God let's get our swords ready a man and as you're looking for the book of Jonah a man you come down through limitations Ezekiel a man as you go through Ezekiel all the way to Daniel keep on going till you find old Bediah and when you find old Bediah on the right side of old Bediah is going to be Jonah now if you get past Jonah you're gonna run into Micah you're gonna run into Habakkuk Nahum Zephaniah so you want to go back up and I tell you, you're to the left of Micah and to the right of Obadiah. Jonah, praise his holy name. Now, let's look at the Word of God tonight. Amen. As we get into Wednesday in the Word, this is the sixth series, Lessons on Obedience. Praise his holy name tonight. Man, I tell you, I can't wait. Here as we look at Jonah, chapter 1, verse 17. Jonah chapter 2 verses 1 through 9 tonight in our lessons on Obedience praises Holy Name tonight seven things about Jonah a man that we look tonight is his prayer his faith his confession and the look that he had the Acknowledgement and his worship praise God man. He had a prayer meeting down there inside that whale a man in that a fish praise God and then I'm glad later on next time we're gonna talk about he had deliverance each and every one of us tonight and as we look and realize September the 22nd, 20,021, the 16th of Tishuri, 5782, praise God, as we begin to look at the prayer of Jonah. Now, as we go back, Gath-Heper is where Jonah is from, amen. I thank God he's about three to five miles northeast of Nazareth in Galilee. As we look and realize that the story here in Gath-Heper praise god that all of a sudden the story of the word of god says jonah i want you to go and i want you to preach to them in a box the assyrians i know they've been evil to you they've been made to the children of israel all these hundreds of years but i want you to go preach repentance to and jonah didn't want to do it he said man i don't you know why it would that he didn't know that that god could do it he knew god could do it he just didn't want them to repent and he didn't want them to be spared and so i tell you So here he needed to go 550 miles to Nineveh, but he didn't. All of a sudden, he goes down to Joppa, and there from Israel in Joppa, he takes off and he tries to get him a ship going all the way to Tarsus, all the way over to Spain, on the southern coast of Spain, 2,500 miles away. He doesn't get that far. All of a sudden, when he gets right out into the Mediterranean Sea, right out in here, God begins to create a storm, amen. And I'm glad that in that storm, uh every one of us as we look and realize uh that uh uh it was uh jonah uh begins to get into a storm and these mariners begin to look and say man what in the world is going on out here what are we caught up in praise god and they begin to realize that there was something going wrong that uh needed to be corrected they began to throw everything overboard and all of a sudden everything about Jonah was uh he began to go down down down further and everything that he did because he was running from God and when you're running from God every direction you're going to go keeps going down down and down And so here we see the lessons of living in faith every day. That is life. And life is God's rescue. Amen. Praise his holy name. And so the book of Jonah, chapter one, Jonah runs away from God. Tonight, chapter 2, Jonah runs toward God. Later on, chapter 3, Jonah runs with God. And hallelujah, when we get done in chapter 4, Jonah runs ahead of God. Well, I thank God, each and every one of us, as we look and realize this was a preacher that didn't want to preach. Yeah, that's unheard of ever preacher man Why you just drop a songbook down and they ready to hit the floor preaching a man, but Jonah didn't want to preach He didn't want to do his calling. And so here we look and we realize tonight of Jonah, which means dove his father's name was a mid time which meant I think it was, I think, my truth, yes. And so as we look tonight and begin to realize this story that goes and tells us so many things, tonight as we start out in Jonah 1, verse 17, you say, how come? Because this is where everything begins. Look with us as we look at this was a lifeboat fish, amen? It was a lifeboat fish. Boy, I thank God as we look and realize that later on, you know, the story is almost unbelievable how that someone could swallow a person and there's an actual event that this happened. I'll get to it in a minute. But I thank God as we start out tonight, your King James is right over here. Amen. I thank God your King James is over on this side. And listen, the Bible says, now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Here we see the place of prayer. It was a lifeboat fish, amen? And so here was the place that was prepared that God says, you know what? I got a way that I'm gonna get your attention, Jonah. Amen, I'm gonna get you inside this fish and it ain't gonna take long that I believe that I'm gonna get your attention very well here was the place of prayer a place that had been prepared by God a man and here was a place that was peculiar because God is Peculiar and how he does things a man and boy I thank God each and every one of us as we look at the prayer of Jonah when he gets inside that fish prayer is not the Christians good luck charm, uh-huh and It's important that God's people be faithful in good times as well as in bad when it comes to time in prayer. But sometimes we forget to pray. But when it hits the fan, when it goes bad, when everything's going wrong, all of a sudden we want to run and get down on our knees and pray. Oh, I tell you, we forget about God a lot of times. But when we turn a deaf ear to God in the good times, we should not be surprised when he turns a deaf ear to us in the bad times. I tell you, Proverbs chapter one, verses 28 and 29, the Bible says, then they