When Death Leads To Life

Morning C3 family.

Greetings in the name of Jesus.

If you're a student, you're dismissed to go have fun with Mr.

Weldon and Miss Hannah and Miss Morgan.

And Lord bless them.

I hope it's fun for them too.

Tell you what, let's pray.

Father God, in Jesus' name, would you take the words that we've just sung?

And would you, as only you can, supernaturally bring each person in this room, starting with me, to a point where we actually believe what we're singing.

That we would really believe.

Like the sun's going to come up tomorrow morning, that your faithfulness is great and is new every morning, every day.

That we would actually believe that you are high above everything upon this earth.

All the things that are of infinite value.

And that you are above all of the gods that our civilization have created.

Those are not just words, they're not just songs, they're declarations of truth that can change our lives if we believe them.

And I pray that you would make that so.

Please start in my life.

Make that true in my life.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Good morning.

We have several guests with us today, and so just so y'all know, we are in a study of the little book of Jonah.

He was a prophet, one of the first Old Testament prophets.

And it's a very unique little book for a prophet because every other prophetic book in the Old Testament, God is speaking through the prophet to others.

But in reality, the book of Jonah is not God speaking through a prophet, but God speaking to a prophet.

It's not God's dealing so much with others using this man.

It's actually God using lots of different people to try to reach the very prophet of God Himself.

And it's an interesting study.

I hope that you're taking the time each week to read.

It takes about 10 minutes to read it.

It's an interesting little book.

You said it last week, I think, or the week before.

We've made Jonah a book for children, but it could not, it might be the least child appropriate book in the Bible, if we if we if we really think about it.

And um, yeah.

Last week we looked at chapter one.

Well, uh, yeah, I'll just say it that way.

And uh I challenged us to consider that chapter one of Jonah is challenging us to ask five questions.

And I want to just read these questions to you.

Jonah chapter one challenges us to ask, am I believing in and trusting in and obeying the God who is?

The God that is revealed by Scripture?

Or a God of my own making?

A God that I wish existed, a God that I wished or I want to be.

Very important question.

What God am I actually believing in?

The God that the Bible reveals, or some God that I wished was.

Second question.

How have I, am I, or will I respond when I realize that God's purposes and plans for my life and my purposes and plans for my life collide, clash.

The day I realize that what God is doing in my life, what God created me for, has called me to, is very different than what I feel like I'm on the planet for.

It's an incredible question.

Jonah chapter 1 asked, challenge us to ask the question.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

If the Bible was written, and I have tried to teach you this as well as I know how, that the Bible was written for one purpose and one purpose only.

And that is to reveal to us who God is.

Not to help you be a good parent or a good, have a happy marriage, or be healthy, wealthy, and wise.

That is not, those are benefits of experiencing a relationship with God, no doubt about it.

But that's not why the Bible was written.

The Bible was written to reveal to us who God is.

Who he is, what he's like, how he operates, how he feels about us, what he's doing in our lives.

The Bible is written to reveal to us who God is.

So it begs the question in Jonah chapter 1.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

And oh, let me just say this: every chapter of the Bible has the same purpose.

There is no other purpose.

So if that's true, and I would beg you in Jesus' name to consider the truth of that statement, then it begs the question: what does Jonah chapter 1 reveal to you and me about God?

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

Now, the answer to that question could vary greatly.

What it reveals to you about God and what it reveals to me about God, and what it reveals to Esther about God could be very different.

I'm not saying otherwise, okay, but it does beg the question as I read Jonah chapter 1 or Malachi chapter 2 or Revelation chapter 6 or Romans chapter 3 or John chapter 3, what does that reveal to me about God?

Jonah 1 · chapter mention Malachi 2 · chapter mention Revelation 6 · chapter mention Romans 3 · chapter mention John 3 · chapter mention

And when I read Jonah chapter 1, what it revealed to me about God, among other things, but primarily, is that the God of the Bible sees me.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

He hears me.

He's involved in my life while Jonah's asleep in the bottom of the boat, disengaged, while his world literally is going to hell in a handbasket.

