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Jonah Part 1 — Sermon Manuscript

Speaker: Pastor Bisch
Text: Jonah 1

All right, all right. Good morning, everybody. How are we doing?

We’re in the house of the Lord. Amen.

It’s a beautiful day out there, is it? I don’t know. Sometimes it is raining when we come in, and then it is sunny later on. All right. It is nice. It is very good.

If it is your first time here today, we just want to say welcome. We truly do want to connect with you, have a coffee with you, and get to know you. So please fill out one of those connection forms.

I do not know if you were dragged here today or if you came voluntarily, but the Lord has a plan for you. Amen. The Lord has a plan for all of us today, and I am excited about it.

Before we start, I do have a little disclaimer. I just want to see who was here last week at church. The cupcakes on my birthday month were not my idea. I got a lot of flack for it. It is fine. We will cut it. We will not do it again until November this year. If you do not know, that is Haley’s birthday.

I am kidding. I am kidding.

But seriously, we do want to have a bit more of a family gathering on Sundays, because that is what church is. We are a congregation. We come and congregate together as God’s people. We want to shout out birthdays and anniversaries and all of that, and you are going to hear more of that.

Why? Because it is not about us. It is about all of us together.

So please do not keep giving me flack for the cupcakes on my birthday month. Bad decisions. We move on. We become better leaders that way.

If you have your Bible, you can get it out. You can open it all the way to the book of Jonah.

You can open it up, face ID it, swipe it open, whatever it is you might need to do. But get your Bibles open.

The book of Jonah.

This is maybe what you have known about Jonah. We are going to talk a little bit for a few weeks and go through the book of Jonah. That is going to be our sermon series artwork for the next five weeks.

No, I am kidding.

But who is familiar with what is on the screen right now? That is Jonah and the whale. Little flannel graphs. Is that what you call them?

I remember, actually in South Africa, going to Sunday school. You have to get this, because I did not attend church, but I went to Sunday school a few times. I remember vividly pinning the flannel graph, and I cannot remember if I pinned Jonah to the board, but I probably did.

I remember these flannel graph things. I went because I heard they were giving out chocolate bars for those who could memorize Bible verses. I loved the good old Bar One chocolate bar, if you know that. It is really good.

So I did. I memorized some Bible verses for the chocolate, not for the Lord, but for chocolate.

That is what I remember. I remember seeing this stuff: Jonah and the whale. That is kind of what we know about the book of Jonah, right?

Then there is an updated picture of Jonah. This is the 2026 version. It kind of looks like B.C. in the back. I like that.

Many of us downplay Jonah to just what we saw on the screen. So I just want to tell you now, spoiler alert: it is not about the whale. It is not about the fish.

That is not even what we are going to talk about. We might get there, but it is not about that. We have to get that.

If you did not know that, welcome to Church 101 today.

The book of Jonah is one of the many books in the Bible that makes you go, “What in the world did I just read?”

If you have read it, you know what I am talking about. It has four chapters, and then it just ends abruptly. It does not lead you into anything else. It literally just ends. It is such a great cliffhanger. You are left thinking, “What did I just read?”

Many of us read this and go, “Well, what does this mean for me? It is weird. It is awesome. I just do not know what to think about it.”

That is the book of Jonah. Welcome to church.

We do not really know the author of this book, and it was written way after the fact, after the downfall of Assyria. God calls this man named Jonah to go to this place called Nineveh, where the Assyrians are. It is this crazy place, and Jonah does not end up going. Then this book is written about it way after the fact.

Jonah is mentioned a couple of times in the Bible, including in Second Kings, and Jesus also pointed back to Jonah. So it must be an important book.

Some people struggle with Jonah because they say it is a sensational book, just a Bible bedtime story. But if Jesus talked about it, we have to look into it. We have to talk about it. It is in the Bible, so that is what we are going to do.

It gets people scratching their heads a little bit, asking what this really says. It is a very curious book, and it carries way more weight than just a bedtime story.

