Relentless | Running From God (January 13th, 2019) - Mike Armstrong

Amen.

Well, good morning, Harvest.

Glad to have you here today.

And if you would be so great to grab your copy of God's Word, uh, if you have one on you, and you can get it turned to the book of Jonah, starting off uh a brand new series uh here this morning for the next uh four weeks.

We'll be working for uh through this uh great little book.

Now, listen, if you need a copy of God's word, if you don't have a Bible uh on you, you can quickly scramble and download one on your phone, or uh we've got a bunch of copies back there that we would love uh to lend you, in fact, give you if you don't have one of your own.

So please uh just make your way back there and uh the ushers uh will connect you with that.

All right, question for you.

You ever um you ever run away from home as a kid?

Anybody have any of those stories?

Um I don't remember doing this personally uh in my life.

And uh that being said though, I remember, you know, I remember kind of threatening, at least in my mind.

I remember getting mad at my parents for something they did or didn't let me do, or something like that, and and thinking, you know what, I'm out of here.

And of course, um all talk, right?

Like not gonna actually go ahead and do that.

But I was talking with a few uh people this week, a few of you even, and um heard some pretty funny stories about uh some of you doing that.

One of them was was Danielle Riddell.

A lot of you would know her.

She uh helps run our harvest kids down there.

She said she actually escaped, she escaped out of an apartment building.

She was being uh cared for by a babysitter, escaped out of her apartment building, wandered around, she's really, really young, got out, this is in Toronto, got outside, got across the street, walked into her sister's school, like bare feet and all of that, and finally um they kind of figured out what was going on and they brought her back.

The best part about that is that the babysitter didn't even notice.

So um I say all of that because um Danielle knows all the tricks.

Your kids are safe uh back there.

You guys will be all good.

But um, I mean it seems to be a pretty common thing for kids to consider, right?

And I know that generally speaking, I mean I know that uh some do run away, but for the most part, I think kids, you know, if they do and they, you know, they grab their backpack and they get on their bikes and they start to ride away, they know, they realize pretty quickly, uh, this is not gonna go well for me, right?

And like who's gonna feed me and and close me, or there's fear involved crossing the street and stuff like that.

And so usually they just end up turning around and and coming home.

Okay, well, today, like I said, we're gonna be starting up a new series in the book of Jonah.

Now, for a lot of us, uh, it's a pretty well-known and beloved story.

Okay, but what I've actually come uh grown to appreciate over the last you know couple of years or so is just how strong of a challenge this little book presents us with.

See, I don't know about you, but I grew up with a with a fairly basic uh understanding of the story, right?

You know, God commands man to uh to preach to a pagan city.

Man disobeys God and flees.

Okay, God sends fish to swallow man and teach him a lesson.

Man learns his lesson and finally obeys God.

Kinda.

Right?

City turns to repentance uh towards God in repentance, and they all live happily ever.

Done, right?

Well, what I've come to see here is that it's a much deeper and complex and messier story than it might seem at first.

Because you could easily say that Jonah was he's not a good guy.

He's not.

I mean, he's a prophet, we're gonna see that here, but all through this book, I mean, he is he's a suck, right?

He whines, he complains, he does not at all respect and appreciate God's mercy towards sinners.

Okay, and within that, I think we see some tones of racial bigotry.

He's very, very stubborn.

I mean, it's fair to kind of doubt and question whether he truly repents at all, right?

To the point where this book ends on a pretty sour note.

It's pretty pretty unsettling where it appears that Jonah doesn't really learn his lesson or or experience any significant heart transformation.

Period.

I mean, it's complicated.

It all begins right here in chapter one with a man who decides to run away from God through disobedience.

He's not at all happy with God's command, what God has commanded him to do.

And so he literally flees, right?

He he just he just gets up and bolts.

Now, this is something that I think all of us can can relate to.

See, we're all runners.

Anytime that you and I decide to not obey any of God's commands, spiritually speaking, we're choosing to run away from the Lord in some way.

