Running From God | What happens when we run from God? | Jonah

Today we are beginning a journey as we walk through the book of Jonah. And so if you've got a Bible, that's where we're gonna be in Jonah 1 today. We're gonna go line by line throughout this entire book. And fun fact, this is my favorite book of the Bible. When I got saved, I found the shortest one. I said, that's the one right there, all right? I can read this in Jesus name. And so today's sermon title, if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. It is running from God. Or this could be how to run from God for dummies, all right? Which that's the book for me. As I studied the book of Jonah over the last several years, I actually came across this story recently about a little girl who was in a kindergarten class. And they were drawing pictures of animals. Her teacher was actually an atheist, and the teacher said, you know, whales are the largest animals. And she goes on to say, but they cannot eat people because they're esophagus is too small. And the little girl, she said, but teacher in the Bible, it says that Jonah was eaten by a whale and a large fish. And the teacher says, well, you can't always believe what the Bible says, especially in church. The little girl said, well, when I get to heaven, I'm gonna ask Jonah what happened. And the teacher said, well, what if Jonah didn't go to heaven?

And the little girl stands up. She puts her hands on her hips. She said, well, I guess then you can ask him then. I read that this week and I was like, that was that little girl's bold, okay? And all right, let me ask you a question this morning. I wanna ask you, what comes to mind when you hear Jonah? Some of you, you're thinking about Sunday school, you're thinking about maybe a lesson you learned or as a kid, you heard this story. Some of you think about the ocean or the storm or the boat. A lot of you, you think about what, the whale. And I wanna tell you this morning that a whale is never mentioned in the text. We just know it's a large fish, all right? It could be a large goldfish, I don't know, all right? It's a large fish. And I want you to know this, some of you, you remember this story as a man that relentlessly runs from God. But for the next several weeks, I hope that we understand that this is a story about God that relentlessly runs after man. I think it's so easy to hear old Bible stories and say, I know this one, is anybody guilty of this? Like, I've heard this story. Even as I said, Jonah, something like, oh, here we go. You know, the fish eats 'em and takes 'em back where he's supposed to go. And we think, well, I know the characters,

I know the plot, I know the punch line, I know the beginning of the story, I know the end of the story. I can almost quote what happens, and what happens is unknowingly, when we do that, we often close our eyes and our ears and our hearts, and we can't really receive what God has for us today. And I believe that God has something fresh for us today, Church. I believe that he wants to speak to us. So this is what I wanna do. We're gonna pray here in a second, but we're gonna pray with our eyes open. If y'all would throw that prayer up on the screen, this is a prayer that I have started reading and saying as I open the word of God, and I want y'all to just receive this today, Lord, please give me wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Please reveal something I have never seen about you today. Lord, please correct any lies that I believe about you, others, and myself. Direct my steps according to your word, kill my pride, fill me with your love, and send me to do your will. And all God's people said, amen. All right, amen. So Jonah one, if you got your Bibles, it'll be on the screen, as well. Jonah one, verse one, says the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Emitat.

And the word of the Lord would come to Jonah because he was a prophet. And he's known by many people and remembered as the runaway prophet. He was a missionary prophet. Prophets would hear from God. They would speak to God's people. They were a mouthpiece for God. And would y'all agree that Jonah gets a pretty bad rep? And there's a reason he does because he was very disobedient. But I do want you to know that the first time we hear about Jonah is actually in 2 Kings 14. And it tells us that Jonah started his work in complete obedience to God. As he restored the border of Israel, it says according to the word of the Lord. So Nineveh was not Jonah's first assignment. Okay, I want you to make note of that. It was not his first assignment. And it's important to know that in verse number one, this was not the first time that God had spoken to this prophet. Jonah was used to hearing the voice of God and being obedient up to that point. But we know that it's about to turn. There's about to be a series of events that take place. I could almost summarize the whole book of Jonah and also summarize our lives in four statements, and I want you to write these down, four categories,

