Welcome to all of you. I am so glad that you’re here with us today for part three of our series, “Like a Child.” I was thinking this morning how interesting it is that on this day that we’ve set apart to celebrate Fathers that we are remembering Jesus’ words that we must become like a child. In fact, Jesus said that it was necessary, if we want to enter the kingdom, if we want to be saved, but we don’t think that way, do we? Instead, we usually want just the opposite.

Let me see a show of hands. Have any of you ever said, “I wish you would grow up and stop acting like a child?”

Many of us have said that, but Jesus says just the opposite to his disciples in Luke chapter 18. The people were bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them and Luke tells us in verse 15,

“When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them (they told them to leave Jesus alone). But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it" (Luke 18:15-17).

In other words, Jesus said the only way we can experience the things of God, the only way we can be saved, entering the kingdom of God, is if we approach him with the innocence and simplicity of childlike faith.

Now, that is a huge statement to say that everyone or anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. And so, we want to talk about that today, considering faith from the perspective of a child as we look at the story of Jonah.

If you’d like to follow along, open your Bible to the book of Jonah, tucked away in between the prophets Obadiah and Micah. I want to give you a little time to find it, because it’s just a little book, just 4 chapters. And for those of you who know the story of Jonah, many people consider it a kid’s story, something that you would hear in Sunday school, but I believe this is exactly the kind of truth that we need to hear today. And so, I believe as we listen to the Spirit of God, Jonah is going to speak into all of our lives.

You see, Jonah was a guy who didn’t do what God wanted him to do, and most of us have probably been there at least once or twice in our lives, right? And so, like children we need to be affirmed, we need to know that we are loved, and we need to know that we are forgiven and restored. That’s why God’s word comes to us and tells us,

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Because as children, when we are lost, when we are separated from our father, that is exactly the kind of promise that we need.

And so, let’s go to Jonah chapter one as we consider how we are to be like children. Verse one says,

“The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me" (Jonah 1:1-2).

Now, for most of us who know the story, the emphasis has always been on what was wrong with Nineveh, but the truth is that there was something wrong with Jonah.

And so, what was wrong with Nineveh distracts us and makes it hard to see what was wrong with Jonah. In other words, when you find somebody that you think is worse off than you, you can’t really see yourself clearly, you can’t see what’s wrong with you, because you’re so busy seeing what’s wrong with them. And so, look at what Jonah does in verse 3, the Bible says,

“Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord” (Jonah 1:3).

Jonah was a man on the run and as we look at this story, I believe that God is going to show us that we all have a little bit of Jonah in us.

The good news is that the word of the Lord will come to you today, God will speak a specific word to some of you, and you will have the choice to do something, to change something, and to be obedient to what the Lord said to you. Or on the other hand, you can do what Jonah did and say, “I don’t want to do that,” and run in the opposite direction.

Now, you might be wondering why the prophet didn’t obey this simple assignment, but when you understand the history of Nineveh, I think you will understand why he ran. You see, Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, a people that were so brutal that historians say entire towns would commit suicide if they knew they were about to be attacked by the Assyrians. In other words, they would rather die than to experience the brutality, the suffering, and the torture that the Assyrians were known to afflict on their captives.

And so, the people of Nineveh were feared and despised by the Israelites and Jonah felt that he had a legitimate excuse not to obey God. In fact, some of you may be able to relate, because the word of the Lord has come to you, and you understand what God wants you to do, you know what you should do, but you don’t want to do it.

For example, maybe someone did you wrong, they hurt you, or they hurt someone that you love. And the word of the Lord came to you, he said,

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

And you heard it, you know what God wants you to do, but they don’t deserve it and you don’t want to do it.

Can I go deeper? The Bible is crystal clear about the tithe, that the first ten percent of what he has given, what he has entrusted us with, actually belongs to him. And so, God entrusts us to manage his resources and the word of the Lord came to you saying,

“On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income” (1 Corinthians 16:2).

In other words, a percentage of your income, but you’re like, “I know what God said, that those who believe return ten percent as an act of faithful obedience in worship, but I don’t want to, because I like what I have more than I want to obey God.”

Or maybe you’re single and you meet somebody that you really like. The next thing you know you’re getting physical and doing some stuff that you know you shouldn’t be doing. But you keep messing around and the word of the Lord will come to you saying,

“It is God's will that you be sanctified: that you avoid sexual immorality; that you learn to control your body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5).

