Invest and Invite
Jonah #2 “The Go Mentality”
Read Jonah 1:1-3
What do Jonah, Moses, David in the OT, Jacob in the OT, the prophet Elijah, and Peter the number 1 disciple of Jesus have in common?
They were all runners. They ran from responsibilities, they ran from duty, they ran from daring opportunity, they ran from calling but mostly, they ran from the Lord at some point in their life.
Moses ran after he had tried to make God’s plan happen by his own hand, his own power. Remember how he felt the call to save his people? Remember how he killed the Egyptian, the beginning of the revolution? But when it didn’t pan out like he thought he ran. He ran from God, he gave up on God…until God sent a storm.
David ran when he sinned. He didn’t want to face it, didn’t want to confess it and so he ran from God and pretended it never happened…until God sent a storm.
Jacob ran by being self sufficient. He did it his way, in his time and couldn’t be bothered with God’s calling on his life. So God sent a storm into his life and made him stop and face Him.
Elijah ran from a woman. It was a powerful woman who promised that she would have his head on a platter. Here he was the prophet who called fire down from heaven and took on 450 false prophets, and now he was running, scarred, nervous, hiding out. God sent a storm that made him get his act together.
Peter was a runner. Disappointed with his own failure he ran back to his old job, his old ways and tried to forget about the divine calling on his life to be an apostle. He was running from Jesus, he didn’t want Jesus to see the guilt on his face. God sent a storm to get him back.
Jonah was a runner too. Running from his calling. Running from his duty. Getting away as fast as he could.
- He hated those Ninevahites. He didn’t want to talk to them. He didn’t want to reach them, for all he cared they could go to hell. They were mean, brutal, different, partying people who didn’t deserve to be saved.
So Jonah ran. The Bible says he was running from God. This thing is all about God. It’s not a referendum on the Ninahvites, it’s not about the plan, and it’s not about what you think of me, ITS ABOUT GOD AND WHAT YOU WILL DO WITH WHAT HE IS ASKING.
He was fleeing God’s presence..
You know why much of the church has lost its power? Because many of us are running from God’s presence. Like Jonah we have a clear cut mission, but that mission doesn’t really appeal to us, why would God ask to do something like that anyway?
“Those Ninahvites are going to take a lot more work than I can muster up.”
“I might miss the price is right.”
I would like to talk to for a minute about a mystical aspect of being a Christian…this “Presence of God” concept. What is means to run from it, what it means to be in it.
Have you ever run from the presence of God?
In the NT people ran to be in the presence of Jesus. The only ones who ran away from it were the dissenters, the deserters, the complainers, the “in”power group.
In the presence, the literal, physical presence of Jesus, there was power. There was awe; there was a degree of love that allowed people to bare their souls as sinful and unworthy as they were. There was always something happening…
People were drawn to his presence, burdens were made lighter, and troubles that dogged them seemed insignificant. When people were in his presence they were in the presence of the Almighty, the All powerful, the all knowing AMD THAT WAS GREAT…
Jesus exuded strength when you were in his presence. Nothing was impossible. A mountain of a problem became miniscule. Evil was banished. Sins forgiven. There was grace, an acceptance that was unavailable anywhere else.
His presence was exhilarating and miraculous. It was safe, warm and peaceful. There was total freedom.
You just wanted to give him everything, and people did.
You could ask for anything, and people did.
His presence left you feeling whole. It left you glowing and strong. It left you secure. It was real, it was the real stuff. It wasn’t religion, dos and don’ts, it was relationship. IT WAS GOOD, VERY VERY GOOD.
+++++ Moses once prayed…”LORD, SHOW ME YOUR GLORY.”
yOu see he was tired of all the mundane, cheap, dead religion around him and he wanted something more.
He was tired of faith that people had one day but it disappreared the next.
He was weary of religion that did not grip a person, that a person would’nt die for because it was so real, he was tried of religion that you couldn’t be exited about.
