Rebounding from Rebellion | Rebel with a Cause - #2 | Pastor John Lindell

[Music] Good. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Okay, well, good morning. Good to see you this morning. It's a great day at James River Church of Uni. Today, one of the things we do is we make our way through the Bible verse by verse. And so, we're in the Book of Jonah, and we're looking at this story of a prophet who was called by God to go to Nineveh and preach to a wicked city of violent people. And Jonah said, "I don't think I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna go a different direction." So, the book speaks to us about running from God, and then turning to God, and watching God use us in response to all of that. So, it's a very, very exciting book. And we're in Part 2, chapter 2 of this miniseries. And the title of the message is "Rebounding from Rebellion." Rebounding from rebellion.

You come to the Book of Jonah, it's a book about salvation. In chapter 1, you have the sailors surrendering to God, and they're saved. In chapter 2, you have Jonah surrendering to God, rededicating his life to the Lord, and it's about Jonah's salvation, his deliverance. You get to chapter 3, it's about a city that has, probably historians tell us, 300,000 people. It's one of the greatest revivals in the history of mankind as a reluctant prophet goes and preaches, and God works through the words of that prophet to save that whole city. Then in chapter 4, you find out about the God of salvation, God's heart for people, for people to hear the word of God, his heart for people who have not heard. And so, it is a great book as well on missions.

If you're with us last time, just by way of review, where did the Lord come to Jonah? Because, you know, honestly, God is speaking to all of us, and He's speaking constantly. He's speaking continually. You say, "Well, I don't think God's spoken to me." It's because you're not listening. Because over and over again, the Bible says, "And the Lord said," over 300 times. That's in the Word of God. Over 120 times, it's, "And the word of the Lord came to a person." Say, God's Word, God's voice, God's will is made known to us. He speaks in a variety of ways. We talked about that last time. He comes to Jonah and He tells Jonah, "I want you to go to Nineveh and preach."

But here's what Jonah did. Look at this map because it illustrates that rather than go 550 miles in the will of God, Jonah's willing to go 2,500 miles outside the will of God. Jonah says, "I want to get as far away from the will of God as I possibly can." Clear over on the tip of Spain. You know, there's some here today, and that's exactly where you're at. You've come in here today if somebody's invited you, or maybe you've come because, like Jonah, you're wearing the garments of a prophet. You have the look of somebody who's walking with God. But honestly, in your heart, you're about as far away from God as you can possibly get. Everybody else thinks you got it happening, and every now and then God uses you, which keeps the charade up because it looks like, "Oh yeah, God's using him. God's using her." So, I have my Jonah. I mean, we read about a prophecy that he gave during the reign of Jeroboam II, and it happens. Scripture tells us about that. So, everybody thinks Jonah's got it together. Jonah's got it happening. But honestly, Jonah's in a very dark place spiritually. He's running from God.

We look at this, and we see it in Jonah chapter 1 and verse 3: "But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." He's saying, "God, I don't want anything to do with You. I don't really want to be identified with Your will and Your plan anymore. He says, 'I'm out.'" Later in the verse, it says this: "And he paid the fare and went on board to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord." We read again in verse 10: "For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord." So, three different times in ten verses, it tells us that here's Jonah, and he's trying to get away from the presence of the Lord.

But Jonah's making a big mistake in his thinking. And here's what it is: Jonah thinks that because he doesn't want anything to do with God, that God doesn't want anything to do with him. Some of you think that you're the one who determines what's going to happen between you and God. You're wrong. Because God loves you way more than you can imagine. God, He's watching you. His eye is on you. You can't escape this presence. You can't escape His notice. He's got His hand on you, and He is going to relentlessly chase you down. Not to punish you, not to be mean to you, but because He loves you. This Book of Jonah shows us the incredible lengths to which God will go to get ahold of people's attention that they might come back to see His mercy in their life. But Jonah is running from God. We've titled the series, "A Rebel with a Cause." He's got a cause. His cause is himself. And having just gotten so totally involved in himself, what happens to Jonah? And you watch it happen. It's a living color depiction of what's happening in a lot of people's lives here today.

