DNow 2025: Changed // Saturday Morning

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
There we go.
Nate Hilgenkamp, that's amazing.
Wow, I've had a lot of thingshappen.
I've never had that happen.
That's amazing.
Wow, that's awesome.
I love that.
Here's a marshmallow.
I've got a three-year-olddaughter and I am so proud of
her.
She can do so many things.
She just consistently impressesme.

(00:22):
She can count to 20 on her own,she knows the ABC, she knows
some scripture memorized andshe's really amazing.
But there's one area of her lifewhere she's just like flat out
no good, like awful at this,like she needs to grow in this
area because she loves to playhide and seek.
She's just no good at itbecause she's oftentimes like

(00:43):
dad, let's play hide and seek,let's play hide and seek.
She's just no good at itBecause she's oftentimes like
dad, let's play hide and seek,let's play hide and seek.
And I'm like, okay, great, I'llcount to 20 over here.
And every single time she doesthe exact same thing.
She runs from our living roomover to our kitchen, finds the
dead center of our kitchen, andthen we'll hide like this, just

(01:05):
like this, and so I'll count to20 and I'll be like, okay, jc,
girl, where'd you go, jc, whereare you?
And I walk into the kitchen andI see her, just like that.
And she thinks that since shecan't see me, I can't see her.
And as a dad, I don't have theheart to just say, hey, I found
you already and I'm just like JC, are you in the microwave?

(01:28):
I open up the microwave.
Jc, are you in the refrigerator?
Jc, are you in the trash can?
Where'd you go?
Jc, I can't find you anywhere.
You see, here's what I'velearned about my daughter.
She can try to run from me, butshe can't hide from me.
She can try to run, but shecan't hide.
I'm always going to find her.
I'm going to find her really,really easily.
And here's why I start withthat this morning.

(01:49):
Here's what you need to knowabout your heavenly father.
You can try to run from him.
You can't hide from him.
He's going to find you reallyeasily every single time.
And the reality is I knowthere's many of us in this room
this morning that came in hidingyeah, you're at church, yeah,
you're at a D now, but there aresome parts of your life that
feel hidden, like you walked inhere this morning and you are

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trying to hide some things,because the reality is that much
of your life you really looklike this.
You're like I just hope Goddoesn't see that the shows that
I'm watching or the music thatI'm listening to, and if I just
hide like this, maybe he won'tmake me change.
Or I just I hope he doesn'thear the language that I use
when I'm around my friends, or Ihope he doesn't see the things
that I'm looking at online.

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I'm just trying to hide theseareas of my life, but the
reality is your heavenly fatherloves you way too much to leave
you like that.
You can try to run, but youcan't hide from him.
And what I hope you hear fromyour heavenly father this
morning is hey, ready or not,here I come, I'm going to find

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you there.
And you see, in his grace hedoesn't want to uncover those
areas just to shame you.
He wants to uncover those areasof your life because he knows
the more you run away from him,the more you run away from grace
, the more you run away frompeace, the more you run away
from joy, because your sin wantsto keep you trapped in a place
you don't want to be.
He wants to find you there thismorning.
So this morning we are going tobe in scripture, we're going to

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be in Jonah, jonah, chapter one.
Jonah's in the Old Testament.
It's a short book of the Bibleand if you've been raised in
church you probably kind of knowthe story of Jonah.
That it goes something like youknow, jonah was asked to go to
a certain group of people but heran away from God and so he got
swallowed up by a whale andthen got spit out and you don't

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exactly know what happened next.
Well, I just want to clarifyspecifically one thing about the
book of Jonah.
I know when we typically thinkof Jonah, we think Jonah is a
book about a man who ran awayfrom God.
That's not primarily about whatthe book of Jonah is.
Jonah is not primarily about aman who ran away from God, but
about a God who ran after thatman Because, as he was running

