The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Running from God

Episode Date: February 2, 2020

The only thing harder than fighting the flesh and following through on God’s will is wishing that you had.

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Everybody good? You're looking good. Happy Super Bowl Sunday, or as in Jacksonville, we call it Sunday. It don't matter to us, okay? Whatever. Enjoy your nachos. Hey, if you got your Bible and I hope you do, go to the very beginning, go to the table of contents and look for the name Jonah, because it's very hard to find in your Bible, okay? It's going to be way back. He's a minor prophet towards the back end of the Old Testament. If you start getting around names, it's a little. It's a very hard to find in your Bible, it's going to be way back. He's a minor prophet towards the back end of the Old Testament. If you start getting around names, it's it's it's it's it's, it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's It looked like Star Wars characters like Obadiah and Nahum and Micah and Obi-Wan. You're really close, okay? It's right in there. And so go there. Or you could take your worship guide and we printed at least the part out of Jonah that I'll be preaching. And so all your notes are there. Somebody on Thursday night asked me if that was a picture of me.

Oh, and you laugh. I hurt my feelings. I'll have you know. I didn't look like this until you people came into my life. I was all young and fun. All right. And so you did this to me. So that's not me.

Not yet. But I'm on my way. Jonah is a very familiar book. If you've been around America at all, I guess you've probably heard of Jonah in the whale and all that stuff. But it's often very misunderstood. I'm not sure why we turn stories like this into children's story. It's about idolatry and racism and rebellion and all this kind of stuff. And so we're going to be studying it for the next four weeks or so.

And ultimately, it's about God's relentless pursuit of his rebellious people through this reluctant missionary. And I think what we're going to find is there's a lot of Jonah in. all of us. We're going to pick it up in Jonah chapter 1 verse 1. I did all of that stalling to give you time to find it. I don't want you to be at the end of the sermon and you still hadn't found it yet. So if you still hadn't found it, ask your neighbor, they'll show you where the table of contents is. Here we go. Jonah 1-1 says this. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah. I got to stop here because Jonah was a prophet. Prophet spoke on behalf of the Lord. The Lord will give them a word, and then the prophet would give the people the Word of God. Now, though that happened to Jonah back in the day

in the Bible, God still speaks to his people. The word of the Lord still comes to his people. My question that I would ask you is this, is God speaking to you? Now, don't get all weirded out, okay? People ask me, does God, pastor, does God speak to you? Absolutely. Sometimes people say, does he speak to you out loud? If I read it out loud, I hear his voice out loud. To me, God's voice sounds like a redneck from Dylan, okay? Because that's just the accent he has when I read it. God continues to speak to his people, and oftentimes our problem is not that he isn't speaking, it's that our world is too loud and too cluttered to tune our ears in to the still small voice of God. God speaks through his word, God speaks through sermons, through his church, through our parents,

through spiritual authority. Sometimes God gives us those nudges, those whispers, deep down in the secret place of the soul, they will always be in line with his word, and they will often be confirmed by our Christian brothers and sisters. Ultimately, the question to ask is this, if you think God is speaking to you, is does this glorify Jesus or me? Because Jesus is not in the business of sharing his throne. In fact, we know that God still speaks to his people, and if you say, well, I've never heard from God, that'd be a red flag. I would ask you, do you really know it? Do you just know about him?

Or do you really know him? Because Jesus says in John chapter 10 that the sheep, that's followers of Jesus, hear his voice. And he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. And when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them. And the sheep follow him for they know his voice. If you don't know Jesus, there's no way you would be able to recognize his voice. and oftentimes we don't hear the voice of God in our life because we are just tuned in to what we want to hear,

not to what he is actually saying, that oftentimes our tradition and our religion can predispose us to think this is the only way God talks and he is speaking to you, but maybe you need to clean out your ears so that you can hear. Now I'm going to date myself here, but way back 100 years ago when I was in college, there was this thing called a landline.

If you're in your 20s and 30s, 30s, we just rate 20s and 30s. Raise your hand, please. Raise them high, testify. Good, gracious. All right, praise God. All right. So it was like your iPhone was tethered to the wall. It was crazy.

