Rich Wilkerson, Jr. — The Book of Jonah: Can't Keep Running Away

Jonah chapter 1 verse 1 this is what the Bible says it says the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of amid time the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of amid time now it's important that we start right here because the word of the Lord came Jonah why is the word Lord coming to Jonah because Jonah is a prophet okay and prophets hear from God and then they speak out the word to the people what I think we all need to know is is that the word of the Lord is still going forth God still wants to speak to people and if you'll make yourself available to God he'll begin to speak to you see even as we start 21 days of prayer and fasting I love what Nick just said a moment ago is that it's not about changing God it's about changing us it's not that God isn't speaking it's that God is speaking so much are we stopping and are we pausing to hear the word of the Lord the Bible says this that the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of amid time now what's amazing about Jonah's Jonah's name it means dove I was thinking this week about birds and birds have a tendency they've told us honestly that birds they know when a storm is coming and birds will always flee before the storm comes because they're trying to escape harm Jonah is known as the reluctant prophet because he's known to fly away and run away now what's amazing is that his dad's name am it ty it means truth amid timing through so Jonah is the son of truth yet Jonah has a problem and the problem is is that he tends to run away I think as we start the new year off a good question for you to ask yourself is is what are you running away from today that you should be running to what are you running away from that you should be running to because I don't know about you man I got a lot of good things that happen in 2016 but I have made up my mind that in 2017 I don't want to run away from one thing that God has called me to I don't want to run away from the promises of God run away from the things I'm afraid of I want to run to the storm I want to run to the problems I want to run to the challenges because I believe on the other side of the challenge is where I'm gonna see my destiny occur come on does anybody out there believe it this is our year to run to the things that God is calling us to run to Jonah's name it means dove he he is reluctant he flies away and I got a feeling that there's a Jonah in all of us so we're just going to read some scriptures today we're gonna make some observations with this theme hitting us that in 2017 I can't keep running away Jonah chapter 1 verse 2 this is called Bible study welcome to voucher CH here we go the warlord came in John it says go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because it's wickedness has come up before me all right the very first thing that we discover in the Book of Jonah and it's going to help us in 2017 is that God doesn't always tell you to do things that you like something like I don't want what do you mean huh this is a truth that you're going to have to embrace in 2017 that when God speaks to you it isn't necessarily going to be something that you like nor that you want to do you know Jonah if you've been around Church kind of gets a bad rap in church and it's very easy to preach about this guy who lived thousands of years going to go isn't he such an idiot we're so great now there's a Jonah in all of us you have to understand that Jonah had a legitimate reason why he did not want to go to Nineveh ok Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria Assyria at the time was a worldwide power and it was known as a barbaric community Jonah was a prophet to the nation of Israel around around 793 BC 753 B all in that timeframe there is when he's a prophet and Israel is a serious greatest enemy now there's stories of the Assyrian Empire that would just absolutely shock you I mean they were barbaric they would go in to a city and they would completely torture and destroy and murder everyone they would take people and bury them in the sand and leave their heads out and they would let people die that way they would kill an entire city take the heads of the men and it would create pyramids outside of the city with men's heads to show people that Assyria has come through there so when Jonah gets this word from God he's not like I just don't feel like doing he's like I'm probably gonna die if I go to Nineveh like some of you are still having a hard time like inviting your barista at Starbucks to church like I don't know I don't want to do that God you know but I'm not a joke you're a Jonah Minova is a barbaric crazy place and when God is inviting Jonah to be on this mission Jonah doesn't like this mission and not much has really changed in Nineveh because today Nineveh is known as Iraq this place was barbaric and it was his greatest enemy yet Jonah is called to go and serve his enemy does it sound like anybody else you might know Jesus week five he's called to go and serve his enemies here here's what I want you to catch today God is gonna speak to you in 2017 and he's gonna tell you to do some things at times that you don't want to do and that you don't even like doing and the reason for it is because it's gonna require you to trust in Him it's gonna require you to get beyond your comfort zone it's gonna require you to lean on him how many of you know that God wants to absolutely exhaust His grace on our life that when he gets done working with those people would say I know that guy rich he's not that talented he's not that