Sermon Transcript

I’ve asked you to open to the book of Jonah. It’s all about a storm. If you’re new to Christianity, if you’re new to church, what a great time to fold in. . .because this little book of the Bible (it’s one of the more obscure parts of Scripture; it’s going to take you a little longer to find it—go ahead and confess you can’t find it, and open to the table of contents and find the page number. . .)

This book—only four chapters, forty-eight verses—tells the history of the relationship between God and man. If you boiled it all down, you could boil it all down to two words: man does the sinning, God does the chasing to bring him back.

The story of Jonah is the story of the Bible. It’s my story, it’s your story: grace chases a fugitive from God. In every one of our hearts, there’s a little Jonah who wants to flee from the presence of God. Because God is gracious, He is always bringing us back.

Last week, we left Jonah in the storm. It was kind of a cliff-hanger. As we learned last week, sin always invites a storm. Some of you are in a storm right now, and it would be wise of you to ask, “Are things not going well in my life because I’m actually fleeing from God, and God is using that storm to show me that He’s drawing me back to Him?” Sin always invites a storm.

God is so committed to my life, that He is committed to sinking every ship that would take me away from Him. There are all kinds of different vehicles that we use to get away from God, and yet God is committed to sinking those ships, out of His grace.

As we study the book of Jonah, there is this over-arching question that has to be asked: If God called Jonah to go that way, and Jonah said, “No, I’m going that way,” here’s the question. . .why didn’t God just pick somebody else? Why didn’t God just say, “Bad prophet, sleepy prophet, suicidal prophet. . .I don’t think you’re qualified for the job. I’m going to go get somebody that will obey!” Have you ever asked that question?

I think the answer is this: God not only wanted to get something done through Jonah for Nineveh, God also wanted to get something done in Jonah. And so because of God’s grace to Jonah, He continued to chase him down.

We’re going to see the chase pick up here in Jonah 1:4. Are you ready to read it? “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.” Underline the word “god” there in verse five. There’s a distinction between our God and the god they cried out to, and it’s distinguished by the little “g.” They cried out to their gods with little “g’s”.

Jonah 1:6: “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.”

We’re going to learn three lessons this morning. Here’s the first:

 

• Your storms reveal your gods. (Jonah 1:4-6)

 

You say, “I don’t have any gods with little “g’s”. I worship the Almighty God of the Bible!” Well, that may be true, and I trust it’s true of all of us, but even for those of us who have surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and worship Almighty God (with a capital “G,”) there are always gods with little “g’s” competing for our worship.

They’re always calling out to me, “Come over here. Worship me! I will save you! I will give you security. I will give you significance and satisfaction.” And they all hold out false promises, because they are false gods with little “g’s”.

Jonah found himself surrounded by these guys who each had their own god. That’s ironic, don’t you think? Because, again, Jonah was not only fleeing from the presence of God, he was fleeing from the presence of these dirty, rotten pagan sinners who needed to repent in Nineveh. In going the opposite direction, where does Jonah find himself? On a boat with dirty, rotten pagan sinners who need to repent.

The passage says these guys are sailors, mariners. We don’t know a whole lot about them. What we do know is they were polytheistic. That means they had many different gods. So these guys had a god of the land and a different god of the sea; a god of the sun, a god of the moon; a god of the wind, a god of the water. They had all these different gods, and they had a religion of fear. When things weren’t going well for them, they assumed God was angry.

When they were the subject of an angry god with a little “g,” their idea was, “We have to figure out how to appease this god!” So they had a religion of fear. In order to escape His fury, they came up with all kinds of different ideas about how to remove that anger from the Lord. You see, the storm on the outside of the boat was creating a storm on the inside of their hearts as they tried to figure out how to appease this God.

You see, that reveals to us that every person is inherently religious. Did you know that? Every person is a theologian. You say, “I’m not a theologian. I don’t even believe in God!” Yeah, that’s your theology. You’ve just simply made yourself God. Every person cries out to his own god in times of terror. It may be deep within you, but when you are threatened and when you are fearful, you will cry out to whatever gods you have—even if those gods are yourselves. Because everyone is a theologian. What you believe about God will be revealed in times of terror.

We’ve seen some times of terror this week, haven’t we? Our eyes have been drawn to what’s happening there in Paris as there were those horrible terrorist attacks. What’s happening over there is, there’s a clash of cultures, there’s a clash of ideologies—and I would suggest there’s a clash of theology going on over there. . .and it’s coming here as well.

As a matter of fact, there’s a clash of theology going on right here. Are you aware that Paris has kind of declared itself to be a secular nation? What they’ve said is, “We don’t want to have any particular religious belief affecting who we are as a people.” And so, here they are attacked by a very radically religious people.

All over social media, we’ve seen #prayforParis. But in response to that hashtag, people in Paris have said, “Don’t pray for Paris!” Why? “Because we are a secular country, and we believe that people who believe in prayer are actually the ones who are the problem!” What they’re saying is, “You cry out to your gods, we’ll cry out to our gods, but our gods are going to be gods of self.” They’re a secular country.

Are you aware that America is becoming a more secular country? A couple of weeks ago I got a call from WSBT, channel 22 News here in South Bend, and they had read a report that they found very disturbing. They read a report from the Pugh Research Center that said America is becoming more secular. They called me to say, “Are you guys depressed? Are you guys going to, like, close your doors? Surely there’s nobody coming to your church. . .” I was like, “No, we kind of have trouble finding a place for people to sit.”

As you read the report, this is what you find: People in America can basically be put into three separate buckets. The first bucket over here is actually growing, and the third bucket over here is actually growing. It’s the second bucket, the one in the middle that is actually in serious decline.

So, what’s that first bucket? It’s a category of people that are now termed as the “nones.” These are the people that basically say, “We have no religious belief; we don’t attach to any particular set of religious organizations.” These people may be spiritual, but they’re not overtly committed to any particular religion. That’s the “nones.” That group of people in America is growing.

The third group of people, that’s growing, is a group of people like you and me—who believe that God wrote a book, He has revealed Himself through self-disclosure and told us everything that we need to know in order to have a right relationship with Him. That belief, in the power of the gospel, is changing our lives and affecting the way that we live and how we make our decisions. That group of people in America is actually growing.

It’s the group in the middle, that I would define as the nominal Christians, that’s decreasing rapidly. Do you know what a nominal Christian is? It’s a Christian who is a Christian in name only. “Nominal” means “in name only.” They put a religious label on themselves and they use the word “Christian” because they realize, “Well, I’m not Muslim and I’m not an atheist. I’m an American, so I must be a Christian.”

These people use the Christian label and say, “Yeah, I believe in God,” but it has absolutely no impact on their lives. They’re not worshipping that God, they’re not loving that God, they just use the label. That group of people in our country is decreasing rapidly. What they’re doing is they’re moving into one of the other two categories.

As a result of those people dropping the Christian label, that ought to be something that ought to make the atheists and the genuine Christians really happy. That’s one thing we can agree about. “Hey, quit using our label if you’re not going to truly, authentically worship our God—with a capital ‘G.’”

So, aren’t you glad that we are becoming more distinct? This is what I told the reporter, “Christians may be fewer, but they will be truer.” Because now, you can’t hide behind the Christian label. You’re going to be smoked out as to whether or not you genuinely believe in the God of the Bible. Everybody’s a theologian, and it may be that your theology makes your self “god,” or your theology says, “I need a God Who can actually save me, and I don’t have the resources.” In times of crisis, your storms reveal your gods.

So, what’s the difference between the God of the Bible and the god that would invoke Islamic religious terrorism? Our God is a God of love; the god of Islam is a god of fear; our God is a God of grace and forgiveness and mercy, and a God Who actually sacrificed Himself in order to save us. The god of Islam is not a god of grace, not a god of love; there’s no atonement, no savior. In Islam there’s only submission (that’s what the name “Islam” means, “to submit.”) And if you won’t submit, there’s no assurance that you would have eternal life. Even if you do submit, there’s no assurance, because there’s no promise of grace and forgiveness to cover your sin.

There’s only one assurance—if you’re a Muslim and you want to go to heaven—there’s only one guaranteed way to get there. Do you know what that is? To martyr yourself in jihad. And so, those that would take that religion to an extreme would say, “I want assurance of eternal life!” And so they are willing to die—or even to kill—to gain eternal life.

