Resisting Open Doors - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. In this episode, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. But the pagan does this.

It fell on deaf ears. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. God is the God of open doors. He's always opening doors, boundless opportunities to contribute to his kingdom, to make our lives count now and forever. Who could not want that?

You. It may seem strange, doesn't it? See, we long for open doors and yet when God opens a door, so often we resist.

We withdraw. Abraham Maslow, in his work, the father sent the father reaches of human nature, wrote this. He said, If you deliberately plan to be less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you will be deeply unhappy for the rest of your life and you will be evading your capacities and your own possibilities. And he says we have a penchant for that.

And he calls it the Jonah complex. Often when God opens doors for us. What happens is a little game of tug and war. We start resisting thinking and basically only you know in your own life how often God wins when he opens a door and how often you win when you resist going through that door. The most famous and the most colorful example of someone resisting and even running from an open door is Jonah. In fact, if there was such a thing and I do not believe there is such a thing, Jonah would be the patron saint of refused callings. The greatest biblical example of saying no.

When God opens a door. Turning a Bible to the Book of Jonah. This is a book that we're almost too familiar with. This is a book that's relegated often to first and second grade Sunday school. And it becomes a whole story of Jonah and the whale.

But this book is so much more than that. In fact, in Jonah, we learn the reasons of why we are tempted to say no to God when he opens doors. The book begins and says, The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against them, for their wickedness has come up before me. Already in those verses, understanding the context, we see one of the reasons.

When God opens a door for us to serve him and his kingdom, we often allow fear to hold us back. You see, Jonah is a prophet. For the nation of Israel, the 10 tribes in the north, that makes him an activist.

Also, by the way, that makes him a troublemaker. That's how the prophets were all seen. At any time, Israel had a lot of priests, but almost always they only had one prophet at a time. One writer I read this week said that's probably because they could only stand one prophet at a time. And generally speaking, the prophets are kind of fearless. They were exclusively to be prophets to the nation Israel.

This is something unusual. He said, Arise and go to Nineveh and cry against it. Nineveh, the capital of the greatest Syrian empire. At that time, in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., the greatest power on earth, and by a mile, the most feared empire. One of the most feared empires that ever existed. And the reason was most empires, when they conquered your army, they would in a sense try to enfold the people. The Assyrians didn't like doing that. When they conquered you, they usually practiced genocide.

They'd kill all of you if they could. They would force march people all the way back to Nineveh. And there, if they got back to Nineveh, they would execute you. As I've said often in the past when I've taught on Jonah, one historian said that for as far as 30 miles from the gates of Nineveh, there would be single pigs on the side of the road with people they conquered impaled from the crotch right through just mounted on those pigs. So for the last 30 miles, that's what you saw when you came to Nineveh.

These are fierce people. In fact, what I'd like you to do is just simply, in your Bible, two books to your right. The book of Nahum, Jonah, Micah, Nahum.

And I want you to go to chapter three with me. And Nahum is speaking against the Assyrians and against Nineveh. And in chapter three, verse one, he says this. Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage. Her prey never departs. The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of the wheel, galloping horses and bounding chariots, horsemen charging, swords flashing, spears gleaming.

Many slain, a mass of corpses and countless dead bodies, they stumble over the dead bodies. And then look at the very end of it, he pronouncing a prophetic judgment against them. The last verse of the book of Nahum in Chapter three, verse 19. He says there is no relief for your breakdown.

Your wound is incurable. All who hear about you will clap their hands over you. He says, for on whom has not your evil passed continually? Nahum prophesies, he says, there's going to be a time when you're finally conquered and everybody that's ever known is going to applaud.

They can't wait to get rid of you. Now there's a difference though. Nahum is saying these terrible things against the Assyrians and Nineveh, but he's safely in Israel. Now, that's not what God's asked Jonah to do. He's asked Jonah, he said, arise back to Jonah one, arise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and I want you to cry against it.

Wow. But Jonah rose up to flee. See, when God opens the door for us to serve him and his kingdom, sometimes we allow fear to hold us back.