God's not asleep.

God wasn't asleep down the bottom of that boat.

He was in the boat, he was at the boat, he was around the boat, but he was, he sees, he hears, he's engaged, he's involved.

He's pursuing.

That's what it says to me about God.

Fourth question.

Very important, because I think most Christians in this room, as well as around our country, would see this very differently.

They would not answer this question the way I think Jonah wants us to.

Who is the real problem to the accomplishment of God's purposes and plans in Jonah chapter 1?

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

Well, the Jonah chapter 1 would suggest it's not the king of Nineveh.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

It's not the sailors, it's not the storm, it's not the fish.

What Jonah chapter 1 would suggest, it's not the Republican Party or the Democrats or Trump or Biden or the economy of the world or the I'll just leave it alone.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

That those are not who's the hindrance to God accomplishing his purposes and plans in this story?

The man of God, the one that knows God, has been used of God, is literally writing the words of God.

He's the hindrance.

Who is the hindrance to God's work in my life?

Dang, I don't think I can blame her.

I'd like to.

You can try.

Or my mom and dad, or my friends, or my boss, which really is y'all.

But anyway, uh, I can't blame it.

There's somebody often hindering the work of God in my life, and the person that that probably is, is me.

Rather than me blaming others.

My kids, teachers, or whatever other shenanigans.

Last thing, and I didn't even mention this last week, but I want to now.

The author of Jonah, in particular Jonah chapter 1, but Jonah, whoever that is, whether it was Jonah writing his autobiography or whether it was somebody else writing about what happened to Jonah, I don't know about all that.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

You don't either.

But the writer of Jonah is very skilled at trying.

He wants us as the people of God to read the life of Jonah and be indignant.

How could a prophet of God, a man of God, a child of Yahweh, somebody that is inhabited by God of Almighty?

How could somebody be that cold, that callous, that angry, that unforgiving, that mean, that disengage?

How could when the people on that boat are dying?

They're about to die, he's asleep.

He's got his fire insurance.

To hate with everybody else.

I'm good.

I'm so good, I'm taking a nap.

Amen.

The writer wants us to be indignant to how ungodly Jonah is.

And that's when he's got us.

Because what he's going to show us is the purpose of Jonah's book is not to report on Jonah's spiritual condition, but to report on ours.

That's the whole purpose of the book.

We'll see that more and more down the road.

Any thoughts, Brian?

You got?

Well, so you know, I've got this book of poems that Larry uh bought.

Thank you for giving me credit.

Well, you did that.

Um, and so it really's pretty good.

Um, and so here's one that kind of segues us into chapter two, where we're going today.

It's it's entitled His Presence, but there's a pun on the word present here, like present as a gift, his presence as a gift, or his presence as his being.

And in this particular poem, it's presence like a gift.

Okay.

Item by item is Jonah's voice.

Item by item, I appropriated each staple he issued.

I treated his grants as my due and my duty.

My windfalls were my downfall until I learned to appreciate his presence.

So it's interesting because I think you're going to offer today that this uh um uh imprisonment of Jonah in the belly of the whale is a gift.

It's a it's a from whose perspective is it a gift?

From whose perspective is it a gift?

That's the that's the question.

Um and not a person in the story would have associated that experience of being in the belly of a fish for three days and three nights.

No one would have seen that as a gift.

As a gift, but one.

And that's God.

Yeah.

Okay, here's one more.

Yeah, please.

It's called, it's entitled Another Jonah.

I like this one because it ends with a question.

I too, in a dark womb, keep waking to the beat of the sea and the remembrance of my neglect and disobedience.

What good will it do for me to be reborn?

I think that's a great question.

What good will it do for me to be reborn?

Is it worth it for me down here in this dark womb of the sea, remembering my neglect and disobedience?

What good will it do for me to be reborn?

Thank you.

Okay.

There's plenty more.

Um, let me read Jonah chapter 2 to you.

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

If you want to, you can follow along.

I think Colin's going to put it up on the screen.

And if you want to follow along, you can.

I think this is the NIV.

