know needs a u-turn in some aspect of life, or even if you just need a sign more like one of these, then you're in the right place.

Transcription

1 Jonah 2 Jonah: U-Turn Christianity U-Turns 1 Rev. Brian North January 10 th, 2016 How many of you have ever made a U-turn when you're out and about driving? Most of you have, I see. Of course, you do realize that they're illegal in the state of Washington unless there's a sign that specifically grants permission to do a U-turn, right? So I'm sure most of your U-turns on the road have been in those approved areas, right? Sure they have...or maybe most of those u-turns have been in a state like California where they're legal. I have to confess, when it comes to U-turns, I m fairly legalistic, and it always irks me when I see someone else doing a U-turn where it s not allowed, especially if I m about to turn into the lane that they re doing their U-turn into, or if I m following them to make a left turn, and they swing to wide to make the U-turn and end up doing a three-point turn, oftentimes leaving me hanging out in the middle of the intersection. It s ridiculous. Fortunately, God's attitude towards U-turns in life is much more permissive than mine is on U-turns when driving. His policy on U-turns is more like the state of California's, rather than Washington's. This is good, because you only do a U-turn when you re headed in the wrong direction. No one pulls a U- turn if they re already going the direction they want to. And sometimes when we re on the road of life, we find ourselves going in the wrong direction, and we need to flip a U-turn. Fortunately: God regularly grants U-turns in life, and encourages them, ratherr than making them the exception to the rule. Maybe you, or someone you know, has always thought that God just abandons us when we head off in the wrong direction and He just lets us continue on without noticing our pain, suffering, and struggles. If that's your view of God and life, or if someone you know has that view, then this morning I have some good news for you, because God allows U-turns in life. In fact, he encourages them. And if at the start of 2016 you or someone you know needs a u-turn in some aspect of life, or even if you just need a sign more like one of these, then you're in the right place. Because sometimes we need a new direction, or need some guidance on

2 which way to go, in some aspect of our lives. Maybe you're in a job that doesn't have a future. Maybe you need a job. Maybe you're in a relationship that's broken down and isn't moving forward, or is even abusive. Maybe you're stuck going around in the circles of an addiction. Maybe you just feel like you're on the wrong road and you need to get onto a totally different highway. Whatever your situation, you're in the right place, because God wants to give you the chance for a new direction in life, and 2016 can be the year that you experience that new direction. And at Rose Hill, we believe God has the power to do that in our lives, and we want to welcome and encourage one another in that new direction. Now last week, Lars helped us take a look at Jonah 1 to see an example of one person in the Bible who tried to run from God. God asked Jonah to do something, and Jonah ran in the opposite direction. And then we left off with Jonah getting thrown over the side of a ship and getting swallowed up by a great fish or a whale. It s easy to get caught up in the debate of whether this story is historical or not. Some people imagine this is a story, like a parable. But parables don't usually involve real people Jesus' parables, for example, always use fictitious characters without names. And Jonah was a real Old Testament i prophet who lived in the 700's B.C., and the cities mentioned here really existed, too. But if this is an account of a real event from the life of Jonah, the idea of someone getting swallowed by a big fish or a whale seems highly unlikely, and surviving it seems even more so though miracles do happen. Watch this video clip to get a sense of the possibility of a whale swallowing a person (Video Clip Here) Unfortunately, video cameras were invented just a couple years after Jonah s experience, so his encounter didn t get caught on camera. Regardless, there are two sides to the debate about the historicity of Jonah and the whale, both with their salient points. But if we spend too much time trying to decide if this is a real event or a parable much like the parables Jesus told to make a point, we'll end up missing the point and the theological truths that God has for us in this whale of a tale. Or tale of a whale...whatever you want to call it. And in the second chapter of Jonah we get to the heart of the matter this is 2

3 literally the turning point, and we see how to make a U-turn in life. 3 When you read this, and you keep mind that Jonah was running from God: Isn't it interesting that in the end God is the one he turns to? And the first thing we learn here in regards to making a U-turn is that: We can turn to God even in the midst of failing Him. We've probably all been in some kind of situation where we've been at the end of our ropes and we've cried out, God help me! Oftentimes we find ourselves in those situations because we've made decisions that have led us away from God whether we realize it or not and now we've made a real mess of life. And so we eventually come to what feels like a dead-end in the road of life, and it seems like there's no way out. And so we cry out to God, Lord help me! That's what Jonah does. In the second verse we read, In my distress I called to the Lord...From the depths of the grave I called for help (Jonah 2:2). This is a serious Lord, help me moment in the life of Jonah, and we can probably all identify with it to some degree. After graduating from college I moved to Sun Valley, Idaho. I didn t think of myself as running from God, but I was in most facets of my life. And yet it was there, that I had my own, Lord, help me moment, and got back in line with God s plan for my life. I m just glad it happened for me in Sun Valley rather than in the belly of a big fish. But literally, one night I prayed a prayer not too unlike this one, as I asked God to take over the steering wheel of my life, and get me on track with where he was leading me. It was a transformational moment, a prayer that I needed to pray, and it happened even though I had been running from Him and not acknowledging Him in most every facet of my life. Jonah shows this as well: If a guy who was intentionally running from God can turn to God in the midst of this affliction that he brought upon himself and impacted others as well, and if God will honor that prayer as we come to see that he does, then so can we pray something similar. No matter what you've done, no matter where you are in life, you can turn to God in the midst of it. The second thing we see here is that Jonah shows us how to acknowledge

