The Results for Running from God

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

Turn with me now back to Jonah chapter one.

And boy, what a series this has already been, as we're just really getting started.

And yes, worship guides.

Is anyone does not have a worship guide?

Everybody got a worship God.

All right, okay, good.

Because the outline's on the back, and we want you to be right there with us as we go through this worship guide.

Last week we looked at uh the title of the message was running from God.

Jonah was the prophet that was running from God.

Well, this week we're gonna be looking, we looked at what verses 1 through 3.

This week we're gonna look at verses 4 through 11.

Uh, and we're gonna be looking at uh the results of running from God.

There is results.

Like I said earlier, you can run, but you can't hide.

Can I get an amen?

You can only go so far before God gets your attention.

I know I have been there.

That's not a good place to be, folks, I'm telling you.

And we'll see why in a few minutes.

And then the next week, next week we're in the chapter one, be through with chapter one, and next week I got a great title for the message next week.

The biggest fish story you've ever heard.

The biggest fish story you've ever heard.

I thought about that as I was looking at the end of Jonah.

Uh it's gonna be awesome.

It's uh it really is as we look at verses 12 through the end of the chapter next week.

But today, the results from running from God, the results from running from God, let's look at verses 4 through 6 to start with this morning.

But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty temptus in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

The ship was about to break apart.

Then the mariners, who were profound, efficient, seasoned, well-trained sailors.

I mean, these guys were noted for being the best of the best sailors.

They really were.

And they were afraid.

So for them to be afraid, folks, it had to be a horrific storm.

I mean, it had to be hurricane magnitude, or if you ever saw the perfect storm, that perfect storm where all will come, and then next thing you know, there's a there's a 50-foot tidal wave coming over you.

So, anyway, it was this kind of setting that they were so afraid because they lived on the sea.

And then it says, every one of them cried, every man into his God, and cast forth the waves that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them.

But Jonah was gone.

Now look, Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep.

He was down there in the cargo bin area, a fast asleep.

I meant unbelievable with the storm of that magnitude, and he's asleep.

So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper?

Arise, call upon God, if so be that God will think upon us.

Now that's a powerful statement, you'll see why in a little bit.

That we perish not.

God's destination for Jonah was to go to Nineveh.

To go to Nineveh.

Jonah's response was a deviation from that path.

He said, I'm not going to Nineveh.

I'm going 2,000 miles in the opposite direction.

I don't want to go to Nineveh.

I don't like the Nineveh.

I'm not going.

But the result of this action of Jonah was a tremendous, huge disruption in many lives.

Wow.

Think a minute.

Think about that for a minute.

Your disobedience and my disobedience can be a huge disruption in other people's lives.

Amen.

See, a lot of times you don't think you, I've been there.

Hey, I'm going, look, it's it's all on me.

It's going to hurt me.

Okay, I'll take the quantum, let, you know, God deal with me, but it's not going to affect anybody else.

I'm the one that did the wrong.

I'm the one that deserves the punishment.

I've got news for you that's not totally correct.

And that's why, number one, write it down.

The disruption from disobedience.

That's what we want to look at.

The disruption from disobedience.

In other words, our sin has a way of disrupting everything around us.

Can I get an O me?

You know, I've been there.

In fact, I wrote this down.

Transgressions does not bring tranquility, but it brings turbulence.

Sin does not bring tranquility, it brings turbulence into our lives, into our work arena, into our homes, into our schools, into our cities.

What we just saw was a horrific, unbelievable massacre in a school because of sin.

13 college students murdered.

God help us.

We see it upsets our schools, our churches, our cities, our nations.

Disobedience.

Our disobedience to the Lord upsets a lot of things.

In fact, the Bible says in Proverbs 29, too, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.

But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

When sin is running rampant, we mourn.

We suffer.

We see very distinctly that our sin has a way of disturbing everything around us.

Why is America where it is today?

It's because of one word, sin.

We have turned our backs on God.

And God knows that we need repentance.

Romans 8.22 says, For we know that the whole creation, God, Paul says, the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain, hey, in pain together until now.

Our nation is groaning right now because of the apathy and the disobedience to God.

We've kicked God out of everything.

And we're paying the consequences now.

How in the world can you say, how can can these people walk into these schools and and kill people and and especially children and teenagers?

We heard our president on the newscast the other night.

And he he's he wanted to blame it on the guns.

And my my thought was hey, can I say something?

A gun by itself never has killed anyone.

It's the person pulling the trigger that kills someone.

Amen.

But here's what I said.

I said, my, my soul, no.

Mr.

President, I literally did.

I stood up.

I couldn't help it.

It was just me and Rocky.

Rocky thought I was crazy.

