Sermon Tone Analysis

A Prayer of Repentance

Rev. Thomas A. West, Sr

January 9, 2022

Scripture: Jonah 2:1–10

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Introduction

In 1969, in Pass Christian, Mississippi, a group of people were preparing to have a "hurricane party" in the face of a storm named Camille.

Were they ignorant of the dangers?

Could they have been overconfident?

Did they let their egos and pride influence their decision?

We'll never know.

What we do know is that the wind was howling outside the posh Richelieu Apartments when Police Chief pulled up sometime after dark.

Facing the Beach less than 250 feet from the surf, the apartments were directly in the line of danger.

A man with a drink in his hand came out to the second-floor balcony and waved.

The chief yelled up, "You all need to clear out of here as quickly as you can.

The storm's getting worse."

But as others joined the man on the balcony, they just laughed at Chief's order to leave.

"This is my land," one of them yelled back.

"If you want me off, you'll have to arrest me."

The Chief didn't arrest anyone, but he wasn't able to persuade them to leave either.

He wrote down the names of the next of kin of the twenty or so people who gathered there to party through the storm.

They laughed as he took their names.

They had been warned, but they had no intention of leaving.

It was 10:15 p.m. when the front wall of the storm came ashore.

Scientists clocked Camille's wind speed at more than 205 miles-per-hour, the strongest on record.

Raindrops hit with the force of bullets, and waves off the Gulf Coast crested between twenty-two and twenty-eight feet high.

News reports later showed that the worst damage came at the little settlement of motels, go-go bars, and gambling houses known as Pass Christian, Mississippi, where some twenty people were killed at a hurricane party in the Richelieu Apartments.

Nothing was left of that three-story structure but the foundation; the only survivor was a five-year-old boy found clinging to a mattress the following day.

http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/a/arrogance.htm

Disobedience, coupled with arrogance can be a deadly combination.

The title for today’s message is “A Prayer of Repentance”

Our Scripture is taken from: Jonah 2:1-10 {{ Play recording }}

Main Text

Many people today claim to be Christians but dishonor the name of Christ.

When this takes place, God deals with us.

He will not let us continue in rebellion as His children, for He wants us to share in His righteousness and holiness (Heb.

12:7–11).

Maybe you haven’t heard of this disobedient man named Jonah.

You see, ….

Jonah was a prophet of God, and he carried all the rights and responsibilities that went with that position.

God gave him the task of proclaiming God’s message to the people of Nineveh, yet Jonah ran in the opposite direction.

Jonah brought dishonor to his office, and God dealt with him.

Not many things would inspire humility more than being in the belly of a fish.

God will get our attention, but He will also give us a second chance just as He did with Jonah.

Jonah is the story of a reluctant prophet and the God of second chances.

Throughout the Bible we see famous and well-known prayers, such as the Lord’s Prayer (Matt.

6:9–13), Solomon’s prayer dedicating the temple (2 Chron.

6:12–42), as well as Jesus’ high priestly prayer (John 17).

But in Jonah chapter two we see that Jonah prays and God responds.

This prayer is often overlooked but it has very descriptive elements of prayer and repentance.

As we look at it, there are four things we can clearly learn through Jonah’s prayer from the fish’s belly.

1. Prayer must be an honest cry for God’s help (vv.

1–2).

2. Prayer must include acceptance of God’s discipline and the believer’s repentance (vv.

3–4).

3. Prayer must be characterized by trust and thanksgiving (vv.

5–7, 9).

4. Prayer must be from a heart that is sacrificially yielded to God’s will (vv.

8–9).

Walk with me as we look at these four lessons we all need to learn.

Lesson One …

1. Prayer must be an honest cry for God’s help (vv.

1–2).

Encased within the fish’s belly, Jonah finds himself in a most foul and disgusting environment.

God now has Jonah’s attention, and Jonah begins to pray, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice” (v.

2).

In agony, Jonah feels that he is at the point of death and that death surrounds him.

His prayer is not a casual one but one that erupts from the core of Jonah’s being.

There is no room now for pretense or pretending; Jonah is now ready to be honest with God as he cries out in anguish and desperation.

And Jonah tells us that the result is that God heard him.

If Jonah can pray from the belly of a fish, then regardless of our circumstances, whether self-inflicted or unforeseen, we too can pray.

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Wherever we are, in whatever difficult, challenging, or even tragic circumstances, we can pray.

And God is there to help us.

In times of failure, we might be tempted to reason away or even rationalize our wrong actions.

Often we take the tact of thinking, I want to get my act together, and then I will pray to God.

Can you say WRONG?

Jonah tells us that it doesn’t work that way!

We need to honestly pray to God during our affliction because only God can cleanse and save us.

We must admit our failure to God and our helplessness to save ourselves, throwing ourselves completely upon His mercy, and admitting our dependence upon His deliverance and grace.

This is a crucial beginning point for prayer: “God, I need you.

I need your help.

I cannot do it by myself.”

Because of our human pride, even as Christians, this can be a very difficult admission to make.

But all of us will face something in our lifetimes that even in our God-given abilities, we cannot handle.

Whether brought about by our own choices, our own failures or by the hardships of this life, in such times we must humbly and honestly ask God for help.

Our second lesson for today is …

2. Prayer must include acceptance of God’s discipline and the believer’s repentance (vv.

3–4).

The first chapter of Jonah shows the prophet in rebellion and God’s severe response: Jonah is on a ship; a mighty storm comes up; Jonah is thrown overboard by his shipmates; and the storm immediately stops.

Then a fish swallows Jonah, and Jonah is at death’s door.

Jonah views all of these events as coming directly from the hand of God and he was right.

God wanted to get Jonah’s attention, and He knew how to get it.

Jonah accepted God’s discipline by repenting.

He declared, “I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple” (v.

4).

Jonah strayed from the presence of the Lord.

He was not just running away from circumstances; he was running away from God. God wanted Jonah to look to His Holy Temple.

The Holy Temple represented the very presence and being of God.

When Jonah looked to the Holy Temple, he displayed repentance.

Jonah stopped running and began seeking God’s presence.

Because of His deep love for us, God will be as gentle as He can be but as tough as He needs to be in order to reprove and correct us.

As dangerous and intolerable as being lost at sea or being swallowed by a fish was, it would have been far worse for Jonah to continue his life in rebellion to His God.

Some of us are stubborn, prideful, and arrogant.

Obviously it would be better to have a soft heart that is sensitive to God’s reproof and easily repents instead of a hard heart that requires stronger correction.

God does not correct us out of His wrath but out of His love; being disciplined by the hand of God is a clear indication that we are His children.

Because not one of us is perfect, repentance should be a part of every Christian’s daily life.

When we falter, let us resist the urge to cover up our wrong.

Let us instead quickly respond in repentance to God’s reproof and correction so that He can cleanse us.