He was tired of arguments over who was in charge, or the snippy jealousy between the prima donnas of the tabernacle sewing group, and one family who was mad at the other family because their goats plopped on their tent.
He was done with the kind of church that didn’t give altar calls because they never expected anything to happen…
He was so through with people preoccupied with the petty, enamored with the insignificant, who had turned the awesome, fierce holy God into a purring kitten or a tail wagging dog…
So he cried out…”show me your Glory!” Show me your transcendent greatness, your majesty, the magnitude of your power and love, and how outrageous you really are.
He came down off that mountain glowing…
Do you ever remember being there? You that came back from camp, you felt it didn’t you? That doesn’t have to be temporary. I have been there in His presence, you come out feeling strong, exhilarated, confident, assured, even in our weakness.
And this is what Jonah was running from.
When was the last time you were truly in the presence of the Lord?
1 O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.
3 Your unfailing love is better to me than life itself; how I praise you!
4 I will honor you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.
5 You satisfy me more than the richest of foods. I will praise you with songs of joy.
6 I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night.
Psalms 63:1-6 (NLT)
The Lord is my shepherd, I do not want….Psalm 23:1
Do you remember this? Have you been there lately? Can you imagine running away from this?
Let’s take a moment of honesty…how often have we settled for religion, going through the motions, mumbling through the song service, halfway listening to the preaching, throwing something in the offering and JUST GETTING IT ALL OUT OF THE WAY?
How many times have we failed to meet with the living God because we just didn’t feel like putting in the effort or the time?
WHY WAS JONAH RUNNING?
The same reason Peter, Moses and the rest ran. God was asking something of them that they just didn’t want to give up. God wanted them to face what they didn’t want to face. God wanted them to deal with something in their heart that they would just assume avoid.
The bottom line issue was that Jonah didn’t love what God loved and Jonah wasn’t willing to change. He loved his attitude more than God. He had made a prejudice his Lord. He had made his feelings his Lord. He thought if he would run he wouldn’t have to think about any more,
And so we run. That’s how we handle it.
We avoid.
We deny
We pretend it isn’t what it is.
We justify and excuse our feelings.
How many times have I lost the sense of God’s nearness only to pretend I still had it because I don’t want to deal with what God was asking of me?
I don’t want to talk TO THAT PERSON…
I don’t want to make that right…
I don’t want to go there…
I don’t want to give that up…
You know why we hold onto stuff, like Jonah, and run from God? Because we want to do things our way. Because our hurt feelings legitimize our actions. Because we don’t want to let go of the ace up our sleeve.
ILLUS. How many times have I held onto things that the Spirit asked me to hand over to Him? It felt good to be angry, I was right, I was justified! It made me right in treating that person wrong. The whole time I was running from God because I knew what God would say..
Is it worth it? Is it worth forfeiting God’s presence for? Is holding onto our stuff worth losing touch with God?
The answer is No but sometimes we think it is YES!
Somebody here today needs to stop running and get face to face with the thing that they have traded a relationship with God for.
Do you mind if I stop and preach a minute? Psalm 24…
3 Who may climb the mountain of the Lord and enter where he lives? Who may stand before the Lord? 4 Only those with pure hands and hearts, who do not practice dishonesty and lying. Psalms 24:3-4 (TLB)
There is somebody here today who has traded the presence of the Lord for a pair of dirty hands. Your hands have been touching things they shouldn’t have touched…are you willing to give it up today? Your holding onto…
Porn, attitude, money, relationship…
There is somebody here today who has traded the presence of God for a dirty heart. Your heart isn’t really in love with God or his will. You aren’t really honest with him right now, heck, you aren’t even honest with yourself. But you know something isn’t right.
A heart that isn’t right is the heart that is not fully given to Jesus. It is the heart where we have reserved a special little place to do our thing, our sin, and our plan.