Sadly, that is what most of us are familiar with when it comes to Jonah: Jonah and the whale. You learn it, you teach your kids, and I know we teach it. But we have to go deeper into Jonah.

God speaks to this guy Jonah. He does not listen. He runs away from God. He gets on a boat. There is a storm. He gets thrown into the water. A big fish swallows him up. And Nineveh gets saved.

That is usually what happens when we teach about it.

But it is so much more than that.

If we just leave it there, then if you are running away from God — and I know I am not alone when I say I have tried to run from God and tried to be disobedient to Him — then do not dare go to Centennial Beach and have a swim, because you will be gobbled up by a big old fish.

That is not what Jonah teaches.

We have to look at the weight and the great teaching that is in this book of Jonah. It is complicated. It is a little awkward. It gets really, really deep — no pun intended.

Jonah is a minor prophet in the Bible. If you do not know what a prophet is, prophets were people used by God to speak the word of God. In the Old Testament, we read a lot about these guys.

Jonah, though, was kind of one of the worst prophets.

What a way to go. What a way to be known: one of the worst prophets.

There are all these guys hearing the word of the Lord, and Jonah is like the worst guy of them all. Some prophets hesitated. Some complained. Some felt inadequate at times. You look at Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah — some of them felt that way.

But Jonah outright disobeyed God and said no.

He is a prophet known as a minor prophet in the Bible. He literally refused to do the very thing God was asking him to do.

I really think that is what makes Jonah so relatable to us today.

If you think the Old Testament is not a book you can relate to, that it was just for back then, I want to say: open up your heart and your mind today, because God wants to reach you.

You relate to Jonah more than you think. I relate to Jonah more than I think. All of us can learn something from this.

We are not too far off from his story.

Most of us are Jonah. You might not be in the belly of a fish, but you are Jonah in the way that he reacted. This book really speaks to us.

This book paints a clear picture of sin and grace.

The Bible talks about sin as missing the mark, like an archery term, or rebelling against God, going your own way, taking matters into your own hands. The book of Jonah teaches us this type of sin: running from God, running away from God, running against the will of God, and running away from God’s mercy.

It teaches us about that.

But then grace enters as well.

Usually the Bible talks about grace and defines it as undeserved mercy and favor. That is true. But Jonah gives us a different angle on grace. As we read it, you are going to understand that grace is God refusing to abandon Jonah, even though Jonah went against what God told him.

Does that feel like Jonah is about your life? Can you relate to Jonah? Because I do.

There have been times, and there are times, where I do not want to disobey the voice of the Lord, but I do. I do not want to live that way, but sometimes I catch myself thinking, “Did I just say no to God?”

I think all of us can relate to Jonah in a great way.

There are two movements in the whole book of Jonah that we are going to cover over the next few weeks. You are going to see man running away from God. Then the other movement is God pursuing and running toward man.

That is what the book of Jonah is about.

You see, it is not about that little flannel graph with a guy and a whale. It is not just about that. It is about so much more.

So you can lace up your New Balance shoes and try to run away from God, but the book of Jonah teaches us that God is not going to stop pursuing you.

I do not know where you are this morning in your walk. Maybe you are still searching for God. God is searching for you this morning. God wants you to open up your heart.

Maybe you are trying to run away from Him. Today can be the moment where God meets you again.

I just want to say: please stop running.

God’s mercy is going to keep pursuing you. His grace is going to cover you, and He will find you.

There is a movie — what movie is that? Liam Neeson. “I will find you, and when I do, I will hug you.”

That is God’s version.

Jonah was a runner, and so are we. But God pursued him all throughout the book.

You are going to see exaggerated terms. You are going to read it and see this word “great” pop up a lot: a great city, a great fish, a great storm, and a great this and a great that. Everything is big and huge.

We are going to see that. But I want to let you know that there is an even greater God in all those things we find in the story.

Jonah 1. Are we ready to read?

“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.

“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, away from the presence of the Lord.

“But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest upon the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.

“Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.

“But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

“So the captain came and said to him, ‘What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.’

“And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.’

