Auto Generated Transcript
I’m gonna invite you to turn to the book of Jonah, Jonah as we go through a new series together on running from God. And so we’re going to be on the, in the book of Jonah for the next four weeks, just so you have an idea of where we’re going. Jonah is a satire, prophetic wisdom, poetic literature. All right? So what that means for us is because it’s written in the set technical form, it kind of has this gloomy, messy ending. In fact, when you get to the end, you’re like as gentlemen and like a chapter or two somewhere because there’s no, there’s no American ending to this where the hero rides off on his horse into the sunset and all bad things have been resolved and all good things live on forever more.
Praise God. That’s not Jonah. And when you get to the end of the journey of Jonah, the reason I think Jonah ends in such a dismal way is so that we recognize in the story who the real hero is and how even in our, in our, uh, incorrect living, our, our unreal, our desire to not recognize Jesus as Lord in our lives, that God still works his will to see things accomplish. And when we recognize in the end that he is in control and surrender to him is what we’re created for. And the joy of life is found in that, that we get to experience the very reason for which we’re created. And I think this story sets in us in an unsettling way towards the end for that particular reason to remind us the goodness of who God is. And so if you’re wanting to know where the book of Jonah is, it’s towards the end of the old Testament.
You have the 12 minor prophets that conclude the old Testament. And Jonah’s more towards the beginning of those 12 minor prophets. If you remember, we studied Hosea recently. Hosea precedes Jonah and you’ll be able to find it. If you just go from the book of Matthew. If flip back just eight books into the old Testament backwards, there’s shorter books towards the end of of the old Testament and you should be able to find the book of Jonah there. Historically, the book of Jonah is important to the Jewish people. They actually read this book on a specific day every year on what’s called Yom Kippor for them, or you might know it as the day of atonement in Jewish tradition, old Testament, they had a temple in which they worshiped in until 70 a D when it was destroyed. This temple had one specific room in which it was told the presence of God would dwell.
The temple itself only had two rooms that they really did any worship in and only the priests could go into that. This one particular room that they had built that the presence of God would dwell in, they were only able to go into that room one time a year to worship, and it was on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. So it’s like this. We built a church, but we have everything that we do out in the parking lot. That’s what it was like for them. One day a year, one person could walk into the auditory and the main room where we would worship and they would sprinkle blood on the altar before the presence of the Lord and that’s what the temple represented and Yom Kippur was that day, the day of atonement for the people of Israel. During this time, they would read the book of Jonah when they concluded the book of Jonah as a people, they would recite and unison. Together we are Jonah.
Well for the next four weeks, we’re really going to unpack the reason behind that and the point of the story is so that in our lives we can connect to God in the way that Jonah is described in this past as what we even find in the life of Jesus is that Jesus connects this story to the people around him in the gospel and so it’s important for us to really capture what Joan is about because I believe when you understand what Jonah is about, it really gives you a large scale picture of what all of scripture is. It’s themed upon Jonah by way of just identifying him for you so you know him a little better. There’s not a whole lot we know about them, but Jonah is considered a minor prophet, minor prophet, not because he was any less significant than other prophets in Israel’s history. Only minor because the amount of his book is just four chapters.
Jonah lived 800 years before Jesus. Out of the minor prophets. It’s the only minor prophet that’s in a narrative form or telling us a story. And usually when I bring up the name Jonah, what Joan is about, almost instantaneously someone immediately jumps to the thought of a big fish. You might even call it a whale, which is a little more presumptuous than what scripture says, but, but at least the Bible tells us that, that the story centers around Jonah and Jonah gets this call from God and Jonah runs from God. And God in the midst of this story uses a well. But the theme of the story isn’t about a well. In fact, at the end of the story, God even uses a killer words.
I think the worm that destroys an entire tree is more interesting than, than the whale. The wheel seems more more plausible to me than killer worms, but, but God uses these things for a specific purpose. They’re in the theme of the store. They’re not the point of this story. They’re simply a tool to what God’s purpose is. And the story of Jonah. And one of the major themes for us is I would say, is this, you can run from God, but you can’t outrun him. And when you see the story of Jonah, you see in his life in the beginning, he runs from God and then he, he’s captured by the Lord and any praise to God chapter to talk about prayer. And he comes before his city and the Lord uses him to call his message to the city. And the city repents and said, we’ll see God’s concern in chapter three for the city.
