How God Gets You Back On Track

Pastor Stan Mons | Lessons From Nineveh PT.2

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Sermon Transcription:

We’re going into part two of the series, Lessons from Nineveh. Lessons from Nineveh. The second part is titled How God Gets You Back on Track. How God gets you back on track.

Just last week, we looked at how Jonah got started on his journey away from God’s direction. And that message was titled, “When people ask you for prayer and you cannot pray.”

It’s the story where Jonah is asleep in a ship that he paid to be on board of, and this ship is going the opposite direction of where God had told Jonah to go. God had made very clear what he wanted to spend Jonah’s life on. And Jonah said, and he finds a ship that goes the direction he wants to go. He gets on board, and then the Bible tells us that he falls into a deep sleep. But at the same time that Jonah is in a deep sleep in the bottom of that boat on deck, something else is happening.

A storm picks up, and the unbelieving, or the gentile people on the ship, they all get together and they decided to have a prayer meeting. And they say to one another, “Everybody to their own God, go and pray,” and Jonah is asleep. And we talked about the possibility of someone that has known Jesus and has received direction from Jesus. They’ve read their Bible. They know what it says, but they’re not doing it. They’re going their own direction in life. You can end up in a place where you are, spiritually speaking, in a deep sleep, while people that need to get to know your Lord are actually ready to pray. They just don’t even know where to start. To where even the unbelieving captain wakes Jonah up and says, “How can you be sleeping? You should be praying right now.” Can you believe that? The unbelieving captain wakes up the prophet Jonah and says, “You really should be praying right now.” And Jonah can’t pray. All he can do is confess that he has put himself in a position where it’s probably not prayer that they need. Jonah actually needs to make an adjustment in the direction that his life is going. And that is where we left off.

But let me read to you verse three and four of Jonah, chapter 1. “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed to Tarshish. He went down from Joppa, and where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fair, he went aboard and silled for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.” It’s always what happens, church, when you set your heart to go a different direction than what the word of God has told you for your life, and in some special cases, what God may have spoken to your heart in prayer personally, when you were seeking Him and spending time with Him. When we set our heart to go a different direction than what the Lord has shown us, everybody close to us gets with us into that storm. It touches everyone.

We talked about the disorder that comes into someone’s life when there is a direction from the Lord that we are consciously saying no to. There’s a disorder in that storm. There’s a shaking in that storm. There’s a fear and a panic that is now allowed to touch the lives of those that are close to you, with you in that storm, because the Lord is not done with you, or else He wouldn’t send the storm. Amen.

But there is a direction that needed to shift in Jonah’s life. And then when we read the New Testament, as we look today at how God gets you back on track, okay, I’ve had that moment with the Lord. There were some directions that the word of God has given me, and I haven’t been wholeheartedly doing them. It’s not yielded very positive results in my life. Even though I feel I get to do my will, it doesn’t really work out. Okay, there needs to be a shift of direction. But now, how do I get back on track? How does God get me back on track? We see Jesus bring up this story of Jonah in the New Testament. He quotes it. He points towards it. It’s a very interesting conversation in which He brings it up. So before we get there, I want to show you the context in which Jesus decides to bring up the story of Jonah. First, we read that the disciples are getting harassed. They pluck some grain on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees, the religious elite of the time, they come to Jesus to complain about His disciples. And they basically say, “Jesus, see what they’re doing? They’re not keeping the Sabbath right.

They’re doing things on the Sabbath you’re not supposed to be doing on the Sabbath. What kind of a person have you picked to follow you? What are they doing?” And they come with this accusing voice towards the disciples, but also towards Jesus. They don’t like how Jesus handles the Sabbath thing. And then we see Jesus defend the truth, and He cries out to them something that a couple of chapters earlier He had told them. He’d given them an assignment and told them, “Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” Now, Jesus wasn’t giving them a riddle. The Pharisees knew the Bible. They knew that He was quoting the book of Hosea in the Old Testament. And He tells them, “Go and learn what this actually means right there in the book.” A couple of chapters later, the Pharisees are accusing the disciples, coming to Jesus to complain. And here’s what He says: “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would have not condemned the guiltless.”

So Jesus defends the truth right here, because the Pharisees are attacking Him, are attacking the disciples, are attacking the freedom of the believer that follows Jesus. And Jesus says, “You don’t understand that I’m not a God who requires you to pay tough prices and to lay down heavy stuff and to serve Me by trying to keep laws and somehow get a check mark behind your name. I desire mercy.” In the original text in the Old Testament where Jesus was quoting from, that word means steadfast love. He says, “I desired relationship with you from the beginning, and here you’ve made it all about doing what’s right. And you think you do everything right, but the people that are trying to just do relationship with Me, you’re condemning them. You’re missing the point,” is what He’s telling them. Then in chapter 12 of Matthew, verse 10, we read this next episode with the Pharisees. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Healing is kind of Your job, Jesus. Can You work on the Sabbath? Is it lawful for You to do that?

They might accuse Him. They were setting for Him a trap. Verse 11. Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, and you will not lay a hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Again, Jesus explaining to them, you are missing the point. You’re not going into the direction that I have for your life. You’re taking this thing, the law that I had given as a tutor to educate every single person ever alive that they cannot measure up to My standard, that they may be so convicted that they end up looking for a Savior who can set them free. You’re missing the point. You’re taking that law that was supposed to wear people out, to where they would be willing to look for a Savior, and you’re making it into a stick, and you’re just beating people with it, trying to get them to do everything right in their own strength. And Jesus is turning it around on them and says, “Don’t you see My heart? I don’t want you to do wrong. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. I don’t want you to hurt other people.”

Isn’t it allowed to do good anytime you want to do good? In other words, I don’t want you to do evil. I don’t want you to hurt people. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. I want you to do good.

But instead of just doing good, you’re trying to do it to the letter of the law so that you can check it off and afterwards just do whatever you want to do. Comes the next episode with the Pharisees, same chapter. And Jesus does healing. Jesus casts out demons out of demon-possessed people. And then the people of God in Israel at the time begin to ask a question. It’s recorded. They say, “Could this be the Son of David?” They begin to ask themselves, “We’ve seen so many miracles by now. Could this actually be the promised Messiah?” The Pharisees overheard it. They weren’t happy. And the Pharisees now begin to accuse Jesus, and they begin to gossip and spread a rumor and say, “Oh, He’s casting out demons because He has beelzebub. He has the king of all demons inside of Him. And by the power of that demon, He casts out all the demons.”

They’re trying to explain it away, to where nobody begins to believe that this Jesus that is not going the direction they were going with the way they had to serve God and live for God and serve the law. Jesus was not going their direction. And so they’re trying to explain away why people shouldn’t look up to this Jesus too much. They’re explaining it away. And then Jesus begins to call them snakes. And they would have again known the Old Testament very well, and anybody bringing up a snake, generally it is associated with Satan, who was the tempter from the beginning. So He was not giving them a compliment, and they would have realized that.

Matthew 12:34–37. Brother of vipers, calls them snake eggs. “Brother of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

In other words, when your heart has been filled with the Spirit of God, your language always changes. You used to hurt people with words. You used to use words to get people to do what you want them to do. Then the Spirit of God comes to live in the heart, and the way you speak changes. The way you use words changes, because a conviction and a godly heaviness has come upon your life that understands that Jesus is the Word, and He has given us the ability to speak words. And we get to speak in agreement with Jesus over people’s lives, or we get to go a different direction. And He says, by your word you’ll be justified. In other words, if your heart has been changed, if you have been saved and filled with Christ, your speech is always going to follow. You can tell by what comes out of your mouth what is really in your heart. And then verse 38 to 40. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

