Here I Am... Send Him | You Can't Run From God

Greg, Lori, and Harvest Ministries would like to send you the movie Unsung Hero, the back story of the music group for King and Country. It's a story of a mom and a dad and their seven kids putting their faith into action. You're going to be deeply moved by this story of the amazing small-bone family that have gone on to impact so many through their music, and we are offering this film to you for your gift of any size.

Get the DVD and digital download of Unsung Hero at harvest.org. Jonah was the prophet who ran from God. Never a wise move. Pastor Greg Lori wonders why we'd even consider it in the first place.

Why would you run from your father who loves you? I don't want what you're selling, Lord. I don't want your rules. I don't want your regulations.

I don't want any of it. And we run from God. We think God's out to ruin our life, and all He wants to do is bless our life. We should not be running from God.

We should be running to God. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace how sweet the sound. Again you hear when the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when life begins. It's a strange day indeed when a man of the cloth runs from the Lord. Jonah was a prophet of God, but when God gave him an assignment, he literally left town in the opposite direction. Well, that solved everything, right?

Not at all. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Lori points out when we run from God, he still knows where we are, and he has some amazing ways to get our attention. And he may stop at nothing to get us back on track. Let's learn more. I have told you before I became a Christian when I was 17 years old and I was in high school. And I was attending church and I was hearing Bible studies and I was growing in my faith. And I went out and actually started talking to people about Jesus Christ on the streets, which was not easy for me to do. And I always had this fear that God was going to call me to preach a sermon in front of a group of people. And that terrified me.

How many of you have a fear of public speaking? Raise up your hand. Because I am going to start calling on you to come up here and speak right now. I am starting with you young lady.

No, I am kidding. But I had that fear. I was terrified that I just knew God was going to make me do it like in a supermarket or some horrible time.

Like just start preaching. And I was afraid of it. Well one day I did preach. And I had not planned on doing it.

I have told you the story before. I was a little late for one of those big baptisms at Pirate's Cove Beach. And so I missed the whole thing. And I was disappointed.

I got my time wrong. But I saw a group of Christians sitting there just out on the sand singing. And so I sat down and joined them. And they were continuing to sing.

And there was no real leader. And so when they were done singing I just shared a little something from the Scripture that I had read that morning. And then while I was talking a couple of girls joined our little group and then someone sitting next to me leaned in and said, these two girls want to know if you will baptize them pastor. I said, I am not a pastor.

Seventeen years old. I have been a Christian like eight minutes. I mean I can't do that.

They want to know if you will baptize them. There is no way I could. No. No. I can't tell them no.

No. Could you baptize us. I don't even know how to baptize somebody.

I have never actually studied the technique of it. But then the Lord just spoke to my heart and said, do it. And I said, okay. So I said, yeah come on. I will go baptize you. Let's go. So we are walking along now. We are making our way over to Pirate's Cove. You know it is a natural rocky amphitheater. So we are leaving big Corona Beach or climbing over the rocks.

The same area where that preacher used to be dressed head to toe in black. But now I am a young adult or at least an old teenager. And we are making our way over and we go down. And I had never actually watched how you baptize someone.

Do you just push them in the water. I mean what do you do. So I kind of bumbled through it and then I baptized both of them and I was so thankful. I said, Lord thank you for this opportunity.

I will do whatever you want me to do. I am just ready to go wherever you want me to go. And then as I had been baptizing these girls I noticed a little crowd gathered up on the rocks. They were watching. I looked up and I thought, well a little crowd gathered up there on the rocks.

Okay let's go. And the Lord spoke to me clear as day and said, preach the gospel. Now this is the thing I have been fearing.

But He gave me the boldness to do it. And all of a sudden I find myself talking to these people, hey maybe you are wondering what we are doing down here. And I want to tell you that we believe in Jesus Christ. And I am almost like jumping out of myself and looking at myself and saying, what in the heck are you doing? Do you think you are Billy Graham or something? This is insane. And the next thing I knew I am saying, and if you would like to accept Jesus Christ get up from the rocks and come down here.

I am thinking, I can't believe I am saying this stuff. And sure enough some people walk down. I lead them to the Lord and I baptize them too. So that was the first time I preached. Don't let that freak you out.

Let me just say this. God will give you the strength to do what He calls you to do when He calls you to do it. Not before.

Never after. He will give you what you need when you need it. It is like I had sort of a dose of Holy Spirit boldness that kicked in. But I want to bring that up because this is a story of a guy who was running from God's will for his life. The Lord called this man, his name is Jonah, to go preach to the city of Nineveh that we will talk about in a few moments.

And he did not want to go so he tried to go in the opposite direction. Now when we think of Jonah we immediately think of Jonah and the whale. Did you know the Bible never says there is a whale. It says a great fish. So it may have been a whale. It may have been some kind of a sea monster.

That is actually a literal translation of the creature. And I have to say that I am always amazed at how animals emerge in the Bible and interesting narratives and how they can even be a part of God's plan and purpose. You know when I was a young person I had two goals in life. I wanted to be a professional cartoonist and my backup plan was to own a pet shop. And I had every kind of animal you can think of. I was really into animals as a kid. I had every kind of reptile you can imagine. I had so many snakes. I had gopher snakes and I had king snakes and I had boas and I had pythons and then I went into a lizard phase and I had iguanas and chameleons and all these other little lizards and I had turtles and then I got into the rodent phase where I had rats and mice and hamsters and guinea pigs and rabbits and then I fed the rabbits to the snakes. It worked out very nicely.

No I didn't do that. But you do have to feed snakes live mice though. And so I have had all these creatures and then I went into my fish phase and I had fish tanks and I would have you know oscars and angelfish and silver dollars and the costumous that sort of is like the vacuum cleaner of the fish world.

Cleaning up all the junk on the bottom of the tank. And then I got into my bird phase and I had parrots and cockatiels and every kind of bird you can think of. And then I went to my dog phase and I had poodles. I don't know why I had two poodles. Collies. One collie actually. A Springer spaniel.

Two German shepherds and a couple of mutts. I never had a cat. Never saw the reason to have a cat. So. But animals are amazing. And one of the things I am looking forward to in the millennium. You know what the millennium is.

It is a thousand year reign of Christ. When the Lord is ruling over our planet and we are living at peace. And that is the time that the Bible speaks of when the wolf will romp with the lamb and the leopard will sleep with the little calf and the lion and will eat from the same dish. And so you know sometimes people ask will our pets make it to heaven.

I don't know. But I am telling you in the millennium you may have a pet lion so you are not going to care anymore. Because the whole animal kingdom will be tame under the control of God Himself. And I am happy about this because I have been bitten by many animals as well. I have been bitten by many snakes. Bitten by lizards. Bitten by turtles. Bitten by rabbits. The most terrifying thing was when I was bit by a monkey. Allie you want to tell the story of when I was bit by a monkey.

She always has me tell the story. You want to tell it? Remember what happened? What was I doing? I was petting the monkey on the head. What happened? He bit you. He bit me. That's right. But what did I do?

You went to the sink and you were washing your hands and blood was like gushing out. That's actually very true. Did I scream when the monkey bit me? Yeah. That's right.

It's true. I was petting a monkey on the head. It belonged to a friend of mine. And he bit me. And I pulled my hand back and he is hanging off of my finger. And I am trying to get him free. It was a spider monkey. So I finally shook him free and I was washing my hand and as Allie said blood was gushing out.

It was a horrible moment. So I am looking forward to the time when all of the animal kingdom is pacified and tamed. And you know you read about animals in the Bible. A preselected donkey carried Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. There is another story where the Lord opened the mouth of a donkey and he spoke to the disobedient prophet who is riding him. And then of course the Bible tells us that God knows about every sparrow that falls to the ground. So animals matter to God. And there is also a story in the Old Testament. This is a very important one of some young men who were mocking the prophet Elisha. Mocking his baldness. And two bears came out of the forest and beat them up. So never mock a bald preacher.

This is all in the Bible folks. There might be some bears on the wings ready to do the Lord's bidding there. But then I have read interesting stories about animals saving people's lives. I read about a dog. A beagle. And I don't know how this dog did it. But the owner fell ill and the beagle dialed 911. The owner had taught the dog how to do it. Somehow the dog was able to pull it off and it saved the owner's life. I read about another man whose SUV plunged 40 feet as he was backing out of his driveway. He told his dog honey to go get help.

She ran half a mile to a friend's house and brought them back and saved his life. A cat would never do that. You would say to your cat go get help. The cat would be a poof. Then it would cough up a fur ball.

And then walk off. And that would be the last you would see of him. I read another article. These are all true stories about a school of porpoises that saved a man's life. He fell off a boat.

He was floating around. It was an area that was infested with sharks. A group of porpoises started circling around him and guided him over to a buoy. You might even say that these porpoises were helping him to find it even drove him to the buoy. So he wrote a book about it later called The Porpoise Driven Life. I don't know if you've read it. So this is a story.

That was a joke because the rest of it was true actually. Porpoises really did save a person. But this is a story of how God used a whale or a great fish to swallow a prophet. It's sort of like sushi eating in reverse.

Instead of man eating fish, fish eats man. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We love to hear stories of how lives have been changed through the teaching of God's Word like this one. Pastor Greg, you were one of the first pastors I listened to when I gave my life to the Lord. I'll never forget that night at Calvary Chapel when you made the altar call and I accepted the Lord. I continue listening to you and your sermons are always spot on, convicting and full of the Spirit. God bless you abundantly Pastor Greg. It's a blessing to know that listeners are hearing these messages and God is using his Word to touch hearts. How have Pastor Greg studies impacted your life?

Would you let him know? Send an email to Greg at Harvest.org. And now Pastor Greg continues his message from the book of Jonah called, Here I Am, Send Him. Let's listen. Now when we think of the story of Jonah we think of that whale. But as Bible commentator G. Campbell Morgan pointed out, quote, Men have been looking so long at the great fish they have failed to see the great God. End quote. Here's the big message of the book of Jonah.

It's not about the fish. It's about the largest revival in biblical history. And it was brought about by a man who didn't even want to go to this place called Nineveh to start with. So now we come to the verses we're going to read together. Jonah 1 verses 1 to 3. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, Arise and go to Nineveh that great city and cry out against it for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So the Lord called Jonah to go preach to Nineveh.

That doesn't mean a lot to us. But a little historical background will be helpful to understand how big Nineveh was and how wicked Nineveh was. Its streets were 20 miles long. Its walls were 100 feet high. The walls around Nineveh were so wide three chariots could be driven abreast across them. It was great in size and it was also great in wickedness.

Historians believe the population of Nineveh was approximately one million people. But here's what God saw in verse 2. Their wickedness has come up before me. And this phrase that has come up before me means it's come to the highest pitch. It was like an overflowing septic tank to God.

It stunk to high heaven if you will. Listen to this. God is acutely aware of the wickedness of people.

He knows what's going on. What kind of people lived in Nineveh? The most ungodly people imaginable. They actually were known for their cruelty and hard heartedness and the way they treated their enemies. They were known for savagery in plundering cities and burning boys and girls alive and torturing adults and doing the most unimaginable things. Over in Nahum chapter 3 it says of Nineveh, the dead were lying in the streets. Dead bodies.

Heaps of bodies everywhere because people gave in to the deadly charms of her beauty. The Ninevites made the Nazis look like light weights in comparison. The Ninevites did evil on the scale of people like Isis and others.

A very wicked place. So God says go preach to Nineveh. And Jonah says no way.

And here's why. The Ninevites were the avowed enemies of Israel. And Jonah well he was a patriotic Jewish man. And he did not want to go to his enemies and bring a message of hope to them so he tried to go in the opposite direction.

Look at verse 3. Jonah found a ship. So he paid the fare and he went down into it.

Every step away from God is a step down. First Jonah went down to Joppa. Then he went down to the ship. Then he went down into the sea. Then he went down into the fish's belly.

Then he went down into the deep. Sin's a downer. And it's always going to take you down.

So be very careful. But God will always have the last word. Look at Jonah 1.4. But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea and there was a mighty tempest on the sea and the ship was about to be broken up and the mariners or the sailors were afraid and they cried out to their God. We will dig into this next time. Find out about what happened in the storm.

We will be introduced to that great fish. But here's the bottom line. You can't run from God. And you should not try to run from God.

Why would you run from your father who loves you? I heard the story of an attorney who wanted to deliver an important paper to a man. The man knew this attorney wanted to give him this paper which he was sure was a subpoena. So he avoided this attorney for months and then it was years.

He always managed to not be in the place where the attorney was to give him this important paper. Well something like 12 years later this man finds himself in a hospital dying of cancer. And through some crazy coincidence the attorney who had been trying to serve him the subpoena was sharing the hospital room with him. So they rolled the attorney's bed right next to this man and he turned over to the attorney and he says, fine give me your subpoena.

I don't even care anymore. The attorney said it's a subpoena. This was a document telling you you had inherited $45 million and it's just trying to give it to you. Now that's us running from God. I don't want what you're selling Lord. I don't want your rules. I don't want your regulations.

I don't want any of it. And we run from God. We think God's out to ruin our life when all he wants to do is bless our life.

He's the one you should be running to. We should not be running from God. We should be running to God. And I'll tell you what. God gives second chances. We learned that in the book of Jonah 2.

And I want to close with this. Maybe some of you need a second chance. Maybe some of you have been running from God. You're saying I don't want the Lord in my life. I don't want to live the way he wants me to live.

And you know what? The Lord won't push himself into your life. He'll say alright. It's like the Bible tells us that Pharaoh hardened his heart against God. He hardened his heart. He hardened his heart. He hardened his heart. And he hardened his heart. Then all of a sudden there in the book of Exodus we have this interesting little change in the text. It says the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.