and you're in one of these today. Number one, running from God. Number two, running to God. Number three, running with God, doing the work of God, and then number four, running against God. And this is when you think, I have a better way. My way is better, I've ran to God, but now I think I could do a better job. I don't know about you, but for me and my house, and I hope this church, I want to spend the rest of my days running to God and running with God, amen? That's what I want to do. In verse two, it says, "Go to the great city of Nineveh "and preach against it, because its wickedness "has come up before me." And what's interesting is Jonah holds true to his name's meaning, his name means dove, and just like a bird does, when a storm is on the horizon, it goes the opposite direction. Any adversity the bird is going the opposite way. It's interesting, Jonah goes the opposite way and causes a much larger storm for his life. I've read this story so many times, and I get frustrated with Jonah, thinking to myself so clearly, if God would speak that clearly to me, I would surely be obedient. Does everybody read the Bible and just get mad at people? I'm like, how do you just not get this, Jonah? But if we were to be honest today, we would have ran too,

because the place that he was supposed to go was a pretty bad place. Nineveh was a dangerous place. It was the Assyrian capital of the world. They were the enemy of the Israelites. They were barbaric, they would torture people, they would literally go to cities, they would bury people up to their heads and let these people bake in the sun. They would make pyramids of heads, they would skin people alive and hang their skin on the city walls to show we have been here. And I read this this week, they would go and cut off the limbs of the people that they were conquering and they would leave one arm in one hand and they would shake the hand as they individualized, they took their last breath. These people were awful, and I'm not saying that to be gross or be gruesome. I want you to understand what God was calling him to do was very difficult. There was a very difficult task at hand. Timothy Keller says it this way. Jonah going to preach to Nineveh would be like us going to preach to the Nazis in 1941. This was a death sentence in Jonah's eyes. And so we can judge Jonah all day from running from God, but the reality is we would have done the same and the reality is that many of us are doing the same today. Real quick, would you just be honest in church?

Could we be honest in church this morning? Would you raise your hand if you've ever ran from God? Okay? Raise your hand if you've ever lied in church or if that's the rest of you that weren't raising your hand. (congregation laughing) I have ran from God so many times and even times I didn't realize I was running and all Jonah, I want you to see this, all Jonah was told to do was go to Nineveh and preach against it. Hear me, there was no promise attached to that command. Meaning he did not know how this was gonna play out. I wrote down this morning, Abraham was told sacrifice your son. Go to the mountain, sacrifice your son. What happens is God provides another way out. But going into it, Abraham did not know there would be another way out. I was thinking about Noah, go build a boat. It hasn't rained in forever. People are gonna humiliate you, they're gonna laugh at you, but God provided rain and he saves his family. Mary, you're gonna give birth to the savior of the world. I got some questions. You know what I'm saying? I got some questions, how is this possible? So Jonah knew, all he knew was God's resume up to that point. Jonah had a choice, do I take God at his word or do I do what I want to do?

God did not say Jonah, you are gonna be successful when you preach against Nineveh. He did not say Jonah, you are gonna live to see the next day when you preach against Nineveh. God did not show Jonah the outcome. All Jonah knew was that these people are barbaric in nature and I'm supposed to go call them to repentance. Anybody like sign me up for that? I'm not signing up for that. This is crazy, I want you to write this down. This is what I've learned over the last several years. Outcomes are up to God, obedience is up to us. Outcomes are up to God, obedience is up to us. Promise me something church, when God calls you that you're gonna answer the phone. He's never called me on the phone. But don't hit the shady button when God calls you to do something in your life. The outcome is up to God, but we have to be obedient. When I think back over the last 12 years of walking with the Lord, I can think back to the very moment to drop the addictions, to drop the alcohol, to drop the party scene, to drop the drugs, to drop all the girls, the toxic relationships, to lose some phone numbers and some friendships, there was some obedience attached to that. Remember shortly after that, forgive your dad, Seth. And I remember, I was like, there's no way I could forgive my dad. Some of you have heard my story.

