Latest / HBCWestminster / 6.26.22 Jonah 1:17-2:10 Pastor Danny Gardner

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6.26.22 Jonah 1:17-2:10 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  The book of Jonah is a picture of the wrath of God due to every sinner and the kindness of his severe mercy which is given in that judgment's place. Each one of us should see in Jonah, I believe, a reflection of ourselves. Disobedient, running from the presence and the call of God, bitter even toward those whom we have been called to serve, spiteful at times when we receive the just reward and punishment for our sin.
• 0:28
  Two weeks ago, we answered a really tough question. Does God love us enough to allow us to suffer? And we said that the clear answer from Scripture was yes, unfortunately. Yes, God does love us enough in order to allow us to suffer. But never forget, church, that God does not waste suffering ever. There is no such thing.
• 0:53
  as arbitrary suffering in the life of the believer, but rather the Lord uses suffering, persecution, trials, tribulations, hardships. He uses those things in order to form our character. We ended two weeks ago with a challenge. We said if we are determined to go our own way, we will pay our own fare and we will never make it to our destination. But if we will go God's way,
• 1:22
  Not only are we guaranteed safe arrival, but he even pays the fare. I would encourage any who are among us who may be a generation or two generations younger than us, young Highlanders, ask those who are ahead of you if it isn't easier just to do it God's way from the start. Anybody in here, maybe you're sporting some gray hairs, and you're like, you know what, I can testify to that truth.
• 1:51
  it would have been easier just to do it God's way from the start. Out of the gate, it would have been so much easier if I had just done it God's way from the start. And may I encourage you to do what Solomon did and offer that advice to those who are younger than you. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 1, remember your creator in the days of your youth.
• 2:16
  That's exactly what King Solomon was doing at the end of his life, and he had lived a life. He had done everything. I mean, Ecclesiastes 2 and verse 10 says, nothing my eyes desired did I hide from them. Nothing did I keep from my eyes, from my flesh. He indulged in everything. Every passion, every temptation, every indulgence, every sin Solomon took part in.
• 2:43
  And at the end of his life, he tells his young sons, you know what? It would have been better if I had just followed the Lord from my youth. And he even ends the book. Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 13 this way. He says, the end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. In other words, there is nothing else. God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
• 3:11
  We pick up at the end of chapter 1 with Jonah having been swallowed by a great fish. And as we launch into chapter 2, our study for this morning, consider for a moment church a couple of questions. Do you value your own salvation? And how much value do you place on it? And how do you measure how valuable your salvation is to you? Do you value the access you have to God's throne through the blood of Jesus? And how do you measure?
• 3:42
  how valuable you believe that access is. As you ponder those questions, consider this statement. And this statement really is the theme of this morning's text. The prayer that we express toward God is directly proportional to the value we place on His involvement in our lives. Let me say that again. The prayer we express toward God is directly proportional
• 4:11
  To the value we place on his involvement in our lives. In other words, the more we pray, the more valuable we believe the Lord's intervention in our lives is. If you pray very little, then you don't value the intervention of God in your life. Whereas if you pray a lot, that prayer of gratitude.
• 4:35
  That prayer of praise and worship and giving thanks. If you pray a lot, then you probably really value God's involvement in your life. And we pick up this morning in chapter 1 and verse 17. We ended with it last time. We're going to begin with it this time. And the first three verses, verse 17, verse 1, and verse 2, really help to shape the context of Jonah's prayer.
• 5:03
  prayer and notice verse 17 the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of that fish three days and three nights and Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish what we have before us this morning is a record of Jonah's prayer immediately after being swallowed by that great fish as we read
• 5:27
  we will see that Jonah was well acquainted with the Old Testament and specifically with the Psalms. Almost every verse is a quote from the Psalms somewhere. Jonah's mind and heart had been so filled with the Scriptures that when he opened his mouth, out of the abundance of his heart, Scriptures poured out. Now listen, church, I have prayed from some really strange places. I have prayed while sitting.
• 5:54
  and while standing, and while lying down. No doubt you have as well. I've prayed while walking, and while hiking, and while fishing, and while exercising. I've prayed while watching others do all of those things. Watching others exercise. You see people running down the street with the most horrible looks on their faces, and Lord, sustain them. I've prayed on boats.
