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Recap
The Gospel Must Be The Center
The Gospel can heal
Last week we looked at how a man named Jonah was called to go up to Nineveh.
His sole purpose was to bring the news that God was going to rain His wrath down upon the people of Nineveh unless they repented.
Jonah, being a stubborn and prideful man decides to flee.
In his act of fleeing, he continues to try and avoid not only God’s presence, which cannot be avoided in the first place, but he also refuses to even speak with God.
The Gospel must be at the center
We ended our time with Jonah being thrown overboard into the sea which would ultimately result in his death.
Let’s pick up in and continue in our story.
Slide Scripture
The Gospel Must Be The Center
The Gospel can heal
What we will learn today is that the gospel can heal.
Jonah, although he has been thrown overboard, although it seems like his fate is sealed, the gospel is still available for him.
Think about it.
If the gospel is still available for Jonah, would you say that it is available for you as well no matter your past or even your circumstances right now?
I want to hit home today that the gospel is powerful enough, God is gracious and merciful enough to extend grace even to the worst of sinners.
Jonah, even though his sin seems small and insignificant to let’s say King David, Jonah was still trying to flee from the Lord.
Fleeing from the salvation of God.
The Gospel must be at the center
The gospel has to be at the center of your life.
For Jonah, he thought that he was righteous.
He quickly learned that he was not.
Hence being thrown overboard and swallowed by a big fish.
Let me put it this way.
My Identity
Something that I struggle with is approval from those around me.
This stems from something greater.
Growing up, my dad wasn’t the best dad.
He did the best he could.
I know that.
But in the end, he was not the best possible dad that I could have had.
I was always trying to please him and time after time there was always something I would do, or more like did not do that would let him down.
So growing up, my identity slowly started to revolve around this idea of I have to please everyone.
This is still something that creeps in today.
I struggle with this.
If Jesus is not at the center and if I do not remind myself that Jesus blood was enough, I can easily backslide and start building my identity around the fact that I need to measure up to peoples standards.
It is not that I let people down but rather I let myself down and this in turn eats away at me.
For Jonah, the gospel was not at the center.
He saw himself as righteous.
God is quick to teach Jonah that he in fact is not righteous.
Only Christ can be righteous to measure up to God’s holiness.
Let’s unpack these verses starting in .
Slide Scripture
Slide Scripture
The Big Fish
This is not about the fish
This is probably one of the most well known verses in the bible when it comes to Jonah or even some of the craziest of miracles that happen.
So many people try to dig into what this means by a great fish.
Some think it was a fish, some think it was a whale, some think that God made a special fish just for this point in time.
This fish is the most talked about and scrutinized fish in all of the Mediterranean Sea.
A lot of people can even say that they do not believe or can not believe in God because of the fact that a man was said to have been swallowed by a fish.
There is this story and the story of Noah and the flood.
For some reason, these two stories trip people up.
What does Jesus say about it?
Just so we can all stay on track and not allow this story of Jonah to cause us to stumble, I want to see what Jesus had to say about this matter.
If anything, I want Jesus to be the one that cause you to stumble versus just the story of Noah or the story of Jonah being swallowed by a fish.
Look at .
Slide Scripture
3. We must believe
Jesus knows the story of Jonah.
He may have even had the whole book memorized.
He quotes a lot of Jonah.
Now Jesus quotes this story like it legitementally happened.
Jesus does not go, “For just as the legend of Jonah goes, he was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.”
No, that is not what Jesus does.
He quotes the story and then relates it or uses it to show that He Himself will be gone for three days and three nights.
If Jesus believes this story, it is good enough for me and I to believe in this story.
4. Why the fish?
Now why use a fish?
What is God’s end goal there?
Slide Quote
The belly of the fish is not a happy place to live but it is a good place to learn.
God, through the fish, could sustain this pouting prophet during “unbelievable” circumstances and return him to the place where he could review his commission to serve.
That’s why God used this fish and this is also why I believe in the fact that God used the fish.
Now that we got that out of the way, lets move on and keep digging into the scriptures.
Slide Scripture
Jonah 2:1
Jonah Pray’s
This is a turning point
Jonah having just gone through this near drowning experience finds himself in a fish, alive.
It is only fitting that he prays.
This is a major turning point for Jonah.
The prophet of few words finally prayed.
Remember last week, the captain had told Jonah to pray but from what we read, Jonah did not pray.
Jonah not only prays but he prays to “the Lord his God”.
Witnessing Turning Points
Being in ministry for 8 years now, I have had the privilege to witness many turning points throughout that time.
It is amazing to get to see when all of a sudden something clicks and that changes someones walk with Christ.
This is what we have here.
Jonah’s heart becomes softened and he now calls upon the Lord.
Pick up in .
Slide Scripture
Jonah 2:
Answered Prayers, Praise, and Promise
Jonah Prays Biblically
Jonah prays very biblically here.
Out of his distress, when he saw his life running out, Jonah calls out to the Lord and the Lord answers him.
He says, “out of the belly of sheol”.
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