Whale University

Good morning Church

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!

Jonah 2.

The last time we say Jonah…

-Called by God to go to Nineveh (capital of Assyrian nation)

-Instead of being obedient to Gods word…Jonah ran…Got on a boat

-God sent a storm…sailers afraid, Jonah asleep

-Jonah let his desire for comfort trump his calling

-In order to make the storm stop Jonah tells the sailors to throw him into the sea

-They do…and Jonah is swallowed up by a great fish…where he remained 3 days and 3 nights

Thats where we left Jonah…being digested by a fish…

This is where Jonahs rebellion…his disobedience to the word of God led him…

Who in here ever read the “tall tale” books (Paul Bunyon, John Henry and his hammer, Pecos Bill) (or saw the movie)

You might be tempted to think that this story of Jonah being swallowed up by a fish fits into this category…

IT DON’T…

This isn't a tall tale…

This really happened!!!

In fact what we are going to see as we walk through the text…

This event happened to show us 2 things:

-Application: Where our sin (disobedience to God) takes us and how we get back…

-Prophetic: To prepare Israel for a greater event that would happen 800 years later…

READ JONAH 2.

APPLICATIONAL

Where does our sin (disobedience to God) take us?

-SIN TAKES US TO THE BOTTOM (V1-6A)

Before you knew the Lord, you were at the bottom…

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

What we are seeing here is Jonah face to face with death…

The penalty or his rebellion, his disobedience…

Look at how descriptive Jonah is about death…

-Out of the belly of hell he cries…

-Casted into the deeps

-I am separated from you

-Im surrounded by it

-the weeds wrap around me to trap me in it…(ever been swimming in a lake, or out in the Pacific ocean…(weeds/bull kelp wrap around you)

-I went down to the belly of the earth…behind its bars…closed up behind me forever

Even as saved Christ followers we can experience this feeling…

When we disobey, we walk out of step with Jesus…

We feel this separation…NOW WE AREN’T SEPARATED (what God has brought together (the Christ and His bride the Church) Let no man separate)

BUT when we fall to sin we experience conviction from the HS

I was reading an article for a thesis paper I was writing on this topic and the author said that we are often like a fish who desires to live on dry land…

We can try and flop up on the beach…but we cant survive there…

Because we are a new creation in Christ…our new nature only thrives in righteousness and obedience to Gods word.

But as we lay there separated from where we are supposed to be…we can feel this separation…

We have walked out of obedience with the Lord…moved from walking in the light… to walking in the darkness…

AND ITS SCARY!!! ITS SUPPOSED TO BE!!!

Like a child, we don’t want to be to far from our Father...

Like Jonah we can feel this separation from the Lord…

So if you are not saved…this is where you are…spiritually dead…

And if you are saved…this is where we can sometimes find ourselves…

SO WHAT DO WE DO????

-WE MUST SEEK THE LORD FROM THE BOTTOM (V6B-9A)

Notice Jonah’s focus change…from His current state…who he is (dead)

To who God is and what he can do…

Jonah is crying out…I am experiencing death!!!

He is powerless…taken to the bottom…covered in the muck…

He can do nothing…stripped of all control…the bottom is closing in on him…

He has resorted to crying out…HELP ME!!!

When there is nowhere else to run…nowhere to hide…no escape…

Jonah goes to the only one who is capable of saving him…

He cries out to the Lord…

-when my life was fainting…I REMEMBERED THE LORD (No atheist in fox holes)

-and my prayer came to you…(you heard me, you are faithful god)

-I will sacrifice to you…pay what I’ve vowed…(now Jonah’s concentration is getting right with God) (they used to do this by sacrificing in the temple)

If your in this room and haven’t placed your faith in Christ…don’t be blind…this is where you are!

Maybe thats why your here…your experiencing the deep and dark reality of a life separated from the Lord (depression, anxiety, addiction, you have tasted everything the world has to offer and your still starving, unsatisfied, searching for the purpose to keep living, why am I here?, you have lived a hard life, abused, broken, and you want answers)

You are dwelling in the deeps…

What can you do???

Or maybe you have placed your faith in Jesus…you know Him…but you are still struggling with some of these things…

(Adams testimony-saved at 15…struggling at 20)

WHAT DO YOU DO???

You get like Jonah…SEEK JESUS!!!!

You are powerless…BUT HE HAS BEEN GIVEN ALL THE POWER!!!

Remember Him from the the bottom…

Cry out to him from the depths…

Romans 10:13 “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

BELIEVE AND Call out to him today!!!!

