Well, good morning, church. It has been one of those weeks this week that on one end has been a lot of joy, a lot of peace with winter break, with a lot of our kids out of school and that. But on the other end, it's just been a heavy week. The reality is especially for this church this week, we've had a heavy week in the passing of one of our deacons, Gregg Connelly, 49 years old, tragically, died this week. And we're heartbroken over that this week, as well as just we're heartbroken over what is happening across the globe in Ukraine. Right now. And so, this morning, before we jump into our message, I, I just feel like we just need to pray. We need to lift those two things up before the Lord as a church, as a body of Christ this morning. And I've invited Rod Smith to come and say and voice that prayer on our behalf. Two reasons why One, Rod is our chairman of our deacons this year. And so, he represents that group on behalf of the Connelly family as well. And number two, whenever you think of Ukraine in this church, you think of the Smith family. They've adopted more kids than all of us have from Ukraine. And Rod also serves on a couple of different boards Livestrong and a couple of others that deals with Ukraine specifically and orphan care across the world. So, Rod, would you just voice that on our behalf before the Lord this morning?

Father, thank you so much for the song that we just sang. That Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord and worthy is the lamb. So, we first praise you I do want to lift up the Connelly family Lord. A week ago, they didn't have any idea that this was coming. And it just points to us how life is but a vapor and how important it is that we know you as he knew you. So, I pray that the church would gather around them. And Lord, now I want to lift up Ukraine, my friends, my loved ones there. Lord, we hear so often of war, but this is personal. I have loved ones who are in harm's way, and I just pray your angel armies that bring this to a quick ending. Thank you. We love you and praise you in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.

Thanks, Rod. Hey, before jumping into the message, let me just give a quick shout out to Marty Godfrey for last week for making another parable come alive, and also to send in us with the challenge this past week, over the week, to watch for the lost. To look for those appointments in life of how we can be involved with other people's lives. It's been really neat to watch the stories all week of you guys coming into contact with people who need Jesus. And it's been really, really, really neat just to watch how you're involved with the mission of God. Speaking of the mission of God, if you've got a copy of Scripture. We're starting a new series today in the Book of Jonah, in the Book of Jonah.

Now, I want you to go ahead today, and I want you to turn to the book of Jonah if you don't know where that is in the Bible, there's no shame in that. It's in between Obadiah and Micah. Right. That really helps a lot. Go to Isaiah and flip over from there. Into the Minor Prophets or listen, there's no shame in it. Go to the table of contents and find it right. There's only four chapters. 48 verses. It's a small little book. Okay. I want you to find it this week. Bookmark it somehow, because every week for the next four weeks, we're going to be looking at this little book of Jonah that is speaking about the life of Jonah. And we're going to watch Jonah's response to God. We're going to watch his calling to be a piece of God's mission. And we're going to watch how Jonah personally engaged in the mission of God. And watch how we have been called to be a part of his mission. Now, look, I know when I say being called to the mission of God, a lot of people look at people like me and go, Well, I'm not called like that, to which I would say hallelujah. Right? You don't need to be called to do this. But here's what I want to challenge you with out of the box this morning. You, as a believer in Jesus, are called to engage in the mission of God. We're going to be looking at this all this next month of March in our 321 Serve month. You hopefully just came into life group.

You just saw how that's going to filter into your life. And we're going to watch how we personally, as a family and as a church family are to engage in the mission of God. Now, let me just say like this, look, we are excited that church is exciting. We love Sunday mornings. We love Wednesday night. But the end goal of this church is not a meeting it's not us coming together. It's not like sheep coming together and hearing the word of God and just go and poof and just wait for the next week. That's not the goal. The goal is for all of us to engage in what God is calling us to be. All right. Audiences are great. But movements of God is what we want to see. And the book of Jonah has the power to show us what we are called to do and how we are called to live. But let me say this about the book of Jonah, because I know when I say it, the first thing that comes to mind is, Well, Matt, that's a kid story. I remember that when I was a kid on the flannel board. You don't know what that is. Tough, right? Listen, the book of Jonah is not a kid's story.

In fact, I kind of hate the fact that the kid the book of Jonah gets a bad rap because of one verse, right? We all get hung up on one verse in the book of Jonah, but I want us to see this morning that we are Jonah. And the book of Jonah is a story about God in the fact that we are Jonah and that we are Nineveh. All right, so here we go. Let's dove into the book of Jonah. Right. You got that right. Maybe. Let's just see how deep it goes with that one work How about let's just let it wash over us, right? It's hard to swallow. Here we go. Here. All right, I'm done. I'm done. I promise. That's all I got. All right. Here. This Maybe there may be more. Jonah chapter one, all that was just to help you find Jonah. All right? Really, that was just to help you find it and not feel bad about it. All right, here we go. Jonah, chapter one, verse one says this, says The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: God said this go to the great city of Nineveh. Now, I want you to stop right there, because if you are familiar, if you know anything about the story of Jonah, you know that this whole book has to do with a guy named Jonah that was called to go to this place called Nineveh. And because he didn't go.

I hate to ruin the story for those we don't know because he didn't go. God sent a great fish called this fish out of the deep and swallowed up Jonah as a result of his sin. And here's the deal. A lot of people, because of that one verse, they get caught up in this idea that, well, the Jonah is just a myth or it's just an allegory or is just an enlightened parable with a point. And really, Matt, that story just has to be a myth. It reminds me of a story that I heard one time of a college girl. There was a freshman in college, and she decided that she wanted to share her faith She went down to the quad area of her school where all the people were in open air. She began to preach that Jesus loved the people and he wanted to save the people. He wanted people to repent. And she began to preach the gospel of Jesus, not like the weird guy with the sign, preach it, but like authentically, like really preach the word of God. And all of a sudden, one day one of her professors walked by her and heard what she was saying and said he looked at this little girl and he says, Honey, do you do you really believe that stuff? And she's like, Oh, yes, sir. Do you really believe all of that? She says, Oh, yeah, I really believe all of it. And he looked at her and said, You really believe that there was a guy named Jonah that was swallowed up in a big fish in this big fish, spit him up onto this earth? How can that even happen? Professor looked at her and said she looked back at him without even pausing and said, What? I don't really know how that happened, but I guess I'll just ask Jonah one day in heaven how it happened. Professor looked at her and said, Well, what if Jonah is not in heaven? She looked back at him without blinking and said, Well, I guess you'll have to ask him. Listen, I don't I don't know how this happened.

I don't I don't know how God made a fish swallow Jonah. I don't know a lot of things about the Bible, but I want to remind you something this morning. God did it. He did it in this story. Let me remind you that this story is about much more than God doing that one thing. It's a story about God. In fact, honestly, I'm not sure that God sending a fish to swallow up a person is one of my top ten things that God's ever done. I mean, go with me on this just for a minute. If I can believe Genesis chapter one verse one says that God created the world with his spoken word, then why is this a problem? If I can believe that that Luke Chapter two says that the God of the universe put himself in the form of a baby, came to this earth, lived a sinless life, healed people, brought people back from the dead was crucified. He rose himself from the grave. Then why do I have a problem with this little thing right here? You say, Here's the deal. Either we believe God spoke the universe into existence, or we don't. Either believe God works on this Earth, or we don't. Either we trust him, or we don't. The real question that we need to answer before we even get into this book to get us off on this little tangent is either there is a God that works on this planet or there's not. That's the question that we have to answer. 

Once I answer yes to the fact that God created and God came, it just seems to me that everything else seems a little more palatable. Everything else seems a little more reasonable. It's a little bit easier to get my mind around when I read the accurate words of God. But for some reason, I guarantee you, if you live your faith out long enough, you have someone in front of you that looks at this book and says, Well, that's just a myth. That's just an enlightening parable. We've spent some time in the parables, have we not? That's just a story with a point. But here's the problem with that. It's not written that way. It's not written as a parable. It's not written in allegorical language. It's not written as a myth or as a fairy tale. In fact, the book of Jonah, as we're going to see over these next couple of weeks, is extremely clear.

