"Running From God"
Sermon Transcript for September 14, 2003
(2nd message in a 4-part sermon series)By Rev. Mike Beck
We continue today the second of a 4-part sermon series on the book of Jonah. Last week we looked at Chapter 1 and Jonah’s intent on running away from God’s call upon his life. We looked at five phrases found in the first four verses.
The Word of the Lord came to Jonah: It says first of all “the word of the Lord came to Jonah…” And we were reminded that God’s Word still comes to us today in a variety of ways. We have a choice then to make of whether or not we will respond.
Jonah ran away from the Lord: In Jonah’s case the second phrase we looked at was the phrase “Jonah ran away from the Lord…” The Lord had asked him to go north to Nineveh to preach. Instead Jonah goes down to Joppa, buys a ticket on a ship taking him to Tarshish almost 2500 miles away from where God had called him to go. And we talked about the incredible lengths to which some of us go at times to try and run from a God who loves us. And I reminded you that as we work through the series Christians, also at numerous times in their lives, are in a variety of ways running from God.
He found a ship: The third phrase was the simple phrase, “He found a ship…” And we were reminded that whenever we move away from the call of God, Satan will be right there ready to lay a complete transportation facilities for us.
After paying the fare: Then it says, “After paying the fare…” Jonah didn’t realize at the time how costly it would be. For soon he would be thrown overboard. And we were reminded that when we choose to disobey God, we pay a high cost physically, emotionally and spiritually.
He went down: And then we ended by saying, “He went down…” -- A phrase that’s used so often. And we were reminded that when we choose to turn away from God, there’s ultimately only one direction we will go and that is down!
So we begin Chapter 2 today. And as we do I want us to note the incredible chess match that is going on between Jonah and God. Back in Chapter 1, Verse 1 it says, “The Word of the Lord came to Jonah”. Then one of the most important words of Scripture, a simple little word “but”, Verse 3—“but Jonah ran away”. Chapter 1, Verse 4, says “Then the Lord send a great wind”. But we read in Verse 6, “but Jonah had gone below deck.” Verse 15 of Chapter 1, speaking of the sailors it says, “then they took Jonah and threw him overboard” And then Verse 17, (now the “but” is the Lord’s), “but the Lord provided a great fish.” Chapter 2, Verse 1, “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord, His God.” And then in Verse 10, of Chapter 2, “And the Lord commanded the fish.” And then the verse we will begin with next week in Chapter 3, “Then the Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.”
What a master chess match! God makes the first move, Jonah responds, God counters and on and on. Despite Jonah’s disobedience, God is not willing to give up on Jonah. For God is a seeking God. God is a searching shepherd. God is a patient gardener. And let’s be sure to keep this in mind. All of God’s moves, even when Jonah gets thrown overboard, are ultimately moves of love. Moves to try and restore Jonah in to a right relationship with Him.
And so I want us to think for just a moment of the ways that God works in our lives to get our attention. That moment in which something got our attention that brought us to a saving faith in Christ. We Wesleyans have got a term for that. We call it “prevenient grace” or as in Jonah’s case, the times in which God has worked in our lives when we have backslidden to restore us to a right relationship with Him. Let me say this, just how God works in our lives is often difficult to fully understand. The difference between those things that God causes and those things that God allows is an issue we will never be able to fully grasp in our human understanding. That’s why Paul wrote in Romans 11: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out.”
God will use whatever is available at His disposal to try and get our attention. In Jonah’s case, it was a great fish. And if there was time today for me to open up this service for testimonies, dozens of you could rise to your feet and witness to events that occurred in your life that God used to turn you around and get you headed in the right direction. I’m looking out there at my Dad who use to play golf on Sunday morning. That’s why he never wanted me to take up the game! But when he picked up yours truly, a little five year old boy, from under the wheel of a Ford tractor that had just ran over his head, if you would talk to him, he would say, “God said, ‘Glen, you’ve got your priorities way out of whack’.” And we thank God for those occurrences, painful though they are.
What events may be going on in your life right now that God is trying to use to wake you up and to get your attention? We spoke last week of the “freedom of will” that God gives to each of us. And earlier we reflected on the chess match going back and forth between Jonah and God. God in His love, he will counter and counter and counter again to try and get our attention. Why would He go to all of that trouble? Because in ways that are too deep for us to understand, He loves us in His words “with a love that will not let us go.” But that choice to respond is always ours. That’s what that picture that we’ve all seen of Christ knocking on the door teaches us. For if you look at that picture closely, Christ is knocking but there is no doorknob on His side. The doorknob is on our side. We must open the door. And as we’ve been thinking about the way God tries to get our attention, let us be reminded there will come a day when our opportunities to respond run out. And if we have continued to say “no” to God, the consequences we will deal with can be tragic and eternal.
Let’s play “name that tune” for just a moment. The last service, there weren’t very many of them, they didn’t do very good. I’m expecting you to do better. Now this is talk back time. Fill in the blanks. Put your hand in the hand of the Man who ญญญญญญญญญ _______________________. (stills the waters). Put your hand in the hand of the Man who ___________________. (calms the seas). But the story of Jonah reminds us of the opposite truth -- “God not only comforts the disturbed, but at times he chooses to disturb the comfortable”. God not only comforts the disturbed, but sometimes He disturbs the comfortable.
