The Jonah Syndrome

The title today, the Holding Pattern, the Jonah Syndrome. Or you could reverse it and say the Jonah Syndrome, the Holding Pattern. About 30 minutes before our scheduled landing at LAX in Los Angeles, we were told that the airport was blanketed with fog.

Then we would be placed in a Holding Pattern. Our landing and our lives were placed in the hands of air traffic control. At times like this, you might be reminded of the bumper stickers that reads, God is my co-pilot. At least you hope so. And you are sure that is the case? At least you hope so. We were to circle the airport for an indeterminate period of time. And it is possible to circulate or circumnavigate the Holding Pattern around the airport for hours if you have enough fuel. And as one hour passes, it seems like your whole life goes before you. That one hour can be long and frustrating. All kinds of negative thoughts can fly through your mind. And you just think about life and what it means and what if you don't ever get on the ground again. So you can do a lot of soul searching in an hour with your whole life flashing before you.

Finally, we were directed to San Diego where Mr. Hall used to work. And Shirley was pleased to see Mr. Hall here speaking today after a little layoff of 25 years.

So, very good, Mr. Hall. So I ask you, are you in a Holding Pattern in your life? Are you refusing to land? Or is the landing all fogged up? And so you've decided to go into a Holding Pattern.

You can be in a Holding Pattern up there and not even know it. Unless they were to come on, as they usually do. And see, we have been delayed. The fog is covering. We will now go into a Holding Pattern and wait and see what happens. In fact, in flying at a dense fog at night, you probably wouldn't even know you're in it unless they told you. So, Holding Patterns can be very subtle. You might say, well, I'm not in a Holding Pattern, but let's see if we are.

Some of the reasons for slipping into a Holding Pattern are a lack of conviction. A lack of commitment. A lack of courage. What I call the three C's. Conviction, commitment, and courage. There's just always one more obstacle in your life that needs to be cleared before you can really make a definite commitment. Oh, you're convicted that you ought to do something, but you just don't seem to be able to quite pull the trigger at the right time.

Of course, this can lead to a lack of zeal and total commitment to God. And we play the game of one of these days, one of these days, but the runway seems to never clear up. Too much traffic. We're too busy. Or one of these days, things are going to settle out. Life won't be so hectic. And one of these days passes into tomorrow, next week, next year, and before you know it, your children are leaving home. Before you know it, you have grandchildren, and so on and so on.

One of the main things that I've learned in life is that I haven't learned anything else. I have learned this one thing. Life is short. Life is short, and you better make the most of it, redeeming the times, as it says in Ephesians, because the days are evil. So one of these days, some people play that game. I've played it quite often. One of these days, I'm going to do such and such, but I still haven't done it. One of these days, I'm going to be committed to my calling. One of these days, I'm going to love my wife as Christ, I love the church.

One of these days, I'm going to spend more time with the family. One of these days, I'm going to be more communicative. One of these days, I'm going to pray more steady more, and I'm really going to get with it. But life is just too hectic right now. I've got too much on my plate. One of these days, I'm not going to be so uptight.

I'm going to relax. I'm going to do the things that I've always thought about doing. One of these days, it sort of reminds me of this old Merle Haggard song that my grandchildren and I used to sing at the barn dance college. Rainbows, too. One of these days, when the worldwide wars are over and through and the sun comes shining through, we'll all be drinking that free bubble up and eating that rainbow stew. It's one of these days. The runway sometimes cannot be seen because of low clouds. The air traffic controllers can usually handle this.

They can instruct the pilot to set the instruments and land. The runway is sometimes so covered with dense fog that the air traffic controllers can only put you in a holding pattern or direct you to another airport. Sometimes there is a violent crosswind that might trip you up. Back in the 70s, I was at the college and one of our employees there had died of melanoma cancer. He was from Mississippi, from Utica, Mississippi, which is just about on the Mississippi River, north of Natchez.

So we flew over there in a little single-engine Cessna and a front was coming in. It was mid-November. The front was coming in. We were flying along over Louisiana. We got just about over Monroe. Suddenly, that thing went, as they say, dead as a doornail. It started falling. It coughed a couple of times and it chugged and it caught. It went on. It did it again.

Of course, you're going to a hero. You've got death on your mind. What had happened was, and somehow the thing sort of mystically and magically cleared up, the carburetor had frozen. The carburetor, warmer, was not working correctly and, I guess, sort of like a miracle, it started working. So we finally got there and the funeral.

