The God of "Do Overs"

Introduction

The Sermon Notebook: Old Testament The Prison of His Perseverance (Jonah 1:1–17)

During the awful, bloody days of World War I, there was a British soldier who became so distraught with the war, the suffering and the death that he deserted. He tried to find his way to the coast so he could catch a boat and make his way back secretly to his homeland in England.

In the darkness of the night he lost his way. After a while, he stumbled upon a road sign. It was pitch black and he was terribly lost. He had no idea where he was or what the sign said. He decided to climb the pole to see if he could read the sign and figure out which way he needed to go. When he got to the crossbeam, he held on to read the sign. Taking out a match, he lit it, and looked directly in the face of Jesus Christ. He had climbed an outdoor crucifix!

Stunned by what he saw, he realized the shame of his life. He was looking into the face of the One who had endured it all and had never turned back. The next morning the soldier was back in the trenches.

Aren’t you glad that God is the God of “do overs”. Yes, we realize today that there are things in our lives that God clearly wants us to engage in and we refuse. We miss the blessing.

Obviously, not in every case, there will be times when we refuse what we know God wants us to do and it will come with a price. But, thank the Lord, I have experienced it myself that when I knew I was to respond to the voice of God and missed the opportunity and was so regretful that He let me have a do over. Amen. Let’s look this morning at Jonah 1:10-17 as we continue studying God’s hand upon the life of JOnah.

Jonah 1:10-17

Jonah 1:10–17 NKJV

10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous. 12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” 13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. 17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Prayer

Message

Our last time together we began the study of this book that is one of the minor prophets called Jonah. Minor does not mean less important, minor means a smaller book.

Its a whale of a story we have been studying, but it’s a little fishy. No, the truth of the matter is that the book of Jonah as spelled out last week is not about a great fish even though one is mentioned or the great city of Nineveh nor a great tempest, no, the story of Jonah is a story of a great God. A God that loves you. A God that is merciful and gracious towards us, but a God that loves you in spite of your bull headed nature. He loves us to the point that He providentially works in ways to guide us in the way He knows we need to go. Why? Because we are His children and He knows what’s best for us.

God loves you like a parent loves his or her child, but even greater. God is going to attempt to provide structure, guidance, and He will chastise when needed because He loves you.

Hebrews 12:6 “6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.””

Furthermore, we are not our own. When we accepted Him as Lord and Savior we rendered ownership over to Him.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Last week we were introduced very quickly to the book because within the first sentence of the book, Jonah was instructed to go to Nineveh to reach out to them in the name of Jehovah because God recognized that the people of Nineveh were wicked and needed to be reached and brought to repentance and follow God. Jonah had seen the wickedness of the people of Nineveh and he had directly seen their wickedness. They would skin children in front of the parents and make them watch and then kill parents. They would bury someone alive except their heads sticking out and allow wild animals attack them. And, because they were not Israelites, I imagine Jonah was a racist. Jonah wanted no part of watching a gracious and forgiving God show mercy to such a heinous people. He wanted to see retribution come to the people of Nineveh. Jonah knew of God’s mercy and grace and did not want to see God provide second chances to such an evil people, yet Jonah would be the recipient of a second chance with God. Aren’t you glad God is the God of second, third and many chances in our lives? Aren’t you glad God offers us do overs?

Furthermore, aren’t you glad that God is more gracious with us than we would want to be with others at times? God loves us so. God loves you so and it is hard to comprehend how much He does loves us.

Well, Jonah fled from God or at least he thought he had. He traveled 2,200 miles in the opposite direction from where God wanted him to go. And, he thought he could escape the hand of God in his life. Do you believe you can run from God and not be found?

Ill. Luke & Mike having lunch see Terry & Mitzi-hospital duty with Mr. Fred. “You can run but you can’t hide.”

Psalms 139:7-10 “7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.”

And, it’s amazing how God will draw you back when you are running.