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away from God, god was chasinghim down.
Because the book of Jonah isnot primarily about a big fish,
but a big God who cares deeplyabout his people and some of you
this morning.
You have been running andhiding from God and I just want
you to know that your God hasbeen running after you.
So we're gonna be in Jonah,chapter one, verse one, starting

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right there.
It says this the word of theLord came to Jonah, son of
Amittai go to the great city ofNineveh and preach against it,
because its wickedness has comeup before me.
But Jonah ran away from theLord and headed for Tarshish.
He went down into Joppa wherehe found a ship bound for the

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port.
After paying the fare, he wentaboard and sailed for Tarshish
to flee from the Lord.
Now just to explain what's goingon here.
Jonah was a real person.
In fact, he's mentionedelsewhere in Scripture.
In 2 Kings 14, verse 25, itsays that he was a prophet who
prophesied before the king.
He was an advisor to the king.
So Jonah is this prophet and hehears a word from the Lord

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saying Jonah, go to Nineveh andpreach against it.
Now here's why that was amassive problem.
At that time, nineveh was thelargest city on earth and it was
the capital of a country calledAssyria Now Assyria.
They were the bitter rivals andenemies of Israel because
Assyria was potentially theAssyrians were potentially like

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some of the most evil people toever have existed.
These people were nasty, mean,awful.
I could tell you many thingsabout what they did, but I'm not
gonna to tell you all of them.
Here's an example, and it'sstill really, really gruesome.
They would take over cities andthen, once they would take over
those cities, they wouldstretch out the people, skin
them alive, throw their skinover the walls of that city to

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show to everyone else hey, youdon't mess with us.
I could go on.
They do more, but I won't.
It actually even gets worsefrom there.
These people were awful peopleand so Jonah, a follower of God.
God appears to him and says,hey, go preach against these
people.
And Jonah goes thanks, but nothanks.
There's no chance I'm goingthere.
I don't want to be skinnedalive by them.

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And you know it's easy to throwstones at Jonah and be like man
.
Why weren't you obedient to God?
But I'm like man, I get it.
I wouldn't want to do thateither.
Another explanation for what hewas called to do here.
This would be like if a Jewishrabbi was called to go preach
against the Nazis during WorldWar II in Germany.
Like this had no chance ofsuccess and a very high chance

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of death for Jonah.
So Jonah hears from God and hesays thanks, but no thanks.
I'm getting on a boat toTarshish Now.
I never knew where that wasuntil recently, when I was
studying this text, I'd heardthat growing up I had no idea
where it was.
Here's where he decided to goto.
We've got a map of it righthere.
So he's in Joppa.

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God asked him to go 550 miles tothe city called Nineveh, and he
says, nope, I'm not going there.
Instead, I'm getting on a boatthat's 2,500 miles away to
Tarshish Tarshish, which is inmodern day Spain.
Now why did he decide to dothat?
He heard this word of the Lordhe goes I'm going to Tarshish.
Why?
Because that's the other sideof the world, like that's the

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exact opposite of what God hascalled him to do, like they
didn't even think there wasanything beyond that.
He's going.
I am going to run from the Lordso I can hide from the Lord,
because I'm honestly sick offollowing the Lord.
He's asking me to do these hardthings, so I'm going as far
away as I possibly can because Iwanna run and hide, because he

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doesn't wanna be bothered by theLord any longer.
And this is the first thing thatwe can learn from the text.
Jonah knew what God wanted, buthe did what he wanted.
Jonah knew what God wanted, buthe did what he wanted.
And you know, I feel like Godcould have prevented this from
happening, because he could havetold Jonah more than what he
actually told him.
All he says in verse two is goto that great city of Nineveh

(08:13):
and preach against it, becauseits wickedness has come up, has
come up before me.
That's it Like.
Why doesn't God tell him what'sgoing to happen?
Why doesn't God say hey, you'regoing to go to this city called
Nineveh and they're going torepent and it's going to be
totally fine, and it wasactually going to be a book of
the Bible named after you.
People will be talking aboutyou thousands of years later.
It's all going to work out okay, but all he says is go to that