It's extremely written historically. You will see specific names, specific date specific details. It's written in the style and the genre of history. And just in verse one that we just read, what did it say? The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai. Now notice something here. He did not say. There was once upon a time a man that was in a vineyard, did it? He said there was a guy in this guy's name was Jonah in this guy's dad's name was Amittai, and this guy lived in Israel. Plus, not only that, but you’ll also see in Second Kings Chapter 14 that it describes Jonah's ministry. He describes what he does and who he is in the fact that Jonah did so much other stuff. The historical figure, Josephus, who was a Jewish historian, he was not a Christian, but he even described extra-biblically, this guy named Jonah that lived, that ministered, that walked on this earth and then went to Nineveh and made an impact for God there. And if all of that is not enough, catch this. Even Jesus called it historical. Even Jesus looked at Jonah and not calling him allegorical but called him as a historical figure. That was a picture of who Jesus would be one day. He referred to Jonah's ministry as historical in Matthew Chapter 14 and Luke Chapter 11 So here's the deal. I'll just be real honest. If Jesus believes it, I'm on Team Jesus. All right? You can be on whatever team you want to, but I'm sticking with him. He's my savior.

All right. So, it's not a myth. It's true. Verse 2, watch what God says to him. God says go to the city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me now. You never want to be on this team, all right? Its wickedness has come before me. Now, let me give you a couple of things about Nineveh to kind of set our path of why we're going down this path. Nineveh was an incredibly remarkable city. It was a massive city. We're going to see in Jonah later on that Jonah says it took him three days to just walk across the city if you think about it in the historical context, it was about 20 miles a day for those guys for us to be like five. But for them, they walked a lot, right? It's like 20 miles a day. So, you're thinking that the city is about 60 miles across it. History tells us that the walls were 100 feet tall that circled this whole city on top of those walls. There was another 100 feet that had these little turrets are these little towers that were built on it for protection. History tells us through archeological finds that the walls were so thick that you could ride three chariots on the top of the walls back-to-back to back across from each other. It was massive. But also, it was old. The city of Nineveh was established by Nimrod. Now, I know you know who Nimrod is, right? Nimrod was the grandson of Noah. He was the grandson of Noah. In other words, one generation past God cleansing the earth. Nimrod established this city. There were 600,000 people. About 120,000 of them were children. We'll see that in chapter three and not only was this a massive city, a remarkable city. 

It was also extremely evil. It was an evil city. It was wicked. The Ninevites were some of the most cruel and harsh people in all ancient times. They even boasted in their own history, in their own historical writings about how cruel they were to their enemies. And their enemies were anyone that was not them in their history. They tell us about times where they would overtake cities and they would literally skin men, women and children alive and pinned their skins to the walls of their city. They would decapitate other people and pile their skulls up outside their city gates. And there's actually been found a sign above one of these piles in historical and in archeological findings that literally says this is what happens to whom stands against the Assyrians. These are the people that Jonah has been called to preach to. By the way, if you read the Old Testament, you'll see really quickly the Ninevites, one of their chief people that they tried their best to consume was the Israelites.

This was Jonah's people. So, Jonah, catch this, let me just give you the context for a minute. Jonah is being called by God to go reach a country or the Assyrian capital of people who not only hate him but have killed people that he has known, and Jonah knows. One of two things is about to happen to him. And neither one of them does he like. He knows either. Number one, the moment he walks into the city of Nineveh that he will be killed that he'll be pinned to the wall, that he will have a trench dug and be placed up to his chest and it left to die, or he knows this, which is worse in his mind or he knows that if he goes with God, that what he does in God will work and these Ninevites will repent. And He does not want them to repent because he wants them to suffer. Does this sound like anybody you know? He doesn't want to reach his enemies. He wants his enemies to suffer. He doesn't want to reach those that are far from God. He wants them to pay for their sin. In fact, we're going to see in chapter three, it's going to tell us really clearly that he's not sure he wants them saved because he wants them punished but God is calling him God is calling him to be part of the mission of God.