Right, which creates all kinds of problems.

It creates problems for um for us, consequences for us, consequences that that almost always touch somebody else as well and affect people that we know and love.

And and the further we run away from God and the more we harden our heart towards him, the the you know, the the more that the problems just kind of compound and build on top of each other, which ultimately has a has a huge impact on our relationship with God.

Now here's the thing though.

Okay, the awesome and and overarching theme of of the book of Jonah is that even when you and I find ourselves running away from God and fleeing from him, the Lord does not give up on us.

How amazing is that! He he pursues us, he pursues relationship with man.

He shows compassion to us.

It's his church.

He shows compassion to his enemies as well.

And as we're gonna see here, as we work our way through these verses today and over the next month or so, we're gonna see that God is relentless about it.

Right?

He just keeps coming and he goes after us and he doesn't let us have our way, not for not for too long, anyways.

It was absolutely the case for Jonah.

It's the same for us today.

Well, we already prayed, and so let's jump into this here.

If you're a note taker, here's the first thing.

When I run away from God, okay, that's what we're talking about, running from him, it creates a spiritual downward spiral.

Spiritual downward spiral.

Take a look at this here in verse 1 as we get into this story.

This is what it says.

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

Alright, so what we see here, and we actually learn from uh 2 Kings chapter 14 as well, if you'd like to kind of do dig into some of the backstory there.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

2 Kings 14, we see that Jonah was a prophet, right?

He's a prophet of God.

And he prophesied during the days of Jeroboam II, or Jeroboam II, who happened to lead the northern kingdom of Israel.

Remember, it wasn't too long ago we talked about this, right?

They were in a divided kingdom, Judah in the south and Israel in the north.

Jeroboam II led the northern kingdom.

And so Jonah, I was a prophet during that day.

This is then like in the 8th century BC.

Now it says there that he's the son of Amitai.

We don't know much about his father, but we do know that his name, that name Amitai, means faithfulness.

Okay, and so it's just kind of a foreshadowing here as we look at this that we are absolutely going to see the faithfulness of God throughout this book.

Alright, so the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.

Alright, so as is, or as was the norm for prophets, God commands uh Jonah to go to the Ninevehites.

It's like go to this, the city of Nineveh.

You need to call them out.

You need to call them to uh repentance.

Their wickedness has uh has come up before me.

I have noticed, I can't ignore it any longer.

I need you to go.

You're gonna go uh right now.

Okay, but Jonah, okay, verse 3.

Okay, so you know this is gonna go sideways, right?

But Jonah, it says, rose to rose to flee to Tarshish.

And now Tarshish is in the exact opposite direction of Nineveh, just to kind of wrap your mind around that.

It says he would flee to Tarshish from or away from the presence of the Lord.

He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.

A lot of SH in there.

It's just like a tongue twister for me.

Okay, so he so he paid the fare, and it says that he went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

But, okay, so the Lord's not just gonna let him do that.

You see this back and forth signified by the word but there, but the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.

Okay, so light rain happening here?

No.

No, it's like a heavy-duty storm.

It says there, then the mariners, these seasoned vet sailors, were afraid, and each cried out to his God.

So these these sailors were a bit of a mixed bag in terms of uh their religions, right?

Their pagan religions, the multiple ones, were represented here, and so they're just kind of grasping at straws, crying out to uh whatever God they subscribe to.

It says there that they they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.

But Jonah, it says, had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

And so the captain came and said to him, What do you mean, you sleeper?

Okay, okay, literally, it's like, what are you doing?

How can you possibly be sleeping in a moment such as this?

You know that creaking sound that you hear?

That's how my joints walking down the stairs to get you.

That's the ship starting to crack.

He's like, How can you possibly be asleep during this time?

He says to him there, keep going.

He says, Arise, call out to your God.

Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish.

And so he's just like, they're just throwing prayer at a wall and kind of seeing what sticks there.