gifted there must be something on his life and all you have to do is look back and say you're absolutely correct it's called the grace of God and it's sufficient for me in every moment of weakness you might have a legitimate reason as to why you don't want to do what God's calling you do and so what you're doing today is a lot of you is you're delaying your obedience how many of delayed obedience is still disobedience you ever see a mom talking to her kid going 1 all right shut up Jimmy to Zack two and a half a lot of us were playing this game with God and we're thinking God is on two and you know three-quarters and we're just waiting and God said no I'm inviting you into this mission newsflash when God speaks to you it won't always be what you like I haven't felt this morning coming in that some of you you're in this room today and it's like you're waiting to get a word from God that you like guess what you might be waiting forever Christians are hilarious because Christians but kind of just pick and choose many times what things we want to believe and what things we want to obey with God can you imagine be like on a football team and you're in the game and all of a sudden the coach calls your number and he calls the play and when he calls the play you know that that play means that you're going to get tackled and to say coach look I'm not I'm not going to be in this play he's like he's like why ah because you know this is the one where I get tackled you know but how do you know that maybe if you're willing to get tackled that might actually mean that your team might score a touchdown see I think a lot of people sometimes they say I don't want to be in this play I don't want to be in this one because I don't like the outcome but what we're really saying is we don't like the outcome for us because if you think a little bit bigger it might not be the outcome that you want particularly for you in your small little world but it might be the outcome that your coach wants and it might be the outcome that your team needs I believe there's Christians out there today that are more concerned with being tackled than they are with scoring a touchdown I pray that we would be a church that understands man that God's going to call us to do some stuff that we want to do but if we'll lean out there and if we'll be willing to get tackled how many of you know for the kingdom of God for his name's sake we might just see a touchdown be scored for the glory of God come on can somebody give God a shout of praise love of this house listen to me your calling is not for your glory but for God's glory you got to get that word in your heart today that what God is telling is not your story it's his story and so just because you don't understand it and just because you don't like it doesn't mean that you shouldn't obey it just go throughout the Bible like just take a moment do you really think that all these people that were used by God wanted to do what they did wanted hear the word wanted did they really want it did David really want to fight Goliath this guy's 13 years old 3 armpit hairs in a slingshot he's like bring him out bring him out bring him out he was willing out of he really wanted to fight a giant I mean did Shadrach Meshach and Abednego did they want to go into a fiery first want they were really but today do they want that I just hope we get burned today that's not what they're thinking did Daniel want to go into a lion's den I just want to test God and see if these kittens will really actually bite me he's not thinking that did Abraham after he waited a hundred years for a promise from God did he really want to sacrifice Isaac on an altar what did Jesus hear me want to go to the cross Lord my flesh is weak but my spirit is willing hear me there's two things that still please God it's called faith and obedience God wants to use you in 2017 but you're going to have to stop and you have to pause and you're gonna have to realize that when the word comes to you and it's coming to you in the next 21 days when it comes to you it might not be what you like and it might not be what you want but trust me in this it's going to be better than you ever expected it come on anybody at food church in the 10 a.m. with one hour of sleep on your body come on can you just praise God for a moment if you believe when I'm preaching come on let's go back to the Bible study John chapter 1 Jonah chapter 1 verse 3 but Jonah the dove ran away from the Lord and headed for tortious he went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port after prayer after paying the fare he went aboard and sailed for Tarsus to flee from the Lord there will always be a boat headed in the wrong direction he need to realize that when God speaks to you I'm just trying to get practical 2017 because we could come in your day and talk about New Year's resolutions and how I'm losing weight and how many my marriage together did but you need to know that when God speaks to you there's gonna always be another boat headed in the wrong direction you know I I did some study and it's amazing because God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh and it's it's east of where he is about five hundred miles it would take a few days to get there but Jonah instead decides to flee - run - fly away - run away from what he's called to do and head all the way to Tarsus which is on the south east of spanked twenty-five hundred miles in the opposite direction have you ever considered that sometimes it takes more effort and disobeying God but it doesn't simply obeying some of you are exhaustive trying to keep your