• 6:20
  I've prayed on planes and trains and on automobiles. I've prayed before, during, and after meals. I've prayed at home and at work. I've prayed at church. I've prayed from my closet and I've prayed from the pulpit. I've prayed in what would be considered normal places and I have prayed from what would probably be considered some pretty strange places. And so let me ask you, church, where is the strangest place you have ever prayed? And when was your prayer the most desperate?
• 6:53
  and the most heartfelt. I think one of the stranger places, and honestly, one of the places I most vehemently, genuinely poured out my heart to God was during a missions trip to Mexico. I'd gotten a case of the worst food poisoning I've ever experienced. I spent one entire night hugging a toilet.
• 7:16
  I was in my late 20s. I was responsible in that moment for 100 high school students. I had taken 100 high schoolers to Mexico. We had spent the day building rudimentary houses for homeless families, and I ate something gnarly that made my insides want to be on my outsides. I remember vividly crying out to the Lord for help and for relief.
• 7:43
  I also remember, and you guys think about this, this is 25 years ago, something like that. I can vividly remember it was so jarring that night that I can vividly even remember what I prayed. It wasn't only, Lord, save me and give me strength. And Lord, I just want to go home. But I also remember vividly praying, God, if this is mission's work, then don't make me a missionary.
• 8:13
  right you ever had that prayer where you're like this is rough god if this is cross-cultural incarnational missionary work then i am not cut out to be a missionary and as i knelt there beside that toilet at times hugging it with all of my might and all the time praying i thought about how strange it was i wondered if this was the first time
• 8:41
  Anybody had ever pleaded with God not to make him a missionary while hugging a Mexican toilet? Do you ever wonder, church, while you're praying, maybe if you're doing it right? Or if you're praying in the proper place or using the proper posture or uttering the proper words? And does it even matter how we pray and when and where we pray and to whom?
• 9:11
  I think what we can learn from Jonah's prayer, and specifically in verse 1, is that the place and posture of our prayer do not matter nearly as much as the person to whom we pray. Did God hear my prayer? Hug in that toilet? I believe that he did. Was it the most reverent place and posture I could have assumed? No.
• 9:35
  There was nothing reverent about that. I wasn't throwing in any these and thous. Do you know what I'm saying? It was rough. That was a rough night. But the place and the posture of our prayer matter less. It's not that it don't matter at all. We better come into his presence with thanksgiving and praise and even reverence, of course. But the place and posture are secondary to the person to whom we...
• 10:03
  pray the object of our prayer matters more than the place and the posture we assume and we can pray all we want to the gods of the nations we can pray to santa claus or to the easter bunny we can pray to the god of our choosing or we can even pray as as as is the case in some christian traditions we can even pray to the saints from of old but the only one who can do anything for us
• 10:33
  or with us is the god of heaven the creator to whom jonah prays if nothing else and you guys we've ripped on jonah to this point right we have said many many times don't be jonah don't be jonah don't be jonah but you want to know one thing he got right he prayed to the right god and we see that in verse one jonah prayed to
• 10:57
  The Lord. And notice that word Lord there in verse 1. He uses it again in verse 2. He uses it again in verse 9. Throughout his prayer, he uses that word Lord. Do you guys see that in your Bibles? And Lord is kind of a funny Lord because it's not L-O-R-D with a capital L. It's L-O-R-D with a capital everything. Do you see that? Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord. He prayed to...
• 11:26
  Now, I know that many of us have probably heard pastors explain the names of God or we've attended some Bible study or a summer series on the names of God. And we were probably taught at some point that the name Yahweh or Jehovah, the covenant name of God, the name given by him to Moses, when he was asked, who should I say sent me?
• 11:51
  When Moses was standing there at the burning bush and God commissions him to go back to Pharaoh and command Pharaoh to let my people go. And Moses says, who should I say sent me? That God responded with, you tell them Yahweh has sent you. This was not a name that was given to him by man. It was a name that he used or invoked.
• 12:11
  of himself, Yahweh, and that covenant name of God, the name that meant I never fail, I am self-sustaining, I am a promise-keeping God, Yahweh is represented in the English language using all caps. So when he says in verse 1, Jonah prayed to the Lord, that was to Yahweh, and when he says in verse 2, I called out to the Lord.
• 12:35
  That was Yahweh. And again, in verse 7, I remembered the Lord. That was Yahweh. And in verse 9, salvation belongs to the Lord. That was Yahweh. Jonah called out to the Lord. He, in his distress, prayed to that covenant-keeping God. The God who always keeps his promises. Men's Bible study this last Wednesday. And listen, church, if you're not coming on Wednesday nights yet, I would encourage you to do it. It's good.
