Running out of a storm

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Good morning, CCW.

If you're visiting, that only cost me$5 a week.

So man, I'm glad to have the kids with us today.

And listen, we don't do this every Sunday, but I want to tell you, kids, this was what church was like for me and anybody probably 40 or older.

Okay, church was church.

There wasn't kids church, there was just church.

And so every now and then we're gonna have the kids in with us.

We have a good time, but I need you to do something with me today, kids, okay?

And there's something on the line.

So every kid here, I need you to sit up real tall.

I want to see you nice and tall.

I like that.

And this is what I say when I talk to kids.

I need to see bug eyes and little bitty lips.

All right.

And here's what's on the line.

I talked to Pastor Eli.

He's our kids' minister.

If you're visiting with us, we have a great big area above the lobby that the kids meet in on normal Sundays.

So you don't have to be stressed about that.

Like if I go to that church, I'm never gonna hear a word.

Listen, most Sundays it's like that.

We wanted them in.

It's good timing.

But here's what's on the line, kids.

I talked to Pastor Eli, and in a few weeks, if you do good today, if you stay sitting up tall, if you stay bug-eyed, you don't disrupt your neighbor, he's gonna throw a big Christmas party on a Sunday in December, okay?

Talking about food, prizes, all of it.

So, y'all listen up real good, and we'll be the judge later and see what happens.

Turn your Bibles to Jonah chapter 2.

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

Again, if you are visiting Upward or otherwise, thank you so much for being our guest today.

And we're honored to have you.

Kids, I am gonna need you a few times to the service.

You're gonna talk with me.

So uh we'll test this out in a minute, but when I'm gonna say something, I want you to repeat it.

I'll let you know in a minute.

So we've been running through the story of Jonah, and it took us a few weeks, but Jonah has made it into the belly of the great fish in Jonah chapter 2.

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

And uh I'm gonna read verses one through five this morning.

It says this, then Jonah prayed to the Lord.

Important that you see that first word.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God from the fish's belly, and he said, I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction.

He answered me, out of the belly of Sheol, I cried, and you heard my voice.

For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas.

Listen to this, kids, and the floods surrounded me, and your billows, its waves passed over me.

Then I said, I've been cast out of your sight.

Yet, this is the important part, I would underline this, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.

The waters surround me even to my soul.

The deep closed around me.

Weeds were wrapped around my head, it says.

So, Jonah, we're starting out here.

Jonah's prayer in a precarious place.

Kids, when I say pray, will you say pray?

Pray.

Very good.

You're on it.

We're starting out good.

He's in a precarious place, and that means it's dangerous, it's uncertain.

Anyone here ever been stuck in an elevator?

Okay, a few hands.

Okay, pretty scary.

You ever been stuck with a bunch of people?

Right?

People start hyperventilating fast like life is about to implode, nothing can happen.

Ever anyone in here ever been on an airplane and things got turbulent?

And you begin praying the promises to God.

Anyone like this?

God, I'll do anything.

Have you prayed this?

Have you felt like this before?

Ever felt stuck or trapped?

One time uh when Weston was real young, probably three or four years old, he got his hand stuck in a chair, and it was like at the bottom of the chair, it was real tight, and it widened as it went up, but his hand was down in the narrow part, and he's like, Daddy! And he started to cry, and I'm like, it's okay, it's okay.

And he's like, Oh, I can't get it out.

And I'm like, look at that.

Magical.

Isn't that amazing?

Yes, dad.

Well, Jonah thinks, one, two, three, the sailors said heave, they throw him out.

Jonah thinks, I believe, that he is just gonna drown.

What do you think if you got thrown off a boat in the middle of an ocean?

He thinks it's about to be over.

Well, what happens once he hits the ocean?

I got a video I want you just to see what it might be like when Jonah hit the ocean.

Watch this video.

Can you imagine?

Jonah gets thrown into the ocean and he believes that's it.

But next thing you know, can you imagine that moment in the dark?

What that felt like, kids.

Think about it.

It doesn't tell us, it says it's a great fish, but you're in there.

Wait a minute, what was that?

You're slipping, sliding down something that feels really weird and gross, and you're spinning, maybe doing tumbles, you drop down, and then it says he's in the belly, down past the throat into what I can only imagine is a slimy, egg-shaped sack.

And then darkness for three days.

That's what's happened to Jonah.

Let me pray.

Father, we ask that you would bless this reading of your word, bless the message, Lord.

Thank you for our kids here at CCW.

And God, I pray that you would allow them and their parents and families today to hear the heart of this message.

And God, get everything else out of the way for a few minutes in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So we see letter A this morning is Jonah, it's a prayer of reaching and pain.

Say, pray.

Oh, my kids, you fell asleep already.

Everybody, all my kids say pray.

Much better.

And so it says that there was affliction.

A description that Jonah gives is I am in the belly of Sheol.

Floods, he says, waves, he says, billows, he says, weeds wrapped around my head, he says.

Undoubtedly, Jonah expected just to be thrown in water and to go peacefully or not peacefully to drowning to his death.

Well, let me tell you what the belly of Sheol means.

The Old Testament word for that strange word is the abode of the dead.

He might have thought at first that he was dead.

I don't know what goes through a person's mind that goes through this.

He might have thought that.

All I could think about one time I was at Lake Nick.

Uh I was in college in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a bunch of guys rode off, and we were gonna go to this place where there was a rope swing and there was a ledge where you could get on a cliff and jump.

Literally, like I'm the friend.

You want to go jump off a cliff, act like your friend.

Okay?

So we get to this cliff, we climb up, and I'm on this perch that stuck out, and I can't remember, they said 75 to 100 feet.

Okay.

Whatever it was, we got out there and I'm like, I want to do it, and I'm around my boys, and I want to jump, and it looks so exciting, but I'm like, I ain't going first.

I have got to see with my own eyes that somebody lives.

And so my friend Jason, he got up to the edge, woo, he went off.

Well, then I got up there and I'm on, and my heart is like, and I'm like, I can't, like I'm about to jump, but I feel like either I'm gonna have a heart attack standing here, or I'm gonna jump and die.

So either way, I gotta do it, right?

And so I jumped, listen to what happened.

It was such a big jump.

I had sandals on my feet.

I hit the water, my sandal, one of my sandals broke.

That's how hard the impact was.

And I didn't die, but I remember that feeling like, man, I'm I'm I might just die standing here, I might die jumping in.

Well, that's Jonah.

He's like, I just might as well lose my life.

And so, but I want you to see where it says in scripture here, verse one, important.

It said, then and then, because in chapter one, verse 17, it says, He was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Then Jonah prayed.

Okay, then, and it was this prayer because of the pain he was going through.

His prayer, three days, three nights in the belly of the pit, and Jonah then prayed.

He prayed because of affliction.

Now listen to me, better that a man pray out of affliction than to have never prayed at all.

I like this Jonah a bit better than the Jonah who was just given up.

It's tough to pull for Jonah the quitter.

I like the guy who, at least in his trouble, he begins to turn.

He takes a small turn.

Matthew 11, 28 through 30 says, This church, come to me, you who are labored and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

So when you're in the middle of the storm, when it gets most difficult, seek God.

Don't quit.

If you want to come out of the storm today, here's the point I want you to hear.

You must pray.

Kids?

Oh, man.

We got one of them.

Let's try it in.

Kids pray.

That was good.

That was good.

It was a prayer of reaching in pain.

It was a prayer of relinquishing and promising.

You see, we see for the first time, Jonah begins to turn, if just slightly, he begins to take a turn from his staunch.

I don't like Nineveh, I hate Nineveh, I'm not going to Nineveh, I'm going my way, my way.

I don't even care.

Now that I'm on a ship, just kill me.

I'm still not going to do this.

And now finally, three days and three nights in the belly of flip and fly.

I don't know what that looked like.

But Jonah begins to turn toward God finally.

