I always start my sermons with a question:
My question for you this evening is
When do you pray?
In the Bible in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we are told to pray without ceasing or as the NLT translates it Never stop praying
I wonder how many of us do that?
If we take that verse in context we are to Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
We may pray when we really want to thank God for something.
But there are times when perhaps we do stop praying.
Or perhaps we pray simply because we think we are supposed to, but somehow, our heart just is not in the prayer.
If we are honest, most of us are more likely to pray when circumstances are difficult, or
when situations arise in our lives or the lives of others that we want God to intervene in.
Some people will only pray when they are desperate.
Have you ever been in a desperate situation where praying to God was the only answer?
Do you ever pray SOS prayers?
Lord help me, Lord save me, Lord I need you now!
When Peter walked on the water and began to sink beneath the waves, he said a very short prayer he simply said: “Lord, save me.” Matt. 14:30
That was a desperate prayer wasn’t it.
Tonight I want us to think about a powerful prayer in a desperate place.
And we are going to do that by considering what happened to the prophet Jonah.
Jonah 1:17 Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.
Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish
Now that’s a desperate prayer in a desperate place.
So, why was Jonah in the fish’s belly?
He was there because the fish swallowed him!
But we need to go back a little further to find out why the fish swallowed him.
Jonah was inside of a fish because of Jonah’s original response to God’s command.
He did not like the idea of doing what God wanted, despite the fact that he was a prophet, and prophets were supposed to do what God asked them to do.
Jonah had decided to choose his own way and ignore God’s request.
In fact, it seems the fish was more obedient to the will of God than Jonah was.
God arranged for the fish to swallow Jonah.
It did not just happen to be there.
It was directed and positioned by God to be in the right place at the right time.
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Lets get theological for a moment.
There are two theological viewpoints about the book of Jonah.
The first is that the story of Jonah is not a historical event, it is viewed as an allegory or a parable.
The second is that Jonah is a historical book stating a factual event that occurred to an actual person.
I believe that the second viewpoint is true.
That this was a real event in a real persons life.
But I can understand why there would be some theological people who would want to distance themselves from the facts in the book of Jonah.
Could a man really survive in the belly of a fish for three days?
I believe if God wanted him to he could.
I believe in a miracle working God.
I believe in the God of the impossible.
And I hope you do too.
God arranged for the fish to swallow Jonah
and God, in a miraculous way,
arranged for Jonah to stay alive inside the fish too.
I don’t know what kind of fish it was.
I don’t know what it looked like.
I don’t know if God created a special fish for this one time use,
or if he used an existing fish and somehow equipped it for the purpose of keeping Jonah alive for three days.
But what I do know is that Jesus believed it actually happened.
In fact, Jesus picked this story as a sign to confirm who He was, in one of the greatest miracles in the Bible.
Matthew 12:38-41 says:
One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.”
39But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
41“The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.
If Jesus said it happened to Jonah - it happened!
God does not lie.
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So What do we know about Jonah?
By all accounts He was a fairly brave prophet of God who was told to go preach to his enemies.
God told Jonah to go to a foreign city and tell them to “announce my judgment against Nineveh because I have seen how wicked its people are.” Jonah 1:2
God had never directed a prophet to do this in a foreign city before.
Jonah was to be the first foreign missionary.
Nineveh was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. It was the nerve center and capital of the Assyrian empire.
For most of its existence Assyria was a military society and success was measured by conquest.
And the Assyrians had a horrific reputation of being especially brutal to those they conquered.
But, Jonah didn’t want to go there so he ran away and got on a boat going in the opposite direction.
Then there was a storm that was so powerful that all of the sailors on the boat thought they were going to die.
Then they discovered that Jonah was running from his God and Jonah told them to throw him overboard.
Jonah was in a desperate place.
He had disobeyed God,
he had ran away,
a storm had been released into his life.
And now he was stuck inside a fish.
Let’s think about that for a moment.
Are you, figuratively speaking, stuck inside a fish at the moment?
Is there something that you know God has asked you to do that you have been running away from?
Has there been a storm in your life that has brought you to a desperate place?
Are you feeling isolated and alone in your situation?
Is there something in your life right now that is causing you to have a sinking feeling?
Does it feel like your suffocating in the dark?
Do you have no sense of direction?
Are you unable to see where you are going?
Are you in your desperate place?
