WEBVTT 00:00:03.789 --> 00:00:07.057 Our service series is Jonah embracing God's mission. 00:00:07.057 --> 00:00:21.030 If you want to turn there to chapter two, we're gonna be reading from there today and Tyler did a great job last week of opening this up to us and helping us to see the big picture of Jonah and what was going on and starting this series out. 00:00:21.030 --> 00:00:24.266 So Jonah is a book about a lot of things. 00:00:24.266 --> 00:00:29.842 You could think of it as the book of running from God, but it's not really that. 00:00:29.842 --> 00:00:37.628 Only it's about a God who gives second chances and Jonah is not really the hero of the book. 00:00:37.628 --> 00:00:39.767 God is the hero of this book, right. 00:00:39.767 --> 00:00:54.329 It's about the state of your heart toward God and toward people and, most of all, it's really about mission that God really wants to join us together in co-working together with him for his purposes on earth. 00:00:54.329 --> 00:00:55.953 And that's what's going on. 00:00:55.953 --> 00:00:59.350 And Jonah's unique, as Tyler pointed out last week. 00:00:59.350 --> 00:01:13.609 Jonah is very unique in the sense that most of the prophetic books are really about the words of the prophets, the messages that the prophets gave to the people they were going to, but Jonah is really mostly a story. 00:01:13.609 --> 00:01:20.051 It's mostly a story of what happened to him, but also in this chapter we hear his words. 00:01:20.051 --> 00:01:26.524 He was given a really short message only five words in the Hebrew, to speak to Nineveh. 00:01:26.524 --> 00:01:32.805 But he speaks a lot in this one chapter, so these are his words. 00:01:32.805 --> 00:01:39.069 So if we can just read, we're gonna start from verse 15 of chapter one and read through chapter two. 00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:45.668 So they picked up Jonah and they hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 00:01:45.668 --> 00:02:04.444 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows, and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 00:02:04.444 --> 00:02:15.903 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish, saying I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me. 00:02:15.903 --> 00:02:27.268 Out of the belly of Sheol, I cried and you heard my voice, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. 00:02:27.268 --> 00:02:30.188 All your waves and billows passed over me. 00:02:30.188 --> 00:02:37.131 Then I said I'm driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. 00:02:37.131 --> 00:02:43.046 The waters closed in over me to take my life and the deep surrounded me. 00:02:43.046 --> 00:02:47.846 Weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. 00:02:47.846 --> 00:02:53.512 I went down to the land, whose bars closed upon me forever. 00:02:53.512 --> 00:02:57.153 Yet you brought up my life from the pit. 00:02:57.153 --> 00:03:07.086 Oh Lord, my God, when my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:14.990 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 00:03:14.990 --> 00:03:22.888 But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay. 00:03:22.888 --> 00:03:33.030 Salvation belongs to the Lord, and the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. 00:03:33.030 --> 00:03:41.907 So, father, we thank you so much for your word, which is alive and powerful and always does what you send it to do. 00:03:41.907 --> 00:03:54.487 Lord, we're asking you, in Jesus' name, that your spirit would speak to us, god, each of us in different places, lord, different circumstances, in different states of a heart, lord, here this morning. 00:03:54.487 --> 00:04:01.506 But you care about every circumstance and every person and you know how to speak directly to us. 00:04:01.506 --> 00:04:06.323 We're asking you you would do that from your word in the name of Jesus. 00:04:06.323 --> 00:04:09.080 Amen, all right. 00:04:09.122 --> 00:04:10.747 So Jonah had been called by God. 00:04:10.747 --> 00:04:17.569 He heard the voice of God specifically telling him to go to Nineveh and preach repentance. 00:04:17.569 --> 00:04:23.011 So only one problem he hated those people. 00:04:23.011 --> 00:04:27.788 He hated those people. 00:04:27.788 --> 00:04:36.451 So apparently he thought if he didn't preach to them then they wouldn't repent and they wouldn't be saved. 00:04:36.451 --> 00:04:40.649 Isn't that kind of a twisted way to think? 00:04:40.649 --> 00:04:42.392 But that's okay with him. 00:04:42.392 --> 00:04:56.009 It was fine with him if they didn't repent, if they were destroyed, it was okay, because the Assyrians were terrible enemies of longtime enemies of Israel and they were really wicked people, cruel people. 