shall call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. I tell you, as we look and realize that obedience is a 24-7 project. God is pleased with consistent faithfulness, not simply when we are in a bind. 1 Corinthians 15, 58, the Bible says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Now, I tell you, as we look at our objective in lesson six, to build a consistent relationship with God in the believer's life, rather than simply trusting him in the times of difficulty. And I thank God, every one of us, we need to be able to help as believers to understand that the crisis Christianity usually doesn't last past the crisis. And so I want to encourage every believer, every born again child of God that is listening on Facebook, that is listening on sermon audio to make vows and to keep them because for the glory of God, if you make a vow and break it, you better look out. Now tonight, what are we going to be talking about? Each and every one of us, we're going to be talking about the affliction driven principle. a motivated rebel tonight. We're going to talk about the miserable reward, the adversity driven prayers, cries from a foxhole or inside a large fish, amen. Concern from a father because our heavenly father is concerned about you. He loves you too much to let you keep on trying to run off and run away and catch the father's ship away. He's got a storm waiting for you. He's going to bring you to the worst storm you ever been in your life and he's going to get your attention. He's going to settle you down. But here, lastly, we're going to talk about the avoidance driven promises, a careful voice. We need to be listening in our relationship every day to the shepherd's voice. We need to be listening as a continual vow that Lord, I'm gonna be faithful to you and a certain victory God will give us. Now, thank God as we get into the word of God tonight, it might appear that we're being just a little hard on Jonah in this lesson tonight. But however, by the time that we get to Jonah and chapter four at the end of this whole series, I think that everybody will agree that his sudden spirituality in chapter two is flawed to say the least. And I thank God as we get into the Word of God tonight, we begin to realize, before I go past here, Jonah was in the fish. And the fish represents God's provision for his protection. God intended to use Jonah while the three days and nights in the fish's belly were extremely difficult and painful. God had no intention of killing Jonah. But if God wanted Jonah dead, he could have left him in the ocean and sent a shark. But he didn't do that. God desired to break Jonah's disobedient will. And it wasn't finished with Jonah yet. He had some more plans for him, praise God. And I tell you, I want to ask yourself, at what point did that fish swallow Jonah? Huh? Did it happen immediately or did some time pass before the fish appeared? Jonah seemed to answer that question in his description of the events because in the progression in his testimony back in verse 15 of chapter 1, the Bible says, so they took up Jonah and they cast him forth into the sea and the sea ceased from her raging. Boy, I thank God as we look and realize that he confessed that God was behind that action. Amen. And so I thank God each and every one of us, when we look at Jonah's confinement, we realize there's times that we need to get alone with God. Every one of us, the waves swept over him, amen, when we read in a few minutes in verse three. And since the sea was not calm, Jonah should have been able to tread water for only a little while, but apparently Jonah was not a good swimmer. He thought God had banished him. He thought he was all by himself. And the water whirls around his neck as he struggles to stay afloat. And the water overcame him and he began to sink. And he was about to die. But I thank God. Listen, just before he dies, God will rescue him. And that's how God works in our lives. How did God rescue him? The great fish. God sent that fish to rescue him from dying. and even in the consequences of his disobedience, God loves and he rescues Jonah, amen. And so we see the protective haven for the sea right here. This was the place of prayer in Jonah 1, verse 17. Here we see that it was the place that God had prepared. It was the place that was peculiar, amen. Hey, God is peculiar about the things that he does, amen. But I'm gonna tell you something. He had a personal transport to the coast, amen. Because after three days and three nights, God commanded that fish and it vomited Jonah up on that dry land, amen. We'll get to that later on next week if the Lord doesn't come back for the church and the rapture here in a few days. But the three days and nights probably has nothing to do with the speed of that fish. But with the time Jonah needed to empty his sinful heart, that was what it was about, amen. And when Jonah was ready to obey the lesson of obedience, to obey God, the fish was ready to release him, amen. Boy, I tell you, I believe the fish wanted him out as bad as Jonah wanted out, amen. And so the scenario also represents God's sovereign timing, amen. We know that Jesus referred to the length of Jonah's fish ride with teaching his disciples about the resurrection in Matthew chapter 12, verse 40. Praise his holy name, hallelujah. And so God had a Pacific place that he wanted Jonah, and the prophet was in the wrong place. See, the Lord still desired for Jonah to go to Nineveh. And so God prepared a way to move him from the middle of the ocean back to where he started. And so we see the protective haven from the sea in chapter 1 verse 17. There was a personal transport to the coast as well in verse 17, amen. But let's move on because I thank God here in the book of Jonah, as we look, we see the actuality of something like this that did happen. Here is the old