Then it was about five o'clock in the evening. Five o'clock in the evening in November is just about dark. The ceiling was 300 feet. Now, our pilot had flown missions in World War II in Europe. So, no problem. Let's take off. The ceiling was 300 feet. Everybody's saying, don't do it. But we foolishly got in with him and took off. Then we got to Big Sandy. Now the front had passed Big Sandy. There was a crosswind out of the north, blowing across that airstrip that runs east to west, at about 35 miles an hour.

So he feathers down and he comes down. About that time, a big gust of wind comes. That plane goes like that. The wing, I'm sitting there at the window, it almost hit the ground. But we landed. And all this time, you had death on your mind. So we can ask ourselves, who is really our air traffic controller? Are you directed by a self-will or are you directed by God's will? We can all ask ourselves that question. And if you are in a holding pattern, what is preventing you from landing?

Are you lacking conviction, commitment, and courage? In the landing of a large aircraft, a definite commitment has to be made. The plane begins the descent. The landing gear goes down. The plane goes nose down. And after a certain commitment, it's almost impossible to pull that plane back up. Of course, it's been done, but it's hard to do.

So under the best of circumstances, a definite commitment to land has to be made before you can land. So have you made the unconditional commitment to trust God for Him to be truly your co-pilot, for you to go ahead and land and do the work of God?

God never places us in a frustrating holding pattern. We place ourselves. God never places you in a holding pattern. We place ourselves. Do you insist on being your own air traffic controller? Are you your own shipmaster? Are you a victim of the Jonah Syndrome? Jonah placed himself in a holding pattern. Not only did he place himself in a holding pattern, he tried to run away from God. Jonah tried to flee from the Great Shepherd and pilot of life. Let's go now to the book of Jonah, Jonah 1, one of the so-called minor prophets. The Jews, of course, lumped all of the minor prophets, all 12, together and just refer to them as the 12.

Let's see, Hosea, Joel, and here we come to Amos, and then Jonah. In Jonah 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 has come up before me. Where is the... Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Assyrians were known as some of the most cruel people on the face of the earth with regard to their military and their great conquering ability in the way that they treated people in warfare.

The way they treated their captives. And Nineveh was a great city at that time, that period of history. But Jonah rose up to flee on Datarcius, probably Spain. He would probably catch ship from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa. Joppa was right there on the coast. In Mediterranean, he found a ship going to Datarcius. So he paid the fare thereof and went down to it to go with him unto Datarcius from the presence of the Lord.

Jonah wanted to get away from the presence of the Lord. To flee from the presence of God is to disfellowship yourself and to cut yourself off. Do you want to be disfellowshipped from God? Jonah thought he did, apparently. So he tried to flee. You can be attending church and be in the act of disfellowshipping yourself from God. A lot of people sit in services for years, and they don't really land. They remain in a holding pattern. They are led to see and at best, and they play the game of one of these days.

One of these days, I'm going to land this aircraft. One of these days, I'm truly going to be committed, and I'm going to act with courage. I'm going to go on to conversion and to perfection. Some try to make Jonah a hero and say that he knew the prophecies in the book of Isaiah about Assyria coming to conquer Israel. We don't know for sure. This may have been a factor in what he did, what he decided to do, because he reasoned within himself.

Of course, one of the great enemies of faith is human reasoning, perhaps the greatest. Ancients' care feared out human reasoning. It made me reason within himself, well, if I go to Nineveh and repent and God spares them, then they will come and conquer Israel, and they'll blame me. Well, Jonah, if you hadn't gone down there, and if they hadn't repented, well, God would take care of the Assyrians, and we wouldn't be in this situation. Of course, that human reasoning had its zenith as well.

But just because a job is tough doesn't justify running away from it, especially if God says, Hey, Jonah, go down to Nineveh. Or whatever your name may be, hey, Harry, Tom, or Joe, or Jacob, or Mary, or Flo, or whatever else rhymes with that. Go down to Nineveh, or go wherever it is I want you to go.

