Many people are familiar with the highlights of Jonah’s life: A stubborn, unbelieving prophet who thinks he can run from God. A storm-tossed ship, a huge fish, and a merciful Father show him otherwise, and he is swayed to repentance. These remarkable events often overshadow the actions of the sailors who met Jonah along the way. But helpful comparisons can be made between religious-yet-backslidden Jonah and his irreligious shipmates. Jonah, though he had much knowledge of God, was ashamed of Him and lounging in despair and disobedience. The sailors, heathen though they were, saw the storm and acknowledged that Jonah’s God was powerful. Therefore, they feared and worshipped Him, and were quick to obey, unlike Jonah. What can we learn about the fear of God from the account of the prophet Jonah?

Good evening. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here with you all this evening. Thank you, Mr. Waldron, Mr. Powers.

In one sense, it makes it difficult to follow these men, in another sense they make it easier to come and attempt to continue just looking at the Scriptures and looking at God and what biblical fear of him looks like. I want to do that from the book of Jonah this evening. If you have your Bibles and open to the book of Jonah. Jonah is a familiar story, an autobiography about God by his prophet, including a few sailors, a big famous fish, and about 120, 000 outsiders called Ninevites. Jonah chapter 1, the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying arise go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me but Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord so he went down to Joppa found a ship which was going to Tarshish paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his God and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them but Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship laying down and fallen sound asleep So the captain approached him and said, how is it that you are sleeping? Get up! Call on your God! Perhaps your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.

Each man said to his mate, come, let us cast lots so that we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, Tell us now on whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from?

What is your country? From what people are you? He said to them, I'm a Hebrew and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, how could you do this? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them.

So they said to him, what should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us? For the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. He said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me, this great storm has come upon you. However, the men rode desperately to return to land but they could not for the sea was becoming even stormier against them.

Then they called on the Lord and said, we earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man's life and do not put innocent blood on us for you, O Lord, have done as you have pleased." So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped. It's raging. Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah, as a book, the story of this prophet, reveals primarily a story about a sovereign God who has a heartbeat that beats with compassion.

It's an evangelistic heartbeat. We could summarize the book as the evangelistic heartbeat of a sovereign God. Now that may sound like a contradiction because so many in our day who emphasize the sovereignty of God in all things and rightly so tend to be suspicious and even fearful of evangelism. While at the same time those who emphasize evangelism and rightly they should tend to see God's sovereignty somehow as a barrier to it. But God's rightful rule of all things and his desire to see people converted through the preaching of the gospel are not at odds with each other in the scriptures but rather are partners in a wonderfully harmonious marriage.

That's what we see from Jonah. Now let's answer a couple of questions from the outset. This man Jonah, who is he? The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai. We're not given much more here, but if we back up into the history we can see in 2 Kings 14 in the days when Jeroboam was king, He did evil in the sight of the Lord.

He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Naboth, which he made Israel sin. He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of Arabah, according to the word of the Lord the God of Israel which he spoke through his servant Jonah the son of Amittai the Prophet. Jonah was a son of a prophet. Jonah himself was a prophet, a prophet of God who lived in a very dark and bleak period of Israel's history. And though the times were dark in which Jonah lived and the outlook bleak, Jonah, because he was a prophet, was exempted from so many of the difficulties that many of his comrades would have faced due to the privileges in his own life.

He's a prophet. He had stood in the presence of God. He had heard the voice of God. He understood the purposes of God. He had peered into the mind of God.

He had performed the will of God. The opening scene of our story appears to have little to no background. It seems as if God is suddenly working in Jonah, a man that he found walking down the street with no mention of prior dealings. But it only appears that way. The reality is that the will of God for Jonah is carefully planned.

We might say well thought out and inextricably connected and related. Now the wonderful reality is that this is true not just for Jonah, this is true for you and for me, that this sovereign God has carefully planned out our lives and the issues of our lives are inextricably connected and related. Jonah had likely been exposed as the son of a prophet to the ministries of men like Elijah and Elisha. He's not just a man from obscurity who had a father named Amittai. He was a man with a rich heritage of spiritual blessings.

A man with a rare yet great pedigree. Jonah was not a novice in the service of God. He was by no means an amateur. It's not simply a mere man that the Word of God comes to in Jonah chapter 1. It is a privileged prophet of the Most High that the Word of God comes to in Jonah chapter 1.

And we see, based on Jonah's response, that past privileges are no substitute for present obedience. Arise, go to Nineveh and cry against it. But Jonah Rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord Not only do past privileges not substitute for present obedience past obedience and prior effectiveness Cannot substitute for today's Expectations and requirements. This is not just true for this prophet of old. This is true for me and for you blessings of the past Result in real faithfulness in the present only when our obedience is continual Which begs the question for us this evening, is obedience in your life only a memory?

Is obedience to the will of God more than a memory? Are you guilty of substituting your past spiritual record for the present pressing responsibility of submitting to God and to his word? The privileges of your past will actually serve to magnify the disobedience of your present. The contrast is intensified. It's true for Jonah.

And it's true for you. When we read verses 1 and 2 from Jonah chapter 1 with knowledge of Jonah's past recognizing that he was a privileged prophet, it makes verse 3 stand out. There's a stark, striking surprise that Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord, given his history, his experience with the Lord. Again, So we're not only caught up in the narrative of this Old Testament story. How about you?

How about the blessings in your life, the privileges that you've known, the graces that God has shown you? Do they result in verse 3 type statements about your life? You may say, yeah, but Jonah was partially obedient. Arise! He rose up.

Partial obedience is blatant disobedience. You know, it would be real nice, and I'm sure you think so too, If this spirit of Jonah had disappeared from the face of the earth when Jonah slipped into the belly of that great fish, but unfortunately it didn't. What Jonah was guilty of turning from the Lord we too are prone to be guilty of. Jonah turned from the Lord in two specific ways. He turned from the Word of the Lord and he turned from the presence of the Lord.

The Word of the Lord came to Jonah with a definite clarity arise go to Nineveh and it brought serious responsibility cry against it this word of the living God that is known to be the sword of the Spirit, a burden on shoulders, a hammer breaking hearts, a fire raging in bones. If these descriptions of the Word of God by the Word of God are true, what in the world is Jonah's problem? He had heard from God before. Why was Jonah misunderstanding him now? Or was he?

The word was crystal clear when it came to Jonah. Understanding the word from the Lord was not Jonah's problem. The issue that Jonah was suffering from on this fateful day was not an intellectual one. Our problem is rarely intellectual as well. Our problem in obeying God is not that we do not understand what he's saying, our problem is that we do understand what he's saying and we're not interested in it.

Jonah's problem was not intellectual but moral. When the Word of God came to Jonah the will of God and the will of Jonah collided. A catastrophic collision. Preaching to the non-covenanting Ninevites was not on Jonah's agenda. Proclaiming the impending judgment of God to his enemies was not on Jonah's bucket list.

He had no interest in doing it. Jonah's plans did not include the plans of God. Now we don't know what previous prophet work looked like for Jonah. What we do know is that something about the expectation to love his enemies did not sit well with him at all. The word of the Lord came to Jonah and it struck a sensitive nerve, a nerve that sent Jonah into a frenzy.

Now let's think about that day. Imagine what those who are close to Jonah must have been thinking. One day all is well. Everything's functioning normally. And the next, a flurry of activity in this prophet running here and there rounding up money for the fair, looking for a ship that's sailing soon.

Now do you not suppose that those who were close to Jonah were sitting back and watching? Do you not suppose that they were assuming that all this flurry of activity was related to his calling? He must have heard a word from the Lord. He's doing everything to accomplish what God wants him to do. All too often we are prone to cover our disobedience to the word of the Lord with busyness that serves as a mere smokescreen for us to hide behind.

Activity. Lots of activity. Good activity. Seemingly godly activity is a poor substitute for real obedience to the Word of the Lord. After establishing this first point that Jonah turned from the Word of the Lord, we should pose the question, Why?