4 God for confronting us with our waywardness. Jonah is in this predicament because of his own actions, but also because God has intervened and brought him to this place of struggle. Jonah realized as the storm began to brew, that he could not out-run God. As he fought for his life in the sea, he realized how God was confronting him with his own disobedience. Jonah doesn't come out and say, Thank you God, for allowing me this suffering. But as we see in verses 3 and 5 in particular, he does give God credit for hurling him into the sea...for the waves that crash over him, and so forth. And at the end of Jonah 1 we're told that God provided (Hebrew means appointed ) a great fish to swallow Jonah. God's hand is in this, and Jonah acknowledges that fact, and he's grateful, because things could be worse: He could still be running from God. And we should be grateful that God does this in our lives, because it shows that God cares enough not to let us wander off in the wrong direction forever. God pursues us and stops us in our tracks when we're going in the wrong direction. He gets our attention by bringing us into a challenging place, just as Jonah was brought into the belly of this great fish. Consequences for disobedience are good because they get our attention and help us to see our place in life. And so we see that God really is our perfect heavenly father. Some of us had parents who let us get away with everything and we never knew consequences. So we go through life continually caught off-guard and surprised that there is such a thing as bad decisions with consequences because we never learned that when we were young. Others of us had parents who were on the other end of the spectrum and they were very strict and controlling and never let us make a decision for ourselves that didn't have consequences or at least criticisms. Our heavenly father gives us freedom of the will, but eventually the leash runs out and we have to come to grips with the choices we ve made. That s not to say God is cold and uncaring. There is abundant grace as we face the truth; there is mercy in the midst of justice. And so Jonah acknowledges here that he's at the end of his leash and God is confronting him through these consequences, which brings Jonah to his own U-turn. And the key to making a U-turn in life is to the third thing that Jonah 4

5 illustrates for us, and that is to: Recognize that we've messed up that we are going in the wrong direction. We can't just say, I'm going in a new direction but keep doing the same stuff or thinking the same way. We need to admit that we re not going where God is calling us to go. In the language of the Bible and the Christian faith, this is called confession. It s as much for us as it is for God, and it is the key to following where God is leading us. It means acknowledging our own actions and seeking to follow His will, with his help and the help of the church. It's been said that one definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things expecting different results. If we want new results in life, new behavior and new attitudes are needed and that starts with a solid connection to Jesus. Jonah lived before Jesus had made himself known, so his prayer here is to God, but it s the same. Whatever facet of life it is that you'd like to see changed, that you know isn t what God is calling it to be weight loss, stronger marriage, kicking laziness out the window, controlling anger, staying out of the path of a sin that we keep walking in whatever it may be, we can begin by acknowledging where we are and then committing to a new life of God s influence in our life, allowing Him to lead us. He does that when we spend time in prayer, read His Word, connect with other Christians who will support and encourage us in our walk. With Jonah, we then see his return to God being solidified with a commitment to a new way of living at the end of his prayer, when he says in verse 9, What I have vowed I will make good (Jonah 2:9). There's a promise there to do things a new way. There's a heart-felt desire and a promise there to listen to the voice of the Lord and to follow it, and do things differently. I realize that for any of us, getting momentum in a new direction will be difficult at first. There can be a lot of momentum going in the wrong direction, and sometimes it's hard to turn things around. That s true in our individual lives, and it s true in our life together as a church. As many of you know, we re taking some steps in a new direction with a reorganization of our leadership structure here at church. It s a step in a new direction in many ways, freeing up our elders to oversee the church in a way that s been difficult to carry out in the past, while allowing the management and leadership of the ministries of the church to be under one umbrella and operate more cohesively with the staff leading and managing ministry. I 5

6 wouldn t call it a U-turn by any stretch of the imagination, but it s a promise to live into what we ve said for a few years now, that we want to be a more generationally balanced church. By the grace of God, we ve made some strides in that direction. And with this new step, we re saying, What we have vowed, we will make good. It s a promise to do things in a new way so that we would be more effective in our ministries here at Rose Hill and live into being a more generationally balanced church. And maybe in your own life you're in a place in life that it seems like there's no way out, like you've come to a dead end, or that you're in the dark, stinky belly of a great fish in life. Maybe you feel like Jonah and you simply want to cry out, Lord, help me! If you're sincere, He will listen and reveal himself to you. He ll get you out of that dark place in life, just as Jonah found himself getting spat out of the of the belly of the fish. So look for God's hand to open your eyes to how you've strayed, to how you've wandered from what God would have for you. Then look for God to give you the opportunity to do a U-turn and come back to his plan for your life, to get back going in the direction he s calling you. Because God not only lets us do U-turns in life to get back in the right direction, he wants us to. And I hope that this year, in 2016, you and I will be going in the direction God is calling us. Let's pray...amen. (Offering prayer, too.) i 2 Kings 14:25. 6