Super glad you're here with us this morning.
Just love getting the opportunity to be together.
I think we neglect how important it is to just
be together with people that have one goal, and
that goal is to live a good life. We all want
to live a good life, and for some it's different
than others, but many of us in this room agree
that to live a good life, we have to have God
in it. And so we're talking about this being
called by God. Last week, we talked about listening
for God's voice, recognizing when he's speaking
and responding like Samuel did by saying, speak,
Lord, for your servant hears. But maybe you know
exactly what God's been saying to you. You're
not in the speak, Lord, I'm trying to listen.
You've been listening and you've heard him. You
know exactly what he's asking from you or for
you. And still, deep down, there's a part of
you somewhere in there that just wants to run.
That wants to hide. You know what God wants.
You know what needs to change. You know the step
that you've been needing to take, that God's
been calling you to take. You know exactly what
God is asking you to do. But you've got a boat
ready and waiting. For you to jump on it. Today
I want to talk about what happens when we get
on that boat and what happens when we run and
why running never works. I want to share a story
with you. When I was little, one time, we were
all sitting out on the front porch and I don't
know what happened. I was probably not being
a good kid. And my mom told me to stop doing
whatever it was that I was doing or I was going
to get a spanking. And like my kids, I said,
that doesn't scare me. So I did it again. And
guess what happened? No, mom tried to spank me
and I took off running. Here's the problem. My
mom is actually quite athletic. Well, was. She's
old now. But she was. She's not actually old.
She's quite athletic. And I didn't realize how
fast my mom was. Now, let me just say, I was
a fast kid. I mean, I was always the fastest
kid on my football team, fastest kid, whatever.
I was a fast kid. But I was also a kid, and you
know this. Kids are fast for kids, but adults
are fast in general. And so my mom... Hawks me
down, tackles me in the neighbor's yard. And
right there in front of everyone in the neighborhood,
I got a spanking out in the neighbor's yard.
Running doesn't work, does it? Especially not
with a parent. Not with a parent that's more
capable than you. And so today, I want us to
talk about somebody that tried to run. Somebody
that thought, I can get away from the parent.
Jonah. You have this guy named Jonah, and what
we're going to hear in Jonah's life is the same
truth that we just read from David in Psalm 139,
that you cannot run, or you can run, but you
cannot run, God. You can try. You can try to
get away. You can try to find the good hiding
spot. You can try to get your early start. Maybe
you're going to run away in the middle of the
night when nobody's looking. You can try. But
it'll be unsuccessful. So I want us to start
in Jonah 1, verses 1 -3. Now the word of the
Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying,
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call
out against it. for their evil has come up before
me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the
presence of the Lord. So Jonah, he hears God's
voice loud and clear. He knows what God's telling
him to do. God said it very plainly. And this
isn't Samuel needing help. to figure it out.
This isn't Samuel having to go and say, is this
God calling me or is it you? Who is it? What's
he want? This is pretty clear. Jonah knows exactly
what God wants. But instead of saying, here I
am, Lord, Jonah says, I'm out. He buys a ticket
for the opposite direction. And what's fascinating
is Jonah doesn't just run from Nineveh. The text
says he tries to run from the presence of the
Lord. You know, the God that created the universe,
the God that formed the world in his hands, that
same God, Jonah thought, I can escape him. How
often do we do the same thing? How often do we
hear God? We know what he wants, but we think
if we just change the scenery. If we change the
people we're with, if we change the job, if we
fill the calendar, if we stack the schedule,
if we just drown out the silence, and if we will
make ourselves so busy, if we'll occupy ourselves
with so many other things, whatever we try to
do, we try to make God's call fade away. We try
to run from His presence. I've done it. I told
you a little bit about my story. Running from
ministry to the military, from the pulpit to
the stage. from where I knew I belonged to where
I thought I'd rather be. And every time I ran,
guess who was waiting for me when I got there?
God. Like I said, David understood this long
before Jonah ever booked his ticket to Tarshish.