Why would Jonah turn from the word of the Lord? What caused Jonah's rebellion? Self-preservation. Jonah was too concerned about Jonah. His reputation was at stake in this situation.

If he were to step into enemy territory among the Ninevites and proclaim The same mercy for Israel that was available to Israel's enemies, he would lose his reputation. Nineveh was the capital city of an enemy nation. If Jonah preaches salvation to them, he's no longer prophet Jonah. He's traitor Jonah. He sold out on his own people by taking the message of redemption and salvation to their enemies.

He was called to sacrifice his own reputation for the sake of the souls of the Ninevites. He was expected, imagine this, to put others first, no matter their lineage, no matter their nationality. But Jonah could not do what God was asking because Jonah would not do what God was asking. And it would be unwise for us not to stop here just for a moment and revel in the reality of the comparison or better yet the contrast between Jonah and his reluctance to go to an enemy-filled nation with our Lord who humbled himself and took on flesh-like hours, robed himself in frail humanity, and walked the dirty streets of Nazareth, obeying his father in all respects. Jesus left the realms of glory and eternal bliss to enter into enemy territory.

While we were yet sinners, still at enmity with him, Christ died for us. What Jonah was unwilling to do, Jesus Christ did. Let's think further for a moment. The Ninevites are the enemy of God's people. God notes their wickedness in his command to Jonah.

At just a glance, it's a little bit confusing why Jonah, who obviously dislikes the Ninevites, would not jump at the chance to run there and proclaim the wrath of God on these godless heathen Why would he not do that? If you still have your Bibles open you can flip over to Jonah chapter 2 and you can it sheds a little light on Jonah's thought process. He wasn't completely clueless about God he was a prophet of God. Jonah says, I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and one who relents concerning calamity. Jonah knew if he went and preached the coming wrath of God to the Ninevites that they would repent and that's why he was reluctant to go.

He knew very well that the declaration of the coming wrath of God had in it a purpose of redemption and salvation. So as a result Jonah turned from the Word of the Lord. Not only did he turn from the Word of the Lord I mentioned earlier, he turned in two ways. He turned also from the presence of the Lord. Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord.

Literally, he rose up to flee from the face of God, which is blatant foolishness on the part of Jonah. Now he's well aware of the omnipresence of God. He was schooled by the great prophets. God's inescapable presence is the foundational truth in Christianity. Jonah would have been well acquainted with David's great confession, Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven you are there. If I descend a shield behold you are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me and your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say surely the darkness will overwhelm me and the light around me will be night even the darkness is not dark to you and the night is as bright as day darkness and light are alike to you. When Jonah writes for us here recording this about his now famous attempt to escape the presence of God he doesn't at all mean that he thought he could do what David could not.

He intends to convey to us that his attempt was not to escape the omnipresence of God, but to escape that felt manifest presence of God, that cultivated relational presence that he as a prophet had known experientially in his former years. That's what he was trying to get away from. Jonah's rebellion against the word and the presence of the Lord didn't come without a cost. There was the literal price of the fare. You have to think Jonah was so bent on turning from the Lord and getting away that whatever it took he was willing to pay.

But there was more than just a literal price of the fare, there was the spiritual cost of Jonah's boat ride which would have eternal implications. Do you not think as Jonah's frenzying around, working hard to raise the money for the fair and to see when the ship is sailing, that he must have been basking in the Providence of a boat sailing west that day. On that fateful afternoon he must have been basking in the Providence of the Lord, this open door that he was going to walk through, which reveals clearly to us that circumstances alone are insufficient for determining the will of the Lord. Jonah departed from the kindred presence of the only one that in whose presence there is fullness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures forever. Serving for us as a brilliantly clear illustration that the fruitfulness in our lives for God is not itself a guarantee of obedience to God.

It's not a guarantee of nearness to God. It's not a guarantee of us being in His will. It's not a guarantee of us fearing Him rightly. Usefulness, especially the pursuit of being useful to God, can be mistaken and is often mistaken in too many of our lives as communion with him. Being used by God must remain secondary to walking with him.

