In Jonah chapter 1 we're going to be reading from verse 1 just to remind ourselves of Jonah's silliness let's say. We're going to read from verse 1 through to verse 9. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying arise go to Nineveh that great city and cry out against it for their wickedness has come up before me But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Verse four, but the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken up. Then the marinas were afraid and every man cried out to his God and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had laid down and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and said to him, what do you mean sleeper? Arise, call on your God. Perhaps your God will consider us so that we may not perish. And they said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. And they said to him, please tell us whose cause is this trouble upon us. What is your occupation and where do you come from? What is your country and of what people are you? So he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven. made the sea and the dry land one more verse and the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him why have you done this for the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Heavenly Father as we read back on Jonah the prophet you thought he could run from you we might laugh at this we might smile at this we might consider how foolish he is but Lord how foolish are we As we do the same, maybe not so dramatically, maybe not such a great effort, but Lord, it's easy to flee from your commands as we will consider this passage and consider our lives. So Lord, thank you for the example of Jonah. And let us learn from his example. Let us consider carefully how the message of Jonah applies to us today. And Lord, where conviction is necessary, convict us. Where strengthening is necessary, strengthen us. Encourage us, do what's necessary, Lord, that we might do the work that you've given us to do. For your glory. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The prophet who thought he could run from God. That's who Jonah is. That's how we're going to remember him. What silliness. Yet, as I said in the prayer, are we any different? We might not have that God is speaking directly to us as he did with Jonah, but he does speak to us clearly from his word today. He does instruct us clearly to do things. And how often do we turn and rather run than obey or rather ignore him? than to obey. Yes, Jonas fleeing was far more dramatic. He left his hometown. He packed up some items and he traveled down to the harbor. He got on to the latest or the next ship that was leaving in the opposite direction and he got on it. What he was planning to do when he got there, who knows. But he was running from God. He was moving in the opposite direction where God wanted him to go. And from the rest of the book of Jonah, we know it's full of drama. It's full of extremes that might not happen in our lives. You know, our running from God is somewhat less obvious. Maybe it's a deliberate ducking of the head when someone's looking for help, making sure we don't make eye contact. Maybe it's a simple choice of just missing church that day. or not giving to God as we know we should and we know we could. Maybe it's keeping your mouth shut when you get the opportunity to speak up for God. And there's many opportunities. There's many ways rather that we can live a life running from God and running from his clear instructions. But it's just this, it's this last example that will occupy our minds that is highlighted in this text this morning or this evening. It's our duty. It's our responsibility to tell others about God and the grace that God is so eager to share with those who are prepared to come to him in repentance. It's our duty to tell them. And how easy it is for us to just rather duck our heads, look in the opposite direction, not open our mouths. Why do we assume that someone else will eventually tell them? Isn't that what we really do deep down? Somebody else will tell them. Someone else will tell them about God and His salvation. Therefore, it's not our responsibility. pastor will do it, that missionary will do it, someone will do it. Now God could have taken us home to be with him when he saved us, we know this. He could have just brought us home immediately, yet that's not his goal. If he just wanted perfect praise and worship he could have brought us home and received that in glory, but he left us here to do a work for him. He left us here to do something that's, in a sense, it can be called working out our salvation. And the best way to work out our salvation is to fill the Great Commission, is to make those disciples, is to do that ministry of reconciliation to the best of our abilities. And we cannot make disciples. We cannot get involved in the ministry of reconciliation if we do not first open up our mouths and share with others. Now Jonah was an Israelite as you well know. More than that, he was an Old Testament prophet. He had the duty of bringing light and truth to the Gentile nations. around them. God has always been concerned for all people from Genesis 1 to Revelations 22. He's always been concerned for all people. It's not that when Israel became favored that he couldn't care less about the rest of the world. It's not that now that he has the church, he's not interested in the rest of the world. He's always been concerned for everyone. But the difference is in how he's or what instrument he's used to take the light and truth to the world. Individual people had that role at the beginning of time people that he highlighted and and he wanted them to share this message with people that he came about tell them about the About Yahweh about the true God then He gave that responsibility to the nation of Israel nation of Israel was supposed to be the light to share the truth and Today he's given it to the church. The instrument today is the church and He wants the church, he wants each Christian to take the light and the truth to those out there that are living in the darkness. It's our responsibility today. It's our responsibility to take the message of redemption to all people. And this is what Jonah was so eager to flee from. He was so eager not to do. God's request for him to take the message of light and truth to Nineveh to show them their darkness or their wickedness. And in so doing, turning them to the truth, turning them to the one God. That was the goal. That was what he had to do. That was his responsibility. Yet he chose rather to be irresponsible and to flee from God. This is the central thought in Jonah and in our text this morning. But there are some other truths to consider as we go through this passage. And we will do as we, as we come along. So the title represents the most important point and that is Jonah's irresponsibility. And let's first consider in the, uh, in the text, as we come along, the first thing there is the storm. So let's consider the storm, which is verse four and five, but the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken up. Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried out to his guard, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest part of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep." Dead sleep. Now the word sent, in sent out a great wind on the sea, can also be translated hurled. God hurled this wind down like hurling a javelin. He hurled this wind down to the sea. It was a mighty tempest, a mighty storm caused by this mighty wind. He threw down. It was so sudden. It was so intense. And that's why these marinas, these sailors were so shocked at the viciousness of the storm. This was no normal storm. This storm was so strong, so intense, that the ship was probably already breaking up in pieces. And they could see that it wouldn't be long before this whole ship, it would just crumble up underneath the force of this storm, and that the ship and everybody on it would go down into the depths of the sea. They knew this was no normal storm. And they were afraid. And they were very afraid. And they shouted out to their guards. And they started throwing the cargo overboard to try and lighten the load. Hopefully save the ship and save themselves through this. And it was no small thing to throw the cargo overboard. There was no insurance. At least I don't know at that time maybe. And that's where their money was. Yes, there was place for a few people to get on board to pay fare across to where they were going, but the real money was in the cargo. And if you threw the cargo overboard, it meant you had no money. In fact, it probably meant you owed money to a lot of people. It was the last thing you did in a case like this. because that's where the money was and we've seen this before haven't we well if later on in the in the uh in the scriptures as you read through the scriptures later on in in the new testament in book of acts chapter 27 we see this you must have seen this you've must have read the story as paul is being transported through to rome um and uh the ship that he was on The guys didn't listen to his advice and they carried on and the ship got into a mighty tempest. And they too, after three days of trying to save this ship, eventually threw the cargo overboard. That's how important it was. For three days they held on because they knew that cargo was worth a lot. But it was only when they realized this is a storm that is going to kill us, they threw the cargo overboard. And in the case of Paul, that ship was eventually wrecked, but everybody on board was saved because of them listening to the words of the apostle Paul. Now there's so much to compare in these two incidences, and we will look at a few of these comparisons as we go through the text. But for now, we must recognize that this storm that Jonah was in was no normal storm. We see that in the text, but it was evident by what was happening. Those marinas, they weren't fools. They had spent their life on the sea. They had done this trip so many times. They've been in storms many times as well. And so they recognized that this was coming from something else or somewhere else. they could say being a religious type of people they recognized that some deity even though they didn't know who it was was bringing this storm upon them and at the end was not looking good for them that this storm was going to bring death if it was allowed to continue now they didn't know who the deity was fact text tells us that they were shouting out to any and all gods whoever would listen but Jonah did know and yet he kept quiet now we'll look more on this in the next point but for now I want us to consider that this storm would not have happened if Jonah had obeyed God in the first place there would be no place for the storm it wouldn't have existed Those sailors on that boat would have had a lovely trip through to Tarshish, like every other trip probably, and had a lovely day. However long that trip was, I don't know, but it would have been a lovely trip. It was Jonah's sin that brought this storm into existence. There are consequences to our disobedience. There are consequences to our sin and many times our sin affects others more than it affects us. Isn't that the case here? Jonah was fast asleep at the bottom of the ship. He was having a deep sleep. It wasn't just a light sleep. The