Series on Book Of Jonah #2
"RUNNING TO GOD!"
-or-
"Fillet of
Soul!"
TEXT:
Jonah 1:17-2:10
INTRO: It is
amazing what people will do to run away from God! They will go to great lengths to run
away from Him:
a. By
business (overworking) ... always working.
b. By
avoidance ... always changing the subject when God comes
up.
c. By
procrastination ... "someday I'll
accept the Lord ... when the time is
right."
d. By
denial ... "I just don't believe there is a
God."
e. By
rationalization ... "If there is a loving God I just believe everyone will go
to heaven."
f.
By anger! "I don't
care!"
g. By
good deeds! Too busy doing good
they don't think they need God.
The tragedy of this and all methods of running away
from God is that you REALLY CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM HIM ... AT SOME POINT
YOU WILL RUN INTO HIM! "Every knee will
bow, every tongue confess..."
It is better to run into Him on this side of eternity then wait until you
are on the other side!!!
ILLUS:
... you can
safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God
hates all the same people you do. -- Anne
Lamott in Bird by Bird. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 8.
PROP. SENT:
Jonah's experience demonstrates that those who will run TO God will find
deliverance and mercy ... forgiveness is the joy of God for those looking for
Him! [reminds me of the kid's song: "SO big,
you can't get around Him, SO tall
you can't get over Him, SO low you can't go under Him, SO wide you can't go
around Him...!"]
A.
Provision!? Jonah
1:17
1. A
large fish was hardly what you would call "luxury class" accommodations back to
shore!
a.
But it was God's means of providing a safe return for
Jonah!
b.
Sometimes God's provisions are looking us in the face and we can't
recognize them ... or we find them
unsatisfactory!
2.
Because Jonah had been on the run God's provision was not exactly
pleasant lest it promote in Jonah an attitude of "it doesn't
matter" ... but it was life saving and would get him on the right
track again!
3.
People on the run from God will find that God will send them or provide
for them a return trip ... but it might not be a comfortable provision ... after
all God wants us to know that running from Him creates more pain than it
solves!
4.
Does God then let running Christians sometimes
"Crash?"
a.
YES! ... He might let them experience real low depths in order for them
to see their need of Him!
ILLUS:
My most painful
experiences have been when I've had a problem and no one loved me enough to tell
me about it.
-- Paul Cedar, pastor, Leadership, Vol. 5, no.
3.
b.
The large fish wasn't the bottom yet ... 3 days and 3 nights in the
depths of the sea were the bottom experience for Jonah! This however provided Jonah with the
impetus he needed to finally cry out to God for help and forgiveness for
running!
B.
Prayer Jonah
2:1-2
1.
Trapped by God and Jonah's own bitterness he now recognizes God's
efforts to bring him back alive and give him another
chance!
a.
Prayer breaks out ... and Jonah acknowledges that God hears
him!
b.
How unlike the sailors' idols that they cried to, but who could not
hear!
2.
Jonah by now realizes that though unpleasant the great fish was a way for
God to grant him mercy and life!
3. I
wonder how many of us see this in the bad circumstances we sometimes find
ourselves in ... or do we dig in deeper by becoming even more bitter and angry
towards God?
ILLUS:
A number of
years ago, a Navy jet fighter plane shot itself down over the deserts of
a.
Living in the belly of a fish for 3 days would make him
BITTER...
b. OR
-- it would make him BETTER!
4.
There wasn't much left to do but pray ... but sometimes that's
enough!
C.
Panic!
Jonah
2:3-6a
1.
Notice how honest Jonah is about the experience and who he blames or
doesn't blame for his predicament!
a. "You (God) hurled
me into the deep!"
Notice Jonah's not blaming the sailors ... though they had been the ones
who physically threw him overboard Jonah realizes they were just being used by
God to get him where God could get through to
him!
b. He
recounts the moments he hit the water ... before the fish arrived he thought he
was done for ... the "currents swirled around him" ... no sense of
hope remained, no answer seemed possible except death ... BUT GOD HAD A FISH ON
THE LINE AND READY TO CARRY HIM BACK ALIVE! This was a real case of God being a "fisher of
men!"
