We welcome you to Stone's Hill today!

A typical Stone's Hill service has:

* music (so feel free to sing out);

* some announcements (things that are upcoming that you can be a part of);

* a message out of the Bible (God speaks to us through his Word);

* and an opportunity for you to respond to the message (either immediately in the case of a decision that needs to be made OR in the future as you live out the message in your daily life.)

So relax and enjoy your morning! We're so glad you are here!

MESSAGE TEXT
Jonah 1:4-16
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Introduction
Jonah turned from God’s Word, God’s presence, and God’s call on his life. Now, in the middle of the sea, in the middle of the storm, in the middle of all these sailors, God is saying, “Look, Jonah, you can run but you can’t hide because I am the Lord. I’m the Lord of Heaven and Earth, of the land and the sea, of this storm, and these dice, and I’m the Lord of you, and you can’t outrun Me, Jonah. I don’t accept your resignation!”
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Application
A person may sail on the wrong boat. He may head in the wrong direction. He may stow away, seeking to hide from the presence of God. He may be reluctant to follow the Lord. Yet, God does not give up. If you’re rebelling against God, He’s going to let you sail for a season, but He’s coming for you. And one of the ways he does this is through circumstances. The circumstances in your life may include a storm with your name on it.
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Personalization
This passage in Jonah gives me comfort because when my pursuit of God is weak and anemic or when I’m on the run from God and I’m trying to create my own Eden, I can count on God to come roaring in with an eye-opening, attention-grabbing, soul-stirring storm. Not every life-storm is from God, but some of them are. Sometimes, we create our own storm. Explaining God’s purpose in a particular life-storm is a hazardous business, so be careful what you say to others about their storm. My own experience is that when I run from God, life tends to get stormy. The winds of life batter me because I’m living cross-grain to God’s plan and design. And so misery is my companion as long as I run, and God sends storms to chase me down, to wake me up, to bring me back to Him. That storm in your life—it’s not there to pay you back for your disobedience, but to bring you back to the God who loves you.
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Proposition
God is the Great Pursuer and the One doing the pursuing is actually the object of our longing. We learn so much about God - the object of our longing in this book: God loves… Jonah, Assyria, the Sailors. God made…Earth, Animals, Plants. God controls… Wind, Rolls of the dice, Ships. God communicates…Through prophets, Through sacrifice, Through the Word. Through His presence. God utilizes…All of the above to tell you he loves you and wants to be in relationship with you. If you’re Jonah, you’re going to come away from this story convinced that God is relentless in his pursuit of love and that’s going to make you long for Him even more.
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Conclusion
How serious is God's pursuit of mankind? In the greatest form-changing event in history—the incarnation—the Son of God takes on human flesh, this time permanently, to continue the pursuit. Ken Gire writes: "Once they have seen him in a stable, they can never be sure where he will appear or to what lengths he will go or to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation he will descend in his wild pursuit of man." Are you stowed away on some Tarshish ship? He will find you and when He does - it's time to surrender.