We
saw in our study last time: God said to Jonah – Go ! when God said to Jonah Go
– Jonah said NO
A)He ran : Jonah was running from God. – That
is such a stupid thing to do
B) Ever thought How far do
you have to go in order to run from God?
1)
Psalm
139 The Psalmist answers the question: V :7-10
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
C) HE
IS EVERYWHERE: The theological
term – He is Omni Present
D) You move to
1) That Saying:
Feel far from God? Who moved? Answer is no one – you just feel far
from God.
Jonah
runs to Joppa God is there – on a boat God is there
A)God is after Jonah Why? He
had other guys{ Hosea / Amos/ Isaiah
B)wanting to do a work not
just THRU JONAH but IN JONAH
C)So God is not going to let
go of Jonah so easily!
Trying
to get Jonah’s attention: How?
1)
Storm – Big one Sailors were afraid. { Jonah’s asleep – tune out turn off
2)
Captain { Arise
3)
Cast lots – Falls on Jonah
4)
Throw me over board - Storm stops God prepares a fish !
Prepared means appointed called out
Stop
Pastor: I have a problem with this: How could a fish swallow a man!
A)Well
the sperm whale and the Shark whale both have stomach’s that are about 7ft wide
/ 14 ft long – 6 ft high
B) That is big enough for
Jonah to have 4 friends over for Pizza and have
someone serve them.
1)
Found Sperm whales and shark whales – that have had horses in their stomach’s –
one Sperm whale swallowed a 15ft shark
C)
How could someone survive that? Has that ever happened before? James Bartley
1)
Dog in the nasal cavity
D)But here is the other
thing you must consider:
1)
In order to believe in Jesus you have to believe in the story of Jonah? Really?
“ But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous
generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign
of the prophet Jonah . For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly
of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth.”
See
Jesus quotes the story of Jonah as an historical fact that really happened. So
Jesus either is lying or he knows what he is talking about.
A)Believe in Jesus believe
the story of Jonah!
B) SO we left off with Jonah
in the Belly of the big fish. – 3 days and 3 nights
If
God did up a brochure for this trip
it might have read
“Club Med 3 day whale watching adventure” - Large spacious
room. Guaranteed warm water provided. Listen to waves like they’re lapping
right around you. All the seafood you can eat. Seaweed provided for “do it
yourself sushi wraps” come share all the fragrance of the ocean.
C)
But this was not a Club Med Carnival cruise – but rather a Time out ! – Why?
1)
It is time for Jonah to be still!
D)
Time for Jonah to deal with his heart!
See
God wants Jonah to consider what he is doing. Jonah said God I don’t want your
will for my life. RAN!!!!
A)Folks
that is such a dumb thing to say: Sure you are the maker & sustainer of the
Universe.
All
Powerful / All Knowing/ Perfect in your Judgments
B) But God I know better
than you what is best for my life.
C) When
My kids act that way: After I spanked them I sometimes give them a time
out.
1) I would say something like – Go to your room
and think about what you just said
D)Think about your actions /
think about your comments / think about your attitude.
1)Almost every time – they eventually come out –
saying: I was wrong I am sorry
E) I remember my Dad saying
a few times – You might get bigger but you will never be stronger.
1)
Now go and think about that.
1)
Now go and think about that.
God
could have rescued Jonah in any number of ways. He chose this specific way
because of the effect it would have on Jonah’s heart.
A)The
time out is going to be a timed trial in
Jonah’s life that will wake up his heart.
B)Q: How did these terrifying events affect Jonah’s attitude toward God?
From “I don’t need
you!” to I need
you badly...Help!”
C)Jonah finally cries out to the Lord. Not in the Storm /
Captains words
1) Not when the
Finally in the belly of the fish.
E) This is
what God wanted.
It
is at our greatest weakness & helplessness that we realize our need for God
most clearly
A) One of the things that
affliction often does is it drives us to the Lord.
B)
Often times that
is it’s sole purpose.
1)When things are going good, we don’t need God, we
don’t need to pray / don’t need fellowship / Church
C)We think that we are doing just fine on our own.
1)And so what does God
is: he allows affliction to come into
our lives & that drives us back to Him.
D)
See God wants us to be in fellowship with Him. 1)He
wants us to be close to Him, in communion with Him.
That is how we function best.
E) So if we move away from that, God allows
affliction to come in to drive us back to Him.
1) God
uses affliction to bring us to our senses so that we will realize the hell
that life can be without him
See
God knows that there is a real place where People go who say: God I don’t
want your will. I don’t want anything to do with you.
A) Now if a person says that
long enough God will say – Ok – I will let you go to that place
B) With Jonah God gives him
a taste of that place.
C)Notice
how Jonah describes his situation
V.2 Describes it as being in
the Belly of Sheol – Hell / the grave
C) The Temp in a whale
stomach is around 98.6 degrees –hot humid
1) Stinks Rotting fish
D) Hell has some of those
same distinctions!
1) really Hot – Burning but
don’t burn up
2) Stinks Burning sulfur –
Rotten eggs
#2
V.4 Jonah describes himself as being cast out of God’s Presence
A)That really describes the
worst part about Hell – Separated from God
B) #3
V.5 He describes the waters as pressing in around his soul- the deep closing in
around him.
1)
The Description of being pressed.
C) The Bible describes Hell
as a place of outer darkness – so dark you can feel it – pressing in around you
– closed in
1)
So dark can’t see your hand.
#4
V.6 The earth with it’s bars or bolts closed behind me forever.
A)Describing
a situation in which there is no way out!
B)Jonah here is what happens
to people who resist me – they end up in Hell – you want to know what that is
like
Hot:
Stinky
Dark
Add: memory {Every Sermon
Repent or you need to change
For all of eternity
Homework
assignment: Big Box – Find a way to Hot -
Lamp shinning down
Rotten
eggs – Boom Box – repeat message
Friend:
Pain Water muriatic acid – splash on your face.
Now I am not
trying to make light of this – but saying says – sometimes a little sugar helps
the medicine go down
A)See
People around us are going to hell – Maybe this might motivate some of us to
get serious about the Lord
B)
God uses this in Jonah’s life as a wake up call.
C)V.4 I have been cast out of Your sight: Jonah is thinking did I go too far.
D)Some of you here today:
Been wondering the same thing – Have I gone to far?
1) Jonah
answers that question for us. V.7 / V.2
7 "When my soul
fainted within me,
I remembered the LORD;
And my prayer went up
to You,
Into Your holy temple.
V.2 "I cried out
to the LORD because of my affliction,
And He answered me.
When
did Jonah remember: When did he cry out?
A)Day one / Day 3 – first
hour – we are not sure –
B) But when Jonah remembered
the Lord and cried out to the Lord the Lord answered Jonah
C)This
is what is great about this is that when Jonah did cry out in his affliction,
God answered him.
1) When
Johan cried out from the belly of hell, God heard his voice.
D)Notice
that God didn’t say, now you
need my help, well forget you.
1) If you think
that I am going to come to your aid after you willfully disobeyed Me and ran
from Me, you have got another thing coming”.
E) We might have
reacted that way: But with Jonah this is what God was waiting for.
1) Broken
& contrite heart he will not despise.
God is so patient
– Mercies are new every morning – can’t exhaust.
A)Jonah
contrast that with those who lean on other Gods in v.8
8 "Those who regard
worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy.
B)People
Cry out to other gods – Money Sex / Cocaine
C)What Jonah is saying
here is that idols never come through with what they promise.
1) When the chips
are down, an idol is just something with eyes that can’t see and ears that can’t hear and a mouth that can’t speak.
D)They
are forsaking their own mercy – they are forsaking the mercy that is available
to us from the Lord
E)His Mercies are new every
morning/ can’t exhaust.
Now
does that mean we want to sin & keep sinning because grace abounds
A)Paul
answered that question in
What shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How
shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
3 Or do you not
know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
His death?
4 Therefore we
were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life.
B) Sooner than
later the mercy of God needs to lead us to that place of commitment –
1)
Surrender – that place where we decide – God Knows best and I need to trust
him. { Follow Him
Jonah comes to
that Place: V.9 I
will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving : I will pay or honor my
vow
A)Jonah had made a vow as a
prophet of the Lord – to do his will – to speak his name.
B) He was running from that
– but now he was ready to resume that
1)
We made a similar vow – Forsaking the world – follower of Christ
C)Listen you want
God to be merciful to you You have to take Personal responsibility for your
sin.
1) Broken and contrite heart God will not despise.
D)The moment Jonah prays –
God says ok – trial over – RD V.10
1) God Instructs the whale
to vomit Jonah up on the beach.
Time
out for a timed trial but there is also a Timed release – Trial is over mission
accomplished.
A)Bible doesn’t pull any
punches – Whale vomit – doesn’t expedite Jonah like he did Phillip -
B) Whale the urge to
regurge.
C)The Bible doesn’t try to
candy coat things { God is working in Jonah
Use for his effectiveness
- Wow quite a site – the people of
Weeping endures for a night
but Joy comes in the morning.
One thing that this story teaches us is that
we need to learn to pray in the face of failure.
A)Sometimes that is the last thing that we
want to do.
We feel like we have no right to call upon God
B) Condemnation: We feel like
God won’t listen. Have you been there?
C)But you see,
one of the things the story of Jonah teaches us is that if an unattractive, unsympathetic, disobedient character
like Jonah could pray and be
heard in the midst of his failure,
D) then we can
pray and be heard in the midst of our failure.
1) That’s the grace of God in action: God giving us what we don’t deserve.
Now Another thing that is really good to do in our
prayers is to remember the pit that God brought us out of. For two reasons
A)First because it reminds you of the progress that
God has made in your life.
B) It might not seem
like God is doing much in your life
1) but then you look back and you see
how far He has brought you,
2) you see how He
has changed your lifestyle and your priorities.
C) You see how he
has changed
the way you think and the way that you treat other people.
1)You see the way
that He has changed
the way you are viewing your future. It’s the most amazing thing.
2)And then you realize that He isn’t done yet. {
Hope
The 2nd thing this does is that it
helps you realize that what God has done for you, He can do for any one.
A)If God can lift
you out of the pit that you got yourself in, then
God can lift them out of their pit as well.
B)That’s
a perspective that we really need.
1) That’s the perspective that gives us faith for
those who have no faith.
C)See One of the things that God loves
to do is to rescue people out of the pits we get
ourselves into.
D)He loves to
take us from the place where we are consumed by self and move us to place where we call Him
Our Lord and our God.
E) That’s His
specialty.
Listen
are you in your own little hell today ? Do what Jonah does and Bend the Knee
and repent.
Today you will either move towards the Lord, or move away from Him…Q: which was it?
It’s
God nature to seek those who run
from Him, & to save those who turn
to Him.
"for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was
lost."
If God owned a Tee-shirt I believe on the front it would say “Search” & on the back it would say “Rescue”! (Search & Rescue)