Leading The Way

Dr. Michael Youssef: I heard people many times through the years, "God wants me to be happy." Beloved, listen to me: God wants you to be holy. Surely He does not want me to witness for Him in a potentially hostile situation. Surely He does not want me to take a stand for Him and jeopardize that lucrative business deal that I've been working on. Surely. Ah, I can settle for plan B. God is going to accommodate to me. Surely not I, and definitely not them.

Guest (Female): Welcome to Leading The Way with international Bible teacher and the author of more than 50 life-transforming books, Dr. Michael Youssef. You know, the life of Jonah is always intriguing because of how over-the-top it is with adventure and plot twists. But Dr. Youssef thinks it also mirrors your life. Think about it.

God may be asking for obedience, but you're putting all of your energies into running in the opposite direction, opening doors to your own adventures and your own plot twists. Today, Dr. Youssef shows us how Jonah hid from God's calling. Jonah knew it as a place called Tarshish, but God calls it sin and disobedience. Let's join Dr. Michael Youssef now in his series "Surely Not Me . . . Definitely Not Them."

Dr. Michael Youssef: Have you ever been in a situation where you prayed for something so hard, you wanted it so much, although you have this inner feeling that says you're not praying in accordance with the will of God? But you tried to ignore that voice within you and you work hard toward that goal, and you pray anyway, no matter how you feel in your spirit. And you're basically hoping against hope that God is going to see it your way and He's going to answer your prayer. That maybe you can even convince God that your direction is the real direction that He should lead you to and not what He wants you to do.

We saw in the last message that God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and there to start a revival, there to proclaim the word of God, the message of God that He has given him. But Jonah didn't like what God asked him to do. He didn't like the will of God in his life. He didn't like the plan of God for him. And so he decided to go his way. And today, I want to show you Jonah heading in the exact opposite direction of the call of God.

What are these two sad words? Well, the verse three of chapter one, "But Jonah." Can you say that with me? ["But Jonah."] Instead of being filled with gratitude and thanksgiving for God calling him to do something great for God, something mighty for God, the Bible said, "But Jonah." He went to Joppa, which is in the wrong direction to begin with from Gath, where he was.

And then he bought a ticket on a ship that was heading for Tarshish in the opposite direction from where Nineveh was. Tarshish was in Spain; Nineveh is in modern-day Iraq. Jonah was going as far away from God as he could in the opposite direction. He was going away from the will of God for him as far as he could. And Jonah probably thought that he could get away with it. And for a while, he did.

But listen to me: Jonah's problem was not geographical. The problems are never geographical; they are spiritual. Tarshish for you and for me is that place when you think that you can minister and you can serve where you want to be. It's that place of your own choosing, not God's choosing. It's that place where you feel and you say to God, "God, one place is as good as another. God, this place is where the action is. That's where I want to be, God."

Tarshish is that place in your life when you settle for what you want. It is the place in your life where you're comfortable and cozy and warm. It is the place where you have not been shaken out of your apathy. It's a place where you've not been challenged. It's a place where you're not risking anything for God. That's the Tarshish in your life. It is the place in your life and in my life where you would rather be popular than being an obedient ambassador of the King of Kings. It is the place that you want to be, not where God wants you to be.

If this is where you are today, I want to help you get off. Listen carefully. Many people today are on the run. They don't want to face a difficult situation. They don't want to face a difficult problem, so they run. They face a problem in marriage, and who doesn't? They run. They face a problem on the job, and who doesn't? They run. They face a problem in ministry or in serving, and goodness gracious, who doesn't? They run. They run, they run, they run.

Why? Because Tarshish looks easy. Tarshish looks attractive. Tarshish looks inviting. Tarshish looks appealing, and always does. I mean, you got the brochure in the mail, and you open that brochure and a beautiful picture of the blue waters of the Mediterranean and the sand just like sugar. And you said, "Man, I can't wait to go there." I know that because if I wasn't a preacher, I would have been a beach bum.

He can't wait to get on that ship. Jonah's fleeing from God's call in his life was calculated. It wasn't by accident; it was calculated. He found a ship. The Bible said he found a ship. Isn't that wonderful? He just found a ship. He didn't have to look very hard. You would say, "Isn't that sweet of the Lord to provide me with a ship? That's really wonderful. Isn't that just coincidence that he's going where I want to go? Isn't that providential? Isn't that fortuitous?"

They convince themselves that God surely must have plan B, and I want to be on that plan B because I can't keep up with plan A. Listen and read my lips: God does not have plan B. He only has plan A, and you either get on board or get off. That's your choice. Why else would there be a ship just waiting for him and is going right on the dock there in Joppa and was heading in the direction exactly where he wanted to go? Why would that ship be going exactly in that direction? God is good, isn't He?

Oh, yes. I've been there; you can understand that, right? Oh, man, you rationalize everything in your head and you say, "Wow, this must be of God." You know you're running away from the will of God, but things are working out, so I must be all right. Surely God doesn't want me to go where I don't want to go. I heard people many times through the years, "God wants me to be happy." Beloved, listen to me: God wants you to be holy.

