It was the fall of my senior year and me and a couple of my
friends were driving around on the country roads of southeast
Iowa and we were in a mood. We were in that season of my
life where I was taking stupid pills like Tic Tacs.
You know what I'm talking about. Has anybody ever bought Tic
Tacs? And then they were, you still
had them the next day. Like, they just disappear as
soon as you get them. And if there were stupid pills
in the medicine cabinet, I wanted them all.
And so it was one of those nights where we'd taken all the
stupid pills and we were driving around and we saw this car that
was in a field and we didn't think much of it other than we
should just pull in. And it kind of looked like, you
know, it didn't belong to anybody.
And so and our thought progression, if you want to call
it thinking we should have a lot of fun with this vehicle.
And that's exactly what we did. Me and my friend, we got out and
broke out the windows, jumped through the sunroof, ripped the
doors off, flipped it up on its on its hood or on the roof.
And some of you guys are going to, this isn't going to make
sense to you, but two of the girls that were with us had a
camcorder like a shoulder mounted.
And so they filmed me and my friend being dumb and we kind of
moved on, didn't think anything of it.
Well, a couple weeks later I was at a party and hear a bunch of
people laughing and cheering. And I'm like, I should go inside
and check what that's all about. And I walk in and they're on the
big screen. Is me and my friend demolishing
this car with our feats of strength and feats of stupid.
And turns out that wasn't some abandoned car that nobody cared
about. It was a car that was parked in
the field to keep it from the person who was going to get it
on their 16th birthday. Yeah.
I mean, who you chose to be your pastor says a lot about you
guys. You guys.
Some checked up people. Well, my life came to a
screeching halt. I just made Allstate Choir, got
kicked out, had to sit out the first couple games of my senior
year basketball season, had to ride the bench.
I'd let my parents down, my team down, my family down, my coaches
down, teammates down. I had let everyone down.
My parents were looking at me. I mean, I was likable.
I had good social skills. Teachers liked me.
And yet there were the stupid pills.
And I was like, I want a refill. And the consequences of my
actions hit me so fast and so hard that I could not see a path
forward. And so I was suicidal.
One of these days I'll unpack more of what happened, but my
future was fading. I couldn't see anything beyond
what I was in. There was this war going on
inside of me between who I wanted to be and who I was
capable of, and who I was and who I was was winning.
If I were to say it in a spiritual way, there was a
battle going on between who God created me to be and who God
called me to be and who Satan was tempting me to be and who
Satan was tempting me to be was winning.
I had hit rock bottom. If you are somebody or know
somebody who's has hit rock bottom, can you get your hand up
for just a second, turn to your neighbor and say rock bottom,
man. I want to welcome all of our
different locations. Those of you watching online,
we're glad for you. To those of you who are a part
of the crossing inside, this might be a very special message
for you because I'm guessing you are either in rock bottom or
you've been here before and you're can't believe that you're
back because you thought, man, after I get out, I'm never going
back. And so if you're a part of our
inside family, I just want you to know I love you.
I'm rooting for you. I'm praying for you, and I hope
that this message will be a special benefit to you.
There might be some of you in here.
We're on this sermon series called The Story of Jonah, and
the the tagline is The Unusual Path of Grace.
And what you're going to see in this series is that God
continues to run after the people who are running away from
him. There might be some of you
gathered today or tuning in and you've been running for God from
for a really, really long time. And I just want you to know, I
am so glad that you're here. You might be here today and you
know somebody who's been running from God for a really long time.
And I'm glad that you are here as well.
You might know somebody who has hit rock bottom.
You might need to pay attention on their behalf so that you can
give them a word of hope in a moment of crisis.
There might be some of you right now when you are actually at
rock bottom, and I'm thanking God that you were here.
And I want you to know that I've been praying for you this week.
I want to recap last week we were in Jonah chapter 1.
Jonah is a prophet of God, the mouthpiece of God, the preacher
of his day. And God calls him to do
something, to go and preach to the Ninevites, which is 500
miles to the northeast. And Jonah decides not to do that
thing, and he hops on a ship that is setting sail for 2500
miles to the West. We asked ourselves a really
tough question. And the fact that you showed up
again this week surprises me. Because the question last week
is, what do you do when God calls you to do something you
don't want to do? All of us have things that God
has asked us to do that we don't want to do.
It might be asking for forgiveness.
It might be forgiving. It might be loving your enemies.
Maybe it's finally using your gifts, talents, and abilities to
build the Kingdom of God instead of your own castle.
It might be inviting a friend or a family member to church.
What you do when God calls you to do something you don't want
to do says a lot about you. Where your priorities stack up.
