we are jumping into a brand new series as we kick off the summer entitled Runaway. We're gonna be taking a look. Uh a four week look with a special father's Day separate message. Um, in between, we're gonna take a four week look at a four chapter book in the old testament as about a minor profit. And it's not minor because he was a lesser profit, but he is minor because it's just a smaller book. And so we're gonna be taking a look at a minor prophet named Jonah. Now Jonah is really seen as almost described as a prodigal profit. The prodigal profit because really he's unlikely character to be the prophet of God. God gives him a command and he runs the other way and then he follows through and finally obeys God. But then even after he obeys God, he's a little upset and angry about it. And so he's really the unlikely character. Um but what I love about this story is that it's real and it's a mixture of the good and the bad and that uh sometimes in movies and in stories we think of characters as static. So like someone is always good or someone is always bad, but in this story, everything gets mixed together almost like a giant stew. Okay. And and that's really more closely connected to reality, isn't it? Because we're not all good and we're not all bad and sometimes we're a little bit of both and sometimes we're running after God and sometimes we're running away from God and that there's this mixture and that the only constant in this story that we're going to talk about is God himself and that the people that Jonah talks to and then Jonah himself are gonna have ups and downs. In fact, this story is actually often compared to what's known as the story of the Prodigal son in the new testament and in luke chapter 15. And and if you're unfamiliar with that story, it's a parable that jesus tells about a father with two sons and who are gonna, he's gonna share his inheritance with his two sons. But the one rebellious son wants to find his identity by breaking all the rules. He says, dad, I want you to give me my inheritance now I'm leaving and so he goes and he wastes all his money and he makes horrible decisions and choices, but ultimately comes back and kind of repents and and humbles himself before the father. But then that's, that's really the first two chapters of Jonah, we're gonna see this prophet really take and run away from God and really be this rebellious profit. But then in chapters three and four, we actually see the flip side because in the story of the prodigal son, this rebellious son returns and the father actually welcomes him and celebrates him and throws a party in a feast and and goes out of his way to to celebrate the returning of his son and this bitter brother actually says, wait a second, you're gonna celebrate this guy, The one who was rebellious, the one who ran away from you when I've been here the whole time and you haven't given me the same treatment. And while one son was Prodigal and that he tried to identify himself with his rebellion, the other son was also Prodigal because he tried to identify himself based off religion. So where one tried to break all the rules, the other one tried to keep all the rules and it was and he was bitter where the one rebellious son was broken. The religious son was judgmental and bitter and neither of which understood that as sons of their father they had access to the inheritance. And so chapters one and two of the book break down and really talk about the concept of really this rebellious side of Jonah and then he's gonna get his act together and do what he was commanded. But then he's gonna get really judgmental about lesser than people than himself. And so then he's going to be this religious kind of bitter side and neither of which are good and so we see this kind of stew this mixture of good and evil, right and wrong like just unlikely characters, people that should obey but don't people that shouldn't obey but do and that the only consistent character, the only static character in this story is actually God himself and his goodness and his compassion and so the same compassion, the same goodness that was available to Jonah. That was available to the people that he prophesies to is available to you and to me. So you have your bibles open up to Jonah chapter one. It's in the it's in the later part of the Old Testament. Uh and if you need a bible you can actually pick up a bible on your way out. This is our gift to you. And I will also include the verses on the screen. Now if You are as you are turning to Jonah Chapter one I just want to really start our conversation off by highlighting how much I love digital GPS. Alright, because now you can literally, you you can just hop in your car and you just speak into a GPS device or your phone and it just gives you turn by turn navigation. I am fearful that we have a generation that has no idea how to get anywhere and knows nobody's numbers. Right, Is this going to think about it? How many numbers do you actually have memorized right now? All right. Remember when getting your name in the phone book was like a thing like yeah we made it look here, we are like right, there's a there's a video. It's it's pretty funny you can actually look it up online of some college students were given a rotary phone and they couldn't figure out how to use it. But we've come a long way in technology and one of the ways that's awesome is, is how amazing GPS is these days. You, you don't need to print out maps. You don't need to do this. You can just say give the location and if you have two things, if you have where you are and where you need to go, they'll give you directions. Now that's important to remember later that you know where you are, where is your starting point? And then also where is your desired location and point. Because if you have those two things you can get turn by turn, navigation and what I love about Gps is that even when we get it wrong, even when we make a wrong turn, GPS does not yell at you, right. It doesn't yell at you. Like, what are you thinking? Right. That's what we have spouses for. Um, and right, this, come on, it's true. Whoever is in the shotgun seat is always the better driver. Am I right? It's true. It's true. It doesn't matter which spouses driving. You become really aware of all the other cars on the road when you're in the passenger seat, don't you? And so he was like, no, we gotta turn here. No, we want and, and some people know streets, some people know landmarks, you know what I'm talking about. Right, Well how do you get there? Will you go past the shell station and turn left and then you're gonna go pass a big oak tree and turn it right. Like we go and other people are like, well, it's on this street in this street. Well, now that we have Gps, we don't necessarily that just, just turn here, turn here and if you miss a turn, it doesn't yell at you. In fact, all it says is recalculating. I love that. No matter how many wrong turns you make the gps just turns and says recalculating, I was actually excited to learn this week that you can actually purchase celebrity voices to be the voice of your gps. Did you notice you can have Arnold Schwarzenegger, give you directions. How exciting would that be? Turn now, do it and make driving so much more exciting, right? And so I love that in life we have a God, like in Gps that when we make a wrong turn or when we try to go the other way, it's not just simply scolding us, it's just recalculating. And the truth is, is that God's devotion is greater than our detours. Isn't that awesome that God's God's devotion to us, his pursuit of us is greater than our detours and that when we make wrong turns in life and we make plenty of them that God's not scolding us, But just as recalculating and that through all of our mistakes, through all their ups and downs, God actually works through us and ultimately we end up where we need to be in the right moment. So we're in Jonah chapter one some background in the book, the story of Jonah is one of the most debated stories in the old testament because for those that might not be familiar with the story, um it is a story of a prophet who was told to go to the city of Ninevah and the city of Ninevah was seen as the most evil city in the time, it was the capital city of Syria and the Syrians were known for just brutal rural treatment of, of people they took captive talking about Yeah, with kids in the room, I won't go into detail, but like anything that you would see on movies right now, they would do that. But then worse in terms of their torture of their prisoners. In fact, nine Nova is actually situated in present day Iraq And that some consider actually the descendants of Ninevah and that area ultimately actually um came from where we have isis and that and so it's the same location. Same, it's like great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, you know, 3000 years generation down line, the basis of what we actually know as ISIS today. And so that same area, same thing. So before we knock Jonah for being willing to run away from God, let's remember that God commanded him. Hey, go into the heart of the most hated evil city in the world and preach repentance and she's like, not me. No, I think you meant a different Jonah, you know, I think no, no, I think you met Jonah with no h at the end, okay, that's not me, I'm different, different guy Now. Some people debate whether or not this story actually happened because in it we find actually that Jonah ultimately gets saved by a giant fish and it's kind of crazy except for the fact that jesus will find out in a little bit actually quotes this story and so that we can debate whether something is historical or figurative or literal and where this falls in line. But wherever you fall on that spectrum, the truth of really can be pulled from the story that applies to us still today. I believe that it literally happened because Jesus actually quoted it later and so when in doubt, I'm gonna go with Jesus on this line and then also other prophets talk about it and whereas people are not debating the reality of say Elijah or Elisha. Um and if the same line or Jeremiah or Isaiah and so I'm not gonna go actually as far and debate the existence of Jonah because other people quoted him, they have historical um really cities and records, so none of us is a real city um the king that he served under, it's a real king. And so there's actual historical facts found throughout the story, so we're going to interpret it as literal, but even if you have questions on it, even if you get caught up and there's no way a giant fish could have caught Jonah um just just stay with us and let's find out