Listen to what David says there in Psalm 139,
verses 7 through 10. Where shall I go from your
spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make
my bed and shield, you're there. If I take the
wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea, even there your hand shall
lead me and your right hand shall hold me. Did
you catch that? Even there, in the deep, dark,
farthest place you can imagine, in the belly
of the sea, Even there, God is waiting. I want
you to just picture a child playing hide and
seek. My boys and I, by that I mean they love
to play hide and seek. It is my pleasure to play
with them. When a child plays hide and seek,
they aren't really that good at hiding, are they?
But they're convinced that... They found the
perfect hiding spot. Maybe they're just standing
in the middle of the room with their hands over
their eyes and they just believe because they
can't see you, you can't see them. Or they're
behind the curtains, but you can see their feet.
Or they're standing behind the tree, but they
don't realize the tree is just that big and they're
a little bit wider than that. And as a parent,
you could laugh at them because you can actually
see them plain as day. But they think they're
hidden. They're not. They're just out there waiting
to be scooped up. In fact, when we play hide
and seek, Easton loves to hide under a blanket.
The problem is, is Easton doesn't quite understand
the concept of putting the whole blanket over
his body. So his feet or his arms or something
will be sticking out or he's like in a cluster.
And so you're like, that doesn't look like a
pile of blankets. That looks like a kid under
a blanket. And then you'll say, you know, you'll
play along. You're like, Easton, where are you?
And he'll go, I'm right here. Or I'm under the
blanket. And then I'll grab him and he'll laugh.
And it's like this deep sense of excitement.
Because that's what he's waiting for. He's waiting
for me to grab him. And sometimes with us, we're
hiding. we're really not trying to run away from
God exactly. What we're trying to do is we're
waiting for God to say the words we want Him
to, right? We're waiting for Him to do the thing
that brings us joy. I'm going to put joy in air
quotes there. We're waiting for God to do the
thing that brings us excitement. And so it's
not that we're trying to run from what God is
calling us to do. We're waiting for God to call
us to do something fun. I heard somebody the
other day was talking about a guy at his church
went up to him and said, I feel like I'm being
called to preach. And he said, okay, well, if
you're feeling the call to ministry, what I need
you to do is on Sunday morning around 7 a .m.,
I need you to get to the church building, make
sure the Lord's Supper is ready, and then I need
you to take the church van and go pick up the
people in the inner city. And the guy said, no,
no, no, no, no. You didn't hear me. I felt the
calling to preach. And he's like, I heard you.
If you want to minister, you got to do the unfun
stuff. It's not about the stage. It's not about
the mic. And sometimes we're being called to
serve at the soup kitchen or we're being called
to go to the poor and the needy or we're being
called to do the things that we don't exactly
love doing, right? And it's not really fun, but
it needs to be done. And so we're being called
to do things that we may not exactly want to
do. And what we'll find, though, is if we'll
do the things that we don't want to do, we will
and others will be blessed by it. So you have
this child hiding, waiting for the fun. And that's
us with God sometimes. We think our hiding places,
our distractions, our excuses. our Tarshish tickets.
We think that they keep God from seeing us, that
they keep us hidden. But He sees us the whole
time. He knows exactly where we are. And God
is not out to punish us. He's waiting, arms ready
to scoop us up when we stop pretending that we're
hidden. And if we'll let Him find us, let Him
find us. We'll find the blessing. We'll find
the excitement. We'll find the fun. It will come.
But Jonah tries to outrun the presence of the
Lord by sailing across the sea. And what does
David say? Even there, God is there. Jonah ran
from God's command, but he sailed right into
God's storm. The storm and the fish, they weren't
punishment. It was a lesson. It wasn't about
God getting payback. It was about... God bringing
him back. God bringing him back into his redemptive
mission. Because God's will always supersedes
our desires. God's will. God's will is going
to take precedent over what I want. It's going
to take precedent over what I think I need. It's
going to take precedent over my desires. God's
will always comes first. His will will be done.
He'll send a storm. He'll send a fish. He'll
block your escape. God will do what He needs
to, not because He wants to control you. It's
not because He wants to ruin your plans. It's
not because He wants you to live a boring life.
It's because God wants to redeem your plans.