What's he gonna say? How's he gonna respond? It doesn't matter how he's gonna respond, just do the hard thing. Remember when God said to start giving, and to join a life group, and to start serving, I was like, I can't do that. If these people ever found out what I've done in my past, they're gonna be like, this is a freak show, you know, you can't do this. Remember when God called me to speak? Remember, I would travel around the junior highs in high schools, and I think I spoke in 11 months at 45 different schools, sharing my story, and I used to think that I couldn't read in front of the class. My job is obedience, I can't determine the outcome when I learned that I was gonna be a husband. I gotta be a godly husband, and a godly father. I remember, I was thinking last night, when God called us to fail the Arkansas, it's actually 667 days ago. Some of you are like, you're keeping count. When you do something that terrifying, you keep count. I got a little note in my phone, it is adding days as the days go by 667 days ago, most terrifying thing I think I've ever done in my life. I remember I walked onto this stage, it was October 10th, I believe, and I walked up here, I preached my first sermon,

my knees were knocking together, I had sweat through both shirts, I brought that day, I was terrified. Some of you all were here, you remember how bad the sermon was. Hopefully they've gotten a little bit better, okay? I was so scared that I remember turning around, opening my eyes and seeing a group of individuals that needed to be loved and needed hope. And I remember the first tug from the Lord saying that you are going to be in Fable, this is gonna be your home. And when I tell you that car ride home was silent, it was silent. Kendra and I hadn't even spoke about Fayetteville, we're on our way home, not as, we didn't say a single word to each other, we pulled in the driveway in Malmel, Arkansas, she looks at me and she says, I don't wanna talk about it until I'm ready. And so I followed her around like a little puppy dog, talking, you know, I was like, every day, like for two weeks I was trying to ask her about this. Listen, it terrified us, but hear me today. We did not know all the details. And before you say yes, God doesn't wanna give you the details either. He just wants your yes. But if you're anything like me, I want the details, anybody else? Hey, I wanna know how this is gonna pan out.

I wanna know if it's gonna go well, if this is gonna be successful. God wants your yes before he gives you the details. But for some people, God wants your yes before he gives you the who, what, when, why, and where. Meaning this, God has just saying, hey, walk this direction. And you're like, why am I going this direction? I'll show you when you're on your way. And I think so many times we don't get started. So we never actually see God show up. Outcomes are up to God, but obedience is up to us. Verse three, it says, but Jonah rose to flee to Tarshis. Everybody say Tarshis. That's like a cuss word from SpongeBob, Tarshis. And from the presence of God, from the presence of the Lord. He went down, everybody say down to Japa and found a ship going to Tarshis. And he paid the fare and he went down into it to go with them to Tarshis away from the presence of the Lord. Have you ever noticed in life when God is leading you somewhere, I want you to write this down. There is always a boat going the opposite direction. There's always a boat going the opposite direction. It's either compromise or integrity. It's either a divorce or we can work through this and work on this thing. I could party or I could have purpose. I could have sex before marriage or I could be pure. I could love or I could hate. I could gossip or I could build people up.

Listen, there's always going to be a boat that is going the opposite direction and hear me church. It's usually going to be a lot comfortable and a little bit more convenient. But which boat do you get on? Notice Jonah went down, not only geographically, but the direction of his life was going downhill fast as well. Jonah went down to Japa. He went down into the boat. He went down into the water. He went down into the belly of the fish. And in chapter two, which we will cover next week, he went down to his knees in the belly of a whale asking God for another chance. And I've realized this in my life, sin takes you downhill fast. Would y'all agree? In the ESV translation, the first thing that God asked Jonah to do was arise. I want you to write that down, arise. He says, arise. God is always calling us forward, higher, and further, but hear me, our disobedience will do the absolute opposite. It will take you backwards. Y'all over here, are you backslidden? You backslidden? I never really heard that until recently. This obedience will take you backwards, lower, and further away. It takes you down, and I don't think it's a coincidence that Jonah is going down.

