Greg Laurie - The Hard-to-Swallow Truth about Obedience (09/24/2017)
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In "The Hard to Swallow Truth About Obedience," Pastor Greg Laurie unpacks Jonah chapter 1, showing how Jonah ran from God's call to Nineveh but God pursued him with a storm and a great fish to bring him back. The core message is that God lovingly disciplines His children, gives second chances to the disobedient, and uses even flawed people for His purposes, urging believers to wake up, obey, and share the gospel.
Jonah's Disobedience: Running from God's Call
Well the title of my message is, "The Hard to Swallow Truth About Obedience". Jonah chapter 1. Why don't we start with a word of prayer?
Father, as we look once again at this great book, help us to see its essential message. Help us to realize, Lord, that no matter what we've done, you are a God that gives second chances. And third ones. And fourth ones. So speak to us from your word we would pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Jonah and the whale. There is probably no story in the Bible more ridiculed than this one. Right? I have told you the story before of that young girl who was out in a street corner sharing her faith one day. And a little crowd gathered to listen to her. And as she was talking about what Christ had done for her, a man approached. He was an intellectual, atheist, and he thought he would humiliate her and make her look silly and foolish out there.
So as she went on for a while, he interrupted her and said, Excuse me, young lady. I have a question for you. She said, Yes, sir. Do you believe the Bible is true? Well, of course, sir. She said, I believe the Bible. I believe every word of it. Oh, is that so? Do you believe that all the miracles in the Bible are true? Again, she says, Yes, all of the miracles. I believe they are true.
Oh, is that so? Then you must believe in the story of Jonah and the whale. And a man was swallowed by a whale and survived to tell the story. You believe that? She said, Well, yes, it is there in the Bible. I believe it. Oh, well, tell me. How is it possible? Everyone looks at her. She says, Well, I don't know. When I get to heaven, I will ask him. He responded, Well, what if he ends up in hell? She said, Well, maybe you could ask him. I don't know.
How many of you have heard that story? Raise your hand. You were just humoring me, weren't you?
You know, here is the problem with the way this story is viewed is we focus so much on the whale and I think we miss the forest for the trees. Because the essential message of Jonah is not about a whale. The fact of the matter is three verses deal with the whale.
Really this is a story about a man that was given a job to do and he refused. But because God loved Jonah, He would not let him off the hook. So the Lord got His attention. Jonah finally obeyed and a massive revival took place.
The message of the book of Jonah is God gives second chances.
Why Jonah Refused to Go to Nineveh
So let's pick up where we last left off. If you remember the Lord came to Jonah and said, Go and preach to the great city of Nineveh. And Jonah effectively said, No. As I pointed out last time, God said, Go. Jonah said, No. God said, Oh.
And so Jonah got in a boat going in the opposite direction to a place called Tarshish instead of Nineveh. And know this, the devil will always open the doors for disobedience. God is not the only one who can open doors.
And Jonah went down. He went down to Joppa. Then he went down to the ship, the bottom of the ship. Then he ultimately went down into the stomach of the whale, a great fish. And finally down into the depths of the sea, reminding us that any step away from God is always a step down.
Now, why did Jonah not want to go and preach to the Ninevites? Very simple answer. He didn't want God to spare them. You see, God said, Go and preach to this city. Jonah knew judgment was coming. And the way he saw it is if he didn't preach, judgment would come and the Ninevites would be wiped out.
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. And they were the abound enemies of the Jewish people. Not only that, but the Ninevites were renowned for their wickedness and their atrocities. In fact, God himself said, Their wickedness has come up before me. In other words, the sins of Nineveh were sneaking to high heaven.
And historical records, in addition to biblical history, tell us that the Ninevites would boast of their horrific things that they would do to people. They would be head captives. They would stack their skulls up. They would take the skin off of their bodies and mount them on the city walls. They would build monuments boasting of these horrible things.