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city and preach against it, andthis makes Jonah fear what might
happen, because God didn't tellhim what will happen.
Now, why does God do that?
Why does he ask us to do thingsand not always tell us what's
going to happen?
Here's why God wants his wordto be good enough for you in
your life.
God doesn't always want us tofigure out the outcome before we

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choose to be obedient, becausethat's not faith.
Faith is trusting in what we donot see.
So oftentimes God will ask forour yes before he tells us his
why?
Because he wants us to followhim, not to follow an outcome.
He wants us to follow what hewants more than what we want.
But the reality for our life is, if point number one is Jonah

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knew what God wanted but didwhat he wanted, we could easily
replace that with any one of ournames.
Like many times in my life, itcould look like Nate knew what
God wanted but did what hewanted.
I bet that's true of your lifeas well.
Like, like you know what Godwants for you in terms of sexual
purity, but you don't reallylike that.
So you know what God wants youto do, but you're doing what you

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want to do.
Or you know that God has askedyou to make himself the most
important part of your life, butyou really really care about
your sports team.
So you know what God wants youto do, but you do what you want
to do and you play sports beforeGod.
Or you know that God has askedyou to share the gospel and to
share Jesus with the friends inyour school, but that makes you

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feel really, reallyuncomfortable.
So you know what God has askedyou to do, but you just do what
you want to do and you'rerunning from God.
And here's what it comes downto.
I bet most of us here want tofollow God, most of us want to
be faithful, but we also want tobe comfortable, and oftentimes

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God's commands are him sayinghey, I want you to choose, do
you want to be comfortable or doyou want to be comfortable?
And oftentimes God's commandsare him saying, hey, I want you
to choose.
Do you want to be comfortableor do you want to be faithful?
Because oftentimes you can'thave both in your life and
oftentimes, just like Jonah, Ichoose comfort over faithfulness
, and when you do, it will onlybring you down.
Before we move on, I want toshow you one other thing in this

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text, and this is what thewriter of this book would have
wanted you to see, because yousee, jonah hears this call from
God, then runs from God, and inhis disobedience we see the same
word over and over again.
I want to show you, or at leastread from you, the ESV
translation of these verses,because it's more word for word

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translation than the NIV is, andit says this in verse 3.
It says Jonah went down toJoppa and found a ship going to
Tarshish, so he paid the fareand went down into it.
Then verse 5, but Jonah hadgone down into the inner part of
the ship and had lain down andwas fast asleep.
Now contrast that with the veryfirst word that was spoken to

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Jonah from God.
Again, this is in the ESV, thepotentially more accurate Hebrew
to English translation.
Verse 2, it says arise, jonah,and go to Nineveh.
So this text is showing us thatGod says hey, arise.
Jonah says no, and his sintakes him down, down, down, down

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.
What you need to know is thisis always what sin is going to
do.
When God is asking you to sin,he's not keeping you from
something that will give youpleasure.
He's keeping you from somethingthat will bring you down, down,
down, to depths of despair,loneliness and brokenness, and
some of you are there right now.
You are in a season where yoursin has brought you down, down,

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down, and you don't know what todo with where you've ran to.
Here's the good news as we'reabout to see, when it comes to
God, you can run from him, butyou can't hide from him, because
Jonah is not a story about aman who ran away from God, but a
story about a God who ran afterthat man.
It's ultimately a story abouthow God wants to run after you

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as well.
So let's keep reading in verse4.
We're going to read a big chunkof scripture here.
This is what happens next.
Then the Lord sent a great windon the sea and such a violent
storm arose that the shipthreatened to break up.
All the sailors were afraid andeach cried out to his own God,
and they threw the cargo intothe sea to lighten the ship.

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But Jonah had gone below deckwhere he laid down and fell into
a deep sleep.
The captain went to him andsaid how can you sleep?
Get up.
Interestingly enough, that'sthe same word that God used at
the beginning.
Arise and go to Nineveh.
The captain says here, arise,get up from where you are and
call on your God.