what the truth is that God really has for us in this story because when I grew up in a church setting in a, in a just a lovely tucked in shirt baptist church, we have these things called flannel graphs. Do you guys remember that? And flannel graphs, these things you put on and what was great was the stories always mixed? And so the characters were already always different sizes. So like you'd have like a person but then the sheep and there was always a cloud and like a son and they all like mixed. And I remember the story of Jonah because there was always just a giant fish on the flannel graph and that meant we got goldfish for our snack. And so anytime Jonah was coming in we were excited for the snack, we knew goldfish was coming down the pike. So I just grew up thinking oh that's what Jonah is about, it's about fish and and then the goldfish cracker. And and then when I actually studied that there was a deeper deeper truth that in the middle of good and evil, in the middle of right and wrong, in the middle of obeying god and disobeying God and the mixture of culture and ethnicities and races and all of this, that the one constant in all of this is the goodness and the compassion of God himself. So that's what we're going to find in our story today. So let's go ahead and begin reading here in Jonah chapter one. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah. The son of a multi saying arise go to Nineveh the great city and call call out against it for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flees to Tarsus from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarsia. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarsus away from the presence of the Lord. Now I want you to notice this pattern and we're gonna break this down a little bit later. But everything starts when Jonah receives a word from the Lord. Everything starts when he receives a message from God and when he receives a message from God, he then receives a mission from God. So the message of God leads to a mission of God. And then we have Jonas response which is fleeing and literally running the opposite direction and so he's running away he goes on a boat But in verse four says 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 marines were afraid and cried out to his God. 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 laid down and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and said, what do you mean? You sleeper arise? Call out to your God. Perhaps the God will give us a thought to us that we may not perish. So to give you some understanding in this context, Jonah completely ran away from the command of God. He was seen as a hebrew or an Israelite or the person of God and and identity was very much wrapped up in your country and so you're in your country and in your ethnicity and in your race it was connected. And so it was typically like your race or ethnicity first and then they just assumed you believe in that god of that ethnicity. And so he was in the boat with pagan sailors and I believe he went down to the bottom and fell asleep. Not because he was tired, but because he was probably sick. Have you ever been so stressed out that you seemed paralyzed that you can't move right that you just can't function, that you're like, you don't know what to do and you're struggling with something so bad that you can't you can't even move or think straight. I think this was the same thing with Jonah that he went down to the bottom of the boat really to hide? And you know the storm has to be bad when people who dr boats for the living, for their living are scared for their life and so scared that they start throwing their cargo overboard because cargo means profit. So they are literally scared for their life to the point of throwing their own profit and equipment overboard and they don't know what to believe. And so these pagans say, hey, if you have a god, if you have a belief in somebody, cry out to that person and maybe whoever's God is causing this trouble will comment and will get saved. And so they call out to Jonah, Jonah, what are you doing? We are going to die. How can you sleep in this moment? Who is your God? Who are you? And he said in verse seven and they said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know who's account, this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Now casting losses. Idea of kind of superstitious chance. Again, everything in this story is like unlikely, right? And so like let's cast lots to find out who this is. But Jonah knows that it's because of him that they're in this situation. So even in that it falls on the Jonah And they said to Jonah tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us, what is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country and of what people are you. Isn't it interesting that this verse verse eight Was written about 2700 years ago. But yet we still follow the same pattern today. Right? When you meet somebody new, what do you say? Hi, what is your name? Where do you come from? What do you do? Write? Everything in our culture is defined, but where do you come from? And what do you do Even in this situation? They say Jonah, okay, who are you, What do you do, Where do you came from? What happened? And it's a question of identity and Jonah responds in verse nine, I am a hebrew