Craig Groeschel - When You're Waiting on God
At all of our churches, for those of you that are believers, you're followers of Jesus, would you take a moment and raise your hand if you believe in the power of prayer? Raise your hand high if you believe in the power of prayer. Online, you can type in the comment section, "I believe in the power of prayer". Leave 'em up. I believe in the power of prayer. Go ahead and put 'em down, if you will. And I wanna ask you another question. How many of you know you should probably pray more? Raise your hands. Interesting, right? Check it out. That's kind of funny to me. Like, all of us, if we're followers of Jesus, we really do believe in a God who hears and responds to our faith. And yet almost all of us would say we really should be more engaged talking to and praying with, praying to God. More on prayer in just a moment.
What I wanna do is I wanna review where we've been. We're in a message series through the Book of Jonah. Last week we looked at Jonah 1, and we looked at what we might call a reluctant prophet. If you remember in verse 1, "The word of the Lord came to Jonah and said, 'Go and preach to the people of Nineveh. Those wicked people, their wickedness has come before Me.'" And basically God said to Jonah, "Go". And Jonah said, "No". So God said, "Whoa". You like that? I made it up myself. Actually, I probably didn't even make it up. I probably saw it somewhere. But God told him to go to Nineveh and preach. And Jonah instead found a ship and went as far as he could in the other direction.
In fact, I wanna show you the map again just so you'll get it. He was in Joppa. God said, "Go east to Nineveh," about 550 miles. He didn't go east. He went the other way on a ship 2,500 miles as far as he could in the other direction. And we learned the principle last week, if you wanna run from God, the devil will always offer you a ride. You can always find a ship sailing in the wrong direction. So Jonah is on this boat, and God sends this really big storm.
Now, I'm gonna show you a storm. We're not gonna leave it up there long because last week we found out some of you got seasick. So hang on, I'll go fast. So there's a storm about to tear apart the boat and Jonah says, "It's my fault, throw me overboard". And the sailors who didn't wanna do it, they tried everything else possible, but they realized it was Jonah's fault so they threw Jonah overboard. And when they did, the storm completely went calm. And all of the sailors looked on and said, "Oh my gosh, if God can do that, we want to know that God. We want to serve that God". And they turned their hearts to God. Good news for them. But Jonah was still all alone in the ocean, and it looked very, very hopeless for him.
And so there Jonah is overboard because he was disobeying God. And there's an unusual verse at the end of chapter one. We didn't look at it last week. I saved it for you this week, but there's this unusual verse that says this. "Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights". Let's make sure we understand where we are. Chapter one, Jonah ran from God. Now he's down in the belly of the fish. Chapter two, Jonah prayed to God. Jonah 2:1 tells us this, "From inside the fish". What did Jonah do, everybody? Say it aloud. "Jonah prayed to the Lord".
What did Jonah do? Jonah prayed. You can type it in online in the comment section. Jonah prayed. Chapter one, Jonah runs. That's the summary. Chapter two, Jonah prays. That's the summary. At this time, I would normally announce my title, but there were so many good options, I couldn't figure out which one to use. Jonah praying from a fish. There are so many possibilities. So I thought, just for fun, maybe you guys could help me. You wanna just vote this here? Which title do you want? I'll give you the titles. The first one is "Fishy Prayers". How do you like that? I mean, there's so many. The second one is "Deep Sea Drama". The third one is "A Whale of a Prayer". I need you to vote online. I need people here to make some noise. Raise your hands. "Fishy Prayers," "Fishy Prayers"? "Deep Sea Drama". "A Whale of a Prayer". And the title of today's message is "A Whale of a Prayer".
Let's look at the text again. The very last verse of chapter 1, Jonah ran from the Lord. And who is the main character of the Book of Jonah? The main character is the Lord. The Lord. And the very last verse of chapter 1 says this, "The Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah". That's funny to me. Can I be real with y'all? If I'm on a cruise ship with Amy, and let's say I get drunk on cookies 'cause I don't drink. I ate too many whatever. It gets rocky. I fall off the boat. I'm in the water. If I'm overboard on a cruise, I am not hoping for a big fish, right? If the Lord's gonna provide something, I'm thinking like, the Lord provided a life jacket. The Lord provided a dinghy boat with someone to pull me in.