The God of Christianity has the only faith system that says, “Our God died to ensure that we would have eternal life, and He was resurrected and He lives forever to forgive and to extend grace to all fugitives who would run away from Him. He is so committed to us, He is willing to die rather than for us to be separated from Him forever. That’s the difference between our two gods. We need to understand, we have a God Who can save.

So many other gods are competing for our attention, and we so often—even as people who name the Name of Christ—run to gods of security or gods of stuff, and say, “If I could just get a nicer car, or an upgrade on my cell phone. . .maybe a little better entertainment package on the weekend. . .then somehow I would feel better about myself.” Those are false gods, and times of crisis or times of fear will expose what kinds of gods you really have. Who’s your God?

Look down here at Jonah 1:6: “So the captain [of the ship] 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.’” So, here is Jonah, asleep in the bottom of the boat while the storm is raging all around him.

It’s the pagan captain who comes to the Hebrew prophet and says, “Wake up! If you don’t start seeking God, we’re all going to die!” I find that quite ironic, because that’s exactly the message God told Jonah he was supposed to deliver to Nineveh! Instead of preaching that message, he is asleep, and God’s using the pagan to try to get the attention of the guy who says he worships God!

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people like Jonah here in this church today. You are oblivious to the storm of God’s judgment that’s going on and the impending danger that you are in. Instead of waking up, you’re asleep in the midst of the storm. The message God has for you this morning is, “What’s it going to take for God to get your attention, and for you to stop running and sleeping while you should be seeking the God Who is worthy of your worship?”

I announced to you tonight at six o’clock we’re gathering for prayer. Some of you yawned your way through that, because you’ve got other things to do. And the reason you’re not going to be here is because you’re asleep and you don’t realize how desperately we need to seek the Lord. Wake up! Arise! Seek the Lord, and come tonight, even to be a part of what God is doing in our church.

Here’s the second lesson we’re going to learn from Jonah:

 

• Your sin affects your (Jonah 1:7-10)

 

Look here at verse 7, “And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot [lo and behold!] fell on Jonah. ” So what’s this business about casting lots?

Here’s what would happen: Back in the day before the Bible was completed, before we had better ways of seeking the Lord and knowing His direction for our life, here’s what people would do: They would take two flat stones and paint one side black and the other side white. They would throw these two stones. If one of the stones landed white, and one of the stones landed black, they knew, “That means we have to roll again.”

So they would throw the stones; if they landed both black-side-up, they would assume the answer was, “No.” If they landed both white, they would assume the answer was “yes.” Can you imagine these sailors walking around the boat? They were like, “We’ve got to find out who to blame for this storm we’re in!” So they walk up to a sailor and cast the stones, and apparently the answer came up, “no.”

They walked up to another sailor, cast the stones, apparently the answer came up, “no.” And then they get to Jonah and they throw the stones and the answer comes up, “yes!” And God was saying, “There’s your guy, right there. That’s him! That’s the guy you need to blame!” And God apparently even used this weird way to identify him. The Bible even says that God would do this at times. In Proverbs 16:33, God said, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

Now, I would not recommend us using that in our modern day. Can you imagine some single lady in this church walking up to some good-looking single guy and, [casting stones] Boom! “Yes! We’re in love!” [laughter] That’s probably not the way we want to go about that, okay?

We have the Bible now, we have the Holy Spirit, we have the church, we have counselors, we have parents,—we have a lot of different ways of making decisions. But, understand, no matter what you’re doing, the Lord is in complete control. But back in that day, He used this to identify, “Jonah is accountable! Jonah is responsible for what’s going on.”

Everything these sailors were facing was Jonah’s fault! He was to be held accountable, because it was Jonah’s sin that was affecting his companions. I want to talk to you right now as if I’m the sailor and you’re Jonah.

Because, the truth of the matter is, I am thinking of names and faces right now. . .I actually have to be careful, because I know what’s going on in some of your lives. I know the storms that you’re facing, I know the chaos that you are creating, I know the havoc that you are causing. . .and for some reason, you’re willing to endure all of that pain and suffering yourself because of your sin. . .