Um, if I remember, but I'm not exactly sure.

Jonah chapter 2.

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

From inside the fish, Jonah prayed.

Everybody in the story's been praying.

Boat full of sailors, ungodly heathen sailors, they're praying like wallmen.

You've never seona pray until he's in the belly of this fish.

And now all of a sudden, he's a prayer warrior.

He's a prayer giant.

From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.

Isn't it amazing what it takes sometimes to get us to a point where we are willing to pray?

We face problems and pain and loss and battles.

And I don't know if you're like me, I'll do everything.

You let some you let me feel like her, my daughter, are wronged.

Um I will come out swinging.

I will do everything.

Connive, lie, get mad, work hard, sacrifice.

I'll do everything but pray.

The last thing that I'll do, just like Jonah.

Last thing he does.

Not the first, but he finally prays.

He said, In my distress, I called to the Lord, and he answered me.

From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help, and you listened to my cry.

Isn't it funny when we're going through times of uh being in the belly of a fish, times of uh pain, loss, death.

That's when most of us, starting with me, I that's when I feel like God has abandoned me.

Where's God?

Isn't it funny that Jonah in this time of death, he at least knows God's right there.

You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas.

You we've talked about this idea of the seas, chaos, that which is beyond our, we cannot control it, we cannot manipulate it, we cannot make it obey us.

You hurled me into the very heart of the seas, and the current swirled around me or about me.

All your waves and breakers swept over me.

It's death language.

You you y'all hear that, death language.

Now, Brett's not here today, but he roared up to me yesterday last Sunday after church.

He goes, Now, do you think Jonah died in the belly of that fish or felt like dying?

Seemed like he was dying, but he didn't die.

And I said, I don't know.

There are good scholars who would say both.

Doesn't matter whether he was in the experience of death or whether he physically died and God resurrected him.

That doesn't really matter to me, but uh clearly he's using death language.

I said, This is Jonah, I've been banished from your sight, yet I will look again to your holy temple.

The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me, seaweed was wrapped around my head.

A crown of death.

Almost like a crown of thorns.

To the roots of the mountains I sank down, the earth beneath barred me in forever.

But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.

When my life was ebbing away, not when you ex when I experienced your blessings.

Let him walk around and bother me.

Um bother me one bit.

Um my life was ebbing away.

Now you would think what American Christians, when I hear these dudes on TV and on the radio, what I would think it would say is, when my life was full of blessings, full of healing, full of wealth, full of success, that's when I remembered you, Lord.

And my prayers rose to you, to your holy temple.

But not Jonah.

It's when my life was ebbing away, I remembered you.

All who cling to worthless idols, it's a tough word in Hebrew.

All those that cling to worthless idols, they forfeit or they reject or they turn away from.

It's a hard idea.

From the love and the grace that God has offered them.

It's a hard phrase to translate.

It's an incredibly sobering idea.

Wonder where Jonah got the idea that people that call out to worthless idols don't experience help and salvation.

Could he have learned that from the sailors?

Jonah chapter 1 says those sailors were calling out to their gods, help, help, help.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

Nobody helped.

Nobody helped.

But when they called out to Yahweh, they experienced help.

Those that cling to worthless idols turn away from or forfeit the grace or the love of God that is available to them.

The sobering idea.

But I will, but I'm sorry, but I with shouts of grateful praise will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will make good.

I will declare that salvation comes from the Lord.

And then verse 10, and the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto dry land.

You have any thoughts?

As we get get into this.

No, not yet.

Nothing more than just the idea, of course, of the belly of the fish of the creature being, you know, one's lowest place, one's imprisoned place.

Surely I'm never gonna get out of this, you know.

And and we've all felt that relationship wise, when hope seems lost.

Um you know, so for this story to you know, take hold.

might be for me a good idea to think, okay, well when was that for me?

You know, when have I felt just this probably not going to turn out right?

You're pretty convinced that it's not going to turn out right this bad.

And there's no hope and there's nowhere to turn.

Maybe driving home from the doctor when you got a bad report.

Or that phone call from the police department about your teenage boy.

Or even Christ in the garden who says, you know, um really can but through this.

Yeah.

You know, and so you know even even Christ felt that human despair of okay well this it can't get any worse than this.

And that's not a that's not a cliche it really is is it's the bottom.

Sitting in divorce court unemployment line lakeside maybe laying in bed and you just can't get out of bed.

That's what this story's about well with the time we've got left I wanna I'd like for us to just address as quickly as we can three things that stood out in our study of Jonah chapter two first one is simply this I I've said this to y'all h uh dozens and dozens and dozens of times over the last number of years.

If you don't listen that's why I keep saying it the Bible is not a series of random isolated disconnected stories or themes or ideas or examples or personalities.

It is not just some hodgepodge of little events, slogans, principles that's not what the Bible is.

I've said before the Bible is one book yes to manage it we have to divide it up into sections subsections and on and on and on just to manage it.

But it's one book written by one author with one purpose and that is to reveal to us who God is.

Yes the way the Bible has chosen or the way God has chosen to reveal God to us through the Bible is by giving us multiple themes or ideas and through the very fact of repetition through that repetition of themes we begin to see what's most important most true most significant about who God is it's very important that we get that we will not get the most out of reading the Bible.

In fact I would suggest we will miss what God wants us to get from our study of the scripture unless we see that it's one book by one author with one purpose and there's multiple themes to help accomplish that purpose let me give you one example before we move on what does the Bible tell us God does or let me word it a better a better way how does the Bible tell us that God responds when we tell him no thank you.

That's what Jonah did.

Jonah wasn't an axe murderer or a rapist or an arsonist or a you know he was not a wicked guy.

His big problem was he told God no thank you is that a theme that runs through the Bible is that a recurring theme what how did God respond to Jonah when Jonah told him no thank you it's exactly the same way God responded when Adam and Eve told him no thank you.

Same way you just keep going how did God respond when Cain said no thank you when Moses when Abraham when David on and on and on when Peter how did God respond to these people when they said no thank you just like Jonah what's important about that is is I'm a if I were a betting man, which I'm not, but I bet God responds to me and you exactly the same way.

Very important question.

What would the Bible say or tell us how does God respond to people when they say no thank you I would suggest at least two things.

We don't have time to talk about them today.

He lets us experience the consequences of saying no thanks.

He will never he grab nobody by the back of the hair and drags them into good places.

He lets us have the freedom to experience the consequences of saying no thank you.

Jonah, Adam and Eve, on and on David, Peter, you just keep running down the road another thing that I've observed in every one of those examples, in every example in scripture where people told God no thank you not only does he let them have the freedom to respond as they will and experience the consequences of such he pursues them.

His grace is greater than their no thank you.

God didn't give up on Jonah God didn't give up on Adam and Eve.

God didn't give up on King Saul God didn't give up on David God didn't give up on Peter God didn't give up on any of these people his grace pursue these people literally to the ends of the earth very important question from the very from the very first no thank you in Genesis 3 to the last no thank you in Revelation how did God respond to people when they said no thank you like Jonah did I'm betting he responds to you and to me exactly the same way that stood out to me from this chapter was just how Jonah thought that by running from God he was saving his life by running from God I don't want God's constraints on me.

God cramps my style God robs me of my independence and my freedom would Jonah let's talk about cramping your style let's talk about having no freedom how's the belly of that fish wide open spaces buddy beautiful horizon beautiful sunsets beautiful sunrises what freedom you've got no it's like the image that's coming to my mind um is like a good father with a child who's disobedient so that child you know the father would say this is how we behave or we don't hit or we don't you know we don't talk about whatever it is and the child's no thank you I'm gonna do it anyway and so the father will take him maybe perhaps over in the corner you get an image of a little kid sitting in the corner in the timeout chair just crying and crying and crying and crying and dad'll come back after a little while and say are you ready to get out of the timeout chair and say thank you and quit hitting no you know that image if you've if you've been around little kids they'll do that they'll do that and just stay in that chair over there in the dark crying but yet God keeps I mean the good father keeps coming back I've I've I've known kids that sat in that chair for an hour.

Oh I was one of them I married once I'd die before I'd give in most of my life and all the father wants to do is get the kid out of the corner and bring him to the table to eat dinner.

But we choose that corner it's an odd story to be true but it's true.

And the goal of the dad is only to free the child from that which is ultimately going to enslave and wrong and harm and limit that child's good future.

Yes that's right notice did you hear what I read in chapter two what Jonah says you hurled me into the depths into the very heart of the seas and the currents all your waves and breakers swept over me wait who does Jonah attribute being thrown overboard being thrown into the sea being swallowed by the fish who does Jonah attribute who does Jonah hold responsible because Jonah chapter one says it's the sailors who did it right but we know better it was Jonah's fault Jonah's responsible right but who does Jonah attribute to being in the belly of the fish God now some of you won't like that I'm sorry I'm not saying because the scripture does not in any way say that Jonah was not culpable that he did not have responsibility but at the end of the day Jonah says what Job says God you did this same thing David says God you did this Paul God you did this very important that we see where the ultimate responsibility is who's responsible for Jonah being in the sea who's responsible for my difficult circumstances in life my business partner ruined my life my ex ruined my life my sorry kids ruined my life my absentee dad ruined my life I'm not minimizing the terribleness of the impact of people on other people but at the end of the day who does Jonah and Job and David and Paul all in Joseph who sent Joseph to Egypt who's to blame those sorry brothers is that right that's who Joseph blamed I thought Joseph said what you meant for evil God meant for good God sent me here who's responsible for your difficult circumstances for the bad the belly of the fish experiences in your life everyone knows that being in the belly of a fish is bad except God I find it very significant that God's remember we talked the very first study very first time we looked at this a couple of weeks ago Jonah began his prophetic ministry I mean could not have been more successful goes to the king of Israel Jeroboam too you're God's going to bless you and help you and acknowledge your boundaries and everything you do is going to be great.

And Jonah was quite probably blessed and rewarded with wealth, fame, reputation, power, influence.

He is honorable do you know the only thing about that on Jonah's life at the beginning of his ministry?

They had no impact upon his heart didn't touch his unforgiveness, his grudges, his hatred, his selfishness, his pride?

The blessings of God did not touch his heart he left all that wealth and blessing the same sorry mean disengaged callous hardhearted person that he entered it when was his heart changed according to chapter two?

Now we're not at chapter four yet so you just hold on we'll get there and we'll talk about that but it's when Jonah's heart according to Jonah was changed when he was in the belly when he was in a place of death begs the question does it not how does God see your pain your difficulty your loss your failure your enemies how does God see your circumstance in the belly of your whale does God see it the way you see it or maybe the better question is do I see it the way God does that leads to another question what am I supposed to do when I'm in the belly of a whale I can tell you what I what uh what my propensity is I want to decide who's to blame you put me here Tim or you put me here Shirley or you put me here Rachel or the United States government put me here or the crime of Memphis put me here but does not Jonah chapter 2 suggest that the more important focus should not be on who put us in the fish but what is God wanting to show us or do in our lives because we're in the fish isn't that the more important not the cause but my response do I dare consider that when I am in the worst places in life that God is at work doing things in my life that could not be accomplished any other way.

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

Shirley and I have a little friend who I try to go and visit every Friday afternoon.

She's in an old folks home nursing I'm sorry a nursing home facility and um her name is Carol Lacey I don't mind telling you she's one of the most amazing ladies in the world and um one of her little quirks that is just so amazing is when you tell her something terrible has happened I'm talking about the worst of the worst of the worst.

Think of the worst thing that could happen and you tell it to Caroline do you know what her first response is what is it Shirley?

God's at work.

Oh God's at work.

That's big God's at work that's big God's at work.

You think about the difference in my shallow selfish petty faithless perspective and that perspective Shirley and I went and saw her the other a couple of weeks ago right after the lady at St.

Mary's thing happened and Cherlee told her about it because Miss Lacey taught at St.