The Lord provided an island. I don't know, the Lord provided a mermaid. An ugly mermaid, An average-looking mermaid, one that can swim. Just making sure you're working with me, you know? The Lord didn't provide a big fish. I mean, if you're in the middle of the ocean, and this, something like a whale swallows you, that doesn't feel like a praise report, right? Come on, you guys are acting like, "Oh yeah, praise the Lord. I'm in a fish. Okay". That feels like a punishment. If I'm in the middle of this, like, you know, I don't even know what's in the middle of a fish. Like fish juice, fish acid, fish belly, fish guts, fish, dead other fish, you know, I don't know. I'm thinking like, "God, why did You let this happen? Why in the world am I going through this"?
And if we can take a little rabbit trail, there may be some of you who tend to think what I thought for a long time, and I always thought that pain is always punishment. Think about it. To Jonah, the big fish seemed like nothing but a big problem. Here I am in the middle of, I didn't want this. I didn't call on this. This fish is a problem. But who provided the fish? The main character of the story. The Lord provided the fish. I want to tell somebody here that sometimes what we call a problem, God calls provision. Sometimes God may provide in ways that we didn't choose and we didn't expect. And God provides a fish and it swallows Jonah, and Jonah never planned on being fish food. This isn't what I wanted.
And what I know, because I know many of your stories, and I know just because of the number of you, there are many of you right now, that you're in a similar place. You're going through something that you would have never, ever chosen. How did we get here? I didn't want to be here in my marriage. I didn't wanna be in the middle of this faith crisis. This isn't what I wanted. I didn't choose to be in the belly of this mess. And I want to remind you that our good God doesn't always give us what we want, but our God does give us what we need. And what we need most is always Him. Him. From the belly of a fish, Jonah remembered he needed the Lord. God always gives us what we need, and what we need most is Him.
So the Lord provided a fish and swallowed Jonah up. He's by himself. He's about to drown. You can imagine in a situation like this, he can't, I mean, how long can he, you know, paddle, do the whatever? How long can he do that? He is completely helpless. He couldn't do a single thing to save his life. He couldn't dog paddle or whatever for seven day. He couldn't do a thing. Whatever he was proud of in his life, maybe he, let's just say he had a great degree, college degree. His college degree couldn't save him. Maybe he had a lot of friends on Facebook, right? If we modernize it. All those friends on Facebook couldn't save him. Maybe he'd finally gotten his fully funded emergency fund and his savings account that he was proud of. It could not save him.
Jonah got to the place where some of you are right now, and that is to the place where only the Lord could help him. Only the Lord could help him. On his own, he was completely helpless. But just because Jonah was helpless, he was not hopeless because there's a big difference. Just because he was helpless didn't mean that he had run out of hope in the God who always gives us what we need. Now, was he in a mess? Dang straight. He's in big, big trouble. And some of you, unfortunately right now, you may be in a spot in your life where things are not going well right now.
And you say, like, "My marriage," someone might say, "is in bad shape. If God doesn't do something soon, I don't know what's gonna happen". You might say, "My marriage is in trouble". Someone else might say, "Have you seen inflation? My paycheck hadn't caught up. Financially, we're in trouble". There are people close to me that I love that would say, "We are in trouble with our health". Some of you, you got kids and they're not a part of Switch right now, and your kids might be doing something crazy. You say, "I got a child in trouble". I wanna say this. No matter why you might find yourself in trouble, it might be your fault, it might not be your fault. No matter what's going on, the Bible says in this, James 5:13 says, "Is anyone among you in trouble"? Say it aloud with me. "Let them pray". Is anybody here in trouble? Scripture says, "Let them pray".