ILLUS:
Jawanza
Kunjufu, in his book, Restoring the Village,
writes:
When I was a 14-year-old high school freshman, school was dismissed early
for a teachers' meeting. I conveniently neglected to tell my parents about the
change and arranged to bring my girlfriend over to my house. We weren't planning
to study.
As
we were going up the steps, my neighbor, Mrs. Nolan, poked her head out of a
window and said, "You're home awfully early,
Jerome."
"Yes, Ma'am," I said, improvising a lame story about how we planned to
review algebra problems.
"Does your mother know you're home this early," Mrs. Nolan persisted,
"and do you want me to call her?"
I
gave up. "No, Ma'am. I'll go inside and call her while Kathy sits on the
porch."
Mrs. Nolan saved our careers that
day. If Kathy had gotten pregnant, she might not have become the doctor she is
today. And my father had warned me that if I made a baby, the mutual fund he set
up for me to go to college or start a business would have gone to the child. I'm
glad Mrs. Nolan was at her window, looking out for me. -- Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching
(Baker), from the editors of Leadership.
2.
Notice the irony of Verse 4: Jonah who was trying to run away from
God now acknowledges his fear of being banished from God's sight ... a reference
of going to hell and never being able to see God
again!
a.
Some people act so tough when they are running away from God ... but when
it gets down to the nitty-gritty they are just as scared about leaving God
behind as anything!
b. It
was bitterness that created Jonah's run away from God ... and the thought of
never being with God brought him to
repentance!
c.
Like a kid who in anger threatens to run away, they don't really want to,
yet they try ... when the anger and bitterness ends they
return!
d.
Notice Jonah's cry after his fear of really losing God ... "I will look
again toward your holy temple" ... in part because he now had lost
his bitterness and recognized God's hand in trying to get him to
return!
3.
God has an interesting message to teach him in all this, like his call to
Nineveh -- a city which he didn't believe deserved God's mercy, yet God desires
mercy ... this is shown here in that he recognized he didn't deserve God's mercy
... just like Nineveh, yet God sought to save him too in
mercy!
a.
This is grace ... "undeserved
favor!"
b.
God takes no delight in the lostness of anyone ... nor the running
saints, He will go to great lengths, even painful ones, to get us to turn,
whatever it takes!
4.
Jonah describes the early signs of drowning in verses 5-6a
a.
Engulfed by swirling waters.
b.
The deep surrounded me.
c.
Seaweed was wrapped around his
body.
d. To
the roots of the mountains (meaning the
bottom of the sea) he could feel himself sinking ... it looked like he would
be barred for good from the atmosphere, BUT
GOD...
D.
PRESERVED! Jonah
2:6b-7
1. "BUT"
... God brought him back, saved his life literally, and
spiritually!
a. "From the
pit" ... was an expression referring to the place of the dead where
they were forever separated from the presence of
God.
b. It
was also recognition of God saving his physical life ... God wasn't through with
Jonah yet!
2. "When my life was
ebbing away" (Jonah 2:7) ... HE
REMEMBERED THE LORD, suddenly bitterness didn't matter anymore ... living
did!
a.
Will God let running Christians sink so low!
YES!
b.
Sometimes it takes this to get them past the petty things they are bitter
over to finally call unto God and run back into His
arms!
ILLUS:
Garry
c.
Usually the stronger the bitterness the stronger the measures needed for
a return!
d.
Jonah was a good case in point!
He was capable of coming around under just the right circumstances. God could have stopped him earlier some
other way, God could have made all the tickets available for a boat to Joppa
"sold out," or God could have made the wind blowing the wrong direction the day
he wanted to leave, or made his mule not get him there in time ... but Jonah had
a "whale of a case" of bitterness,
thus appropriate measures would be needed ... God
knows!