text says he was having a lekker sloppies. He was fast asleep, curled up as comfortable as ever. When the rest of the guys were upstairs screaming out to their false gods, throwing stuff overboard, screaming and yelling, His sin had caused this, and yet it was affecting others a whole lot more than it affected him. In fact, it put people's lives at risk in this case. Now, these people didn't know God. They didn't know who God was. They had never put their faith in him. They were destined to go to hell. And Jonah's sin, his disobedience, was at risk of getting them there early. bringing their death now with no further chance of meeting the real God. Now think of how many times this has happened before in Old Testament narrative. As we go through the Old Testament, as we go through the New Testament, as we go through our examples in our lives, we can see this happening before. The consequences of other people's sins or the people's sins, the consequences on those that are around them. Think of the King David. He committed the sin of adultery with Bathsheba, as we know, and it was her husband who died. It was their firstborn child that died because of this casual sin that David committed. David's sin of pride had him order the census of Israel, which God didn't want. And this sin resulted in 70,000 men dying from plague sent from God. Because if he sin affected many, and there are many, many more examples. The fact is that our sin does not only hurt God. It does not only upset our relationship with God. It can, it can, and often does affect many others directly or indirectly that are around us. And usually those that are closest to us. Another way of saying this is the resulting tempest, the storms, the trials from our sin can hurt many people around us and usually those closest to us. Get beaten up by the storm that we created. Get hurt by the storm that we created. And let us not forget that our brothers and sisters in Christ in Calvary Baptist Church are some of those that are closest to us. And when we sin, it can easily, it does easily affect those here in Calvary Baptist Church in one way or another. Matthew Henry wrote, note, he says, sin brings storms and tempests into the soul, into the family, into churches and nations. It is a disquieting, disturbing thing. You know, when we consider how sin can create a tempest in the lives of those around us, these tempests or storms can show themselves in many different forms, in many different ways. It can create relationship problems, financial problems, health problems, and many other problems because of sins that we have done. Our sin can and will affect others. Something else that we must consider concerning Jonah and the storm. These mariners were afraid, mariners, mariners, mariners, potato, potato, were afraid. They knew the storm was not normal and they feared. They might not have known who the God was. But they feared this God. They could see this storm was the result of something big and they feared not only the storm, but the God that created that storm. Now, Abraham spoke of this fear. early on and earlier much earlier in the in the old testament and in genesis chapter 20 he starts bringing up this idea he says that uh because i thought surely the fear of god is not in this place they will kill me on account of my of my wife he understood the importance of having a fear of god the god he recognized that there is one fear that we should all have and that is the fear of the one and only true god Of course, those that reject God do not have or show this fear, but those who do know God, like Jonah, and all of us here this evening, if we're truly saved, we should have this fear. We should fear God. Ecclesiastes 12, 13. It's one of my favorite verses. It's the conclusion of the whole metaphor for For Solomon he says fear God and keep his commandments for this is the end. Oh, this is man's all and If you're not saved the psalmist says the following he observes the following He says an oracle within my heart concerning the transgressions of the wicked. There is no fear of God before his eyes So there's a clear distinction here those who are wicked That reject God there's no fear of him But those who believe in him and follow him, there should be a fear of him. That should be a distinguishing factor. We should fear God. And the world does not fear God. Now, strangely enough, in this account, the marinas had a fear. They had this fear, but Jonah was fast asleep. Had no fear of God. And I think this was just a further dreadful consequence of his sin that he hadn't repented of. Now, this fear of God is lacking today, isn't it? Of course, it's lacking in the world. That's obvious. That's expected. But sadly, it's lacking in the churches. It's lacking in our churches, a fear of God. I've been reading a book on worship, past tense, I have read a book on worship, and the following was some of what stood out for me and a few things that I wanted to quote this morning. It's John MacArthur. Yes, I like him. I think he's a great author, very good on subjects, but please don't let that dissuade you from these quotes. If you don't like him, if you don't like him, read more of him and you'll like him. He writes in worship the ultimate priority. He says, my heartfelt concern is that there is too much shallowness today with regard to God and God's holiness. Our relationship to God has become too casual. In the modern mind, God has become almost human. So affable and ordinary that we don't understand his holy indignation against sin. See, when we don't understand God's holiness, when we don't respect God's holiness, when we don't fully appreciate God's holiness, then our fear for him is going