Jonah Part 4- When God rescues us from ourselves.

Group opens: I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED ***Welcome/Announcements***  Welcome! It’s so good that you have come today. 😊 (If we have guests) If this is your first or second time with us, welcome! We are so glad you are here with us today. My name is Brian and I am the Senior Pastor here at CBC. If I did not already get the chance to meet you this morning, I hope you will have time to drop by our connection tables after the service this morning. I will be there with Gloria, my wife, and we’d love the chance to meet you. And maybe answer some questions you may have about us. Or if you won’t have time to stop and chat, you can use the connection card that is inside the trifold bulletin you should have received as you entered the building. Just take a few seconds during the service and jot down your contact information, and we will be happy to reach back out to you sometime this week. Let me just encourage everyone here today to use the connection card. You can list prayer request, or request information about our ministries. It’s simple to fill it out and drop it at the connection table on your way out. << show announcement slide>> • Are you praying about your Discipleship Group? • Kids Beach Club- Official Start Date, September 13 • July 29- Costa Rica Testimony Service, Family Worship & Dinner on Grounds, No evening Service If you’re not connected with any of our groups, let me encourage you to stop by our connection table. You can request information on any of the groups that meet. Ladies’ Group, Teens, Men’s Group, even Small Group Bible Studies. Whether you are a guest, a member, or somewhere in between, we are here to worship our Great and Awesome God. Responsive Reading Today- Let’s all stand and lift our voices in worship COME THOU FOUNT/COME THOU KING - C ***Prayer/Offering*** Special (Group) - BECAUSE OF JESUS (during offering) OUR GREAT GOD - C RESCUE - C ***Sermon*** Introduction: If God is all knowing why do we sometimes get the feeling He’s not paying attention? If God is all powerful why doesn’t He always protect us from harm? If God is all present, why do we sometimes feel like we are walking alone? If God is the definition of Love, why does He allow those He loves to suffer so much? Occasional, life will deal us such a hard blow, that we may start to seriously considers questions like this. What I’ve learned in my life, is that whenever God leads me through places that cause me to doubt His knowledge, power, presence, and love, it is for my own good. It is God’s sovereign way of rescuing me from something far worse than I am going through at the time. Sometimes God will need to bring some serious pain into our life to rescue us from our worst enemy- ourselves. From time to time, the child of God, will stop trusting in God’s knowledge, power, presence, and love, and start trusting in his or her own knowledge, power, presence, and love. When we do this, it is God’s mercy that causes Him to do whatever is necessary to bring us back to that place where we trust solely in Him. Even it what is necessary brings a great amount of pain into our life. (Not all suffering is meant to teach us a lesson. Death comes to all eventually) But, there will be times in your life and mine, when God employs extreme means to bring us to a better end. It’s a very difficult time of life for us, when God has to do this, but, the Sovereign God, our Creator, and Savior, will stop at nothing to keep deliver His children from evil. As we continue through Jonah today, we will be in chapter 2. This section of the book is unlike any other section. Three of the Four chapters are narratives- parts of a very interesting story. Yet, chapter 2, as you will notice, is more like a poem than a story. In fact, in Biblical terminology, it’s a Psalm. Psalms are meant to be sung or prayed. This Psalm in Jonah Chapter 2, is Jonah’s prayer at the most stressful time of his life up to that point. Jonah had chosen a path of self-reliance, and outright rebellion against God. And Yahweh, His God, Our God, has mercifully brought just the right amount of pain in to Jonah’s life, to cause Him to turn. To repent. Chapter 1:17 sets up the scene for us. The Situation that brought Jonah to his knees. Jonah 1:17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah 2:1Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly, In the belly of a fish, God restores His rebellious prophet to a place of complete surrender. (and ultimately, obedience to his commission to go and preach the salvation of God) Let’s pray and then we will do a brief study of Jonah’s prayer and learn with Jonah how to surrender to God when He is trying to rescue us from ourself! <<Pray>> How to surrender when God is trying rescue you from yourself. Verse 2- God saves Jonah from the worst case scenario   "I cried out by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice." (KJV) If you’ve ever talked to someone who’s come back from rebellion against God. You’ll notice this familiar theme. The Christian rebels against God, and then finds themselves in what seems to be ‘hell’. But, then when they’ve come to the end of their own power, they cry out to God, and are relieved and surprised that He hears them. Of course the truth is, that God never forsakes His children. But, He does allow us to feel as if He has. It is our sin (rebellion) that is causing the sense of separation. Until we repent of that sin, we will continue to feel forsaken by God. This part of the Psalm is an introductory summary of an answered prayer. A lot of stuff had to happen in Jonah’s heart between “I called out to the Lord” and “He heard me”. The rest of the Prayer shows us the path to surrender that God led Jonah down.    