Jonah-Part 2

6:20-6:30—FELLOWSHIP/CHECK-IN

6:25—START COUNTDOWN

6:30-6:35—WELCOME & PRAYER

6:35-6:45—

6:45-6:50—ANNNOUNCEMENTS

6:50-6:56—

6:59-7:02—PRAY

7:02-7:20—MUSIC—

Brady Dixon #1

Brady Dixon #2

Brady Dixon #3

7:20-7:25—THE GOSPEL & DISMISS High School small groups

7:25-7:45—MESSAGE—Jonah Part 2

7:45-7:55—SG PRAYER TIME

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Lord, here we go again!

Pray.

Think myself empty.

Read myself full.

Write myself clear.

Pray myself haught. Be myself.

Forget myself. (From Alister Beggs)

Lord, let this message be a beacon for you. Let me be forgotten and invisible. Let them see and know you, only you.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

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The gospel is the good news that God, the loving Creator, sovereign King, and holy Judge of all, has looked upon men and women wonderfully and uniquely made in His image who have rebelled against Him, are separated from Him, and deserve death before Him, and He has sent His Son, Jesus, God in the flesh, the long-awaited King, to live a perfect and powerful life, to die a sacrificial and substitutionary death, and to rise from the grave in victory over sin, Satan, and death. The gospel is a summons from God for all people in all nations to repent and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, turning from all idols to declare allegiance to Jesus alone as King and trust in Jesus alone as Lord. All who turn from Jesus will experience everlasting, horrifying suffering in hell, while all who trust in Jesus will experience everlasting, satisfying communion with God in heaven. (Secret Church 2020, David Platt, Radical.net) For now, Jesus remains in heaven, changing the world one person at a time, but one day he will return and judge the world in righteousness. He will remove from this world all sin and all causes of sin and he will restore the cosmos to a state of peace, prosperity and flourishing and all those who have received him as their Lord and Savior will participate in his rule and enjoy his goodness forever.

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PRAY

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Prophet is a person who speaks on behalf of God

Redditt, Paul L. Introduction to the Prophets. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008. Print.

Are you ever alone? I mean, really alone, no phone, no electronics, just you? We don’t have those opportunities too often. We don’t have those moments where we’re alone with our thoughts.

Backpacking—night time—alone

The show

Recap of last week in Jonah 1.

We know that sometimes God calls us to get up and go towards something. We also know by looking at Jonah, that we are like him and we run away from those things because we are afraid to do it or we simply just don’t want to do it. But we also know that God provides for those who He calls and He will take care of you.

This is where we pick up in Jonah 1:17-2:10 because we see that Jonah was thrown overboard and God sent a big fish to swallow him up. This is where we pick up the story this week.

Let’s pray.

Being alone with your thoughts/prayers

Why does he need to have someone with him? His answer was something that I really was not expecting.

He said, “In all honesty, when I’m by myself my mind races and I don’t really like what comes to mind. I know God is trying to speak to me, and I’m afraid of what He is going to say, because I like what I’m doing right now.”

Talk about honesty. Not only did I appreciate him telling me this, but I understood it. After talking and helping him understand that God doesn’t want to destroy his happiness, but sometimes He calls us to something more than what we come to expect of ourselves, we really got to talk about how to take advantage of some alone time.

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Read Jonah 1:17-2:10

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Pray

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When we look at Jonah 2, I think we can learn a few things from his alone time in the fish as he began to listen to God.

Jonah 2:1

"Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish."

Because he was by himself, Jonah had a private sanctuary with the Lord.

Jonah had a private sanctuary with the Lord

What is a "sanctuary?" It is the place where you encounter God. And you can know that you have encountered God when He has your attention. In that moment, everything except God, diminishes in your sight. Everything else is just a distraction. And when you enter His presence you will not leave the same.

I just think about what happened inside that fish.

Let’s read his prayer together:

Jonah 2:2-9

Inside the fish, Jonah recognized his utter dependence on God. Listen to the desperation in his voice; have you ever been to this point in your relationship with God? Can you see yourself a little bit in this?

· "I cried out for help" [2:2]

· "I said, 'I have been banished'" [2:4]

· "As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord." [2:7].

· When he exhausted hope, God moved in.

· Inside the fish, God stripped the wayward prophet of both his pride and prejudice [2:8].

· God removed all spiritual distractions.

· Inside the fish, Jonah submitted to God without reservation [2:9].

Jonah got alone with God and the voice of sin, of fame, and of others became faint sounds. But the voice of God became loud and clear.

If you have wandered from God and sense your need to renew your faith, then get alone with Him. Find a private place to meet with God. You don't need a dramatic event; you just need to be alone with God.

To get practical with you, one thing I have started to do daily is when I drive to work every morning, I do it without any radio or anything on. What happens when we get in the car? Immediately we put on the radio or music and immediately fill our time alone. The car can be the only place where you can really be alone. You literally shut the door on the outside world around you. So I drive to work and I pray. I talk to God. It’s my big fish where I get to be alone with God.