You see, when you give in to saying, "Listen, I don't want anything to do with God. I want to do what I want to do. I want to do it when I want to do it. I want to go where I want to go. Nobody's gonna tell me what to do because I want to do what I want to do." What that does is, and you're not aware of it, everybody else is incidentally. So, think of it kind of like the Emperor with No Clothes. You know, the guy who thought he was fully dressed, but he didn't have a stitch of clothing on. But everybody else knew they were naked. That's you. Because you think you see, but you don't see. You think because you don't want anything to do with God, God's not having anything to do with you. But the fact of the matter is, God is just all over your situation. You think that you're running from God and that you can get away from God, but God is following you closely.

And in Jonah's case, what God does is, God does some very natural, supernatural things. For example, He sends a storm. Ever had one of those? I mean, there are natural storms, and then there are supernatural storms. There are natural storms, but then there are storms that God sends that look like a natural storm, only you know it's a supernatural storm because of the suddenness, because of the unexpected nature of it, because of the fury of it, the force of it, the intensity of it. Just when you think it should be passing over, it intensifies. Watch this. It's very, very interesting with Jonah. "But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up."

So, here they are. Jonah's on the boat, and the worst possible thing you could imagine happening in that day on a boat happens. There's a storm that comes up on the sea. It's not just any storm. They're afraid the ship is gonna break apart. You think, "Well, it's gonna pass." And Jonah, that's exactly the way he's playing it. What does he do when this happens? Jonah goes down and he goes to sleep. How do you sleep in a storm? But if sleeping is a metaphor, it's a picture of the fact that he's spiritually unaware. He's clueless. He's sleepwalking.

Then in verse 11, "the sea grew more and more tempestuous." Tempestuous. Then in verse 13, "for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them." It's a Category 1, it's a Category 2, it's a Category 3. And Jonah is absolutely oblivious to what's happening. He's asleep. I mean, their ship's gonna break apart, he's asleep. That doesn't make any sense in anybody's world who sleeps through a storm. But you see, there's some of you, and there's a storm that's happening in your life, and you're like asleep. You're like, "It's no big deal." Well, not to you. But everybody else will be all right. No, the ship is breaking apart. Your home is breaking apart. Your marriage is breaking apart. Your influence with your kids is breaking apart. Your job is breaking apart. Can't you see it? And you're like, "No, no, it'll all get better." Only it doesn't. It gets worse. The storm is happening, and suddenly there's loss. The cargo's going overboard. They're getting rid of that. So, you see, it's costing people around you. Not costing you directly, maybe, but it's costing people around you, and they're afraid, and they're terrified, and you're asleep.

Look at it in verse 6: "And the captain went to him and said, 'How can you sleep? What's the matter with you?'" And some of you have had that kind of conversation with friends, with family members. They're saying, "Can't you see what's happening? How can you be, how can you be so obtuse? How can you not see what's happening? Can't you see what it's doing to your kids? Can't you see what it's doing to your wife? Can't you see what it's doing to your work situation?" But you're running from God, and as a result, you're blind. And there's only one way. The storm, the storm's not gonna blow over. The storm's not gonna go away. There's only one way you ever silence the storm or calm the waves. It's when you surrender to God. Here are the sailors, they surrender, the sea is calm. Jonah's been thrown into the water. The reason why he's thrown in the water is because he says, "Listen, I would rather, I think I'd rather just die than follow God's will. I just don't have the heart to do it. I don't want to do it. God, just go ahead and kill me." And God is like, "Really? Okay, let's try that."