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Maybe he will take notice of us, that we will not perish.
Then the sailors said to eachother come, let us cast lots to
find out who is responsible forthis calamity.
They cast lots and the lot fellon Jonah.
What that means is the sailorswere superstitious.
So really it was like they tooksome dice and assigned a number
to each person on the boat.
They like rolled the dice andit fell on Jonah.

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This is not saying this is whatwe should do.
This is just saying whathappened.
So they asked him tell us who isresponsible for making all this
trouble for us.
What kind of work do you do?
Where do you come from?
What is your country?
From?
What people are you?
He answered I'm a Hebrew and Iworship the Lord, the God of
heaven, who made the sea and thedry land.
This terrified them and theyasked what have you done?

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They knew he was running awayfrom the Lord because he had
already told them.
So the sea was getting rougherand rougher.
So they asked him what shouldwe do to you to make the sea
calm down?
Pick me up and throw me intothe sea, he replied, and it will
become calm.
I know that it is my fault thatthis great storm has come upon
you.
So Jonah knows what God wantshim to do, but he does what he

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wants to do.
And in running from God, heencounters a storm so strong
that even these professionalsailors begin to panic.
Like this is what these men didevery single day for their life
, and yet even they were sooverwhelmed and so nervous that
they took the cargo aboard theship and threw it overboard.
Now, that was a drastic movefor them, because that was like

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throwing their paycheckoverboard that's how they were
going to get paid.
But they were willing to throwtheir money essentially
overboard because they thoughtthey were going to die because
of this storm.
And this was all a result ofJonah's rebellion.
And this is an importantteaching here, because what it's
teaching is not that everydifficulty in our life is a
result of sin, because what it'steaching is not that every

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difficulty in our life is aresult of sin, but it is
teaching us that every sin willbring you difficulty, because
there is always a storm attachedto sin.
You can't sin and expect to nothave to live with the
consequences of that sin,because there's always a storm
attached to sin.
This is point number two.
Second thing we can learn fromthis text Jonah's sin impacted

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everybody in his boat.
Jonah's sin impacted everybodyin his boat.
See, jonah was the one who wasdisobedient, but it impacted
everyone there, because younever sin in a vacuum.
The results of sin aren't juston you, but are on the people
around you.
This reminds me of a time when Iwas in high school.
I was in about junior year ofhigh school and I grew up in
Minneapolis, minnesota, which isthe land of 10,000 lakes Like
there's just water and lakes allover the place.
So I grew up on the water a lotof the time and one day one

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summer we were out on the waterin a canoe.
It was me and three otherfriends and two of my buddies on
the canoe.
They just decide, hey, weshould start to rock the canoe
and flip it over.
Now we're in the middle of alake and me and my other buddy
are like, hey, let's not rockthe canoe and flip it over.
Like that sounds awful, let'snot do that.

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But they were like, no, we'regoing to rock the canoe and flip
it over.
So they just stand up and theystart going like this, back and
forth, back and forth, back andforth.
It didn't matter that I didn'twant the canoe getting flipped.
They were going to flip thecanoe and as they're going back
and forth, back and forth, backand forth, eventually the canoe
flipped over and all of us gotwet.
I didn't want to, but theirdecisions impacted me and we had

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to be stuck in the middle ofthis lake until this like police
boat, came out and saved them.
It was awful.
You see, their decisionsimpacted everyone in their boat,
because your sin always impactsother people and you know this
because the people in your life,their sins, have impacted you.
Your dad's anger has greatlyimpacted you.
Your mom's gossip has greatlyimpacted you.

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Your friend's selfishness hasgreatly impacted you.
Your friend's selfishness hasgreatly impacted you Because
when you are in the boat withsomeone else, their sins and
their decisions impact you.
In the same way.
Your sins don't just impact you, they impact everyone in your
boat.
So I want you to think aboutwho's in your boat right now.
Who's in your boat?