So when the going gets tough, do you or I try to flee from the presence of God as Jonah did? Do you ever find yourself refusing to surrender and submit to God? Continuing here, verse 4, But the Lord set out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man into his God, and cast forth the wares that were on the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down in the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. Didn't seem to bother him. I could never be in this position. I may try to flee, but I don't know, there's just something about it. If I know that there's a mission to be done, I don't think I can go down and go to sleep. I've got other problems, but that wouldn't be one of them. But Jonah was able to go down and go to sleep. So the shipmaster came to him and said to him, What do you mean you're asleep? What are you doing sleeping? Arise, call upon your God. If so be that God will think upon us, then we perish not. And they said every one to his fellow come and let us cast lots, that we may know for sure whose cause this evil has come upon us. Who's responsible for this? It must be that the gods are against us, because one of the people here has done something that displeased their God. So the castor lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. Verse 8. Then they said unto him, Tell us, we pray you, for whose cause this evil is upon us? What is your occupation? And where did you come from? What is your country? And what people are you? And he said unto them, I'm a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord. If you fear God, if you really understand what the fear of God is, you don't try to run away.

The memory verse that's there, Psalm 111 verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding of all they that do his commandments and his praise last forever and ever.

So I'm a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which has made the sea and the dry land.

Then were the men exceeding afraid and said unto him, Why have you done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord. He'd probably done some talking earlier on before he went to sleep because he told them.

Then they said unto him, What shall we do unto you? That the sea may be calm unto us. And the sea wrought and was tempetious. For the sea was wrought, or the sea was really mad. The sea was angry and tempetious.

And he said unto them, Take me up, cast me forth into the sea.

So shall the sea be calm unto you. I know that for my sake this great storm has come upon you.

You see, oftentimes when we try to flee from God and we don't do what we should do, not only do we pay the price, but others round about us pay the price. And that's one of the greatest things that has caused so many families in the Church of God through the ages. So much grief, so much problems, so many problems is a fact that you don't really count the cost before you do what you do.

Always look before you leap.

You can't flee from the presence of God.

But, there's a but, but let's read this. We're coming back to Jonah, of course, from time to time. So you might want to mark that. Notice Psalm 139, verse 7.

Psalm 139, verse 7.

Psalm 139, verse 7.

As I said, you cannot flee from the presence of God, as the psalmist brings out here in Psalm 139, verse 7. Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I send up into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in the grave, behold, you're there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall your hand lead me, and your 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 hides not from you, but the night shines as the day.

The darkness and the light and night are both alike to you.

For you have possessed my reigns, you have covered me in my mother's womb.

You cannot flee from the presence of God, but there's a big but. But God can cast you out of His presence.

You cannot flee from the presence of God, as we've just seen here in the Psalm, unless God determines that He is going to cut you off.

And for God to cut you off is so horrible to even contemplate. Let's notice the case of this in Genesis 4 and verse 13. In Genesis chapter 4 and verse 13.

God begins to pronounce His sentence against Cain after he had killed his brother.

Verse 13, And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. I just cannot stand. Behold, you have driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from your face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. And it shall come to pass that every one that finds me shall slay me.

The eternal said unto him, Therefore whosoever slays you, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.

So God can cut you off.

If you go now to 2 Peter chapter 2, the ultimate fate of Satan and the demons, they are going to be cast out into outer darkness. They are going to be cut off from the presence of God without hope, wandering stars foaming out their shame forever.

In 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 17, these are wells without water, clouds that are carried with the tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.

The irony of fleeing from God is that some people do it under the cloak or cover of the church or some other pseudo-cause.

That is, they don't really do what God says to do. They don't really ever begin this earnest descent with the nose down, the landing gear down, and completely trusting in the great pilot to give them safe landing. They always hold something back and play the game of one more, yeah bud!

Well, he said that today in the sermon, yeah bud!

But have you thought about this?

They just seem to move from the seat of the scornful.

And if you move from the seat of the scornful, if you stay there long enough, you will eventually move into the seat of those who view everything from a callous kind of point of view, and eventually the conscience can be seared.

So today, I'm encouraging all of us to move from the seat of the scornful into the seat of the doers of the Word.

You know, some would even offer themselves a type of pseudo-martyrdom, just like Jonah did here. Jonah said, okay, pick me up and toss me into the seat. Now, what is pseudo-martyrdom? Pseudo means false martyrdom. There are true martyrs of God, and there are pseudo-martyrs for various causes.

A pseudo-martyr is one in which God is not the cause for it.

In pseudo-martyrdom, in the case of Jonah, Jonah was willing to give his life for a so-called cause that was not God's.