God says, Go to those people. Jonah says, There is no way. Because I know your nature, Lord. You are loving. You are forgiving. And you would even forgive a bunch of creeps like them. Loose paraphrase there. So I am not going. Figuring he could thwart the purposes of God.
So he found a ship. He paid the fare. And he went down to Tarshish. Listen. Sin will always take you further than you want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay. And it will cost you more than you want to spend.
Let me repeat that. Sin will always take you further than you want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay. And it will cost you more than you want to spend.
But know this. God will always have the last word.
The Storm: God's Correcting Discipline
Jonah 1 verse 4. But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea. And there was a mighty tempest on the sea. So the ship was about to be broken up and the mariners, or sailors, were afraid. And every man cried out to his God and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship and lain down and was fast asleep.
Verse 4 tells us God sent a great wind. The Lord sends a mighty storm to get the attention of the prodigal prophet. And you know we are all going to have storms in life. That is something that we cannot escape.
Jesus said in this world you will have tribulation. Peter reminds us don't be surprised when hardship comes your way. When trials come your way.
And there are different kinds of storms, so to speak, we will face as Christians. I think there are three kinds. There are protecting storms, perfecting storms, and correcting storms.
First there are what we would call protecting storms. An example of this is when Jesus performed probably his most popular miracle, the feeding of the 5,000 with the loaves and fishes plus women and children. After that the people were so excited they wanted to make Jesus king whether he wanted to be or not. The disciples are super excited. And Jesus said, alright boys get in the boat. We are out of here.
And he took them across the Sea of Galilee and a great storm came. Why? He was protecting them from what those people were about to do. That would not have been a good thing for his disciples.
And then there are what we might call perfecting storms. These are storms that come in our life that are often inexplicable. A Joseph faced one of those storms when he was betrayed by his brothers. And he was falsely accused of rape. And he was wrongly imprisoned. But God was whipping Joseph into shape to be the man that God wanted him to be because ultimately Joseph would become the second most powerful man in all of the world.
And Joseph would find it in his heart to forgive his brothers who had done this horrible thing to him. Maybe you are in one of those storms right now. God is perfecting you. God is stretching you. God is deepening you.
But then there is a third kind of storm. We would call it a correcting storm. And that is the kind of storm Jonah found himself in. In contrast to a perfecting storm that comes to us perhaps because we are living a godly life. Jonah had all those calamities come on him not because he was godless but because he was godly.
No a correcting storm comes because we probably did something to bring it upon ourselves. This is also known as reaping what you sow. This was sent to get the attention of Jonah. And because Jonah was God's child he was being chastened.
It was a reminder to Jonah that the Lord loved him. How do we know God loves us? Because we feel it all the time? No. Well there are many ways God shows his love toward us. One way clearly. The most significant is by sending his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sin.
But another way the Lord shows us he loves us is by disciplining us. Oh I don't know if I agree. Oh no it is true. In fact the Lord says whom he loves he disciplines. Hebrews 12:6.
If you endure this divine discipline God is treating you as his own children. Whoever heard of a child who was never disciplined. If God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children it means you are illegitimate and not really his child after all.
See if you go through life without discipline then you have parents that are failing and what they are called to do. Which is pretty much the story of my childhood. And sadly the story of far too many children in America today.
I grew up without a father and my mom was gone all the time. So I had no rules. I had no curfews. I had no expectation of good grades. I might add there was no discipline. There was no bedtime. There were no home cooked meals. And there was no parenting.
So every night for my dinner I would go out and get my own dinner. I would go to a little restaurant. Cocos. And I would get a hamburger and a vanilla shake and fries. The next night I would get a hamburger, a vanilla shake and fries. The next night hamburger, vanilla shake. That was what I got every night.
And my friends all thought you are so lucky man. We have to go home and sit down at the table with my parents and eat the food they We wish we could live your life. But guess what? I wish I could live their life.
