Title: Running From God
Place: BLCC
Date: 6/11/17
Text: Jonah 1.1-2.1
CT: We can run from God, but we can’t outrun God.
[Screen 1]
FAS: N.T. Wright uses the following illustration to "describe how we should avoid [sin] and embrace the way of Jesus":
Think of an animal you'd really be afraid of, whether it's an angry rhinoceros or a large spider. If you came round a corner and found yourself facing it, what would you want to do? Run away, of course. Well, [as a follower of Jesus] that's how you should feel about a [lifestyle of greed, lust, jealousy, injustice, or another sinful pattern].
Then think how you'd feel if you saw the person you loved best in the entire world, who you hadn't seen for years, walking down the street. What would you do? Why, chase after [him or her], of course. That's how you should behave when you think of Jesus and the new life that he is offering you and the whole world.
Adapted from N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Epistles (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), page 76
LS: Are you running to or away from God in your life?
[Screen 2]
Now I want to ask you a question. How many of you at one time or another ran away from home. Now this includes the times when you were a kid and ran away to the back yard or down to the creek in my case.
I will bet most of these excursions lasted till we got just out of sight of the house and than we couldn’t decide where we were going to. That is the thing about running away. It is more about the away instead of where to.
Most all of us would come to our senses when supper time came or mom would holler with that voice that meant it was time to stop this foolishness.
Now be honest. Have you ever tried to run away from God?
Has it ever got to where following God put you in a bind?
Maybe you couldn’t do something with your friends if you followed God.
Maybe you figured you could run away from God and do what you wanted, when you wanted with whom you wanted. Sounds pretty good.
God was keeping you from being and doing what you wanted to do. Right.
I mean you know God is there and he is God, but you just don’t like what he is calling you to do. So you decide to be a runner. You run away because you don’t like anyone telling you what you should do.
And once you start running you do something so many of us start to do.
I borrow from Philip Yancey who said, “We confuse life with God. Life when it messes up we blame God.” Not anything we’ve done or choices we’ve made.
We become runners running to something we have no idea where it will take us. We just want to get away from the rules, the people telling us the right thing to do, and the ones who are always ready to tell us when we are headed down the wrong road.
Those busy bodies that always seem to know the right thing to do that so much is not what we want to do.
We become runners from God.
We no longer follow Jesus; we want to run the other way. Don’t know what the other way is but we are sick of where we are now.
Any of you ever felt that way. Life is falling apart. You are just not happy. Not happy.
You become a runner from God. [Screen 3]
Well in this series we are going to look at one of the most famous runners there ever was. Jonah. Now I know most of you know the story of Jonah and the fish. Big fish. The Big Fish that swallowed Jonah. And you may be thinking this is awful hard for you to expect me to swallow that story.
Well I have been raised to believe this story. I believe it really happened. Call me crazy. I’m in good company. Jesus believed in the story of Jonah.
Luke 11.29-30 As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.
Jesus believed it and used Jonah’s story as an illustration. That is good enough for me.
And the thing is God is capable of putting Jonah in a fish for three days. Not too big a job for God. He created the earth and all in it didn’t he.
Jonah was a prophet sent to tell people what they didn’t want to hear.
Andy Stanley compared prophets to parents. They sure get the job of telling their kids what they usually don’t want to hear.
Poor Jonah really got a bad deal though. Most of the prophets went to Israel to practice their trade. The Israelites did believe in God and had some basis for believing what the prophet was saying to them.
Nineveh, where God was sending Jonah did not believe in God. And Jonah knew what they were famous for. They could skin someone alive and keep them alive for the longest time. No body really wanted to go visit Nineveh for anything.
But God wanted Jonah to go to the Ninevites.
But Jonah said NO THANKS. [Screen 4]
Jonah 1.1-3, 1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: [Screen 5] 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” [Screen 6]
3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Now Tarshish was the furthest place on the shipping ways anyone could go.
Jonah was running as far away as possible. [Screen 7]
--1When people run from God they run to the strangest places. They do crazy things. Like getting married.
Like getting a divorce.
Go into debt to buy stuff.
They turn to alcohol or something like it to get away.