and I fear the Lord, the god of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Now, isn't it interesting that in this moment when he's finally caught that he acknowledges that God is the God of sea and land. So this doesn't make sense, does it? Like he tried to run from God by going on the sea that he later acknowledged God created, right, This is the little kid running into the other room when he did something wrong and going like this, can you see me know, okay, I'm not here dad, No, Okay. And if you've parented little Children, you know this is true. Um I was in the other room a couple weeks ago and and Chloe are little three year old just runs into the room and I was just one room over. Um and she goes, oh daddy fire. There are some words that you kind of like slow to respond to um Fire is not one of them. Okay. I'm like what daddy fire dangerous. I'm like, yes it is. And I go sprinting out and somehow she had gotten into our coverage into the back coverage and found a matchbook, dumped it and lit one at three. Oh I am glad that both we and her are still here today. Um and we had a little burnt market like this, a little circle on the mat. And then when I was like Chloe and she looked at me like this, she goes and she took off running and she tried to hide from me because she knows she's like one we've since I thought we had it all the matches put away. It was deep in the cover and now they're up super high and away from everything. But as soon as she was found out, she went sprinting as if the back corner of her room was safe from mom and dad. Right? Like that's that's what Jonah does here, Jonah knows he's running away from God but now he's in this massive storm. He gets called out and he says, okay, I'm a hebrew god of the land and the sea. So to run from God, he goes into a spot where God is still in Control Verse 10. The men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, What is this that you have done for? The men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had already told them 1st 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 said to them, pick 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. Now again, this is where it gets kind of beef stew, like it sounds noble says, you know what I will sacrifice myself for. You throw me into the sea so that you can be saved. And that sounds noble. But he could also be saying this, You know what I'm so done with this, to throw me in the sea and end it. In some ways it's the most selfish thing he can do. But it's also the most noble thing he can do. It's both good and it's bad. It's a mixture. We don't know quite how to feel. We don't know his feelings behind it, but we know that God is right here. So he says, just throw me into the sea. Whatever his motive, just just let's just end this. But now here's again, the unlikely part of the story. Here are these pagan sailors Notice their compassion. In verse 13. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but they could not for the sea grew more and more a tempestuous against them. So these pagan sailors actually are more compassionate than Jonah. I said, no, no, we won't do that. We'll try to see. And it's not gonna work verse 14. So they called out to Jonas God, the one true God! The Lord. Oh Lord, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us. The innocent blood for you. O Lord have done is as you pleased. So they picked up Jonah and they hurled him into the sea and the sea ceased from raging. And then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and he offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. A lot of people make vows to God in the middle of a difficult moment, don't they? Okay God, if you just do this one thing for me, then I will follow you. But what's interesting about verse 16 is that actually they made vows after it so that it already calmed down. And so they actually made vows and sacrifices after. So that's an act of worship or a sign of repentance or a sign of obedience. That they saw a movement of God and then they responded accordingly. And so Jonah is thrown overboard. But in verse 17 we see. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. So God sends a fish, God sends it underwater Uber okay. And it seems it seems crazy okay until the fact that God created the universe and sent a storm and combed it like that. And so if God can do the supernatural then everything is possible. And the one thing that's consistent in this story is God's compassion. He goes to this kind of mixed up messed up prophet Jonah and says I want you to prophesy to Ninevah, give them a chance to repent. So he shows compassion to this evil city. He then chose compassion to Jonah, Jonah runs away rebels. But then God shows compassion on these pagan sailors and then goes as far and actually shows compassion to Jonah by saving him, Jonah should have died at that point, right? He made his own situation. He deserved to die at that point. Yet even in his unbelief, even in his rebellion, God showed compassion to him and saved him because he had a greater plan for Jonah. And so if you're taking notes, you can write this down That what we learned from Jonah chapter one is that God's compassion is connected to his power and not our permission. God's compassion is connected to his, his power. Not our permission. As soon as