Jonah had been previously transformed by the presence of the Lord and continually guided by the word of the Lord. And now we find him separated from these two stable anchors in his life and he is sailing in the tumultuous waters of a backslidden condition. Nineveh was to the east, Tarshish was to the west. God's way was to the east, and Jonah is sailing to the west. Infinitely separated, God's ways and man's ways.

Infinitely distinct and different. We know this because of that wonderful truth. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Which again is worth considering the question. All of us are traveling in one of those directions.

Either man's will or God's will. God's plans or our own plans. Which direction are you traveling? Are you following the Savior and forsaking sin by seeking to be obedient to Christ and his word. Verse 4, Don't worry if you're thinking the rest of it will be as slow as it took to get going.

Jonah is now at sea having turned from the Word of the Lord fleeing from the presence of the Lord. There must have been some convenient confusion in Jonah's mind, right? Because if God didn't want him to go to Tarshish, then surely there would not have been a ship sailing that day. But there was a ship sailing, sailing away, not away from God's presence, but away from God's will and that was good enough for Jonah. Which again is a wonderful warning for you and for me that we must be careful to not be guided by general or even divine providences if we are unwilling to be guided by his word.

The events of your life must not, must not be the compass that you live by if you have not taken the Word of God as a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. Jonah is sailing in tumultuous waters, spiritually and literally. Spiritually he's sliding further away from God's plan from his life as he sails in the opposite direction that God has called him to go. And physically, literally, Jonah is assuming that all is well. So much so that he's pulled up some boat decking and laying down to take a nap.

And the disobedience of Jonah turning from the word of the Lord and attempting to flee from the presence of the Lord has led to the complete disintegration of everything around him Jonah this mere man seeking to escape the will of Almighty, all-sovereign God by sleeping through the storm. And surely again, there's a little bell in our minds that rings reminding us that Jesus, much more than a mere man, also slept through a storm, not attempting to escape the will of God, but because he had fully embraced the will of God, he could rest in him. So Jonah has rebelled against God and God responds to Jonah. Then God reveals three things to Jonah. Then God reacts towards Jonah and the sailors.

God responds to Jonah's disobedience, verse 4, by hurling a great wind. There was a great storm on the sea. This is great. Jonah had accomplished five actions in his escape attempt. He rose up to flee.

He went down to Joppa. He found a ship. He paid the fare. He went down into it. And God responds with a single action, hurling a storm.

And in hurling the storm, God reveals three particular things that are noted in the text here. First, Jonah had a seared and thus ineffective conscience. Jonah no doubt would have been utterly shocked if he had known a few years earlier that he would end up in such a perilous condition. Yet here he is, running from God, his life in danger. Not just his life, but all of the sailors who were aboard the ship as well.

And not only that, he's unconcerned. So unconcerned that he's sound asleep. When the word of the Lord came to Jonah, his conscience was in no condition to adequately guide him. Evidently, Jonah had been drifting sometime from the Lord, drifting in his relationship with God. Definitely not unknowingly, but progressively.

To the point now that Jonah is refusing to listen to the Word of God with a complete lack of concern. Jonah can't even hear the storm raging around him, the wind howling through the boat deck. And it's at this point that the haunting echo from the past wakes him up as he's there lying on the ship's floor from the captain, Get up! Call on your God! Strikingly similar to, Arise!

Go to Nineveh and cry against it. Jonah had refused to listen to the word of the Lord. Jonah was, had misinterpreted the circumstantial providences of the Lord and here's this captain, the pagan sailor without any knowledge of God, is being used by God to rouse Jonah from his escapism tactic. Jonah had seared his conscience to the degree that it proved ineffective and this spiritually clueless ship captain sounds more like a prophet than Jonah himself get up call on your God perhaps your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish I say he sounds more like a prophet, he sounds an awful lot like Joel. Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments.

Now return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil. Who knows, Joel says, whether he will not turn and relent. Perhaps your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish. Jonah had an ineffective conscience because it had been seared. Not only that, God reveals that to us in his Word that Jonah was ashamed of the gospel, of his ministry.