It doesn't have to be that way. I mean, if you read the New Testament, especially in a book of Acts, everywhere that Paul went, he was hated. And he was persecuted and he was often imprisoned and he was beaten. I mean, he was stoned and left for dead. I mean, all of that happened and he still went.

But I know if you're sitting there, you're probably thinking, I know, but that's Paul. Well, for all these many, many years, we have supported Dr. Joe Harvey and Becky in the Congo. And I can't imagine how many people thought when Joe and Becky said, we're going to go to the Congo, to the remote part of the Congo.

Now, the political turmoil there is just unbelievable and has been. But just the thought of going, the thought of disease, the thought of all kinds of issues. But they went. And I kind of know what you're thinking. That was Dr. Joe Harvey. And if you know Joe, I mean, he was after all, he was called by God when he was a little boy.

And you still feel pretty safe. But this week, we got a text from friends. That now live over in Houston, who were long time members of our church. And they have four kids.

The youngest son they have is named Chad, and he's 22 years old and he just graduated from Texas A&M. And so we received this text message in this past week. And this is what his mother wrote.

She said, The Lord has called Chad to minister to Muslims. He begins a program in January, but he's so anxious that he wants to get started. So he's leaving Thursday for Jordan.

He will live with the host family until January and be enrolled in language school. We'd really appreciate your prayers for him. And then subsequently, we got another text and it said, it's an amazing feeling to know that the safest and best place for your son is in God's will.

Let me ask you something. If God opened a door for you or one of your immediate family members or especially your own children, similar to that door. How would you feel?

Maybe more importantly, what would you do? You see, when God opens a door for us to serve. Him and his kingdom, we often allow fear to hold us back.

All revealed there in that word. Look how this plays out in verse three. Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Wow. You see what's happening is not just not going to Nineveh, he's not going east, he's going west, but he's not just doing that physically, spiritually. He's leaving the presence of the Lord.

He's a prophet. He said, yeah, but I do not want to go through that door. Fear can hold us back.

In fact, secondly, having other options can hold us back from open doors. It says, so he went down to Joppa, found the ship which was going to Tarshish and paid the fare and went down into it. He says to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Having other options can hold you back from going through an open door that God has given you. The keys in that little phrase. Paid the fare. He paid the fare.

Now, that might not mean much to you, but you've got to understand something here. Those fares were basically in gold or silver or money. Most of the time in that part of the world at this time, seventh century B.C., everything was bartered. Very few people had money. Jonah had money. But he just didn't have money. Jonah had a lot of money. You see, Tarshish is the furthest place you can go.

Coast of Spain, it's as far as you can go. The world ends there at Tarshish. In fact, whenever you talk about somebody being loaded, you know, famously rich, you say, well, how rich are they? They can afford a ship to Tarshish. That became an idiom for having a tremendous amount of money. Jonah has options. He's got money. He has enough money to go as far away from God's door as he can. Because he had money, he had options.

Because he had options, he had mobility. I wonder how many times God has opened a door for you. And then because you have other options, you rationalize in your head. You see, well, I don't need to go through that door. I wonder how many other young people are in college and have an option to do some ministry just like Chad did. And they say, well, again, that'd be nice, but I'm going to stay because I have to get my MBA.

Because, you know, I get my MBA, I'm going to really get a good job and there's going to be a lot of money to make. And then you don't go through the door. Now, that's more in the macro. But how about this? You know, I know that's a wonderful ministry to the poor or to the homeless or to the children.

But that Saturday morning and I golf on Saturday mornings. It's amazing how many times we rationalize not going through an open door to minister for Jesus Christ. Because we have other options. When God opens a door for us to serve him in his kingdom, we allow fear to hold us back.

We often allow having other options to hold us back. You see, the problem is Jonah thinks he's solving it. He thinks he's running to safety.

But he is not. Starting in verse four. When God opens a door for us, often our own spiritual blindness to open doors. The doors right in front of us hold us back. We don't see the door.

