Merciful One: The Journey Is A Mess (Jonah 02)

You're supposed to be looking in the Old Testament for the book of Jonah.

Okay, listen, it's gonna take you a minute.

I know.

It's all right.

The book of Jonah is not easy to find, but we're gonna find him.

And if this is your first time joining us, make sure you fill out a connect card.

You've had plenty of time while I've been fussing with Tim this morning.

But make sure you fill out your connect card.

You can drop it off in the welcome center because we have a free gift for you today.

We want you to be able to join us next week as we struggle to find the book of Jonah.

It's in your Old Testament.

And if you don't know where Jonah is, go to the book of Matthew and hang a left.

He'll be there in just a little while.

And also, if you're here for the first time and you're more technologically savvy, you can scan the QR code in front of you.

And there's also a connect card on there as well as we get ready to dive into God's word together.

And I absolutely love going through books of the Bible like the book of Jonah because these are books of the Bible that in the past they have been part of just understanding, knowing your Old Testament.

But there's so many people today that don't know books like this.

And so it gives us an opportunity to kind of have fun with it.

And for some of you, you had never really been introduced to the book of Jonah that much.

And so I had so much fun with you this week because we have people giving me dad jokes and everything else.

And I even asked on social media, give me a Jonah theme dad joke.

And there were so many good ones, but this one was my favorite.

And it's like God says, Hey Jonah, what are you doing in that fish?

And Jonah says, None of a business.

Yes, absolutely.

Isn't that just horrible?

I love that so much.

And somebody showed me this amazing shirt logo.

And so I aggravated my wife and I asked her to make me one.

Yes, come on, put your hands together for my wife who did this for me.

This is like now my new favorite shirt.

And no, she's not taking orders, okay?

I'm not putting her in that position, all right?

But this this has been so much fun to be able to look at and have a good time as we are just celebrating one of my favorite Old Testament books of the Bible.

And so when we get ready to get into this, what we talked about last week is the amazing ability for us to just pass right over this book.

But we're not gonna do that.

We're gonna we're gonna treat it, we talked about last week, almost like an escape room.

And I was telling you last week how one time uh I went to this escape room and it was this small kind of room and there wasn't really much to it, and we thought, okay, well, you know, this isn't gonna take long, right?

But I found a key.

And eventually we found a keyhole and we put the key into the keyhole, and we've actually found out that it was so much bigger and it was so much more fun than we could have imagined.

And I think the book of Jonah is a lot like that.

I think if we're not careful, we can see it as just this very narrow thing.

But if we have the right key, we can open up and to realize that this book actually still speaks to us today.

Even though the Holy Spirit inspired it to be written over 2,800 years ago, it can still speak to all of us today.

And so this was kind of the thing we said last week, and that is that if all you see is a fish having a bro for dinner, we've missed the beauty of this story.

And so we're not going to miss the beauty of this story, even though we're gonna talk about bro being in a fish today.

Okay, that's what Jonah chapter two is all about.

But we're gonna realize it's so much more than that.

And I think the reason why we can do that is when we understand the true subject of the book of Jonah.

Like, for instance, there's three possible subjects when people think about the book of Jonah, and that is some people think of it as a story about Jonah.

And he was the most popular prophet of his day.

He was the one uh that was preaching prosperity to the nation of Israel and all the good things, and probably trained by Elisha, who did more miracles than anybody else in the Old Testament.

And a lot of people think that the book of Jonah is about Jonah.

And some people talk about the book of Jonah talking about Nineveh, because Nineveh was the most wicked city, and they actually had this amazing thing that happens to them.

And I don't want to spoil it for you if you've not read the book of Jonah.

It is it is an amazing thing that happens.

However, the key to unlocking, I think the beauty of Jonah is God, about realizing that he is the true hero of the story.

And so, what we talked about, the kind of the key that unlocks this whole series, just like when I was in that escape room and this one key unlocked everything, that is this big idea, and that is that we can see God's mercy in every mess.

That the beauty of the book of Jonah is not that we we look through the lens of a guy having a really bad day or never get in the water because there's a fish waiting to you know to have you for dinner, nothing like that.

But when we see the book of Jonah through the beauty of God's mercy, it opens it up to be something that's so amazing.

Somebody say amen.

It is so amazing to see what that is.

As a matter of fact, I think if you were to sum up the book of Jonah into one statement, it would be God is overflowing in mercy, no matter how many messes we make.

That that, I don't know about you, but that speaks to me even today, that God is so overflowing with mercy, even if we keep making messes and mistakes.

And so if that's the case, then what would be a good definition of the word mercy?

Now, there's there's a lot of ways to define what mercy is, but here's the one we're working with in this series, and that is that mercy is simply God meeting us in every mess.

God meeting us in every mess that we make.

And here's the reason why I love that is I don't know about you, but when somebody gets sick, I'm not your friend.

I want to be, but I'm like the worst nurse ever.

Ask anyone in my family, okay?

When they get sick, I'll pray for you from the next room, okay?

And I would just like, I pray that the Lord, who knows no distance, will touch you in the next room.

And many times, and I know everybody else is looking like with your halo on your head, not me, Pastor.

