Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
June 23, 2002 P.M.
Running Against The Wind
Reading - Jonah 1.1-17
Sometimes there exist a dichotomy between our will and the will of God in our lives. What is God's will for us, and how do we determine His will in our daily walk? Determining His will in everyday activities is not always easy, is it?
I recently heard a story about an office manager who decided that she was going on a diet. She enlisted all the ladies in the office to join her in this effort. Sure enough they begin losing weight, lots of it. Everything was going great until one morning this lady came in with two dozen donuts. Everybody was surprised at her actions. She begin to explain to them that it was God's will that she bring these donuts to work. She said, ever since we started this diet, I changed my route to work, because my old route took me by the donut shop. So, to remove the temptation, I changed the way I travel to the office. But, she said, today I forgot to take the new route and found myself near the donut shop. I said, Lord, if indeed it be your will that I should stop and buy donuts, let there be a parking place near the front door, and I'll accept that as an indication of your will in my life. And sure enough, the eighth time around the block there it was!!
Here is an individual who desperately wants to see her will done. So desperate that she is willing to blanket it with a statement that it is God's will.
Jonah is a man who is desperate to see his will done... So desperate that he is willing to do just the opposite of what God has asked him to do.
Is it possible that the spirit of Jonah could live in us here tonight? Audience... Let's spiritualize this narrative and see what can we learn from it?
First... God expects us to obey His instructions.
This narrative begins with God commanding Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach. Notice verse one... The Hebrew word for word was TORA. This is what they called the first five books of the Bible and the Ten Commandments. The TORA... God's word. To the Hebrews, this word meant... INSTRUCTION. When the Hebrews read this verse they would read it like this... The instruction of the Lord came to Jonah.
Jonah's day begins with him getting instructions from God. But the real story is how Jonah is going to respond to these instructions. But then this is the story of all our lives... RIGHT?? You see... God has commanded... God has spoken to us about what He wants us to do through this... through His word. The word of the Lord has come to Randall…J.B...Joan Nowlin...Olga Smith ... Lawrence Rhodes... Harold Long... and to you. God has given us some instructions... How are we going to respond? Will we respond to... Or... run from His INSTRUCTIONS.
Secondly... Why is Jonah... Why are we... So dead set on running from the call of God.
From 2 Kings 14... We learn that Jonah lived in a place called Gath-hepher... A town in Galilee. Nineveh is northeast of Gath-hepher... But Jonah heads southwest to Joppa. There he catches a boat to Tarshish. Jonah goes in the opposite direction that God instructed him to go. Tarshish is in what we know as Spain today. Tarshish was all the way across the Mediterranean. In Jonah's day it would have taken almost a year for a ship to travel the distance between Joppa and Tarshish.
Folk... Jonah is serious about running away from the call of God... Very serious. He probably spent his life's savings to purchase this ticket to Tarshish. Why does he do this? I don't know... Why do we do this?... Why do we fail to respond to God's instructions?
Perhaps we are afraid we will fail.
I know those who will not obey the Gospel because they're afraid they can't live a perfect life... No kidding... Neither can I... Nobody can. Becoming a Christian doesn't mean that we must be perfect by our own efforts. It means that the blood of Jesus makes us perfect... Not once in the act of New Testament baptism, but every day as we strive to walk in the light.
Listen to these verses:
1 John 1.7, But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another; and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Romans 8.1, There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3.27, For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, have been clothed with Christ.
You see church... Our salvation is not dependent upon us living perfect lives. It is dependent upon Christ's blood cleansing us from all our sins... Because He lived a perfect life.
YES!!!... We will fail... We will sin again... We will make more mistakes... Serious ones... But the blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all our sins. Thank God that our salvation is not dependent upon us living a perfect life.
Perhaps we just don't have enough faith in God's promises. Perhaps we don't believe God will do for us, in us, by us, to us what He promises to. Do we really believe that sins are forgiven in the act of New Testament baptism? Maybe we think our sins are too ugly, too hideous to be forgiven.
- Peter told his audience on Pentecost, who were responsible for killing Jesus: Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
- Ananias told Paul... The chief of sinners... The worst of sinners... To, arise, be baptized and wash your sins away.
How about those of us who are children of God...
- Do we believe that God will work all things out to our benefit?
- Do we believe that He will never leave us or forsake us?
- Do we believe that He will answer our prayers?
- Do we believe that God will empower and enable us to say no to temptation?
- Do we believe that He is working in us... Strengthening us to bring about His will?
Paul tells us that... He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or can imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. Indeed... We can do all thing through Him who gives us our strength.
Perhaps... Like Jonah... We are prejudiced.
You see... Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh because he knew that God's love, grace and mercy would be bestowed upon them, if they repented.
Jonah was a Jew... An Israelite... The Ninevehites were Assyrians. They were the enemy... The Assyrians were:
- Immoral,
- Vile,
- Rebellious,
- Ungodly people who were threatening Israel.
The last thing Jonah wanted to do was assist God in blessing Nineveh. I am sure Jonah thought that God should strike them dead with a blistering plague.
I wonder what great things God would do through us... If we would get rid of our prejudices?
- We would love, serve and help the poor more, with an attitude of... Except for the grace of God there goes me and my family.
- We would welcome, fellowship, and be more socially polite to those of other races.
- We would forgive our brother and our enemies who have wronged us so severely.
- We would gather young children in our arms and tell them of our love, regardless of how
rambunctious we may think them to be.
- We would be more patient and understanding with and toward one another.
We must remember, while we were yet sinners, aliens, unlovely and unlovable Jesus died for us. Indeed, we would be more God-like if we dealt with our prejudices.
Perhaps we are overly concerned with our own reputation... Our own pride.
