Smelly Salvation and Partial Repentance - Jonah 2

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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This week our pastor Don Filsack brings us a message out of a series entitled Embracing the

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Mission of God, a study through the book of Jonah And this morning we're going to cover a text where Jonah is going to offer a prayer

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He's going to ultimately kind of sing a prayer of thanksgiving to God from the belly of this great fish

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And it's a poetic section that is really the most revealing part of the entire book of Jonah about Jonah's heart

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Where he lives what he thinks how he what we what what system he's operating out of in his mind and There's good in the prayer

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There's bad in the prayer, and there's even some really Significant ugliness in this prayer as we dig into it, but in essence

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We're going to see Jonah in this prayer from the belly of this fish Throw in the towel.

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He's going to hoist the white flag and surrender to God, but he's going to do so Reluctantly he's not going to do so excitedly or enthusiastically

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He's even going to hold on to a stubborn self -centeredness, and we're going to see him holding on to that tenaciously right till the end of the book

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But the fact of the matter is the book of Jonah exists To show us God's relentless mercy and the fact that God's relentless mercy is not a new thing

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It's something that God has been in the process of doing all the way in in Centuries past and it's something that can you say pray?

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Can you praise God that he still does that today that he still pursues us? Glory to God that he's still in that process of pursuing us and doesn't give up on us

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But he has this relentless mercy and this text this morning shows us that God's rescue ultimately is not up to us

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Jonah is going to declare a phrase openly that really sets the tone for the entire book of Jonah It is a primary theme of the entire book and it's summed up in just a few words salvation belongs to the

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Lord Salvation belongs to the Lord and so as we read this text and then come to Worship and Dave comes to lead us.

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I want us to be thinking about this great. God that we serve a God who is pursuing

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Relentlessly for his honor and glory salvation of his people So I want you to open your

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Bibles, please to Jonah chapter 2 You can find that on page 658 in the

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Bible that's in the seat back in front of you 658 in that Bible if you're trying to find it in your own it might take you a few minutes just because I Recognize it's a small book

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But 658 and if you don't own a Bible I'd encourage you to take that Bible with you We want everybody to own a

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Bible and so those ones that are in seat back were purchased with you in mind to have a Bible Follow along as I read the entirety of Jonah chapter 2 just 10 verses

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Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish saying I Called out to the

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Lord out of my distress and he answered me out of the belly of shale I cried and you heard my voice

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For you cast me into the deep into the heart of the seas and the floods the floods surrounded me

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All your waves and your billows passed over me Then I said I'm driven away from your sight yet. I shall again look upon your holy temple

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The waters closed in over over me to take my life the deep Surrounded me weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountain.

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I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever Yet you

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Brought up my life from the pit. Oh Lord my God when my life was fainting away

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I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple those who pay regards to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love, but I With the voice of Thanksgiving will sacrifice to you what

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I have vowed. I will pay Salvation belongs to the Lord and the

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Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land

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Let's pray. Um last week.

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We left Jonah at the end of the text in the belly of a large sea creature We don't necessarily know whether that was a whale or a large fish or something like that I'll probably

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Occasionally refer to it as a whale during the course of the messages because that's kind of what's on the tip of my mind here But we don't know exactly what it was

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But the picture from the kids books do not do justice to the context in the setting of what we're encountering here

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So have any of you seen those the flannel graphs the different? Charts and graphs of the little kids pictures in the kids books raise your hand

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If you've seen one of those you kind of have that in your mind, you know He just probably had enough driftwood that he could could slide it together get a nice fire in there, right?

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It's just kind of like a cave and you can see the arched ribs of the fish as the ceiling Do you have that picture in your mind?