But listen, don't jump on the judgy bandwagon so fast, because here's what I know about you and me. Every single one of us have been called to something in our lives that we haven't done Every single one of us have been called to part of the mission of God to where we have, in fact, put our hand up and said, no, no, no, God, I love you. But not that this is the situation of Jonah. Keep reading with me in verse three. Watch what happens to Jonah when he says no. But Jonah ran away from the Lord, and he headed to Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship that was bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard, and he sailed for Tarshish. To do what? To flee from the Lord. And here begins the rebellion of Jonah against God. Now, I want you to notice something about this verse. I want you to notice that what God is calling Jonah to do is not a unclear request. Okay? There is no ambiguity in what God is calling on Him to do. Just like, let me just say it.

Just like there's no ambiguity of what God is calling you to do. There's no ambiguity in what God is calling me to do. His Scripture is clear. His word is clear. His precepts and his statutes are very clear. Our problem is not in the reception of what God wants us to do. Our problem is the same problem that Jonah had is the fact that we just don't want to do it. We don't want to do what God's called us to do. And look, Jonah knew exactly what God was calling him to do. He just did the direct opposite. Sound familiar? He did the direct opposite. In fact, if you look at a map, if you look at a map of Jonah's life, you'll see that Israel is kind of right here. All right. And of where God is calling him to, is 500 miles to the east, a little bit northeast. Right. But what Jonah does is instead of being called 500 miles to the northeast, Jonah gets on a boat and goes wants to go 2000 miles to the west. All right. Picture this in your head just for a minute. Right. God says go east, go 500 miles east. Jonah says, I'm not about it, I'm going west. It's like he took the compass out and says, if God wants me to go that way. I'm going to go as far as I can this way. In fact, here's what we don't know about this. Unless you study history. Where he was trying to go was Tarshish, which is modern day Spain.

It was the farthest point on the map for the Israelites as far as they knew how to go. So, catch this in his mind. God says Go East Jonah says, I'm going off the map. I'm going as far off the map as I can go. This is as far as land goes in his mind. It's kind of crazy though, because here's the deal about Jonah that you may or may not know. Jonah was a good prophet. Jonah was a great prophet. Jonah loved people. Jonah loved the Lord. Jonah loved the Israelites. Second Kings 14:25 tells us that Jonah was one of Israel's premiere prophets of all the prophets. He advised Jeroboam the second on how to regain land that was taken from him. He advised them how to walk back into the Lord. He had an incredibly successful ministry with the Lord, until God called Him to do something He didn't want to do. Does this sound familiar to anybody? He knew the Lord. He loved the Lord. He worshiped the Lord. He knew the Word of God until God said, Hey, I just need you to do this. And Jonah was like, No, no, I'm not doing it. Despite his past, what Jonah did was he just rebelled. In fact, that's what we're going to look at this morning. We're going to look at Jonah's rebellion. We're going to look really closely into Jonah running away from God. And here's what we're going to let Jonah do. We're going to allow him to help us to not run.

We're going to look at some principles from his run and hopefully because of his principles in this book, that we're going to see how we can avoid ending up in the situation Jonah ended up in. So, let's look at some spiritual lessons from the run. Number one thing that Jonah shows us in this is this number one is that rebellion is simply us saying no to God. That's what rebellion is. You see, I think for some reason in our minds that we have put rebellion as some big grievous sin that is out there that we're just not willing to do. But what Jonah is showing us here is that rebellion is not outward or grievous. It's not even a cultural sin. It's not even something that people may even notice at first. It's not breaking some earthly law or something you necessarily even do against another person or it's not even just you living worse than somebody else. Rebellion is just you not and me not doing something that God has called me to do in rebellion always starts as a secret. It always starts internal. And for some reason, we don't get that because we think rebellion is always just some grievous thing that we do outside against other people. But Jonah has just shown us that rebellion is way more than you. Comparing yourself to somebody else that you think you're living better than. Rebellion is saying no. I just said no to God. So, before we get on this bandwagon, I don't kill people and I don't lie that much. I go to church. Maybe I give a little bit every now and then.

Lordship is one of those things that if it's not absolute and total in our lives, then we've got a question Is he Lord at all? Is he really there? 

In fact, Tim Keller says it like this. He says, You're never farther from God than when you're close to God and say no. Now let me explain that because I think it's a little bit confusing but powerful. You see, it's one thing to say no to God if you're way away from God, right? Because you're not hearing his voice, you're not attuned to him, you're not hearing what he's calling you to do. But it's a whole other thing to trust God, to love God, to want to follow God. But yet there's that one area in your life like Jonah's that you just hold your hand up, say no, now, God, I'm the Lord of this one. You see, I've got a feeling that there are a lot of godly people who look like they're walking with God in every other way. But there's some area in their life that they're just holding their hand up. They're going to Tarshish and they're going to Tarshish. You know, maybe for you, it's a relationship that you're in, quite frankly, you know that it's not from God. You know that this person is not equally yoked to you. And you know that beyond a shadow of a doubt that you've asked God to keep his hand out of it. Maybe for you, it's an activity that you are in is something that you are doing and it's drawing you away from the presence of God. But you've asked God to stay away from it. Maybe for you, it's your time. You've tried to give everything else to God, but you just said, God, I'm the Lord of my time, and I'm going to hold this maybe for you. It's a commitment to worship or commitment to a life group, and you just kind of give it the leftovers of your life. Maybe every other area in your life is straight, but you've just said no to this one.

Maybe for you, it's a calling that God has put on your family to go and to reach the nations. But you're comfortable where you are and everything else is good, you're moral, you're reading your Bible, you're in it, but you've just put your hand up and said no to God. What Jonah is showing us is that rebellion is just simply us just saying, No, God, not doing it. No matter what that thing is. And can I just tell you what Jonah is about to show us is it never works out for us. It's also another truth in verse three seems a little bit hidden so let me read it again. Verse three says, But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa watch this, where he found a ship bound for that port. Write this down and we'll talk about it. Number two truth from the run is this. It's that open doors are not always from God. Open doors are not always from God. Did you see what happened to Jonah right here? Jonah went down to Tarshish, and all of a sudden, he's like, Look at that. I just wanted to go there. And there's a boat there. Man, this must be from God, right? This must be here. You see, for some reason, many people assume that in life, the readiness of the ship is like God saying okay to them. Many people in life think that the readiness of the ship is like God saying, Okay, well, here's the plan for you.

Let me explain this. I can't tell you how many people I've been in conversations with that are clearly doing something against God's will. And they'll say something like this. Well Matt, it just worked out. It just happened. You know, my wife and I were struggling, and I just met this other girl, and she fulfilled all of my dreams. This must be from the Lord. I know that sounds outlandish, but I've literally heard those words more than one time. Matt, I know this deal felt too good to be true. Seemed immoral, but it just must have been from God. How else could it have happened? Matt, I just had this incredible peace about this. It has to be from God. Have you ever thought about the fact that the enemy is out there laying as many traps for you as God is opening doors for you? Have you ever thought about that? We're seeing it in this story. Are we not? Jonah wanted a way out. He wanted to go somewhere. Listen to me. If you want to run from God, there will always be a ship ready to take you there. Always. Every single time, Satan, the enemy will put something in front of you to get you away from where God is.

And here's the deal. Nine times out of ten you have a peace in your heart about it because you're running away from the presence of God. You have an enemy whose whole identity as around readying those ships to take you towards disobedience every single time. Have you ever realized there will always be a girl that responds to you? There will always be another employee that something happens. There will always be a Facebook request that just doesn't seem right. There will always be a deal that's too good to be true. There will always be a relationship that you look at and say, Man, I wish this was. Have you ever noticed that the promise is always there, that you'll get away with it? That's Satan. And your heart will always justify it. Your heart will always have a peace about it. Your heart will always say it just seemed to work out. One of Satan's primary roles is to give you opportunities to flee. He will put things in front of you, to go to give you peace in your heart. But listen to this. Worldly peace cannot and will not ever override God's Will and God's Word. Never. Always look to God's Word, because that's things that Satan puts in front of you are never eternal, they're never eternal.

