Take your Bibles if you would, turn to Jonah. We're going to read a verse here and a verse there this evening from the book of Jonah as we conclude our study there. I was talking to somebody after the service like Sunday night last Sunday night and they said, you know, isn't it sad? It doesn't seem like Jonah learned his lesson. By the way, that was you, Mary.

And and so that got me thinking, you know, I I I wanna wrap this up this evening. I I think Jonah did learn, his lesson, and I'll I'll get to why I think that is the case, here in a moment. But there are many lessons we can learn from the book of Jonah, so we're just gonna kinda summarize those this evening. What lessons did Jonah learn? What did he learn?

Why what lessons does he want us to learn? Because I believe Jonah wrote this book. Somebody wrote this book. It is God's word, but somebody actually took the time to pen the words as God led them, as the Holy Spirit led them. And the person that would seem most obvious to do that would be Jonah himself.

And so Jonah is telling us, I believe, his story. What happened to him in hopes that that will make a difference in our life, also make a difference in the lives of the people in the day in which he lived. He was from Northern Israel. He was one of the few prophets that God called out of Northern Israel that we read about in the scripture. Most of the prophets we read about, Isaiah, Jeremiah, all of those, they were in Southern Israel, but Jonah was probably the only prophet from Galilee.

No other prophets were at least recorded in scriptures being from that area. And so, God had a special ministry for Jonah. It wasn't just to the people of it was awful to the also to the people of Israel. And so, we'll come back to that at the end this evening. But first, I want to start out with Jonah's chapter one again and let's look at just that just at verses three and four.

Okay? So God told Jonah, I want you to go preach my word to the people of Nineveh concerning their great wickedness. Verse three, but Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa, that was a port city and he found a ship going to Tarshish which is as far as we can tell a city in Spain. So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them under Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Clearly, Jonah is running from the Lord.

He doesn't wanna do what God has called him to do and he's running from the presence Lord. That's what he says right here in the passage. He goes on to say in verse four, but the Lord sent a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken. So what lessons did Jonah learn? Number one, Jonah learned you cannot run or hide from God.

Now, that's one of the most obvious lessons from all of this book that you cannot run and hide from God. Nonetheless, sometimes even Christians think they can. Well, you know, if I just don't go in the doors of the church, then God won't convict me, he'll just leave me alone. Well, trust me, the last thing any of us wants God to do is to leave us what? To leave us alone.

But the fact is not going to a church is not going to keep God out of your life. You can't avoid his presence just by avoiding church. You can't avoid his presence just by avoiding other Christians. You can't truly avoid his presence by avoiding his word. You're just making things hard on who?

On yourself. Because running from God makes one very, very weary and tired and miserable. It tells us in Psalm one thirty nine beginning in verse seven, whether shall I go from thy spirit or whether shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, then there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both a light to thee. There is no place on earth you can go to flee from the presence of God because he's omnipresent, he's everywhere.

And if you are a child of God, he lives inside your heart. You're not going to get away from God. So what would be the alternative? Rather than running away is to run what? To run to him, to obey him, to trust him.

That's the way we should choose. That is the way of joy, the way of peace. The other way, well, what happened? Jonah ran from God and Jonah found himself in a huge storm on a boat in the middle of the sea. This isn't actually the most comfort comforting of books to read read right now.

I have never been in a boat in the middle of the sea, but at the end of August, Kate and I are supposed to go on a cruise and this this makes me a little bit skittish reading this book. But anyway. But who's gonna go with us? God is. It is not wise to be disobedient to the calling of God.

Jonah learned that as well. God isn't likely to just ignore you or give up. If God calls us to do something, God is fairly determined in what he wants us to do and he has every right to be so because he is our what? He is our creator. He made us.

He made us to fulfill his calling and to serve him. He is our savior. He sent his son to die for us and he has given us this second chance in life To be remade in the image of Jesus Christ through faith in his son and to find a place of service and fulfillment in Jesus Christ. So it's always wise to trust in the Lord and obey him. He is never gonna leave you out in the cold.

He is going to help you to do the thing wherewith he calls you to do. Jonah decided, no, I'm not gonna do it. For whatever reasons, Jonah said, no, I'm not doing it. I'm gonna run the other way. And what did it bring?

It brought chastening, it brought storms. God wasn't just gonna say, okay, Jonah, well, whatever you wanna do. He is the potter, I am the clay. He is the master, I am the servant. He is the father, I am the child.

And if he's a good father, he's not gonna give up too easily. Regardless of our shortsightedness or fears, God knows what he's doing. That's a lesson we can learn. Jonah learned as well. Jonah was very narrow in his focus.

Jonah was only concerned for his own what? His own people, his own nation. He seemed to have little concern for the people of Nineveh, the Assyrians. He was shortsighted. He was narrow in his focus.

He allowed his selfishness and his fears to turn him away from God. The Bible says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. Acknowledge that he, God in heaven, knows what's best and right. His way is perfect. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

But be not but be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It is our reasonable service to give ourselves in service to the Lord. He knows what he's doing and we can trust him. When we run away, when we turn away, we are only shooting ourselves in the foot and making our life more difficult. God isn't going to send you anywhere that he will not go with you.

He knows what he's doing. Jonah had to learn that the hard way. You can't hide from God. Just trust and obey. Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to what?

To trust and obey. Look if you would in chapter two. Chapter two verses one and two. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. So the people in the ship threw him over as he told them to.

The sea calmed and God sent a big fish to swallow up Jonah. As we find out later on, the fish swam back to shore, spit Jonah up on shore and said, okay, let's try. And God said, okay, let's try this again. So Jonah prayed on the Lord his God out of the fish's belly and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heardest my voice. We have a loving, merciful father in heaven.

While God chastens his children, and he does, he is desirous not of their destruction, but of their restoration and growth. God wants to restore your fellowship that is often broken by our stubbornness, by our doubt, by our selfishness. God wants to restore our fellowship with him. He wants to help us to grow in the Lord. And oftentimes, when we are choosing the other way, he is going to bring discipline or chastening into our life.

He did that here for Jonah. Was that a good thing or was that a bad thing? Well, it was bad that he had to because Jonah did what? He disobeyed. But it was good that God brought the chastening.

Why? Because Jonah needed it. Jonah needed God to bring the trial and the discipline upon him, to help him to understand that God's way is what? Best. It's best for him.

It's best for the people on the ship. It's best for the people of Nineveh. It's best for the people of Israel, and it it is best for us. He needed to learn his lesson. In Hebrews twelve six and eleven, it says this, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous. You know, was Jonah rejoicing and excited in the belly of the whale? Does it sound like he's rejoicing and having a great old time? No. He is miserable unto death.

He metaphorically refers to the belly of the whale as hell. That's what it seemed like. I can only imagine. I have never been in the belly of a whale or a great fish, whatever the case may be. But it could not have been a pleasant experience.

Apart from the miraculous power of God, it is extremely doubtful that anybody would ever survive three days in the belly of a whale. But he did and it was terrible. It was heart wrenching. It was painful. But it was it was necessary.

And in the end, the chastening was actually what? It was good because it helped Jonah to learn several things. First of all, that it's never wise to run from who? To run from God. Secondly, that God always knows what he is doing and you'd be a lot better off to just obey the first time.

No chastening for the present seemeth joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Just like disciplining our children so they learn and grow up to become functioning, responsible, mature adults, same thing is true when God chastens us as he chastened Jonah here. Says in James one, count it all, what, joy when you fall into diverse temptations, trials, Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting or may means lacking nothing.

How do we grow? We grow by struggling through difficult trials and tasks. We don't grow very well if we're just, you know, sitting comfortably, luxuriously without a care in the world. But particularly when we're running from God, when we are striking out on our own path and not listening to our Lord, chastening is something that we can expect God to do for our what? For our good.