00:04:56.009 --> 00:05:04.310 And Jonah's thinking hey, kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall, just let the kingdom fall, it's all right. 00:05:04.310 --> 00:05:08.550 But here God has a different idea. 00:05:08.550 --> 00:05:23.867 God is dealing graciously with a very wicked people in Jonah's generation, and Jonah was called upon to be the very voice that would change things for them. 00:05:23.867 --> 00:05:25.766 They would call them to repentance. 00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:37.605 How exciting would that be if God's called you to be a voice to this city and through the city, to an entire nation, to call them back to God. 00:05:37.605 --> 00:05:39.264 What if you got that call from God? 00:05:39.264 --> 00:05:40.829 What would you do? 00:05:40.829 --> 00:05:43.584 Would you be excited about that? 00:05:43.584 --> 00:05:47.365 Do you think that would be a great story to tell your grandkids, wouldn't it? 00:05:47.365 --> 00:05:54.625 At that time I've preached, and the whole city came to God, the whole nation returned to God. 00:05:54.625 --> 00:05:56.403 That's a great story. 00:05:56.403 --> 00:06:00.586 Well, maybe we jumped the chance to that. 00:06:00.586 --> 00:06:02.644 Maybe we wouldn't, maybe we'd be like Jonah. 00:06:02.644 --> 00:06:15.269 Maybe there's some kind of fear inside of us or insecurity, or some kind of hatred inside of us, some kind of political disposition inside of us that would keep us from doing that. 00:06:15.269 --> 00:06:15.682 I don't know. 00:06:15.682 --> 00:06:19.507 I've never had the opportunity yet, so I don't know what I would do. 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:28.809 But the prophet, his job is to hear the voice of God and to speak the words of God to the people. 00:06:28.809 --> 00:06:33.490 And the word of God is precious to the prophet. 00:06:33.490 --> 00:06:39.149 The word of God is like the very commodity, the very stuff of their trade right. 00:06:39.149 --> 00:06:42.048 This is what they use. 00:06:42.048 --> 00:06:49.788 The word of God is what they use to fulfill their purpose, and they step into the purpose of God. 00:06:49.788 --> 00:06:52.367 When the word of God comes, they have a purpose. 00:06:52.367 --> 00:06:54.225 And it came to Jonah. 00:06:54.225 --> 00:06:57.663 But Jonah Went the other way. 00:06:57.983 --> 00:07:05.011 God said go east, jonah went west, he went away from the presence of the Lord. 00:07:05.011 --> 00:07:13.788 So last week Tyler told us that God said go and Jonah said no. 00:07:13.788 --> 00:07:16.725 That's cute, I like that. 00:07:16.725 --> 00:07:22.771 But I was looking in this chapter here and I saw that it kind of went a little further. 00:07:22.771 --> 00:07:27.449 God said go, jonah said no and God said oh. 00:07:27.449 --> 00:07:36.266 So Jonah said yo and the sailor said let's go. 00:07:36.266 --> 00:07:45.223 And the wind said blow and the sailor said oh, no, row, row, row, bro. 00:07:45.223 --> 00:07:46.541 The. 00:07:46.541 --> 00:07:48.127 Jonah said overthrow. 00:07:48.127 --> 00:07:52.887 And they said no, row, row, row, row. 00:07:52.887 --> 00:07:55.966 Oh, no, overthrow. 00:07:55.966 --> 00:08:00.372 And the fish said hello. 00:08:00.372 --> 00:08:04.146 And Jonah said whoa. 00:08:04.146 --> 00:08:08.387 And the fish said up, throw. 00:08:08.387 --> 00:08:16.067 And then God said go, we're by. 00:08:16.067 --> 00:08:23.562 Back around again, right, what do you do? 00:08:23.822 --> 00:08:25.807 God calls Jonah east, he goes west. 00:08:25.807 --> 00:08:27.232 Why would a prophet do that? 00:08:27.232 --> 00:08:30.485 We're not really told yet. 00:08:30.485 --> 00:08:34.705 We will be told in a sermon Coming to you soon. 00:08:34.705 --> 00:08:38.299 We will be told why he ran away. 00:08:38.299 --> 00:08:40.546 He's going the other direction. 00:08:40.546 --> 00:08:45.625 In fact, nineveh to Tarshish is about New York to Los Angeles. 00:08:45.625 --> 00:08:49.129 It's a long ways in his day, it's a long ways. 00:08:49.129 --> 00:08:52.428 That's the very start of his problems, right? 00:08:52.428 --> 00:08:56.763 So here's my question to you what are you running from that you should be running to? 00:08:56.763 --> 00:09:03.668 Is there something you're running from Now you should be running to? 00:09:03.668 --> 00:09:10.629 You should be turning like like 180, going directly in the other direction. 00:09:10.629 --> 00:09:19.409 Is there something the Lord knows and he and you probably know, and if you don't, he'll let you know. 00:09:19.409 --> 00:09:21.361 So don't? 00:09:21.422 --> 00:09:23.086 Jonah is asleep in the storm. 