(SLIDE # 1)
THE RUNNING MAN: SHALLOW IN THE DEPTHS
JONAH 2
As a kid, I always had all of these theological questions in my head. I was raised in church and was given a pretty good Christian education between home, Sunday School, and Church, but I had these certain questions that floated around in my head all of the time that I tried to get answered. Here are a few:
If God is all knowing does he know what I will be doing when I am 30?
Does God know every decision I will make?
Can people look down from Heaven and see what I am doing right now?
Does God know my every thought?
What constitutes a full fledged sin and what does God see as an honest mistake?
Will God accept my prayer of forgiveness on my death bed no matter what I have done?
How many times will God forgive me? Is there a number on this forgiveness thing?
Now on the surface, these questions look like innocent questions that any kid might have. They look like questions that even some adults might ask who are trying to seek out how to live a better Christian life.
But that wasn’t the reason I asked these questions. I wasn’t seeking out the answers to gain a deeper theological knowledge of God or Christianity. I wasn’t trying to live a more pious life, and hoping to use the answers to bring me to a better understanding of God. I wasn’t honestly searching out the answers to these questions to better understand the depths of God’s love for me.
I WAS TRYING TO PLAY THE SYSTEM! I WAS TRYING TO SEE HOW FAR I COULD GO AND STILL DO WHAT I WANTED.
Even though the questions sound great on the surface, they were superficial, they were SHALLOW!
The WORDS didn’t reveal the intent!
As we continue to look at the book of Jonah, I want to remind you that there always seems to be more to what Jonah is saying than is on the surface. Jonah is always running from something (obedience, responsibility, actions, attitudes) and as we begin to dig deeper into his words we find that he is very shallow.
Today I want to look at Jonah 2. Jonah 2 is a prayer that looks very much like a Psalm of praise. Personally, I have to wonder if Jonah really orated this beautiful Psalm while in the belly of a fish or if it was much less formal at the time of the incident, and it became more poetic when he later wrote it down. I cannot imagine saying such sophisticated prose while being in the slimy belly of a fish. Either way, I believe it is scripture and I believe it is an historical event, not a metaphor as some believe.
So, if you have your Bible with you today, turn to Jonah Chapter 2. If not, if will be on the screen for you
(SLIDE # 2)
From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said:
“In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
3
You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
4
I said, ‘I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’
5
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
(SLIDE #3)
6
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
brought my life up from the pit.
7
“When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
8
“Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
9
But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Now, one thing we have going for us in 2015 is knowing the rest of the story. Most of us have read the story and know what happens and how Jonah acts in the end. And as beautiful as this prayer seems on the surface, there is an air of insincerity or shallowness in Jonah’s prayer.
It’s kind of like an inch of newly fallen snow on a trash heap, it is beautiful until you stir it up a little (Bob Deffinbaugh).
****Today, I want to look at this prayer and show you 3 characteristics of a superficial relationship with God.
(SLIDE # 4)
Only Pray when you Need Something
There is an old saying that says, “Pray, not only because you need something, but because you have a lot to be thankful for.”
As much as this looks like a Psalm of Thanksgiving, digging into it a little provides us with some insight that Jonah was only worried about saving his own skin.
Jonah is in a bind. According to his prayer, Jonah just survived what we would call a “near death” experience and he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
From the description of what happened to Jonah, it seems that Jonah sank to the bottom of the ocean before the great fish swallowed him. He prays how the waters engulfed him, how he sunk to the bottom, how seaweed was wrapped around his head. (more dramatic than we see in the last verse of chapter 1)
He prays: “My life was ebbing away.” (he was drowning)
And when we look at the beginning of the prayer, Jonah seems somewhat sincere:
“In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
Jonah begins by praising God.
It seems that Jonah thought he had died (the realm of the dead). It’s interesting how Jonah has quickly gone from this guy in chapter 1 who was more than willing to die than to obey God.
But the kicker here is now that Jonah is in a mess, now that is physical life is being threatened, he is crying out to God!
And Jonah is no dummy. He knows he has been disobedient. He knows that God is unhappy with him. It is not that Jonah doesn’t understand that he is sinning. He is willfully sinning! (Jonah is one stubborn dude)
In Chapter 1 we are told that the sailors knew Jonah was running from the Lord because he had already told them.