we get into the role of deciding who deserves what we have now replaced ourselves with God and we've become the judges on America's got spiritual talent, right? Judges on all those tv shows whether it's the voice or american idol or America's Got talent or any of those they sit there, someone does something you yes, I like that. You can move on right and we love that. Why? Because we ourselves like to be judged. We do we like to be judged. We tend to view ourselves higher than other people. For example, In the past 30 years there's been multiple studies about the idea of gratefulness and generous every single time people rated themselves as more grateful and generous than the average person. So we do this right? We want grace for us, compassion for us, judgment for other people. If we're late to a meeting it's well because of circumstances situation, I'm sorry this happened and we explained, but if somebody else's late were like how dare you if we do something you know my bad my mistake I messed up, you know, give me grace. But if somebody else wrong is just like no law judgment they deserve this and everybody has a line because it's human nature. Even the movement that we see in culture today of love, everybody love wins isn't it interesting that when people try to claim love wins, who is the only group seen as judgmental christians. So I've had conversations with people and they say that you know well you're just being judgmental. I mean, not to get picky, but so you're judging me by calling me judgmental, See everyone's got a line, everybody has a line, everybody does. And as soon as somebody crosses our line, that's when we get upset. But we're going to find out over these four chapters in Jonah that the hebrew people that these quote unquote evil nine invites actually are all recipients of the compassion and the grace and the goodness of God for God, so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The, the claim to believe in jesus is exclusive, but the audience is actually the most inclusive of any religion in the world. Go to other locations and other religions and places and ask yourself if women and Children are treated better or worse than in gospel centered situations. Studies show that they say that divorce is the same rate in christian households as a non christian households households. But the problem with that study is that they just ask people, are you a christian or not? And 30 years ago, people would just say, oh yeah, I'm a christian and just made a claim. Well, in new studies where they actually say that um, okay, do you claim to be a christian? But do you read your bible, Do you go to church and you actually live that out? Actually divorce rates are down satisfaction rates and marriages are higher relationships with kids are better growth is stronger because God is this picture of the good for all, but there's still a requirement for repentance and following him, it's this beef stew, it's this mixture, we're both good and we're bad that we're right and we're wrong and we win and we lose. And in the middle of all of our mess, God is consistent and he is compassion and it is based on his power. Not our permission. God does not need our permission to be compassionate to those in need. That's why we have the story of the good samaritan. They challenged jesus say, okay, what does it mean to love your neighbor? And he uses the extreme example of someone with a different religious background and a different ethnicity to say, okay, that person was a better neighbor than what you've shown. And so who do you love the person in front of you? Anyone and everyone why? Because God's compassion is greater. His compassion is based on his power. Not on our permission notice here that sometimes God sends a storm and other times God sends a fish, sometimes we need a storm to wake us up. Now that's not to say that all storms. Um, not to say that all storms are because of our decisions, but some of them are, but then sometimes he sends a fish to to save us even in the middle of that, even when we've gone overboard, I used to view Christianity as the little marble maze game. Have you ever played those before? It was marble maze games where there's like holes everywhere and you just try to turn, you try to navigate and you're going to see how far you can get before the ball drops. And that's how I viewed Christianity. If I follow this rule and this rule and see how far I can go until the ball drops. That's really not it at all. The God's compassion, God's love, God's relationship. His truth is available to all and then ultimately his compassion is based on his power, not our permission. It was an unlikely prophet, Jonah disobeyed. It was an unlikely audience. He was called to go preach truth tune in even the worst city at that time. It was an unlikely storm. That isn't it interesting that God sent a storm to calm Jonas heart. It was an unlikely obedience. It was the pagan sailors that obeyed. Even a fish obeyed God and Jonah did not think about that for a second. But then God had compassion on these pagan sailors, but he also had compassion on Jonah, Jonah. I'm not done with you yet. And if you have a child that's run from God if you have a friend or a spouse or a family member that has run from God. I want to encourage you that God's compassion. God's devotion