

figure in the strip is Jonah. He is ridiculous, He's

also the figure that's supposed to know God and have

a relationship with God. And the book is written. It's

a very short book. It's four chapters. You can kind

of like think of it like a comic strip. It's

like four frames. The book is written to people who

are supposed to know God and have a relationship with God.

So the book is trying to get you to laugh

at Jonah, which is easy, and by seeing some of

Jonah in yourself, get you to laugh self, which is hard.

It's trying to get you to see some of the

deep spiritual flaws in Jonah, which is easy, and by

seeing some of Jonah in yourself, see some of the

deep spiritual flaws in ourselves, which is hard. And as

we look at Him and at ourselves, here's the look

we need to take this morning. Is my life with

God sensible or senseless? In my life with God, am

I being sensible or senseless? That's what we're gonna look

at this morning. And we're gonna make three observations in

this first chapter that will guide us along. It'll it'll

help us to take a look at ourselves and see

if in our life with God we are being sensible

or we are being senseless. Three observations. Before I get

to that, let me read our chapter Jonah, chapter one,

and the first verse of two. Now, the word of

the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amati, saying, arise,

go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it,

for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah

rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

He went down to Joppa and found a ship going

to Tarsish. So he paid the fare and went down

into it to go with them to tars Tarsish, away

from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord hurled

a great wind upon the sea, and there was a

mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was

threatened to break up. And the mariners were afraid, and

each cried out to his God, and they hurled the

cargo that was in the ship into the sea to

lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into

the inner part of the ship and had lain down

and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said

to him, what do you mean, you sleeper, Arise, call

out to your God. Perhaps the God will give a

thought to us that we might not perish. And they

said to one another, come, let's cast lots, that we

may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.

So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

Then they said to him, tell us on whose account

this evil has come upon us? What is your occupation?

And where do you come from? What is your country?

And of what people are you? And he said to them,

I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the

God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him,

what is this that you have done? For the men

knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the

Lord because he had told them. Then they said to him,

what shall we do to you that the sea may

quiet down for us? For the sea grew more and

more tempestuous. And he said to them, pick me up

and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea will

quiet down for you, for I know it is because

of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Nevertheless,

the men rode hard to get back to dry land,

but they could not, for the sea grew more and

more tempestuous against them. Therefore, they called out to the Lord.

Oh Lord, let us not perish for this man's life,

and lay not on us innocent blood. For you, O, Lord,

have done as you please. And he and so they

picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and

the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared

the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the

Lord and made vows. And the Lord appointed a great

fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the

belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then

Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God from the belly

of the fish. This is the word of the Lord.

I told you it's like a comic strip, And by

that I don't at all mean that it's not a

true account. God in many ways has used the accounts

that took place in biblical writing to illustrate his ways

and his works, and he orchestrates all things. But I'm

telling you it's like a comic strip. Three observations to

look at to see if we are being sensible or senseless.

Here's the first one. Look at Jonah and observe a

senseless way to respond to God's word when you don't

like it, observe a senseless way to respond to God's

word when you don't like it. Well, let's look to Jonah.

Verse one says, the word of the Lord came to Jonah,

the son of Amati, now Jonah. That the name Jonah

is roughly translated pigeon. The Bibles use this term before

about Ephraim in the Book of Hoaseiah. Aphraum is silly,

like a pigeon, senseless in all his ways. This is Jonah,

the senseless pigeon. And Amatai means roughly translated God is faithful.

And in the Book of Jonah, both of these things

play out to be very very true. Jonah is a

senseless pigeon, and yet God is faithful. What does God

say to him? Arise, get up, go to Nineveh, that

great city, and call out against it for their evil

and evil. Here the word evil could be translated both

as evil the way we'd normally think of it, or disaster,

as in an evil thing has happened. Right, both of

those things are present in that word throughout the whole book.

Their evil has come up before me. Go to ninev

Now a little historical cultural piece here, Nineveh, there's a

big city in Assyria, and right now in Israel, here's

what's going on. Things are going great for Israel. Why

because the king is righteous and rules according to God's law. No,

not at all. In fact, they're one of their worst

kings ever. Jerebom in the second is in power. But

Assyria is full of infighting and it's put pressure on

the neighboring country of Syria to Israel. And so things

are working out for Israel. Israel's expanding, They're being left alone.

And Jonahs like, I'm not doing that. Things are going

great right now. Never mind that the country is full

of wickedness, but they seem to be going great. So

I'm not doing that. I'm not going northeast. I'm going southwest.

No dig to the airline. But Jonah is going the

exact opposite way of what he's been commanded to do.

Not only does he go the opposite way, he goes

the opposite way. Gets to Djappa, which is like current

day Tel Aviv. Gets on a boat and he's gonna

go as far way just as he can Tarsish, which

is like Spain. What a plan. But Jonah rose to flee.

