Sermon Tone Analysis

Jonah 2:1-10 “Running back to God”

page 633 in the softback pew Bibles.

Chapter 2 starts right there in my mind— I’m not sure who separated this, but it seems best to start it right there...

Jonah has been running in disobedience.

God sent a storm, the sailors panic, they don’t know what to do… Jonah says, “I know…” He’s thrown overboard; at just the moment… but God has a few more things planned.

God appoints a great fish to swallow him.

• You say, “Well, why is God doing this?” Isn’t the storm and this terrible swim enough!

Jonah did seem to come to his senses, he confesses what he knows to the sailors.

Winston Churchill once stated during the WWII Era:

“Never let a good crisis go to waste” I actually think God also never lets a good crisis go to waste— He has Jonah in the belly of a huge fish.

Can you imagine?

God is bringing Jonah back— but Jonah has a choice here, as we will see— and I want you to know that you have a choice also.

When we are running— and things have fallen apart— we have a choice.

I truly believe:

• God is not being mean, he is showing mercy.

• Like I told you last week, this was not God paying Jonah back for his sin; this was God bringing Jonah back from his sin.

• The same thing has happened to some of us; God is getting our attention.

“I’m sure he did”.

Universal Truth:

It’s never too late to pray.

That verse is action packed:

Where is Jonah?

Inside a fish.

What did he do?

He prayed.

Who did he pray to?

The Lord his God.

The same God he was running from— but now yes, he is coming back to God in prayer.—

In the digestive system of a great big Fish.

Not back when he was on the ship — not while he was back on the dry land at Joppa— Not back when he first heard the instructions God gave him..

These would have been GREAT times and places to pray— but thank God— it’s never too late to pray.

We are no different, right?

The sailors were no different.

When we find ourselves in the toughest positions, the most difficult of times, we pray.

This week, I was in a dental chair— I needed to have some pretty serious work done on one tooth.

It was NOT pleasant, and I prayed.

Lord, please hear me, give me some relief here...

Some of you are facing that kind of trouble right now.

Just like Jonah—maybe the circumstances of your life have caused you to stop running.

Sometimes it doesn’t really matter what you may believe about God— but the strain of the situation causes us to cry out to God— Just like Jonah:

What did he pray?

Today we will examine what Jonah actually concludes and prays from inside his mess.

Jonah 2:2 (NIV)

2 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.

Listen, it is never too late to pray— and God will always here the cries of his children.

Do we really believe that?

Sometimes I think we get this thing all backwards in our minds:

We think that we are good— God will hear us.

But when we are bad, God ignores us.

That is simply not true!

God will always hear our prayers, because he always loves us.

I can remember when our girls were little, I was honored to be the bedtime story, song, prayer guy.

I was blessed to connect with each one of them— one to one for just a couple minutes, and I remember one time I purposely asked Shannon, our oldest (she was maybe 10-11 years old), one day when I knew she had gotten into a little trouble— If she thought that I loved her more when she was good, or when she had been bad?

She was pretty quick to answer that she thought I would love her more when she was good.

But I set her up that night, because I stopped her and said — honey listen to me, Don’t you ever forget what I’m about to tell you— Your Daddy loves you the same both ways.

You can’t do anything that would ever make me love you more— or make me love you less.

I told her that that was exactly how God loves us— no matter what we’ve done.

God will always hear us, because he always loves us.

The miracle of prayer is not that we can talk to God— it’s that God is listening to us!

I don’t care if you’ve been in church your whole life, or this is the first church service you have been in in a while— I don’t know if you’re running from God, or you might be running back to God— If you feel like you are running away from God— you need to know that God is listening and he does hear you- Even in the depth of your pain and your despair.

I thought it was the sailors?

No— ultimately it was God.

God will get our attention!

Often times in my life, I’ve run away, and I’ve gotten myself into some deep pits.

But when I’ve looked back, I’ve always been able to see his hand guiding me.

His presence going before me, even when I didn’t even know it.

Like those footprints in the sand, right?

“Redeeming is what God is into.

He is the finder of direction-ally challenged sheep, the searcher of missing coins, the embracer of foolish prodigal children.

God’s favorite department is the “lost and found” department.” - John Ortberg

No matter how lost you may feel— I want you to know and never forget:

God’s grace is guaranteed.

Jonah had done a lot of “going down”.

But finally he starts to “look up”— check out our next part of the prayer:

Hi went down to Joppa

He went down to the hull of the ship to sleep

He went down, down, down— To the roots of the mountains.

That’s pretty low.

I looked it up, and the deepest part of the Mediterranean sea is over 17,000 feet deep.

Whose to say if this fish went all the way to the bottom— we can’t know, but either way-- I have a very strong fear of deep water.

Anyone else?

Just like Jonah— any time you and I run away from God— our life will only go down.

Maybe even 17,000 feet down.

We can’t even imagine how deep that is— The closest thing we can visualize is to see a mountain top that is about 17,000 feet high: Well that’s the case for Mount Foraker in Alaska:

But catch the last part of that verse:

Jonah 2:4 (NIV)

4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’

Why did he say that?

Solomon actually built the temple Jonah is speaking about.

It’s God’s holy temple in Jerusalem!

And when Solomon built this temple— he speaks some really interesting and powerful words at the dedication ceremony:

Jonah is running back to God, he is truly repenting here.

My prayer rose to you and your holy Temple— Not to Tarshish any more— but to the temple.

My eyes and my prayers aren’t toward Tarshish anymore— they are toward you God.

He goes on:

You know—Maybe your experience in childhood is similar to mine... when I was a young man, I could be a real rascal.

Yes, even me… I was so smart, I could get myself into some real trouble.

And with my Dad out working, my Mom was often the chief disciplinarian.

And she would spank me.