Can anybody relate with this, right? Have you ever felt like things are going down? He'll-- I read this quote this week. Sin will take you further than you want to go. It'll keep you longer than you want to stay, and it'll cost you more than you could ever pay. Jonah's going down, and he decides I'm going to flee as far away from God as possible. We got through the picture up there. This is an idea of kind of the map and an overlook of what's going on here. So he went down to Japa. You see, Japa is not far from where he's supposed to go to Nineveh. This would be like going to Chicago from Fayetteville, but he decides to go as far as possible to, everybody say, Tarsus. He's fleeing from the Lord. And I've noticed everyone in life has a place that they run to, that they should be running from. And everybody has a place that God is calling them to, that they should be running to, but they often run from. And I want you as you walk through this series the next several weeks, I want you to ask yourself two questions. The first one is, what is your Nineveh? And the second one is, what is your Tarsus? What is your Nineveh, and what is your Tarsus? So Nineveh is the place that God is calling Jonah. It is a place of opposition, meaning it's going to be hard. These people, they may kill you, but this is a place of obedience.

On the complete other side is Tarsus. Tarsus is a place where Jonah would be disobedient and flee from God. This is a place of sin. Now, I was asked recently, when you look at the church, or when you look at Christians in 2023, where do you think most people are at? And I said neither. I don't think most people, at least, are at Nineveh. And I don't think most people are at Tarsus. I think most people are at Japa. Interestingly enough, Japa was a place where boats would come in, and boats would go out. It was a very wealthy place. It was a place where they would load up boats. There was a lot of goods, a lot of merchandise there. This was the place that Jonah got on the boat. And I was thinking about it, it's a place of comfort. Because I'm not being disobedient, but I'm also not being obedient. Have you ever been there before? And I think so often we find ourselves at Japa. And it's almost like we unknowingly draw a circle around ourselves, and it's called comfort. And we say, I will go anywhere but outside of this circle. And so if you want me to step over this line, the answer is no. But you need to know that delayed obedience is disobedience. And when you're camped out at comfort, you're being just as disobedient as if you went to Tarsus. I had to learn this in my life. If the enemy can't destroy your calling by getting you to sin, he will delay it by getting you comfortable.

The devil knows if he can get you comfy enough, you won't walk in your calling, or if he can get you scared enough about how this thing's going to turn out if you're actually obedient, then you won't step out in faith. But at the end of the day, the question is this, do you want to be comfortable or do you want to be faithful? Do you want to be comfortable or do you want to be obedient? I've learned that comfort and faithfulness, they're not buddies. Comfort and faithfulness are not besties for the resties. They're not kicking it on the weekends together. Comfort and faithfulness are at war with each other. So I'll say it this way, trusting God is not always comfortable. Would you all agree? Giving in the church, giving, supporting the church is not always comfortable, right? Serving is not always comfortable. Joining biblical community, joining a life group's not always comfortable, prayer and fasting, it's not always comfortable. Love your enemy, that ain't comfortable. Read your Bible, that's not always comfortable. Live according to the Word, that's not comfortable, especially in the world today. Live on mission, that's not comfortable. But hear me, it's always worth it. It's always worth it. It may not be comfortable, but it is always worth it. I could choose, do I want to be comfortable, or do I want to be faithful? It says in verse four, "Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea in such a violent storm arose, that the ship threatened to break up.

All the sailors were afraid, and they cried out to his own God, and they threw cargo into the sea to lighten the ship." If you got professional sailors on a boat and everybody's freaking out because of a storm, you know it's a bad storm. These guys decide to throw their livelihood over the edge of the boat into the sea so that it will lighten the load and they can stay afloat as long as possible. And as I read this, I was stopped in my tracks. They were willing to do anything to lighten the load, but they didn't deal with the root of the issue. I'll say it this way, when I think about my life, we will do anything but the right thing so that we don't sink. I'll do anything, right? We deal with the surface issues instead of getting beneath the surface. As long as we hide the unseen areas of our life from God and from others, we will be just like these sailors. We will be wasting time, wasting money, wasting our lives away, dealing with only the surface. Can I encourage you this morning, this year, that God wants to do a deeper work in your life? He doesn't want you to just deal with the surface issues. Those are important, but he wants to get beneath the surface. Y'all know Jonah was asleep underneath the deck. And when you get beneath the surface and deal with the issue that's causing the storm, things start to change.

