Lessons on Prayer

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:07.309 Let's remain standing and turn to Jonah Chapter two. Jonah too, and we'll 2 00:00:07.309 --> 00:00:12.910 hear the word of the Lord this morning. Jonah is on page seven hundred 3 00:00:12.910 --> 00:00:16.429 and seventy four. I'm if you have trouble finding the books of the Bible, 4 00:00:16.469 --> 00:00:20.309 I would encourage you to learn a little song. You could find one 5 00:00:20.350 --> 00:00:22.940 on the Internet. I'm sure I'll teach one to you. Even as I'm 6 00:00:23.019 --> 00:00:27.339 finding Joanah this morning, I'm singing the Song I learned a long time ago 7 00:00:27.420 --> 00:00:30.699 in my head. I won't sing it too for you now, but it 8 00:00:30.899 --> 00:00:36.609 is helpful. So Jonah Chapter two. Now that we found God's word, 9 00:00:36.689 --> 00:00:45.810 let's listen to it. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, 10 00:00:46.049 --> 00:00:51.200 from the belly of the fish, saying I called out to the Lord out 11 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:56.200 of my distress and he answered me. Out of the belly of she'll, 12 00:00:56.399 --> 00:01:00.520 I cried and you heard my voice, for you cast me into the deep, 13 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:04.390 into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. All 14 00:01:04.670 --> 00:01:08.590 your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, I am 15 00:01:08.629 --> 00:01:14.549 driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your Holy Temple. 16 00:01:15.909 --> 00:01:21.579 The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded 17 00:01:21.780 --> 00:01:26.019 me, weeds were wrapped around my head. At the roots of the mountains, 18 00:01:27.180 --> 00:01:34.049 I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet 19 00:01:34.129 --> 00:01:38.689 you brought my life, you brought up my life from the pit. Oh 20 00:01:38.810 --> 00:01:45.170 Lord, my God, when my life was fainting away, I remembered the 21 00:01:45.250 --> 00:01:49.319 Lord and my prayer came to you, into your Holy Temple. Those who 22 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:55.159 pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love, but I, 23 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:00.200 with the voice of Thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed. 24 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:06.469 I will pay salvation belongs to the Lord, and the Lord spoke to the 25 00:02:06.590 --> 00:02:12.669 fish and it vomited. Jonah out upon the dry land, you may be 26 00:02:12.750 --> 00:02:21.460 seated. Well, after being thrown overboard, Jonah begins to drown and he 27 00:02:21.620 --> 00:02:30.330 describes what that feels like in very dramatic way. He describes the feeling of 28 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:38.610 being swallowed up, of being suffocated, as the weeds are wrapping around his 29 00:02:38.810 --> 00:02:45.599 head, as he finds himself going lower and lower, even to the roots 30 00:02:45.639 --> 00:02:51.080 of the mountains, down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever, 31 00:02:51.960 --> 00:03:01.270 the pit sheol death, this watery a grave. Jonah drowns and almost dies, 32 00:03:04.069 --> 00:03:08.870 but God saves him graciously, though Jonah doesn't deserve it at although he's 33 00:03:08.909 --> 00:03:14.979 done everything to exactly do the opposite of deserving it, but instead deserve got 34 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:20.900 more of God's wrath. God saves him by causing him to be swallowed up 35 00:03:20.939 --> 00:03:25.379 by a giant fish, and it's from the belly of that fish that Jonah 36 00:03:25.419 --> 00:03:31.330 composes this prayer, probably in the worst physical state he's ever been in in 37 00:03:31.490 --> 00:03:36.490 his life. I don't know if you have ever had the experience of drowning, 38 00:03:38.009 --> 00:03:43.960 but it takes a while to recover from something like that. Though in 39 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:51.360 a bad physical state, wet, uncomfortable, someone who's coming back to life, 40 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:58.870 he's likely in the best spiritual state he's ever experienced as well. Though 41 00:03:59.310 --> 00:04:06.229 he is in the sea, in a fish, almost dead, he's finding 42 00:04:06.349 --> 00:04:15.180 salvation from the belly of this fish. Jonah composes this prayer. I don't 43 00:04:15.180 --> 00:04:17.300 worry about the fact that he didn't have pen or paper to write it on 44 00:04:17.939 --> 00:04:24.410 a smartphone to dictated into. I mean, you had three days right to 45 00:04:24.610 --> 00:04:30.410 think, to pray, to remember and to record these thoughts, his thoughts 46 00:04:30.449 --> 00:04:34.970 at a later time. I mentioned that so that you have the right perspective 47 00:04:35.129 --> 00:04:40.639 just in how to read this right, we are reading an account of Jonah's 48 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:44.839 prayer and we actually just if we're reading carefully, we would notice that it's 49 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:48.439 not just an account of Jonah's prayer, but it's Jonah's account of a prayer, 50 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:54.389 of a prayer. Right then, Jonah prayed to the Lord has god 51 00:04:54.470 --> 00:04:58.350 from the belly of the fish, saying I called out to the Lord Right, 52 00:04:58.430 --> 00:05:02.790 he's praying to God about a prayer that he prayed as he was sinking, 53 00:05:02.870 --> 00:05:08.500 as he was drowning. Now there are so many things that we can 54 00:05:08.579 --> 00:05:14.220 learn about this passage. One of them is a lot about baptism, which 55 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:18.740 I'm going to explain in my next sermon. This watery or deal that Jonah 56 00:05:18.819 --> 00:05:26.209 endures going down to death coming up in life. Today, however, I 57 00:05:26.329 --> 00:05:31.930 want to speak to you about about prayer, about prayer, this way in 58 00:05:31.970 --> 00:05:36.279 which God gives us grace. There's a lot we can learn about prayer from 59 00:05:36.279 --> 00:05:43.839 this prayer, about a prayer. There's three lessons in particular I want to 60 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:48.560 draw your attention to. The first is that God puts us in situations that 61 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:54.189 cause us to pray. The second thing I want to point out about prayers 62 00:05:54.230 --> 00:05:59.029 that God hears and answers those who call on him. And the third thing 63 00:05:59.509 --> 00:06:02.870 is that God is capable of saving us, no matter how dark, no 64 00:06:02.990 --> 00:06:11.579 matter how desperate, no matter how deadly our time seen. So first, 65 00:06:11.620 --> 00:06:15.019 God puts us in situations that cause us to pray. Let's consider this first 66 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:19.089 lesson. I bet you already know this is true, but let it be 67 00:06:19.410 --> 00:06:24.810 impressed on your heart, because we're apt to forget this, right. We're 68 00:06:24.810 --> 00:06:28.250 apt to be surprised, like John Newton was in the hymn that we saying, 69 00:06:28.449 --> 00:06:30.170 how you asked the Lord to give a help me grow, to help 70 00:06:30.209 --> 00:06:34.720 me grow in faith, and then I'm suffering. What's this about? Right? 71 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:38.920 We feel this, we experience this, we don't understand why these things 72 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:42.720 are happening in our lives, despite the fact that God tells us why. 73 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:48.230 So let's remember. First, notice that Jonah has a problem. Now, 74 00:06:48.310 --> 00:06:54.949 he thinks his problem is the Ninavites. He thinks his problem is these sailors 75 00:06:54.990 --> 00:06:58.470 who are bothering him and keeping him from his plan, or he thinks his 76 00:06:58.629 --> 00:07:01.259 problem is the tempest, or he thinks the problem is his drowning. But 77 00:07:01.379 --> 00:07:06.579 the real problem, right, is not external to him. The real problem 78 00:07:06.779 --> 00:07:13.819 is internal. It's in his heart. Just like every other person affected by 79 00:07:13.939 --> 00:07:18.649 Adams Fall, Jonah struggled to trust God odd and to trust him alone. 80 00:07:19.449 --> 00:07:25.689 And because he struggled to trust God, he struggled to obey God. So 81 00:07:25.850 --> 00:07:31.240 when God said go to Nineveh, Jonah did the opposite. When God made 82 00:07:31.319 --> 00:07:36.240 us, he designed us in a way that we would lean on him, 83 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:44.709 trust him like a father and children. Right, children are designed to depend 84 00:07:44.870 --> 00:07:47.670 on their parents. This is how they're made, this is what God has 85 00:07:47.910 --> 00:07:54.790 intended for them. Nobody expects a child to be self sufficient, to go 86 00:07:55.029 --> 00:08:00.259 out on their own and start working on their career and advancing their work and 87 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:05.220 contributing to the world when, when they can, can't even change their themselves 88 00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:09.259 and they can't even eat by themselves. No one looks at a newborn and 89 00:08:09.740 --> 00:08:15.290 says, well, we've better start working on your resume or getting out there 90 00:08:15.370 --> 00:08:18.490 and hitting the pavement. Here's a briefcase. Right, we expect them, 91 00:08:18.930 --> 00:08:26.050 we expect them to be dependent on us. That's what a child is, 92 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:33.480 and parents are designed by God to care for these children. A heavenly father 93 00:08:33.399 --> 00:08:41.909 designed other fathers and mothers to care for their children. Well, this mimics, 94 00:08:41.909 --> 00:08:46.990 is this echoes the relationship that we have with God. Right, we 95 00:08:48.269 --> 00:08:52.950 are made by him, designed by him, in a relationship with him that 96 00:08:52.149 --> 00:08:56.700 is like a father and a son or a father and a daughter. Right, 97 00:08:56.779 --> 00:09:01.500 God does not intend for us. He never designed for us to simply 98 00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:03.899 go off into the world and do our own thing in our own ways, 99 00:09:05.019 --> 00:09:11.009 to become God's equal to him or US and separate from him. No, 100 00:09:11.169 --> 00:09:15.330 he designed us in a way that we would have fellowship with him forever, 101 00:09:16.649 --> 00:09:22.289 that we would always be childlike in our faith, not foolish, not not 102 00:09:22.970 --> 00:09:31.360 ignorant, but but trusting, dependent, always relying upon him. That's how 103 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:39.750 we were designed. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they broke this design 104 00:09:39.909 --> 00:09:45.269 in a way. The element and the necessity for trust and for faith remained 105 00:09:45.470 --> 00:09:50.190 there, but it perpetually, perpetually wanders in the way it shouldn't go. 106 00:09:50.990 --> 00:09:54.379 Right. So we have this faculty, you might say, or this inclination 107 00:09:54.419 --> 00:10:01.740 or this inherent sense that we have to trust, we have to depend on 108 00:10:01.940 --> 00:10:07.009 things, and we always do, whether it's a gravity or food production or 109 00:10:07.049 --> 00:10:11.289 other people, that we have to trust. We're not selfsufficient, right, 110 00:10:11.370 --> 00:10:16.570 it's built into us. But instead of trusting God for all of these things, 111 00:10:16.649 --> 00:10:20.480 we go out into the world and we create idols, false gods, 112 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:26.159 we create other things to trust, or we decide to trust these other things 113 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:33.639 as dependent creatures. Then we never stopped depending, we never stopped trusting. 114 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:35.429 The problem is that we do it with all the wrong things, and that's 115 00:10:35.470 --> 00:10:43.029 what Jonah's problem is. Jonah is trusting ultimately, in Jonah. He thinks 116 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:48.149 that he gets to decide what is good and what is bad, what is 117 00:10:48.230 --> 00:10:50.700 right and what is wrong, whether he should go to the left or to 118 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:58.779 the right. And this is dangerous, as God has made very clear so 119 00:10:58.980 --> 00:11:05.529 far in this story. But Jonah confesses it as well in his prayer. 120 00:11:05.730 --> 00:11:11.490 Notice Verse Eight. He says those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their 121 00:11:11.570 --> 00:11:18.840 hope of steadfast love. He's talking in part about himself. This was his 122 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:26.159 very problem. Right he paid regard not to God alone, but to something 123 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:30.679 else, to another plan, another way, his way. Ultimately seems that 124 00:11:30.759 --> 00:11:33.429 that's what it was about. It's about what Jonah wanted, what Jonah wanted 125 00:11:33.470 --> 00:11:37.830 to do, and what happened when he did that? Well, he forsaked 126 00:11:37.950 --> 00:11:43.149 his hope of God, steadfast, past love. He exited the presence of 127 00:11:43.350 --> 00:11:48.019 God that's what he intended to do. He says, I am fleeing