Running From God

Great to see you this morning.

My name is Russ, and I'm one of the pastors here at Church of the Grove, and I want to say a uh special welcome to everybody.

I know some of you are regular parts of our church family, and uh you're here uh most Sundays, and uh so so good to see our church family.

If you're here maybe for the first time, a special, special welcome to you.

I hope, I hope you experienced an encounter with Jesus.

I hope you've experienced a bit of warmth already.

Um and we're gonna dive into scripture.

We're starting a new series today on the book of Jonah, and um Jonah is uh is a minor prophet.

You you you you go uh on my in my Bible, it's uh page 773, uh which probably means nothing to you, uh, as I say all the time.

But you look between Obadiah and um and Micah, and you'll you'll find uh you'll find Jonah.

He's a it's a small, small, um, minor prophet.

We call them minor prophets because they're they're they're smaller books, they're not of minor importance at all.

They are equally as much as the Word of God, inspired Word of God, as what we call the major prophets, which are are the Ezekiel's and the Isaiah's and just the longer longer books.

And so uh so we're gonna be in Jonah uh over the next few weeks and and talking about uh his journey.

His journey.

Um uh he is a he is a Jewish prophet, um, but he is struggling uh with with with obedience, which which I think all of us should probably struggle with at times.

As a matter of fact, I I I um many of you know my story.

I didn't grow up in church, and and and so as the Lord, as the Lord used people to reach into my life and speak into my life, like people like my grandmother, um, people like matter of fact, my two brothers, my two oldest brothers, had huge influence in me coming to Christ.

Um But for a long time I put I pushed them away and I ran.

I ran away from God.

I just ran.

I ran.

And I ran into uh into things that that I thought might fulfill me.

I I ran into things that I thought might fill some of the voids.

I ran into things that I thought might give me some significance or meaning, but those things ended up being empty.

And and and so uh I continued to run.

As a matter of fact, sin.

Sin equals running from God.

Sin equals running from God.

And that's just that's that's a little bit of Jonah's story is running from God.

Sin equals running from God.

But but another major theme that we see in this book is the grace of God.

The grace of God.

And the and the grace, grace is God's pursuit of you despite your sin.

It is God's pursuit of you despite our sin.

And so we've all been there.

We've all been there.

We've understood uh what it's like to have times in our life that we we have ignored the voice of God, we have run from God, we have entered into sin, and sin um sin is chasing uh after anything that we think can fill that void.

It's it's it's um uh you know it's it's it's going into things that we think that are gonna fulfill us.

And and they never do.

They always bounce back into more hurt, more pain, more disruption.

But thank God for the grace of God.

Grace is God's pursuit despite our sin.

He comes after us.

And so so I don't know about you, but I I run I run I run from all kinds of things.

I run from all kinds of things.

We we we we face the reality.

Sometimes I run from hard conversations.

Um I'll deal with it later.

I'll talk to that person later.

This is a common conversation in our in our home.

Jill says, you need to call somebody.

I'll call them tomorrow.

No, you need to call them today.

And I say, yes, ma'am.

Yes.

Who said that?

That's the very, very, very, yeah.

I should have known.

Michael said that.

I should have done.

Um I it uh difficult decisions.

Sometimes, sometimes it's easier to delay a difficult decision.

Run run from the decision that you that you you know you've got to make, but you you kind of you come up with these ideas, I'll I'll make it later.

It's just not the right time to make that decision.

Or or completing difficult projects.

Uh that that's that's another one.

I'm I I'm I'm not necessarily uh the the fix-it guy.

I'm not I'm not necessarily uh I worked construction back in my um uh back in college.

I worked could went to college part-time, worked construction full-time.

But if you if you were around me today, you would never know that I ever swung a hammer.

As a matter of fact, I mean I was just thinking the other day about we we we've we've done all kinds of remodel things over the 18 years of the life of our church, and and and Jeff Baker has always been at the center of those projects.

And I think, well, you know what?

I'm gonna help Jeff because he is so kind and he is so gracious and he is so um uh so such a servant.

And so uh, but until you try to help him with a project, and then he says, quote, get out of the way, you're slowing me down.

And so uh and and and so and and he says it very kindly.

Does he say that, Raleigh?

He doesn't say it kindly, uh, but but he does say it.

Uh yeah, he said, get out of my way.

So I'm I'm kidding, Jeff.

I love you, man.

I love you.

Keep giving to the building program.

Um uh so so it it's easy to run or ignore the difficult things that we face in life.

It's easy to run away from the grace of God.

It's easy to run away from the pursuit that God has, and and running away from difficult things might bring temporary relief, but it never brings lasting peace.

Running away from difficult things might bring temporary relief, but it never brings lasting peace.

And this is true not only in our daily struggles, uh, but also in our relationship with God.

God consistently speaks to his children through his word.

That's why, you know, I I use my iPad a lot for my notes, but but I I still like to have a copy of God's word up here.

I like to hold it.

I like for you to see it.

And matter of fact, I wish we would all get back to leather paper and write in our Bibles.

I love hearing the shuffling of paper as we're as we're studying God's word.

And and it's okay if you're electronic.

That's there's nothing wrong with that.

It's still God's word.

God's word is God's word.

And so um and so it's it's hard to hear God's voice and and and just to walk away from it, but that's what we do.

We we run from it.

We run from it.

And and it becomes difficult, more and more difficult, to obey the voice of God the farther away that we run from God.

God's voice may have been stirring in your heart for weeks or months, even years, calling you to step out in faith, to break free from destructive uh habits, uh, to forgive someone, to serve him in some way.

But instead of responding, you've been saying, I'll deal with it later.

I'm not ready yet.

It's too hard.

It's too hard to surrender everything.

But when we don't obey God's voice or we practice what we would call delayed obedience, it's the same as disobedience.

It does not, it it does something to our souls.

It begins to deteriorate, it begins to decay our souls, and our hearts become a little harder and harder for God to reach, and for God's voice, um God's voice becomes a little softer and softer.

As we begin this series this morning out of the book of Jonah, we're gonna see something here.

You cannot outrun the grace of God.

You cannot outrun the grace of God.

Write it down.

That's the big idea for today.

And really, really, uh it's it may be the major theme over this whole series.

You can't outrun the grace of God.

And so today we we we begin this series in Jonah.

You've been around church, you've heard about Jonah, you've heard about the story, you've heard about how Jonah gets swallowed by a fish, you where he spends three days and three nights in the belly, and he then he is spit out.

Um, this is part of the story, um, and and and it's it's an important part of the story.

The book of Jonah um has incredible implications for our lives today.

And so this book is far more than just a Sunday school lesson that they would show pictures uh, you know, to with our kids.

It's a powerful revelation of God's relentless grace and the danger of a hardened heart.

It's a picture of God's relentless grace and the danger of a hardened heart.

Jonah's a story about a man who tried to run from God, not because he didn't know what God wanted, but because he just didn't want to do it.

Have you ever been there?

God, I I know you're telling me to do something.

I just don't want to do it.

Happens all the time in my life.

I, God, I know you're leading me to do something.

I'm lit, I you're leading me to a conversation.

God, you're you're leading us to do something as a church.

I I'm just gonna be honest with you, God, I don't want to do it.

I don't want to do it.

I can see the finish line, and I can coast a little bit.

But God never blesses coasting.

God is relentlessly pursuing us, calling us into grace for something greater.

God always wants something greater for us.

And so and so the twist of the story is that God's relentless pursuit, this is the He rip, He relentlessly pursues Jonah.

Even in Jonah's disobedience, God does not give up on Jonah.

Listen, if wherever you are in life, you feel like you're far from God, you feel like there's some disobedience, you feel like there's some struggles, you you're dealing with with some conflict in your soul, in your soul.