Look at verse 4.

It says, Then I said, I've been cast out of your sight, yet I will look again towards your temple.

The prayer that led to relief.

Here's what happened.

It's a strong thing when we declare our faith in God's promises.

Jonah here in verse 4 claims a promise of God to touch the heart of God.

Kids, have any of you ever done this?

Have you ever said to your parents this?

But you promised.

Mom and Dad, you promised.

You said, have you ever done that?

This is sort of the way this prayer is going, and I'm gonna prove it in a minute.

Um, but when I was thinking about that, why and Weston are loving basketball right now, commercial, upward sports.

Our basketball season starts in December.

You can sign up and register online.

They're loving basketball right now.

I had a season of life where I was ate up with basketball.

I know that that, okay, I understand what you're thinking, but I loved it.

And I asked my dad, can we please have a basketball goal?

Dad, please just get me a basketball goal.

One Christmas, all I want a basketball goal.

And my dad told me one year after Christmas, when we asphalt the driveway, then we will get you a basketball goal.

Okay?

My dad said this.

And I'm here today, preaching today before you, not an NBA All-Star.

And there's one sole reason because my dad lied.

In the fall, the asphalt came, and I knew that next Christmas basketball dreams were going to unravel.

This was going to happen.

And it didn't happen.

And I'm not in the NBA today, not because I'm five foot five, not because I can't jump, because I didn't get my goal.

So there, Dad.

I said it.

Sometimes, though, as a father, my promises, as much as I want them to come true, they may not.

Jonah prays a prayer.

Say, pray.

He says a prayer of God's promises to God.

I want you to turn your Bibles to 1 Kings.

Go back to 1 Kings chapter 8.

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

What are you talking about, Pastor?

He prays a prayer to God.

What do you say?

1 Kings chapter 8.

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

It says that Jonah from the belly of the whale says, I turned my face toward your temple.

1 Kings chapter 8, verse 38 through 40.

1 Kings 8:38–40

This is some context.

I just need you to listen, hear it.

It says, Solomon is dedicating the temple.

And here's part of what he says.

Whatever prayer, say, pray.

Whatever supplication is made by anyone or by all your people, Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart and spreads out his hands, listen, toward this temple, Jonah said from the belly of fish, Toward your temple have I looked.

Then here in heaven, your dwelling place, listen, and forgive and act and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart you know, for you alone know the hearts of all the sons of men, that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you have given to our fathers.

So Jonah in the belly of a whale quotes Scripture to God, and I want you to know it's a powerful thing when we pray the promises of God.

Jonah knows that God is a covenant promise, God, and he claims it from the belly of a fish.

Scripture says God is not a man that he can lie.

And so if God says something, God will not lie.

And so Jonah starts his prayer that way, and it ends.

If you look at the end, we'll come back and filter through the middle.

If you look at verse 9, it says, But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will pay what I have vowed.

Salvation is of the Lord.

He says, I will be thankful and I will pay my vow and I recognize the mercy I have received.

Let me clarify what Jonah's saying from the belly of the fish.

I will contribute that which I have received.

Jonah is committing to be merciful, which is what God wanted in the first place.

God wanted him to go to Nineveh and be merciful and share his message of mercy.

Well, what happens next?

Well, we're going to continue on about the prayer.

Say, pray.

Point number two is this Jonah's piety and protests.

Verses six through eight, we're going to look at.

In prayer, Jonah was pious.

That means he was respectful and reverent before God.

That means he recognized and respected that it was his duty.

We all have obligations.

Children, the Bible says your obligation is to obey your parents, to honor, respect, right?

Authority, and you can live and eat if you do so.

Parents, we have to obey and honor our bosses, and then we can work and make the money so our kids can live and eat.

Am I right?

Okay.

Everybody likes to eat.

Well, we see Jonah's respect here for God, and I want you to understand, it is hard, it is hard to respect others when we are all in love with ourselves.

It is hard to share respect with others when we are so full of ourselves.

And Jonah needed humbling.

That's a theme in the book of Jonah.

God said, go, and Jonah said no.

God said, go to Nineveh.

These people need this word.

And Jonah disrespected God by going the wrong way.

He traveled down rebellion road.

Jonah went down to Joppa.

Jonah went down into the ship.

Jonah went down to sleep, and then he was tossed down into the sea.

And he said, down in the mountains, down in the belly of the fish.

He went down to the bottom.

When you turn your back on God, all you do is go down, down, down.

It's discouraging.

It's depressing.

It's dismaying.

And what he did is we went down.

In order for us to get our hearts right with God, we have to get back in the right posture.

We have to get back in the right posture before God.

For some people today, your posture's all wrong.

I don't know if this is a word, but you need to reposture.

From down in your sin and down on your face and down in the dumps to down on your knees.

If we're going to be down, we need to be down on our knees in prayer.

Let me show you how David got this right.

If you turn your Bible quickly for a moment to Psalms 51, I want you to see what happened when David got caught in his sin.

You see, Jona was down, down, down.

He was ready to just give up his life.

And God didn't want him to give up his life.

He had a plan and purpose.

He could use him.

David had sinned against Bathsheba and sinned against Uriah the Hittite and had hidden it.

And listen to what J, when David came to Psalms 51, 1.

He says this, have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies.

Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin.

Listen to this.

For I, so important, acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is before me.

He says, I acknowledge my wrong.

I acknowledge when we pray, when we repent before God, we have to acknowledge one who God is, then we acknowledge our sin.

We verbalize our sin before God.

Look at verse 10 in Psalms 51.

He says, Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Renew a steadfast spirit within me, and do not cast me away from your presence.

David said, I need a new clean heart.

I need change in my life.

He says, Renew a right spirit within me.

See, Jonah went down, down, down, but in verse 6, he says, I went down to the moorings of the earth, the earth with his bars were closed behind me forever.

Yet you have brought up my life from the pit.

You have brought me up.

My soul fainted, and I remembered the Lord, recognizing who is in control.

And so when we walk that path, when we get discouraged, when we walk away and everything seems so down, recognize who you need to turn to, who is in control.

And so the prayer continues.

Y'all say, pray?

Alright, look at verse 8.

Verse 8 is tough for me.

Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy.

I've digested this, I've been in it and through it.

Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy.

It seems to me, there is no doubt a thread of resentment still in Jonah.

We'll see later that he's been spat up in chapter 3 and 4.

Even in chapter 4 or chapter 3, he gives the shortest sermon ever preached.

He gives it and he wants to still, chapter 4, call it quits.

So being able to look ahead, I know that Jonah is still struggling with the task.

Okay?

Jonah is sorry.

Listen to me, he's sorry for disobeying God.

He's sorry that he disappointed his God.

But I don't think his stance about Nineveh has changed.

I think he still believes these are bloodthirsty people, these are not merciful people, these are people that I'm having a hard time with this calling.

And so it seems to me, Jonah and verse 8, a couple of things could be the truth, okay?

This is not heaven or hell, will not change a whole lot in your life, but these are some options that verse 8 could mean.

Number one, it could be that Jonah is confessing to his own idolatry.

Maybe he idolized being Jewish and he had great nationalism as a patriot, was confessing to his lack of care for the Assyrians.

Maybe.

Maybe that's what it could be saying.

It could be that he's speaking of the mariners who called out to gods, idols, false gods, and were not seeing the storm cease, and he's saying it's because they did not know God, they were idolizing, or this is what I think is the most viable option, or it could be that in his prayer, he's taking yet a jab of the Ninevites.

Look at the words in it.

But I will sacrifice to you, and I will pay what I have vowed, regardless of how you bend, whatever your view, he brings an important point.

That's the way that I feel about it.

I feel he's still resentful, and I think chapter 3 and 4 make that somewhat clear.

But he brings up a really important point in this prayer.

He says, Those who regard idols forsake God.

Mercy.

I'm gonna need Weston.

Weston, will you come up?

