Jonah: Prayers of Desperation Sermon 2 Part 2

by Bill Klapwyk
((Grantsdale Community Church)Hamilton, MT)

God Convicts Us

I’m convinced there are things we do every day that are disobedient to God and we don’t even know it. But when we know what God wants and we ignore Him. That’s disobedience, that’s sin, that’s what Jonah was doing.

The problem is we don’t want to hear about our sin. Even when we’re confronted by God we don’t want to acknowledge our sin. It could be because of pride, shame, fear, guilt, or many other reasons. We know what we’re doing is sinful, but we refuse to acknowledge the sin in our lives. Jonah found himself in this exact place when God tossed him into the sea.

God put him in a situation where he was completely desperate. A situation where God was the only place to turn for help. Jonah has been completely silent with God up to this point. When he was asked to pray on the boat, there’s no indication he ever prayed.

After three days and three nights in the fish’s belly, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord. How many times do we neglect our prayers until we find ourselves in a situation that requires God’s intervention? We run from God, we try to do things our own way, and find ourselves tossed in the sea. Then we decide maybe it’s a good time to scream prayers for help.

There’s a story about a young man who went to a Rabbi to ask how to find God. The Rabbi took him down to the river. The young man thought the teacher was going to perform a ritual cleansing. Instead, the Rabbi immersed his head under water for a dangerously long time while the young man thrashed in the water.

Then the Rabbi let him up. “What were you thinking about when I held your head under water?” the Rabbi asked.

“Air, air!” the young man gasped.

“When you want God as much as you wanted air, you will find Him.”

Jonah was rescued from drowning, but he was still in peril. He was still in the belly of the fish. We can learn from his prayer how to pray in the midst of our own failures caused by our own disobedience.

That seems to be when we find it most difficult to pray. We’re either prideful and don’t want to admit our disobedience or we’re caught in the midst of self-condemnation where we think we either don’t have the right to seek God and/or if we did, He wouldn’t listen anyway.

If Jonah, probably the world’s worst disciple, could call on God and be heard in the midst of his own self-imposed affliction, so can we. God will meet us where we are even in the midst of our rebellion.

But our growth in God, our becoming a more mature Christian, is dependent on understanding how Jonah prays in his affliction. Jonah is thankful that the Lord confronted him in his disobedience.

He confesses he’s in the “belly of hell,” the word used here is Sheol which referenced the grave, or realm of the dead. He was there because of God’s intervention. God confronted him, his rebellion was exposed, he felt convicted over his sin.

How do we handle it when we’re confronted and feel convicted of our sin? We get angry right? We start pointing fingers at others, we redirect the conversation, we let it destroy relationships we’ve had for years sometimes.

Not Jonah, he’s actually expressing gratitude that God confronted him and made him feel convicted. Remember there’s no doubt it was God who cast him into the deep, it was God’s waves and billows that passed over him. He was cast out of God’s sight.

Now remember he’s been in the belly of the fish for three days and he’s still in there. And he’s grateful. Can you imagine what that experience was like? The stench, the stomach acid, the decay, and the list could go on. Then he describes his memory of almost drowning.

The waters closed around him and threatened to take his life, sea weed wrapped around him and held him down, and as his life was fading away the Lord rescued him with the fish.

He’s thankful and yet he still isn’t safe. He’s still in peril. Yet he’s so confident that God has rescued him that he says, “but I will sacrifice unto thee the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that, that I have vowed.”

He’s thankful for the conviction in his heart and embraces the change in attitude and direction he has chosen. So much so that he declares “salvation is of the Lord.”

When we find ourselves grateful for being called out for our sins and allow that conviction to alter our course in attitude and behavior, then we too find growth in Jesus and becoming more mature disciples.

We start to recognize how freeing and wonderful it is to be convicted and alter course. How joyful life is when we see the mercy and grace of God.

God is Merciful

“And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”

I don’t know how merciful that felt, but Jonah must have felt the grace of God in that moment.

From the two thousand foot view of this it doesn’t seem like God is very merciful. He tosses Jonah into the deep, lets the waters close over him, waits till he’s almost drowned, then sends a fish to swallow him, where he stays for three days.

But when we draw in for a closer deeper look we see God’s mercy in His tough love approach. He let Jonah get to the point of utter desperation, where he had no other options, where he was forced to reflect on his attitude and behavior.

He let Jonah get to the point where he was forced to recognize God’s sovereignty, a place where he could actually see more about God, And the place where he recognized his need for God, whether he liked it or not.

Through that whole experience God’s mercy brought Jonah to the place where he found himself grateful that the Lord put him through everything. He was thankful God made him face his rebellion. He was thankful that God loved him enough to make him face what he had been doing.

He was thankful God didn’t allow him to keep running further and further away. Keep allowing the relationship to crumble. He found God’s mercy and hope in realizing God wouldn’t let him continue to run in his rebellion.

We should recognize God’s mercy when we’re confronted with our own sins. We should a great source of hope in knowing God won’t let us continue to run forever in our own personal brand of rebellion.

Man that would turn our best news ever into the worst news ever if we thought God didn’t care enough to catch us when we run from Him. But that’s why we have the best news ever because He does care enough.

He cares enough to let us run just far enough to put us in a desperate situation. And in His mercy He rescues us, hopefully like in Jonah’s case, after we’ve embraced our convictions and turned our actions around.

God’s mercy includes our rebellion, the tough times, and all of our struggles, self-inflicted or otherwise. His mercy is in our ability to learn and grow in Him through those times. But we have to actually find joy in our convictions.

We have to embrace it when we feel convicted. We have to allow it to change our hearts so we begin to desire a little more of what God desires.

Closing:

We all have times when we run from God. We rebel so hard sometimes that we can’t even hear God’s voice through the worst storms. But we have to come to a place where we recognize God’s sovereignty over all things.

Not just a shallow understanding, but an understanding of the fullest degree of which He controls all of His creation. The wind, the water, sea creatures, animals, plants, humans, and everything in the heavenly realms.

God loving uses all of His creation to convict us of our sins. When He convicts us He wants us to come to a better knowledge of Him. He wants us to embrace our convictions, and allow them to change our course.

In God’s convictions we find His mercy. If we allow ourselves to embrace our convictions we find our hearts desiring a little bit more of what God’s heart desires.

I truly believe Jonah’s prayer should teach us not just that we can find joy in being called out on sins and feeling convicted. I honestly think when we embrace our convictions, we should do so with enthusiasm and excitement.

You think I’m crazy don’t you? You’re probably thinking well, he finally went off the deep end.

But seriously think about what this passage teaches us. If we actually face and embrace our convictions, we find ourselves being more like Jesus. Isn’t that what we all want? Don’t we all say we want to be more like Jesus? Less of me, more of Him right?

So, if we face and embrace our convictions and they make us more like Jesus. That’s reason to celebrate. We should take every opportunity where we’re confronted about sin and be completely overjoyed. We should embrace them full of enthusiasm and excitement.

We just became a little more like Christ. Be excited, be happy, be grateful, be thankful, and be praising God for the opportunity.

So, now you know my challenge for the week. If there’s something we’ve been feeling convicted about or if something comes up that makes us feel convicted. Let’s enthusiastically face
and embrace that conviction.

And let’s tell each other how we became a little more like Jesus. We don’t have to mention what we were doing, but we can talk about what we learned from it and how our hearts were transformed.

When we learn to do that with each other, then we form the basis to what provides good witness.