“JESUS YOU ARE LORD! THERE IS NO ONE ELSE WHO COULD SAVE ME BUT YOU!”

And if your a Christ follower and struggling (and you will struggle in your flesh)

REMEMBER THE WORD OF GOD REASSURES OUR HEARTS…

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

CRY OUT TO HIM “LORD I KNOW I HAVE SINNED AGAINST YOU! I KNOW YOUR GOSPEL, I KNOW YOUR WORD, FORGIVE ME”

And when we cry out to Him…

-THE LORD RESURRECTS US FROM THE BOTTOM (V9B-10)

HOW?

BECAUSE “SALVATION BELONGS TO THE LORD!”

He has the power to make dead things alive!!!!

To stop your descent and ascend you back to Him!!!

NOTICE: the moment Jonah utters these words “salvation belongs to you”

HE IS SAVED…

Jonah is standing on dry land again…

If you are a Christ follower…you know this is what God is capable of…You have experienced the Lords Salvation…

Hear this though…the grace and love God has for you isn’t just accessed the one time you believed Jesus is the Christ…

YOU LIVE IN IT EVERYDAY!!!

If you are struggling…let me correct that) when you are struggling in your flesh…

-Repent (see that you are not living in obedience)

-Confess (Lord I have sinned against you)

-Remember (Christ died to take that sin, in His eyes you sin no more, HE IS FAITH AND JUST TO FORGIVE)

And get back to walking in obedience to Him…

If you don’t know Jesus in this place…

Remember I told you that we were going to see 2 things in this text…

-Where sin takes us…(you know now where)

-How this writing was to prepare us for the greatest event in the history of heaven and earth…

PROPHETIC

JONAH 2 WAS WRITTEN TO SHOW US THAT JESUS WOULD COME AND HE WOULD DEFEAT THIS DEATH THAT JONAH IS EXPERIENCING…

In Matthew 12 Jesus has done a bunch of miracles…(man with the withered hand, casted out demons, made the blind see, and the mute speak, and the deaf hear)

Some Jewish elites are there and they are amazed…they are wondering “who is this? they begin to accuse Him of being a prince of demons, by the power of demons he casts out demons they said…

So they approach him and ask him this…

Matthew 12:38–41 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

HE SAYS SOMETHING GREATER THAN JONAH IS HERE…

Like Jonah, I will spend 3 days and 3 night in the deeps of the earth…

And by the power of the Lord…I WILL RESURRECT…

If you don’t know Jesus is this room listen up…

This is the gospel…

-JESUS TOOK ON OUR DEATH

As sinners our penalty for our sin is death…

Psalm 18:4–5 “The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.”

Unlike Jonah…Jesus went willingly to a perverse and lost people and died for them…

Unlike Jonah…we don’t have to go to the temple and sacrifice for the debt we owe…THE LORD DID THAT FOR US

He gave up His only Son…to die for a sinful people…3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the earth…for us…

BUT HE DIDN’T STAY DEAD…

-JESUS DEFEATED SIN AND DEATH

When you place your faith in Jesus…DEATH HAS NO MORE POWER OVER YOU!!!!

AND HE DIDN’T STAY IN THE GRAVE

-JESUS RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD

HE LIVES!!!

HE IS RISEN!!!

ACTS CHAPTER 1 JESUS PHYSICALLY ASCENDS INTO HEAVEN…

AND HE TELLS US…I RESURRECTED YOU WITH ME...THROUGH ME YOU HAVE BEEN RESURRECTED FROM THE OLD DEAD YOU AND BECAME ONE WITH ME!!!

He defeated our sin and he rescued us from death!!!!

Through our faith in His shed blood we accessed eternal life!!!!

AND HEAR THIS CHRIST FOLLOWERS….

EVERYDAY…we fail to sin…we come into contact with situations that seem so grave…so defeating…

BUT THERE IS POWER IN THE GOSPEL!!!!

Thats why the bible tells us to stand firm in it…so when these trials come…we know we have hope and restoration through Christ….

BIG IDEA: We solely depend on Jesus to resurrect us from all things!

NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE IN THIS ROOM (SAVED OR UNSAVED)

KNOW THIS…

TODAY AND EVERYDAY AFTER…

You must surrender everything to the only one who can save you and sustain you.

BE DEPENDENT ON JESUS AND LIVE A LIFE IN OBEDIENCE TO HIM, KNOWING HIS LOVE AND GRACE ALWAYS…

STANDING FIRM IN THE GOSPEL ALWAYS!!!

PRAY!