A Messenger Called “TROUBLE”
Jonah 2
4-28-02
1. Jonah 2:1-2 “Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish’s belly. 2And 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.
In the next few verses-- Jonah Describes Horror of his experience in fish’s belly
Talks about Despondency he Felt— Hopelessness of situation.
verse 7-9 "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. 9But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD."
2. Has anyone here ever had a “Jonah Experience”?
Have been a number of times God has had get my Attention—but My Jonah Experience= 21 yrs old.
Been Running from God 4 or 5 yrs.
Had put my life together in such a way—I thought had world by tail
One day—whole world fell apart
A messenger called “Trouble” Came KNOCKING at my DOOR
Do you know what I did? Exactly what Jonah did in verse 7
“…I remembered the Lord…”
It’s Easy to Forget God when life is going smooth.
Easy to pursue own purposes—own agenda.
3. Up until this time Jonah had mistaken idea about God’s Call on his life.
He thought it was something could take or leave at own choosing.
God had told him to go to Nineveh.
He had Evaluated God’s Plan
And Decided go in a Different Direction.
On his way, God sent a Messenger to speak to him:
The messenger called TROUBLE
4. Trouble always carries with it – a message from God- Trouble Talks
(when trouble comes into our lives—it’s talking)!
The QUESTION is: What is it saying?
What is the trouble in your life saying to you?
Is it mere happen chance OR is there something to be perceived & understood out of situation?
C.S. Lewis
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, But SHOUTS in our pain…” (1)
What is God trying to say to me?
Will I hear the message?
How will I Respond to the message?
When trouble comes it is first & foremost saying to us:
I. TALK with God.
1. James 5:13 asks a probing Question “Is any one of you in trouble?
God poses that Question to us this morning: “Is anybody here in trouble?”
The trouble may be Financial – Emotional—Relational
There are a great variety of experiences that can fall under broad scope of word trouble.
Is there trouble in your life?
2. I’m Glad Bible doesn’t just leave us with the question.
James 5:13 Follows up with this Answer: He should ____?what--pray.
There are a number of things we tend to do as Substitutes for that:
** Try Solve problem as best can and continue on
** Get Counseling
** Consolidate our Bills
None of those things are wrong—But are NOT what told us to do.
“Is any one of you in trouble?” Let him go to Psychiatrist? No
Visit his Banker?
Leave town & take Sabbatical?
The Instruction is – He should “Pray”
3. Trouble is our divine WAKE-UP Call to talk with God.
We can get into a spiritual slumber—and it’s hard to wake up.
When I was in Denver a couple of weeks ago, Jeanie called me at about 5:00 am. I was in a deep sleep—
So when I answered the phone & heard her say “Good Morning” before she could say anything else, I said “Thank you” & Hung up.
Have you ever Hung up on God?
When we do that He does exactly what Jeanie did—she called back.
God will keep calling until He gets our Attention—and that’s good.
Trouble = Attention-Getter!
If you’re in trouble—the Divine phone is RINGING.
4. God got Jonah’s attention.
There’s a cartoon in Leadership Magazine—and in the picture these guys on the boat have Jonah & are about to throw him into the sea. Down in the sea you see the fish-and fish is looking up out of the water and saying “Why me?” (2)
Have you ever found yourself saying those words to God-Why me?
Sometimes God is saying-“I want to talk with you,
I’ve got some things to say to you & you haven’t been listening”
5. A common substitute for prayer is “Worry”
(Worrying & Fretting are a terrible substitute for prayer)
Phil. 4:6 specifically tells us to quit worrying & start praying.
I’m amazed at how often I catch myself worrying instead of praying.
What a relief it is to simply take the problem to God in prayer.
Are you worrying about anything? This morning is excellent time to take that matter to God in prayer and let Him carry it.
II. Sometimes trouble is saying to us TURN to God-
Turn Around – you’re going the wrong way.
1. Jonah was headed toward Tarshish.
That was opposite direction from where God told him to go.
How many know, God helped Jonah correct his course?
He sent this big fish called “Trouble” to turn him around & get him going in right direction.
Jonah 2:10 says “So the Lord spoke to the fish (God can speak to our problems)and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
(Messy but effective)
Jonah could have traveled in a nice comfortable boat—
but since he didn’t choose to go that way,God prepared another means of transportation-a big, ugly fish
2. It was a terribly uncomfortable trip for Jonah—but it was also an awesome expression of God’s mercy & grace toward Jonah.
Guess what the next verse says? Jonah 3:1 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the 2nd time saying “Arise & go to Nineveh, that great city and preach to it the message that I tell you—SO, Jonah rose and went to Nineveh…”
3. God did not give up on Jonah.
The journey was not the short/easy route—but God got him there.
Aren’t you glad God gave Jonah a 2nd Chance?
You may feel like you’ve blown it big—maybe you have.
But could I say to you—it’s not too big for God to salvage.
I blew it big in my late teens & early 20’s—but,my mistakes were not bigger than God.
Yes, I feel the pain of my past disobedience,
But I also know the power of God’s Redemption.
Do you need another chance? “…the word of the Lord came to
Jonah the 2nd time…”
I’m glad God didn’t Reject David when he failed.
