Jonah: Prayers from the Bottom of the Ocean

Introduction

Significance to us today

This is a story about a man running from God, God running to him, and then them running together.

This story shows Gods love and grace to all through his character as he loves Jonah even despite Jonah’s rebellion.

Introduction:

We pick up this story as Jonah is now in the belly of the fish!

Jonah 2:1 NIV

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.

Jonah

2 [a]Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish.

This was probably the only time Goid received a prayer from inside a fish!

And although I don’t expect any of you to be in the same situation as Jonah when he prayed this prayer.

But it does highlight for us that we should pray to God in whatever situation we are in.

Jonah prayed unto HIS God.

personal. His God.

Oh to cry—“My Father and my Friend! My God in covenant.

My God to whom I have spoken years ago, and from whom I have heard full many a time.

Thou whom I love. Thou who loves me my God.”

Not any God, There is a revelation here.

Our God is a God who hears

Our God is a God who loves

Our God is a God who. cares

Our God is a God who speaks

But we talked previously about the

Sesum divinitartus - the sense of the divine that is in everyone.

When the storms of life come simply put we pray.

In 1972 Joan Baez was a singer and activist who was always working on a cause.

During the Vietnam War she traveled to Hanoi with a peace delegation and was there during an American bombing campaign that lasted 12 days.

“We spent the whole time in the basement of our hotel. I have never been so afraid in my life. I thought I was going to die.

But I learned something—when the flames start coming towards you everyone starts praying, even the atheists and the agnostics, but when the flames start fading away we all go back to the structures and beliefs that we had before.”

WHat is your before? that you fall back upon?

What do you go back to after the storm?

Is a deep trust and reliance on God in all things? Is it a growing relationship with God?

You is it just a sunday morning relationship? Do you worship on SUndays when things are great but worship every day when going through a trial?

Is your God a personal like Jonah’s? Are you praying to God whom you love and loves you?

Point 1: Consider your circumstance and condition

Point 1: Consider your circumstance and your condition

Emphasize Jonah's realization of his dire situation.

We need to evaluate the situations in our lives!

We need to consider our own circumstances. we should know the state we are in.

We should consider our circumstances.

Are we in a toxic relationship? Are we addicted to something?

Social media.

Is there something that we long to do over God?

Scientist judge The level of addiction is judged based on how quickly you think of something after waking up.

Is coffee the first thing you think about immediately?

If you know me I sure love my coffee.

But we need to seriously evaluate our spiritual circumstances and conditions.

Go to the dr. or dentist.

Evaluate so you can make decisions and changes.,

there is a distinction though.

That we are not in the belly of a fish. We are actually much better off. But I hope before you got to a belly of a fish you would evaluate where you are!

Jonah shows you what sin is. What is your condition

Jonah was a prophet of God and upstanding in every other way, said “no.”

I told you a lot of people will obey God up to the place where it touches the core of who they are. And I’m talking to a lot of people here like that.

○ For example, some of you won’t obey God in the area of relationships

Every other area you’ll obey God in, but that’s the one are you insist on controlling because it’s so important.

○ You won’t do what God tells you to do in your family.

○ Some of you won’t obey God in the area of money;

you won’t be generous; y

you won’t tithe;

○ Some of you won’t obey God about how much you work;

you won’t turn it off, even though it’s harmful to your family, because you are a SLAVE to career advancement

○ Some of you won’t let God send you anywhere

We must consider our circumstances and our conditions

The area of you life you wont obey God in is the area in your life you are making the same decision as Jonah,

Jonah 2:2 (NIV)

He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.

2 He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead,[b] and Lord, you heard me!

James, the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, advises, "Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray" (James 5:13).

Jonah called to the Lord from the land of the dead.

Jonah is quoting david.

From the depths of Sheol, Jonah called for help, understanding David's words in Psalm 139:8: "If I make my bed in the land of the dead, you are there." Even in the grave, the Lord is with His people!

Point 2: Cry out in prayer (Call upon the Lord)

Point 2: Cry Out in Prayer ( Call Upon the Lord )

Highlight Jonah's heartfelt prayer (Jonah 2:1-2). Listen, there is no where you can run where God can’t hear you.

There isn’t a situation bad enough God can’t save you from.

There isn’t a place on this earth where God can’t hear you or answer you!

Listen to Jonah’s words. Again.

and he answered me. and Lord, you heard me!

Not only did God hear him. God answered him!!!!

If you are seeking an answer today - Call out to God.

If you ever thought there was a place you couldn’t hear from God I am here to tell you there isnt.

And also if you ever thought you could do something so terrible or bad God woun;y

Jonah 2:3 (NIV)

You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.

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.

Question: Did Jonah feel like he’d been forgotten by God? Yes. Had he? No.

Some of you feel like you’ve been forgotten by God.

You feel like you are in the heart of the sea. The flood has surrounded you.

But you haven’t been forgotten by God. The broken-heart and the financial frustrations and the lost job and the failing health -

You havent been forgotten by God.

God is relentless in His pursuit of those He loves. He’s brought you here.

God is pursuing you because he loves you.

Jonah 2:4 (NIV)

I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’

YET”

According to the Hebrew, the word should be rendered “only” instead of “yet,”—

“only I will look again toward thy holy temple.”

Faith looks to God only.

Faith comes alone to God. Faith doesnt require something else or someone else to come to God.

Faith - Looks to God and God alone for salvation.

When we were first saved it was by faith only, and we must be saved in the same way still

Point 3: Come to a throne of grace

Point 3: Come to a Throne of Grace (Jonah 2:3–4)

How many could explain this to me right now.

This is significant. Jonah recognizes this and we must as well.

What does this mean?

Some of you may have been in church a long time and heard this.

No one goes to court if he is sure the judgement will go against him.

The ultimate expression of this will be on the day that the Lord Jesus Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.

What is demonstrated in Jonah’s experience,is that when a sinner comes to God in true repentance and faith

he will find that throne of judgement to be a throne of grace.

he was led by the Spirit of God to the conviction that the Lord would answer him in grace.

yet I will look again towards your holy temple” ’ (2:4).

WHy  would jonah look toward God who banished him?

Because he knew what awaityed him wqas not judgement but grace indeed!!!

Amen!!!!

When we fall we know that for the believer it is not judgement that awaits but grace!!!!

God’s Word assures Christians that we may "approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

Hebrews 4:16 NIV

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Looking to the temple for Jonah meant looking to Christ for the New Testament believer—

With Jesus sacrifice for us - Means that God's throne becomes a throne of grace,

enabling believers to "approach God with freedom and confidence" (Ephesians 3:12)

Despite his sins, Jonah believed and called to the Lord, recognizing Him as the only Savior

Jonah 2:5 (NIV)

The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.

Jonah 2:6 (NIV)

To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.

To the very roots and foundations of the mountains, where the big jagged rocks made huge buttresses for the hills above: “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains;”—

You may be in the jaws of death this morning

If the enemy could have his way in this place all of you would be destroyed.

The enemy comes to kill steal and destroy.

Point 4: Count on God’s deliverance

Point 4: Count on God's Deliverance

Remember that JOnah was drowning!~ And God sent a fish to save him!

From the jaws of death! I love the revelation and picture of Jonah being saved by God.

And the word that God appointed a fish. So incredible that no matter where we go or what we have done God always has a plan in place to bring us back into  his will.

his expression of trust in the righteousness and mercy of God. - ‘But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God’ (2:6).

He was still in the slimy darkness of the fish’s innards, but light—the light of deliverance—was dawning in his reviving soul!

Even as he spoke to the Lord, he was strengthened in his faith!

His heart was filling with resurrection life!

Jonah had evidently read his Bible; at least, he had read the 42nd Psalm, for he quotes it here.

It is a blessed thing to have the Bible in your mind and heart so that, wherever you may be, you do not need to turn to the Book because you have the Book inside you.

Here is a man inside a fish with a Book inside of him; a

nd it was the Book inside of him that brought him out from the fish again.

Jonah 2:7 (NIV)

“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

Think of Jonah’s prayer going right to God and reaching the ear and heart of God in his holy temple.

He said that he was cast out of God’s sight,

yet his prayer went into God’s temple.

Oh, the prevalence of a bold believing prayer!

“My prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.”

Jonah here is holding onto what He knows to be true of his God.

That his God will hear him.

He is clinging to the truth that he knew and studied for years of the Law and the psalms.

Jonah here in clinging to the Lord.

Point 5: Cling to the Lord

Point 5: Cling to the Lord

You may not know this but Jonah in these few verses. in these few verses, Has quoted psalms and the old testament 11 times!

Let me tell you what Jonah was doing!

He was clinging to the word of the Lord.

He was clinging to the promises of scripture.

He was clinging to the truth of the knowledge of God he knew.

I don’t the situation you are in your life. But I cant tell you one truth from this story that applies to you right now.

And that is, in all things, cling to the Lord.

You don’t have to be in the pit to cling to the Lord.

But I promise you when you cling to him you will see your situations change!.

I must go on a bit of a tangent here, because this applies to me growing up and I wish I knew this when I was younger.

Just because you know ther word of God does not mean you follow it.

But Jonah knew God’s word.

This prayer alone proves it.

He quotes and alludes to scripture over 11 times

So my next question is where was he and what was he doing>

He was in the belly of a fish and running from the will of God.

Just because you know scripture doesnt mean you are following God.

Just because you come to church doesnt mean you are living in Gods will for your live.

Both of these things are good things but we need to know that just because we may know sciprutre doesnt mean we have submitted our will to his.

No one can make Jesus their Lord and still choose to live however they want with no regard to what Jesus wants.

There is a difference between a Savior and Lord.

Saviors get thanks, Lords get lives.

If someone is Lord over your live then their will and thei desire is above and higher then yours!

Jonah 2:8 (NIV)

“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.

If you trust anywhere but in God, you will run away from mercy.

God is the only really merciful One who can always help you;

but if you trust in your own self - righteousness, if you trust in anything else -you are forsaking your own mercy.

God is the source of your mercy;

do not run away from him to anyone or anything else.

If you are a child of God you must dwell in the presence of God; it is your life, and you cannot be happy anywhere else.

“Oh, redeemed, regenerate man, it is impossible now for thy once renewed spirit ever to be happy in the beggarly elements of thy former condition: except in the divine atmosphere of heavenly love there is no rest for thee. Thou art spoilt for this world,”

Jonah 2:9 (NIV)

But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’ ”

“I long to do so. I cannot do it just now,

but I would if I could; a

nd I will do it when thou shalt grant me deliverance from my present peril.”

This was a proclamation. God I will do this. I desire to do this.

Here we see Jonahs heart change and resolve in full

Jonah is saying here - I will fulfill my vows.

I will do as you ask.

This is a place we all must come to as believers.

A place that says God i will do whatever you ask me to do.

A bit like aninias’ yes.

When god called him his first response was yes! Even is everything asfter was making sure God has the right person!

Point 6: Commit to obedience

Point 6: Commit to Obedience

When I asked my kids to clean their room they hear me! I can prove they heard what I said but wiether they listened and obeyed is a totally different story!

We must comiit ourselves to being obedient to Gods word.

THats one of the first steps.

Be obediant to what the Bible says.

we also must commit to serving him.

We finished alpha last week and pastor crosswhite shared on obediance.

How to make the most of the rest of your life.

Follow God wholeheartedly.

Make up your mind to follow God and to serve him. No one is going to do it for you.

and have hard feet and soft hearts. s Jackie pullinger says.

Jonah 2:9 (NIV)

But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’ ”

Jonah learned this sentence of good theology in a strange college. He learned it in the whale’s belly, at the bottom of the mountains

That is one of the grandest statements any man has ever made. “SALVATION!”

It is a very emphatic word in the Hebrew, and I might read it,

“Mighty salvation is of Jehovah.”

“Salvation is of the Lord.”

The world does not like that doctrine,

Recently in the opening ceremony of the Olympics we saw the worlds stance on Salvation being from the Lord.

They mocked the Lord’s supper. And as outraged as we can be and should be.

Our outrage should be for the enemy. Not the people.

The darkness hates the light. And we know Jesus is the light of the world.

The world still hates him today…

What was displayed was evil. It was also an attack on Christian Values.

But we shouldnt be surpirised. Our response should be what?

We should be moved to prayer. Moved to Action!’

The Bible also warned of a day when men would call “evil good, and good evil.”

We are living in that day.

We should be moved to action that all would repent and Come to Jesus while there is still time.

we say, with Jonah, “Salvation is of the Lord.” He works it from beginning to end, and therefore he must have all the praise for it for ever and ever.

Joy of salvation.

Jonah had a fresh view of the sovereign grace of God.

He confessed, ‘salvation comes from the Lord’ (2:9c).

There is no other source of redemption but the living God. And his salvation is freely given,

And it is unconditionally given,

the one who receives it has done nothing to earn it.

Most of all, it is lovingly given,

To know the Lord is to know that his grace has covered all we deserved.

Jonah, like David after he had repented of his sin over Bathsheba,

had been restored to the joy of his salvation (Psalm 51:12).

His circumstances had not changed but his relationship to his Lord had.

‘Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls’ (1 Peter 1:8).

Can this be said of you?

Can you confess with inexpressible joy, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord’?

Jonah 2:10 NIV

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Key to Victory

Jonah 2:4 (NIV)

Yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’

Notice here that faith is driven to action.—"Yet I will look again."

While faith can be described in various ways like taking, grasping, possessing, or feeding,

but faith first of all is looking

When you face severe troubles, it is wise to go back to the beginning of your faith and hold onto it firmly.

If you cannot grasp, at least look.

Look Again

. Look to Jesus!

"There is life in a look."

There is heaven in a look.

"Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."

There is healing in a look. \

No matter what you need this morning I want to encourage you to LOOK TO THE LORD

If you cannot fight, stand still and look by faith.

If you cannot proclaim Gods glory in a situation continue to Look toward him!

If you cannot tell what God has done for you, continue looking by faith to see what God will do for you.

When the blind man was getting near, "Lord, I want to see!" he answered. Jesus replied, "Look and you will see! Your eyes are healed because of your faith." Right away the man could see, and he went with Jesus and started thanking God.

Look again to Him.

I will close pleading with you. , even if they forget all else, to remember these two words:

"Look again."

"Look again!" If you looked once but have fallen into new darkness, look again.

This morning, follow me in looking to my Lord Jesus Christ again

I’ve looked to Christ over and over again for many years, and so did some of you.

But the devil may say, "Your faith was a fantasy; your conversion was a delusion.

" If so, we will not argue with you, Satan, but we will begin again from this moment.

I choose To Look again to God.

There is nothing more refreshing to the spirit than confessing sin and accepting mercy as we did at the beginning.

Let us do so at this moment.