That's where we pick it up. Verse 17: "And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah." Now, we're gonna look at this fish thing because, honestly, that's a real hang-up for a lot of people, which is very, very interesting to me that people struggle so much with this. But the Bible is a book of miracles. So, we got to start there. And if you cut the miracles out of the Bible, you don't have the Bible. Remember Thomas Jefferson said, "I can't buy into any of the miracles." So, he took his copy of the Gospels and he cut all the miracles out, and he said, "This is the Jesus I believe in." But the Jesus who doesn't do miracles is not the Jesus of the Bible, right? So, as we look at this, we have to understand that, like in all of God's Word, there's an element of the miraculous here.

What we have is, "The Lord appointed a great fish." Doesn't say it's a whale. It could be a whale. We don't know. It doesn't mean that it is a fish that is existent today. Maybe He specially created a fish so that it could do what we read about. That's a possibility. Maybe it was a fish that is around today and is not native to those waters, but God appointed it, told it, "Hey, go over there, and I'm gonna send you some sushi." And then, because we know that God's gonna tell the fish, "Hey, I need you. I know, I know that bet dinner I served you is making you very ill. Just vomit him out onto the beach at this particular location." And the fish does. So, the whole thing's very miraculous.

"And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." And that creates a lot of questions. Could a person really live in a fish for three days? There are stories. You can go on the internet, you find almost anything on the internet. But there are stories of people who say they were swallowed by whales and lived to tell about it. And you have from the 1800s stories of sailors who were swept off a whaling vessel and were swallowed, and then the whale was caught a couple days later and cut open, and there was the sailor. And you know, rather than read you those because we don't know for sure whether those are really accurate, what I would like to read you is there's a group of scientists out of Yale who answer different questions. Here's the question they were posed recently: "I've been thinking about the Old Testament story of Jonah, who was swallowed by a big fish or a whale. According to the Gospel of Matthew, well, Jesus doesn't call it a whale, He calls it a big fish. Some translations use whale to make it understandable. Are there any modern-day accounts of humans, or animals for that matter, surviving something like this?"

Here's what these scientists answered in return: "There are plenty of accounts. They're all on the internet, and I should think they are all untrue. Because there are all sorts of reasons why I don't think it's likely that anyone's really going to survive, at least not for very long, inside any of these animals. Killer whales and sperm whales can swallow large prey. They can swallow large seals whole. We know sperm whales can swallow giant squid whole. So, chances are they could swallow a human whole. If you can survive the being swallowed part of it and get past all those teeth, then you will find yourself in a complex digestive system. They have four stomach chambers, like a cow. Find your way through those, if you can, while also dodging all those nasty digestive enzymes that are going to start corroding your skin. There really isn't any air in there. If there is any gas inside a whale, it's probably methane, and that's not going to help you out very much. We do know that whales can be flatulent. So, you never know what you're gonna learn in church. I promise you, you had no idea you were gonna find out something so useful to your life. Whales have gas. So, there is some gas. They do have gassy pockets, but it's not air. Not good to breathe." Every wife said, "Amen" to that. "Certainly no air inside a fish. I think that's really what's going to get you in the end. So, I'm afraid no, a human cannot survive inside a fish."