creative with your sin they got fake Instagram accounts however I was younger man I used to sneak out of my house and you know I'm not one time about my windows just the effort I went to to rebell you know see what happened was dad I fell out of the window cuz I was praying like what are we talking about 500 miles is all God wanted to go he decide to know let me start running 2,500 miles in the opposite direction I don't know what it is man but hear me God will speak to you and he'll tell you what to do and I got a really good feeling today that most of you in the room know what you're supposed to be doing in 2017 some of you it's the same thing you were supposed to do in 2016 and God is still waiting on you just to obey Him but you keep delaying and gods are saying hey the same word is just still hanging there you're gonna actually have to obey but you keep running in the other direction you keep hopping on the wrong boat here's what I've learned I've learned that when God speaks to us out of nowhere it's like there seems to be this other option to go on this other boat like someone this year's gonna decide that I'm gonna quit smoking I'm getting healthy but right you're gonna go to the gas station for some reason the gas stations gonna have a sale on cigarettes like oh my god you know happens that way right there's a girl here today it's like God has spoken you that the man the boyfriend not your husband praise God the boyfriend that you're with right now people hear what they want to hear the boyfriend that you're with right now you're not supposed to be with em he's confirmed that he's told you that's not the man you're supposed to live this life with yet somehow today through this message um he's in back yo girl I think this is my year and you're like okay you're gonna go back into the vicious cycle because there's another boat even though God spoken to you it's like you could be in this place right now it's like I'm done gossiping this year but soon as you walk out of this service a friend is going to come to you with some really juicy news and it's going to be this temptation to jump on this other boat you're going to I'm going to lose weight and someone's gonna bring you a salty doughnut to church it happens God give me patience and then there's traffic I'm just telling you every time he speaks there's an appearance that there's more options oh come on boo Church just because there appears to be multiple options doesn't mean that there's multiple ways there's only one way and it's the Jesus way does anybody in the ten a-m believe that God's speaking today give God a shout of praise over this place one way it's God's Way it's the Jesus way you got to get on the right boat and you got to get in the right direction why does this happen you say because what this is is that when God invites us to be on his mission the enemy he understands that if we get on mission God's grace is sufficient he's gonna meet us we're gonna see miracles have mercy change happen and so the enemy is going to do whatever he can do to get you to jump on the wrong boat if he can just distract you and get you running he can exhaust you he can tire you out and he can bring you to a point that you will quit I was thinking this week in my life what is it that has kept me from jumping on the wrong boat not saying I haven't forgotten on the wrong boat but what is it that's kept me from getting on the wrong boat I want to give you three things really quick here three things that have kept me off the wrong boat but the first thing that I have made a commitment in my life and I want to challenge you in 2017 is intimacy with God intimacy with God we talked about this word intimacy in our collection of talks on the church and intimacy means into me see see into me see the real me getting to know the real God not just the God that you hear about on Sunday but the God that you actually know who is Jesus what's he like what's his nature what's his character what are his thoughts towards me but not just that me getting open and intimate with God about who I really actually am God changed me God transformed me how do we get into it with God what we start with prayer right telling you right now 21 days of prayer and fasting it's not just something we put on our calendar as a joke or just to do it it's something we take serious this Wednesday night man we got three Wednesday nights for the next three weeks in a row Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the mine Reformation just one out we're not going to keep you long 7:30 to 8:30 we're gonna pray we're gonna help you pray we're going to coach you and teach you so you learn how to pray the Bible says that this house the church it's not a house of preaching it's not a house of worship it should be called a House of Prayer we're gonna put it into practice this Wednesday but what is the point of it the point of it is to grow closer to God to lean into Jesus to get his heart for our lives and if you find yourself constantly get on the wrong boat the first question I would ask you is what is your intimacy with God look like right now it's not that that secondly it's Bible application I use that word Bible application because it's not about just reading my Bible and soaping but it's actually about reading the verses and going god how can I apply this to my life how many of you know that the blessing is not in the knowing the blessing is always in the doing and you have to get to a place where God's Word isn't just some narrative or just words on a paper but rather God's Word is something that starts to change you and transforms