A Prayer That Pay’s Off

A Prayer That Pay’s Off

Jonah 2:7-10 7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.

10 And the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Introduction

· When it comes to this matter of trust and giving to God, most of us only want to talk about it and think it when things are going well in our lives.

· We have been led astray by the devil into believing that when we are facing tough financial times, we must strive to pay everybody else first, and then give God the crumbs and scraps of what we have left.

· I believe I stand on safe ground when I say, we all have had some periods of extreme difficult in our lives.

· And there are many of us that are still experiencing some rigorous and depressing seasons of emotional and financial upheaval right now.

· But I think I am also safe when I say that there is not a person who has read or will read this book who has ever faced a situation as difficult as the one in this story.

· It was because of Jonah’s insubordination and he’s determination to do things his way as opposed to doing them God’s way that he found himself swallowed up and in the belly of a great fish.

· He was thrown overboard by some passengers from a ship that he never should have been on in the first place.

· This would be a good place for me to pause parenthetically and ask a question, “When was the last time you challenged God and it led to something meaningful, significant and something that brought you true peace and happiness?”

· I believe that there are people who have heard the Lord say to them through the man of God over and over again, “Pay tithes and give an offering.”

· But they chose to handle God’s money their own way and it seems like the financial sink hole is getting deeper and deeper.

· We need to stop a moment to consider the fact that God does not command us to give to Him because He needs what we have. God commands us to give to Him because He knows that He not only has what we need, but He is all that we need.

· Perhaps you are feeling swallowed up by debt and overcome with financial obligations, and you seem to be only a matter of days from drowning.

· But I have come to tell you that there is still hope!

· Jonah’s story helps us to understand what our number one financial priority should be.

· When we read this prayer of Jonah here in Chapter Two, we do not read about him asking God for deliverance.

· This whole prayer is an admission of his own rebelliousness.

· The Lord told him to go to Nineveh and preach and he decided to go to Joppa and catch a boat to Tarshish to flee from the presence of the Lord.

· Look Jonah is running from the presence of the Lord?

· How on earth can a person think that they can run from the presence of the Lord?

· The Bible tells us that God is everywhere at the same time. Whenever He turns around He (God) bumps into Himself. He is from everlasting to everlasting, which means He is always going to the place that He just came from.

· Whenever God slides over He sits in His own lap, and God is the only person who has the answer even before we know what the question is.

· He told Moses to tell the people, “I am that I am hath sent thee.”

· That speaks to the eternal “isness” of God. That’s a made up word (isness). He has no was, He has no will be.

· He is what He was, He was what He is, and what He was and is, He always will be. He is older than time, yet younger than the future.

· He is space, matter, and time.

· He is length, breath, and height.

· He is energy, motion, and phenomena.

· He is past, present, and future.

· But in spite of all this, Jonah still tried to run away from the Lord.

· David says in Psalms 139:7, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”

Jeremiah 23:24 “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”

· Look at Verse 17 of Chapter 1, “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.”

· So there is Jonah in the belly of a great fish, and he perhaps he is thinking that his days are numbered and he knows that he has no one to blame but himself.

· But God is so merciful that He even protects us while He is punishing us.

· “…now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.”

· Jonah could have lost His life but, “…the Lord prepared…”. Could have gotten ate alive, but God prepared.

· This helped me to understand that instead of us complaining about the things that seem to have us swallowed up at this point in our lives.

· We need to learn how to thank God that He didn’t allow the sharks to get us.

· Trouble may have you right now, but you need to thank God for the fact that He did not allow the trouble to kill you.”

· You found yourself in the belly of a great fish, surrounded by water, seaweeds, worried and impending death. But He kept you alive. You can’t help but give him a sacrifice of thanksgiving. You needed forgiveness, healing, restoration, salvation, liberation, protection, mercy, and assurance.

· I believe one of the reasons that Jonah was willing to give God a special offering even while he was in the belly of this great fish was because He knew in His heart that he had used God’s mercy to buy something that he was not authorized to purchase.

· In Chapter 1:3, it is there we are told that Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord and he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish, and he PAID the fare to get on board.

· Verse 2, the Lord told Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh, and whenever God sends us anywhere, He always takes care of the travel expenses.

· But when we travel in our own directions and make our own decisions, we wind up spending God’s money in places where it was never intended to be spent. Many people are willing to pay to disobey God, but we won’t pay to obey the Lord.

