From Running to Surrender: A Message from Jonah

I pray that the Lord blesses us, softens our hearts, and inclines us to His Word today. Amen.

You know, it amazes me as I have read through the Bible. Something I really did not predict was how many stories and characters I would find myself relating to—people I can identify with.

I wish I could say I identify with the heroes, but that is not usually the case. Usually, I identify with them when they have a knucklehead moment. I say, “Oh, there I am right there.”

Take King David, for example. He did many heroic things. He defeated a giant. He spared a king who was trying to hunt him down and kill him. He rescued captives. He defended his nation.

As a young man, he killed a lion and a bear while defending his flock. I am going to tell you: if I had been in his place, I would have been throwing little sheep at the bear while heading the other way.

Shoot, I got chased across a parking lot by a goose the other day. I was pretty sure he had rabies. He had that crazy look in his eye, and his tongue was hanging out. It turned out there was a water puddle beside my truck, and the poor guy was just thirsty. But I was being careful.

Looking back at King David, though, he also had a moment. He had a moment where the desires of his flesh got the best of him. He chose sin over righteousness.

Now, that is where I can identify with King David.

I want us to look at another man I can identify with. Turn with me to the book of Jonah, chapter 1.

“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.’

“But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.”

I can identify with that because I spent most of my adult life doing the same thing. The Lord pressed something on me, and I wanted to go the other way. I chose to live by the flesh more than by His Word.

I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit in those early days, and I just lived harder, louder, and faster. Eventually, I tried to grind it out. I may have stopped listening, but my heart hardened.

But can you actually flee from the presence of the Lord?

Stay where you are in Jonah for a moment. I want to flip over to a psalm David wrote:

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!”

I learned, just as David did, that the Lord will be everywhere you go, even in the dark places.

Let us pick back up in Jonah, verse 4:

“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.

Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.

But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

So the captain came and said to him, ‘What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.’”

When I read that, I thought hard about it. You see, when you do as I did—when you choose to live by the flesh—a storm is coming.

What I did not realize, and what I did not think through, was that I thought I was only hurting myself. I thought I was not hurting anyone else. But the fact is that whoever finds themselves in your day may have to ride through the same storm that is chasing you.

There is a lot in the book of Jonah—much more than I can get to today. But I want to summarize verses 7 through 16.

The ship is breaking apart. The sailors know that something supernatural is happening; this is not a normal storm. They cast lots, and the lot falls on Jonah—not coincidentally.

At this point, Jonah takes the high road. He says the only way to calm the storm is for them to throw him overboard. The sailors take the high road, too. They do not want to do it at first. But it gets so bad that eventually they throw him into the sea.

The sea calms down. Jonah begins to drown, and this is where many people have a hard time with the story.

Picking back up at verse 17:

“And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

I heard Pastor David Jeremiah talking about this. He told of a young lady who had graduated from high school and gone on to college. In one class, her professor mocked Christianity and enjoyed making fun of and ridiculing Christians.

One day, the professor asked, “Does anybody in here actually believe the story of Jonah?”

Only one young lady raised her hand. She said, “Well, I do.”

He asked, “How in the world can you believe a story like that?”

She said, “My parents told me that story, and it is in the Bible.”

He said, “You actually believe a great fish swallowed a man, that he remained there for three days, and still lived?”

She said, “When I get to heaven, I will ask Jonah to verify it.”

The professor said, “Well, what if Jonah did not go to heaven?”

She said, “Well, you can ask him.”

I know this story is true, and I know it is not merely a teaching parable. Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings, along with his ministry and the events of his life. Later, Jesus refers to Jonah more than once, treating it as a true story in Matthew and Luke.

Jesus said it. I believe it. The case is closed.

Now, I am assuming no one in here has ever been swallowed by a great fish. This is not a particularly gossipy crowd, but I feel like I would have heard about it.

But many of us have been swallowed up by great situations. I have, and I have reflected hard on that.

Not every difficult situation stems from rebellion. Sometimes situations are meant to strengthen us so that we can fulfill our ultimate purpose. Sometimes, as you see in the book of Job, you may be chosen to glorify God.

There are many reasons for the situations that come along and swallow us up, and I am not going to pretend that I know them all. But I know the situation that swallowed me up. Similar to Jonah, it was used to change my direction.

Let us move to chapter 2, beginning in 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.

For you cast me into the deep,

into the heart of the seas,

and the flood surrounded me;

all your waves and your billows

passed over me.

Then I said, “I am driven away

from your sight;

yet I shall again look

upon your holy temple.”

The waters closed in over me to take my life;

the deep surrounded me;

weeds were wrapped about my head

at the roots of the mountains.

I went down to the land

whose bars closed upon me forever;

yet you brought up my life from the pit,

O Lord my God.

When my life was fainting away,

I remembered the Lord,

and my prayer came to you,

into your holy temple.’”

Right there—verse 7. The first time I read through this, I stopped and stared at it for a long time, identifying with what Jonah was talking about.

Jonah prayed, did he not?

When all his plans had failed, when he had no more ideas or answers, when he could not fix things by his own power, when he was totally defeated and had no hope left except a longing for what was right, he prayed.

So, did I.

I am going to stay right there and pick back up at verse 8:

“Those who pay regard to vain idols

forsake their hope of steadfast love.

