Running

[00:00:00] Foreign Chuck Allen here. And thanks for joining me on another weekday podcast where I want to start a four part series on the book of Jonah. This little book is, to me, one of the most fascinating reads in all of scripture. And in Jonah 1 we read about how Jonah is running. [00:00:20] So let's just dive into chapter one. Here's where it all begins. It says in verse one, the Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of Amitti, get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it, because I have seen how wicked its people are. But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. Jonah runs, y'. All. He doesn't stumble. He doesn't hesitate. He is bolting. God says, go east, Jonah goes west. He doesn't just refuse. Dude books passage to Tarshish, which is basically the edge of what the known world was at the time. [00:00:56] But why does he do it? Well, it makes sense. Nineveh wasn't just any city. It was violent, it was brutal, it was terrible. Think of the empire that you might fear the most, that if you were there, you would be living in fear. And then imagine being told, go there, preach there, and offer them a chance to repent. Jonah, he didn't want any part of that, man, and I doubt if we would. But when Jonah runs from God, a storm begins to brew. The the scripture says in verse 4, the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. The sailors panic. Well, of course they do. They start praying to their gods. And I use that in a lower case. They dump the cargo. They try with all their power to row against the storm. Everyone scrambling, except Jonah. He's totally asleep. He's out below deck, checked out, totally numb. And then the sailors wake him. I mean, they haven't been able to fix the problem. They can't beat the storm. They can't throw enough stuff overboard. They can't do enough in their own power. And then Jonah admits in verse 12, he says, I know that this terrible storm is my fault. Throw me into the sea and it will become calm again. Now, I want you to realize that it wasn't just Jonah's boat and the sailors in Jonah's boat that were struggling. All the other boats were experiencing the same storm. And Jonah says, I know I'm the problem here. [00:02:29] If you throw me in, it will all become calm again. And reluctantly, they finally do. What's incredible is this, in verse 16, it says the sailors were awestruck. By the Lord's great power. And they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. They were awestruck. They were awestruck by the Lord's great power. When's the last time you were awestruck by the Lord's power in your life? [00:02:51] Did you notice that? It happened because Jonah finally said, I need to head in the right direction. Direction. [00:02:59] Wonder if we ought to take a look at that today, because don't miss the irony here. The pagan sailors become worshipers of the true God. Jonah runs, but God still works. Jonah's disobedience turns strangers into worshippers. So what's the lesson? Here's the lesson. God's purposes are bigger than your failures. [00:03:22] That's tweetable. God's purposes are bigger than our failures. Even when we resist God, his grace spills over and touches all the people around us. So let me ask, where are you running today? [00:03:36] Where's God saying, go, but you're booking a ticket in the other direction? The good news is, even in our running, God never gives up. He doesn't give up on you and he doesn't give up on using you. [00:03:49] So, friend, maybe it's time to stop and just turn the right direction and trust God today. Because you might be on the way to Tarshish thinking you're going to avoid the problem. Yeah, God doesn't give up so easily on us. So, friend, today, stop running and maybe just take a nice, slow, obedient walk back to your creator and let him do what only he can do. God bless you, friend. Thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast.