Jonah, Part 2

The belly of the great fish, where Jonah has been stripped of everything but hope in God, becomes the unexpected setting for Jonah’s renewal. Jonah finds a new platform to praise the living God in a place normally known only for death and despair.

I Thank God
Maverick City Music

Savior of the World
Mack Brock

Thank You Jesus for the Blood
Charity Gayle

Remembrance
Hillsong Worship

Jonah 1:17
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

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Jonah 2:1-10
From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God: “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. 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. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 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. “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. 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.’” And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

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The Book of Jonah Themes
1. God is aware, active, and in control in all of creation.
2. Our sin is active opposition to the voice and activity of God.
3. God is always actively working out his loving plan of redemption.

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Jonah’s response to God’s awareness, activity, and control?
He calls for Him.

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In his distress…
1. He calls out for mercy.
2. He calls out for help from the One opposing him.
3. He calls out from his reservoir.

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John Mark Comer
“For those of us who desire to follow Jesus, here is the reality we must turn and face: If we’re not being intentionally formed by Jesus himself, then it’s highly likely we are being unintentionally formed by someone or something else.”

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Jonah’s Response to his active opposition to God?
He owns his sin.

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Paul Tripp
“Where you look for awe will shape the direction of your life. Your source of awe will control you, your decisions and the course your story takes.”

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Jonah 2:8
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.

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Jonah 2:7
“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.”

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Jonah’s response to God’s love and redemptive plan?
He embraces it.

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Jonah 2:9
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.’”

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Romans 8:31-39
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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