Rick Warren - What to Do When You Cause a Storm

If you notice on your outline, I've titled this message,

What to Do When You Cause a Storm. And it's

on a new series we're starting called The Manifestation of

Your Life Mission.

Manifestation is not.

A word we use a lot today, it's an old

English word, but it basically means when something is perfectly clear.

When everybody goes, oh, I get it, I understand it,

it's been totally manifested, I see what it really is.

You were not put on this earth to waste time,

to use resources, and to live for yourself.

Oh, no, no.

God made you for a far bigger purpose than you.

You have a greater purpose and plan to live for,

and this is called.

Your life mission.

Before you were even born, before God even thought you up,

he already planned what he wanted you to do with

your life. The problem is most people never discover their

life mission, so they can't certainly fulfill their life mission.

They just go through life drifting. Your mission in life,

when you understand God's mission for your life, it's what

gives your life meaning. If you don't know your life mission,

then your life lacks the fullest meaning. It also means

you're not using all of the talents you've been given.

Studies have shown that the average human being has between

six and 700 different talents.

Yeah, you do. You might not even be able to

name 25 of your talents.

But you as a typical human being have six to

700 different talents. Those can only be expressed if you

do what you were shaped to do, if you fulfill

the mission that you were made for. Now the Bible

has a lot to say about this. Let me just

show you some verses on the screen. The Bible says

in Ephesians chapter two, verse 10, God made each of

us what we are. He shaped you unique, nobody else

is like you. God made each of us what we are.

In Christ Jesus, God made each of us to do

good works. That good works is called your life mission.

God made you, he created you, he put you on

this planet to do good works, which God planned in advance,

planned in advance before you were born to live our

lives doing. This is your life mission. Now, Jesus said this,

next verse. In the same way that the Father gave

me a mission in the world, I give you a

mission in the world. Your life mission is what God

intends for you to do with your life. It's not

your job, it's not your career, it's not your hobby,

it's your contribution to the world. It's your legacy that

lasts beyond you. And your life mission, as I said,

is what gives your life meaning. Without it, you just

drift Now Jesus also said this in Mark chapter eight.

If you insist on living for yourself, you'll lose your life.

In other words, you weren't made to live for you.

Only those who give away their.

Lives, for my sake and the sake of the good news,

that's part of your mission, will ever know.

What it means to really live.

Part of my job as your pastor, as your spiritual

coach who loves you, my job is to help you discover, develop,

and complete your life mission. Because one day, the Bible says,

you're gonna stand before God and give an account of it.

So I wanna prepare you for the final exam. That's

why Paul says this. Saint Paul said in Acts 20,

Acts 20:24

verse 24, The most important thing is that I make

a lot of money. Oh no, that's not what he says.

The most important thing is that I complete my mission,

the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do.

The most important thing you need to do with your

life is to discover, develop, and complete your life mission.

Now this is so important. that I'm gonna spend the

entire next month helping you clarify this in your life.

It's that important. Nothing matters more. Do you know your

life mission? Do you know what unique contribution God wants

you to.

Make with your life? Are you completing your life mission?

Why is this important? Because of the next verse.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 10 to 14,

1 Corinthians 3:10–14

that one day God is going to manifest your mission.

That means God is going to reveal whether you did

it or not. And if you did it well, you

get rewarded, and if you didn't do it, you don't

get rewarded.

It's very clear.

So watch what this says, 1 Corinthians 3, 10 to 14.

Each of us should be careful how we build our lives,

because we're all building something. Now the only true foundation

for building is Jesus Christ.

Most of you, you've already got that. You've got Christ

in your life. You're building on the right foundation. So

you got that down.

But he says, you could be a Christian and still

build wrongly. He says, be careful in choosing what building

materials you use on that foundation. And he's gonna say

that you can use building materials that are gonna last

for a time in eternity. They're not ever gonna burn up.

They're not gonna rust. They're not gonna decay. or you

can use building materials in your life that really won't

last very long at all. And he says, while you

do have the right foundation, maybe you know Christ already,

you got the right foundation for your life, you're building

with the wrong materials.

And he says, that can be disastrous. Here's what he says.

You can build with values that last forever, Like gold

and silver and jewels, a thousand years from today, gold

will still be gold, silver still be silver, it's not

gonna rust. Precious jewels will still be precious jewels. They

haven't changed in tens of thousands of years. You can

build with values that last, like gold, silver, and jewels,

or you can build with values that burn up and

won't last, like wood and hay and straw.

That's not gonna last a thousand years.

One day, your work on earth, that's your mission, will

be inspected.

On the day of judgment.

And God is gonna test your mission, your work by fire.

So the quality of your work is manifested. In other words,

it's revealed, it's shown, everybody goes, oh man, you really

did a good job with your life. No, you didn't

do such a good job with your life. The quality

of your work is manifested and all, that means all

of us will see the true value.

Of what you accomplished, in other words, with your life.

Now, if your work survives the fire, your mission, you

built it with the right stuff.