Ill. Pastor Greg Laurie’s wife was backslidden at a very young age-15 to 16 years of age. She had returned to living a wild life of drugs. Cathe, Greg’s wife, had a close friend talking against God, talking against life and Greg Laurie’s wife, Cathe, shared Jesus with the girl and shared of what here life was like when she was walking with the Lord, the peace that she enjoyed. Through the process of her sharing, God used that incident to lead her friend to Christ and Cathe in turn rededicated her life to the Lord.

God used her lost friend to realign her with her relationship with the Lord. Only God can do that. And we see such a dynamic play out in this drama depiction on the seas of despair as God sent a great tempest, a great wind on the water to gain the attention of the men and of Jonah while out on the seas.

The Scripture states the winds were so harsh that the ship was going to break up and the mariners became frightened. They began to throw valuable cargo over. They were that fearful. And, from their many experiences on the water they knew this was no ordinary storm. God was behind such action and they began to question who had made God mad. So, they cast lots to see who the culprit to the chaos was and the lot fell on Jonah.

Jonah reminds me of the church today. The church is asleep to the madness going on about when the church ought to be at attention asking who made God mad.

These pagan sailors were used of God to cause Him to confront His destiny that we studied last week.

Here is what they said:

Jonah 1:8-9 “8 Then they said to him, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.””

As we think this morning about the fact that God is the God of do overs, let’s look at what God reveals to us in order that we heed His words for us today.

Firstly, we see that these men exercised a reverential fear of God.

A Reverential Fear of God

Jonah 1:10-11 “10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.”

Isn’t it interesting that God used pagan sailors to bring the prophet of God to an awakened state of heeding God’s Word. Jonah was spiritually slumbering.

I wander if our ways in church today has caused a spiritual snoring among the church? We are more worried today about being relevant than reverent. We dress casually for church today. We sing a song of invitation, “come just as you are.”

The church today tries to cater and coddle man’s desires rather than man getting on board with God’s desires. The church attempts to allow people to watch church in their pj’s and dearly beloved, there has been a loss of the reverential fear of God.

Understand what we are reading here. These mariners knew what they were experiencing were beyond the acts of meteorological phenomena. They knew this was an act of the Master and the Maker of life and death.

They had seen what nature could bring, but they understood this was more.

And the Scriptures state they were “exceedingly afraid.”

Numbers 22:1-3 “1 Then the children of Israel moved, and camped in the plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan across from Jericho. 2 Now Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. 3 And Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel.”

Ill. Young lady witnessing and telling people about Jesus. A Grown man, an intellectual, and atheist thought he would humiliate the young lady in debate about the Bible and God.

“Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe that it is inerrant? Do you believe the miracles of the Bible and they really all happened? In each case the young lady shared that she believed that everything in the Bible was truth and really happened. Well, the intellectual goes on to say, then you are saying to me that you believe that a man named Jonah lived in the belly of a large fish for three days? How can that be? Yes. I believe that a man named Jonah lived in the belly of a large fish for three days. Can I explain or comprehend or understand every aspect of the Bible? When I get to heaven, I will ask Him to explain how that happened. The intellectual replied, what if you do not go to heaven, what if you go to hell? And the young lady replied, “then you will be able to ask Him.”

Dearly beloved, reverential fear of God is living in a state of awareness to who God is. It is understanding His mighty power, His keen awareness to every thought of our lives and the fact that He knows how filthy we all really are. It is an awareness that He is a God of love, but He is a God of judgment. And, that if this world, your friends, my friends, some of your family, some of my family, neighbors and the list goes on are going to a literal hell if they do not come into a saving knowledge of Jesus. Those pagan sailors realized in that moment that there was a real God bringing real judgment on a sin and they were living or dying in the moment on the brink of one person reconciling with God and them paying the punishment for Jonah’s sin.

Two things quickly come to mind as we think about that thought:

a. We must realize that when we run from God, how many others we affect.

b. Jesus was the innocent that we will reflect upon in a few weeks at Easter that went in the tomb three days innocently to save all of the guilty over their sins. He was thrown over into the belly of the whale for you and me. Amen.

Remove Some Factors that Cause us to Falter in our Faith

“What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?” -for the sea was growing more tempestuous.

Jonah 1:12 “12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.””

What is sad is that Jonah knew he was the culprit. He knew his actions were contrary to the things of God. He clearly knew he was wrong, he knew what he did that was wrong, He knew what he needed to do to make it right and he refused to do so. He was so weak in taking the corrective action that he placed the burden on the sailors to take the corrective action.

I want to say it again, when you are living a life that is not acceptable of God and you continue to be defiant to what God is calling you to do, others will pay a price along with you and you may cause them to throw you out of their lives if they want to see a great turn around in their lives.

Numbers 14:18 “18 ‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’”

Have you ever heard a more sad commentary? A person that knows God and living a life so counterintuitive to the things of God that they drive lost people away? Could you imagine a worse scenario? One that knows God and is living a life so hypocritical to the things of God they are an actual deterrent to people coming to know Christ? Oh God forgive me if my life ever stoops to such a low level.

These men cried out to God in desperation. The harder they paddled back to dry land the worse the tempest became. They prayed that God would not hold innocent blood against them when they threw Jonah overboard.

Listen to verse 15:

Jonah 1:15 “15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.”

Notice an important truth here. If you are backsliding or you have run from God, God does not want to carry you back to the dry land of the status quo. He wants to carry you back to the fertile land of real revival and renewal in your life.

He does not want any contaminates in the waters of life heading back to the place God wants you to serve.

Revelation 22:17 “17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

The water of life can not be a contaminated water.

These sailors were not backsliders. They were coming to know Christ for the first time. They experienced a fire and brimstone sermon firsthand acted out in real life. In order for them to see dry land, they had to remove an influence in their journey and that influence was Jonah. He had to be thrown out of the boat.

What needs to be thrown out that is working against your walk with God?

-Facebook? Social media

-Friends-pull you down

-a family member

-forces at work that is getting the upper hand on you?

a flirty allure

It’s very simple-remove it from your life. Cold turkey.

1 Corinthians 10:14 “14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

Ecclesiastes 9:18 “18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war; But one sinner destroys much good.””

Listen to me dearly beloved, let’s learn from our servant King David:

Has God placed on your heart a sin that is not only tearing you down, but tearing down others about you? Is there a factor that you need to remove that is a stumbling block in your life?

2 Samuel 24:17 “17 Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.””

Is the angel of God beating sheep around you that are under your care for your sins?

Respond in Faith to our Heavenly Father’s Calling

Jonah 1:16-17 “16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. 17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

Here we see again the fact these mariners “feared the Lord exceedingly”, but this fear was exercised through submission to the will of the Father. These men “offered a sacrifice and took vows.” Their belief in Yahweh God was manifest at this time prior to the cross in the only way they knew and that was to give sacrificially to God and God gave sacrificially to them by offering them to live another day. They vowed to follow and trust Him.

In Mark 4:35-41 “35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. 40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” 41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!””

IN the story of the disciples crossing over the Sea of Galilee and there was somewhat of a reversal, Jesus was asleep in the rear of the boat. These disciples on the other hand were exceedingly fearful and learned on that day who it was who was really in the rear of the boat.

Dearly beloved, has that been your problem? You have tucked Jesus away as a convenient voyager? He’s there, but He is allowed to sleep until the storms of life become raging and you wake Him asleep?

Do not be asleep dear brother or sister today? Do not be as Jonah and asleep to how your waywardness is affecting others. Do not wait until the storms of this life become raging to cause you to have a reverential fear as those sailors did that day. They were literally scared straight for Jesus. Do not wait until its under those life death circumstances that you finally awaken to the need of God in your life. Maybe, just maybe, you desire to get back to dry land where you have allowed your coordinates to have you lost at sea, but as you are following the coordinates, the compass readings back on course, God has told you to throw overboard some factors that are a stumbling block to your walk with the Lord. Address those factors.

Lastly, begin with a childlike faith and trust in the God of the Universe. Jesus loves you and He wants you see you whole, complete, and in perfect harmony with the Father. As long as sin prevails, there will not be that peace. Come clean with Him today and enjoy life anew in Him.

Let’s pray.