“So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

“Then they said to him, ‘Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?’

“And 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.’

“Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, ‘What is this that you have done?’

“For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

“Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?’

“For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.

“He said to them, ‘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.’

“Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

“Therefore they called out to the Lord, ‘O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.’

“So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

“Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

“And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

The end of chapter one.

That is also how chapter four ends. It literally just ends.

There are a couple of things that jump out to me when reading this.

The very first thing is this: Jonah, this prophet who heard the voice of God, was running away from what he knew.

God told him to go to Nineveh, where all the Assyrians were in that time. They were not lovely people, if I can put it that way.

Jonah knew. It is not that he was afraid to go to Nineveh. He was supposed to go deliver a message of repentance. But he knew God’s mercy and God’s love are so great. He knew God’s goodness. He thought, “If I go deliver this, these bad people would be forgiven by God.”

This man heard the voice of the Lord, but he did not carry the heart of God, because he did not go and do what God asked him to do.

He withheld mercy from the people of Nineveh — or at least that is what he thought he was going to do.

To me, this is pretty funny, because what is our theme for the year?

“Speak, Lord, we’re listening.”

This whole year, we are diving into this. Jonah’s motto and theme was: “Speak, Lord, I’m not listening.”

Do you know how many of us actually live that way?

We say, “Speak, Lord,” but then we just do not listen. Or we do the exact opposite of what God is asking us to do.

That is what Jonah did.

In the very first verse, it says, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah.” That is the same type of language used in all the other books, where you find the other prophets. When God speaks to them, the word of the Lord comes upon them. The word of the Lord comes to them.

It is the same prophetic language we see all over the Old Testament.

God speaks, the prophet responds, and the mission begins.

Not with Jonah.

God speaks. Jonah hears, but he does not listen, and he does not respond.

You can really know the will of God and hear His voice and not have the heart of God. That is what we see with Jonah.

I think a lot of us can relate to that.

So I want to ask you today to check yourself in this way: Do you hear the voice of God? Do you know His will? And do you also carry His heart for the people around you?

Have you ever done the opposite of what God has asked you?

You do not have to yell out your answer, but it would be good to tell yourself right now. Have you ever done the very opposite thing of what God has asked you to do?

There are so many things He has asked us. You read the Bible. You read His word. There are so many things He prompts us with. He speaks to us. Through His Holy Spirit, He convicts us.

How many of us do the exact opposite?

So now would be a good time to turn to your neighbor and say, “Hey, Jonah.”

Come on, do not be afraid. You can call me Jonah, because we all do this. We all have these moments where we do the very opposite thing God calls us to do.

I remember when God started speaking to me about coming to Canada from South Africa. I second-guessed it, and I tried to do my own thing. I was doing music full-time. I was in a rock band, and it was so cool. I had better hair than this. It was awesome, and it was horrible. I looked very funny, but I loved what I was doing.

Then God started calling me. He said, “I am going to send you to Canada.”

I did not know why. I still wanted to pursue the music thing, because we had just started touring South Africa. Our album dropped. It was great. It was fun. We got to be in all these places where I did share with people the word of God.

I thought, “Well, that is good. That is my ministry, isn’t it?”

God was like, “No. I need you to go to Canada.”

I wanted to go in the opposite direction. So I know exactly how Jonah felt. I was there. I wanted to do it.

In many other areas of my life, I have to catch myself not wanting to do the opposite thing God calls me to.

Jonah did not just refuse God at this point. He literally went in the opposite direction.

Let us do it this way. If God calls you to go to Calgary, and you say, “Nope, I am booking a ticket to Hawaii,” does that sound good?

Do not answer that. Actually, do not answer that. It does sound good.

But is that not the trap we fall into sometimes? God calls you somewhere, and you book a ticket for something else. You say, “But God, that sounds so much better.”

Hawaii sounds great. Calgary, not so much.

Sometimes God calls us somewhere to deliver a word. He wants to use us. He wants to do a work in us for the sake of doing a work through us.

This tells me that we were not created for ourselves. God created us for each other.