Jonah is awakened by the ship captain, wipes the drool from his chin, rubs the sleep from his eyes, shakes the cobwebs out of his mind, stumbles to the dock of the ship. He's met there by the sailors who are casting lots in order to discern the cause of this calamity, and the lot falls on Jonah. And when it does, they immediately pepper him with questions, rapid fire almost, on whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? Where do you come from?

From what what is your country? From what people are you? They are serious about finding out the source and solution of their calamity. Their lives depend on it. And Jonah obliges their request.

Most of it anyway. Though he confesses his liability in the situation and acknowledges his Hebrew heritage reveals his religion Jonah avoided one of their questions completely. What is your occupation? Jonah a prophet of God is unwilling and or unable to admit it. His witness for God is silenced.

He had no word from God to give. Jonah had forfeited the prophetic work of the Lord and was ashamed of his calling, ashamed of his ministry, ashamed of the gospel. Now notice his statement sounded very good. I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. I fear the Lord God.

Jonah knew the right things to say. His vocabulary was more sanctified than his life, but fearing the Lord results in obeying him. The outcome at this point in the story is inevitable. Jonah has a seared conscience. He's ashamed of what God's called him to do, of God and the gospel, which leads to him despairing, hopeless despair, just pick me up and throw me into the sea.

He'd been such a complete failure he felt totally useless, there's nothing left for him to do, he didn't know if he was a true servant or prophet or not at this point, he couldn't admit it, he was unsure of his sonship. Why wouldn't he be? Because apart from obedience there is no real assurance nor should there be these pagan sailors had more hope at this point in the situation than Jonah We see them rowing desperately trying to get to land, but they couldn't because the sea was becoming even stormier against them. So they called on the Lord praying, do not let us perish on account of this man's life and do not put innocent blood on us. And with their plea from pardon they throw Jonah into the sea.

In verse 4 God had hurled the storm at them and now they were hurling Jonah at the storm and the wrath of the sea rests but not without cost. All of the wrath of the sea was absorbed, as it were, in one man as Jonah enters the waters. The remarkable gospel glimpse here of our Lord, the Christ, taking on the wrath, the One taking on the wrath for the many, for sinners, for us. God responded to Jonah's rebellion by hurling a storm. God reveals the issues in the Prophet's life, a seared conscience, ashamed of the gospel and despairing without hope.

And then God reacts. Verse 17, the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. What a reaction by God. Who would see it coming? Jonah's sinned.

Jonah is punished. The innocent sailors are safe. End of story, right? Not when God is the author. When God is the author, mercy reigns.

And the fish was prepared and sent by God in judgment, Yes, but not judgment without mercy. Now this fish is wonderfully interesting. Incredibly famous among Bible stories, but if we focus on the fish, we're going to lose sight of God and his mercy. The mercy that was displayed toward a sinner who was rebelling against him. The mercy displayed toward Jonah.

And not just mercy displayed toward Jonah, but the mercy displayed toward those sailors. Jonah was swallowed by the great fish. And it's unbelievably amazing that Jonah was preserved in the belly of that fish for such an extended period of time. But the real work of God that afternoon was not so much in the belly of the fish as it was in the heart of Jonah, the fledgling prophet. The miracle was not just the preservation of a fledgling prophet, but the restoration of a wayward child.

Like the prodigal son that our Lord taught us about, Jonah in the belly of the fish coming to his senses, recognizing who he was, agreeing again with the real identity that he was a child of the king. Yes, Jonah was swallowed by a fish and that was judgment. And yes, Jonah was swallowed by a fish. It was also mercy, mercy toward Jonah, mercy toward the sailors, and mercy towards Nineveh. Judgment is what saved Jonah.

Judgment is what saved Nineveh. God's heart was beating with love and compassion for these Ninevites and he intended to use this seared conscience backslidden despairing prophet as his instrument of choice to bring the Ninevites to repentance and Jonah's reluctance no matter how great would not hinder the Ninevites repentance. God has mercy on Jonah and then he shows mercy to Nineveh. And these sailors, The sailors are often overlooked in this story, but they're not overlooked by God. Look at verse 16.

The men, the sailors, feared the Lord greatly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. God's mercy knows no bounds. These are rotten, wicked, good-for-nothing pagans who never given the God of the Bible a second thought. Yet in the kind providence of God through Jonah's awful attempt at rebellion and escaping the presence of God, they find themselves on the receiving end of the mercy of God, Being saved through the judgment of God. Judgment not only saved Jonah and Nineveh, the prophet was overthrown for the salvation of the sailors physically.

Their lives were kept because the sea became calm. Jonah's physical sacrifice saves the sailors from the storm, but it was the sacrifice of another that really saved the sailors. It was the judgment on another that offers them real safety. It was the sacrifice of Christ that ultimately rescued these sailors from serving themselves and their many gods. With the calming of the sea, their physical lives were spared.

And by Christ hanging on the tree, their lives were saved. Christ was crushed for the salvation of his enemies. Enemies like you and me. Verse 15 says that the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea. And we see the good understanding of the sovereignty of God in Jonah's mind if you look ahead to verse 3 of chapter 2.

Jonah says it this way in his prayer to the Lord, you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas." Jonah knew that it was the hand of God, the sovereign hand of God, which reminds us of Peter preaching at Pentecost, this man, this Jesus, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death." The men feared the Lord greatly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. They didn't start there. Look back at verse 5. As a result of the Lord hurling a great wind at them and the ship was about to break up because the storm was so great. The sailors became afraid and every man cried out to his own God.

There's an ungodly fear. Look at verse 10 after Jonah reveals that he is a Hebrew and fears the Lord God of heaven who made the sea in the dry land they became extremely frightened and said how could you do this and they began rowing even more desperately as the storm became increasingly stormy. And when we compare their fear with Jonah who claimed in verse 9 as we noticed before to fear the Lord God of heaven. The fear that's worth following, the fear of the Lord that's worth following in this passage, is the fear of the sailors. Jonah claimed to fear God, but he turned from him and from his word.

The initial fear from the sailors resulted in each one crying out to his own God. The extreme fear later on led to questioning of Jonah and rowing more desperately. But this final fear, the godly fear of these men fearing the Lord, led to them petitioning God, offering sacrifices, and making vows. The godly fear in these recent converts led to obedience and the fear of God will do the same for you and for me if We know him According to his word if we believe what he says about himself and what he says about us. If we recognize that we are sinners in need of a savior like him, if we acknowledge that he's sovereign and working meticulously all the details of our lives to draw us to himself, determining the times of our habitation and the boundaries in which we live so that we might seek after Him with our whole hearts and as a result be found by Him.

The only option at that point is for godly fear to result in our lives. And we've heard a numerous amount of wonderful definitions and descriptions of the fear of God already over the past couple of days. I'm going to tell you the one that I pull out of my pocket every time someone asks the question. I don't have any of the old guys memorized, but this is what I often say. The fear of God is the man or woman of God having a tender regard to please Him in everything.

As a result of who he is, holy and pure and righteous, and a recognition that we are nothing and sinners and at enmity with him, apart from Christ. Once we belong to Him, when He's made us His own, the only right response is that we desire to please Him by continuing to pursue Him. Not following Jonah's horrible pattern here in chapter 1 of attempting to flee from his word and flee from his presence, but fearing him, offering sacrifices of our lives to Him, making vows and keeping them, being obedient to the commands of Christ. May God help us to have this kind of godly fear that we might know Him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings for Christ's sake. Let's pray.

God we thank you for your word, for its sufficiency, and for its wonderful revelation of our Lord Christ Jesus. We pray, God, that in all things he would be magnified and lifted up, and that we might follow Him with our whole hearts all the days of our lives, for the sake of His glory among us. Amen. For more messages, articles, and videos on the subject of conforming the Church in of the Church and the Family to the Word of God, and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area log on to our website ncfic.org