Jonah - Don't Run

So, Father, we praise you.

We thank you for being such a great God, for you loving us so much.

We thank you that you would adopt us each as your very own children.

We praise you for that.

And Holy Spirit, thank you for being our our counselor and our teacher.

And we ask you just to flow this morning to teach each of us so we could each of us leave, knowing that uh we heard something uh from you.

And Jesus, we just uh praise you.

We thank you for being our rescuer, for being our savior, and for being our friend.

It's in your great name we pray.

Amen.

So one of the times that I enjoy riding a motorcycle the most is when uh I don't have a real time constraint.

And it seems like that doesn't happen very often.

But you know, when you kind of got a route in mind, but you didn't you don't have to follow it, you know, and you see a road and you just wonder what's down there and you take off and and you go uh check that out.

Uh that's one of the most enjoyable times for me.

Um I found different things.

I found small towns I didn't even know existed.

I found um great restaurants I didn't know existed, I found speed traps I didn't know existed, and some pretty cool stretches of of road.

But uh it's those times that you really have that sense of freedom, you know, that sense of adventure, wondering what it is.

It's just right around the corner.

And many of us have experienced that life with God is the same way.

You know, I used to think that God was boring and stiff and demanding, and I just had to suck it up here on earth and I might have some fun in heaven.

Um, at least as much fun as you can have playing a harp.

But um of course it'll be more fun than that in heaven, and it's just the opposite.

Here, there's tremendous freedom with God.

You know, when we know we're loved by Him, we don't need to impress other people, we don't need other people's approval, we can just be ourselves and enjoy the way that God created us, enjoy a relationship with Him.

He actually frees us up to have fun, to enjoy life.

And life with God is definitely an adventure.

You know, not knowing what is around the next corner, but knowing it'll be something new to see and learn and experience.

So we're spending a few weeks.

We started last week, we're looking at someone who lived an adventure.

It is a story of Jonah in the Old Testament.

We might think of it as Jonah in the Jonah and the well, a uh children's story.

But most of the stories, the Bible stories that we learned as a as a kid are really killer stories, you know, with so much more detail and so much more depth than we remember, or could even understand as a child.

Jonah's a perfect example of that, and it's an important story.

It's one that Jesus talked about.

Jonah lived 700 years before Jesus lived on earth, but he lived only three miles from where Jesus grew up in Nazareth.

So he was a bit of a hometown hero in that area.

Um Jesus uses Jonah's story to tell in advance what was going to happen uh to him.

It's in Matthew chapter 12.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.

This is a an aside, but but one thing you notice when when you really get to know Jesus is that he talks in different ways to different groups of people.

And when he seems harsh, he is almost always talking to Pharisees, to people who are self-righteous, to people who think that that uh they're better than others, and and uh they've they've got it all together and and know it all.

So here's one of these examples, and you can see there's gonna be uh a harshness in what he says, but it's still loving because he's trying to shock these people out of their self-reliance uh and into an understanding that they need him.

Um so he's talking to this Pharisees, and he's they say, Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.

But Jesus replied, Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign.

But the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it.

For they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah.

Now someone greater than Jonah is here, but you refuse to repent.

I mentioned last week that this is a perfect example of one of the most important things that Jesus taught.

He said, You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures point to me.

You know, the Bible doesn't save us, and even knowing the Bible doesn't save us.

It all points to Jesus.

He saves us.

And so there are sayings like, you know, the Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it, and that's okay, but it doesn't really communicate the truth of the Bible.

That it is an inspired book that points to Jesus, that he's the one that saves us.

And when we left uh Jonah last week, he definitely needed saved.

Jonah was a high profile, highly respected uh prophet.

He was bad in a thousand prophecy-wise.

He was uh an unusual prophet in that he he prophesied good news to the people of Israel.

And then what he said uh was gonna happen happened exactly um like he said.

And so he kind of had it going on, and uh he had to think that he knew all about God and what God was about, but uh his adventure with God was only starting.

God asked Jonah to go and warn the people of Nineveh.

Now, Nineveh was the capital city of the largest, wealthiest city of Israel's sworn enemy, Assyria.

It's the modern-day city of Mosul, which is in northern Iraq.

The Syrians that live in Mosul today still call their city Nineveh.

Israelites hated Ninevites, and the feeling was mutual.

They were sworn enemies.

So when God tells Jonah to get up and go to Nineveh, he gets up and he goes in the opposite direction.

He goes to a port that's called Joppa.

It was Joppa then, uh, we call it Tel Aviv now.

And he finds a ship that's going to Tarshis, which is the furthest port known from Nineveh.

Um He buys a ticket, he gets on board, and off they go.

And God causes a big storm, the ship is in trouble, and at Jonah's request, the crew finally throws Jonah overboard.

And it says, Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once.

The sailors were awestruck by the Lord's great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.

It's an interesting thing that this crew of the ship, who have no knowledge of God, no knowledge of God's love, they immediately turned to God and promised to serve him.

Jonah, on the other hand, who thought he knew everything about God, doesn't.

It is one of a hundred of examples in the Bible that religious people need saved as much as anyone.

Just because we have knowledge of God doesn't mean that we know him, that we care about what he cares about, that we really can have learned to trust him.

You know, that's the transformational part of the story where God is going to change Jonah from the inside out.

Right now, God loves the Ninevites.

Jonah still hates them.

One thing we talked about last week is it is important to realize that God is not punishing Jonah, He is pursuing Jonah because He loves him.

He wants to transform him into someone who loves others, just like He does.

And God wants Him to help save the Ninevites.

All these desires have converged to this time, this place, with Jonah, now alone, helpless in the middle of the sea.

We'll see that he's sunk and he is drowning when the improbable happens.

One of the things we're trying to do is look at the story kind of with fresh eyes.

Pretend that we've never heard this story before.

Most of the of us know the story, but if we didn't it, what do you think would happen next?

I guess that Jonah turns into a mermaid and ends up with a beautiful voice.

Um I was wrong.

That was a Disney movie.

This is a real story with a real person.

What would you imagine could possibly happen next?

Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah.

And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Really?

I mean, really, that's what happened?

A fish?

Three days, three nights.

This is where God loses a lot of people with the story of Jonah.

Because it's seemingly so far-fetched.

You know, there's a lot of stories in the Bible that involve miracles, but for some reason, this is the one people are drawn to.

You know, I'll talk to people that that don't believe in God.

And so often the conversation goes to this story.

This is the example.

Are we really supposed to believe that a fish swallowed a guy?

He lived there for three days and three nights.

And there's and there's a few perspectives.

One is that it didn't happen, that at the at best it's just a metaphor for hopelessness.

Um another is that God created a fish specifically for this purpose.

And another is that a fish that we know about today, like a basking shark, which is 40 feet in length, um, could have swallowed Jonah.

And we say well because we think when we think of a big fish, we just kind of naturally think of uh of a well.

Um I guess scientifically, a well isn't a fish, it's a mammal.

Um but there are huge fish, like great white sharks and and non-predatory sharks, like basking sharks, that could be ideal for swallowing a prophet.

Um in general, I feel like these things really aren't worth arguing about.

Um, because there are things said metaphorically in the Bible that people take literally.

On the other hand, God does do outside the box miracles all the time.

And the point of the story is greater than the details of the story.

I will say that personally, I absolutely believe that a large fish swallowed Jonah and preserved him for three days.

The reason I think that is exactly what happened is simply because it's what Jesus said happened that we read earlier.

And besides, to me, a fish swallowing Jonah is less far-fetched than the story of how God has saved many of us and transformed our lives.

Um, yet he has done it.

Okay, back to Jonah.

Jonah, now alone in the Mediterranean Sea.

He's got a soccer ball with a face painted on it for a friend.

Sorry.

He is at this desperate place, probably the most desperate place that any of us can imagine.

He's he's sinking now below the water, and he does something for the first time.

Since we started reading the story, for the first time Jonah does something, he prays.

There are different accounts in the Bible of God asking people to do things, and they talk about it.

Negotiate, if you will, with them and God.

They have a conversation.

Perhaps you've had a conversation like that with God.

But for whatever reason, Jonah doesn't.