A. His Downward Path

· His downward path!

· I want us to take a moment to notice the descending spiral of Jonah’s life after he refused to do what God told him to do.

· He went DOWN from the presence of the Lord.

· He went DOWN to Joppa.

· He went DOWN to the ship.

He "went down" into the sides of the ship to go to sleep

· He went DOWN into the water.

· He went DOWN into the belly of the great fish.

· He went DOWN to the bottom of the sea.

Look at,

His Downward Path that led to

B.His Dreary Place

· Whenever we fail to heed God’s voice, life will continue to go down, down, and down. Jonah finds himself in a difficult position.

Verse 2, “And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me: out of the belly of hell cried I.”

. In verse 2, Jonah specifically refers to his location, in the fish's belly, as "the belly of hell." Again, many believe that the belly of this great fish is a picture of abandonment from God, and hell. It is a picture of hell figuratively, symbolically and typically. However, literally, to Jonah, it is hell, because he has disobeyed God, and he is out of the will of God.

Let’s Look at a few things when Jonah find himself in a Downward Path and a Dreary Place

I. He Remembers His Obligation to God!

Verse 7, “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to you in your holy temple.”

Jonah says, “When my soul fainted within “As I was losing consciousness, I remembered the Lord.” Jonah was still praying without an answer in sight just before he blacked out. In fact, he probably did black out and regain consciousness several days later, realizing he had been spared in the belly of a fish.

·Jonah has no problem praying from the fish's belly. In fact, this is considered by man to be one of the most poetic prayers in the Hebrew language. However, what is impressive about this prayer is not the language of it, the length of it, nor the loudness of it; but, the lament of it. Jonah is pleading his case to God.

Matthew Henry Said, “Prayer is the midwife of mercy, that helps to bring it forth.”

· Jonah tells us that his soul fainted within him. He did not have a mind problem, or a body problem, he had a soul problem.

· The soul is the part of our invisible eternal anatomy that is exclusively connected to God.

· And whenever we fail to do what God has commanded, we will always have trouble in our souls.

· Jonah says, it was after his soul fainted, that he then remembered the Lord.

Verse 7, “I remembered the Lord..”

· Have you ever wondered why it seems to take seasons of extreme difficulty to cause us to remember the Lord?

Look at how he is praying throughout chapter two:

· Verse 1, “Jonah prayed unto the Lord..”

· Verse 2, “I cried unto the Lord..”

· Verse 3, “For thou hadst cast me into the deep..”

· Verse 4, “Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight..”

· Verse 5, “The water compassed me, weeds wrapped around my head..”

· Verse 6, “I am down to the bottoms bars holding me.”

· While in this extreme time of difficulty, he starts to think not only about the Lord, but also about the house of the Lord.

· “And my prayer went up to you, into your holy temple.”

· I hear people talk about how they are working too much to come to church, and they are going through too much to come to church, but God has a way of causing some seasons of difficulty to come our way which will drive us to church.

· And I don’t know about you, but I would much rather drive myself to church under my own will, than have God use some extreme difficulties to drive me into His house.

In remembering the Lord, he remembers his obligation to the Lord. He remembers what God has called him to do. He remembers what God has commissioned him to do. He remembers what God has challenged him to do

Remembered..

· How God had ministered to him in the past.

· How God had provided for his every need.

· How God had encourage him in difficult times.

· How God had protected him from his enemies.

· Sometimes we spend a lot of time thinking about our family, job, investment, health, position, popularity, past, and fail to remember God.

The truth of the matter is that everyone of us that are saved have an obligation to God. Although God is of no obligation to us, we are of great obligation to God. God doesn't owe us anything, but we owe God everything. We are obligated to God by creation, and we are obligated to God by conversion. The creature is obligated to the Creator. The saved is obligated to the Savior.

· The Psalmist says , “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

The next impressive aspect of Jonah's prayer is, not only that he remembers his obligation to God, but:

II. He Renews His Dedication for God!

· That is why he says in Verse 8, “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy.”

· The word "forsake" was often used in relation to a doe forsaking her fawn. It spoke of utter abandonment, and desertion. Jonah is speaking of those who observe that which is empty, vain, or meaningless.

Which literally means, “Those who worship false gods; have given up their only hope.” Useless, powerless, meaningless, defenseless, merciless, helpless, and hopeless idols.

In essence, he is saying, that when a man pursues the vanities of life, he forsakes the victory of life. When a man goes after false gods, he turns from the true God.

· When we place any person or anything ahead of God, we are literally forfeiting our own blessings and God’s favor on our lives.

Jonah vows that he will turn to the true God, and then, in verse 9, he renews his dedication for God.

v9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed."

Jonah is expressing gratitude and thanksgiving to God. Why? Because Jonah realizes that if he got what he deserved, God would have let him drown in those icy waters. But, God performed a divine rescue operation, in the form of a great fish, to spare his life, and he is saying, "Lord, thank you!"

After being reminding of the goodness of God, he then says, "

· “I will pay that that I have vowed..”

· Vow-ed! Any word with an e-d ending means in the past tense.

Jonah did not say “Lord, get me out of here,” or Lord, I’ll do anything you want me to do!” I will pay that that I have vowed.

· Jonah was not talking about giving God a new offering; he was talking about making good on the offering that he had promised to give. He not only repent but he recommitted.

Jonah had evidently done what so many have done in their extremity: he had made a vow to God.

· Jonah has a true attitude of worship for God.

Because of His goodness to us we ought to show our gratitude, He demands it. He declares it. And, may I say, He deserves it.

· His attitude has changed and God can begin to use him again.

Worship involves sacrifice!

· He says, “I will pay that that I have vowed.”

Worship involves dependability!

· Many people, like Jonah, make vows to the Lord, when they are in a difficult situation, or when serious trouble erupts within their lives, but all too often, after the difficulty is solved, and the trouble is settled, the vows are forgotten. But they need to remember that God did not forget them.

Many have made vows:

· To start attending church regularly.

· To begin giving their tithes and offerings.

· To get involved in church activities.

· To begin studying God’s word in earnest.

· To develop a daily prayer time.

· To quit some bad habit they have been practicing.

· But, Jonah was determined to keep the vows he made to the Lord. And we would do well to do likewise.

· Psalms 66:13-14, “I will go into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows, which my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.”

Once Jonah gives thanks to God, and remembers his obligation, and renews his dedication, he makes one of the most profound statements in the Word of God, to close verse 9. He declares:

"Salvation is of the LORD."

The word "salvation" that Jonah uses literally means, "deliverance, or rescue." Jonah is not speaking of his own salvation, because he is already a saved man. He is speaking of being delivered from the hell of being out of the will of God.

However, is that not what salvation is? Salvation is

when God delivers us from death, wrath and ultimately hell. I think about an old country preacher who was preaching on hell one night, and he got "plugged in" and starting shouting. When the service was over, somebody asked him, "Man, you were preaching on hell, why were you shouting about preaching on hell." The old preacher said, "Because I just got to thinking in the middle of my sermon that I wasn't going there!"

Not only we see, He remembers his obligation to God, He Renews His Dedication for God!

III. He’s Release from his Situation By God!

· God doesn’t send deliverance until he makes up his mind to pay God the vow that he had promised to give to the Lord in v 9.

· The bible says in Verse 10, “So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”

· God did not have to wrestle with the fish, He did not have to catch the fish, He did not even have to open the mouth of the fish.

· “So the Lord spoke to the fish..”

· This word “spoke” means, that God commanded the fish.

· And this lets me know that God has the power to speak to whatever situation is holding us captive and tell it to set us free when we learn how to make God number one.

· You may be feeling like you have been swallowed up by your situation, but God has the power to speak a word and your deliverance will come.

· When He speaks, things start to happen. “So the Lord spoke..”

· He spoke this world into existence.

· He spoke to Abraham on Mt. Moriah, and spared Isaac’s life.

· He spoke to Moses and the Red Sea parted.

· He spoke again and Pharaoh, and his armies were drowned.

· He spoke to the sun and it stood still for one whole day.

· He spoke to the walls of Jericho, and they came tumbling down.

· He spoke to some lions and they became a pillow and mattresses for Daniel.

· He spoke to some fire and it did not burn the Hebrew boys.

· Then Jesus spoke and said, “Peace be still..”.

· He spoke to the blind man and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam.

· Jesus can speak deliverance to our failures.

· Jesus can speak deliverance to our fears.

· Jesus can speak deliverance to our finances.

God is still able to deliver!