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I don't think that's super accurate Okay, I think what you need to have in your mind is first of all pitch black

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No light in there at all. So you're in pitch pitch black tight

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Caustic smelly Oozing and Probably what makes me the most squeamish in the whole situation is the likelihood that he's not in there alone

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Okay, if it was big enough to swallow a man it probably has swallowed other things alive as well

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Okay, you get that picture. Okay enough. Some of you are like, ooh, okay I don't like I'm not a real fan of the outside of fish

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Like would you agree with me? I mean is a smell of the outside fish and then have any of your gutted a fish before you know stomachs not super big

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Okay, it's not a significant portion of the inside of that fish so And why is Jonah in there?

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How did he how did he get to a situation where he's inside this fish in the Mediterranean Sea? Well, let me just summarize real quick for some of you

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They're just joining us for the first time in a series Jonah is there because God called him to go and preach to this

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Enemy nation of Israel now prophets were used to prophesying to their country

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Okay So to Israel or to Judah in the south and they were used to talking to their own kings to their own people to their

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Own leader saying shape up or your God's gonna judge you or you need to change something or but he's being called to do

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Something different. He's being called to go to a wicked enemy City and call them to repent

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Call them to get right with God and he's not real excited about that And we're gonna see that throughout the course of the next few sermons here

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So he's called to do that Jonah says No to God and attempts to run from God heading the opposite direction on a boat

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God sent a storm and Then God revealed to the sailors and the captain of that ship that the only way to stop the storm was to throw

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Jonah Overboard they try their best to not throw him overboard. They wrote try to row to shore the storm stops them

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They finally give in and reluctantly throw him overboard God sent a big smelly fish to swallow

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Jonah and that's where we're at in our context And so it's in that context I just got to paint that picture for you because it's in that context that Jonah is going to offer

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What amounts to a poetic prayer of Thanksgiving some have even referred to this as Jonah's psalm of Thanksgiving?

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It's got Hebrew poetry involved in it. It's got some Hebrew meter and some rhythm to it

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Now Hebrew poetry doesn't rhyme like English poetry does it's a little bit different It's in parallelism saying the same thing over again in different ways and things like that And so while in the belly of this fish

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Jonah is going to be remembering and this is it's a little Mind -bending because you see this a little bit past tense in his prayer while in the belly of the fish

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He's remembering a prayer that he prayed To God when he was thrown into the water

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So whether this is hours removed and he's in the belly of the fish praying now Are you getting that that's a little bit a little confusing to some of you?

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Okay, he's in the he's in the fish and he's remembering and he's going to be reflecting on a prayer that he prayed boom when he

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Was thrown into the water immediately so to get the chronology of this event in our minds the sailors picked up Jonah threw him overboard and Jonah is going to tell

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Us that at that point when he was in the water his feet hit the water. He cried out to God He was in great distress

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Now one thing that I want to point out is Jonah was not apathetic about this scenario

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He's involved and he's in great distress when he is thrown into the water. He was not resigned to dying

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It's not as though he was like, okay. Well, this is what I deserve and this is what's gonna happen to me I'm going to drown and I'm okay with that. He's actually a little anxious about that Remember, he's a real person with real feelings real emotions real responses

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Okay, you got to remember that when you get into this text, right? I mean he's thrown in and he believes he's going to drown and the storm is raging around him and he's scared

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He refers to being thrown into the belly of shale the the Hebrew concept of the grave the afterlife death and being sent to that place where it was darkness and there's a lot of If you if you just take the

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Old Testament without the New Testament, you do not have a well formed concept of the afterlife

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It takes both parts Old and New Testament to come to the conclusions of resurrection to come to these types of things

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And so both it's not a complete picture even a modern -day Jew if you if you press them and ask them

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What does life look like after death? There's a lot of Himming and hawing and unsure because the

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Old Testament is not very clear But they had this concept of shale that all people go to it's the grave It is the place of death and that's what he's talking about here

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And there's a play on words Because Jonah is praying from the belly of the fish saying I was delivered from the belly of the grave

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Into the belly of the fish There's a picture of movement there of being delivered from one belly to another belly the belly of the grave the belly of shale

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To the belly of the fish so you see kind of poetry involved in this But the main point here in this introduction is that Jonah was dying and he called to the

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Lord for deliverance His mind turned towards God. He is sinking in the water and we're gonna see how much he sank here in a moment

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But this is a prayer of Thanksgiving and all prayers of Thanksgiving in Hebrew poetry have a common structure

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So I just want to just point this out for those of you are a little bit more analytical in your minds We have an introduction in verse 2

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Then we have an explanation of dire circumstances in verses 3 through 7. These are common These are what you expect in a

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Hebrew psalm of Thanksgiving The explanation of dire circumstances verses 3 through 7 thankfulness for the deliverance in 8 and 9

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But what makes Jonah's prayer unique in the concept of Hebrew poetry is That although he has been delivered from drowning in the sea

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We know that Jonah still needs yet a further deliverance, doesn't he? So he's going to be praying and thanking God that he's been delivered from drowning

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But it's kind of like an out of the frying pan into the fire kind of thing, right? Because put yourself in his vantage point as he's praying these thoughts.

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Has he been delivered yet? Has he been delivered yet? Not completely.

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Okay, he's in the he's still under the water But he's at least got something to breathe there and he's alive for now

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But the fact of the matter is poetry is meant to be felt and not just analyzed and there are lots of strong words

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We see just there's there's all kinds of an emotional Driving almost throbbing behind this psalm here.

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Jonah has been cast into the deep to the heart of the sea He is sinking. He is surrounded by water.

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He even says God's waves and billows have washed over him If you look at verse 3 notice who

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Jonah says cast him into the sea now Who do we know if you if you were here the last couple of weeks who threw Jonah into the sea?

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So who does he implicate in the psalm? Look at verse 3 He's praying to God and he says for you cast me into the deep

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Doesn't blame the sailors He knows full well who is responsible for these events that have unfolded in his life and he's like God you've done this

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He also acknowledges that God is in charge of the sea. Do you see that in verse 3 at the end?

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He says all your waves and your billows have passed over me. Whose sea is it? Whose ocean is it out there?

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It's God's ocean out there. Some of you have spent some time out to ocean and been out to sea and No sane man has ever laid claim to the sea

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I own it. It's mine. Those are my waves. Those are my billows, right? I mean, that would be kind of kind of strange you'd be checking his temperature or something.

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Can we control it? Can we tame it? We haven't even adequately mapped it

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I'd be curious just to see like what percentage just throw it literally I'm looking for some audience participation.

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What percentage of the oceans floor? Do you think we've mapped so far? Anybody have any guesses? three percent ten percent

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I've heard Three percent ten percent you're in the ballpark five percent is what most people if you just do a

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Google search and just figure out How much of the bottom of the ocean have we mapped and it counts for what percentage of the earth?

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The earth's surface seventy percent of the earth's surface. We only know five percent of that seventy percent

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Okay, even mapped it even know what the structures look like down there even know the floor of it

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You see what I'm saying? I mean, where are we in the notion of owning the sea? We've even mapped it yet While thinking

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Jonah knows he is heading to the grave as a man separated from God We've seen him spiraling out of control in his life going down down down and he knows that he is heading to the grave as A man who is running from God?

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He is being driven from God's sight which really if you consider is ironic because Isn't that exactly what he was shooting for in the first place?

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The text tells us he's moving away from God's sight moving away from God's presence as he as he Falls down closer to shale further closer to the grave

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And we know that that's not physically moving away from God right God is everywhere So that's not what we're dealing with we're dealing with poetry and this type of thing

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But he's saying as I'm falling away from you. That's what he was trying to do He was trying to run from God's presence

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He's literally trying to get away from God and now he's in the water spiraling out of control going down further

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He's been running from God's calling. He was trying to stop serving before the presence of God Now one word makes a big difference at the end of verse 4 and I just want to point this out to you

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He says then I then I said I'm being driven away from your sight. I'm going away from you Yet, I shall again look upon your holy temple

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Well, what does that mean? Did he just all of a sudden while he's thinking out of control going down and he's about to drown as he said

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They're like, well, okay, I'm gonna get back to Jerusalem I'm gonna get to the temple in Jerusalem and it's all gonna be okay

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Like it almost kind of sounds like that. Would you agree with me? Like oh, but don't worry I'm gonna get to see your temple again.