your actions Bible application thirdly I use this last one is community with believers what's kept me from getting on the wrong boat it's been the community it's been the people I'm doing life with notice the story of Jonah Jonah he's a prophet of God okay that's like his job the warlord comes to him he doesn't like the word so he heads down to Joppa where he finds a ship crew not a voo crew a ship crew not a vogue crew a ship crew notice it's not his family it's not his friends it's not those that know the call in his life it's not those that know who he wants to be not those that he said hey this year this is the man I want to be it's just a ship crew and he goes down and the ship crew takes him on board and what happens to a lot of us in life is that we're not intentional with the people we're spending the most time with we're not intentional with the relationships that we're creating we're not actually walking an authentic vulnerable transparent Christian community and so what happens is as you just show up into people's lives and people didn't start taking you on their boat and what I've learned is this is that if you don't know where you are going people will be glad to take you where they are headed some of you keep ended up in places left in regular I didn't want to be here well it's because you weren't intentional with the people you got on the boat with you want intention with the people you surrounded yourself with what happens to us is that we just kind of float through life and that's my buddy and that's my I want you to have a lot of friends but I want you to be intentional with your key community who are the people that know me this is the man I want to be I want to be a man I want to be a husband I want to be a pastor who refuses to keep running away from the call of God I want to get some people around me they're gonna hold me accountable to that not a vous crew he got with a ship crew some of you in 2017 this is your moment to get into a food crew this is your moment to get into godly community if you're saying right now I can't find any Christian friends guess what we want to help you find a community right now that you can walk in transparency that you can walk in vulnerability that you can walk in authenticity with and they can help you become the person that God has called you to be come on anybody that 10 a.m. service believe it give God a big shout of praise love of this house Jonah chapter one verse four Jonah has gotten a word from God he doesn't like the word from God now he's found a boat that just happens to be going in the wrong direction he jumps on it this is not the wrong direction it's 2500 miles in the opposite direction and this is what happens Jonah chapter 1 verse 4 going to read quite a few verses here stick with me then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up all the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god and they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship but Jonah had gone below deck where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep the captain went to him and said how can you sleep get up and call on your God maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish then the sailors said to each other come let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah so they asked him tell us who is responsible for making all this trouble for us what kind of work do you do I love that where do you come from what is your country from what people are you he answered I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land this terrified them and they asked what have you done they knew this is good they knew he was running away from the Lord because he had already told them so the sea was getting rougher and rougher so they asked him what should we do to you to make the sea cut what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us pick me up throw me into the sea he replied and it will become calm I know that this is my fault that this great storm has come upon you instead the men did their best to road back to land but they could not for the sea grew even wilder than before then they cried out to the Lord please Lord do not let us die for taking this man's life in it funny that this crew of godless men is gracious towards Jonah then Jonah's Jonah has ever been towards Nineveh look at this keep going do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man for you lord have done this done as you pleased then they took Jonah and threw him overboard and the raging sea grew calm here we go at this the men greatly feared the Lord and they offered a sacrifice the Lord and made vows to him now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights here's our third observation today is this that God may use a storm to wake you up God may use a storm to wake you up this story is completely completely a strong parallel for so many of us and what 2016 might have looked like and where we're at today in 2017 Jonah hears a word from God God speaks to him directly tells him what to do but he doesn't want to do it he doesn't like it it's hard it's scary I don't know what God has told you that you're supposed to do that you are delaying on could be forgiving somebody could be serving in church could be starting to be at either it could be inviting a friend one of your co-workers I don't know it could be reconciliation with your kids he's told you to do something but you just keep delaying it delaying in and Jonah thought to himself let me go and hire a boat and he thought that the further away he got that the easier it would get but how many of you know that