May 11, 2025 • 36 mins
Have you ever run away from something? Maybe you're facing a task, a relationship, a nudge from God, or something else that you want nothing to do with. Why would God give you that feeling, and what should you do with it?
Check out Junior's first message from our new series, Jonah.
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He's one of the most scrutinized characters in the
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Old Testament. In fact, criticswill often bring up his name. I
mean, you really believe that aguy was swallowed by a fish and
he lived to write about it. Imean, to be fair, it's the
makings of fables. Like a fishsaves a man by swallowing him
then Ubers him back to land,like that's the stuff you really
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believe. Well, Jesus did. Imean, Jesus talked about Jonah
and the fish, and it may havethe makings of fantasy. His
story may be seen as one. It'smore just reserved for children.
But for the next few weeks,we're gonna find that Jonah's
story goes well beyond a fish.
We're gonna meet a prophet whowas not used to having any sort
of confrontation. We'll followhim through the gates of one of
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the most intimidating citiesthat has ever sat on planet
Earth, and we'll discover somebitterness lodged in his heart.
And throughout the journey,we're gonna find that we all
have a little bit of Jonah inus. It's gonna be great. It's
gonna also hurt, but it's whatwe do around here. Jonah chapter
one, if you're following alongin the Bible, it's in the
chairs. PAGE 774, in thoseBibles. Otherwise, phones,
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tablets, we have the bridge app.
But I really encourage you tograb a Bible, because this is
just what we like to do aroundhere. We like to grab a section
of scripture and then just goright through it, and we're
going to be in this book for thenext few weeks. Here.
It was a it was four years ago,almost of the day, but it was a
day that I won't soon forget. Soour flight was that night, and
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we had a full day to burn. Itwas Jordan, our campus pastor
ranchers, he and I, we spent thewhole day in in Jaffa, and
locals had told us that therewere remnants of a massive like
massive wood dock pillars fromthe time of Jonah that could
still be seen in the water, andwe had a whole day to waste, and
so we walked around the smalldowntown and that's when we ran
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across this little hole in thewall barber shop. Now, we didn't
need a haircut, but we went inand hung out with the barbers.
They were they were fun to hangout with. And I noticed a ladder
going up into the attic, and thelight was on up there. Said,
Well, what's up in the attic?
The barber said, well, oh, mywife, she gives tattoos up in
the attic. I said, Really, youknow, we have like, an hour to
kill. Can she tattoo like rightnow? Now, we were not planning
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on getting tattoos in an atticfrom a stranger, or really
getting tattoos really at all,especially in a non discrete
area. We got our hands tattooed,and it made us really, really
late to our flight. Maybe wedidn't make the brightest of
decisions in Jaffa, but to ourdefense, 3000 years before,
there's a man who made an evenworse decision in this little
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port town of Jaffa, and thecircumstances surrounding that
decision are absolutely worthunpacking, and that's what we're
going to do right now. Let mepray, and we'll jump in, father.
We do. We thank you for thescripture that we hold in our
hands. We thank you for thisstory, this story that has been
preserved for generations upongenerations upon generations, a
story that, in some aspects, isa little bit difficult to
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believe, but it's a story thathits us right between the eyes,
and so Father, may we not spendthis time fighting off any sort
of conviction, but just be opento what you have for us here
today on these pages, we praythis in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well as the lens of Scripturezooms in, we actually find
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ourselves far from that littleport town of Jaffa, actually the
hills near where Jesus will growup. It tucked in the northern
bluffs of Israel. So it's a tinylittle town called Gath hepher.
It's a town that has very littleto offer. There's just not much
to see or do. If it were a towntoday, it might have $1 General
if you're lucky. Historically,it's a no name village made up
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of mainly just poor blue collarfarmers, but today, one man is
putting this little town on themap. He's a prophet, and he's a
rare Prophet in that he has agreat approval rating among his
people. See, most prophets werevery lonely because they would
ruffle feathers. They would saythings that people didn't like.
That was their job. But Jonah,up until this point, mainly had
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positive messages for thepeople. He was well liked. But
with that favorable popularitycan also come this challenge.
See, when people really likeyou, can you risk that? Can you
risk your approval rating anddamage your image? To confront
people, and Jonah is about tostruggle with that tension.
Verse one, it says The Lord gavethis message to Jonah, son of
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Emma Ty he said, Get up, go tothe great city of Nineveh,
announce my judgment against it,because I've seen how wicked his
people are now. Because this issuch a popular kid story, maybe
like gripping church, or maybeyou visited church growing up.
You're like, oh yeah, I think Iremember this story, because we
can kind of think of the storyas a child. We can easily
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oversimplify what's going onhere. Jonah. Spoiler alert,
Jonah, Jonah is about to ditchan assignment, and right away,
we can sit here. We can readthis. We can think like, what my
Sunday School teacher taught mewhen I was little, is like,
naughty, naughty. Do.
Jonah, you should listen to God,you should go to Nineveh. It's
like, well, yes, but let's alsonot make the mistake of thinking
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that if we were in Jonah's shoesor sandals, that we would do any
better. Like, my goodness, welike to whine about being in
Illinois and Chicago. I don'tthink we would do any better
about marching into Nineveh.
There's a lot going on here. Soto Jonah's credit, this right
here. This doesn't make anysense for a couple of reasons.
First off, Jonah. For Jonah,he's a prophet. He's a Jewish
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prophet to Jewish people. He's aJewish man living in a Jewish
town, speaking to Jewish people,but the Jewish God, Yahweh,
that's Jonah's job description,if there was one Nineveh, is not
a Jewish city with Jewish peopleat all, like, by any stretch. So
right on the front end, this isa total job change. You ever had
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that happen?
Like, you got your job andyou've been doing it for months,
or maybe doing it for years, andyou're sitting, you're doing
your job, and then the bosscomes up to you, he's like, Hey,
we're changing, like, everythingup. And then you kind of get
frustrated because, like, wait,what? This is not what I signed
up to do. It's kind of like ifyou were to go to work tomorrow
and your boss were to come intoyour cubicle and say, Hey,
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little job change for you. Okay,you still work for us, but we're
flying you to North Koreatonight, and you're gonna tell
the regime to their face thatthey're really wrong that, I
mean, that's, that's really whatJonah's looking at here. So
we're, I think we can be way tooquick to go like naughty,
naughty Jonah, because we don'tknow much about Nineveh. So
let's get to know Nineveh just alittle bit. Excavations are
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currently being done as wespeak. Nineveh is in northern
current Iraq, and we're findingmore and more about this place,
and it's actually prettyhorrific the more we find out
about Nineveh, here's what itwould have looked like during
the time of Jonah. It had a lotto see. It had world renowned
hanging gardens, it had parks,it even had a zoo. But don't let
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the beauty deceive you, thiscity was brimming with like the
worst kind of sadistic acts.
Even today, Nineveh is known forits creativity in torture. They
were very proud of it, likethroughout Nineveh Palace on the
wall, depictions on the palacewall were of torture that were
plastered there. They hadlibraries of tablets to educate
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you in how to torture. In fact,many of these tablets have
survived today. Their mostcommon form of torture was
flang. That was their favoriteskinning people alive. That was
their favorite torture. But thatwas just the start. Many
depictions speak of takinginnocent people and cutting off
their limbs and gouging out eyesand then allowing them to roam
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the city, just as likebillboards of the brutality for
anyone who dare opposed them.
There were accounts of sewingpeople together for
entertainment. I'm not going togo into the specifics of it,
because I don't want a fullemail inbox tomorrow morning,
but it is said that they devisedways of exploding victims
bladders as part of theirentertainment. So there's
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libraries of ancient manuals onhow to torture people for sport.
That's Nineveh, and it wasn'tjust a torture method. It was
the amount of victims that theywould torture. Nobody was safe.
So let's set aside that wholelike kids led lens that we can
have when we approach this textand really put ourselves into
Jonah sandals here, Nineveh isnot your target audience.
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Nineveh is only the place thatyou've really seen or talked
about in your nightmares. It'san empire that has attacked your
people. Oh, and almost forgot,it's 700 miles away. It's about
two months two two month walk.
So you might want to get startedon that road. Now today, we
complain about traveling today,where we can drive to an
airport, get in this tube jetacross the sky, over oceans, as
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we eat a little biscuit watchingreruns of the office land in
another part of the world. Andyet we still complain the whole
way there. Here's Jonah God'ssaying, hey, I want you to take
a two month walk, basically adeath march, to a bunch of
sadistic monsters and tell themthat they're wrong. Best case
scenario, they're gonna stab youon the spot, and you'll die
quickly. All right, go do thatlike nothing about this
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assignment is appealing. Nothingverse three, but Jonah rose to
flee to Tarshish from thepresence of the Lord. He went
down to Joppa and found a shipgoing to Tarshish. Now, the
location of Tarshish is, likehotly debated, but many scholars
believe that Tarshish was WestSpain. So this is like the
furthest west of the known worldat the time. So God says, Hey,
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go east, young man. Jonah findsthe most West spot on a map and
says, it kind of feeling, thisfeels right, right here. And
knowing Nineveh, I don't know,it's kind of hard to blame him.
It's even harder to blame himwhen we begin to realize, at
some level, you and I are doingthe very same thing as Jonah is
right now. So we'll take a timeout from this narrative for just
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a second. We'll get back to injust a second, but I venture to
say there's a piece of your lifewhere you're playing Jonah like
there's part of your life whereGod has called you to something.
Thing and you don't like thatsomething. God has called you to
step in. God has called you tostep up. God has called you to
stay in that. God has called youto lead out. God has called you
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to be a presence there, tosacrifice there, like there's
something, whether it's big orsmall, God has called you to
that something. And our initialresponse, mine, too, can be
like, well, then I need to getas far away from you. Fill in
the blank. I need to get as faraway from this marriage. I need
to get as far away from thissituation. I need to get as far
away from this city. I need toget as far away as I can from
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this conviction. I need to havethat conversation with that
person, but I'm walking awayfrom it. I need to come clean on
this. I need to apologize. Ineed to lead here. I need to
serve here. I need to sacrificehere. But I'm not going to I'm
getting away from that. I'm notgonna submit. I'm going the
other way. And as I avoid I'mgoing to justify it. I'm gonna
grab my own narrative as I runaway from it.
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So again, it's really easy tolook at Jonah. You're like,
Jonah, what are you doing here?
Well, come on, man, but we dothis all the time.
Where might you be doing? WhatJonah's doing?
Or maybe a better question,what's your Nineveh? What
is your Nineveh? Because God'scalled you to something. What is
it for you? Maybe it's a personthat God put on your heart and
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God's been pushing you to invitethem, or God's been pushing you
to speak life into them or servethem. But they're a headache and
they're really hard to dealwith. Or maybe it's an apology.
Your Nineveh is an apology youneed to make you were wrong. You
didn't handle that right, andyou try to be nice to make up
for it, but at the end of theday, an apology is needed. It's
just kind of your Nineveh thatyou've been running from it.
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Maybe it's somewhere to serve.
Maybe it's getting baptized,like we did last weekend. Maybe
it's a marriage that needsattention, maybe it's an
addiction that needs addressing,maybe it's bitterness that you
just need to release, or it's arelationship that needs to end.
Maybe it's something tosurrender, but you have a
Nineveh, I have a Nineveh,what's your Nineveh?
What do you tend to maybe notphysically run from, but you
just avoidrest of verse three has this
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fascinating idea. Again, I justlike to picture this because
it's a narrative, and so you'relike invited into the narrative
to just imagine what's going onhere. There stands Jonah. He's
on the shores of Joppa or Jaffa.
He's staring at the beautifulMediterranean. Behind him is a
road that leads to Nineveh, buton the docks, sways a boat. This
is an out end of verse three, itsays, so he paid the fare, went
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down into the boat to go withthem to Tarshish away from the
presence of the Lord. Now I findthat that phrase right here is
really interesting. Scripture isclear that God is what we call
omnipresent, a little theologysidebar for a second. But
omnipresent means that God is iseverywhere, that nothing is out
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of his reach. I loved how my mytheology professor when I was in
college, he explained itactually my theology professor
that was a pastor here for awhile. He explained it that when
he was newly married, he he andhis wife, they had this tiny,
tiny, tiny apartment with thistiny, the tiniest kitchen he'd
ever seen. He said we could sitat our table, and as we're
sitting at our table, everythingin the kitchen was, was within
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our reach. So if my wife asked,Could you grab the butter? I
would grab it off the off thecounter. My wife said, Hey,
could you grab a spoon? I wouldopen the drawer and grab, grab a
spoon and give everything waswithin my reach, in in the
kitchen. That's how God is fact.
King David wrote in Psalm 139,man, if I go to the heavens,
you're there. If I make my bedin the depths, you're there. God
doesn't reside in one locationwhere it's like you go to
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church, and that's where Godresides. No, he's everything is
within his reach. He's at yourhome. He's at your office. He's
in traffic off, which is tough.
Sometimes he's omnipresent. He'severywhere, which makes this
phrase right here, really,really intriguing.
Jonah went away from thepresence of the Lord.
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Well, that seems like acontradiction, doesn't it? It's
not something that we have tokeep in mind is Jonah wrote this
account in Hebrew. Hebrew is avery picturesque language. It's
far more picturesque than ourEnglish language. The original
Hebrew here in verse three,paints this image of Jonah
turning his face from God.
It's a bit like,what's the meme say, where it's
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nothing on earth is faster thana child with something in their
mouth after you've asked themwhat's in their mouth? You know,
talking about, like, maybe mykids were the only ones who
would do this, but they'd like,pop a toy in their mouth and be
like, Hey, what did you put inyour mouth? And then they, like,
try to, like, run off. You know,they're like, a year and a half,
all I had to do is, like, extendmy arm and grab them, be like,
what's in your mouth? That's thepicture here that Jonah is, like
this toddler with something intheir mouth, turns his back from
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God Almighty and tries to run.
You can't run from God, butJonah did turn his back from
God.
But here's what I find sofascinating in this verse here,
according to verse three again,which I hope you have in front
of you. Verse three, where isthe presence of the Lord?
Well, it'd be like behindJonah's back, okay, but where
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specifically is the presence?
Now, it's everywhere. But forJonah, what would it be like to
get into the presence of theLord?
Oh, it'd be Nineveh, that's wildto me
in the godless city of Nineveh,what I've missed this before?
What a massive, massive pointhere in Scripture. If Jonah
wants to draw close to God,yeah, God is everywhere. But if
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Jonah wants to draw close toGod, Jonah must go to where God
has called him, the godless cityof Nineveh.
Same might be true with you,and this, though this might not
taste well, this might helpanswer some of your fear, your
spiritual frustration.
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You ever feel spiritual,spiritually frustrated? Just
kind of feel like, Man, I'mlike, out of sync with God, you
know, like just a littledistance. Distant, you know,
like you have your connectionwith God, but I don't know it's
just kind of like, cool. Do youever feel that, just like,
almost like, in a spiritualfunk? It's like, all right,
you're in church, which isgreat. You should be in church,
and you're trying to read yourBible, which is great. And
you're praying when youremember, maybe even, like a
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small group, and you're servingand you're giving and all that's
great. And you love God forsure. You don't like don't doubt
that, but for some reason, youjust kind of feel spiritually
off. You ever feel that? BecauseI can feel that it's like that
spiritual frustration. It couldbe that you're experiencing
Jonah one three here, thatyou're avoiding a situation,
you're avoiding a person, aconversation, a confession, an
apology. God is calling you toit. His presence is there, but
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you've turned your back like alittle toddler with something in
their mouth running away. Theirmouth running away from it. To
draw close to God is to drawclose to that situation. To draw
close to your Nineveh, to drawclose to God practically might
look like drawing close to yourspouse.
To draw close to God mightpractically look like ending
that relationship. To draw closeto God might practically look
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like confessing. To draw closeto God might practically look
like releasing that bitterness.
It looks like going to yourNineveh. And that's like an
incredible thought when youmeditate on that. So you can't,
this is in your notes, you can'tdraw close to God while refusing
is leading.
And maybe that's like, well,obviously, but if we're to be
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honest, I think part of us isthere. God's leading us
somewhere, but we're refusing,and we feel frustrated.
The way I see it, it's like,it's a bit ago, my daughter, who
shall remain, remain nameless,but she's my youngest. She
she needed help with her schoolproject, and since it wasn't
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math, I helped her out. Mydaughter's math teacher asked me
not to help her with herhomework, not because she was
getting things more right wewere cheating, but because I was
making it worse. I guess I wasgetting worse grades than just
her on her own, but English andhistory I can, I can help her
with and so we started thisproject, and I had this like
idea for her, and she wasn'tlistening to anything I had to
say, any sort of likerecommendations I had, she
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wanted nothing to do with it.