Jonah didn't want to be known as the prophet that saved Nineveh... The enemy. The only other time Jonah is mentioned in the Old Testament is in 2 Kings 14. There, his message was one of...
- Expansion of the kingdom,
- And financial blessings for Israel.
We can imagine that as a result of this message, Jonah had become a very popular prophet among his people. Jonah is probably basking in the respect that any prophet longs for... But seldom gets. Now... He has been called to go to the enemy with a word of blessing in exchange for repentance. Jonah is being asked to forfeit his reputation. But... Jonah is more interested in his reputation than in the will of God.
Sound like anyone you know?... You see... Human pride strikes again.
Question!! What is it that you and your preacher are not doing in response to God's instructions... Because of our own pride:
- Submitting to baptism?
- Confronting a brother about his sin?
- Going to a family member... a friend... or neighbor... with the name of Jesus?
- Maybe we're not the kind of Christian we ought to be because of what others might think.
- Sometimes we preachers don't preach sermons that need to be preached because we are more concerned about our reputation than about following God's instructions.
- Sometimes we give in to pressure around us instead of standing up for what is right. This was Jonah's problem.... So he sails to Tarshish.
Here it is church, God has commanded some things in your life and mine... How will we respond? And why are we so serious, so dead set on disobedience?
Thirdly... God expects us to live out our confession.
Note verse nine... When the storm is raging and the sailors are searching for answers as to why their gods might be bringing this event upon them... Jonah makes his confession... I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD... the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.
Isn't this ironic... That Jonah would make this confession under the circumstances? I mean... He is running from the God whom he says he is serving. You see... His confession does not match his behavior... Does it? Jonah confesses God... But sails on a ship of disobedience.
I believe we can all identify with Jonah in not living out our confession.
- We all fail here.
- We all know more than we practice.
- We all believe more than we are becoming.
- We all have head knowledge... But sometimes it fails to filter down to our will.
Church... Mental assent to the Lordship of Jesus is not enough... We must have a will to put our faith into practice and obey Him completely.
You see... Nineveh doesn't just represent a people God has mercy on. Nineveh represents any clear revelation from God in our life. We each have our Ninevehs.
- Our Nineveh is God asking us... through His word... to change our behavior in some way.
- Our Nineveh is God requiring us to change: Our dreams... Our goals... Our priorities... Our plans.
- Our Nineveh is God prompting us to live a life conforming to the image of His Son Jesus.
- Our Nineveh is anything we will not do in complete obedience to His will through the Word... We each have our Ninevehs... Don't we?
Number four... Because we all have our Ninevehs... We each have our Tarshish.
Our Tarshish is any place we can run to and hide from God. What is so dangerous about our Tarshish today is that we don't have to change our geographical location in order to hide. Our Tarshish is any road that leads us away from God and His instructions... His word.
You see... Each of us are standing at a crossroad every Sunday. We are standing here with Jonah... After a day spent with the Lord. And we've heard some instructions from God... What are we going to do? Are we going to obey Him? Or will we flee to our Tarshish?
I don't know what your Nineveh is tonight... We all have them.
- Maybe our Nineveh is giving... We know we ought to be giving more, but we're afraid if we do there won't be enough life for our own desires.
- Maybe our Nineveh is a relationship with someone who is pulling us away from God. We know that we need to cut it off... But are afraid of the consequences.
- Maybe our Nineveh is getting involved with the sick... A shut-in... The poor... The downtrodden... The weak... The disenfranchised... Or helpless. But we don't... Because we're afraid we'll get stuck to a tar-baby situation.
- Maybe our Nineveh is writing or calling a parent or a child... Maybe a brother or sister and asking forgiveness... Or saying... I forgive you!!
You see church... Ninevehs are endless. Ninevehs are endless because they are filled with instructions for our lives.
So... What will we do as we stand on the crossroads with Jonah tonight? Will we go to Nineveh or will we flee to Tarshish?... The decision is yours.
Some are running from obeying the gospel... Submitting to New Testament baptism. Why are you running?
Some of us in the church are running. SURE... We come to church twice, three times a week, but our hearts are still in Tarshish. Why are we running?
Finally... Deciding against God's will does not take us out of his reach. This is good news for all of us who have run from God at one time or another. Jonah may have left Joppa thinking that he was finished with God. But God was not finished with Jonah. Read verse four... Once Jonah was on the ship... God send a storm into his life. God was calling Jonah's name.
Now let's clear up some misunderstandings here.
- First... Not every storm in your life and mine is caused by God... OK? God may not have originated your storm... But He can use it to your benefit.
- Secondly... Some storms are caused by God... Some storms are a manifestation of the love and the pursuit of God... Like this one.
- Another thing I want to clear up. We must understand that God does not grant peace to us when we are on the ship of disobedience... Sailing for the port of Tarshish. God sometimes uses storms to bring us back to His will and His way. He has done just this in my life or I would not be here serving you.
So... Don't ask for God's peace, while you're running from His will... It ain't gonna happen!! Here it is church... Don't ask the author of the storm, to take away the storm, when the purpose of the storm has yet to be fulfilled.
We love Romans 8.31 which says... If God is for us, who can be against us? But... Our text tonight teaches us that... Sometimes God is against us... Because He is for us. Deciding against God does not remove us from His reach.
Well!!... God is calling us this from His word... Perhaps from a storm... This very night. One more time He has providentially spared our lives and brought us to this INVITATION... Another opportunity to obey Him completely.
- Will you become His child by faith, repentance and New Testament baptism.
- Will we respond to instructions from the Word... Becoming everything He calls us to become.
God awaits... The invitation is ours... As we stand and sing together.
Will you come?