Okay, fine, all right?

But for me, when somebody gets sick, I want to be there.

But I believe in the power of long distance prayer.

But the reality of it is, is that when we get into a mess, God's not like that.

God doesn't move on us from a long way away, but God steps in to every mess.

When everybody else walks out, God walks in to everything that we go through.

And that's one of the things I love about God is that He meets us in every mess.

And the book of Jonah shows us that.

So let's dive in to the text today and let's see how God continues to show mercy.

Here's the text.

First of all, the last verse of chapter one says, Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish.

Somebody say a great fish.

We talked about that last week, to swallow Jonah.

That's called a bad day, right?

And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

That requires backstory, right?

Absolutely.

So if you weren't with us last week, the Bible said that in the first verse of the book of Jonah, that God had this great word for Jonah.

And he said, Jonah, get up.

Go to the city of Nineveh and prophesy against it.

And knowing that God's gonna give them a chance at mercy.

And so Jonah was like, Okay, I'm gonna get up.

So he gets up and he goes the opposite direction, okay?

Jonah was to the east, I mean, uh, Nineveh was to the east, and Jonah goes as far west as you can possibly go.

He goes so far that it was the furthest point on the map at the time.

He is completely disobeying God.

And one of the things we learned last week is that God's mercy shines even when we are the mess.

Look at your neighbor and say he's talking about you.

Even when you would just take the halo off of your head and say, okay, so sometimes my biggest problem is me.

All right.

That was Jonah's biggest problem, is he went the exact opposite direction.

But the Bible said while he was on his way to flee off the side of the map, that a great storm came.

And while that great storm came, that all of a sudden all of these pagan sailors are starting to pray.

And they find out that the reason why this is going on is because of Jonah.

And I love their question.

They're like, Jonah, why did you do this?

And Jonah has no good answer.

And so finally they're saying, What do we gonna do?

And Jonah decides he's going to surrender to God, and so he says, the only way to stop this storm is to throw me over the side of the boat.

And they go, No.

Instead, they try to continue to row and get out of the storm.

It gets worse until finally they say, Okay, God, listen, this is his own fault, not ours, so we're gonna do it.

And so they toss him off the side of the boat.

Finally, Jonah has been running from God and he says, Okay, I'm gonna put my life into the hands of the Lord.

And so he steps off into surrender.

And when he does, the Bible says that the storm immediately stopped, and then Jonah, who was in the water, that the Lord arranged a great fish to swallow him, and he was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

And here is the most understated statement in the entire Bible.

Then Jonah prayed.

Can we all just say, I better, you better believe he started to pray.

About the time, you know, Willard the whale swallowed him.

It was time to start praying, right?

And the Lord his God, he prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish, and he said, I cried out to the Lord.

So in the middle of his of his time, he starts to sing a song.

Okay.

And he sings, I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me.

I called to you from the land of the dead, O Lord, and you heard me.

You threw me into the depths of the ocean, and you and I sank down to the heart of the sea.

The mighty waters engulfed me, and I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.

Then I said, O Lord, you have driven me from your presence, yet I looked once more toward your holy temple, and I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed around me.

Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.

That's gross.

And I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.

I was imprisoned in the earth whose gates were locked shut forever.

But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death.

As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord.

And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy temple.

Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God's mercies.

But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows, for my salvation comes from the Lord alone.

And then here's another one.

Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.

So that's Hebrew poetry translated into English, where he is talking about while I was in the most disgusting place imaginable, God did something amazing.

And even though this was written about Jonah in the belly of a fish, when we use the key to unlock and see God is the true hero of the story, and we realize that God meets us in every mess, what we can see in chapter two is this, and that is that God's mercy shines when the journey is a mess.

So not only does God shine when we are a mess, but God's mercy also shines when our journey is the mess.

Look at somebody and say, All this is just a mess.

All this, everything you can see is just a mess.

And if you've ever lived in that kind of season of life, praise the Lord that God is the hero of the story because Jonah is in a mess.

And here's the great news about this.

The reason why that when we unlock the book of Jonah and we can see that God's mercy shines even when our journey is a mess.

And why that's such good news is because of this.

I've got a guarantee for you, and that is this.

Everyone you know, and it's not what I'm you think I'm about to say, okay?

Everyone you know is in one of three stages.

Just coming out of a mess, in the middle of a mess, or about to head into a mess.

Pastor, I wish you'd be more positive.

Okay, I am absolutely positive that everybody in this room right now is in one of three stages.

You are either coming out of a mess, you're in the middle of a mess, or you're about to head into an absolute mess.

And here's the thing some of you in here are the grand prize winners.

And that means you're in all three right now.

You are like, well, actually, I am coming out of one, but I'm up in the middle of one.

And I looked at my calendar next week, and I'm pretty sure I'm about to get into another one.

So you, you're the grand prize winner.

And so here's what I want to do.

If you are struggling with keeping your attention span today, I'm gonna go ahead and give you the bottom line.

Here it is, you ready?

Here's the bottom line of the entire message.

No matter whether you are just coming out of a mess, in the middle of one, or about to head out, the Lord is there too.

Somebody give me a better amen than that.

