Amen. So Jonah chapter one,
obviously a really familiar passage,
one that we like to often read to the kids.
It's got that great story about the whale and the fish.
But I believe there's also some other important applications
we can make out of this chapter regarding the Christian life.
I want to preach a sermon this morning entitled Drifters.
We're going to look at Jonah and then towards the end,
we're going to look at another person who began to drift in the Christian life.
The reason why we need to hear a sermon like this is
because as I've noticed in my own life and being in ministry,
I've seen this in the lives of others,
there's a tendency in human nature within
the Christian life to begin to drift away from God.
A lot of times when people first get saved,
when they first get on fire for the Lord,
they can't imagine that they would ever begin
to drift away from the things of God to go back to the world.
But we see this in scripture over and over again.
We're just going to look at a couple of examples this morning that there's
something about human nature that causes us to become,
if we're not careful, drifters.
It's something we have to keep in check.
We don't want to be found drifting away from the Lord.
It's something a lot of times that happens very gradually,
very slowly, but it often happens very surely.
Again, we probably all go through this to some degree in our lives,
whether inwardly, just in our own hearts maybe,
we're showing up to church,
we're at all the services,
but our hearts just aren't in it.
We're not reading our Bibles,
we're not praying, we're not doing the works that we're supposed to be doing,
because our hearts have grown cold,
we begin to drift away spiritually.
Again, a lot of times that manifests too.
People will drift away,
and eventually they're just completely out of church,
they're completely gone back to the world,
they're not living for the Lord at all.
This is something that we all have the potential to do,
to become drifters.
Now, if you look there in Jonah chapter 1,
it says in verse 1,
now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,
and cry against it for their wickedness is come up before me.
So he's being told, hey, you need to go,
you need to preach these people,
and we won't want to get into all of the reasons why Jonah objected,
but he was no fan of the Ninevites there.
But notice when God's word came and Jonah was told what to do,
when the will of God was revealed unto him,
he said no.
He said no, and that wasn't enough.
He said no, and then he began to run away from the Lord,
and began to drift away, quite literally in a boat, right?
He actually goes down to a boat, it says there in verse 3,
but Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord,
and went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish,
and he paid the fare thereof and went down into it
to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
So here he is trying to flee from the presence of the Lord,
and I want us to notice when Jonah began to drift,
the first thing he did was that he chose a direction.
He chose a direction.
You notice there it says he went down to Joppa from the Lord.
Now a lot of times the Bible uses that term going down
because of just the geography, the location.
A lot of times it's how they went down from Jerusalem,
because Jerusalem has a higher elevation.
But the application here is that when you begin to drift away from God,
when you begin to get away from the Lord,
the direction you're choosing is down.
It's not up.
It's saying life's actually going to get harder,
life's actually going to get worse,
I'm going to become more miserable the more I drift away from God.
Things are not going to get better.
Things are actually going to get worse.
When you begin to drift away from God,
you choose a direction,
and that direction every time is down.
And once you start to go down,
you just keep going down.
The foolish thing here is that he's trying to flee from who?
His neighbor?
No, he's trying to flee from the Lord himself,
from the presence of the Lord.
And if you remember a few weeks ago,
a few months ago,
we went through that whole series about the nature of God.
We talked about the omnipresence of God,
and God is everywhere.
And I don't think that's something that would have taken Jonah by surprise.
Oh, I didn't realize God was everywhere.
And yet, even him knowing,
he still thinks foolishly that somehow he can get away from God
if he just goes far away enough,
he just goes down enough that eventually God will just forget about him.
But the truth is, and we all know this,
is that there is no escaping from the presence of the Lord.
If we think we're going to go back to the world
and God's just going to forget about us,
if we can just drift far enough away
and just get deep enough into sin
that God's just going to forget about us,
we are sorely mistaken.
And praise God that he doesn't forget about us.
You know, there is no escaping from the presence of the Lord.
The Bible says, am I not a God at hand?
Am I a God at hand, sayeth the Lord, and not a God afar off?
Say, look, I'm God when I'm close to you,
right here in this place, no matter where you go,
you go afar off, I'm God there too.
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?
And this is exactly what Jonah's trying to do
in this passage, I'm trying to drift away from God,
I'm trying to get away from the presence of God,
I'm going to go hide myself in some secret place
that maybe the Lord just won't see me there.
And God is telling Jeremiah here,
can any hide himself in secret places
that I shall not see him, sayeth the Lord?
Do not I fill heaven and earth, sayeth the Lord?
So there is no escaping from the presence of the Lord.
That's the first thing we need to understand.
When you choose to drift away from God
and you start to go down, there is no escape.
There is no depth far enough that you can go
to where God's just going to forget that you exist.
The Bible says in Psalm 139,
whether I shall I go from thy spirit,
or whether shall I flee from thy presence?
If I send up into heaven, thou art there.
If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
There is no depth that you can go to
where God's just going to say,
well, I don't know what happened to so and so.
We cannot escape from the presence of the Lord,
no matter the depth, no matter the distance.
He said in Psalm 139, if I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.
Isn't that exactly what Jonah's doing in the story?
He's fleeing, he's going to the uttermost parts of the sea.
Even there shall thy hand lead me,
and thy right hand shall hold me.
See, we like to think about how close God is to us
when we're doing right.
We like to think about how close God is to us
when things are hard, when there's trouble,
when we're going through some trial,
we comfort ourselves with passages like this.
Even there shall thy hand lead me,
and thy right hand shall hold me.
No matter how far away I go,
even if I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
you are with me, you will never leave me,
or never forsake me.
And look, that's a great promise from God,
that he will always be there for us.
But you know what, that's a double-edged sword too.
Because when we get backslidden,
when we get out of sorts with the Lord,
when we begin to drift away,
don't forget, God's still there too.
God's always there.
There is no fleeing from his presence,
no matter how far down we go.
And again, fleeing from God is always a downward direction.
If you look there in Jonah chapter one, verse three,
it says that he went down to Joppa,
and he found a ship going to Tarshish,
and he paid the fare thereof.
And notice, they didn't stop there.
Once you get on that slippery slope of sin,
he just keeps sliding further and further,
and went down into it.
He went down to Tarshish, and then when he got there,
he found a ship, and he went down into that.
That doesn't sound like a very pleasant place to be
in the bottom of a ship.
You know, if you're going out to sea,
typically you wanna be out on the deck,
beholding the sights, and out there
taking in the scenery and all of that,
but not Jonah.
He's down there by himself, miserable,
in some dark, dank little ship.
And you know, that's what a lot of people do
when they get away from God.
They find some, you know, dark little shadowy place
that they can just be by themselves,
and don't wanna be bothered by anyone,
and they become basically shut-ins, recluses.
And we have to understand something that even there,
God is still present.
Even there, God will still find you.
It doesn't matter how far down to Tarshish you go.
Well, I'm down to Tarshish, maybe if I go a little further,
just get down on the ship and go out to sea.
Nope, God will still find you there.
And people think that they can just get away from God
and everything will be fine.
That if they just go far enough away,
if they just drift off far enough,
that somehow God's gonna forget about them.
And here's the foolish thing that they think,
well, life will be easier.
If I could just cast off the Christian life,
if I could just quit worrying
about trying to be a moral person,
if I could just quit worrying about having to obey
all these rules that the Bible has,
if I could just quit listening to my parents
and just go out and live for the world,
if I could just not have to listen to the preacher
and show up and go to church and read my,
if I could just get away from God, life will be easier.
You know, the exact opposite is true.
Go to 1 John 3, keep something there in Jonah,
go to 1 John 3.
The Bible says in Proverbs 13,
the way of transgressors is hard.
The way of transgressors is hard.
And look, chances are most of us, if not all of us,
know somebody that is a transgressor.
And we would look at their life and we would say,
you're living a hard life.
You ever just look at somebody
and just know they've lived a hard life?
I mean, you could see it in their face.
They're downtrodden, they're weathered.
I mean, the people that are living out here in the streets,
addicted to drugs that have forsaken
their parents, forsaken the guides of their youth
that have just decided they're just gonna drift down
into obscurity and get hooked on drugs
and not be lazy and not work.
Go tell me they're not living a hard life.
Go look at their life and the life they're living
and then come back and tell me
how hard the Christian life is.
It's so hard to be wholesome.
It's so hard to stay married to one person.
It's so hard to raise godly kids.
It's so hard to keep myself pure.
It's so hard to not get into sin.
You know what's really hard is giving into sin.
Being a transgressor, that is harder.
Transgression is basically to infringe
or go beyond the bounds of a moral principle
or an established standard of behavior.
That's what it means to transgress,
to go against the bounds of a moral principle
or established standard of behavior.
The Bible defines it, 1 John 3, verse four,
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law,
for sin is the transgression of the law.
Look, when we get into sin,
it's not just that we're a little backslidden.
We are actually transgressing the law.
We are choosing a hard way.
We are on a downward path when we decide to sin
and go against what the Bible teaches.
I'm not gonna sit up here, get up here
and say that the Christian life is easy.
The Christian life is hard.
I mean, why is it that people drift away?
Why is it that people stop coming to church?
Why is it that people quit going out
and knocking on doors and preaching the gospel?
Why is it that people quit reading their Bibles?
Why is it that people drop standards in their homes?
Because it is hard, because it is difficult,
because it is an upward battle,
because it is a struggle
that we have to fight every single day.
We have to bring our bodies into subjection
every single day.
We have to choose to live for God every single day.
And look, it can wear people down, I understand.
But you know what's a lot harder?
Transgressing the law.
You know what's a lot harder?
Going down to Tarshish.
You know what's a lot harder?
Going down into the ship.
You say the Christian life is so hard.
Yeah, but you know what?
The results of backsliding and being a drifter,
they're even harder.
And here's the thing.
I started out talking about how,
look, God isn't gonna just let us drift away.
And God's gonna be there no matter how far away
we go.
How do I know that the way of the transgressor is hard?
How do I know that getting away from God
is going to be harder?
Because God will make sure it is.