In Verse 4 (Chapter 2), he says, “I have been banished from your sight.”
To be banished from God’s sight meant that Jonah had lost God’s favor, that Jonah had willfully sinned and was being punished for it. He knew that.
Willful sin is a purposeful choice to sin, even though you know God is against it and that you should not do it.
(SLIDE #5)
****It means you are putting your will above God’s.****
Parents often see this in their own children. There are times they are disobedient because they forgot, or the lure of doing something they knew they shouldn't was just too strong. But there are those times when the child just looks the parent straight in the eye and dares the parent to stop him -- that is willful disobedience. He doesn't care that the parent says it is wrong, he thinks he knows better and that he is in control of the situation.
Willful sin, if not taken care of leads to a hardened heart.
Proverbs 27:19 says, As water reflects the face, so one's life reflects the heart.
Even though as humans we look to evidence that is seen, evidence from outward appearances, God looks at the heart. God looks at our intentions. God looks at our sincerity.
But even though he knew it, all Jonah seems concerned about was his physical life. We don’t hear one mention of his spiritual life.
In verse 6, he says, You have brought my life up from the pit.
That is why he was praying, because God had saved his physical life. On the surface it looked like praise , but as we dig deeper we see that Jonah was only concerned about himself and his physical life. It was nothing deeper than that.
A second characteristic of a shallow relationship with God is:
(SLIDE #6)
2. Self Righteous Attitude
When we read verse 7, we think there is still hope for Jonah, that he might turn this thing around and stop being disobedient:
“When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
We often hear about the power of prayer and the effectiveness of prayer, and how prayer accomplishes much; and it does. The book of James says that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective (James 5:15)
***But it is not in the prayer that the power is found, it is in God!
(SLIDE #7)
Prayer is not a magical spell that we use to control God and get what we want. Prayer never does anything by itself. It is always God who does the work. It is God who answers prayer. It is God who is powerful, and it is God who provides and protects. IT IS GOD WE SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON WHEN WE PRAY, NOT US. Jonah is focusing here on himself and his prayer, rather than on God and what God wants.
And then comes verse 8:
“Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
Jonah is at the perfect place in his prayer to repent, but he turns his focus away from himself and starts criticizing the pagans (Ninevites/sailors).
It is almost like when a little kid gets caught doing something wrong, and instead of admitting their mistake, they say, “Well how about so and so.”
In Jonah’s case, he is saying, “how about them pagans?!”
“They cling to worthless idols. I am an Israelite. I am one of the chosen people. I might not be obeying, but at least I am not a pagan!”
At this point I want to scream at Jonah:
Do you really hear what you are saying stupid?
Look in a mirror!
Jonah, who are you worshiping? Yourself, or the LORD?
Jonah, you talk about those idol worshipers forfeiting the grace that could be theirs, and yet do you know anything about grace? God is keeping you alive when you should be dead. God has been more gracious to you then you deserve, and you still cannot be gracious to others.
It was the heathen pagan sailors that had compassion on Jonah when he put them in a life threatening situation, yet Jonah showed none toward them. By virtually any standard, the Gentile sailors proved to be superior to Jonah from all that we have read in the first chapter, and yet Jonah can tell God that he is somehow superior to the pagans.”
Are there people that you view as hopeless? Are there those whom you think God will never be able to get through to?
Is this the feeling we sometimes have toward our unsaved neighbors or the people we work with? Do we feel superior to them because we are Christians and they are not? What a horrible self-righteous attitude and what a horrible witness!
It is self-righteous because the only reason we are Christians is because God reached out to us. It has nothing to do with anything that we have done. We are going to heaven only because God was gracious to us. It is a horrible witness because it turns off others to the Gospel. If we treat others as if they were trash, why would they want to become one of us?
We are to build up, not tear down. Self-righteousness only tears down!
Lastly, a person who has a shallow relationship with God
3. Never Truly Repents
Even though we continue to wait for it, Jonah never repents!