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Like there's some kind of a rock -solid Assurance there. Well, it might be better translated and this is significant yet I shall again look toward your holy temple the proposition there can be translated toward and I think it should be

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The reason that this is important is that Jonah is not saying that he has a steadfast confidence that he's going to get back to Jerusalem in one piece.

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He doesn't know that yet But while Jonah is thinking like a rock to the bottom of the

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Mediterranean he is Telling God that his heart has turned towards and will turn towards his holy temple the place that represents

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God's presence You think I will turn my face Toward your temple what's implied by that phrase is significant

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This is actually a part of Jonah's repentance a part of his turning back to God He's saying

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God even though I'm currently thinking away from you I'm willing to turn towards my face towards your holy temple again towards your presence

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I am willing to go back into your presence in service to you. That's ultimately what he's saying by this phrase

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I will turn my face towards your presence again Verse 5 adds a little bit more picturesque language the water closed in over him.

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He's going deeper and Although they were fairly close to shore. He's gotten down to the depth of some vegetation near the bottom

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He talks about weeds being wrapped around his head. Literally this is happening Of course the presence of vegetation tells us we're not too far from shore and not literally down as verse 6 tells us to the

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Roots of the mountain is he literally down that deep? Well, no not literally because there's vegetation there but he is down quite a ways and Can you blame him for a little bit of exaggeration in verse 6 about being at the roots of the mountain?

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I'm sure he's feeling some pressure and if you go down to the bottom of the 10 -foot swimming pool or the 12 -foot Olympic sized swimming pool any of you been down there you feel the popping in your ears and the pressure

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Jonah is feeling the pressure okay, he's literally thinking and he's feeling that and He's anxious and nervous

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Jonah speaks about going down to the land whose bars close upon him forever another picture of death

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He's at the gateway to shale that Hebrew concept of the grave And the fact of the matter is in our story.

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I mentioned Jonah has done nothing but sink throughout the entire book He went down to Joppa. He went down to the bottom of the ship.

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He was hurled down into the sea He sank to the depths of the grave when suddenly look look at the text look at verse 6 at the roots of the mountain

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I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever Yet you brought up my life from the pit.

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Oh Lord my God What is this that we encounter? Jonah has stopped going down But now what direction is he heading?

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He's going up on the basis of what? God The Lord his

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God is The Lord his God is lifting him up from the pit Jonah goes upward for the first time in the text and it is not because of Jonah It is the

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Lord doing it upward movement for Jonah comes from God And I would propose to you the upward movement in our lives comes from God I'm not talking about climbing the social ladder or getting a nicer car or getting a promotion or a raise

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What am I talking about? What kind of upward movement comes from God like maybe things like true joy?

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True salvation true meaning in your life true purpose that kind of stuff that gives you

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The the force to live well all of those things come from God's hand

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He is the one who dispenses those things and gives us upward mobility in the way that we live our lives

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That is what provides that for us When did God's salvation come to Jonah he says in verse 7 just in the nick of time

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Beginning of verse 7 says when my life was fainting away another way to translate That is just literally when I was about to lose consciousness.

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He's just about to drown And he says I remember the Lord and my prayer came to God in his temple

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Temple in heaven where God is listening to prayers Now it's important to understand that there's a little bit of a break after verse 7

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So you get to 7 and at the end because when you come to verse 8 It just kind of seems disjunct like all of a sudden like what's going on What's happened is he's been reflecting back on this prayer that he offered when he was in the water

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Now he's back caught up with himself. So he's like I prayed these things to you and you delivered me I'm about to say thanks for that because I was in the water and I was gonna drown and my life was fading away and I was settling deeper and deeper and the seaweed was around my head and this was going really bad about to die and you

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Delivered me Now he's caught up and he's literally reflecting on his current situation while in the whale

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So in verse 8 he states that those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love

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Anybody think that seems like a strange comment like just stuck in the middle of this prayer of Thanksgiving Anybody besides me think that that looks okay a couple of you think that's strange the rest of you are like Oh, I totally get it.

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That's exactly what I would say if I was in his shoes I don't know. Um seems like a strange comment to me

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But think about where else have you seen idols mentioned in the book of Jonah so far Who else who have we seen worshipping idols the sailors now?

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We're gonna see Jonah in just a moment talk about sacrifices and vows Who did we see make sacrifices and vows earlier in the text?

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We are meant to be focusing and thinking about the sailors the sailors car coming to mind here And the fact of the matter is

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Jonah has been he's been pushed to the bottom of the sea He's been swallowed by a whale and he is still hung up on the sailors

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They're still in his mind. He's still focused on those pagans those others those other people who don't deserve your love

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God Now I want to point out that Jonah's got a hang -up and we're gonna explore that and unpack that a little bit

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But I just want to say at the outset what Jonah says is accurate It's true.

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It's misguided the way that he says it in the context that he says it it just shows something Horrendous and ugly about his own heart, but it's accurate.

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It's true What does he say? He says those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love idolatry will never lead to stability

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It will never lead to stability in your life. Have any of you ever worshipped something other than God?

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Have you? Can you testify that those idols have an insatiable appetite?

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They want to own you. They will be your master readily our idols quickly own us.

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Would you agree with that? We are easily owned Money is an ugly master sex is an ugly master fame prestige power authority

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Ugly masters, would you agree with me? Drugs ugly masters and they will destroy us

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Whatever it might be for you There is nothing stable or steadfast about idolatry

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There will be no stability in it and equally there is not an ounce of real love in it

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You worship sex you worship drugs you worship money you worship whatever it might be is there love in it

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No Just a insatiable hunger for more a desire for more and nothing ever you never reach the bedrock with idolatry

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You never find a firm place for your feet to stand and yet we're so easily swayed and easily brought into it

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God has a monopoly on Steadfast life transforming love and let me be the first to encourage you accept no substitutes

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Turn to him That is the place where stability is found That is the place in Christ is

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Christ is the rock in which we can ankle anchor our souls and find rest and purpose

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There is no other place Even though Jonah's statement about idolatry is very true

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It betrays his arrogance Because he goes on to make himself out to be better than those wretched sailors

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Jonah doesn't even know what happened to the sailors when he hit the water, right? He hit the water sank and was going down to the bottom.

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He doesn't even know and so We know that they offered sacrifices to God and made vows to follow him

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They've literally done more than Jonah has to honor God and yet he is there

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Basically maligning them and look at verse 9. He says in in arrogance those those pagans forsake your your steadfast love, but I But I Jonah's arrogance and self -centeredness even shines through while he's trying to confess and repent.

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I Think we can be there, right? Or even in the process of repenting we can say well at least

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God I'm not like blank But maybe you could forgive me for this little thing that I did over here

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Can you relate to that? At least in your thinking maybe you wouldn't be so brash as to say it, but you might think it well

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I know I'm not, you know, this is just a little thing I'm not like that, but I did this little thing and I know that'd probably be pretty easy for you to forgive me for that But I'm not like this

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He's ultimately saying well, at least I'm not like those sailors I would the boy with the voice of Thanksgiving will sacrifice to you and What I vowed

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I'll follow through on Now, do you see how ironic this is those of you who were here last week?

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Do you see how utterly unbelievably ironic? It is that he's promising and pledging to God from the belly of the fish.

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I won't be like those sailors I'll sacrifice to you and I'll make vows to you. What was the last thing that we saw the sailors doing?

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Sacrificing and making vows to God It's just this intense irony in this

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They've done more than Jonah Jonah the Prophet of God is pledging to do what these pagan sailors have already done and he's thinking he's so much better than them

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You get it See that God has a sense of humor Now we cannot miss the authenticity in Jonah here the fact of the matter is his heart has not changed regarding foreigners

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But I believe it is changed towards God. He throws in the towel and he says fine

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I will serve you you get me out of this whale. I will sacrifice to you

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And I don't think we can interpret his vows in this context is anything less than his willingness to go to Nineveh I think that's the only vow that God is interested in in his life right now.

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That's the thing that he's running from That's the thing that is the one of the centerpieces of the entire book. And so by Jonah declaring vows

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He's saying yes, I will serve you I will do what you ask and he ultimately says

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I know that salvation is yours if I'm gonna get out of this situation It's gonna be at your hand He knew that aside from God's work.

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He was stuck there and going to die But then here like I stated earlier in my introduction

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Jonah states the most clear Point of the entire book of Jonah the mission of God is wrapped up in the declaration

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Salvation belongs to the Lord It's interesting to note Jonah believed it and he only wanted it for himself

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He believed that God was a God of mercy God was a God of grace and he said give it to me

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God. Give me your grace Give me your mercy but I don't really want it for the sailors and I don't really want it for Nineveh and I don't want it for people like This or this or this and you name your categories and build your walls and and whatever it is in your mind

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You say well, they're not worthy. But God, would you please be merciful towards me? Can you hear can you can you hear your own voice say things like that in your head?

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Before we judge Jonah on this can we find do we see the the biases in our own lives and the walls that we build up in the

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Do you see what I'm saying? You guys tracking with that? We're all like that He wanted it all for himself.

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He recognizes that salvation belongs to the Lord. He just says I want it for me and the

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Lord commanded the fish and it spewed and Out squirts a pasty white

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Jonah covered with fishy bits You That's probably was not a pleasant thing.

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If they were fishermen along the side of the seashore. They're what? Can you imagine being on the shore when that happened creepy

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Jonah was thankful for the fish He was literally thankful for the fish. It was a vehicle of deliverance from the depths of the grave for him

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He offers thanks for it. I Made a mistake in a sermon a couple weeks ago, and I just need to correct this and this is a great time to correct

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It I went back and I was listening to it because I somebody pointed out and I was like, man I know that wasn't in my notes

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But I had mentioned that Jonah was not mentioned anywhere other than second Kings incorrect He's also mentioned in the

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New Testament What I meant to say is that the only other place we hear Jonah's voice Outside of the book of Jonah is in second

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Kings the only place he speaks, but we see him. We see Jesus mentioned him and If you're taking notes,

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I want you to write down this reference Matthew 12 39 through 40 Jesus talks about Jonah kind of significant if our

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Lord and Savior is talking about our main character here And this is what happened some scribes and some

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Pharisees some of the who's who the religious elite and the scholars and the people who? Followed the law just exactly they came to Jesus and They asked him to give them a sign

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Now Jesus was going around the countryside doing miracles and they could have just taken any one of them But instead they're like give us a sign

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We want you to do something specific for us and then we'll follow you then we'll believe you and so Jesus responds this way at The demand of people for signs.

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He wasn't really quick to give them He was willing to freely give them when they were when they were just Gently and kindly asked for but when it was a demand not so much and he answered them

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This is a quote an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign But no sign will be given to it except the sign of the

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Prophet Jonah Okay, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish

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So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth? Jonah Ultimately reflected

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Christ's passage through the grave and ultimately what we're looking at is Jonah went through the paths of death that's the picture and He had a resurrection of sorts when he was spewed out of that fish

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It was like resurrection to a new life to a new chance. Do you see that in the book? He's been he's been given a new lot on life a new opportunity to start fresh and start over again

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He was brought through the darkness and carried through the places of death. He stands as a picture of salvation to us

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Did Jonah deserve deliverance? Did he deserve it not really you guys looked confused on that question.