It's not just the sin itself.
So you gotta understand,
if you're saved, you're one of God's children,
God's not just gonna let you drift away
any more than I would let one of my own children
just drift away.
You say, oh, there goes my son right out the door.
He would never do this.
He's headed straight for Grant on a busy afternoon.
He's just gonna walk out there and play in the street.
Well, see what happens.
No, I would run and grab him and correct him
and teach him, you need to stop doing that.
And it's the same way with us.
God isn't just gonna let us drift away.
We think, we have this foolish notion
if I just get far away enough, life will be easier.
No, God will make sure it's harder.
He'll make sure that it's harder.
Bible says in Proverbs 14,
go to Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12.
The Bible says in Proverbs 14,
the backslider and heart shall be filled with his own ways.
He be filled with his own ways.
God says, oh, you like sin so much?
You like just casting off my rules
and living for the world?
Here, let me just fill you up with that.
Let me just give you more of what you want.
And you know what you'll find out?
Is that it's actually harder than living a Christian life.
It's a lot harder to be the drunk than to be the sober guy.
It's a lot harder to be the pot head
than to be the sober guy.
It's a lot harder to be the divorced individual
with alimony and child support and all these other things
than it is to just stay married and do what's right.
Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse three.
This is how I know the way of the transgressor is harder
because God will make sure of it.
Verse three, for consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself,
lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
Oh, the Christian life is just so hard.
Well, you haven't resisted unto blood, it says in verse four.
You have not resisted unto blood striving against sin.
Consider what Christ went through.
Then tell me how hard the Christian life is.
But that's not what I wanna preach on.
Look at verse five.
And you've forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children.
My son despiseth not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou are rebuked of him,
for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth.
Does that mean, well, no, I'm the exception.
No, you're not, you special little snowflake.
You unique little individual.
I'm the exception.
No, God chastens every son whom he receiveth.
In fact, it says there in verse six,
for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth, verse eight.
But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers,
then are you bastards and not sons.
Say, look, if you can go out and live a wicked life,
if you can just go down to Joppa,
if you can just go ahead and get down on the ship
and you can just go down and drift away
and God doesn't chasten you, you're not saved.
How do I know?
That's the one good thing about being chastened by God
when you're backslidden.
Well, at least I know I'm saved.
God's whooping me and at least I know I'm saved
because every son, but if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then you're bastards and not sons.
That's what the Bible's teaching here.
And that's why I'm preaching things like this.
That's why I'm preaching this message
because I know there's people that are drifting
and there's people in this room that one day will drift
and at the very least will be tempted to drift away
and I just wanna warn you right now
that because you're saved,
God will chasten you if you begin to drift.
And I don't wanna see that in your life.
I don't wanna see God come down on you
and try to straighten you out.
Why not just straighten yourself out?
Why drift away at all?
Why not just grab that rope and say,
I think I'll just come back to shore and get with the Lord?
So notice first of all that when Jonah began to drift,
he chose a direction and that direction is down.
But notice also that Jonah, when he decided to drift,
he began to pay, he had to pay the dues, right?
He had to pay the dues.
It says in Jonah chapter one, verse three,
but Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord and he went down to Joppa
and he found a ship going to Tarshish
and he found a ship going to Tarshish.
So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it
to go with them unto Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord.
He had to pay the fare thereof.
And here's what I'm trying to,
this is the application I make.
Go over to James chapter one, James chapter one.
No one rides for free on the devil's ship.
Now obviously these weren't demonic men
that he was riding with, but this is the analogy,
that when you begin to drift away and get away from God,
you're still, not only is God gonna come down on you,
but you're actually gonna have to pay your dues
to the devil.
You're gonna have to give the devil his dues, right?
As the saying goes, because no one rides for free.
It's still gonna cost you.
James chapter one, look at verse 13.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God,
for God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man.
But every man is tempted when he is, what?
Drawn away of his own lust and enticed.
And when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin,
and when sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Whatsoever a man sow, that shall he also reap.
It's an inescapable rule of the universe
that God has just put into place.
And it's gonna cost you something.
I'm gonna drift away from God,
I'm gonna quit going to church,
I'm gonna quit serving the Lord,
I'm just gonna get far away enough.
Well, you know what?
You can go and get on that ship if you want,
but you're gonna have to pay the dues.
And a lot of times those dues come at the end, don't they?
You know, Jonah's paying up front.
But sometimes after a life of sin,
after, you know, a season of getting away
into the pleasures of sin, after a time away from the Lord,
that's when the bill comes due.
And say, well, if I knew it was gonna cost me that much,
then I wouldn't pay it.
I mean, I'm just gonna go out
and commit a little fornication before I get married.
I'm just gonna go out and do that for a little while.
What's the worst that could happen?
Then the bill comes due.
Oh, STDs.
Oh, unwanted pregnancies.
Oh, abortion.
All kinds of things.
Then the bill comes due.
And the devil, you know, he's, you know,
you gotta pay that bill.
You can't just tear it up and say, well, I'm bankrupt.
He's gonna send the collectors after you.
That's how life works.
