Derek Greer (0:00)

Welcome to the live big broadcast with Derek Greer. We believe this teaching from God's Word will empower you to live a full, impactful life in Christ. Let's dig in. Now, the Word of the Lord. Now, God's primary way of speaking to us is through his written word. But secondly, God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit within. And when he speaks to us through the Spirit within, he tends to speak without speaking. You call it a hunch, sometimes a feeling or an intuition, but the Holy Spirit tends to lead us by letting our spirits know things before our head has figured them out. And I have learned in my life that every time I have pushed past the peace that I had in my heart and in my spirit and went ahead and said it, did it, or watched it anyway, I ended up regretting it. Is there anyone else in the room? Yeah. But in this verse, the prophet heard more than the voice of his heart. He literally heard the voice the Lord. And when you hear the voice of God, it should always compel you to action. Whenever our conscience hears the word of God, going against it is neither right nor safe. Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitti, saying, arise and go to Nineveh. Those of you who know history, you know that Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. And we talked a little bit about Assyria last week. Nineveh happened to be the largest city in the entire Middle east at the time. It was of great renown and fame. And it goes on to add that great city, when God said that to Jonah, my guess is it kind of rubbed Jonah because his own country that had a covenant with the living God Israel, though it had prospered and expanded because of the poor leadership and the idolatry of its king, it had been on and declined morally for decades. Nineveh, though, on the other hand, had been a very steady and emerging power for about 100 years or so. Somebody said, some people won't like you because your strength reminds you of their weaknesses. So sometimes you have to take people's dislike as a compliment. Yeah. He said, jonah, what I need you to do is listen. I don't need you to go make peace with them. I don't need you to go agree with them. I need you to go and cry out against it, that city. So God not only wanted Jonah to give a message, he wanted him to give a message with a certain level of passion. He said, cry out. He didn't say, just deliver it. He said, cry out. And nothing creates church burnout faster than losing your passion for souls. You gotta learn to get all in or get out. I think it's Margaret Thatcher who said, standing in the middle of the road is very, very dangerous because you get hit by traffic on both sides. So I need you to cry out, Jonah, against. Listen, be passionate. I need hear the ethos of God in your voice. For their wickedness has come up before me. Now, the Ninevites at that time were known for their brutality and their cruelty. They were a very, very cruel people. Particularly in times of conquest. They would routinely impale people on poles. What they would do is they would take someone that they weren't happy with, and they would put a stick through you like a siskabob, and all your neighbors would watch you squirm until you died. And actually, it was the Romans that they got. The concept of a cross actually was a development from the Assyrians. So the Assyrians impaled people, but the Romans said, let's take it a little bit further. We want to keep them alive just a little bit longer so they can suffer more and die the worst kind of death. So impaling, you died a lot more quickly than you did on the cross. So the Romans just kind of took it to the next level. But they also skinned people alive. I want you to imagine that literally your eyes would be moving, your lips, your tongue, all your capacities are about you. But they would skin people alive. They amputate hands and feet, gouge out eyes. But what you need to understand here in this text, God cares even for the worst of sinners. Yeah. Yep. This is why he sent them to the Ninevites. Learn to be kind to unkind people because they're the ones that need it the most. But Jonah, he's like, no, they're evil, they're wicked. They're my ethnic enemy. But Jonah arose to flee or run from God. Has God ever asked you to do something you didn't want to do? Has he ever asked you to say something you didn't want to say? And I want to tell you, if you always feel good about everything God says, I kind of doubt you're hearing from God. And I also kind of doubt you read your Bible. Because that Bible challenges you. It says things that you don't always want to hear. Six of you in the room agree with me. You know, in my life, I have found that the path God sends me that upsets me the most tends to teach me the most about myself, my prejudices, and all the rest. So God spoke to him, but told him to go one way. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish. When God gives you something to do and you do the reverse thing, it puts you at risk. So instead of just traveling 500 miles to Nineveh, Jonah began a 2,500 mile journey in the opposite direction. And I know, you know, you may not run as dramatically as Jonah ran, but we all run in different ways. Some of us run by burying ourselves in our work. Others of us run by burying ourselves in what our children might need or our children might be doing. Others of us, at times we bury ourselves in those, you know, better relationships. How many of y'all have something you know better? You know better, you ought not be with you know, better relationships. But you're trying to get away from your conscience and God. And so you focus, you have a hyper focus on entertainment. Nothing wrong with entertainment. It's right portions and travel and the next new thing, but just anything to not have to hear God's word. So Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish, what some say is modern Spain, from the presence of the Lord. And it's important to know Jonah was a for real prophet. God's hand was upon him. He was gifted in that respect. And it wasn't that God didn't matter at all to Jonah. It's just that his personal opinions mattered more. And often we find ourselves in this situation. Yeah, God, you're important. But what I think is even what I feel and what I'm going through is even more important. I appreciate your word, but I have some thoughts and some feelings about what I am going through. But I have found when I put God's opinion first, all the secondary things seem to fall into place by themselves. When God is first, he doesn't compete with any other relationship. He just protects us in them and sometimes even from them. So Jonah is in this precarious situation. He's running from God. Though he is a prophet, though he is called, ordained and appointed. The Bible said he went down to Joppa. I want you to notice as we read both this week and next week, how many times the scripture says Jonah went down. Because every step we take away from God's leading, God's direction. And God's word always leads us what? Down. And he found a ship going to Tarshish. You can rent a car, you could get on a boat, fly an airplane, you can even move to another state. But believe me, because I have tried it, I'm not talking down here. I know what I'm talking about today. God will not forget what he has told you or asked you to do, he will find you and he might sew you up, but he's gonna always get back to what he told you to do in the first place. How many of y'all kind of wish sometimes God would just forget? You know, it's like. But he doesn't. Watch this. So Jonah paid the fare. It's costly to run from God. You will waste money, you erase energy, you will waste time. So he paid the fare, or he paid a price and it cost him something. And then watch this word again. And he went down into it. There's that word again. Notice the further the prophet ran, the further he went down. So here's the question. How far do you have to go down before you begin to realize what's up? Maybe God is trying to tell you something in all the going down. And he went down into it to go with them. Many scholars say that before Jonah left Israel, he was part of what was called in the Book of Kings, the school of the prophets. To feel more comfortable, he had to leave folk that were talking about God and listening to God. In order to become comfortable in his disobedience, he had to change his companions. So make sure adding new friends is an upgrade and not a downgrade. Somebody said if you surround yourself with clowns, don't be surprised if your life ends up a circus. And he went down into it to go with them. From the presence of the Lord. You can waste your energy running from God or use that same exact energy to run with God. Both options are going to cost you something. It's just that the latter is the only one you won't have regrets. Every time I have ran from God into something else, I have lived to regret it. But then verse four says my most favorite three words in the entire Bible. Despite Jonah's running, despite Jonah's failings, it says, but the Lord. But God. Can I read a few verses to you from the New Testament? We're going to come right back. Verse 7, chapter 5 of Romans. For scarcely a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, someone might dare die. But God demonstrates his love to us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. But God. First Corinthians 10:13. No temptation has overtaken you, except that which is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond that which you are able, or that which you can bear. Ephesians 2 and verse 3 through 4among those who we also were once conducted ourselves in the Lust of our flesh. How many of you ever had some lust in your flesh? Come on. Yes. Stop pretending, Church. Conducting ourselves in the lust of the flesh, desiring the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Church, stop acting like you were virgin born. All of us. All of us, according to scripture, have done some dirt. And we're by nature children of wrath. Meaning we were doomed in our mess. It's one thing to do a wrong deed. Everything. It's another thing to your very nature be wrong. That's serious. And he said, just as others, what he was saying to the Ephesians. I know your church is big. And actually the Ephesian Church was the biggest church in the world at that time. I know God's revival, great things are happening. But y'all, I don't even remember where you came from. You are not all that. He said y'all were just like everybody else. And the only reason you are where you are is cause I put my hand on you. So. And you were by nature children of wrath, just like everybody else. Just like Erbart, just as others. But then there's my favorite two words. But God. How many of us can say it has been nothing but God that has gotten me where I am today. I was drowning in my sin, but God. I didn't know where to turn. But God. I was on my way to a devil's hell. But God, Hallelujah. Give God a hallelujah for him putting his big butt into your situation. Back to Jonah, 1:4. But the Lord, despite Jonah, sent out a great wind on the sea. Sometimes the storms in your life are God trying to tell you something. And there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken up. Sometimes we wonder what happened in that relationship. We wonder would happen on that particular job. But sometimes God must allow the things we hide from him in to break up before he could put us back together. Then the mariners were afraid of the mariners. And every man cried out to his God. You've heard it said, there are no atheists in foxholes. If it gets bad enough, even the most intellectual, the least likely, you hear what I'm saying? Will find themselves crying out to God. And they threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load. So they did everything they knew to do to survive. And they didn't want to just give in to the storm. But watch this. But Jonah had gone. There's this word again. Gone down, dude. Keeps going. And when you run from God, you might feel like you're getting away, but really you are going down, down. And he went down into the lowest part of the ship. When you turn from God, you can be surprised with how low you can go. I know you're prophetic, and you know this is a. But when you start running from him, you'll be surprised the things you're capable of doing. And he's at the lowest part of the ship, and he lain down and was fast asleep. So my question is, how could Jonah sleep through such a storm? Sure there was water coming into the boat. Sure it was rocking up and down. The reason he could sleep in this storm was because the storm that was going on on the inside of him was nothing compared to the storm outside of him. And he just got used to it. And you can get used to misery. You hear what I'm. And if I tell you the truth, no one is more miserable than someone who knows better. I just gotta back up for that. That was helpful. That was helpful. That was helpful. So the captain came to him and said, what do you mean? Oh. Oh, sleeper. It's funny how the captain wanted Jonah to call on his God, but actually, the only reason Jonah was on the ship, because he was trying to get away from his God. You can run, but you cannot hide. And they said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. You know, God will show up in the least likely places to reach those he loves. I've tried to, you know, as a young man, tried to run from God in all different types of places. And I was amazed where God showed up. I'm like, lord, I didn't think you came to places like this. What you doing? What you doing down here, Lord? So they cast lots. And these are gentiles, these are heathens using their own means to try to discern what's going on with the gods, plural. And the lot fell on Jonah. Bad boys, bad boys, what you going to do? What you going to do when they come for you? So God has located his prophet. And, you know, it's one thing when the righteous say, well, you need to come back, but you know you've gone far. When sinners start talking about, you don't belong here, you are not in the right place. You do not fit in with us here. Then they said to him, please tell us, for whose cause has this trouble come upon us? What's your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And what people are you? So he said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh. Yahweh, Jehovah, however you want to pronounce it. The God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men, when they heard that it was Yahweh, were exceedingly afraid. They were horrified. How can you run from the God that created everything from nothing? How can you run from the God who knows the end from the beginning? The God that's every place, at all times at the same time? How could you really think that that's going to work out for you? But still we hide. And he said to them, or they said to him, why have you done this? The reality is, I don't know why I have done half the stupid things I have done in my life. And you don't know either. For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord. Because he had told them, somebody said, when you feel far away from God, guess who moved? Then they said to him, what shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us? For as they were dialoguing with Jonah, it seemed the sea got angrier and angrier at Jonah's reaction. And the fact that Jonah was in the boat, it says, for the sea was growing even more tempestuous. It was already bad, but then it started getting worse. And what they started to realize is they were facing a power even greater than the sea itself. And he said to them, well, this is what you gotta do, guys. Pick me up, throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you. For I know he knew it all the time. And when you know to do right, don't do right. You put the people around you in danger. It's true when God gives you something to say, something to do, you do not do it. You put everybody in the ship at risk. Yeah. For I know that this great tempest is because of me. So what I want you to see is the first step Jonah took back to God was through accepting personal responsibility. It's not always somebody else's fault. And sometimes it's not just the weather, it's not just the circumstances. Sometimes our disobedience has opened the door and invited certain situations and circumstances into our lives. And we would learn so much more from our mistakes if we weren't so busy trying to deny them and defend them. Nevertheless, the men didn't want to kill him. And they rode hard to return to land. But they could not. For the sea continued to grow even more tempestuous against them. So just got worse and worse. And worse. You see, God knew what he was after and would not quit until he got it. God will be as gentle as he needs to be. Or as tough as he needs to be. He'll say it sweetly, gently, make tears come from your eyes. But he also knows how to bang on the ground, if you will, and shake things up in our lives and say, well, if you wouldn't listen to Sweet, I know how to do. Rough Skip to verse 15. And we're going to wrap up with this verse. So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea. What happens here is important. First, he went down from God's presence to Joppa. Next he went down into the ship. Then he went down into the lowest part of the ship. Now he goes down into the water or the sea itself. Sometimes God lets us hit bottom. So we have nowhere else to look but up but watch what happened. They picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea. And immediately the sea ceased from its raising. The storm just kept intensifying. So for it just suddenly stop. They knew that that was a sign God was trying to tell them something. And the fact that the storm stopped the moment Jonah surrendered made it clear that the cause of the storm was Jonah's lack of surrender. Likewise, there are certain storms in our lives. Maybe not every storm, but there are certain storms in our lives that the only way we can calm that storm raging on the inside is one word. Surrender. You see, I know you have your reasons. I know you've experienced your disappointments. I know you have your reasonable reservations. I recognize, like everybody else, you've been hurt, you've been wounded. But no life is ever more secure than a life surrendered to God. If you are in the will of God, it is safer to be on the battlefield. It is safer to be in the most dangerous city at the darkest hour of the night. If you are in the will of God, true safety only really comes in obedience. When you're doing the will of God, it don't matter if they kill you. Cause you know you're going to a better place. It doesn't matter what happens. Cause you know God's got you. There's a confidence that you can't explain. And I know for me. And you know, you know, I'm a pastor and I do all this other stuff. But there's no safer place than the will of God for me. And I may know the scriptures. I might know how to pray. But there's no better prayer that can be prayed than a prayer prayed in the will of God. Jesus at Gethsemane was in the middle of God's will, but he didn't want to do it. So just because you don't want to do it don't mean you're out of God's will. But in that situation, he prayed, God, not my will, but what thine be done. And the will of the cross for Jesus had him lifted up off the ground naked. The will of God for Jesus had him beaten, had him nailed. There was so much blood on him that you couldn't even barely recognize him. His face was bruised. But the safest place for Jesus was the cross, because the cross was the will of God for Jesus and because Jesus was in the will of God. On the third day. On the third day. On, third day, it might take some time, even though you're in the will of God, but in the end, it will speak and not lie. If you're in the will of God. The safest place for any of us is the will of God. And many of us, we're doing church instead of the will of God. We're worshiping long instead of the will of God. We're trying to give money to the church instead of the will of God. All those things matter. But if you are not operating in the will of God, the walls are down, the shield is down, and the devil can do things that he wouldn't be able to do otherwise. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'd rather struggle in the will of God than in complete freedom of my flesh. Do you understand what I'm saying? As I wrap this morning, all of these things the New Testament says, all these Old Testament truths are written down as our ensamples, the King James Version says, but for our examples, our instruction to teach us things. Because he's the same God yesterday, today, and forever, and he hasn't changed. And God is more concerned about your purpose than your comfort. So he let Jonah get extremely uncomfortable in the bottom of a boat. In order for Jonah to begin to come to himself. The question I guess I want to pose to you is, how far down does God have to let you go before you will look up? How many storms, how many people got to come to you and say, you in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing? You don't belong here. You don't fit here. You're running. What more does God need to say? Does he need to send a fish? God will be as hard as he needs to be, but also as gentle as he needs to be to be. My prayer is that I understand gentle. My prayer is that you understand gentle and that we would not all have to always learn the hard way. What's the old saying, hard heads, sore behinds and spiritually there's some people in this room your backside is so sore and you trying to play it off with your cologne and your shower and your nice clothes but you are so sore and God is saying man if you would just tenderize that heart I don't have to do that anymore. You know as soon as he was thrown into the storm or into the sea, the sea stopped raging. As soon as you surrender you can get out of this storm. Give God a Hallelujah. Thank you for joining us. Until next time, remember you have what it takes in Christ to live big. We also invite you to partner with Derek Rear Ministries in bringing the life changing and impactful teachings of God's Word to the world. Get started by visiting Derek rear.com by clicking the link in the description.