you can run from God but you can't hide from God sooner or later God is going to come and find you where you are the Bible says that Jonah gets on this boat as he heads out he goes down below deck and he falls into a deep sleep some of you are sleeping on your destiny some of you are sleeping on what God has spoken to you some of you are sleeping on the promises of God and every once in a while in order to wake you up from your slumber God has to your boat a little bit the Bible says he sends a great storm and these men they come down below and they wake Jonah up and they start having some questions they have some demands who are you what have you done what's going on here what it tells us is that this is not an ordinary storm but this storm it must have had some supernatural context to it have you read esteemed thing go wrong after thing after thing after thing after than you want something else is up here yo but look what happens this storm he doesn't just wake up Jonah physically it wakes him up spiritually look what he says in Jonah chapter 1 verse 9 he answered I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord it's like he's reminding himself of who he is the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land it wasn't for the storm Jonah would he just kept sleeping but the storm wakes him up and it reclaims his identity I'm a child of God I'm submitted to his promises I am under his control though the seas are raging I believe my God is in control so you can run and you can keep running but you can't hide from God God will come and find you and wake you up and even today on the first Sunday in the 10:00 a.m. service God is here today and he's trying to wake some people up he's trying to remind you who you are you got to wake up His grace will track you down today I'm not saying that every problem in every storm you have is because of some disobedience in your life but I certainly am suggesting that some of those storms they certainly could be due to that look what Jonah says Jonah chapter 1 verse 12 this is a tough question I know it's like man I really came in for encouragement but now you're making me feel bad good some of the storms are happening your life could it could it be your fault I know it's fun to blame the devil that's easy right mana devil be messing me yeah you're kind of an idiot too though kind of been running for a long time yeah but the devil no I think you just chose that cuz look what Jonah does Jonah says pick me up throw me into the sea he replied and it will become calm I know that it is my fault I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you remember um I don't anyone you wouldn't love math class when you're going up who are those people I just oh my god we pray for you god bless you thank you for enjoying that for none of us anyways remember in in McMath class some of you you're like rich I let go of those members a long time ago um a member in math class you would be doing a long division problem and in the problem it wasn't it wasn't good enough to just have the answer right everybody remember you had to get to show your work get to show your work right and you say why don't determine work because showing your work was an indication to the teacher that you understood how you came to that answer and see this is a picture here we go of salvation because salvation is not just choosing Jesus but salvation is also denying yourself salvation is also saying I am the problem this is my fault the square root of my problems is me I'm part of the problem here and until I can admit that this is my fault I'm never ever ever going to walk into the fullness of Christ free gift of salvation Jonah says you got a throw me overboard I gotta be willing to die in order that I might be saved Jonah thrown overboard and God he comes in the form of a fish and he rescues them all next week I can't wait to preach I got a message it's called prayers from the fish let's go encourage you but today what we see out of Jonah and this beautiful picture of salvation is his willingness to surrender oh it appeared that the most dangerous place was going overboard but how many of you know that it was the safest place that Jonah could have ever been because it was going to be the first time that Jonah actually got where God wanted him to be throw me overboard because I believe this storm it's gonna be calm if I just surrender to my god 2017 is a year that you can't keep running away anymore 2017 is the year that you have to surrender then I find it interesting that Jonah his name it means dove and right away our knee-jerk reaction is that doves fly away from the storm but there's also another symbol of the Dove and the Dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit and the Bible says when the Holy Spirit comes upon you he will come upon you in power and when God's power comes upon you he can take impossible situations and you can begin to walk into the possibilities of God I don't know about you but do you know what your name means because I think you should stop listening what the world's been saying about you for the last year and you ought to embrace the new perception of what God says about you that the Holy Spirit can meet your life I'm not afraid anymore I don't have to run anymore I can decide to follow Jesus come on 10 a.m. it's only 11 a.m. in the morning but I think we ought to give God praise and we ought to worship Him in faith come on church let's sing it out come on

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Length: 31min 26sec (1886 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 02 2017