So here we have that last episode. Jesus calls them snakes. He tells them by your words you will be justified or condemned. They’ve been coming at Jesus this whole time talking about actions, actions, actions, actions, actions. They have to measure up. And Jesus turns around and He says, “No, if your heart would be clean, your speech would be clean.” And this is how they respond. Some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” They completely dismiss what Jesus is saying. They don’t engage in the conversation He’s trying to have. They don’t want God’s direction. They don’t want the reality that their heart has to change, not just some good behavior on the outside. They don’t want it, as if they didn’t even hear what He said. And then verse 39. But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Here they are, those Pharisees. We’ve had episode after episode after episode of them just being difficult, coming at the disciples, coming at Jesus, and they don’t want God’s direction. And then they don’t want to listen. They don’t want to honor Jesus. But we don’t see Jesus really get fed up and walk off. He doesn’t tell them, “Well, you’ve really missed out. You’re going to hell now.” No. Instead, Jesus brings up, all of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, a story they would have known very well. And He says, “You are going to get the story of the prophet Jonah.” He says, “You’re an adulterous generation. You’re an evil generation.” He says, “Your heart is not right. Your speech is not right. Your speech proves that your heart is not right.”

And He says, “You’re not going to get any other sign but this one.” He doesn’t tell them you won’t receive a sign. He tells them you’re going to get one of the biggest signs of all, the sign of the prophet Jonah. And again, He was speaking their language. They would have known this story inside and out, knowing exactly what He is referring to, especially when He says, “And the Son of Man, just as Jonah, will go into the earth three days and three nights.”

But why does He do it? Why this message? Why this story? This whole chapter of challenge after challenge, difficulty after difficulty, negative encounter after negative encounter with people that don’t want God’s direction. Why this story? Let’s continue in Jonah chapter 1, where we left off last week. We finished at verse 6. We’re going to start in verse 7 today. And they said to one another—they’re at the deck now of the ship. Jonah’s finally awake. He’s admitted that he’s not going the right direction. Here’s what happens. They said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Please tell us, for whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? Where are you from? What is your country? Of what people are you? What’s your resume? What do you do? What’s—what’s wrong with you? What’s going on with you?” Verse nine. And he said to them, “I’m a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” And then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may calm for us?” For the sea was growing more temptuous. And he said to them, “Pick me up. Throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” The storm that you’re experiencing in your life is because I’m not going God’s direction. That’s what he tells them. 13: Nevertheless, the man rode hard to return to land, but they could not see. It doesn’t matter how much effort, how much human strength we put into our lives when we are not going a direction that God has for us—not because He’s bossy, but because He knows what is best for us in the long run. When we do not go His direction, we can row all we want. We can put in all the effort in the world, but it will not yield. It can become so frustrating. Nevertheless, the man rode hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more temptuous against them. Therefore, they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.”

So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea seized from its raging.

Then the man feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and took vows.

Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And then verse 1 and 10 of chapter 2. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. And then we read the prayer. We won’t read it today. And then this is what it says at the end. So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. What a story. What a miraculous story. It’s one of those stories in the Bible that are so extraordinary in their miraculous level that you’re going to have to really believe the Bible is the word of God in order to believe some of these stories without question. That Jonah is thrown overboard. God already had prepared a giant fish to swallow him. And God sends the fish to the shores of Nineveh and has the fish vomit him out on the beach, right to where he was going.

You see, there always needs to be a turning from the wrong direction in our lives. Just like the religious people in Matthew 12, the Pharisees, the scribes, there has to be that turning from going the wrong direction. Maybe while we’re yelling God’s name, yet we’re going the wrong direction. And there has to be that turning back to the heart of God. But how does God get my life back on track? There can be so many pains that we have brought on ourselves by trying, with the best intentions, trying to do life the way we think is best, and stuff below deck just starts to fall apart. It’s a rocky journey. It’s a tough journey. How is God? I’m willing to turn back to God’s direction, but how in the world? What a mess. I’m in the middle of the sea, so far away from possibly re-engaging in what God is putting before me, His direction for how in the world would this come together? How does God get me back on track? Well, remember what Jesus says when He brings up this story. He brings up this story in front of people that have really made a mess of it. Their entire life has been about serving God, but Jesus shows up to tell them, for your entire life—probably your father, probably your grandfather—they’ve all gotten it wrong.