No one rides for free.
So here's what I'm getting at.
Do the math.
Oh, the Christian life's so hard,
I feel like kinda just drifting away
and hopefully nobody bothers me.
Well, okay, you wanna do that,
but why don't you go ahead and do the math first?
Because when you begin to drift away, one,
God's not gonna let you just drift away.
He's gonna chasten you.
Okay, so that, let's do the math.
The devil's gonna chasten you.
Then let's go ahead and add the devil and his dues.
You know, you draw the line, you add that up,
and the sum is, you know, I'd rather just live for the Lord.
Let's just keep living for God.
Let's just keep, let's not drift away.
Because backsliding is gonna bring God's chastening
and the devil is not going to treat you nicely.
The Bible says that the thief cometh not
but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
That's all he wants to do is just destroy your life.
Is that how he's gonna put it there?
Is that how, would that be good advertising
on the devil's part?
If he was trying to get you into some sin
that's gonna destroy you?
If just like, you know, it's not like a pack of cigarettes
where on the side it says, you know,
surgeon's general warning.
There is no surgeon's general warning
when it comes to the devil.
He doesn't want to warn you
because he probably wouldn't do it.
If he's trying to get you into some sin
you could foresee the consequences.
You know, you'd be a lot less likely to do it, hopefully.
He's not trying to treat you nicely
but is that how he packages it?
Oh, just come away for a little while.
Let's just drift away.
Let's go over and enjoy this sin
and get away from God and quit obeying all those rules,
quit worrying about all this stuff,
all these spiritual things.
Look at everybody else that's having so much fun.
What's the worst that could happen?
And all what's really going on there
is just the devil plotting to destroy you.
He's not gonna treat you nicely.
So Jonah here, he decides when he,
to begin to drift away from God that he,
well, he chooses a direction and he goes down.
Then he chooses to go ahead and pay the devil his dues.
He pays the fare thereof.
And really, when you think about this story,
Jonah's delusional.
I mean, to sit there and think,
I can get away from God by just hopping on a ship
and sailing away.
That's delusional.
And if you think, well, I'm just gonna turn 18
and run out and just go ahead and do my own thing
and God's not gonna care about what I do,
you're delusional.
If you're saved, you're delusional.
If you think that God is just gonna let you run off,
I don't care what age you are.
Well, you know what?
This is the last service I'm ever coming to.
I'm just gonna go ahead and put my Bible on the shelf
and never read another word of it,
just not care about the things of God.
And he'll just forget about me.
You're delusional.
That's what Jonah was.
I mean, with such a foolish thought to think
that you could flee from the presence of the Lord.
And God didn't give up on him.
Look there at verse four, Jonah chapter one, verse four.
But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea
and there was a mighty tempest in the seas
that the ship was like to be broken.
Then the mariners were afraid and cried,
every man unto his God and cast forth
the wares that were in the ship into the sea
to lighten it of them.
But Jonah was gone down to the sides of the ship
and he lay there and was fast asleep.
He's just down there.
There's a storm just taking place
and it's God that's sending it.
And he's just down there, I'm just not,
this isn't happening.
This is not happening to me.
This is not happening, right?
Fingers in his ears, eyes closed,
just trying to ignore the fact that God had sent a storm,
that God was beginning to heal.
He's delusional.
You're delusional if you think
that God isn't gonna chasten you.
You're delusional if you think that the devil
isn't going to, living for him
isn't going to cost you something.
Bible says in Proverbs chapter 14,
there is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Jonah's thinking, hey, you know what?
If I just get away from God,
I can just go down to Tarshish.
I could just hop on this ship.
I can go down to the sides of the ship
and just go to sleep down there
and everything's gonna be fine.
It seems right to me.
But what was the end thereof?
Death.
I mean, that's how the picture is,
it's starting to sum up for these guys.
I mean, the mariners, they're afraid.
They're saying, this isn't good.
We're in a storm, people die in storms like this.
Began to worry.
But it seemed right when I started out.
Yeah, it seemed right, you know why?
Because you're delusional.
Because he's delusional.
He's got a skewed understanding of reality
and how it works with God.
So Jonah, when he chose to drift away,
he became, he chose a direction, he went down,
he chose to pay the dues and he became delusional.
But finally, and here's, well, the next point
is that Jonah was finally discovered.
He was finally discovered.
You know, God is finally, there's gonna come a point
where God just turns the spotlight on and there you are.
Well, I was all the way down in the ship.
I was all the way down on the side.
How did God find me?
Yep, there he is.
And he found you and you're discovered.
Look at Jonah chapter one, verse six.
So the ship master came to him and said unto him,
what meanest thou, O sleeper?
Arise, call upon thy God.
If so, be that God will think upon us,
that we perish not.
And they said, everyone to his fellow come
and let us cast lots that we may know
for whose cause this evil is upon us.
So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah.
This is him being discovered.
You know, this is you at the job
when you're just telling all the dirty jokes
and talking about the Friday night you had,
doing what, running around with whoever with all the guys.
And then it's like, oh, I thought you were a Christian.
Didn't you used to go to church?
