At the End of My Rope

Series: Nudge

 “At the End of My Rope”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, Nov 18, 2012

Text: Jonah 1:17 – 2:10 // Series: “Nudge”

 

Good morning, friends.  If you missed last weekend, you missed an eventful Sunday morning.  We got word of smoke in the building and had to evacuate the facility.  So we huddled up under the picnic shelter in the cold and had a make-shift abbreviated gathering and a few minutes of belated silence for Remembrance Day while the firefighters did their work.  Turns out the alarm was caused by a seized exhaust fan motor in the referee dressing rooms and the wind was blowing perfectly to push the electrical smoke back in as opposed to venting out. So the bad news is that you missed Jared’s second set of worship in song which was going to be amazing.  The good news is that you only heard the part of the message on Jonah 2 about how NOT to pray so this Sunday you get the rest of it which is about how to pray when you’re at the end of your rope

 

We are in the middle of a teaching series on the book of Jonah from the Old Testament.  You might remember from Pastor Keith’s message two weeks ago that Jonah is a reluctant messenger who receives what we might call an evangelistic assignment – he is to go and tell the people of Nineveh to repent.  And instead of saying yes or perhaps even a polite “no thank you, God”, he runs down in the complete opposite direction and boards a ship leaving for Tarshish in hopes of escaping God.  But since nothing and no one is ever hidden from God, the Lord sends a powerful storm over the sea that threatens to break up the ship. And so the sailors and the captain panic and decided that the god’s must be angry and that it must be Jonah’s fault.  And to his credit, Jonah fesses up.  He tells then that he is running away from God and that the only solution is murder at sea.  The sailors try to out-row the storm so that they don’t have to fill out the paperwork for throwing somebody overboard but in the end, Jonah’s logic prevails and they hurl him into the raging sea.  And the storm stops.  Instantly. 

 

We pick up our narrative, of which there are only two verses – the first and the last – in Jonah 1:17, which in the ancient Hebrew text was arranged as the first verse of chapter 2.  The plot is light because most all of Jonah 2 is a prayer, a psalm really, with strong resonance and similarity between it and many other ancient liturgies.  So as I read, I want you to ask yourself ‘why take 25% of the book to record Jonah’s prayer?  What are we supposed to pay attention to about God and about our own lives?”  Because there are some significant things we can learn about prayer from Jonah. I’ll be reading the first and last sections, the rest you can find either on your smartphone using Youversion.com or you can head over the Welcome Centre & grab a Bible.

 

Slide 1 - Jonah 1:17 to 2:2   

Slide 2 Jonah 2:6b to 2:9  

 

It’s intriguing to me that when Jonah 2 is read, the focus tends to be on the fish.  The great fish gets mentioned only 3 brief times in 48 verses.  In order to understand the point of Jonah 2, we need to get past arguments about was it a whale or not a whale or even about the historical examples - and there are some - of people who have survived for a weekend stint in the belly of large fish.  Because the thing that is intriguing to me that the book of Jonah even continues past chapter 1:16.  Once Jonah is in the drink, the story could easily finish there with a nice little morality tale about how it’s not a good plan to disobey God.  But then we miss Jonah’s prayer.  And I love his prayer because I see so much of myself in it.  In Jonah’s prayer, I see a reluctant evangelist who is waking up to the notion that God is always working.  In the darkness of his very stinky, sucky reality, at the bottom of the sea with no more human capacity to run and no way to rescue himself, God has Jonah’s attention.  Three nights and three days in the depths will do that to you. I almost feel as if God is saying to Jonah “Can you Hear me now?”  How’s the reception down there? 

The poet Lord Aldous Huxley paints the scene with imagination saying:

Seated upon the convex mound

of one vast kidney Jonah prays

and sings canticles and hymns.

Making the hollow vault resound

God’s goodness and mysterious ways,

Til the great fish spouts music as he swims

Jonah’s prayer is a prayer for those who are about to go under.  A plea to those whose lives are in crisis and who are quickly approaching the end of their rope to pay attention before it’s too late.  Jonah’s prayer is a nudge in a few helpful directions so let’s look at the point of Jonah’s prayer.

 

The first thing that strikes me about what Jonah has learned about God through his experience is that

Nudge 1 – God is always listening

Three times in this chapter, Jonah mentions how God heard him – “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble and he answered me. I called to You.. and Lord, you heard me.” I am struck by the reminder that God is always listening, Ready to answer prayer (v. 2,7,9).  He may not always answer how I anticipate. He many not respond to my demands but that He hears them is profound – even when I pray seated on the convex mound of one vast kidney!  God is near, the Scriptures say, to those who call on Him.  His ear is open and attentive to your cries.  God is always listening. 

 

But not only that, but  

Nudge 2 – God is always present

I love verse 4 where Jonah says “O Lord, you have driven me from your presence” – If I am God I am listening to Jonah’s prayer, this might be about the time that I remind him that He willing chose to run away from my presences – I didn’t drive him away from me.  I love the way Psalm 139:7-12 puts it: I can never escape from your Spirit!

    I can never get away from your presence!

8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;

    if I go down to the grave, you are there.

9 If I ride the wings of the morning,

    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

    and your strength will support me.

11 I could ask the darkness to hide me

    and the light around me to become night—

12     but even in darkness I cannot hide from you…”

Seated on the convex mound of one vast kidney, Jonah is beginning to learn that nothing in his life is beyond the reach of Almighty God.  The very idea that he could out-run God or get away from God is foolish.  But some of us live like this, don’t we?  We act as if God doesn’t know about secret sins or parts of our lives.  We tell ourselves that in parts of our past that were hurtful or difficult or tragic, Jesus wasn’t present.  But this just isn’t true.  When we think like this, we ignore God rich and lavish grace.  We forget that even in our weakness and darkness and sin, God is present

Ready to forgive & extend mercy (v. 8)

 

The third point of Jonah’s prayer is Yahweh’s reminder nudge to him & us

that Nudge 3 – God alone rescues & saves

To me, this is an intriguing lesson in how futile it is to bargain with God in prayer.  I don’t know if you do this at all, but sometimes I find myself praying “If / then” prayers.  When I find myself in a situation, sometimes I will pray something like “God, if you do ‘x’, then I will do ‘y’”.  For example, God, if you help me win the lottery, then I will give money to charity.  OR God, if you get me out of this financial mess, then I will start tithing.  Or “God, if you bring my prodigal son home, then I promise to attend church every weekend.” Or “God, if you heal me physically, then I will give the rest of my life to serve you in China”.  But that language is conspicuously absent from Jonah’s conversation with God here.  I don’t know when Jonah prayed this prayer – day 1, night 1, day 2, night 2, day 3…  the text doesn’t tell us.  But what the text does tell us is that Jonah was in there for 3 days and three nights.  So imagine with me Jonah finishing his prayer in verse 9 “yes, Lord, I have come to realize that “you alone can rescue, you alone can save, you alone can lift me from the grave / you can down to find us / led us out of death, to you belongs the highest praise!”  And nothing happens.  No booming voice from Heaven, no mystical vision of Jesus appearing to Jonah and saying ‘do not be afraid’…  Jonah is in the same damned situation when he says AMEN as he is when he started praying. 

 

So what has changed?  Well, nothing in his situation has changed but everything about his orientation to his situation has changed.  The story of Jonah’s life to date has been the story of a person who makes his own way in the world, who doesn’t need God’s help.  Who runs away from God.  But Jonah has had a change or heart, not a change of circumstance.  He is still covered with seaweed and bile, but he has come to affirm that when life falls apart, God is a very present help.   

          A refuge in times of trouble (Psalm 16)

 

You might be in a situation today where on the outside things look OK, but inside you know things are falling apart.  It might be a relationship, it might be an area of hidden sin that has mastery over you in the realm of sexuality or finances or greed or an unhealthy desire for control.  People might look at you and they might not be able to tell that there is a storm raging on the inside today.  But God knows and He wants to remind you that you will not get through this on your own.  Your salvation comes from the Lord alone.  Don’t bargain with God, get ruthlessly honest with Him, with yourself and with a trusted friend.  Your circumstances may not change, but your perspective on what you are facing just might as you stop trying to solve this one on your own and call out to God to be your hope and salvation and refuge.  In a few minutes we are going to move into a time of prayer and you’ll have opportunity to do this.  Perhaps for the very first time – to say, “God, I need you!”  The Scriptures say today is the day of salvation; respond as God prompts you.

 

 

There is a problem with Jonah’s prayer and it’s also a problem I have with some of our prayers here at Jericho Ridge.  And that it somehow Jonah and us have gotten it into our heads that in order for us to pray about something, it has to be a BIG deal.  In other words, prayer is our last resort.  I am guilty of this as anyone.  I come up against a challenge in my life and I work hard at it, I think it over from all angels, I try various solutions and nothing works and I get angry and frustrated and shut down and stew on it. 