I want to declare to you that if you are in trouble, it's time to pray. I'm gonna tell you again, if you are in trouble, it's time to pray. I'm gonna say it one more time for those of you in the back. Whenever you are in trouble, or even if you're not in trouble, it's time to pray. Somebody say, "It's time to pray". It's time to pray. Nudge your neighbor. Tell 'em, "It's time to pray". Type it in the comment section. It's time to pray. Notice what James doesn't say. James doesn't say, "When you're in trouble, it's time to worry". He doesn't say that. He doesn't say, "It's time to complain". He doesn't say, "It's time to write a long post and post it on social media talking about all that's going on". He doesn't say, "It's time to blame everybody around". He says, "When you are in trouble..." It's time to pray. "It's time to pray. It's time to pray".
What did Jonah pray when he was in trouble? Let me show you exactly what he prayed, Jonah 2:2. He said, "In my distress," Jonah said, "I called to the Lord". And what did God do? "He answered me From deep in the realm of the dead," Jonah said, "I called to God for help, God, and You listened to my cry". Jonah 1 he calls out, and the first thing he does is he prays to God. "When you are in trouble, it's time to pray. It's time to pray". The rest of the chapter, verse 1 says he prays. Verse 2, he starts to pray all the way down. The next nine verses is his prayer. And I wanna show you his prayer. I won't read it all, but I'll just kinda start at the top. He prays, "God, You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me, all Your waves and breakers swept over me".
Go down to the next paragraph. He raised, "The roots of the mountains, I sank down, the Earth beneath barred me in forever". Go to the bottom. He says, "But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You. When I vowed, I will make good. I will say, 'Salvation comes from the Lord.'" What I like about that prayer is like, that sounds spiritual. How many of you have ever been around somebody that when they pray they sound spiritual? Raise your hand. Type in the comment section, "I know what you're talking about. I know what you're..."
They sound, they're like, if you could sponsor someone to pray, they're like, they'd be sponsored by the Holy Ghost. You know what I'm saying? Like, when they pray, you just think like God is going, "That's a good prayer. I think I'll listen to..." Sometimes I feel like when I'm praying, I'm like going, "Oh God, it's me again. And oh yeah, God, I'm trying not to lose focus because I often lose focus". Some people, when they pray, they really know how to pray. Do you know why they often know how to pray? What is the most effective thing that we can pray? In many cases, the most effective thing you can pray is actually pray the word. You pray the word. A lot of times when you look at someone going like, "I really like the way they're praying".
You know what they're praying? They're actually praying God's Word. They're declaring the word of God to God over their situation 'cause the word of God is living, active, powerful, sharper than any... The word of God never returns void. One of the most powerful things that you can ever pray is you can pray the word, and that is exactly what Jonah was doing. In Jonah 2, Jonah was praying, and what do you think he was praying? He was praying the Psalms. That's what he was doing. He was praying God's Word. He was praying the Psalms. And I wanna show you this because this could revolutionize your prayer life. Let me show you how he prayed the psalm.
In verse 2 he said, "I called for the Lord, and He answered me". Psalm 3:4 said "I called out to the Lord, and He answered me". He's praying the Psalm. I'll show you another one. He says, "Deep in the realm of the dead, God, I called You for help". Psalm 16, "You will not abandon me in the realm of the dead". He said this, "I have been banished from Your sight". And the Psalm says, "I'm cut off from Your sight". He said this, "The waters closed over me". Psalm 69, "The waters have come up to my neck". He said, "Those who cling to worthless idols..." And Psalms says, "I hate those who cling to worthless idols".
Over and over again. "What I have vowed," he said, "I will make good". Psalm 116 says, "I will fulfill my vows to the Lord". It's time to pray. It's time to pray. It's time to pray. It's time to pray. It's time to pray. It's time to pray. It's time to pray. "Whenever you're in trouble, it's time to pray". And when you don't know what to pray, what should you pray? You pray the word. Jonah prayed the word of God. Some of you say, "But I don't know the word of God". Well, a really good place to start if you don't know the word of God. open up the YouVersion Bible App, which by next year, toward the end of the year, we'll be on 1 billion devices around the world. Come on somebody. Let's give God some praise for that.
