Jonah #2

Northside Church

Jonah #2

Jamey Mills

2/19/23

CHILD DEDICATION SUNDAY

NORTHSIDE… my name is Jamey Mills, it’s always good to be with you guys. I’ve been looking forward to it all week.

We are in the second week of our new sermon series on the book of Jonah… (SLIDE) If you missed the sermon last week… you can find it on our youtube channel…

Jonah is such an odd book… it starts just like most of the other prophetic books in the Bible…

“The word of the Lord came”... God was sending Jonah to conform the wicked… and cruel people of Nineveh… some of the most murderous people the world has ever known…

Instead of getting up to go and do what God had told him… He ran as far and fast as He could in the other direction… He ran from God…

And it didn’t go well. Running from God’s Lordship and leadership in your life… from his direction and calling in your life never does.

Jonah refused to go… he felt like they deserved hell. He didn’t want God to work in their lives… so he ran…

Running from God won’t go well for you either…

But in the midst of it… Jonah found something profound…

In all of his disobedience and in all of us running… God didn't give up on him.

In chapter 2 we are about to see Jonah beginning to realize all of the ways that God has pursued Him… to get his attention, to redirect him… in ways that sometimes felt harsh… unless we can back up and see God and God’s purpose within it… it is the most loving thing God could have done… Jonah never would have got there without it…

Last week we left off with Jonah running… God sent this supernatural storm… Jonah said throw me in and you’ll be saved… the sailors did all they could… fought hard… eventually prayed that God would forgive them… as they threw Jonah in… it says that the wind and waves stopped and these sailors… right then and there… committed their lives to God alone.

The very last Vs of of Ch 1

Jonah 1:17 NLT

Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

(NLT)

17 Now the LORD had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

This is a huge obstacle for a lot of people… two things to say here.

There is a growing crowd of religious scholars that believe the book of Jonah is an OT parable… a story, inspired by God that’s written to reveal something about God and His truth to us. To be fair… from a literary standpoint… There is room for that view.

However… the #1 reason I see people taking this view is because it’s easier… I can fit God into my box by thinking this way… that makes me leary as well as… there are some historical things you’d have to explain if you take this view.

And…

If Jonah is to be taken literally… how do we believe it…

When we hear things like this, it’s easy to fixate on certain things and forget who it is we are talking about… For instance, just a moment ago, God miraculously stopped the wind and waves… that left the sailors speechless… and we don't see to have any issue there.

If we’ve come to this place of being a christian, we’ve already put our faith in something that, in my view, is far more important and… that in God’s great love… He sent Jesus to bridge the gap between a perfectly holy God and sinful people… through what He did on the cross and in rising from the dead…

We approach God with the limitations of humanity or… of our own minds… the bottom line is… He is either God… or He isn’t. He is either sovereign over creation or He isn't. If the God who is reflected in scripture is real… this whole fish thing… is pretty small potatoes.

To many people… scholars included… get so fixated on the fish… that Jonah has become little more than a kids story. Which… in some was is understandable but in more ways is just sad.

In Jonah we see a man who is honestly struggling between what he knows and wants… vs what God has called him to do…

And it’s being lived out this… self-righteousness, anger and fear… that lead to what we see in Jonah.

And the vast majority of Christians I know… struggle with it.

Jonah 2:1–2 NLT

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me!

(NLT)

1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish. 2 He said,

“I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and He answered me. I called (cried out) you from the land of the dead, and LORD, you heard me!

Finally… in all that’s happened…. We see Jonah do something we haven’t seen at all… Jonah Prays

It seems odd…

Word of the Lord came to Him

He ran

Faced the storm

Was thrown in

Was sinking in the sea

Was swallowed by a fish

After everything that’s happened… after all of that… Jonah prays…

I think a lot of us struggle with that…

Prayer is too often seen as a last resort.

