“U-turns Encouraged Here”
Jonah 1:17-2:10
Pastor John Bright
Jonah 1:17 “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Jonah 2 “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,
And He answered me.
“Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
And You heard my voice.
3 For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me;
All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord, my God.
7 “When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.
8 “Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.”
10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
Last week – Chapter 1 (review)
There was this Christian lady that had to do a lot of traveling for her business, so she did a lot of flying. But flying made her nervous so she always took her Bible along with her to read because it helped relax her.
One time she was sitting next to a man and when he saw her pull out her Bible, he gave a little chuckle and went back to what he was doing. After a while, he turned to her and asked, "You don't really believe all that stuff in there do you?"
The lady replied, "Of course I do...it is the Bible."
He said, "Well, what about that guy that was swallowed by that whale?"
She replied, "Oh, Jonah. Yes, I believe that, it is in the Bible."
He asked, "Well, how do you suppose he survived all that time inside the whale?"
The lady said, "Well, I don't really know. I guess when I get to heaven, I will ask him."
"What if he isn't in heaven?" the man asked sarcastically.
"Then you can ask him!" replied the lady. 😊
Last week I mentioned that the big fish was a deliverance for Jonah who expected to die when he was thrown into the sea. God did not abandon Jonah and He has promised to never abandon us – “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
His desire is for all the runners to return to Him. We get a description of runners in Revelation 2:6 – “…you have left your first love.” That doesn’t mean you are a terrible person. I look out here on Sunday and think ya’ll clean up real nice, but what is on the inside? Are you running? Wanna stop and return to God?
If your answer is “yes”, then I want to offer you three easy steps that any runner can do:
Step 1 - REMEMBER
v. 7 “When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.”
Like Jonah, we remember and that leads to prayer. So, how about some honest prayer?
• My life stinks.
• I’m having a hard time forgiving others and myself.
• I feel like I can’t take it anymore!
I will have a lot more to say about honest prayer in a couple of weeks when we see Jonah, post-Nineveh, in chapter 4. For now, let me say this – God can take anything you want to say to Him in prayer. It won’t hurt your relationship with God to be honest. On the contrary, it actually helps!
Jonah is praying from the belly of the fish but he is recalling the moments he was sinking in the depths of the sea. He remembered God and received a miracle. In the New Testament, Jesus told the Parable of the Loving Father (or Prodigal Son) in Luke 15. The Father is looking down the road day after day, just waiting for the son to remember home and return. He waits and waits until the son finally returns. Jonah is running and running but finally remembers. That God – our Loving Father – is only one remembering prayer away from you and me each and every day.
Step 2 – REPENT
v. 9 “But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.”
That verse sounds like it would fit into a sermon on stewardship. Not sure what vow Jonah took. In the book of Acts, Paul is with some Jewish men who have taken a vow. What I think Jonah is saying at this point is – “I will do what you want me to do.” That sounds a lot like the beginning of repentance that I tell you about all the time:
God, you’re right and I’m wrong.
There is more to repentance. A Sunday School teacher asked her class, “What does it mean to repent?”
One child said, “Being sorry for your sins.”
Another child replied, “Being sorry enough to quit that sin.”
Repentance must continue from “I’ll do what you want me to do” to a change in the life of a believer. We should stop and change direction right then. Jesus described this immediate change in Matthew 5 – “23 Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
When we get to Step 2 for Runners, our intent should be to return to God (who never left us!) It’s the time to search your heart for what you are doing that is wrong or what you are not doing that is right. The fancy names for those are “Sins of Commission” and “Sins of Omission.” This moves us to action!