And then after I have done everything else, someone asks me “have you prayed about that, Brad?”.  And I think to myself “no, I haven’t” J.  And so I remind myself today as much as I remind you that

You don’t have to be at the end of your rope in order to call on God 

In Jonah’s case, he was literally at his lowest point.  He had descended to the very depths of the grave and stood at death’s door and “THEN Jonah prayed to the Lord” (v. 1).  But if you look carefully and quickly, the belly of the great fish wasn’t the first time Jonah had opportunity to pray in this story.  There are actually 3 precursors to Jonah’s prayer in chapter 1…

At the very beginning of the book,

  • God speaks to Jonah.   

And if prayer is anything, it is simply conversation where God invites us to pay attention to something that He wants us to notice.  Throughout the course of this series, we are using the phrase “nudge” to indicate God’s gentle call to us in the midst of daily life.  God came to Jonah and gave him an assignment.  Jonah knew clearly what his marching orders were (he wrote them down in verse 2 of chapter 1, but he chose to willfully disregard them.  And so I ask myself and I ask you this morning,  

          ?) Am I paying attention to [divine] instructions

Nudges that are coming my way from God.  Some of you have something that you know that God has asked you to do and you still haven’t done it.  Do it before you get to the end of your rope! 

 

The second precursor prayer to Jonah’s extended prayer is when  

  • The captain speaks to Jonah in 1:6

The captain specifically asks Jonah to pray, which we have no record of him doing.  And he specially asks Jonah to ask his God to pay attention to those on the boat to spare their lives.  That would have been a good time for Jonah to fess up.  But he doesn’t.  They have to cast lots and when it falls to Jonah, he finally comes clean.  Part of prayer is being honest with God and with others.  Of taking responsibility for my actions.   

?) Do I take responsibility for my actions

If a friend or a spouse brings some character flaw to your attention, that would be a great time to speak with God about it and ask for His perspective and for His assistance in that area of your life.  Be it anger, or the way in which you speak to others around you.  Jonah had an invitation to a prayer meeting but when he showed up, he shut up until he was forced to come clean and make a public confession of his actions. 

 

The final and perhaps the most intriguing prayer happens at the very end of Jonah 1:15-16 [read].   

  • The sailors speak to Jonah’s God

Here the concept of “nudge” is not so much how God is nudging us, but how we are nudging others.  The question that ought to consume us and which we’ll be talking about tonight at Vision Night is “What does my life and the life of our community here at Jericho give witness to?”  In Jonah’s case, he had fessed up that he was a follower of the true and living God.  But if his life lacked a demonstration of God’s power, then again, the story could have ended there.  But Jonah’s words and his experiences demonstrate God’s mighty power.  So much so that how he dies becomes a powerful evangelic witness.  As we move into a time of prayer, I want to ask you as I ask myself “does my life and

?) Do my prayers stir up faith in others

 

As the team comes, we are going to spend an extended time of responding to God and to one another in worship in song and through communion.  These songs speak of the desire of our heart to find help and hope and refuge in God alone.  The prayer team is available here at the front and so I want to remind you when people come for prayer, it’s NOT because they are at the end of their rope.  It is because they are expressing in faith the conclusion that Jonah came to “sure I could keep this in and white knuckle through it, but why? My help comes from the Lord.”  Some of you have never come forward for prayer here at Jericho.  Let me explain how it works – we have people here who are known and trusted leaders within the life of the community.  They care deeply about you and they want to listen not only to what you have to share about your situation, but also listen to what God has to say and pray in faith as they stand with you.  Because of the nature of the conversations that will transpire, if you are a couple, I want you to find a couple.  If you are a guy, I want you to find a guy to pray with.  If you are a woman, find a woman to pray with.  And there’s nothing ultra-spiritual about these folks here at the front – they have just places themselves in a position where they are willing to serve and to stand with you.  There may also be people around you whom you know and trust and whom you want to cluster up and pray with.  Please feel very free to do so.  Do not make prayer your last resort, as Jonah did.  Make prayer a regular part of your experience of community here at Jericho ridge and as a part of your own daily rhythms.  Would you stand with me as we pray and sing together?

  • Father, today I affirm that “I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise… for salvation comes from the Lord alone” …
  • Communion Intro – In Matthew 12:40 Jesus said “For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”
  • Communion at JRCC is available to all who affirm Jesus as Lord, come to the front for prayer, receive the elements and return to your seat.   
When and why do you pray? If you're like most people, you wait until you're at the end of your rope before you talk to God about your problems. Join us as we explore Jonah's prayer and why it might be a good idea to get honest with others and with God earlier in the process.

Speaker: Brad Sumner

November 18, 2012
Jonah 1:17-2:10

Brad Sumner

Lead Pastor

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