And you had to have a bunch of them because you didn't know what room you would be in if somebody called you. And you had all different sizes and shapes and some were push buttons and some were rotary. And if people had a nine in their number, you might not call them because it took too long. for it to get all the way back around, all right? And then about once a month, there was usually one in the kitchen, and it was like the longest one. And about once a month, you'd have to hold the cord, and you'd have to untangle it because it looked like DNA and chromosomes

were all creating something new. And then the crazy thing is, when your phone would ring, it would just ring. There was no silent and buzz. It would just ring. And you had to answer it by faith. You didn't know who was on the other end. You just had it, and people would be like,

Not it? I'm not in it. Because if it's somebody you don't like, you're stuck, man. You're just like, oh, okay? And so today, that never happens. You realize today if somebody does not answer your call, it's because you called them, they looked and went, nope, and they sent you to voice them. You couldn't do that. So there was this other thing on the landline called a collect call. Okay, a collect call. Collect call was if you were so broke that you could not afford a long distance call. For some reason, they charged us more for long distance. It was a scam, but they got us. I don't know what that was all about. And so when I was in college, I was so broke, I couldn't afford to call my grandma. She wanted me to call her once a week, so I would call her collect. And what you'd do is you'd pick up the phone and you'd hit zero, and an operator would come on. An operator was like a human. This is taken too long, but I've got to explain it, okay? And you'd make a collect call, operator, I want to make a collect call, what's the number? You'd give them the number.

And then they would hand you over to this automated system, and this thing would say, call her, please say your name. And say, Jobie. And then you can hear them call. the number, the phone would ring, and then I would hear my grandma answer the phone. Hello? We called her Mert, and then the automated thing would come on and say, you have a collect call from, Joby.

If you would like to accept charges, please say yes. Now, what this thing was dialed in for and tuned in for was to hear the English word yes. But Mert, my grandma, is from Marion, which is a little town outside of Dillon. Like Dylan was the big place where the people from Marion went to get things like toilet paper or stuff. Everything you needed was in Dylan, okay? It was tiny. And so she didn't say yes. She had country grandma, yes.

That's how she said it. It's like three syllables. Yes. That's how she said it. And so it would say, if you'd like to set the charges, please say yes. And she'd say, yes. And then they'd be a pause. And then she'd come on again and say, if you would like to accept charges, please say yes.

and she'd say, I said yes, and it still would not register because yes and yes are not the same word, and so it couldn't pick it up. So then they would be like, please hold for an operator, and then she would lose her mind. I said yes, Jobi, I said yes, she thought I was dying in a ditch, and with my last breath, I doubt her collect, and it wasn't working, and I was going to be dead. Okay, so. I say all of that to say, like that song we just sang, about our traditions and religion that may God tear those things down because oftentimes we get dialed in honestly not to hear from the Lord

but to hear what we want to hear and we can miss out on the very voice of God in our lives. Have you heard the voice of the Lord lately? Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amatai saying arise, go. By the way, that's the same word as Jesus gives us in Matthew 28 when he says go into all the nations. You see, to submit to Jesus. Jesus does not just mean to submit to him for our salvation, but it includes submission to go wherever he says go. Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.

Now a little background on Nineveh, when it says it's a great city, it doesn't mean it's like awesome great, it just means it's huge. Nineveh is going to be the capital of Assyria. Assyria is the primary enemy of Israel, and this was a genocidal war. ruthless group of people. In fact, one commentator says that the Nineveites would brag of live dismemberment,

often leaving one hand attached to their victims so they could shake it before the person died. That they made parades of heads requiring friends of the deceased to carry the heads on elevated poles, that they boasted of their practices of stretching live prisoners with ropes so that they could be skinned alive,

and then human skins were displayed on city walls and on poles. They commissioned pictures of their post-battle tortures where piles of heads and hands and feet and heads impaled on poles, eight heads to a stake were displayed, and they pulled out the tongues and testicles of live victims and buried and burned the young alive while their parents watched.

And Jonah says, I only am I'll go there. This ain't like a little family mission trip to Jamaica. You understand what I'm saying? This is Corey Tim Boone getting out of the concentration. camps and then understanding that God called her to go back into Berlin. That's what we're talking about here. First three, but Jonah rose to flee from Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. The worst decision you could ever make in your life is to flee from the presence of the Lord.

You see, God called him to go to Nineveh. By the way, you might want to jot this down. God rarely calls us to the comfortable. Now we schedule for comfortable. We plan for comfortable. We pay for comfortable. God rarely calls us to comfortable. And the worst decision you can ever make is to flee from the presence of the Lord. Nineveau was about 500 miles by land. Tarshis is 2,500 miles by sea. It's the town that is in the westernmost place in the Mediterranean world. It was a beachfront resort.

And this is the direction that he goes. You ever notice how oftentimes we will work five times harder in our life to be disobedient than we would. just to do what God has called us to do. He goes 2,500 miles in the other direction. Tarshish would be like going from here to Key West. I mean, Nineveh would be like going from here to Key West, and Tarshis is like driving to Vegas, you understand? Some of you work real hard to send.

You've got two phones and multiple Instagram accounts and multiple lives and it'll wear you out, won't it? This is what he's doing. He's going to flee from the presence of the Lord. Now, he's a prophet you would think he would know better, because Psalm 139 says this, where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? That's the question he asked.