They go to places they have never been before and it only comes to no good because they are running away from God… and not to something.
We run from any source of wisdom.
Parents, family, friends, church. Who would want to go to church when you are running from God? We know what they would tell us and we don’t want to hear it.
We unplug from our sources of wisdom, the ones who really care for and love us.
We run, we make unwise decisions and we become runners from all that can help us. We find ourselves alone and in a place we sure don’t want to be.
That is about what is going to happen to our friend Jonah.
[Screen 8]
Then the Lord…
God is about to step in.
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 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.”
7 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 the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
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 so.)
11 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?”
12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 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 pleased.” 15Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
[Screen 9]
--2 Runners are the last to see the connection between the chaos and themselves. When you are running you are late in seeing you are stiff arming God.
Isn’t this how it is when we run. We don’t see the pain and grief we cause loved ones. We can’t even see the damage we are doing to ourselves. We are rejecting God and running into the arms of the devil and all he offers.
Can you imagine how the others seaman felt. They threw Jonah into the water and it becomes calm. Did they pick him back up or did they get out of there as fast as they could? Don’t believe they had that choice. God had something else in mind for Jonah.
But God does provide a way. In this case it was a huge fish. [Screen 10]
17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
[Screen 10]
--3 You can run from God but you can not out run God.
God prepared a fish for Jonah.
God will prepare something for you.
It may not be something you want. It may be something awful like an illness that brings you back to reality and cause you to stop running. It may be a situation that you cannot escape without having to face God.
God is in control and can cause you to stop running but he will not force you to come back.
God is all about you coming back, but he will not force you.
God will discipline. That is in the Bible.
Proverbs 3.11, My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
God chased Jonah down not to pay him back for running, but to win him back to Him.
God chases you not to pay you back but to win you back.
God loved Jonah and he loves us as well.
I was about 5 or 6 years old and wanted to go to my neighbor’s house to play with him. It was about a half mile down the road. I asked my mom and she definitely did not want me walking down the road alone to my friends house. But I really wanted to go. So I went with out her knowing.
I was all about walking down the road by myself. I went to my friend’s house and we began to play. It wasn’t long before my mom came down the road looking for me. My friend’s mom didn’t know exactly where I was because I hadn’t said anything to her about coming. So she hollered that my mom was there and looking for me.
I hollered back I was not looking for her…
Not a pleasant scene when mom came and found me hiding in a dresser draw. Not a pleasant scene at all. I got a pretty good whipping. The only one my mom ever gave me. I learned my lesson.
My mom was looking for me and she didn’t quit until she found me…
God is looking for you.
Are you not looking for Him?
And He will not quit till He finds you.
He is not looking for you to get back at you for running.
He is looking for you to bring you back to Him.
Where are you?
Are you in your fish?
Are you in such a mess you feel like you are in the fish belly of life?
You can run from God but you can’t outrun God.
You may be thinking right now, how did he know? I have been going to all the wrong places. I have been running from God. I have been running from anyone who was trying to help me. I wouldn’t listen to anyone who tried to steer me right.
You can run from God but you can’t outrun God.
My friends have tried to tell me. My preacher has tried to tell me what I was doing was running from God.
My mom. My dad. My kids have been telling me I was running from God.
Or at least I was running from what God wants for me.
I am choosing something other than God’s ideal for me, and the ones I love.
You can run from God but you can’t outrun God.
God has you where he wants you.
God will send some “then the Lord” and “now the Lord’s” into your life.
He will do it not to punish, but recapture your heart and your attention.
Next week we will see how Jonah gets out of the fish. But if you are trapped in your fish or whatever has you right now, you can deal with it right now.
Tell God you get it.
Surrender to Him.
Give it up.
Wave the white flag.
God loves you and wants you back.
You can run from God. Yes you can but how is that working for you?
Cause you can’t out run God.
His love for you will not let you.
God made it easy for you. He died on a cross for you.
All sins are forgiven.
Follow Jesus and come back to God.
Come today. Make this day a “Then the Lord” day for you. Let God have you back.
I guarantee you will not regret that you did.
Bibliography: Stanley, Andy; White Flag, DVD SERIES
