Consequences and Deliverance

When I was getting ready to graduate from college I told God that I would do anything and go anywhere He called me too except youth ministry (I didn’t want to be a youth minister) in Kentucky (I love KY but they didn’t need another preacher in my arrogant estimation). Do I need to tell you what my first job out of college was? Youth ministry in KY – and I love it and I still love Bridges Christian Church and all my dear friends from there. 

In the prophet Jonah’s story, we find God asking Jonah to do something crazy! God calls him to go to Nineveh, an evil city, and tell them how evil they are. Now you know how our world responds these days if you ever tell them they are doing something wrong? In those days, you could be killed in the square for less and nobody would bat an eye. It is very likely that Jonah may have said something to God like, “God, I’ll go anywhere you call to, except for Nineveh.” 

Just like me in college, just like Moses probably would have said “anywhere but Egypt” and Jesus did say, “Anywhere but the cross.” God calls us into our discomfort. If there is a place or thing you don’t want to experience the most it is highly likely that God is or will be calling you into it soon. 

Jonah disobeys. He hops a boat going in the opposite direction and runs from God! Are you doing that today? What is your boat? Is it doing other acts of service? Are you trying to escape from what God is calling you to do by doing other things “for God”? Are you escaping by trying not to ignore it? Pretending like He’s not saying anything?

Jonah gets on this boat and a storm comes, it gets so bad that Jonah finally tells these guys in the boat “Pick me 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.” Can I tell you that the first step towards reconciliation is admitting your sin. Admitting what you have done has to happen first so your attitude is right for the rest of the journey. This is why John says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

So, they throw Jonah in the water and he is swallowed by a “great fish” and he is there for 3 days and 3 nights (a metaphor for Christ in the tomb). While he’s there he says, “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…” You have to face the consequences of your sins. We’ll talk about how God forgives and redeems in a moment, but forgiveness doesn’t mean there are no consequences. I read a story once about a young lady who was a strong Christian and shared the story of Jesus with people all the time. She had a horribly scarred face and a permanently wounded arm and lived with constant pain because when she was young, she used to drink and drive with her friends all the time. There was a horrible wreck and she was the only survivor. God forgave her and saved her soul, but she has to live with worldly consequences for the rest of her life on earth. But she knows it’s only for a moment compared with eternity. When you make a mistake – understand you must deal with the consequences. 

Jonah says, “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.”

God will always save you from your sin. No matter how badly you have messed up He can redeem anything! And if you are aware of your sinfulness that is not God wanting you to feel like a failure, that is God in His mercy calling you to life! Like the climactic scene near the end of the Christmas Carol when the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge his own grave Scrooge cries out, “Why show me these things if I am past all hope?”