the 128 00:11:48.179 --> 00:11:52.100 presence of God. The problem with that is is the presence of God is 129 00:11:52.139 --> 00:11:58.580 where God's love is, where pieces were protection is. It's like the Prodigal 130 00:11:58.700 --> 00:12:03.090 Son who says I'm mad at here, I'm leaving my father's home. He 131 00:12:03.250 --> 00:12:07.730 was. And what happened? He lost the protection, he lost the love 132 00:12:07.970 --> 00:12:16.919 he as he left his father, he found himself struggling. Up to this 133 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:22.919 point, Jonah has been Jonah's God, but now is he seeks down into 134 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:30.269 his watery grave. He realizes that this is truly futile. He is about 135 00:12:30.470 --> 00:12:33.950 to die and finally, with the last bits of oxygen that are in his 136 00:12:35.070 --> 00:12:41.429 blood, with the last few beats of his heart, he wakes up and 137 00:12:41.549 --> 00:12:52.980 he prays to the Lord. What about you? What about today? Who 138 00:12:52.299 --> 00:12:56.700 is your God when you look at the choices that you are making, when 139 00:12:56.740 --> 00:13:01.929 you look at the things that you are doing, the things you are trusting, 140 00:13:01.490 --> 00:13:07.169 the things you are believing? Are you trusting in vain idols and forsaking 141 00:13:07.250 --> 00:13:13.200 your whole of steadfast love, or are you trusting Yahweh, the God of 142 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:16.840 Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of 143 00:13:16.919 --> 00:13:20.360 Jonah, who made the heavens and the Earth, the sea and the dry 144 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:24.919 land. Are you trusting in God, Father, son and Holy Spirit, 145 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:28.909 who sent his son into this world, who came to die, to descend 146 00:13:30.029 --> 00:13:33.990 into suffering and rise again so that you might live? Are you trusting in 147 00:13:35.269 --> 00:13:41.659 him, or are you trusting in a god of your own imagination? Are 148 00:13:41.700 --> 00:13:50.379 you trusting in Jonah or yourself or me or some other friend or family member? 149 00:13:50.379 --> 00:13:56.570 Choosing your own way, your own plans, your own ideas, your 150 00:13:56.610 --> 00:14:03.610 own God's get you what Jonah was getting and worse? That's what Jonahs says 151 00:14:03.690 --> 00:14:07.690 in Verse Eight. But he cries out to the Lord, and this teaches 152 00:14:07.769 --> 00:14:11.120 us something about prayer, doesn't it? Because of our lack and faith, 153 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:16.080 of faith in God, because of our lack of trust in him, in 154 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:20.240 order to save us, God will sometimes put us in situations where we come 155 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:28.070 to discover for ourselves exactly how much we need him and exactly where the idolatry 156 00:14:28.190 --> 00:14:33.269 and the idols of our hearts lead us. The deception in our minds is 157 00:14:33.350 --> 00:14:37.309 that the US things are God and they will get us the things that we 158 00:14:37.470 --> 00:14:45.820 want to need, and God disabuses us of those lies. He pulls out 159 00:14:45.940 --> 00:14:50.539 the rug from us on our self righteousness and our self worship. And you 160 00:14:50.620 --> 00:14:54.250 know what happens if somebody pulls the rug out from you? You Fall, 161 00:14:56.529 --> 00:15:00.009 you at least totter, you lose your balance, you might kknock your head, 162 00:15:00.049 --> 00:15:03.529 you you might get hurt. But ultimately it's so that we would not 163 00:15:03.570 --> 00:15:11.759 stand on a weak foundation of shifting sand, but so that we would stand 164 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:16.759 on God, who is the Rock, who's strong, who's firm and who 165 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:22.269 gives us all things, as Isaac Wa, or a John Newton says at 166 00:15:22.269 --> 00:15:28.830 the end of that him, he says, quoting God's thoughts and desires. 