There is somebody here today who has lost God’s presence because you living a lie. You are one way with us, another way when you are somewhere else. You have fallen in love with another god, the god of your own agenda, the sin that you feel you have the right to practice, the secret that you won’t tell anybody about, the resentment that festers but you don’t want to let go of……
And you’re lying about it.
Somebody needs to stop pretending that everything is aright and admit that they have fallen way off the relational path God has marked out for them. Somebody needs to say, “I am not right! I want to be in the presence of Jesus again!” There’s no use putting anymore Vaseline on the cancer and pretending it is going away…operate!
Here is what happens to runners…
Jonah 1:4-17 - - notice the pattern of his running as you read it…
3 observations from this passage
1. GOD SENT A STORM
Jobnah was probably pretty smug thinking that he had made the escape; he was going to get away with something…
There is no hiding place from God. What you don’t face here you’ll face at the next church, in the next city, in the next state, in the next country in the next planet!
If God can’t get your attention any other way, he will send a storm. He will send tidal wave after tidal wave to get your attention.
You know what they did during the storm? They started throwing everything overboard. Some of us, during our storms are ready to throw a lot of stuff over board,
Marriage – children – jobs – church - …BUT GOD IS USUALLY ASKING FOR ONE THING, THE LAST THING THAT WE WANT TO GIVE UP!
ILLUS- Like R.B. and the 7 habits…You can read all the self help books, Dr. Phil, Dr. Larry. Dr. Moe, Dr. Curly, but if you don’t keep your eyes on God and stop running from him its only going to get worse!
NOTE: This doesn’t mean that every crisis in life is sent by God. But there are times when storms arise that God will use to bring you back to where you should be.
Are you in a storm today? Are waves battering your life and threatening to capsize it? Have you done everything you know to get through, tried it all and yet the storm keeps getting worse?
Here is a truth to hold onto…God will deal with privately, in our conscience about a matter. Eventually, he will deal with you publicly through something external.
Notice how Jonah’s running from God put many other people at risk. Notice how they lost a lot of stuff before finally throwing Jonah overboard.
Your running is hurting others and God will send a storm to get your attention.
2. JONAH WAS SLEEPING DURING THE STORM
You wonder how any man could sleep thru a storm…but we are good at it
There is a storm raging right now, and many people are asleep.
Maybe it’s a personal storm, your marriage is deteriorating, your habits are off the scale of acceptability, kids are crazy, the outlook is bleak, we have no job, we are smoking in the boys room and everybody is going crazy except you because YOU ARE SLEEEPING THROUGH THE WHOLE THING.YOURE THE LAST TO KNOW…
I’ve been talking to you about our community. 66% going to hell, 320,000 churches spending billions of dollars a year and making no progress, THAT IS A STORM! And we sleep thru it, “not our problem…everything is cool cause we are meeting budget…”
Maybe you are sleeping thru church today! We gave tithes, you slept, you sang about the power of Jesus, you slept, God was blessing a person, you slept, God’s word is being preached, you slept, someone was shouting, you slept, a miracle took place, you slept.
It’s time to get awake brothers and sisters…
3. GOD SENT SOMETHING TO SWALLOW HIM UP
It was not God’s plan to ruin Jonah. In an act of desperation, maybe depression and maybe stupidity, he is thrown over the edge.
But God was not finished with Jonah, and he is not finished with us, even in our running.
All those runners I mentioned at first…they had a dark night of the soul where they had to hear from God anew, afresh, and be called again.
God is not thru with us, even when we are running, even when we try to sleep thru the storm, even when we are in the belly of the whale.
We must face the “dark night of the soul” where we put it all on the table. This is not a time for emotional commitments, it is the time of a deep down, gut wrenching, everything on the table, life changing decision.
FINISH…
Jonah 2:1-9 Message Bible
A lot of people have been pinned down by God, but they are…
Broken and angry
Broken and defiant
God wants you broken and contrite.