And then you get to chapter four and you find out Jonah’s still hates God. Tens of thousands of people come to know the Lord through this message and rather rejoice. He kind of looks like a spoiled, whiny brat. He’s more, he’s more distraught over a worm that eats a tree. Then he’s celebrating the fact that so many people come to known the Lord. And so the book just sort of ends in, in that flavor. But what you see in the story is people run from God outright in their lives. We run from God. And we know we’re running from God, but then you even see it sort of this turn in chapter three chapter four where he even participates in what God calls him to participate in. And even in that participation, it’s run from God says to us, as God’s people here this morning, it’s possible to be in church, but not of the church to listen to God, but not allow the truth of the Lord to penetrate our heart, to even participate in everything that might be involved in a worship celebration before the Lord, but never truly worship. The theme of Jonah reminds us, you can run from God, but you can’t outrun him. In fact, the Psalmist said in Psalm one 39 where can I go to hide from your presence? The point of the Psalm is nowhere. God’s presence is always there. So one of the reasons this book is so unique for us, maybe it’ll work, maybe not Jonah chapter one there we go. In verse one it tells us this introduction for us about Jonah. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai saying, this foundation begins to share with us exactly where Jonah is going with what he’s going to communicate to us.
One is the word of the Lord too. He’s the son of Amittai. Jonah’s name means Dov Devin old Testament, new Testament. It’s a representation of the Holy spirit and God’s going to sort of use Jonah as a way to proclaim his truth, that his truth will penetrate the hearts of the people and God would use that as the means or the tool to provoke people to repentance as a reflection of, of what the Holy spirit does to us on the inside, but he’s, it identifies him as the son of Amittai, which means truth because what it’s telling us in the stories that Jonah was about to tell us the truth, the good, the bad, the ugly, the dust settling part, the messy, the entire book is a messy struggle. It ends that way to show us really not that a whales, the hero worms, the hero that Jonah’s a hero, but God is the hero. In fact, there’s really no other reason to tell this story the way the story is told other than the fact that it is the truth. Cause the ending is so bizarre. I mean I know what we think. Sometimes we consider Jonah. Did that really happen? Did he really get eaten by? Well, I mean come on three days in a belly of stomach acid.
Who makes that historically? Just so you know, if you, if you Google that, you can even find accounts where similar stories have been told. I think the last one I’ve seen historically was in the 18 hundreds in England there a tombstone buried where a guy was who had died, has been eaten by a well spit out later or eaten by fish that out later. And on his tombstone, that muddled moment of his life was reflected on it. Just to let everybody know this guy could get eaten by a well and still survive, but eventually death got them anyway. So it’s, it’s historically been seen as happening. We’ll talk about it a little bit more as it relates to scripture, whether or not it’s Alec work or whether or not it’s true, but I think what it’s saying in this story in the very beginning, Jonah’s has got a truthful story.
He just wants us to recognize the significance of what takes place in his life so that we can gain from this satirical wisdom in in our own lives and he calls it the word of the Lord. Anytime a prophet was to share a message from God, this is the way that they would categorize it as a word of the Lord. These aren’t my words I’m about to share. These are the Lord’s words. In fact, in Deuteronomy chapter 13 Deuteronomy chapter 18 in both of those chapters, the Bible tells us this was written to Moses, that if someone claims to be a prophet and anything they say do, does not come through stone them. That’s how serious Israel would consider this statement. To understand the words I’m about to share are not my words, but God’s words. These are his special revelation and God would send Israel profits to proclaim this for the purpose of directing the people of God back before the presence of God and walking with him and for own personalized. I think this, this idea of God sharing a special revelation becomes important to us and when we look at our lives and think, you know, if I could just receive some sort of truth or direction from the Lord, some sort of special revelation, and I want you to know this morning, you can too.
You can receive prophetic words from God. The way you do it is you’ve opened up the book of Jonah. The same words written to Jonah are written to us. God’s truth is timeless. If you want to understand what God desires for you in life, he’s written words on pages so that we have the same special revelation that came to Jonah as the same special revelation that comes to us and the same truths that he wanted Jonah to understand in his walk with him are the same truths God desires for you to understand in your walk with him. In fact, the Bible talks about two special revelations. It says to us, one, the word of God is his truth. It’s God’s special revelation written to us, but it also says to us, and Hebrews as if it read it. Hebrews chapter one verses one God spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways so long ago. He talked to the prophets in these last days, which is Jesus and on, and these last days has spoken to us in his son and he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power.
The point of scripture is to give us the truth of who God is. We could walk in light of Christ that Jesus has been revealed, that he is. What is saying in Hebrews is setting this foundation that everything is pointing to Jesus. If you’ve not ever read the book of Hebrews, I would encourage you to read it. I mean, the book of Hebrews, written Hebrews or to the Jews is to show them how everything that they did in their worship system was ultimately a fulfillment of all that Christ was. The temple, the priesthood, the lamb, the law, the prophetic statements, everything was centered to find its pinnacle Mark in Jesus that when Jesus came along, we saw the significance of who Jesus is and when pursuing him with our lives. Special revelation in Christ and in God’s word.
In fact, God correlates his word to Christ. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. In John chapter one, Jesus, his own prayer and John sanctify them through truth. I word as truth. Well, the picture is paramount and wanting us to understand the significance of those two points. And so I would encourage you this morning as we look to direction through the book of Jonah, that God’s direction is still given to your life. That it’s not this unique revelation that comes to you apart from anyone else, but God gave his word that we can all have it and see the truth of who he is together in community and when this truth comes to Jonah. This is what it says in verse two. Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city and cry out against it for their wickedness has come up before me.
Joda is a little unique in the prophetic books in the sense that Jonah is one of just a few prophetic books. The other one is Obadiah and Nahum that are written to people, groups outside of the nation of Israel, but it’s still pointing to us. God’s love for the nations and what God is calling Jonah to is literally to go to one of Israel’s enemies. Nineveh, the Assyrians, the Assyrians are described historically as horrific people, the way that they devalued life, how they killed men, raped women, and even would rip babies from the wounds of mothers. Israel at this point been attacked by the Assyrians a few times and now God is calling Jonah to go back into this land and preach his message. If you, if you historically study where Ninevah is located today, it’s in modern day Iraq.
Historically, Iraq is a pretty prominent place for scripture. Abraham has called out of the earth the land of the Cal DNS, which is South Eastern Iraq, Babylon and the garden of Eden is considered more central Iraq and Nineveh is more Northwest direct to the Bible is rich in history from the people of Iraq and Jonah is called to go back into the city knowing that his people are called to go into the city knowing that his people had been attacked by the Assyrians. It’s like today telling you, I want you to head into Fallujah or Mosul and let everyone know you’re a Christian. In fact, if you look at Jonah’s message, it’s probably what you would say, not the one you would want to share to be ranked high on the popularity list in Nineveh. I mean, it’s kind of like a Turner burns sort of statement that he gives in chapter three.
So could you imagine you go to modern day Iraq where some fighting’s going on now or or into Iran and you say, Hey, I’m a Christian and you’re all going to be destroyed. How would that go for you? It’s not going to, it’s not going to last long. Right? And if you look at Jonah’s story, how would you respond if God had called you to do that? What would you, what was your reaction be? I’m Jonah takes all but two seconds to think about this here. And then it says in verse three, but Jonah Rose up to flee to Tarsus. Tarsus is sorta like beachfront property. So he’s like, Hm, 500 miles into the desert or beach front property. I mean, who’s willing to live in the desert? Wait a minute. He’s like 500 miles East, deeper into the desert or beachfront property. So it says Jonah Rosa flipped the Tarsus from the presence of the Lord.
So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare. And look what it says and went down into it to go with them to Tarsus for the presence of the Lord. Just hold onto that thought, that gentlemen down into it. For a moment it’s going to become important for us, but usually when you talk about getting on a boat, I would say he got up on it. He went on the boat, not down into it, but this is significant that the authors are writing for us, something he wants us to recognize here in just a moment, but Jonah is literally doing the exact opposite of what God called him to do and he’s going to learn the lesson. You can run from God, but you can’t outrun God. No, I know.
If God called me to a circumstance that seemed difficult and he made that call and clear, I know there would be an internal wrestling within my soul, something I would need to work out with the Lord God, how do I know for sure this is what you want or how do I know you’re going to be with me? You know, just it’s a time of learning in your faith and that’s usually how, that’s how faith goes. Like we put our trust in Jesus and as we’re walking along and as we continue to trust in him, we see how he over time again and again, proves himself faithful. Our walks with Jesus and we claim to follow Jesus. I’m not always going to be perfect.