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Maybe it's your family, maybeit's your small group that
you're with this weekend.
Maybe it's with friends on yoursports team.
Who's with you in your boat?
And I just want you to knowthat your decisions are
impacting them for better or forworse.
And your addiction to sexual sinit's going to impact other
people.
It's going to impact yourfuture spouse one day.

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Sin it's going to impact otherpeople.
It's going to impact yourfuture spouse one day.
Your gossip, even this weekend,your gossip, is causing other
people to think less of people.
This weekend, your materialismis fueling other people's
struggles with comparison.
My self-centeredness dailyimpacts my daughter, my
daughters, my wife, myco-workers, because your sin
never just impacts you.

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And if this is you, you arewillingly in sin and you're
thinking that you're gettingaway with it.
You're not, because you can'tsin and avoid the consequences
of your sin.
Now I want to be clear.
Romans, chapter eight, verseone, says that therefore, there
is now no condemnation for thoseof us who are in Christ Jesus.
It doesn't say there are noconsequences, because sin always

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has a storm attached to it andeven if you're not feeling the
effects of it, the people aroundyou are.
So the best thing you could dofor you and for the people
around you is to passionatelypursue Jesus, because in him
there's not a storm attached tohim, but grace, peace and joy.
So the second thing that weneed to understand is that

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Jonah's sin impacted everyone inhis boat.
So there's this storm and hesays, hey, pick me up and throw
me into the sea.
Let's see what happens next.
Verse 12.

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Instead, the men did their bestto row back to land, but they
could not, for the sea grew evenwilder than before.
Then they cried out to the Lordplease, lord, do not.
Let us die for taking thisman's life.
Do not hold us accountable forkilling an innocent man, for you
, lord, have done as you please.
Then they took Jonah, threw himoverboard and the raging sea
grew calm.
At this, the men greatly fearedthe Lord and they offered a
sacrifice to the Lord and madevows to him.

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Now the Lord provided a hugefish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah
was in the belly of the fishthree days and three nights.
Now I read this part of thestory very differently than what
I used to, because I would havecategorized this all as
punishment for Jonah, but now Ijust see this section is
dripping with grace.
I want to explain why.

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This is point number three,third thing that we need to
understand Jonah couldn't outrunGod's grace.
There's just grace all overhere.
First there's grace to thesailors, because think about how
ironic this is Jonah gets on aboat to flee to Tarshish because
he doesn't want to tellnon-believers about God.
As he's fleeing from tellingnon-believers about God, god

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makes him tell morenon-believers about God.
And then verse 16 happens Atthis the men greatly feared the
Lord and they offered asacrifice to the Lord and made
vows to him.
You see, this is what God does.
God takes what man meant forevil and he turns it as good.
Because while Jonah is going,I'm going to run God, because I
don't want you to save lostpeople.

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God just goes, okay.
I guess that means I'm justgoing to go save more lost
people.
Because, you see, one of theprimary lessons of Jonah is that
God wants to save rebelliouspagans, but one of the other
lessons of Jonah is that Godwants to save the rebellious
religious.
He doesn't just have grace forthe sailors, but grace for Jonah
.
You know, I always saw thisstorm as a punishment for

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Jonah's sin.
But I don't actually think it'spunishment necessarily, because
if God truly wanted to punishJonah, what would have he let
him do?
He would have let him get toTarshish, he would have let him
run, he would have let him keephiding.

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But God loves him too much tolet him run, so he sends a storm
to stop him.
You know, this reminds me of atime recently we had this like
celebration at our church wherewe had a bunch of inflatables
outside and, for whatever reason, I was in charge of, like the
little kids.
I'm watching over the littlekids and there's this like
three-year-old boy, three orfour-year-old boy.

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Eventually he gets off one ofthe inflatables and he just, he
just looks straight at me andthen he just immediately runs
towards the street.
I'm like what in the world?
And at that moment I'm like youknow, this is a lesson he's got
to learn, like I'm just goingto let him keep running, see
what happens, I don't know.
I hope his parents understandthis is his decision.
No, I did not do that.