Keep reading with me, verse four. We've got to go. Here it is. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea. And such a violent storm arose. Do you know the problem of running from God? I just noticed this. He's already there. It doesn't work, right? And such a violent storm arose. God's like really. The ship threatened to break up and all the sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own God. Now pause right there because here's the situation. All the pagan sailors, right? They're scared out of their mind. These people sail for a living, right? They've pulled out all the stops. At this point. They're like pray to your gods, right? They broke out the Ouija board. They got the crystals, they got the prayer cloths, they got everything, They're promising their firstborn whatever. They're like one of these god's has got to pick up the phone. All right? Somebody hear us and watch this. And then they throw the cargo into the sea to lighten up the ship. But Jonah had gone below the deck where he lay down and he fell asleep. The Hebrew there is literally that he fell into a death sleep, the same sleep that God put Adam into. How ironic is this? Right? All the pagans are on top of the deck, praying to whatever comes to their mind, having a theological debate about which God is going to save them.

And the prophet of the God that has been given a message from God, is downstairs asleep. Right? He's downstairs asleep. There's a play on words in the Hebrew language here that's hard to see in the English language. And it's all around this word, down or down under. You'll notice that it's used a bunch of times. You'll see that Jonah went down to Joppa, he went down into the ship, he laid down he was down into a deep sleep. And it's showing what happens to us as we dip our toes into sin that we progress into sin without even realizing the grievous situation that we are in. So, what it's showing us in the Hebrew is to be careful of the drift of sin. Be careful of the non-conscious movement. It's kind of like going into the ocean in front of the condo, right? And then ending up in another city before you know what's going on. That's what sin does to us. That's why adultery at 40 starts with pornography at 20. That's why an eating disorder as an adult starts with jealousy in high school. That's why hard hearted at 50 starts with not obeying and being hard hearted in rebellion against our parents in college.

Beware of the drift. It's where Jonah is. Verse six, the captain went to him and said, How can you sleep? Get up and call on your God. Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish. Then the sailors said to each other, Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity. They cast lots and it fell on surprise - Jonah, right? It's like they spun the bottle and it's like Jonah. Spun it again, Jonah. Roll the dice, Jonah's number. Draw the straw, Jonah. Jonah's like, Really? They're like, Yeah, it's you, right? Verse eight. So, they asked him, Tell us who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Isn't it a little bit ironic that he's a prophet of God sent to proclaim God and pray for those people, and they don't know who he is? Right. Sounds like a lot of churches I know. Watch this. Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? Verse nine, he answered, I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of Heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Verse 10.

This terrified them and they asked, What have you done? They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had already told them. You know, they knew the stories of Egypt. They knew what God did in Egypt. And now they were more scared than they were before. So many principles in this little chunk. But I want you to focus on this one. Number three, story from the runner, lesson from the run, our disobedience, number three to God will always affect others. Our disobedience to God will always affect others. In other words, you could just say it like this. We never sin in private. It may start there, but it always leaks into public. And normally it leaks into those that are closest to us. It always leaks. Oh, man. Didn't Jonah show us this? Now, look, I'm not saying that these sailors were the picture of holiness by any chance. Right. No, they're pagans. Right. But we see clearly in the story that this storm is a result of Jonah. It's a result of Jonah and their suffering because of him. And let me be real honest with you for a minute. You if you are in sin, let me just tell you that some of you has friends and family who are suffering because of your disobedience to God, they’re suffering. Parents, let me just put it like this. Your walk and disobedience to God will always shape your kids. It will always shape your kids. Your kids will mirror who you are.