You will receive your reward.

But if your work is burned up, you will lose

your reward even though you yourself will be saved like

someone barely escaping a fire. Now, what's he saying here?

He's not talking about your salvation. He's talking to people

who already know Jesus Christ. He said, you got the

right foundation in your life. You got God at the

base of your life. You got Jesus Christ as your foundation.

But he goes, you're building your life, and you're either

gonna build it wisely or dumbly. You're gonna build it

with good stuff or bad stuff. And the test on

your life is, does it last? Is what you're investing

your time in going to last for eternity, like gold

and silver and precious jewels? Or is it gonna just

burn up in a matter of years, wood, hay, and stubble?

Nothing.

And so knowing and competing your life mission is so important.

That's why we're gonna cover this for a month. And

we're actually gonna use the book of Jonah. Now, there

are three ways you can learn in life. You can

learn by explanation or somebody explaining something to you. You

can learn by experience or you can learn by example. Now,

some things we learn by explanation. You know, you go

to school and you learn the history of the world,

that somebody explains it to you.

Got it.

You learn a language, Spanish or French or something, you

got it. You learn math by explanation, got it.

Somebody explains algebra to you.

Some things you can only learn by experience. And you

know that, that nobody can tell you, you just have

to learn it by experience. On the other hand, there's

some things in life you should never learn from experience.

God doesn't want you to have to learn the pain

of abuse by being abused. No, there are many things

God doesn't want you to learn by experience. He certainly

doesn't want you to learn about evil by experience. And

some things we should never learn by experience. But the

easiest way to learn something is by example. Now, it

doesn't have to be a perfect example. You can learn

as much from failure as somebody's failure as you can

from somebody's successes. It's wise to learn from experience, but

it's wiser to learn from the experiences of others, because

I don't have enough time to make all the mistakes

in life myself. And if I can study the mistakes

you made or somebody else made, then I don't have

to make those mistakes. It's less painful, it saves time,

and I learn a whole lot faster. What we're gonna

do in the next month is learn by example from

a man who missed his life mission in the first

half of life, and then He did the right thing

and God gave him a second chance and we completed

his mission in the second half of his life. His

name is Jonah. It's a very small book in the Bible.

You've heard about Jonah and the whale. The only problem

is the word whale isn't in the book of Jonah.

Doesn't say that there was a whale in Jonah. We'll

talk about that in a minute. But Jonah is called

a minor prophet. Doesn't mean he's unimportant. It just means

it's a short book. It's only four chapters. At each week,

we're gonna go through one chapter a week in this

month and we'll cover, just going through it verse by verse.

Now this first week, I want us to look at

his example of lessons about our life mission. Now there

are 10 lessons I wanna give you. Some of these

are so simple, I can just say them and we

don't have to have a lot of explanations. So we'll

go through some of these pretty quickly. Number one, write

this down. My life mission will come from God's word.

My life mission comes from God's word. I don't get

it from watching TV. I don't get it from reading books.

I don't get it from magazines. I don't get it

from friends. You can make up a mission, but it'll

be a fake mission. It'll be a pretend mission because

it wasn't from God. And if it's not from God,

it's not gonna use all of your talents. It's not

gonna use all your talents.

And what's gonna.

Happen is a lot of people just make up a

mission for their life. Because everybody wants to have some

kind of meeting. But at night they go home, they

put their head down, they go, there's gotta be more

to life than this.

And there is, there is.

Because you were made for a mission designed by God

and God uniquely shaped you for that mission.

Nothing else is ever gonna satisfy you.

Not fame, not fortune, not sex, salary, status, not passion, possession, position, not.

Pride, not popularity.

None of these things will satisfy you ultimately if you

don't fulfill the mission that you were made for. So

my life mission comes from God's word. We're just gonna

follow this verse by verse through these 17 verses in

Jonah chapter one. Verse one says this, one day God

spoke his word to Jonah, the son of Amittai. Now,

That's how he gets his mission, God speaks his word

to him. How does God speak his word to you?

Through this book, through the Bible, this is God's word.

But when you listen to a message like I'm teaching

right now, God speaks to you through his word. When

you listen on the radio or podcast or Daily Hope Listener,

when you talk with a friend who shares a verse

with you, when you have a quiet time yourself, there

are lots of ways God speaks. The Bible says God

speaks through visions. The Bible says God speaks through dreams.

But he speaks through his word, and his will will

never contradict his word. So if you wanna know your mission,

you gotta get in this book. Number two, my life

mission will require a step of faith. That's the second

thing you need to know about your life mission. it's

gonna require a step of faith. You're gonna have to

step out and do something that maybe seems uncomfortable. It

stretches you, it stretches your faith, it challenges your prejudices.

And in Jonah chapter.

One, verse two, God says this, Jonah, I want you

to get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.

Now, what's Nineveh?

Nineveh was the largest and the most magnificent city in

the world at this time. It was the capital of

the Assyrian Empire. It had very large boulevards.