…

Why? Is it… we

Don’t believe God hears

Don’t believe God cares, bigger better things to do

Don’t think there is anything God can do, He’s helpless

We don’t value His wisdom or direction

Maybe we just don't think prayer works…

One author pointed out that so many, even within the church, don't even use the word “prayer” anymore…

Instead of saying… I’m praying for you… we hear things like… I’m sending positive thoughts your way? What is that… Do we really believe that somehow… our positive thoughts are going to help?

As the church, I want to challenge us all to get back to that place of knowing that prayer is powerful… Prayer is another thing that believers are called to and it makes a difference.

As believers… it's important to remember

Hebrews 4:16 NLT

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

(NLT)

16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Do you believe that? That is what prayer is and does…

Because of Jesus we can go right into the presence of God with confidence… finding mercy, grace to help us when we need it most.

Why in the world would that be a last resort…

It was a while back that my wife encouraged me…

Do you ever get tired of just telling people you're going to pray for them… is there any value in stopping right there… and actually praying with them instead of hoping you won’t forget later.

Jonah uses two powerful Hebrew words to help us understand where he’s at…

Vs 2 says he cried out to God in his “great struggle” … the Hebrew word is actually

Tsarah is a word that describes the distress, pain and struggle of childbirth.

Tsarah… It’s a word that’s used to describe the distress… pain and struggle of child birth… of bringing new life into the world.

Jonah… in the belly of this well… is talking about birth… New life… new opportunity…

Sheol is a word that is often translated as hell.

The word for the land of the dead is sheol… it means the realm of the dead… it’s often translated as… HELL.

The language in Jonah helps us realize that as Jonah continued to run… it got worse and worse… until… here… he hits rock bottom. He compares it to hell.

In vs. 6 he says he is at the root of the mountains… he’s saying… this is as low as it gets… as hopeless… and helpless as it gets…

And something about his situation causes Jonah to begin to see that God’s hands have been in this the whole time… Listen, see if you can hear it…

Jonah 2:3–6 NLT

You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’ “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!

3 You threw me into the ocean depths,

and I sank down to the heart of the sea.

The mighty waters engulfed me;

I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.

4 Then I said, ‘O LORD, YOU have driven me from your presence.

Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’ (toward your presence)

5 “I sank beneath the waves,

and the waters closed over me.

Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.

6 I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.

I was imprisoned in the earth,

whose gates lock shut forever.

Throughout Jonah 1-2:6 we hear that language over and over… down… down… down… things are going from bad to worse… He is sinking… buried… at death’s door…

And finally… Jonah is saying I see it… I see the hand of God who pursues me, even though I run away.

You called me.

You hurled the storm.

You wouldn’t relent

You threw me in…

I was buried in your waves…

Your drove me from your presence

It says that in all of that he cried out to God… and what happened?

God heard him.

Does that do in you what it does in me…

Realizing that sees me, hears me, and pursues me…

That in the depth of my distress… in my

Financial situation, my marriage, my kids, my anxiety, my depression, my fear, my addiction, my dishonesty, my need for attention, what other people say, think or have done to me… the confusion about who I really am…

From the deepest and darkest place of my own hell… when I needed Him most and deserved it the least… Jonah’s experience… and mine… He was there.

And just like that… all the way back in Jonah… God was preaching the gospel to you and I… while we were still sinners, separated from a holy God because of sin… helpless to do anything on our own… when I couldn’t get any lower… right there in the middle of my distress… I saw God’s hand at work… when Christ died for me.

God was working… while he was running. God was working when he was in distress. In ways Jonah couldn’t see and in ways he was too stubborn to see… God was actively working.

Jonah 2:6–9 NLT

I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death! As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple. Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies. But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”

But you, O LORD my God,

snatched me from the jaws of death!

7 As my life was slipping away,

I remembered the LORD.

And my earnest prayer went out to you

in your holy Temple.

8 Those who worship false gods

turn their backs on all God’s mercies.

9 But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise,

and I will fulfill all my vows.

For my salvation comes from the LORD alone.”

