WW23: Session 2
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
God displays His love by sovereignly working to save undeserving sinners for His glory and their good. Will you fight Him or follow Him?
In a situation where you’re miserably stuck and you need to get out and you call out for help:
Two different people driving in the snow that get stuck:
One is from California, never driven in snow, trying to just make it home
Other is an Idaho native, having fun on the icy roads, drifting, spinning around, being reckless
BOTH get stuck
Californian regrets getting stuck, needs help getting out, asks for advice on how to better drive next time, and changes
Idahoan regrets getting stuck, needs help getting out, but just so that he can get back to what he was doing, not changing whatsoever.
Where we left off in our passage yesterday, Jonah was stuck in a bad spot, and he needed help getting out of it. In his moment of desperation, he prayed a prayer to God and that’s where we pick up today. The question is: was it a prayer of repentance or a prayer of remorse and regret?
Repentance: turning away from sin and turning to God in obedience
Remorse/Regret: sorry or sad about the situation, feelings, whatever, but not leading to any change. You just feel bad, maybe do some good works to make up for it, have a fun memory, and move on.
Is it possible that you have relied on your own wisdom and understanding rather than fearing the Lord, loving and serving Him?
Is it possible that you are now in a situation where you need help to get out so you turn to prayer?
What is motivating that prayer,
a desire to change to be more like Christ and accomplishing his plans
OR simply a desire to escape and continue in the same sin that got you into that mess?
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Jonah had already sunk into the depths, seemingly without a prayer. We don’t know if he was stubborn, hopeless, or self-righteousness, but up to this point we don’t see any record of a prayer.
It is at that point that God has appointed the fish to save Jonah from certain death. It is at a point where Jonah still has not turned to God, that is when God is reaching out to spare Jonah.
Did Jonah deserve this loving grace and mercy?
NO
He had disobeyed
He had fled
He had selfishly prioritized himself over Nineveh and the sailors
Jonah had determined the people of Nineveh were undeserving of forgiveness; but he himself was currently in desperate need.
1. Praise God for reaching out to save you in His loving mercy and grace.
1. Praise God for reaching out to save you in His loving mercy and grace.
15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish,
While Jonah was actively in his sin, and while Jonah was sinking in the storm, that’s when God showed loving grace and mercy.
Had Jonah done anything to deserve this? NO
This teaches us about God’s amazing character, God’s amazing attributes, God’s amazing love.
EMPHASIZE
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
19 We love because he first loved us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
ILLUSTRATE
Adoption
Predestination - God has to work
How do we become aware of our sin
How do we have a desire to change
How do we know where to go
GOD
APPLY
This should leave all of us humbled
This should impact us to be thankful
This should drive us to our knees in prayer for those who are still lost
THIS IS A WORK THAT ONLY GOD CAN DO; AND THIS IS A WORK THAT GOD WANTS TO DO
TRANSITION/EXPLAIN
Jonah FINALLY starts crying out to the Lord.
2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
The first verse serves as a summary verse of the entire Psalm that he’s about to sing/write/pray
He acknowledges God’s sovereign involvement
Who cast him into the deep?
The sailors, but also God
Who drove Jonah away from God’s sight?
Jonah, but also God
He acknowledges the severity of his situation and his need for God to help him
verse 3
verse 5-6
verse 7
Jonah is getting to the point where he finally sees that He needs God.
Jonah blatantly disobeyed, but God, in His kindness, caused this storm and everything afterwards to happen to help Jonah see His need for God, to bring Jonah to repentance.
2. Humbly confess your sin and desperate need for God.
2. Humbly confess your sin and desperate need for God.
WE CAN LEARN FROM JONAH BOTH BY WHAT HE SAYS AND BY WHAT HE DOESN’T SAY
In his moment of desperate need, he does turn to God
Lack of clarity of Jonah’s repentance
Never expressly acknowledged sin
Was it worldly or godly sorrow
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Was it his physical need
or spiritual need
I do think he repents here.
He turned from his sin (running from Nineveh)
He turned to God in obedience
8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
Going to Nineveh the second time around
EMPHASIZE
See your need for God
Turn to God
Clearly express and confess your sin.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
ILLUSTRATE
Judas
3 Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” 5 And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7 So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”
Peter
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
APPLY
See your sin for what it is
See your need for God
Go to God
Confess those sins
Ask for God, He will not withhold himself from you
TRANSITION/EXPLAIN
Don’t just acknowledge your sin
Don’t just acknowledge your need for God
Pursue a life of obedience
Pursue knowing/loving God
This becomes a lifestyle
ONE OF THE EASIEST WAYS TO TELL IF YOU HAVE WORLDLY SORROW OR GODLY SORROW IS TO SEE HOW YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE ONCE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES IMPROVE.
3. Repent and follow God as your Lord and Savior.
3. Repent and follow God as your Lord and Savior.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
- Remember the sailors
God saved Noah:
So that he could preach to the Ninevites
So that hopefully he would see his sin, repent, and turn back to God
God has saved you so that
You can love Him
You can love others
Live and enjoy life as he created it to be
EMPHASIZE
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
ILLUSTRATE
Look at the Apostle Paul
Look at Matthew
Look at people God has changed in our church
APPLY
Colossians 3
Ephesians 5
Closing
Closing