After a while I got tired of a hamburger, fries, and a vanilla shake. So I started going over to my friend's house and sitting down at a family meal with them with mom and dad present, eating food I didn't even like because I wanted structure. I wanted family because I didn't have it.
And because Jonah was God's love child he was disciplined. The Lord was sending us to remind him that he was loved. This great storm. God was saying, I'm not finished with you yet.
And maybe God has allowed a storm in your life to get your attention. Sometimes we go astray. The Lord says, now I'm telling you to come on back and you don't listen. Now I'm giving you a warning. And after this warning, there's going to be a punishment. You do it again. The Lord says, all right, I love you so much. I'm going to enforce what I just said to get you where you need to be.
David said, before I was afflicted I went astray. But now I have kept your word. Maybe the Lord has done something to get your attention lately to bring you to your senses and to bring you back to him. That's what he was about to do with Jonah.
The Sleeping Prophet and the Awake World
So everybody gets in this boat. And this great storm comes. And listen, these are seasoned sailors. I don't know if you've ever been at sea when there was a bad storm. I have. And I don't like it.
Now I don't get seasick quickly, but I get to a point where I can't take it anymore. You know, and you're nauseated and the boat's pitching back and forth.
So here is this boat in this tumultuous weather. And Jonah somehow is sleeping below deck. And if that is not a picture of the church today, I don't know what is. The world is afraid. And the church is asleep.
The world is asking questions. The church often does not have answers. People are dying in their sins. And the church is asleep. Effectively, we are asleep at the wheel.
You say, well I resent that. I don't think that I am. Well people who are asleep usually will deny it. They don't even know they are asleep.
Have you ever sat down on the couch and said, I am just going to chill here and watch some TV. And the next thing you know you open your eyes and you look at your watch and you fell asleep for an hour. You turn to your spouse and say, was I asleep? Yeah, you were asleep for an hour and you were snoring too. You didn't even know it.
See that is the thing. You can be asleep and not even be aware of it. And I don't know why it is, but we always deny it when we are sleeping.
Someone calls us at three o'clock in the morning. Hey, did I wake you? By the way this is the phone here right here. Did I wake you? Oh no, I was up. At three in the morning you were up? I wasn't sleeping. Like it is a bad thing or something.
See that is the thing. You can be asleep and you may not even know it. And then you may deny it. But you can be spiritually asleep.
You say, Greg, what are you talking about? I mean lethargic when it comes to doing the job God has called you to do.
What did God tell Jonah to do? Go and preach to the Ninevites. What was Jonah doing? Sleeping in a boat going in the opposite direction.
What has the Lord told the church to do? Let's personalize it. What has the Lord told our church to do? Let's personalize it even more. What has the Lord told me to do?
He has told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. If you are not doing that, you are effectively, like Jonah, asleep.
We are told in Romans 13, knowing the critical strategic period of time, it is time to awake out of our sleep. For our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. So let's cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
So we need to wake up, and we need to suit up, and do the job God has called us to do. This is not an option. We are commanded to do this.
But I feel so many are not doing it today. For many the Great Commission has tragically become the great omission.
Jonah's Lost Testimony and the Sailors' Faith
I want you to notice here how all these sailors cry out to their God. Verse 5. They all cried out to their God. Now none of them had the right God. But they cried out to the various deities.
You know man is invariably a religious creature. Theirs was an emergency religion. As they say there is no atheists and foxholes. I am sure there is a few, but not too many.
Because when crisis hits, it is almost like a knee jerk reaction. We say, oh God. Oh my God. And that is a good thing if you are calling out to the right God. But none of them had the right God.
So they cast lots. We might call it drawing straws. They determined the culprit. The cause of the storm was Jonah.
See these sailors knew storms like this never happened. This was not a normal storm. This was unusual. This was bizarre. Why is this happening? And they found out the culprit. It was Jonah.
Verse 8. And they brought him up on deck. Waking him saying, tell us for whose causes has trouble come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you? Hey man, what planet are you from? How could a storm come because of you?
Jonah says, well. Verse 9. I am a Hebrew. I am Jewish. I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.
Oh they had heard of this God. This is Yahweh. This is Jehovah. This is the God who parts seas and drowns armies. This is the God who raises the dead.
And effectively they are wondering, why would you run from a God this powerful? The same question could be asked of us. Why would we run from God? But sometimes we do.
And here is the sad thing. Jonah had lost his testimony. It is like, what is wrong with you? I am in a God this awesome. Why aren't you following Him and doing what He wants you to do?
You know he had lost his power. Jesus said, if salt is no longer salty, what is it good for? It is sort of like someone going in and ordering a decaf soy latte. That to me is disturbing. Okay? Don't go with me and order that. It is just, just, it is not right.
I mean, first of all, decaf, whatever. But soy too? You have to go soy? I mean, or you know, I went into a restaurant the other day with a friend and everything was made out of tofu. And they recreated things. Like they had a hamburger that was like tofu. And I took one bite and I ran. No, I didn't run. But I left. I was like, I am going to go eat a real hamburger. You can eat your fake hamburgers and drink your weird lattes.
I think sometimes we have some decaf disciples, if you will. You know, we are losing our power. We are losing our authenticity. We are a cheap imitation of what we really ought to be.
And these guys are calling Jonah out on it. You know, sometimes non-believers have a better idea of how a believer should behave than the believer has.
I mean, think about this. They are saying, you are nuts to run from a God like this.
You remember that Jesus said He would rise again from the dead after He was crucified. Some would perceive that as a warning. Others would perceive that as a promise. To His believers, or to His disciples I should say, that was a promise. Hey guys, they are going to crucify me. But three days later I am going to rise again.
But to the non-believers, guys, listen to me. I am going to rise again three days later. And the funny thing is, after He was crucified, His own followers were devastated. They lost all hope. They scattered. They were disappointed, disoriented, disorganized.
Yet the non-believers remembered what Jesus said before He died. And in Matthew 27 we read the non-believers saying, we remember that when He was still alive, the deceiver said, after three days I will rise again. He said, we better post a guard by that tomb.
Isn't that interesting? Non-believers said it. The believers forgot it. Non-believers remembered it. Yeah, that deceiver, Jesus. We better post a guard. Interesting. They remembered His words of rising when the disciples apparently forgot them.
The Sacrifice and the Sailors' Conversion
I read a story about a bar that was being built in Texas. So a local church started a campaign with petitions and prayers to try and stop the bar from being built. Work progressed on the bar. It was a week from completion. And a bolt of lightning struck it and it burned to the ground.
The bar owner sued the church saying they were responsible because of their prayers. However, the church denied any responsibility and any connection between their prayers and the fire. So it actually went to court. This is a true story.
And the judge read this over, read the plaintiff's complaint, and the defendant replied, and here is what he said, and I quote, I don't know how I am going to decide this, but it appears from the paperwork that we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer in an entire church congregation that now does not.
Again, sometimes non-believers have a better idea of how a believer should behave than the believer has. Jonah was being called out for his hypocrisy.
See, they were already scared from the storm. But when they found out that the God of Israel was behind the storm, it really scared them. Verse 10, they were exceedingly afraid, saying, why have you done this? For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them.
You know, they were afraid. They feared God. And sometimes I think this is lacking in our churches today. You know, I think we are so concerned about relating and being relevant. And we have forgotten to tell people about the awesome God we serve.
It is not a bad thing for God, for people to have a respect for God. I fear today, in some churches, we have traded reverence for relevance.
Here is what I mean. There was a day when the church would be a very staid place. When you would come and you were expected to dress in a certain way and behave in a certain way and speak in hushed tones because this is the sanctuary and you need to have respect for God.
Well, we have swung a long ways from that today. Now we have churches today where it is very casual, and obviously I am for casual. I am pretty casual, right? Most of you are.