Jonah… remembered God…

All over in the OT, you see God telling His people to leave these altars… these monuments that mark key moments… markers… that would cause them to remember God, His faithfulness, His love, His pursuit, what He’s done…

Why would God tell us to make these monuments? Because He knows we are prone to forget.

It is… easy to get stuck in ruts. To become so fixated on and begin living for things that don’t honestly matter… to make the small things big in our eyes… and the biggest thing small… It's easy… to allow our voice to become that voice of authority that God and His Word have always been intended to play…

Jonah remembered God… Saw his hand at work… saw God pursuing Him…

And the language changes… you begin to see this upward shift…

It is a BUT God moment…

Such a beautiful prayer in so many ways… I was so low, at my worst… nowhere to go… hopeless and helpless…

But God… intervened… stepped in… He met me there…

Do you have any “but God” moments?

But it’s not all good news…

It’s interesting…

In vs 8 Jonah says… those who forget God… who worship idols turn their back on God’s mercy.

That word for mercy… is the word Hesed…

It literally means… the pursuing love of God.

Those who continually run away from God and who turn to idols… who never see God at work… who never cry out… turn their backs… “forfeit” the pursuing love of God.

A huge idol for Jonah was “self”.

I heard God… but I don’t care. He wanted to go his way… his life was driven by his own thoughts, values, desires and comfort…

And even in our day… self is one of the biggest idols there is.

The idol of self probably looks a little different for all of us…

I know what God says, I know His plan, I know what He calls me to… but I don’t care. I’m going to Tarshish!

I’m not going to listen… or follow what He says about my

Relationships

Money

Material things

Success

Sex

Identity

Politics

The target of God’s grace and compassion

Jonah says that those who chase idols… turn away from the pursuing love of God in their life…

Romans 2:8 NLT

But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness.

(NLT)

8 But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness.

As I was working on that this week… the question kept coming back…

Are you tired of that? Are you done with it?

Our running from God is almost always connected to running for me…

And in the end… it’s not what you want. Something is missing… something is broken…

Something else stuck out to me….

What’s missing from Jonah’s prayer?

Jonah never owns it. He never confesses… never repents, never says he’s sorry…

His rebellion leads him to this place of deep distress… he cries out to God… God meets him there… and you can hear how meaningful it was to Jonah…

But he never deals with what got him there…

We see in Jonah what happens when that’s lived out… which is…

Although that moment was powerful… Jonah’s heart is largely unchanged.

and in very short order… he is right back where he started… lost… in distress… sinking…

And don’t think that it will be different for you.

There are times to simply be in the presence of God… and enjoy it for what it is. POWERFUL stuff…

But there are also times where we need to get real with God… where we need to own our stuff… ask and thank God for His forgiveness… To ask for His help in submitting to his leadership and lordship in our lives… to help us in the areas that we struggle.

To some degree… I feel like Jonah is saying… Don’t do what I did.

Repentance… is coming before the Lord and acknowledging sin in your life and turning from it… to see God bring change.

And that change is one of the things missing in the American church…

Are you tired of running… Are you tired of selfish and shallow living…

Do you want to see God change your life… your perspective and your priorities…

The distress it brings…

SEEK HIM…

1 John 1:9 NLT

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

(ESV)

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

For Jonah… it might have sounded like this… God, I have been selfish… I’ve cared more about my way and my comfort than what you want. I need and am thankful for your forgiveness… Change my heart. Work on me. Do what only you can do. Lead me in your truth…

What would it sound like for you?

God is not intimate by your sin…

The truth of the Bible is a God that loves you… and never stops pursuing you despite it.

And that's what communion is… Jesus said…as often as you get together…

Take the bread… and take the cup… and remember… the Hesed of God…

The pursing… bridge making… leaves the 99 to find the one… kind of love.

Remembering Jesus… Confessing our sin… being grateful for his forgiveness….

That is what the cross of Christ is all about…

Communion on the back table…

Prayer