I've asked Weston to help me in this part of the sermon.

Okay.

The message is clear.

Idolatry forfeits mercy.

Listen here.

You just come stand right here for a second.

First of the Ten Commandments says, don't have any other gods before me.

No other gods.

Kids say no.

Very good.

He says, no other gods.

It says God is slow to anger and quick to mercy.

He's full of mercy, we have learned.

But according to this scripture, idolatry impacts his mercy.

You say, Pastor, well, people today don't really bow to other gods.

People really don't have this issue.

If you walked in and you were at your friend's house and you seen them on their knees worshiping something, you said, that would never happen.

That doesn't happen.

People aren't ate up in idolatry.

Well, I have my treasure chest here, and I've got my assistant today.

And so I'm going to have him bring up some things, and I want to see if you think this ever happens.

Back up a few steps, Assistant Weston.

Alright, if you would pull something out of the chest.

Right here.

You all know what this is?

Education.

Today we live in a world ate up with, you've got to get all your education.

And we are ate up with parents who say, if you don't do this, and if it's not done this way, and we bow oftentimes to education.

Put that on the ground.

Get the next one.

Alright.

Oh, wait a second.

What happened yesterday?

There was people screaming and yelling in the middle of their rooms at their TVs.

Because they have a sports team that they love and they spend money, bucket loads of money to support a team that's never once sent them a birthday card.

We say they don't do this.

Next thing.

Oh my.

What do we have here?

If we had to compare the time you spent, listen, shh, and your time in this book, based on your time on this.

Looks like I'm idolizing Heather there, doesn't it?

Is there not some idolization?

Man, when you look at the stats, how much time was spent on that phone?

I'm sure, like you, sometimes for me it's a gasp.

I can't believe.

What's the next thing?

Oh, he liked this being in the bucket.

Man, the hours of your day that serve these pieces of paper.

Do you not know people are the not people in your life that if they just have some more of this?

Give me that back.

I want that in your press.

Everything will just be better.

If I can just get some more work, if I can just get some more overtime, because I need more money, because then you know what money will buy me?

It'll buy me stuff.

And then we idolize the possessions.

I need the yard, I need the house, I need the boat, I need the best car, I need stuff, because then people will look at me and they'll say, Wow! And we idolize that.

What else?

All right, that's a puppy.

I'm just kidding.

Parenting.

You say, Why you got your kids?

People today will live vicariously through their kids in so many ways.

And they say, I want to be seen as number one parent.

I want everybody to see me and know me that I am number one parent.

And what my kids do, they're so great.

They're gonna be the best at sports, they're gonna be the best, and Mike, when I hear my kid cheered for it, it's like people are cheering for me.

And we idolize it.

What else?

Keep going.

Oh man, this is my very own business card, folks.

Isn't it beautiful?

People idolize their profession, do they not?

If I can work enough and get enough power in my business and rise to the top, and people can see me and know me for my work, one day they'll say, That's an amazing pastor.

We idolize it, we worship it.

What's left?

And that goes along with this.

It's broken.

How about that?

Trophies, my accolades, all my stores, everything in my life wraps up to can people look at me one day and say, Look how great and amazing his achievements are.

And we idolize it.

Y'all give it up for my assistant right here.

Thank you, Wesson.

Thank you.

Very good.

Jonah makes a very important point.

He says that idolatry forfeits mercy, possessions, professions, phones, popularity, parenting, on and on it goes.

I didn't put the mirror in there, but we look at the mirror and go, if I can just look amazing.

And then people will look at me for looking amazing.

And we, it's not as if we get down on our knees in the middle of our floor, but in a way, it sort of is, church.

Idolatry is rampant.

And so, God who is slow to mercy, his mercy is slowed by idolatry.

Here's the thing about Jonah, I want you to understand something.

Jonah's not the first person called to a rough task.

He's a prophet called to a city, right?

And it's a rough city, but in Isaiah 6, 8 through 10, we don't have time to go there.

He says, Who will go to a people who are not going to receive your message?

Isaiah was called to that.

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, was to give a message and no one would respond.

But here's the thing I want you to know: Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Jonah.

The message still needed to be declared.

So even though he's praying in the storm, this is what we know about Jonah, doesn't mean he still doesn't need some work.

This actually gives me comfort when I see Jonah, who still doesn't like the task and is still stamping his feet.

It gives me some comfort because I know I'm a work in progress.

How about you?

And so when he's still struggling, but he's turning to God, but he's still struggling, but he's turning to God, I go, huh, that feels like me sometimes.

How about you?

And so Jonah is struggling still with what he has to do because he's a work in progress.

Aren't you glad God's not finished working on you?

Kids in soccer, most of you probably got better through the soccer season.

You know why?

Because you worked at it and you had practice.

And when you came on the soccer field as you started, you couldn't even kick.

Your coaster, just you can do it.

Just kick the ball, just run the right direction.

Practice.

Well, the third thing I want you to see this morning is this God's pity on his prophet.

Look at verse 10.

This is the fun part that everybody wants to talk about.

God's pity on his prophet.

We see, we've read through all about and talked about this story, it was not about the great city, it's not about the great fish, but this is where we see the great fish shine.

It's not about the great prophet, it is about the great God.

And I want you to hear this because this miraculous sign is about the great God.

It's not about the great fish, it's not about the prophet, it's not even about what happens, it is about the God.

And verse 10 is a big deal.

Why is it a big deal?

Kids, listen to me.

I want you to hear this.

The Lord in verse 10 spoke to a fish.

Any of y'all ever speak to fish?

Anyone got a goldfish?

Some of y'all speak to fish.

You're weird.

Okay, it's okay.

Come here, bubble.

Okay.

It says that the Lord spoke to a fish.

Well, that's important.

Why?

Interesting of note, the Ninevehes worshiped a fish god named Dagon.

The fish god and the fish goddess named Nanshe.

Now it's not the first time in scripture that God speaks to an animal, okay?

If you go back to Genesis, all the way in Genesis chapter 3, it says the Lord spoke to a serpent, okay?

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And then in Numbers 22, there's a great passage.

If you want to have some fun with your kids tonight on Balaam, it says that uh that a donkey speaks, right?

And these miracles aren't about the animals, they're about the God in them.

And so this is a miracle.

I need all God's people to hear me here because since we started Jonah, I have heard every manner of questions and stuff about the great fish and Jonah.

And so I need you to hear something about miracles.

Miracles defy logic.

There are people here that have been talking to me.

Well, how could Jonah survive three days in the belly of a fish and not have died?

Because it's a miracle.

How could a virgin birth a son?

It's a miracle.

How could three people be one person?

It's listen to me.

Miracles defy laws of man, they're supernatural.

God's able to do anything.

I told you the other week, kids, listen to me.

It didn't have to be a great fish, it could have been a giant giraffe in the water, just passing along.

Could have been a giant made-up animal nobody's ever heard of.

It could have been a giant box that Jonah traveled in.

It could have been anything, it's a miracle.

Listen to me, it's a miracle.

And so it could have been anything.

They defy the laws of man.

I've heard people say, how did he survive three days?

I don't know.

I haven't tried it.

If you want to figure it out, don't.

That's what I'll say.

Don't.

God fed 5,000 with two pieces of bread and some fish.

Okay?

He sent demons into pigs that jumped off a cliff.

Listen to me, Christianity isn't a it isn't all about logic.

So when you get into scripture and you go, I can't figure this out.

This is what faith is.

Take a deep breath and say, faith.

There you go.

God does supernatural things through faith.

But here's what I want you to understand.

The Lord spoke to Shamu.

This is the miracle part.

Without God's voice, there is no miracle.

God is the one that brings the divine.

God does supernatural.

We do not worship the whale.

Now, maybe the Ninevites, the people that see God, they may have seen that and went, okay, okay.

Probably for many, what they say is, What a fish.

What a donkey.

Listen, some people will say when they leave today, what a church, what a pastor, what a service.

God.

What a God.

Everybody say God.

Say, what a God.

That's the one that changes the heart and changes the life.

If you go somewhere and say anything else, what a magnificent, entertaining spectacle they put on.

No, no, no, no.

Did you feel the presence of God?

He's the one that changes hearts and lives.

God is the one that does the miracle.

But if you have to explore it, I do too, a little bit.

Let's look at how it might make some sense.

Nineveh was 550 miles away from where Jonah was.

A blue whale, it's just one I picked, can travel up to 30 miles per hour, but typically moves at about 5 to 12 miles per hour.

If you average 5 to 12, you get 8 miles per hour.

At 72 hours, three days' journey times 8 miles per hour, mathematicians, you get 576 miles and you round down to 550, which makes this trip very doable.

Okay?

Could've happened.

If the whale stopped for gas, coffee, and cigarettes, then Jonah was spat up on dry land right there at Nineveh, the way the story sounds.

It doesn't say it that way here.

So don't leave here and say, Well, that's the Pastor Blue.

Bible says don't add one jotter tittle.

I've got an imagination, so do you.

Okay?

I'm not preaching that's what happened, but it could have.

And then it says, and then Jonah was spat up on dry land.

Kids, where my kids at?

Say, pray.

If you saw a man, let's just imagine it happened the way I like it.

If you saw a man spat up out of a whale, hit the ground, dry land, did three tumbles, stood up, and walked to your town and said, repent, do you think you might listen to that man?

What a message.

Listen, yes.

If you've seen a man and you worshiped a sea god, and a fish spat up a man, and you smelled him, and he smelled like whale vomit.

In fact, that's what you named him for a little bit.

Whale vomitous is speaking.

The Assyrians hated Israelites.

Listen, I want you to understand.

They hated Israelites, they were merciless and bloodthirsty towards him, but nobody wanted to hurt Jonah.

Interesting.

Nobody ran to attack Jonah, capture Jonah, steal from Jonah.

Nothing.

He could have been spat up miles away and walked for days to reach Nineveh.

Could have happened that way.

Could have.

One of the great stories, though, and Jonah is realizing that it wasn't about the fish and it wasn't about Jonah.

It wasn't about the great city or the prophet who smelled like whale throw up.

It was all about a great God and his great mercy.

Because it was pointing to the greater miracle in verse 9.

And we'll be wrapping up.

Look at verse 9.

But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will pay what I avowed.

Listen to this line.

Jonah gets something.

It feels like now finally, Jonah decides, you know what?

I'm a prophet.

And I got a word for everybody to hear.

Finally, Jonah from the belly of the fish decides, I got a preach to preach.

And he says, Salvation is of the Lord.

Interesting that he says this.

He recognizes, look, letter B, is this a mirror of salvation?

Salvation is of the Lord.

A mirror of salvation.

He shouts out, salvation for the Ninevehites, salvation for Jonah.

Salvation is of the Lord.

It wasn't Jonah's to begin with, he was a messenger.

Finally, he starts to preach.

And what he says, Jesus would reiterate Matthew 12, we looked at, for as Jonah, Matthew 12, 40, three days, three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be.

Three days, three nights in the heart of the earth.

John 2.19 says, They will destroy this temple in three days I will raise it back up.

Have you ever tried so hard for a really long time, grinding away at a problem, trying to fix it your way, and kind of got spinning in circles, and you you weren't able to get accomplished in your own way, on your own path, and you realize something later down the line that was true about you before.

That's where Jonah is.

He says what he's known all along salvation is of the Lord.

I will commit this mercy.

And he's been spinning in circles and circles, trying and grinding his own way.

I have a friend, uh Pastor Matt Hinkle.

Pastor Matt and I and our families were going to go down to Orange Beach with one catch.

My car still needed some brake work to be done.

And so I made a plan and got all my plans together.

And uh I won't say I'm Mr.

Fixit, but I do a lot to save a dollar.

And so I got online and I started researching the coupons that advanced, and I waited and I struggled through.

It was hours, okay?

I got my coupon, my perk reward.

I saved 20% on brake rotors and drums, and I saved$20 off of brake pads, and about$300 later, I have my stuff.

We borrowed Darren's garage and we go down, me and another pastor.

Sounds like the beginning of a good punchline.

Two pastors gonna go fix some brakes.

So we did.

And we went down to Darren's and we get digging in and we get the brakes and record time, telling you, it was like five hours, you know, record time.

We were in there and out, and then we can go to the beach.

Well, we get down to the beach, everything was fine.

Heard a little squeaking, but you know, cars always have a little squeaking.

Right?

So we get back, we're done with the vacation.

I get back, get back, and you know what light pops on on the dashboard about two days after vacation?

The brake light.

And I'm like, what is going on?

So I'm like, I'm trying to think about it.

I'm like, maybe the light has a misfunct, you know, the the lighting on the board can go wrong.

And well, anyway, finally what I do is I take it to a mechanic.

Against everything in my fiber and my being, what I don't want to do, I go to the mechanic.

He calls me back like two hours later and he said, You know what you need?

You need new brakes.

I'm like, what are you saying?

I just got new brakes and I put them on.

He's like, these things ain't on right, they ain't right.

You need new brakes.

And I'm like, are you serious?

So$600 more dollars,$900 later, my car is finally working, but you know what I did?

I went the longest possible route to getting a fix.

You know what I did?

I hurt myself.

I cost my family, I took money away from the bread in the cabinet.

Y'all hearing me?

I was angry, I was disappointed.

You know what I needed?

I needed to listen to an expert who could fix it from the start.

All along there was somebody that could fix it.

And there's so many people today trying to do it their way, church.

Hear me.

God didn't want Jonah to go do this his way.

God never wanted Jonah to go to Jabba.

God never wanted him to go to Tarsus.

God never wanted Jonah in the belly of the fish.

He wanted him to be a preaching machine in Nineveh.

Children say, pray.

Y'all got tired.

I know it's getting late.

We're almost done.

Say, pray again.

Pray.

That's better.

Have you ever been whooped by your parent, kids?

Don't raise your hand on that.

Just think on it.

Parents here, you've been whooped.

Has your parent ever been about to spank you, whoop you, put you in trouble?

And in that moment, has you ever had somebody look at you in your eyes and said, This is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you?

I looked my dad square in his eye one time and said, Well, then you bend over and give me that belt.

I'm just kidding, I never said that.

I wanted to.

I wanted to.

But listen, you might have thought that.

But listen, my kids, my kids, they do so much, they're just human.

We're all some version of human, we're all rebellious, but they do so much, they disobey, they do stuff, they fight.

And you know what I hate?

Hear me, kids.

I hate it when they need to be chastened.

The Bible says, whom the Lord loves, he chastens.

I hate.

I hate it.

I hate when I have to correct wrong behavior.

I hate when I have to do it, I hate when I have to look at them in the eye.

It breaks me.

I love them.

I don't want them even for a little bit not to like me.

I don't want them to have to pay the price.

Listen to me.

That is why this great fish was an act of mercy.

It was a way out of the storm.

It was a season.

I don't know what happens if Jonah doesn't confess after day three.

I don't know if he just dies.

I don't know.

But what I do know, God allowed it an opportunity so that there was a way out of the storm.

There was a way out of the storm.

David said this about his time of not confessing, and I'm done.

Psalms 32.

He said, When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all day long.

I felt your hand heavy upon me.

When I didn't confess, when I was going through the pit, when I was in the belly of the whale, when I was going through the storm, and I kept it to myself, all I did was make myself physically ill and sick.

It was so heavy.

Let me tell you, church, God loves you so much that he sent Jesus.

And he is the way, he is the means that can get you through any storm.

He is the payment, allowing our confession of sin, the blood payment.

And today, in the middle of a storm or not, you can be renewed.

But what I'm telling you is circling around in your own way isn't gonna get it done.

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