So, that leaves us with three options regarding this account of Jonah and the fish. Number one: There is a fish that can swallow people and they don't die. There may be a fish that we're unaware of. We don't know of every species in the ocean. God may have created a fish, or there may have been species alive at the time of Jonah that are not alive today. We could go a thousand places with that. That's one option. Number two: God miraculously sustained Jonah's life in the fish. So, that's, I mean, miracles. God works miraculously. It's a miraculous story. The Bible is full of miracles. So, God kept him alive in the fish. Number three: Jonah died and was brought back to life. Now, you can pick whichever one you want. I'm gonna go with number three. You say, "Well, that means he was dead for three days?" That's right. And as such, he is a perfect illustration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, let me say this: It's not unusual. It's not a resurrection in the sense of giving a glorified body. It is really a resuscitation. When anybody dies and is brought back to life, they're resuscitated into a normal human life, in a normal human body. They're not given a resurrected body. So, we wouldn't really call it a resurrection. For example, and you see this in the Old Testament. You see it in the life of Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 17, the widow of Zarephath. He prays and resuscitates her son who is dead. We see it in the life of Elisha, the attendant of Elijah, who succeeded him, and he raised the Shunammite son who had been dead for a period of time. You see resuscitation in John chapter 11 when Jesus goes to Lazarus' tomb. And how long was Lazarus dead for? Three days. He'd been there four days. And so, they're saying his body was already in a state of decay, and Jesus resuscitates him, brings him back to life. So, the idea, and I mean, there are other instances in scripture, I'm not naming all of them. So, a common miracle in scripture is people who are resuscitated back to life. So, the idea of Jonah being resuscitated should not bother us at all. In fact, I think it makes the most sense for how a person survives three days in a whale with a fish without going crazy.

Furthermore, the language in the Hebrew text is consistent with Jonah dying. When you read, for example, Jonah chapter 2 and verse 2: "Out of the belly of Sheol." Sheol is the place in the Old Testament of the dead. It is where the dead go. There are two compartments to places in Sheol. The righteous dead would go into what was called Paradise or Abraham's bosom, and that's where people who were righteous prior to Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, that's where the righteous people went. It was separated by a gulf. Jesus tells us about this in Luke chapter 16. It was separated, the area of righteous dead from the unrighteous dead, which was called Hades, was the lake of fire. People today who do not know Jesus Christ, they still go to Hades. The righteous did go to heaven and are in the presence of the Lord. But Sheol is the name that encompasses both of those places. Jonah says he was in the belly of Sheol. In verse 6 of chapter 2, he says, "I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever." That is a phrase that is used in literature of that day for death. It's the land where the bars close forever. Jonah says, "I was down in Sheol. I was down in the land where once the gate closes, you don't get out of there. You brought my life from the pit." Up from the pit. That word "pit" there is used in Psalm chapter 16 and verse 10, speaking of death and decay. It's translated that word in that Psalm as the word "corruption." You see, Peter, in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, he quotes Psalm 16:10 twice in that sermon. And in one example, he, the Lord for saying this, "spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption." So, the idea is that Jonah was down in the pit. He was down in the realm of death. We read as well in Jonah chapter 2 and verse 7: "When my life was fainting away." It was ebbing away. He was drowned. He was in the throes of death. So, he's praying in that moment as he's dying.

So, let's look at it. Jonah chapter 2 and verse 1: "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, 'I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.'" In other words, at that moment, Jonah is, it's one of those moments when, as we read this story, one of the things you're going to see is you're gonna see Jonah having this big prayer. And you say, "Well, is this the actual prayer?" Well, what he's doing is he is, after the fact, saying, "These are the things that were happening. Here's what I was thinking. Here's what I was doing. Here's what I was praying." So, he doesn't die the minute this fish swallows him, but as he realizes what's happening, he begins to pray. And psychologists tell us that what happens to a human being when you get in that moment where it's the fight or flight, and you're in trouble, and you're scared, is that your mind, it's as if time slows down, and you can think a thousand thoughts. You know, like people say, "My whole life flashed before me." Well, that's a lot of life. How did you have time for that? Your mind seems to slow things down, and you can process a number of thoughts. I want to suggest to you that's what's happening here. Jonah is telling us after the fact, "This is what I said." Is this all that he said? Surely not. Is this the heart of what he said? Absolutely. But would you notice where he starts? "I called out to the Lord." This is where surrender begins. Surrender begins not with, "You know, I think I need to think about that." That's not surrender. Surrender isn't, "You know, I think God would probably try to do a better job with my life, or how to change a few things with my life." That's not surrender. You have to call to the Lord. You have to lift your voice to the Lord. You have to cry out. This is Romans chapter 10 and verse 13: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Here's Jonah, and he's calling out to God. He's saying, "God, I need You to save me." And all that that implies. You say, "Well, how do you know he's not just asking God to get him out of the fish? How do you know it's a spiritual salvation?" You get to the end of the prayer, it becomes very obvious. He says, "Whatever You tell me to do, that's what I'm going to do." That's salvation. When you ask God to save you and you make Him Lord of your life, you're saved. That's Jonah. He says, "I called out to the Lord." And when you do that, God is going to hear you.

You say, "Honestly, John, that that's just a foxhole conversion." You know, like you're in the foxhole, the enemy's shooting at you, bullets whizzing by. "God, if You ever get me out of this, I'll do whatever." Those aren't real. I wouldn't be so sure about that. Any time somebody calls on the Lord, God answers. Any time God knows the heart. And there may be some that weren't real, but there are a whole lot of them that are. The issue is this: It doesn't matter in that moment. We'll see where Jonah's at. What matters is God is pursuing Jonah. God is saying, "Listen, if the storm wasn't enough, and a bigger storm wasn't enough, and an even bigger storm wasn't enough, then how about a giant fish? Jonah, I love you, and I'm not gonna let go of you very easily. And I'm gonna pursue you, and I'm gonna do what it takes to get you to understand again My love for you and to bring you to a place where you're walking with Me." Listen, God loves you more than you can imagine. He cares for you, and He's not gonna let go of you easily. And some of you are in a storm, and you're thinking because you've chosen to walk away from God, that God's fine leaving you alone. That is simply not true. God is saying, "No, I'm gonna come after you because I love you way more than you know. And no amount of ignoring Me on your part is going to cause Me to ignore you or forget about you." Some of you are in a storm right now, and it's not natural. It's supernatural. It looks so. You've seen things in life that look like that. Only God is doing something naturally supernatural in your life. He's trying to get your attention. He's speaking to you.

Now, as you read this prayer, one of the things I want you to see is you have happening in the prayer a bit of repetition. You say, "Why is that?" I think it's indicative of two things. First of all, Jonah is a prophet trained in the prophetic school. So, he's got much of the, whatever scriptures they had at that time, because they didn't have a complete Old Testament, it hadn't all been written. Well, whatever they had, he had memorized. He knew it all. He could quote the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. He could quote the Psalms that were existent at that time. He's trained to write his prayers, to pray in a way consistent with Psalms. So, this follows that type of praying. And if that's how you're trained to pray, that's how you're going to pray in many respects, no matter what's going on around you.

When you read this, and just for those who are interested in something a little more technical, and you can listen to this again or write it down, it's what scholars call a chiasm. And it starts in, so what you have is you have verse 3 that your verse 2 corresponds to verse 6. Verse 3 corresponds to verse 5, and verse 4 is kind of the heart of what the prayer is about. So, that'd be one way to look at it. It's also indicative of the swirling chaos in that moment. I mean, what are you thinking about? Well, if you're in the belly of a fish and you're gonna die, you're gonna think about a whole lot of things, right? And this is what's happening to Jonah.

Now, look at it in verse 3: "For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me, and all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight.'" Jonah is thinking it's over. Jonah is thinking that he now, he chose to flee from God's presence, and now he's thinking God's presence has abandoned him. The New American puts it this way: "So I said, 'I have been expelled. I've been shot out like a guy going out of a cannon at a circus. I've been shot out of your sight.'" The Message puts it this way: "I've been thrown away, thrown out, thrown out of your sight. Boom! I'm gone." That's what some of you are thinking right now. Your situation is so bad, and you feel so distant from God, and you're so sure God has abandoned you. But the fact of the matter is, God is right there beside you. You're just simply blinded because of your own selfishness. But God is right there.