And the answer, if I ascend to the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in shield, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. You really think God can't see you? At an elder-led prayer meeting a couple years ago maybe, Elder Rusty, one of our elders. By the way, on February 18th, we have Elder-led Prayer.

at a bunch of our campuses, you should be there. We get to hear from our elders other than just me. And Elder Rusty said, there was a point in his life where he was asking God to bless this area of my life. And God, please ignore this area of my life, as if he only saw the good parts that you want him to see. Now, that's dumb. I'm not calling Elder Rusty dumb except that he's just like the rest of us, and we're all dumb, that every single one of us can have this idea as if we could flee the presence of the Lord. It's the dumbest thing we'll ever do in our lives.

Now, I don't think he thought that he was going to get somewhere where God wasn't. But John 15, I don't have time to read it. Read it this week. Read John chapter 15. Jesus says this. Jesus says, abide in me and I will abide in you. That means stay close to me and I will stay close to you. The opposite of stay close would be get far away.

So how, according to John 15, Jesus says there's two ways to abide in him to stay close to him. It means pay close attention to his word, pay close attention to his will, and then you will be in close proximity to the presence of God. The opposite of that is true. You ignore the word of God, you ignore the will of God, and you will ignore the presence of God. And this is what he does. He goes in the other direction. It says he went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the fair and went down into it to go with them to Tartius away from the presence of the Lord.

Notice that he paid a fare. Man, I wish I had time to preach this sermon. Every time you flee the presence of a Lord, there is a fare to be paid. But that's just for free. I don't know if you know this, if you've been walking with the Lord very long at all. But any time God has caused you to do one thing, you ever notice there's always a boat waiting to take you in the wrong direction? You ever notice that when God calls you to this hard thing, if you will just go shop around in Joppa,

there's a bunch of boats going in a bunch of different directions. You see, you get to that place in your life where you know the Spirit of God has spoken to you and it's time to begin to trust God with your first and best in your finances for the very first time you're going to bring God his, you're going to bring God your tithe. At the moment you begin to do that, down at Joppa, there's always an opportunity to justify why more is mine and I should spend more on me in my comforts. Or there's always this opportunity to invest this money. Just, you know, don't give God what's his.

You use it for you so you can make more for you. I'm telling you. Or the moment you realize and recognize you need to fight for your marriage. And husbands, you need to love your wife like Christ loved the church. And the moment you begin to walk in that direction, there is a boat that will take you to Tarshish, the wrong direction. You work worth her. And she appreciates you.

and she laughs at your jokes. And listen, she ain't a ship to ride on. She is a ship wreck that's going to kill you. She's the devil. Or the moment you know the Spirit of God is leading you to the impossible task of beginning the hard work of reconciliation with that family member or that ex in your life, then there's a boat to take you to self-justification.

While you don't need to forgive, even though Jesus forgave us all our sins, you don't have to forgive them of theirs. Man, whenever God calls us in one direction, there's always a boat waiting to take us in the wrong direction. Now, here's the thing, man. Did you know we all got a little Jonah in us? Every single one of us are not just prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Some of us are prone to get up and flee the presence of the Lord. In fact, there's a lot of Jewish synagogues that every year they will, as a congregation,

all read the book of Jonah and then stand up and chant, I am Jonah. Now, one of the things that I noticed about the life of Jonah as I read through this book is Jonah's got no friends. Like, Jonah's not in a disciple group, and that's a part of his problem. Like at what point are Jonah friends going to be at Joppa and be like, yo dog, I saw you just got a ticket going in the wrong direction. What are you doing, you idiot? And for those of you that are not in disciple groups and have those kind of discipleship relationship, listen to me, you're an idiot. you are I mean I'm telling you with much love and grace as I can muster up you dummy we live in a world where the enemy is trying to get you go in the wrong direction and we have made it so easy for you

you could check a box with your name and email address and an army of believers will come around you and help you get plugged in with good Christian community so that when the idiocy kicks in again and you start heading out to Joppa some of your friends are going to be like Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, danger, Will Robinson. This direction does not end where you want to go. You've been there before. You don't want to do it again, right? And you're like, right.

And I know some of you are like, I'm not an idiot. Okay, all right, Einstein. Then you and all your brilliance. We need you for all the idiots that you're surrounded by. Because they need you and your advice. Please tell me you got some friends in your life that won't let you flee the presence of the Lord, that would love you enough to stand in the way, that would care more about you than what you think.

think of them. That's why it matters so much. Jonas got none of them. Nobody ever shows up and be like, hey bro, I've been praying for you, wanted to talk to you about this. That never happens. So let me ask you this. Just a very pointed question. Are you heading towards the direction of God's call in your life, or are you heading away from the direction of God's call in your life? You see, J.P. asked me the other night, We're sitting on the couch. It's about 9.30. And he starts asking me,

Dad, how do you know that God called you to be a pastor and a preacher? Was it just because you wanted to? Did somebody tell you? Now, he thinks he's tricking me because he's a teenager and he thinks he can stay up late. But I don't care, man. I'll take those conversations. And we began to talk about how do you know and discern the will of God in your life?

And one of the things that I tell him is this. Look here, buddy, when you're trying to figure out what to do with your life, don't ask what this world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. Because what this world needs is young men like you to come alive. in this world. You begin to ask the question, what is my role in the Great Commission? And as you begin to discern what God's call in your life, you understand that every single one of us are called to play our role in the Great Commission. So let me ask you this, what is God calling

you to do? Is he calling you to go on that first mission trip? Is he calling you to trust God with your finances for the first time? Is he calling you to forgive? Is he calling you to move towards your marriage to make it all that God intended it to be? Is he calling you to volunteer for night to shine? And I know you think, I'll be a little uncomfortable. God rarely calls us to the comfortable. And are you moving in that direction? You see, because the reality is it is easy to run from God. It's just impossible to outrun him. No matter how hard you run, no matter how far you make it, when you get there, he'll be there and you'll be there. Now, one of the things, things that we have here at our church that is quite the blessing is we have pastor

Adam Flint he is getting his doctorate right now and he wrote his doctoral thesis on how to know and understand God's call and will in your life you can boil the whole his whole thesis he boiled down into an acronym that spells out gospel we've taught on it many times and when you're trying to figure out what God's call in your life is or did God say this thing to me then you could ask these questions in the acronym gospel G, it's about God's glory. Who is this really about? My glory or God's glory?

O, others. What do others that know Jesus say about this? S is Scripture. What does the Bible say about this? P is prayer. Have I bathed this thing in prayer? E is evangelism. What is my role in the Great Commission?

And L is lifestyle. If God has spoken to me, does this lead me to a lifestyle that is above approach and in line with the scripture? Listen, what is God calling you to do? Church of 1122? I can't call you to do anything. There's one preacher here at 1122. His name is the Holy Spirit. He's here all the time. I would hope you would listen. He does a great job.

And he could take my words. He could take these words and speak down in here to your soul. And the word of the Lord can come to you and he will tell you what to do. And when he does, are you moving in that direction or away from it? Verse four. Now this is in response to Jonah fleeing. but the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea. The Bible does not say the Lord allowed it. The Bible does not say the Lord used the weather system of the earth. It says he hurled it.

He initiated. It was his idea. He intended it. That he hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship threatened to break up. Listen, God would love us so much that he would discipline us. This is what the book of Hebrew says, that a father who loves

his son will discipline him. And listen, discipline meant something different when I grew up, okay? I know some of you are like, well, we put Timmy in timeout. We know, okay? Because timeout, when I grew up, me and daddy would be whipping us for a while, take time out, smoke a cigarette, and then come back in to get it done. That's time out. So he didn't pass that, all right? He used to say, boy, you and your brother, you got like too much ear wax in there. And if I just heat that rear end up about 30 degrees, it tends to melt down. You can hear me better. That's the kind of discipline we were talking about, all right?

And we have a good, good father that would love us so much that he would hurl storms at us so that we would wake up and see him for who he really is. You see, Romans chapter 8 says this in 828, that God is at work in all things. for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. Even the hard things in your life, especially the hard things in your life. James, the brother of John, I mean, James, the brother of Jesus, says that we should consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kind. Now, I have not yet met that Christian where you're like, how you doing, bro?

I am full of joy. I have strep throat, and I am so excited about the perseverance that God is creating in me. And I know sometimes when it's not going our way, people will be like, Lord, why don't you just leave me alone? Romans chapter one would tell us that it is his kindness that he wouldn't leave you alone. And it would be his wrath for him to leave you alone and turn you over to your own devices. See, oftentimes the enemy gets way too much credit for the storms that God is hurling at us. And God is so sovereign that he can even use our own dumb decisions that create the storms in our life

for His sovereign will, for His glory and our joy in our life. Baker and Union? What if God would love you so much that he would orchestrate the decisions that you made and that you would be busted so that you would sit there right now to hear the gospel and meet Jesus Christ, no matter how hard it is when David you would look back and you would say worth it? And that ain't just a Baker and Union thing. That is true for every single one of us at every single one of our campuses. That God loves us enough that He would send a storm.

form to get our attention. And then the mariners were afraid. That's never good news when the pro sailors are freaking out. And the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his God. See that little G. God? This is an exercise in futility. You know why? Because little G gods always make promises they can't keep and they never answer you

when you're in need. Man, you worship an idol. Like, if you worship an idol like money, you know what? Money's going to promise you. It's going to promise you safety and security. It can provide you neither. It's going to promise you contentment, but when you cry out because your discontent soul is not satisfied by stuff, it will be strangely quiet. You think that money is going to bring you safety and you get that phone call from the doctor about your loved one and money couldn't do anything for you.

And then you cry out to it, it's just going to leave you alone. There is one true God in the universe can make a difference. And he keeps every single one of his promises that he never leaves us or he never forsakes us. And so they're crying out and they're crying out, and then they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. Now, this is just for free. Did you know that every sin against God has collateral damage to people in our lives? There are no victimless crimes against the Lord. And in fact, some of you are in a storm right now, not because of your sin, but because of who you let in your boat.

and they are fleeing from the presence of God and they ran into your presence and you put them in there and your life's kind of like a shipwreck right now. And listen, some of you need to throw Jonah out your boat and you're like, I ain't got a boat. You got a phone, go to contacts. Find Jonah. Swipe it over to the left and this Greek word is going to come up in red, Delite. Hit it! You probably won't, but you'll know I'm right.

All right, back to the sermon. I'm getting off here. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. And so the captain came and said to him, what do you mean, you sleeper? Look, is that you? Have you grown so comfortable in your disobedience that you have spiritually fallen asleep? Look, some of you've fleed the call of God in your life 25 years ago in college, and you didn't ship off to Tarshish.

you shipped off for cash and prizes, and you have spiritually fallen asleep. And I pray to God, I pray to God, that this sermon, the spirit of God, through this sermon, wakes you up, you sleeper. He says, what are you doing in here asleep? And so he says, arise and call out to your God. You see, God is so good to us, God is so gracious to us that oftentimes he will send storms in our life to wake us up. But man, you worship at the idol of money, it would be God's grace to you that you would go bankrupt.

So that you would realize that it will never fully and finally satisfy. If you worship at the idol of the applause of man, it would be God's grace to you that everybody would turn their back on you. That God would be so gracious to us that he would send us storms so that we know that he and he alone is more than enough. And so the captain says, arise and call out to your God. This is how you wake up, by the way. Arise and call out to your God, and I love what he says. Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish. I mean, the captain is like, why not?

You're already wasting your life. Like, by the way, you rebel, how's this rebellion working out for you? Not too good. And I'm telling you, every single time, by our own decision, that we turn and flee from the presence of God, rebellion always feels like fun and freedom at first. but it only leads to bondage and regret. The Church of 1122, do you need to arise and call out to God? For perhaps he may answer you.

And they said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. And so they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. And then they said to him, tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation and where do you come from and what is your country and of what people are you? And then he said to them, so now for the very first time, the prophet is going to act like a prophet and he's going to tell people about the Lord. But it's not until he gets to this place in his life where he must be thinking, well, I might as well, I'm going to die either way. Either we could all die together in the ship or maybe they'll chunk me over the side and I'll die alone. and what is happening here is God has reduced his decision to the question,

will your life save the lives of others, or will your life be an ordinary death at sea in a storm with a bunch of pagan sailors? And this is a microcosm of the essence of his call as a prophet. 1122, if you're saved, you're sent. Let me ask you this question. Will your life matter to the lives of others? And I'm not just talking about the others that live in your house with you, okay? For sure.

When you die, there will be some people that come around you and they will have a funeral and they will be sad. Funer is so sad. I was in Africa last week. Do you know what to learn? Elephants have funerals. Did you know this? It's been confirmed by the Lion King, so it must be true. But my guide told us, we're on this safari.

We see this elephant. And they said, when an elephant dies, other elephants come around it and they make elephant noises, whatever that noise is. And the elephants that hear it come around the elephant. They bury them. They cover them up with shrubbery and brush and stuff for the body to decompose. And then the same elephants come back and take the elephant bones and put it in the elephant bone graveyard. And an elephant has never changed the world. An elephant doesn't have any more impact than other elephants right around them.

What I'm asking you is, are you going to live the kind of life that matters to other lives, or are you going to be forgotten just like an elephant and only impact the couple of people around you? What we have been called to as followers of Jesus Christ is that we would live our lives, pour ourselves out in such a way that our lives matter to the eternity of lives to the end of the world. Listen, man, yesterday, I was at the memorial, this really the celebration of this 14-year-old kid who loved Jesus with his whole life and the way he lived his life and the way he was so bold about his faith. this 14-year-old is having an impact on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids at his school and at these ministries around our city. What about you? This is the question that Jonah had to answer. Is my life just going to be another ordinary death at sea or am I willing to sacrifice my life so that others would be saved?

It's the question of every Christian. And he answers that question. He says, I'm a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. And then the men were exceedingly afraid and they said to him, what is this that you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. If you call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ and you try to flee the presence of the Lord in disobedience, I'm telling you, even pagans in your life will recognize it. I mean, who's the most pagan person in your life?

probably your boss, and if you act like everybody else, even the pagans at your work will come to you and be like, what are you doing? I thought you were different than this. I thought your values. I thought your Lord was different than this. Listen, regret is a heavy price to pay. Every single one of us, one day, our entire life

will be summed up in stories about our life. every decision we make from this day to that day writes the script of the stories that will be told about our life I hope you realize that the good news is you are the author of that script from this day forward and may our lives be full of scripts that are rooted in faith and not bound up in fear

every decision we make verse 11 they said to him what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us for the sea grew more and more tempestuous and he said to them, pick me up, hurl me into the sea and then the sea will quiet down for you for I know it is because of me

that this great tempest has come upon you. I got really good news for you. Did you know that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, that is not how it works? You see, what this is, this would be condemnation. If you do bad, then you need to try to do good or sacrifice yourself to make up for the bad that you have done. But the reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that in the new covenant, through the blood of Jesus,

therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You see, we don't have to be thrown into the raging sea to atone for our sin because Jesus, the Son of God, has already been thrown into the deep on our behalf. Romans chapter 3 says it this way. It is hard for me to read these verses without preaching them. I'll do my best. Romans chapter 3 says, For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

In other words, no one can look at the justice of God and say, I can do this. But now the righteousness of God, that means a right standing with God, getting right with God. But now getting right with God has been manifested apart from the law, how good you can be. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift

through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. Here's what this means. That all sin against an almighty, everlasting, eternal God requires an everlasting eternal payment. You can try to make the payment by yourself, and that is an everlasting separation from our holy God.

And God, who is rich in mercy, sent his son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life, a life that we could not live, and to die a sinner's death on the cross, that Jesus didn't only die for you, he died instead of you. And that God made him, who was without sin, to be sin for us

that we would be made the righteousness of God, and that God put Jesus, his son forward as propitiation by his blood. The word propitiation means a payment that satisfies. That when Jesus was on the cross and he pushed up on his nail-pierce feet and he says, it is finished literally to Telestai, which means paid in full, that that counts for anyone who would believe, for anyone who would choose to put their faith in what Christ did. And when that happens, because he is the payment that satisfies the propitiation, that means that God cannot be dissatisfied in us.

That God is fully satisfied in you if Christ is in you. This is important. A.W. Tozer says the most important thing about you is what you think about when you think about God. And most of us think God is pretty frustrated with us. You know why? Because you have kids. And you were a kid. and you know how frustrating we can be.

And yet the almighty king of the universe, when he sees us like a robe, a clean robe over a dirty prodigal son, he wraps his righteousness. Actually, he doesn't even wrap it around it to cover us. He makes us his righteousness. So when he sees us, he is as pleased in us as he was pleased in Christ. And so he's not, there's not this, there's not this sea of judgment in your life anymore if you are in Christ that you need to be thrown into. but your Father in heaven, your Father in Heaven sings over you and delights over you.

So it doesn't work this way anymore. It says, nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land. I tell you what's crazy is these pagans are treating the prophet better than the prophet would treat the pagans. It says, but they couldn't. They're trying to row. God says no. You don't get to go if God says no. For the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

therefore they called out to the Lord. Oh Lord, let us not perish for this man's life. I want you to notice something. It was not in Jonah's success, but it was in Jonah's brokenness and surrender that led these other men to put their faith in the Lord. It's not when Jonah showed up and he had money to pay the fair and he's from a cool place and he's got cool stories.

That's not what led them to trust the Lord. It wasn't until Jonah got to the place where he was broken, and said, I'll surrender and you can throw me in for you. That is when they began to trust in the Lord, which is important because sometimes, sometimes the storms in your life are not to wake you up, but because God has a bunch of sleepers in your life and that God would love humanity enough to shake up his children sometimes to wake up the people around you. I'm telling you, man, if somebody comes to you and says, tell me why your life is so awesome

And you're like, Jesus, and they say, I want that. You know what they want? They don't want Jesus. They want awesome. And Jesus will not be a means to your awesome end. That is idolatry, and he will not share his throne. But I'm telling you, you let all hell break loose in your life. Like, get sick, lose a loved one, get fired, go bankrupt, let her leave, whatever it is.

And then people in your life come to you and say, how are you making it? and you honestly go honestly I don't know I don't know that's a very biblical answer because the Bible says that he will give you a peace that transcends understanding that means I can't really explain it

I just know I put my faith in my sovereign savior not in my circumstances and it's crazy and they say how are you going to make it through tomorrow and you go I don't know about tomorrow Jesus said don't worry about tomorrow tomorrow's got enough worries of its own I tell you what but he gives me new mercies every morning and it seems to me he gives me just enough mercy

and grace just to make it through today. And what people see is not how awesome your life is, but what they see is though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you fear no evil because he's with you. And your whole office might not jump to Jesus right then, but let me guarantee you this. When the wheels start falling off of their life, guess who they run to? Not Mr. Cotton Candy and Cadillac guy.

They will come running to you and say, explain to me this piece that you have. And you'll tell them, man. Peace is a person. His name is Jesus. Sometimes God uses these storms to wake up everybody else in your life. The 14-year-old boy I was talking about that lived in such a way that he impacted lives, the faith of his mama and daddy heralding the testimony of their son who loved Jesus, all of us are watching them and our faith is strengthened by the peace that this family has.

So it's in Jonah's surrender and brokenness that these children. other people come and say, oh Lord, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and they hurled him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging and then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. Now, I want you to pay attention to something. The writer of Jonah keeps using the word down, down, down. He went, Down to Joppa, he got on a boat that went down to Tarshish, he went down to the bottom of the boat, and then eventually they threw him down into the ocean.

If you or I flee the presence of the Lord, it is nothing but a downward spiral. It goes down, down, down. But because of the grace and the mercy and the relentless pursuit of our loving God, sometimes it's at the lowest point in our life that we find life. That's just what happens to Jonah. Verse 17. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. I don't know how this works, but somehow God tells us this great fish, go eat Jonah.

And here's the thing. The fish was more obedient than the prophet. Please don't be outfathed by a fish. when God tells you to do something, just go do it. Now, the thing that makes me go crazy is when I read commentators on this, everybody gets all hung up. Could this really happen?

No. It's called a miracle. And Jesus believed it happened in Matthew chapter 12. He said, hey, you think the belly of the well for three days is a big deal? I'm going into a tomb and coming out of there. So if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And if Jesus believes it, I'm with him,

because he came out of the grave. If you have a different theory, die, come out of the grave, and then set an appointment and we'll chat. Until then, I'm going with Jesus. Okay? So, and the other thing is, don't get hung up. Is it a fish? Is it a whale?

They did not have the zoological categories 5,000 years ago that we have today. Okay, it's a big thing in the water. And the primary miracle is not what happened in the belly of a fish. The primary miracle is what's happening in the heart of Jonah. Don't get caught up on the wrong things. You see, the crazy thing is, is often what we see as God's punishment, I mean, I don't think about this from John's perspective.

He's going down, down, down, down. Now he's down in the bottom of the sea, and he sees a big fish whale coming at him to eat him. He's not probably thinking, thank you, Jesus, no. He's thinking, I guess this is how it ends. And what we often see is God's punishment is actually his provision, that what you feel like is rock bottom could be the very foundation that you need to look up to God. This is what we're going to spend all next week on. When you find yourself in rock bottom, don't give up. Don't think this is time to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. No, no, no, you look up to the God of miracles because he loves you. Because think about this.

Why would God send a fish to swallow up Jonah? Why? I mean, he could have just let him go to the bottom of the sea and die. And then just call up another prophet that maybe would listen to what he says. There's only one reason why he would send a fish to swallow up Jonah. because he loves him, because he loves him. Oftentimes, God uses people to accomplish tasks. More often, God uses tasks to accomplish people.

You know what this means? No matter how far you've run, no matter how long it's been, God ain't done with you. Some of you had a call of God in your life in college to disappoint your parents, change your major, and pursue God's will for your life, but instead out of you trying to please them and you would try to make some bank, And so you have been in constant rebellion for all of those years. God's not finished with you. He's not finished with you.

He relentlessly pursues his rebellious people. And I pray to God, this sermon like a whale, is going to swallow you up and spit you out where you're supposed to be. It's God's grace in your life that he would do that. The only reason he would save Jonas because he loved it. See, Pastor Britt said this a couple weeks ago in his sermon. He says he's come to this understanding that we are not primarily tools in the hand of God. We are primarily sons and daughters in the family of God. Yeah, he's not done with you, just like he wasn't done with him.

And so he appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Here's the point. The only thing harder been going in Ineva, the only thing harder than fighting the flesh and following through on God's will. The only thing harder than doing what God told you to do is wishing. that you had. That's a place you do not want to be. So let me ask you, what is God calling you to do? What is God calling you to do? Now again, there's only one preacher here at 1122, one real preacher.

His name is the Holy Spirit. He's here every week. He does a fabulous job. You should listen to him. I cannot call you to do anything. But you know, you know, you might not be able to fully explain it. You just can't deny it down in the deepest parts of the secret place of the soul. you know what God is calling you to do. And it may be going that mission trip for the very first time. It may be God is calling you to live a life of radical generosity. It may be God is calling you to sell everything and be one of the 100 full-time missionaries. Maybe God is calling you to go to night to shine and to sign up.