This is what Jonah did. God told him to go one way, and he went the very opposite way.

Verse three tells us a lot about Jonah and his personality. It says Jonah paid the fare. He went down into the boat to go to Tarshish. He paid a fare to go in the opposite direction from where God was calling him.

Do you realize he did not just go and pay the ticket? He took an extra step. He went over and above to go the opposite direction from where God was calling him.

If you look on a map, Nineveh and Tarshish are in opposite directions.

Have you ever gone in the opposite direction of where God is calling you?

Jonah paid the fare. He went over and above to escape the presence of the Lord.

Why in the world would you want to do that?

As I was preparing this, I felt like God told me, “This is exactly what you do. This is exactly what all of us do.”

We literally physically pay to escape from the presence of the Lord.

Sometimes it looks like a cruise ship ticket. Sometimes it shows up in the form of a Netflix subscription, your phone bill, your news outlet subscription — places where you literally pay not to be in the presence of the Lord.

Have you ever thought of that?

That is scary.

Just like Jonah, we can relate to him. He has gone through the same things we go through. We try to escape God’s presence by paying our way into all these other things.

The good news is that God’s mercy is hunting you down.

Is anyone thankful for that?

Mercy is not going to stop chasing you down.

I love that there is a little twist in that story, because if it ended in the whale, we would be in trouble.

Just like Jonah ran from what he knew — he knew God’s goodness and ran away from it — so do we. So do we all the time.

We say, “I know I should forgive this person because God tells me to,” but then we choose not to.

That is the exact story of Jonah and the fish.

“I know I need to surrender this. I know I need to stop this sin in my life. I know I need to do this.” Then we do the exact opposite.

It is the exact story of Jonah.

So yes, we can relate to these Old Testament books, because God is speaking through them.

It is funny to me that we do not run from things we do not know. You cannot run from what you do not know. You run from the things you do know.

When you start reading the word of God, you find all these things He is telling you, including what direction to go.

Is your every day directed by what God says to you and says about you? Or are you choosing, even paying the way, to go the opposite direction?

That is a tough message to hear, but it is reality. We are supposed to go in the way God is calling us to go.

Maybe God is speaking to you today. Maybe He is speaking to you now to go in a certain direction, and you have been wandering, sitting on the fence, thinking, “God, which way should I go?”

This is your sign today: go the very way God is calling you to go.

Do not try to alter it. Do not say, “God, maybe we can take a boat right here first.”

No. Just do exactly what He asked you to do. Go exactly where He called you to go.

Do not choose the opposite, Jonah.

I am so thankful that Jonah shows us that when we choose to run, there is a God who still pursues us.

That leads me to the next verse.

Verse four says, “But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest upon the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.”

This crazy storm erupted around them, and the Lord did that.

Sometimes the storm exposes the very thing we are running from.

Jonah did not show up to the boat and say, “Hey guys, I am just wondering, here is my money, I want to pay for this fare. I am running away from God. Can I go with you?”

That is not what he did.

He did not say that before he stepped onto the boat. No. They got into the boat. They were in the middle of the storm that God allowed to happen. Then Jonah told them, “Yeah, it is because of me, guys. I am sorry. I am running away from God — the God, the one and only God, the God of the sea, the God who created it all. I am running away from Him.”

Do you think they would have let him on the ship if they had known?

No.

Way too often, we do the same thing. We go in a direction, and we do not tell the people around us. Then we find ourselves in the storm, and we ask these questions: “God, how can You be good? Look at the storm in my life.”

No nonsense.

Sometimes God will use that storm to expose the very thing you have been running from, the thing you have tried to conceal.

The storm is going to expose it.

This storm was not an accident. It was not random. It was targeted mercy at Jonah and the sailors.

Jonah’s decisions and choices were now affecting other people around him.

And the storm was not punishment.

A lot of us look at our lives and think, “I am going through the storm. Why is God punishing me?”

It is not punishment. It is targeted mercy. It is a setup for provision in your life.

You just have to keep reading.

That storm had Jonah’s name on it.

When they cast lots to see who brought this upon them, it was Jonah. They knew.

I am thankful that God is such a great God that He keeps pursuing us in the middle of the storm. He will show up.

In verse fourteen, we see the mercy and grace of God step into the storm.

The sailors were believing in other gods. They were pagan sailors. They believed in their own gods. They did not believe in the God.

Then in verse fourteen, things turned around. The unbelievers became the preachers, and the prophet became the problem.

This is what God sometimes uses in our lives.

Even though we run, His mercy calls us back and keeps pursuing us. But there is collateral around it, and God’s mercy touches other people. That is how good He is.

This does not give you a ticket to run. But I do want to encourage you today: if you are still running, God is chasing after you. His mercy and grace are going to cover you and grab hold of you again.

It is in the storm, oftentimes, that God’s mercy is revealed.

That is exactly what happened to these sailors.

I hope we do not wait for the storms to see God’s mercy show up. I hope we do not wait for the storm to arise before we expect God to do something great.

But we can know that even in the middle of the storm, our God will show up with mercy and grace.

Verse fifteen says, “So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.”

Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly. They offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

How amazing is that?

We do not learn about that when we talk about Jonah and the whale. That is not part of the Bible bedtime story: that the sailors, the ones who did not believe in God, were being saved by God before Jonah even responded to the voice of the Lord to go to Nineveh.

God was already saving pagan sailors on the boat on Jonah’s way to the mission God had called him to.

That is amazing.

In the earlier verses, the sailors were afraid of the storm. But by the end, they feared the Lord. It turned from scary fear to awe of God.

“Wow. Your God calmed that storm. Your God is the God.”

They started making sacrifices to Him and made vows to Him.

I think that is pretty amazing.

Then we come to the last verse in that first chapter. I know I said this is not about the fish, but we have to talk about this verse.

“The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

This is important.

We can relate to Jonah in a great way because we know that we run from the very things we know. Then we see that in the storm, God can reveal things we have tried to conceal and hide by the way we have run.

Then verse seventeen shows up — the one we are all familiar with. A great fish, a huge fish, shows up and swallows Jonah.

Here is the last thing I will talk about today: every storm comes with a fish.

Every storm in your life comes with a fish.

Not a literal fish. You are not going to have some salmon show up at your front door or a big whale at your front door.

But every storm comes with a fish.

The great fish that swallowed Jonah is a beautiful picture of God’s grace. In the middle of all the chaos, in the middle of being thrown overboard and going to the bottom of the ocean, the big fish comes and swallows him up.

It is actually God’s provision.

Some of us might look at that and say, “But why do I have to be in the belly of the fish? It is so dark. It is so low. It is stinky. There are all these things around me.”

A lot of us stop there and say, “God, why did You do this? Why did You allow this? Why am I in this deep pit?”

But all the way through, it is God’s provision to get you out and empower you to go do the thing you are supposed to do.

Do you see that this is what the grace of God looks like?

It is not for you to stay down in that pit, to stay down in the darkness, or to keep saying, “It is okay. I know the sailors will just throw me overboard every single time I try to board the ship when I run from God, because God is going to send a fish.”

No.

The fish is God’s grace showing up, but that is not your free ticket. That is not your way to pay the fare to run from Him.

Every storm in our lives has this fish. God is constantly sending that great fish in the middle of your storm. It is God’s grace showing up for you.

Why? Because God has something great appointed on your life.

God’s grace is the very thing. Especially in the New Testament, the word grace is connected to empowerment. Yes, it is connected to salvation, but it is also connected to empowerment.

This fish showed up so Jonah could breathe again on the shore and bring the message to the people of Nineveh, bringing great salvation.

The grace of God shows up in your life to keep empowering you to do the thing you are called to do.

Do not use it as a ticket to run away from God.

Every storm has a fish.

Verse seventeen is the end of chapter one.

I do not know if you realized this as we read it earlier, but Jonah did not repent yet. Jonah did not start praying yet. He was not on his knees yet. The man was sleeping.

