Jonah chapter number 1, verse 1. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us, on whose account this evil has come upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing 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 be quiet might quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. This is the word of the Lord. Father, we come to You, asking that You would send Your Holy Spirit to still our hearts and awaken them yet, that we might, Lord, receive Your word as manna from heaven to feed our hungry souls, and that in Christ Jesus our Lord, we might find hope, rest, and peace for our sin, and might know that He is a great Savior who gave His life that He might redeem us. Bless us now, we ask, and may You give me the power of the Holy Spirit to honor Your word and to strengthen Your church. In Jesus’ name. Amen. In the book of Numbers, there is an ancient warning that still echoes out to us today. There were two tribes of Israel, as Israel came to the Jordan River. The two tribes of Israel were the tribe of Gad and the tribe of Reuben that desired to have their possession of the land east of the Jordan. They desired that that the land allotted to them by the Lord, before they went into the promised land, they said, "We don't want a land in the promised land, we want to land this side of the Jordan. There's a good land here, Jazer was the name of the place, and there was a bunch of areas also associated with that, and it's a good land, a land that's good for our livestock, and a land that's good for, you know, for our families." And so they said, "We'll stay here on this side of the east, and the others will go over the Jordan, they'll take the land for them. We'll happily give up our land." But Moses responded, as representative, of course, of the Lord, saying that no, you must come over across the Jordan with us. You can't just take this land and let us go fight the Lord's battles on the other side of the Jordan, while you have a comfortable lot of land here for you this side of the Jordan where there is no conflict. And he said to them, Joshua said, sorry, Moses said to them, "If you do not, if you do not come over and fight with your brethren, then you are doing exactly what your fathers did at Kadesh Barnea when they wouldn't go into the promised land, and they made your brethren weak." So he’s saying, "You cannot take this land this side of the Jordan until you come first fight." So he said, "Okay, let us drop off our wives and our livestock, build a couple of fences for our our cattle, and then we'll come over and fight and get our land for the brethren, and then we'll come over and live in this side of the Jordan." Now, Moses said to them in response to that, "Okay, that sounds like a good deal, but understand this. If you do not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord. And be sure your sin will find you out." The truth of your sin finding you out, as echoed in that ancient passage from the book of Numbers, echoes to us today through the story of Jonah. Here is a man that has stubbornly refused to obey the word and the will of God. And so he has taken up his own will and disregarded God's word, and has jumped on a ship to Tarshish to flee from the presence of the Lord because he doesn't want to go reach the Ninevites and see that they might be saved. But at this point in the narrative, what ends up happening is the wind of God has come, and Jonah is about to get exposed. His sin is about to find him out. God is about to expose Jonah through His sovereign grace. I mean, I can't help but get the picture of a police operation. You ever seen it maybe on the news or, you know, TV or whatever it is? And you've got this criminal on the run and he's jumping fences and fences and fences and the helicopters are coming up on the top and the police are coming in to the side streets, and they're jumping the other fences and then the criminal finally gets up and he thinks he's about to make an exit and he's surrounded and the police are there, "Put your hands up mate, get on the floor." You know that that I don't know, when I watch that, I get the gut feeling. Like, oh man. Like, I'm glad they got the criminal, but whoa, imagine being that criminal right now. Cornered. An intervention, an operation that that secures that criminal surrender. He must lay down or he's gone. This is what's happening to Jonah right now. God is after him. And he's fleeing from God, but God's sending the wind, God's sending the waves, and Jonah's on this ship and he can't get away from God. And this passage is basically showing us how God brings him as it were to the corner, to the place where he must surrender, to the place where he must come to repentance. And God is doing this through His grace so as to produce a response of repentance in the life of Jonah. Now, the way that this works is interesting because the sailors are going on as per normal, not thinking about anyone's sin in the boat. Not thinking about anyone else in the boat. They're just sailing along like, "We've done this journey many times," perhaps they would