Separated Unto the Gospel — Detlef Stegen

Jonah's Calling and Flight from God's Presence

It is for me a privilege to stand here this morning at the same time a responsibility and I pray for grace from the Lord to be able to share that which I believe the Lord has placed on my heart. I would like to share something out of the book of Jonah.

Let us pray together before we read. Lord, we want to bow before you this morning in humble submission to your authority, to your word through which we pray that you would enlighten our hearts and minds, that you would be able to reach your purpose for each and every life present.

May we experience you among us, O Lord. Use your word to your glory alone, we pray. Amen. We start from the first chapter, the first verse. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai. Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.

But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

We will stop there for now. Here we hear of a prophet called Jonah, who had a father who also was a prophet, as we read in history books. Who made Jonah to be a prophet? Who causes men and women to be bearers of God's message?

Who can make out of you and me a bearer of the message of hope and salvation? It is only the one who came down from heaven, who died for us on the cross, who created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, and has imparted us with the breath of life.

It is the one who actually owns our souls. Do we realize that we do not belong to ourselves? It is not because of your choosing that you find yourself today in the service to hear the word of God directed at your heart.

And maybe it is not the first time that you hear the word of the Lord. Maybe you are also a son of a prophet. Maybe you call yourself a son of God, a child of the truth. And what was on my heart especially this morning, one of the points is how wonderful that the word of God comes to us humans.

Hearing and Obeying God's Word

The word of the Lord came to Jonah. Praise God for men who experience God speaking to them, who have a message in their lives, who have a message that is placed by God on their tongue. Has the word of God come to you?

When last did you experience the word of the Lord coming to you? Can you testify we hear that this is Jonah who wrote this book about himself, about his own experience? When last did you hear God speaking to you?

And what did you do concerning that? Child, has God been able to speak to you? Or do you just hear others speaking to you, those who surround you? You listen to lies? Do you like lies? Beware, lest you have the father of lies owning your life and taking control of your life.

Are you surrounded by people that speak evil and filthy words? Do you like to hear love stories? Do you like to listen to sex stories? Maybe those are the words that often come to your ears and to your spiritual ears.

You come to church, you listen to God speaking to you. But you do not heed God's words, you rather choose to heed the words of your pals and your friends. You are busy trying to build yourself a good future.

Without the word of the Lord as the basis and it being of foremost importance to you, your future will be bleak, dark, and may I say, cursed. May I repeat, when last did you hear the word of the Lord coming to you?

You say, yes, I am serving the Lord. In the mornings I get up early while others are still asleep. I am punishing my body. I see how lazy the others are around me. And I put my time and effort into the Lord's service.

I have denied my family. I have denied my brothers and my sisters. And I am busy working. I am in the Lord's work. But when last did you hear Him speaking to you? In all your effort, in all your working, in all your endeavours, you have maybe lost sight of God speaking to you.

You now have put your eyes on men and you see all the wrongs that others do for you while you are trying to serve God. And you are busy with your own talk, you are placing verdicts upon your fellow men, upon your upon your brothers and sisters and you have a critical spirit in you even in your own human efforts and your diligence in trying to serve God may I just briefly look a bit at Jeremiah how we hear how God called him the word of the Lord came to him and it was a satisfying assurance to himself that it was the word of the Lord and not a delusion.

And it was he who gave him his commission. It's the same one who gave him his life he said I chose you even before you were born and he was his rightful owner and that he might employ him and make use of him as he pleased and the commission given him to pursue the purpose of God he said I determined you to be a prophet and set you apart for this office.

Paul says of himself God had separated him from his birth to be a Christian and an apostle prophet. He had separated him a wonderful word separated him from his own views his own intentions. You see child God has a purpose even for your life.

Jonah was sent to Nineveh. I don't know what you have been sent for. That's why it is absolutely vital that you hear God's word addressed to you. Do you see how important God's word is in your life? If you miss out on that you miss the purpose of life.

You're waiting for blessing. You're waiting for a wonderful future. You're waiting for one day inherit eternal life. It is the owner of your life who will open heaven for you. He's got the keys of heaven.

Jeremiah's Commission and the Consequences of Disobedience

And if he won't open to you the heaven's door then you will be cast into hell's door. Jeremiah in his youth he said Lord I'm but a child. I cannot say anything. And the Lord said see today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to tear down to destroy and overthrow to build and to plant to see what God can make out of a mere human setting you above and over nations if you take heed to his word.

If you do not heed his word oh child of God you will be destroyed. You will be torn down. You will be overthrown and uprooted not by man's doing but by God's doing. Just listen to what we have been appointed in revelations.

We read unto him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins and hath made us unto kings and priests and to God our father. You have been loved you have been washed by his blood from your sins. Are you heeding God speaking to you.