Open up the YouVersion Bible App and just type in whatever you wanna pray about. You might just type in fear or anxiety or depression or whatever it is, and then God's Word will come up and you just start praying His word. You might pray, "God, I'm feeling anxious, so therefore I cast my cares on You, God, because You care for me". You might pray, "God, help me not to be anxious. Your word tells me not to be anxious about anything, but with everything, my prayer and petition, I submit my request to You. And I thank You, God, that Your promise to me that the peace from heaven will guard my heart, my mind, my soul in Christ Jesus. God, Your word says You have not given me a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. God, I'm praying Your word. I'm believing Your word".
Jonah cried out to the Lord, and the Lord listened to his cry. Jonah prayed and he prayed the word of God. Spoiler alert, though. Jonah prayed and he said, "God heard me". But if you look carefully, nothing happened immediately when he prayed. This encourages me so much because sometimes I get so frustrated with God's timing. Anybody else here ever get frustrated with God's timing? Like, "God, I'm telling You it's best now". And God says, "You don't know what I know. I give it to you when it's best on My side," God says. He prayed in verse 1. God heard him and there was no visible miracle. He prays in verse 1, and you don't see a visible miracle until the very end of chapter 2 in verse 10. You don't see the miracle in verse 10, which makes verse 9 so much more meaningful.
In verse 9 Jonah says this, "But I, with shouts of grateful praise". I mean, I'm shouting to You. I'm worshiping You. I can't contain it. "With shouts of grateful praise, I will sacrifice to You". He says, "What I have vowed I will make good. I will say to the Lord, 'Salvation comes from the Lord.'" What's powerful about this is this is praise before the miracle. How many of you know it's easy to praise God after the miracle, but it takes faith to praise God before the provision. There is someone here, and I don't know who you are, but you're gonna praise God with verse 9 kind of faith. You may still be stuck in the belly, but your praise is real praise. You're praising before the provision.
And this is what I'm doing right now, praying for my daughters, praying for their health, praying for healing, praying for miracles, praying for the provision and the power of God to do what I know He can do, and He hasn't done it yet. But with shouts of praise, by faith I worship Him knowing He is a good God, that He hears the cries of our hearts and that I believe by faith that God will answer. This is praising God for who He is, not just for what He's done. This is verse 9 kind of faith. Jonah continues in the very same verse. And then he says this, then he says, "What I have vowed God, I will make good. I was running from You, I was disobeying You. I wasn't listening to You, but what I vowed I will make good".
I like this. At this point, Jonah didn't make a single excuse. He made it right. This is for somebody here. You're not doing what's right right now. There's a part of you, you're being disobedient to God. It's a sin of commission. You're literally sinning against the word of God or it's a sin of omission, meaning God prompted you to do something and you didn't do it. Or you're just taking God for granted. You know Him, you love Him, but you put Him on the shelf. You know you're not living in a way, in some form of your life, that's right. Jonah made it right, he made it right, he made it right.
It's time for somebody here to stop blaming whatever you're blaming. Stop blaming whoever you're blaming and make it right. It's time to make it right. God, You want me to go? I'm gonna go. You want me to repent? I'm going to repent. Do You want me to apologize to someone that I wronged? I'm going to... You want me to stop sinning sexually, God? I will stop dishonoring Your word in sinning sexually. You want me to stop taking You for granted? It's time to make it right. It's time to make it right. What I vowed I'll make right. Jonah prayed. And then in verse 9, Jonah praised. And finally, in verse 10, the last verse of chapter 2 says this, "And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land".
Can we pause for a moment and say two things? Number one, that's amazing. And number two, that's gross. Can we just say it? I mean, come on, like God, you he know he lived through the belly of the fish for three days, three nights, or he died and You rose him from the dead, whatever it is, and then You vomit him out. That's amazing and that's disgusting. I mean, imagine three days, three days and three nights. And he's in there praying. Verse 1, what's he doing? He's praying. Verse 2, he's praying. Verse 3, he kept praying. Verse 4, he kept praying. Verse 5, he kept praying. Day one, he kept praying. Evening one, he kept praying. Night one, he prayed. Morning two, he prayed. Midday two, he prayed.
This is a message for somebody here. You've been praying for a long time and you're not seeing anything. I wanna remind you of the power and the principle of God that while you're waiting, God is still working. While you're praying and while you're believing and while you're waiting, God is still working. Just because you don't see anything doesn't mean that God isn't still on the throne. Because at the right time, God commanded the fish. At the right time, God commanded the, at the right time, God commanded the fish, and the fish vomited Jonah at the right time. And this reminds us that when it's not God's time, you can't force it. And when it is God's time, you can't stop it. Our God is a good God. Our God is always on time.
While you're waiting, our God is working. Verse 1, and the Lord heard his prayer, but God didn't do what he asked Him to do until verse 10. If you're praying and you're still praying and you're praying and you're still praying, I need this because I'm still praying, "God, did You forget? God, have You heard me"? He hears you the first time. And we're like the persistent widow in Luke 18. We just keep coming back. God, I'm just reminding You of Your word. God, I'm just, by faith, I continue to believe. God, I just, I know You hear the cries of Your people. And at the right time, God commanded the fish.
Now, three days and three nights. How many days was he in the belly of the fish? Three days and three nights. Raise your hand if you've ever heard the phrase, "Three days and three nights" somewhere before. Interesting. So Jonah was, he lived somewhere around 785 BC, like 750, 800 years before the birth of Christ. And here we see in the Old Testament a foreshadow of what Jesus talked about in the New Testament in Matthew 12.
When the Pharisees said, "Hey Jesus, we want a sign. Give us a sign. We want a sign". And Jesus answered and said this, "A wicked and adulterous generation asked for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet of Jonah. For Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man," that's Jesus, "will be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth". When? After He becomes sin for us and dies on the cross, He is buried and does battle against the forces of hell. And three days later, three days and three nights, the stone is rolled away. And when the women look in there, the tomb is empty. Why? Because our God raised Jesus from the dead.
And remember what Jonah said. Remember what he said. He said, "Where does salvation come from? Salvation comes from the Lord". When Jonah didn't deserve it, when he had been running from God, God saved him. When Jonah couldn't save himself, God saved him. And everything in the Old Testament points to our need for Jesus today because when we didn't deserve it, God sent Jesus when we were still dead in our sins because of His love. And when we couldn't save ourselves, Jesus saved us. I don't know who this is for, but there's somebody here, your life is a big old mess right now. And maybe you're a little bit like me. You need a little extra grace. You need a little extra forgiveness because maybe like me or maybe like Jonah, at some point you've disobeyed God's command and you've distrusted God's Word and you've dishonored God's name.
But even though Jonah turned and ran away from God, God still saved Jonah. And you're gonna see next week when you better come back 'cause chapter 3 is even better than chapter 2. You're gonna see in chapter 3 that God used a reluctant and disobedient prophet for His glory to reach some people. And think about how all this went down. This is so powerful to me. The fish vomited Jonah up. I love that. You have no idea how much I love it. You guys up here in the front, you're gonna love this so much because there's nothing clean about his salvation. I'm saved! Fish mucus, fish bile. That's gross. There was nothing clean about his salvation.
And some of you, you've been through some stuff, it's not clean, it's not pretty. It's nasty. And in the same way God was still working in him, God is still working in you. And I want you to hear it. I want you to feel it. I want you to believe it. I want you to take it deep, deep down into your spirit that no matter where you are, no matter what you've done, God has grace for you. And God still wants to use you. And in the same way the sailors looked on and said, "If God is that powerful and that good, then I want to serve Him. I want to fear that God".
I want to tell you that our God, His grace is bigger than you can imagine. And His love for you is deeper than you can ever realize. And a God that good is a God that we want to serve. If your life is messy right now, welcome to the party. That's the perfect kind of person that God loves to save. And the fish vomited him out. His salvation wasn't clean, but it was real. And salvation comes from the Lord.
So Father, today we ask that Your Holy Spirit would do a deep work in the hearts of people who need it. God, do a deep work in my heart.