And as you think about being a buddy, you don't know what to do. You feel kind of uncomfortable and you know God rarely calls you to the comfortable. Maybe God's calling you to start that ministry. Some of you, Mamas, God is calling to go home and raise those babies. Some of you, Mamas, God is calling to go to work. You're driving your baby's crazy. Maybe he's calling you to forgive that person. Maybe he's calling you to share the gospel with your one more.

Like I've mentioned before, maybe he's calling you to change your major, disappoint your parents. They'll get over it. Mine did. Sort of. Somebody asked me this question one time, if you could do anything for the glory of God and you knew it wouldn't fail, what would you do? That can help you discover God's call in your life.

If you could do anything for the glory of God, not your glory, for the glory of God, and you knew it wouldn't fail, what would you do? I'll tell you what I would do. I'd get together my best friends in the world and I'd plant a church and a Walmart and pastor it until the day I die. Now I know what you're saying. And you're like, well, that's easy for you to say. You already did that. All right. It wasn't really easy in 2011, okay?

I promise you I was shopping in Joppa for all kind of tickets to other things. But luckily, I had some friends in my life to just help encourage me to walk in the direction that God had called me. What is it God has called you to do? And the reason you need to do that thing is not to fulfill you, but to fulfill the great commission. And I promise you as you are about His glory and not your. your own, there is more adventure, there is more joy, and there is more peace living, that dangerous calling that God has on your life than anything this world has to offer. You see, one day people will look back on your life. One day on your deathbed, you will

look back on your own life. And may it not be said of you, what have you done? May it be said of you by others, what would we have done if you didn't obey God? Listen, man, Coach Bull Lee had no idea what hung in the balance. He didn't even get to hear about it. We didn't start 1122 until after he has passed away. And if you knew with us, Coach Lee, was a JV football coach that led me to Christ. He had no idea. He couldn't even get in his mind seven campuses and that, you know.

Our church is three times bigger than Dylan, the whole place. I told my daddy, daddy, he's like, boy, you can be the mayor of Dylan. I'm probably not going to do that, Daddy, so I'm going to keep doing this. Do you know what hangs on the balance for you? Making that phone call, going on that trip? Just whatever it is, whatever that thing is that God has called you to do, you have no idea. On a battlefield in Scotland, 714 years ago,

that was a man with a blue face, you've seen the movie. He said, I am William Wallace, and I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men and free men you are. What will you do without freedom? Will you fight? And then the whispers. The soldiers say, fight against that.

We will run and we will live. And he famously says, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live. at least a while and dying in your beds many years from now would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance

to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take away our lives but they'll never take our breath. Come on, you've seen the movie. As much as I love that movie and it is the greatest movie of all time that is objective truth. You can't even argue with it, okay?

Those men on that battlefield they were fighting for a temporary kingdom and individual freedom. And followers of Jesus Christ, we have been called into this eternal battle, and we are fighting for a glorious eternal kingdom, and we are fighting for eternal freedom for those that God has called. It's the Church of 1122. May you, may you, may you, may the word of the Lord come to you, and may you rise up and go,

in the direction that God has called you to go. For the glory of His name and the joy, the deep abiding joy that you find when you walk in obedience with your king. The Bible tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear. Fear is not a feeling. Fear is not a personality type.

Fear is a spirit that doesn't come from God. And God has not given us a spirit of fear, but he has given us the spirit of power, the same power that brought Jesus out of the grave. same power lives in us. And he has given us a spirit of love and perfect love cast out fear. And he has given us a spirit of a sound mind. So Church of 1122, may we be the kind of people that get the word of the Lord and then do what he says.

We just stand and let me pray for you. Our good and gracious heavenly father, God, we pray every single one of us. God, we pray against the spirit of fear. And Lord, may our lives count for something. May we all be willing to lay down our lives so that others might live. And God, I thank you for your relentless pursuit of us, your rebellious children, but not through a reluctant missionary through a righteous Savior name Jesus. And God, I pray that you would speak clearly.

You would speak to our hearts. You would clean out her ears. You would wake up sleepy souls. And that we would rise up and go in the direction that you have called us to go, knowing that we do not walk in our own power, but we walk in your power, in your love, and we walk under your control. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Church, we respond to the gospel. It is what we do. And so we're going to respond by bringing our first and our best, our ties and our offerings, just like we do every week. Best way to probably do that is electronically, or if you brought it like the real thing,

you can drop it in a box on your way. And we respond by praying. There's a whole bunch of, of you that need to rise and come down and kneel down before your king and say, here I am, Lord, send me. Or we need to pray for the courage to walk in obedience to whatever he has called you to do. And then we respond by singing. And we're going to sing a song.

We've sung it a thousand times before, but it's going to make a whole lot more sense this time based on this sermon. So I pray. I pray for you. May you walk in obedience to God's call in your life. Let us bring, let us sing, let us pray. Let us respond.