You’re not. I follow Jesus instantaneously perfection in my life, but rather I’ll learn even even from a missteps how to better step in Christ. Why does Jonah choose to run? He actually tells you at the end of the book in chapter four, this is what he says. I just want to read this. We’ll go back to chapter one in a minute just so you know why, why Jonah’s choosing what he chooses and he, and he writes it down for us. He says, they prayed to the Lord and said, please, Lord was not this what I said while I was still in my own country. Therefore, in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarsus.
I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God. Slow to anger, abundant and loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Jenna, why did you make this decision? I made it cause I love my people more than I love those people. I made it because I love my people more than I love you talking about the Lord.
And if just stepping back, not getting into the specifics of Jonah’s circumstances, it seems pretty cut and dry. God calls you somewhere, you decide you don’t want to go, and so you don’t go. And from a rational point, you see Jonah’s decision doesn’t make sense. If we live to true Christianity, we live for a man who died for his enemies or a God man died for his enemies. Yeah. Jonah’s making this decision to deny his faith and run from the circumstance because it’s more than just rational thinking. God calls I go, but rather he begins to reveal the pressure of the moment Riggins to reveal to Jonah where his love lies. He’s got, I call an important two letter word. God, I’ll follow you if I don’t have to follow you there.
God. I’ll love you with everything I have. If you give me a nice home on the beach, God, I love you. If if you give me the job on want or if you make my family do this, or if you bring me the person that I went with in my life, God, I will love you if so. When you look at the story of, of Jonah, you see God’s heart for the nations got hearts for the city. God’s heart is for Minerva. God’s heart is for his enemies. God desires compassion and loving kindness and forgiveness. You see that in Jonah for Jonah, Jonah points out, but the story isn’t just about God’s desire for this nation. The story is also personal. God growing in unison with with an individual. That relationship being nurtured, it’s not just about the people external, it’s about the person of Jonah, so it’s not until the pressure of our life surrounds us with circumstances that are attempting, that we find out in our world what we truly love more. Jonah’s decision was for second best. When obedience becomes costly, that’s when we weigh it and that’s when it reveals to us our true gods.
Jenna, what do you love? More pleasure or the Lord? What’s more important to you? Comfort, faithfulness. This is the truth that happens in our lives. When you deny God’s authority, it’s because you doubt his goodness and therefore it leads you to ignore his guidance. Instead again, when you deny God’s authority because you doubt his goodness and therefore ignore his guidance, walks a walk with the Lord is not always easy and we don’t always do it perfect.
Well, sometimes the stress of life or the pressure of life around us or circumstances that may look at verse to us shows us where, where is our love? If God you do this, then I will do this. Meaning the reason you obey is as important as that which you obey. Following God out of convenience may not mean that we’re necessarily following God. It more means that it’s just convenient in the moment to pursue God, but the moment it isn’t convenient that I choose convenience over the Lord and it’s when picture perfect things aren’t always picture perfect that you find what’s more and if our pursuit of God is for any other reason than his glory is most important than we waver. That’s why John Piper has given the famous statement, God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him.
The story of Jonah is this, Jonah, none of us, God loves you as you are, and he also loves you too much to leave you that way. Can you see in chapter four when the story goes on, it says the Lord. Now that he’s on the boat, the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up and then the sailors, anytime sailors start freaking out, you know, it’s time to just, you know, you’re on the plane, the pilot is running around like crazy. You know, it’s time to panic, right? Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his God. I remember this a side note, but our first kid was when he was being born, we’re in the hospital and we’re trying to get an epidural and Stacey, because they have an emergency section they got to make cause they had some complications and the doctors start freaking out and I’m like, I grab him.
Like, listen right now. I don’t need you to do this. Let’s make this happen. All right. So when the sailors became afraid and they man cried to his God and they threw the cargo, which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below, look, here it is again. Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, laid down in the fallen and sound asleep. So the captain approached him and said, how is that you are sleeping? Get up calling on your God. Perhaps your God will be concerned about us that will not be able to perish. So sailors are freaking out and they go down, they see Jonah again and he’s down. It tells us in this passage he’s down. And the same thing happened in verse three, but what the author is doing, we don’t get it in our English language, is he’s using a play on words to show how Jonah is moving towards death.
This word will actually highlight that Jonah’s steps are the steps of death that I would even submit to you that the reason he’s so asleep in the middle of this storm is that he’s so far into this depth. I think Joan is depressed. If you’re on a boat and it looks like it’s going under and you hear people screaming like mad above you and they’re the sailors. I mean if you’re in your fairly normal state of life, you’re going to be like, we gotta get outta here. You know, whatever I need to do, I want to be doing something but Jonah’s asleep.