167 00:15:28.190 --> 00:15:33.870 The he says, from God's perspective, these inward trials I employ from self 168 00:15:35.070 --> 00:15:41.100 and pride to set the fruits, to set thee free and break the schemes 169 00:15:41.179 --> 00:15:48.899 of earthly joy, that Thou mightst find thine all in me. You See, 170 00:15:48.940 --> 00:15:54.250 God's not being mean, he's saving us. When he does these things, 171 00:15:54.129 --> 00:16:00.210 God's not being cruel and unusual, he is helping us to wake up 172 00:16:00.370 --> 00:16:07.039 to where our sins lead us, where earthly joys and creaturely things take us, 173 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:15.960 so that we might instead love the one whom we were designed to love. 174 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:22.429 God doesn't need us to love him. He loves us because we need 175 00:16:22.669 --> 00:16:32.309 him. He loves US AND HE CHANGES US. Through these trials, Jonah 176 00:16:32.429 --> 00:16:38.740 was going through a temporary hell, separation from God, wrath, torment and 177 00:16:38.940 --> 00:16:48.610 near death. Because God desired to help him to avoid the permanent situation of 178 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:57.129 those things, eternal death, separation from God, wrath and torment. Jonah 179 00:16:57.169 --> 00:17:02.120 reached the point where, instead of sinful silence, instead of refusing to talk 180 00:17:02.159 --> 00:17:04.440 to God, instead of going his own way, he opened his mouth and 181 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:08.480 he said, Lord, save me. I called out to the Lord out 182 00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:12.279 of my distress and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol, 183 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:19.630 I cried and you heard my voice. That's what Jonah experienced when he called 184 00:17:19.670 --> 00:17:25.309 out to God. So that's the first lesson, is to wake up and 185 00:17:25.430 --> 00:17:30.940 realize that God uses these things in our lives to strengthen our face in him, 186 00:17:30.259 --> 00:17:33.619 to show us the right way, in the right path. And the 187 00:17:33.740 --> 00:17:41.059 second is that God hears all who call on him. If God can hear 188 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:45.970 Jonah in the middle of all of this and as disobedient as he is being, 189 00:17:47.049 --> 00:17:52.809 surely God will hear you. He promises to. Throughout the scriptures. 190 00:17:52.930 --> 00:17:56.930 Over and over again, we hear the words like these from Psalm one hundred 191 00:17:56.930 --> 00:18:00.119 and twenty. In my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered 192 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:03.799 me. Or Psalm one eighteen five. Out of my distress, I called 193 00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:07.400 on the Lord. The Lord answered me and set me free. Psalm three 194 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:11.599 four, I cried aloud to the Lord and he answered me from his Holy 195 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:15.549 Hill. Here Jonah speaks of God answering from his temple, this temple which 196 00:18:15.589 --> 00:18:22.190 signifies his presence, his being with us, his taking care of and this 197 00:18:22.430 --> 00:18:26.700 point that God will answer the All who call on him, comes to brilliant 198 00:18:26.980 --> 00:18:33.740 full color when he sends his son into the world, when Immanu will God 199 00:18:33.019 --> 00:18:40.460 with us, the presence and the Temple of God descends into the world so 200 00:18:40.660 --> 00:18:45.970 that all who would call on him by faith would believe and, as we 201 00:18:45.049 --> 00:18:52.410 read in the scriptures, have everlasting life and eternal Sabbath, rest, healing, 202 00:18:53.250 --> 00:19:00.000 health, blessing glory forever. Her Jesus says, all who come to 203 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:04.640 me, come to me. He calls them all who are weak and are 204 00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:10.829 heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And that's what we see. 205 00:19:10.990 --> 00:19:15.670 Throughout his earthly ministry. God is constantly reaching out and calling people into 206 00:19:15.710 --> 00:19:22.309 him, and everyone who calls and everyone who comes receives blessing from him, 207 00:19:22.950 --> 00:19:29.940 from the littlest children that are brought in their mother's arms, to crippled people, 208 00:19:30.220 --> 00:19:33.220 to old people, to men, to women, to gentiles, to 209 00:19:33.299 --> 00:19:41.890 Jews, everyone. Now some people think the Yes, God hears, but 210 00:19:42.009 --> 00:19:47.730 that he's not able to do much, and this is the last thing I 211 00:19:47.809 --> 00:19:52.160 want to draw your attention to. Not only goes God use these situations to 212 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:56.839 bring us to greater faith in him, not only does he promise to answer 213 00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:02.200 us when we call out to him and faith to save us, not to 214 00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:11.910 save us even from death itself. We must remember that he is powerful to 215 00:20:11.990 --> 00:20:18.230 do that. Just as God is powerful to bring us into situations that cause 216 00:20:18.269 --> 00:20:21.660 us to call on him, he is also powerful to bring us out of 217 00:20:21.740 --> 00:20:26.500 them. And this is what happens with Jonah, right God. God sends 218 00:20:26.619 --> 00:20:32.380 a tempest onto the sea. God sends these the fish to come and save 219 00:20:32.460 --> 00:20:37.130 him, and ultimately God call, it tells the fish. In verse ten, 220 00:20:37.250 --> 00:20:42.730 we read God spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out up upon 221 00:20:42.809 --> 00:20:48.130 the dry land. God is able to save us, no matter how dark 222 00:20:48.329 --> 00:20:53.079 our situation is. This is hard to believe, even if you believe that 223 00:20:53.319 --> 00:20:56.759 God is the one who has brought these things and are in on your life. 224 00:20:56.759 --> 00:21:00.599 How many times have you thought to yourself, well, he won't save 225 00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:07.509 me now. I've gone too far. I don't deserve it. He clearly 226 00:21:07.670 --> 00:21:11.789 is upset with me. Look at all these things that are happening to me. 227 00:21:12.509 --> 00:21:18.940 I give up, I give in. I don't want anything to do 228 00:21:19.099 --> 00:21:25.700 with his love. I'm scared. I don't I don't think he will be 229 00:21:25.779 --> 00:21:29.059 able to or I don't think he'll want to save me or be able to 230 00:21:29.140 --> 00:21:33.849 save me from this mess that I'm in. These are the lies that Satan 231 00:21:34.009 --> 00:21:40.170 tells us. Because, remember, it is not your own mind that is 232 00:21:40.849 --> 00:21:45.890 hoping upon hope that perhaps God might save you from your darkness. If you 233 00:21:47.089 --> 00:21:52.519 call on him, it is God's promise to save you from dark arkness and 234 00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:57.359 from suffering. If you call on him, you're not sort of guessing at 235 00:21:57.440 --> 00:22:02.349 that. That's what he has said. I've read you those own verses. 236 00:22:02.589 --> 00:22:06.029 You see it here in Jonah. I called to the Lord out of my 237 00:22:06.109 --> 00:22:10.789 distress and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol, this place 238 00:22:10.950 --> 00:22:15.390 of death, not just there, but down down deep and it's belly, 239 00:22:15.509 --> 00:22:22.220 he describes it. God brought him forth, brought him forth out of judgment, 240 00:22:22.700 --> 00:22:29.059 out of Wrath, out of death, into life, into love and 241 00:22:29.220 --> 00:22:33.049 into a situation where Jonah can start making promises, like we read in verse 242 00:22:33.089 --> 00:22:37.809 nine. But I, with the voice of Thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you 243 00:22:37.410 --> 00:22:41.970 what I have vowed. I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. 244 00:22:41.890 --> 00:22:47.720 You see, Jonah is envisioning a future now, beyond his present circumstances. 245 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:52.759 Why? Because Salvation belongs to the Lord. He knows it now, he 246 00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:57.119 trusts it. Now, he believes in the God of his salvation, and 247 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:02.589 so he's imagining this future and he says, I'm going to pay the things 248 00:23:02.670 --> 00:23:06.950 that I've promised to you. In the darkness of the situation, Jonah must 249 00:23:06.990 --> 00:23:11.470 have said things to God, he must have promised to do certain things, 250 00:23:11.589 --> 00:23:17.180 to change his ways, maybe even to pay a certain amount at the temple, 251 00:23:17.380 --> 00:23:22.740 something like that. And here he's whatever it is he's imagining, he 252 00:23:22.940 --> 00:23:26.289 is believing that there's something ahead of him, there's life ahead of him, 253 00:23:26.569 --> 00:23:33.009 though at that moment he's still in complete darkness. He's still feeling the slimy 254 00:23:33.089 --> 00:23:37.490 walls of the fish or whatever it was this few feel inside of fish. 255 00:23:37.529 --> 00:23:41.079 I don't know. There he is, right in the belly of the beast, 256 00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:48.440 in the belly of death itself in a way. But yet, because 257 00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:55.480 he trust the Lord, he hopes for something greater, to come into the 258 00:23:55.559 --> 00:24:00.069 presence of the Lord again, to come into the temple where God has set 259 00:24:00.230 --> 00:24:04.950 his name and shines his glory. This is exactly what we do when we 260 00:24:06.029 --> 00:24:11.259 go to Jesus, Jesus who's come into the world to tear down the old 261 00:24:11.339 --> 00:24:15.140 temple to raise up a new one, founded on him himself as the cornerstone. 262 00:24:15.940 --> 00:24:18.980 When we go to Jesus, we are going, just like Jonah did, 263 00:24:19.819 --> 00:24:25.609 to the temple, into the presence of God and finding everything that we 264 00:24:25.769 --> 00:24:36.049 need there, his presence, his joy, his love through the forgiveness of 265 00:24:36.170 --> 00:24:44.880 sins. When Jonah went to the temple. It doesn't record that here in 266 00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:49.599 the story, but assuming that God did allow him to fulfill these vowels, 267 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:53.390 he goes to the temple, he would have been there and there would have 268 00:24:53.430 --> 00:25:00.390 been sacrifices offered there, sacrifices for sins, sins that Jonah committed. When 269 00:25:00.430 --> 00:25:04.670 we go to the Lord Jesus, we go to the sacrifice of God who 270 00:25:04.670 --> 00:25:10.779 has given himself as a once and final perfect sacrifice to forever. All of 271 00:25:10.900 --> 00:25:15.420 those goats and all of those bulls, all of those doves that were pointing 272 00:25:15.619 --> 00:25:19.779 forward to Jesus, the temple complex, the priests, the holy of holies, 273 00:25:19.900 --> 00:25:25.690 the animals, the blood, all of it was pointing forward to this 274 00:25:25.970 --> 00:25:30.130 one. If you don't know much about that, go read some more of 275 00:25:30.250 --> 00:25:36.160 Hebrews, talks a lot about this and there we learn, and several other 276 00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:40.920 places even from Jesus is Omn Lips in the gospels, that he came to 277 00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:45.440 be that new temple and that when we come to God, we don't have 278 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:51.309 to go travel across the world to go to him. Right here, right 279 00:25:51.509 --> 00:25:56.630 now, wherever you are, you can go to him. Even that is 280 00:25:56.710 --> 00:26:00.630 prefigured here in the Old Testament in the way that Jonah is to is able 281 00:26:00.750 --> 00:26:03.269 to call out from the belly of the fish toward the temple, and God 282 00:26:03.339 --> 00:26:11.859 hears him. Ultimately, this religion, this faith that God um tells us 283 00:26:11.220 --> 00:26:17.619 we ought to put in him, is one that is spiritual, that's bound 284 00:26:17.660 --> 00:26:21.769 up in heavenly things, in a heavenly God, not tied to the things 285 00:26:22.250 --> 00:26:26.490 of this world, something that's evident even when the Kingdom of God was being 286 00:26:26.650 --> 00:26:33.200 revealed in this earthly way. There's a lot of things to reflect on there, 287 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:37.279 which I'll leave for another time, but let me end by just reminding 288 00:26:37.319 --> 00:26:44.079 you this. The point here is that, in whatever situation you find yourself 289 00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:51.509 in today, or tomorrow or the day after that, God promises to save 290 00:26:51.589 --> 00:26:56.950 you through faith in Jesus, even as he saved Jonah here. He's capable, 291 00:26:57.589 --> 00:27:03.859 he's powerful and he's promised to do so. Apart from faith, you 292 00:27:04.019 --> 00:27:10.140 will face a faith that is worse than Jonah faces here. You will face 293 00:27:10.259 --> 00:27:14.339 the exact things that we read of here. Separation from God, wrath, 294 00:27:14.700 --> 00:27:18.529 torment, judgment. That's what it means to be away from the presence of 295 00:27:18.569 --> 00:27:22.930 the Lord, but to be in the presence of the Lord, through faith 296 00:27:22.009 --> 00:27:30.839 in his promises, means restoration, joy, peace, life and a future 297 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:37.319 with a mission. Jonah will go to Min Nineveh, Jonah will go and 298 00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:41.640 preach this Gospel and good things will happen. Let's pray