I want you to write this down, allow God and others to get beneath the surface of your life. This is why in two weeks, we're launching life groups. Some of you are in life groups and you understand that community is vital and isolation is absolutely fatal. Would y'all agree some of the weirdest people on the planet are people who are alone? Because nobody is telling them, "Hey, you probably shouldn't do that." "Hey, you probably shouldn't say that." Maybe that's not the best idea. Community is vital. It's one of the best things that I've ever done is getting into the world. The best things that I've ever done is getting into a group. The word says, but Jonah had gone below the deck where he laid down and he fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and he said, "How can you sleep?" Do we got any deep sleepers in here? Yeah, some of y'all, this morning you didn't even hear the thunder. You're out, okay? Deep sleep. He says, "Get up and call on your God." Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish. Jonah was fast to sleep. I found this interesting because I don't think he was tired from running from God.

I don't think he was tired from working really hard and working with all of his mind. I think he was sleeping in the storm. Please don't miss this because he was completely disconnected with the reality and the weight of his actions. He was disconnected with the weight of his sin and his decisions. Have y'all ever met someone like this? They're lethargic. They're just kind of sleeping their way through life. Nothing phases them and it's not because they trust God. It's because they're disconnected with reality. Maybe you're there this morning completely disconnected from reality and the impact of disobedience. Listen, I don't know about you, but I am so thankful that God has woke me up in the middle of storms. I'm so thankful that God has sent people to wake me up and give me another shot. Y'all, Jonah is disconnected from reality. I've learned that God will send whatever is necessary to wake yo' butt up. Some of us just need to be woken up this morning. As I wrote this message, I'm asking the Lord, what is the goal of this message? And I think it's simply this, we need to wake up. It could be a message that wakes you up. It could be erect or losing a job or something awful.

God doesn't cause everything, but he can use everything. It may be a bad experience. It could be an actual storm. It may be a person. These sailors are shaking Jonah saying, "Get up and call on your God." Verse seven says, "Then the sailors said to each other, come and let us cast lots. Let us roll some dice to find out who is responsible for this calamity." And they cast lots in the lot, fellow Jonah. Listen, if you know the reason that the storm is happening and then they roll dice and it also lands on you, that's how you really know. Like, wake up and God can use anything. And so they asked him, tell us who is responsible for making all of this trouble for us. It's interesting, hear this. What kind of work do you do? By the way, where do you come from? Also, what is your country? From what people are you, listen, if I'm about to die, I'm not playing 21 questions. Anybody else? I'm gonna get to the root of the issue as fast as possible. And I'm gonna say you need to fix this because you are the problem. Jonah, get up and call upon your God. They ask five questions. Jonah gives them one answer.

This is what he says in verse nine. He answered, I'm a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, what have you done? They knew that he was running from the Lord because he had already told them so earlier in the text, write this down. When you live in sin, things won't go wail for you. That's my, you thank you guys. I really didn't know how that was gonna go, but that's my dad joke for the day. All right, I need the drums, didn't, okay. But the reality is these aren't gonna go wail if you decide I'm gonna live in sin, I'm gonna do my own thing. Would y'all agree this morning? I'm so glad y'all are awake, finally. The story of Jonah is not telling us that every difficulty in our life is result of sin, but hear me, it is true that every sin in your life will bring you difficulty. We love the Bible verse that says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That verse does not say there are no consequences for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because our actions, our decisions in our sin bring consequences and often we blame God for those consequences. When he's saying you made the decision and the choice that we live in a fallen world,

every sin in our life will bring a storm. I've learned this when it rains, the whole ground feels it. Would y'all agree? Like I'm so thankful it rained, my whole yard is gonna get water, my whole yard feels it. When it thunders, my whole house feels it. My whole house will shake. And when I sin, my house feels it as well. When I am living in sin, whether it is confessed or unconfessed, my kids will feel it, my spouse will feel it, my entire home will feel it. You need to know this this morning that your choices impact everybody in your boat. Your choices impact everyone in your boat. Everyone in your life, Jonah teaches us, if you are running from God, don't book a cruise. Alright? (laughs) On a serious note, listen, our choices impact others. I had some friends growing up in junior high, they used to jump on elevators. Y'all ever had somebody, that friend, you get on an elevator and they start jumping up and down. And I'm like, bro, chill out. Because you think this is funny, but if this elevator goes crashing to the down, to the ground, it's gonna kill all of us, right? Or maybe you've been in a canoe or a kayak, is somebody thought it'd be funny to try to flip it? But what they didn't realize is, they're not the only one in the boat.