Mary's and so Cherry said have you heard and Sherry told her what happened and first thing not that rat or our society or our judicial system or our government or that's so trap first thing out of her mouth was ooh that's big God's at work isn't that what this this chapter Jonah you're bound you're dying you're hopeless there is no way out ooh this is big God's at work and he was it sounds almost um crass frankly to look at a tragedy and and for the perspective to be God's at work this is big but I don't know how that can't be true based on this story of Jonah so what what should we what should we do when we're in the belly of a fish what did what should Samson do when he was chained to that grist mill grinding that grain what was David supposed to do after he had been caught in adultery and murder that's what their that was their bellies of the fish what was Joseph supposed to do or Daniel supposed to do when they were in their bellies of the fish Egypt and uh in the lion's den what were they supposed to do?

Whether it was their fault somebody else's fault or nobody's fault uh Vicky and uh Abel can't be here today because uh Ellie's not doing uh great right now but whose fault is that whose fault is that they're in the belly of a whale whose fault is that who's to blame nobody's to blame they just live in a broken world full of sickness what are they supposed to do when it's nobody's fault when it's somebody else's fault or when it's my fault what are we supposed to do exactly what Jonah did he called out to God I cried out to you Lord and you heard my prayer we're so consumed with finding blame and responsibility and fault culpability instead of God what are you doing in my life what do you want to do in my life where what are you trying to change and free me from and deliver me from what are you trying to instill within me anything else you want to add friend I don't think so I say I wish we had time we don't you just remember what I said God's blessings did not change Jonah's heart it was God putting Jonah in the belly of that whale that changed his heart and if you think you're better than Jonah then Jonah's the perfect book for you thank you Rand um I gotta say one more thing next week.

You'll give me a look I know but I can't help it.

I feel like I'm supposed to say it Did you notice where God spit Jonah uh where you could say God.

Do you notice did you notice where the fish spit Jonah out?

Where did Jonas where did the fish spit Jonah out?

If he's the loving, sweet, grandpapa, Santa Claus, light, fluffy God of my imagination and my desire, I'll tell you where God's where the fish, where God told the fish to spit him out.

Tarshish.

That's queer.

If God is a God of love's icky, sticky, sweet, ooey, gooey love.

And as we define love, means I get in my way, then there's only one place that God could have, that the fish could have spit Jonah out.

Tarshish.

Because that's where Jonah wanted to be.

That's where Jonah identified with Tarshish.

Jonah saw himself as only being happy in Tarshish.

So clearly, if God's a God of love, the only place God could have put Jonah is in Tarshish.

Is that where the fish spit him out?

No.

No.

You go home and think about this.

That helps us understand who God is.

I can tell you one.

You start reading the Bible through and see if it's not a theme that runs through the Bible.

God does not offer us agreement.

Whatever you want, Esther, I agree.

I defy, show me that person in the Bible.

What God offers is redemption and salvation and restoration and healing and cleansing and transformation.

God does not offer us agreement.

Whatever you want, Larry.

If you want it bad enough, if you cannot be happy without it, I offer, I'll agree with you.

Is that right?

That's the God that I want to be, but it's not the God that the Bible says is.

You go home and think about that.

We're going to take the Lord's Supper.

And Tim and Esther, y'all come up and help me.

One of y'all stand right there, and one of y'all stand right there.

We're going to eat some bread and we're going to drink some wine.

And I use that term in the most loose of senses.

And we do it for many reasons every Sunday.

Today, to this Sunday, today, we're going to eat and we're going to drink just to declare that what God has given, I say us, but I'd like it to be me.

I'd like it to be you.

What has God given you?

Has he given you agreement?

Has he given you what you want, what you have to have to be happy?

Or has he given you redemption and salvation and the forgiveness of sins and adoption into his family?

If you would declare publicly, if you would want to declare publicly, God's given me redemption.

I was blind and now I can see.

I was deaf and I can hear.

I was headed for death and I have been given life.

If that's the testimony of your life, then I want you to come to either Esther or Tim and take bread and wine and eat and drink and remember and give thanks.