The Runaway: God’s Dealings
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: God will hem us in to call us out into his life and eternal purposes in Christ.
Hemming You In
Calling You Out
From the Belly of the Grave
Hemming You In
It is an act of mercy to come to a place in life where the only answer for our situation is to cry out to God.
Jonah 2:1 ESV
“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish,”
God will allow you to be hemmed in so that you finally slow down enough to think about what is most important in life - love for and obedience to Jesus.
It’s in this place where we feel that we have nothing left to lose that we can truly hear clearly from God.
“The purpose of prayer is emphatically not to bend God’s will to ours, but rather to align our will to his.”
Calling You Out
The grace of God is found when we turn away from vain idols and once again call solely upon the name of Jesus.
Jonah 2:2-9 ESV
“saying, "I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.' The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!"”
Deceptively, it is not usually us actively running away from an audible word from God that throws us off course in his plan for our lives.
It is what Jesus spoke about in the parable of the sower which consumes us without us thinking twice that anything is abnormal in the way that we’ve chosen to live.
Luke 8:14 ESV
“And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.”
Mark 4:19 ESV
“but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”
The only antidote is to allow the Word of God to be a mirror to you and deep prayer to be a refiner to you where you are continually asking the question:
“Am I living set apart to God?
Am I doing the things that Jesus is doing?”
Am I loving the lost?
Am I making disciples?
Am I praying for and helping the gospel of Jesus Christ go to my city and the nations?
When you are hemmed in by God, it is to call you out on the things in your heart that stand opposed to him.
Jonah 2:8 NIV
““Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.”
What is God calling you out on today?
What worthless idols are you clinging to - in a search for love, acceptance and identity - that you need to let go of to be found in Him?
There is nothing that compares to God’s love and plan for us.
Throughout history, even those without God have had the inkling that there could be a change, but failed to reach it without the transforming power found in the love and Lordship of Jesus Christ:
“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.”
-Alan Watts
It is only Jesus and his gospel that enable us to know not only what is eternally valuable, but receive the power to live in it.
From the Belly of the Grave
Jesus is the proof that God is able to speak to our condition to bring resurrection life where there was once only a grave.
Jonah 2:10 ESV
“And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.”
When you are vomited out, you may come with a taste or smell that reminds you of the place from which God brought you, but it is the very thing that will propel you to fulfill his high call on your life.
It is the anointing of God that then comes upon you to finish that call with the word of the Lord - the gospel of Jesus - and a testimony of God’s mercy to you that he also wants to extend to those to whom he sends you.
Just as your repentance will see you leave the belly of the great fish, so the message of repentance will call people out of their sin and entrapment.
Jesus was the greater Jonah facing literal death for us on the cross to pay for our sins.
He went not into the belly of the fish, but into the grave to snatch the keys of death and Hades (Revelation 1:18) from the enemy.
Matthew 12:38-45 ESV
“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation."”
*Just as Jonah emerged from the belly of the fish, so Jesus rose in resurrection power with a message of repentance and liberty to those who would let go of their vain idols that embrace God’s redeeming love for them.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher