We are on an incredible adventure with Jonah. We are learning a lot about ourselves, about God, and His plans for our lives. One of the things I want us to see today is the incredible truth that our loving and compassionate God is in pursuit of us for our affections and attention. He is determined to have your heart because He loves you so much!

Before we get into Jonah, I want to show you this truth in Psalm 23. Psalm 23:6 says, Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever (NLT). Another way to say this is, “Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life” (MSG). Your God is pursuing you to save you and sanctify you. He is chasing you down in order to bless you and to make your life beautiful! No matter how far you run from God, His goodness and love are coming after you! No matter how far down into the ocean of sin you go, God’s love and mercy will track you down.

Look at Jonah 1:1,

The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it, because their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship that was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and boarded it to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. 4 However, the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea, so that the ship was about to break up.  (NASB)

Running from God takes you down

After Jonah hears God’s Word and assignment, he immediately starts running from God. When you start running from God, your life goes downhill. Notice the downward spiral of Jonah’s life. Look at verse 3 again.

  • In verse 3, We are told that Jonah went down to Joppa. This is where Jonah’s life begins to spiral downward as a result of him running from God. Let me show you the downward movement of Jonah. This is a picture of where sin and stubbornness toward God will take you. So, he goes down to Joppa.
  • In verse 5, we are told that Jonah had goes down below into the stern of the ship.
  • In verse 5, we are told he had fallen sound asleep. This can translated fallen into a deep sleep. He went down.
  • In verse 17, we are told that the men threw Jonah overboard and he began to sink into the sea, but the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow him and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish. He went down.
  • Then in chapter 2:6, Jonah says that he descended to the base of the mountains. He was at the bottom of the sea. He went down. 

Because of Jonah’s rebellion, selfishness, and stubbornness against God’s will, his choice to run from God takes him down, down, down, down, and down! It is very clear that God wants us to see that if we continue to choose to run from God’s plan for our life and to run from his calling on our life, that sin will takes us on a downward spiral in life and end up at rock bottom. When you run from God you will go down spiritually, go down mentally, go down emotionally, go down physically, and go down relationally. The longer you run from God, you are headed down and everything in your life goes with you.

Remember, the book of Jonah is a mirror. We are to see ourselves in it. When we do that we have to ask ourselves where are we prone to go down? Where are we prone to flee from God’s presence? Anytime we go down or flee from His presence it is always tied to a smaller view of God and an elevated view of ourselves. To say, “Here is the kind of life I want. Here is what I want to do, regardless of what God says” is elevating ourselves over God and making God smaller than He is.

Here are some ways we go down and flee from the Lord if we are not careful. These are two mindsets that will cause us to run from God and takes us downward in our lives.

  • First, our self-righteousness will takes us down. This is where you think you are doing what God wants you to do and you don’t entertain something new from God. If God tells you to become a missionary, start a church, start a ministry, go on a mission trip, or get involved a ministry but you think you are to good for it or you think you are already doing enough good so you don’t do what God is telling you. You are going down in your life, not up. You have done enough for God, so you are not going to do this new thing he is telling you to do.
  • Secondly, our “sanctified immorality” will take us down. This is where you sanctify or try to rationalize your sin and rebellion by making it sound spiritual. You convince yourself that your sin and selfishness is justified and that God accepts it and you don’t need to change even though God has told you clearly that what you are doing is sin. When that happens, your life begins to go down, down, down.

One of the lessons we learn from Jonah is… sin will take you farther than you ever expected to go; it will keep you longer than you ever intended to stay, and it will cost you more than you ever expected to pay.

The Pursuit of God

Even when you are sinful, selfish, and stubborn toward God. God will relentlessly pursue you. We see a picture of this in Jonah. Look at Jonah 1:4 where God’s Word says, “However, the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea, so that the ship was about to break up” (NASB), then in verse 17 we read, “And the Lord designated a great fish to swallow Jonah…” (NASB).

Who sent the great storm on to the sea? God did! Who designated a great fish to swallow Jonah? God did! God is not angry at Jonah. God is not mad at him. God is pursuing Jonah! God pursues His children when they are stubborn, rebellious, and on the run. God’s love and mercy will pursue me and chase after me to overtake me!  

J.I. Packer wrote, “Still he blesses those on whom he sets his love in a way that humbles them, so that all glory may be his alone. Still he hates the sins of his people, and uses all kinds of inward and outward pains and grief’s to wean their hearts from compromise and disobedience. Still he seeks the fellowship of his people, and sends them both sorrows and joys in order to detach their love from other things and attach it to himself.” God is in loving pursuit of you!

Your God is not indifferent to your stubbornness. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child” (NLT).  What that means is that part of the way that God’s love works itself out for you is to pursue you when you are running from Him and that almost always involves His discipline. This is why I want to say “yes” quicker, because God loves me and He will pursue me and discipline me when necessary. I don’t want to be disciplined by God, so I want to say “yes” as fast and as often as I can.

Let me ask you a question. When you look back on the seasons of your life when you were running from God and you were out of God’s will, what happened in your life? What storm showed up? What swallowed you up? Could it be that at that moment God was pursuing you out of His love and disciplining you to get your attention and to draw you back to Himself? If so, how did you respond? Did you repent? Did you change? Did you say “yes, God”? Or did you just keep doing what you were doing and the storm around you or inside you kept getting worse? When all that was going on, that was God trying to get your attention through His loving discipline!

Breaking Up

There is something else I want you to see from verse 4, “However, the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea, so that the ship was about to break up” (NASB). When God sends you a great wind and a great storm into your life in order to get your attention it will feel like your life is breaking into pieces. We just spent several weeks on brokenness. These storms that God sends your way are designed to break up your stubborn heart, to plow up that hard heart of yours. Mentally you are breaking up! Emotionally you are breaking up! Spiritually you are breaking up! Physically you are breaking up! You start to feel your life cracking and groaning from the storm that rages around or inside you.

Conclusion

 

Jonah is a perfect picture of someone running from God, rebelling against God, and disobeying God and sinning against God, yet God still loves them enough to pursue them and show them mercy. That’s exactly what Jesus did when He went to the cross for you and me.

When Jesus went to the cross, He was pursuing you even though He knew you would rebel against Him, ignore Him, and deny Him. This is why Romans 5:8 says, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (NLT).