. . .but you haven’t wakened to the reality of the chaos you are creating for the people that love you! I just want to say to you, fugitive from God, understand what’s going on! I want you to look here at Jonah 1:8, “Then they said to him, ‘Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?’”

I would suggest those are great questions to ask people who would want to emigrate into our country as well, and just say, “Hey, there are some questions we might want to ask to figure out who you really are.” What those questions do is, they draw out two things: identity and responsibility. And I’m going to ask you these questions, because some of you are running from God and you are creating chaos—not only in your life, but in the lives of others.

So, can I ask you this? [First question]: Do you know your sin is creating chaos for others, or are you asleep? Do you see the ways that your disobedience, your rebellion, your hard heart, your sin is creating chaos for the people you love? Who are these people? Your parents, your brothers and sisters, your children, the people you work with, the people you go to school with, your small group, your pastors, your church, your community, your country. . .are feeling the effects of your sin!

For some reason, you don’t want to wake up and admit responsibility, but you’re the problem, in the same way Jonah was the problem! They said, “Tell us on whose account this storm has come.” What they’re doing, they are calling him to account. I’m calling you to account. Some of you are creating chaos for others and you need to wake up and accept the responsibility and turn your life around! If you’re not willing to do it for yourself, do it for those you love!

Here’s the second question:. . .your occupation. Can you imagine these sailors asking Jonah that question? “What do you do for a living?” [Jonah]: “I. .I’m a prophet.” [Sailors]: “Really? A prophet? We’re not familiar with that. What’s a prophet?” [Jonah]: “Obey God. Get the message right. Get the message out.”

Then them, kind of scratching their heads, “I don’t see anywhere in your job description where it includes like a cruise to Tarshish. So, why aren’t you doing your job?” You only had one job and you’re failing at your job. We didn’t ask you to do some big thing, we only asked you to do this!

“Well, you know, I didn’t really like that assignment, because people are hard to work with there. I didn’t really feel. . .I just didn’t connect with the people who were doing that. . .and so, I don’t really want to do that job.” Hey, just do your job! “Well, I did my job for a while, and it got hard, and nobody really appreciated it. I never got thanked for it. . .” Just do your job!

“Well, I didn’t really want that job—I wanted this job. I see people that have these other distinguished jobs. . .I wanted that job. This job was dirty and messy and slimy and I got my hands dirty. . .” Just do your job! “Well, I want another job.” Do you think God may have given you that job to teach you some things, so you could prove yourself faithful, and if you did that job well God would give you a different job? Just do your job!

Why aren’t you doing your job? “It doesn’t pay that well. As a matter of fact, they don’t even pay me at all.” Just do your job! You heard this morning, we have some job openings here at church. They don’t pay anything. You might get your hands literally dirty—back there in the nursery—and you may not be thanked and appreciated. It may be far below your pay grade. . .but God’s calling you to do a job. It may not be there, it may be something else. Are you doing your job? Why did you stop? Do your job. You only had one job!

Number three, have you forgotten where you came from? That’s the next question they asked, there in verse 8. They asked, “And where do you come from?” Do you know what they were asking? Not just, “What geopolitical boundaries did you come from,” but “What is your place of origin? What’s been in your past?”

Do you remember how good God has been to you in the past? Do you remember how God used you—in the past? Do you remember how sweet the presence of God was in the past? Do you remember where you came from? Don’t you want to get back there? Why did you even leave? Where do you come from? I would ask you that this morning. What brought you here? Where did you come from? Do you need to get back there?

Here’s the fourth question, Why are you isolating yourself from community? That’s what they asked Jonah. They said, “What is your country?” Again, that’s not talking about geopolitical boundaries, that’s talking about. “What is your heritage, what is your place of origin? What is the shared history and the shared values of the people that you belong to. . .and why did you leave?”

Some of you have left family, some of you have left spouses, some of you have left parents because you thought you could do it better on your own. “I don’t need these people!” You’ve become independent and autonomous. How’s that working out for you? And where are you going to go the next time you have a crisis? Who are you going to lean on without community?

Why are you isolating yourself from the people who know you, love you, care for you, and need to encourage—and at times rebuke—you? That’s the value of community.

