Steven Furtick - What Are You Running From? (10/30/2018)
In this sermon on Jonah, Pastor Steven Furtick explores how people often run from God's call without realizing it at the time, expending more effort to disobey than to obey. Jonah's story shows that storms can confirm rebellion, God rescues through unlikely means like a fish, and gratitude—even in dark places—shifts everything, leading to deliverance and perspective that reveals running was from God all along.
Running from God Without Knowing It
Now, when you preach about Jonah, usually you're going to hear something about how he ran from God. The Bible says that. I believe it's in verse 3. I didn't look it up this morning, but I believe it's in verse 3. Is it in verse 3 where it said that Jonah ran away from the Lord? So when you're preaching to people, you're always preaching to somebody who is running somewhere. I realize that everybody in this room is running from something to something, running from the Lord. Is how they put it.
I just want to suggest, I don't want you to leave the church when I say this, but Jonah probably didn't see it at the time like he was running from God. Do you know what I'm saying? It's not like how many of you have ever run from God's purpose for your life before? Even if you just did it for 15 seconds. I know you're really holy. But how many of you have had a season where you knew God wanted you to do something, you didn't want to do it, and you kind of did everything possible to do it, not do it.
And sometimes it'd just be easier to do it. Like in the story of Jonah, he goes to a port called Joppa, and he finds a ship, and the Lord told him to go to Nineveh. Well, Jonah decides to go to a place called Tarshish. Here's what interested me in studying the map of Jonah's journey. When I looked and traced where he went, I found out where God told him to go was only 500 miles away from where he was. Where he went to get away from where God told him to go was 2,500 miles from where he was.
The Cost and Effort of Disobedience
You know, sometimes you've got to work harder to disobey God than it would be to just do what he told you to do in the first place. No, I'm serious. I wish some of us would apply as much creativity to obeying God as we do to disobeying him. Now, some of you are really creative sinners. You've got alibis and allies. You've got two phones to help you sin. I'm going to come to this side. I think I wore them out already, and it's early in the sermon.
But sometimes it would just be easier to forgive than to hold on to the grudge. Why is it that we would rather run 2,500 miles away from God than 500 miles to our assignment? I think it's because when we're in our story, it's not as simple. And I've been preaching this all year. I hope you're not getting tired of hearing it, but I've been understanding the blessing of perspective. And usually perspective only comes with reflection.
That is, the Bible was not live tweeted. Do you understand this? That the book of Jonah was not written while Jonah was running. It wasn't written. If Jonah had written this when he was running, he would have said, I'm being logical. I'm being practical. That's how he would have said it had he written it while he was on the run. Touch somebody and say, don't tell your story too soon.
Because it is only after Jonah has done the will of God and experienced a lot of different things and seen the results of his rebellion, as well as experiencing the transformative power of repentance after his resentment, that he is able to say, I was running from God. God, I wouldn't have known I was running from God until that storm hit.
Storms as Wake-Up Calls from God
See, because we always want to blame every storm that we face in our life on the devil, especially however long you've been in church. Usually you end up talking about the devil more after being in church 20 years than you talk about God, because everything is the devil. That's one advantage that people who don't go to church have over us in getting their lives together. They don't have a devil to blame. We just put everything on him. We don't have to deal with ourselves. I am preaching, Lord. Do you hear me?
So Jonah, the Bible says... Can I preach about Jonah? Can I preach about Jonah? The Bible says that Jonah went to Joppa, and he got on a ship, and he paid the fare. Because somebody said, when you run from God, it'll always cost you something. I'm not preaching about that today, but I could. And then the Bible says that he went down from Joppa, down to Tarshish. And somebody said, when you run from God, you'll always go down.
But when he got about, I don't know, let's say he got about halfway there, and it seemed like he was working. He was sleeping under the deck. He was sleeping while the storm was happening, because God sent this storm. Because God will allow things to come into your life to get your attention, because he's not going to allow you to be content in your complacency.
All of a sudden, the sailors realized that the reason that they were experiencing the storm was not because of something they had done, but something that this prophet, this rebellious prophet had done. And he was asleep under the deck. And when they woke Jonah up and said, call on your God, he said, well, I can call on him, but it won't do any good. Because if I pray while I'm headed in the wrong direction, my prayer is just a pretense.
So what you've got to do is throw me off the boat and the storm will stop. And so I have thought about that one thought that some of you are going through a storm, not because of something that you did, but because of who you have on your boat.
Throw Jonah Off Your Boat
In fact, I preached it at a youth convention one time, at a Pentecostal youth convention one time, and my message was called, Throw Jonah Off Your Boat. And I was preaching it to girls who were dating guys that are dragging them down. And so I would encourage some of you, maybe you don't have Jonah on your boat, but maybe he's in your phone. And I think some of you, the most spiritual thing you could do while I'm preaching, and I don't even mind if you do it, you don't even have to listen to me, is use that swipe feature on your phone. And you know that red one that says, delete? Some of y'all got Jonah in your phone. You've been texting Jonah, talking to Jonah, and wondering why your life's going down. But today is your day. Touch somebody, say delete.
So when you preach about Jonah, can you tell I like to preach about Jonah? Because I see myself in Jonah. I've seen myself rebelling against something God has called me to do. I've seen myself go 2,500 miles before I realized this is ridiculous. There's no way that I'm going to be able to run from the presence of God. Where can I go from your presence? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
So I know what it's like to run and then find out after you run. You can only run so far before you hit a roadblock. And so I know it's like to run, and I know it's like to have in some relationships that probably I don't need anymore. And all of that is good, as well as preaching on the subject of racial reconciliation.
It is interesting to note that Jonah was effective in ministering to people that he didn't even like, for when he finally did open up his mouth and preach to the Assyrian people in the capital of Nineveh, there was great repentance in the land. I don't think that the book of Jonah is about racism, but I think it does apply because we see here a guy on the outside judging what it's like to be people on the inside. And from his own perspective inside of himself, he comes to all kinds of conclusions about what kind of people God can bless and what kind of people God can't bless and what kind of situations God can work in and what kind of situations God can't work in.
God's Compassion Reaches Everyone
Jonah finds out in the midst of that, that to the ends of the earth, the compassion of God will reach to anyone who will call on the name of the Lord. And so we see that picture of reconciliation in the book of Jonah. But mostly what we know about Jonah is that he spent three days in the belly of what the Bible calls a great fish, which we usually call the whale.
Let's get a look at the whale. Right about the time that the storm started raging in Jonah's life, God sends a whale to pick him up. And I don't know, because I am not privy to the communication that took place between the whale and God, how God got the whale in the right position at the right time, to know that this is where Jonah is going to be when he's about to drown.
I don't know how God spoke to the whale to go get Jonah. If it's anything like finding Dory, God used echolocation. And maybe God said to the whale, go get Jonah. Come on, people. Come on, that section right there. No love. Come on. Did you see the movie? You know certain types of whales, they emit a sound. So, God said to the whale, go get Jonah. And the whale said to God, okay.
Isn't it interesting how the whale had better sense to do what God said than Jonah did? And the whale swallowed Jonah up and delivered him. So, the book of Jonah is a book about rescue.
God's Rescue Through Unlikely Means
Now, I need to know who I'm preaching to. Because there's a chance I've got the right sermon, but I'm preaching it to the wrong people. Has there been a time in your life, I'm just asking, where God rescued you from a situation that your own disobedience created? Anybody? Anybody? Anybody? Has God ever sent a whale to pick you up?
Now, it's an important thing to note that God saved Jonah, but the accommodations weren't that luxurious. Could have sent a cruise ship, Royal Caribbean. He could have sent a freight liner, but instead, he put him in a deep, dark place. See, because if God rescues from your trouble and makes it too comfortable, you'll be quick to get back into it.
So, God said, I need to put you in a dark place for a minute so you'll remember what disobedience feels like. What I've noticed, though, is that sometimes we miss God's provision because we're so picky. We don't like what God sent to pick us up with, and we would rather drown by ourselves.
One time in the first year of our marriage, I got really sick. It wasn't serious. It turned out not to be serious, but I felt serious at the time because I couldn't eat. Every time I would eat, it would just burn all down in my insides. Even when I would drink water. This went on for like seven days. I didn't know what the problem was at the time, and I was really enjoying putting on 50 pounds in my first year of marriage, and this interrupted my plan. That really is true. I put on 50 pounds in the first 18 months of our marriage because Holly is a fantastic cook, and she is also a temptress.
But man, what happened that I didn't know at the time, I took this pill, this antibiotic that went down and got stuck in my esophagus, and then it burned into my esophagus. So then every time I would try to eat or drink water, I couldn't do it. And so it got real bad, and at the time I traveled and preached all the time, and I was always driving up and down the roads, usually just driving more than flying.
And so I was going from one place to the other. It had been about a week that I had been hurting, and I didn't know what was going on. I went to see this doctor and kind of said some things, and I didn't know what was going on. And so I'm driving to my next speaking engagement, right? And I'm calling Holly, and I bust out my razor. And I'm like, man, that sucks. It still hurts. It hurts worse and worse and worse.
And she goes, you are going to the hospital. You're going to drive yourself to the hospital. I said, I got a preacher engagement. She said, you're going to cancel. They can find another preacher. Something's really wrong with you. You need to go to the hospital. You're going to go to the hospital. You're going to call them and cancel. And I never called anybody to cancel before. I don't think I've done it since.
Gratitude Shifts Everything
And so I didn't want to do it, but I did it. And I started driving to the hospital. I'm driving to the hospital. And I remember, I've got a couple of hours still left to go because I'm out of town. I'm driving to this other town. And so I drive by this hitchhiker and decided to pick him up because that's what you do when you're driving yourself to the hospital. You pitch up hitchhikers when you are a Christian like me. Now, I don't even know why I picked him up. It was a season in my life when I picked up hitchhikers. I don't do it anymore.
But this guy gets in my car, and I don't really feel like talking because I'm driving myself to the hospital because I have a hole in my esophagus that's burning my life away. This guy's all talkative, all chatty and everything. And so we ride together a couple minutes, and I'm low on gas, and I pull into the gas station. And I'm feeling like cheerful, not a cheerful giver, but I decide if he probably wants something to eat.
So I said, hey, man. I said, I'm going to pump the gas. You go in the gas station, get yourself something to eat, whatever you want. I'll come in and pay for it afterwards. He goes, well, actually, I see a McDonald's over there. And it wasn't like one of the McDonald's that was right there in the gas station. I'm going to have to go now drive through the drive-thru and go to McDonald's. But I said, all right.
You know, Jesus said, go the extra mile and all that. So I'm like, all right, man, let me pump the gas. We'll go to McDonald's. We're going through the drive-thru at McDonald's, and I'm just going to order whatever, you know, because I can't eat anything. And so here I am ordering food for a guy. He's sitting there. I'm going to have to smell this food in my car and this delicious McDonald's food. That's right. I'm not too good for McDonald's. I said it was delicious. Not that health conscious freak.
And so I'm going to order and he interrupts my order and he's like, no, I want a quarter pounder. Hold the Mayo. Hold the onions. I said, all right, he wants a quarter pounder. Let me get a quarter pounder. Hold the Mayo. Hold the onions. He said, and some chicken selects. Now listen, this was not some skinny hitchhiker. He didn't look like he needed a meal that bad. So my compassion is running out quickly.
I said, all right, he wants a quarter pounder. Hold the Mayo. Hold the onions and some chicken selects. He said, and some fries. I said, and some fries, please. He said, and biggie size. And I'm thinking, I'm not saying this because remember, I'm a good Christian. I'm a man of God. I'm thinking, man, you should be grateful to get a ride. Now you want to hold the Mayo, hold the onions. You got me spending $75 in the drive through at McDonald's and I can't even eat.
Then he took it way too far. He said, can I get a McFlurry? I said, no, he'll have a water. And I got him a water. Isn't it interesting how he can go from, I just need a ride, to I need some chickens? Isn't it interesting how you can go from God if you'll have mercy on me, a sinner? Isn't it interesting how you can go from God if you'll get me out of this situation? God, if you'll just be with me.
But then over time, something happens along the journey. And you start thinking, you know, I don't like the way it smells inside of this whale. Isn't it interesting how when you started serving God, you didn't need people to notice you. You were just glad to be known by God. But over time, you start getting real picky.
I came to tell you today that if you'll get grateful... See, this is what Jonah did. He's in the belly of the fish. And the Bible says that in Jonah chapter 2, for several verses, he's complaining. He's blaming. He's talking about seaweed around his head. He's talking about the pillows that raged over him. He's describing in detail his distress.
But watch chapter 2, verse 9. I love it because the Bible says that when Jonah made this shift, everybody say shift. He said, but I with shouts of grateful praise will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say salvation comes from the Lord.
And I don't think it's any coincidence that in the very next verse, after Jonah got grateful, even in a hard situation, when Jonah got grateful, even in the belly of a fish, when Jonah got grateful, he got out.
Gratitude Opens the Door to Deliverance
I came to make an announcement. When you get grateful, when you open your mouth, clap your hands, shift your mindset, lift your eyes, and give God praise. Come on, touch somebody. Say, I'm coming out with a shout. I'm coming out with a shout. You didn't touch your neighbor. Maybe you didn't touch your neighbor. Maybe you don't like to shout. Maybe it's like, but that's not my thing. No. No, it's not your personality type until you get excited about something.
I found out that gratitude is the gateway into the provision of God. Look, isn't it interesting? Let's just study this for a moment. It's interesting that the Bible says in Jonah 1, verse 17, that the Lord provided a fish. Do you think Jonah saw it that way when he was being swallowed? Probably not. Thank you, Lord, for this provision.
It didn't feel like provision at the time. At the time, being in the belly of the fish is a problem. So, sometimes it takes time before you can see the problem as the provision.