It had temples, great architecture. It had parks.

It was an incredibly beautiful city.

It was a large city.

It was the most influential city in the world, but

it was also a cruel city.

It was a mean city.

The Assyrians were notorious for being mean. They were kind

of the Nazis of their age, and everywhere they went,

They destroyed things, they killed things. They weren't very kind

people in this age. And so while the city was beautiful,

it was an unkind, it was a brutal, it was

a cruel, it was an unjust.

It was actually a wicked city.

Now, this mission, when God says, Jonah, I want you

to go to Nineveh, that's gonna stretch Jonah's faith four ways.

First, Jonah is not a city dweller. He's from a.

Little teeny tiny itty bitty village. He's never been to

a medium sized city, much less the biggest.

City in the world. This is gonna shake his culture.

It's gonna shake his faith to have to go to

a big city and he's never actually been to city. Second,

Nineveh is 555 miles away from where he lives.

So how am I gonna get there? I'm gonna walk.

550 miles is a long way to walk.

Unless he gets a camel or a donkey, it's still

gonna be 550.

Miles, that's a long way.

But there's another couple reasons, and one of them is

that Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was the mortal.

Enemy of Israel. They hated each other.

They were mortal enemies because Assyria had conquered Israel a

couple times, had conquered killed and massacred all kinds of

Jews and had done all kinds of bad things to them.

So the fourth reason is Jonah's prejudice.

He's a nationalist.

He says, it's my nation and I don't care about

anybody else's nation.

I don't like.

Anybody else and I certainly don't like my enemies. And

God is saying, I'm gonna ask you to go to

your enemies.

This is a big deal. Jonah's going, not a chance.

Because I know God's a forgiving God and if I

go there, he's gonna.

Probably forgive me. I don't want those people to be forgiven.

They're my enemies.

Now your mission's gonna challenge your comfort zone. It may

challenge your political perspective. It may challenge your personal prejudices.

It may take you out of your comfort zone. It

certainly will stretch your faith. Number three, my life mission

will come from God, my life mission will require a

step of faith. Number three, my life mission will somehow

help others. My life mission, your life mission, is gonna

somehow help other people. Now, your life mission may not

be directly involved with people, but somehow it's gonna help them.

For instance, if you developed a new medicine or drug,

maybe you're working in a lab, you don't see many people,

but it helps a lot of people. Or you develop

an application tool that helps a lot of people. And

you don't see those people, but you develop the application.

So you're gonna help people one way or the other,

whether you have direct connection to them or not.

Why?

Because God cares about people. God cares particularly about people

in pain. And God cares particularly about people experiencing injustice.

That's what was going on in Nineveh. There were people

in pain and there were people experiencing injustice because of

the evil that was going on there. So my life

somehow gonna help, my life mission will help other people.

Verse two, Jonah chapter one. He says, get up and

go to the great city of Nineveh and tell them

that I see all the evil happening there and I

won't ignore it. Well, that's not gonna be a very

popular message.

No wonder he doesn't wanna go. Not only are these

his enemies, he goes, I don't wanna go say that

to those people. On top of that, they probably don't

want me to say it to them. God loves cities,

but he hates injustice. He hates evil. He hates abuse.

He hates sin because it hurts people. It hurts his children. Now,

God sees all the bad choices we make in life,

and he's pretty patient with us. God has seen every

bad thing I've done, every dumb thing I've done. I'm

still here. Okay, he's been patient with me. God has

seen everything that you've done wrong too. You're still here.

God is a patient God. He is patient with people

and is even patient with nations. The Bible calls it

long suffering. Let me show you a couple of verses

up here on the screen. Nehemiah chapter nine, verse 17.

God is a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow

to become angry. He's not quick tempered. Slow to become angry,

he's very patient. Full of patient love and mercy. He

does not abandon people in their sin.

I'm glad for that. You ought to be glad for

that too.

Let me show you another verse, 2 Peter 3 9.

God is patient with you, even though you don't always

do everything right. Not wanting anyone to perish, but wanting

everyone to come to repentance. So God is a very

patient God, but he's not gonna let injustice and evil

and abuse and crime go on indefinitely. And his patience

does run out. And he says, I'm gonna tell you

to go tell those people, my patience is running pretty

thin for that city of Nineveh. They're doing some pretty

wicked stuff there. And I'm not gonna allow it to

happen forever. Now here's the fourth thing you need to

write down about your life mission. My life mission may

scare me at first. Certainly scared Jonah, as I said,

it's a big city, it's 550 miles away, he's got

a negative message to share, and he hates the people's guts.

Besides that, I guess it's okay.

But Jonah is scared by the mission that God is

giving him. And he says, no way am I going

to Nineveh. It's not gonna happen. No way, Jose. And

so he runs. And in Jonah chapter one, verse three,

it says this. But Jonah ran away from the presence

of the Lord. What causes people to run?

One thing, fear.

In fact, the more fearful you are, the faster.

You're gonna run.

People run because they're afraid. What are you running from

in life? What has you so scared that you're running

from it? Are you running from your past? Are you

running from a person in your past? Are you running

from your problems? Are you running from the expectations Your

parents or somebody else tried to put on you and

you're still trying to run away from those things?

Are you running away from God? It's always fear.

Fear causes us to run. What has God told you

to do that you're still not doing? So you're running

from it. God says, I want you to forgive that person.

Or I want you to do this. Or I want

you to do that. Or I want you to.

Share your faith with that person. I mean, I just

haven't done it. What is it? It's fear.

It's fear.

And you're running from it. Now you can run from.

God, because God's given you that freedom, but you can't hide,

because God is God. Look at this verse on the screen.

The Bible says in Psalm 139, verse seven to 12.

I can never escape from your spirit. Why? Because God's everywhere.

He's omnipresent.

I can never get away from your presence. If I

went up to heaven, you're there. If I die, you're there.

If I flew as far as east or west as possible,

even there your hand will guide me and your strength

will support me. There is no place you can go

in the universe that God is not. So I got

to thinking the other day, you can run from God

the rest of your life, but then you can't run anymore,

because you're gonna go immediately into the presence of God

the moment you die. So you can't run from God.

But my life mission may scare me first. It did

this to Jonah. Now, number five, write this down. Running

from my mission causes bad consequences. Running from my mission

causes bad consequences.

This is a story of good and bad.

At the end, the last three things I'm gonna share

with you are actually really good things. They are actually

miracles that can happen when you run toward God. But

when you run away from God, there are four Negative consequences.

Anytime God tells me to do something and I go

the opposite direction, I'm gonna have these four consequences in

my life. We see all four of them in Jonah.

You might write these down. Jonah's life shows us four

negative consequences. First, if I run from God, my life

will go downhill. It's all downhill. When I'm running from God,

it's all downhill. There's an important word in the book

of Jonah. It's called the word down. And it's used

over and over and over. That Jonah's life went down, down, down, down, down, down, down.

As long as he was running from God, he's going downhill.

He's in a slide. His life is degrading. Let me

show you a few verses. Jonah chapter one, verse three.

Jonah went, I want you to circle the word down

every time you see it in these verses. Jonah went

down to Joppa. that's the city, it's a seaport, where

he found a ship headed for the port of Tarshish.

He paid the price to sail to Tarshish and he

went down, there's the word again, down below deck, hoping

to get as far away from God as he could.

Then in verse five, it says, Jonah went down below,

laying down sound asleep. Jonah chapter two, verse three, after

he gets thrown overboard out of the ship, I sank down,

down into the deep sea. And in Jonah 2, verse six,

he says, I was as far down as a body

can go.

He's down, down, down, down, dooby-doo, down, down.

And every running from God is always downhill. That's the

first negative consequence. Your life isn't gonna get better running

from God. It's gonna get worse. Running from God is downhill. Notice,

by the way, it says he went down to Tarshish

where he found a ship. How convenient. If you wanna

run from God, you can always find a ship. Because

if you wanna run from God, Satan will always have

a ship ready for you. A lot of people think

that circumstance happened in their life that, well, God must

have planned this.

He wanted me to go on the ship. There's a ship.

Satan can arrange circumstances. Satan can arrange circumstances as much

as God can. So just because a ship's available doesn't

mean you should go get on it. He's running down, down, down.

So the first thing, if I run from God, my

life will go downhill. Number two, if I run from God,

it will cost me.

Write that down. If I run from God.

It will cost me. There is always a price tag

in running from God. There's always a payment. The devil

has to be paid his due. Jonah 1 verse 3,

Jonah 1:3

he paid the price to sail to Tarshish.

Now, this is actually comical.

God tells Jonah to go east 550 miles. He goes

as far west as possible can. You know where Tarshish is?

It's a seaport on the coast of Spain. It's the

exact opposite direction, which is gonna cost him a whole

lot more.

Which is it gonna cost more in your journey?

500 miles east or 2,500 miles west? Look at this map.

Here's Joppa, where he's at, and he's supposed to go

to Nineveh. It's only 550 miles over to, Nineveh is

in modern-day Iraq. The remains of Nineveh are right next

to Mosul, Iraq. In fact, when ISIS came in and

took over that area, they started destroying Nineveh. They were

destroying all the archeological sites finds in Nineveh when Isis

took over a few years back.

He's supposed to go east 550 miles.

Instead, he gets on a boat going 2,500 miles the

other direction. Tarshish, that was the end of the known world. 2,700

years ago, they didn't know about England, they didn't know

about Scotland, they didn't know about Ireland, certainly didn't know

about North and South America. So he's going to the

end of the known world. He's trying to get as

far away from God as he can. This guy's really scared.

I am not going to Nineveh, okay? I don't like

those guys. He's prejudiced.

And so he's going as far, and what does it cost?

It cost.

Anytime you run from God, you pay the price. You

pay an emotional price, you pay a relational price, hurts

your family.

You pay a.