You serve Me with your own strength, the hardest of all the people you know, yet you are missing what I’m trying to do in your generation. And Jesus brings up the story of Jonah, the sign of the story of Jonah, to this kind of people that are so stuck, just as stuck as Jonah, going the wrong direction, just like Jonah. So far from getting it right, just like Jonah. And Jesus says, just as Jonah, three days, three nights in the fish, I will have to go into the earth as well—three days, three nights. What does the whale, what does the big large fish and the three days represent? Jesus makes it so simple. He says this story of Jonah going into that fish, it represents Me taking all of your sins, all of your wrongs, all of your self-centered thinking and actions, all of your independent-from-God thinking, and it takes it into the grave. And then on the third day, the day of the resurrection, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Jonah gets spit out on the beach. And this time, it’s supernatural. He didn’t pay the fair this time. He didn’t go out to look for the right boat.

He didn’t have to do anything at all except come to a place where he said, “Okay, I’m going the wrong direction. I’m willing to repent from this direction and go God’s direction again.”

And all of a sudden, God prepared a fish. God sent the fish where the fish needed to go. And Jonah, without any of his help, gets spit out on the Nineveh beach. Supernaturally puts him in a fish. The fish swims Jonah right back on track with God’s plan and spits him out on the doorstep of his calling, God’s direction for his life. What an extravagant miracle. And here is the message. If God could get Jonah’s life back on track, He can get your life back on track. It does not matter how far you’ve gone the wrong direction. It doesn’t matter how much time you feel you’ve lost. It doesn’t matter how far off course you are from what God wanted to do through your life.

If you repent, if you turn away from the wrong direction, God is able to just get your journey back on track. He can do it. And Jesus points to the story of Jonah, and He explains exactly how God is going to do it in your life. Not through the sea, not through a fish. No. Jesus says this story was pointing forward to Me. I’m going to take the blame of every single sin ever committed in this world. I’m going to die for everyone that picked the wrong direction in life. And the Father is going to raise Me from the dead. I’m going to overcome the grave on that third day. And the miracle will get your life back on track. That’s how God resets your journey. That’s how He gets you back on track. He has this extravagant Jonah miracle. And it supernaturally gets his life back on track. Jesus says, “My miracle will get your life back on track.” Three days in the belly of the fish, miraculously, without Jonah’s help, gets his life back on track. And Jesus says to you and I, I’m going into the earth for three days and three nights. And that miracle will get your life back on track.

Church, do you believe that all God is asking of us is to acknowledge that we have to adjust back to His direction, how He would like to spend our life? And no matter where we are in that ocean, no matter how big the storm, no matter how long, no matter how deep, no matter how far, He is miraculously, through this miracle of Christ Jesus, going to get your life back on track.

Just like that, undeserved, by His resources, His power, He already prepared a way for you. See, Jonah went over the edge of the boat and came to find out that God had prepared a fish, a miracle journey to the shores of Nineveh. You will find out when you paid the heavy price. I won’t make it light, because it isn’t. When you paid the heavy price of doing life your way, you being in control, you deciding the direction, and you say, “Okay, God, I’m going to let You win. I’m going to yield to You. I’m going to honor You, God, Your direction for my life.”

It feels like you’re jumping over the edge of a ship into a deep sea. There is no telling how this is going to end. That’s exactly what it feels like to then find out that God already prepared a way for you to be supernaturally brought back on track without you putting in the effort.

That’s what Jesus is saying to these religious people. They’re missing it. They’re being harsh with other followers of Jesus. They’re being harsh towards Jesus Himself. They don’t want to listen to Him. And He says, “You’re going to get the greatest sign of all. This miracle will get your life back on track.”

-Pastor Stan Mons