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I'm not trying to trick you But he was given a second chance And in the same way

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Jesus offers a second chance to anyone we can experience new birth through trust in Jesus The one who went to the cross and passed through the grave on our behalf

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And so he who spent three days and three nights in the belly of the earth in the grave For us is the one who provides a second chance

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Now there are three main applications. I want to unpack from this text. I recognize the Holy Spirit and I Encourage you to pray as you're listening to the

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Word of God and how would the Holy Spirit guide you and direct you? What does he want you to understand and he can he can do whatever he wants

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But listen for his voice convicting you on these three points as I go through Pray and ask him to reveal what he would desire to put his finger on in your life

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But the first one is how do you think about others a common theme throughout this book?

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recurring theme And yet it takes front and center stage in our text this morning because of the fact that Jonah was satisfied

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He was okay with the concept of being saved alone Now I know a pitch.

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I know a pastor who had a pit has a has a picture he had it on his wall and it was framed and It was a drawing from his son when his son was young and it was done in Crayon and it wasn't a fabulous immaculate picture but it had a storm and a little lightning strike and yellow coming down and then it was an ocean and a ship and Two men overboard stuck in the water and the one

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Was holding on to a life ring with one hand and with a rope attached to the boat And he's holding on to a life ring and he's reaching out to the other man in the water with his hand grab a hold and The can you imagine what the caption said under that the caption said

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I? Will not be saved alone. I Will not be saved alone

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He is our hope he is our rescue Who are you reaching out for in your life?

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Who is there that is in the water with you? And that's the fact I think too many non -christians out there see us and they think we're already in the boat

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Right. They're like you're just self -righteous and you're good enough and you just think that you're you're above the rest of us who are floundering

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Around here in the water and we're sinking and you're just you think you're above it all Well, are we now we're in there with them

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We're here in real life with them reaching out and who is it that we are reaching out to?

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Jonah was fine letting the masses die around him as long as I got my life ring I'm gonna hold on tight and share it with no one and that's literally how

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How we're to view him. He was just that cold -hearted But before we're too judgmental of Jonah We could be the same way

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He was quick to turn to God for mercy for himself when things went bad for him

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But the question that I have for all of you is are you willing to be saved? alone consider that The second thing is this concept of repentance

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We're seeing a man try to repent here and he's not doing a great job of it Repentance has two parts by the way, this is just this is fundamental and very important for us to understand.

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It's one solid Smooth motion that has two parts

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It's I'm moving in a course of life and I'm walking this way towards sin towards my way towards my life my desires and I'm moving in this direction and at some point

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God arrests that movement and turns me towards Christ and That is the picture of repentance.

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It is this turning away from sin and turning to Christ That's what repentance is

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Jonah is what we're going to see I doing partial repentance here He certainly surrendered to God and that's a good thing

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He did have a change in his perspective towards here. He did not have a change in his perspective towards others

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So he's going to repent of some sins, but not of others And if we're honest if we were to sit down right now and repent of all of our sins

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How long would it take us? We might sit there and spend a couple weeks with God Right as he brings things to mind and we've got to turn from it.

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We've got to walk from it We've got to confess it and let it go Do you see what I'm saying? Am I alone in that thinking that it would take me a little while to repent of every single sin

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That's where Jonah is at. The fact of the matter is Jonah is a complex person Raise your hand if you're a little bit of a complex person

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You got warring motives going on in you and sometimes self -deception and not even really clearly understanding my own sin

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Until sometimes it takes somebody else in my life to call that out and I recognize oh that is pretty ugly

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Thank you for sharing that Do you know what I'm saying? Sometimes it takes another voice to actually hear what's going on or just sitting

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Quietly before God and asking him to point out and show us where we really are in life

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You see Jonah let me just list some of the sins that I see reading the entire book of Jonah some of the things that I see in him and I'm not just pointing that out to say well, he's that bad because these things can be in me too, but nationalism arrogance self -centeredness and unwilling heart

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Not willing to serve God in his prayer in the whale, he repents of only one of those sins an

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Unwilling heart right, but the only thing he turns from he doesn't say I'm gonna love people

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I'm gonna just have this passion and the zeal and desire for your mission to go forward among everyone

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I'm gonna break down these walls that I have a bias and hatred towards others and No, or the self -centeredness that I want to hoard your grace only for me

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He doesn't even let those things go. The only thing he does is just deal with this unwilling heart He doesn't get it all dealt with at once.