And so, you’ve got a choice, because you know that God says, that’s not for dating, that’s not yours, that’s for marriage. But some of you will say, “I don’t care what God says, because this feels good, and this feels right.”

You see, if we’re honest, there’s a little bit of Jonah in all of us. Something that says, “I’m going to do what I want to do anyway.” And so, like Jonah, the word of the Lord will come to you, he may tell you to do things you don’t want to do, or don’t do things that you want to do, and you’re always going to be able to find a boat sailing in the wrong direction.

God said to Jonah, “Go to Nineveh and preach against its wickedness.” Jonah replied, “I don’t want anything to do with those people,” and he ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish (Jonah 1:3). In other words, God said, “Go East to Nineveh,” and Jonah said, “No way, I’m going west to Tarshish.” And so, he ran away, and he fled from the presence of the Lord.

There may be some of you who can relate. In fact, you may be sitting next to someone who thinks you’re a committed follower of Jesus, but you know that you’re a long way from God. Because the word of the Lord has come to you, “Here is what I want you to do,” and maybe months or even years ago you said, “No way, I know what you want, but I don’t want to do that.” And what I hope you’ll understand is that you can run for a while, but you can’t run forever, because it will catch up to you.

Others of you, maybe you’re not running, you’re not in direct rebellion, but you’re just kind of drifting. You didn’t even notice, you didn’t even know it, but there was a time when you were really close to God. You prayed all the time, his word was an important part of your day, but then something happened and you found you weren’t praying is much. You stopped reading your Bible and it wasn’t that you are running from God as much as you were drifting from him.

And so, whether it is intentional or unintentional, whether we are sailing in the opposite direction, or just drifting along and the distance from God is increasing. He may have to get our attention and like he did for Jonah,

“The Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up” (Jonah 1:4).

And so, this was a powerful storm, because this was a large cargo ship with seasoned sailors and yet the Bible says,

“The sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep” (Jonah 1:5).

You’ve got to imagine this like a child, picturing this in your mind, because God’s trying to get Jonah’s attention. He’s in a deep sleep but God sent a violent storm, waves were crashing against the boat, it was creaking and groaning, going up and down, and everybody is stressed out calling upon their gods. They’ve never seen a storm like this, and so they’re wondering what was going on, wondering what they’re going to do, and in verse 7 they said to each other,

“Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah” (Jonah 1:7).

In other words, they did this lottery kind of thing, they drew straws, and they came to the conclusion, “It’s Jonah’s fault.”

“So, they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" (Jonah 1:8).

Jonah reveals his identity, answering them in verse nine,

“I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land" (Jonah 1:9).

Now, you need to recognize that up to this point there is nothing in his life that has resembled a follower of the Lord or the teachings of Scripture. But suddenly, he starts with the God talk saying, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord.”

“This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done” (Jonah 1:10)?

And so, they are like what do you mean you worship the Lord? What have you done? Do you worship the Lord and then go home and beat your kids? Do you skip church and go play golf and take his name in vain? Come on Jonah, what have you done?

You see, they didn’t worship Jonah’s God, but they were very superstitious, and they knew that something was wrong. It actually reminds me a lot of the American church today because we’ve got a generation of people who call themselves followers of Christ, but they don’t live like it at all. What I mean is that there is no distinction, no difference between them and the unbeliever next door.

In fact, you probably know people like that, they call themselves Christians, but it’s only a name. They go to church every now and then, pray over the meal at Thanksgiving, but there is nothing in their daily lives that resembles the teachings of the One they claim to follow as their Lord and Savior. And so, it’s more of a culture, an ideology, then it is a relationship with the living God. In other words, there is no evidence of genuine faith.

Jonah says, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven.”

And this terrified them more than the storm itself because they were so superstitious. They asked, “What have you done?” Because they recognized that worshiping God is a lifestyle, it’s not something you do for an hour a week.

Jonah says, he worships God as the winds are howling, the sails are whipping back and forth, and it’s obvious to the sailors that this is some sort of halfway, lukewarm, cultural Judaism that claims to worship God but doesn’t obey him. And so, Jonah said, “I know God, but I won’t go, I don’t want to do it.” Meanwhile, the storm wasn’t relenting,

“The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So, they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us” (Jonah 1:11)?

And so, they are like, “What do we need to do you?” Because they recognize the supernatural ferocity of the storm and they know that Jonah is the cause.

