If you feel like you’ve wrecked God’s plan for your life, you need to hear this. Now, there are two types of Christians that I’m addressing here. The first is the Christian who is trying. You are pursuing the will of God. You want to please him, but you find yourself making mistake after mistake. And maybe you feel like you’ve made so many mistakes that the call on your life has been completely derailed with no hope of recovery.

And the second kind of Christian is the one who is in disobedience, in rebellion. You know what you’re doing is wrong. Or maybe you know that you should be doing something, but you’re not doing it. Either way, I want to talk to you about the call of God on your life. Let’s go to the book of Jonah here. The Lord gave this message to Jonah.

Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are. But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Japa where he found a ship leaving for Tarses. He bought a ticket and went on board hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarses.

Here we see that Jonah directly receives a command from God and he purposefully goes in the opposite direction. This is outright rebellion. Now, not all Christians are here. Some maybe it’s just some compromise here or there. Others, maybe you’re just making mistakes as you pursue the call of God. And others are like Jonah exactly in that they hear what God is saying.

They know what God’s desires are. And with hearts filled with rebellion, they march in the opposite direction. And they’re trying to get away from his influence. They’re trying to get out from under the influence of his hand. They’re trying to get away from the sound of his voice. Here’s what happens when God’s people do this.

Jonah now 1 verse4. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time, Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold.

Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. Oh Lord, they pleaded, “Don’t make us die for this man’s sin.” So even they could recognize that Jonah was not where he needed to be. Isn’t that interesting that his unsaved acquaintances even recognize that what he was doing was wrong? Isn’t that interesting? When you try to get around people who are not godly and try to participate in what they’re doing, they’ll stop and look at you and say, “Aren’t you a Christian? Should you be doing this? Are you allowed to participate in what we’re

doing?” And maybe they feel even a little awkward around you. Well, that’s what’s happening here. They recognize God’s hand on him. And so now they’re calling out to the Lord. Don’t make us die for this man’s sin and don’t hold us responsible for his death. Oh Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.

Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once. The sailors were aruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.