What you actually believe and what you do when God calls you
to do something you don't want to do reveals what you really
believe about God. Is He actually your Lord and
your Savior? Is His way really the best way?
So Jonah runs from God, and God sends his storm, not to end
Jonah's life, but to bring Jonah back to God.
In the process, the sailors that are on the ship, they go from
not believing in God to believing in God and making vows
and commitments to God. And the story ends in chapter 1
with Jonah being picked up and thrown into the sea.
The very last words in Jonah chapter one verse 17 are these.
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah
was in the belly of the fish 3 days and three nights.
There have been some who have doubted the historical
reliability of the story of Jonah.
They claim it was just a spiritual story, a fable, not an
actual event that actually took place.
However, here are four reasons why I believe that this is a
real story that really happened #1 Jonah was a real person in
the history of Israel. His name is recorded in Second
Kings chapter 14 verse 25 and it is also recorded his family
tree, his lineage, how he got here.
This is backed up by a Jewish historian by the name of
Josephus or Flavius Josephus in the 1st century.
So #1 Jonah was a real person who actually walked planet Earth
number two-part of the reason why people believe that this
story didn't actually happen is because for thousands of years
the city of Nineveh could not be found.
The story of Jonah takes place about 700 BC, but in 1800 AD,
the city of Nineveh was unearthed in the vicinity of
Mosul, which is in modern day Iraq, and the city was unearthed
underneath. It was under 2 mounds, two
hills. The name of one of the hills was
Kuyunjik. You don't need to remember that
one. The name of the other hill that
also housed the underneath it housed Nineveh was Nabi Eunice.
Turn to your neighbors, say Nabi Eunice.
In Arabic, Nabi Eunice means the prophet Jonah.
They found Nineveh, which Jonah preached to, under the hill that
people had named the prophet Jonah #3 Some say that there is
no way for a whale to follow to swallow Jonah.
Why? Because while whales have big
old mouths, they have pretty tiny throats.
And so there's no way that this could have taken place.
Well, I would say a couple things to that.
One of the sperm whale has the size of mouth and the size of
throat to accomplish that, and so does the fin whale.
And the fin whale is the largest whale in the Mediterranean Sea.
Now if Jonah was not a six, six, £300 bad golfer, this is what it
would look like to scale. If I was Jonah and I was about
ready to be eaten by a Fen whale and he's going to swallow me
like a chicken wingy. OK, boom, gone down the gullet.
But that does not really give you the scale of the Fen whale.
So what what I would like to do, tech team, if you can, I want
you to like do like a green screen thing and then put like a
fin whale like in the center of the room above my head so they
can get an understanding of yeah.
So if I yeah, yeah, I'd fit. And I've got like German
lineage, not Jewish lineage. So I mean, you know, Jews are
typical or not, as you know, not as tall as not a lot of Jewish
guys in the NBA. That's what I'm saying.
OK. I'm just I'm saying that kindly
just anyhow. So this is the scale for me.
Now the other thing I would tell you is that the Bible doesn't
say a whale. The Bible says a huge fish and
God could have created a one off fish to accomplish this very
specific task of saving Jonah's life.
And there are going to be times when you are reading the Bible
where you're going to bump into something that is hard to
swallow, pun intended. And what I would tell you is
when you bump into situations like that, I want you to have
the same tool that I have in my tool belt.
And here's the tool I have in my tool belt.
If you can believe the 1st 5 words of the Bible you can
believe all the rest. And the first 5 words of the
Bible are in Genesis chapter one verse one.
In the beginning, God created, if God made the earth and the
seas and the galaxies and the stars and put things in orbit
and creates gravity on our behalf and gives us lungs to
handle carbon monoxide and oxygen, He can make anything he
needs to make to accomplish anything he wants to accomplish.
Reason #4 while I, while I believe in the story of Jonah,
is that Jesus mentions the story of Jonah and he draws a parallel
to his own life and his own ministry.
And I'm a big fan of Jesus. So if Jesus believed it, I'm
inclined to believe it. And we're actually going to
unpack that a little bit later in the sermon.
So at the end of chapter 1, Jonah is been thrown into the
sea and a huge fish has swallowed him.
So let's pick up in Jonah chapter 2.
From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
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.
You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the Seas,
and the current swirled about me.
All your waves and Breakers swept over me.
I said, I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look
again towards your holy temple. The engulfing waters threatened
me, the deep surrounded me. Seaweed was wrapped around my
head 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, I
remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you to your holy
temple. Those who cling to worthless
idols turn away from God's love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you
what I have vowed. I will make good.
I will say salvation comes from the Lord, and the Lord commanded
the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Jonah gets thrown into the sea, and while the sea becomes calm
on the surface, it sounds like there's an awful lot going on
under the surface. Jonah was born in land.
More than likely he couldn't swim.
And if you get thrown into the sea and you can't swim, you
sink. And that is exactly what
happens. Listen to Jonah's collection of
the events, he says. In my distress, from deep in the
realm of the dead, you hurled me into the depths to the very
heart of the sea. The currents swirled about me.
All your waves and Breakers swept over me.
The engulfing waters threatened me and the deep surrounded me.
Seaweed was wrapped around my head.
God's apparently making a sushi roll out of Jonah to the roots
of the mountains. I sink down to the earth.
The earth beneath barred me in forever.
When my life was ebbing away. It appears that Jonah got thrown
in, but the whale didn't come right away.
Jonah was going down, down, down.
And Jonah, he hit rock bottom. Now, the good news is, God is a
great God and he's a kind God. So he didn't send a shark to eat
him. He didn't allow him to drown in
his goodness. He sends a huge fish to swallow
Jonah and gives Jonah three days to turn his life around.
What do you do when you've hit rock bottom?
What do you do when you've bumped up against rock bottom?
I'll tell you what Jonah did. Jonah prayed there might be some
of you that you've hit rock bottom and you think that there
is no way that God could hear your prayers when He's all the
way up in heaven and you are all the way down at rock bottom.
There might be some of you today that are thinking there is no
way that God would hear your prayers after all that you have
done. There might be some of you today
that are going, There's no way that God should listen to you
since you have not been listening to him.
But can I show you how good your God is?
Jonah chapter 2 From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord
his God. 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 when my life was ebbing away.
I remember you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you to your holy
temple. Jonah cried out from the pit,
and God answered. Jonah offered a prayer, and God
listened from the depths of the sea.
The prayer rose unhindered to God in his holy temple.
I have really good news for you today.
No matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, no
matter what you've done, no matter how much you have been
running from God, you have not run so far as to outrun the ears
and the grace of God. Fellas, have you ever said
something under your breath in a altercation with your wife and
she heard it perfectly clear? Raise your hand if that's your
testimony. You were just talking to God and
she overheard it. I want you to know the next time
that that happens, God has better hearing than your wife
today. If you cry out, He will answer.
If you call, He will listen. If you offer a prayer from the
pit, it will rise unhindered to the heavens.
No wonder it says in James chapter 5 verse 13.
Is any among you in trouble? Let them pray.
We tend to think that in times of crisis that God is distant or
removed. Sometimes we even interpret
God's silence as indifference. But Jonah reminds us that God's
presence allows us to endure the trials we face, even the ones we
created in our own disobedience. The authored Leonard Sweet in
his book Soul Salsa describes the story of a young or of a
Native American tribe who on the 13th birthday they have this
rite of passage for their young warriors.
On the night of their 13th birthday, they were taken into
the middle of the forest to spend the night alone.
It would be their very first night away from their family and
the security of their tribe. They were blindfolded and taken
miles into the heart of the forest, and they were left there
all night long, every time a twig snapped.
They wondered what while the animal was preparing to pounce,
Every time an animal howl, they imagined a wolf leaping out of
the darkness. Every time the wind blew, they
wondered what sinister sound it masked.
No doubt it was a terrifying night for those 13 year old
boys. And after what seemed like an
eternity, the first rays of sunlight penetrated into the
heart of the forest. And looking around, the boy saw
flowers and trees, and he saw a path home.
And then, to his utter astonishment, he beheld the
figure of a mighty warrior standing a few feet away with
bow and arrow and quiver. And it was his father, and he
had been there all night long. Hear me, if you are in the pit,
if darkness is creeping in, if sin is taking over, but you are
still alive, God is not done with you yet.
And don't ever doubt the power of God to turn things around.
And don't ever doubt the power of prayer.
About six weeks back, maybe a couple more, there was a group
of guys that I do a Discovery Bible study with, and one of the
guys had an encounter with somebody who was hitting rock
bottom. They were suicidal.
The text messages started blowing up the thread.
The phone call started coming in and I got on the phone with
Bobby and Bobby just wasn't seeing a path forward.
He had hit rock bottom and he couldn't see his way out.
And we immediately tried to get him connected to Vine Co, our
counseling center. And a person on staff
volunteered to go to Regen with him to help him overcome the
hurts, habits and addictions that were impacting him in such
a negative way. And we said, hey, we can't wait
to see you at church. And I'll be honest with you,
that first week, almost none of it worked.