But our music has changed. Our style has changed. Our approach has changed. But in some churches it is almost more about having fun. You know, let's just have fun and let's make church a welcoming place. And we don't want to make anybody uncomfortable. And we actually want to entertain them.
And look, I am not here to entertain you. I think we need to have a reverence for God. And we need to worship a holy God. And we need to open our hearts to the teaching of the Word of God.
And if that is missing in a church, that is a big mistake. Listen, if a non-believer comes in this church and he hears me preach one or two times and thinks my sermons are wonderful and thinks there is not one thing I said that bothered them, I don't think I am doing my job.
My job is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. I want to see change. I want the non-believer to say, yeah, you know, I liked it to a certain point when you said this. It really bothered me. Good. Because it is the Word of God. And maybe I struck a nerve. And maybe you need to change in that area. That is what I am supposed to do, you see.
But Jonah is, you know, he is sort of relating. And he is not standing by the holy God he should be following instead of running from.
So he says, okay, guys, listen. You want to get rid of this storm? Here is a way to do it. Verse 12. Throw me into the sea, and the sea will become calm for you. For I know this great tempest is because of me.
Nevertheless the men rode hard to return to land, but they could not. For the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. And they wanted to get to shore, but they could not.
They were trying to do it in their own way, but they could not. They prayed to their own gods, but their own gods could not help them.
Jonah was saying, guys, if you really want this to stop, here it is. There needs to be a sacrifice. You've got to throw me in.
And I don't know that Jonah had any hope or expectation he would be swallowed by a whale or a great fish. I think he was effectively saying, throw me overboard. God will be satisfied and you will be spared.
But this is not a picture of what Jesus did for us. You know, we want to get right with God. There had to be a sacrifice. And Jesus was that final sacrifice acceptable to God.
And as a matter of fact, Jesus took the story of Jonah and used it to illustrate what he would do on the cross. He said, no sign will be given to you but that of the prophet Jonah. And as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The Pharisees, the religious leaders, were pressing Jesus. We want to see a miracle. We want a sign. Jesus said, no soup for you. Well he didn't say that exactly. But he said, here is your sign, guys. As Jonah was in that fish's belly, I am going to die and rise again from the dead. That is your sign.
Here is Jonah. The final sacrifice. And they threw Jonah in. The storm stopped and the men believed.
Verse 16, the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to the Lord. I want you to notice, to the Lord. Not to their false gods. Now it is to the Lord. And they believed.
It shows God can still work through flawed people.
The Great Fish: God's Second Chance
You all know my wife Kathy. It is hard to believe she has ever sinned, but she has. And shortly after her conversion, a few months after, she is just a young girl, probably around 15 or 16 years old, she went back to her old ways again. And was smoking pot with her friends and walked away from the Lord, wasn't going to church anymore.
So one day, she was down in Laguna Beach with one of her friends who was not a believer. And Kathy had gotten to the point where she was actually mocking Christians, though she had committed her life to Christ.
But as she was talking to her friend one day, she saw someone walk by with a Bible. And it reminded her of her old life as a Christian. And she said to her friend, you know, I used to be a Christian. I used to walk with the Lord.
And she started talking about how wonderful it was. And the peace of God that she had experienced. And the joy of the Lord. And how they would go to church and worship.
And as the friend listened, the friend said, I want what you used to have. How can I have a relationship with God?
So Kathy ended up leading her non-believing friend to the Lord and recommitting her life to the Lord that day.
Isn't that interesting? Just like Jonah. I mean, here he is running from God. But though his testimony was flawed, yet, all these guys believed as a result.
So God worked through them. It's good news to know that God can use flawed people.
So over the side he goes, the storm is gone. And God had a custom designed watercraft moving in his direction.
Verse 17. The Lord prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
By the way, the word prepared means ordained or called. Now what was this great fish or whale? Well, again, we don't know that it was a whale. The Bible doesn't say that in particular.
Some speculate it was a sperm whale. They found a fifty foot sperm whale and recovered the contents from its stomach and found a forty foot long giant squid weighing 440 pounds and it had never been chewed. Because sperm whales just kind of open their mouth and just pull it in, you know.
So, hey, if a whale can handle a squid that large, a small Hebrew prophet would be just fine. A mere appetizer. This is sort of like Sushi eating in reverse, isn't it? Instead of man eating fish, fish eats man.
Maybe the whale would have appreciated a little soy sauce and wasabi to go with Jonah. I don't know. But there he was.
Actually, when Jesus mentions a story in that verse I already quoted in Matthew 12, it speaks of the great fish. The word can be translated sea monster. So it may have been a fish. It may have been a whale.
Frankly, it doesn't matter whether there is a fish now in existence large enough to hold a man for three days. We only need to know there was one. Maybe there was only one. Maybe God created this beast to swallow Jonah and that beast is now extinct. Maybe it was a whale. Who cares? It happened.
And Jonah now is in sight of this whale. Or the fish. And to show you how stubborn he was, look how long it took before he prayed.
Verse 17. Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Before he prayed. That stubborn. I am not going to pray. Bish. Slapping him in the face. Seaweed wrapped all around him. Humidity like you can't believe. The stench. I am not going to pray.
But he was a child of God. And he finally broke down. This is a good thing to remember. Because sometimes people will make a profession of faith and then they will fall away. And we will ask, well did they lose their salvation?
And I would answer a question with a question. Not did they lose their salvation but were they saved to begin with.
See if somebody commits their life to Christ and they walk away and they never come back I suggest to you they were never a Christian. But if someone commits their life to the Lord and they walked away and they come back I suggest to you they were simply a prodigal.
It comes down to this. The true test is where they wind up. A true believer will always come home eventually. A person who is not a true believer will not.
First John 2:19 says they went out from us but they did not really belong to us. For if they belonged to us they would have remained with us. But their going out showed they never really belonged to us.
My mother spent most of her life running from God. Raised in the church. Raised believing. She ran from it. God got her attention. And shortly before she died she recommitted her life to the Lord. She was a prodigal.
So here is Jonah. The prodigal prophet. Praying from the fish's belly. Reminding us you can call out to God wherever you are. You can pray in any position. Anytime and anywhere.
You can pray privately. You can pray publicly. You can pray verbally. And you can pray silently. You can be kneeling. Standing. Sitting. Lying down. Or even driving. But always keep your eyes open.
You know it is a funny thing how we bow our heads and close our eyes when we pray. Right? When we say let's pray we usually do that.
Have you ever been praying with a group of people and your eyes are closed. And then maybe the prayer goes on for a while. So you open your eyes for a moment. Look around. And you see somebody else with their eyes open. And it is almost like you are cheating. Oh dear. It is actually okay.
You know when we pray for a meal. We will tell our granddaughters okay close your eyes. Fold your hands. Let's pray. And the other day I looked and my granddaughter Stella was praying. Her eyes were closed but she was eating French fries. Like that. I just laughed.
It doesn't matter really. You can pray anywhere. Daniel prayed in a lion's den. David prayed in a field. Peter prayed on top of and under the water. And here is Jonah's prayer. In the belly of a whale. The day at all times. On every occasion. In the power of the Spirit.
Jonah's Prayer from the Depths
Now let's look at that prayer of Jonah. Drop down to Jonah chapter 2. Let's look at verses 1 to 9. I am reading from the New Living Translation by the way.
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. And he said, I cried to the Lord in my great trouble. And he answered me. I called to you from the world of the dead. And Lord you heard me.
You threw me beneath the ocean depths. I sank down to the heart of the sea. I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. Then I said, O Lord. You have driven me from your presence. I sank beneath the waves. Death was very near.
The waters closed in around me. And seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was locked out of life and imprisoned in the land of the dead.