Here’s the fifth question: Have you forgotten who is depending on you? They asked him that at the end of verse 8: “And of what people are you?” People! People are depending upon you. Your children are depending upon you. Let me just say this to the men in the room, if you are a husband, if you are a father—your wife is looking to you to be a man of character and integrity, and to provide for and protect her. She is depending upon you to be a man of God who is not a fugitive from God—not a man who is running from God, but a man seeking to get in the presence of God.

If you are a father, do you understand that your children are depending upon you? You say, “They don’t act like they’re depending on me! They don’t listen to me anymore!” Of course they don’t listen to you anymore—they’re teenagers! Teenagers don’t listen to you! They absorb you—and they become you! If you are not leading and you are not protecting and you are not providing—and you are not seeking God, that’s the direction they’re going to go, too. They will be fugitives from God if you are not headed in the right direction.

So these sailors asked Jonah questions of identity: “Who are you!? This is not who you are! And you are not in the place you are supposed to be!” And I would say that to so many of you. When are you going to wake up and realize the chaos that you are causing people that love you and know you best?

Here’s the third lesson:

 

• Your effort won’t solve your

 

You say, “Well, I don’t really know what to do. I’ve gone so far away from God, I don’t really know how to turn it around. I’ve been so far away from God, I don’t really know how to get back to Him. I guess I’ll try harder!” Well, that’s a strategy the sailors used. Look here in verse 11, “Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?’” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He [Jonah] said to them, ‘Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.’”

Do you realize what happened here? Jonah identified who he was. As a matter of fact, he answered some of those questions. I forgot to read it. Look here back in verse 9: “And he said to them, ‘I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord [ehh-“ish”], the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.’” He gives them his identity as a fearer-ish of the God of Heaven.

These sailors didn’t have a category for that. They knew about the God of the land and the god of the sea, but those were different gods. . .and Jonah was saying, “I fear the Lord Who is the God of the heaven and the sea.” And they went, “Whoa! That God? I mean the God with the big “G?”” And they looked at him like, “If you’re the guy that follows that God, what are you doing on our boat!? You’ve got to repent, or we’re all going to die!”

It was foolish for them—in their minds—to flee from the gods with the little “g,” but it was suicidal—in their minds—for them to flee from the God with the big “G.” So they were thinking, “We’ve got to do something with you!” So they asked, “What do we have to do with you to get God, with a big “G,” to not be angry with us? Jonah gave them an answer, but Jonah gave them the wrong answer. He gave them a suicidal answer.

Notice, the right answer to that question was, “All you have to do is turn the boat in the opposite direction, and I’m pretty sure that the wind and the waves will stop. If I could get headed back in the direction that God has called me to, then I’m pretty sure we’ll all be safe.” But Jonah would rather die than repent!

So he says, “Just throw me overboard! My life is worthless! Nobody loves me! I’ll never be able to get my act together. . .and so I’m just better off dead. So just throw me overboard!” These guys were apparently more compassionate toward Jonah than Jonah was toward them, so they didn’t do it. They said, “There’s got to be a better answer.”

This is what they did, Jonah 1:13, “Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.” They said, “Okay, guys, we’ve got to give it all we’ve got! I know the wind’s blowing us in one direction, but we’ve got to go down. Everybody grab an oar and let’s all try to work a little harder to see if we can save ourselves!”

Do you understand that that is the default mode of the human heart—when you realize that you are moving in the opposite direction of God, and that God is displeased with your life? We think, “You know what? I’ve got to go to church more. I gotta stop cussin’. Maybe I’ll give something in the offering this week. Maybe I’ll read my Bible. Maybe I’ll join a small group.”

“God, I know—I’ll go to church even if it kills me. (God, just kill me. . .I’d rather not. . .) No, I’ll go to church. . .” And we row harder. Do you know what that is? That is a religion of fear. And do you know what the next thing is that we do? We start making promises to God so that we can use God to make our lives easier. That’s exactly what the sailors did next.

Look at verse 14, “Therefore they called out to the Lord, ‘O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.’” Do you know what they were doing? They were praying a prayer of terror. Do you know what the prayer of terror is? It’s where you pray in order to use God to make your situation better. The prayer of terror is not a prayer of faith.

The prayer of faith is this, “Lord, I’ll go anywhere and I’ll do anything. I trust You. Use me.” The prayer of terror uses of God; the prayer of faith says, “God, use me.” I think these guys were praying the prayer of terror. They were kind of getting their act together, but I don’t think they were quite at the level of faith.

So, finally, we come down here to Jonah 1:15. They rowed as hard as they could, that didn’t work. It never does. They prayed a little bit harder, that didn’t seem to work, and so finally—notice—they take Jonah’s advice: “They picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.”

Maybe now they’re getting a little closer to the prayer of faith, but I want you to notice what is happening here. They realized that they were facing the impending judgment of God. Do you understand that we all are the sailors in the boat, in relation to God? All of us outside of Jesus Christ are facing the impending judgment of God because of our sin? We’re the sailors! We’re the polytheists! We all have our own little god in our own little image. We’re those sailors!

They began to listen to Jonah and Jonah came up with this idea: “Hey, if you want to divert the judgment of God, all you have to do is throw me into the ocean. The judgment of God will follow me into the sea and He will leave you alone, and you will be saved!”

So Jonah says this, “If you kill me, you will save yourselves.” Does that sound like another story in the Bible? Do you understand the story of Jesus Christ—very similar to this story that we’re reading here in Jonah? Jonah said, “If you throw me in I’ll experience the wrath of God and you guys won’t.”

Did you know that one day Jesus Christ came to this earth and He said, “I am willing to die for you so that you will not face the judgment of God.” Now, Jonah couldn’t die for any man’s sin, because Jonah was a sinner Himself. But Jesus Christ was not a sinner.

These sailors said to God in their prayer, “God, don’t blame us for Jonah’s sin! We’re innocent—he’s guilty!” Do you know what Jesus said? “Hey God—would You blame me, even though I am innocent, for the sin of those who are guilty? And, God, would You treat those who are guilty as though they are innocent?”

This is the story of the gospel, and we read about it over in Romans chapter 5, verses 7 and 8: “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—[I would venture to say that some of you love your spouse, love your children, and if it came to it you would die for them. That’s what this verse is acknowledging, but then Scripture goes on to say] but God shows his love for us in that while we were still [yet] sinners [there was nothing lovable about us!], Christ died for us.”

The most important word in the Bible is that little three-letter word, “for.” Christ didn’t just die—He died for sinners. Christ threw Himself overboard into the judgment of God so that the judgment of God would be diverted from us who deserve His judgment. That ought to evoke incredible obedience in us! “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”!! (Romans 5:9)

Jesus bled out on that cross. He gave His life as a sacrifice for those who deserved His judgment. Do you see back in Jonah 1:16 what these sailors did? The Bible says, “Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.” We don’t even know how they knew to do this, but as they were saved blood was shed. And God was giving us, seven-hundred years before Christ—in the story of Jonah—an understanding that in order to be saved, there has to be a substitute sacrifice. Jonah was not a good enough sacrifice, but there is a true and better Jonah. His Name is Jesus—to save all of us who are in the boat of our sin and need the judgment of God to be diverted.

Now, how can you know that story and flee from a God Who is that gracious? Some of us have been causing such chaos in our lives; we’re in the middle of a storm, God is chasing us, and He is chasing us with this story. He loves you so much He doesn’t want your ship to sink. But you’ve got to repent! You’ve got to turn around, you’ve got to come back to Him!

Can I just invite you to pray with me right now? Just bow your heads, close your eyes. Before we move along here, what has God said to you this morning? Have you seen faces of people who are being affected by your sin? Has God, by His Spirit, kind of cast those lots right at you and said, “That’s the guy, right there!” He’s put His finger on you. Are you going to live another week fleeing from the presence of God?

Are you going to continue to sleep while God wants you to get up and seek Him? He’s a God of grace! He’s a God of forgiveness. No matter how far you have fled, He invites you back to Him this morning. Why don’t you just open your heart to Him right now and say, “Lord, I’ve been doing my own thing. My sin has been creating chaos for people I love and know.”

“God, today, I am turning it around! I’m going to stop seeking gods with little “g’s” to be my savior. Once and for all, I’m trusting You.” If that’s you here this morning, open up your heart and tell Him that. Say, “Lord, today’s my day. I’m waking up and turning it around. Thank You for Your forgiveness. I repent.”