And I think that he recognizes the difficulty of his circumstance. He doesn’t want to trusting God where he’s at, but not trusting in God. He finds himself in this at this place of depression, this place of death. Normally in our culture, this is what we would say for him. We’d say, you know what, we need to get with Jonah Gaza’s Hogan downstairs for this storm. We got to take care of this real quick. We’ll come back and handle the storm. Joey needs to build his self esteem. Let’s, let’s just, let’s just build a self esteem up so he feels better about himself. He can get out and he can help us, right? And I’m all for whatever we can do to encourage you in a way that I think is honoring to the Lord but encourage you to see your worth, your value. But can I tell you sometimes when we talk about self esteem, I don’t think self is the right way to start with it. What I mean is usually we talk about self esteem.
We start telling somebody why they’re worth so much and we look to different things that they’re capable of, right? You’ve got talent, you’re popular, you look cute, you know, whatever you got, you got money, you know, whatever it is. Just some sort of some sort of characteristic that other people might want. And so whatever people might cover it shows, shows that that’s why you’re worth something. But the problem is someone always has more. I mean your mama probably told you you were good looking, right? My cute little baby. But there’s always somebody stronger, more popular, more money, better looks. And if it’s not today, then it will be tomorrow. And so when you put your esteem from yourself in those things, what you find is eventually, if not now, those things collapse. And so in order to build your esteem, it would seem logical to think it needs to come somewhere external behind beyond things that collapse. But where could you ever find something that would always be dependable to demonstrate to you your worth? I think it’s in the Lord God determines your worth.
So much so that he gave his son for you. So much. So in this story, what you’re going to see as God cares for Nineveh or a sinful and by definition just horrific civilization, the way that they’re living at this point in their lives. What about Jonah?
Can you talk about somebody that blew it? I have never had God show up to me and be like, Hey, I need you to go do this. You know, head to this place and do this specifically. I mean, God’s word gives us direction. God leads our hearts, I think to different people, groups in places and for different things, but God’s never audibly said that. I mean, you blew a Jonah. What do you say to that loser? I know that’s like, so what you do, what do you do to that? Well, if you look, this isn’t going to be on the screen, but look at Jonah chapter one verse 17 I want you to see this.
Look what it says. I mean if you had, if you want to just contrast in the story that I think the two pinnacle points of chapter one I would tell you verse three verse five where Jonah goes down because those verses are highlighting death and Joan is walking away from the Lord not being able to trust in his goodness. Those are, those are important themes for chapter one, but in verse 17 then you get the position of the Lord that’s contrary to Joan. Isn’t. It says this and the Lord in this word look appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. Now, most of us would be like, that’s not, that is not like the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, not because he wants to destroy him though Laura appointed this because God’s still concerned for him. It says in Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. What blows me away about this story? I never thought about this until I read it this time, but if Jonah died in that fish and that would have been exactly like Jesus he died, spits out comes back to life three days, but Joe de general, what’s important for him to recognize in this story, what he wants us to get across here is this, this word appointed because this word appointed some translations say had appointed. It’s not like this. Joan was on this ship. The storm comes there. God’s like, Oh my gosh, I got to bite my fingernails here. I don’t know. What are we going to do? I cannot figure this out. You have blown it. Jonah, I gave you the option that was playing a, I don’t have a B. God’s not doing that in this story.
How do we know? Because it says in verse 17 God had appointed meaning God knew what Jenna was going to do before Jonah himself knew it. And I think before the foundations of the world, as God created, he made a fish. He made a fish specific for a purpose and as soon as that boat took off, God called that fish to pursue.
God didn’t look at the moment and where Jenna messed up, I was like, I can’t, I can’t fix this. I mean I’ve got, I’ve got to start over on somebody else. New profit, because the story is not just about Nineveh and the story really has nothing to do with a whale. It’s just the Will’s a tool. The most important thing I think that Jonah wants us to recognize is how in all of this, God’s still pursued after him. The God wasn’t taken back by the things that Jonah had done, but that he had appointed this this moment. Why?
So the end, his heart, Jenny could stop and still see the love of God in pursuit of his life. And when we’re running from God, I mean if there’s one thing that the gentle call of this will just bring you in. It’s the idea of you in in wickedness or sin or just totally oppose anything God wants in your life. And he’s saying, I’m right behind you. I’m running after you. And not only that, I’ve already, I’ve already appointed ahead of time to meet you here. Most important thing that can happen here is you’re trying to run is, is what can take place in your heart as I, as I want to meet you where you are. And so the story goes on like this. I love what happens here. It says chapter nine or chapter one verse nine he said to them, talking to the sailors that are freaking out, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.