Now, twice, I'm sure you noticed it, the text alerts us that Jonah is attempting to do what?

He's attempting to flee from the presence of the Lord.

It actually says it a third time, again, down in verse 10, there, you'll notice it there.

It says the exact same thing.

Now, I say, I use the word attempt because can we actually flee from God's presence?

It's important that we think about this.

Can we actually, can we actually do that?

Well, certainly not in a in like a spatial proximity type way.

Right?

We know from our, you know, from the scriptures, and I mean we did a doctrine series not too long ago where we talked about God's omnipresence, how God is spirit, he is He is everywhere.

There is not a place that He is not, right?

And so we know we know that's the case.

You can't you can't flee from Him in that way.

Now I love Psalm 139 here, 7 to 10.

We've got this up on the screen.

You can follow along with it.

This is so good.

It says, It says, Where shall I go from your spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

Now these these verses are meant to bring comfort and and and bring bring joy to to you and I as we face trouble in life, different different difficulties, knowing that our God is very near, regardless of how it might feel.

And let's be honest, a lot of the time it feels like God is a million miles away, but he's telling us in his word that I'm actually not, right?

I'm right there with you in the in the pain and in the in the difficulty.

That can bring us great great comfort.

But for those of us living in disobedience, these verses are the furthest thing from comforting, right?

Because we're trying to run.

We're trying to get away from the Lord.

We're trying to flee him.

And so this thought, this reality that God is always there and we we can't get away, it strikes us as downright dreadful.

Because again, we're trying to bail, we think we can escape, but but no chance.

And that that discomfort and that that dread that that we feel is because deep down we know better.

Right?

We know that what we're doing is it's wrong.

And so for us, when we're living in rebellion and we've got sin that we're not dealing with properly, and and we're just giving into all of that, and when we come across a verse like this and we know this, and our theology is right, where we're we're we start to uh kind of feel this mixture of uh of guilt and and and shame and and fear even and conviction.

It's uh it's like these things just kind of gnaw at the back of our minds and and at our conscience.

Now we're gonna continue here to unpack this concept of fleeing God's presence as we go here this morning and and throughout the series, but but another key thing to note here is the use of the word down.

Do you notice that in the text?

Now, Jonah is considered uh it's considered a literary masterpiece, right?

And we see some of that here in the word play.

Okay, back it up again to verse 2.

Okay, God says to him there, he says, Arise.

Okay, literally that word there is up.

Right?

Up, up you get, up yeah, you're gonna go.

There's no like preamble really in any of this.

It's just up you go, you're gonna go to Nineveh.

Okay, but Jonah goes where exactly?

Well, it says there down.

Verse 3.

He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.

So he paid a fare and went down into it.

And then in verse 5, when the sailors are trying to save the ship, it says that Jonah there had gone down into the inner part of the ship now and had lain down and was fast asleep.

The intention here of the author is to do far more than describe what Jonah was doing physically, but rather what was happening to him spiritually.

And he's getting sucked deeper and deeper into this vortex, so to speak.

This spiritual downward spiral as he hardens his heart and he and he digs his feet in, and he's like, No, Lord, I'm not gonna do what you want, I'm gonna do what I want.

That's exactly what our sin and and what our disobedience does to us.

We've all experienced this kind of thing before.

And hey, some of us sitting here today might be experiencing this now, right, where God is saying to you, arise up in some kind of clear way.

It's an area of holiness, maybe, that it that he that he calls you to through his word, clearly.

Or maybe for you, it's uh it's it's an act of faith that he's urging you to take that step and and trust him with the results.

Yeah, you don't know how it's gonna go.

But he's saying to you, he's like, up.

Time to trust me, try time to time to obey me here.

But but you're fighting it.

And you're refusing, and and for you, it's like Jonah.

It's just it's down, down, down.

It's obvious what God's command is for you, but but in your own way, you're you're running.

Right?

And because of that, you're you're spiraling.