Physical price, you pay a spiritual price, you can pay

a price of your reputation, Anytime you're running the opposite

direction as God, you're going to pay a price. Now

here is the third thing that happens. When I run

from God, it's gonna go downhill and it's gonna cost me.

Number three, if I run from God, God will oppose me.

You might write that down. If I run from God.

God will oppose me.

The Bible says God resists the.

Proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And the

Bible says in Jonah one verse four, this ship he

gets on headed for Spain. As the ship was sailing,

the Lord sent an opposing wind. Would you circle that,

opposing wind? Why did God send an opposing wind?

Because he loves Jonah.

And he doesn't want Jonah running away. God sent an

opposing wind. Have you ever had that happen in your life?

You're trying to make something happen in your life and

it's just not happening. And no matter how hard you try,

it's just not happening. And the reason why is God

doesn't want it to happen and he sent an opposing wind.

And you can't figure out why is this not working?

Because God has sent an opposing wind.

Anytime you ignore your mission, the purpose that God made you,

created you for, God's gonna send an opposing wind. So

what is the opposing wind you're facing right now? That

opposition that you're feeling right now. Why are you feeling

that opposition? Because God's saying, I don't want you going

in that direction. I don't want you dating that person.

I don't want you taking that job. I don't want

you getting that promotion. God knows what you need, what'll

make you happy more than you do. And when it's

not working out, that's an opposing win. And why is

it an opposing win? Because you're going in a direction

God doesn't want you to go. If I run from God,

my life will go downhill, it's gonna cost me, I'm

gonna pay the price, and God will actually oppose me

with an opposing win. Number four, fourth negative. We're gonna

get to the positive here in a minute, but here's.

The fourth one.

If I run from God, other people get hurt too.

I'm talking about innocent people. When I run from God,

when I ignore my life mission, and I say, I'm

gonna do what I wanna do, I think I know

better than God does, then it's gonna hurt other people.

It may hurt your spouse. It may hurt your kids.

It may hurt your grandkids. It may hurt friends, family, coworkers.

It may hurt your church. There's a guy named Achan

in the Bible who ran from God and it caused

the entire army to be defeated.

Because of one guy's sin.

You see, sin may be private, nobody knows about it,

but it's never personal. You may not know the sins

in my life, but they're still gonna affect you whether

you know them or not, because it affects.

How I live.

Other people may not know your secret sins, and you

may think you're getting away with it, but it's affecting

your relationships. It's affecting your relationship to God. It's affecting

your relationship to other people. And if I run from God,

other people get hurt. Here's the second part of verse four.

It says, that opposing wind created such a massive storm

that the ship was in danger of breaking apart. Now,

who's the cause of this storm? Jonah, because there's an

opposing wind. Everybody's life is being threatened by one man

and disobedience. Jonah thinks, well, I'm just a problem, but

he's causing a problem for everybody else now too. He's

causing them problems and they're innocent. They're just on their

way to Tarshish. I often have to ask myself this question.

Who am I hurting with my sin?

It's a.

Good question to ask yourself. Who am I hurting with

my sin? They may not even know about it. But

who am I hurting with my sin? Because it may

be said, may be private, but it's never personal.

It affects others.

Now let's follow this verse, this passage here. Verse five says,

so there's this big storm and clearly Jonah's caused it.

Verse five.

All the sailors were terrified and they cried out in

desperation to whatever gods each one trusted. They also threw

overboard everything they could to lighten the ship's load. That's

typical when you're under stress. When you're under stress and

when you're running from God, you start throwing stuff away.

You start throwing relationships away. You start throwing good habits away.

You start throwing your connections to church and other things away.

You start throwing stuff away. stuff that's valuable.

The whole reason you.

Were taking the trip is because of that, that cargo.

But you start throwing it away because you're in the

middle of the storm. Now, while this storm was threatening

everyone else, Jonah was down below deck laying down sound asleep.

Oh, great.

What a godly prophet. Everybody else is screaming for death

and they're all praying to quote their gods and he's

down asleep. He's ignorant of the storm and he's apathetic.

It's like the guy who was asked, what do you

think of the, do you think the two biggest problems

in America are ignorance and apathy? The guy said, I

don't know and I don't care. So he says, I

don't know and I don't care. Jonah's sound asleep. Now

look up here, let's follow this story for a little bit.

Verse six, so the captain went down, down below deck,

to find Jonah. He's the only guy who's asleep in

this storm. and said, man, how can you sleep? Get

up and pray to your God too. I mean, we're

all praying to our God.

Get up and pray to your God.

Maybe your God will pay attention and rescue us from dying.

The captain, the pagan captain, has more faith than Jonah does.

He's going, man, pray. Start praying. Now look at the

next verse.

Then the sailors said to each other, this storm has

to be somebody's fault.

Okay. Okay.

It's the worst one they've ever been in.

They're superstitious.

This storm's gotta be somebody's fault. Let's cast lots to

find out who's responsible. In other words, let's roll dice.

See who's responsible for this trouble. So they cast lots

and lots fell on guess who? Do you think God

controlled those dice?

Yeah, I think so. So they now know it's Jonah.

So next verse.

So they asked Jonah, How have you brought down all

this trouble on us? Remember, this is what I was saying,

one of the things that happens when I am out

of the will of God, when I'm disobedient, when I'm

running from God, when I'm not fulfilling my mission, it

hurts you. It hurts other people. How have you brought

down all this trouble on us? What trouble are you

bringing down on your family right now? Because you're not

right with God. They say, how have you brought down

all this trouble on us?

What do you do? Where do you come from? What's

your nationality? What kind of people do you belong to?

They're just asking, I mean, these guys are desperate. They're

about to lose their lives in the middle of the

Mediterranean Sea. Next verse, nine and 10. Jonah answered, I'm

a Hebrew, I'm Jewish, and I worship the Lord, the

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

he confesses, Jonah told them that he was running from God.

This frightened the sailors even more and they panicked.

Why have you done this? They shouted. They go, what

idiot would try to run from God? I mean, why

would you? They're not even Christians. They're not even Jewish.

They're pagans.

They're going, well, if there is a God, why would

anybody try to run from God? That doesn't make sense

because God's God and God can see you anywhere. So

why in the world would you think that you could

run from God? You're not making sense here, buddy. You're

You're just making no sense. Now here is the next principle,

number six. The longer I run from God, the worse

it gets. The longer I run from God, the worse

it gets. The longer I put off accepting my mission,

the worse it's gonna get. Some of you feel this

past year has been really rough. Well, as your pastor

who loves you, your spiritual coach, I wanna say, I

beg you to make a full surrender of your life

to God.

That's the only way it's all gonna work out all right.

Make a full surrender of your life to God, because

you don't know what storm's gonna be ahead.

I don't either.

You may have had a tough past year, but you

have no idea what you're heading into. And I would say,

if things are tough right now, make a full surrender

of your life to God. Say, I'm gonna let go

and I'm gonna let God, I'm just, God, I want

your will for my life, I'm gonna surrender to you.

Why? Because the longer I run from God, the worse

it gets.

Verse 11, now the storm was getting worse and the

waves got rougher. How much rougher does your marriage have

to get to get your attention? How much rougher does

it have to get before you realize I'm.

Heading the wrong way? This isn't working.

How much worse does it have to get in your situation?

How much worse does it have to get in your health?

How much worse does it have to get in your finances?

How much worse does it have to get in your

career before you finally pay attention going, this isn't working.

I'm not running to God, I'm running from God. I'm

running my own life.

And I'm heading straight into a storm and I'm hitting

an opposing wind. It says, now the storm was getting

worse and the waves got rougher, so they asked Jonah,

what should we do to you to stop the.

Storm and calm down everything?

As a pastor, I get this question asked of me

every single day of my life. Pastor, how do I

stop the storm in my life? I get it asked

in different ways, but it's the same question. How do

I stop the storm in my life? And the answer

is the same every time. Complete surrender to God. Stop

resisting God, stop running from God, stop rebelling against God

and start going, God, you're God.

And I'm not. Let's go your way, my way isn't working.

Complete surrender to God. Now in verse 12, Jonah finally

does the first unselfish thing he's ever done.

Here he says, throw me overboard. Throw me overboard.

Down into the sea, Jonah said, and everything will calm down.

He's casting himself on the grace of God. Throw me

overboard into the sea, said Jonah, and everything will calm down.

I know that it is my fault that you're having

to fight this terrible storm. Is it your fault that

somebody else is having to fight this terrible storm right now? Now,

he says, just throw me overboard. Did the sailors listen

to him?

No. Do they throw him overboard? No.

What they do is they try to solve the problem

for themselves. Look at verse 13.

There on your outline.

I want you to circle three things. It says, instead,

the sailors tried harder to row the ship back to

land and safety, but they could not turn it around

for the raging storm was out of control. Now, I

want you to circle three things. First, circle the phrase.

Out of control. Okay, the storm is out of control.

The situation's out of control.

Second, circle they could not turn it around. They could

not turn it around. And then circle, they tried harder.

They tried harder. Does that sound like your life? It's

out of control. And you can't turn it around. But

you're trying harder.

It's out of control.

And you can't turn it around. But you're trying harder.

Here's the seventh lesson, write this down. If I'm fighting

God's plan, trying harder doesn't work. If I'm fighting God's

plan for my life, I'm fighting resisting my mission, resisting

my purpose, resisting my relationship to God. If I'm going

my way, trying harder doesn't work because your arms are

too short to.

Box with God. You just need to give it up.

The only hope of salvation, of rescue, of relief, the

only hope of salvation is to just let go and

let God, to let God save you. Look at this

verse on screen. You know this verse, Ephesians 2, 8

and 9. You will be saved by trusting in God's grace.

That's how you'd be saved from any situation and from

life and from sin and from hell, from everything. You'll

be saved by trusting in God's grace. Doesn't matter what

the situation is. You cannot save yourself. It's a gift

of God. Salvation is never the result of your own efforts.

So you can't brag about it.

If we could all earn our way to heaven by

working things, can you imagine what an ego trip heaven

would be? Well, I got here because I did this.

And I got here because I did that. And my

thing's better than your thing. It'd be a big bragamony time.

You can't be saved by your own efforts. Now, that's

all the negative part. But the last three lessons of

Jonah's life in chapter one are really some good news.

Because there are three great miracles that happen. And these

three great miracles will happen in your life, in your life,

when you start doing whatever God asks you to do.

And when you start doing that, these three miracles will

happen in your life. Number one, miracle number one. When

I do what God wants, things will calm down. When

I do what God wants, things will calm down. I

want you to look at what happens next. Jonah 1,

Jonah 1:14

verse 14 and 15 says this. Finally, like last resort,

The sailors cried out to Jonah's God. They've been crying

out to all these false gods and nothing's happening. So

they finally cry out to Jonah's God. Oh Lord, don't

let us die because of this man's life.

I mean, he's blowing it. And please don't hold us responsible.

For his death because you Lord sent this storm for

your purpose. There's a storm in your life right now,

it's for God's purpose. God's purpose is greater than the

problems you're going through. You sent this storm for your purpose.

God has a greater purpose than the problems you're going through.

And it says, then they took Jonah and they.

Threw him overboard.

And immediately, immediately, the raging sea calmed down.

First miracle.

When I do what God wants, things will calm down.

put him into the hands of God and things calm down.

Miracle number two, when I do what God wants, unbelievers believe.

That's a miracle.

All these pagan sailors all of a sudden start worshiping

the one and true God once they see what's happened.

When the storm immediately ends, the second they do what

God wants them to do, toss Jonah overboard, then it

catches their attention and all of a sudden these unbelievers believe.

Jonah 1 16, when the sailors saw this happen, what

did they see happen? The raging storm calmed down immediately,

the moment they did what God wanted. When the sailors

saw this happen, they were awestruck by God's greatness and

they worshiped God. They offered a sacrifice and they made

vows to God.

What are they doing?

They're making promises to God. God, I'm gonna serve you

the rest of my life. I'm gonna live for you.

You are obviously the true God, because none of these

other things helped. And so we're gonna sacrifice you, we're

gonna honor you, we're gonna make promises to you, we're

gonna worship you. Unbelievers believe when you start doing your mission.

Some of you have relatives, people you love, friends and

relatives who have not stepped across the line.

A mom, a dad, a spouse. a child, are you

the hold up?

When I do what God wants me to do and

I step out in faith and I do something that

may be uncomfortable for me, unbelievers believe. There will be

people coming to Christ around you, people that you thought

never in a million years I think they'd come to

the Lord. When you get your life When you get

back on track, when you stop running from what God

has asked you, what's your Nineveh? What has God told

you to do and you just haven't done it? And

it's willful disobedience. I want you to forgive that person.

I don't wanna forgive that person. Miracle one, things calm down.

Miracle number two, unbelievers believe. Miracle number three, When I

accept my mission, God shows me mercy. He doesn't scold me.

He doesn't spank me. I've been running the wrong way

for a long time, but all of a sudden I'm

gonna go, this is stupid. I'm paying the price. God's

opposing me. I'm going downhill. I'm hurting other people.

This is dumb.

I'm gonna go, God's way from now on. And when

I go God's way, guess what God does? He doesn't go, well,

I told you so. No, he shows me mercy. He

shows me grace. He shows me forgiveness. And the last

verse of Jonah chapter one says this. Now, the Lord

had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And

Jonah was inside that great fish for three days and night.

Now circle the word prepared. I wanna clear up some

misconception about this. How many of you growing up heard

that Jonah was swallowed by a whale? Yeah, practically everybody.

The word whale is not in this book. It's in

the Bible, but whale is not mentioned. It says God prepared,

custom made a great fish to swallow.

A whale's not a fish, friends. A whale's a mammal.

Now they wouldn't have known that 2700 years ago. But

a whale's not a fish, a whale's a mammal. God

could have used a whale if he wanted to. Here's

the point I wanna make. It says that God had prepared,

and that word there, prepared, circle that, it's the Hebrew

word manah. It means assigned, it means appointed, it means

custom made, it means ordained. It's used in the word ordained.

God ordained a whale. Now in chapter four, he ordains

a worm and he ordains a wind. So I guess

that ordination is not that big a deal. If a

whale and a worm can be ordained. It says that

God assigned, appointed, ordained, he provided, he arranged, he custom made. Now,

if you really believe that God created the universe, which

means he created every creature, every species, every fish, you

have no problem with God creating a custom made fish

that could hold Jonah for three days with air conditioning.

or a campfire inside him for that matter. If God

can create the universe, and if God can resurrect the dead,

if you believe in the resurrection, you don't have a

problem with the fact that God could create an animal

to swallow up Jonah and take care of him and

spit him out later in the right direction.

The Lord prepared a great fish.

Now, as I said, if God creates everything, he could

custom make anything he wanted to to handle Jonah.

But some scientists.

Actually believe that it's a possibility that the largest fish

in the ocean could have done this.

Now, I'm not talking about largest mammal, I'm talking about

largest fish.

The largest fish is called a whale shark, whale shark.

It's in the shark family, but it's so big it's

like the size of a whale, they call it a

whale shark.

It swims all over the world. It's everywhere. Let me

show you some photos.

Here is a picture of a typical 40-foot whale shark.

Look at that mouth. Now, These fish are found all

around the world. That's about a 40-footer right there.

They are the largest fish in the ocean.

It swims about three miles an hour, which means a

lot of divers like to grab on the back and

just pull along. They're totally docile. They're no threat to

human beings. They're gentle giants. They swim with their mouth

open because they are filter feeders. They don't chew or

cut up anything because they don't bite stuff. They live

off of micro plankton. And so they swim with their

giant mouth open at about three miles an hour through

the ocean. They're totally harmless, totally harmless. And they're all

around the world, pretty common. Let me show you a

back-end view of a 50-foot whale shark. That's quite a

condominium right there for Jonah to be in if that

was it, okay? They're gentle giants. Let me show you

some snorkelers around the world. Here's a picture of an

Australian snorkeler with a whale shark, okay?

That shows you the difference. Don't you think he could

fit in that mouth? Yeah. Yeah.

Here's one, two Mediterranean snorkelers. Look at the size of

that mouth. Okay, see the snorkelers up there? Here's a

diver photographing another diver who's riding a baby shark off Mozambique.

That's a little one. And see, he's holding onto the

fin back there, that diver, and he's riding while the

other diver's taking pictures of him swimming with this baby shark.

Here is three snorkelers above a whale shark in the Mediterranean,

they're up high. You see, look at all the fish

going in and out of that mouth. Now, to give

you a comparison between a typical whale shark and an

80-passenger school bus, that's what it looks like. Both of

those are 40 feet long, okay?

So an 80-passenger school.

Bus is about the size of a 40-foot whale shark.

All right, that's pretty big.

Now this last picture is actually a picture of Jonah

about to be swallowed. Okay, okay, actually that's a snorkeler

off Mexico. The point is this, in this story, more

people get hung up with what's inside the whale than

the story about what's inside Jonah. And what's really more

important is what's inside you. What's inside you. Are you

resisting what God has told you to do? Do you

know your mission? Have you been running from something God

tells you to do?

What's your Nineveh? You go, God, I'll do anything, but

I won't do that. Be careful.

God is calling you to accept the mission that you

were created for. You're not here for any other reason.

You were made for your mission. You were planned for

God's purpose. You were shaped to serve God. You weren't

put here to live a self-centered, selfish life.

This is the most important thing in your life.

And to run from God and say, I'm gonna do

my plan, plan B instead of God's plan.

That's stupid. It's just stupid.

First, you can't hide from God, and second, it's gonna

be all downhill, it's gonna cost you, God's gonna oppose you,

people are gonna get hurt, and it's only gonna get worse,

and trying hard won't work. But if I'll come to

the point of surrender, say, just throw me overboard. Put

me in the total hands of God's grace. I can't

save myself. Then you get the miracles thing, start calming down.

Unbelievers around me all of a sudden become believers because

they see what's happening to me and God shows me mercy.

Let's bow our heads. You're not listening to this message

by accident. God is saying to you, stop running from me.

I don't want part of you. I want all of you.

I want 100% of you. I made you for a mission.

And when you do it my way, things will calm down.

People around you will come to Christ.

They'll be saved.

Unbelievers will believe. And my mission will be fulfilling to you.

It's where you find your meaning. And he shows you mercy.

Will you accept your mission? Would you pray this prayer?

Dear God, I.

Wanna know my mission. I wanna get into your words

so I can hear what you want me to do

with my life. I know it's gonna require some faith.

I know it's gonna help other people somehow. And I

know it may scare me at first. But the opposite

is unthinkable. I know it is futile to run from you.

My life will go downhill. It's gonna cost me more

than to run to you. You will oppose me with

an opposing wind and other people will get hurt. And

the longer I run from you, the worse it gets. Lord,

I have been in situations where it was out of control.

I tried to turn it around. I couldn't, so I

tried harder Help me to stop trying and start trusting. Today,

Jesus Christ, I surrender 100% of my life to you.

And whether I've got five or 50 years left, I

want the rest of my life to be the best

of my life.

I wanna be on mission for you. I accept my mission.

Anytime, anywhere, any way, Anyhow, and I ask you to

show me your mercy and grace. And I humbly ask

this with a sincere heart.

If you've never invited Christ into your life, say, Jesus Christ,

come into my life. Save me.

I want to learn to love you and trust you.

In your name I pray, amen.