If you remember the story, Jonah had gone down below deck to sleep. He knew he was running from God but obviously now he’s gotten pretty comfortable with his sin and disobedience. The storm comes up. Where’s Jonah? Fast asleep down below deck! And, friends, at times sleep is a good sign of a clear and easy conscious. But in Jonah’s case, sleep is the sign of a deafened and deadened conscience! Beware lest that happens to you! For as long as we are troubled and uneasy about our sin and disobedience, there is still hope for us. But if we go to sleep in our disobedience, if we are no longer concerned about disregarding God’s command, at that point we are in grave danger.
Friends, I am confident that the Holy Spirit is trying in these messages to speak to persons hearing my voice who are running from God, whose actions if they go overboard are going to leave crumbled pieces, not only in their own life, but also in the lives of others around them. For remember, in Jonah’s case his disobedience was not only affecting himself. His actions were putting the lives of the entire crew in danger. And, friends, the same is true for us. We are not islands in and to ourselves. The ripples of our actions affect others. A good example of that happened just a couple of months ago on Highway 44 between here and Shelbyville when a devoted public servant of our legislature, a beloved teacher at Shelbyville Middle School is returning after a lengthy night session to his home in Shelbyville. But there was another man who chose to exercise his God-given freedom of will to drink until his blood alcohol content was .22. And tragic consequences occurred not only for that young man, but also for this innocent person driving home from his work.
In Verse 1 of Chapter 2 we begin to see the words that turn the story in a different direction when it said, “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord His God”. What I want to do in the time that remains is just very quickly look at the elements of this prayer. They are a model for us for those times in which we know we have drifted away from God and how we find the way back.
Element #1: There is a realization of his lost condition: (Verses 5-6a) What has to happen first of all is a realization of our lost condition. This is not a pretty picture. “The engulfing waters threaten me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down.” The road back to God always begins with the realization we’ve gotten off the road.
Element #2: There is faith: (Verse 4) For Jonah says, “I have been banished from your sight, oh God.” But then listen to this, “yet I will look again upon your holy temple.” Sometimes our faith is weak, but my Bible says something about it. If we have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, God will take and use it. We’re so often like the man who said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” There’s the element of faith.
Element #3: There is a remembering of the faithfulness of God: (Verse 7) “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to your holy temple”. The word “remember” is one of the most important words in the English language. It can do so much for us at so many times in life. George Jacobs shared with our prayer group the testimony that his granddaughter shared at High Street United Methodist Church in Muncie just, I think, George, a month ago talking about what the ALPHA course had meant in her life. A young lady who had been adopted at an early age, but had drifted far, far from God. And in that testimony said, “After three days of lying on the bathroom floor with a needle in my arm, I remembered my parent’s church in Rochester and sitting on the steps as a young child.” And her way back to God began when she remembered that, traveled to Rochester, sat on those same steps again, and mustered the courage to start the long road back.
Element #4: There was a spirit of thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness: (Verse 9a) “But I, with a song of thanksgiving… (Part of transcript missing due to tape change.)
Element #5: There is a spirit of repentance that expresses itself in actions: (Verse 9b) He says, “But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good.” Salvation, friends, comes totally from Christ but we’ll receive it only when there is an attitude of repentance. It’s not just a head thing. And repentance is so easy to understand. Repentance is simply when we are walking the wrong direction, and we stop, and we remember, and with faith we turn to God. And then repentance always has this element—I start walking in a different direction. So Jonah says, “I will sacrifice here. What I have vowed, I will make good.”
Element #6: There is an acknowledgment of the source of his deliverance: (Verse 9b) It is not what Jonah has done as important as that is. He says, the last part of verse 9, “Salvation comes from the Lord.”
Jonah had made the discovery that we perhaps need to make and it is this—that often times when we try to run from God, we end up running smack dab into God. Why? Because he loves us! We don’t feel lovable. In the witness that George’s granddaughter made, she said, “I called home but they had given me so many second chances, I wasn’t going to be surprised at all if they turned me away.” But like in the parable of the Prodigal, and she referred to it as the Prodigal Daughter, when she got home do you know the first thing the parents did for her? They gave her a makeover; they bought her new clothes. Reminds me of a story I heard in Luke 15 one time. God loves us. He’s made us to be in relationship with Him. And although in our freedom of will we can choose to run from God, whenever we do God is going to become the “hound of heaven” ever calling us back unto Himself.
Are you running from God in some way today? If so, I want you to do what Jonah did. I want you to reach out to God. In fact use these elements in your prayer saying, “Lord, I’m lost and I know it. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Lord, I remember. Lord, I’m thankful. Lord, I repent. Ultimately, Lord, I’m not trusting in me, my trust is in you and you alone.” Make that your prayer this morning as we take now some quiet moments with a loving God.
“Oh Lord, if we are running from you help us to come home. We can do that right now in the quiet of our hearts. If that is our prayer, oh Lord, in a spirit of repentance may we give service to the prayer of our lips in whatever way you are calling us to move towards you. In the loving name of our Heavenly Father, we thank you as you counter again and again and again when we have been so stubborn and disobedient. Amen”
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