Jonah d

Please turn to Jonah 1. FYI – we’re going to go down, take a dive, and then back up.

Where are we in the story of Jonah? God called or “divinely invited” Jonah to go to Nineveh, Israel’s enemies – whom we are calling “those people” – and warn them of impending doom and to call them to repentance. Jonah responded immediately to God - but went the wrong way. Must have got lost or something – and like most men he probably did not ask for directions to Nineveh. Or he asked a non-male person who was directionally challenged. Anyway, he high tailed it out of Jerusalem and boarded a ship for Tarshish – 3,200 miles from Jerusalem (Nineveh was 700 miles).

Remember,

Jonah was a real man who had a real relationship with God and yet, had real theological struggles.

God chose the right person.

God commonly sends His people to “those people” to reveal His mercy.

Always remember,

The main theme is God’s love and mercy extends to all – whether we think they deserve it or not.

Let’s pick it up in verse 4.

Jonah 1:4–5 ESV

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

Don’t you get irritated when there’s work to be done and there’s that one person who’s nowhere to be found? They’re hiding in the restroom, outback, texting … (Brandon). But that’s not the issue here.

The author is making a vivid contrast between these Gentiles (non-Jews or non-Christians) and God’s people.

The Gentiles were doing their job and singing “Come sail away.” But Jonah, this prophet of God created a gigantic mess that the sailors were forced to deal with it? This is not to imply that all God’s people or all churches make such messes as Jonah, but it is something to be aware of – that

The problems in this world are not always because of “those people.”

Here's another big contrast - the Gentiles were afraid and busy dealing with the storm, but Jonah was asleep. How could he be asleep during a storm? Like I said last week,

It’s exhausting running from God.

Aside from that, the Hebrew word here for sleep means literal physical sleep. But I think there is a metaphorical meaning as well.

Jonah was “asleep” (i.e. indifferent) to how his actions affected others.

He lacked self-awareness or didn’t care.

In my experience, it’s not so much the Christians who make mistakes or blow it occasionally that cause the majority of problems with those outside the Church. We all lack self-awareness from time to time. But it’s the Christians (or those who claim to be) who lack self-awareness who cause the most damage. Healthy self-awareness is imperative for the one who follows Jesus.

1 Peter 2:12 tells us to keep our conduct among Gentiles honorable so that they may come to know Jesus.

Consider

James 1:22–24 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

That’s a person who lacks spiritual and self-awareness, and that’s usually the person who gives the Church and Jesus a bad name. I’ve been there and done that, but as I matured in Christ, I went back to as many people as I could and apologized and said, “My behavior was not like Jesus – please forgive me.”

How do you know if you’re like Jonah and lack self-awareness? With the Spirit, stop and take a hard honest look at your life. If you can see that you have been at the center of storm after storm and the people around you had to clean up your messes and left dealing with the aftermath … that’s a good indicator that you lack self-awareness. But there is hope, because once you recognize that ….

Jonah was blind to the chaos he had caused. Look at the tremendous cost of sin and disobedience. Jonah paid a fare, the storm, sailors lost their cargo, which means they lost money, and their ship was damaged and would need repaired, which also would cost money. Furthermore, think about the crew, the merchants – those buying and selling, people who depended on the delivery of this cargo, … the list can go on.

This may be an extreme example, but there is a biblical principle here –

There is always a cost to our sin and disobedience, and there is always a ripple effect.

Romans 6:23 – the wages of sin is death.

With sin, something always dies.

Physical, spiritual, emotional – whatever. Loss of blessing, loss of a relationship, loss of an opportunity, loss of peace, etc.

Our sin always affects others because sin is relational.

Sin is always against God, others, or self and the consequence is always a separation within those relationship. “Well, it was just a little sin, just a little lie.” Ever had a little paper cut? It hurts. The size of the sin is not the issue – sin creates death and separation.

At the center of sin is pride and self-centeredness.

We can become so prideful and so inward focused that we either refuse to see or we lose the ability to see how our sin or poor choices affect others. Back in 1999 this was me. I had my “Jonah” moment. For me, God said, “Don’t go” but I went. I was so self-centered I had no idea how one sinful choice would affect so many people, and how so many were caught in a storm that I created. The ripples were extensive.

The crew had no part in Jonah's rebellion, yet they were caught up in his storm. We know that God caused the storm. But understand there is a difference between punishment and discipline. I don’t think God was punishing Jonah, and definitely not punishing the crew. So what was God doing? I know we covered this last week, but I want to explore it some more.

Notice, God did not force Jonah to go to Nineveh, but He did create some difficult circumstances to get Jonah's attention. That’s what God will do when there is sin in our lives and especially when we’re running from Him. God can make life very difficult, and it can feel as if everything is falling apart.

We need to be careful here. I believe

There’s a difference between life events and God orchestrated events.

Sometimes, life is just hard – we step on Legos with bare feet from time to time. But there are times when God puts on the pressure and disciplines those He loves. How do we know the difference? Jonah knew he was running from God and knew he was disobeying.

We can lie about it, we can convince ourselves and others we are not running, we can convince ourselves we can stop the storm or that it will just blow over, but deep down inside we know when we’re running from God.

If life is difficult right now, God may or may not be behind it. It could be life, it could be someone else’s mess that’s affecting you, or God may be teaching you or preparing you for something. Or

God could be sending a storm, not to punish you, but to call you home.

So what do you do if that’s you? Confess. That’s what Jonah did in vs 9 and 10. He finally admitted, “I am running from God. I have disobeyed.” Now, the storm did not stop immediately, but

Confession was the beginning of the end of the storm.

Remember that mess I made in 1999? God was powerless, if you will, to help me. But when I confessed, and I’ve shared this before, God said, “Now, I can begin to work.” Like Jonah, my confession did not stop the storm immediately. It actually got worse for a while, but it was indeed the beginning of the end of the storm and

Confession is the beginning of our healing.

Listen closely to James 5:16.

James 5:16 ESV

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Therefore, confess [admit and agree with Christ] your sins to one another [who did Jonah confess to? The sailors. He didn’t confess to God until later while in the fish. I confessed my sin to God, but that didn’t stop the storm. I had to confess to others.] and pray for one another, that you may be healed [I didn’t need to confess to others so that I would be forgiven by God, He had already done that. I needed to confess so that the healing, and redemption, and reconciliation, and that new life could begin.

The wages of sin is death, but the wages of confession is life.

See, The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Who’s the righteous person?

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Confession is the key to righteousness.

Righteousness is being in a right relationship with God, with others, and with self.

So what are you going to do with this message?

Admit (confess). Believe (trust). Commit.