But I with the voice of thanksgiving

will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

I will never forget the day I accidentally prayed a prayer very similar to that one.

I get a little tickled when I read verse 10 and then look at the title of chapter 3 right below it:

“And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.”

Then the heading below says, “Jonah Goes to Nineveh.”

He got helped along just a little bit.

I can feel some of you wondering, “Luke, how did you accidentally pray?”

I say “accidentally” because, at the time, I had no idea where it came from. I was not a man of prayer, and at that time I did not even own a Bible.

But like Jonah, I knew better.

How did I know better? Because when I was a little kid, my grandpa brought me right here. We sat right over there by that third window. We sat and listened to Pastor Fry.

He signed me up for Sunday school. Randy Agee was my teacher. Juan de Manuel and Jerry Serrat taught me, trained me up, and showed me how to navigate the Bible and read Scripture.

At night, my grandpa taught me how to pray. We prayed to Jesus, and I invited Him into my heart.

Then, like some of us, I grew older and got caught up in the world. I walked away from Jesus, but Jesus never walked away from me.

One of my favorite passages is Romans 8:38–39:

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Amen and amen to that.

Church, I do not know exactly how close to spiritual death I was, but I do know I was knocking on the door. My Lord slammed that door right in the devil’s face.

My Lord said, “Not today, not tomorrow, not ever,” because He has been given authority over heaven and earth. He gives His people eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of His hand.

Praise God for that.

I came across this passage late in my preparation. It is in Ephesians, chapter 1, beginning with verse 7. You do not have to turn there; I am just going to read it. I thought it spoke directly to this:

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight

making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ

as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Church, I did not take a straight path. I took the long way around, and I did a lot of harm along the way.

But guess what? We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. That is Romans 8:28.

It took a long, long time and far more help than I deserved. But by His mercy and His grace, His purpose is now the purpose I choose.

In closing, if I could tell someone walking the path I walked—taking the long way around—or anyone on their spiritual journey, I would say this: Do not merely try to be a Christian. Train to be a Christian.

Stay in the Word. Stay in prayer. Meditate on Him.

I do not know where the nonsense comes from about meditation meaning you should empty your mind. That is exactly what it is: nonsense. We need to fill our minds. If you empty your mind, something is going to take residence there.

Train to be a Christian. Not only will you elevate your own walk, but by default you will elevate everyone who finds themselves in your day.

Just like my teammates participating in today’s service have elevated me. Just like their prayers have elevated me.

Speaking of great teammates, I would like to invite my wife, Christina, to close us out.

“Shelby, put the next song up.”

Christina’s Closing Remarks

The song we sang this morning, “Change My Heart, O God,” really changed my heart.

Lucas asked me to come up with some music for us to sing, and I chose that song. It is something we sing often here. I hope those words really stayed with you.

In the sanctuary, we have sung it multiple times. But today, I pray that the Lord helps you leave here as the sanctuary. As you go out into the world, you are the church. Go out, speak to people, and help people.

The song we are getting ready to sing in a few moments is “Spirit of the Living God.” We sang it maybe a month or so ago, but we have not sung it in a while. Since then, I have thought about it almost every day.

I want you to hear the words and take them to heart. Think about Him melting you, molding you, filling you, and using you.

The Spirit of the Living God comes over us and helps us through that.

Go to the next slide, Shelby.

The next verse says, “Cleanse me, teach me, hold me, reach me.”

Lucas talked about his life and how it was up and down and all around. But he had a foundation in the beginning that helped him. Later, he needed cleansing. He needed teaching. He needed holding. He needed reaching.

We all need those things in our lives each and every day.

Go to the last slide.

The final words are, “Shield me, free me, call me, lead me.”

As we sing this last song, I hope it works on you. I hope you feel these words as you sing them. It is not a long song with a long verse or chorus, but it is a good song because it simply asks the Spirit of the Living God to come, be in us, live in us, and help us.

I am very thankful for my husband stepping out and doing what he is doing. When he said, “I can’t,” God said, “I can.”

He is up here in a suit leading our service this morning because he said, “Here I am, Lord. Use me.”

This is our song.

Chuck opens—or closes—the service every week by offering the altar to you, and we offer that this morning. Scotty will be here, and I will be here as well.

If you have things in your life that you need to give to the Lord, do not be embarrassed to come up and ask for prayer. If you are not ready to come forward, that is fine—but reach out to us. Call Pastor Chuck and leave a message. He may not be able to talk with you today, but he wants to help you.

Our church wants to help you grow, disciple you, and lead you into a relationship with Jesus. Without a relationship with Jesus, you have nothing. You must have Jesus in your heart and be living for Him.

Did you hear Max say, “Amen”? He knows. Even as a small child, he knows. Thank you, Max. That was perfect.

If you need a time of prayer, if you need time to come and spend with the Lord, you can come and kneel at this altar. You can come and pray with us.

Hear these words. Feel these words. Know that God loves you and is with you every single day.

If you have never asked Jesus into your heart, do not leave this service without beginning a relationship with Him. And when you find that relationship with Jesus, help us disciple you.

It is not only, “Lord, I want You to come live in my heart.” We need to let God mold us, fill us, and use us. God is going to do all those things.

That is what I wanted to say this morning.

Michelle is going to play, and we are going to sing. If you stand, we will sing this last hymn.

Thank you for coming this morning.