Let me tell you something.

God doesn't give up on you.

God does not give up on you.

You can't outrun the grace of God.

And so, and so um, let's open up the book of Jonah and and let's read a little bit about what it says in chapter 1, verses 1.

So Jonah, verses 1 and 2.

Jonah 1, 1 and 2.

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

And Jonah is a Jewish prophet, by the way.

And so it says, This get up, get up.

I don't know what he was doing, but God says, get up, get up, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their evil has come before me.

So Jonah gets a message from God.

And I would say that this message is a bit clear.

You think this message is clear?

Get up.

Get up, Jonah, and go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.

You know, he's saying, Hey, go tell them that my wrath is gonna come if they do not turn to me.

And so Jonah gets this message from the Lord and he says, Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord.

And he starts packing his bag, right?

No, no, he runs.

He runs.

Almost all the other prophets in the Bible are called to proclaim God's word to God's people.

However, Jonah isn't called to preach to the Israelites.

He's not called to preach to his own people, he's called instead to the Ninevehes.

Who are the Ninevehes?

Nineveh is the capital of the Assyrian Empire.

And I believe it's 722 BC, they they conquered the northern kingdom of Israel.

And so they are not the friends of God's people.

And so Nineveh, being that capital, it was a brutal and wicked and oppressive country.

The Assyrians were known for capturing their enemies.

Listen to this.

This is how evil and awful they would.

They would cut off the legs of one arm.

They would cut off the legs of their enemies, and they would cut off one arm of their enemy, leaving the other arm and hand so they could mock and shake the hand that was left of the person that they're about to kill.

They're about to kill.

I mean, just brutal, awful people that took pleasure not only in just conquering, but but but causing suffering.

And so they forced friends and family members to parade with with, they would, they would, they would force the Israelite people, friends and family members of those who had been killed, to parade through the city with their heads on top of a spear, mounted on top of a spear, and parade through the city.

Can you imagine how awful, how gross, and just how um sick that would be.

They burned children alive.

The Assyrian people have been have been referred to as a terrorist state in the Bible.

Nineveh, go preach the grace of God.

Jonah, go preach the grace of God to Nineveh.

These people need the Lord.

Oh man, this will be great.

I love to preach.

Where am I going?

Where am I going again, God?

Nineveh.

God, is there somewhere else I can go?

Is there somewhere else I could go?

So when God's word came to Jonah, it seems weird to Jonah that he should go and preach to such wicked people.

But who needs the Lord?

Who needs the Lord?

Everybody needs the Lord.

Every country, every people, every tribe, every nation, every ethnic group.

I don't care how you know who needs the Lord?

Russia needs the Lord.

And you may not know this, but but Christian persecution is ramping up at a rapid pace around the country.

Nigeria, Christian persecution, the persecution of Christians is rampant in countries like Nigeria.

Uh rampant in countries like Syria.

Rampant in other places.

And so imagine, hey, God comes to you and speaks to you, and he says, hey, I want you to go to Berlin in 1942.

And I want you to stand in the middle of the city of Berlin and I want you to preach the gospel.

How do you think that'd go?

With Hitler and the Nazis.

The equivalent of this is, hey, I want you to go into Syria, and I want you to stand in the middle of a major city in Syria, and I want you to preach the gospel of Jesus.

How do you think that would go?

How do you think that would go?

I want you to go to Nigeria, a place where they're persecuting Christians like crazy.

I want you to stand up in the Capitol, and I want you to preach the gospel of Jesus.

I mean, this is this is a bit of a modern-day equivalent.

And so listen to this.

God's call doesn't always make logical sense.

God's call does not always make logical sense.

God's call often doesn't align with what feels reasonable, comfortable, or safe.

Following God's voice will sometimes seem absolutely illogical, but it doesn't mean it's not right.

For Jonah, this seems like a terrible idea.

And possibly a death sentence for him.

God's call isn't about what makes sense to us, it's about what makes sense to him and what his sovereign plan is.

Think about it.

Noah.

Noah, it's never rained on the earth.

It's never rained, but I want you to build a boat.

I mean, think about it.

It's never rained.

But you're you're on you're gonna you're gonna build this big boat on dry land far from the ocean.

Uh what about Abraham?

I I leave everything that is familiar to you and go to an unknown land that we'll tell you about later.

Not to mention, Abraham, take your son, your one and only son, the son of promise, Isaac, and I want you to march him up Mount Moriah, and I want you to gather some wood, and you're gonna sacrifice him.

And Abraham obeys God.

He raises the knife before God stops him.

But but and so we can go on.

Peter, step out of the boat and walk on water.

What?

Step out of the boat, walk on water.

How about all the disciples?

Leave your family, your career, and follow me.

See, we follow the Lord and His and His voice, even when things seem strange to us.

In fact, one way to determine if it's the Lord's voice or something you ate the night before.

And it's not just something crazy, it's when it forces you out of your comfort zone and it stretches your faith.

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

4010 boom said that.

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

We don't have understanding, we don't, I don't claim to understand everything about God's plan completely.

We don't understand it completely.

We're called to obey sometimes, and we Jill and I talk about this all the time.

Sometimes life is so hard, life is so difficult, life is full of uh of tough decisions and difficult things.

And so sometimes we just say, you know what?

You gotta take one foot and put it in front of the other.

That's all you can do.

Yes, God.

Yes, God.

I'm gonna take one foot and put it in front of the other.

And so we don't have to understand God's plan completely.

We're called to obey.

He's calling you out of your comfort zone, he's calling you out of your security, he's calling you out of even your preferences to work a bigger plan of redemption.

So when Jonah heard this call from God, look, look at what he did.

I mean, he he he, of course, we know all know he just kind of took off and said, Yeah, sure, God, I'll do what you want me to do.

Um, no, it said Jonah got up to flee to Tarshus.

This is verse 3.

Jonah got up to flee to Tarshus from the Lord's presence.

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

He paid the fare, went down into it to go with them to Tarshus from the Lord's presence.

So Jonah hears God's voice and doesn't just disobey.

He goes in the opposite direction as far as he can go.

And I love maps.

I love maps.

I had a seminary friend that that and we we uh I went to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and back then I had to take so many trips to New Orleans to have classes actually on the campus.

And so Scott and I would would would carpool and and Sometimes fly together and drive together, and and and we had this class.

It was archaeology and geography.

And Scott called it maps class.

He hated it.

He hated maps class.

I loved maps class.

I love archaeology.

I would go dig in the sand if I could.

And probably do that with my life if I had the opportunity to uncover.

By the way, they are discovering new things.

And you don't have to look very hard over on the internet to find.

They're discovering new things constantly.

Let me throw the map.

Here's the idea.

You see where Joppa is.

You see over here on the coast of the Mediterranean, which is the area of Palestine, Nineveh, way up.

It looks like a short distance, but it is a long distance to the capital of the Assyrian Empire.

But look, Jonah gets on a boat at Joppa.

Look where he goes.

He wants to go to the end of the earth to get away from God and his voice.

It's not like I'm going down the street.

He wants to go as far away as he can.

And this would be like God asking you to go to Washington, D.C., and you jump on a flight to Los Angeles.

But notice Jonah isn't just running from God's plan.

He's trying to run from God's presence.

How does that work for you?

Psalm 139, verses 7 through 10 says, Where can I go to escape your spirit?

Psalms 139:7–10

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed and shield, you are there.

If I fly on wings of the dawn and settle down on the western horizon, even there, your hand will lead me.

Your right hand will hold on to me.

Jonah wasn't, Jonah wasn't dumb.

He didn't lack intelligence.

He knew that he couldn't go somewhere where God wasn't.

Jonah wasn't confused about God's omnipresence and the fact that God knew everywhere he could be, but and he also knew that he couldn't outrun God.

