THROW ME INTO THE DEEP

INTRO: This morning, I want to bring out a few points from one book of the bible and that is the book of Jonah.

Jonah 1:1-17 (NIV) The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

· We all desire to hear from God.

· To get direction and find purpose for our lives.

· That’s one of the biggest questions in life.

· What is the purpose of life.

· We go to school to learn and then some to university and study to get the job you want.

· You start your work life and then work for 50 years and then if you have good health, you can retire and travel around Australia or go overseas.

· Which is a real blessing if that’s how it works out for you.

· Many times, that is not the case.

· But even if it does work out for you, what do you do after you have been and seen everything you would like to see?

· Even at 70 years of age you have 20-30 years to live.

STORY: I met a man that had retired and all he wanted to do was travel around Australia:

· He wasn’t a believer but was thinking about his life.

· He and his wife were blessed to have good health, so they bought a caravan and ventured around the country seeing the cities and the outback from Tasmania to the Kimberley.

· They went right around Australia and took their time to see all the sights and the diversity of our country.

· They arrive back at their home and thought…… WHAT NOW!!!

· They had no desire to go overseas so they headed off around Australia again.

· When I met them, they were on the 7th trip around Australia.

· Surely there must be more to life than this!!!

Jonah had a mission from God.

· Jonah was called of God to go to the great city of Nineveh

· Preach against it……

· Not to condemn but to give them the opportunity to repent.

· God is always a God of grace, then Judgement.

· Even in the OT he was a God of Grace. (Noah)

· God is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

Jonah Ran away from that call.

Headed to Tarshish.

· Tarshish is also a seaside town……. Port for ships.

· Place of comfort, relax and enjoy life.

· Tarshish, = Place of trading, Buying Selling. (yellow jasper); greedy one

· Purchase anything there.

3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

Running from the call of God will always cost you!!!

· Not only did he pay the fare, but he paid the price for his rebellion and stubbornness.

· Sometimes we run from God, but He loves us too much to let us go.

· He knows that if we continue to go down the road we are going, it ends up in tragedy.

· The situations and circumstances we find ourselves in are sometimes the result of God wanting to turn our lives around, as he has a great plan for us.

· It seems ludicrous to try and run from God when he is omnipresent.

· Sometimes we are not running from God, but we are not willing to surrender our lives to the call of God.

· I ran from

Paul:

BACKGROUND: The apostle Paul had been arrested by the Jews and brought before the local leadership who then said that he needed to go to Rome to appear before the king.

· Paul was placed on a ship that ran aground on an island and all on board were saved because of a vision that Paul had received from God.

· Paul had a word from God that he would stand before the king in Rome, so he had no doubt that God would get him there.

· This passage of scripture is Paul recounting what happened when he encountered Jesus for the first time.

Acts 26:12-14 (NIV) 12 “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

A few facts about Goads.

1) A Goad is for the benefit of the animal, even though it hurts for a short time.

· Very similar to a cattle prod we have today.

· A goad was never used as a punishment but a means to spur you on.

· Sometime a momentary bit of pain benefits us in the long term.

· It can be the turning point in our lives.

· So many testimonies have come out of a place of pain or despair.

· But the pain has brought about the change.

· In hindsight you can see that the momentary pain was for your benefit.

If you are here today and you are running from God or the call of God on your life, please turn back to him.

· We are living in turbulent times and it is only going to get rougher for you until you repent and turn to the Lord.

· He would rather you face some storms than you drowning in your sins.

· It didn’t take long for everything to fall apart in my life when I walked away from the Lord.

· He never leaves us, but like the prodigal son we can walk away from the Father’s house.

4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 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 ungodly sailors had a reality check on what was more important!!!

· People or possessions?

· They threw their cargo overboard to save their lives.

· What is our priority?

· People or possessions?

· Jonah had neither people nor possessions on his mind.

· It says that he was below deck and had fallen into a deep sleep.

Nothing mentioned in the scriptures is superfluous, it is in there for a reason.

· The crew were doing all they could to save their lives and that of the others on the boat.

· They were calling on their gods, small “g” in god for help.

· They were desperate to save lives, but Jonah, (the man of God), was sleeping in the bottom of the boat.