Peter
Me
4. Back in 1988 I decided I would get out of the ministry for a while nd make some money and then get back in.
I was not in rebellion—I simply had an idea of what I would do and pursued t. I was in a transition and it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Ralph Hawk approached me about taking a church in Iowa.
He said he had prayed about it and felt that might be God’s will.
Well, it wasn’t my will and it wasn’t the church I wanted even f I were to take another pastorate.
I told him “Thanks, but no thanks” and proceeded to get a job n the corporate world where I had worked before.
I expected to get several offers within a few weeks. I had a good work record, good references, and thought the process wouldn’t take long.
A month passed & not one offer.
During that time I did receive two prophesies from people who idn’t even know me-- telling me to continue pastoring.
Undaunted in my plan I sent out more resumes and still got nowhere. It was like a miracle in reverse.
For five months I had no income and depleted all my resources.
At that point I was ready to hear what I could not or would not ear earlier. We were living with John and Becki Rusk at the time so John had plenty of incentive to hear God for me. He told me that he had been praying for me and felt strongly God was wanting me to take a church.
We ended up taking the church Ralph Hawk had talked to us about n the beginning. As soon as we got on track with what God wanted everything came together. We got to our appointed destination. But we took the long road instead of the short road.
I once heard Jack Taylor say, “If you fix the fix that God has fixed to fix you, He’ll fix a bigger fix and still fix you.”
I thought that was very insightful as to how God works.
5. In book of JUDGES we find a cycle of God’s dealings with His people
The cycle goes something like this:
(1) God in His generosity & goodness Blessed them.
(2) In midst of that Blessing, they Forgot God and went own way.
(3) God sent a Messenger called “Trouble” saying “Turn Around-(stop going your own way, stop doing your own thing,stop seeking own desires, and Return to Me)
(4) In midst of trouble they turned back to God and Cried out to Him
(5) In answer to their prayer God delivered and once again blessed them.
That was Israel’s experience. Sometimes it is our experience. But it doesn’t have to be. “Enoch walked with God and was not because God took him, for he had this
testimony, that he pleased God. How much better it is to simply walk with God the way Enoch did and avoid all that trouble. There’s the hard way and there’s the easy way. After doing it the hard way a few times I’ve decided that I like the easy way better.
God has basically three ways He speaks to us.
(1) The preferred way is the still small voice of the Holy Spirit in our heart and
conscience. If we will hear at that level He doesn’t have to use the other two very much.
(2) If we won’t hear His voice in our hearts, He will graciously send someone with a word to speak it into our ears. It may come through a sermon; it may come in the form of godly counsel; it may come as a prophetic word. If we will hear at that level we don’t have to get the message so much from external circumstances.
(3) The last resort is this Messenger called “Trouble”. That’s when God is shouting to get our attention.
Sometimes trouble is telling us to TURN. Trouble is always telling us to TALK and
the other thing Trouble is always telling us is to
III. TRUST God.
1. Trouble in our lives is not always a consequence of disobedience or bad choices. Sometimes it is. It was in Jonah’s case. David experienced a lot of trouble because of his disobedience.
But sometimes trouble comes because we are serving God. Sometimes we experience rejection or persecution on the job or at school or in some other context because we represent the Lord. John the Baptist was not beheaded because of some sin. It was because of his stand for righteousness. Stephen was not stoned because of rebellion against God but because he was preaching the truth.
2.That’s why Paul wrote Timothy and said “Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” There are some things in life that we just have to endure-they are not our fault, they are not judgment from God. Yes, we pray, we talk with God about them. But the ultimate thing we must do is trust God with them. “The just shall live by faith.”
3. In II Corinthians Paul talked about the troubles he was experiencing—hard pressed on every side, ship wrecked, stoned, imprisoned, beaten. His troubles far surpassed anything I have experienced.
4. It can be a serious test of our faith when troubles come and we don’t understand why. Our response in that kind of situation is crucial. If we get mad at God, if we resent God and other people, we can become hardened and bitter in our hearts. That’s why the Bible tells us to “Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it comes the issues of life.” The most important thing is to keep our hearts right.
5. Paul saw beyond the immediate difficulties into eternity. II Cor. 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Is there anything going on in your life that you don’t understand? Is there trouble anywhere? What do we do about the trouble?
I. We pray—Talk with God!
We allow the trouble to drive us to God. We spend time with God. We don’t
just speak to God we speak with God. We allow Him to speak into our lives.
II. We consider our ways—
Turn to God!
In the light of God’s word we make sure we’re going the right way. If we’re headed to Tarshish when we should be going to Nineveh, we turn around.
III. We rely upon God for help—
Trust God!
We make a choice to commit the problem to Him and watch Him work.
His invitation for us to give Him the problem is irrevocably linked to His promise to take care of the problem.
Listen to His promise in Psalms 50:15 “…call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you; and you will glorify Me.”
Isn’t that wonderful? Not only does He promise to deliver us-but He promises to do it in such a way that it brings glory to His name.
God says to those in trouble, regardless of what kind of trouble it may be, “…Call upon Me in the day of trouble…”
Can we just respond to Him in that way this morning? If there’s trouble in your life would you stand and join with me in calling upon the Lord?
NOTES:
(1) The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis
(2) Do not remember issue.
Richard Tow
Grace Chapel Foursquare Church
Springfield, MO
www.gracechapelchurch.org
