Grace In The Deep

Introduction: When Grace Feels Like Rock Bottom Section:

1.Jonah Thought He Had Escaped God — Until the Storm Hit, the Sailors Threw Him Overboard, and He Sank into the Sea.

-Jonah was convinced that distance from God equaled freedom.

-He paid the fare to run in the opposite direction of his calling — to Tarshish, as far west as you could go in the known world.

-But Jonah would learn the hard way: you can’t outrun a God who is everywhere and loves you enough to chase you down.

-He boarded a ship thinking he was in control, but God sent a storm to lovingly disrupt his rebellion.

-The sailors — complete strangers and non-believers — were the ones who finally threw him overboard. And as Jonah hit the water, we can imagine what he must have been thinking:

“This is it. I’m done. My story’s over. I disobeyed too far. I ran too long. I’ve messed up too much.”

-That moment of sinking — into the cold, dark unknown — is what rock bottom felt like.

-And some of us know what that feels like.We’ve hit bottom financially, emotionally, spiritually.

-We’ve made the wrong decisions, ignored God’s voice, sabotaged relationships, and assumed that our failure meant God was done with us.

-But here’s the surprising grace of God: Jonah deserved judgment — but what he got was a fish.

-Yes, it was dark. Yes, it was tight. Yes, it smelled like death.

-But that fish wasn't a punishment — it was protection. -It wasn’t a tomb — it was a temporary sanctuary. -It wasn’t the end — it was the beginning of Jonah’s turnaround.

-God appointed the fish, That word means it was sent intentionally. The fish wasn’t random. It was custom-built grace.

-It’s not where Jonah would’ve chosen to be — but it’s where he needed to be.

-Why? Because grace doesn’t always come with soft pillows and praise music.

-Sometimes it comes in confinement. Sometimes grace looks like rock bottom — until we realize it’s the very place where God meets us most powerfully.

-The belly of the fish was the pause Jonah needed to realign with God.It stripped away the distractions. It silenced the noise. And it gave him nowhere to look but up.

-Some of you might be in a place like Jonah’s right now. You're not in a palace. You're not living in comfort. You’re in a belly — a tight, dark, confusing place.

-But could it be that this is not your punishment — it’s your pause?

-Could it be that God is using this fish — this storm, this diagnosis, this crisis, this isolation — to stop you long enough to speak to your soul?

-Don’t waste the belly. Don’t waste the storm. Let your lowest moment become your loudest prayer.

-Let the place you thought would destroy you become the place where grace rewrites your story.

So as we get ready to get into chapter 2 of Jonah,  Jonah 2 is a prayer — not a narrative — because when you hit rock bottom, your theology gets tested in real time.

Read Jonah 2:1-10.

I. DESPERATION BEGINS THE TURNAROUND (vv. 1–2)

Read Jonah 2:1-2.

“Jonah had been running away from God. But now he runs to God.”

-Up until now, Jonah hasn’t said a word to God. When God called and commanded him to go to Nianevah, he didn’t say a word. He just got up and disobeyed.

-In chapter 1, he didn’t pray. He didn’t repent. He didn’t even cry out when the sailors asked him to. He was silent — distant — stubborn.

-He ran away from God’s presence, away from God's calling, away from Nineveh, and away from obedience.

-But in chapter 2, something shifts. Jonah finally speaks — and he speaks to God.

-The same God he had tried to flee from is now the only One he can call on.Here’s the irony: it often takes us hitting the bottom before we start looking up.

-We stop praying when things are good, and we remember how to pray when everything’s falling apart. Jonah had to be stripped of everything — his comfort, his control, his plan — before he humbled himself enough to run back to the God he had been avoiding.

“It took the belly of a fish to get Jonah to pray again.”

-Of all the places for someone to start praying… this wasn’t it.

-The belly of a fish is not a quiet chapel.There’s no altar, no stained glass, no background worship music playing. Just darkness, stench, isolation, and the gut-wrenching realization that you are completely out of control.

-And yet, that’s where Jonah prayed. Why? Because sometimes God has to shut every door and close off every escape route before we finally kneel. Trust me….I know this from firsthand experience.

-Jonah didn’t pray on the boat. He didn’t pray when the sailors asked him to. But now, swallowed, suffocating, and sealed away in the dark — he finally surrenders.