Watch what happens. It says 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. And then the sailors and by the way, these wouldn't be any kind of sailors. These would be the best sailors in the world at this time. Because they can go the furthest.

This is as good as it gets. But it says then then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his God. Elohim is that word God, generic word. Everyone cried to his God. I mean, this is an international crew. Everybody gets to bring it in for their God. And they threw the cargo which was in the ship in the sea to lighten it for them.

That tells you what's happening. The cargo is their money. You see, the cargo is why they're doing this. They're throwing it overboard because they're going to die. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship and laid down and fallen sound asleep.

What an interesting perspective. Simply for me because one of the most amazing things I would think about Jonah coming from the northern tribes, I don't know if he's been on the water before. He's not a sea fairy. No, I don't know what it's like going down the hold of a little ship like that and then you have that kind of storm and he's asleep. I think that's symbolic of the idea that he's physically asleep and he's spiritually asleep.

He's completely indifferent. And so the captain approached him and said, how is it that you are sleeping? He says, get up and call on your God. He says, perhaps your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.

Now, this is irony. A pagan becomes a prophet to a prophet. And doing what prophets usually do to pagans. And that is to call them to pray to God. But the pagan does this.

It fell on deaf ears. And so each man said to his mate, come let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us and they cast lots and a lot fell on Jonah. Providence or coincidence? And 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? And he said to them, I am a Hebrew. And I fear the Lord God. Of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.

This is really interesting because he said. I'm a Hebrew. And I fear Yahweh. Now we've gone from the generic Elohim to the most intense, personal, descriptive name of God, Yahweh.

Wow. And then the men became extremely or greatly is a better word, 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 told them. And so they said to him, what should we do? He said to you that the sea may become calm for us for the sea was becoming increasingly worse or stormy. And Jonah, this prophet.

So spiritually blind, here's his plan. Pick me up and throw me into the sea. The sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me, this great storm has come upon you. Oh, this is interesting. You see, there's something going on here that you might have missed, like Jonah's missing. What's happening? God's opening a door. This is a door within a door. God has opened a door. This is a this is a door for ministry for Jonah. And he said, well, just throw me overboard. That'll take care of it.

Now, watch. However, the men rode desperately to return to land, but they could not. And he says, for the sea became even stormier against them.

We value life too much. We will not do that. We will do everything we can to save your life. And it says, and then they called on Yahweh, not not a God, not one of their gods. They called on Yahweh. And he says they called on the Lord and said, We earnestly pray. Oh, Yahweh, do not let us perish on account of this man's life and do not put innocent blood on us for you. Oh, Yahweh.

He said, have done as you have pleased. They're not praying to their gods anymore. Look, Lord, please, we don't want to kill this man, but please, we don't want to drown. And so they picked up Jonah and they threw him into the sea and the sea stopped its raging. And then the men feared the Lord greatly.

Then the men feared Yahweh greatly. As soon as he hits the water. I mean, it's hard to imagine a scene quite like this. Storm, all that stuff going on, and he hits the water and it just gets gone. And then it says, and they offered sacrifice to the Lord and they made vows. That's a worship service on a pagan ship.

Now, I'm not saying or not saying, but this looks a lot like conversion. This is a mini version of what God said I'm going to do in Nineveh. Jonah is blind. He doesn't see it at all. He just sees it as a fatalistic way. Throw me overboard.

I'll be it. Kind of interesting when you think about it. There's something else here, though. God takes the context of storms and testimony. And so often brings a loss to him. What do you think is a storm is a door. I wonder if Chuck Colson would have ever had the ministry he had if he wasn't in prison.

Oh, that's a terrible thing. Not in the long run. Or how about Helen Keller?

Or how about Johnny Erickson Tada? Your life's a storm. How has God used that? You see, so often what you consider this storming, you're so spiritually blind to the doors that all you think about is, this is just awful. This is just terrible. This is just awful.

Yes, it is. But what an opportunity you have in the context of a storm of your life for God to use you in an immeasurably great way, in a way you could not possibly imagine. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you missed one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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