She had her way of doing things,and anytime I would like, step
in, she's very resistant or hadexcuses, you know, of why that,
why that wasn't gonna work. Andso after a while, I said, Baby,
I love you. When you wantdaddy's help, turn to me and I
will be there to help. But it'sobvious you really don't want my
guidance on this. Five minuteslater, she's crying. She's like,
Why won't anyone help me? It'slike, Baby, all you had to say
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is, all right, Dad, I'mlistening. I could use your help
here, and I'm there. Like, Whywon't anyone help me? But as
silly as that, as that lookslike, that represents so many of
us that there's this desire inyou for God. I mean, yeah, God
designed you with that desirefor your Creator. And so we feel
this pull to want to be close toGod, but the flesh part of us
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wants things our way. That's whywe hate submission. And so you
and I can go throughout life.
Can go throughout our week aslike the seven year old working
on a school project is like myway, my opinions, my thinking,
my desires, my feelings, and Goddad steps in with some
conviction and says, Hey, that'snot good. You should own up to
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that. Hey, you should have thatconversation. You need to go
back and apologize. You need tostay in that. You need to humble
yourself. You need to submithere. You need to let that go,
but we have all excuses. No,God, that won't work, that won't
work, can't do that. Meanwhile,we're getting more and more
frustrated, and God's God'ssaying, Man, I've taken great
steps toward you, but you keepresisting me every time I'm
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calling you to something. You'reresisting making this marriage
better. You're resistingsubmitting to those people that
I put over you. You're resistingmy conviction to confess and
apologize, and so I'll be righthere. I'll be right here when
you're ready to do this with me.
And I wonder how many of us justlived a week of Jonah one,
three.
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Maybe you'd never outright saythis, but in reality, you've
turned your back on what God iscalling you to. You're avoiding
people, you're avoidingsituations, you're avoiding
responsibilities, you'reavoiding conversations, you're
avoiding attitude change. Andthe scariest part is nothing
will change until we admit thatmany will go decades with their
back on God's calling. I see itall the time. It's Christians
who age badly because they justresist God's leading. And they
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actually kind of.
Get used to resisting God'sleading and resisting God's
conviction, and it scares me,because I could easily find
myself there, maybe none of usin this room. It's an incredible
picture here. It blows my mind.
The presence of God for Jonah,for Jonah to draw close to God
was to go to Nineveh, andit's for us too. Verse four, it
says, But the Lord hurled agreat wind upon the sea, and
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there was a mighty tempest onthe sea, so that the ship
threatened to break up. Sothe storm is building over the
Mediterranean, darkening thewater. The waves become white
capped and grow in size. Thewinds move the dark, shelved
cloud into the boat's path. Thetemperature drops, the winds
pick up, sweeping the mistacross the water. The boat
creaks. The hearts skip a beat.
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I love, I love a good storm.
Last year, I was on a big boat,never been on, like a large
ship, and we were out on thewaters as Hurricane Debbie was
picking up steam, and it wasjust like so fun to watch it
roll in. There was one nightwhere Nicole and I and the
girls, we sat on the deck, andwe're just watching these dark
clouds like dance, almost likedance over the waters, and this
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distant lightning and the wavesbelow growing angry, and the
boat we were around was likemassive, like, these huge
stabilizers below deck, like wewere hardly rocking at all. The
storm was fun because we weretotally safe. But I remember, in
that moment, like I'd said tothe girls, like girls, think
about being Jonah though,imagine we got on a small,
little dinghy out on thosewaters, being tossed like a rag
doll and the dark water beterrifying, but notice a series
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of events here in Scripture,Jonah runs storm brews, and it
gives us point number two, wecreate some storms. We create
some storms. Now, I know, yes, Iknow, I know. I know. Verse four
says, God created the storm.
Absolutely, God created thestorm, of course, but Jonah's
actions triggered it,and so do ours. Sometimes we
create some storms. In fact, youmight be dealing with some
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storms, even today, this lastweek that you had a hand in
makingwe create some storms, not all
storms. Sometimes this broken,sin, stained world will throw us
a tragedy, one that we did notcreate, and we have to navigate
it. But like Jonah here, manystorms in life we create, and it
sucks to own it. But I will saypersonal experience. The people
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I see who are who are healthiestspiritually, they're people who
are very quick to own their partin creating a storm.
I talked to a lady just theother day, and it's feeling for
just like this huge family mess,and it's just awful. And my
heart broke her, and I justthought, Man, I'm I'm so sorry.
And she said something thatreally took me back. She said,
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Yeah, but I created a lot ofthis, like, what? Yeah, I
contributed here and here andhere years ago. And some of this
is consequences of what Icreated. It's not shame. It's
like, Man, she's in a positionto pull through and not create
another storm. It's a veryhealthy way of seeing things.
Now, on the flip side, some ofthose most bitter people I know
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rarely, if ever, consider howthey contributed to creating
their struggles. So a storm willhit in life,
and when a storm hits in life,we must think, did I create any
of this? Sometimes the answeris, No, I didn't. But usually,
if we have the humility, we canfind somewhere we contributed to
this. How I wasn't leading thefamily? Well, we were not poised
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to handle this, or I wasn't wisefinancially, I wasn't caring
about my health. And when we ownthat, then change is possible.
He went in the next in the nextfew verses, verse 12, Jonah owns
the storm. It's like this stormis my fault. And it's verse 12
where the narrative begins tochange in some of our lives, we
need narrative changes becauseyou're struggling. You're
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dealing with these storms,marriage, Storm, financial,
Storm, family, Storm, work,Storm, your attitude is your
casualty. You need thisnarrative change in your life,
and it happens here in verse 12,and Jonah owns up. He doesn't
play the victim, he doesn'tshift any blame. He says, Yeah,
I've been running for myresponsibility here. Now the
storm still rages. Consequencesare still in effect, but the
narrative begins to change. AndI wonder, I just wonder, if you
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are one humble admittance awayfrom really changing the
narrative of your family.
I wonder if you are one humbleadmittance away from really
changing the narrative of yourcareer or your life.
So verse 12, Jonah owns up.
Verse 13 says, Nevertheless, themen rode hard to get back to dry
land, but they could not, forthe sea grew more and more
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temptuous against them.
Therefore they called out to theLord, O Lord, let us not perish
for this man's life and lay noton us innocent blood, for you, O
Lord, have done as it as itpleased you. Verse 15, so they
picked up Jonah, hurled him intothe sea, and the sea, the sea
ceased from its raging. Then themen feared the Lord exceedingly,
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and they offered to sacrificethe Lord made vows. Are you
picturing what's going on here?
I like to picture a few burlysailors pick up a prop, pick up
the Prophet. You know, just likeHe Ho over the rail, the
Prophet's body slaps the waterand the storm begins to calm.
But here's, there's some beautyhere that we can easily miss the
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storm.
Ends up being a blessing, a toolto bring Jonah to a better
place.
And I think we can easily missthe beauty of what's going on
here, because you and I canoften have an off view of God.
Most people tend to view Godthrough the way we see our
earthly dad. So some of us whohad more of like absent dads,
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which is very deep pain. And Ihurt for you if your dad is
absent, very deep pain. Andbecause of that experience with
our earthly Dad, we can kind ofview our heavenly dad as like on
the verge of being absent. So wecan live with this feeling of
like, Man, if I upset god, he'sabout to take off. Because we
kind of experience that with ourearthly dad. So some people
really struggle through that.
Those of us who had more of apassive dad didn't really lead
the home much of the marriage,much, just kind of coward to Mom
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was present, but didn't reallytake the lead much. We then tend
to view God or our HeavenlyFather as being as being one who
exists. But he's not really allthat super active. He's not
super missional or highlyactive. He just kind of bends
and sways, kind of winks atthings, because that was really
more of our earthly dad, thenthose of us who had, like, more
of an authority, authoritariandad, a little bit more cold,
very, very heavy discipline, notso much fun. We tend to view our
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Heavenly Father as like chompingat the bit to punish us and
judge us like he wants to catchus doing something wrong. And so
for many people, their journeyto having a healthier
relationship with God isseparating how they view their
earthly dad versus theirHeavenly Father. And I bring
this up because, if you tend toview God as this, like,
authoritarian, power hungry, youknow, looking to catch us doing
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something wrong, which is a lotof people, then we can read this
part of Jonah, and we see thisstorm is like, God is like,
brewing up the storm, going, ohman, Jonah, I'm coming for you.