-This tells us something profound: the place of confinement might just be God’s place to heal, refine, and purify you.

“The very place that looked like death became a prayer room.”

-If you had paused the story in Jonah 1:17, it would’ve looked like a tragic ending.

-Jonah, the prophet of God, rejected his assignment, was thrown overboard, and is now trapped inside a massive sea creature. That sounds like a death sentence.

But what looked like a tomb became a temple.

What looked like punishment became preparation.

-God turned a pit into a place of prayer. Why? Because God is not just in the business of saving people — He's in the business of transforming hearts.

-And sometimes transformation doesn’t happen in a palace or a church pew — sometimes it happens in a belly.

“Desperation doesn’t mean defeat — it means God has your attention.”

-Jonah was desperate. He uses words like distress and Sheol — the place of the dead. He thought he was done. But it’s precisely in that moment that his eyes are opened.

-Sometimes the greatest grace isn’t when God calms the storm — it’s when He lets us feel our desperation so we realize just how much we need Him.

-Desperation isn’t your end — it’s the beginning of surrender.It’s not a sign that God is distant — it’s a signal that He’s near, and He’s waiting for you to cry out.

-What i have learned about Desperation over my time as a Christ follower, is that Desperation is a place:

where breakdown becomes breakthrough.

Where stubbornness turns into surrender.

Where self-reliance dies and grace is born.

II. GOD HEARS US EVEN IN THE DEEP

Read Jonah 2:3-6a.

1. Jonah acknowledges God’s sovereignty even in the storm: “You threw me…”

-Notice Jonah doesn’t say, “The sailors threw me.”

-Even though that’s technically true, Jonah sees past human hands and recognizes God’s hand in his situation. “You threw me into the depths...”

-That’s not Jonah being bitter — it’s Jonah finally waking up to God’s sovereignty.

-He’s saying, “God, this isn’t just a storm. This isn’t just coincidence. This isn’t bad luck. This is You doing whatever it takes to bring me back.”

-Sometimes the most gracious thing God can do is disrupt our comfort. Sometimes He throws us into a storm not to destroy us, but to discipline us in love.

-This is Jonah realizing:

“God isn’t just present in Nineveh — He’s present in the ocean. He’s not just the God of assignments — He’s the God of mercy and correction.”

-Jonah’s not accusing — he’s acknowledging.

2. Jonah is underwater — literally and spiritually. He’s drowning in regret and rebellion.

-Jonah describes his situation vividly:

“The current overcame me…”

“Seaweed wrapped around my head…”

“I sank to the foundations of the mountains…”

-He's not just in deep water. He's in spiritual crisis. He’s drowning under the weight of his choices, his guilt, his shame.

-He had rejected God's call. Now he feels banished from God’s presence — “I have been banished from your sight…”

-Jonah feels like he’s beyond the reach of grace. But here’s the truth: feelings are not facts. You may feel far from God, but He is never far from you.

-You may be underwater — emotionally, spiritually, mentally — but God’s reach goes deeper still.

3. Jonah’s prayer still reaches heaven. Even when he’s in the deep.

-Jonah says in verse 4: “Yet I will look once more toward your holy temple.”

-Even when he thinks he’s been banished… -Even when he’s literally sinking… -Even with seaweed around his head and lungs full of salt water…

-He turns his heart back toward God.

-This is the stunning mercy of God: There is no depth too low, no storm too violent, no failure too final, that your cry cannot reach God.

-You don’t have to climb your way back to the surface before God hears you. You can call from the pit — and heaven will still respond.

-Jonah’s prayer pierces the chaos and reaches the throne room.

4. Grace is not about being in the right place, but about calling on the right Person.

Jonah’s not in a church.

He’s not in a small group.

He’s not in a quiet time with a journal and a cup of coffee.

-He’s in a fish, at the bottom of the sea, in total darkness — and that’s where grace meets him.

-Grace doesn’t wait until you’ve cleaned yourself up. It doesn’t require you to be in the "right" setting or the "right" season.

-All God is looking for is a heart that turns and says, “God, I need You.”

-Jonah wasn’t in the right place, but he called on the right Person. And that’s what grace is all about — it’s about who you turn to, not where you are when you do it.