It's gonna get all of our stuff wet. All of us are gonna fall down. Some of y'all heard me tell you about this group of friends. We were the country bulls back in the day. And I was the only one that didn't fit the mold city boy. And so, they had a little farm and we would go out there and wrestle these cows and do all this stuff. And they got Copenhagen cans, the metal lids. And they had a little cow branding iron and they torched it in a fire. It was glowing hot, the metal ring. And they decided we're gonna brand our butts. It's gonna mark our friendship. I was like, it'll mark y'all's friendship. I ain't doing that. And no joke, they did it. Everyone of them did it. One of them moved and they had the Olympic rings right there on their rear end. It got infected for weeks. And listen, when his dad came, his dad was a pastor, his dad came home and whipped every single one of us. I didn't even do nothing. Guilty by association, right? Listen, your decisions impact every person in your life. Whether you believe it or not, hear me. I'll say it this way, your parents' alcoholism. Growing up, when your parents decided or whoever it was, the sibling, it was an addiction. Or maybe it was yours.

It is affecting more people than just the person who's addicted, the parents affair. Or maybe you have walked through similar situation. It is affecting more than just you. Maybe you're here and you're addicted to pornography and you've never told anybody. I had somebody come up to me after church, several months ago, they were like, I cannot believe you said that in church. I'm like, it's about time somebody said that in church. It's destroying marriages, I remember as a kid, stumbling across pornography for the first time because somebody else was addicted in my house. Do you want to know it affects more than just you? It affects your spouse, it affects your kids? Maybe you're addicted to approval. It affects everything, you're materialistic and it's affecting the way your kids see the world 'cause they think I have to have more to be something. I don't know what it is for you but you have to know that your decisions, they affect more people than just you. Jonah's on this boat and all these sailors are affected by his disobedience. Parents, I want to wake you up this morning. Please for the love of God. Some of you are asleep at the wheel and your entire family is in the vehicle. And you're waiting for somebody to shake you. Let me shake you this morning.

It is not a time to be asleep, man. We got to wake up and smell the coffee 'cause somebody's saying, yeah. Because the reality is that they will either suffer from your decision. And I want them to reap the fruit, verse 11. Sorry, I digress. Says the sea was getting rougher and rougher. And so they asked him, they said, what should we do to make the sea calm down for us? He says, pick me up and throw me into the sea. This is crazy. He said, it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this storm has come upon you. And Jonah says, throw me into the sea. Y'all ever seen the Titanic? I know it's still kind of sensitive, but I'm gonna tell you, those people jumping off the boat, they were not jumping off of the boat to lose their life. They were jumping off of the boat to save their life. This situation is not like that one. Jonah had one goal. I wanna be thrown off this boat. He did not know there would be a fish. He did not know God would provide another way. All he knew is I'm being disobedient. There's a storm. I would rather die than be obedient to God is where he was at.

He says, throw me overboard. A lot of people read this and were like, how selfless of him? I would beg to differ. Pick me up and throw me into the sea, he replied, and it will become calm. I know, oh, I hope you get this. I know it is my fault that a great storm has come upon you. Although Jonah's being selfish, I think he took full responsibility for his actions. Would you write this down? Wake up and own it. Wake up and own it. Would you agree that this idea could change the whole world around us if people would wake up and take ownership in their life? Anybody own a business, or you have employees, or you work somewhere, and you would just agree. If people would just wake up and say, hey, that's my fault, I'm sorry. It would change the world, in your home. Let's practice this right now. Turn to your neighbor, your spouse, your kids and say, it's my fault. Some of y'all are like, I'm not, I'm not doing that. I'm not, I'm not doing it. Let me tell you, these five words right here, they will change your life. It is this, it is my fault, it's my fault, I'm sorry.