Just toss me into the seat. My responsibility, my mission, it will be over. Everybody will be happy. The seat will be calm. I don't have to go to Nineveh. Israel will be spared, whatever. Whatever he thought, I'll just die. The world will be better off without me.

Some people will cling to the church in a form of godliness, but in their heart, they are fleeing from the presence of God. We all have to search ourselves. Passover is roughly eight weeks away, and it's time to begin that examination of what is really in our hearts.

Do you come to church and go through the motions using the church as a cloak or a shield? Is your heart really in it? So Jonah was ready to die in a type of pseudo-martyrdom rather than obey God. Let's notice in 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy, chapter 3, The first verse is there. It talks about the various behaviors that will be extant among the sons of men at the end of the age. As it says there, this know in the last day's perilous time shall come, and then it names all these things. Verses 2, 3, and 4.

When Paul wrote this epistle, he was in prison, Timothy, a young man in the ministry, and he was encouraging Timothy to gird up the loins of his mind, to stir up the spirit within him, to really make a strong stand, because these kind of behaviors have been extant, really, from time immemorial to the Garden of Eden to the present time. Verse 5 seems to be addressing this more to us, to the church, having a form of godliness. You can't have a form of godliness, I don't think, unless you at least profess to be a Christian and go to church.

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such, turn away. What is the power of God in this case? The power of God is that you, through the power of God's Spirit, can become a new creation in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

But Jonah was ready to die in a type of pseudo-martitum rather than obey God.

We will note that he didn't pray, at least it's not recorded here. Later he cries out. He didn't cry out until he was swallowed by the great fish, although he said he feared God.

On the one hand, this might appear to be a selfless act of courage. I'll give my life for the crew.

Some people will live in abject misery and view themselves as martyrs rather than facing up to the situation and making a total commitment to surrender to God. Right, or even to face the situation in their own lives, maybe in their family, maybe with human relationships, maybe with what they're doing on their job.

They just sort of stay in the corner and play one of these days, I'm not going to put the landing gear down yet.

Wives do this in marriage sometimes, living in abject misery won't face the situation.

Sometimes husbands do the same thing.

Alcoholics, you can't overcome something until you admit there is a problem. Develop a strategy for correcting it.

Drug addicts, any number of addictive or habitual actions, some are enablers of dependent people.

They protect and blame the situation in circumstance rather than insisting that the perpetrators assume responsibility. See, that's one of the things that's been done away with in our world.

No one is responsible for anything.

We have so constructed a robotic kind of society.

When I was a child in elementary school, beginning in the first grade at recess, the teachers were up at best under the shade tree talking.

We were down on the playing ground, playing tackle football, and we were getting with it, as they say.

Today, you could be arrested for touching another student.

Touching another student, you could be arrested for all kinds of different things.

We will so construct society.

We will so arrange the technology and everything that goes with it.

We will be so advanced in medicine.

We will just take care of you cradle to grave.

All you have to do is walk between the lines.

And don't think out of the box.

Be good boys and girls all the time, and we'll take care of you.

You're not responsible for anything.

I forgot what the statistic is now of the percentage of children under 10 years of age that are on redline.

Some of the things that they talk about today, when I was in school, we didn't even know they existed.

Like ADA. And there's now this great explosion of autism.

And they're scratching their heads. And I'm not necessarily saying that autism is connected with a lack of responsibility. They don't really know what causes it.

But so many things that are plaguing us is because we won't face up. We won't be responsible.

So all of us need to examine ourselves and ask the question, Am I an enabler? Do I enable people to continue on a path of compulsive, addictive, codependent kind of behavior?

If God is indeed working in your life, then He's not going to let you go easily. Let me say that again. If God is working in your life, He's not going to let you go easily. If you refuse to judge yourself, then God will step in and judge you and chase you. God chases every son that He loves.

If you're faking it and taking God's covenant in your mouth wrongfully, it will be made manifest. It was made manifest with Jonah. Continuing in Jonah now. We're in Chapter 1, verse 13. I want to start up again, Jonah 1 and verse 13.

So they threw Jonah overboard. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea was mad and tempetuous. Wherefore, they cried unto the Lord and said, We beseech you, O Lord, we beseech you. You cannot perish for this man's life and lay not upon us innocent blood, for you, O eternal, have done as it please you. So they took up Jonah, cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish. This is a miracle, of course, this is a great fish, to swallow up Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days and three nights. Of course, this is connected with the Messiah, because Christ says in Matthew 12, verse 38-32, that this would be one of the great signs of His Messiahship.