But I stood up and I said, No, it's not the guns.

It's God.

We've kicked God out of our nation.

We've kicked God out of our schools.

That's why the results that we're getting, we're getting.

God help us.

Romans 14 7, Paul said, For none of us live unto ourselves.

None of us, none of us live unto ourselves.

No man dies unto himself.

We affect people around us.

Amen.

We affect.

No one lives just unto himself, for the guilt of one man endangers the lives of many.

We saw here.

Wow.

That got me.

I'm going to say that again.

The guilt of one man endangers the lives of many.

That was a sobering fact to me as I was studying.

The sin of Christians can affect the entire church family.

The sin of a Christian can infect, infect, and affect the entire church family.

The crime of one person can burden a city with millions of dollars of expenses for lawsuits.

The greed of Achan, remember, Achan cost the lives of many of Israel's army soldiers.

And here we see Jonah.

He upset the sovereign God, he upset the sea, he upset the ship, he upset the shipmaster, and he upset the sleeping prophet.

Let's look at some of the lessons that we can learn about disruption from disobedience.

Number one.

Look at verse 4.

The removal of the calm.

Rebellion never escapes God's eye.

Can I get an amen?

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

Proverbs 15, 3.

You cannot get away from God.

It is foolish for men to think they can resist God with, and I really believe this, God's will with no consequences.

It's ludicrous to believe that.

Our disobedience will bring disruption to our lives and those that are around us.

Every time.

God let Jonah have his own way, and then he made his move.

Let me tell you something.

God will let you have your own way for a little while.

Hello.

I've been there.

And you know what?

I like my way.

That would be a good time to say amen.

I know what you're saying.

I don't want to say that.

Hey, guess what?

You like your own way.

Huh?

Don't you get up in the morning and think about your way instead of anybody else's way at first?

Now that's not what we ought to do.

We ought to get up in the morning and say, Lord, what's your way for my life today?

But hey, I like my way.

We're all, I'm just gonna be honest, and I'm me included, we are all selfish.

Yeah.

You know what selfishness means, don't you?

You want your way and you don't care what anybody else thinks.

That's selfish.

That's a simple definition of selfish.

You don't care.

It's all about you.

God let John have his own way, then he made his move.

Notice the three words in verse 4.

This is great.

But the Lord, say that with me, church, but the Lord.

You can have your way for a while, but then guess what?

But the Lord is gonna intervene.

He's gonna intervene.

And look what happens when he intervenes.

When God says go, when God says go, there'll be no buts when God says go.

There'll be no buts.

They will not be accepted by him.

Our Lord expresses and expects immediate obedience.

Immediate obedience from us.

Everything, by the way, let me tell you what I've learned with this with Jonah.

God is concerned about everything in our life.

That's good.

God is concerned about everything in our life.

In fact, I want you to say this with me.

Say this with me.

God is concerned about me.

Do you understand that?

You talking about, hey, out of all these people here this morning watching online, do you realize God is concerned about you individually?

Individually.

Why?

Because he made you, and you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are God's works, and you are that marvelous works.

Psalms 139, verse 14.

Psalms 139:14

Wow, that's good.

God is concerned about what you're thinking.

You say, uh-oh.

God is concerned about your work.

God is concerned about who you date.

God is concerned about your family.

God is concerned about husband and wife.

Can I say something?

God is concerned about everything in your life.

The little, you say, well, he's not worried about my little things.

Yes, he is.

He, I think he gets more excited about the little things.

People would think we're crazy when Matt and I were praying and we agreed.

I said, well, let's just pray God will bring those twos back.

Most people say, He brought them back.

Why?

God was concerned about Harry and Matthew losing their twos.

Some of y'all, you looking at me like you.

He's concerned.

Especially if you're talking to him regularly.

Hey, I'm sure here's what Matt said.

Now, Lord, you know, understand something.

Hey, I'm, hey, this is your business.

This is not my business.

So, Lord, I want you to know they didn't really steal my tools.

They stole your tools.

So now, Lord, you know I make, hey, I work here.

I, hey, we work, we use these tools.

We're good stewards.

We we we're good uh Christians, we tithe, we do this, we do that.

Lord, we're trying to fulfill your duty in our lives for your glory to help build your church, and we need our tools.

Hello.

That's the way you pray.

Now, some of you haven't, you said, whoo, I don't pray that way.

Well, you need to get on praying ground.

Hello?

Because, see, if you're praying regularly about the little things, well, guess what?

Hey, it matters to God.

It matters to God.

God's not waiting for you to get cancer and then run to him.

Hello.

He wants to talk to you every day.

He loves you.

He wants to talk to you, and then he wants you to talk to him.

He talks to you through the book, the B-I-B-L-E, then you talk to him through prayer.

It's a two-way street.

And I have a good time every morning with that two-way street.

So we see how many Christians are so, and I really believe this, failure to obey the Lord puts us into a struggle with the Lord.

How many of you have ever struggled with the Lord?

All of us.

When you're disobedient, you're struggling with the Lord.

Isn't it something I wish?

You know, I've been doing this, I've been walking with the Lord a long time.

And every time I decide that I'm gonna go my way, and I think my way's really good, but it's not the way God wants me to go, there is a struggle going on.

Because I am very stubborn.

Yeah.

I noticed David didn't say a word on that one.

You're afraid to, aren't you?

I mean, I really am a stubborn person in the flesh.

And so if you ever just went back and forth with God a little bit, sparred with him a little bit, and try to justify why you think your way's a little better than his.

Am I the only one that does that?

Thank you.

There's three other of us.

Amen.

But I, you know, but hey, but they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8, 8.

So we gotta realize God instructs us, he teaches us us in the way that we should go.

Psalms 32, 8.

He's not interested in what we think, he's more interested in what he knows and he wants us to put our mind.

In fact, he says in scripture that our ways are not his ways, and our thinking's not his thinking.

Amen.

So he wants us to line our thinking up with his thinking.

Can I get an amen?

Can I get an amen?

How many Christians have responded to God's call with, but I can't be a missionary.

So when is God, hey, when God, you know, we don't have a problem at all when God calls us to do something we want to do, woo, we have a spell.

It's when God calls us to do something we don't want to do, it's when we pout.

Or we try to justify why we don't need to do that.

Amen?

And that's exactly where Jonah was.

Exactly.

I'm afraid to leave home.

I can't speak.

All the excuses we see throughout the scriptures.

But now I want you to know something here.

This is pretty good.

This is really good here in this verse, in verse 4.

Look at what happened.

The word here.

But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty temptist.

Now I love what that word there means.

In other words, God is in control of the weather.

He sent a great wind.

The word sent there is the Hebrew word tool.

Sounded like a tool, T-L-O-L, but it's spelled Hebrew words T-U-W-W-L.

It means to hurl or to cast.

It is the same word that King Saul used when he what?

Cast or he threw his javelin at David.

It's hurling a tool or taking a hammer and throwing a hammer.

That's what it means.

The storm was an awful storm.

It was, hey, it was a tempest which means whirlwind.

It was a horrific, horrific storm.

The storm was caused by the sin of Jonah.

Now I want you to see this.

Church, this is powerful.

Look at Isaiah 57, verses 20 through 21.

Isaiah 57:20–21

I want you to see what happens when we rebel against the Lord.

Here's the scriptures that really explain this situation that Jonah's in.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up myrrh and dirt.

Now watch verse 17.

I mean, and then he goes on and he says, I love this, Psalms 107, well, verse 21.

There is no peace.

Uh-oh.

There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

See, when you and I are rebelling against God, there is no peace in our life.

There's no peace.

You're struggling.

You're struggling against the will of God, hey, with your will.

So there's no peace.

Now look at what Psalms 107, verse 17 says.

Psalms 107:17

Fools, now watch, because of their transgressions and because of their iniquities are afflicted.

Whoa.

Think about that.

Because of your rebellion, you're being afflicted, you're having problems, you're in trial situation.

And guess what?

You and me, we have brought that on ourselves.

Jonah was in the situation he was in because he was trying to run away from the will of God.

I mean, in fact, he says we're foolish.

We're fools.

And then Romans 2 9, look at what Paul said about it.

He says, Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil.

For the Jew first and then to the Gentile.

Notice what he said, tribulation and anguish.

You ever been in tribulation?

Woohoo! Yeah.

And most of my tribulation, a lot of the times, is because of my stubbornness.

Do you see that?

Church, you gotta see this.

This is so illuminating.

It is so enlightening.

It is so life-changing.

You know what?

You and I just need to quit being so stubborn.

All right, sorry.

I need to be, I need to quit being stubborn.

Amen?

But I know you're gonna inside you're saying, I'm like that too, preacher.

I'm like that too.

So we see how powerful it is.

When we live sinfully, we will be troubled.

We'll be troubled.

All right, look at the second thing.

Look at this.

The removal of the calm, the second thing, verse 5, the response of the crew.

Look at the response of the crew.

Mariners are afraid.

It's like a chain reaction.

One disturbance from sin causes another problem.

Isn't that true?

When lust has conceived, it brings forth sin, and when sin is finished, it brings forth death.

James 1:15.

James 1:15

It's a chain reaction.

Isn't it amazing?