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I'm in charge of making surethat this kid's safe.
So as he looks at me, runs intodanger, what do I do?
I run after him, I pick him upand I don't bring him back to
the inflatable.
I pick him up and bring himstraight back to his dad.
You see, this is what'shappening in this moment in
Jonah.
Jonah looks at his heavenlyfather, says I'm running into

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danger.
And his heavenly father doesn'tjust say that's too bad, I feel
bad for you.
Instead, he says no, I love youfar too much to let you run
into a place where you don'twanna be.
So he sends this storm to pickup Jonah and bring him back into
his presence, because God loveshis kids too much to let them
just run into a place that'sgoing to bring them pain, and

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the same is true for you.
This storm here was notdesigned for retribution but for
restoration.
And in the middle of this storm, jonah is thrown into the sea
and the waves are calmed.
And then look at what verse 17says.
It says now the Lord provided ahuge fish to swallow Jonah.
See, the fish wasn't punishmentfor Jonah, it was provision for

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Jonah.
God's not going here.
Hey, you're gonna jump in theocean.
I'm just gonna let you die anduse someone else Instead.
The fish was God continuing topursue Jonah.
Because with the fish, god'snot saying hey, you sinned, so
I'm gonna punish you and makeyou smell a little fishy.
He's going no, you sinned, soI'm going to punish you and make
you smell a little fishy.
He's going no, you sinned, soI'm going to show you.
Even in your unfaithfulness I'mstill faithful to you, and in

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your running I'm going to chaseyou down.
And here's one other thing thatI just found really interesting
as I was studying this text.
Our best guess for what thename Nineveh means the city he
was called to is house of fish.
So Jonah goes hey, I'm notgoing to the middle of the house
of fish.
And God goes.

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Okay, if you're not going to goto the middle of the fish on
your own, I'm going to send youthere myself.
See, this is what God does.
God, in his grace, is remindingJonah hey, I'm in charge, not
you, buddy and Jonah is not astory of Jonah running away from
God, but about God runningtowards Jonah and, in his grace,
he'll send a storm to rock yourboat, he'll send a sailor to

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wake you up and he'll send afish to swallow you up, all to
bring you back to himself.
So, in summary, the threethings that we can learn from
this passage are Jonah knew whatGod wanted, but did what he
wanted.
Point number two, jonah's sinimpacted everyone in the boat.
And point number three, jonahcouldn't outrun God's grace.

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Well, to close, I want tocompare this story in scripture
with another story in scripture,because I think this is what
the Holy Spirit would want us todo, because I think the writers
of Scripture, underneath theguidance of the Holy Spirit,
wrote something that is almostidentically accurate to what we
read in Jonah, chapter 1.

(25:00):
Like they follow very similarplot lines and us with where
we're at today, being able tosee both the Old Testament and
the New Testament.
I think God wants us to comparethe two stories because there's
a really similar moment to thisin Mark, chapter 4.
And it's with Jesus.
Mark, chapter 4 is a story ofJesus calming the storm, and you

(25:23):
may remember some details, butit really looks like very
identical to Jonah, chapter 1.
And let me just show you howsimilar they are.
It says this a furious squallcame up in Mark, chapter 4, and
the waves broke over the boat sothat it was nearly swamped.
Then it says this then the Lordsent a great wind on the sea

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and such a violent storm arosethat the ship threatened to
break up.
That's in Jonah sea.
And such a violent storm arosethat the ship threatened to
break up.
That's in Jonah.
Now, in Mark, jesus was in thestorm sleeping on a cushion.
The disciples woke him and saidto him teacher, don't you care
if we drown?
Then Jonah.
But Jonah had gone down belowdeck where he lay down and fell
into a deep sleep.
The captain went to him andsaid how can you sleep?
Get up and call on your God.