You need to find your fish. Where can you make a sanctuary?

When you come to the place that you know God has your attention and you know that you must return, what might you say to Him?

Notice four responses that Jonah made concerning God's correction during his sanctuary time in the fish.

I think there are things we can learn form Jonah here, and I think these are confessions we need to make in our own lives as well. Jonah has found God and he does something that, if we are all honest about, it’s something we dread to do but we know it will only help us move forward.

Confessional—Dashboard, psychiatrist, priest, etc.

Four Confessions Jonah makes to God

Here are 4 confessions we need to make like Jonah in order for God to move in our lives:

#1 - I recognize Your hand at work here

Jonah 2:3, 4

He said, "You threw me into the depths" and "I have been banished from Your sight." Notice the words "You" and "Your." Jonah makes the connection between his disobedience and God's correction. Furthermore, he holds God blameless and himself guilty.

#2 - I turn my eyes back to You

Jonah 2:4

Jonah added, "yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple." Here is a good definition of backsliding: Taking your eyes off God. Likewise, a good definition of repentance is turning your eyes back to God.

#3 - I thank You for Your compassion

Jonah 2:6

"But You raised my life from the pit, Lord my God," he confessed. In case you missed it, Jonah offers his thanks in faith for he had not experienced deliverance yet. He believes that God has left him alive for a purpose.

#4 - I renew my commitment to You

Jonah 2:9

He promised, "I will fulfill my vows."

Repentance without obedience results in failure. True repentance requires change.

God, I realize You are at work here.

God, I turn my eyes back to You.

God, I thank You for your compassion.

God, I renew my commitment to You.

These are four extremely powerful and important sentences to speak. Although they are simple, they can change your life when you mean them. When you realize that God is at work in your life you can begin to see all the good things God is doing. You begin to see how He is working.

When you turn your eyes back to Him, you begin to see the things He sees and not what you see. You no longer see the selfish things you want, but you begin to see the things that God is doing in you.

When you thank Him for his compassion, you really do realize He is the God of second chances. Even though you mess up, a lot, He still loves and cares for you and it makes you want to obey God even more.

When you renew your commitment to Him, He lets you. We get to start new and we then begin to live out God’s calling in our lives.

It’s a pretty incredible thing.

It is said that the Eastern shepherd, as he brings his sheep back to the fold each night, stands at the door and counts each one. As he does so, he puts his hand on the head of each animal. He makes a habit of touching each one of them. If he were to grow careless and neglect to habitually touch his sheep, it would soon turn its head away when it heard his voice! This, of course, could be very serious. If a habit like this were broken, what would result is that the sheep could begin to ignore the warning shout from the shepherd and subsequently could be disastrous for the sheep.

If we are experiencing the Shepherd's touch daily in our lives, then we will recognize His voice when He warns of impending danger. This will mean "practicing His presence" daily. If we do not practice His presence then we have probably been practicing the presence of our enemy. Our Lord awaits the moment to "touch" our day with His presence.[1]

So I guess I will ask two questions to end our time together.

1) Where do you find your sanctuary? Where do you get away with God alone? Do you even do this? If not, where can you?

2) Of the 4 confessions of Jonah, which one are you at right now? Which one do you need to confess right now in your life so you can get on the same page with God like Jonah did in the belly of the fish?

Both of these questions have huge impact on your life. I hope and pray you can find your sanctuary.

Let’s pray.

When was a time that you were by yourself with no distractions? What was the situation? How did you feel?

How desperate is Jonah’s situation? Note some of the ways in which he describes his desperation.

Kristofer D. Holroyd, Jonah, Micah, and Nahum, A 12-Week Study, ed. Dane C. Ortlund, Knowing the Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 16.

Read Jonah’s prayer in 2:1–9 again, paying special attention to images he uses to describe his distress. How desperate is Jonah’s situation? Note some of the ways in which he describes his desperation.

Both Jonah and the sailors are brought to places of distress, panic, and desperation before they learn to “fear the Lord.” What does this teach us about God and the hard things we may endure in this life?

Although Jonah tried to flee from the Lord, God used the storm, the sailors, and the great fish to bring Jonah back to trusting in and following him. How, then, is the story of Jonah a comfort to God’s people?

Kristofer D. Holroyd, Jonah, Micah, and Nahum, A 12-Week Study, ed. Dane C. Ortlund, Knowing the Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 16.

Read Psalm 139:7–12. Twice in Jonah 1, the text says that Jonah is trying to get away “from the presence of the Lord.” In light of Psalm 139, what do you think it means to flee from the presence of God? How do we try to do so today?

Where in your own life have you tried to get away from the presence of the Lord or to run from his Word, commands, or call?

Kristofer D. Holroyd, Jonah, Micah, and Nahum, A 12-Week Study, ed. Dane C. Ortlund, Knowing the Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 15.