is greater than any detour they can take and his justice is corrective. It's not a penalty. It's corrective. And no matter how far someone is from God, God is never far from them and that when we run from God, God actually runs to us and that his compassion is based on his power, not our permission and there's hope for everyone. So what does that mean for us to applications if you're taking notes, Number one, is that we ultimately or like Jonah we are like Jonah. We are, we've received a message from God. So we have the bible, we've received his word, we've received a mission from God. He says go love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love others as yourself and then go and make disciples of all nations. We received a message, we received a mission, We get questioned about our identity. Number three they asked Jonah, Jonah, who are you, what do you do, what defines you? We could ask those same questions today And the number four we get challenged with our idols now in pagan culture, it was their idol was more prevalent because you can name it. But I would argue that Jonah based on his actions had religion and his heritage as his idol. Even good things placed in the God spot equals bad consequences. So we are like Jonah because we received a message from God that his love, his compassion, his grace is available to all. We received a mission from God to go to all the world and proclaim this message of the good news of the gospel. We get questioned about our identity. Who are you? Are you defined by what you do? Are you defined by characteristics? You defined by your money? Are you defined by your status, your position or are you defined as a child of God? And then are you willing to face your idols? So we are, we're like Jonah. But ultimately Jesus is the greater Jonah. He's the greater Jonah. Let me read a passage to you. It comes from Matthew chapter 12 verses 38 to 41. Since then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered jesus saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you, but Jesus answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Let's keep reading here for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish. So the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Ninevah will rise up at the judgment for this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here. Jesus is the greater Jonah. There's actually a story where Jesus was in a boat and he was sleeping in the middle of a storm. but instead of being cast out into the water, he stands up and rebukes the storm and then ultimately where Jonah was trying to run from God and was thrown into the belly of the fish for three days for his sin, Jesus was thrown into the grave for three days for salvation and see substitution is actually the essence of both sin and salvation. When you sin, what you're saying is I substitute myself and put myself in the place of God. I judge who should get compassion. I judge who is right, I judged off of my desires. That is sin. But just as substituting ourselves for God is sin, Jesus substituting his place for ours actually brings salvation. And so Jesus is the greater Jonah because he didn't just come to bring the word, he came as the word and he delivered us and brought salvation to demonstrate this truth that our God is good. Our God is grace, our God is love and this goodness and this grace and this mercy is available for all people who humble themselves before him. Amen. And so as the band comes up on stage, may we just trust that God's compassion is available to us, that it's based on his power and not our permission. Sin leads us to fall. Salvation leads us to freedom. Sin ultimately ruins relationships. Salvation redeems relationships. So, wherever you are in your journey, me dial into the spiritual gps of your heart, no matter how many wrong turns you've made God is just quietly saying recalculating. And if you want to know where to go from here, go pray and study, go pray and study. Take the message of God and the mission of God and then decide for yourself. Will I run or will I repent? Gps? Go pray steady. What has God called you to do? Are you running from God? Do you know someone running from God? I'm here to tell you that his compassion, his love is available to you. His grace is available to you. If we're just ready to receive it, let's bring dear heavenly father. We just thank you for your son. God, we know that we are like Jonah. That if given the same circumstances, chances are we too would have run that we would have gone and try to run away from your word and from your mission. But God, your compassion is based on your power and not our permission. And so in an unlikely circumstance, through sending a storm or a fish. God, you brought salvation not only to Jonah but to the people that he went and preached to. So God, I asked that wherever we are right now, I mean we will remember that you came to save us. That as we take communion as a church right now. That if we pass the bread and the juice as a symbol of who you are. Maybe we remember that your compassion is available for all, mm hmm. When we turned you, maybe we repent of our sins and we would just thank you for your grace for your goodness God, you are the only constant thing in this world. So let us put our trust in you and your son's name, We pray.