There was an outpouring of the holy spirit during the Welsh Revivals of the 19th century. As people sought to be filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to confess they’re wrong doing and to make restitution. But it unexpectedly created serious problems for the shipyards along the coast of Wales. Over the years workers had stolen all kinds of things, from wheelbarrows to hammers. However as people sought to be right with God they started to return what they’d taken, with the result that soon the shipyards of Wales were overwhelmed with returned property. There were such huge piles of returned tools that several of the shipyards put up signs that read, “If you have been led by God to return what you have stolen, please know that the management forgives you and wishes you to keep what you have taken.” 😊
Step 3 – REPEAT
Jonah 3 “1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”
God uses the big fish to deliver Jonah to the place he should have gone from the start. God repeats what He told Jonah in the first verse of this book. I have a question for the golfers – how many mulligans do you get in a tournament? I have heard of charity golf tournaments where a golfer could buy extra mulligans with a donation. A mulligan is a “do over.’ That’s what happens to Jonah when he remembers and repents.
Our God is a God of 2nd, 3rd & 4th chances – we all get mulligans. That’s grace – the same grace we are offered in the Lord’s Supper today.
Here’s the rub – God sends Jonah back to the place from which he was trying to run. We often have to go back to the very thing that made us run in the first place. For Jonah it was:
• I can’t do that.
• I’ll never go to Nineveh.
• Why should my enemies be told that God loves them?
If you are running from God, be prepared to go back to the place where you left God. To do this, we don’t go backward – God did not return Jonah to his home – Jonah moved forward and so will you.
Of course, you don’t have to stop running today. You don’t have to follow the three steps – Remember, Repent and Repeat. If you don’t, let me share what becomes of the Believer who remains a runner:
1 Timothy 4:2 describes “having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.” That means you call what is wrong as being right. You believe the lies of the culture.
Ephesians 4:18-19 warns of “the blindness of their heart.” Believers can leave their first love and do all their acts of service to God out of duty. That leads to bitterness and a hard, blind heart.
It’s the three steps - Remember, Repent and Repeat – that Jonah did. So did the Prodigal Son. You can, too. There are lots of places you drive that have signs to let you know that a U-turn is illegal on that part of the street. We need to encourage U-turns here. They are essential to a deep walk with Christ, your savior.
To the runners – God is one prayer away and He is waiting for you. Amen.
TEACHING SHEET
Jonah 1:17-2:10
Series: “Jonah: God’s Reluctant Prophet”
“U-turns Encouraged Here”
What is a miracle? - Jesus performed countless miracles, yet the vast majority of people did not believe in Him. If God performed miracles today as He did in the past, the result would be the same. People would be amazed and would believe in God for a short time. That faith would be shallow and would disappear the moment something unexpected or frightening occurred. A faith based on miracles is not a mature faith. God performed the greatest "God miracle" of all time in coming to earth as the Man Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins (Romans 5:8) so that we could be saved (John 3:16). God does still perform miracles-many of them simply go unnoticed or are denied. However, we do not need more miracles. What we need is to believe in the miracle of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. https://www.gotquestions.org/miracles-Bible.html
Jonah was running from God… but God would not abandon him. Deuteronomy 31:6 "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."
How can we return to God (who has not left us) when we are finished running? Our running is often compared to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2 - v. 6 "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love."
We can return to God in three easy steps:
1. REMEMBER - Jonah 2:7 "…I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You,…"
Jonah's prayer is a response to the God who was already there… delivering him by way of a miracle.
In Luke 15, Jesus tells the Parable of the Prodigal Son. God is like the Father who stands looking down the road for His precious child to remember and return.
For each of us, God can be one prayer away!
2. REPENT - Jonah 2:9 "…I will pay what I have vowed…"
PJ's simplified version - "God, you're right and I'm wrong." That's the beginning. What must follow is a change of will - that leads to a turning around.
Matthew 5 "23 Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."
3. RETURN - Jonah 3:1-2 "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you."
Our God is a God of 2nd, 3rd and 4th chances! But we often have to go right back to where we left God and start in that place.
If we will not REMEMBER, REPENT, and RETURN… if we continue to reject the call of God on our lives (remember - God wants to use you, not please you)… we know what will happen from the Bible:
"seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron" (2 Timothy 4:2)
"because of the hardness of their heart (have) become callous." (Ephesians 4:18-19)
If the Prodigal Son could come home, so can we. If you want a U-turn in your life today, it's time to pray to the God who is waiting… just for you!