I'm gonna squash you like afreaking bug. How dare you run
from me. I'm going to crush you.
And then when Jonah's body hitsthe water, it's like, I was
like, okay, Storm's over.
Gotcha? That's not what's goingon here.
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Yes, this storm is a consequenceof Jonah's sin. But consequence,
consequences aren't God losinghis temper and trying to, like,
get even God is not a toxicfather. Now God likes to use
consequences, which hurt forsure, but God's desire is to use
consequences to turn us back tohim. It's why Hebrews 12 six
says God disciplines those heloves. That there's love is
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linked to discipline. That's abig that's a big deal. It's big
in our families. I'mgonna love your kids. There's
discipline with our kids. Ithink about it in the context
of, this is my dog. Her name'sLuna. She's a mutt, and she's a
rescue. She's She's a great dog.
We love her. She's very goodwith the kids, and she's my wife
running partner, and her littlebed is like next to my
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nightstand. And she loves ourfamily, and we love her, but
she's been disciplined,especially in those those early
days, she was like, she's arescue. And so there's some
early moments where I had toremind her, like, you're not the
alpha. And she'd like, guard herfood and growl anytime anybody
would walk by. And so I take itaway, don't know, like, then
it's my food. I'd, you know,wrestle it away from her. I'd
put her on her back and show herthat, no, we're stronger. Didn't
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hurt her, but it's justdiscipline. Now today, years
later, she enjoys our home. Sheenjoys the kids. She sleeps by
me. If there's a storm, she'lllike, jump up into bed and curl
up next to me like we're hersafety. She's a happy, loved dog
because of the healthydiscipline that steered her to
have behavior that positionedher to enjoy the home that we
created. Now, had I notdisciplined her, either we
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couldn't have kept her or she'dbe miserable, snapping and
growling all the time, seeing usas her competition.
It's the same with us and God.
This is why God disciplines Thisisn't this storm is not like God
flying off the handle like, No,I'm gonna drown you, you
disobedient prophet. No, God issteering Jonah to a healthier
direction. It hurts, but there'sa reason for it, and I wonder if
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God might be doing the same inyour life.
It's why consequences can besort of last notes. Consequences
can be valuable, pending ourresponse to them. Consequences
can be very precious.
See, it's this very moment asJonah gasps for air, tasting the
salt of the water, fighting tokeep his head above each wave.
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It's this very terrifying,painful moment that is so
pivotal in his life. The rest ofJonah's life will be, will be
determined by his response tothis. He's now treading water,
sucking in Mediterranean water,but more than that, as Jonah's
body hits the water, he's atthis fork in the road. It's a
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fork that you and I often findourselves at when we face a
storm. Every single time youface a storm, whether it's a
bump in your marriage or somedifficulty at work, financial
strength, any time you face astorm in life, you're really
faced with a fork in the road,the four kids. How am I going to
handle this storm? How am Igoing to handle this pain?
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Because it's either bitternessand anger or surrender
and don't. Don't be too quick toanswer this, because most people
go the bitterness route.
Most people go the anger route.
Of I'm going to pack it away.
I'm.
It, and then it hollows you out.
This is why some people struggleto worship. This is why some
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people struggle to feel empathy.
They've just been hollowed outby bitterness and anger because
they packed it away.
And Jonah could have done thathere. I
would have understood it's like,come on, God. I serve you
faithfully. I'm your prophet. Iworship you. I devoted my life
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to you. Then you decide to sendme on this death mission, and
then you wreck my boat.
I'm bitter, angry. I've beenunderstandable. This is many,
many, many professingChristians, and I would venture
to say at somewhere in yourlife, this is you. You went the
bitterness route. You choseanger,
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not like intentionally, but youjust did. You became bitter. And
then when God blesses otherpeople, it kind of bothers you,
because they got blessing, and Igot a storm.
And so what happens is there's aspiritual chip on your shoulder
and the circumstances that Godwants to use to bring you closer
to him, some of that pain youused it to push him away. It's
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what Scripture calls a stiffneck.
It's most people. It's like westiffen. It's a defense
mechanism. It's like somethingbad happens. I'm going to
stiffen because I don't want tofeel this pain, so I'm gonna
stiffen, but when we stiffen tonot feel pain, we don't feel
anything, we don't feelexcitement, we don't feel
empathy, we just becomedesensitized.
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Holistically. That's why manyprofessing Christians haven't
grown in decades.
Been church, maybe everyweekend, but they just they look
the same as they did 10 yearsago. Spiritually, they've just
stiffened. And if you were todig deep into their life, you'd
find that there's some angerburied in their past from a
situation that they didn'tsurrender. They just stiffened.
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But as we'll see with Jonah nextweek, the few who walk through
that storm and surrender, it'sin that surrender that they're
able to open up their hands towhat God has for him in that.
And so the big question is,where are you at?
Like you have a Nineveh, andif the Holy Spirit convicts you,
like the Holy Spirit convictsme, something came to mind, that
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Nineveh came to mind somewhere,someone, something, that God's
calling you to and maybe he'sbeen calling you to that for
years, but you've been avoidingit because it's humbling, it's
hard, it doesn't seem fair.
Somebody else should be doingthat. Somebody else should take
that responsibility. But deepdown, you know, God, put it on
my plate. It's a person to love.
It's a job to do. It's aconfession to make, it's a place
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to serve. It's a situation whereI need to submit.
What's your response going tobe? Because it's either
surrenderand go to Nineveh or it's I'm
going to avoid and the onlyother way is bitterness and
anger.
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What hasyour response, Ben, have
you found yourself walking downthat road of anger, bitterness,
desensitized, stiffened my neckproof is in the pudding. It's
like, No, my marriage hasn'tgotten any better. My heart
hasn't gotten any better overthe years, my work hasn't gotten
any better over the years, myrelationship hasn't gotten any
that. Nineveh hasn't gotten anybetter over the years, proof is
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in the pudding because I'vestiffened up and I've avoided
it, or have you surrenderedGod? You know, I don't love
this, you know, I'd rather notgo here, but it's what you're
calling me to. It's where youare. And since it's where you
are, it's where I want to be.
Your will be done.
Where are you atwhen it comes to this really
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leads us to our So whatquestions, question we ask
every, every time we get intoGod's word. Okay, so what? It's
a fun narrative, and we're gonnahave even more fun with this
narrative in the coming weeks. Alot of fun. But this also has to
change our own week. And so, sowhat? How's this gonna change
your week? I got a bonus. Sowhat question two this week?
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First off, it's a question we'vealready asked, What is your
Nineveh? And I'm sure somethingalready came to mind, but what
is it? And maybe you've beenfighting it off, but what's your
Nineveh?
It's a person, it's a place,it's an action.
What's been what's God beencalling you to that you've been
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avoiding.
The second question is, what'sit gonna look like to take a
step toward your Nineveh, thisweek?
What's that step this week?
Tomorrow, tonight? Really looklike maybe it's starting that
conversation. And you know, it'sgonna be a series of
conversations, but it's gonnastart tonight. I'm gonna take a
step tonight. Maybe it's I needto get into counseling. We need
to get this marriage intocounseling. Maybe it's
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confession. I need to go andconfess. Maybe it's an apology
that you've been withholding.
What does it really look like totake a step toward your Nineveh,
Father, we thank You forthis text and.
We thank you forI just thank You that Scripture
doesn't Candy Coat everything,because it's
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it's so easy to see ourselveshere in Jonah and
Father, as we come before you,just in this time of reflection
as we sit before you and reflecton your word and reflect on your
conviction. God, I ask that youcontinue to speak to us. You so
just take this time before God.
What'sthat next step toward your
Nineveh, look like this week.
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Maybe make some confessions andsome commitment. I'll close this
out in prayer. In just a second,Father, we thank you that
because of Jesus, you offer usforgiveness that you are ready
to meet us with grace and mercy,just like as we'll see next
week, that you met with Jonah,Father, we may we exercise just
our faith in you and ourthankfulness for the cross and
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the empty tomb By constantlyliving open to you, walking
toward the places toward thatwhich you've called us to.
We pray this in Jesus name Amen.
You.
He's one of the most scrutinized characters in the
(00:02):
Old Testament. In fact, criticswill often bring up his name. I
mean, you really believe that aguy was swallowed by a fish and
he lived to write about it. Imean, to be fair, it's the
makings of fables. Like a fishsaves a man by swallowing him
then Ubers him back to land,like that's the stuff you really
(00:22):
believe. Well, Jesus did. Imean, Jesus talked about Jonah
and the fish, and it may havethe makings of fantasy. His
story may be seen as one. It'smore just reserved for children.