And Jonah realized that. He didn't complain to the Lord, oh Lord, why are you doing this to me? In chapter two, why didn't he say, Lord, why are you doing this to me? Because he knew. He knew why God was doing this.

And he knew it could have been worse. As bad as it was to be in the belly of the whale, he could have been dead. He could have just drowned. But the Lord the Lord showed mercy on him. As Jonah asked for God's mercy, he says in verse eight, they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will pay that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. God often gives us second chances when we fail in his service. It isn't a one and done proposition. That's another thing we learn from Jonah.

He is the God of the second what? The second chance. What did the whale do eventually at the end of the chapter? It got the land and it spit Jonah back up alive. God forgave and God said, okay, let's let's try this again.

And he gave him a second chance. Many of God's servants failed before succeeding. Abraham failed with Hagar before he had Isaac. Moses failed killing an Egyptian and having to flee to the desert before forty years later, God brought him back to deliver Israel. Peter swore that he wouldn't fail.

He had to learn the hard way. The spirit is willing, but the what? But the flesh is weak. Bible says God knows our frame. He knows that we're going to need mercy and he knows we're gonna need a second chance and a third and a fourth sometimes to get it right.

Praise the Lord. He is a patient God like he was with Jonah. And he gave Jonah a second chance. Many of his servants hit rough patches, times of doubt and of failure. But God, as he has said to us in Hebrews in the New Testament, did not leave them nor, what, forsake them.

I think of Elijah, one of my favorite characters in scripture. This great prophet, another one of the few in Northern Israel. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to this duel of sorts on Mount Carmel. They tried to call down fire from heaven and no fire ever came. Elijah prayed a simple little prayer and God's fire came down from heaven, consumed his sacrifice, consumed his wood, consumed his altar, consumed several barrels of water that he had poured around it.

And God demonstrated that he was God and Baal was just a what? A statue made out of stone and a figment of their imagination. What did Elijah do next? Well, he took his tail between his legs and he ran. He ran into the desert because the queen said, I'm gonna kill you.

And this this great hero of the faith that just stood before all the prophets of Baal now is timidly running away in fear. Well, who caught up with him? God did. God caught up with him. God rebuked him, and then God fed him physically, sustained him.

And then God restored his fellowship and his faith on Mount Sinai. Wasn't in the earthquake or the fire, the great noise or but in a still small what? And a still small voice. God reminded Elijah that he wasn't alone. God was with him and others were with him.

And he restored his joy, he restored his faith, and Elijah left that place and went back to ministry. Jeremiah had some rough times in his ministry. Many of the prophets did. They were human just like who? Just like us.

Jonah wasn't the only one. Jonah wasn't the only one. Praise God, we serve the God of the second chance. The God who sent the whale helped to teach Jonah on the ride back that he should have trusted him the first time and then gave him a second chance to get it right. It's not a one and done thing.

If you mess up, don't let the devil tell you you've messed up and it's over because God can still use you if you will just trust him. Jonah chapter three verse 10. And God saw their works, that is the people of Nineveh. God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not. What else did Jonah learn besides that you can't run from God, that you should obey him, that God chastens his children, that God gives us a second chance because he's a merciful God.

He also learned that God is merciful even to those on whom we would not show to not choose to show mercy. Did Jonah want the people of Nineveh to have mercy? No. He's clearer in chapter four, he didn't. He didn't want.

He didn't think they deserved it. They were the enemy. They were cruel. They were barbaric. They didn't deserve the mercy of God.

But isn't the entire concept of mercy that none of us deserve it? Otherwise, it wouldn't be mercy. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. What we earn as sinners is punishment. What God gives in his mercy is life.

Eternal life, abundant life. Jonah, his mercy was limited but is God's? The answer is no. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be what? Saved.