It's my fault, this may be all you get today, and it's worth it. It's my fault, I'm sorry. This could save your marriage. This could save your relationship with your kids. This could save something that's going on in your workplace. I'm convinced if we had people in political office that would learn these five words, it's my fault, I'm sorry. I think that we could see a different world. If we had coaches and teachers and school faculty and people in leadership positions, if we would say, hey, it's my fault, I'm sorry. If spouses would say, hey, this one's hard, right? We could stay mad for a long time. Some of y'all, you know that verse that says, do not go to sleep if there's anger in your heart. Y'all stay up for days. Just mad. It's my fault, I'm sorry. I've slept walk my whole life. Some of y'all have heard me joke about this, and raise your hand if you sleep walk if you've ever slept walk, my brothers and sisters, okay. Mine was really bad, I would, as a kid, I shared a room with my older brother, Ricky, and Ricky, he could tell you some funny stories. Y'all've heard him speak up here a couple of times. He said he would wake up in the middle of the night, and he would look over, and it's kind of dark, but he could see, and he said I would just be standing

on my bed, pointing at the door. I'm just telling you, that's how you get hit with something, okay, like, and he would be so terrified, my mom, she said that she would wake up, and I would be standing at the end of her bed, just looking at her, all right. Like, that's how you get hit as a kid. Like, I'm just saying, that's like, it's not good. I remember my, I would sleep walk out of the house, my parents would find me down the street. It's crazy, but in college, I lived with four guys, and the golden rule of having roommates in college, if there's any college students in here, is do not eat my food, all right. Would y'all agree? Do not eat my food, it's very simple, while I notice I had some food that was missing. I had some nutty buddy bars that were gone, and that's just a no-no, and if you freeze them, they're really good, by the way, and so they were gone, and I noticed in my roommate's room, there was all these nutty buddy bar wrappers, and I'm like, I'm gonna catch him in the middle of the act, and his name's Dylan, I hope he watches this sermon, and so I did a steak out one night. It was like 2 AM, I had a large pizza, I left it half eaten in the fridge, and sure enough, 2 AM, Dylan comes walking down the hall, you know, he goes in there, opens the fridge, and he has no idea I'm watching this whole thing unfold.

He throws the pizza on top of the counter, and he opens it up, and he starts eating, like he's never eaten anything in his entire life. I was so disgusted watching my friend eat. He got two pieces of pizza on top of each other, he was eating the pizza sandwich. I'm like, what is wrong with you? And so I'm watching him, and I'm like, how do I break the news to him, that I, out of the corner of his eye that I'm standing there. And so he has a decision to make. He decides to act like he is sleep-eating. (audience laughs) So he like sees me and he's like, it's like immediately he turns into a zombie, all right? He's like, "Ah, I don't even know how you sleep beat, "but he is doing that thing." And I, it took my level of frustration from here to here and I walk over to him and I grab him by the shoulders and I said, "Do it! "You are not asleep." I was mad and he's like, "Steal, do it, all right." And I'm like, "Chicken, and you better wake up!" And I'm like, "You better wake up. "I know you're not asleep and hear me church." There is a message in that for the church in 2023. Somebody needs to grab you by your shoulders and say that you are not asleep, that you need to wake up. And if you are asleep, you better wake up. The times are crazy, the world is not getting any better

and Christians are called to be the light and salt of the earth. All right, if I could go around the room, I actually told production team, I may walk around the room, I don't wanna offend you this morning, I thought about going around and just shaking some people. Shaking 'em, just wake up for the love of God, get out of Japa, it's to your casual Christianity, it's not helping anybody. I'm just telling you, be a man or a woman of God's word, it's time to leave Japa and go to Nineveh. Tap your neighbor and say you better wake up. If somebody was asleep, they are awake now. It says instead, the men did their best to row back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew wilder than before, and then they cried out to the Lord, "Please Lord, do not let us die for taking this man's life. "Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man." He says, "For you Lord, have done as you please." Verse 15, it gets ready to end, he says, "And then they took Jonah, they threw him overboard, "and the raging sea grew calm. "At this, the men greatly feared the Lord, "and they offered sacrifice to the Lord. "They made vows to him." I love the Bible, by the way, because hear me, please don't miss this. Jonah got on a boat to avoid telling pagans about God and in his disobedience, while running from God,

God still saves pagans. Meaning, in the middle of your disobedience, God can still accomplish his glory and his will, because he is faithful, and he is God, but he would rather you just be obedient. Jonah did not want those people. Let me say those people. Everybody's got to those people in their life, and my prayer is that this series, you would identify who those people are in your life, and you would start loving them instead of hating them. You would start witnessing, instead of judging them, you would start serving them, instead of whatever you're doing currently. You would find out who those people, y'all, Jonah thought those people don't deserve grace, and God said, "Watch me," and he saves them. Jonah is trying to pick who deserves grace. I want you to write this down. God loves saving lost people. God loves saving lost people. I think we can quickly become like Jonah when we forget what God has saved us from, and we start pointing the finger at everybody else. This is not a story about a big fish. This is a story about a big God that has a lot of grace to save broken people. The sailors teach us a lesson, and Jonah teaches us a lesson.

The sailors teach us that God is pursuing rebels. Jonah teaches us, and I think this is for the church, that God is pursuing the religious. Sailors teach us that God is pursuing the rebels, and Jonah teaches us that God is pursuing religious people. We don't know how long Jonah was in the water. I hope he kind of was in there like a barber for a little bit, you know? I've been writing this with Steve the last couple of weeks, and I've wrestled with this, judging Jonah, but the reality is that we have a Jonah inside all of us, and I don't even know if he could swim. I don't know if he did the classes, I don't know if, I don't know all of those details, but what I do know is this, Jonah is about to be engulfed by the grace of God, and he shows up as a giant fish. Verse 17, it closes with this. Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, and we're gonna pick up right here next week, and I don't wanna spoil the story, but I want you to hear me. The fish was not punishment, it was provision for Jonah. This is not a story about a man that relentlessly runs from God. This is a story about God relentlessly running after man. I could tell you in my life, when God got involved, everything changed.

My prayer is that you would have evidence in your life that God has gotten involved in you. Don't camp out at Japa Don't run to Tarsus if you're at Tarsus and you know you're living in sin turn around and head to Nineveh It's gonna be hard, but hear me church. It's gonna be worth it. I Love this thing as we close. I was reminded of my daughter. She's - she's absolutely beautiful She's wild. I need prayer a lot of prayer a lot of prayer She's beautiful, but she is the worst at hide-and-seek And I got this picture as I was writing this sermon I could count to five million and she's gonna hide in the same spot every time in the house One two three four five six seven eight nine ten and what do you say is the parent you say ready or not? Here I come And I go looking for and she's in the same spot. She's usually curled up She's like she's like usually in the middle of the floor behind like a pole or something And she's like this And I'm like I see you You need to hide better Like Tom Bowlies do things with excellence hide behind the couch You know like and then she'll go like what she'll be like peeking and then she covers her eyes And then she's like this and and as my daughter is hiding. I just feel like the Holy Spirit spoke to me How often is this our posture as Christians in? Complete rebellion to God and we are convinced because I can't see my father that he can't see me. Oh Let me tell you today church. He's the best at hide-and-seek He proved it in the beginning of Genesis First sin that entered the world and they hid and he's like who told you you were naked and He found them exactly where they were at and grace was offered to them I just want you to get a visual for your life today This is what we look like when we hide from God and I just believe that God

Right here today is saying ready or not Here I come The Bible is very clear actually it says that we won't know the day that he returns like a thief in the night It says that he will return and I just want to be confident that I will hear well done good and faithful servant not because of what I've done but because of putting full trust in faith in Jesus And I want that to flow through everything I do in my life And this is my prayer is that you would be able to have the same confidence as well