• 13:07
  I haven't been attending the women's Bible study, but it's always good. I always hear good things. This summer, I have the privilege of joining the men's Bible study. It's been a couple of years since I've been in there because I've been working with the kids during the summers. And so this men's Bible study, and I'm telling you guys, it's fantastic. I would encourage you to come. But this last men's Bible study on Wednesday, we quoted, we read aloud, and the entire group of us, I don't know, 50 or 60 men.
• 13:34
  Read aloud Joshua 21 and verse 45. If you were there, you'll remember. Joshua 21 and verse 45. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass. You men remember us saying that? We read it out loud. Not one word had failed. Whatever he promised, all came to pass.
• 14:00
  came to pass and church what a comfort to know that we serve and worship that god that covenant god whose word never fails not even one word that is to whom jonah prays verse 2 continues not only did jonah pray to yahweh but yahweh heard and answered notice verse 2 i called out to the lord it says out of my distress and he answered me
• 14:28
  Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. We are reminded here in verse 2 that prayer is not a lesson in futility. When we pray, we do not utter words that merely bounce off the ceiling. We are not just speaking positive words into the universe in the hopes that our positivity will be reflected back to us. Rather, when we pray, we are speaking to a person who actually exists and who actually listens.
• 15:03
  We speak to that covenant-keeping God. We speak to Him the way that we speak to anyone else, except that that covenant-keeping God neither slumbers nor sleeps any time of day. Now, listen, church, if you text me in the middle of the night, more than likely your voice will go unheard. I'm asleep. I'll get to you tomorrow morning. Right? It is frequent that I'll get texts late at night from all of the night owls.
• 15:33
  right 11 o'clock midnight 1 a.m sometimes people say it very late pastor danny what about this and so in return i text them back very early in the morning because i always wake up early right so when i see it i'm like oh 12 30 at night all right 4 30 in the morning here you go all right you can get back to me when you can never with the lord he hears
• 15:57
  And he answers. And do you know what I've found? Is that the more often I pray, you tell me if this is true in your own life. The more often I pray and the Lord hears my voice, the more often I hear his voice in reply. It's just like a marriage. The more often I speak to my wife and she hears me, the more often I hear her in return. It'd be like a guy coming in and saying, listen, my wife.
• 16:27
  never talks to me the first question i'm going to ask him is what do you talk to her well no okay then why are you surprised that she doesn't answer do you talk to her prayer church must be a well-worn path in our lives it's like those trails that we all go hiking on in the mountains a well-worn
• 16:53
  where no weeds can grow, where there are no encumbrances, where it is very easy to find. It has been tread so many times that it just becomes second nature. And prayer must be that well-worn path in our lives. And only then will we be able to easily hear the voice of God. You notice also in verse 2 that the name of the fish is given. Do you guys catch that? Verse 2, it says, out of the belly.
• 17:23
  And so verse 1 said, Now don't misunderstand. The fish was a real fish. It was not a metaphor. There was a real Jonah who really got thrown in the ocean, who was really swallowed by a fish. But here Jonah uses illusionary language to describe the belly of the fish as the place of death. Sheol is the grave.
• 17:49
  I was in the belly of the grave. I was in the belly of the place. I knew I was going to die. One commentator states that Sheol refers to a place of divine punishment. It is a place of cursing, often wished upon the ungodly. In its essence, Sheol referred to hell. Make sure you catch that. The fish's name was hell.
• 18:20
  I was in hell. If you spoke to Jonah after this event, you asked him where he had spent his previous three days. Jonah, where have you been? You want to know where I've been? I've been in hell. That's where I've been. This is going to become important when we get to verse 10, so don't forget that. Pick up in verse 3. Now, verses 3 to 9 are his actual prayer. This is the prayer. The emphasis of his prayer isn't so much on his circumstances. In fact, he only even mentions the fish in verse 2.
• 18:48
  It's really about the provision of God in his salvation. And as we study Jonah's prayer, we're going to see four principles, which I think we would do well to incorporate into our own lives. The first one is this. You're going to notice that Jonah's prayer was confessional. It was very honest. We're going to read verses 3 to 7. And before I get there, let me ask you this. These are not trick questions. First, who threw Jonah overboard?
