Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
September 14, 2014 - W1437

One day I was teaching a class and said that you must love one another. Well one student recited a pompous dissertation on the subject. Actually, you should just love one another and keep it simple.

It's amazing how you think you got to get real smart for Jesus, but He says, “No, you got to get stupid. You've got to be in a place where you say, ‘Lord, I just have to learn everything.’” Then with that kind of heart, God gives you an abundance of what heaven has in store.  But as one man said, “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” 

 I recall when I was attending school and the professor gave us a writing test called, “Why?” Well, all of the students kept writing away filling their page about the subject “Why”. I simply wrote, “Why not?” I got an “A”.

 So that's how you keep it simple. When God asks you to do something, don't ask, “Why?” Ask, “Why not?” And that's one of the things I learned about God. 

 Which brings us to the story of Jonah: When God asked Jonah to reach out to the Ninevites he asked, “Why?” When God asked Jonah to go east he went west. Consequently, you might say that Jonah was the world’s worst missionary since he kept running away from God. You might be thinking that this incredible story is about the adventures of Jonah.

 You see, you can be so fixed on one thing you miss the obvious, and if we're so fixed on the fact that the story is about Jonah, we're going to miss the whole lesson because here's the key: Jonah is not the hero of this story.  God is.  Jonah is not just Jonah.  Jonah is you and me because there's a little bit of Jonah in each of us.

 It says in Jonah 1:1-3, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.  So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the  presence of the Lord.”

 It's a story about you. It's a story about me.  But God has a whale of an idea for you.

 Now the reason why Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh was because it was a wicked and brutal territory. Furthermore, the Assyrians hated the Jews and the Jews hated the Assyrians.

 We all have a little bit of Jonah inside of us. Why?

 We pray, “Dear God, bring people to New Hope.” Then when God does, we say, “Hey, there's no parking anywhere around this place.” God's just answering your prayer.  “Yeah, but I don't want them to get saved.  I just wanted to say that because that's the Christian thing to say.”  “O God, we pray that you'll save the terrible young people in Hawaii.”  “Now, how come this music is so loud around here?”  Because God's answering your prayer.  “But I don't want them to come to this church.”  Really?  There's a little bit of Jonah in every single one of us.

 So what does God do? He changes your thinking. And if we don’t like it and rebel, He sends you a storm. Now there are two kinds of storms: Perfecting and correcting storms.Perfecting storms are storms that God will use to perfect your faith like in Peter’s case.

 When Peter stepped out of the boat he said, “Lord, I want to walk to you on the water.” So he starts walking on the water. And then it says he saw the waves and the wind and he began to sink. And Jesus reached out and grabbed his hand and said, “Why did you doubt? Keep your eyes on me, not your circumstances. Circumstances rob your faith. If you focus on me, I'll give you faith.” Watch what you're looking at. It's your focus.

And so God perfects his faith with a storm, but Jonah is a different story. God gives him a correcting storm.  He gets into this boat and goes the other way, and an unnatural ?? actually, supernatural storm occurs, one that is absolutely abnormal.  And there's a storm of such adverse circumstances that everyone in the boat knows that this is a supernatural storm. 

 God can do that in your life to get your attention, to get you to change the way you think. You will come face?to?face with adverse circumstances.  A perfect storm of financial collapse.  There might be trouble in your home, your church, our country, or you get desperately sick, and God gets your attention.  Sometimes, you think you’re doing fine, but all of a sudden, bang, you get into an accident.  You're going into the operating room on a gurney.  You say, “O God, I love you.”  Why didn't we say that before we hit the gurney?

 God sometimes allows adverse circumstances to get our attention so we change the way we think. And everyone onboard, I mean, all the other sailors are all endangered by Jonah's sin, and I need you to ponder these four words.  Are you ready?  Here it is. You never sin alone.

 You can be alone when you sin, but your sin will always impact other people ?? your family, your wife, your kids, your future, God's blessing. It hampers those things.  People will be affected by our compromise, by our deceit.  It injures our children, our grandchildren, our friend, and our families.  It's just those secretly watching you, taking you on as a model.  You never sin alone.  You might be alone when you sin, but you never sin alone.  It affects everybody on the boat. 

 And that's what happened with Jonah. It endangered the lives of everybody on that boat.  Now, the ship is going to Tarshish and the ship begins to groan, and it starts to creek from the wind and the heavy waves.  People are throwing cargo overboard in a desperate attempt to save the ship.  And where is Jonah?  You think he might be on deck helping the sailors.  But he's taking a nap below. 

 I mean, how could a man sleep during a storm? I'll tell you how.  The devil gave him sleeping pills. The devil knows how to put you to sleep when your world is crashing down around you.  How else can you explain a man who has an affair multiple times and his future is crashing down?  His family is going to the dump, and yet he continues.  It's like he’s asleep.  How people will hold bitterness month after month knowing that the Bible says differently.  Yes, we contain it and we contain it, and it eats your guts out.  What happened?  The devil gave you a sleeping pill while he destroys your world when you and I should be up onboard helping throw junk off of the ship in order to save what's best, and we're asleep.  Why?  Because the devil has a jar of sleeping pills, and your name is on it.  And that's exactly what happened to Jonah. 

 But God doesn't give up on Jonah. Isn't it amazing how God works?  Jonah is running the other way, sleeping downstairs, while his ship is sinking.  God still doesn't give up.  And he runs and runs and runs, and God still doesn't give up because God has His finger on Jonah.  And He’s got a big fish heading towards the boat.

 You can go to church, you can come here to New Hope, but you can still be running from God. Just because you come to church doesn't mean you're not running.  You could be running from situations in your marriage that needs to get cleaned up.  You're running but you know what God's called you to do, and you're going the other way.  God's called some of you to ministry, and you're running.  Maybe there are some relationships that need healing, but you're running away instead.  You go to church every week, and you're still running from God. 

 But I got some good news for you.  It's never too late to stop running from God. 

 There's a book that was written a few years ago called Dying at the Top, and it's a story of the rich and famous in their later days, and one of these men, who's a very affluent man, writes in his later days, he writes this: “Now that my life struggle is over, I have time to survey my life.  I became rich, and I became famous.  I had a beautiful wife and everything I wanted.  But I left God out of my life.  I lost it all, and now I find that I am dying of cancer.  My God, I wish I would have taken another road.”

 When God called him, he asked, “Why?” Instead of “Why not?”  God will keep his finger on you, but don't wait for the storm.  Don't wait for the great fish.  Start to follow Him.  Otherwise, it will be too late.  If you think about it, this is our run.  We only have one chance at this.  Everyone here in this auditorium is going to die one day, and another crowd is going to take your place.  Isn't that right?  Jonah was in a bad place.  Men threw him overboard because he said he was the reason for all of this, and God appoints a fish, probably a whale, to swallow him and he begins to cry out to God.

 So Jonah starts to cry out from the belly of a whale. What happened?  God changed his thinking. How long does he cry out?  Three days and three nights.  His whole life changes. 

 You know, here's the key to the whole story. Are you ready?  It's not about Jonah.  In Matthew 12: 38 - 42, the people come to Jesus, the Pharisees asking for a sign: “Give us another sign.  You made bread and fish multiply.  Give us another sign.”  You know what Jesus said?  “An evil and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, but no sign shall be given to them save the sign of Jonah.”  You know why I know it's a true story?  Jesus used it in Matthew chapter 12.  “No sign shall be given them except the sign of Jonah who was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.  So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

 And then I got it. That's the story of Jonah, of a man running and God never giving up, taking everything, even the forces of nature to change his way of thinking so that he can turn him around even to getting a fish to swallow him if he has to.  Then I got it.  It's not about Jonah.  The book of Jonah is about the grace and mercy of Jesus who through His death and resurrection brought hope to you and me when we run.  It's the gospel.  It's the story of the gospel.  It's about the cross and redemption.  Jesus uses it and says this is what it's all about.  It's not about Jonah.  It's about you and me because there's a little bit of Jonah in you and me and we run too.  But God will never give up.  You know why?  Because here's the most ?? I think the most beautiful verse in the Old Testament.

 Jonah 3:1 says, “Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.”

 Let it be known that not everybody gets a second chance.

 Ananias and Sapphira didn't get a second chance. Judas Iscariot didn't get a second chance. Jonah ?? the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. How many of you are thankful for the gospel of the second time? And He said, “Will you do what I asked you to do?” And Jonah had changed his mind by then. You would too. So the whale goes and burps him up on the shore, and remember, the good news is that God hasn't given up on Jonah, and He's not going to give up on you. If you're running, He's not giving up on you. If you failed, He hasn't given up on you. The word of God will come to you a second time.

 So Jonah is on the shore. He walks three days into Nineveh, and these Assyrians are there and he begins to preach to them. And from the king on down they repented. The entire city of 120,000 Assyrians repented.

Let it be said that if you've been running from God, it's time to stop and surrender. It will be the greatest victory you'll ever win in your life.

 Questions:

1. Why do we keep running away from God like Jonah did?

2. What should we do when God asks us to do something?

3. What is the difference between a perfecting storm and a correcting storm?

4. Why would the devil give you sleeping pills?

5. Is the story of Jonah about Jonah? Why not?