I know we started with Tim, not wanting to cooperate, but come on, we got there's some good news happening today, and that is no matter what mess you have, God is not panicked.

God is not worried about your pain in that it makes him squeamish.

It's actually the fact that God runs to our pain, he runs to our difficulty, he runs to us when we need him.

And whenever we find ourselves in a mess, the Lord is there too.

And the greater the darkness, the more the mercy of God shines.

And so the key that unlocks this whole thing is to not see the book of Jonah as a guy having a really bad day.

But the key to the book of Jonah is to say, look at the Lord's mercy.

Look at when he is his own biggest enemy.

God rushes in with his mercy.

When he finds himself in the worst position possible, he's in a fish covered by seaweed, and he's having a near-death experience, the Lord is there too.

And so here's the question of the day, and that is this how does God's mercy shine when we are walking through a mess?

How does God's mercy shine when we are walking through a mess?

And here's the thing because I honestly believe that everybody I know is either coming out of a mess, they're in the middle of one, or they're getting ready to head into one.

I know that God's word is for every one of us today.

So I want you to look at your neighbor and say, you better listen today.

And you no, no, no, you gotta have an attitude with it.

You gotta take today, and you gotta make it kind of you better listen today.

All right, you gotta like enunciate that.

So try it again.

Look at him, look at him and say, You better listen today.

Today, today.

You know, you know why?

Because I know we're all in one, and here's three things that God's word teaches us.

And listen, I'm not downplaying whatever it is you're going through, okay?

I'm not downplaying it all.

I'm just saying, none of us in here today are in the belly of a fish.

So if we're not in the belly of a fish, then maybe what Jonah's going through can speak to all of us today.

Here's the thing three things.

The first thing is this is when the journey is a mess, the Lord will grow us.

When we are going through a mess, and I like to say it like this God doesn't waste.

God don't waste.

When we're going through a journey that I guarantee you, Jonah told about the rest of his life.

This is the king of all fish stories, right?

The only thing is that this one's true.

And every, you know, when he had, if he had kids and he had grandkids, every time they had any gathering, he said, Let me tell you about the fish.

Listen, Papa Jonah, we heard about this over and over.

Months still tell you about that fish, okay?

I'm gonna tell you all over again.

I'm still not over the fish, right?

But to learn that even when we find ourselves in a journey, God doesn't waste anything.

But even in that, God will grow us.

Look at what the Bible says.

It says, and then Jonah prayed.

By the way, you know that it says, after he was there for three days and three nights, then Jonah prayed.

The reason why is because he couldn't write down the first three days because there were no syllables.

It was just, ah.

For three days and three nights, if it was me, if I'm conscious at all, I'm not saying any words you would understand.

I'm just screaming a whole lot.

I'm in a fish.

That's all I'm saying for the first three days.

And then the Bible says, he says, I cried out to the Lord.

The literal Hebrew word for that is not cried out.

That's very nice.

It's I screamed my lungs out.

I screamed as loud as I could.

Get me out of this.

That's when he finally could say words that made sense.

His first words were, help me.

Okay.

That's what he's saying to God.

He said, I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble.

And look at this.

It says, He answered me.

Somebody say amen.

I cried out to the Lord and he answered me.

And he says, Lord, you threw me into the ocean depths.

I know it was the sailors, but I gotta believe, God, that you you kind of used them for your own good pleasure and you threw me in the ocean depths, and I sank down into the heart of the sea.

In other words, the fish wasn't there on the shore, the fish was there somewhere toward the bottom, and it swallowed him.

And it said, The mighty waters engulfed me.

And then I said, So now that he's in the fish, then he said, Oh Lord, you have driven me from your presence.

Yes, he has.

Yet I will look once more toward your holy temple.

And I sank beneath the waves.

Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.

But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death.

In other words, he said, Man, it's stunk in there.

I had seaweed wrapped around me.

There were fish heads in there.

I mean, I'm never gonna get the smell of fish off of me.

I was there, but he said, in that moment, I realized, God, when I realized that I was far from your presence, it caused me to turn myself finally back to you.

And he began to realize that God was using this situation because God could have given him a life raft.

God could have called him an Uber boat.

You know that there's so many things that could have happened, but God called a fish.

And what happened was is he began to realize, I see now that you use this situation to cause my stubborn heart to finally turn back toward you.

And as I was sinking, Lord, you snatched me from the moment when I didn't think I could find my way back.

And here's the thing that if we go through difficult seasons, the amazing thing is God doesn't waste anything.

That actually, even in those difficult seasons, God will use those things to turn our hearts back toward him.

Because here's the truth, and that is God is more interested in our character than our comfort.

Somebody give me a better amen.

God is more interested in our character than in our comfort.

God loves us so much that when we are going through a situation and he is there with us, he's gonna use it to make us better.

He's gonna use it to grow us closer to him.

I'm not saying God does it to you, but I am saying that he doesn't waste anything and he grows us closer to him.

One of the greatest things about our God is that he is able to take every single journey and use it for our good and to use it to grow us to be more free and more full of his presence.

I'm gonna show you when it comes to this, one of the most encouraging verses ever.

You ready?

Here it is, the most encouraging verses.

