Thank you for the Cross

A Pastor was doing his Children's Church sermon where all the kids come down to the front & hear a story. The Pastor was discussing the story of Jonah. He quoted the Scripture from Jonah: "The Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah upon the dry land."

When the Pastor finished the verse, he started trying to solicit input from the children to help him complete his mini-sermon. He asked, "So, boys and girls, what does the fish vomiting Jonah out on dry land teach us today? One of the little boys spoke up with great enthusiasm for the entire congregation to hear and yelled out: "Pastor, It proves that even a fish can't stomach a bad preacher!“

Jonah had a BIG it

You’ve probably found yourself in some precarious situations before, but I am betting that no one in here today has found themselves in the belly of a fish—anyone?

So maybe you cannot relate to his position, but maybe you can relate to his situation, because Jonah found himself in the belly of a whale and he was there directly because of his own actions. Jonah’s disobedience to what God asked him to do is what landed him in the belly of the fish.

How often do we need to come to this same realization in our own lives? We have created our own “it”

Now last week I told you that some of the “its” we face are not our fault- we live in a sinful world that has left effects on us all. No one creates cancer or heart disease. No one chooses a house fire, or to be fired.

But there are “its” that we certainly create. We all make bad decisions from time to time; we stray from the Word of God and we do things that put us at odds with the righteousness of God. Every....single…one…of…us....

We have all been in the belly of a whale from time to time and the question is when we will realize that we put ourselves there.

Some of you have heard me say before that you cannot be saved until you are willing to admit that you are in need of saving.

Maybe that is you today, maybe you need to come to terms with your own part in the “it” that you are in. Maybe today needs to be a moment of repentance for you, a moment to say “yes, Lord. I need rescue from my own doing.”

Jonah’s it was not too big for God

Now a whale is a big it, but it was not too big foe God.

Maybe you have been fooled into thinking it is too much, you are too broken, your marriage is too lost, your health is too far gone- but friends remember the words of Mark 10:27 “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.””

Jonah could have lost hope, but instead he found faith.

Billie Sunday once said that we serve a God who delights in impossibilities. Or as I like to say when we say it can’t be done, God says “Hey y'all, watch this”

I sometimes wonder how many amazing things God wants to do that never come to pass because of human free will. I once said to our deacons about helping people financially that we always need to pray about how to help, because sometimes God might want to do something amazing for a family and we jump in with our checkbook and stop what he is doing.

And all he had to do…

And all Jonah had to do was put his trust in the Lord.

No tricks, no begging, no crazy religious stuff- just a simple prayer of faith and placing his faith in the Lord once again.

Friends, you might be wondering what you can do to save yourself today- and I have news; there is nothing you can do to save yourself.

Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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— 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. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

In the late 1800’s an English evangelist named Henry Moorhouse madeseveral trips to preach in America. On one of those occassions he was taking a walk through a poor section of town when he noticed a small boy coming out of a store with a pitcher of milk in his hands. Just then, he slipped and fell breaking the pitcher and spilling the milk all over the sidewalk. Moorhouse rushed to the childs side and found him unhurt but terrified. "Mu mama’ll whip me," he kept crying. So Moorhouse picked up the boy and carried him into the nearby store where the preacher purchased a new pitcher. Then he returned to the daity, hd the pitcher washed and filled with milk. With that done, he carred the boy and the pitcher home. Putting the youngster down on his front porch, Moorhouse handed him the pitcher and asked, "Will your mama whip you now?" A wide smile spread across the boys tear stained face, "no sir, cause this is a lot better pitcher than we had before." In grace God saves us. He doesn’t patch up our old lifes that have been shattered by sin and satan into a million pieces. That would not do. His reputation is at stake. We are His workmanship!

During the reformation one of the core phrases was “sola gratia”or by grace alone.

One Jonah turned his attention to the Lord and confessed that salvation comes from him alone in v9- the great fish spit him out.

So we should give thanks

And so as we make our final decent into thanksgiving what could we be more thankful for than the free gift of salvation?

Colossians 1:12–13“giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,”

This thanksgiving let’s not just be like the world, friends. Let’s not just gather around and be thankful for physical blessings, or for the things of this world. And don’t get me wrong there are things of this world that we need to give thanks for- but our thankfulness for salvation should be the foundation and the influence of them all.

Let me ask you this- if we were to drop a camera in on your thanksgiving table and take a video, would it look any different thank the thanksgiving table of someone who does not know the Lord? Would there be worship at your table? What sets a Christian’s table apart? A relationship with Jesus Christ.

O My God,

Thou fairest, greatest, first of all objects, my heart admires, adores, loves thee, for my little vessel is as full as it can be, and I would pour out all that fullness before thee in ceaseless flow.

When I think upon and converse with thee, ten thousand delightful thoughts spring up, ten thousand sources of pleasure are unsealed, ten thousand refreshing joys spread over my heart, crowding into every moment of happiness.

I bless thee for:

the soul thou hast created, for adorning it, sanctifying it, though it is fixed in barren soil;

for the body thou hast given me, for preserving its strength and vigour, for providing senses to enjoy delights, for the ease and freedom of my limbs, for hands, eyes, ears that do thy bidding;

for thy royal bounty providing my daily support,

for a full table and overflowing cup,

for appetite, taste, sweetness,

for social joys of relatives and friends,

for ability to serve others,

for a heart that feels sorrows and necessities,

for a mind to care for my fellow-men,

for opportunities of spreading happiness around,

for loved ones in the joys of heaven,

for my own expectation of seeing thee clearly.

I love thee above the powers of language to express, for what thou art to thy creatures.

Increase my love, O my God, through time and eternity.