• 19:18
  The sailors did. The mariners did. And let me ask you this one. Whose fault was it that Jonah was on that ship? It was Jonah's fault, right? It was Jonah's fault he was on the boat. It was the sailors' fault that he was thrown overboard. But as you read verses 3 to 7, notice the words you and your, okay? The sailors never come up. The sailors are never mentioned.
• 19:49
  and his own fault for going into chartering the ship that never comes up notice in verses three to seven just you and your verse three for you cast me into the deep well wait what about the sailors no jonah recognized this was all the will and work of god you cast me into the deep into the heart of the seas the flood surrounded me and all your waves and your billows passed over me and then i said i am driven away from your sight
• 20:19
  Yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped about my head. At the roots of the mountains I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you.
• 20:46
  and into your holy temple. Why is this so significant? Because Jonah knew the person who had thrown him overboard. Jonah knew the person who had appointed the great fish. And so Jonah knew to whom to pray. He wasn't praying to the mariners. Help. Send a rescue ship. Right? He wasn't asking for help from them. He wasn't even trying to figure out how to do it on his own.
• 21:15
  Jonah recognized that he was in this predicament because of his own sin, and the predicament that he was in was the result of his own rebellion. It was punishment. It wasn't the fault of the mariners. This was, Jonah knew, the direct judgment of God because of his own disobedience. He certainly understood that what had happened to him was clearly the Lord's punishment of his sin, and therefore what was happening to him was deserved.
• 21:45
  And so he's very honest. He recognized his own rebellion and the punishment for it. But also Jonah's prayer was penitent, meaning it was confessional. It was self-abasing. It was self-mortifying. It was even filled with repentance. And verse 8 might look relatively obscure if you don't look at it with that lens on. And so look at verse 8. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope.
• 22:15
  of steadfast love and as we well know it is possible to be very honest about our own sin and yet remain angry about god's judgment of it isn't that true it is possible to be honest and yet still be bitter against the lord jonah's prayer here has a genuineness to it that is difficult to avoid now i've said that jonah's prayer was penitent i even use the word repentant and
• 22:43
  That might have thrown a flag in your brain because you may recall me in the last couple of weeks saying the only person in the book that never repents is who? Jonah. The mariners repent. All the Ninevites repent. Jonah, I said, is the only one who never repents. And yet I said his prayer was repentant. Whether he was genuinely repentant or not, I think is open for debate. Because as we'll see next Sunday, the very next verse, chapter 3 and verse 1, the word of God is going to come to Jonah again.
• 23:14
  And again, Jonah will disobey. So whether that repentance was genuine or not, I think is open for debate. His repentance, I think, immediately turns to bitterness again. But nevertheless, there is a penitence in his prayer. It was confessional. It was penitent. But not only that, it was grateful. It was grateful. Look at the first half of verse 9. But I, he says, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. With the voice of thanksgiving, I will sacrifice to you.
• 23:45
  What a weird place to be grateful. Do you guys remember where he is? He's in the stomach of a fish. I can't imagine a more justified place to complain. I have complained in my life never in circumstances as bad as that. Never. I mean, I complain when the air conditioner goes out. I complain when there's a little bit of rain. I complain right over silly little things.
• 24:15
  And yet from the belly of the fish, he says, I have voiced my thanksgiving and being thankful while in the belly of a fish certainly sheds light on our ability to, as 1 Thessalonians 5.18 says, give thanks in all circumstances. You ever read that verse, right? It's a great verse. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 18, give thanks always in all things.
• 24:42
  in all circumstances right and if you ever looked at that verse and just said man there are some circumstances i don't know jonah here sets the bar so high that it would lead us to think well no if he can give praise and thanks from the belly of a fish then certainly no matter what is going on in my life i can find something to be thankful for and why was jonah thankful we read in verse 9 because salvation belongs to the lord if you want to know if you value your own salvation that
• 25:11
  That question I asked at the very beginning of the sermon. If you want to know if you value your own salvation, then check your thanksgiving. With the voice of thanksgiving, he says, I will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And you notice finally that Jonah's prayer was committed. He even says, what I have vowed I will pay. He makes, he recommits his way to God. He realized.
• 25:40
  that he has been wayward. And so now he says, you know what? What I was supposed to do, I will go and do. He is finally agreeing here to go to Nineveh. He was finally willing to come clean before the Lord. He was finally ready to resume his role as prophet. He rescinds his resignation. It's a reminder to every backslidden believer that your life will only get back on track if you confess your sin and if you recommit your way to the Lord.