But he just didn't want to obey God.

And he wanted to put as much distance between what God wanted him to do and where he knew he could probably have as much independence as he could have.

Listen to this.

Running from God won't make life easier.

It only makes your heart harder.

Running from God won't make life easier.

It makes your heart harder.

So where and how are you running from God?

Where and how are you running from God?

Because I think we all run from God at times.

I mean, most a lot of you probably have 364 days a year where you are with God.

But at least one day out of the year, I think you run from God.

And that would be a blessing.

I'm being sarcastic.

So if you think I'm being sarcastic, it's okay to laugh.

Jill doesn't laugh either.

She doesn't get it.

So so so.

Verse 4.

Jonah 1, verse 4.

Jonah 1:4

But the Lord threw, so he he's he he leaves, he's headed to Tarshus, but the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea.

A great wind.

We had a great wind last night.

It was a little bit of a letdown here.

But you know what?

We need to pray for the people.

There are a lot of people that were devastated.

We pray for the people in our country who were hit by these awful storms.

And we, for the most part, as far as I know, we were spared.

You were spared.

We were spared.

But the Lord threw a great wind into the sea, and such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart.

The sailors were afraid.

And each cried out to his God.

Each cried out to his God.

So these are sailors who are polytheistic, believe in different gods.

They all have different gods.

They believe in their false gods.

And it says they threw the ship's cargo into the sea to lighten the load.

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

Is that not crazy?

Storm going around.

Does that sound familiar to any New Testament story that includes Jesus?

Jesus slept in a boat during a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee.

And I'm going to come back to that in a second because I want to tell you, Jesus is in every book in the Old Testament.

And so the sailors are afraid.

They want to lighten the load.

Jonah is falling into a deep sleep.

So Jonah disobeys God, goes in the opposite direction.

The Lord continues to pursue him and brings this great storm upon the boat.

The storm must have been great because the pagan sailors immediately attribute it to the Lord and prayed to their gods.

But where is Jonah?

He's sleeping in the bottom of the boat.

The sailors are having a prayer meeting upstairs to their false gods while Jonah is sleeping.

This shows how running from God makes your heart even harder.

And let's be frank.

If the Lord is working in your life, if God is bringing sin to the forefront where you have to deal with it, you're probably going to lose a little sleep on occasion.

And so Jonah's like, hey, I don't want to have anything to do with this.

I'm trying to go the other direction.

They can pray to their God's law.

I'm going to sleep.

Because my heart is hard.

I'm not interested in obeying God.

And so Jonah wasn't just asleep physically, he was asleep spiritually.

He had become spiritually numb to the things of the Lord, and his running from God allowed his heart to become calloused.

And when we obey the Lord's voice, we become spiritually numb.

Spiritual numbness doesn't happen overnight, but it happens slowly as we repeatedly resist God's voice.

More specifically, how do we become spiritually numb?

We ignore God's conviction.

We ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Some commands are spelled out in scriptures, areas where there are no gray areas, right?

There's some things that are explicit in the scripture.

Don't do this.

Do this.

And then there and then there's some things that are a bit gray.

They're not as specific.

They're not black and white.

And that's where the Holy Spirit has to come into our life.

The Holy Spirit has to convict us.

He has to bring to our attention those things that need to be addressed.

And I don't want us to be a legalistic church.

I'm not going to be a legalistic teacher.

And that's why I want to let the Holy Spirit convict you.

Amen.

But when those convictions come, we need to obey.

I'll tell you what the word of the Lord says.

And I'll tell you that you need to follow in obedience to the word of the Lord.

Paul says this in Romans 4, 14, 23.

He says, But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it.

For you're not following your convictions.

If you do anything you believe that is not right, you are sinning.

And what is sinning?

Sinning is running from God.

It's disobeying God.

Avoiding God's presence.

Jonah runs away from God's presence, deliberately distancing himself from the Lord.