So let's notice this in Matthew 12. Of course, as we said, we're coming back to Jonah in Matthew 12, verse 38. Then certain of the scribes and other Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from you. But He answered and said unto them, An evil, adulterous generation seeks after a sign. There shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, the great fish that God had prepared, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Interestingly, here He uses the analogy of Nineveh, where Jonah had been sent to preach. The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, a greater than Jonah is here. Isn't that amazing that, of course, a lot of it has to do with God and what He does. In removing the veil from off a person's mind, God the Father is the one who calls us and removes that veil and brings us to Christ. And Christ then begins to reveal the Father and the truth to us. Notice in Psalm 50, Jonah was trying to flee from the presence of God.

We have talked about, are we trying to flee from the presence of God? And do we really love instruction? And are we really taking it to heart? In Psalm 50 and verse 16, But under the wicked God said, What have you to do to declare my statues, or that you should take my covenant in your mouth? In other words, if you're faking it, you're taking the covenant of God in your mouth. You are, by your presence here today, you and I are both making a powerful statement.

But we're with it. That we're here to worship the great God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the one who gave us life and breath. Verse 17, Seeing that you hate instruction and cast my words behind you, when you saw a thief, you consented with him. You've been a partaker with adulterers. You've given your mouth evil and your tongue's frames to seat. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son.

These things have you done, and I kept silence. You thought that I was altogether such a one as yourself. That's what human reasoning will do for you. Human reasoning will get you to the point where you view God like you would the neighbor across the street. But I will reprove you and set them in order before your eyes. Now consider this. You that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there is none left to deliver.

Whoso offers praise glorifies me, and to him that ordains his conversation right, will I show the salvation of God. Hating instruction, isn't that basically the problem with people who are fleeing from the presence of God, or trying to hide from God in the church, or think that righteousness flows just on the other side of the fence? Oh, if I could just be there. Or if I could just hear him. Or if I could just see that or read that.

It's always like, I can't quite reach it. Whereas God says, His presence would never leave us, and He would never forsake us. Those who sit and listen week after week, yet they don't do, obviously, hate instruction.

You don't have to declare it. God knows our heart, and He knows what we're all about. There's another category of people who cry out to God day and night, yet they remain in a holding pattern. Their lives never change. They basically are the woe is me people who cry out to God, but won't accept His answer. His answer is basically, shake it off, go on.

Remember Psalm 77? Let's go there. We read this a few weeks ago. My problem is my problem. A lot of people remain in holding patterns because they refuse to accept God's simple answer. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and He gave ear into me. God said, hey, I'm listening, I'm here. I'm where I've always been. In the day of my trouble, I saweth the Lord. My sore ran in the night and ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God and was troubled. I complained. Communed is a better translation. It really has to do with talking with yourself. The human mind is...you can hardly put the human mind on idle when you are awake. Even when you're asleep, you dream a lot and the mind goes into action. I had a dream last night about a house. This dream means nothing.

I had a dream last night about a house and where I was going to sleep in the house. My mother was there. I went through three bedrooms and all three had pink wallpaper and they had pink bedspreads. I thought, it's a long way to the bathroom. I didn't even address the pink. I said, there is a room on the back that's sort of part of the porch. I'll go out there. In the bathroom, there's a little bathroom out there. Just a step off. I went out there, made my bed and woke up.