And God started to provide through the storm and the fish.

So before you think that you need to get your life together, God sends the fish.

As silly as that sounds, the book of Romans says that while we were still sinners, God saves us.

God had this great plan. His plan was named Jesus Himself in human form.

Before you started repenting, before you started falling on your knees to pray, before you said, “God, get me out of this belly of the fish so I can do the thing You called me to,” God showed up with mercy in your life.

It is called the gospel.

Isn’t Jonah, even in the very first chapter, such a great picture of the gospel?

Even though we are broken, down, deep in the dark, God brings the provision. He brings the great fish into your life, and His mercy shows up.

I love this. It is such a great picture for us.

We try to run from God, but then we realize God is running after us. He is running after your heart. He is pursuing you.

If you have never felt pursued in your life, I want to tell you right now: there is a God who is pursuing your heart. There is a God who is pursuing you today.

John Lennox is a mathematician, and he loves Jesus. I love listening to him. He says this about the gospel, and this is what the story of Jonah is about:

Christianity is not about man searching for God. Christianity is about God searching for man.

That is what Jonah is about.

Jonah thought he could outrun God with his brand-new sneakers, his New Balance runners. You might think you can run from God, but you are not going to outrun God, because God is still pursuing you.

Every storm has a fish, and it is God’s provision for your life.

It might look like a conversation. It might look like a conviction by the Holy Spirit. It might look like a closed door in your life, or an open door. It might look like a friend coming to talk to you, a pastor, or scriptures in the word of God.

That is what provision sometimes looks like: God making a way for you.

Why? Because God is after you. God is after your heart.

When He looks for you — and I promise you, He is looking for you — I know He is going to find you.

But would you just stop running from Him?

I am going to leave you with three questions.

First: do you have a Nineveh of obedience right now in your life that you are running away from?

I want you to think about that this week. Is there a Nineveh God is calling you to, and you have outright said no? Today, you can decide again to turn to God and run with Him.

Second: for those who are currently in a storm, where things are chaotic and you do not know what is going on, try to look for what God may be showing you in the storm.

Sometimes in the middle of the storm, we have to stop and ask God, “Lord, what are You trying to show me through this storm?”

Through it all, you are going to be shaped by what God is doing in you.

Third: for those who have been through the storm, who have conquered it, who have been spat out on the shore — when is the last time you thanked God for what He did in you through the storm?

When is the last time you sat down or fell on your knees and said, “God, thank You so much. Thank You for that hard work You did in my life. It hurt, but God, You got some work done in me.”

When is the last time you thanked Him for it?

Thank Him for the provision, for the people, the scriptures, the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Those are the things we have to thank God for all the time.

So please stop running.

If you are in the middle of the storm, look for the things God is showing you. And if you have been through the storm, take a moment and thank God.

Why? Because there are other people waiting to be affected by what God is doing in and through you.

As we carry on into chapters two and three next week, we are going to see more of what God is doing in Nineveh, because Jonah ended up going there.

That is the same for you today. You do not have to keep running. You do not have to wait for that storm.

God is calling you back right now, saying, “I want to use you. I want to do a great work in you.”

So as I pray for us today, would you ponder those questions?

Do you have a Nineveh in your life today?

If you are in the storm, look for what God is showing you.

If you have been through the storm, take a moment and thank God.

Lord, I thank You so much that we can learn so much from Your word. Sometimes it seems silly, but Lord, we see that Jonah is such a great example of what it looks like to run away from You, which is ultimately a great sin in our lives — not wanting Your will for our lives, not wanting Your ways for our lives.

God, I thank You that Your word is so powerful and that it always speaks to us in such a great way.

I pray right now for every single person who has that Nineveh place You have called them to, where they chose to go the opposite direction, or literally just reject what You are saying.

I pray right now for those hearts. I pray that You would continue to pour out Your mercy and grace. It is right there for them to grab hold of. I pray that You would once again encourage them and speak to them, so they can start running in the direction You have called them to.

Speak to them right now, Lord.