· People in the world are looking for answers and they are looking to the gods of this world to save them.

· Looking to money, success, power, careers, popularity… likes on FB and Instagram or Tik Tok, drugs and alcohol, spiritual things such as tarot cards, clairvoyants,

· People are searching for answers but are we asleep in the boat or doing what we can to save them.

· God so loved the world…. Why are we afraid of it?

· We are not of this world, but we are called to reach this world.

John 4:35-37 (NIV) 35 Don't you have a saying, ‘It's still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.

 6 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, and we will not perish.” 7 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. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

· Giving him the 3rd degree.

· There has to be an answer for everything we are going through.

9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, (Yahweh) the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)

Verse: 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” 13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.

This becomes the turning point in the story:

· Jonah gets his eyes off himself for the first time and puts the needs of others ahead of himself.

· Pick me up and throw me into the deep!!!

13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.

· They asked Jonah what to do and he told them, “Throw me into the deep!”

· But they decided to try and row back to shore.

· There is nothing that man can do to save himself.

· Their efforts were futile.

· A bit like Adam and Eve tying fig leaves together to cover their nakedness.

Jonah 1:14-16 (NIV) 14 Then they cried out to the LORD, “Please, LORD, do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, LORD, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.

· They cried out to the LORD = Yahweh

· Some translations say they cried out to Jonah’s LORD.

· These ungodly men are now praying to the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

· They threw Jonah into the deep and the seas calmed down.

· It says that the fear or reverence of God came upon the men and they offered sacrifices and made vows to the Lord.

Jonah 1:17 (NIV) 17 Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

· Many times, we see the account of him being swallowed by the fish as the Judgement of God against Jonah.

· But in fact, it was the grace of God.

· If God hadn’t sent the fish, Jonah would have drowned.

· The guys that threw him overboard were seasoned merchant seaman.

· They knew that throwing Jonah overboard into the sea was a death sentence.

· They prayed to God and said, “Do not hold us accountable for Killing this innocent man.”

· It wasn’t God Judgement but his salvation, even when Jonah was still so self-absorbed.

· Jonah had some time to reflect in the belly of the fish.

· He prayed a prayer that was only 8 verses long and he mentioned himself over 25 times.

· Some say he was so self-focused that the fish couldn’t stomach him anymore and vomited him onto the shore.

· But we know that is not the case.

Jonah 2:10 (NIV) 10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Jonah 3:1-5 (NIV) 1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

We have a God of second chances:

· Not only for those that have walked away from the Lord.

· But also, for those who have heard from God but maybe headed in a different direction.

· Maybe God has spoken to you, and you are running from the call of God upon your life.

· God is speaking to you this morning a second time.

· Don’t miss the opportunity.

Many times, people run from the call of God because they think that it is too much responsibility or too big a task for them to do.

· But there is a key in this next passage of Scripture.

3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city, (around 120,000 people about 3-4 times bigger than Geraldton), it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

The key to this city was found in just 8 words: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Am I saying that we need to walk around Geraldton and say, “Forty more days and Geraldton will be overthrown?”

· No, not at all.

The key to seeing Ninevah repent was not in the words, but in the obedience.

· Jonah could have gone to Ninevah and held tent revival meeting and preached the word for 6 months and started, “Jonah’s School of Ministry!!!”

· Trained leaders and planted churches, but none of those would have brought about revival.

· Why?

· Because that is not what God told him to do.

He told him to go to Ninevah and say, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

· He could have walked into Ninevah and thought, “This is a huge city, how am I going to get 120,000 people to turn to the Lord?

· All he was asked to do was just say 8 words.

· And that’s what Jonah did.

· He wasn’t overly enthusiastic or moved with compassion for the people because he didn’t want them to repent and they were his enemy.

· But because he did what God asked, 120,000 people turned to the Lord and the King declared a day of fasting for everyone including the animals.

What has called you to do?

What is your part in the great commission?

· The great commission wasn’t a suggestion but a command.

· Sometimes called the great Omission because many have not surrendered to the will of God or saw that the task was too big for them to do.

· All you have to do is listen to God and do what he tells you to do.

· That is what Jesus modelled for us.