Because God wants to use you to be a redemptive
piece of His mission to rescue His people. And
let's be honest. I went and played basketball
the other night, and it was the first time that
I'd run up and down a court or really done any
running up and down anything in a long time.
Running is exhausting. I played one game and
was ready to die. And I'm not being funny. Like,
I actually thought I was going to fall out on
the court. I told Noah after, I was like, dude,
like, my heart felt like it was about to just,
like, implode. He was like, why didn't you just
sit down? I was like, well, because I wanted
to keep playing, right? But it's exhausting.
And sometimes it can be painful and you can be
running and you'll feel like you're dying. And
for some of us, we know we need to just stop
and take a breather. But for others, we just
keep running. We keep going and we keep going
until eventually we collapse. Until eventually
something says stop. And it's not a willing stop.
It's a you have no choice but to stop. Running
is exhausting. Some of us, we're not physically
on the run from God, but our hearts, our spiritual
lives are sprinting away from Him every single
day. We're running from the apology that we know
we need to give. Or we're running from the forgiveness
that we need to give to someone who's just been
waiting for our forgiveness. We're running from
the call to serve instead of to just sit. We're
running from surrendering our time, surrendering
our money, surrendering our talent, surrendering
our pride. And the problem is, is we cannot run,
God. We cannot run ourselves either. We will
run, but eventually we will stop. Because we
get tired. We start to hurt. And we miss out.
And we realize that we're missing out on the
goodness that God wants for our lives. See, Jonah
didn't stop running until he was buried in darkness.
And then finally, Jonah prayed. And I want you
to listen to David's prayer there in Psalm 139.
Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and
know my thoughts. And see if there be any grievous
way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting.
See, Jonah's prayer in the belly of the fish
was basically that. It was, God, I'm done running.
I'm done trying to hide. I'm done trying to escape
what you've called me to do. God, I'm done running.
I hear you. You've made yourself abundantly clear.
I'll go where you say. So I'm asking you this
question this morning, and I'm asking myself
too, where are you running to? Where is your
Tarshish? What boat are you booking passage on
to get away? To get away from what you know God
is calling you to face? To get away from what
God has called you to do? Where are you going
to hide? As if the shepherd who made you won't
find you there. David asked the question, where
shall I go from your spirit? And the answer is
nowhere. There's nowhere you can go. Where shall
I flee from your presence? Again, nowhere. Do
you know what that means? It means this, very
simply. If you're tired of running, the good
news, the gospel message today is you don't have
to. You don't have to run from what God's been
calling you for. You don't have to fight. In
fact, if you're tired of fighting God's voice,
you can just surrender to it. If you've been
drifting far off course, you can turn around.
And you can do exactly what God has been pulling
you and leading you and drawing you into. Because
the same God who met Jonah in the storm, the
same God that used the fish, a fish of all things,
To get the message across to Jonah. That same
God is the same God who waits for you here. Who
waits for you with mercy. Who waits for you with
a second chance. Our theme right now is called
together and sent out. And the truth is, I've
told you over and over and over again, and I
say it repetitively because I need us to understand
God is calling each and every one of us to do
something, to say something, to be someone, to
go somewhere. And in that calling, we're going
to have to do that together. We need each other
to fulfill the calling. And not only do we need
to be together, but we have to actually go and
do it. God is going to send you somewhere with
your calling. It may be to Blairsville. It may
be to Blue Ridge. It may be to Union County Schools.
It may be to the hospital. It may be to the bank.
Wherever it is, God is calling you to do something
and sending you somewhere because He is on a
mission to redeem His people. And with Jonah,
God said, go help me redeem my people. Jonah
tried to avoid it. And God said, you cannot hide
from me. You cannot run from me. I need my will
to be done and you're going to be a part of it.
And so Jonah has to go. And from it, God is glorified.
And in this church, in this congregation here
at Blairsville, God is going to be glorified
one way or another. The question is, do you want
to be a part of that redemptive mission? Are
you going to accept the call? He's calling you
to do something. He's calling me to do something.