We want to be Your children who say, “Speak, Lord, we’re listening,” not “Speak, Lord, we’re not listening.”

Lord, I pray right now for all those who currently are in a storm. I pray for every single person who finds themselves now in a storm. Would You come and encourage and reveal the very thing they are trying to run from, and why that storm exists?

It is not all the enemy’s work, God. We know that we make decisions sometimes, and we end up in storms. I pray that You would use that.

I pray right now for all the storms we find ourselves in. God, would You reveal Yourself to us and to those around us? There are many of us who have pagan sailors in our lives right now, who onboarded us into their groups or communities, God, and we do not want to be the ones who turn away from what we know.

God, would You reveal to us in the middle of the storm the things You need to show us?

Lord, I thank You right now for all the storms we have conquered, all the storms we have gone through, all the work You have done in us.

God, I thank You for the fish You have sent. I thank You for all those fish You have sent — the provision, the people, the scriptures, the convictions of the Holy Spirit.

I thank You that You continue to shape us so we can be empowered to do what You call us to do.

I pray that we would live lives that continually thank You for what You are doing.

Lord, come and do a mighty work. I pray that as we go through the book of Jonah, You would reveal more and more and more to us, so we can move on from just Jonah and the whale and see that it is so much more.

Would You speak to us, Jesus? Would You speak to us?

Just before I close, just like Jonah, maybe you are still running. But maybe you are running from a God you do not know yet.

I want to give you this opportunity.

Like I said earlier, in the book of Romans, in the New Testament, it says that while we were sinners, God still reached out His hand to save us.

Maybe you find yourself in that place today. Maybe you have never taken a step toward God, and you have just been running your whole life.

Well, today God is knocking on the door of your heart, saying, “Come back in. I am pursuing you. I am chasing after you. Would you let Me in?”

The Bible says that if we turn our lives to the Lord, if we turn our lives to Jesus, He is the One God sent to take all our sin and all our shame upon Himself, so we can receive full forgiveness from God, the Creator God, the one true God.

We give our lives over to Him because He already paid for it.

Jesus pointed to Jonah, the sign of Jonah: three days in the belly and three nights. Just like that, Jesus was sent to die a death on a cross for you and me, to stand in our place for the sin and brokenness in our lives, the unforgiveness.

Jesus stood in our place there. He was on the cross. Three days later, He rose up again.

He died on the cross, but He did not stay there. He rose up three days later so that you and I can be forgiven, so that you and I can be a saved people, a people changed from the inside out.

If that is you today, I want to ask everyone to close your eyes. This is a moment between you and God this morning.

If you have been running so far away, and you have never heard that God is such a good God that He is chasing after you with forgiveness and freedom, would you respond to that today and say, “Jesus, I want to give You my life, and I want to start living for You and running toward You”?

With every eye closed, today I want to know who I am praying for. If you want to say, “I want to live my life for Jesus,” would you raise your hand up high? I would love to pray for you.

Thank You, Lord.

Anyone else?

Thank You, Jesus.

You want to give your life to Jesus. I see that hand.

Anyone else?

You can raise it up high and lower it down.

We are going to pray together, because the Bible says that if we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus is who He said He is, that He died for our sins and rose up three days later, then we will be saved, and our new life with Him starts today.

If that is you, I am going to ask that you pray this with us, along with the rest of the church.

Let us pray this, because there are people taking a step toward Jesus today, saying, “I am not going to run away from Him anymore.”

Dear Jesus, I give You my life. I receive Your forgiveness. Thank You for what You did for me on the cross. I believe that You died and rose again, and that because of that I can now be forgiven of all my sin, past, present, and future.

You paid for it all.

I thank You for Your grace. I thank You for Your forgiveness, Lord. I receive it right now.

You are my Lord and my Savior from this day on, for the rest of my life.

I am coming out of my way. I am running toward You, Jesus.

I pray this in Your mighty, mighty, beautiful name.

Amen.

Just before we end the service, I just want to say our prayer team is going to be up here. Anyone can come.