And much like how Jonah receives like a literal wake-up call, right?

The captain's like grabbing him here and saying, What do you mean, you sleeper?

You know, arise, get like get up.

Right?

Just like that, God here today with you is is offering you a wake-up call, right?

Through his word.

He's grabbing you sometimes gently.

That's what you need.

Sometimes it's this, right?

You need the more the violent shakeup.

He's trying to let you know that listen, guys, this will not this will not go well for you if you continue to run.

He's like, he's like, time to snap out of it.

Time to wake up and identify and and reject the lies that that you've embraced and you've now believed as you as you spiral out of control spiritually.

Maybe for you, it's that you need to stop believing the lie that God doesn't know what's best for you.

He does.

Always.

Stop doubting him.

Stop justifying your ways and and your wants and thinking that what you know and what you think and your wisdom and all that, that's that's better and deeper and more satisfying than God's not, it never is.

Stop believing that lie.

Stop believing the lie that you cannot find satisfaction through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

You can, and you will by by grace, of course.

Obedience is is always best.

Now, listen, I understand to to obey now might be hard.

It might be very difficult, it might be for a for a short season.

Maybe it's gonna be for a while or for a long while.

But the satisfaction that you've been kind of duped into thinking that you can find and obtain through your sin, that's not satisfaction.

At best, it's fleeting pleasure, it's momentary.

It'll always and only end in pain and regret.

Maybe for you it's that you need to stop believing the lie that God doesn't really care about what you're doing.

It's not that big of a deal.

Come on.

So many people are doing it.

I see other people in the church doing it.

So what does it matter what I do?

He doesn't care.

There's a lot of people in the world.

He's focused on them.

He's not as focused on me.

Yeah, he absolutely does care about you and what you're doing.

So much so that he might mercifully send a terrifying storm into your life to disrupt what you're doing and call you back to uh back to him.

Right?

That's what he does.

It's not always just a feel-good lovey-dovey thing.

It's it's a it's a Jonah situation where where the ship of our life in some way starts to crack up.

And for some of us, we think that that's that that's God's God's hatred towards it.

That's not it.

He loves you, he cares about you enough to let you see and experience that your bad decisions, your your foolishness will end in pain.

And he'll he'll allow you, he'll put you through all of that to draw you back to himself.

Listen, if you fight against that, it's always, always way more difficult than if you would just repent.

Listen, we see here Jonah.

I mean, he he totally just fights against it.

The ship is is cracking, and the sailors are wondering what's going on here, and and he doesn't yield to the Lord.

In fact, it gets even worse as he refuses to repent.

And that's the second thing.

And listen, the the same thing happens to us.

Take a look at this here in verse 7.

It says, And the sailors said to one another, Come, let us cast lots that we may know.

On whose account this evil has come upon us.

Now we've referenced this idea of casting lots before.

It was kind of like rolling a dice or dice to determine what decision to make.

If it lands on a six, I'm going to go in this direction.

If it lands on a three, I'm going to go in that direction.

That's kind of what casting lots was like.

It was big-time common practice in ancient times.

The Israelites used it as well.

They believed that the Lord Himself directed him through the casting of lots.

And so that's what they do.

Keep going here.

It says, so they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah, lo and behold.

And they said to him, Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us.

And then notice this, they just grill him, right?

Like I picture the light shining on him.

There's like, you know, cigarette smoke hanging in the air, and they are just-it's Inquisition, right?

They're just going after him.

They say, You know, what is your occupation?

Where do you come from?

What is your country?

And what people are you?

And he said to them, I am a Hebrew.

And I listen, do you think his actions are actually lining up with his words here?

Notice this.

And I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

Okay, so his talk's not backing up his walk, or the other way around, really.

But can you imagine when they hear this?

I worship, I fear the God, the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea in the dry land.

They're thinking, oh, perfect.

Great, thank you for ticking him off.

Right?

We were, you know, we're praying out to gods of who knows what, and and oh, the one true God, great, thank you for roping us into this.

Okay, keep going.

It says, then the men were exceedingly afraid, yeah, I guess so, and 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.

It's kind of interesting, isn't it?

It says and 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.

Now, a couple of things here to kind of note about all of this.

At first glance, it kind of appears that Jonah is softening a bit, doesn't it?

Right?

He admits to the sailors that he's that he's fleeing from the presence of the Lord.

He's like, he's openly telling them this.

Right?

He knows that the storm is because of him.

So the Lord is like there's some conviction going on there for sure.

And I remember, you know, as as a kid growing up and hearing this story over and over, and I don't know if it was because I was I was specifically taught this or just because where my you know my mind kind of went, but I I remember thinking that that Jonah was being like a true hero here by offering to be thrown overboard in order to save the sailors, like he's taken one for the team.

And I remember I remember though listening to JD Greer as a pastor, and and he noted that that none of this is the case.

Right?

Not not at all.

He's not softening to the Lord by by admitting to these guys that that he's he's running from God.

Okay, rather it's it's kind of the opposite.

Yeah, yeah, he admits that he's running, but it's not it's not the you know the humble admission kind.

It's a stubborn and and and hard-hearted kind.

He's like, Yeah, I'm running away from the Lord.

Don't care.

That's where he's at.

Nor is he is he playing the sacrifice uh sacrificial hero by you know offering up his life for the sake of others because he cares so much about them and uh and where they're at.

Hey, that's not it at all.

His mindset, think about this, is actually I'd rather die than repent.

Toss me overboard.

Right?

Jonah is so committed to his rebellion against the Lord.

There's such a strength and pride and hardness within him here.

He's in such a dark place that he would literally rather go suicide by God than repent, than obey.

That's how bad.

That's how deep.

That's the darkness that our sin can cause.

That's where it can take us.

Plunging us into chaos, right?

Utter recklessness in how we live.

Maybe you've experienced this in your life.

Maybe there's there's loved ones that that you know that you that you care about and you see this happening with them.

As they spiral, as they go down, down, down.

It's you know, just just headed for destruction.

Now you've heard me say this phrase before.

I think of it so often.

My my old one of my old pastors, when we lived in New York, used to say it a lot.

I don't know where the quote originated, but but here it is on the screen.

Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you're willing to pay.

See, we need to wake up to what running from God will actually do to us.

Christians, I think, sometimes we have such a like a G-rated Disney sanitized approach to sin that's just not accurate.

Where we just kind of think that it's it's it's it's just fun.

Just a little bit.

Right?

The the you know, the parts that I can control.

Right?

It's just it's just a little bit of pleasure.

You know, I I work hard.

I I deserve, you know, a good time.

It's it's not it's not that big a deal.

We don't stop to really think about this here.

We don't process this.

We're not very biblical in our understanding of it.

We don't consider and realize just how awful it can actually get.

Some of us have lived it, and some of us have experienced it, and and we know.

Right?

And we would never want to go back to that.

And we're so grateful for the grace of God and how he has drawn us back to him.

But maybe still, even that, some of us have been down that road, but even so, you're kind of beginning to head back down it.

Maybe it was several years or decades ago that you had your you know, your life of rebellion or or whatever it might have been, and you've kind of forgotten the hurt, you've forgotten the pain, and a lot of that is healed because God has been good to you.

And so you're you're you know, you're starting to kind of dabble again.

And and you're kind of you know, you're you're beginning to head back down that road.

And for you, maybe it's you know, you're just kind of you're kind of looking back over your shoulder at that old way of life, at that old road.

And you're like, that looks kind of fun.

Maybe for you, you've you've actually turned and you've faced that road, and you're just kind of like kind of putting your foot on it a little bit.

Right?

It's kind of what's that feel like?

Just kind of retesting that.

Or it's it's like a slow walk, one foot in front of the other.