He says, Have you forgotten the book of Hebrews?

Have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children?

Have you have you forgotten?

This is gonna be so encouraging.

Get get ready to absolutely be encouraged.

Here we go.

My child, don't make light of the Lord's discipline.

Don't give up when he corrects you.

For the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes.

So encouraging.

Each one he accepts as his child.

As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children.

Whoever of a child who is never disciplined by their father?

I have.

Okay, but we're not talking about that right now.

All right, so um, who has ever heard of it?

If God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children, it means he don't care.

It means you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all.

But look at this: God's discipline is always good for us so that we might share in his holiness.

No discipline is enjoyable when it's happening, it's painful.

But afterward, there will always be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

So mark out a straight path for your feet that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

The bottom line of it is the Lord is with us, and many times he will use difficulty to challenge us, to grow us.

He won't waste anything.

And sometimes, as a good heavenly father, we're not talking about earthly fathers because there's no earthly father who is perfect.

So we got to get in our mind a good heavenly father, and a good heavenly father will discipline us so that we can turn our hearts back toward him.

That's a good thing.

And I know we don't talk about the discipline of the Lord all that much, but one of the greatest things that we can know is that God loves us enough to help us stay on the right road.

But the challenge is that we as humans, we have a tendency to struggle with tension.

And so we have we have a tendency to go toward legalism, which means everything is God hurting us because he's mad at us, or why would a loving God ever tell me that I'm not perfect in every way?

And so the tension is somewhere in the middle.

And that's why God's word says this.

And so the important thing to understand about the discipline of the Lord is number one, is God's word says it is not to be ignored.

That God loves us enough to grow us, to challenge us.

And he says, My child, don't make light of the Lord's discipline.

I learned this so much when I was growing up because if I didn't pay attention to the lesson my dad was trying to teach me, he had absolutely no problem having a remedial course.

You know what I'm saying?

He would keep teaching me until I figured out what it was he was trying to say.

And God loves us so much that he will let us circle the wagons over and over again until we learn our lesson because it's for our good.

The next thing that God's discipline is not to make us give up.

God's word says, don't give up when he corrects you.

God's word is it teaches us over and over again about the love of God and that when God corrects us, it's not because he's trying to make life hard on us.

But just like with Noah, he was excuse me, Jonah, he was using that difficulty to turn his eyes to where the freedom was, to where the goodness of God was.

And then one more God's discipline is not to be misunderstood.

In other words, he's saying the Lord's discipline is for those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as.

His child.

God is treating you as his own.

And so we don't look at the Lord's discipline as something that God does because he's mad at us and because he doesn't love us, but it's quite the opposite.

When God loves us enough to correct us or to use a difficult situation to grow us, then we begin to understand.

It reminds me of when one of my daughters, and I won't tell you which one, but I bet you can figure it out if you know my family, that one of my daughters one time, I'll never remember, I'd never forget, I had told them that if they both cleaned their room, then when the time was over with, we were gonna go get ice cream.

That was mainly for dad.

They were just gonna get to come along.

You know what I mean?

And it was time to go, and one of my daughters had mostly cleaned her room.

The other one had not started.

She developed a great plan.

She had delegated her authority to so many others in the house, but she had not actually cleaned anything.

And so when it was time to go, and she wasn't allowed to go, if you've been a parent for longer than five minutes, what is it that she said, Dad, why do you not love me?

Why don't you want me to go?

It was the same thing as when I have said to God, why would a loving God not let me go get ice cream?

You know, and it's like, you know why?

It's because I'm trying to teach you something.

I don't want to do this.

It wasn't until I was a parent when I, you know, when my dad, when I was a kid, he's watching online, Dad, this is still on you.

And he would say, Son, this hurts me more than it hurts you.

How many people have ever heard that lie from their parents, right?

You know how many times I wanted to say, well, why don't we both have just save a little pain here, you know, and you go ahead and take the punishment, then we're both okay, right?

You know, it wasn't until I was a parent I began to understand that really is true.

I I get no joy out of disciplining my kids.

The joy is when they obey and when I see them do better because I don't want them in the same place again.

So God's word teaches us that the discipline of the Lord is for our good.

He actually says God's discipline is always good.

Say always.

Say it again, say always.

Always good.

You know what the good was of Jonah being wrapped up in Willard the whale?

Made that up, right?

He's not his name wasn't Willard.

But the reason why is because it forced him.

You know, sometimes some of us, can I I don't, I'm not like this, but some of us, you can learn lessons real easy.

All God's got to do is say, that was a shame.

God, I'm so sorry.

You know, that that's my youngest daughter.

Oh, baby, that wasn't good.

Oh, Daddy, I'm so sorry.

I got another daughter who um that's not always the same story, right?

But I'm the hard-headed one.

I've got to be literally in a fish for three days before I go.

God, okay, whatever you want to do, I promise it's for good because I'm just more stubborn like that.

But to realize that God's discipline is always good.

Here's another one God's discipline is always for our peace.

He says it like this but afterward, there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

So when God disciplines us, it's for peace.

One of the ways that peace comes through difficult situations is that when we go through another difficult situation, we don't get as worried about it because we know that God is with us.

And because he has been with us before, we absolutely know God will be with us again.

And because of that, we're able to live in peace.

Here's one more, and then it is for our strength.

I love this last part that says, mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

The reason why the Lord disciplines us is so that we can be strong, so that we can experience freedom.

You imagine next time God speaks to Jonah, that he doesn't say, ah, you know, I'm gonna go the other way.

He's like, Yes, sir, I am headed to Nineveh really fast because he learned his lesson.

And here's what I've learned in my life, and that is how we respond to discipline determines how we benefit from it.

Isn't that true?

How we respond to it is how we benefit from it.

And you know what happened to Jonah?

He is down there and he is surrounded by seaweed, and he smells like fish, probably for the rest of his life.

He's got all this going on.

And you know what happened?

There was actually a story of someone who spent 36 hours in the belly of a fish one time and lived that we had in 1896.

When he came out, he actually, the the gastric juices of the fish had actually taken all the pigment out of his skin.

Imagine that felt real good, right?

He's in the middle of all of that, but when he's in the middle of all this and he finally can't squirm his way or run away, he's finally confronted with God and it finally turns his heart toward the Lord.

Here's the truth, and that is God's mercy shows us, even in moments of discipline, God is always working for our good.

God's always working for our good.

And what I love about the Lord is that when we when we use the key of God's mercy, it unlocks this amazing story to realize that when we are the mess, God's mercy shines.

And when our journey is in the mess, we find ourselves just in a season of mess because everybody I know is either coming out of a mess, they're in the middle of one, or they're just about to go into one.

But here's the great news the Lord is there too.

When he began to pray, he didn't say, I wondered if God would hear me.

He knew God would hear me.

And so can I tell you, if you're in the middle of a mess, if you're in the middle of a difficult situation, the good news is even in moments where God uses it to steer us in the right direction, God is always working for our good.

God never disciplines us out of anger, out of malice, out of vindictiveness, but always out of complete and total love.

He leads us in the right direction.

Look at somebody and say, You better be listening to this.

You better be listening to this one.

Here's the reason why it's because God doesn't waste anything.

Here's the second one, and that is that the Lord will also restore us.

The way I like to say it is, God will hear.

God doesn't wear anything over his ears.

He can hear just fine.

And he can hear us even in the belly of a fish.

If God can hear Jonah in the belly of a fish at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, God can hear us even in this moment.

And that the Lord is there with him.

And he said, The Lord will restore.

And look what the Bible says.

It says, as my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord.

So other words, he said, I felt like I was dying.

I was having a near-death experience.

This was really, really not going well.

And in that moment, I remembered the Lord.

And he said he turned his heart toward God.

And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy temple.

And those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God's mercies, but I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows, for my salvation comes from the Lord alone.

So, in other words, he's there and he realizes God, you have used this to get my attention.

You haven't wasted anything.

I now see.

You had to put me in a fish where I couldn't move around, but I now see you.

And I turned my heart toward the Lord, and he said, I gave my life back, I gave my life back to him.

I repented.

That's what true repentance is it's words plus actions.

The amazing thing is he didn't just say, God, I'm sorry, but he said, I'm gonna commit myself to repentance.

I'm gonna give my life over to the Lord.

And can I tell you the great thing is that we find ourselves in a mess, and that mess drives us to our knees so that we turn our hearts back to God, he's always there and he's always ready.

And he, I love how he said that all this, he said, now all of those false worshiping of gods and turning their backs on God, all they're doing is turning their back on God's mercy.

They think they're doing their best, but it's actually just turning their back on God's mercy.

And so what he's doing is he's saying, I found out that when I was sinking, all the other things that I used to run to, all the other gods I used to worship, all the other idols, my my addictions, my other things, none of that was able to help me.

Only the Lord was able to help me.

And sometimes we got to get in those moments before we'll turn to the Lord and so we can find him.

I was talking about this a few weeks ago, and I've heard so many of you say the same thing, and that is one of the things they say in the military is there's no atheists in foxholes.

So, in other words, whenever it gets real, people know who to call on.

And if you've ever been in an airplane, when it's experiencing turbulence, same thing, okay?

I have experienced this, and some of you shared stories with me.

We've experienced this together.

You want to know if you can find out which God is the true God, be in an airplane, and you see the clouds, and all of a sudden it starts doing this number.

It starts shaking a little bit, and all of a sudden it's I'm fine, you fine, we're all fine here.

It's gonna be okay if we can land at some point.

And then if you hit that air pocket, you're doing all this, and all of a sudden you just fall.

What feels like three million feet, okay?

It's probably 10, but three million.

Can I tell you, I've had that happen to me twice, and when that happens, I ain't never body heard, I've never heard anybody say, Oh Buddha, oh Muhammad, oh me.

No, no, I hear Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

This is like they know who's real.

When the moment really matters, they know exactly who's real, and all of a sudden they're like, I better get my life straight.

And the amazing thing is, is that God is less interested in how many times we fall and more interested in how many times we get back up.

And so what he's telling Jonah is as soon as he's willing to turn his heart back over to Jonah, uh, Jonah's willing to turn his heart back over to God, it's like, here I am, here I am.