You know what I've learned?

And praise God to give me the grace and give me the discernment, give me the wisdom, give me the initiative that when I make a mistake or when I start to rebel, or when I am rebelling, the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart.

You know it, that you stop right then and say, Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Let me not go any further.

God, forgive me, forgive me.

Jonah should have said, Whoa, I'm sorry, Lord, I am your prophet.

I'm going to Nineveh.

Look at the heartache he would have saved himself and the others.

Wow.

And you know what?

Sometimes we'll say, Well, it's me.

It's just me.

It's nobody else's business.

Let me say something.

Listen to me.

That's a lie right out of the pits of hell.

It is other people's business when you're living in rebellion.

That's exactly right.

And you're gonna pay for that.

You're gonna just get worse and worse and more trouble, more trouble.

Don't let Satan win.

That's nothing but Satan.

Let's say, in your face, Satan, no, to God be the glory.

Forgive me.

I'm going with God.

The response of the crew, the concern of the sailors, look at it.

They had been at sea for a while.

They had seen many storms.

The storm terrified them because it was hurled at them by God.

This storm came from God.

Can I say something?

Storms.

God will send storms into your life to get you where you need to be.

Woo! That's good, preacher.

Man, the perfect storm.

Jonah was commissioned to try and save people from their sins.

Now, watch this.

I wrote this to myself.

This was so convicting for me as a preacher.

Jonah was commissioned to try to save people, the Ninevehites, from their sins, and is now putting many souls in danger because of his sin.

What an enlightening truth.

He was supposed to be helping people to be saved from sins, but because of his sin, he's putting more people in danger.

Who knows?

Pushing people away.

From what he knows to be the truth.

Sin does not, I wrote this down.

Sin does not bring peace, it brings panic.

Amen.

Hey, come on.

That's good.

Somebody say that's good.

Sin does not bring peace, it brings panic.

Sin does not clear things up, it makes things confusing.

Why would he do that?

I don't understand.

You ever been there?

I'm there a lot when I see Christians do stuff they ought not to do, me included.

Why?

Have you ever did something?

Have you ever done something and say, why did I do that?

Come on, am I the only one?

Y'all gotta help me here.

I know it's damp outside, but get it hot in here.

I'm preaching my heart out, and y'all just looking at me like a cav leading a new fence.

But hey, hey, hey, hey, listen to me.

Have you ever been there?

You did, you did something you know you shouldn't have done, and you said, Why did I do that?

Can I tell you why you did it?

Because of sin.

Rebellion.

Satan.

That's Satan sitting there.

I got you.

I got you.

That wrong thought and that wrong action.

Hey, sin gives no permanent satisfaction.

No permanent satisfaction, just sorrow.

Sin does not give, hey, true elation, it gives emptiness.

How many ships were affected in the sea?

Have you ever thought about that?

I just got to thinking as I was working through this passage.

Hey, they were not the only ship on the sea.

Hello?

Can you imagine of all the other ships out there, the danger they were put in because of one prophet's sin?

Now that's a m- that woke me up.

That was one of those, mmm.

That'll make you think twice before you start sinning.

Can I get an amen?

You don't know how many people it's going to affect.

And here's what I really got.

Hey, really, because of your sin, you may not ever know how it affected other people until you go to be with heaven.

But I can tell you this the effect's not good.

So that ought to encourage you and that ought to warn us not to, hey, willfully disobey God, but willfully serve God.

That's a good reason.

You know what?

You know why I didn't act up in church sometimes?

Because I knew my papa was going to take me to the woodshed.

Hello.

And hey, he believed in woodshed revivals.

He did all the preaching and I did all the shouting.

When you know that there's a major, serious consequence of what you're about to do, prayerfully and hopefully we won't do it.

Can I get an amen?

When you go and have sex outside of marriage and you get a venereal disease, hello.

There's consequences to your wrongdoing.

When you take that first drink, you don't know if you're going to be an alcoholic.

I know the big thing is all it's all about moderation.

That's true.

But guess what?

Some of you, hey, you don't know.

That one drink, that one drink of beer killed my mother at 56.

She was an alcoholic.

Killed her brain cell.

She died with a stroke at 56.

That's why I'm never, I've just never, I just, I'm not going to touch it.

Because I saw what it did to my home.

It broke my home up.

It killed my mother.

Well, God said, and I'm not going to sit here and debate with you what wine's in the Bible.

I know that.

I can read.

I'm just not going to do it.

I'm scared of it.

I'm scared.

Well, God's not giving you a spirit of fear.

Nobody's giving me a sound mind.

Hello.

Just not going to do it.

And I'm not going to bait you whether it's right or wrong.

Don't even bother, don't waste my time.

Hey, it's not me going to stand before the Lord.

And it's not me that you're Holy Spirit.

It's the Holy Spirit.

And I understand that.

Some have and I don't know.

I have written papers on alcohol.

Okay?

I'm just.

Here's another reason I don't do it.

Just me.

Let me ask something.

I wish I'd brought me up.

Back when I was a teenager, it was Pat's blue ribbon beer.

Anybody remember those days?

Or are y'all gonna be scared on me?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Here's a guy right here, alcoholic.

He'll tell you about the drinking.

And I'm not jumping on drinking.

Well, yeah, I am jumping on drinking.

But but but here, listen to me.

How would you have felt this morning if I came up here and I'm excited?

Woo! Hallelujah! God bless you.

And I've, you know, like we always do, and I'm excited, can't wait to tell you what's going on.

Whoo, I'm thirsty.

I took a drink of Pap Blue Ribbon Bell.

I know what Granny would have gone and did.

Am I close?

A little louder than that?

No, but here's what I'm saying.

Forget, all right, I've I've dwelled enough on that.

You get the point.

But here's what I'm saying.

When you and I know something's gonna hurt us and we shouldn't do it, then don't do it.

And I can't be your conscience.

I can't be your Holy Spirit about that.

That's between you and God.

Okay?

My problem, can I tell you my problem wasn't alcohol, my problem's S-W-E-E-T-S.

Sweet.

I'm a sweetaholic.

You don't know how much I have to walk by those sweets and it just Satan's saying, eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it, idiot, eat it, eat it.

Oh, little bit won't hurt you, little bit won't hurt you.

Same principle.

So for all you that have a beer, now maybe you'll say, Yeah, I'm glad you said that.

I was gonna talk to you about that one.

I'm guilty, I'm that one.

That's why I went on my diet.

And you know what's bad about a person being on diet?

Because then I think everybody ought to be on diet.

So that's bad too.

Ask my wife.

I had to quit preaching to her before she shot me.

I shouldn't have said that either.

I wasn't preaching to her about her weight, I was preaching to her about her cooking the sweets in the house.

Okay, stop.

I am, but I yeah.

Next.

Number two.

Number two.

I'm going on on that one, I promise.

So, A, they the hey, the concern of the sailors, B, the cry to their gods.

Look at verse 5.

Cried every man to his God.

Now, this is interesting.

The crew of the ship may have been, and they probably were multinational because they came from everywhere, okay?

So they were all praying to a different God.

Now, you got to realize sailors aren't known for praying.

Hello.

Amen.

They're not known for praying.

So here they are.

They're only, hey, they're not worried, they're not worried in divinity.

Hey, they're worried about prophets, the cargo.

So they're not praying.

You know, they're not really worried about the deity, they're worried about the dividends.

But watch what happens here.

They're not known for praying, but they get in trouble and they start praying until they're each of their gods.

Now, isn't it a tragedy?

A tragedy that we wait till a storm comes for us to pray.

Amen.

The Bible says, rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Men ought to always pray and not to faint.

Luke 18, 1.

We ought to constantly be talking to God.

He talks to us through the word, we talk to him through prayer.

Constantly talking to God in prayer.

The righteous, hey, cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them from all their troubles.

Psalms 34, 17.

Wow.

But they cried to the gods.

They cried everyone to their own gods.

Now watch the other thing.

See, the casting of the wares.

Notice in verse 5, he says, they cast for the wares, the cargo, the jewels, the gold, whatever.

The sailors were far more, again, involved in dividends than deity.

So what I saw here is, if that be the case, and they were, guess what?

The storm, now whoo, this is worth you understanding about storms.

The storm changed their priorities.

Woo! Somebody say that's good.

The storm changed their priorities.

You know what?

You walk in and the doctor says you got cancer, you got six months to live, your priorities change.

Just that quick.

It's not about all the things you got or the things you want to do.

It's all about living.

And some of you have been there.

I know Rosemarie's been there.

Amen.

Storms change our priorities.

Thank God the storm changed the, hey, sailors' priorities.

It really did.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things shall be added unto you.

There comes a time in your life, in my life, that our valuables and our priorities are worthless.

Listen to what he says in Mark 8.

You got to see this, verse 36 and 37.

In fact, I want you to read this with me, church.

This is a good one for you to read.

Ready?

For what shall it profit?

Read.

Verse 37.

Now, watch this one.

Verse 38.

Read.

Of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the Holy Age.

That is exactly what was wrong with Jonah.

He was no longer concerned about God and being the prophet preacher.

I'm not saying he was ashamed, but he kind of was because it's a sad day when the sinners have to wake up the man of God, the preacher of God, the prophet of God, and say, Wake you sleeper! He was ashamed.

