Are We Running From God’s Purpose? (Part 2)

The last article on “Are We Running From God’s Purpose?” used the book of Jonah.  I used the text and story of Jonah to start partly because it’s a famous book that most people have heard in Sunday School or from a sermon. I wanted to show how Jesus would try to expose people’s excuses for not living for God when they called themselves God’s people. If you haven’t read part one on this topic, start there.

Those claiming faith without obedience applies today in the Christian culture where the churches are full of people claiming to love and follow God and yet the only thing that identifies them as believers is their confession.  When asked if they are a Christian they say yes simply because they go to a church service somewhere. Today, half the people attending churches in the US do so only one to two Sundays a month. That is considered regular attendance.  The average believer in the US only gives, 1-3% of their income rather than what scripture tells us, which is that the first 10% belongs to God.  There is also the gifts and offerings people should give as they are able.

Somehow, we as professed children of God have come to think of our relationship with God as mostly about forgiveness of sin rather than what I would term as a “Whole Life” perspective, which is a life that is revolving around our relationship with God that affects our time, money and talent.

In the story of Jonah, this prophet of God not only refuses God’s direction for him to confront Nineveh but he actually runs in the opposite direction. God’s wanted Jonah to explain God’s frustration with these people who lived such a sinful lifestyle and to tell them that impending destruction was coming.  Jonah knew what he was doing was wrong. He was taking this action of rebellion and was being deliberate. I believe scripture shows that our Heavenly Father works with us when we ignorantly disobey, but not so much when we “Purposely” do so. Many of us sin without knowing things are sin but there are some who sin with full knowledge of our rebellion.

It took experiencing great pain for Jonah to stop his running and cry out for God’s mercy. Only after being swallowed by this great fish or whale does he come to his senses that you can’t run from God and get away with it without suffering pain. When I was in bible college I remember finding a book in the school library about Jonah and having pictures of actual people who had been swallowed by whales and lived to tell about it. One such picture showed a man “Bleach White” from head to toe from the stomach fluids of the whale. Although Jonah knew and believed God was compassionate, he also understood God was just. I think we have heard so much teaching and preaching that could be called “Easy Belief” or “Grease Grace” that we have become desensitized to what Jesus says his followers would and should do “IF” they truly claimed to be his disciples.

John 14:15                                                                                                                                                                           

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Jesus set the standard for how we should respond to God when Satan was tempting him in the wilderness. Satan offers Jesus all the wealth and power in the world if he would just honor him and this is Jesus’ response.

Luke 4:8

Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

Jesus didn’t say you will be thankful for forgiveness as your expression of gratitude for his forgiving grace, but you shall “Worship & Serve” him. How far has the average believer drifted from the “Normal” standard of relationship that God always intended for his people? Remember, Jesus is quoting an Old Testament passage to Satan because God’s expectations for humanity hadn’t changed. It was all or nothing!

The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians about God’s expectation for “Every Believer” to honor God’s redemption through Jesus by relating to him as “LORD“, not just a favorite buddy.

Philippians 2:8-11                                                                                                                                                     

Being found in appearance as a man, He (Jesus) humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I am always amazed when talking to fellow Christ followers about the main reason they moved someplace else. It normally revolved around money!  Their career would advance if they moved or there was a better cost of living in the new town or nicer shopping malls. Rarely do I hear, I felt the Lord directing me and my family to move so we did or the Lord called us to a city and I’m not sure what we are to do there, but we are trusting the Lord. Now,  I’m not saying it is wrong that your company offered you a new position making more money in a new town, but your bosses offer should not be the defining factor of such a move. The ultimate reason to move is the will of the Lord you serve, Jesus Christ. How easily we use the term “Lord” and have very little relationship to the person or the concept.

Jonah should have been happy the Lord was going to forgive so many evil people because they repented. Is it possible Jonah had forgotten what repentance meant?  Repentance is a change of “Mind” in how we think and that should be translated in how we live.  Maybe we have forgotten what the word meant so we can justify living for our own selves and doing whatever we feel like doing while still calling ourselves believers.  What exactly do we believe in? Do we believe that some Christians are meant to live under the Lordship of Christ and the rest of us can do as we please? I don’t think so. There is one gospel and one standard that applies to all of us who call ourselves Christ followers.

Look at what the end of Jonah’s experience taught him and see if there is a correlation to how many believers live now. God tries to help Jonah get some “Kingdom Perspective” and He causes a plant to supernaturally grow over night to protect Jonah from the hot sun. Then God had a worm eat the plant to see what Jonah’s attitude would be. Jonah was “Ticked-Off” to say the least. You see God often brings us into life’s struggles to teach us what we can’t learn any other way. That’s why they call it a test of faith.

Jonah 4:9-11    

Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” [10] Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. [11] “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” 

God is always trying to get us to “Reason” with him. Sometimes he uses blessing and sometimes he uses heart ache. The point is to get us to mature and become more capable to help others that are trying to grow as well.

Questions:

Are you in a hard season of life? Ask God to help you understand why.

Are you struggling to treat Jesus as the Lord of your life? You can learn from pain or blessing, your choice.

Loving to reason the scripture out to live a better life that pleases God.

Pastor Dale