I wanna talk to those of you that might be in a little bit of trouble right now. You're going through a hard time. It could be somebody that you love. It could be somebody, it could be you. And you need a miracle, but you're not in verse 10 yet. There's no miracle, and you're praying right now. I want to give you the chance maybe to just worship God with the verse 9 kind of faith. Before verse 9 kind of faith, we're gonna have a verse 1 kind of prayer, and that is we're gonna go before God in prayer, and we're gonna believe for miracles. We serve a God who says all things are possible with Him.
And then we're gonna worship Him with verse 9 kind of faith. If you're going through something right now and you really need the presence and the power of God, let's take it to Him and we're gonna pray. You've got some area in your life. You need a miracle. You need the presence, you need the power of God for you, for someone that you love. Would you lift up your hands right now? All of our churches, lift up your hands. Online, you can just type in the comment section, "I need the presence, I need the power of God".
Father, we come to You just like Jonah did when he didn't deserve it because we don't deserve anything good from You. And humbly, God, we just ask, do You hear the cries of our heart? And we thank You, God, that Your word tells us that the faithful, effectual, passionate and fervent prayer availeth much. God, we cry out to You. We pray for marriages to be healed. God, we pray for relationships to be restored. God, we pray for financial provision. God, we pray for physical miracles and we pray for healing. God, we pray that You would show up and You would show off and that Your miracles would be so real that everyone would know that this is because of the goodness of God. We trust You. And now, God, even though we may not see the miracle in verse 10, we praise You with verse 9 kind of faith, God. With shouts of joy, with adoration, with praise and worship, we tell You, God, You are good. We worship You, God, not just for what You do, but for who You are. And God, even before we see the provision, we will praise You because You are worthy of our praise. You're worthy of our praise.
This week, I wanna just encourage you, just worship Him. Worship Him with verse 9 kind of faith. We praise You before we see the provision. And then as we're talking about prayer, there is one prayer that somebody here needs to pray, the very first prayer we pray to God. Scripture tells us this. Let me just be real, real clear. All of us, we're distant from God because of our own sinfulness. If you've ever done something wrong, we all have, and what happens? We feel guilty, we feel ashamed. We feel like, "Oh my gosh, I don't feel close to God".
Here's the good news, that God became one of us. In the person of His Son, Jesus, God became flesh. Jesus, perfect in every way, was without sin. He died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice. How long was He in the Earth? Three days and three nights, just like Jonah, prophesied 800 years before. And on the third day when the stone was rolled away, Jesus came out because of the perfect worth, the death and the resurrection of Jesus.
Now, the Bible tells us this, that anyone, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. What are we gonna do today? Some of you, you're in a mess right now. You're about to have a salvation. It may not be pretty, it may be messy, but guess what? It's from God. Salvation comes from the Lord. Anyone, doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter what you've done. When you turn from your sins and when you cry out to Jesus, He hears your prayers. He is amazing. He becomes your Savior. He saves you not because you're good, because He's good. Not because you deserve it, but because of His perfect work.
And so today, in all of our churches, there are some of you, this is your moment. Today is the day of your salvation. Salvation comes from the Lord. You can't be good enough. You don't deserve it. In the same way, Jonah didn't deserve it, God saved him anyway. His name is Jesus. And anyone, including you, who calls on Him would be saved. Today at all of our churches, those who need Him, those of you online, I need him. We're stepping away from our sin. We're stepping to Jesus. We're calling on the name of the Lord. If that's you today, Jesus, I call on You, save me. I give You my life.
That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now, up all over the place. Lift up your hands and say, "Yes, praise God for You". Others today say, "Yes, Jesus, I need You". Lift your hands up and say, "Yes, I surrender". Right back over there and over here, God bless you guys. Oh, praise God. And up here as well. Others today, say, "Jesus, I need Your prayers". Right back over here and here. Praise God for you. Online, just type in the comment section, "I am surrendering my life to Jesus, I'm surrendering". Would you pray today with those around you?
Heavenly Father, I give You my life. Jesus, forgive my sins. Save me. Salvation comes from You. Make me brand new. Be the Lord of my life. Fill me with Your Spirit so I could know You and serve You and be faithful to You. Thank You for new life. I give You all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray.