"Running With God"
Sermon Transcript for September 21, 2003
(3rd message in a 4-part sermon series)By Rev. Mike Beck
We continue today the 3rd in a 4-part series of sermons on the little Old Testament book of Jonah. Let’s do a quick review of the first two chapters. Jonah was a prophet of God. God had told him to go to Nineveh. But Jonah didn’t want that assignment and so ran from God’s call, boarded a ship headed in exactly the opposite direction. And we noticed last week the chess match going on between God and Jonah. The story began, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah…but Jonah runs away. And then God sends a great wind…but Jonah is asleep down below deck. The sailors then throw Jonah overboard…next move in the chess match, but the Lord sends a great fish. And then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God…and God delivers Jonah back on to dry ground.”
God used some drastic steps to get Jonah’s attention. But inside that great fish, Jonah learned the lesson that each of us needs to learn – that when we try to run away from God, what will happen is that we will end of running right in to God! That’s what Psalm 139 had to say to us last week in our Psalter. Here these words again when the Psalmist said, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me.”
Jonah had bought a ticket to Tarshish thinking it was a one-way ticket. But what Jonah didn’t realize was when he boarded the ship the agent collecting tickets on the gang-plank was none other than God himself in disguise and on the other side of that one way ticket the agent stamped these words, “Return Fare Guaranteed”.
Chapter 3 begins with one of the most encouraging versus in all of scripture, “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.” Oh, what a reminder that God never gives up on us! The Psalmist said, “His love is from everlasting to everlasting. His mercies are new every morning!” We think that it would have been easier for God to have just given Jonah a dishonorable discharge and gone out and found somebody else to do the job. But thank God for Jonah, Chapter 3, Verse 1. For God is a God of a 2nd chance, and a 22nd chance! So we might say that Jonah becomes the original author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He leaves on a sailing vessel, he returns on a “whaling” vessel! And now Jonah is saying, “I’m ready now, God, to run with you”.
Jonah is back now on dry ground. And perhaps Jonah asks, as we sometimes ask, “Lord, can you still use me despite my disobedience and my shortcomings?” And God’s answer to Jonah and his answer to each of us is a resounding “yes”! It’s a principle that is affirmed again and again in Scripture. Let me give you some examples. We like to read those great Psalms of David. We read in Psalms where God said of David, “He is a man after my own heart.” But I wonder if we don’t too quickly forget that this same David, who had numerous wives of his own, lusted after Bethsheba, committed adultery with her, had her husband sent to the front lines where he knew he would be killed. David was an accomplice to murder and an adulterer. But how God touches our hearts with Psalms of David! God didn’t give up on David. Do you remember the story of Elijah there in that cave scared to death for his life, discouraged and depressed. But God still used Elijah. How about Simon Peter in the New Testament? The one who said, “Lord, all the rest of these guys may desert you, but you can count on me. I’ll never desert you.” And before the cock had crowed three times, Peter had denied even knowing His Lord. But it was this same Peter who legend tells us when he was martyred for his faith, after faithfully preaching the gospel, said to his executioners, “I’m not worthy to be able to be crucified as my Lord. Crucify me upside down.” God used a John Mark who had deserted Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey. But God takes the same John Mark and uses him to become the author of the first gospel.
The Disciple Bible Study group that I am having the privilege to lead on Sunday evening. So many of the folks in there have very little Bible knowledge. In our meeting last week we were reflecting on the readings, but someone in the group said, “I was so encouraged! I read these stories and you know what? They are people just like me.” Warts and all, shortcomings and failures, but God still is a God who reaches out. And God is ready now to use Jonah, he’s ready to use you, he’s ready to use me – despite our failures. In fact, friends, I’m convinced that one of the greatest lies the enemy tells God’s people is when they sense the call of God to some ministry, the enemy will get in the other ear, “You don’t know enough. You’re not good enough. You wait until you’ve got your life completely in order, then let God use you.” And Satan knows that if he gets us to buy in to that lie, we never do anything for God.
Now, let’s not miss the magnitude of Jonah’s assignment. Think about it—a Jew preaching to the Assyrians. You want to bring that down into contemporary days, it’s like God saying to a Jewish evangelist, “I want you to come and preach a street revival over on the West Bank!” That wouldn’t be an assignment that any of us wanted. Nineveh is a large and powerful city. It was one of the most wicked cities of that day. But despite the magnitude of the task, Jonah is now obedient – although in purpose it may be a reluctant obedience, as we’ll look at next week. But he goes to Nineveh, and his message, which God had given him, it’s not another sermon. It only contains one point. His message is simply this. He says, “People of Nineveh, repent! You’ve got 40 days. If you haven’t repented by the end of 40 days, you’ve had it.”
Two points I want to stop and make here. The first is this: God is a God of a 2nd chance and a 22nd chance and maybe if we are lucky enough to get it, 52nd chance. But God also reveals clearly in His word as he did through Jonah to the people of Nineveh, there will come a day of reckoning. If you have not responded, those 2nd chances are not unlimited. And the second message is primarily for those of us who have been called to preach the gospel. We periodically need to ask ourselves this question: Is it God’s message that we are proclaiming or as we work in our study throughout the week, do we opt for a safe and comfortable message that we think people want to hear? For friends, if you don’t leave this sanctuary periodically uncomfortable, if you don’t leave at times feeling that your toes have been stepped on, then maybe Reverend Dan and I are not doing our job of faithfully proclaiming the whole gospel.
Jonah preaches the message, and low and behold, the people respond! All the way up to the King! And in this story, that may be a greater miracle than Jonah and the great fish! But you see, as God was calling to Jonah, what Jonah didn’t realize was that God had already gone ahead of him, faithfully preparing the way. Phillips Translation translates I Thessalonians 5:24 this way, “He who calls you is utterly faithful, and He will finish what He has set out to do.” Friends, that is a marvelous promise. In fact, I want you to read it with me. It’s a promise for you as well. Would you join me? “He who calls you is utterly faithful, and He will finish what He as set out to do.” That’s what Jonah had to learn here. A big assignment – yes! But Jonah had forgotten he also had a very big God!
And so I ask you, where is that principle true for you in your life today? There may be some of you who are afraid that if you sell out completely to God you are going to have to give up too much. May I remind you this morning, if that is you, that God made you. God holds the blueprints to your life. And Jesus promised that He had come “that we might have life and have it in all of its fullness.”
Maybe there are some of you that are facing some decision or you are battling some problem and you are weak in worry and you are sure you do not have the resources within to deal with that. God never intended you to live this life on your own strength. His word promises, “When we are weak, we can tap in to His unlimited strength.”
Is your faith wavering today? Then get out your Bible and read the stories within of people just like me and just like you. And remember; remember that time in the past, those times that God was there for you. If He was there for you in the past, is he not also faithful to be there for you today and in all the future days of this life?
Or maybe there is someone here who has never taken that first step to become a Christian. You are feeling, “I don’t know enough. I’m not good enough.” Or, “If I start down that journey, I’m going to fall along the way.” If that’s you, let me invite you to remember the elements of Jonah’s prayer that we looked at last week in Chapter 2. Simply say to God, “Lord, I’m lost. I know I need you. Lord, I believe. I don’t have it all put together but I do believe. Help my unbelief.” Say to God, “I remember your faithfulness” perhaps in Godly parents, perhaps in days earlier before you have wandered far from Him. Say to the Lord, “I’m thankful that you are a God of a 2nd chance and a 42nd chance.” Say to God, “I repent. I know I’m going in the wrong direction and I am stopping and turning around. But I want now to run with you.” And then say in closing, “Lord, I’m trusting in You. I know I’ll fail, but I also know that you will never fail me.”
A British rock star was wonderfully converted several years ago. But he became very outspoken in his witness for Christ. And one of his friends came to him shortly thereafter and in kind of a snooty way said to him, “I understand you’ve jumped on the Jesus bandwagon.” To which the rock star’s reply was simple but profound. He said, “Yep”. He said, “I came to the conclusion that it was the only wagon that was going anywhere!”
And so I ask, are you on God’s bandwagon today? The Word of God tells us “the lust of the world and the desires thereof will pass away, but he who does the will of God abides forever. And then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.” How many times has it come to you? How many times does it have to come before you are willing to say “yes”? Are you running with God this morning? Let us pray, “Oh Lord, if we have ears to hear, no doubt we find ourselves someplace in this old story—a story that’s been ridiculed so often but is so filled with the truth of your ways and of our ways. Oh Lord, if there are persons here right now who know they have been running from you, then maybe we should plea they feel like they could run in to you. May they realize your outstretched arms of love and may they begin to run with you even in this very moment. For you are with us here and when we reach out to you, your arms of love are there waving to receive us. Hear our prayer, oh Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn