“How to escape from God?” — Sunday sermon from August 9, 2026

Introduction and context

The title of the sermon has an ironic tone – it is built on the principle of “harmful advice”. Since every Christian to one degree or another is a “specialist” in running away from God, the sermon reveals the opposite side: how to stop this running away and draw closer to the Creator during trials.

When faith is under pressure, believers face doubts. However, tests are given not for destruction, but for hardening.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
1 Peter 1:3-7 NIV

Tests upset Christians, because we do not become “superhumans” after repentance and feel the whole range of emotions (fatigue from war, shelling, everyday difficulties). However, the apostle Peter calls to rejoice, because tested faith becomes a precious thing that preserves salvation.

The central place of the Holy Scriptures: The sign of the prophet Jonah

The scribes and Pharisees demanded a special sign from Jesus in order to be convinced of His Messiahship, although they had already seen many miracles. Their problem was that they were looking for answers, but they didn’t want to hear them or change.

“Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
from Matthew 12:38-40 NIV

Instead of unique signs, Jesus directs believers to the Word of God and the famous story of Jonah. Trying to escape from God’s call to Spain (Tarsis), Jonah lost his freedom and found himself in complete isolation – inside a giant fish.

Key ideas of the sermon

1. The belly of the whale is an instrument of salvation

When a person finds himself at a dead end (illness, job loss, life crises), it is perceived as a disaster. However, in God’s design it is an “isolator” and a way to preserve life. If the whale had not swallowed Jonah during the storm, he would have simply drowned in the ocean.

The crisis stops our running, deprives us of the usual entertainment and illusions of control and forces us to think about the main thing – the meaning of life and our relationship with the Creator.

2. Example of Clive Staples Lewis (“Jonah of the intellectual world”)

The story of running away from God repeats itself in every epoch. Author The Chronicles of Narnia C. S. Lewis experienced the loss of his mother in his youth and the horrors of the trenches of World War I (where he was wounded by a British shell at Arras). This led him to turn away from God and build a “wall of defense” of atheism, logic, and science.
Lewis felt like an animal being hunted by the Hunter (God). Being in deep spiritual darkness and intellectual impasse, thanks to the surrounding of Christian friends (in particular J. R. R. Tolkien) and prayer from the bottom of his heart, in 1929 he knelt in Oxford and confessed God. This conversion turned him into one of the most influential apologists of the 20th century.

3. The whale lets us out when we become a different person

External circumstances change only after internal transformations take place. It is impossible to get out of the crisis without changing your own thinking and behavior.

Practical steps for “evacuation” from the crisis

1. Capitulate to God: Stop fighting with your own tricks and manipulations. Admit the defeat of your methods.
2. Be radically honest: Take 100% responsibility for your life. Jonah didn’t come out of the fish until he stopped blaming the storm, the sailors, or the authorities and said, ‘It’s because of me’. Make a list of your own mistakes (fear, laziness, pride, selfishness).
3. Change the question: Instead of “What is wrong with me?” ask “Why did God allow this in my life?”.
4. Focus on the big things: Regain control over the small details of your day (apologise, complete unfinished repairs, plan a budget). Loyalty in small things leads to big changes.
5. Begin to pray and give thanks in advance: Jonah began to thank God for salvation while still in complete darkness. Find 3-5 things for which you can thank God right now in the situation itself.

The main question for self-examination: “What would I like to do as a first step today?”

Testimony of the glory of God