But for the next few weeks,we're gonna find that Jonah's
story goes well beyond a fish.
We're gonna meet a prophet whowas not used to having any sort
of confrontation. We'll followhim through the gates of one of
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the most intimidating citiesthat has ever sat on planet
Earth, and we'll discover somebitterness lodged in his heart.
And throughout the journey,we're gonna find that we all
have a little bit of Jonah inus. It's gonna be great. It's
gonna also hurt, but it's whatwe do around here. Jonah chapter
one, if you're following alongin the Bible, it's in the
chairs. PAGE 774, in thoseBibles. Otherwise, phones,
(01:03):
tablets, we have the bridge app.
But I really encourage you tograb a Bible, because this is
just what we like to do aroundhere. We like to grab a section
of scripture and then just goright through it, and we're
going to be in this book for thenext few weeks. Here.
It was a it was four years ago,almost of the day, but it was a
day that I won't soon forget. Soour flight was that night, and
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we had a full day to burn. Itwas Jordan, our campus pastor
ranchers, he and I, we spent thewhole day in in Jaffa, and
locals had told us that therewere remnants of a massive like
massive wood dock pillars fromthe time of Jonah that could
still be seen in the water, andwe had a whole day to waste, and
so we walked around the smalldowntown and that's when we ran
(01:48):
across this little hole in thewall barber shop. Now, we didn't
need a haircut, but we went inand hung out with the barbers.
They were they were fun to hangout with. And I noticed a ladder
going up into the attic, and thelight was on up there. Said,
Well, what's up in the attic?
The barber said, well, oh, mywife, she gives tattoos up in
the attic. I said, Really, youknow, we have like, an hour to
kill. Can she tattoo like rightnow? Now, we were not planning
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on getting tattoos in an atticfrom a stranger, or really
getting tattoos really at all,especially in a non discrete
area. We got our hands tattooed,and it made us really, really
late to our flight. Maybe wedidn't make the brightest of
decisions in Jaffa, but to ourdefense, 3000 years before,
there's a man who made an evenworse decision in this little
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port town of Jaffa, and thecircumstances surrounding that
decision are absolutely worthunpacking, and that's what we're
going to do right now. Let mepray, and we'll jump in, father.
We do. We thank you for thescripture that we hold in our
hands. We thank you for thisstory, this story that has been
preserved for generations upongenerations upon generations, a
story that, in some aspects, isa little bit difficult to
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believe, but it's a story thathits us right between the eyes,
and so Father, may we not spendthis time fighting off any sort
of conviction, but just be opento what you have for us here
today on these pages, we praythis in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well as the lens of Scripturezooms in, we actually find
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ourselves far from that littleport town of Jaffa, actually the
hills near where Jesus will growup. It tucked in the northern
bluffs of Israel. So it's a tinylittle town called Gath hepher.
It's a town that has very littleto offer. There's just not much
to see or do. If it were a towntoday, it might have $1 General
if you're lucky. Historically,it's a no name village made up
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of mainly just poor blue collarfarmers, but today, one man is
putting this little town on themap. He's a prophet, and he's a
rare Prophet in that he has agreat approval rating among his
people. See, most prophets werevery lonely because they would
ruffle feathers. They would saythings that people didn't like.
That was their job. But Jonah,up until this point, mainly had
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positive messages for thepeople. He was well liked. But
with that favorable popularitycan also come this challenge.
See, when people really likeyou, can you risk that? Can you
risk your approval rating anddamage your image? To confront
people, and Jonah is about tostruggle with that tension.
Verse one, it says The Lord gavethis message to Jonah, son of
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Emma Ty he said, Get up, go tothe great city of Nineveh,
announce my judgment against it,because I've seen how wicked his
people are now. Because this issuch a popular kid story, maybe
like gripping church, or maybeyou visited church growing up.
You're like, oh yeah, I think Iremember this story, because we
can kind of think of the storyas a child. We can easily
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oversimplify what's going onhere. Jonah. Spoiler alert,
Jonah, Jonah is about to ditchan assignment, and right away,
we can sit here. We can readthis. We can think like, what my
Sunday School teacher taught mewhen I was little, is like,
naughty, naughty. Do.
Jonah, you should listen to God,you should go to Nineveh. It's
like, well, yes, but let's alsonot make the mistake of thinking
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that if we were in Jonah's shoesor sandals, that we would do any
better. Like, my goodness, welike to whine about being in
Illinois and Chicago. I don'tthink we would do any better
about marching into Nineveh.
There's a lot going on here. Soto Jonah's credit, this right
here. This doesn't make anysense for a couple of reasons.
First off, Jonah. For Jonah,he's a prophet. He's a Jewish
(05:28):
prophet to Jewish people. He's aJewish man living in a Jewish
town, speaking to Jewish people,but the Jewish God, Yahweh,
that's Jonah's job description,if there was one Nineveh, is not
a Jewish city with Jewish peopleat all, like, by any stretch. So
right on the front end, this isa total job change. You ever had
(05:50):
that happen?
Like, you got your job andyou've been doing it for months,
or maybe doing it for years, andyou're sitting, you're doing
your job, and then the bosscomes up to you, he's like, Hey,
we're changing, like, everythingup. And then you kind of get
frustrated because, like, wait,what? This is not what I signed
up to do. It's kind of like ifyou were to go to work tomorrow
and your boss were to come intoyour cubicle and say, Hey,
(06:13):
little job change for you. Okay,you still work for us, but we're
flying you to North Koreatonight, and you're gonna tell
the regime to their face thatthey're really wrong that, I
mean, that's, that's really whatJonah's looking at here. So
we're, I think we can be way tooquick to go like naughty,
naughty Jonah, because we don'tknow much about Nineveh. So
let's get to know Nineveh just alittle bit. Excavations are
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currently being done as wespeak. Nineveh is in northern
current Iraq, and we're findingmore and more about this place,
and it's actually prettyhorrific the more we find out
about Nineveh, here's what itwould have looked like during
the time of Jonah. It had a lotto see. It had world renowned
hanging gardens, it had parks,it even had a zoo. But don't let
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the beauty deceive you, thiscity was brimming with like the
worst kind of sadistic acts.
Even today, Nineveh is known forits creativity in torture. They
were very proud of it, likethroughout Nineveh Palace on the
wall, depictions on the palacewall were of torture that were
plastered there. They hadlibraries of tablets to educate
(07:18):
you in how to torture. In fact,many of these tablets have
survived today. Their mostcommon form of torture was
flang. That was their favoriteskinning people alive. That was
their favorite torture. But thatwas just the start. Many
depictions speak of takinginnocent people and cutting off
their limbs and gouging out eyesand then allowing them to roam
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the city, just as likebillboards of the brutality for
anyone who dare opposed them.
There were accounts of sewingpeople together for
entertainment. I'm not going togo into the specifics of it,
because I don't want a fullemail inbox tomorrow morning,
but it is said that they devisedways of exploding victims
bladders as part of theirentertainment. So there's
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libraries of ancient manuals onhow to torture people for sport.
That's Nineveh, and it wasn'tjust a torture method. It was
the amount of victims that theywould torture. Nobody was safe.
So let's set aside that wholelike kids led lens that we can
have when we approach this textand really put ourselves into
Jonah sandals here, Nineveh isnot your target audience.
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Nineveh is only the place thatyou've really seen or talked
about in your nightmares. It'san empire that has attacked your
people. Oh, and almost forgot,it's 700 miles away. It's about
two months two two month walk.
So you might want to get startedon that road. Now today, we
complain about traveling today,where we can drive to an
airport, get in this tube jetacross the sky, over oceans, as
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we eat a little biscuit watchingreruns of the office land in
another part of the world. Andyet we still complain the whole
way there. Here's Jonah God'ssaying, hey, I want you to take
a two month walk, basically adeath march, to a bunch of
sadistic monsters and tell themthat they're wrong. Best case
scenario, they're gonna stab youon the spot, and you'll die
quickly. All right, go do thatlike nothing about this
(09:04):
assignment is appealing. Nothingverse three, but Jonah rose to
flee to Tarshish from thepresence of the Lord. He went
down to Joppa and found a shipgoing to Tarshish. Now, the
location of Tarshish is, likehotly debated, but many scholars
believe that Tarshish was WestSpain. So this is like the
furthest west of the known worldat the time. So God says, Hey,
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go east, young man. Jonah findsthe most West spot on a map and
says, it kind of feeling, thisfeels right, right here. And
knowing Nineveh, I don't know,it's kind of hard to blame him.