But you O Lord have snatched me from the yawning jaws of death. When I lost all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to your holy temple.
Those who worship false gods turn their backs on God's mercies. But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise. And I will fulfill all of my vows. For my salvation the Lord alone.
This is an amazing prayer. The fact of the matter is, eight times in these verses, he quotes from the book of Psalms. The fact is, most of his prayer was simply scripture that he clearly had committed to memory.
You know, when I pray, I like to quote scripture. Not to remind God, but to remind me. For instance, if I am praying for wisdom. I might say, Now Lord, you have told me in James that if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who will give generously and not hold it back. And Lord, I need that wisdom. Would you provide it for me right now?
Or maybe I am praying for healing for someone. They will say, Would you pray for me to be healed? And I will say, Lord, you promised in your word, again from James. If there is any sick among you, call for the elders of the church who will pray for this person. And anoint them with oil. And the effectual prayer of a righteous man will avail much.
So we cite the promise of God. We stand on it. And then we pray. That is what Jonah was doing. He was quoting scripture.
And by the way, he was beginning to lose hope. In verse 7 he said, When I lost all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord, and my earnest prayer went out to your holy temple.
But notice Jonah did not ask to be delivered. He just started giving praise to God. Verse 9, I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise.
Maybe you are in a situation right now. And you say, I can't give thanks. Really? Jonah could. And he was wrapped in seaweed with a bunch of stinking fish around him. You think that felt good? But he praised the Lord and he gave thanks to God.
The Bible does not say give thanks to the Lord when you feel good. It says give thanks to the Lord because He is good. Just give thanks. Because God is in control.
And now look what happened. Jonah chapter 2, verse 10. And I will read over to chapter 3. The Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah unto dry land.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it, to the message that I will tell you.
He had probably wondered if God would ever use him again. The Lord was certainly under no obligation to do so. But remember this all happened to Jonah because he was loved by God.
And the Bible is filled with stories of people that God gave second chances to. Do you need a second chance?
God gave a second chance to Adam and Eve. They were strictly warned to not eat of that forbidden fruit, but ate they did and sin entered the world. God could have thrown up His hands and said, That is it. I am done. I am starting over again.
But now instead we read that after Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves, hiding from the presence of the Lord, that toward the evening they heard the Lord God walking about in the garden as they hid themselves. And the Lord called to Adam, Where are you? That is called a second chance. God said, I know what you have done, but I love you. Where are you?
God gave a second chance to King David after his adultery and murder. He was confronted by the prophet Nathan and he repented and he went on to the most effective years of his life.
Samson was given a second chance too. He was known for that supernatural strength with his long flowing locks and his ability to vanquish his enemies. But he was the he man with the she weakness. And one thing led to another and he ended up having his hair shaved off and his eyes gouged out. It looked like it was curtains for Samson.
But one of the great verses in the Bible says, Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again. By the way that is a light verse of every bald man. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again. Lord let it be unto me. I cite that verse. And it did grow again. And he was given a second chance.
Simon Peter failed miserably. He denied the Lord when Jesus needed him the most. Yet when Christ was risen the message went out. Tell the disciples and Peter he is risen. Have you ever noticed that? Not tell the disciples and James and John. No. Tell the disciples and Peter. Why? Because Peter needed hope. And he was given a second chance. And on the shore of Galilee Peter was recommissioned.
So here is Jonah. Repentant and regurgitated. Believing and barfed. Righteous and ralfed. Bleached and beached. Probably in that whale's stomach the gastric juices would have taken all of the color out of his skin.
And here are the Ninevites just sitting there one day. And all of a sudden this massive beast comes cruising up to the shore. And opens his mouth and barfs out Jonah.
Now we will find out what that message was that Jonah preached. And what the result of it was in our next time together.
But I find it interesting where God sent Jonah. Where? Back to Nineveh. It was Nineveh or bust. God said okay buddy. We are going back to where I wanted you to go in the first place. You are not getting out of this. And there he was.