But the human mind is active. The point is, they say 70% of the time, if you're not engaged in problem solving or writing or reading something, that you're talking to yourself. Talking to yourself. What kind of instructions are you giving yourself? Really, this communing with yourself is you're talking to yourself and you're going over your problems. You hold my eyes waking onto trouble that I cannot speak. I've considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night. I commune with my own heart. I go over my problems again, talk to myself. My spirit made diligent search. Then all of these enemies of faith flood in. Anxious care feared out human reasoning. Will the Lord cast off forever? Will He be favorable no more? Is His mercy clean gone forever? Does His promise fail forever more? Have God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies? When you see this expression, say, lah, or C-L-A-H in the Psalms. Now, some say this is a musical kind of word here that meant something to the musicians. I've read other commentaries that say that this has to do with when you see that expression, then following that generally is the explanation or the solution to the problem. And here it's the next thing is the solution. And I said, this is my infirmity. This is my sickness. This is what's wrong with me. My problem is my problem. But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember the wonders of old. But I will meditate also of your work and talk of your doings. Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary. See, that's where God dwells, is in the sanctuary. And of course, today, if you have God's Spirit, He's made His sanctuary within each one of us. Now we go back to Jonah. Once God has made Himself known to you, this is a pretty powerful statement of what I'm about to make. Once God has made Himself known to you and you have tasted of His marvelous gift of light and life, you will either obey Him or you will be destroyed, either in this life or the one that is to come. See, there's really only two choices, ultimate choices, in life, and those are life or death. In Jonah 2, verse 1, Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God, out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine infliction unto the Lord, and he heard me, out of the belly of the grave, shew, cried I, and you heard my voice. For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the sea, and the floods compassed me about. All your billows and your waves passed over me. Of course, to imagine yourself in the stomach of anything, in the stomach of a fish, and if you're tending to be seasick anyhow, and you're on a hoe, and the peristaltic action was a fish undergoing peristaltic action, so on and so on, your imagination could run wild. Then I said, I am cast out of your sight, yet I will look toward your holy temple. Why would he look toward his holy temple? Because it's like we read from Psalm 77, because your way is in the sanctuary. So he looks toward his holy temple. That's where God's presence, where he had placed his presence, and manifested his presence in Old Testament times.

The waters compassed me about even to the soul. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever. Yet have you brought me my life from corruption, O Lord, my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the eternal, and my prayer came into you, into your holy temple.

They that observed lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

Of course, you can't have mercy if you cry out to God, who is faithful and just forgiveness of all unrighteousness, if we do cry out and repent.

But I will sacrifice into you with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will pay that which I vowed. Salvation is of the Eternal.

And the Eternal spoke unto the fish and vomited Jonah out on the dry land.

Of course, Jonah prayed quite an eloquent prayer here.

Unfortunately, it seems that Jonah's prayer wasn't all that sincere.

In it, Jonah never really judges himself. He never says, I have sinned. I tried to get away from you.

He never really exercised judgment, mercy, and faith.

He was fearful of what other people would think.

He cried out to God in desperation to save himself.

On the one hand, he had said he wanted to die, but then when it came down to it, he cried out.

Now, after you land, and of course, God is responsible for the landing here, he vomited Jonah out on the dry land.

So after you land and have been delivered from your sins, you must go and do.

But we're back to Jonah's mission. Jonah didn't like the mission.

He had been given because of perhaps that prophecy of Assyria coming against Israel.

Oftentimes, we don't like the lot we've been given in life.

And rather than make the most of the opportunity, we throw it away looking for something else.

You heard a great testimony during the sermon at about if you stay with it, if you're faithful, then look what God can do.

Now, in every trial, in every situation, God does not always deliver.

It doesn't always turn out the way it did with Mr. Hull.

And we may go down to our grave, and of course, many do, with some terrible affliction, with cancer, or whatever else ravaging our bodies.

But we die in faith. We will live in resurrection.

So in chapter 3, we pick it up again.

And the Word of the Lord came into Jonah the second time, saying, Okay, I want to restate this mission, Jonah.

You've gone through quite an experience here trying to get away from me.

And hopefully you've learned a lesson.

Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid you.

So Jonah rose and went into Nineveh according to the Word of the Lord.

Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

I would hope he was saying more than this.

Nineveh was a large city for that time, probably.

Something like some have said as much as sixty miles around it.

But he went three days here, it says.

To read this again, he began to enter the city a day's journey, he cried out, Yet forty days, forty days from now, it's going to be overthrown.

It seems his attitude in preaching, he finally went down there.

It was sort of like Tennessee Ernie's sixteen tons.

Well, I picked up my shovel and walked to the mine.

I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal.

What did I get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

It's just like I'm duty bound to do this, and I've got to do it.

My heart's not really in it, but I'm going to do it.

Verse 5, The people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them.

For word came unto the king of Nineveh.

He arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes.

And he caused a great fast to be proclaimed, put his decree upon it, that not even the beast would eat or drink.

In verse 9, who can tell if God will repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not?

And God saw their works, that they turn from their evil way.

God repented of the evil, that is, he changed his mind of the ray eye, the calamity, the upset, not evil in the sense of transgression of the law, that he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not, and Nineveh was spared.