Am I going to run from Him and wear myself out
and tire myself out over nothing? You've done
it before, haven't you? Where you've tried to
run. You've tried to hide and you have found
yourself waking up in a cold sweat wondering,
why is it that I'm hurting? Why is it that I'm
in pain? Why is it that I'm struggling? Why is
it that everything seems to be falling apart
around me? God will use a storm to teach a lesson.
Are you going to be a part of the calling? Or
are you going to run? Are you going to wear yourself
out? When all you have to do is trust and obey.
I think I've said some version of trust and obey
a million times in this series. And it's crazy
that we haven't sang trust and obey yet. Because
that feels like Church of Christ, we've got to
sing trust and obey. But there's some truth there.
That if we will just trust and obey, we will
have a blessed life. We will have a good life.
We're all trying to live a good life. Amen? We
want comfort. We want peace. We want love. We
want purpose. And if we will just do what God
is calling us to do, we'll have that good life.
Here's how I know that. Adam and Eve live in
this beautiful place that God created perfectly
for them to live with Him. Now let me ask you
this. If I told you, hey, you can live in the
presence of a good God who gives you everything
you need and a perfect home, would you accept
that offer? I would hope so because that sounds
pretty nice. It sounds like a good life. And
so that's what God created us for. That's what
He intended for us. He called us. To just trust
Him. Everything in this garden you can have except
this one thing. If you will just leave that one
thing alone, it'll be a good life. But as we
do, we don't listen. Because we're hard -headed.
And so, thus began our running. Running away
from God's instruction. And ever since then,
our life has not been good. It's not been abundant.
It hasn't been peaceful. Sometimes I'll think
about what that life in the garden will be like
one day. How peaceful it's going to be. There
won't be any more suffering. There won't be any
more sorrow. There won't be any more hurt. There
won't be any more middle of the month, spent
all the paycheck, paid all the rent, and now
I'm trying to figure out what we're going to
eat for the rest of the month. There won't be
any more cars breaking down and I'm not sure
how I'm going to fix it. There won't be any more
cancer diagnoses. There won't be any more miscarriages.
There won't be any more lost family members.
There won't be any more houses burning down.
Do you realize how great that will be? And all
we have to do for us to get there and to bring
other people with us is just go where God says
go and stop running away from His call. That's
all we have to do. And I know it may not be glamorous
in the moment. It may not be the most fun thing.
It may even be dangerous. But I'll take momentary
danger for an eternity of splendor every time.
That's what I want for me. That's what I want
for you. That's what I want for the people outside
of this building. And that's what God wants.
See, yeah, we can try to run. We can try to get
away. We can try to hide. And we can try to cover
up our eyes because if we can't see God, He can't
see us, right? But it's all for nothing. Because
we can't hide from it. God can even use your
running to show off His rescue. Here's the truth.
We don't have to wait for the storm. We don't
have to wait for the fish. We don't have to wait
for life to break down, for things to get difficult.
We don't have to wait for everything to feel
like it's crumbling around us. We don't have
to wait for suffering before we come back to
the one who never left you. So maybe this morning
you feel like Jonah and you feel like you've
been running, you've been hiding, you've been
avoiding whatever it is that God has been calling
you to do. Or maybe you feel like David. You've
known all along that you can't hide and you're
ready to pray. Search me, know me, lead me. My
call for us this morning is that we stop running,
we stop hiding, we just go home. We get on the
road towards home. You cannot run God's presence.
And the good news is you don't need to. Because
God's presence is where you will find rest. It's
where you'll find comfort and peace and abundance.
His presence is where you'll find forgiveness.
His presence is where you'll find the purpose
that you've been longing for. It's where you'll
find belonging. So today, if you need to come
back to God, don't wait. If you need to stop
running and start surrendering, today is the
day. If you need to let God search you, to ask
Him to know you, to lead you, He is ready. He's
here. There's nowhere to hide. There is nowhere
to hide. And that is the best news. That is the
gospel. That God knows exactly where you are
and He is ready to bring you home. If you need
to respond to God's call, to follow Jesus for
the first time, to come home again, or just to
lay a burden down and let the church here pray
for you, please, don't wait. Stop running and
just come now.