00:09:23.086 --> 00:09:24.327 And a very strange thing. 00:09:24.327 --> 00:09:29.629 The pagan sailors, who didn't know God at all, serve these little gods that are no gods. 00:09:29.629 --> 00:09:34.340 These pagan sailors were more sensitive to spiritual things than even Jonah was. 00:09:34.340 --> 00:09:40.533 They caught the situation and Jonah did not keep keep, catch it right. 00:09:40.533 --> 00:09:42.965 So what's going on? 00:09:42.965 --> 00:09:46.192 Could you, you know, wake up, pray to your God, do something. 00:09:46.192 --> 00:09:51.721 And Jonah says hey, just it sits me, kill me, kill me. 00:09:51.721 --> 00:09:54.610 It's the first of three kill me's in this book. 00:09:54.610 --> 00:09:57.950 There's a something going on side of Jonah. 00:09:57.950 --> 00:10:02.767 He'd rather die Than do what God called him to do. 00:10:02.767 --> 00:10:12.919 So the sailors, even to the end Excuse me are repenting and fearing God when they throw Jonah overboard. 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:20.648 But when they do that, the storm ceases, the winds die down and they even sacrifice to the Lord. 00:10:20.648 --> 00:10:23.200 They actually like they turn to God. 00:10:23.200 --> 00:10:27.972 Jonah didn't even really preach much to them. 00:10:27.972 --> 00:10:30.399 He told them who he was, but they turned to God. 00:10:30.418 --> 00:10:35.988 And Then here it says the Lord appointed a great fish. 00:10:35.988 --> 00:11:04.668 And Another version will say and this word also means but pointed, it could mean prepared the Lord prepared a great fish, he prepared a situation, he prepared circumstances, he had a contingency plan plan, you could say for this prophet who was running away and so he prepared this fish and he prepared circumstances for us to, by the way, for our salvation. 00:11:04.668 --> 00:11:17.528 This didn't look like salvation, but it was Jonah's salvation and he prepared circumstances for our salvation and for our sanctification so that his purposes are completed. 00:11:17.528 --> 00:11:24.529 Mm-hmm, excuse me, it wasn't pleasant, but it was Jonah's way of salvation, appointed by God. 00:11:24.529 --> 00:11:25.493 What was this great fish? 00:11:25.493 --> 00:11:29.527 Well, we don't know what kind of fish it was. 00:11:29.527 --> 00:11:31.511 Maybe it was a kind of fish that's already gone, extinct. 00:11:31.511 --> 00:11:35.571 Maybe it was kind of fish that God only created one of them and it's all he needed. 00:11:35.571 --> 00:11:36.172 Who knows? 00:11:36.172 --> 00:11:37.563 We don't know for sure. 00:11:37.563 --> 00:11:38.989 We just know that it happened right. 00:11:41.043 --> 00:11:45.187 But this is interesting to me there's no, no voice from Jonah. 00:11:45.187 --> 00:11:46.770 No prayer from Jonah. 00:11:46.770 --> 00:11:51.644 Up to this point, no prayer at all. 00:11:51.644 --> 00:11:56.125 He did not say a word when God called him, he just left. 00:11:56.125 --> 00:11:58.546 He did not lift a prayer. 00:11:58.546 --> 00:12:01.423 When the storm came, he did not lift a prayer. 00:12:01.423 --> 00:12:06.604 When the so sailors came and said pray to your God, he didn't pray. 00:12:07.642 --> 00:12:10.565 Why would a prophet not pray? 00:12:10.565 --> 00:12:15.993 Why would a man of God not turn to God, especially in that situation? 00:12:15.993 --> 00:12:22.211 If you step into Jonah's shoes Thank you sir what would you find? 00:12:22.211 --> 00:12:28.634 And if you step into Jonah's heart that's what we really want to try to do that what's in his heart. 00:12:28.634 --> 00:12:32.025 If we could, like, get in there, what would we see? 00:12:32.025 --> 00:12:39.067 And what we see is Jonah hates God for loving his enemies. 00:12:39.067 --> 00:12:54.114 He's got so much prejudice and hate and stubbornness and rebellion and scheming in his heart. 00:12:54.114 --> 00:13:00.206 Can a man of God have that in his heart? 00:13:00.206 --> 00:13:06.625 Yeah, yeah, it's possible. 00:13:07.047 --> 00:13:12.379 This is why the scripture says guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life. 00:13:12.379 --> 00:13:15.366 Guard your heart because it affects everything you do. 00:13:15.366 --> 00:13:21.284 And Jesus said the good things out of the good Treasure of a good heart. 00:13:21.284 --> 00:13:25.335 A good man brings forth good things out of the evil treasure of an evil heart. 00:13:25.335 --> 00:13:27.399 An evil man brings forth evil things. 00:13:27.399 --> 00:13:29.413 So watch your heart. 