Used to be this old song we used to sing that was just like, We fall down, but we get up.

You ever heard that one?

We fall down, but we get up, we fall down, but we get up.

For a saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up.

That's all a saint is.

It's somebody who refused to quit.

Somebody who said, I'm gonna get up one more time.

And every time you choose to get back up, God says, Come on, come on, I'm with you.

It's one of my favorite stories in the New Testament.

It actually tells us about the Lord can restore us from our worst messes.

Just like what happened with Jonah, there was a guy in the New Testament.

We all know him.

If you've been in church very long, his name is Peter.

I I've just I love the idea of one of the most awkward moments in the book of John.

The Bible said that the night that Jesus was gonna be arrested, that he looks at Peter, who's like one of the front runners of the disciples, and he says, Hey Peter, listen, it's gonna get real tonight.

This is my own words.

This is gonna get real, and you're gonna tell people you don't know me.

And and you know, Peter was like, No, no, that's cap right there.

I'm absolutely not gonna do that.

Actually, I would rather die with you than to ever turn my back on you.

Well, guess what happened?

Later that night, he said three times he did not know God.

And you know, the moment was the Bible said in the book of Luke, that when he denied him the third time, Jesus turns around and looks at Peter.

Now, I'm sure Jesus did not turn around and go, you know, I'm sure it was more, hey, buddy, it's okay.

But in my mind, I in my mind, Jesus has a sense of humor.

So in my mind, he's standing before the Sanhedrin, he hears what's going on, he turns around, he's like, I told you, my friend.

You know, that's not the most awkward moment.

The most awkward moment is Jesus rises from the dead three days later, and then about a week later, they see Jesus on the seashore.

And they go to Jesus on the seashore, and the Bible says that after breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

That's awkward.

Because up to this point, apparently, Simon had not brought up the fact that he had denied Jesus three times.

I guess he was just gonna say these are things we don't talk about.

But finally, he's right there in front of him, and you know what I love about Jesus?

Jesus brought it up so that he could forgive it.

And he denied, Peter denied Jesus three times, and so Jesus says three times, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Number one, yes, Lord, I love you.

Then feed my lambs.

Jesus told him that, and then he said again, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Number two, yes, Lord, I you know I love you.

Then take care of my sheep, Jesus said.

Then the third time, he said, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question the third time, and so he said, Lord, you know everything.

You know that I love you.

And then Jesus said, Then feed my sheep.

And then Jesus told him, Follow me.

Jesus wasn't interested in how many times he fell, he was interested in how many times he was going to get back up again.

And you know why Jesus points out our sin?

It's not to give us shame.

If you're ever in the presence of God and you feel shame, it's only because you brought it in with you.

But the reason why he confronts us with our sin is because he wants us to have freedom.

Because he wants us to know what it feels like to not have that sin on us anymore.

In the in the book of Matthew, in chapter six, when Jesus teaches us how to pray, he says, every day pray and tell me about your sin so I can wash it away.

Not so that we can be reminded we're a sinner, but so that we can taste freedom every single day.

One of the most wonderful parts of our prayer should be when we come to God and we say, God, I'm struggling with this because as many times as we're willing to get back up, it's as many times that he's willing to forgive.

And the wonderful thing is, no matter how many times or how badly we fall, the Lord is always ready to pick us back up again.

No matter how many times.

That's what the book of Jonah teaches us is Jonah had ran in the opposite direction and God went and found him.

And then Jonah jumped off into the sea and got swallowed by fish, and God found him.

And in that moment when Jonah is wrapped up in seaweed and he smells like fish, and all this is going on, and he finally goes, Okay, God, you are not wasting anything.

You're using this to turn my heart back to you.

And so now I'm going to give my life back over to you.

I'm going to give you not just my words, but my actions.

That's when the Lord said, I was here already, and he restored him.

And you know what's amazing?

Is no matter how many times we fall, and I want you to hear this, no matter how many times you fall, the Lord is excited to pick you back up again.

He's always has his hand reached out for you.

All you got to do is grab it and he'll pick you back up again.

Look at your neighbor one more time and say, You better be listening to this.

Because everybody I know is either one of three places.

They're either getting ready to go into a storm, they're either in one, or they're just now coming out of one.

And can I tell you, no matter how many storms you face, God doesn't waste anything.

That God will hear you.

And then here's one more God, the Lord will deliver us.

This is my favorite, but it's the most difficult.

I've learned that God doesn't waste anything, that God will hear, and that God will move.

The Lord meets us in every one of our messes.

But this is the question.

This this is the one that if I'm honest with you, I've struggled with the most.

And that is this.

The Bible said, He said, I will I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows.

And then he says, For the Lord, for that my salvation comes from the Lord alone.

Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit.

The most literal Hebrew definition of that is to vomit, to spew, to ick.

So this was not ceremonious, okay?

He was like blah, to vomit Jonah onto the beach.

Most scholars think that he vomited him right back in Joppa, right where he began.

He's like, start over, Jonah.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir, I will.

But he vomited him right back where he started.

And here's the question: Jonah has been through an amazing ordeal.

He tried to run from God.

Had that turn out for him, right?

