When we read the book of Jonah, we can see that Jonah was actually pretty wicked. He was very disobedient.

Passage: Jonah 1:1-17

God told Jonah in verse 2 to arise and go to Nineveh. But in verse 3, he arose to flee to Tarshish. When Jonah rose up, it wasn’t to obey God but to escape from God.

Many people try to escape from God. Or they rise up for their own selfish reason instead of rising up to serve God.

God spoke to Israel to rise up. God is speaking to His church to rise up. (Isaiah 60:1-2) When God commands us to rise up, He wants to reveal His glory to you. He wants to save the Nineveh in your life. He wants to revive your spirit and overcome darkness through you. When God commands you to rise up, He wants to save someone through you.

God told Jonah to rise up, but he rose up for the wrong thing. When Jonah rose up, the devil was waiting for him. A boat was waiting for him.

Sometimes you think that everything is working out because God wants you to do something. But if the devil is waiting for you and you are walking in disobedience, the devil can make everything work out for you, too.

Jonah went to Joppa. A boat was waiting for him. In the midst of the storm, he went to the bottom of the boat and fell asleep.

Jonah was a preacher, a prophet. But he was a bad example. He didn’t pray during the storm. The Gentiles who were with him told him to cry out to God and he still didn’t cry out to God. He told them to throw him into the sea instead.

When you study the whole book of Jonah, you can see that Jonah always talked about dying. It looks like he was dealing with depression. He slept all the time; he was trying to escape from reality. He always wished for death. He was very negative.

Jonah was also lazy and irresponsible. Everyone was in the midst of a storm. They were afraid for their lives. Instead of helping or praying, he went all the way to the bottom of the boat and fell asleep.

This world is like the boat. People are scared. They are afraid to die. But the church is asleep. They are insensitive, unaware.

They started throwing things off the boat, trying to lighten the load. They thought they would die at any time. But Jonah still slept on. The captain finally came to Jonah and woke him up. He told him to arise. He told him to cry out to his God.

The church needs to arise and cry out to God. The Gentiles are busy crying out to their idols, trying to find a solution. But there is no solution in this world. Sometimes when something bad happens, they wake up the church and ask for help. How embarrassing.

God used the captain to speak to Jonah. If Jonah prayed and repented, God could save them right there. But he refused to repent.

They asked him why this was happening. He told them the whole story. They asked him what they should do. He should have said that he would cry out to God, repent, and ask for God’s mercy. He should have told them that would turn around and obey God. But he didn’t. He caused them to be a part of his sin and disobedience. He tried to cause them to become murderers.

Do you think that these people wanted to kill Jonah? No. They tried to row against the storm but it became even stronger. They had to throw him overboard. They didn’t want to. He made them sin with him.

When people are committing sin, they always want to bring someone in with them. Jonah did the same thing. He was in sin, running away from his God. Jonah told them to throw him into the sea and let him die.

When we disobey God, our lives become useless. The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because of their disobedience. If Jonah had obeyed God, he wouldn’t have had to go inside the fish.

We are like Jonah. We disobey God and then we waste a lot of time and energy and money trying to escape from His command. We waste so much time trying to prove to God that we can do things our way.

Why did this happen to Jonah? He had sin in his heart. He had bitterness toward Nineveh. He didn’t want to preach to Nineveh. He didn’t want them to get saved. He wanted them to be punished for their sin. He didn’t want God’s grace to be on them. But God loved them.

God is very merciful. He wanted to have mercy on Nineveh. He wanted to have mercy on Jonah, too. Even after he was disobedience and rebellious, God wanted to use him. God wanted to deliver him from the root of bitterness and unforgiveness.

You will not be able to serve God well until you overcome the root of bitterness and unforgiveness in your life. Those roots must be pulled out.

If you don’t deal with bitterness and unforgiveness, you will continually deal with anger, hatred, depression, addiction, sleepiness, suicide, and disobedience. You will always struggle to pray. You will struggle to study the Word of God. You will always want to escape.

You must take out the root of bitterness in your heart.

You know that the wages of sin is death. Every time you choose sin over repentance, you are choosing to die. Choose life. Choose repentance. Choose forgiveness.

God bless you,
Pastor Sun East