00:13:29.413 --> 00:13:30.419 It affects everything you do. 00:13:30.419 --> 00:13:33.470 We have to watch that. 00:13:34.894 --> 00:13:46.096 And when you don't want people to repent and receive mercy, that is deep seated hatred, hatred in the heart of a man of God. 00:13:46.096 --> 00:13:55.419 But it's not just a man, because the man is a picture of a nation, because this is what. 00:13:55.419 --> 00:13:57.419 This is what Israel was supposed to be. 00:13:57.419 --> 00:13:58.874 This is what Israel was supposed to be. 00:13:58.874 --> 00:14:02.688 Israel was called to be a blessing to the nations. 00:14:02.688 --> 00:14:08.932 God called Aram and he said you will be a blessing to nations. 00:14:08.932 --> 00:14:11.539 Out of you shall all the nations of the world be blessed. 00:14:11.539 --> 00:14:20.539 And Israel's call was to be a chosen people of God, to know God and then to make him known, the true, living God, to make him known among all nations. 00:14:20.539 --> 00:14:22.025 But they weren't doing it. 00:14:22.025 --> 00:14:24.365 They were doing the opposite of it. 00:14:24.365 --> 00:14:31.791 And so Jonah was just a living symbol of a national disgrace of Israel. 00:14:34.182 --> 00:14:47.273 And the irony of it all is that Nineveh repented While Israel, god's people, served God superficially, but they also served idols at the same time. 00:14:47.273 --> 00:14:58.543 So Jonah's a picture of Israel, and Jonah's heart is full of prejudice and bitterness, and he's suicidal. 00:14:58.543 --> 00:15:04.607 And in fact he's the only one in the story that resists God. 00:15:04.607 --> 00:15:09.188 The pagan sailors do not resist God. 00:15:09.188 --> 00:15:12.168 The elements of the wind that don't resist God. 00:15:12.168 --> 00:15:13.803 The fish does not resist God. 00:15:13.803 --> 00:15:17.009 The king of Nineveh doesn't resist God. 00:15:17.009 --> 00:15:19.230 The people of Nineveh don't resist God. 00:15:19.230 --> 00:15:21.827 The cows of Nineveh don't resist God. 00:15:21.827 --> 00:15:32.004 You're in bad spiritual shape when the cows are more sensitive to God than you are Really bad shape. 00:15:34.539 --> 00:15:35.864 Jonah was the one who needed mercy. 00:15:35.864 --> 00:15:42.667 Jonah's called to preach mercy, but he's the one that needed mercy. 00:15:42.667 --> 00:15:52.270 Is there anyone that you can think of whom you would just as soon see suffer the judgment of God? 00:15:52.270 --> 00:15:58.610 I mean, if they suffer, you'd kind of be glad, because they deserve it. 00:15:58.610 --> 00:16:01.065 They deserve justice. 00:16:01.065 --> 00:16:04.345 If they get it, it's fine. 00:16:04.345 --> 00:16:13.751 And who are we to decide who deserves justice or who deserves mercy? 00:16:13.751 --> 00:16:16.025 This is what's amazing. 00:16:16.025 --> 00:16:20.368 God decides to give his mercy to everyone. 00:16:20.368 --> 00:16:23.985 In this story, he extends it to everyone. 00:16:23.985 --> 00:16:37.091 If you've got that heart that you want to see people suffer the judgment of God, that's a heart sickness that God wants to deal with today. 00:16:37.091 --> 00:16:39.265 He wants to address it and heal it today. 00:16:40.779 --> 00:16:49.488 So it seems that Jonah is so stubborn that he was in the belly of the fish for three days before he even prayed, which really is kind of amazing to me. 00:16:49.488 --> 00:16:52.528 I mean, I think I don't know what I'd do. 00:16:52.528 --> 00:16:53.049 I don't know. 00:16:53.049 --> 00:16:55.025 We don't know what's in our heart. 00:16:55.025 --> 00:16:57.226 Right, what would we do in a situation like that? 00:16:57.226 --> 00:17:12.109 But I feel like I just feel like if, when I'm swallowed, I'm praying, I feel like that's what I would do, and then it's like, because it's it, I'm done, I'm toast. 00:17:12.109 --> 00:17:19.767 But then I realize I'm not toast, I'm living in here for a day, I feel like I would pray, you know. 00:17:19.767 --> 00:17:27.172 And then the second day, and then the third day is like, okay, now we start to pray. 00:17:27.172 --> 00:17:35.440 So it says, jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish, the belly of the fish. 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:44.539 And if you look in your Bible, what you see is the words are printed differently because this is poetry or this is a song. 00:17:44.539 --> 00:17:49.371 He's literally singing a song from the belly. 00:17:49.371 --> 00:17:57.317 Okay, jonah is singing a song in this dark, hopeless place. 00:17:57.317 --> 00:18:01.695 Okay, and I just wonder what the song sounded like. 00:18:01.695 --> 00:18:04.915 Right, because I do that. 00:18:04.935 --> 00:18:05.539 I think about things. 00:18:05.539 --> 00:18:12.512 I wonder what Psalm 23 sounded like, because I think it would be just really beautiful, peaceful, chill. 00:18:12.512 --> 00:18:17.194 Then I think about what is Psalm 51 sound like? 00:18:17.194 --> 00:18:18.539 Because that's David's repentance song. 00:18:18.539 --> 00:18:22.157 It's like, maybe like dark or like, I don't know, metal. 00:18:22.157 --> 00:18:24.026 I don't know what it would be. 00:18:24.026 --> 00:18:28.500 It might something similar, I don't know. 00:18:28.500 --> 00:18:33.539 But this man, this had to be a blues from the belly. 00:18:34.301 --> 00:18:36.229 Third day in the in the belly. 00:18:36.229 --> 00:18:38.385 It had to be a blues. 00:18:38.385 --> 00:18:43.743 So I thought it probably sounded like this Na na na na. 00:18:43.743 --> 00:18:51.644 Here I am in the belly, na na na na, lord, what's happening to me? 00:18:51.644 --> 00:18:55.528 Na na na na, kind of dark, kind of smelly. 00:18:55.528 --> 00:18:57.103 Da na na na na, it's one. 00:18:57.103 --> 00:18:59.970 Bless, you don't wanna be, you got the blues. 00:18:59.970 --> 00:19:04.007 Ba na na na na. 00:19:04.007 --> 00:19:05.411 Don't you think Something like that? 00:19:05.411 --> 00:19:09.964 Maybe not, maybe not. 00:19:09.964 --> 00:19:13.365 And mine would've sounded something like that, probably. 00:19:13.365 --> 00:19:17.209 So there from the belly, isn't it interesting? 00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:21.530 He says Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly, of the fish, from the belly. 00:19:21.530 --> 00:19:25.002 So that word belly means several different things, different things. 00:19:25.002 --> 00:19:26.551 It can mean several different things, right? 00:19:26.551 --> 00:19:28.843 So Jonah prayed from the belly. 00:19:28.843 --> 00:19:33.480 It literally means digestive organs, so means like from the belly. 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:37.990 There he was in a literal belly praying. 00:19:37.990 --> 00:19:40.260 He was singing a song from a literal belly. 00:19:41.083 --> 00:19:51.827 Okay, it can mean that the Hebrew can also mean the place, the deepest place of emotions or distress. 00:19:51.827 --> 00:19:56.037 You know what that's like. 00:19:56.037 --> 00:20:11.287 You've been hurt bad enough, where you're crying out from your belly, like from the, from the bottom of who you are, in your emotions, you're crying out to God Song from the gut, from the inmost parts. 00:20:11.287 --> 00:20:14.700 And I thought about what Jeremiah said in chapter 4. 00:20:14.700 --> 00:20:25.684 He said he says it, most versions say it this way my bowels, my bowels, ah, I'm pained at the very heart. 00:20:25.684 --> 00:20:27.489 My heart makes a noise within me. 00:20:27.489 --> 00:20:28.832 I cannot hold my peace. 00:20:28.832 --> 00:20:31.605 It's coming out right. 00:20:31.686 --> 00:20:52.036 And there's sometimes, when you're in that place of darkest pain, anguished, that what is inside of you has to come out, like if you have a virus, a stomach virus, and there's something in you that needs to come out and it's coming out and you can't hold it in. 00:20:52.036 --> 00:21:01.644 Doesn't matter how much you try, you can't will it down, it's coming up, it just literally comes up right Physically. 00:21:01.644 --> 00:21:18.105 But the same thing happens sometimes in our emotions you can't will it down, you can't hold it, it's got to come out, it's got to come out From the belly of the fish. 00:21:18.105 --> 00:21:21.833 That word, this is really important. 00:21:21.833 --> 00:21:27.202 Okay, this is important because you don't have to raise yourself to a certain condition before you pray. 00:21:27.202 --> 00:21:29.711 Okay, this is important. 00:21:29.711 --> 00:21:32.644 Church, you don't have to get it together before you pray. 00:21:32.644 --> 00:21:36.982 You don't have to clean yourself up or like know what you're doing before you pray. 00:21:36.982 --> 00:21:45.480 In fact, I think real prayer happens when you don't know what you're doing and when you're at your worst, when you, when you feel the lowest. 00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:47.586 Sometimes that's when real prayer is. 00:21:47.707 --> 00:21:49.030 Prayers are not always polite. 00:21:49.030 --> 00:21:53.423 Prayers in scripture are often not polite. 00:21:53.423 --> 00:22:13.838 They're real and they're from the belly and whatever it is the fear or the distress or the anger, the injustice, whatever it is it's coming out honestly, which is beautiful to God. 00:22:13.838 --> 00:22:21.673 And through prayer we reach in our weakness into the unknown, for what we know we need and don't have. 00:22:21.673 --> 00:22:28.111 That's prayer deep inside of us, something that we need to bring wholeness or salvation. 00:22:28.111 --> 00:22:28.471 That's it. 00:22:28.712 --> 00:22:29.473 I don't know what to do. 00:22:29.473 --> 00:22:30.517 I don't know what to say. 00:22:30.517 --> 00:22:31.648 I'm in the belly. 00:22:31.648 --> 00:22:35.048 This place is dark, it's tight, it's uncomfortable. 00:22:35.048 --> 00:22:37.169 There's no hope, there's no peace. 00:22:37.169 --> 00:22:39.909 I gotta cry out. 00:22:42.305 --> 00:22:44.633 But that Hebrew word means another thing too. 00:22:44.633 --> 00:22:49.976 It means digestive organs, it means the deepest seat of your emotions. 00:22:49.976 --> 00:22:55.106 But it also means womb, womb, womb. 00:22:55.106 --> 00:23:00.491 It's where something is born, or it's where something gestates. 00:23:00.491 --> 00:23:10.093 It's something God is doing inside of us, a rebirth, a forming of Jesus inside of us. 00:23:10.093 --> 00:23:14.531 So there's something new is born out of this. 00:23:14.531 --> 00:23:18.055 And Jonah is in the belly All three ways. 00:23:18.055 --> 00:23:24.973 He's at the belly, literally, emotionally, and God is birthing something inside of him as well. 00:23:24.973 --> 00:23:30.237 Here's what he says Out of the belly of Sheol. 00:23:30.237 --> 00:23:33.894 I called, I cried and you heard my voice. 00:23:33.894 --> 00:23:40.635 Sheol, he's in the belly of a fish, but he says I'm in the belly of Sheol. 00:23:44.931 --> 00:23:51.836 The Old Testament, the most common way of describing Sheol, is the place, the unseen realm of the dead. 00:23:51.836 --> 00:23:52.808 It's where the dead go. 00:23:52.808 --> 00:23:58.372 It's a dark place, but it can also mean my darkest moments. 00:23:58.372 --> 00:24:01.932 Out of the belly of Sheol. 00:24:01.932 --> 00:24:16.919 In the Psalms you see that word quite often In places of distress Sheol, my darkest time and we create our own personal Sheol. 00:24:16.919 --> 00:24:21.828 We create our own personal hell, in a sense, when we run from God. 00:24:23.765 --> 00:24:29.452 When God says this and we say this, we run for our calling, our calling to God. 00:24:29.452 --> 00:24:31.573 Maybe God's calling you to him. 00:24:31.573 --> 00:24:33.451 You've never really known God. 00:24:33.451 --> 00:24:42.134 Maybe this is a place this morning where you need to turn to him, receive his grace and his forgiveness and know him personally for the first time. 00:24:42.134 --> 00:24:44.250 That's possible here this morning. 00:24:44.250 --> 00:24:47.653 Maybe it's he's calling you to know him deeper. 00:24:47.653 --> 00:24:50.249 Maybe it's a calling into ministry or calling into mission. 00:24:50.249 --> 00:24:51.226 I don't know. 00:24:51.226 --> 00:24:53.648 Maybe he's told you something and you're running the other way. 00:24:53.648 --> 00:25:00.450 I don't know, but we do create our own darkness when we run the opposite way. 00:25:00.450 --> 00:25:12.693 So here's my question this morning Do you believe that you can make a decision today that will change the rest of your life? 00:25:16.151 --> 00:25:21.849 You can make a decision today that will change the trajectory of your life from this direction to this direction. 00:25:21.849 --> 00:25:23.365 You can. 00:25:23.365 --> 00:25:31.430 You can Out of your Sheol, out of your belly, you can make a decision. 00:25:31.430 --> 00:25:37.085 Where you are right now is not the end of your story. 00:25:37.085 --> 00:25:46.296 You can turn to God and you can call out to him. 00:25:46.336 --> 00:25:47.238 This is what Jonah did. 00:25:47.238 --> 00:25:50.691 I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me. 00:25:50.691 --> 00:25:54.231 He did the only thing he knew to do he prayed. 00:25:54.231 --> 00:25:55.711 What do you do when you're in the belly? 00:25:55.711 --> 00:25:57.813 I don't know, he prayed, but what did he pray? 00:25:57.813 --> 00:26:00.686 This is the thing that was a great revelation to me this week. 00:26:00.686 --> 00:26:03.351 I'd never seen before what did he pray? 00:26:03.351 --> 00:26:07.694 He prayed prayers that had already been prayed. 00:26:07.694 --> 00:26:13.011 They'd already been prayed and already been written down and they were prayed every week in the temple. 00:26:13.011 --> 00:26:15.131 He prayed from the Psalms. 00:26:15.131 --> 00:26:19.949 In fact, in this prayer in chapter two we just read it he prays. 00:26:19.949 --> 00:26:25.269 He refers at least eight times to the Psalms, different Psalms in chapter. 00:26:25.269 --> 00:26:29.442 In verse two you see him praying Psalm three and Psalm 118. 00:26:29.442 --> 00:26:33.595 In verse three he prays Psalm eight and Psalm 42. 00:26:33.595 --> 00:26:36.992 In verse four he prays Psalm 31. 00:26:36.992 --> 00:26:40.554 In verse five he prays from Psalm 69. 00:26:40.554 --> 00:26:49.615 In verse nine he prays from Psalm 50 and right back around to Psalm two, what was inside of him came out. 00:26:49.615 --> 00:26:52.746 Why? 00:26:52.746 --> 00:26:56.528 Because when your bucket gets kicked, what's inside comes out. 00:26:56.528 --> 00:27:11.634 This is something this week I was noticing in Stephen in the book of Acts we were reading in our churches, going together through the New Testament and the Psalms through the Bible app. 00:27:11.785 --> 00:27:17.373 And so we were in Acts and Stephen was standing before people who were just ready to kill him. 00:27:17.373 --> 00:27:20.291 His bucket was kicked and what happened? 00:27:20.291 --> 00:27:21.949 It was amazing. 00:27:21.949 --> 00:27:22.411 What happened. 00:27:22.411 --> 00:27:31.574 What came out of his bucket was the entire Old Testament, like in one chapter, the entire story of God, from the beginning all the way to the present day. 00:27:31.574 --> 00:27:38.092 He had it inside of him and when his bucket was kicked came the story of God. 00:27:38.092 --> 00:27:43.111 And when Jonah, his bucket was kicked, what came out was the Psalms. 00:27:43.111 --> 00:27:44.494 Because he had heard the Psalms. 00:27:44.494 --> 00:27:46.750 He had heard them in the temple. 00:27:46.750 --> 00:27:48.210 He'd worshiped with them. 00:27:48.210 --> 00:27:49.430 There's temple liturgy. 00:27:49.430 --> 00:27:57.538 He had prayed some of these Psalms, probably going up to Jerusalem, ascending to Jerusalem. 00:27:57.538 --> 00:27:58.789 Maybe he prayed these Psalms. 00:27:58.789 --> 00:28:01.792 So out came the Psalms. 00:28:01.792 --> 00:28:04.612 They were praying them in the temple, that's for sure. 00:28:05.785 --> 00:28:10.704 In our worst times, the Psalms give us the words to pray. 00:28:10.704 --> 00:28:24.291 Not only do they give us the freedom to go ahead and say what we want to say, but sometimes they give us the things, the very words to pray when we don't have the words, when we're in the belly and we don't know what to say. 00:28:24.291 --> 00:28:26.932 Man, you open the Bible. 00:28:26.932 --> 00:28:29.270 Here's what to say. 00:28:29.270 --> 00:28:31.609 This is what Jonah did. 00:28:31.609 --> 00:28:35.055 And this is why it's also so important for us to be honest. 00:28:35.055 --> 00:28:38.065 You know, we say you know why. 00:28:38.065 --> 00:28:40.808 I mean, god already knows what I'm thinking, what I'm feeling. 00:28:41.190 --> 00:28:41.932 Why should I say it? 00:28:41.932 --> 00:28:45.255 Because it's important to name it. 00:28:45.255 --> 00:28:47.449 It's important for us. 00:28:47.449 --> 00:28:49.531 We don't say it for God, we say it for us. 00:28:49.531 --> 00:29:00.173 It's important to name what's going on inside of you because it's also very easy to just push it aside, just shove it down and not even deal with it. 00:29:00.173 --> 00:29:05.089 We feel like it's easier to not deal with it and later on it deals with us. 00:29:05.089 --> 00:29:10.770 But God's way of dealing with grief is going ahead and letting it out. 00:29:10.770 --> 00:29:24.413 It's opening up and saying what we're feeling and naming it so that God can heal it, so that there can be honesty and there can be light, he can begin to give us his perspective. 00:29:24.704 --> 00:29:25.748 So here's the thing. 00:29:25.748 --> 00:29:27.032 Here's the thing. 00:29:27.032 --> 00:29:30.472 Get the word of God inside of you. 00:29:30.472 --> 00:29:31.907 That's the thing. 00:29:31.907 --> 00:29:34.671 Get the word of God inside of you. 00:29:34.671 --> 00:29:40.894 It's the sort of the spirit, it's what the Holy Spirit uses to fight for us. 00:29:40.894 --> 00:29:43.151 This is His sword man. 00:29:43.151 --> 00:29:45.451 If we don't have it in there, it doesn't come out. 00:29:45.451 --> 00:29:49.991 If you don't have it in there, you don't know how to respond in certain times. 00:29:49.991 --> 00:29:52.791 It's light to your dark places. 00:29:52.791 --> 00:30:02.875 It's the sword, it's living and it's active and it goes down to the very intentions and the thoughts of our hearts and it discerns our heart. 00:30:02.875 --> 00:30:09.251 When we don't know our heart, the word of God discerns our heart and it always accomplishes what God wants. 00:30:09.251 --> 00:30:12.114 Look what Isaiah said, isaiah 55. 00:30:12.114 --> 00:30:27.835 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. 00:30:27.835 --> 00:30:37.534 It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 00:30:37.534 --> 00:30:41.795 You get the word in you because it always works inside of you. 00:30:41.795 --> 00:30:50.169 He's working all the time, especially when you're in your belly, when you're in that darkest place and you don't know what to do. 00:30:50.169 --> 00:30:55.971 His word is a lamp into our feet, it's a light into our path. 00:30:55.971 --> 00:30:58.368 So a little testimony. 