He doesn't have that kind of relationship.

God asked him to do something, he doesn't want to do it, so he just takes off and runs.

Somehow thinking that he could actually hide from God.

He hasn't talked to his father, God, who loves him until now.

Until now.

He's moments from death.

And there's really two main points to this chapter in Jonah.

The first is that we don't have to wait until we are totally desperate and out of our own ideas to ask God for help.

Now I've done that many times, uh, more times than I can think of.

Um, as long as I have a plan, as long as I've got some idea of how to fix it, then I don't think of asking God uh for his help.

Or as in Jonah's case, I don't want to face what God has to say about it.

I might have talked once about uh a family vacation that uh we took.

It's not that great a story, but it's the one that comes to mind uh thinking about this type of situation.

Uh it our business had started growing.

It was the first big family vacation that uh that we ever took, and we went to Hawaii.

And we went to Maui and we were gonna uh we stayed there, we rented a car.

One of the things on Maui is there's a place called Honda, and you can drive around the side of the coast, and it's kind of tropical, and it's the road to Honda, and it's curvy and and uh and cool.

Uh it made Susan carsick, but uh it was a good drive.

And uh and so we took a day and we did that.

Now, once you get to Hannah you can turn around and drive back, or conceptually, you can go all the way around the back of the island um back to where we were staying.

Now, once you get past HANA, it's dry and desolate.

It actually looks like the moon or something.

I mean, there's there's nothing there, it's the back side of the uh the island.

And the thing is you can't drive rental cars back there.

At least when when we went.

You had to sign a specific thing saying you would not drive past HANA because it's so desolate and and everything back there.

Um and so that made me really want to drive around back there.

And we had read about this place, a beach about 20 miles that way, and there's big boulders in the water, and when the waves crash on the boulders, it makes this unusual roar.

And it seemed like a place, a good place to uh to go check out.

And so we take off on the the back side of the island, and uh we get to this beach, and I can tell it's cool, so I drive down there by the rocks on the beach, we hang out, we listen to the cool roar, it's getting late, we go to leave, and the car has sunk down a little bit into the sand.

And so I'm not too worried about it.

I just get down on my hands and knees and I dig out around the around the tires and put some palm branches in and start the car, and it just sinks.

Like almost to the axles, literally.

And so now we're stuck.

We're in a totally desolate place.

We haven't seen anybody since we left Hana.

I'm like, okay, I'm gonna have to call Hertz and admit what I've done.

Uh if there had been cell service, that would have been an okay plan.

Okay, so now I see our fate.

It's me, Susan, the kids, desolate, the car stuck to the uh um axles, and I and I actually realize my arrogance and how I have put our, you know, not just me, but all of us into this uh situation.

Got no plan left.

And so we decide to pray.

We hold hands, we pray, and uh I admit how stubborn I was, even dishonest.

I promised Hertz I would not drive that car past Hannah.

Um and we asked God for help.

So get in the car, still praying, start it up, and it slowly climbs out of that car.

We drive off the beach and and um and back to the hotel.

And and even though I'm the one that got us in that situation, you know, if I had prayed the moment we got in that situation, I would have saved myself about an hour of digging with my hands and some desperate, fearful moments.

What if Noah had prayed back on the dock in Joppa?

What if then he had talked to God?

He would have missed the whole storm on the Mediterranean, he would have missed the experience that he's going through now.

And I know with this many people, there's some of us that are in situations that are feeling more and more desperate.

Just ask God for help now.

Don't wait till you're out of ideas, don't wait till you're out of your plan.

Just turn now.

Ask him for help.

He's not mad at you.

He wants to help you.

He was not punishing Jonah, he was pursuing Jonah.

He pursues us.

And so back to Jonah.

Now he's inside the fish.

Says, uh, then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish.

This seems a little bit confusing because what Jonah's going to do is he's gonna go back and tell how he was feeling when he he first uh prayed.

He said, I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me.

I called to you from the land of the dead.

I mentioned metaphors, and this is a good one because the land of the dead is actually the word sheol, which is the word, it's almost always translated as hell.

Um, but he's not talking about hell, he's using a metaphor, exactly like we would.

I'm going through hell right now.

How was your week?

It was hell.

That's exactly what uh he was saying.

It was a metaphor.

I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me.

I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me.

You threw me into the ocean depths.

See, the sailors actually threw Jonah into the depths, but uh Jonah perceived it right.

It was God doing something in his life.

He goes on, and I sank down to the heart of the sea, the mighty waters engulfed me, I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.

He felt doomed.

I mean, his fate was cast.

What could possibly change it now?

Then I said, Oh Lord, you have driven me from your presence, yet I will look once more toward your holy temple.

And what comes next is a vivid portrayal of both Jonah drowning and his kind of self-imprisonment.

I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me.

Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.

I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.

I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever.

And this is the second important point in Jonah chapter 2.

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

Just because you are drowning, does not mean you're going to drown.

You might feel this morning like you were drowning, distant from God, imprisoned, hopeless, going through hell.

That is exactly where Jonah was.

And it was happening fast, and he's down to his last breath.

And with it, he cries out.

I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, Jonah says.

And he answered me.

See, we're all sitting here and we're and we're kind of scrubbed up and we look like we have it all together.

And it might make you think that you are alone.

You're the only one drowning.

You're the only one who has a loved one who's very sick.

You're the only one addicted to prescription drugs.

You're the only one whose marriage has fallen apart.

You're the only one facing financial ruin.

You're the only one living in fear, living in depression.

Jesus said, I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.

But take heart, because I have overcome the world.

And many of us have cried out to the Lord in our great trouble.

One of the most important moments in my life was when I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble.

It wasn't the time on the beach, that was a relatively small one.

That was nothing compared to the trouble I had gotten myself into.

And I cried out in my great trouble, and he answered me.

He will answer you.

He loves you.

It doesn't matter if it's your own fault.

It certainly was Jonah's fault.

It was my fault when I cried out.

It doesn't matter.

He's not trying to.

Punish you.

He's pursuing you.

He loves us.

He loves you.

Jonah goes on.

But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death.

As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord.

And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy temple.

And God isn't just going to save Jonah from drowning, He's going to save him from Himself.

He's going to lovingly transform him from the inside out.

Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.

So if the worship team will come up, we're going to leave Jonah right here on the beach.

I'm gone next Sunday, but the following Sunday, we'll see something amazing about God.

And that amazing thing happens in the very next verse.

This is such a great and dramatic part of the story.

It seems like the main thing.

I mean, swallowed by a fish, three days and three nights, spit out on the beach.

But up to this point, God has only saved the crew on the ship and Jonah.

What he really wanted was to save everyone in the biggest, most important, most God-defiant city in the world.

We read Matthew 12, 40.

For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

See, there's a parallel to Jesus and Jonah.

Jesus coming, being crucified, being raised, is amazing and it's a dramatic part of the story.

But God didn't just save his followers and Jesus.

Something bigger was happening, something more important.

God, through Jesus, was wanting to save everyone in the whole world.

He loves us.

He wants to be in a real relationship with us.

All we do is stop running.

We just stop running.

We turn to Jesus in our own way, in our own words.

Help me.

You know, I need you.

I'm sorry.

I want to follow you.

I'm scared.

I'm drowning.

Whatever it is.

We just turn to Him.

And then He takes over.

He fills us with His Spirit.

He brings things into our lives.

He transforms us.

From the inside out.

He rescues us.

So let's stand.

We're getting ready to sing one last song together.

This is a great song.

It's an anthem, if you will, about God.

You know, God deeply loves each of us.

He is pursuing each of us.

And so wherever you're at, whatever you think, we can stop running.

We can just stop running, turn to God, and rest.

Let's pray.

Father, thanks for being such a great God, for preserving the story of Jonah for us, to see what you're like, how you pursue us and love us.

Holy Spirit, please work in each of our hearts.

Help us in any area of our lives to stop running, to turn to you, to trust you.

God, please change us to be in align with you, what you want, with your love.

Please help everyone here who needs rescued, whatever the situation, whether it's health or financial or something else, God.

Please rescue today everyone who needs it.

We love you, we trust you, we praise you.

Jesus, in your great name.

Amen.