He was ashamed.

I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

For it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believeth, to the Jew first and to the Gentile.

Everywhere you go, you ought to be having your little life and death tracks and leaving them everywhere you go.

I'm not ashamed.

Jesus' awesome bands and bell, I'm not ashamed.

I want everybody to know who I serve.

Powerful.

Then, D.

After the casting of the wares, look what happens next.

The catnapping prophet.

The ship was in turmoil and Jonah's asleep.

In fact, the word asleep here is the Hebrew word Rodham.

Rodham.

And it means to be unconscious or be in a heavy sleep.

And I thought to myself, oh my soul, that's where we are in America spiritually.

We are in a deep sleep.

Amen.

God help us to be awakened.

Hey, you know why we're going through what storms are coming?

You know why they're coming?

God's trying to wake America up.

Amen.

He's trying to wake us up.

So, the removal of the calm, the response of the crew.

Pretty awesome.

Really was.

The concern of the sailors, the cry to their gods, the casting all their wealth and the cargo, all they didn't care about that anymore.

God changed their priorities.

They started praying.

Then we see the sleeping prophet.

The prophet ought to be one leading the way, praying, saying, It's not praying under your gods, but it's praying under Jehovah, who created the heavens and the earth and the winds and the sea.

He's the one that can calm the sea.

Like Elijah did on Mount Carmel.

But he wasn't.

So it brings us to the third thing.

The rebuke of the captain, verse 6.

The message to wake up is in this verse.

Wake up! You know what got me right here?

A snoozing Jonah was totally unaware of what was taking place outside.

Now that's scary to me.

Now let me tell you what I what God taught me here.

He was totally unaware of what his sin was doing to others.

What breaks my heart and what I'm scared of personally.

Are you listening?

That we can get so we can twitch and grieve the Spirit so much that we are totally unaware of what God is doing to get our attention.

Wow.

Wow.

He could have been awakened at the very beginning, got up and said, That's me and gone repenting, Lord help me gone up to the top and started sharing.

But no, he had to be confronted by the ship captain, the ship master of the boat, and he had the, he was confronted.

I meant one-on-one.

Thank God for the lost ship captain.

He looked him in the face and said, What are you doing down here, you sleeper?

He knew something wasn't right.

Backslidding Christians claimed, my sin won't hurt anyone.

It doesn't affect anybody but me.

That's what he was thinking.

That's not true.

I love the word shipmaster.

Let me tell you, I've never seen this before.

This is awesome.

The word shipmaster, listen to what it means.

It's formed from a word meaning rope puller.

You ever seen them on ships and pulling the ropes and, you know, pulling the ropes even for the big sails and things?

This man was the chief of the rope pullers, and I thought, that's it.

As Christians, we are to be maintaining the ropes for Christ.

We are rope pullers.

We are rope pullers.

Deedre, you're going over to Romania to be rope pullers to help those Romanians.

You and Carolyn.

You're going to be rope pullers over there.

We are rope pullers at CCW.

We're helping each other.

Hey, when you get in trouble, you know what you do?

You grab onto the rope.

You know why?

Because you know you got brothers and sisters right here that are going to pull you to safety.

Man, that's good.

Rope pullers.

We are rope pullers for Christ.

Helping one another.

It is a tragic story that this sailor rebukes Jonah for something he should have been doing.

He admonishes Jonah to pray.

Isn't it amazing when you're rebelling against God you don't want to pray?

Amen.

Hello.

I don't.

Because I know what he's going to do.

He's going to nail me.

And you know what?

Isn't that silly?

Because I'm already nailed.

Because I'm already feeling guilty because I'm not praying.

So why don't I confess my sin and get right so I can pray?

By the way, it doesn't matter if I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me.

Psalm 66, 18.

Remember that.

Remember that.

So let's look at the second thing.

Two things.

We looked at the disruption from disobedience.

Now let's look at the discovery of the defection.

Look at verse 7.

The revealing of Jonah.

An unconcerned, and he was.

An unconcerned to deal with serious sinful problems creates an atmosphere of sinful tolerance.

If you're not willing to deal with sin in your life, or if a church is not willing to deal with sin in the congregation, it creates an atmosphere of, hey, sinful tolerance.

Hello.

Boy, we've all been guilty there, haven't we?

Well, let's just pray for them and not confront them.

The hardest thing for you and me to do, especially for Christians, is Matthew 18 and Matthew 5.

When somebody offends you or you know they're doing something they ought not to be, you to go to your brother and him along and confront him in a loving way.

That's what Scripture says Jesus tells us to do.

That's the hardest thing to do.

Here's why.