00:30:59.345 --> 00:31:05.574 I grew up in church not knowing God at all, far from God, never wasn't born again at all. 00:31:05.574 --> 00:31:08.314 But I went to church because that's the way it was in my house. 00:31:08.314 --> 00:31:09.910 If you lived in my house, you went to church. 00:31:09.910 --> 00:31:12.150 Thank God for my mom and dad. 00:31:12.150 --> 00:31:17.269 It's a beautiful gift that they gave me. 00:31:17.269 --> 00:31:20.894 So I was a servant God. 00:31:20.894 --> 00:31:33.269 I was, in fact I was a musician, rock and roller, addicted to drugs, addicted to alcohol, really bad relationships with women, terrible mess, just a mess of life. 00:31:33.805 --> 00:31:48.449 But when I came to the place where I was understanding that this is not the way I wanna live my life, the things that I thought would fill me are not filling me and I need something beyond this, I didn't know what to do. 00:31:48.449 --> 00:31:56.335 You know, what began to happen is the word of God that was put into me without me even thinking about it. 00:31:56.335 --> 00:31:58.471 All those years began to come back up. 00:31:58.471 --> 00:32:08.114 You know, sunday school lessons, sermons, sermons like. 00:32:08.114 --> 00:32:12.426 You know, adulterers and fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God. 00:32:12.426 --> 00:32:19.054 Fear of God, sermons like the kindness of God leads you to repentance. 00:32:19.054 --> 00:32:22.888 Kindness of God, there's fear and there's kindness. 00:32:22.888 --> 00:32:47.310 All of this stuff was in there and I don't think I really thought about it much at all until I was in my belly not my belly, but in the belly, my metaphorical belly and I was crying out to God and the word of God began to come up inside of me and it began to work on me and it began to draw me back to the Lord. 00:32:47.310 --> 00:32:48.193 It did what he wanted. 00:32:48.193 --> 00:32:50.090 It doesn't ever return to him, void. 00:32:50.090 --> 00:32:51.868 It always accomplishes. 00:32:52.765 --> 00:32:54.593 So give the Holy Spirit something to work with. 00:32:54.593 --> 00:32:56.009 Get the word of God inside of you. 00:32:56.009 --> 00:32:58.511 Join the Bible plan with us. 00:32:58.511 --> 00:33:00.009 Read through the Bible with us. 00:33:00.009 --> 00:33:03.513 Do something to get it inside of you, memorize it. 00:33:03.513 --> 00:33:11.890 Let the word of God dwell in your heart richly, and that's where your answers are gonna come, where you're in your darkest place. 00:33:13.365 --> 00:33:15.353 Let's see what Jonah said here. 00:33:15.353 --> 00:33:22.232 He said, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me. 00:33:22.232 --> 00:33:25.213 All your waves and your billows passed over me. 00:33:25.213 --> 00:33:28.192 Then I said I'm driven away from your sight. 00:33:28.192 --> 00:33:34.298 Yet I shall again look upon your Holy temple. 00:33:34.298 --> 00:33:48.556 And what I saw to me, what I saw, what occurred to me as I was reading this, and what was curious to me is that Jonah was so specific about his prayers. 00:33:50.030 --> 00:33:59.114 And it became curious to me because I thought we're so specific about our worries and we're so general about our prayers. 00:33:59.114 --> 00:34:03.157 I mean, we fellowship with our worries. 00:34:03.157 --> 00:34:07.113 We go deep, we know them, we talk. 00:34:07.113 --> 00:34:08.360 They're good old friends, right? 00:34:08.360 --> 00:34:14.844 They're our buddies, they're with us always and we're thinking about them and we think about every possible way it could go wrong. 00:34:14.844 --> 00:34:19.244 And we're thinking about the drama, and sometimes we're creating drama. 00:34:19.244 --> 00:34:21.333 Sometimes we're addicted to drama. 00:34:21.333 --> 00:34:26.630 Some of us are addicted to drama and maybe that's just. 00:34:26.630 --> 00:34:28.827 You just feel like you need to find it somewhere. 00:34:28.827 --> 00:34:32.193 There's something, you know there's something, something's gonna go wrong. 00:34:32.193 --> 00:34:35.873 That's a pretty day, but something's gonna go wrong. 00:34:35.873 --> 00:34:36.916 I don't know. 00:34:36.916 --> 00:34:43.864 We're so specific about our worries but we're so general about our prayers and I think God wants to flip it right. 00:34:43.864 --> 00:34:48.364 I think he wants us to be okay, general, realistic about our worries. 00:34:48.364 --> 00:34:51.393 It's okay, but we cast our cares on him. 00:34:51.393 --> 00:34:55.315 Let's be specific about our prayers. 00:34:55.315 --> 00:34:57.833 Let's go deep with these prayers. 00:34:57.833 --> 00:35:03.983