And here is Jonah, and he's thinking about this. And what's interesting is God's bringing him to the end of himself. Because, you know what? When he's on the boat with the sailors, he's got options. He's got options. What he says, "I'm not gonna do what God wants me to do. I'm gonna buy a ticket to Joppa, took from Joppa to Tarshish." That's an option. He gets on the boat. There's a storm. He's got options. He can go talk to the sailors and try to resolve it, say, "Like, you know what? Hey, we need to turn this ship back. I need to go back to Joppa and go to Nineveh. The storm will stop if you turn the ship around." He's got an option. Storm gets worse. Ship's breaking apart. They've thrown the cargo overboard. Jonah says, "Listen, from in the sea." That's an option. You got options. You need to keep me on the boat. We all die. Throw me in the sea, you'll live. I'll die. That's an option.

Now he's in the belly of the whale. And when you're in the belly of the fish, your options are very, very limited, right? There's not very many things you can do to help yourself. And he's saying, essentially, "God, I have made an absolute mess of everything. This is the prodigal son who wakes up and says, 'What in the world have I been thinking?'" This is a moment of clarity that comes in the midst of months or years of confusion. Some of you right now, God, in His love, is giving you a moment of clarity to see your life as it really is, to see your rebellion, to see the effects. Right now, your mate's saying, "What are you doing? Can't you see what you're doing to us?" Your friends are saying, "Dude, you're messed up, man. What are you thinking?" Your kids are saying, "Dad, Mom, why? Why would you do this? Can't you see what it's costing us?" Today, it's a moment of clarity. What are you gonna do in that moment? Are you gonna say, "You know what? I've gone too far. God doesn't want me." Some of you think you've gone so far that God is not gonna listen to you, that God doesn't want you, that God doesn't care, that God won't hear you. Say, "You know, I'm really, if people can go too far, I'm pretty sure that's me." And that in itself has kept you from turning back to God. But the fact of the matter is, if you're wondering if you went too far, you haven't. If you're wondering if God's done with you, He's not.

And here's Jonah. And as Jonah is looking at this, I want you to notice back in verse 4, Jonah chapter 2 and verse 4: "It says, 'Driven from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.'" Why is he talking about the temple? I mean, what's happening there? Well, King Solomon, when he built the temple, he prayed this prayer of dedication. And that prayer of dedication has been etched in the mind of Jewish people ever since. And essentially, what he said is, "Lord, when Your people pray, when Your people pray toward this temple, no matter where they've been, no matter where they are, no matter what they've done, if they turn and they look to You and they pray toward this temple, then God, hear from heaven." And you know what God did? He sent fire from heaven and burned up the sacrifice, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple, and the priests couldn't even enter. I mean, God said, "You got it." So, you go to Israel today, you look at the Wailing Wall, everybody's praying towards where that temple stood. That's the foundation of the temple, but they're praying towards it. So, still today, they're doing that. Here is Jonah, and he's praying toward the temple. Here, Solomon's prayer, just quickly: "Listen to the pleas of Your servant and Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And when You hear, forgive whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction." In other words, he says, "When people pray, answer."

Now, back to Jonah chapter 2 and verse 5: "The waters closed in over me to take my life. He knows he's gonna die. He knows he's not gonna live in this fish. The deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head. At the roots of the mountains I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever." Remember, when you're running from God, he goes down to Joppa, then he goes down to the ship, then he goes down inside the ship, then he's down in the deep. Now, the whale carries him. Listen, when you're running from God, you're going down. Slowly, surely, over time, it's getting worse. It's not gonna get better. He's going down. "Yet you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God."

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord. I mean, can you imagine, just for a moment, think about being inside a fish? Think about, just for a moment, imagine the seaweed wrapped around your head, imagine the acids eating on your skin, imagine the smell. I mean, how many of you, you got like a sensitive stomach, and smell certain smells, certain odors, just like you're like, "I can't do that." You know, you aren't your kid vomits, and if your mate isn't there to clean it up, you're like, "Oh, that's gonna just have to stay there." You know what I mean? There are some of you that, well, told me that, or you've got like this sensitive stomach, where you get carsick real easy. I mean, he's been tumbling around, and now that whale is, or that fish is taking him down, and I mean, all of this is happening, and he's thinking a thousand thoughts. Then he makes this, he's beginning to come to himself.

He says this in verse 8: "Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God's mercy." Listen, anybody who puts anything or anyone before God, that's a false god. That's idolatry. Jonah is saying, "I was an idolater." You say, "Well, what was his false god?" Well, he was worshiping himself. He did what he wanted, where he wanted, when he wanted. Even God's not gonna tell him what to do. He lives for himself. He is his own idol, which is the worst idol of all, which is the idol of most people, living for yourself, the self-centered life. And he says, "When you do that, what happens is you've turned away from God. And when you turn away from God, think of this for just a moment, you've got your back to His mercy. You're cutting yourself off from God's goodness. You're cutting yourself off from His mercy. You're cutting yourself off from His working in your life. And sad but true, you're cutting other people off around you from the mercy they would have received from being near you if you were walking with God." So, when I'm walking with God, when you're walking with God, there is a spillover of His blessing that falls on other people just from being around you. You're a blessing to them. Your life, the blessing just splashes off you onto them. But when you're running away from God, you're cutting yourself off from His mercy. I mean, when you put other things in your life, things you think will satisfy you, you're missing out on God's life and His mercy working in you. Not because God is not good, but because you've turned your back to Him. Jonah says, "I'm done with that. I'm done with that way of living. I want God's mercy."

I want to ask you something this morning. Are you tired of living the way you're living away from God? Are you tired of living with less of His mercy in your life than you could know, than you could have? Are you tired of the storm? Are you tired of doing things your way and coming up empty? Are you tired of hurting other people because of your blindness, because you're consumed with just who you are and what you want and how you feel, and you're not thinking about anybody else, and they kind of live in the wake of that selfishness? Are you tired of watching other people have less while you try to give yourself more, but still come up empty? Are you tired of that? Are you tired of wrecking your marriage? Are you tired of hurting your kids? Are you tired of going to work and going through the motions, and you thought this promotion, and this position, and this particular thing would make you happy, but it didn't? Because the only thing that will fill the void in any human heart is God Himself. Like Jonah, have you run out of options? Are you ready for surrender?

Look at this in verse 9: "But I will offer sacrifices to You with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows." This is repentance. He's going this way. And repentance is a change of direction. Literally, metanoia. It's turning around. It's a 180. You're going this way, doing your own thing, living for yourself, as empty as it is. It keeps getting more empty. And everything you thought would make you happy and would fulfill you, doesn't. Are you tired of that life of seeking something that never satisfies? Are you tired of hurting other people? Are you tired of that? And are you willing to turn to God and say, "Listen, God, I'm gonna follow Your way. I'm gonna follow You. I'm gonna come back to Your mercy." That's Jonah. He says, "I'll do what You ask me to do."

And listen, this is what's so interesting. Repentance will bring Jonah to a place of restoration in his life, but it will not make him perfect. And I simply add that in as kind of a warning of what you're going to see. Because when you read through it, you're gonna see, "Well, Jonah is still a very imperfect person." And I say it because it's important for everybody in this room. Because some people are not following close to God because you said, "I'm not good enough." And can I just say, nobody, if we're gonna go on that basis, can follow God. Repentance doesn't make us perfect. It just simply gives us right standing with God because of what Jesus did for us. And He did for us what you and I could never do for ourselves.

