Jonah Overview: Running into God's Grace week 1

An episode of the Faith Sermons and Studies podcast, hosted by Faith Baptist Church, titled "Jonah Overview: Running into God's Grace week 1" was published on July 29, 2025 and runs 43 minutes.

July 29, 2025 ·43m · Faith Sermons and Studies

0:00 / 0:00

Summary

Have you ever played hide and seek with a young child? It is quite fun. Maybe you have young children, or grandchildren, and kids enjoy playing hid and seek. The problem is, they are often not very good at it. Right? They just don’t get the concept. Maybe they go and get in their hiding spot and you would hear them giggling. Or they hide, but only partially. They might hide their heads, or hide their eyes, when the rest of them is in plain sight. Or they’ll just stand in the corner and cover their eyes, thinking that if they cannot see you, you cannot see them. Doesn’t really work that way, does it? I want you to think about that for a moment, because sometimes I think this is how we are with God. With God’s working, with God’s pan, and with God’s grace. We might give into the false believe that if we cannot see God, if we can’t see him working with our own eyes, then he must not be there. And we might even put our hands in front of our face— “God, I can’t see you. Where are you God? Oh he must not be there because I can’t see him.” This is especially true with the grace of God. We might try to pretend, like God isn’t there, like God is not as gracious as he actually is, or that if we refuse to see it, we can actually escape from the presence of God and his grace. But just because we refuse to see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. This was the mistake Jonah made. Jonah tried to run from God. He was a prophet—he knew better. But he tried to run from God, he tried to hide himself from God’s grace that God was intent on giving to Nineveh. But despite seemingly trying to put his eyes in front of his face and pretend that God wasn’t going to do what he desired, Jonah learned that just because we refuse to see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Jonah tried to run from God, and to pretend like God’s grace was not there. But that didn’t change God’s grace at all. Jonah thought he was running from God. But in reality, he was running into God’s grace! And the very same grace that he was trying to pretend was not there, we find is the very same grace that he actually needed himself. Ho did Jonah try to run from the grace of God and how did he actually run into God’s grace? Let’s look at the story to find out.

Episode Description

I want you to think about that for a moment, because sometimes I think this is how we are with God. With God’s working, with God’s pan, and with God’s grace. We might give into the false believe that if we cannot see God, if we can’t see him working with our own eyes, then he must not be there. And we might even put our hands in front of our face— “God, I can’t see you. Where are you God? Oh he must not be there because I can’t see him.” This is especially true with the grace of God. We might try to pretend, like God isn’t there, like God is not as gracious as he actually is, or that if we refuse to see it, we can actually escape from the presence of God and his grace. But just because we refuse to see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. This was the mistake Jonah made. Jonah tried to run from God. He was a prophet—he knew better. But he tried to run from God, he tried to hide himself from God’s grace that God was intent on giving to Nineveh. But despite seemingly trying to put his eyes in front of his face and pretend that God wasn’t going to do what he desired, Jonah learned that just because we refuse to see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Jonah tried to run from God, and to pretend like God’s grace was not there. But that didn’t change God’s grace at all. Jonah thought he was running from God. But in reality, he was running into God’s grace! And the very same grace that he was trying to pretend was not there, we find is the very same grace that he actually needed himself. Ho did Jonah try to run from the grace of God and how did he actually run into God’s grace? Let’s look at the story to find out.