Maybe it’s time for you to pray,
maybe it’s time to God to do what He does best, maybe it’s time to ask God for your miracle!
Maybe it’s time to pray a powerful prayer.
Three days in the belly of a fish,
not the best three days of Jonah’s life.
Three days in a desperate place and then he realised that only God could change the situation.
Three days then Jonah prayed for salvation.
Let’s look at that prayer in Jonah chapter 2:1-10;
Jonah’s Prayer
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. 2He said,
“I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me.
I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me!
3You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea.
The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.
4Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’
5“I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.
6I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.
I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever.
But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!
7As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord.
And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple.
8Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies.
9But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows.
For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”
10Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.
As far as Jonah and the world were concerned he was as good as dead.
Yet he prays a prayer inside the fish’s belly based on his knowledge of God’s mercy and kindness.
In the fish Jonah would be totally disoriented,
yet he says he will look towards the temple of God!
He has no way of knowing which direction to turn or look but he prays to God.
He looks towards the place where mercy and forgiveness is to be found.
He looks towards the place where his transgressions will be covered.
He knows his Salvation can only come from God.
He’s trapped inside the fish.
He is a real man, trapped by real circumstances.
And he only has two choices in this situation.
Prayer or despair.
He can either give up or he can look up.
Despair is where there is no hope
or where a person doesn’t want the hope that’s offered.
Despair can take over if we decide to give up hope.
Many people are trapped in despair because they do not want the help that God has to offer, even though He is the only help there is.
Friends, in God alone we have our hope!
Psalm 62:5-8 reminds us:
5Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him.
6He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will not be shaken.
7My victory and honour come from God alone.
He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
8O my people, trust in him at all times.
Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.
Is your hope in God?
Do you know Him as your rock and your salvation?
Is He your unshakeable fortress?
Is God your refuge?
Do you trust Him, really trust Him, at all times?
In your place of desperation, have you poured out your heart to Him?
There is a purpose,
there is a chance,
change can come,
your miracle can happen,
you don’t need to be stuck inside your fish!
There is hope in Him!
There is hope in God!
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Jonah had to decide.
Would he give up or give in.
Would he pray or just give up and die.
It should have been an easy decision.
But it took him three days to decide it was better to serve God and live then hang onto his pride and die.
Do you allow pride to be a powerful force your life?
Each of us probably have things that we do or won’t do because of our pride.
Maybe our pride finds its best expression when we choose to do only the things we want to do and nothing else.
Maybe Jonah’s had allowed his pride to determine how he would serve God.
Maybe he had been willing to serve God on his own terms not God’s.
And maybe we need to examine ourselves and discover if we are serving God or simply doing our own thing and calling it service for God.
Jonah knew he could turn from his hard-hearted and sinful ways and live or he could harden his heart even further and die.
I’m reminded of the verse in Deuteronomy 30:19 when God spoke through Moses to the Israelites and said, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.”
By the grace of God Jonah chose life and Jonah repents.
Repentance literally means a change of mind.
From a biblical standpoint its a change of mind about sin.
It means seeing sin for what it is as an act of rebellion against God and then turning from sin and submitting to God.
Its a change of mind that results in a change in behaviour.
Jonah recognised in going his own way and doing his own thing he was turning away from the only one who could help him.
His repentance involves three things:
He turns back to the right path,
the one he had been on.
He openly acknowledging the foolishness of his ways.
He puts God back on the throne of his heart.
There’s a physical move followed by a psychological choice and then there’s a spiritual commitment.
Jonah prayed a desperate prayer in a desperate place.
As I draw to a close, what am I really saying here?
Are you like Jonah?
Have you been going your own way?
Have you allowed disobedience to creep into your life?
Have you allowed sin to creep into your life?
Have you spent some time in the belly of a fish?
Do you need to repent and return to God?
Is your pride stopping you from humbling yourself?
In the Bible, King David was called the man after God’s own heart,
Ezra was referred to as the scribe of God,
Job was called the most righteous man of his day,
they all felt the need to repent of sin;
and perhaps we should too.
Jonah repented, he turned from his sin and came back into a real relationship with God.
In the story of Jonah we have the account and the result of a powerful prayer, one man’s desperate prayer and his willingness to let God be God.
We too need to let God be God.
We need to have a relationship of obedience and commitment to the living God who loves us and cares for us even in the desperate place.
Trust Him and pray to Him in every part of your life.
Amen? Amen