3.
Jonah carefully sees the difference between false gods and the Lord God,
while false gods are silent in your time of need God will hear a sincere prayer
no matter where you find yourself!
II. A
WINNER OF A TEST! Jonah
2:8-10
A.
Perceptive! Jonah
2:8
1.
Those that put their trust in anything except God will forfeit the only
means of grace ... they will be lost.
2. Perhaps Jonah was now getting a
feeling of how God was feeling about the lost souls in
ILLUS:
A preacher and
an atheist barber were once walking through the city slums. Said the atheist
barber to the preacher: "This is why I cannot believe in a God of love. If God
was as kind as you say, He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and
squalor. He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to dope and other
character-destroying habits. No, I cannot believe in a God who permits these
things."
The
minister was silent until they met a man who was especially unkempt and filthy.
His hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his
face. Said the minister, "You cannot be a very good barber or you would not
permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut
or a shave."
Indignantly the barber answered: "Why blame me for that man's condition.
I cannot help it that he is like that. He has never come in my shop; I could fix
him up and make him look like a
gentleman!"
Giving the barber a penetrating
look, the minister said: "Then do not blame God for allowing these people to
continue in their evil ways, when He is constantly inviting them to come and be
saved. The reason these people are slaves to sin and evil habits is that they
refuse the One who died to save and deliver them." -- Source Unknown
3.
The case was clear to Jonah ... IT IS GOD, OR IT IS
NOTHING!
a.
Pity those who trust in idols.
b.
Those that ignore Christ lose more than just joy in this life; they
forfeit eternal life with Christ ... their greatest
loss!
B.
Promise! Jonah
2:9
1. It
doesn't sound like a bitter Jonah now does
it?
a. "I will sing a
song of thanksgiving!"
b.
Amazing how God's grace can change a bitter heart ... all this while
still in the great fish's gut!
2.
Jonah promises renewal of his vows before God ... you
know:
a. To
serve Him faithfully.
b. To
guard against a bitter spirit.
c. To
not live for just self.
d. To
recognize God's true place in his life...
e. To
understand that God is source of life and grace!
SALVATION!
3.
What had changed at this point?
Certainly not the circumstances, Jonah was still in the belly of the
great fish ... BUT JONAH WASN'T RUNNING AWAY FROM GOD ANYMORE ... In fact he was
RUNNING TO GOD!
ILLUS:
True
story:
In
A few weeks later, on his way to
court to face the charges, Antonio crashed
his car ... because he wasn't wearing his glasses. -- "Strange World," Campus Life, Vol. 55, no.
9.
C.
PHEW! Jonah
2:10
1.
The ride from God was over ... "plop plop,
fizz fizz; oh what a relief it
is!"
a.
Back now where he started from, not quite as sweet smelling as before,
but God would allow clean up and then
ministry!
b. Of
course when he told his Elders his fish story they likely didn't accept the
quoted size of the fish! Some
things probably never change!
2.
The point here: GOD STILL LOVED HIM ... AND WAS GIVING HIM ANOTHER
CHANCE! We serve a BIG GOD, the God
of second chances!
ILLUS:
In 1989 Zita,
the last empress of Austria and the last queen of Hungary, died. She was buried
in the royal crypt in
3.
You see when you stop running away from God and run TO HIM you will run
smack dap in the middle of all HIS GRACE, LOVE, FORGIVENESS,
etc!
4.
God can change the hardest heart ... when it turns toward Him ... SO WHY
RUN AWAY ... RUN TOWARDS HIM!
CONCLUSION: Running away from God only
secures more pain and emptiness ... and sometimes greater bitterness than
running TO God! Running TO God will
land you in His arms of forgiveness, mercy, grace, love, joy, and eternal
life! Who would be crazy enough to
run away from that ... certainly not someone like you, RIGHT? You don't want to be the "one that got
away!"