Oh contradiction. One verse said that Pharaoh hardened his heart. Then we read the Lord hardened his heart.

A better translation of that statement the Lord hardened his heart would be the Lord strengthened his heart. So in other words God said I want you to obey me. I want you to do what I'm telling you to do. We say no no no no no no. It comes to a point where the Lord says alright. You made your bet. I'll strengthen you in that decision even.

You see you decide. So maybe some of you are hardening your heart and running from God and the Lord is patient and long suffering towards you. But literally you could get to a point of no return. Not where God wouldn't forgive you but where literally you will not want to be forgiven anymore because you won't know which way is up anymore. Because you have let your heart turn into stone.

Don't let that happen. The Bible says harden not your heart if you can hear his voice. And Jesus Christ is speaking to you right now. And he is saying I stand at the door and I knock and if you will hear my voice and open the door I will come in.

Some of you need Christ in your life. Again remember Jesus said as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Basically he was saying you know what just as Jonah was in the belly of that beast I'm going to die on a cross and rise again from the dead three days later.

And he did. And he's alive and with us right now. And he's ready to forgive you of all of your sin. I don't care what sin you've committed. I don't care what wrongs you've done. Christ paid for that at the cross. But you must be willing to turn from it and believe in him.

And if you've not done that yet you can do it right now. And there might be some of you that have fallen away from the Lord. In fact you've been running away from the Lord.

Though you were raised to believe you know it's right. Maybe some of you need to come back to him again tonight. I'm going to give you an opportunity to do that as we all pray together. Let's all bow our heads and pray. Father thank you for your word to us.

Thank you for your love for us. And I pray for any person that is here that does not know you yet. Help them to see their need for Jesus and help them to believe in you Lord. We would pray right now. Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important prayer. And if you'd like to make a change in your relationship with the Lord today, Pastor Greg will help you do that in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning wraps up. And then let us say a word of thanks to those who support us financially.

Those who make it possible for us to bring you these studies each day. We're definitely a listener supported ministry. It's the generosity of listeners that help us be here with these programs. So if you've partnered with us, thank you. And if you have yet to partner with us, I hope you'll get in touch today and let us know that you're standing with us. Even a small investment would help. It's actually an investment in changing lives. Thank you for partnering with us. You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. Again, that's 1-800-821-3300. Pastor Greg, if somebody listening right now knows that they need to ask the Lord to forgive them of their sins, could you help them with that right now?

You know what, Dave? I'd love to do that. It's an amazing thing to me that over the years, I've heard so many stories of people who have come to know Christ listening to this broadcast and they'll say things like, I prayed that prayer with you at the end of the program. One guy wrote me and said, I pulled my car over to the side of the road and prayed that prayer and Christ came into my life.

Just incredible. And I'd like to lead you in that same prayer. Look, I don't have some super special prayer. It's just a basic prayer based on scriptural principles of what it means to believe in Jesus Christ.

I mean, if we want to get real technical, the only sinner's prayer, if you will, and we often call this prayer a sinner's prayer, the only real sinner's prayer in the Bible is a guy who just prayed, God be merciful to me a sinner. So I'm going to lead you in a prayer similar to that, but this is a prayer where you will be acknowledging your need for Jesus and putting your faith in Him. So listen, if you want to go to heaven when you die, if you want to know that you are a child of God, if you want the Lord to forgive you of your sins, just pray these words, if you would, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I'm sorry for my sin and I turn from that sin, but I know that you died on the cross of Calvary for my sin and rose again from the dead.

So forgive me, Lord. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. I want you to be my savior. I want you to be my friend. I want you to be my God. Thank you for hearing my prayer and answering my prayer. In Jesus' name, I ask this. Amen. I know. Some of you are saying, oh, that's so simple.

It is simple. You might say, well, Greg, I didn't have an emotional experience. This is not about an emotional experience. This is about the fact of what happens when a person believes. Jesus said it this way, for God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, and whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. When you prayed that prayer, you were in effect putting your faith in Christ.

You were choosing to believe in Jesus. Now I want to help you start growing spiritually, so I have something to send you at no charge. It's my gift to you. It's called the New Believer's Bible. So the New Believer's Bible is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ. There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believer's Growth Pack, but let me get this New Believer's Bible into your hands as quickly as possible.

Here's Dave to tell you more. Yeah, you can get that New Believer's Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. We're here 24-7 to take your call.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or drop us a note at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well next time, hope you'll join us as Pastor Greg continues his insights from the series called Jonah Go. It's a message called Getting Through the Storms of Life. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.