Or can you just testify. Yes we can all testify of a time 5 years ago 10 years ago 30 40 years ago of God speaking to us and changing our lives. That's why. Let us ask ourselves when last did God speak to me that great God who holds even the universe in his hands.

God's Majesty in Creation and His Work of Renewal

Just these days I looked at a video or part of a video of astronomers those who study the stars and proclaim and cry out at the greatness of God when they look into the universes. And then they find a place where there is a big mess churning and they say God is busy making a new star.

Even now God is furnishing the universe with new stars and stars that are immensely great far greater than our small world in which we live in this place which we call our home and where we don't want to die we want to live forever on this earth.

That is one day going to end burn up. There will be a big bang one day at the end of it all. It wasn't a big bang at the beginning. There will be a big bang at the end when everything will go up and God will make a new earth a new universe new heavens.

Don't work too hard to collect money and fill your bank account. Don't work too hard to build yourself the best mansion here on earth. Don't spend too much money on the fashions of this world. Don't work too hard at your desires lest they take the love of God out of its rightful place in your life.

God is making everything new can we say even in the universe. Is he busy today making things new in your life. Are you experiencing a new love a new freshness in your life. It's only through the word of God that works in us that comes to us and we are obeying that word that he can create this in our life.

Receiving the Word Instead of Losing Its Fruit

Last sunday did God speak to you. Did you humble your heart and hear his hand. Did you obey him or did you rush out of the service and the birds of the air came up and picked up those seeds and you forgot about it.

It didn't have an effect in your life and God was busy trying to bring about something new in your life and you shunned it you closed your eye to it you pushed it aside you were too busy. Do you marvel that you find yourself lukewarm.

You constantly on the search, you know, I want to have more of God. I don't see experience the growth of the Lord in my life and you need to go to more services, more prayer meetings, more of this, more of this, more of this.

Maybe you are missing the mark. You are not obeying God's word as it comes to you. Just read Deuteronomy 28 and listen to the blessings that follow a man and a woman who obeys God's commands and God's word.

And carry on this reading till you get to that human being who does not listen and obey and has regard to God's word. Oh, if this word could inspire us afresh, that you be what God has purposed for your life.

Becoming a Faithful Bearer of the Gospel

Friend, find out what God wants for your life. Lest you come to the end of it and you have regrets and it be too late to make amends. You need to be a message bearer of the gospel of Christ. And if you cannot speak, then let your life speak.

But may I say, please don't speak the wrong things even at a place that God has chosen to glorify his name. Let us make a covenant today and say God may I not speak curses, may I not open my mouth and harm your work where you have intended to raise up people, to bring them to the gospel, to bring them to Christ, and I be a negative influence.

I be a negative influence. Brother, sister, son, and daughter, do not allow yourself in any part of your body not glorify God in his congregation, in his church to which you claim to belong. Be a shining star for the gospel of Christ, of the one who has come to you.

Scripture as Binoculars for Spiritual Clarity

The word of God can be like binoculars to us. And a proper binocular, not the one that is out of focus and with the images blurred. Where you can see where you are headed for, you can see your aim, you can see your purpose, you see the end, and you are keeping your eyes on that and not being distracted by anything along the way.

Allow God to focus those binoculars that suddenly the image is crystal clear and vivid before your eyes and you see it so well and nobody can tell you anything else about it because you have it before your very eyes.

If you look through his binoculars, you see everything in its right place. In its right perspective. Friend, if you want or if you notice that you haven't been and seen things in the right perspective and you have heard, you have spoken things that were not right, you have acted in dishonesty, allow God's word today to bring about that change.

The Transforming Power of the Word of God

The word of God, which we can say is Christ revealed, causes sin hardened hearts to melt. Arguments cease. Families are restored. Hatred turns to love and forgiveness. Do we see what the word of God can bring about in our lives?

And don't you long for it? Don't you wish to be a bearer of the gospel of truth? That you see your life changed completely. That heart that was so enticed by sin, so drawn towards sin, suddenly changed.

That I have no feeling for this church and for this Bible and for this drag. It just comes against my grain, what they are talking about, I don't agree with, I don't feel it. God can change your heart.

That you suddenly have a feeling for it. Suddenly you have a longing for it. Suddenly your heart is at ease. Satisfied. Satisfied. Child, suddenly you have a love to your parents. Forgive me if I speak of personal experience.

I talk of it I think in 1981 when I got married. I said I didn't really love my dad. I had a favorite uncle called Uncle Fredo and I loved him. Because I saw my dad was a bit too strict. If we are not timeless in the car, then he would just drive off and he would leave us at home.

Even mum would stay behind. Even my oldest brother had to stay behind because when we leave we are leaving. But when the gospel came into our family, things changed. My father who was a smoker. Suddenly we didn't need to go to the shop to buy any cigarettes for him anymore.

In the car there wasn't any smell of tobacco anymore. Suddenly I experienced a love towards my own father and my own mother. It seems as if the older they get the more I love them. Child, do you love your parents command?

Or are you still ducking and diving? You don't enjoy doing something for your parents. You enjoy the company of your mates, your own kind. You don't have any love for those who are close to the Lord. Maybe things will get revealed in your life that you have done wrong and you are trying to hide them as much as you can.

You are trying to keep it a secret. Because if I get too close to them, maybe that fire that is in them will burn up all my covering, all my clothes. And I will stand before them in my shame because of the sin that I am busy with.

God's word can change your life. Don't you want to commit yourself today to this word that comes from God? Don't you want to be obedient to it? Now, maybe just in short, just a bit about Jonah. He was instructed, go to that great city of Nineveh.

Jonah's Resistance, Repentance, and Obedience

I looked up in my Bible. Before I knew that I was going to stand here today, I measured with a tape, how far is Jerusalem from Nineveh? Well, as the crow flies, I guessed between 800 and 1000 kilometres.

And it wasn't his own country. And it wasn't of the elect, his people, the Jews. How long would he have to journey to get here to these strange people who were actually their enemies? They were actually enemies.

They were wanting to destroy the Jews and Jerusalem. They could just swallow them up. And now he was sent to this great city. You have maybe been sent to Nineveh. How far is Nineveh from Nineveh? Maybe your boundaries of your Nineveh is just the circumference of your heart.

That this heart of mine must be preached at. This heart that I love so dearly. Must this word of God really penetrate to its depths? Must I really change? Must I really stop stealing? Must I remain as poor as I am?

Must I really take up this cross? Must I really deny myself? Lord, do you really want everything? Lord, just that corner. Please Lord. This is one wish that I have of you. Please allow me still. Something.

This one thing. And when Jonah got this message from the Lord, he reacted upon it. But he went in the opposite direction. He started his flight. Fleeing from God. And he went down to the port, to the ship.

And from there he went down in the ship. And from there he went down into the water. And God prepared a fish. And this fish swallowed this prophet of God. It must have been a special fish that God prepared.

That Jonah could stay alive for three days in the belly of the fish. And here he was strangled by just think of whatever. Strangling him. He was trying to stay alive. But as for God's grace. God spoke to the fish.

After Jonah having returned, shall we say, to his senses, to his rightful mind. Listening with an obedient heart to God's word. It is only when we give obedience to God's command that we come to our right senses.

And people will marvel and say, but you know this person, he always had the last word. He always could talk so much. But now listen, his words, his talk has changed. He's different. God's word can make you different.

God commanded that fish to vomit Jonah out on the sea shore. And Jonah knew what he had to do. And when God spoke, he went to that distant city. And when he just entered into that city, proclaiming God's message.

Nineveh's Repentance and God's Mercy

The people accepted the message and rent their hearts. And even outwardly got dressed in sackcloth. I say the message went before him before he got to the king. The king got off his throne. Put on sackcloth.

Proclaim to the whole city, no one should eat. Neither man nor beast should eat or drink anything. We now need to seek God's grace. And this heathen king said, may be God, this God of Jonah will be gracious to us and will turn from his wrath against us.

And God could reveal his grace and his mercy. Do you want to experience God's grace and mercy? Take heed of God, of God's speaking to you. Maybe he just speaks in your heart. Maybe he speaks through someone, through another person.

Because we can sometimes be so blunt that God needs to send a messenger to us. Open your eyes. That you don't shun God's message from you. It's a matter of life and death to you. Children, the message of the cross, Christ, is a matter of life and death to you.

Take life for yourself. Why choose death? Don't you want to experience the mercy and the kindness of Jesus in your life? There's nothing that can compare with that. Let us pray. Oh Lord, may your word reach our hearts today.

A Prayer for New Hearts and Faithful Obedience

Make us into your special and elect people. Those that are chosen out of this world to your glory, to your honour. That we can testify, Christ has changed my life. And that others can testify of us, these are a people, this person is a man who heeds God's word.

That we will be a people, a blessing one to the other. A people where Christ's spirit can dwell and flourish in our midst. Oh, expel Lord all darkness, all power of the devil that would keep us from that which you have purposed for our lives.

Lord, we must admit you have called us and you have chosen us amongst many. How terrible if we should disappoint you. How terrible if we will not heed your word. Give us a new heart and mind to seek to obey you at all times.

We pray also for our children and for our children, Lord, work mightily amongst them. Let your word overcome them. That they will surrender their lives wholeheartedly. Help that they will see in us parents that are walking with God.

That our words might be filled with your grace. That our actions will speak of Christ. Only you can do that, Lord. So we pray that you would go with us from here. And let your seed fall on fertile land and bring forth a crop that will be a hundredfold.

Not because of having deserved it, but because of your great grace. You, the almighty God, who have ownership of our lives, who hold us in your hands. Do it, Lord, to the glory of your great name.