He's gonna run from God to Tarshish from the presence

of the Lord. And he went down to jop and

he found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare.

He must have said something to them along the way,

like like, hey, so where are you going? And he's like,

I'm running from yahweh. And I'm sure at the moment

the sailors are like, what else that comes back up?

What is a senseless way to respond to God's word

when you don't like it? This way, the senseless pigeon way.

Jonah lays it all out for us. A senseless way

to respond to God's word when we don't like it

basically looks like this Number one, going thinking, feeling, having

the sense that going the other way is a good option.

Ever done it? I have the sense that going in

the other way God's word says this, going in the

other way might be a better option, or that avoiding

God is even a thing? Ever done it? I thought

you were doing it, You're not. I'm not avoiding God.

I'm just not gonna look up. I'm just not gonna

look up. Or having the sense that you know better.

That actually comes up a lot throughout the Book of Jonah.

Jonah's constantly saying, I know, I know, I know, I

know it's because of me that this storm has come.

I know what kind of god you are? And the

other characters in this book are constantly saying, I don't know, right,

like what's going on with the storm? We don't know.

Let's pray to your God and your God and your God,

and I don't know. Maybe someone will have pity on us.

Later on in the book, the king of Nineveh is like,

let's repent. Who knows? But not Jonah, He's sure, I know,

I know, I know, I know. Ever tried to tell

a stubborn, prideful kid how to do something? I know,

I know, I know. You're seven, you don't know, you're human,

and you respond to the word of God with I know,

I know, I know. Have you Have you responded in

a senseless way? Maybe test yourself. Are you responding this

way right now? As the word of God has come

to you through the pages of scripture, and there's something

about it that you don't like. Maybe maybe it's a

matter of stewardship and self discipline. And you can see,

based on what the Bible is teaching about stewardship and

self discipline, that there's something in your life that needs

to change, and you know, but you're just avoid it,

which is to say you avoid him. Maybe it's a

matter of integrity young people. Maybe it's a matter of

integrity with your parents. And you're like, I know what

God's word is, but I think going the other way

is an option. Maybe it's a matter of sexual purity,

and you know what the word of the Lord has

said regarding sexual purity. But nevertheless, the way you're living

is that going the other way is a real option

and you can avoid God on the matter. Maybe it's

making a step of love in a relationship. You know

what the word of the Lord has to say about

making that step of love. You know, you know, you know,

But as of yet, going the other way has seemed

like a good option to you. Well, how does God

respond to this kind of way of handling his word. Well,

what we've seen in Romans is that God could just

turn us over to ourselves. That would be the worst,

just let you run. Fortunately, for Jonah, God can also

work to turn us around. And so here's the second observation.

Let's observe what senseless looks like when God is working

to turn us around. Observe what does senseless look like

when God is working to turn us around. Let's again

let's look to Jonah. But now we also have a contrast.

We not all if we not only have the senseless pigeon,

we also have what some of us have taken to

calling throughout this week, the salty dogs the sailors. Here

we have on this boat, these pay sailors who don't

know God, and what they turn out to be is

quite sensible. Throughout the book of Jonah, the scriptures are

constantly flipping our expectations. Here's the prophet of God, here's

the man of God senseless. Here are these pagan sailors,

quite sensible. And you can see that the Bible is

actually aligning with these guys because of the way that

the Bible talks about what they do and what they say.

God says to Jonah, arise, go to Nineveh, and what

does the captain of the ship say to Jonah Arise

start praying? Right, So the scriptures sort of match God's

words with the captain's words. God hurls a storm on

the sea, and what are the sailors doing on the boat?

They're hurling the cargo over and God, and the scriptures

are matching up God's acttions with the sailor's actions. So

the Bible is giving us clues as to who is

actually figuring it out. And so what we find here

are both sensible and senseless when God is working to

turn us around seven categories. Ready, what does sensible or

senseless look like when God is working to turn us around?

In the category of fear fear, well, check out the

sensible salty dogs. They're afraid right away, and for good reason.

The ship is threatening to break up. You see that

in verse five. They're like, the Lord hurled a great

win upon the sea, mighty tempests on the sea. Ship's

threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and

they go from naturally afraid to exceedingly afraid. And then finally,

in verse sixteen, they feared the Lord exceedingly. So they

went from natural fear to fear about God to fear

of God, exactly where Jonah's supposed to be. What about

the category of action, Well, you got the sensible salty

dogs verse five. They're getting after it. They're hurling cargo

over the edge of the boat. They're like, we don't

know what to do, but we're going to do something.

And then they finally come to Jonah and they're like, hey,

you man of God, like you've you've told us what's

going on here, So what do we do? And then

finally at the end of this little frame of our

cartoon strip that what they're doing is they're making sack

of devices and giving vows to God. They are taking

whatever action they know to do. At first it's very natural,

then it's supernatural, then it's absolutely worship. They're going to

take action. Jonah, he's in a stupor. He is in

a fearless and not in a good way. Stupor reminds

me of what John Owens says about those who are

trapped in sin. This is one of the most dangerous

places you can be is when you find that you

can stay comfortable in the face of sin, when you

can be stuck in sin and tell yourself it's fine,

it's fine. I'm sure it's gonna be fine. And you'll

even use the blood of Christ meant to free you

from sin, and you will dare to use it as

an excuse to stay in it. You're in a dangerous place.

Fear action. Here's the third category prayer. Here's our sensible

salty dogs. Verse five, Let's pray to God's pick a God.

Let's pray. Then they go to Jonah. Jonah, you pray.

Then Jonah finally clues them in to who the real

God is, and by the time this whole frame is over,

they're praying to the living God. Jonah. He doesn't get

a prayer off in the entire chapter Fearless Stupor. He

finally does in chapter two, right after he's been in

a divine headlock for three days. He finally turns to

God in prayer. I have no idea what I mean.

We've got his words sort of captured here in rather

flowery language. This was probably put together quite after the fact,

Jonah saying like, here's the kind of thing that was

going through my mind when I lifted up this prayer.

But it started with something I'm guessing kind of like this.

I know it's been a while, ever been there? Ever?

Finally hit your knees, finally take that prayer walk, finally,

just even in the truck, turn off the radio and say,

here we go. I know it's been a while. Sensible

goes to the Lord in prayer. Fact senseless goes to

the Lord in prayer. Slow. Look at the category of

seriousness about truth. Seriousness about truth. The salty dogs, you

look at verse seven. They're like, Okay, let's figure out

what's going on. We're gonna cast lots. Maybe God will

tell us via dice that what's going on here. We're

going to find out what we need to find out.

And when the dice lands on Jonah and they go

to Jonah, they're like, all right, we've got questions. What's

going on? We are serious about figuring out the truth.

That's sensible. When God is working to turn you around,

it's sensible to be serious about the truth. How serious

is Yonah about the truth? Well, not very He's just

spouts hypocrisy. Am a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, the

maker of the sea and dry land. Do you really, Jonah?

Do you really fear him? You're running from him. You

won't even repent right now? I fear the Lord? Not

serious about the truth. What about thought for others? Here's

another category. Examine this category. When the Lord is working

to turn you around, what about thought for others? The

salty dogs they're pretty sensible. You get to verse thirteen

and Jonah's like, here's what you can do. You can

throw me overboard. That'll fix your problem. And one are

the sailors. They're like, uh, no way, dude, we're not

doing that, and they get after it. They're trying to

get back to land, like you can turn around yourself.

God's not gonna go that way. What about Jonahs thought

for others? First of all, he put them in this

situation to begin with, and then his solution is, you

know what, you throw me overboard, I Am not only

going to put you in the position of the storm.

I'm going to put you in the position of killing

me in order for this storm. To debate how's that?

How's that about? How's that for thinking about others? It's

just worth noting when God is working to turn you

around and you're being senseless, it's almost never just you

that you're putting in harm's way. Dad, it's your family, wife,

it's your husband, boss, it's your company. Sixth category. Don't

know the category of actually turning to God. You know

what the sensible prophet doesn't think of in all of this,

turning his eyes to Heaven and saying you got me God.

That's what doesn't come up. He doesn't just hit his

knees and say, God, if you will, if you will

calm this storm, I will go back to Jappa, and

I will go back northeast. I will go to Nineveh.

Never says that. Oh well, he does say that eventually,

after three days in the belly of a fish, but

he doesn't do that on the ship. Repentance does not

seem to be an option the salty dogs, they turn

their to have it. In verse fourteen, if right now

you are being senseless while God is working to turn

you around, let me ask how long do you think

you're gonna wait? How long do you think you can

presume on the Lord's patience. Here's the last category, appearances.

Appearances as in not according to appearances. As the Lord

is working to turn this whole ship around, the one

who gives the appearance of being the man of God

is the one who handles things the most senselessly, and

the one are the ones who appear to be the

furthest from him are the ones who respond to him

most sensibly. They're ready to fear him. They're ready to

pray to him, they're ready to worship him. They're ready

to care about the other image bearers he has made.

So let me just say the good news and bad

news on that front. If you're here and you look

like you are walking according to God's ways, but you're

not guess who You're not fooling. But if you're here

and you don't even feel like you belong in a church,

yet you're here and you're listening to the proclamation of

God's word, and you're considering the claims of Christ, and

you're hearing his name lifted high end worship, and you

think to yourself, Man, I don't feel like I belong.

I don't look like I belong, but I want to

be right with God. Good news. Guess who's not fooled.

Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the

heart well. Last observation. Last observation. When it comes to

this question of am I in my life with God?

Being sensible or senseless? Observe this, Observe some results. Observe

some results of being sensible or senseless before God. Again,

let's look to Jonah as well as our salty dogs.

If you look at verse fifteen, there's a comma in

the middle. That's the point at which their paths diverge,

So they pick up Jonah and they hurl him into

the sea. Comma. Now they're in the boat and he's not,

and they're on separate paths. Now what are the results. Well,

Verse sixteen says, then the men feared the Lord exceedingly

and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

So the results for them is they quickly call out

to the Lord and quickly get to worship. And it

must have been the most bizarre makeshift best as you

can Old Testament version of a worship service you can

possibly imagine. They're all like, we don't know, but he's

the real God. We're worshiping him. Who's got something to sacrifice?

We've thrown most everything over and they made vows. That's

the results. Quickly call out, quickly get to worship Verse

seventeen for our senseless prophet. And the Lord appointed a

great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in

the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord is God from the

belly of the fish. He ends up calling out to

the Lord. But after being waterboarded for three days, can

you imagine pitch black. I'm sure don't know when water's

coming in, when water's not coming in, I don't know.

I don't know how this works. Never been inside a fish,

little air bubble up at the top of his gut,

or you can grab some air. You think you're gonna

die for three days, you think you're this is it.

I'm dying. I want to die. I'd rather die than repent.

And God's like, not drowning you. I'm just gonna get

you close for three days. Two kinds of results. Both

are rescued. Both are rescued, which you know actually brings

up some questions. Here's a couple of quick theological caveats.

One is this, If I'm hurting, if my life feels

like I'm being waterboarded, does that mean God is necessarily

disciplining me? Not necessarily Paul the apostle. Paul asked God

to remove some hard things from his life, and God said,

my grace is sufficient for you. You're not under disciplined,

but you might be, so consider your conscience and consider scripture.

Here's the second theological caveat. Does God have to operate

this way? In other words, he rescues the sailors through

their quick repentance and their quick obedience. He rescues Jonah

by chasing him down and putting him in a headlock

for three days. But listen, discipline is the best case.

He could just let you run. Roman says, he could

turn you over. So no, God doesn't have to operate

this way. But I will tell you I have seen

many a person who just doesn't have a church background

at all, who doesn't know, but they are seeking, and

they are humble, and they are eager for insight for change,

and God just grants them repentance and faith and grace.

Praise the Lord. And if that's you this morning, let's

talk just step one. We'll just go to step one

talking to you and say like, I don't really know

about this church and God and Bible and stuff, but

I am eager for insight for change. I want to

know him. But unfortunately I have also seen this many

others who quote unquote knew too much. They knew too much.

They knew about God, they knew about the Bible. Man,

they knew the Bible really well. They thought it's seen

a lot of church. I know, I know, I know,

and they thought they knew. And their response to God's

word and the life that they live before him turned

out to be senseless, and discipline in that case is

the best option? Are those the only two options? Though?

You can look to Jonah, who quote quote unquote knew

too much, or you can look to the sailors who

knew next to nothing. Not really, I mean those are

extremes to make a point. But it's Christ himself we're

mainly called to look to. And when we look to

Christ we see this example. He is not humble and

obedient to seek the Father because he's ignorant, and he's

not one of those who quote unquote knew too much

of God in that sophomoric way. He is the one

who knows the Father perfectly and his word and his plan,

and he grasps it with a heart of faithfulness, and

so he seeks to do only that which his Father

is doing. When we look to Christ, we see our

shepherd when he says, arise and go, when he gives

us commands. Do you realize the heart of love that

his commands come from? Would you see the gentleness that

he has with you? Can you remember the promise of

a light and easy yoke? If you would, you wouldn't

run away. When we look to Christ, we see our substitute.

So if you are living senselessly before God, if you

are responding to His word senselessly, you're in a dangerous place.

And you have to wonder what if God just let

me run? What if God just let my heart harden

all the way? That's a wonder. But what you don't

have to wonder is is there any hope for me

if I turn to Him right now? Because Christ himself

has paid the penalty for those who have sense lifelessly

run from God. Christ himself reference to this story before

he died, saying that his going into the grave and

coming back out three days later would be like Jonah

in the belly of the fish. And Christ was there

not for his senselessness, but for yours. The question is

will you turn and embrace your substitute while your heart

is still soft enough to do so? Christ is ready

for you. Are you ready for him? The question is

your life with God one that is sensible or senseless.

We've seen what sensible looks like, humble obedience that seeks

God and results in worship, and we've seen what senseless

looks like proud resistance that avoids God and results at

best in discipline. So my appeal to you by the

Lord Christ, make your response to God's word sensible, not senseless,