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Did Jonah grow in our text today? Yeah. Yes. He did. He grew a little bit.

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Has he arrived? Not at all Does he need further repentance?

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You bet I point this out to suggest to you that you start like Jonah you start somewhere

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Maybe during communion this morning you would ask God where he wants you to start. Maybe you already have a good clue

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Maybe you already know maybe God is just when when God points to a sin and you're like you're going to know it

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Have you experienced raise your hand if you've experienced that before where God has said boy you need to deal with this lady You need to deal with this and it's like Oh got it.

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Got it right here between the eyes Pray for that ask for that That's God's grace to you that he would that he would be gracious enough to show you those shortcomings those failures those faults those sins

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Those habits that are owning you And so what do you do when you when you?

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Sit here during communion and you pray and you say God show it to me and then he reveals it to you and it's like Oh sucker punch hurts

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You confess it to him you acknowledge that is sin call it what it is and then ask him to take that over and transform you and Then run from it

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Run from that sin Do everything in your power to battle it and to fight it But giving it over to God and asking him for the power to run the race against it

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That make sense the last thing Now we can be hard on Jonah Jonah didn't get it get it all and he didn't repent of everything

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And he's pretty much a jerk and he's gonna stay that way during the entire text. He's gonna hate the

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Ninevites and But he did something that I dare say few of us would do

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Give him some kudos for this one He thanked God For the whale does that strike any of you guys is like a tough thing a difficult thing

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Are any of you like me you put me in that cramped tight smelly place, and I'm not happy I'm scared.

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I'm not seeing how this is better than drowning You guys there feeling that way

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But Jonah offers genuine, thanks I'm always challenged by this text to be thankful in all circumstances if Jonah could be thankful from the whale

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Then certainly I should be thankful in my life And so I want all of us to consider our gratitude

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How thankful are we to God I can get upset about just the smallest minor thing stuff

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I mean, it's just these little things that just add up You know you having a bad Monday you stub your toe you slam your finger in the door

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And then something else happens. It's just like you ever have those days where it's just like God. Are you against me well? I just stubbed my toe

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You know am I the only one who does that am I the only one that's that petty or tell me if? That is that a common human condition

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Sometimes I think I asked you if that happens to you, so I feel better about myself I don't know. I probably ought not to do that As we come to communion this morning we come to the point of thankfulness

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With this that's one of the main points of this as a matter of fact the Roman Catholic Church Uses the

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Greek word for thankfulness That we find in the text of the Bible to actually call this entire ceremony

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What we do when we come and we take the juice and we take the bread and we remember the death of Christ it is Called Eucharist and if you ever heard that phrase

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Eucharist Eucharist means Thankfulness, that's what the word means and in that We remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us, and we give thanks

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Of course it makes little sense to thank God for something you don't believe So if you're here, and you don't believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross.

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You don't you're not quite sure who he is They don't encourage you to stay in your seat sit back listen to the song take it in consider it

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But I would also ask you to consider What is stopping you from asking Jesus Christ for his forgiveness and for the new life that he offers to all?

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Everyone If you're already identified with Jesus Christ you've you've asked him to come in and Clean up the mess that you've made of your own life, and you've asked him to be your

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Lord And then you've said would you save me would you change me would you transform me if you've already done that?

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Then I'd encourage you to come up There would be two lines in the front and one line in the back to take the juice and remember

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The blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us To take a piece of bread and remember his body that was crushed on our behalf and do so with thankfulness

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But I would encourage you as I said earlier to take some time as the song plays We're not in any rush here this morning.

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Take the time to ask God. What do you want to change in me? What sins do you see in me that I need to repent of and I need to change and Then give those over to God and ask for his help.