Then he got thrown into the sea, finally surrendered, and he got swallowed by a fish.

When he thought it couldn't go any further.

And then finally he realizes that, turned his heart back to God.

He repented of his sin.

God forgave him.

But here's the question: What do you do when you have grown and repented, yet you're still in a mess?

Just me?

Can I tell you how many times I've talked to somebody and they said, okay, Pastor, I'm in a mess.

It's difficult, but I'm gonna give my life to Jesus.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna let God use this mess to draw me close to him.

And then on Monday they call me and go, wait a minute.

I I I gave the Lord my life.

I told that that those bad relationships that you're out.

I did all this, I did what I needed to do.

What's the deal?

Can I tell you?

What do you do when you have grown and repented, yet you are still in the mess?

Because in my mind, in my mind, after three days of screaming, finally he prays, and later he tells us it was a song.

Sure, sure, Jonah.

Sure it was.

All right.

So that it was it was inspired, so I'm sure it was.

And then and then after he prays, after he repents, he has this great moment with God.

He's still in the fish.

He's still there.

What do you do when you've repented and you've grown, but you're still in a mess.

Here's the thing.

You trust the Lord's timing, you trust the Lord's timing.

Because here's the thing the Lord could have had him spit Jonah out.

Praise the Lord.

But what if he'd spit him out as soon as he repented?

And maybe that was at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

So praise the Lord.

But Jonah's dead because he can't swim all the way to the top.

But what if he he said, okay, I'm gonna let you out?

So he he let him out.

And he was at the top of the Mediterranean, but he was in the middle.

Praise the Lord.

But he doesn't exhaust himself.

So that by the time he gets to the shore, if he even gets to the shore, he's no good.

But instead, after he helped him, I wonder how long he stayed in that fish until he made it to the shore.

The reality of it is, is that troubles don't last forever.

And so if you're not dead, God's not done.

It may feel like it.

It may feel like nothing on the outside has changed, but what you don't realize is that the direction of the fish has changed.

Instead of swimming out into the deep, it's headed for the shore.

You just got to trust that God will get you out of it when the timing is right.

And at that point, once you have allowed God to grow you, and once you have repented and turned yourself over to God, it is now no longer your job, it is God's job to get you out of it.

You do the best you can and you trust the Lord with the rest.

We can see this all over the Bible.

They're in a difficult situation and they they don't know what to do.

There's there's an army that's coming against them.

They've they've said, okay, God, this is driving us back to our knees.

Okay, we repent, but there's still an army out there.

What are you gonna do?

And look what the Lord told them.

He said, This is what the Lord says.

Do not be afraid, and don't be discouraged by this mighty fish in front of you.

For the battle is not yours, but God's.

In other words, you've done all you can do.

It's my turn.

This is where I take it from here.

Your job is to grow, let me grow you.

Your job is to repent and turn to me, and then you trust me, this is where the miracles happen.

This is where God takes over and does amazing things.

And can I tell you, if that's you, if you're allowing God to grow you through a difficult season, and if you've repented and turned to God, but you wonder why you're still in a mess, can I give you what God's word says?

God is moving.

God has already turned that fish around and he's turning it towards shore.

We just got to wait for his timing.

But when the time is right, God will do what only he can do.

We can see that this week.

If you've been reading God's word with us, we've been reading through the book of Genesis, and you can join us by texting RLC Bible to 94,000, and we're getting ready to get into an amazing story about a guy named Joseph.

Joseph spent most of his life in a proverbial fish, in a difficult situation.

The Bible said that when Jonah, or when uh Joseph was young, that he actually had this amazing dream.

And this dream was that one day Joseph was going to take care of his whole family.

And then Joseph did the craziest thing you ever do.

He went and told his family.

Because he was one of the youngest, and that's not how it worked at the time.

At the time, the oldest son took care of the family.

The youngest son goes to everybody and says, Hey, don't worry about Simeon.

I got you.

That did not go over well.

Thus began his fish experience.

Because what happened was that is not how it's supposed to go.

And so what his brothers did is his brothers said, Well, we're gonna kill him.

But instead of killing him, they said, Well, I want to make some money off of him.

And so they sold him into slavery.

They sold him and sent him down to Egypt.

And he goes down into Egypt.

That's his journey into a fish.

And while he is there, he doesn't know the language, he doesn't know anything.

But while he is there, he just decides he's gonna grow where he is planted and he works his way up the slave ladder until he becomes the most powerful slave in somebody's house named Potiphar.

And then one day, minding his own business, Potiphar's wife lies about him and gets him sent to prison, even though he was innocent.

That's called going down further into the fish.

And while he is there, he actually sees some of Pharaoh's servants and he interprets a dream for them, and he says, When you see Pharaoh again, tell him about me, because I'm here in this fish, and I didn't do anything wrong.

And through a crazy set of circumstances, Pharaoh himself has a dream, and that guy remembers Joseph, and it was so amazing that Joseph woke up in prison one day and he went to bed that night in a palace because he interpreted the dream, and God put him as second over the entire nation of Egypt, so that one day, years later, there was a famine, and his family comes to Egypt.

And God fulfills that long vision where he is able to take care of his family through a crazy set of circumstances.

And then when all that is over with, his brothers are terrified because they tried to kill him.

They're the ones that put him in the fish.

You know, they're the ones that threw him overboard.

And so they go up to him and he's terrified.

And what my prayer is, is that God will so grow me and you that we will no longer see it as God, why would you do this?

But instead, God, I wonder what you're doing.

And then we will so turn our hearts over to God that we will say, as Joseph did, the Bible said, He told him, Don't be afraid of me.

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.

He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

The truth is, is it took him 14 years in the belly of his vision.

And the reality is that if Joseph was delivered after a 14-year mess and Jonah was delivered after three days and Willard the whale, God will deliver you.

I have no idea how long God will have you in your fish.

What I do know is that God doesn't waste anything.

What I know is that God will hear you when you call out to Him.

And I know that God will deliver you when the timing is right.

And this is God's promise.

Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid.

Why?

For you are close beside me.

The amazing thing about this story is I think we often forget about the miracle of prayer.

That the king of the universe owes us nothing.

He doesn't have to forgive us, but he does.

And then after he forgives us, wouldn't it be totally within his right to say, hey, listen, I forgave you and all, but I'm out.

No.

Instead, the Bible says that when we pray, it's as if we're going before the very throne room of God so that we can speak to him about whatever's going on in our life.

God is keeping the universe spinning, he is keeping the sun shining, he's keeping the earth on its axis, he's doing all of that.

But then he also doesn't mind hearing about Maya and your problems.

He doesn't mind hearing about the pain that's in your heart.

What a great God we serve.

And so I don't know what you need to hear in this message.

But can I tell you, I absolutely believe that everybody in here is in one of three places.

You're either just coming out of a storm, you're either in the middle of one, or you're just about ready to go into one.

But here's the amazing thing: the Lord is there too.

He will never let you go anywhere that he will not go with you.

This was written by David, most likely toward the end of his life.

And if anybody has a story about going through a fish situation, it'd be David.

And at the end of his life, David is saying, I know what it is to walk through dark valleys.

I know what it is to feel like I'm in the belly of a fish.

But you know what I learned?

I don't have to be afraid because you, God, are close beside me.

What would it change about what's going on in your life if you realized God is closer to you than you can imagine?

What would it change if you realized that God meets us in every one of our messes?

What would it change if you realized God doesn't waste anything?

I'm not saying God put you in that fish.

I am saying he can use it to soften and turn your heart back to him.

Then when we turn our heart back to him, he hears us.

And when God's timing is right, he always delivers us.

And when you've done all you know to do, that's when we get to see his miracles.

And what if you're one day away?

What if you're one day away?

That's that fish has already turned and it's already on the way to the shore.

And you're wondering, God, I've repented, I've I've grown through this, but God, I feel like I like, why am I still in this?

Because you're on the way.

You're on the way to where God wants you.

And sometimes the greatest act of faith is faithfulness that God, even if I'm still in this fish, I trust you that when the time is right, you will deliver me.

In just a moment, the band's gonna come up and lead us through a song of worship.

And I can I tell you, when I was preparing this message, I felt in my heart I changed it so many times, and because there's just so much in this that God's word can teach us.

But the one thing that kept coming to me is that the Lord is there too.

Over and over again, the Lord is there too, the Lord is there too.

And can I tell you if you're in here and maybe you feel like you're in a dark situation and you feel like you got to get out of it so you can go find God, that is not God, that is the enemy speaking to you.

That you don't go find God, he's right here, right now.

That he's right, he's closer to you than you can imagine.

So stop searching for him and open your eyes because he's already here.

He's not waiting for you to clean yourself up and then come to him.

He's the one that cleans us up, he's the one that provides us with the healing that our heart longs for.

He's there too.

He's there when you're by yourself, he's there when you feel like that the world is against you, he's there when you feel like that everything that was supposed to happen is not happening, he's there.

And he doesn't waste a pain.

He doesn't waste when you turn your heart toward him, and he will deliver you.

And so, just a moment, as we worship the Lord, maybe you're here and and it's time for you to turn your life over to the Lord.

On the back of your connect card is the plan of salvation.

In just a moment, the next best act of worship is for you when we begin to worship the Lord in just a moment, for you to worship him by realizing that he is there and that he wants to wash away all your sin.

I want you to join us at the prayer table in the back.

As soon as we stand in just a moment, I want you to join us back there and say, I want to know Jesus.

I want to know that he is here.

That's what repentance is.

It's turning everything you have over to him and letting him control your life.

It's the greatest decision you'll ever make.

Maybe you're here and you love Jesus, but you've forgotten how close he is.

You've forgotten that you don't have to go find him.

He's here.

You have to open your eyes and see the goodness of God.

And maybe it needs to be your prayer is that, God, I pray you'll open my spiritual eyes to realize that you are here and that you're not wasting the pain that I'm going through, that you're not wasting these, these, this heartfelt repentance, and that your timing is right.

God, I don't want to be here.

I don't want to be going through this.

God, I feel like you're almost late, but I know that you're always right on time.

And can I tell you that kind of prayer?

Man, it moves mountains because it places our trust back in Him.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, God, that you're with us and that you are for us in this place.