In the last verse Jonah prays:
But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
Once again on the surface, this seems like a nice ending to Jonah’s prayer, but it is really a continuation of his self-righteousness.
He is more worried about the his sacrifice than his obedience. He is worried about what he looked like on the outside not the inside! It is obvious that Jonah forgets the words of the prophet Samuel when he says:
(SLIDE #9)
“What is more pleasing to the Lord:
your burnt offerings and sacrifices
or your obedience to his voice?
Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. (1 Samuel 15:22).
JONAH’S CONCERN WAS ONLY TO DO THE PROPER OUTWARD ACTS, NOT TO CHANGE ON THE INSIDE
And his recitation of Psalm 37:39 seems to forget one important word:
Jonah says: “ Salvation is from the Lord.”
(SLIDE #10)
LET’S SEE WHAT DAVID WRITES:
The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
**Salvation of the “righteous” is from the Lord.
And to be righteous means you are in a “RIGHT” relationship with God.
Righteousness comes through repentance!!
***Biblical repentance is an inward response (a change of heart) that causes a change of mind that causes radical action.
Biblical repentance is not a one time thing that brings us to salvation, but a life-time thing that brings us to humility, realizing that Our sinfulness compared to God’s holiness is an insurmountable obstacle without
GOD’S GRACE.
To repent you have to take your mind off of self and put it on God for a minute. It is impossible to repent while being selfish and self-serving!
All Jonah offers is to make a sacrifice at the altar (the same as the pagans that he criticizes). He never repents and never promises to obey.
You see, the story of Jonah is not about missions, or mission trips, or becoming a missionary. The story of Jonah is not about following your calling (even though I believe we all have one that we should be following). The story of Jonah is about a disobedient prophet who is representative of a disobedient people.
The story of Jonah is the story of human disobedience and divine patience. Jonah (The Israelites) continue to disobey. Jonah continues to worry about self, and God continues to be patient with both.
God doesn’t have the fish spit Jonah on the beach because he had finally repented and learned his lesson. Jonah is spit out on the beach because
God has enough patience to continue teaching Jonah
Jonah is serving God’s purpose, not the other way around.
God is a patient God, but he is a sovereign God. He is in control not us.
1 John 2: 3-6
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
A few weeks ago we talked about the Hebrew understanding of the word “know.” I told you that to know was an intimate knowledge, not a “head” knowledge of something.
John reminds us in these verses that to be in an intimate relationship with God, we must obey, but obedience cannot happen without repentance (turning away from our sin).
GOD IS NOT ASKING US TO GIVE HIM SOME OF US, HE IS ASKING US TO SURRENDER ALL TO HIM (EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES). FROM OUR MARRIAGE, FINANCES, FAMILY, RELATIONSHIPS, JOBS, HOBBIES.
EVERYTHING WE DO SHOULD BE WITH HIM IN MIND FIRST!
(SLIDE # 11)
HE IS ASKING US TO : SURRENDER ALL TO HIM.
***At this point I would like everyone to close your eyes and bow your heads:***
So where to you stand today. The preaching of God’s word demands a response.
Are you living in a “righteous” relationship with the living God?
OR Like Jonah, are you “shallow in the depths?”
Do you only reach out to God in prayer when you need him?
Are you self-righteous, thinking that you have somehow earned your salvation and that others are below you, maybe hopeless?
Are you living in willful sin, yet refuse to repent?
Maybe you have never repented of your sins and recognized Jesus as your Lord and Saviour? Do that today!
Maybe you have compromised your faith in some way, not making God the center of your life, but making him your rubber stamp.
Maybe it is a situation where you are thinking, I just cannot stop doing it?
and my answer is, “No you can’t.” But if you are a Christian in this place, God has given you a helper (The Holy Spirit), who can help you with your struggles. All you need to do is recognize it and give it to God today.
Maybe you need to pray with someone about this. Maybe you need to come down here and get on your knees before the altar.
Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. Get it right with God today. Let the Spirit lead you today!
His grace is abundant. His grace is overflowing. He is patient. He is kind, but He is worthy of our worship.
Come to God today and lay down all of your burdens, all of your sins, all of yourself.
Come to God today and SURRENDER ALL TO HIM
