Get Off My Boat!

Jonah 1:15 (NKJV)

15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

You usually read or hear sermons from preachers encouraging you to “get out of the boat” or to “walk on the water”.  This is not that message!  Some of you need to tell someone, “Get off my boat!”  Your boat is your destiny, your life.  There are times that you must not allow another person’s dysfunction to sink your boat.

When you have a Jonah on your boat, you start throwing your stuff overboard, throwing your money overboard, throwing your strength and energy overboard (Johah1:5).  You used to have joy, until you let Jonah on your boat.  You must understand that some people carry a storm with them everywhere they go.  They are Sister Katrina or Brother El Nino. 

I know that it is our desire to help people and we should, but you must also discern when it’s time to tell them to get off my boat, get out my house.  Some of you say, “the problem with Jonah is that he just got on the wrong boat, he just needs to come to our church or to my ministry”.  “If he would just get on my boat, come to my ministry, I can help him because my boat is the “Love boat”.  You better look at their track record, they have taken down bigger and better boats than yours.

Let me tell you what the Bible says that Jonah was doing while everyone else on the boat was worried and throwing their possessions overboard.  He was asleep down in the lower part of the boat.  Sometimes you want something for them that they don’t want for themselves.  When someone enters your life that needs change and they don’t change by being in your life,….then they didn’t enter your life to change, but to just ride your boat. 

Jonah 1:13 (NKJV)

13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them.

Notice, the men rowed, but Jonah wasn’t rowing.  When your boat is taking on water and in danger of sinking, MEN will row hard.  Are you tired of being the only person “rowing”?  If you’re tired of rowing, then get to throwing!  Throw that Jonah off your boat. 

Some of you fear that if you do throw the Jonah in your life overboard, then what will happen to them?  You must know that you are not their Messiah, you are not their savior, God is.

Jonah 1:17 (NKJV)

17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

We must trust God that He will move of behalf of the Jonahs.  God has prepared in advance for their rebellion.  Notice in the above verse, God had prepared a great fish to swallow (not eat) Jonah.  After three days and nights in the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord.  It took Jonah three days in the fish until he prayed for himself.

Jonah 2:1-2 (NKJV)

1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly.

2 And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice.

The “Jonah” on board this ship may not be a person but can be anything we allow into our lives that don’t need to be there.  It could be allowing something in our lives that keeps us from moving forward.  Here are some take-aways from this story:

1. Be careful who you allow to come on board your ship. These sailors didn’t realize who was getting on their ship.  All the trouble that they were about to face could have been avoided by not letting Jonah on board in the first place.  Sometimes we allow people into our lives or things into our lives before we fully know if the Lord is involved in them coming into our lives.
2. Realize why this storm is in your life.  These men did a personal examination of what was going wrong and then they confronted Jonah as the cause of their storm.  Too many times people just keep riding through storms, hoping it will eventually get better, when they need to tell Jonah, get off my boat.  You will not have peace until those things that need to be removed are removed.
3. Don’t get rid of the wrong things.  They threw their precious cargo into the sea trying to fix their problem.  Don’t throw away your marriage trying to save someone else’s marriage.  I don’t know all they lost in their efforts to help, but I do know this: Jonah was their problem, not the things they threw overboard.
4. When you get rid of your Jonah, your life will immediately get back on course.  As soon as they threw Jonah overboard, the sea calmed.  It is true today, that as soon as you surrender it over to the Lord, your sea will calm.

o