But then started seeing Bobby at church and so I had written in
my prayer book Bobby Suicide and so I started calling him Bobby
Suicide. And every time I saw Bobby
Suicide at church, I put a little hash mark.
In other words, that first hash mark, because he came the first
time. And then there was a second hash
mark and he came the second time.
And then there was the 3rd hash mark, and then the 4th hash
mark, and then the 5th hash mark, and then the 6th hash
mark. And today was the 7th hash mark.
But Bobby went from being Bobby suicide to being Bobby baptized.
First service. Hear me.
Don't ever doubt the power of prayer to God to pull you out of
the pit. First thing that Jonah did was
he prayed. Second thing he did is he
realized that those clinging to anything other than God are
doomed. Jonah chapter 2, verse 8.
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love
for them. To those of you clinging to a
political party, it's going to let you down.
To those clinging you clinging to possessions you will never
have enough. To those of you holding on to
your status, it will not pull you out of the pit.
To those of you betting on all of your good works, there are
not of good work, enough good works for you to do to undo what
you've already done. To those of you hoping that you
will just be better than the rest, the rest is not the
standard. Perfection is.
To those of you planning on choosing your own path, that
path leads to destruction. God, God in his love has made a
way through the person and work of his Son Jesus.
And Jesus says anyone who wants to come to the Father must come
through me. And God in his love has provided
a way for you. But if you cling to anything
other than Jesus, you are turning away from God's love.
To follow any other path is to walk away from that love.
Third thing Jonah does is he worships Jonah chapter 2, verse
9. But I, with shouts of grateful
praise, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will make
good. What I said I was going to do,
I'm actually going to do. Jonah realizes that the God of
the mountain is also the God of the valley that will.
God wraps himself in light. He is not immune to coming into
the darkest of seasons and valleys with us.
And so Jonah lifts a shout of grateful praise.
And how can he not be grateful? He deserves to die for what he
has done. But God has sent a great fish
and given him time to get things right.
So Jonah makes commitments to God.
Worship is not just about singing songs.
It is also about obedience, about doing the things we said
we were going to do. Some of us, we might be singing
louder than our obedience. We might be lifting our hands
higher than our commitments for just a second.
Moms, imagine that your kids started singing songs about how
awesome you are. Mom, you're so awesome.
You're the most awesome. Mom.
They just started singing that as they were brushing their
teeth in the morning. And then you're like, hey, did
you? Did you do that thing that I
asked you to do that you said you were going to do?
Mom, you're so awesome. Did you let the dog out?
You're so stinking awesome. And you're pretty.
You don't need all that makeup. You look great the way you are.
Have you picked up your room? And you're so awesome, Mom.
You can tell I'm not leading worship for any of our campuses
anytime soon. Moms, would you like the songs?
Yeah. Would you also like those songs
coming from a heart that was doing what it was supposed to do
and did that it was that it said it was going to do.
God doesn't just love your voice.
He loves your voice. He loves your worship.
But worship is not just singing. It's also obedience.
And so Jonah says what I vowed I was going to do.
I'm actually going to do #4 Jonah realizes that God is a God
who saves Jonah chapter 2, verse 6 and 9 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. I will say salvation comes from
the Lord. God is a God who lifts people
and lives from the pit. God is a God who brings
salvation. There's a lot of people who
give, say a lot of things about God, but you better make sure
when they're talking about God to you, you at least remind them
that God, the God that we serve, is a God who's gracious and a
God who saves. If you've ever seen me in the
valley, if you've ever been at rock bottom, but you're not
there anymore and you're standing on a mountain, it is
not because of your wisdom. It is not because of your might,
but because we serve a God who saves.
We got where we are because God put us there.
We were in the pit needing a rescued and our God rescues.
We were in a pit and we needed saved.
And the good thing is we have a God of salvation.
Remember I said that Jesus points to the story of Jonah?
Well, let's Fast forward 700 years to Matthew chapter 12 and
look what Jesus says. Then some Pharisees and teachers
of the law said to him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.
Then he answered, This is Jesus talking.
A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but
none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a
huge fish, so the Son of Man will be 3 days and three nights
in the heart of the earth. You see, both Jonah and Jesus
were sent on a rescue mission by God.
Jonah rebelled and ran from his mission.
And Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane said not my will be
done, but your will be done. Jonah was disobedient.
Jesus was obedient. Jonah went down to death
symbolically, but Jesus went down to death on our behalf
literally. Jonah escaped death, but Jesus
defeated it. Jesus's Jonah, like returned
from the empty grave, became the hope for all who are in him,
that death is not our end and death is not our destiny.
If you were to go to the catacombs where they bury the
people in Rome, where all the earlier early Christians were to
bury their dead, almost half of all the artwork that they carved
into the stones have a reference to Jonah and the whale.
It's not hard to grasp the imagery here.
The sailors are the mourners, lowering their loved ones and
friends into a watery grave. The fish, which became the early
sign of Christianity, by the way, was there to take hold of
those laid into the watery grave and keep them safe until First
Thessalonians. Chapter 4, verse 16 says the
dead in Christ will rise. The empty tomb of Jesus fulfills
the sign of Jonah and shows the ultimate way that Jesus is
greater than Jonah. Jonah was delivered, but Jesus
is deliverance. Jonah was saved, but Jesus is
salvation. In fact, Jonah ends his prayer
with these words. Salvation comes from the Lord,
and if you were to read it in the Hebrew text, it says Yeshua
comes from the Lord, Salvation Yeshua.
If you want to translate that word into Greek or into Latin,
I'll give you the word Jesus. Jonah ends his prayer with Jesus
on his lips. Why?
Because Jesus saves. Why?
Because Jesus is salvation crossing family.
Look at me. You might be in a spot today,
you might be hitting rock bottom, you might be in a storm
of your own causing, but it is not over.
There was once a fellow runner from God.
Much like Jonah, he had abandoned his faith.
As a teenager. He'd been given to gambling and
drinking and lying. But in 19 or in 1748, aboard the
ship the Greyhound, on his way to England, he found himself,
like Jonah, in a severe storm off the coast.
He cried out to God for deliverance, and God spared his
life. And while it took a while, the
events of that night eventually shaped and formed his future.
Eventually, he rekindled his faith and his allegiance to God.
Instead of being a slave trader, he became an abolitionist and
fought for the rest of his life against the release of slaves.
And then he became a pastor. And as he would pastor, one of
the things that he would do is he would write songs for his
congregation to sing. And I'm so glad that he did,
because if he hadn't, we would never have had the words written
by John Newton. Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a Wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found was blind.
But now I see twas grace that taught my heart to fear and
grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace
appear the hour I first believed?
Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come.
Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me
home. The Lord has promised good to
me. His word, my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.
Yeah. When this flesh and heart shall
fail, and mortal life shall cease, I shall possess within
the veil a life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun for bear to
shine. But God, who called me here
below, will be forever mine. When we've been there 10,000
years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing
God's praise than when we first begun crossing.
Family, hear me, If you are at rock bottom, but there is still
breath in your lungs, God is not done.
You do not have to stay in that pit.
You can be saved because Jesus is salvation.
We're moving to a time of decision.
If you're here today, or you're watching online or the crossing
inside and you don't have an intimate personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, if you're in the pit, if you're at rock
bottom, I have a really, really, really, really, really, really,
really good news for you. God will hear your prayers and
Jesus saves. And so today, if you cry out to
him, He will answer you. And in just a few moments, the
people around you are going to stand and sing, and some of them
are going to come to the steps and pray.
And what I would encourage you to do is talk to somebody who
brought you. Talk to somebody that you know
that you saw across the room that might have the answers that
you've been looking for. And if neither one of those two
sound awesome to you, you can walk right over there underneath
that screen next to the baptistry and start talking
about the God that we've been talking about, asking the
questions that might be holding you back from believing, from
following, from trusting Him. Do not waste this moment to get
right with God. To the rest of you in the room,
to those of you who are already Jesus followers, I want you to
hear me. Don't you ever doubt that in
times of darkness and hard seasons that God is not
listening to your prayers. So I want to encourage you to
use this time at the steps, calling on God, crying out to
Him, because prayer has the power to change things.
Recently I've been praying two things for a lot of people,
wisdom and courage. Wisdom to know what to do and
the courage to do it. Jonah knew what he was supposed
to do, he just didn't do it. Some of you, you know exactly
what it is you're supposed to do.
You just haven't had the courage that you need to do it.
But you don't have to muster the courage.
He will be your courage. You don't have to come up with
all the strength. He will be your strength.
I know there's some of you are going, man, I have no clue what
I'm supposed to do. Well, I'm praying that God would
give you the wisdom to know exactly what that is.
Would you guys stand with me? God, we're entrusting this holy
moment into your hands. You know perfectly what every
person in this room needs. You know what every person in
this room wants. And God, right now we're just
asking you to move in our hearts and our lives, to redirect us,
to shape us, to mold us. Got to pray for all those that
can hear my voice right now that you would make it incredibly
clear what it is that you want us to do, and then through your
Spirit that you would give us the courage to do it.
In your name I pray. Amen.