Does that mean the murderer who's in prison? Does that mean the person who betrayed you? It does. It does. Despite their sinful ways, God loves his creation.

He desires that they be redeemed. So much that he sent his son to take our place. Second Peter three nine, he is not willing that, what, any should perish but that all should come to repentance. We need to learn to see people as God sees them, to be merciful as he is merciful, and not to write people off, but to pray for them and to show them the love of God. They may be in some fashion or form our enemies, but they are also the creation of God.

And if we will show them Christ, it may be that our enemy could become our what? Our friend and our fellow child of God. Thus, God can and will save the vilest of sinners who believe in him. Nineveh was one of those societies that was the worst of the worst of the worst. But yet, when they repented, God showed them mercy and God spared their city.

From Rahab the harlot to Saul of Tarsus, the chief of sinners, God saves the vilest of sinners. You are not beyond the saving power of God. If you will come to him, he will not cast you out. Jonah had to learn that because he just didn't think the people of Nineveh deserved that. That shows a little bit of pride on his part and maybe a little bit of pride on ours.

We learned this from Jonah. God works in mysterious ways. It wasn't an Ninevite that God reached to bring the message. It was a Israelite that God chose. Knowing that the Israelite was gonna do what?

Run the other way. Knowing that the Israelite that he chose to bring the message didn't even wanna see the people saved. Knowing that he was gonna have to send a whale or a big fish to gobble him up and bring him back. And that person finally traveled across the desert, entered Nineveh, maybe looking white as a sheep from having spent three days in the belly of a whale, and God used him to transform a generation of wicked pagan people. God works in mysterious ways.

We just need to trust him. When God came to Joshua and said, okay, Joshua, this is the way you're going to defeat Jericho. You're gonna have the people walk around the city one time a day for six days. The seventh day, you're gonna walk around the city seven times. That must have taken all day long.

And then you're gonna blow your horns, the walls are gonna fall down, and the city's gonna be yours. And what did Joshua say? Okay. Let's do it. Not exactly those words, but that was what he did.

He went back to Israel and he said, this is what we're gonna do. And that's what they did. And guess what happened to the walls of Jericho? They fell down. And one of the mightiest cities in Canaan fell first to the people of Israel because Joshua listened to God and said, okay, this doesn't seem like it makes a lot of sense, but I'm gonna what?

I'm gonna trust in you. Isaiah fifty five nine says, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. So just trust me, God says, we can. Jonah four Jonah chapter four beginning in verse one. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry that God spared the city.

And he prayed on the Lord and said, I pray thee, oh Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore, fled I therefore, I fled before Tarshish unto Tarshish for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, oh Lord, take I beseech thee my life for me for it is better for me to die than live. Then said the Lord, doest thou well to be angry? What can we learn from this?

Good people, God's servants can still harbor grievous sins in their hearts, which God is able to expose. Jonah's calling, the journey that God sent him on, was that only for the people of Nineveh or was that also for Jonah? For Jonah. You see, yes, God saved the people of Nineveh. But again, I believe it was probably Jonah that penned these words.

And Jonah's making it clear, this this this journey that God sent him on, it was just as much for him as it was for what? For them. He didn't think that he had trouble with God. He didn't think that he was needing to repent, but he found out pretty quick that he was wrong. God is able to expose those places in the back corners of our heart where we are harboring something.

So why people don't wanna pick up their bible and pray and come to church sometimes is because God might stick his finger on the area that you want him to what? To leave alone. And there is always room for growth. There is always some area that we aren't where we ought to be yet. And God exposed that in Jonah's life.

He put him in a situation where the truth came to the what? Came to the surface. And what was the truth? The truth was Jonah was harboring hatred in his heart for the people of Assyria. Rather than rejoicing in their deliverance, he was angry.

Why? Because in his heart, there was hate. Hate for his enemies. He didn't want to see them survive. Refusing to confess your sin and admit you're wrong and forsake it as God puts his finger on it will only make you what?