In the same way today, when we avoid prayer, we avoid Bible reading.

We withdraw from Christian community.

We don't show up at church.

We don't prioritize coming together with other believers.

We don't make Sunday mornings a priority.

We don't make our community groups a priority.

We don't make serving a priority.

And we justify.

We justify our behavior.

We compromise.

I'm sure Jonah felt in some way that he justified his compromise.

God will send somebody else.

Have you ever said that?

So many times I have felt convicted of the Lord to speak to somebody, and I walked away and thought, somebody else.

Somebody else will probably come into this picture and speak to these people.

I mean, God's big God.

God will show up.

I can't do it all.

That's what I have these conversations with myself, right?

And so anytime we don't respond to the Lord's voice in radical, immediate obedience, we are opening the door for spiritual numbness to come inside our hearts.

Running from God doesn't change where you are, it changes who you are.

Verse 6.

Come on.

Come on, the sailors said to each other, let's cast lots.

Then we'll know who is to blame for this trouble that we're in.

So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah.

Then they said to him, Tell us who is to blame for this trouble we're in.

What is your business?

And what are where are you from?

What is your country and what people are you from?

And he answered them.

He said, I'm a Hebrew.

I'm a Hebrew.

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

And so Jonah says he worships the Lord while he is living in open rebellion against God.

Now, how many of us do that?

I love God.

I love the Lord.

I follow Jesus.

I'm a believer.

I'm a Christian.

Something comes up in conversation.

Oh, I'm a believer.

Where do you go to church?

Well, you know, church ain't really for me.

Tried that, been there, done that.

Well, but you said you love God.

If you love God, don't you want to be with God's people?

I mean, so so so he worships, he says he worships on one side, and then he's living in open rebellion on the other.

And this is something I've learned.

Faith is not just what you know, it's what you show.

Faith is not just what you know, it's what you show.

As a matter of fact, in American Christianity, we're addicted to Bible study.

Now, when I say that, it's a good thing to want to study the Bible.

But when all you think Christianity is, is just doing a Bible study at the expense of being obedient to what the Bible study tells you, we're missing something.

That's why it's important.

Faith is not just what you know, it's not information, it's not about information, it's about transformation.

So Jonah had the right beliefs about God, but his life didn't reflect those beliefs.

It's this tension we face.

We claim to love God, yet we resist doing what God is asking or calling us to do.

Like Jonah, often our problem isn't theological, it's relational.

We know who God is, but we refuse to submit to him and his ways.

And this might be, as I said, the biggest problem in the American church.

We have a lot of people that have tons of tons of information.

We have access to all this information: sermons, podcasts, new Christian books, conferences.

But I listen, I I don't I can't tell you the last time I went to a conference.

You know why?

Because I would be overwhelmed with all the information and and how I would come back and apply it.

And so I said, you know what?

Why don't I just take a break and start applying what I've already learned, and and and then I'll I'll at some other some point in the future I'll be ready for another conference.

It's a I need to be careful how I say this.

Because I love when Christians get together and study and teach, and I learn theological things, and I learn practical things.

But it's a bit of a racket.

People are making a living, they're making money.

It's nothing wrong with making money, right?

I mean, there's nothing wrong.

Money's a good thing.

I we need I we need your money.

It's gonna I mean it's gonna help us propel the kingdom of God for it.

I'm being serious, as serious as I could be.

And so we say, I'm a Christian, but we resist God's call to forgive, serve, and surrender.

I trust God, yet we don't live with open hands, practicing radical generosity that the Lord commands.

We say, I believe God is in control, but we are riddled with worry and we cling to our own plans.

We can say some things and mean them, but they will not be true in our lives until we put them into practice.

Verse 10.

Verse 10, he says, Then the men were seized by great fear and said to him, Why what have you done?

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

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

For the sea was getting worse and worse.

John was presented with the question, and he's in rebellion.

And you know what?

He says, Hey, um running back to God is not an option.

So he chooses death.

Verse 12, he answered them Pick me up, throw me into the sea, so it will calm down for you.

For I know that I'm to blame for this great storm that is against you.

Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but they couldn't because the sea was raging against them more and more.

So they called out to the Lord.

And it and it and it and when I I'm reading here, it's it's it's capital L, little O, little R, little D.

And I'm reading out of the New Living Translation.

They called out to the Lord, please, Lord, don't let us perish because of this man's life, and don't charge us with innocent blood, for you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.

Now, this is out of the NLT.

I'm gonna go to my ESV.

My ESV.

Read verse 14.

Therefore they called out to the Lord, not capital L, little O, little R, little D.

Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.

Now, why is that significant?

It's because the translators of the English Standard Version wanted to differentiate the different words that are translated as Lord or God in the Bible.

And so capital L, little O, little R, little D is often translated as Elohim.

It is translated out of the Hebrew word Elohim, which is a general word for God.

So if we're sitting around talking, hey, isn't God good?

Um don't you just love the Lord?

And most of us are referring to an Elohim, Elohim type of reference to God.

It's not sacrilegious, it's not, it doesn't mean you're less spiritual, but but it's it is it is distinctly different from you talking about the covenant relationship that we have with Jesus.

And so in this passage, these sailors switch.

They're using, first of all, they're referring to all of their own gods.

Small g, small o, small d, small s.

And then all of a sudden, then they're talking about Elohim.

Capital L, little O, little R, little D.

And then right here, where they throw Jonah overboard, they say, They say, they call out to the Lord.

Now my ESV says capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.

What is that?

That is the Hebrew word Yahweh.

It is the covenant term used to describe the living God that has a relationship with his people.

They have just experienced a conversion.

Jonah disobeys God from going to Nineveh.

He's put on a ship to go as far away as he can, and he can't get away from the call that God's put on his life.

And even in his desire to die, he leads all these sailors to a covenant relationship with Yahweh.

Is that not the craziest thing in the world?

You can't outrun the grace of God.

Now, I I I've got a bunch of other notes here, but I don't have time.

And so we we've got four or five weeks, so is it okay if I come back and pick up next week?

But I want I want to share a quote from Charles Spurgeon.

He says this He says, You may run from God as fast as you will, but your very flight shall cause him to pursue you.

You can run from God as fast as you will, but your very flight shall cause him to pursue you.

To pursue you.

I wore I wore green today.

Anybody know why I wore green?

Tomorrow is St.

Patrick's Day, and and and it's you know, if you I mean, you live in New York, Chicago, you live in Savannah, man, they they paint rivers green, they drink green beer, they they they they party.

But I want I want to just I want to give you a snippet and then you go study St.

Patrick.

St.

Patrick, he's referred to as the patron saint of Ireland, but he really wasn't even Irish.

He was born in Roman Britain in the later stages of the Roman Empire.

Um and he then he was kidnapped.

He was kidnapped out of Europe and he was taken to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16.

He later escaped and he returned to Ireland where he began to spread the gospel of Jesus.

He established churches, monasteries, schools, and we we celebrate him on March 17th, which is tomorrow, right?

Isn't that tomorrow?

So I want you to think about St.

Patrick tomorrow.

Um uh and and so so he started churches, he started monasteries, he started schools in Ireland.

And so in the fifth century, the Roman Empire began to crumble.

And when the Roman Empire began to crumble, there were a lot of things at stake.

Think of all the art, think of all the literature, most important.

Importantly, all of the copies of the word of God that had been copied over and over and over.

That through when when the when the barbarians came in and began to sack Rome, they just begin to destroy things.

And because of St.

Patrick's faith, he was able to take those missionaries that had been raised up in the monasteries and the churches in Ireland.

They travel to Europe and they begin to save and protect as much as they can.

Most importantly, all of the copies and the scrolls of the Word of God.

And so we owe a huge debt to Patrick.

And I know it's hard for me not to say Saint Patrick, but I just I want you all to know you're all saints.

You're all saints.

You don't have to be, you know, you don't have to be given sainthood by a certain church to be a saint.

He was a godly leader that had a vision to propel the gospel forward, to protect the word of God, to impact culture.

So I want you to I want you to think think about that tomorrow as we as we as we you know as you as your kids dress up in green clothes and and and and uh eat green food or green grits or whatever, whatever, whatever, you're whatever you do, uh you know, I wouldn't encourage you to drink green beer, um especially on a on a Monday, you know, during the day.

Um and so so so I I want you to I want you to see that there's so much more to share that I can share.

A couple things I want to share next next week.

But I want to encourage you.

I want to encourage you.

Do you do you know the Lord?

Do you have a relationship with Jesus?

We're about to celebrate communion right now.

We're about to we're about to come to the Lord's table.

And the Lord's table is a representation of the broken body.

It's the gospel of Jesus, it's a representation of the broken body of Jesus and the spilled blood of Jesus.

And here's what I want you to do.

Paul tells us to examine ourselves.

He tells us don't come just just kind of you know haphazardly, don't come to the table of the Lord just flippantly.

You come, you come in in reverence.

And we remember, we remember who God is, what he's done.

But today I want you to come and I want you to look introspectively.

I want you to reflect.

I want you to examine your heart.

Is there some sin?

Is there any running from God in my life right now?

And do I need to stop running from God?

Having him chase me down by his grace, and just stop and say, God, you got me.

You got me.

There's probably a few of you here today that have never stopped and just said yes, yes to the grace of God.

And if that's you this morning, I I want to pray for you.

Would you pray with me?

Lord, I pray.

I pray for that person that doesn't know Jesus, they don't have a relationship with Jesus.

Lord, I pray that today would be the day that they would say yes to Jesus.

That they would stop, they would stop where the grace of God could catch up to them and capture their heart.

And then and then when when when grace gets a hold of us, we can't help but to be changed.

And so if you've never put your faith in Jesus, the Bible says that there's no certain type of prayer.

You just say yes, Jesus.

Jesus said, repent and believe the good news.

And so repentance is a turn.

It's to turn and to stop running and to say yes to Jesus and to allow his grace to stop pursuing you, but to capture your heart.

So that's you this morning, and I want you to I want you to put your faith in Jesus.

Say yes to Jesus.

Yes, I put my faith in you.

I repent and I believe, and that's you.

Let somebody know.

You let me know.

Let somebody know.

Let one of us that's up here at the front know.

And for those of us that are believers, we're gonna come to the table of the Lord and we're gonna take the wafer and we're gonna dip it into the juice that represents the blood of Jesus.

And so we are taking the body, the broken body of Jesus.

We're taking the spilled blood of Jesus, and we are remembering what He has done and who He is.

But it's not just remembering, it's not just looking back, it's also looking forward.

There'll be a great banquet that we'll experience in heaven, and we will we will we will drink wine at the table of Jesus, and we will we will break bread at the table of Jesus, but it'll be in a different spirit.

We won't be waiting anymore, we will be experiencing the presence of Jesus.

And so, Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace.

Thank you for your relentless pursuit in our life.

And so, Father, may we, may we like the like the young prodigal, come home and may we like the older prodigal son, may we soften our heart.

And may we come in to join our Heavenly Father as we celebrate those that have come home to Jesus.

Father, we love you and we thank you and we worship you.

May we be people that don't run, may we be people that obey and say yes.

It's in Christ's name.

We pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So if you make your way to the table, here's what I want you to do is we've got tables set up on the sides.

And so if you are in one of the back three rows, we've got a table right out here.

And so we're gonna ask you in those back three rows, if you don't mind, go out these side doors, come to that table, partake of communion, and then come back through this center door to return to your seats.

And that'll that'll help us break up the uh the time and the and just the the crowd a little bit.

Amen.

Let's let's partake.