It's even harder to blame himwhen we begin to realize, at
some level, you and I are doingthe very same thing as Jonah is
right now. So we'll take a timeout from this narrative for just
(09:46):
a second. We'll get back to injust a second, but I venture to
say there's a piece of your lifewhere you're playing Jonah like
there's part of your life whereGod has called you to something.
Thing and you don't like thatsomething. God has called you to
step in. God has called you tostep up. God has called you to
stay in that. God has called youto lead out. God has called you
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to be a presence there, tosacrifice there, like there's
something, whether it's big orsmall, God has called you to
that something. And our initialresponse, mine, too, can be
like, well, then I need to getas far away from you. Fill in
the blank. I need to get as faraway from this marriage. I need
to get as far away from thissituation. I need to get as far
away from this city. I need toget as far away as I can from
(10:31):
this conviction. I need to havethat conversation with that
person, but I'm walking awayfrom it. I need to come clean on
this. I need to apologize. Ineed to lead here. I need to
serve here. I need to sacrificehere. But I'm not going to I'm
getting away from that. I'm notgonna submit. I'm going the
other way. And as I avoid I'mgoing to justify it. I'm gonna
grab my own narrative as I runaway from it.
(10:55):
So again, it's really easy tolook at Jonah. You're like,
Jonah, what are you doing here?
Well, come on, man, but we dothis all the time.
Where might you be doing? WhatJonah's doing?
Or maybe a better question,what's your Nineveh? What
is your Nineveh? Because God'scalled you to something. What is
it for you? Maybe it's a personthat God put on your heart and
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God's been pushing you to invitethem, or God's been pushing you
to speak life into them or servethem. But they're a headache and
they're really hard to dealwith. Or maybe it's an apology.
Your Nineveh is an apology youneed to make you were wrong. You
didn't handle that right, andyou try to be nice to make up
for it, but at the end of theday, an apology is needed. It's
just kind of your Nineveh thatyou've been running from it.
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Maybe it's somewhere to serve.
Maybe it's getting baptized,like we did last weekend. Maybe
it's a marriage that needsattention, maybe it's an
addiction that needs addressing,maybe it's bitterness that you
just need to release, or it's arelationship that needs to end.
Maybe it's something tosurrender, but you have a
Nineveh, I have a Nineveh,what's your Nineveh?
What do you tend to maybe notphysically run from, but you
just avoidrest of verse three has this
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fascinating idea. Again, I justlike to picture this because
it's a narrative, and so you'relike invited into the narrative
to just imagine what's going onhere. There stands Jonah. He's
on the shores of Joppa or Jaffa.
He's staring at the beautifulMediterranean. Behind him is a
road that leads to Nineveh, buton the docks, sways a boat. This
is an out end of verse three, itsays, so he paid the fare, went
(12:23):
down into the boat to go withthem to Tarshish away from the
presence of the Lord. Now I findthat that phrase right here is
really interesting. Scripture isclear that God is what we call
omnipresent, a little theologysidebar for a second. But
omnipresent means that God is iseverywhere, that nothing is out
(12:44):
of his reach. I loved how my mytheology professor when I was in
college, he explained itactually my theology professor
that was a pastor here for awhile. He explained it that when
he was newly married, he he andhis wife, they had this tiny,
tiny, tiny apartment with thistiny, the tiniest kitchen he'd
ever seen. He said we could sitat our table, and as we're
sitting at our table, everythingin the kitchen was, was within
(13:04):
our reach. So if my wife asked,Could you grab the butter? I
would grab it off the off thecounter. My wife said, Hey,
could you grab a spoon? I wouldopen the drawer and grab, grab a
spoon and give everything waswithin my reach, in in the
kitchen. That's how God is fact.
King David wrote in Psalm 139,man, if I go to the heavens,
you're there. If I make my bedin the depths, you're there. God
doesn't reside in one locationwhere it's like you go to
(13:25):
church, and that's where Godresides. No, he's everything is
within his reach. He's at yourhome. He's at your office. He's
in traffic off, which is tough.
Sometimes he's omnipresent. He'severywhere, which makes this
phrase right here, really,really intriguing.
Jonah went away from thepresence of the Lord.
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Well, that seems like acontradiction, doesn't it? It's
not something that we have tokeep in mind is Jonah wrote this
account in Hebrew. Hebrew is avery picturesque language. It's
far more picturesque than ourEnglish language. The original
Hebrew here in verse three,paints this image of Jonah
turning his face from God.
It's a bit like,what's the meme say, where it's
(14:08):
nothing on earth is faster thana child with something in their
mouth after you've asked themwhat's in their mouth? You know,
talking about, like, maybe mykids were the only ones who
would do this, but they'd like,pop a toy in their mouth and be
like, Hey, what did you put inyour mouth? And then they, like,
try to, like, run off. You know,they're like, a year and a half,
all I had to do is, like, extendmy arm and grab them, be like,
what's in your mouth? That's thepicture here that Jonah is, like
this toddler with something intheir mouth, turns his back from
(14:30):
God Almighty and tries to run.
You can't run from God, butJonah did turn his back from
God.
But here's what I find sofascinating in this verse here,
according to verse three again,which I hope you have in front
of you. Verse three, where isthe presence of the Lord?
Well, it'd be like behindJonah's back, okay, but where
(14:53):
specifically is the presence?
Now, it's everywhere. But forJonah, what would it be like to
get into the presence of theLord?
Oh, it'd be Nineveh, that's wildto me
in the godless city of Nineveh,what I've missed this before?
What a massive, massive pointhere in Scripture. If Jonah
wants to draw close to God,yeah, God is everywhere. But if
(15:15):
Jonah wants to draw close toGod, Jonah must go to where God
has called him, the godless cityof Nineveh.
Same might be true with you,and this, though this might not
taste well, this might helpanswer some of your fear, your
spiritual frustration.
(15:36):
You ever feel spiritual,spiritually frustrated? Just
kind of feel like, Man, I'mlike, out of sync with God, you
know, like just a littledistance. Distant, you know,
like you have your connectionwith God, but I don't know it's
just kind of like, cool. Do youever feel that, just like,
almost like, in a spiritualfunk? It's like, all right,
you're in church, which isgreat. You should be in church,
and you're trying to read yourBible, which is great. And
you're praying when youremember, maybe even, like a
(15:56):
small group, and you're servingand you're giving and all that's
great. And you love God forsure. You don't like don't doubt
that, but for some reason, youjust kind of feel spiritually
off. You ever feel that? BecauseI can feel that it's like that
spiritual frustration. It couldbe that you're experiencing
Jonah one three here, thatyou're avoiding a situation,
you're avoiding a person, aconversation, a confession, an
apology. God is calling you toit. His presence is there, but
(16:19):
you've turned your back like alittle toddler with something in
their mouth running away. Theirmouth running away from it. To
draw close to God is to drawclose to that situation. To draw
close to your Nineveh, to drawclose to God practically might
look like drawing close to yourspouse.
To draw close to God mightpractically look like ending
that relationship. To draw closeto God might practically look
(16:42):
like confessing. To draw closeto God might practically look
like releasing that bitterness.
It looks like going to yourNineveh. And that's like an
incredible thought when youmeditate on that. So you can't,
this is in your notes, you can'tdraw close to God while refusing
is leading.
And maybe that's like, well,obviously, but if we're to be
(17:03):
honest, I think part of us isthere. God's leading us
somewhere, but we're refusing,and we feel frustrated.
The way I see it, it's like,it's a bit ago, my daughter, who
shall remain, remain nameless,but she's my youngest. She
she needed help with her schoolproject, and since it wasn't
(17:24):
math, I helped her out. Mydaughter's math teacher asked me
not to help her with herhomework, not because she was
getting things more right wewere cheating, but because I was
making it worse. I guess I wasgetting worse grades than just
her on her own, but English andhistory I can, I can help her
with and so we started thisproject, and I had this like
idea for her, and she wasn'tlistening to anything I had to
say, any sort of likerecommendations I had, she
(17:45):
wanted nothing to do with it.
She had her way of doing things,and anytime I would like, step
in, she's very resistant or hadexcuses, you know, of why that,
why that wasn't gonna work. Andso after a while, I said, Baby,
I love you. When you wantdaddy's help, turn to me and I
will be there to help. But it'sobvious you really don't want my
guidance on this. Five minuteslater, she's crying. She's like,
Why won't anyone help me? It'slike, Baby, all you had to say
(18:07):
is, all right, Dad, I'mlistening. I could use your help
here, and I'm there. Like, Whywon't anyone help me? But as
silly as that, as that lookslike, that represents so many of
us that there's this desire inyou for God. I mean, yeah, God
designed you with that desirefor your Creator. And so we feel
this pull to want to be close toGod, but the flesh part of us
(18:29):
wants things our way. That's whywe hate submission. And so you
and I can go throughout life.
Can go throughout our week aslike the seven year old working
on a school project is like myway, my opinions, my thinking,
my desires, my feelings, and Goddad steps in with some
conviction and says, Hey, that'snot good. You should own up to
(18:51):
that. Hey, you should have thatconversation. You need to go
back and apologize. You need tostay in that. You need to humble
yourself. You need to submithere. You need to let that go,
but we have all excuses. No,God, that won't work, that won't
work, can't do that. Meanwhile,we're getting more and more
frustrated, and God's God'ssaying, Man, I've taken great
steps toward you, but you keepresisting me every time I'm
(19:14):
calling you to something. You'reresisting making this marriage
better. You're resistingsubmitting to those people that
I put over you. You're resistingmy conviction to confess and
apologize, and so I'll be righthere. I'll be right here when
you're ready to do this with me.
And I wonder how many of us justlived a week of Jonah one,
three.
(19:34):
Maybe you'd never outright saythis, but in reality, you've
turned your back on what God iscalling you to. You're avoiding
people, you're avoidingsituations, you're avoiding
responsibilities, you'reavoiding conversations, you're
avoiding attitude change. Andthe scariest part is nothing
will change until we admit thatmany will go decades with their
back on God's calling. I see itall the time. It's Christians
who age badly because they justresist God's leading. And they
(19:57):
actually kind of.
Get used to resisting God'sleading and resisting God's
conviction, and it scares me,because I could easily find
myself there, maybe none of usin this room. It's an incredible
picture here. It blows my mind.
The presence of God for Jonah,for Jonah to draw close to God
was to go to Nineveh, andit's for us too. Verse four, it
says, But the Lord hurled agreat wind upon the sea, and
(20:20):
there was a mighty tempest onthe sea, so that the ship
threatened to break up. Sothe storm is building over the
Mediterranean, darkening thewater. The waves become white
capped and grow in size. Thewinds move the dark, shelved
cloud into the boat's path. Thetemperature drops, the winds
pick up, sweeping the mistacross the water. The boat
creaks. The hearts skip a beat.
(20:42):
I love, I love a good storm.
Last year, I was on a big boat,never been on, like a large
ship, and we were out on thewaters as Hurricane Debbie was
picking up steam, and it wasjust like so fun to watch it
roll in. There was one nightwhere Nicole and I and the
girls, we sat on the deck, andwe're just watching these dark
clouds like dance, almost likedance over the waters, and this
(21:03):
distant lightning and the wavesbelow growing angry, and the
boat we were around was likemassive, like, these huge
stabilizers below deck, like wewere hardly rocking at all. The
storm was fun because we weretotally safe. But I remember, in
that moment, like I'd said tothe girls, like girls, think
about being Jonah though,imagine we got on a small,
little dinghy out on thosewaters, being tossed like a rag
doll and the dark water beterrifying, but notice a series
(21:24):
of events here in Scripture,Jonah runs storm brews, and it
gives us point number two, wecreate some storms. We create
some storms. Now, I know, yes, Iknow, I know. I know. Verse four
says, God created the storm.
Absolutely, God created thestorm, of course, but Jonah's
actions triggered it,and so do ours. Sometimes we
create some storms. In fact, youmight be dealing with some
(21:46):
storms, even today, this lastweek that you had a hand in
makingwe create some storms, not all
storms. Sometimes this broken,sin, stained world will throw us
a tragedy, one that we did notcreate, and we have to navigate
it. But like Jonah here, manystorms in life we create, and it
sucks to own it. But I will saypersonal experience. The people
(22:07):
I see who are who are healthiestspiritually, they're people who
are very quick to own their partin creating a storm.
I talked to a lady just theother day, and it's feeling for
just like this huge family mess,and it's just awful. And my
heart broke her, and I justthought, Man, I'm I'm so sorry.
And she said something thatreally took me back. She said,
(22:29):
Yeah, but I created a lot ofthis, like, what? Yeah, I
contributed here and here andhere years ago. And some of this
is consequences of what Icreated. It's not shame. It's
like, Man, she's in a positionto pull through and not create
another storm. It's a veryhealthy way of seeing things.
Now, on the flip side, some ofthose most bitter people I know
(22:50):
rarely, if ever, consider howthey contributed to creating
their struggles. So a storm willhit in life,
and when a storm hits in life,we must think, did I create any
of this? Sometimes the answeris, No, I didn't. But usually,
if we have the humility, we canfind somewhere we contributed to
this. How I wasn't leading thefamily? Well, we were not poised
(23:11):
to handle this, or I wasn't wisefinancially, I wasn't caring
about my health. And when we ownthat, then change is possible.
He went in the next in the nextfew verses, verse 12, Jonah owns
the storm. It's like this stormis my fault. And it's verse 12
where the narrative begins tochange in some of our lives, we
need narrative changes becauseyou're struggling. You're
(23:33):
dealing with these storms,marriage, Storm, financial,
Storm, family, Storm, work,Storm, your attitude is your
casualty. You need thisnarrative change in your life,
and it happens here in verse 12,and Jonah owns up. He doesn't
play the victim, he doesn'tshift any blame. He says, Yeah,
I've been running for myresponsibility here. Now the
storm still rages. Consequencesare still in effect, but the
narrative begins to change. AndI wonder, I just wonder, if you
(23:55):
are one humble admittance awayfrom really changing the
narrative of your family.
I wonder if you are one humbleadmittance away from really
changing the narrative of yourcareer or your life.
So verse 12, Jonah owns up.
Verse 13 says, Nevertheless, themen rode hard to get back to dry
land, but they could not, forthe sea grew more and more
(24:17):
temptuous against them.
Therefore they called out to theLord, O Lord, let us not perish
for this man's life and lay noton us innocent blood, for you, O
Lord, have done as it as itpleased you. Verse 15, so they
picked up Jonah, hurled him intothe sea, and the sea, the sea
ceased from its raging. Then themen feared the Lord exceedingly,
(24:39):
and they offered to sacrificethe Lord made vows. Are you
picturing what's going on here?
I like to picture a few burlysailors pick up a prop, pick up
the Prophet. You know, just likeHe Ho over the rail, the
Prophet's body slaps the waterand the storm begins to calm.
But here's, there's some beautyhere that we can easily miss the
(24:59):
storm.
Ends up being a blessing, a toolto bring Jonah to a better
place.
And I think we can easily missthe beauty of what's going on
here, because you and I canoften have an off view of God.
Most people tend to view Godthrough the way we see our
earthly dad. So some of us whohad more of like absent dads,
(25:19):
which is very deep pain. And Ihurt for you if your dad is
absent, very deep pain. Andbecause of that experience with
our earthly Dad, we can kind ofview our heavenly dad as like on
the verge of being absent. So wecan live with this feeling of
like, Man, if I upset god, he'sabout to take off. Because we
kind of experience that with ourearthly dad. So some people
really struggle through that.
Those of us who had more of apassive dad didn't really lead
the home much of the marriage,much, just kind of coward to Mom
(25:42):
was present, but didn't reallytake the lead much. We then tend
to view God or our HeavenlyFather as being as being one who
exists. But he's not really allthat super active. He's not
super missional or highlyactive. He just kind of bends
and sways, kind of winks atthings, because that was really
more of our earthly dad, thenthose of us who had, like, more
of an authority, authoritariandad, a little bit more cold,
very, very heavy discipline, notso much fun. We tend to view our
(26:04):
Heavenly Father as like chompingat the bit to punish us and
judge us like he wants to catchus doing something wrong. And so
for many people, their journeyto having a healthier
relationship with God isseparating how they view their
earthly dad versus theirHeavenly Father. And I bring
this up because, if you tend toview God as this, like,
authoritarian, power hungry, youknow, looking to catch us doing
(26:28):
something wrong, which is a lotof people, then we can read this
part of Jonah, and we see thisstorm is like, God is like,
brewing up the storm, going, ohman, Jonah, I'm coming for you.
I'm gonna squash you like afreaking bug. How dare you run
from me. I'm going to crush you.
And then when Jonah's body hitsthe water, it's like, I was
like, okay, Storm's over.
Gotcha? That's not what's goingon here.
(26:51):
Yes, this storm is a consequenceof Jonah's sin. But consequence,
consequences aren't God losinghis temper and trying to, like,
get even God is not a toxicfather. Now God likes to use
consequences, which hurt forsure, but God's desire is to use
consequences to turn us back tohim. It's why Hebrews 12 six
says God disciplines those heloves. That there's love is
(27:13):
linked to discipline. That's abig that's a big deal. It's big
in our families. I'mgonna love your kids. There's
discipline with our kids. Ithink about it in the context
of, this is my dog. Her name'sLuna. She's a mutt, and she's a
rescue. She's She's a great dog.
We love her. She's very goodwith the kids, and she's my wife
running partner, and her littlebed is like next to my
(27:34):
nightstand. And she loves ourfamily, and we love her, but
she's been disciplined,especially in those those early
days, she was like, she's arescue. And so there's some
early moments where I had toremind her, like, you're not the
alpha. And she'd like, guard herfood and growl anytime anybody
would walk by. And so I take itaway, don't know, like, then
it's my food. I'd, you know,wrestle it away from her. I'd
put her on her back and show herthat, no, we're stronger. Didn't
(27:55):
hurt her, but it's justdiscipline. Now today, years
later, she enjoys our home. Sheenjoys the kids. She sleeps by
me. If there's a storm, she'lllike, jump up into bed and curl
up next to me like we're hersafety. She's a happy, loved dog
because of the healthydiscipline that steered her to
have behavior that positionedher to enjoy the home that we
created. Now, had I notdisciplined her, either we
(28:17):
couldn't have kept her or she'dbe miserable, snapping and
growling all the time, seeing usas her competition.
It's the same with us and God.
This is why God disciplines Thisisn't this storm is not like God
flying off the handle like, No,I'm gonna drown you, you
disobedient prophet. No, God issteering Jonah to a healthier
direction. It hurts, but there'sa reason for it, and I wonder if
(28:38):
God might be doing the same inyour life.
It's why consequences can besort of last notes. Consequences
can be valuable, pending ourresponse to them. Consequences
can be very precious.
See, it's this very moment asJonah gasps for air, tasting the
salt of the water, fighting tokeep his head above each wave.
(29:00):
It's this very terrifying,painful moment that is so
pivotal in his life. The rest ofJonah's life will be, will be
determined by his response tothis. He's now treading water,
sucking in Mediterranean water,but more than that, as Jonah's
body hits the water, he's atthis fork in the road. It's a
(29:21):
fork that you and I often findourselves at when we face a
storm. Every single time youface a storm, whether it's a
bump in your marriage or somedifficulty at work, financial
strength, any time you face astorm in life, you're really
faced with a fork in the road,the four kids. How am I going to
handle this storm? How am Igoing to handle this pain?
(29:43):
Because it's either bitternessand anger or surrender
and don't. Don't be too quick toanswer this, because most people
go the bitterness route.
Most people go the anger route.
Of I'm going to pack it away.
I'm.
It, and then it hollows you out.
This is why some people struggleto worship. This is why some
(30:04):
people struggle to feel empathy.
They've just been hollowed outby bitterness and anger because
they packed it away.
And Jonah could have done thathere. I
would have understood it's like,come on, God. I serve you
faithfully. I'm your prophet. Iworship you. I devoted my life
(30:24):
to you. Then you decide to sendme on this death mission, and
then you wreck my boat.
I'm bitter, angry. I've beenunderstandable. This is many,
many, many professingChristians, and I would venture
to say at somewhere in yourlife, this is you. You went the
bitterness route. You choseanger,
(30:45):
not like intentionally, but youjust did. You became bitter. And
then when God blesses otherpeople, it kind of bothers you,
because they got blessing, and Igot a storm.
And so what happens is there's aspiritual chip on your shoulder
and the circumstances that Godwants to use to bring you closer
to him, some of that pain youused it to push him away. It's
(31:08):
what Scripture calls a stiffneck.
It's most people. It's like westiffen. It's a defense
mechanism. It's like somethingbad happens. I'm going to
stiffen because I don't want tofeel this pain, so I'm gonna
stiffen, but when we stiffen tonot feel pain, we don't feel
anything, we don't feelexcitement, we don't feel
empathy, we just becomedesensitized.
(31:29):
Holistically. That's why manyprofessing Christians haven't
grown in decades.
Been church, maybe everyweekend, but they just they look
the same as they did 10 yearsago. Spiritually, they've just
stiffened. And if you were todig deep into their life, you'd
find that there's some angerburied in their past from a
situation that they didn'tsurrender. They just stiffened.
(31:51):
But as we'll see with Jonah nextweek, the few who walk through
that storm and surrender, it'sin that surrender that they're
able to open up their hands towhat God has for him in that.
And so the big question is,where are you at?
Like you have a Nineveh, andif the Holy Spirit convicts you,
like the Holy Spirit convictsme, something came to mind, that
(32:13):
Nineveh came to mind somewhere,someone, something, that God's
calling you to and maybe he'sbeen calling you to that for
years, but you've been avoidingit because it's humbling, it's
hard, it doesn't seem fair.
Somebody else should be doingthat. Somebody else should take
that responsibility. But deepdown, you know, God, put it on
my plate. It's a person to love.
It's a job to do. It's aconfession to make, it's a place
(32:36):
to serve. It's a situation whereI need to submit.
What's your response going tobe? Because it's either
surrenderand go to Nineveh or it's I'm
going to avoid and the onlyother way is bitterness and
anger.
(32:58):
What hasyour response, Ben, have
you found yourself walking downthat road of anger, bitterness,
desensitized, stiffened my neckproof is in the pudding. It's
like, No, my marriage hasn'tgotten any better. My heart
hasn't gotten any better overthe years, my work hasn't gotten
any better over the years, myrelationship hasn't gotten any
that. Nineveh hasn't gotten anybetter over the years, proof is
(33:18):
in the pudding because I'vestiffened up and I've avoided
it, or have you surrenderedGod? You know, I don't love
this, you know, I'd rather notgo here, but it's what you're
calling me to. It's where youare. And since it's where you
are, it's where I want to be.
Your will be done.
Where are you atwhen it comes to this really
(33:40):
leads us to our So whatquestions, question we ask
every, every time we get intoGod's word. Okay, so what? It's
a fun narrative, and we're gonnahave even more fun with this
narrative in the coming weeks. Alot of fun. But this also has to
change our own week. And so, sowhat? How's this gonna change
your week? I got a bonus. Sowhat question two this week?
(34:02):
First off, it's a question we'vealready asked, What is your
Nineveh? And I'm sure somethingalready came to mind, but what
is it? And maybe you've beenfighting it off, but what's your
Nineveh?
It's a person, it's a place,it's an action.
What's been what's God beencalling you to that you've been
(34:24):
avoiding.
The second question is, what'sit gonna look like to take a
step toward your Nineveh, thisweek?
What's that step this week?
Tomorrow, tonight? Really looklike maybe it's starting that
conversation. And you know, it'sgonna be a series of
conversations, but it's gonnastart tonight. I'm gonna take a
step tonight. Maybe it's I needto get into counseling. We need
to get this marriage intocounseling. Maybe it's
(34:46):
confession. I need to go andconfess. Maybe it's an apology
that you've been withholding.
What does it really look like totake a step toward your Nineveh,
Father, we thank You forthis text and.
We thank you forI just thank You that Scripture
doesn't Candy Coat everything,because it's
(35:09):
it's so easy to see ourselveshere in Jonah and
Father, as we come before you,just in this time of reflection
as we sit before you and reflecton your word and reflect on your
conviction. God, I ask that youcontinue to speak to us. You so
just take this time before God.
What'sthat next step toward your
Nineveh, look like this week.
(35:32):
Maybe make some confessions andsome commitment. I'll close this
out in prayer. In just a second,Father, we thank you that
because of Jesus, you offer usforgiveness that you are ready
to meet us with grace and mercy,just like as we'll see next
week, that you met with Jonah,Father, we may we exercise just
our faith in you and ourthankfulness for the cross and
(35:55):
the empty tomb By constantlyliving open to you, walking
toward the places toward thatwhich you've called us to.
We pray this in Jesus name Amen.
You.
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