And it greatly displeased Jonah. He was one unhappy preacher.

One unhappy preacher.

Man, what if you were to go into, you named the city. What is the most sinful suburb of Houston?

I don't know what it is. Probably all of them. But anyhow, from reading the paper and listening to the news, verse chapter 4, verse 1, it displeased Jonah exceedingly.

He was very angry. I mean, these people are repented.

I'm mad. It's like, I told you that's what's happening. That's why I didn't want to go down there. Of course, God's desire for us is that when he calls, that we will answer, that we will have a willing heart.

And we will be like Isaiah said. Let's notice Isaiah chapter 6.

So, if God gives you a mission and calls upon you to do something, of course, our calling and our thing is not as dramatic as Jonah or one of the Old Testament prophets.

But it comes to be known, the will of God, and it's laid upon our conscience, that we should do X, Y, or Z. What will be our response?

You remember the story of Moses? When God called him to lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses says, Who am I? Who am I? And God had to do a bit of convincing to get Moses on track.

But when he got on track, he really went for it.

In Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne.

High and lifted up, his train filled the temple above it, stood the seraphim.

Each one had six wings, evidently seraphim, or higher than caribim.

That's a different topic. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and his house was filled with smoke.

Then said I, Isaiah said, See, each thing has a great vision of God on his throne.

Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips.

I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

And of course, there's never been a time, any more than what we have today, with the kind of unclean lips that we hear every day on television, and workplace, and everywhere else.

For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with a tongue from off the altar.

And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity has taken from you, and your sin is purged.

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

Then said I, Here am I, send me.

And that's the kind of attitude that God wants.

That's the kind of attitude He wanted from Jonah.

Here am I, send me.

I will not try to flee from your presence. I will go do whatever it is you want me to do.

Now back to Jonah.

O Jonah.

Back to Jonah 4. We've read first two or three verses here.

He was really mad. Really mad.

Jonah 4.

It displeased Jonah exceedingly.

Verse 3, Therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech you my life for me, it is better for me to die than to live.

Once again, pseudo-martidim.

Not God's cause, but Jonah's.

Jonah was willing to give his life for the so-called cause that was not God's.

Then said the Lord, Do you well to be angry?

I mean, God is saying, Jonah, what right do you have to be mad?

I mean, where are you, Jonah?

Do you understand anything?

Why are you mad?

So Jonah went out of the city, and he sat on the east side of the city, there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

I'll just go out here and sit and see if God's going to spare the place.

Notice how merciful God was to Jonah.

And the eternal prepared a gourd and made it come up over Jonah, those big old sort of round leaves, you get in the shade, that it might shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief.

So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

He was happy for the gourd, but he was sure unhappy about those people in Nineveh.

That God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd and it withered.

And it came to pass when the sun did arise that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, third time, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

And God said to Jonah, Do you well to be angry for the gourd?

And he said, I will be angry even unto death.

Then said the eternal, You have had pity on the gourd, for the wit you have not labored, neither have made it to grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.

And should not I spare Nineveh that great city wherein are about 60,000 people, and cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much cattle.

And that's the end of the story about Jonah.

What did Jonah do? I don't know. Did Jonah ever come to himself?

Did he ever shake himself of self-pity?

Was he ever able to really commit himself and land, and be willing to go do what God wanted to do with the attitude, Hear my Lord, send me.

I hope that through my life, that through my preaching, through my teaching, or whatever gift God has given me, that it turned some people to righteousness.

Notice in Daniel, back a few pages from Jonah, in Daniel 12.

See, this should be one of the great goals of all of us.

Daniel 12.1, At that time shall Michael stand up for the great prince, which stands for the children of your people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was, since there was a nation, even to the same time.

And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the air shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.

You see, it says in the Gospel of Luke, that when one lost sinner repents, there is great joy in heaven. The angels rejoice over one sinner that repents.

Jonah could not rejoice over 60,000.

And he was upset over a gourd.

That was for his benefit.

And God taught Jonah some great lessons.

I hope we can glean the lessons from Jonah, that we will not be afflicted by the Jonah syndrome, that we will not try to flee from the presence of God.

We'll close with one final scripture here, Psalm 16 and verse 11.

Psalm 16 and verse 11.

Psalm 16 verse 11. Psalm 16 verse 11.

You will show me the path of life.

In your presence is fullness of joy.

At your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.