Finally, Jonah realizes that the storm is his fault, that he is hurting all these innocent people because of his disobedience to God. And so, he owns up to it in verse twelve and says,

“Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you” (Jonah 1:12).

Like Jonah, some of you thought that what you were doing, your secret life, your private little rebellion wasn’t hurting anybody. But don’t kid yourself, if the winds haven’t started blowing, if it hasn’t hurt anybody yet, it’s going to and you’re going to recognize that it’s your fault.

Jonah admitted it, he said, “I know that it’s my fault” and even though the sailors didn’t know him, even though he didn’t deserve it, they showed him mercy. And instead of throwing him overboard, they threw off all the cargo, because they didn’t want to do that to him.

“The men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before” (Jonah 1:13).

And so, they did their best, but it didn’t work. They’re rowing like crazy but they couldn’t make it back to land. And so, finally they resolved, “We’re all going to die unless we throw this Hebrew overboard.”

Now, they began to pray, they cried out to the Lord, to Jonah’s God,

“Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased” (Jonah 1:14).

And so, they said, “Jonah, we’re sorry. We didn’t want to do this but…

“They took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm” (Jonah 1:15).

The very thing they didn’t want to do resolved their problem, because Jonah was going in the wrong direction. And so, verse 16 tells us,

“At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him” (Jonah 1:16).

Now, you would think that everything would be good now, right? But look at what happens in verse 17, things get even worse for Jonah,

“The Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17).

In other words, what Jonah would imagine to be the worst possible scenario was what God provided.

Some of you right now may be facing what you consider the worst possible scenario. You might say, financially I’m done, it’s over. You may be facing a health crisis or a relationship that you think just couldn’t get any worse. And God may be saying, “Okay, do I have your attention now?”

I’m not saying that everything bad that happens is God causing it in your life, because much of that is just life itself, much of that is because we live in a fallen world, but I do believe that there are times where God may allow what we would consider to be the worst-case scenario so that he can get our attention.

That’s what we find happening with Jonah, he had neglected God, but now he turns to God in prayer. Look at chapter 2, verse one,

“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God” (Jonah 2:1).

After he had ignored God, disobeyed God, Jonah called on the Lord his God, because when God gets your attention, your prayer life will be revitalized.

“He said: "In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry” (Jonah 2:2).

Just think about the power of that, don’t miss that, we have the ability to call on the God, the Creator of the universe. And when we call on him, he will answer us. Jonah said,

"When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple” (Jonah 2:7).

Some of you know what that’s like, that feeling of your life ebbing away. Your life was spiraling out of control, but you remembered the Lord, and you called on his name and he intervened. The doctor said there was no chance, but all things are possible with God. Your marriage was in trouble, you thought it was over, but he restored your marriage, he healed your body, because he heard your prayer.

And so, Jonah said,

“With a song of thanksgiving I will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good” (Jonah 2:9).

Now, we don’t know what he vowed, but it was probably something like, “God, if you tell me to go, I will go. If you tell me to speak, I will speak.” And so, he said, “What I have vowed I will make good.”

I wonder if there is something that God has put on your heart and you need to make it good. Look at what Jonah said next, I hope you will hear this in a way that you have never heard it before. This is so important, he said,

“For my salvation comes from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9).

In other words, Jonah said there was nothing I could do to help myself. I was in a hopeless situation, I couldn’t contribute anything, and my salvation comes from the Lord alone. The Bible says it this way,

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

When you realize that, recognizing that it cost God his son Jesus, who shed his blood, and you’re saved only because of what Jesus did. When you recognize that, your only reasonable response is to surrender to him in worship. Saying, “Here is my life, I give it all to you.”

Why? Because salvation comes from the Lord. Isaiah said it this way,

“You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name” (Isaiah 63:16).

He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers (Malachi 4:6). Jonah knows it now like he’s never known it before, and the Bible says in verse 10,

“And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (Jonah 2:10).

I know that’s kind of disgusting, but it’s very powerful, and it drives home the point. When you call on the Lord, he will answer you. The Lord God, the One who spoke and hung the stars in the sky, who created the heavens and the earth and all the galaxies that exist, the Almighty hears us. The Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, who is, and who was, and who is to come, when we call on him he will answer us. And so, as we close, you’ve got a choice, you can keep running, or you can come back to him.

Graphics, notes, and commentary from LifeChurch, Ministry Pass, PC Study Bible, Preaching Library, and Sermon Central. Scripture from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.