to fall as well. But he continues. He says, perhaps we have lost the fear of God because we take his grace for granted. God pours out his grace into our lives every day and we should be so thankful for that. But it is the same grace that sometimes can cause us to get too casual with God, too comfortable with God. I think Jonah was getting a little too comfortable with God. How could he first of all turn from God when he was given a clear instruction and run in the opposite direction? You don't fear a God like that, do you? You're far too comfortable. Your relationship is far too casual. You know, because God's grace is so abundant, it's so large, it's always there, we've forgotten that God should be feared. Now whatever it was for Jonah, I think it's obvious that in his haste to disobey God, God's will, he'd lost his fear of God, or at least he showed that his fear of God wasn't there. And this was very apparent, the way Jonah behaved on the boat, because he went down Got comfortable and fell asleep. The Mariners feared, but Jonah was calm. In this case, Jonah was the one at fault and the Mariners were on the right track. The Mariners might not have known God, but they knew to fear such an expression of power from this God. Yet Jonah knew God, but chose not to fear him. Jonah was too comfortable with this God. Now Psalm 103 verse 11 says, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him. And in verse 17, but the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. These verses seem to imply that God's mercy is somewhat linked to our fear of him. In other words, the more we fear God, the greater his mercy is to us. And if that is true, then we are in great danger of finding ourselves in much greater problems in our lives if we lose our fear of God. But thank God, His mercy is always there. Sometimes it might be limited. Yes, but it's not always linked to our behavior because obviously it wasn't because if Jonah He was rebelling against him had was showing no fear of him was being down to a great amount of mercy Not only now but throughout the book of Jonah In verse 9 Jonah states that he feared God But it seems this was not a practical fear but rather an intellectual fear and In other words, it was something he said rather than something he did. He told others he feared God, but this fear should have driven him to actions, to doing things. For example, Moses speaks of such practical fear when he says in Deuteronomy 13 verse 4, you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him. Keep his commandments and obey his voice. You shall serve him and hold fast to him. In other words, if you fear him, you'll obey him. You'll hold fast to him. You'll keep his commandments. You'll do what he says. That's what fear should do to you. How many people call themselves followers of Jesus Christ, the son of God, yet they live as they please. If you ask them, do you fear God? They will say, yes, I fear God. Yet they'll disobey him and do as they please. It's not a practical fear. They're not living their lives as if they feared God. It's just an intellectual thought. Yes. Sounds like a good idea. God should be feared. Yes. Amen. So let's go out and drink. Let's go out and drink. Let's go out and live as we please. Let's not get married. Let's steal from work. in whatever form, but I fear God. You know, there are many Jonah's running around today in our churches. Are you one of them? Now Jonah's lack of fear for God went to the extreme. We are told that during this extremely violent and abnormal storm that was obviously sent from God, Jonah went down to the lowest section of the ship when it was fast asleep. Despite the loud noises about him and despite this sense of guilt that he should have had inside him, he fell asleep. Now Psalm 4 verse 8 says, I will lie down in peace and sleep for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. It's a lovely verse. I do like that verse. Now the psalmist was describing the blessed sleep that God alone can bring during times of distress and problems. That as you trust Him, as you pour out your soul to Him, and you obey Him, in the process of that, what He provides to you is beautiful, blessed sleep. When you don't trust Him, you don't get much sleep, do you? But is this the same sleep that Jonah was experiencing? Now, the commentators differ on this. They've got some extreme views. Some believe that Jonah slept so well because of his belief in the sovereignty of God that, well, despite what I'm doing, God's sovereign, his will will be done. Let me have a sleep. Others say he was so tired from running from God. He was so exhausted looking over his shoulder. Where is this God? He's going to get me. That he was so tired and exhausted that he just collapsed and fell into some deep sleep. Still others think that Jonah believed he was now far enough away from God. I got far enough away. Now I can take a kip. God's not around anymore. Of course. Still others believe that the sleep could have come from God to compound his guilt. further view on this and a note from my other friend Matthew Henry might help us to understand this conundrum. He says, note, sin is of a stupefying nature. Isn't that nice? You should write that on your, write that on your, I don't know, wherever is big and bold, on your TV screen. Sin is a stupefying Nature is of a stupefying nature and we are concerned to take heed lest at any time our hearts be hardened By the deceitfulness of it. It is the policy of Satan when by his temptations He has drawn men from God and their duty to rock them asleep in carnal security That they may not be sensible of their misery and danger. It concerns us all to watch therefore end quote Now, I don't see Jonah repenting anywhere for his sin of running from God's will. In fact, anywhere in this book, I don't actually see a time of real repentance. Yes, we'll deal with his prayer later on, but his prayer really was, Lord, you've put me in a terrible place, take me out. There's no real repentance that I can see. Maybe I'm being too hard on him, I don't know. But it seems that it's quite possible that sin He-sin had blinded him to this danger, the stupefying nature of sin. And he was blinded to what was happening. To the danger he was in and the others were in at that moment. And it gave him such a sense of security and comfort that he was able to go downstairs and have a nice deep sleep. Anyway, let's get to our next point, which is the appeal Let's look at verse 5. Then the mariners were afraid and every man cried out to his God and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest part of the ship that had laid down and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and said to him, I think you first have to give him a good rock. Maybe throw water on his face. I don't know. He says, what do you mean sleeper? Arise, call on your God. We've been doing it. You do it as well. Call on your God. Perhaps your God will consider us so that we may not perish. Now, what a shame that this godless captain is the one that had to wake Jonah from his sleep to request him to call upon God. This unsaved had to call upon the saved for help rather than the saved coming to him to offer help, to offer the way of salvation. What a shame that the wicked had to ask the righteous why they did not care. In our previous message in Jonah, when considering the arrogance of the denial, we said, do we have a right to decide who gets to have God's grace and who does not? God desires that all will be saved. The worst of sinners and the best of sinners. All need salvation. All can have salvation if they obey God's calling. Here men were calling out for salvation. Yes, the salvation they were thinking of was more temporary. They were just thinking about their immediate lives, their immediate goods. They wanted to get out of there in one piece. Yes, their calling out was to a plethora of gods, whoever would be listening, anyone didn't matter, but they were calling out nonetheless. And it was an opportunity for Jonah, a prophet of God, the God, to fulfill his responsibility and tell them about the real need for salvation from the real God who had the only way and the only means of salvation. Yet he ignored this responsibility and he went downstairs to sleep. The captain, not knowing, not knowing who Jonah was or what he knew was the one to wake him up and appeal to him for help. Just in this, uh, just in case there was something that Jonah could do for them. Maybe Jonah had something on him that could help. Let me wake him up and see if that is true. Did Jonah think that his God had nothing more to offer than their gods? Did Jonah simply not care? I mean, what was it? In Acts chapter 27, the apostle Paul knew who his God was. He was in tune with his God, right? And he proactively acted to save all who were on that ship. Because not only did he obey God's word, but he convinced them to all obey God's word. And they were all saved. because Paul took action, Paul spoke up. And as Christians, we not only know the God of all creation, the one and only true God, we also know his word, and his word is truth. We cannot only direct them to God, but also to the truth, and also to the scriptures, say to us that the truth will set us free. Now, most people in this world on one or other metaphysical ship that is in a storm that will ultimately lead to their destruction. We've got people out there who might not know that their ship is in this great storm that eventually is going to crumble around them and they're going to fall down to their ultimate doom. Now we might not have led them to the storm, we might not have created the storm, but we do have the way out of the storm and away from this destruction. if we only choose to tell them about the way out. But many of us would rather slip downstairs, find a comfortable spot, and go to sleep. Because we don't care about their lives. We don't care about the storm they're in. I remember Nabil Qureshi, I was trying to remember how to pronounce his name there, who in part of his testimony, if I remember correctly, was saying that he would go, he went up to a Christian friend of his and said, did you not love me enough to give me the gospel message? Because she never had given him the gospel message. She stood out as a Christian and she told him she was a Christian, but she never gave him the gospel message. And he had to go to her and say, did you not love me? Do you not love me? And you never wanted to give me the gospel message. What a shame to her. What a shame to us. If our unsaved friends, families, colleagues, neighbors were to do the same to us, if we've never given them the gospel message, we might tell them we like them, love them, care for them, but have we given them the gospel message? Because if we haven't, then we don't care for them. The captain of the ship had to come to Jonah, hoping that he had something to help them. Well, it should have been Jonah coming up to them. To answer their prayers of at least to direct them to who could answer their prayers as Paul did in Acts chapter 27 Now mankind is cruising through life And what's not so obvious to them as it was to the mariners is that the storm is hitting them hard and the storm eventually The storm being the consequences of their sin will eventually cause them to die. But this death is not a final annihilation. It's an everlasting destruction separate from God. An existence for eternity in hell. There's only one God, our God. The only God can keep them from such destruction. And he's given us the ministry of reconciliation. He's given us the ministry of knocking on their door and telling them about the God who can take them out of their path of destruction. If they refuse it, well, we can't do that. We can only throw the lifeline. We can only destroy them about God. We can tell them about God. We can tell them about the gospel. We can't have them accept it, but we must tell them about the gospel. You know, the sailors cried out to their God seeking salvation from this mighty storm. And the only one who knew the only God that could save them from the storm went down to sleep. Now, when someone is faced with this imminent possibility of losing their life, no matter what their view on theism is, they turn to God. Or a God anyway. Known or unknown, true or false, they will turn. Their riches are tossed aside. It doesn't matter anymore. The only thing left is to seek after a God to help them. But how can they seek after God if they're not told who that God is? Romans 10 verse 14 and 15, well-known verse. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach unless they are sent? Unless they are sent, as it is written, how beautiful the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. Our preaching is not reserved for the pastors. As the quote this morning from Spurgeon says, we are not all called to preach in today's sense of the form of the term, but we are called to make Jesus known if we know him. You must make Jesus known. That's what Roman 10 is. Take what you know about Jesus and tell people about him. And there's no better opportunity to do this than when someone is fearing their life. When death is looming or death has happened to a loved one, they are ripe for telling them the message of Jesus Christ. And yet Jonah slipped. It's a quote again from Matthew Henry. He says, they cried out every man to his God, the God of his country or city or his own Teutonic deity it is a testimony against atheism that every man had a God and had the belief of a God But it is of it, but it is an instance of the folly of paganism that they had God's many Every man the God he had a fancy for whereas there can be what got one God there needs to be no more There's only one God Jonah knew who that one God was Jonah said later on that he feared that one God that he was a prophet of that one God and yet he Finally, we come to what I've termed anyway, the confession. Let's read from verse seven. And they said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. And then they said to him, please tell us whose causes this trouble upon us. What is your occupation and 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 the Lord. The god of heaven who made the sea and the dry land verse 10 and the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him Why have you done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the lord because he had told them this I've entitled this confession, but it's in apostrophes because A confession is an admission of guilt Confession for a new testament christian or an old testament old testament believer in god entails a voluntary acknowledgement of sin And what Jonah was doing here was far from that. They asked him questions, so he answered them. He didn't volunteer any information. This whole time he could have said things about what he was doing. He could have confessed to them what was happening. He could have done his best to try and save them. But it was only when they confronted him that he then decided to open up his mouth. this all came about through there through first of all the influence of God obviously as he sent the storm and and as he made sure that the lot fell on Jonah and that they asked these questions they were the ones that were all active and again he just gave the bare minimum not not someone who's really confessing anything now the costing of lots is common in Israel and the neighboring countries in those times and perhaps they had stones or whatever Colors or markers or sticks or whatever the case might be in a container and whoever took out the one that had different color shape whatever the case was is the one who the lot fell upon and God made sure that the lot fell on Jonah and So further embarrassment for him, not only the prophet, but it was this case of the lot had to fall on him. He had to pull the short straw, whatever it was before he would dare say anything to them. Jonah was the reason for this dilemma and he had the solution, but he kept quiet. It was unsaved men who had to shake it out of him. He had the truth, yet was irresponsible in not telling the truth. Once the lot was cast, Jonah happily answered the questions that the sailors asked him. What changed, we cannot be sure. You know, why he decided to, well, I'll start telling you what's happening. One moment he had no desire to tell anyone his story, the next he was. Sometimes when the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, people are ready to talk. Well, now that's an open, let me go ahead. Might as well say something. I don't know what it was. So he answered the questions. He was quite confident in his answers. And he starts sharing some truth with them. Telling them he was a Hebrew from a special nation, chosen people. Telling them that he's the believer in the one and only true God, the mighty God, the God who looks after everything, who can bring storms and stop storms. Oops, did I say that? That's what he's saying. know they're saying we've been standing here for who knows how long screaming out to our gods to try and stop the storm and you say you you know the god who can stop the storm i don't know why they were so uh pleased to hold on to him to Jonah i think they would have thrown him off right there maybe i would have But even later, as we go into the study of Jonah, you'll see that they even resisted in throwing him off, even when Jonah said, you know, the solution to this problem is throw me off the ship. They said, no, let's try. And they tried to get to land. They even tried to save him. They weren't too quick in throwing him overboard. Definitely, they were more righteous than Jonah in this case. It took very little for the sailors to accept that Jonah's God was the true God and the real God Jonah ironically states that he feared his God yet He has just confessed to disobeying and fleeing from this God. He said he fears What a terrible and embarrassing testimony Yet the sailors were not impressed with Jonah's testimony, but they were impressed with his God and And as we will see later, they feared Yahweh, they prayed to him, they sacrificed him, they made vows to him. Opening up your mouth, sharing words with others concerning the real God can make a big impact, even if that sharing had to be coerced from you. It can make a big impact. Imagine what it would, how much impact it would have if you volunteered that information. the opportunities arose. You just open up your mouth and tell them more about Jesus. Now these sailors were correct in their belief that God had sent the storm due to some great sin of someone on board. It's very interesting, it's very much the same in Acts chapter 27-28 when those who saw the storm and the ship breaking apart they said well the gods must have brought this upon them because someone aboard this ship had created or had had had sinned greatly and when they saw that Paul was bitten by a snake they said ah there he is there's the man of course they were wrong in this case and then they went to the other extreme where they started worshiping Paul because he didn't die from the snake bite but it's interesting how their beliefs were at that time anyway let's conclude Jonah fled his responsibility While people were in fear for their lives, he went looking for a comfortable place to fall into a deep sleep. While people cried out for salvation, he ignored them while he had the answer to their problems. He knew what caused this problem and how to solve it. Further to that, he knew who the true God was, and they needed the true God. And as a prophet of God, he needed to tell them about this true God. Yet, he ignored them. He chose to keep quiet. Jonah got too comfortable or too casual with his relationship with God, and he lost his fear of God. Not only did he get comfortable with God, he got comfortable with his position in God. In today's terms, we could say he got comfortable in his Christianity. We get comfortable in our Christianity. We love God, or maybe it might be truer to say we love that we're saved, We love that we have a savior, but we do not see the urgency or the responsibility we have to share the way to the salvation with others. We love our salvation, but we don't love too much in sharing that because that requires effort. And yes, it does require effort to share about Jesus Christ. There is an effort there. an effort well spent and an effort that God will bless and strengthen you and provide for you. But it is an effort, but we must do it. We mustn't get comfortable in our Christianity. We mustn't be comfortable with the fact that we are saved and that we have a savior and ignore the urgency of passing on that information to all that we have opportunity to do as we go through life. We'd rather, many times, stay in our comfortable place than go and tell those on their way to destruction about the one and only one who can bring them out from their pathway to destruction. Jonah fled his responsibility. The question I'll leave with you tonight is, are you fleeing your responsibility? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jonah. The challenge has been set tonight. We are very comfortable in our salvation. We're comfortable being saved. We are comfortable knowing that one day, Lord, you will return and take us home. Or if you decide to end our lives while we're here, we will be with you in that moment afterwards. We're comfortable with those thoughts. We're very happy with those thoughts. But Lord, we have the way of salvation. We know the Savior. We know the only God, the only way. And yet we often choose rather to be comfortable than share about our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that we will make use of the opportunities that come this week to share about our savior, Jesus Christ, to open our mouths and to say something, to say the truth, to tell the truth from the word of God about Jesus Christ and his gospel. And we pray Lord that as your word says, you'll bring to memory what we've learned as we, as we, as we share our times, that you'll be with us. You're part of that, Lord. You're not away from us. You don't hide behind a bush and have a look to see what happens. You're there with us as we share our faith with others. So let us do that this week. Let us be excited. Let us be a church that is so happy to share our faith with others. All to your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We are grateful that you have chosen to listen to one of our sermons, and it is our prayer that you will be provoked to deepen your walk with Christ through this message. This sermon was recorded at Calvary Baptist Church, Sunny Ridge, Germiston, South Africa. For more information about our church and its ministry, please go to www.facebook.com forward slash Calvary Baptist Sunny Ridge.