Repentance from the Lowest Pit
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1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
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 surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord, my God.
7 “When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.
8 “Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.”
10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Still in the Sermon Series - Great Prayers from the Bible
The Prayer of Jonah - only prayer said from inside the belly of a fish
Describe Jonah - Stubborn, Opinionated, Entitled
Lessons from Jonah’s prayer:
God hears the cries of a contrite heart.
2. We do not need to be at the lowest point of life to finally submit to God.
3. No place is beyond the reach of God’s deliverance.
4. Those who worship idols forsake the Lord’s mercy.
5. God gives us another opportunity in spite of our mistakes.
God hears the cries of a contrite heart.
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
And He answered me.
“Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
And You heard my voice.
God loves it when we humble ourselves before Him.
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
A contrite heart repents before God. Don’t just feel sorry for yourself.
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.
Call on the Name of the Lord and be saved.
2. We do not need to be at the lowest point of life to finally submit to God.
4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
Jonah was punished by God.
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
Today is the day of salvation.
Those who I love, I rebuke and discipline.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
Remembrance of God…
Story of Australian surfer
3. No place is beyond the reach of God’s deliverance.
5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord, my God.
When it comes to God’s mercy there is no point of no return.
No one is too far gone from God’s mercy.
He saves even in the most impossible of places.
Muslim nations - Saudi Arabia
39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Afar off are not only those who are far geographically. But far in their hearts.
“There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still.”
“There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still.”
― Corrie Ten Boom
Do you feel that God cannot forgive you?
4. Those who worship idols forsake the Lord’s mercy.
8 “Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.
an idol is anything that stands between you and worshiping the One true God
An idol is “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.” (Tim Keller)
What does it mean that those who turn to idols forsake God’s mercy?
God is actively at work in your life through the Holy Spirit. He pursues you.
He is longsuffering toward you.
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
the longsuffering of God
Longsuffering - I like the King James Version
Patience - ESV, can be patiently waiting, but no one is getting hurt
Longsuffering - Patient endurance of insult, abuse or mistreatment
Do not grieve the Spirit of God.
We hear a lot about God’s longsuffering toward those who have not heard the Gospel
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
But there is a longsuffering of God for those who are already in church
They were with us……
Repent from idolatry
5. God gives us another opportunity in spite of our mistakes.
5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord, my God.
Do you feel that you are a disappointment to God?
Do you know that your mess ups can be an occasion for the glory of God?
God can turn your mess into a message, and your tests into a testimony.
Some people wallow in their mistakes and use these mistakes as an excuse not to be used by God.
Feel you have messed up before God? You are in the company of these men who messed up.
Abraham, called the great patriarch , doubted God by sacrificing his wife to save himself, he also got impatient in waiting for the child of promise.. but he is remembered as a man of faith.
King David, the greatest king of Israel, called the man after God’s own heart, once committed adultery and murder .. But his is the royal line of Jesus
Peter was presumptuous and arrogant and was rebuked by Jesus.. he fled and left Jesus alone when Jesus was arrested.. and then denied Jesus three times.
Jonah is a story of God’s longsuffering towards the lost and to those who are saved.
We in the church can be very stubborn too. Like Jonah.