I thought you said you were a Baptist.
I thought you said you believed the Bible.
The lot falls upon Jonah.
So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah.
Then they said unto him, tell us we pray thee
for whose cause this evil is upon us.
What is thine occupation and whence comest thou?
What is thy country and of what people art thou?
So they're like, oh, it's Jonah's fault.
They get the heat lamp out.
They sit him down, strap the lie detector on him
and it's just an interrogation.
What's your occupation?
Where did you come from?
What is your country?
And what people art thou?
Is your name Jonah?
Test the baseline, right, on the test.
And they said unto them, I am in Hebrew
and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven,
which made the sea and dry land.
Then the men were exceedingly afraid
and they said unto them, why hast thou done this?
For the men knew that he had fled
from the presence of the Lord because he had told them.
So they find out, oh, you're one of those Hebrews?
You serve the Lord, the God of heaven and earth?
This is who's sending the storm?
They got really scared, didn't they?
They got really worried.
And that's more, you know, that's a better,
they're actually having a better reaction than Jonah did.
Jonah's down on the side of the ship, sleeping,
being delusional, just thinking,
oh, everything's gonna be fine.
They hear this and they're like, whoa, we need a straight,
what have you done to us?
We need to do something about this.
Jonah was finally discovered.
And here's the thing, if we think that we can just drift
away from God and just go down and even be willing
to pay the dues and be so delusional to think such a thing,
don't think that God still isn't gonna discover you
wherever you are.
He will find you out.
He will find where you are
and he'll begin to work on your life.
He will begin to deal with you.
And it's not gonna be pretty, it will not be pretty.
This is why I'm preaching against the tendency for us
to drift away from God.
Because you get far enough away from God,
you go down far enough and God starts to discovers you
and begins to deal with you, it's not gonna be pretty.
The Bible says in Numbers 32,
be sure your sin will find you out.
Bible says in Proverbs 15, the eyes of the Lord
are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
You see that Jonah, when he decided to drift, he went down
and that he paid the dues and that he was delusional
and that he's finally discovered.
But then Jonah finally is devoured.
When God began to deal with him,
did he just send a storm and say,
well, maybe that'll straighten him out?
No, he had to go a step further, didn't he?
I mean, Jonah, why didn't the story say, you know what,
let's just turn the ship around and let's get back.
Why don't we just try to make things right?
No, he's digging in his heels.
Look at verse 11.
Then they said unto him, what shall we do unto thee
that the sea may be calm unto us?
For the sea was rotten and tempentuous.
And he said unto them, take me up
and cast me forth into the sea.
So shall the sea be calm unto you.
For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring land.
So they don't wanna throw them in, but they could not,
for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them.
Wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said,
we beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee,
let us not perish for this man's life,
and lay not upon us innocent blood,
for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.
So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea,
and the sea seized her raging.
And the men feared the Lord exceedingly
and offered a sacrifice, and the Lord made vows.
Verse 17, now the Lord had prepared a great fish
to swallow up Jonah.
I mean, Jonah got, God said,
oh, you like going down so much?
You like trying to get a far way from east?
Let me just go ahead and send a fish
and I'll take you all the way down to the depths of the sea.
Go read the story.
Go read Jonah's prayer.
He's down there, he's like, the seaweed's around my head,
I'm surrounded by the bars of the earth,
I'm at the bottom of the mountains, I'm in the deep.
You know, God might just get to the point and say,
oh, you like getting so far away from me,
let me just go ahead and take you a little deeper.
Not because he's mean, not because he's cruel,
just to make you understand that
that's not really what you want in life,
to begin to drift away from God.
You know, there's that saying,
sin will take you farther than you want to go.
And that's true.
It'll cost you more than you're willing to pay,
it'll keep you there longer than you're wanting to stay.
That's exactly what's going on with Jonah.
I'll just drift away from God,
I'll just get away from the Lord,
I'll just run away from doing his will
and I'll just go down to the ship, I'll hide.
And God says, oh, you like that so much.
Well, here's a great big fish that's just gonna devour you
and take you down deeper than you ever intended to go.
Why?
Because that's how God is dealing with Jonah
and God will deal the same way with us.
Like I'm not saying some giant fish
is gonna come swallow you.
But God might just let you sink further down that sin
until you just get so sick and tired of it
that you can't stand yourself.
And then maybe you'll cry out to God.
And what we need to understand from this
is that there is no escaping God's judgment.
That's why it's so scary
to watch people begin to drift away from God.
Because you know, I mean,
that eventually if they drift far enough,
there's gonna be judgment involved.
God's gonna work in their life
in a way that he probably would prefer he didn't.
You say, well, what a great sermon, how uplifting.
I'm so glad I came to church this morning.
I'm so encouraged.
Well, you're definitely been warned, right?
But let me give you some encouragement here at the end.
You know, Jonah, of course, he went down, right?
He chose a direction, he paid the dues.
And then of course he was delusional
about thinking that he could get away from God.
And eventually God dealt and he was devoured.
But also notice in the story
that Jonah eventually was delivered.
Now God had to bring him to his senses.
It says there in chapter two, verse one,
then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God
out of the fish's belly.
You know, it'd been a lot easier
to just pray that on the shore,
staring at that ship.
That would've been the place to cry out to God.
Lord, I'm tempted, I'm drifting away, I can tell.
And I don't know how far out I'm gonna go on this ship.
I don't know how long I'm gonna be on there,
but I really don't wanna go that way.
But this is what God had to do to get Jonah to pray,
to see things his way.
He had to devour him
and take him deeper than he wanted to go.
And Jonah prayed and the Lord his God
out of the fish's belly.
We'll jump over to verse 10.
And the Lord spake unto the fish,
and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
I just love, this is probably my favorite part of the story.
Because it says it vomited him, right?
Unto, upon the dry land.
And this is a great fish.
So did it, this is just me speculating.
So did this thing like beach itself?
Like kind of bleh.
Is that how it happened?
And then the fish is just kind of stuck?
You know, it's beached?
Or was it that the fish wasn't gonna beach itself
so it kind of breached
and then just like projectile vomited him?
I just embellish things in my head.
That's probably, I just like that story,
that version better than just this fish
kind of laying there with that, you know.
I like him coming up out of the water and blah.
Out comes this guy, you know,
this little Hebrew just flying in the air.
Seaweed on him and just plop on the dry land.
I mean, he's clearing the wading waters,
you know, that first 20 feet
where you can go out and just get up to your waist
or whatever and he just clears that
all the way up into the reeds and he's on the dry land.
Oh, he was delivered all right.
Whew, glad that's over.
I wonder if though it probably wasn't a soft landing,
being vomited by a fish, projectile vomited.
You know, he probably landed a little harder
than he wanted and you have to imagine
he probably didn't look so good either.
I mean, how long does it take you
to get all wrinkly in that water, right?
You're in the bath or the pool a little too long.
That's how I gauge when it's time to get out
and get that raisin look, right?
You gotta get out.
I mean, imagine what he looked like
and he's down there just with all,
who knows what else this fish was eating.
He's dirty, he's wet and he looks pathetic.
Yeah, but I'm delivered.
Well, praise God you're delivered.
I'm glad you came back from the depths, Jonah.
But you know, you looked a lot better
before you got on that ship.
That probably would have been the time to say,
you know what, God, this isn't a good idea.
I'll go to Nineveh.
I'll do what you want.
I'll do your will.
But instead, he gets delusional, he pays the dues,
he goes even farther down than he wanted to go
and yes, he was delivered,
but it wasn't that great of a deliverance.
I mean, it makes for a cool story.
We like talking about it,
but it wasn't probably so good for Jonah.
I mean, imagine you're just some fisherman on that beach
and just seeing that guy sailing over you
in the land and I'm like, what happened to you?
And isn't that what happens to people so often
when they get away from God and they come back?
A lot of times that they've been out living a life of sin
and you can just look at them and say,
man, it's been a rough go out there, hasn't it?
You had a rough time out there.
Yep.
And you know what, sometimes you can't just,
you know, Jonah can just pull the seaweed off,
brush off the sand, dry out and go on.
Look, if you drift away from God,
yeah, you might be delivered,
but you might come back eventually with some scars.
You might come back with some baggage
that you're just never gonna shake.
You know, not even physically,
you might, you know, more of a mental thing.
There's, look, there's some things you get out and sin,
there's some things you'll wish you could forget.
There's some things that'll haunt you
for the rest of your life and you'll never live down.
Yeah, I was delivered though.
Well, you know what, I wanna be delivered too,
but I don't feel like being vomited up by a fish,
projectile or otherwise.
I don't care how great a story it is
or how cool it might sound.
You know, I'd rather just live for God.
I'd rather just never go to that ship.
I'd rather just have the word of the Lord come to me
and say, okay, Lord, I'll do that
and not have to deal with all these things
that Jonah had to deal with.
So this is the application of the sermon.
Don't drift away.
You see what happens to people who drift,
all the things that they do when they choose to go down,
boy, they go down.
And yeah, they get delivered,
but it's not always a pretty picture.
So don't drift away.
And look, I know the Christian life is hard.
I know it's difficult.
And I know we have our nature wants to pull us away.
There's something in us that just wants
to get away from God.
It's that dual nature that we have,
that old man is always rearing up his ugly head
and trying to pull us away,
but don't give in to that temptation.
You know, it's like Bible reading.
You know, let me just go ahead and confess my faults here.
You know, I don't always feel like reading my Bible.
I know it's hard to believe, right?
What, even the deacon?
Yeah, because I have the old man, too.
You know, when I just make myself read it,
I'm so glad that I did.
And then I'll find myself wanting to read it.
Finding time, oh, I could schedule more Bible reading time.
Oh, I could do an evening session.
Or I could just pick it up any time I want and read it.
I find myself busy and saying,
I can't wait till tomorrow if I can go ahead and read it.
Now, do I always feel that way?
No.
But I resist the temptation to drift away.
And I'm just using that as an example.
That's the mentality you have to have in the Christian life.