III. GRACE RESTORES WHAT REBELLION RUINED (vv. 6b–9)

Read Jonah 2:6b-9.

1. Jonah Shifts from Despair to Worship. His Heart is Softening. He’s Starting to Remember God’s Goodness.

-In the darkness of the fish’s belly, Jonah has already admitted his distress. But now something changes. He’s not just describing his drowning — he’s beginning to worship.

“Then you raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God!” (v. 6b)

-That’s the first glimmer of hope in this entire prayer. He realizes: God didn’t abandon me. He rescued me — even here, even now.

He had been running from God’s face, but now he remembers God’s faithfulness. “As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord…” (v. 7)

-This is more than just mental recall — this is relational renewal. To “remember” the Lord is to realign your heart with Him.

-It’s to reflect on His character, His promises, and His mercy — even when you’re still in the depths.

-Worship doesn’t wait until the storm is over. Worship happens when we remember who God is in the middle of it.

-Jonah may still be inside the fish, but his spirit is starting to rise.

2. He Recommits: “I Will Fulfill What I Have Vowed.”

“But as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed.” (v. 9a)

-This is repentance in motion. Jonah’s not just saying sorry — he’s surrendering his future.

-We don’t know exactly what vow Jonah is referring to here. It could be his calling as a prophet. It could be a personal commitment to obedience. But either way, Jonah is saying:

“God, You didn’t give up on me… and I won’t give up on what You’ve called me to do.”

-This is huge. Jonah, who ran from his assignment in chapter 1, is now recommitting to obedience — even before he's out of the fish.

-This is what grace does — it doesn’t just forgive your past, it reclaims your purpose.

3. Grace Doesn’t Just Rescue — It Restores Purpose.

-A lot of us want grace to be a way out of pain. But God’s grace isn’t just about rescuing you from something — it’s about restoring you to something.

-Jonah didn’t just need to be pulled from the water — he needed to be returned to his mission. Grace came for him not to leave him in the fish, but to put him back on track.

-God’s grace is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. It’s a call-back-to-purpose invitation.

-And notice — Jonah is still in the belly. His situation hasn’t changed yet. But his heart has.

He’s moving from rebellion to renewal.

From avoidance to alignment.

From resistance to worship.

4. Jonah’s Transformation Doesn’t Start with a Change in Location. It Starts with a Change in Heart.

-This is one of the most important truths in the entire book of Jonah:

God wasn’t waiting to change Jonah’s circumstances — He was waiting to change Jonah’s heart.

-Many of us pray for God to move us, fix our situation, or rescue us from the pain.

-But God's greatest work isn’t just external — it's internal. And until Jonah surrendered in the deep, he wasn't ready to be released from the fish.

-Your breakthrough doesn’t begin when your surroundings change. Your breakthrough begins when your spirit changes.

-Jonah didn’t need a new boat. He needed a new heartbeat — one that beats in sync with God’s will.

IV. SALVATION BELONGS TO THE LORD

Jonah 2:9b: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!"

“Salvation Belongs to the Lord”: The Climax of Jonah’s Prayer, and the Heart of the Bible

-This is more than the final line of Jonah’s prayer — It’s the theological peak of the entire chapter.

-It’s the climax of his repentance and the crescendo of his surrender.

-And in a real sense, this one sentence sums up the message of the entire Bible.

-From Genesis to Revelation, one truth holds it all together: God is the Rescuer. We are the rescued.

Jonah Tried to Save Himself by Running. The Sailors Tried to Save Him by Rowing. None of It Worked.

-Jonah, in chapter 1, had tried to escape God’s call by fleeing in the opposite direction. the sailors tried to row back to land to avoid throwing Jonah overboard.

-But none of that human effort saved anyone.

Jonah’s rebellion failed.

The sailors’ striving failed.

Jonah’s silence failed.

-Why? Because you cannot outrun your own sin, and you can’t row your way back to righteousness.

-This is the human condition: we try to fix, cover, manage, or outrun our sin — and it never works.

-Only God can do what we never could. And when Jonah finally realizes this, he cries out: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Only God Can Rescue. Only Grace Can Restore.

-Jonah realizes in the belly of the fish that it wasn’t the sailors who saved him. It wasn’t the fish that saved him. It wasn’t his cleverness, courage, or consistency.

It was God. It was grace.

The fish that swallowed him was God’s provision.

The prayer that rose from his lips was God’s prompting.

The deliverance he’s now anticipating is God’s doing.

-Jonah didn’t climb his way out of the sea — God lifted him. He didn’t earn a second chance — grace offered it.

And the same is true for us:

Salvation doesn’t come by trying harder.

It doesn’t come by being more religious.

It doesn’t come by fixing yourself.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. It always has. It always will.

Jonah’s Prayer Echoes What Jesus Does Fully — He Enters the Depths for Us and Rises Victorious

-Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish is a shadow — a foreshadowing of Jesus, the greater Jonah.

I brought this verse up last week and i think its good to bring up again, Jesus Himself said in Matthew 12:40: “For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.”

-Where Jonah descended into the sea because of his own sin, Jesus descended into death because of ours.

Jonah was guilty — Jesus was innocent.

Jonah ran from God — Jesus ran to the cross.

Jonah was rescued — Jesus rescues.

Jonah was lifted out of the depths by grace.

Jesus descended into death to bring us out by grace.

-And just like Jonah was spit out of the fish alive, Jesus walked out of the tomb in victory — not just for Himself, but for us.

“Salvation belongs to the Lord!” This isn’t just Jonah’s song — it’s the anthem of the gospel.

"Salvation Isn’t About Jonah Getting It Together. It’s About God Reaching Into the Depths and Pulling Him Up."

-We live in a world that says:

“You made your bed, now lie in it.”

“You dug your own hole, now climb out.”

-But Jonah 2 destroys that logic.

-Jonah was in the mess because of his own rebellion.

-He wasn’t a victim of circumstance — he was a runaway prophet. If anyone deserved to drown in regret, shame, or silence, it was Jonah.

But what does God do?

-He doesn’t wait for Jonah to clean himself up. -He doesn’t wait for Jonah to climb out of the sea. -He doesn’t wait for Jonah to say all the right words or prove he’s changed.

God reaches.

This is grace: God does for Jonah what Jonah could never do for himself.

Not because Jonah earned it.

Not because Jonah finally “got it together.”

But because salvation belongs to the Lord (v.9).

This flips religion on its head.

Religion says: “Try harder, do better, climb higher.”

Grace says: “You can’t reach Me — so I’m coming down to reach you.”

Jonah didn’t swim to safety.He sank. And in that sinking, God swooped in with salvation.

This Is Our Story Too

-You may be in the depths — not of ocean water, but of:

Shame you can’t shake

Sin that clings tight

A secret you’ve buried deep

Or a weight of failure that convinces you you’re too far gone

And maybe, like Jonah, you think:

-“If I could just fix this… if I could just clean up… if I could just prove to God I’ve changed…”

-But salvation isn’t about you getting it together. It’s about trusting the One who came all the way down to pull you up.

“While we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” — Romans 5:6.

-Jesus doesn’t throw down a ladder and wait for you to climb. He descends into the pit, takes your place, and carries you out.

So What Do You Do?

-You don’t strive. You surrender.

-You cry out like Jonah did — not because you’ve figured it out, but because you’ve finally realized:

-“I can’t save myself. But You can, Lord.” And that’s when grace moves.

-Salvation is not about your ability. -It’s about God’s mercy. -It’s not about you climbing up. -It’s about Jesus coming down.

-So if you’re in the depths — don’t give up. Cry out.

-Because God still reaches.And when He does, He doesn’t just rescue you — He restores you.

-This is the same truth at the heart of the gospel — We were drowning in sin, unable to rescue ourselves. But God, rich in mercy, sent His Son not just to save us from the storm, but to enter the storm for us.

-Like Jonah, Jesus spent three days in the depths — not of a fish, but of death itself — and then rose again so that we could walk in newness of life.

Jesus is the greater Jonah.

-Jonah was thrown into the sea to calm a storm of judgment — Jesus was nailed to the cross to calm the storm of sin forever.

-Jonah went into the deep because of his rebellion — Jesus went into the deep because of ours.

-Jonah was spit out in mercy — Jesus rose in victory.

-So when Jonah cries, “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”, he’s unknowingly pointing us to Jesus, the Lord of our salvation.