Jonah 2: Preaching/Teaching
Notes
Transcript
A Broken Prayer
A Broken Prayer
EOT-Jonah prays a prayer of desperation and realizes God’s commission is greater than his judgement.
EOS-A life dependent on God..
DDS-What do you need to do to live a lifestyle of prayer?
Brokenness is not something that sounds fun. But brokenness has been one of the most important things in my life. I would have never become a Christian if I did not get to a broken spot in my life.
I was at JBU, J. Alvin Dorm and a man approached me and asked me a question. Nate on a scale of 0-100 how sure are you that you are going to heaven if you die?
I was so broken that I said 100% because I am a good guy.
The next week I was sitting with this man and he was taking me through the good news of Christ, but before he shared the good news he shared the reality of my sin and we walked through the ten commandments.
Have you ever put something before God? Yes basketball
Have you ever taken the Lord’s name? Yes, about after every shot I miss.
Have you ever dishonored your parents? Yes
So far I had broken everyone of them but I was not broken.
Then he got to # 7-Have you ever committed adultery? No I am not even married, then he proceeded to show me:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’;
but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
There in a college dorm room for the first time in my life I was standing their bare before God broken.
Gospel-But in this brokenness he shared the good news about Jesus and as a 18 year old
I prayed a broken prayer!
As a new follower of Jesus I felt connected to God. I wanted to talk to God. I had new life in Jesus because I accepted God’s gift.
But even though brokenness is essential to our christian life, we usually don’t embrace it as a lifestyle.
My brokenness led me to dependence on God.
Do you live broken before God?
Does your prayer life reflect brokenness?
So far in this book we see that Jonah was not broken: He was not going to listen to God, as a matter of fact he had run from God, but things change in chapter 2.
And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.
God loved Jonah so much that he put him in timeout. He put him in the belly of the whale. Could you picture if you could do this to your kid. Hey you are not cleaning your room today so you are going to be in the belly of a whale.
But Jonah finally got it.
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish,
What an amazing God that will hear our prayers even when we rebel, or especially when we rebel.
Be Amazed 2. Repentance (Jonah 2:1–9)
As He dropped Jonah into the depths, God was reminding him of what the people of Nineveh were going through in their sinful condition: they were helpless and hopeless.
and he said,
“I called out of my distress to the Lord,
And He answered me.
I cried for help from the depth of Sheol;
You heard my voice.
Be Amazed 2. Repentance (Jonah 2:1–9)
God heard Jonah’s cries for help. Prayer is one of the constant miracles of the Christian life. To think that our God is so great He can hear the cries of millions of people at the same time and deal with their needs personally! A parent with two or three children often finds it impossible to meet all their needs all the time, but God is able to provide for all His children, no matter where they are or what their needs may be. “He who has learned to pray,” said William Law, “has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life.”
A broken life is a life that prays and a life that prays is dependent on God.
Today I want to talk about a life that is dependent on God.
A life dependent on God:
A life dependent on God:
1. understands the discipline of God (3).
1. understands the discipline of God (3).
“For You had cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the current engulfed me.
All Your breakers and billows passed over me.
Jonah did not haphazardly fall into the sea. God sent him into the sea. God commanded the fish, God sent the storm, God was disciplining him.
Application:
How do you respond to the discipline of God?
Be Amazed 2. Repentance (Jonah 2:1–9)
How we respond to discipline determines how much benefit we receive from it. According to Hebrews 12:5–11, we have several options: we can despise God’s discipline and fight (v. 5); we can be discouraged and faint (v. 5); we can resist discipline and invite stronger discipline, possibly even death (v. 9); or we can submit to the Father and mature in faith and love (v. 7). Discipline is to the believer what exercise and training are to the athlete (v. 11); it enables us to run the race with endurance and reach the assigned goal (vv. 1–2).
Aiden’s training this week. It was hard. Now cross country is not the sport he trains hard for. But he had a time trial this week. Heather and I got there and we have no clue what goes on in cross country but we are watching these runners come through, it was so hot we literally saw three runners stop about 100 yards before the finish line to throw up. This was at 7 in the morning.
Johnny-is the best runner on the team and he trains all year.
Before God does a great work through us he has to do a great work in us.
A life dependent on God:
A life dependent on God:
2. Trusts the promises of God (2:4-7).
2. Trusts the promises of God (2:4-7).
“So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight.
Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
You can’t go any further down than that.
The worst part about hell is not the torture of it. The worst part of it is you miss what you are created for to be connected to God.
We must gaze our eyes on God.
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
But even in this low estate we see Jonah had faith:
I will look again to your holy temple.
This whole time his eyes had been on himself but now he gazed upon Jesus.
Where are your eyes right now?
“Water encompassed me to the point of death.
The great deep engulfed me,
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
“I descended to the roots of the mountains.
The earth with its bars was around me forever,
But You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
We have to realize our state without God!
The Blessing of living Broken
Many times I think the reason we don’t live broken, we don’t live dependent is because we don’t think we need God. We want to be self sufficient. Here is what is crazy about self sufficiency. If you look at people who have the most money, fame are also so empty.
Deion Sanders story how he ended up on a bridge ready to drive off of it at the height of his fame.
He had it all but he really had nothing. Just like God showed Jonah what life is like without him he also showed Deion this.
Without God controlling our life this is our reality.
“While I was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
And my prayer came to You,
Into Your holy temple.
We have to remember God!
Isn’t it awesome that even when we forget God, he never forgets us!
Samson-
Story about church planting-hard!
A life dependent on God:
A life dependent on God:
3. yields to God (2:8-9).
3. yields to God (2:8-9).
Why do we respond to God?
Because of his unending Grace!
“Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
Grace is what saves us, and it is also the fuels that sustains us until we get to heaven.
Think of a time where you recieved grace. How did it make you feel.
God wants to give us so much grace that we can’t even handle it.
Look he confessed to God because of Grace, God I am forfeiting my intimacy with you because of my sin.
What were some of his sins?
Direct Disobedience-God told him one thing and he did the exact opposite.
Patriotism
Be Amazed 2. Repentance (Jonah 2:1–9)
One such idol was Jonah’s intense patriotism. He was so concerned for the safety and prosperity of his own nation that he refused to be God’s messenger to their enemies the Assyrians. We shall learn from chapter 4 that Jonah was also protecting his own reputation (4:2), for if God spared Nineveh, then Jonah would be branded a false prophet whose words of warning weren’t fulfilled. For somebody who was famous for his prophecies (2 Kings 14:25), this would be devastating.
You know I have seen this first hand-Watchdog ministry-Guys who had dropped out coming to church so they could carry a gun. Really great motivation for going to church.
What idols do you need to confess to God right now?
Confession is a big part of a dependent and broken life:
We don’t lose our salvation but we can lose our closeness.
Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving.
That which I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation is from the Lord.”
God wants your heart!
What I love about this broken prayer is that it turned into praise!
God does not want your time, treasure and talent as much as he wants you.
This changes EVERYTHING!
If God has you:
You will get to serve him
You will get to give
You will get to use your gifting for his glory.
Redemption
Redemption
Aren’t redemptive stories great, especially today when the news tends to be depressing at times.
The Bible is the ultimate story and this story even points to a bigger story.
Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.
Be Amazed 3. Redemption (Jonah 2:10)
“And [the fish] vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” What an ignominious way for a distinguished prophet to arrive on shore! In chapter 1, the sailors treated Jonah like dangerous cargo to be thrown overboard, and now he’s treated like a foreign substance to be disgorged from the fish’s body. But when Jonah ceased to be an obedient prophet, he cheapened himself, so he’s the one to blame. We can be sure that he was duly humbled as he once again stood on dry land.
We will see next week how Jonah responds to his brokenness.
Miracle-
Miracle-
Could God really have a fish swallow a man?
Sign-
Sign-
It points to Jesus
But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.
Application?
Are you living dependent on God right now?
Does your prayer life reflect dependence on God?I
Is it Going through the motions?
Is it non existent?
What is your plan this week to be dependent on God?
Cry out to him for the first time
Have time of confession this week.
Not doing it now-set aside 10 minutes each day this week to pray
Hour of prayer
I don’t want to just give you a check list to say I am dependent on God. As I reflected on God this week, my life RCC I was reminded
This week I challenged with living broken. Living a dependent life.
Nate are you going to embrace brokenness.
If you want to be the man you were going to be embrace it.
If you are going to be the husband I created you to be embrace it.
If you are going to be the Dad I created you to be embrace it.
If you are going to be the pastor I created you to be embrace it.
This week I want to challenge all of us to live Broken before God!