• 26:14
  There's an old hymn that I enjoy called Love Lifted Me. We don't often sing it, but listen to the words of it. It says, I was sinking deep in sin. It's the language of Jonah. I was sinking deep in sin, sinking to rise no more. Very deeply stained with sin, far from that peaceful shore. Then the master of the sea heard my despairing cry. And from the waters he lifted me, and now safe am I.
• 26:45
  The chorus says, love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. And it continues, souls in danger, look above. Jesus completely saves. He will lift you by his love out of the angry waves. He is the master of the sea. Billows his will obey. He, your savior, wants to be. Be saved today.
• 27:13
  Salvation belongs to the Lord. But we see here salvation took kind of a weird turn for Jonah in verse 10 where it says the Lord speaks to the fish again. He spoke in verse 17 and now he speaks to the fish again and it says it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. When Jonah ended up on that dry land, it is clear that he landed on his feet not because of his own goodness, not because of his own strength or his own wisdom, but wholly because of the mercy of God.
• 27:45
  We can imagine. You know, it's interesting. It doesn't say that Jonah spent those last several days in the whale's lungs or in some air chamber. That's not where it says he spent those days. It says he spent them in its stomach. And verse 10 even says, it goes a step further by saying it didn't cough him out. It vomited him out. He had spent those three days in the stomach.
• 28:15
  of this great fish. We can imagine how he must have looked after being vomited out. We can imagine how he must have smelled. He was not clean. This was not a clean escape. This was disgusting. Now the Gardner boys, you guys know, we fish a lot. We love fly fishing. I and my three sons.
• 28:46
  Very often on Mondays, go fishing together. There's a saying that we use where at the end of the day, we smell our hands. I've been doing it since my boys were very, very little. All right, boys, smell your hands. You smell them like, Dad, my hands smell disgusting. You know what that smell is, son? That's the smell of victory. If your hands smell good after fishing, you didn't do it right.
• 29:13
  Right? Only when you catch fish and you're holding fish and then you let them go and you cannot get that smell off. That is not the smell of failure. That is the smell of victory. And I'm not sure that you would describe Jonah's smell as the smell of victory. But maybe from heaven's perspective, it was. There's a small point of interest that can be found in comparing the Hebrew word for fish in verse 17. If you go back up to verse 17, that word fish.
• 29:44
  is a masculine noun it is the masculine form of fish so we assume that the fish was probably a male fish but then when you get to verse 2 he's describing the inner workings of that fish using feminine words and we don't want to get too graphic here but feminine words of reproduction used in chapter 2 and so in other words what jonah is saying is i wasn't just vomited out he says
• 30:13
  I was reborn. I was born again. Jonah and Lazarus probably shared something in common. As Lazarus had been dead for four days. And when he came back out, smelled. And the smell became part of his testimony. Lazarus, how do we know you were really dead? How do we know you weren't just faking? How do we know you weren't just hiding out in that tomb, right?
• 30:45
  How do we know your friends weren't sneaking food and water to you? And then when Jesus showed up, you fake this resurrection. You want to know how I know? Take a whiff. You want to know how it was real? The smell became part of his testimony. And church, the exact same thing of Jonah. He shows up in Nineveh. He starts telling people, I was inside the belly of a great fish. They're like, that's impossible. They did the same thing you would do. No, you were not. Don't be ridiculous. Prove it. Okay?
• 31:17
  Come take a whiff. The smell became part of his testimony. It became proof, catch this, that the Lord met his prophet in the belly of that fish. The smell became proof that the Lord heard Jonah's prayer. The smell became proof that the Lord was willing to meet Jonah in the worst possible place. Jonah, we know, was in that fish's belly because of his own disobedience. He was getting his due. And yet, in the midst of the worst circumstances, Jonah prayed.
• 31:49
  And the Lord, we see, did not abandon his prophet. And church, the Lord is willing to do the same for you. Perhaps you are one of those disobedient, rebellious Christians. Perhaps you're one of those backslidden Christians. The Lord is willing to meet you too. And no matter where you are, and no matter what you've done, and no matter what you smell like, the Lord will hear and will not abandon you. And Lord, I pray that the words of God would not easily be cast aside.
• 32:26
  Lord, salvation is yours. And we thank you and we praise you for it and we commit our way to follow you. Lord, thank you for hearing our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.