Sermon Tone Analysis

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

(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.

(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

(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…

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.