So maybe we need a second chance. Maybe we have gone astray. What do we need to do? As St. Paul said we need to get back. Get back. Get back to where we once belonged. That is St. Paul McCartney. No.
Here is what Jesus said to the church of Ephesus. Remember from where you have fallen. Repent. And do the first works quickly.
You can sum it up this way. Remember. Repent. Repeat. First you remember. I mentioned my wife Kathy. A young girl now. Who has kind of gone astray from the Lord. And as she talked to her friend. She remembered. She remembered how it was. Oh man my life with God was so great. And I remember it.
And then she repented. With her friend. And then she got back to what she needed to do. And that is what you need to do.
So man if you have gone astray you come back. You come back and do those things. That brings us to repeat. Do the first works quickly. Get back into the Word of God. Get back into regular fellowship. Get back into a prayer life. Get back to sharing your faith. Get back and do those first works quickly.
Maybe you are in a storm today. Maybe it is a correcting storm. You have effectively brought on yourself. You have been doing things you should not be doing. And you just got busted. You were found out. And you are saying, this is the worst day of my life. Maybe it is. And maybe it is the best day of your life. Because it says to you, it is time to turn back to God.
Again, quoting David in the Psalms, Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept your Word. God is saying, come back to me. I love you. I will forgive you. I will give you a second chance.
Final Invitation: Come to Christ Today
But there might be some of you here that haven't even believed in Jesus yet. Listen. Here is what Jonah said to these sailors. Throw me overboard and the storm will stop. There needs to be a sacrifice.
And Jesus Christ was that sacrifice for you. He died on that cross in your place. And He absorbed God's wrath in your place. And Rose again from the dead. And now stands at the door of your life. And He knocks. And says, if you will hear His voice and open the door, He will come in.
Would you like Him to come into your life? Would you like Him to forgive you of your sin? Or have you fallen away from Him? And you need to come back to Him?
I am going to give you a chance to do that right now. Let's all bow our heads for a word of prayer. Everybody praying.
Father, I pray now for everyone hearing, seeing this message. Help them to see, Lord, how much You love them. This message is for them. Help them to come to You now.
While our heads are bowed, and our eyes are closed, and we are praying together. How many of you would say today, Greg, I need Jesus Christ in my life. I want to know that when I die, I will go to heaven. I want my sin forgiven. Pray for me. I am ready to say yes to Jesus.
If that is your desire, if you want Christ to come into your life right now, if you want to go to heaven when you die, would you just stand to your feet wherever you are? Just stand to your feet. And I am going to lead you in a prayer.
Stand up wherever you are. Wherever you are. Stand up. It does not matter. This is a commitment you are making to Jesus Christ. And I am going to lead you in a simple prayer.
Just stand up. God bless you at our standing. Wherever you are. Stand up. And we are going to pray together. Anybody else? There might be a few more of you. Stand to your feet.
I am going to lead you in this prayer of commitment to Jesus Christ. God bless you at our standing.
While our heads are still bowed, maybe some of you would say, Man, I need a second chance. I have messed up. I have wandered off. But I want to come back to the Lord again. I need to make this recommitment.
If that is your desire, if you want to come back to the Lord, you stand to your feet right now. And I am going to lead you in this prayer too. You stand to your feet. You need to make this recommitment to Christ. Stand up right now.
God bless you. People are standing. The final moment. Stand to your feet. And we will pray together. God bless you. You that are standing, I am going to lead you in this prayer. I want you to pray it out loud after me. And this is where you are asking Jesus Christ to come into your life. So again, as I pray, pray this out loud after me. Pray this after me now, right where you stand.
Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. But you died on the cross for my sin. I am sorry for that sin. I turn from it now. I choose to follow you. from this moment forward. Be my Savior. Be my Lord. Be my God. Thank you for loving me and calling me and accepting me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.