I'm not saying you're never gonna be tempted
to run off into sin or get away from God,
but you have to resist that temptation.
Don't drift away.
Because, you know, there's a price to pay.
And also, you're probably gonna end up
dragging other people with you.
And we'll close here in John 21.
You don't have to keep anything there in Jonah anymore.
Go to John 21.
I wanna close on this thought of another drifter,
which is the Apostle Peter.
And notice it's the same thing.
He gets on a boat and he gets away from shore.
You have to remember that Christ, before he ascended,
specifically told his disciples
to tarry in the city of Jerusalem
until you be it undoed with power from on high.
That was the commandment.
He said, look, stay in Jerusalem
until you be empowered from on high,
till the Holy Spirit comes.
That was the day of Pentecost.
But that's not what Peter did.
And Peter, obviously, if we know the whole story,
he's probably still beating himself up
over having denied Christ
and thinking he's just not good enough.
Look at John 21, verse one.
It says, and after these things,
Jesus showed himself again to the disciples
at the Sea of Tiberias.
On this wise, he showed himself.
You have to remember,
between them being told, hey, stay in Jerusalem,
and John 21, Peter says, I go a-fishing.
And the rest of the disciples went with him.
He decides, well, I'm not gonna obey that command.
I'm just gonna go drift away.
Go back to what?
That old life, right?
That's what he was before, a fisherman.
And it says in verse two,
now there were gathered, excuse me,
there were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus
and Nathaniel of Cana and Galilee and the sons of Zebedee
and two other of his disciples.
So notice he's dragging people with him.
And that's, you know,
sometimes that's what happens in churches, too.
When people begin to drift away,
you know, and people look around and say,
well, so-and-so's not here anymore.
They're not coming around, and they're doing all right.
Maybe I'll go do the same thing.
Yeah, but you don't see what's going on day in and day out.
You don't know what's going on in their lives,
but that's a tendency that can happen
as people begin to drag other people away.
But here's the thing.
When people begin to drift away, what do they have to do?
They have to distract themselves, don't they?
They have to distract themselves
from the nagging thought that they're backslidden.
Look at verse three.
Then Simon Peter saith unto him,
I go a fishing, they say unto him, we also go with thee,
and they went forth and entered to a ship immediately,
and that night they caught nothing.
So he goes back to his old ways, fishing all night,
and he's just trying to stay busy doing what he used to do.
And now think about the fact that,
oh, I'm supposed to be in Jerusalem right now.
God told me to stay there.
He's distracting himself.
That's what people do when they get into sin
and they get backslidden with God.
They get like Jonah, I'll just go further down.
Okay, I'm on the ship, maybe I'll go down the ship
and that'll get me farther away.
And maybe God, I want to think about him so much.
And they just keep getting more and more convicted.
But the other thing I want us to notice about drifting
is that it's disappointing, it's disappointing.
People think, oh, I'm gonna drift away
and life's gonna be better.
Life's gonna be so much easier,
I won't have the pressure of the Christian life on me,
and I'm just gonna have all this joy
and fun and happiness.
You might for a season, there is pleasure
and sin for a season, we understand that,
but ultimately it's disappointing.
I mean, explain to me all these people that have everything
are some of the most miserable people.
All the movie stars and the rock stars and the millionaires
and everybody else who just have more than heart could wish.
But what else are they?
Drug addicts, they're on their third, fourth marriage.
They're just, they come to the end of their life
and say it wasn't worth it.
It's vain, it's empty, it's hollow.
Drifting is disappointing.
Verse four, but when the morning was now come,
excuse me, verse three, he said, I go a-fishing.
They went and entered into a ship
and immediately that night, and they what?
They caught nothing.
Well, that's disappointing.
You think that's why he went fishing?
I'm gonna go out there and just catch nothing.
Look, anyone who goes fishing wants to catch something.
They wanna tell that story, like my one-armed uncle.
He always caught a fish this big.
You think about it, you'll get it later.
But that's what it is, it's disappointing.
They go out there and they catch nothing.
Drifting is disappointing.
Look at verse four, it says, but when the morning
was now come, Jesus stood on the shore,
but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
Then Jesus saith unto them, children, have you any meat?
They answered him, no.
Can't imagine what a pathetic no.
Who's this guy in the bank asking us
why we caught anything?
You got any meat?
No.
What's it to you?
And he said unto them, cast thine head
on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.
They cast, therefore, and now they were not able
to draw it from the multitude of fishes.
Now, this should have immediately gotten Peter's attention.
Because remember, this is how he found Peter.
Same situation.
He fished on master, we were out all night,
and we've caught nothing.
Go out and let down the nets.
And they couldn't, they had to get his buddies
to help him drag the nets in.
You would think, it's an exact replay
of when Jesus first came and told Peter to follow him.
And Peter loses all discernment.
He can't even discern, even in the exact same
circumstances, who this guy is on the shore
asking whether or not I caught something.
Because here's the thing, drifting,
not only is it disappointing,
but it's gonna ruin your discernment.
You're gonna end up like that meme of the dog
in the house that's burning down.
Everything's fine.