say. But all of a sudden this storm causes the sailors’ hearts and minds to be aroused and to seek out what is going on. You see, this is in one way or another an unusual storm for the sailors. They've been through many storms before, but this is a little bit of an unusual one. They they throw their their their baggage overboard, they pray to their gods, and that probably got them out of a lot of trouble in their experience as seafaring men. And they thought everything was quite good, but this one was different. This one was very different. They got to the place where they realized, no, no, deity must stop this. Here's the trouble, here's the storm. We're going to do what we can by throwing the cargo over, but really, we need the help of deity to stop this storm. And so they cry out to their gods. Maybe they had a couple of gods, one the god of the sea, one the god of this, one the god of that. You just try them all perhaps, you know, just like the saints, if you want to, you know, that people, as some of the Roman Catholics try the saints out, you know? This one for travel, this one for this, this one's for that, give it a little prayer, maybe good luck comes my way or whatever it may be. Look, the reality is, they're crying out using their means trying to establish their safety, thinking that their gods would intervene and stop this for them. And they get to the point when that's not really working, that they wake up Jonah and say, "Jonah, what's wrong with you, oh sleeper? Arise. Can't you see we're going to die? How about you call out to your God and maybe He'll come and save us?" And Jonah's silent. Their second line of reasoning reasoning, it starts to shift. Jonah's silent, our gods aren't answering. The cargo coming off the ship's not fixing the problem. Man, we're in trouble. And they start to think saying, "No, no, this is not a matter of deity stopping this. This is coming from God." Deity must be the cause of this. This is an intervention from God. And that's why they shift their attitude to trying to discover on whose account this evil has come upon us. You see how their attitude shifts in the in in in the in the text? They're crying out to their God, they're hurling in their cargo into the sea. They're still not finding any any relief. They asked Jonah, Jonah's quiet. He's not singing, praying to his God and seeking help. And then they say in verse seven, "Come, let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us." You know, this storm is a supernatural storm. This storm is the gods' intervention seeking out some wayward one. This is a storm of judgment. And so they proceed to cast lots, and the lot falls upon Jonah. It's amazing because casting lots humanly speaking is equivalent to rolling the dice. It's purely a matter of chance in in human point of view. But even the dice in the hands of pagan pagans yields the Lord's result for the exposing of Jonah's sin. As the Proverb says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord." So here are these pagans trying to discern what's going on, casting dice. The dice falls on Jonah. They discover Jonah to be the one who is the cause of this trouble. Jonah's exposed. Exposed by lot. God is exposing him. Do you get it? This is the sovereignty of God exposing him. Jonah's running, but he can't hide from God. This is what's happening in this passage. The wind is here, the die is being cast, the decisions of the Lord, and they are discovering out this man to be the trouble, the reason for the trouble on the ship. And so they put Jonah on trial. And they throw at him four rapid-fire questions trying to ascertain and discern, "Who are you? And what are you doing here? You've caused us all this trouble. What is going on here?" And Jonah's put on trial, four questions. Where are you? Look at it says there in verse number eight. It says, "Tell us on this, what is your occupation?" Basically, what is your business? It can be also translated as in, what is your business here on the ship? Like, what are you doing here? What is the reason for you being on the ship? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you? Basically, this is an identity check. I don't know how you got through customs, mate, but there's something wrong here. This this plane's going down and it's not ordinary, you know, you must not be meant to be on this ship. But those questions force Jonah to a place of honest confession, which marks the beginning of his repentance. It begins with an honest confession of Jonah facing the facts about who he is and about who God is. In verse number nine, Jonah responds to this saying, and he said to them, "I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land." The word fear is basically saying, "I worship the God of heaven." Jonah confesses his identity. "This is who I am. I'm a Hebrew. I'm a Jew. I'm not from this place and I'm not going to a place that is where I'm meant to be. I worship God. I don't worship the gods that you worship. And I'm really this person." This person that not only worships this God, but that is in verse number 10, fleeing from this God. Basically, I'm not one of you. I'm not a pagan like you. I worship the true and the living God. And then he goes on not only to confess his identity as being basically a child of God who worships the true and the living God, but he goes on to confess God's identity. He says, "This is the God that I worship. This is who I am and this is who I worship." It doesn't actually really matter who Jonah is, right? It matters more importantly who God is. And listen to what Jonah emphasizes here, which is really important. He says in verse 9, "I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land." See, the most important thing is not who Jonah is, it is who Jonah who Jonah's God is. You see what's happening in this text is Jonah is saying, "This is who I am. I worship and fear the Lord, but you got to know something about this Lord. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. He is Yahweh, the God of the gods. He is the one who is enthroned forever, who created the earth and He created the sea, who created the dry land, who created the storm. Do you understand what's happening here?" Basically saying to them, "You know why I was silent in verse number six when you asked me cry out to my God? Because how can I cry to a God to save me from this storm when He is the one who is bringing this storm upon me?" He is the self-existing, unchangeable, unchanging, eternal one that is not affected by the creation. This is the name of the Lord Yahweh that was God gave revealed to Moses at the burning bush. And the burning bush shows us of a bush that is on fire, that is not being consumed. A God that is very different to what may seem as ordinary in this life. A mysterious God, a sovereign God, the God who is the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. And Jonah, by his confession of himself and by his confession of God, has embraced the facts. Think about this. He's on a pagan ship going to a pagan land hiding from God. For him to say, "I'm a Hebrew and I fear the Lord and the Lord that I fear is the one that I'm fleeing," is a confession of the reality of Jonah not living up to his name. He has been called by God, saved by God, and he's meant to be living for the glory of God in submission to the word of God. And here, Jonah is fleeing from God. He's on a pagan ship going to a pagan land, hiding from God, but he is no pagan. He is a child of the living God. And God, the Lord of heaven and earth, will not let His people live a double life forever. This is what's happening in Jonah's life. He's trying to sleep as a pagan on a pagan ship to a pagan land and God's saying, "You're not a pagan. You're Mine." And I'm not going to let you go. So I'm going to send a wind that would arouse the sailors. I'm going to cause the lots that they cast to force that your name gets pointed out, and I'm going to force you to the corner like that police operation so that you can say, "Hey, I am guilty. It's me. It's me." God, through the storm, makes him manifest. God's divine intervention corners him, and Jonah's sin finds him out. And Jonah not only confesses in his repentance, but his repentance is not only marked by confession but a renewed selflessness. It is an amazing thing to see Jonah's attitude shift at the point of his confession. And if you look with me at the verse number 11, you will see what happens here. They said to him, "What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us?" He said to them, verse 12, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you." See his attitude change? Jonah turns against himself. Up until this point, Jonah has sought the preservation of himself. He has not wanted to go to a pagan city to preach the gospel and to preach God's word. He has sought his own will, his own selfishness, and he's fled from the presence of the Lord because he has put himself in the center of his life, in the center of his world. And what God is doing by cornering Jonah is to help him see, "Jonah, you are Mine. You are a Hebrew and you you are the one that fears the Lord." "Jonah, confess." So he confesses. And Jonah's confession turns to an attitude and is a renewed selflessness. So now that it's not about the preservation of his own life, but he says, "I'm willing to embrace the consequences whatever they may be." How may the sea be quiet? What must we do to you, Jonah, so that the sea may quiet down for us? "This is what you must do to me. Throw me into the sea." Wow. What a change in attitude. "Pick me up, hurl me into the sea. It's about the safety now of the sailors, and it's also about obedience and the glory of God. It's not about Jonah going to Tarshish to flee from the presence of the Lord anymore. He's been cornered by God. His sin has found him out, and his confession leads to a repentance. And the surrender to the consequences are an amazing thing to observe in this passage. Jonah says those words, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea, and then the sea will quiet down for you." He says, "For I know it is because of me this great tempest has come upon you." Jonah says, "You don't deserve to die. I do." What he's basically saying is, "This is happening because of me. I must take the consequences for it. I must receive the due affliction that comes from my rebellion against God." And Jonah surrenders no matter the cost. He says it's time to get off the ship to Tarshish. I'm not going to stay on here anymore. Now we might say, "Jonah, why don't you just like, maybe they could make it, Jonah? Just like if if maybe you help them row a little bit too and and maybe when you get to the land, you'll turn around and yeah, or maybe because you confessed, you know, God's happy for you to finish out the, you know, finish out the rebellion as it were and, you know, and then come back around on the on the way back or or or or you know, "Jonah, what if you were to die by jumping into the sea?" Jonah's attitude is it's better to die in obedience to God than to die in disobedience to God. Jonah's repentance is saying it's better to commit myself to the wind and to the waves, which are in the hand of God, than to be on a pagan ship outside of the will of God. He's surrendering all, no matter the cost at this point. And this is the kind of repentance that should mark our lives as believers in Jesus Christ and should mark the lives of all those who profess that they have come to Jesus Christ. And we need to realize how severe sin is from this passage. You see, our sin impacts others just like Jonah's sin impacted others. You see, the sailors say this evil has come upon us. They are being affected by the rebellion of Jonah. And this is demonstrated to us right throughout the scriptures because at the first sin, the sin of our father Adam, demonstrates this, right? For by one man, sin entered in the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Adam and Eve sin against the Lord by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil against the will and word of the Lord, and the whole human race is plunged into sin, and we also are suffering because of their sin. As was read to us in the Bible reading, so it was with the sin of Achan. God sends them into Jericho, and they go into Jericho, and God says everything in this city is to be devoted to destruction. Don't take anything from it. No spoils of war, no gold, no jewelry, no livestock. It's all devoted to destruction. And what do they do? Well, Achan says, "Takes a cloak from Shinar, he takes 200 shekels of silver, he takes a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels." He thought, "Hey, what about it take me a couple of years to maybe earn this amount of money? If I just take it, put it under my tent, everything will be fine." "But be sure, Achan, your sin will find you out." And what ends up happening is the children of Israel go to war thinking that everything's fine and that God is on their side and they think they're going to have a victory just like they had at Jericho down at Ai. And what ends up happening is this: that they retreat and 36 people die. And Joshua is devastated saying, "Lord, you brought us over this river, You showed Your mighty power at Jericho. We just had to walk around the walls and the whole thing came tumbling down. And now all of a sudden this is happening to us. What's going on? What are You doing, God?" And God says to Joshua, "Get off your face. Get up. Israel has sinned." Someone has taken that which God told them not to take. Someone has rebelled against the word of the Lord, and the impact is widespread. 36 people now have died. And so Achan is discovered by lots, just as Jonah is discovered by lots, and the lot falls to Achan. And Achan and his family and he himself were stoned to death all because he disobeyed the word of the Lord. Sin impacts others. You know, the trouble we invite to our lives through our disobedience affects others. How many fatherless and motherless children are there today in this city because fathers and mothers have done violence to one another, have sought drug abuse and alcohol, have have rebelled against the word of the Lord? And there are children right now without parents that are even children of the state of, you know, ward of the state because of the rebellion and disobedience of parents. How many people have been psychologically damaged due to abusive behavior, whether it be bullying or sexual perversion? All these things for just a moment of satisfaction, as it were. And the disobedience of the word of the Lord calls there to be ramifications that spread wide. How often are churches hurt and splintered and broken because of the disobedience of pastors and because of the disobedience of the people? Where pastors, by pride and arrogance and self-glory, have basically been overlords and over-shepherding overlording the flock. How many times is it that you find that there is one or a couple or a handful of people and there's a root of bitterness that begins to to spring up in the lives of God's people that defiles many in the church? Our sin affects others. The nation's suffering in war and trouble, even the nation of Israel, through the judgment of God through the Babylonians was a result of the sin of the people, and the righteous were carried off into exile with the wicked because of the rebellion of the children of Israel. Evil leaders, corrupt societies, the spread of that effect of sin is widespread. Now, whether those consequences come to us through natural means or by active determinations of God, the reality is that they are all under the sovereign control of God, who is the restrainer of the wind, who is in control of all things, who who wants us through the trouble of sin to see the sinfulness of sin. Do you understand this? He wants us through the wind and the waves, through the consequences that come from our sin that spreads beyond us, for us to see and for those of us that receive as it were the sailors like the sailors in the ship that receive part of that consequence to start hating sin as it should be hated. To start despising sin as it should be despised, to help us see the seriousness of fleeing from God. And maybe that's what it's like in your life this morning. You have taken up a lifestyle of sin and rebellion against God. You have refused the word of the Lord. You've gotten on a ship to Tarshish to flee from the presence of the Lord. And you think that it only affects you, but it affects everyone in your life. It affects your children, it affects your wife, it affects your colleagues at work, it affects your testimony, it affects the people in the in the church of God, it affects those around you. And you're on the ship to Tarshish thinking, "You know what? This is my life. I do what I ever want with it and it doesn't affect anything." And God sends the wind. And you're sleeping in the bottom of the ship thinking that it doesn't concern me this wind. But it's really God trying to get your attention. And the sailors, those that are in your life that are experiencing the consequence of this behavior saying, "What's going on in our lives?" God is awakening those around you to cause you to examine yourself, to wonder why is it why is it that my life is is in turmoil and in the way that it is in? And God is doing all this so that you might come to the place of Jonah where your sin finds you out, and you stand before the Lord and confess before those that have you have caused harm to and say, "I have sinned, I have done wrong. I'm meant to be living as a child of God, and God is trying to get my attention. I should be back at Joppa. In fact, I should be at Nineveh doing what God has called me to do rather than running away from His presence and fleeing from Him." If that is you this morning, it is our duty before God, not only to confess our sin and realize that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, but we must be willing to submit to the consequences of our sin. True repentance embraces all the consequences that come to it because of the sin. Come to you because of the sin. You will not find relief in your life until you confess your sin before the Lord and you embrace the consequence and suffering of your sin and realize that I deserve much more. Until you say with Jonah, "For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you." Until you say with Jonah, "I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land." Until you come to that place, you will continue to remain on the ship to Tarshish, no matter how much you say, "I want to get off." Oh, there's a lot of people that want change in their life and to turn over a new leaf, but they don't want to come to confession and to repentance. "I don't like the storm," they say. But don't you see that the storm is sent by God to awaken you to confession and repentance? There is no relief from the storm until you embrace the the confession that you're meant to be making and embrace the consequences of your sin. There is no relief until you get to the place where you say like Jonah, "Throw me overboard. This is happening because of me." Full responsibility Jonah takes for his sin. He knew he was on the wrong boat and that was his choice. He was heading in the wrong direction and that was his problem. And the storm was a sign from God to get off the ship. My friends, brothers and sisters, the only answer to backsliding is the words of Jonah, and that is to throw me overboard. To realize you yourself that it is better to be in the sea with God than be on the ship without God. To say, "God, no matter what it costs me, I will abandon myself to You." A selflessness, obedience to His will. And I think that's what a lot of us fear, isn't it? We fear that if we confess and forsake our sin, we fear what will be of us. Don't we? What will be the outcome if I hurt the people that I love most? If I stay on the ship to Tarshish, maybe there's another way I can I can resolve this thing. But God's cornering you. Your sin will find you out. The wind's there, people are waking up around you, and God is pointing out something in your life. But the confidence and the encouragement from this passage is this: when Jonah gets thrown overboard, does Jonah die? It's a yes and no question. This is a no answer. He dies to himself, doesn't he? He dies to his will, his lust, his desires, his power-hungriness. He dies to himself. But God prepares a great fish to save Jonah by his redeeming love and mercy. What will be of me if I say, "Throw me overboard"? I tell you what will be of you if you say, "Throw me overboard." "Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." What shall be of me if I cast myself on Jesus? "Whosoever shall lose his life, the same shall save it. But whoever saves his life will lose it." What shall be of me if I confess my sin and embrace the consequences? What will be of you is that you will have the God of heaven and earth who made the sea and the dry land as your strength and your enabling friend to take you through your trial and affliction and struggle, whatever it may be. What will be of you is you will be a Hebrew as it were, a true child of the living God. You'll be one who fears the Lord who is no longer on the ship to Tarshish, but is now in the safe care of our God, even if it's at the depths of the sea in the belly of the whale. At least you're where God wants you to be. The challenge to us this morning is that we need to come clean before God. You see, Jesus died to get us get us off the ship to Tarshish. He died to get us off from our rebellion, from fleeing from His God's presence. And for you this morning, maybe it's a relationship that does not honor God. The Bible says, "Don't be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. What fellowship has light with darkness?" And perhaps you're in a relationship, you you are not married, and you're in a relationship with someone who does not love and know and serve God, who is not a Hebrew as it were, who fears the Lord. And God's telling you to go to Nineveh, but she wants you to get on the ship, or he wants you to get on the ship to go to Tarshish. What do you do with that? You know what you do? You say, "I'm going to Nineveh. Even if it means I just jump off this boat now." But what if I lose her? What if you lose God? What if you lose God's presence? What if you lose God's help? What if you lose God's favor? What if you lose God's love and kindness towards you? And what if you have your own way and end up at Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord? You tell me what's better. The loss of a friend or the loss of the blessing and favor of God in your life. Maybe you're in a situation where you're about to make a corrupt business deal and what that is is you going to Joppa and getting on a ship to Tarshish. You know God doesn't want you to transact business that way. And you say to yourself, "Hey, but I'm on this ship to Tarshish. I've already done the deal." It's going to cost me a lot to backtrack now. Throw me overboard and give me God. Won't He take care of me? I have never seen the righteous forsaken, said the Psalmist, nor his seed begging bread. You don't need to make money through corruption. God will provide for all your needs according to His riches in glory. He will appoint for you your provision day after day, though you're in the depths of the sea in the belly of a whale. Maybe you've made a commitment that has robben you, robbing you of your God-given duties. You're taking up work that keeps you from God's commandment for you to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, or to train up your family in the way you should go. Maybe you have taken up a job that keeps you out from the house of God and keeps you away from the people of God. And you find yourself on a ship to Tarshish and you're like, "How do I get back? It's going to cost me too much." I encourage you this morning, jump. Don't worry. God will save you. If you jump, if you believe, if you trust, if you confess your sin, if you repent and you turn, He will look after you. He will take care of your needs, He will provide for you. Maybe you're holding a grudge against someone and your heart is full of bitterness and you and you cannot relate to them as you ought to relate to them. You think, "How, how embarrassing is it going to be for me to go up to this person and say, 'Man, I'm sorry.'" "I'll lose my dignity. I'll lose my respect. What would others think of me?" Get off the ship to Tarshish, no matter what it cost you. Get off. Look at the bleeding Savior who suffered there for that sin which you so dearly hold on to and remember that He died to get you off the ship to Tarshish. Get off. Jump. Make the move. Confess, repent. Confess that I am dead to sin and I should not live any longer therein. Confess that I belong to the living God who made the sea and the wind. And believe that as you step out in faith, in obedience to the word of God, no matter how much you have sinned, that God will never let you down. It may be painful. Joppa and Nineveh was a more comfortable place than the belly of the great fish. But it was better than death. And it was better than letting all those other people in the ship also perish because of one man's rebellion. Your sin will find you out. Let us do business with God and say, "Jesus, I come. I come to you, confessing and repenting of my sin." Let us pray.