Verses 3-6a- Jonah experiences the horror of God's judgment. Verse 3- "For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; And the floods compassed me about: All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. The first step to surrender from rebellion is to recognize that your nightmare situation is the hand of God’s judgment. Haggai 1:5-11- Sometimes it takes us a while to figure out that God is purposefully bringing trouble into our life. As long as we think we are experiencing “bad luck” we will keep trying to win at our own game. Keep forging ahead with our own plans, while ignoring the will of God. We cannot ignore the clear command of God, and expect Him to bless our plans. God loves us too much to allow us to continue on in sin. God paid too much for our salvation to allow us to blaspheme the name of the Jesus, by rebelling against His command to go and make disciples. God loves the church too much, to allow the members of the church, pastor included, to treat her with contempt. “If you want to get out of a hole, the first thing you gotta do is stop digging” If you want to get out from under God’s judgment, the first thing you gotta do is confess that you’re under God’s judgment. Stop pretending that God is okay with your rebellion and you’re just having a spot of bad luck. IF you’re God’s child, and you’re not obeying Him, you’d better be expecting some repercussions. The goal of God’s chastening is to bring forth the fruit of repentance. We see the fruit of repentance starting to bloom in Jonah’s heart in the next line….   Jonah experiences a longing for God's presence   Verse 4- “Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.   Suddenly what mattered most to Jonah, was the realization that he has lost the comfort of God’s presence. “I will at least look towards your holy temple” God brought Jonah to the very end of his life, to show Jonah that all he really needed, all he really longed for was God. You know how they say, at the end of your life, all that’s really going to matter is the time you spent with those you loved. I don’t think that’s the final thought we are going to have, at all. When all is taken away from us, all that really matters is being with our Creator. Being with God. He is the source of our life. He’s the sustainer of and the supplier of all the things we love. When we are left with none of those things, we will realize that what we really wanted was not the gifts, but the gift giver.   This is what God wants from us. He wants us to know Him and experience His great love. This shouldn’t surprise us. He gave His only Son as a sacrifice to be with us. Oh, the Love of God! Only when we come to understand that God is what we are really missing, will we be willing to let go of self-will, and rebellion. This is the next stage for Jonah- He resigns to death. Jonah surrenders to his own death.   Verse 5-6a “The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: The depths closed me round about, The weeds were wrapped about my head.   I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The earth with her bars was about me for ever;"   True surrender requires a death to self. Here Jonah, has surrendered that his life is over. This is what he wanted before, but for a different reason. Before he wanted to die to get away from God. Now, that he is really facing death, he is longing to be with God. This is the final stage of surrender. Nothing will change in our life, until we reach this point. You can’t fake it. But, God can create it in your life. He knows how much pressure to apply and where to apply it, to bring His servant to this place of surrender. He must do this, because we cannot experience His salvation until we’ve let go of our own efforts to save our self. This is what Jonah was going to discover next…     Verses 6b-8- Salvation follows full surrender.   V 6b- "Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God   There is nothing in this world like the Salvation of God. You and I knew this once, when we first trusted Christ. But, it’s a lesson that we will likely need to learn a few times more before we stand on heaven’s shores. In Jonah’s mind, is was the feeling of “being brought up from corruption” Whenever a child of God surrenders to God, dies to self, they will discover the joy of being brought back from corruption.   Verse 7- When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: That will not happen until God is all that matters to us… Verse 8 And my prayers came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.   That they observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. When nothing else matters, all that matters is God.     When God is central in our mind, He hears our prayers.   Verse 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. Surrender creates a joy in serving.    Verse 10- And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land     God can move people and things whenever He desires. But, if we are in rebellion, nothing will change until we surrender to Him. Surrender begins when we 1) Surrender begins when we confess that God is chastening us for rebellion. 2) Surrender is bearing fruit when we once again Long for God’s presence more than anything else He has allowed us to have. 3) Surrender is complete when we freely let go of all of our hopes and idols of success. 4) Surrender is rewarded by placing the Child of God back on the path of joyful service to His God. RESCUE - C (No bridge)