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Maybe he will take notice of us, that we will not perish.
Mark, chapter four he got up,rebuked the wind and said to the
waves quiet be still.
Then the wind died down and itwas completely calm Then in
Jonah.
Then they took Jonah and threwhim overboard and the raging sea
grew calm.
Mark chapter four.
They were terrified and askedeach other who is this?

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Even the wind and the wavesobey him.
Jonah chapter one.
They were terrified and askedeach other who is this?
Even the wind and the wavesobey him.
Jonah chapter 1,.
At this, the men greatly fearedthe Lord and they offered a
sacrifice to the Lord and madevows to him.
You see, these two storiesfollow a very similar plot line.
They are almost exactlyidentical, except one thing that

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there's only one difference,really, between these two
stories, and that is thesacrifice.
Jonah sacrificed himself, butJesus did not Yet, because one
day he would, and in doing so hewould prove that he is the
truer and better Jonah.

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Matthew, chapter 12, says For asJonah was three days and three
nights in the belly of a hugefish, so the Son of man will be
three days and three nights inthe heart of the earth.
Because, you see, jesus is theultimate Jonah.
He too was sacrificed Becauseas he was thrown up onto the
cross, he was thrown under thewind and the waves of the storm

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that threatened to take us out.
And as he was thrown up uponthe cross, in the moment, he
breathed his final breath andsaid it is finished.
Do you know what was finished?
The storm in your life.
And he calmed the storm bysacrificing himself for you.
You see, just like Jonah, hetoo would be saved, not by a big

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fish, but by the strength ofhis own power.
And three days later, afterbeing brutally crucified, he
rose from the dead.
And as he did, here's what youneed to know he killed what
wanted to kill you.
He broke what wanted to breakyou.
He broke what wanted to breakyou and he destroyed the
destroyer who wants to bringdestruction on your life.
He was killed and sacrificed sothe storms of your life could

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be calmed.
And here's what we need tounderstand in looking at Jonah's
life and looking at the life ofJesus.
The good news is, we don't haveto look like Jonah.
We don't have to make thingsright on our own, we don't have
to atone for things on our own.
We don't have to throwourselves into the storm to calm
it.
Instead, we just have to throwourselves upon Jesus, the

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ultimate calmer of our storm.
And the good news aboutscripture is and the good news
about your God is is it doesn'tmatter how long you've been
running or where you've run to.
You can never run far enoughaway from God.
You can never hide enough fromGod because wherever you're at,

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your heavenly father is going.
I see you there, I love youthere.
There's grace for you there,there's hope for you there.
So you don't have to keephiding, you don't have to keep
running away from your God,because your God's been running
after you every single day ofyour life.

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Let me pray you'd let them findyou this morning, father.
I pray for these students I knowthat there are many of them
right now that are hiding things.
They've been keeping thingshidden from you.
They know what you've askedthem to do, but they're doing
what they want to do and they'reafraid.

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They're afraid that if anyoneknew, they'd see them
differently.
They're afraid that if youreally knew, you wouldn't love
them.
But the good news of Scriptureis you see it all, you know it
all and you love them fully, inspite of their sin.
You didn't send your son Jesusbecause they were perfect.

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You sent your son Jesus becausethey were perfect.
You sent your son Jesus becausewe are not.
And in our imperfection, in ourrunning, you still chase after
us.
Father, may we see thecharacteristics of you through
the book of Jonah, that youdesire to chase us down as we
run?
And, god, I pray that we seethe truth of Jesus, that we

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don't have to make things righton our own, we don't have to
throw ourselves into the stormto calm the wind and the waves,
but instead you have thrownyourself upon the ultimate storm
so that the wind and the wavesof sin and death and despair and
loneliness could be silenced inour life.
So, god, I pray that the hiddenareas of our life would be

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uncovered, that we would bringsin to the light, that we'd
bring brokenness to the lightand, as we do, we would allow
ourselves to be found by you andloved by you.
And more than anything, thismorning we just wanna rejoice in
the fact that, no matter whatwe've done or where we've been,
jesus is alive and with us andfor us.

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It's in his name we pray.