Surely God does not want me to witness for Him in a potentially hostile situation, environment. Surely He does not want me to take a stand for Him and jeopardize that lucrative business deal that I've been working on. Surely God does not want me to stand out like a sore thumb in the workplace. Surely God does not want me to be a killjoy with my friends at school. Surely. Ah, I can settle for plan B. God is going to accommodate to me. Surely not I, and definitely not them.

Now, the problem is, running away from the will of God and being obedient to the word of God feels good in the beginning. It really does. You know when the Bible said sin is pleasurable for a moment? A lot of people think that's just sexual sins. That's all sins. Disobedience feels good in the beginning. But then you have not been able to see that storm that's on the horizon. Only God could see that storm, because the Bible said He sent it.

It's several weeks away. Look at verse four. Look at verse four. The Bible said, "Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea." Oh, my. What happened? What happened? He trudged these 60 miles and he probably walked. Most likely he would have walked 60 miles. I don't know how long it took him from his hometown, Gath, to Joppa. Nothing happened. He didn't fall and stumble and break his leg. God must be in this.

Then there he found the ship, and it happened to be fortuitously just there. How lucky is that, huh? How unusual. That is the ship that is going as far away from Nineveh as you can get back then. What an opportunity that God has provided for me to go to Tarshish. One place is as good as the other. And so he pays for his ticket by his American Express credit card. He learned never to leave home without it. So he paid for it, and he boarded the ship, and the ship took off. Oh, I must be in God's plan B.

We don't know how long before the storm was brewing. We really don't know. Back then, it took them weeks, sometimes even months, to get from one end of the Mediterranean to the other. We don't know how long. And just as Jonah began to get used to breathing that beautiful fresh air of the Mediterranean that helped him sleep so soundly, and just as he was sleeping so soundly thinking to himself, "Oh, man, it can't get better than this."

I want to share something with you that I learned the hard way: God is going to accomplish His purpose with you or without you. God is going to accomplish His purpose. Ephesians chapter one, verse 11, Paul said, "God accomplishes all things according to the counsel of His will." The question is, are you willing to be a willing participant in the purpose of God? Or will you try to run away? Will you say, "Oh, God, surely not me and definitely not them"?

Please listen carefully. When the storm begins to brew in your life, whether it's in the beginning of it or you're in the middle of it, regardless of where you are in that storm, or even there's a storm on the horizon you can't even see yet—but when those storms start happening, I want to tell you something: don't panic. Don't panic; be thankful. You say, "Michael, are you crazy? I hate storms." I hate storms too. Are you kidding? I'm made of flesh and blood; I am not superhuman. I don't like storms either.

But the reason I'm telling you to rejoice and the reason I'm telling you to take heart is because it means that God has not given up on you yet. That's what it means: that God has not given up on you. According to Romans 1:28, God only gives up on those who are not His. "He gives them up," said Paul, "to their depraved minds." Well, think about it. Those of you parents will understand what I'm going to tell you. I am always interested—have been, always will be—in disciplining, training, challenging, encouraging my children, not my neighbor's children.

God is not going to discipline, chastise, train, encourage, call, and challenge the devil's kids. No. You see, God is too merciful, He's too kind, He's too loving to let His children drift on the sea of life. Why did God send the storm? Why did God send the storm? To wake Jonah up. Wake him up to what? To the call of God upon his life. To God's plan for his life. To God's call upon his life. And make no mistake about it: God has a call on everyone's life if you belong to Jesus.

He was trying to wake him up to God's plan, God's work, to witnessing for God, to wake him up to his calling as an ambassador of the King of Kings, wake him up to bring glory to the name of Christ, wake him up to obedience. Listen, there's one thing you can be sure of. When you're running away from God, it's very difficult—I would say even impossible—for you to hear God. Ask me, I know.

It is impossible to hear the voice of God because you have numbed your ability to hear the voice of God. You kept saying, "Surely not me and definitely not them, surely not me and definitely not them, surely not me and definitely not them." And that's all that's going through your head. And therefore, you blunt the voice of God. I want to plead with you. I want to plead with every one of you. Do not, do not stay asleep.

Do not stay asleep until God has to use a storm to wake you up. I plead with you. Don't stay on the run until God has to use a storm to bring you back. I think most of us, I dare say, who know the Lord Jesus Christ would testify to the fact that when you became a believer the first time you came to Christ, you were on fire for God. You wanted to talk about Christ with everybody who would listen. You wanted to testify to Christ, to anything that moves. I mean, you wanted to talk about Jesus all the time.

And then you got asleep, spiritually speaking. Life is good, and you're on the cruise. And as you're asleep on life's cruise liner heading for Tarshish, God's speaking to you. He's speaking to you gently. He's speaking to you softly. He's speaking to you lovingly. He's speaking to you thoughtfully. He's speaking to you definitively. And God forbid that you may refuse to hear the voice of God. God forbid.

Even the pagan sailors were praying to their gods. Look at verse six. The pagan sailors, they were praying to their god. And listen to what the captain said to Jonah. He said, "How is it that you're sleeping? Get up, call upon your god. Do you have a god?" Oh, my. If you don't have a god, he probably said, "Listen, on this ship we carry a lot of gods. It's in the hull of the ship. We got a lot of statues down there: one for Baal, one for Asherah. We carry them, we bring them back and forth across the Mediterranean. There's a god down there in the bottom. Go get a god and pray to him. Choose one."

Listen to me: those were veteran seamen. They've been up and down the Mediterranean. They've experienced every storm known to man. But they recognized that this is not a usual storm. This is a divine storm. They recognized that, the pagan people. They recognized that this kind of storm has been sent by the powerful God. Poor old Jonah, I can imagine him waking up, rubbing his eyes and he says, "What? Pray to what? What god? What do you mean?" He don't understand.

My God is not like these make-believe gods. My God is not like these powerless gods. My God is a God of power and might. My God is the God who dried up the Red Sea. My God is the God who brought the water of the Red Sea and flooded out the mighty Egyptian army. My God is the God who parted the Jordan River. My God is the God who destroyed the walls of Jericho with a shout.

My God is the God who tells the sun to rise every morning and it obeys. My God is the God who put all the stars in the heavens. My God is the God who named all the stars in the galaxies. My God is the God who made all of the oceans and all of the seas and all of the land. And furthermore, I'm running away from that God. Can you see the irony here? I mean, can you see that?

Imagine these pagan captains. They must be incredulous, I mean, looking at Jonah and hearing him and he says, "Best of luck to you, buddy. You're running away from this kind of God? How can you do that? How can you run away from that kind of God?" Beloved, let me tell you something. It's a sad moment, is it not, when an unbeliever rebukes a believer for his disobedience? Isn't that sad?

When an unbeliever says to you, "Why haven't you told me about salvation? Why haven't you told me about heaven? Why haven't you told me about Jesus? Why haven't you told me about eternal life? Why haven't you told me that I'm sinking eternally without Christ and I desperately need Him?" Well, look at verses eight, nine, and ten. So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What did you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"

And Jonah answered, "I'm a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of heaven." That's how all the pagans knew Jehovah to be: the God of heaven. "Who made the sea and the land." This terrified them, and they asked, "What have you done?" And this goes to say—this is Jonah writing here—he says, "They knew that he was running away from the Lord because he had already told them so."

Now, beloved, listen to me. A powerless Christian is a pitiful Christian. I want to repeat that: a powerless Christian is a pitiful Christian. Jesus said, "If the salt loses its saltiness, it is no longer good for anything." Christian, please listen to me. You are created to be a powerhouse for God. You have been created and redeemed to speak for God. You have been created and redeemed to testify to God.

You are not created and redeemed so that you might just serve on a couple of boards, give a couple of dollars, attend a couple of meetings. No, and a million no's. And the captain's question to Jonah ought to be the question to every single person who's listening. Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? Answer: "I am redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. I am called by God to reconcile others to Him. Oh, but I told God, surely not me and definitely not them."

Why? Well, I found me a ship. I found me a ship, and it felt easier to just cruise along Christian highway. The question is really not necessarily why, although it's important, but the question is what. There's some people who probably listening to me today and they're going to get in their mind thinking about why they ended up in Tarshish, why they ended up on this ship. And they get maybe feeling guilty and they walk out guilty and never really come to grips of the what.

You see, regardless of what the why is, why you got there, surely God is interested in that, but that's not really what you should be focusing on right now. You should be focusing on the what: "What do I do now?" That's what God wants you to focus on. The devil wants you to focus on your past guilt and you figure out, "Oh, I should have done this and I shouldn't have done that." Forget it. God wants you to focus on what: "What should I do now?"

Thank God that He is our God and that He's the God of second chances. Thank God we don't have to get thrown into the water and be swallowed by a great fish. If you want a revival in the land, if you want a revival in your school, if you want a revival in your neighborhood, if you want a revival at your work, then get out of the ship that's heading out to Tarshish. Sound the alarm of God's displeasure of His cruising children.

Sound the alarm that the people may begin to fear God once again. Wake up before it becomes too late. My beloved, I don't care how far you've gone. You could never go far away from the Lord. You can never go far enough from His hand, and He wants you to come to Him. And you can do that today. Our God is the God of a second and third and fourth chances, and He's calling you. Will you get back to Him? Will you get back to Him today?

Guest (Female): Encouragement from Dr. Michael Youssef through the example of Jonah to live in total obedience. You're listening to Leading The Way. Connect with Dr. Youssef at ltw.org. As a listener-supported ministry, Leading The Way relies on the prayers and the generosity of friends like you to reach this community and communities just like this worldwide.

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