And the men became extremely frightened. And they said to him, how could you do this? For the men knew that they were fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them, and so they said to him, what should we do? So what should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us? I mean, we’ll cut your head off. I mean for the CS becoming increasingly story, it’s you go down or all of us go down and so, so it says in verse 12 he said, them pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that on account of me, this great storm has come on you, whoever. However, the men rode desperately to return to land. They wanted to preserve his life, good for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. Then they called on the Lord and said, we earnestly pray. Oh Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us for you. Oh Lord, have done as you have pleased. They picked up, Jonah, threw him into the sea and the sea stopped. Its raging then the men for the Lord greatly. Let me just paint this picture at the end. This is kind of culminating at all over another time.
During this time, it was normal for people to worship several gods. You had your fertility, God, your crop, God, your land, God, your sea God. These guys are on the boat. They’re tossing dice. When the storm comes, they’re like, we want to determine who’s the blame for this and we need to worship the sea. God, where’s the sea God? Help us see God. See God’s not helping us. There’s some weird dude downstairs. Maybe he’s got an extra guide that might help us in this so they run downstairs and Joan is like, Oh no. See God know I worship the God who’s the God of everything, the God of land and sees the God above, above all things. He is God alone. What are you doing on this boat? Why would they got us way better than our God? He’s so much bigger than than these little [inaudible] Demigodz that we’re trying to work up here. What is this guy that you’ve made mad? We need this God, this God obviously has the control of everything. And in the midst of that,
Jonah still has opportunity to point people to the Lord, even though they might say he’s messed up, it’s just transparent with where he’s at. I’m running from God, but he’s real guys. He’s definitely real. I mean, I told you I’m running a room, but look at this. Isn’t this, this is pretty spectacular out here. I’ll tell you, it’s my God. So throw me overboard. And this is what Jonah does. Really a display of Jesus.
How about this? My life for years in my weakness, you see the strength of who God is. I think that’s why Jesus used Jonah as that illustration. They asked Jesus for a sign and he knew that there were unrepentant wicked generation people that were not interested in him. So he said this for justice journey came as assigned to the Ninevites. So the son of man be to this generation, my life for years out of weakness. You see the strict for the Lord. So one of the reasons I think Jonah failed at this, he was resting in his own strength. And sometimes I think we’re afraid to step because we like to handle things within our own strength. And to take any step means we’d have to do trust in the Lord. And so we like these IPS. When you deny us authority, it’s because you doubt his goodness and therefore ignore his guidance.
When things aren’t going well in our lives, even even in the irritation of arguments between spouses or kid with your kids or whatever it is, I mean, you know how it goes. Sometimes it’s just the right button gets pushed and all of a sudden, rather than the presence of Jesus, your flesh comes out.
Now the pressure you find where your heart’s resting when things aren’t going well or tendency is to get cell phones. Yes. And that’s where Jonah was depressed in the belly of a ship moving towards death, his pity party, right? What was me, you know what the Lord ones when things aren’t going well, we tend to get self-focus. But the solution in those moments are the exact opposite. The exact opposite. And Sam, sometimes it takes a fish in a worm to show us.
God’s called us to so much more beyond self to look out and see beyond the circumstance, to trust him in the morning and the weakness of our failures, moments of death, recognize even in those moments, God has appointed. God knew it before I did it. He knew it before I was there. He was there and he’s been there running behind me, chasing after me, and he’s already in front of me preparing the way for me. If in these moments I could stop wallowing in this and just turned to him because Scott’s greater than my hips and God’s got plans beyond really my wildest dreams. Who would have thought? Who would have thought Nineveh? Tens of thousands of people.
Maybe if you talk to the devil, devil, Oh, tell me about your favorite cities. He would have been like, Oh, number one. Number one, I got these people, Nineveh, right? I got to tell you, church, and you think about this for a moment. You consider just history. God. God turns Nineveh. You look at Rome, he turns Rome. You look in 15 hundreds in the dark ages, he’s got the reformation in America. It’s the great awakenings. It’s the same God today, the same God if you trust in walking. Now, let me close with a word of prayer where we love you. Thank you for the story of Jonah.