And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Jonah 1:7

Do you gamble or should I ask, do you like to gamble? Before you answer that question let me give you some information. All those who gamble are working with something called probability. Probability is how likely something is going to happen or according to Wikipedia ‘the measure of the likelihood that an event will occur’. So there is a chance slim that the gamble might pay off, but the odds are heavily stacked in the favour of the one holding the cards.

As an example, I heard on a radio show that you have as much chance as winning the lottery, as a totally random stranger coming up to you in the street, and telling you your mobile telephone number! I mean if you really think about the amount of people that play the lottery in its many forms, how many millionaire winners do you personally know? I don’t know any winners but I know of at least 100 people who play it.

So why take the chance, why gamble? Reading the story of Jonah it seems so obvious to us that his plan was never going to work, I mean seriously is it possible to run away from God?

So my question to us this morning is, what has God asked us to do that we are running away from? Is it a church post that we have declined for personal rather than spiritual reasons? Is it that conversation which may save a soul we are too embarrassed to have in the workplace? Is it that talent that we are still forcing down?

So don’t gamble especially with God’s mercy. As with Jonah, God is always going to be looking for you to save you from yourself.

Our music today is ‘Glorious Freedom’ by the Gaither’s. Please click on the picture to listen.