More miserable. Not God's fault, that's whose fault. Our fault. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer, the words of David.

If we say, God, no, not gonna go there. God puts his finger on and says, no, not not gonna confess it. We're just going to become like who? Jonah, sitting on the hill, full of self pity, feeling rotten because he wasn't willing to confess that he was wrong. God is going to work in our hearts and we do have areas that need to change.

We need to be willing to change and willing to confess. You're not the only one. Don't be afraid to walk the aisle. Don't be afraid to admit to someone. Bible says, confess your faults, what?

One to another. So you think you're the only one that's got faults? You're not alone and you do have them. And as God exposes them, and he will, be willing to deal with them and to deal with him. Another lesson we can learn is this, we are quick to condemn others, but we're often what?

We're often blind to our own shortcomings. And it takes something like this to open our eyes. There were two nations involved in the story of Jonah. Most of this has all been focused on Jonah himself, but there was one nation and that's the nation of Assyria. The capital city was Nineveh.

God sent a prophet to Nineveh, a wicked pagan city and the people, what? Repented and they were delivered. God sent several prophets through the years to Northern Israel. The people of God, God's chosen people, and they didn't repent. And God was forced to scatter them as he told them what happened.

You have the pagan people of Nineveh repenting and you have the the the country that sent Jonah that rejected it. Which are we going to be? Are we going to be the people that humble ourselves before God, turn from our wicked ways so that he can heal our land? Or are we gonna be the people of Nineveh? Are we gonna be the people of Israel that have have enjoyed all the blessings of God?

And yet, as a people, have turned our back on the God who made us and been deaf to the message that he would send us. Oh, how much our nation needs the Lord. And oh, how much our nation needs some Jonahs to warn them that judgment is coming because it is unless you repent. Jesus said in the New Testament, unless you repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Some of the religious Jews were saying, look at those people over there, they're they're bad, they're terrible.

Look at them, they did this. They're look what happened to them. They must have been really terrible people for that to happen to him. And Jesus said to them, hey, look, unless you repent, the same thing is gonna what? The same thing's gonna happen to you.

We enjoy the incredible blessings and freedoms of living in The United States Of America. But unless this country turns back to God, we can be sure judgment is coming. We cannot make that decision for all of them. But we can decide if we're going to obey God's call and be witnesses for him or whether we're going to say no, that must be for somebody else. I'll just leave it to them.

We all have our circle of friends, acquaintances. There's another word I'm looking for, I can't get it, but of people we come in contact with. That is your mission field. You are called to be Jonah to that group of people. Let's do our part.

Let's not run from it. Let's embrace it. Let's speak with boldness. Let's follow the Lord. And who knows?

Sometimes in Christian circles we say, hey, the rapture's coming and hey, hey, the tribulation's coming. It's gonna get bad and it will. But you know something? That might not be this generation. It might be but it might not be.

The fact is we don't know. Maybe there could be revival. Maybe we're just copying out. Maybe God can use us. Let's pray.

Dear Lord, thank you for this recorded event in the history of Israel and of Nineveh, in the history of our world, how that you delivered a city from destruction And a people, a generation, because they turned and repented. And Lord, you used one man, one somewhat stubborn, insincere man to bring them the message. Lord, you can use us. And Lord, I pray that we would not run the other way. And Lord, I pray that you would change hearts and lives in our nation.

And I pray that you would give us faith to see that you are a God who still saves souls and that we would look for opportunities to be that witness for you this week, this month, this year. Thank you, Lord, for your mercy and thank you for your patience with us. Help us, Lord, to learn from Jonah's mistakes that we might not learn have to learn some of them the hard way ourselves. And Lord, help us to see that no matter how we have failed in the past, there is still room, an opportunity, Lord, for us to serve you in some form or fashion today. Use us, we pray.

Work in our hearts as you did in Jonas. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen.