The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: Remember our definition of calling: it’s always related to something bigger. It’s always related to God. People, and it’s always related to God’s Kingdom. It’s not just related to your bank account.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans talks about how to be part of that bigger picture. This is the Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Everyone, whether they know it or not, has a calling from God. And some of us know what our calling is, but aren't entirely happy with it. Today, Dr. Evans looks at the struggle between our selfishness and our submission and reveals the rewards we can expect when we choose to follow the Lord's leading. Let’s join him in the first chapter of the book of Jonah.

Dr. Tony Evans: Now, Jonah’s calling was to be a prophet. He is a prophet who speaks on behalf of God. When you are in your calling, it’s a lot easier to hear God’s voice because you’re where you’re supposed to be. So when God speaks, you’re in the neighborhood of what God wants to say, you’re in the vicinity to hear it.

Well, his general calling as a prophet is clear. But he’s now been given a specific task. Verse two says it is to go to Nineveh to cry against it, for its wickedness has come up from me. Jonah doesn’t like this calling, or at least the application of this calling to this particular situation: to go to Nineveh.

The first thing I want to talk about relates to chapter one and that is the pain of obedience. Sometimes obedience can be downright painful. Go to Nineveh. Why does Jonah not want to go to Nineveh? I mean, this guy is lickety-split, get me out of here yesterday. I am not going to Nineveh.

Now, there are two reasons he doesn’t want to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was a very wicked place. We see that here in verse two. One of the things the Ninevites liked to do was chop people’s heads off, drain their blood, dip a paintbrush in the blood, and paint graffiti on walls. Okay, so this was a very evil, I mean evil was for fun. So it was a place you don’t want to be.

So he didn’t want to do that. But God clearly told him to do it, but it was against what he wanted to do. Now there’s a second reason which Jonah’s going to point out in a few moments he didn’t want to go to Nineveh. One is if his preaching was a failure and he became a martyr, but the other one is he didn’t want to go preach because he wanted them to be judged. He wanted them to be judged.

Now, he had a pretty good reason. These were the enemies of Israel, and he knew that this nation was going to rise up against Israel. And of course, he’s a Jew, he loves Israel. So he wants this nation destroyed. So he wants to protect self-interest, but he also wants destruction of his enemies, and this is an assignment, an application he does not prefer.

Therefore, it says he rose up to flee to Tarshish. God said go and he got up all right, but he went the opposite direction. He was told to go northeast to Nineveh; he went west to Tarshish. Now let me tell you how bad this brother did not want to go to Nineveh. It’s a 550-mile trip from Israel to Nineveh. Tarshish is located 2,500 miles west.

He was not only not going to go to Nineveh, he was going to go as far in the opposite direction of God’s command as possible. And it tells us what he was thinking. This isn’t really a good idea. It’s really bad to think this way. But just in case anybody’s thinking this way, it says he went to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Now, it’s bad when a preacher forgets his own theology. But when you decide to run from God and arrive at the place that you were going to escape Him, He’ll be there to welcome you. All right? I just want you to know that.

So, he is in a state of rebellion. He pays his own way. But wouldn’t you know it, verse four, and 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. Now why couldn’t the Bible just say it began to rain? No, it doesn’t say that. It personalizes the storm, we call this a Jonah storm.

It says God hurled a wind. Now let me say something. When you’re running from God and it gets windy, that’s not luck. That’s not chance. When circumstances start to go up and down and you are running from God, that’s intentional. That’s planned. That’s a storm with your name on it.

He runs from God. Now, here’s the problem. The sailors became afraid because he’s on this merchant ship. They’re taking goods from Joppa and they’re taking them to Tarshish. So they say, let’s cast lots and see who’s the cause of this. Now notice, the preacher isn’t volunteering information here. The sinners have to track him down and they discover that he is the problem.

He says to them in verse 12, okay, pick me up and throw me into the sea. Now you’ve got to be depressed. All right? This is a depressed preacher here. Kill me! I’d rather die than for you to find some land and get me back, because I’m not going to no Nineveh. So they pray in verse 14, they say, O Lord, we earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life.

We don’t want to go down with him. Do not put innocent blood on us, for thou, O Lord, has done as thou pleased. So they pick up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. Now you know how you know if you the problem. If folks get rid of you and everything’s okay, you the problem. It says they threw him in the water, and the water became calm.

But notice verse 16. Then the men feared the Lord greatly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. Which is a nice way of saying all these sailors got saved. Verse 17 of chapter one introduces us to point two. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Then you are introduced to the first word of chapter two, verse one: Then. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish. Now this is not what you would call a prayer closet. Listen, a prayer closet is any place you’re going to do real praying. All right? And sometimes it’s in the midst of circumstances that are not very pleasant to be in.

I called to the Lord out of my distress. He answered me. I cried from the depths of Sheol, you did hear my voice, for you cast me into the deep. He knew that being thrown overboard and thrown into the sea wasn’t luck, chance, or mishap. He knew God was after him. Some of us will not change our direction till we get swallowed.

And God didn’t act until he remembered. Remember what? The Lord who called him. Do you know that some of your worst days are some of your greatest blessings? On the day when life has fallen apart, it could be the day when God is loving you the most because He loves him enough to track him.

So I will pay my vow, which means keep my commitment. I told you when you called me I'd go where you told me to go, I’d do what you told me to do, I’d preach where you told me to preach. Verse 10 says, then the Lord commanded the fish. This fish is sure getting a lot of attention. Told the fish get him, then tells the fish get rid of him.

Then he commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah up onto dry land. But look at chapter three now, verse one. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. Chapter three, arise, verse two says, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation I’m going to tell you.

Now here’s the observation I want to make here in chapter three, and that is God didn’t change His assignment. The word of the Lord came to him the second time. And guess what? It was the same word as the first time. You’re going to Nineveh if you’re going to fulfill what I want you to do.

Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city and three days’ walk. And Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk, and he cried out, and here’s what God told him to preach: Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. Now that sounds like a brief message, and he probably said more than that, but it’s a brief message with two parts.

Nineveh is going to be judged, overthrown. But you’ve got a 40-day window to fix it. When this message is preached, the people of Nineveh believed in God, verse five. They called a fast, put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. Sackcloth: this is mourning clothes. They’re sorry for their sins.

When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he issues a proclamation in Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles. Do not let man, beast, herd, flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth and let men call on God earnestly that he may turn from his wicked way and violence which he has in his hand.

Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we shall not perish. Now, brothers and sisters, I would like to assert to you there is no place that I know of in the Bible or in contemporary history where one sermon brought this much response. Where a whole city, huge city, Nineveh, repents.

Verse 10 says when God saw their deeds, fruits of repentance the Bible calls it, they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring on them, and he did not do it.

Guest (Female): What if your next week felt restored? A chance to slow down, breathe deeply, and reconnect through worship and community. Join Dr. Tony Evans with special guest Priscilla Shirer for a powerful journey of faith at sea. Experience the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and the Dominican Republic aboard the new Statendam, February 28th through March 7th, 2027. Reserve your spot at tonyevans.org.

Guest (Male): Before we get back to our message, I want to tell you about the perfect follow-up resource for our current series. It’s Dr. Evans’ Called for a Purpose devotional book, and it builds on what we’ve been learning about your one-of-a-kind, God-given calling. God has something special He intends for you to do, and these daily readings will encourage you to stay focused on His plan while helping you grow in your walk with Him.

Dr. Evans says there’s no greater source of satisfaction and success than finding and fulfilling your purpose. And this information is so important, we’d like you to have this devotional book as our gift when you help support the work of the Alternative with a contribution.

But don’t wait, because if you donate right now, along with the devotional, we’ll also send you all 12 full-length audio messages from Tony’s current two-volume series, Called for a Purpose. You can get all the details on this package deal when you visit us at tonyevans.org. That’s tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our helpful team members assist you. Again, that’s 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans is back now with more of today’s message.

Dr. Tony Evans: The Bible declares God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is changeless. We call that the immutability of God. His inability to change. Yet we have in this very verse, and God relented, changed, reversed what he had decided to do to them. How can a changeless God change?

The answer: while God is changeless, God can adjust to the changes in man. See, the only reason He changed is because they changed. So that gave God something for His grace to respond to, something for His love and forgiveness to respond to. And numbers of times in the Bible you read where God changed His mind.

But every time you read where He changed His mind, some other kind of change was occurring. And so these people go to God and God reverses the decision. Of course, it was true to the message too: in 40 days Nineveh would be destroyed. So this is a great, powerful event, a great revival, and He did not do it.

That leads to the final principle here, chapter four: the purpose of obedience. Now you would think the preacher would be pretty happy, wouldn’t you? You got to be happy. This is a good Sunday morning. You know, he opened the doors of the church and the whole city came down. That’s a pretty good Sunday morning, you know.

But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. I’d have had to fire this preacher. This preacher, you can’t please this guy. He’s mad. How you going to be mad when God gives you a one-sentence sermon and changes the whole town? He prayed to the Lord in verse two, please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country when you called on me the first time?

Therefore, in order to forestall this, because I knew you were going to be good to these sinners, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abundant in lovingkindness, and one who will change His mind concerning calamity. I knew you were going to do this. Every time I want you to blow them away, you come with this forgiveness stuff. And I’m mad.

How mad is he? Verse three. Therefore, kill me! That’s what he says in verse three. I’ve never seen a preacher want to die this bad. Please take my life from me, for death is better than life. I’d rather be dead than to see them sinners saved. So God must give him an object lesson. Here it is. What a beautiful story, verse five to the end of the chapter. I’ll summarize it for you.

Jonah goes to the east of the city, and he makes a shelter for himself in verse five, and he sits under the shelter until he could see what would happen to the city, because he’s still hoping somebody do something wrong. He say, one of them Ninevites going to mess up. One of them going to mess up. They ain’t going to be repenting that long.

So I’m going to go out here and see when they mess up, because I know when they mess up, God going to get them. Just like He did Sodom and Gomorrah. He going to get them. So let me go to the east of the city and sit and let me see what this deal’s going to work out to be. So the Lord appointed a plant.

It grew up over Jonah to be shade over his head, to deliver him from his discomfort, because it’s real hot out there. Instead of going home to Israel, he want to sit out there and see them get blasted. Jonah was extremely happy because of the plant. He said, oh wow! Because this plant with the big leaves and covered him all over and he’s sitting under there under the shade tree, you know, and he chilling.

He sitting out there just, oh wow, the sun’s not on my head, like having an umbrella over my head. Ooh, thank you, thank you Jesus. And he’s just, he probably had a prayer meeting because it says he’s happy. Now why is he happy? He happy because God doing something for him. God doing something for him. Make me happy. Make me happy.

Well, watch this. Verse seven. God appointed a worm. When the dawn came the next day, and it attacked the plant and it withered. God say worm, go inside and kill that plant. Worm go over there, the plant withers. It came about when the sun came up that God appointed a scorching east wind.

That’s a windy day and it’s real hot, like a whirlwind in the desert. And the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all of his soul to die. Now this is the third time this brother wanted to die. All right? So he going through emotional ups and downs, right? Happy one minute, sad the next minute.

Sleeping one minute, want you to throw him overboard today. He’s up and down, up and down, up and down, in and out. And here he go again in the end of verse eight. Death is better for me than life. Oh, get a grip, Jonah. Verse nine. Then God said to Jonah, and here’s the bottom line, here’s the purpose.

Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant? The plant died, not covering you anymore. Is that a good reason to be angry? He say, yeah, I got a good reason to be angry. I got a good reason to be angry, even to death. Yeah, feel sorry for me because I feel sorry for me. We going to feel sorry together.

Yeah, I’m mad and I got a reason to be mad. Look at what you did to me. Got a plant growing up over me one minute, take the plant the next minute. Why you doing me like this? Not fair. Then God hits him with the doozy, verse 10. Then the Lord said, you had compassion on the plant. You feel sorry for a dead plant.

For which you did not work. You didn’t plant that plant, I planted that plant. And which you did not cause to grow. I planted it, I grew it. It came up overnight and perished overnight. You got all upset about a 24-hour plant that you had absolutely nothing to do with. Verse 11. Should not I have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons?

They do not know the difference between their right hand and their left hand. What’s that mean? That’s 120,000 children. That’s children who don’t know the difference between right and left. I guess there are few adults in there, but it’s mainly children. People who have not reached capacity. You want me to blow the city to smithereens.

But when it came to you, you mad because you lose a plant. And you had compassion on a plant and you’re willing to watch people die. Something is wrong, Jonah. You get the point? His point was you can’t fulfill my calling unless you have my feelings. Your feelings aren't cutting it.

Your feelings is that you feel like you want to die, you’re happy one minute, you’re happy about a plant, you’re mad about a worm. I mean, you are confused. I called you for something bigger than your own personal aggrandizement. Remember our definition of calling: it’s always related to something bigger.

It’s always related to God’s people, and it’s always related to God’s Kingdom. It’s not just related to your bank account. We get mad when the stock market goes down, we get mad when things aren’t going right with us. But when we’re called to fulfill God’s calling for somebody else, we don’t want to have anything to do with it.

God says you missed the point of this call. You got this call only related to you and you’ve forgotten 120,000 children who, if I judged the city like you want them to judge—want me to judge it—there would be no mercy. Everybody would be blown to smithereens. Something is wrong, Jonah. You’re too self-centered. You only thinking about you.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans explaining the importance of trusting God’s faithfulness instead of our feelings. And he’ll return in a moment with a final thought to wrap up today’s message, part of his series called Called for a Purpose. This two-volume, 12-lesson collection will help you find and fulfill God’s unique plan for your life.

As I mentioned earlier, if you make a contribution to help support the work of Dr. Evans and the Alternative, we’ll say thanks by sending you the complete series on either CD, USB flash drive, or digital download, along with his companion Called for a Purpose devotional. You can get the details and make your request today at tonyevans.org.

That’s tonyevans.org. Or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. That’s our resource request line where team members are ready to help 24/7. Again, 1-800-800-3222. Christians typically believe God’s calling for our lives will fit with our gifts and talents. But Dr. Evans will point out that it also often forces us to depend on God’s sufficiency rather than our own. That’s coming up tomorrow. But right now he’s back with this final thought for today.

Dr. Tony Evans: It’s interesting in closing. The wind obeys God, the sea obeys God, the sailors obey God, the fish obeys God, the Ninevites obey God, the plant obeys God, the worm obeys God, the sun obeys God. Everybody else doing what God says. Worm, get it! Worm say, okay!

As you discover your calling, there will be things in it that you won’t prefer. But that’s part of the deal. So when you don’t feel like you want to do it and you know God has told you to do it, God wants you to take His word over your emotions. That’s the tension that we all face as we fulfill our calling.