Maybe for you, all of that happened real fast, and now it's just a full-out run.

Away from the presence of the Lord, towards your selfish and sinful desires.

Listen, pent up in the heart of Jonah and in the heart of man, and again, maybe for some of us here today, again, it can be such a strong refusal to yield to the Lord, where our pride makes such a mess out of what repentance would fix.

So whether you're, I don't know, maybe a student here today, junior high, high school, you're in your young adult days, you know, and you're, you know, just beginning to kind of dabble in what the world has to offer.

And you grew up in the church, and you know, you've heard adults and pastors and pat and parents say, don't go that way, it's gonna be painful.

And as you dip your toe into those waters, you realize it's just kind of fun, actually.

Maybe for you, you've pushed all your chips forward into that lifestyle a long time ago, and you feel a million miles from God.

Listen, it's urging to you today, no matter which camp you might be in, you're you're a little bit into it, you're you're deep into it.

The same, it's the same.

It's repent.

It's repent, it's it's turn back to him.

Turn turn away from your sin.

Turn turn away from your foolishness.

Turn away from all this.

Stop running down that row.

You're it's you're weary.

You're you're lost.

You don't care about the things of Christ.

You're you're hurting other people, you're ruining your relationships here.

There's consequences that are building up.

The wrath of God is being built up, it's being stored against you.

Turn away from that.

Embrace the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers you.

That's why he died.

Listen, it just gets worse if you don't.

I mean, we're seeing it right here in the text, right?

In terms of the deterioration of Jonah's spiritual condition, his attitude, his mindset.

I mean, we see his thoughts and where he's at.

We're gonna see this continue to unfold here by way of how bad his circumstances get.

There's a fish involved, right?

It gets kind of crazy.

So listen, before something crazy happens to you, turn back to the Lord.

Turn to him.

Maybe for for you it's it's for the first time.

You're new to all of this, and you know that you're not following the Lord, you don't even really know what that's about all about.

We need to understand that God offers you salvation, he offers you forgiveness.

He suffered and died in your place.

So that if you would just admit your sinfulness, your brokenness, all of that which is against your Creator, if you would admit that, if you would confess that, that's really what repentance is.

If you would invite him to be your Lord and your Savior, he would cleanse you and purify you from all unrighteousness.

He would give you his Holy Spirit, he would transform your life.

That takes a lifetime to accomplish, and he does that in you.

Trust him, trust him today.

Understand that he is relentlessly pursuing you.

He's coming after you.

It's no mistake that you're here today, it's no mistake that you're hearing this.

Why does he come after us like that?

Well, because he knows that he's what's best for us.

He knows it.

He always has been, he always will be.

When I run away from God, it creates a spiritual downward spiral that gets even worse as I refuse to repent.

The last thing here causing me to forfeit intimacy with him.

Forfeiting intimacy.

That right there, okay, that, that is what running from God does.

You're trying to flee the presence of the Lord, right?

You're you're really forfeiting that that closeness.

We know that we can't escape his, you know, an omnipresent creator.

He's in all places at all times.

We talked about that.

I don't believe that the scriptures teach that that true Christians can lose their salvation.

We're sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8 tells us that that nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even our own stupidity.

Okay, but we sure can damage our closeness with God in terms of intimacy.

And when we do that, we're in trouble.

Do we know that?

Far too many of us, we don't really care about that.

We're like, well, I'm still coming to church, and I don't, I'm not as bad as that guy I go to school with, or our marriage isn't as messed up as theirs over there.

And I'm still kind of doing what I want, and yeah, I don't feel as close to God, but I'm still kind of making it.

And we act like that intimacy that we've lost with God, it's no big deal.

Because it's everything for a Christian.

Do you know that?

Right?

We forfeit intimacy, we lose out on so much.

We lose out on joy.

Why am I why am I miserable all the time?

Why don't I seem to have the joy that I see other Christians have?

Well, it's because you're running away from God.

It's not innocent.

We learn, we we lose courage and boldness.

You wonder why we don't want to share Christ and we're too fearful to do that with people who are lost and going to hell?

Maybe it's because we're running away from God in a certain way.

And so we forfeited that intimacy and the courage and boldness that His Holy Spirit gives us.

We forfeit that inner sense of peace and security and confidence in our salvation.

Some of you really doubt whether or not you're saved.

Maybe it's because you're kind of running away from him.

And you don't sense that closeness.

When we run from God and we forfeit intimacy, we block the flow of his Holy Spirit towards us, which listen, we gotta have that.

If we don't have that, how on earth do you expect to obey the Lord?

You should be silent.

There's no answer.

Right?

There isn't.

When we run away from God, it is a race we cannot win.

We never will.

We grieve the Holy Spirit, we drain our spiritual vitality at the exact same time.

Now, what's interesting to see here through Jonah chapter one is that these pagan sailors are the ones who seem to get it.

You notice that?

You see, you see the progression of their understanding as to who God is and a softening towards him as he uses Jonah's rebellion and Jonah's hard-heartedness to reveal himself to them.

And in this we see God's heart towards his enemies.

God loves all people.

He loves the Ninevites and these sailors.

Right?

And just look at verse 13 here.

Remember, Jonah had told them to just see, just heave me overboard.

Right?

But look what it says, verse 13.

Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land.

Notice how they're just like, they don't want to kill this guy.

They want to do what they can.

It says, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

Therefore, look at this.

They called out to not small g God anymore, the Lord.

O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood.

For you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.

So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

Imagine that scene.

Listen, this should have been Jonah's response.

Right?

This is where he should have been.

This should be our response too, as soon as we experience the displeasure and the discipline of God towards our sin.

He uses this storm and this wild circumstance here to pursue intimacy with Jonah.

That's what he's going for.

He's trying to draw him close.

And yet, ironically, again, it's actually the sailors that are drawn in.

Do you think that was that was a surprise to God?

No.

He's accomplishing so much more in these kind of situations and in all of life than you and I can see and in many ways understand.

Right?

They fear the Lord exceedingly.

They offer sacrifice.

They worship.

They make vows.

Right?

This is the exact purpose of God's discipline when you and I wander off and run away.

It's not to like punish us and kick us and vindictively ruin our fun and be oppressive or anything like that.

No, no, no.

It's to draw us into that place.

Right back into that place of true intimacy with him again.

That's what our walk with him is to be.

True worship.

Not empty words, from the heart.

Awe.

Where we consider the Lord, where we read his word, where we hear people talk about what he's doing in their lives, and we see his fingerprints in our lives and the transformation that's happening there.

We're like, wow! That's what he's trying to do.

That's what he's working on in us.

Don't forfeit that.

Nothing could be more short-sighted than trading intimacy and closeness with a loving, sovereign, and saving God for a momentary spin with our sin of choice.

But when we do go that way, Jonah reminds us here that God comes after us.

How awesome is that?

Right?

He chases us down.

He could have been like, fine, see ya, have fun in Tarshish.

I'll get another prophet, I'll raise another one up.

No, he's like, I'm not done with you yet, fool.

Right?

He comes after him.

He does the same thing with us too.

Chases us down.

And he's relentless about it.

If you sense that prodding, that that poking, you know the Lord is stirring something up in you and you're feeling uncomfortable about sin.

Don't don't shut it out.

Don't try and turn it off.

Don't la la la la.

We love to do that with the Lord.

Don't do it.

He's not gonna give up.

He wants you.

You're his.

He will sanctify you.

Invite him into your life and ask him to transform you so that's not a dreadful thing, and rather a wonderful thing to you.

And hey, listen, there's no more clear picture of this than the cross.

Right?

The way the Lord pursues us and he comes after us.

Right?

Jesus did that to the point of death.

He gave up his life to bring intimacy between us and God that you and I had no way of creating ourselves.