Here's Jonah, and he comes back to God. And then verse 10, we read this: "And the Lord spoke to the fish." Very interesting. Every other time this Hebrew word is used in reference to humans, it's "commanded" because humans have a will and humans have a tendency to view what God says as optional. So, God has to say, "I command you." But the rest of nature doesn't operate that way. God speaks, and the fish knows it's not a suggestion. Nature hears His voice and carries out His will. Humans hear His voice and say, "Huh, I'll have to think about that." "The Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out on the dry land." Even the fish was sick of him. Think of that. Can you imagine? Somewhere in there, I believe he's resuscitated. And God says, "Okay, fish, I need you to drop him off over here on this beach and go ahead, you can get rid of him. I know he's giving you a stomachache for three days." The fish vomits him out. It's like laying on the beach, covered in fish vomit. It's just such a striking, but he's alive.

Where you at spiritually today? I just want to ask you. Now, some of you were in last week, you sat through the message, and you didn't respond. And you've been miserable all week because you know God spoke, and you're like, "You know, I just had, I don't know, I don't, you know, I don't know why he didn't respond." Maybe it was kind of quiet going home in the car. Maybe some people said, "Hey, what'd you think of that?" And you're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I know." But are you walking close to the Lord? Are you running from Him? Some of you are running from God, and God's brought you back today. It's a sign of His grace and His pursuit of you that you're sitting in here. But God is saying, "Listen, I love you, and I'm pursuing you, and you're running from Him. And it's time for you, if you run out of options, it's time for you to turn around and to say, 'God, I'm gonna run back towards You rather than away from You.'"

There are others of you, honestly, truth be told, you're a rebel. You're living in rebellion. And the thing that's so deadly about what you're doing is you're one of those quiet rebels. You fly underneath the radar, but you're a rebel nonetheless. Do you realize this? And the way of the transgressor is hard. The way of the rebel is hard. God says this: "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." I mean, God really is concerned about the rebel. Practically speaking, here's what happens when a person is living in rebellion. What happens is it blinds them to God's working in their life. God, God's working in your life. You can be sure that there are some of you, and you're living in rebellion. "Like, I don't see God working in my life." Well, of course, you're living in rebellion. You can't see it. Everybody else can see it. Everybody else can watch. I mean, you're sitting in this room today. God's at work. You say, "Well, I decided to come." You think you still think you're in charge of your life. God is super. He's interposing Himself and transposing Himself on your life. He's moving you because He's pursuing you. And you think you can run from God, just like Jonah. But you can't. Jonah said, "I'm fleeing the presence of the Lord." But he wasn't. He could think he was, but God was still right there.

Here's another thing about rebellion: it blinds us to the hurt we're causing others. If you're living in rebellion, you're unaware of the loss. I mean, here's Jonah. The ship's breaking apart. The cargo's getting thrown overboard. For some of you, you know, you've got the people closest to you, and they're saying, "Can't you see what you're doing?" "I don't see anything. It's my life." And it's because you're blind. Because you're blind, you think it's your life that doesn't affect anybody else. Because you're blind, your rebellion has blinded you. You think, "Nobody's getting hurt." When in fact, people are getting damaged all over the place. And rebellion costs us more than we realize. I said, "How much are you gonna ease?" When you rebel, you always pay the fare. It says Jonah went down to the boat, he paid the fare. It's always gonna cost you. And ultimately, it can cost you your life.

It's very, very interesting that the writer of Proverbs, and I'll close with this, the writer of Proverbs makes a statement twice. If anything's in the Bible once, you know it's true. Listen to it. It's in there twice. It's like for emphasis. That's like, "Hey, don't forget this. This is really, really important." You find this verse in Proverbs 14 and verse 12. You find it again in Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 25. "There is a way that seems right to a man." Your way may make sense to you. It may seem right to you. Doesn't line up with the Bible. Makes no sense to the people around you. Seems right to you, but in the end, it leads to death.

[Music] Listen, you can run from God, you can rebel against God, but you're never gonna know the mercy of God like He wants to show you, or the peace of God, until you surrender to Him. [Music] Some of you are running, and God's come after you again today to say, "Stop running. Turn around. Rededicate your life, and watch what He'll do in you."