Back to Dry Land

So I need to talk to the moms in the room (and really this is applicable for dads as well, but its mothers day so I am talking to the moms).

Have any of you ever been frustrated at your kids?

and I know I am not a full fledged parent yet but I imagine that happens occasionally

Your kid does something and you just think seriously?

they hurt you in some way

They don’t listen to instructions you gave them

Your kid does something and you just think seriously?

I imagine even when they are little there are points where you think in your head this kid is getting kicked out of the house.

I imagine even when they are little there are points where you think in your head this kid is driving me crazy.

My mom is here and she is laughing in the front row because its true.

She had to deal with me for 18 years and sometimes still has to put up with me.

But you know whats crazy in the midst of your kids driving you crazy I don’t think there is one mother or parent here who would ever say I am done with this kid.

you might think it but it would never be a serious thought.

and you know there are often times things that we do wrong in our life where we just mess up and a lot of times its intentional.

You know we cause issues in the lives of others

We make reckless descions

and we do the oppasit

We directly disobey where God is asking us to go

and you would think God would go I am done with this person.

because they won’t stop messing up.

I keep giving second chances but they keep blowing through them.

But whats amazing is that this isn’t what God does.

Because if you were with us last week we were beginning our series in the book of Jonah.

And what happens is Jonah who is a prophet of God is called by God to go to this violent place called Nineveh, and to deliver a message that God was asking him to give.

But Jonah says no way! so he gets as far away as he can from God and gets on a boat,

Eventually because of Jonah running from God the boat gets caught in a storm

and instead of Jonah deciding to go to Nineveh and do what God is asking him, he actually just tells the men in the boat to throw him overboard.

and the last verse that we read was that Jonah got swallowed by a great fish.

And you know God could have ended the story there

and we could read this to our kids at night and tell them “look you need to obey God because if not a fish will eat you”

But thats not how the story ended, because even though Jonah keeps messing up, God keeps pursuing

We can mess up, badly. But God is going to keep pursuing us, and He will keep pursuing you.

and today we are picking up the story in Jonah 2:1-10

because God spares Jonah while he is trapped in the belly of this fish and today we are going to be looking at this prayer that Jonah says while He is trapped in this fish.

So once again I would invite you to turn to … It says…

Jonah 2 NIV

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 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. 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. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 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. “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. 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.’ ” And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

So I am sure you know this but Jonah is in a rough place.

I heard another pastor say this before, but a lot of times when we think of Jonah getting swallowed by a fish we kinda imagine the scene from the movie Pinocchio where they are inside the belly of a whale

You know its not the greatest place to be but its not the worst.

You know he probably had a little desk there, maybe a lamp, and a bead where he could sleep.

And you go it could be a lot worst.

but when you read this passage I hope what you notice is that it wasn’t this nice for Jonah.

you know he is in an awful place

because he is in this fish for three days and nights

and you do not get all of this room you see in this photo, but it is probably so night he can barely move.

There is no light, probably just enough oxygen to survive.

Then he is getting digested by the stomach acid which is probably just bleaching his skin

We are told in this passage that there is seaweed wrapped around his head probably just choking him.

and it says his life is just fading away

Its probably one of the most miserable experiences we can imagine, and really He should of died, but we see God keep Jonah alive for these 3 days and nights.

and what happens is during these long days and nights Jonah actually cry’y out to God for the first time since he has ran away.

And what we need to get out of this is there is no place too dark, no place too deep, no situation too awful where God cant reach you.

Because Jonah is in the awful place where He got himself stuck, but he cries out to God, in this dark, and lonely place. And God listens.

You know when we are in places similar to Jonah, (Probably not in an actual fish) but a place where we feel like we are in the Valley of death it is easy to just say “God can’t reach me and even if He could why would He?”

We almost view our life as if we were this cup and we make a mistake and we break a little, we disobey God, and we break a little, and we keep getting crushed up and we think we are beyond repair and even if we could fix our life why would it be worth the work to do it.

But looks what happens because this is the exact place Jonah find him self in.

broken, messed up and shattered.

But this is where He realizes he needs God.

because if you remember last week Jonah didn’t call out to God but it took a him to this point after He is eaten by a fish to call out to God and really to repent.

Because look at the second half of verse 9 because Jonah tells God look I am going to make this okay. I am going to do what you have asked of me or what I have vowed to do.

And really this is Jonah repenting.

because throughout this passage he is looking around and going this is a rough place to be, he realizes what he did and he calls out to God.

But the issue with Jonah’s repentance is it took a crisis to get it out of him.

and because of this it is short lived

because not to long after this passage we are going to see Jonah get upset at God and God has have a talk with him again.

But You know a lot of times crisis’s can be something that drive us to God, and some people end up sticking others do not.

But the issue is when we only cry out to God in our crisis’s and not everyday life

Imagine with me you are driving your car and you know your tires tread is running low, and what will often happen is the tire will begin to ware down more and more until the tire begins to leak or gets a hole.

And what will often happen is instead of getting new tires people will figure out where the hole is and patch it up.

Which it will fix the problem temporarily, but eventually we will be going back to Walmart to buy more fix a flat stuff

and it actually becomes dangerous because at some point there is a good chance the tire is going to blow out which can cause an accident and really harm yourself and others.

and really in our lives when we call out to God in the crisis we are just patching ourselves up.

because its repentance, but God is calling us to true repentance where we lay down our life everyday.

where we are not just repenting because of the situation we are in, but where we are repenting because God has changed our heart and we are turning to Him.

and you know God is actually faithful Jonah even though it would appear that His repentance is driven by his situation and God still will be faithful to us when we come to Him this way

but we need to have a heart change that occurs within us or we are just going to keep patching ourselves up until we cause more and more issues in our life.

But regardless of all this what I want you to catch is Jonah did call out to God in the dark place, this place where He is broken.

and because he does this God completely changes the situation that Jonah is in.

because verse 10 says and the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

I love that verse (Whose ready for a potluck after church)

But in this verse what is amazing is Jonah isn’t the one who gets himself out of this awful place.

It is God who gets him out.

It is God that gets his feet back onto solid ground so he can accomplish what God has called him to do.

But it is through God that our situation is redeemed, it is through God that our lives can be turned around, and it is God who gets us back on our feet.

Pause

But it is only God

You know like we talked about it is easy to look at our life and go I am in to dark of a place or I am to broken to ever be repaired or even if I could be who would waste their time.

But there is this Japanese art called kintasugi where what they will do is they will actually take broken mugs, cups, vases and they put it back together with gold

and the end product looks like this (picture on the screen)

because what happens every chip in this mug is bound back together to form something beautiful

You know today you may feel like Jonah where you are broken beyond repair. (say everything below while crushing the mug more

Your family is a mess

Your financial situation is awful

No one trust you

You have ran as far away from God as you can.

But here is the amazing thing, God doesn’t just see your life and see a broken cup, but God sees your life redeemed in the blood of Jesus.

and that is what it looks like (picture of the cup)

But you need to call out to God or you are just going to stay where you are.

but the momment you cry out to God it changed everything.

God wants to redeem your life, your family, your situation, but you need to cry out to Him.

because like I said He will take the dust of your past and will make something that is more beautiful then we could even imagine.