Because the moment we do, who do you think you are?

You're judging me.

You're judging me.

No, I'm not judging you.

I'm here and I don't come with a judgmental spirit.

I come and say, how can I help you, David?

I know this, hey, you know what you're doing's not right.

We I know what you're doing's not right.

I God forbid, but it's only by the grace of God it could be me.

That's a good amen, right there.

That's what he says in Galatians 6.

But that's what we're supposed to do.

They didn't want to do it.

The sailors discern that something or someone is causing storm.

One person's sins can affect an entire group of people.

We know that.

Whether it is in the home, church, or nation, it doesn't matter.

Abraham, he hey, remember Abraham's turmoil to people, to his people because of his lies about Sarah?

And I can take you through Joshua.

Hey, they had to deal with Achan because of his sin and the defeat in Ai.

The sin of Adam condemned the entire human race.

Look at Romans 5 12, wherefore it's by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sin.

Our sin does matter.

One person.

Does make a difference, good or bad.

Guess what they did?

They cast lights.

And I saw something here.

If there's storms in your life, the first place you have to look is to yourself.

When the light fell on Jonah, he knew it was time to confess up.

And I know we don't cast lots today.

There's no need to casting lots today because we have the whole word of God.

But let me remind you that the, hey, God controlled the lots.

Hey, he may not, hey, he may not control the rolling of the dice, but he controlled, are you ready?

He controlled the spots.

He controlled where it landed.

Jonah says, it's me.

Now here's the interesting fact here.

The sailors knew.

Guess what?

Then they start asking.

Isn't it amazing how your sin will be found out?

Can you say this with me?

Numbers 32, 23, it's in there.

You can be sure your sins will find you out.

Okay?

You run, but you can't hide.

Okay.

Isn't it amazing they started asking Jonah all these questions?

Who are you?

Where are you from?

What God do you serve?

Who do you pray to?

None of your business.

And then when they found out he was a Hebrew, they really got upset.

What are you doing?

You're a Hebrew?

Your God, Jehovah, is the God that's created the heavens and the earth.

If anybody can control a storm and ought to be your God, what in the world are you doing in the bottom of the ship of sleep when you ought to be praying?

You're kids.

That's what he said.

That's what he said.

It's me! I'm guilty.

If you throw me overboard, the storm will cease.

Now watch this.

Isn't this interesting?

Now they know the problem.

By the way, you gotta get to the root of the problem.

That storm wasn't gonna stop until Jonah was found to be the corporate culprit.

Right?

Now they get him, he tells them what they gotta do.

Now, I don't know about you, but if the storm was as bad as it says it was, I would have said, You're gone.

I said you got two choices, walk the plane, or I'll throw you.

But they didn't do that.

What's this?

Isn't it amazing when we know the root of the problem, what we need to do, we still don't do it, we try to fix it ourselves.

Woo! That's good.

And I'm just I'm getting beat up.

Don't you go out here and say you're I've been my feet are hurting.

I the Lord has whooped me.

I asked him the other day, I said, Lord, all right, if I'm the runaway, if I'm the one runaway prophet, I sure don't want to go riding on freewheeling.

But I'm not a runaway prophet.

But sometimes I'm a stubborn prophet.

They kept rolling.

He said, no, we'll we'll fix it.

Let's get it to the shore.

The storm got worse.

Listen to me.

If you don't deal with your problem, the storm will get worse.

And that means it affects more people, hurts more innocent people.

Can I get an amen?

Deal with it, folks.

Deal with it.

Deal with it, preacher.

Then they finally realized they couldn't do it, so then they said, Preacher, gotta go.

And the moment he hit the water, it was a calm.

It was a calm.

Real quick.

Look at it.

Number one, the revealing of Jonah.

They found him out.

Sin is, you know what I realize?

Sin is the great detective.

It always finds you out.

Hey, hey, listen, I wrote this.

Try to disguise it, it will show through the disguise.

Try to deodorize it, it will smell with reef, hey, through every time.

Try to drown it, it will float to the surface.

Try to decorate it, it will, hey, the decorations will rot and wrinkle and be destroyed.

You cannot hide it.

You can't hide it.

Your sins will find you out.

The exposure of your sin may not be immediate, but the seeds of sin will eventually yield its fruit.

It's like the little boy that had stolen some watermelons and ate them.

But he didn't, hey, in order to keep him from being found out by spirits, he took the seeds and the rind of the watermelon and buried it.

Well, next watermelon season sprouted up watermelons.

Where'd those watermelons come from, son?

I'm like, I don't know.

Then number two, they questioned Jonah.

Verse eight.

Number three, the testimony of Jonah didn't not match his actions.

This is the bad one.

Look at verse nine.

And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord.

No, he didn't fear the Lord.

If he had feared the Lord, he'd have been obedient to the Lord.

Can I get an amen?

So he's saying he's something, but his actions aren't matching it.

Hello.

Does that not sound familiar?

Isn't it a sad thing when we say we're Christians but our life doesn't match it?

Wow.

No one should have had to question Jonah to find out that he was a man of God.

He ought to be leading the pack.

Can I get an amen?

You've heard me say many times, if we're not living it, don't tell people we're Christians.

It destroys, hey, our testimony.

But let's not do that.

Let's ask God to forgive us and live it.

Can I get an amen?

And then number four, the fear of the sailors.

They wanted to know why Jonah was running from the Lord.

Is that not awesome?

The sailors wanted to know from Jonah why he was running from God.

Two reasons he was running from God.

Selfishness and a bitter, unforgiving spirit.

He did not want the Ninevites to come to Christ.

That's throughout the whole four chapters, especially in chapter 4, verse 2.

He says, God, I know if I go do this, I knew if I did this, you'd save them.

You'd save them.

It is tragic that these men had to be put in the difficult position of dealing with the sins of the man of God.

Isn't that true?

So the question this morning, are we running from God?

Are we running from God?

You running from God?

Is Pastor Danny running from God?

Because if we are, there's a struggle going on in your life right now.

You know it.

You know it.

I know it.

When I'm running from God, I know it.

I really do.

And I have one of two choices: to deal with it right then.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, or let it just continue to what?

To destroy me.

To defeat me.

Because you know what happens?

Let me tell you what happens.

I had a list of several things that I wrote to myself.

Here's what happens.

Number one, your fellowship with the Lord is quenched.

There's no peace.

So now you're out there by yourself.

Now you're making decisions by yourself.

He's not leading you, he's not comforting you.

Second thing is, your fellowship with your godly friends seems to start having a little roughness and struggles.

Isn't it amazing when you really get away from the Lord, you don't want to have anything to do with Christian folks?

Think about that.

Jonah went as far away from the folks as he could.

He went to the lowest part of the boat so he wouldn't have to witness, wouldn't have to talk, wouldn't have to pray, wouldn't have to do anything.

He just wanted, he's running from God.

Just get me away from what God's called me to do.

Just get me there quick so I can.

I gotta get away, gotta get away.

I don't want to have anything to do with these guys.

I don't know about you.

That's the most miserable place for a Christian to be.

I've been there.

Been there more than once, folks.

And can't we put on a mask?

Aren't we great at that?

Come on.

You know, Halloween's coming up.

We're gonna have a big boy.

We can put those masks on when we walk in the church or pull in the parking lot, can't we?

I'm good at it.

Hey, how are you doing?

I mean, don't you, hey, listen, this really happened.

I was put in Tuscaloosa, I pulled up beside one of our church members.

It was a young couple.

I'll never forget it.

I was kind of to the back.

I didn't pull up right beside him because when I was pulling up beside him, I watched, I watched her, and he's going, I said, now the last thing I needed to do is pull up right beside him.

So I let them pull on.

And so, sure enough, they pulled in and I pulled in, and I always park behind the gym where I wouldn't take up a parking place.

Then I always run to the front door like here, because I love to hug you next and greet you when you're leaving, when you're coming in, leaving.

And guess what?

They start walking in.

And I watched them, they're doing like this, and she gets out, slams the door, he gets out, slams the door.

And I'm acting like I'm not locking, but I'm watching.

They come up and I turn and hey, Pastor, how you doing?

God bless you.

Wasn't it a great day?

I thought to myself, yeah, it's a great day for me.

I don't know about you.

Look like you fish to be killed.

Isn't it amazing how we can do that?

That really happened.

Isn't it amazing how we can do that?

Have you ever done it?

I've done it.

You're doing something, all of a sudden you see somebody you know that goes to church when you go, oh, God bless you.

How you doing?

Oh, isn't it a great day?

Mayor, do mayors do that?

You know, you're having a tough time, you see somebody and go, oh, hi, how you doing?

No, you didn't do that.

Some of y'all think I've been following you all week.

I have not.

I have not.

Trust me, I have not.

I'm dealing with my own problems.

I don't like to follow you.

I got enough right here.

Amen.

Woo! Let me ask you.

You got a choice today.

Be miserable, or just come to this altar and give it to him.

Because just as quick as you give it to him, just as quick as they dealt with the sin, dealt with the problem, it was a call.

It was a call.

I promise you it's that quick.

And boy, is that a lot better than that struggling.

Every head bow, every eye close.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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Send us an email at office at the church at cw dot com.

We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.