This is fine.
Whole world's just on fire around you.
You're in just intimate peril.
No discernment.
You know, we can, you drift far enough away,
you'll get just so used to sin,
you'll get so used to God's chastening,
you'll think, oh, this is normal.
This is how life is.
This is the way it's supposed to be.
That's you being blinded, that's you being drugged down,
that's you losing your discernment.
John caught on, verse seven, it says,
Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved
saith unto Peter, It is the Lord.
Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he girt his fisher's coat upon him,
for he was naked, and it cast himself into the sea.
It's like, Peter, John had to tell you that?
That's who that is?
It's the exact same miracle.
He's already done this with you once before.
Peter, did you really think God was just gonna let you
drift off and go back to your old life and just go fishing
after he told you to be in Jerusalem?
You should know better.
And if we're drifting this morning,
if you're feeling like you're getting away from God,
you need to be like Peter in the story.
This is the one part of Peter's story you need to emulate.
You need to dive back in.
Look, if you're drifting away,
just dive back in and swim for shore.
That's what he did.
He cast himself into the sea.
He didn't say, all right, well, let's go back
and get what's coming.
Because they're being caught red-handed here.
I mean, Jesus shows up, it's like busted, right?
What are you doing here?
You're supposed to be in Jerusalem.
Why are you back in this old life?
Well, let's turn the boat around
and let's start lazily paddling back
and get a talking to.
No, he said, you know what?
I'm this far away from God, thank God.
I didn't know who it was at first,
but now I can see it's God that's working my life.
I'm just gonna dive back in and swim across
and get back to the Lord.
Look, if you're drifting away spiritually,
you need to dive in and swim back against the current,
however long it takes, and get back with God.
Get back on that shore, get close to the Lord.
Because, you know, and here's the thing,
we'll end with this thought,
is that when they finally got back to the Lord,
did Jesus just chew them up one side and down the other?
No, he served them.
It says in verse 12,
Jesus saith unto him, come and dine.
And none of the disciples dares ask him who art thou,
knowing that it was the Lord.
Jesus then cometh with a rod,
and said, all right, assume the position.
No, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.
You know, you say, why would God chase in me?
Why would God, why is God so concerned about what I do?
Why is God gonna come down on me like a ton of bricks
if I get away from him?
Because he loves you.
Because he wants to feed you.
Because he wants you to come dine with him.
He wants that fellowship.
And that's a good meal when you get with God.
And it's, you know, look, the fridge is full.
The Lord is, he's got a spiritual bounty
waiting to just share with you.
But he can't do it when you're way over there.
You know, you can look at the shore and say,
man, that fire looks warm, that fish smells good.
I can smell the bread.
But if you're drifting away,
you're not gonna get any of that.
You're gonna be out there tossed to and fro
on life's sea.
Storm after storm comes.
Look, if you're drifting away,
you need to dive back in and get back to shore
and get with the Lord.
Because he loves you and he wants to partake with you
and he wants to share things with you
and he wants to feed you and warm you up,
put that blanket around you and dry you off
and say, all right, let's get back on track here.
Let's get back to Jerusalem.
And you know what, that's what happens in Peter's life.
He drifts away, this story takes place in John 21.
He gets back with God and then what happens in Acts 2?
Probably one of the greatest sermons ever preached
outside of the Lord Jesus himself by none other than Peter.
He goes on and just preaches this great sermon
in the day of Pentecost, thousands of people get saved.
So we should never have this idea that,
well, I'm just too far away from God,
I've drifted too far, I can't be used.
Well, until I see you swallowed up by a whale
and getting vomited back on land,
I'm not gonna believe that.
Because even a guy like Jonah could drift that far away
and still go and preach and serve God
like he was supposed to.
Even a guy like Peter who drifted away from God
and drug others with him and lost all his discernment
could still be what, still got himself back to land
and was still used mighty of the Lord.
But you know what's better than all that?
Having some great deliverance story
about how I got right with God
is just staying right with God.
You know what's more impressive than the guy
with this testimony of I used to be such a wicked sinner,
I was into all this sin and now I'm delivered.
You know, I used to go to these teen rallies
and things like that in these other churches
and that's the guy that they would have.
You know, they'd get the former crack addict up there
to get up there and tell all these teenagers
who've never even thought about doing anything like that,
well, you know what, I was out there smoking this
and living there and running around this
but God delivered me and they think,
oh, well maybe I could go do that.
I mean, after all, God's gonna deliver me.
Now this is such a dumb thing to tell kids.
And they wanna make, oh, it's just so cool.
You know what's cooler than that?
It's just having never drifted at all.
If Jonah just said, all right, I'll go to Nineveh
and preach the same message.
But is that human nature?
Is that how it works?
No, people, they tend to drift.
They tend to go away.
Maybe they don't go as far as Jonah.
Maybe they're just a little bit away from shore
to where, you know, John can still hear
and see who that is and say, well, let's get back.
But we tend to drift.
Look, don't drift away.
Don't be a drifter.
Stay close to the shore, get with the Lord and serve Him.
Let's go ahead and pray.