Do you realize that your kids will grow up materialists if that's what you're training them to be? Do you realize that your kids will group of a minimal view of scripture if that's what you're living in front of them? Do you realize that your kids will grow up with a me first attitude, if that's what they see you showing and see you posting? Do you realize that your kids will grow up with God and church and the body of Christ not being a priority in their life, when you are giving it the leftovers of your life? Your sin will always affect others. Singles, let me tell you this your son in relationships and bouncing from bad one the bad when the bad one is affecting those other singles around you. Students, let me tell you this your school is watching you to see if God is real, they're watching you. They're watching to see if God is worth it or if it's just something you do on the weekends when nothing else better is going on, your sin will always find you out. So, the consequences of our sins catch this. They're not always automatic, but they always trickle down. They always trickle down. And here's the deal. God wants us to be people who give life and not give consequences and bring destruction. One of the greatest gifts that you can give the people around you is your personal holiness from your kids to your friends to your family. Your personal holiest will either give life or it will welcome in destruction. That's what we're seeing in the story, right? Let's keep moving. Number four lesson from the run is this is that God sends storms to break his people from self-reliance.

God sent storms to do this. You could also just say that God brings storms to get our attention. Do you know there's one or two things in your life that will humble you? Either it is your theology, which is what you believe about God, what you know about God, what you trust about God, that God loves you, God forgives you, God gives you life and God has called you. You see that your theology will humble you or your afflictions will humble you. Watch Jonah, right? Most of us are hardheaded, just like him. You see, Jonah, he knew the truth, right? He studied the truth. He was a mouthpiece for God of the truth. He should have known what was going on, but what did he do?

He ran anyway, and God had to remind him, just like He reminds us, because God puts a storm in front of him to get him back in place. Look, not every storm in our lives is a direct result of a specific sin. But many of them are. Many of them are. And what God does is not punish Jonah, but he wants to redirect Jonah. So, here's the two things. If you're in the middle of a storm like Jonah is, you got one or two options either you can submit to God in the storm, and he will save you or you're about to see that. Right? Or you can fight the storm and it might end up killing you. The moral is and the good news is for us is we haven't drowned yet. 

All right. Keep going. Verse 11 says the sea was getting rougher and rougher. So, they asked him, what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us? Pick me up and throw me into the sea, he replied, and it will become calm. I know this is my fault, man, we need to say that to God more. This great storm has come upon you. Verse 13. Instead, the men did their best to roll back to the land, but they could not for the sea grew even wilder than before. You got to give it to the Pagan soldiers, right? They didn't want to kill Jonah. That's more than Jonah cared about them. Just to be honest, But now they're in a rowing contest with God. They're like rowing they're rowing, they're rowing. And God's finger is like you're not going anywhere, right? Verse 14. Does it. Does the Bible not work like that in yall's mind? Because it does mine. All right. Verse 14. 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 for you Lord have done as you please. Verse 15, then, I love this verse. They took Jonah and they threw them overboard. And the raging sea grew calm. You know something I never noticed about this until this week on this verse. I don't know how many times I've read this has been. It's been a few, right? It's kind of a mental picture in my mind. That's kind of funny. In this storm, Jonah is like, I mean, I just picture this raging storm and all these soldiers pick them up and they're like really? He's like, yeah do It. Like, really? Do it. And they throw Jonah overboard. And specifically, what did the Bible say? As soon as Jonah did what? As soon as Jonah hit the water, what happened to him?

The sea became calm. Think about this from Jonah's perspective just for a minute. I've never done this until this week. Think about Jonah for a minute. Jonah's like, bloosh into the water. He pops up out of the water. He's like ha, it worked. Right? Look at that. I should probably get back to the boat, right? Soon as he went back to the boat, verse 17. Right. That's coming next week, right? I mean, a fish swallows him up. But look, before we go off into the deep end, let me just show you a couple of concluding thoughts. Hey, we're getting there, right? You're way better than the 9:30 service. Sorry if you're listening to this. Let me give you two quick principles that kind of wrap up chapter one for us. The first one is what Jonah is showing us, is that a sinner is just a person who chooses their desire over God's. That's what a sinner is. You think for some reason I think we've gone off the deep end and think that sinners are those people, sinners are just people who really just say, no, God, I'm going to do what I want to do.

I'll give you the rest of the stuff and I'll be involved. The rest of I'm just going to do what I want to do. I mean, really, this is a good picture of most of us religious people, right? Jonah was a good prophet. He would give his life for the people of Israel until he was asked to do something that was not in his comfort zone. You see, most of us were pleasing God with most of our lives until God ask us to do something that means a lot to us. Up until this point, Jonah could have his life and have his love and serve God at that same time. But now God called him to do something that was a sacrifice to him. And the question became, God, I'm not really sure you're worth that. So, the question for us is, what is God calling us to do that we're saying that same thing? You see, real obedience is when we value God and when He's so precious to us to know how to what He asks, I just say Yes. And I trust him for the results. I trust him for the rest. You see, I think for some of us, our Christianity is kind of like a one-way street.

We love what God does for us. We love like Jonah does. We love the family deal. We love the cultural deal of Christianity. We love to get out of jail or get out of hell free card. But whoa, God, don't ask me to give. Don't ask me to do that. Jonah shows us something, and that's just not us being a little bit Hmm. That's sin. That's sin in our lives when we say no to God. You know, one of the coolest things about this book is this is a picture of the missional calling that all of us live out in our lives. In fact, we're Jonah all through this book we're Jonah, the Jews got it right on this book. Every time they read this book, which is every single year on Yom Kippur, they read the book of Jonah, by the way. They read all four chapters at the end of the book. They stand up in unison and they say, together, we are Jonah. Or they say, I am Jonah. So, the question is, do I value my desires more than God's desires? Here's the second point of the whole first chapter and is this the real saviors, Jesus? The real saviors Jesus?

You see, you could say in this that this whole chapter one is a contrast between how God feels about the Ninevites and how Noah is, how Jonah feels about the Ninevites. God wants them saved. Jonah wants them destroyed. But when Jonah comes about not to spoil the rest of the story, but then it Ninevites end up repenting, we see that Jonah is a slim picture of who Jesus is to us. He's the savior of the Ninevites. But who is Jesus the Savior of? He's the savior to all of us. In fact, catch this. Jonah was thrown into the sea and spent three days in the body of a fish and spit up on to dry land to preach to the Ninevites repentance. Jesus was crucified thrown into the sea of God's wrath, and it was calm, spent three days into the belly of the earth, came out of it to preach repentance to all of us. In fact, Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 12:39. He says, A wicked and adulterous generation ask for a sign, but none will be given except the sign of Jonah the prophet for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish. So, the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The difference is Jonah did it involuntarily in his disobedience. But Jesus, catch this what he did for you and for me. He did it voluntarily in his love. In his love. So, look, not only do we say that we are Jonah, in this book. Every week, I want you to also say we're Nineveh. We're Nineveh and we need a savior. And our savior is Jesus who died for us. Chapter one all about the missional call. So let me ask as we close. Is God calling you to do something? Is God calling you to speak to someone? Is God calling you to jump into a service? Is God calling you to volunteer in his body of Christ? Is God calling you to be obedient with your time, your treasures, your resources, you’re giving your family and what are you going to do?

Number two, are you in a storm right now? Is there a storm in your life, where you just need to say, God, I'm sorry and I'm yours? Number three, do you need the savior? Do you need the savior? Listen, you can run, but he's still the savior. It's so much better to just submit, to say yes. You know, I know a lot of us are church people in here. A lot of us grew up in church. We've given our lives to Christ. Christ is our king. I'm just going to ask you, what's that one thing today that you're holding back? Is it your life? Do you need to give your heart to Jesus today? 

Lord Jesus, as we have this time this morning of just reflection and invitation. God, I pray that in the stillness of this moment, Lord, you show us that we are Jonah, you have called us to say yes to whatever it is, and to you. But God also, I just pray that you are calling people unto you, Jesus, God, that you show them that you are saving us, Ninevites. Thank you, Jesus, for this morning. Thank you for people in this church. Thank you for this time of decision. 

Let's stand and sing together.