newspaper that came back out in the 1891 of February. It probably, a whale, but basically as we look it, realize it was sent out near the Falkland Islands. There was a whale basically that capsized one boat. One sailor was killed. They thought James Barton disappeared and the next day when they found James unconscious. in the stomach of the whale. They recovered after three weeks with his face, his neck, his hands all bleach white. Let me say that again. Listen to me. He was recovered after three weeks with his face, his neck, and his hands bleach white. This happened in February 1891 near the Falkland Islands. This was an actual documented case where someone was swallowed by a whale and lasted that long. Now, I'm gonna tell you tonight, prayer is an essential part of the Christian's life tonight. Oh yeah, that's why I put it up in bold. Listen, if you've slacked off in your prayer life, you better get back into it. Because prayer is very important in the believers, in the Christian's life today. While you can move, while you can swing through inside the burning areas of hell with a water gun, if you got the faith and you prayed up, praise God. But if you ain't got that prayer time, and man, all of a sudden you ain't got the strength that you need to have, we see the prayer is that powerful. And so we look and we realize that Jonah's prayer, the perplexity of that prayer, God has a way of bringing us to a place where he wants us to receive what he has. I thank God, a place where we want what God wants. And so we see the theological part that God has a way of bringing us there. The exegetical of this is Jonah's prayer from inside that great fish is ultimately a prayer of thanksgiving. Now, on your outline on Facebook, I put something about that because can you imagine him being inside that? I'm going to get into that in just a minute, but think about that for a minute. But here, Jonah's prayer from inside that great fish is ultimately a prayer of thanksgiving, an almost defiantly positive statement of confidence in God's power under these circumstances. Now, the perplexity of this prayer, typically through the scriptures, I've already said that, but just a reminder before I get into that, I hope I think I put them up there, but let me say what Martin Luther said, to be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than being alive without breathing. Amen. Thank God for Martin Luther, because if Martin Luther hadn't nailed them 95 theses up on the Catholic church door, we wouldn't even be where we are today. Thank you, Martin Luther, for starting everything off for us, where they got the chained book that was chained on the pulpit and nobody had access to it. But when Martin Luther got done, that Bible got into the hand of every Christian in America, every Christian in the world. Praise God. Hallelujah. Martin Luther. And so here we see the reference of that typical of that perplexity of that prayer that he says then certain Other scribes of the pharisees answer said master. We would see a sign from thee Yeah, the world wants to see a sign, but i'll tell you the response of jesus But he answered he said to them an evil and adulterous generation generation seeketh after a sign and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet jonas I thank God that he began to use. And now he goes on, he says, for as Jonas was three days, three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Praise his holy name. Matthew 12, 41, the Bible says the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold, are greater than Jonas is here. Amen. And that be Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Praise God. He goes on, he says, the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. For she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Behold, a greater than Solomon is here. I thank God. Even the same thing that goes on, the same thing that's referenced in Luke chapter 11 that you just read in Matthew, praise God. And so here in Jonah chapter two, verse one, hear the prayer of Jonah. Follow with me. We're teaching tonight now. I thank God. This is the lifeboat for Jonah. This was the lifeboat for Jonah. He's in the fish. then the bible says in jonah chapter 2 verse 1 then jonah prayed under the lord his god out of the fish's belly listen somebody's out there praying tonight somebody needs to get a prayer through tonight i thank god when we look at the private sanctuary here with the lord jonah prayed to the lord is god from inside that fish what a sanctuary what a what what That's what's so fantastic about fellowshipping in the house of God, getting in the church house, a prayer closet, a fish's belly, that's a sanctuary, a private sanctuary. It's the place where you can encounter God, amen. And when you know that you've encountered God, that he has your attention, amen, in that moment, everything except God diminishes in your sight. Everything else is just a distraction. And when you enter his presence, you will not leave the same when you come in. Think of what happened inside that fish. Inside that fish, Jonah recognized his utter dependence on God. Listen, as we look at the desperation in a few minutes that we start reading, in a few minutes we're going to read in verses, chapter 2, verse 2, the Bible says, I cried out for help. I said, I've been banished, he says in verse 4. I thank God. And as my life was faded away, I remembered the Lord, he said in verse 7. And when he exhausted hope, God moved in, and inside that fish, God stripped the wayward prophet of both of his pride and his presence all the way down to verse 8, and God removed every bit of the spiritual distractions that was there. because there was a private sanctuary. In Jonah chapter 2 verse 1, inside that fish, Jonah submitted to God without reservation. And that'll be the last thing that we talk about, because Jonah got along with God. And the voice of sin, the voice of fame, and of others became faint sounds, because the voice of God began to sound louder, and it began to sound clearer, hallelujah. If you wonder from God, and you sense you need to renew your faith, Listen, you've been saved by God's marvelous grace. You ain't got to get saved all over again. God's salvation, when he does something, he does it right the first time, amen. Boy, I thank God. But you might have got weak in your faith, weak in your testimony. You've got out of God's will. You ain't prayed in a long time, and you can't even recognize the voice of God if it slapped you in the face right now because you done got so far out. You need to get back in the sanctuary. You need to get back in the middle of things, praise God. God's wanting to get your attention, praise God. If you've wandered from Him and there's a sense that you need, you need to renew your faith, then get along with Him right now and find a private place and meet with God. You don't need a dramatic event. You just need to be alone with God. Hallelujah. And so we see the confinement that we need to get alone. But I thank God we need to listen to God's voice. And while offering this prayer, Jonah, he probably quoted from the Psalms. Because look, he says, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heardest my voice. Now, I don't know if I put it up here, maybe, probably on further down, but I believe it's at least seven specific references that all of a sudden that he acknowledges and he allows the Word of God to permeate his thoughts. I thank God, because in verse 3, your billows swept over me. Compare. You see, as Jonah began to write this down, he began to think of all of the things of Psalms. In verse 3, when we read it in a few minutes, we're going to compare it with Psalms 42, 7. I thank God. In verse 4, he said, I have been banished. Compare it with Psalms 31, verse 22. He says in verse 5, engulf me up the neck. Compare it with Psalms 69, 1. Boy, Jonah knew his Psalms, didn't he? I thank God. He said in verse 7, my life was faded away. Compare it with Psalms 147, verse 3, amen. He says, to your holy temple, in verse 7, compare it to Psalms 16, 6, amen. Well, I thank God. To worthless idols, in verse 8, he says, compare that to Psalms 31, verse 6, amen. And in Jonah, chapter 2, verse 8, it literally means empty, nothing. I thank God he said all the way down to verse 9, salvation is from the Lord. Compare that to Psalms chapter 3 verse 8. Why was the word of God so critical to Jonah's spiritual recovery? I thank God. He said what? I said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heardest my voice. Boy, God speaks through his word to the heart. And this reminds every one of us of a value of hiding God's word in our hearts, amen. God guides our thoughts by his thoughts. What is a word? It's a physical representation of a thought. And God's word is a physical representation of his thoughts on a level and in a language that we comprehend. And so Jonah, His thoughts were with God's thoughts. The Word of God guided Jonah to understand and to acknowledge God's thoughts about him. God's Word has a cleansing effect on us. Whoo, hallelujah. Man, that's what's so powerful about the preaching of the Word of God, the teaching of the Word of God. God's Word has a cleansing effect on us, amen. Jonah's rebellious heart softened. God's word will always guide us back to him. It will follow it. Amen. Maybe we should look at God's word like a man lost in the woods and begin to take the compass of his word and let it give us our magnetic north to bring us on back. Hallelujah. Boy, I thank God every one of us. Well over 100 years ago, much of northern Michigan was entirely a new country covered with dense forest. The best woodsman liable to lose his way unless he carried a pocket compass. I know about a compass and getting in the middle of the dark and nowheres. You give me a seven digit, man, I'll go wherever in the middle of nowhere and find you, amen. But I'm gonna tell you, when you got God's compass, God will find you and bring you and hone into you. But I thank God. A settler in those days tells this story. He said, one day I've been walking in the woods and when I thought I could not see the sun or the sky, I knew by the setting of the darkness that night was coming on. And it started as I thought for home, but I was so certain of my direction that for some time I didn't look at my compass. And on doing so, however, I was greatly surprised to find that whereas I was going east, in reality, I was bound due west. Not only was I surprised, but I was so sure of my own judgment and so disgusted with my compass that I raised my arm to throw it away. But then I began to pause and I thought, you know, you've never lied to me yet, compass. I'll trust you once more. I'm going to follow it. And I came, it came out all right. And I tell you, the Bible is the compass that guides many, many people today in the right direction. You know what? Some people throw it away, but those who follow it will always come out to safety. And so I thank God, we need to pour our hearts out to God. And when you come to the place, when you come to that place where God is, amen, each and every one of us in life today, we need to know that God can always bring us back home, amen. And so Jonah, he didn't pray about obeying God or buying a ticket to Tarsier or about sleeping during the storm. But when his life is hanging in the balance, he suddenly gets serious enough to pray about his circumstance, amen. And as a boy, each and every one of us, we need, as men and women of God, we begin to realize that God is trying to get our attention, praise God. We go on, first of all, of the prayer of Jonah in this sixth series, the affliction-driven principle, amen, tonight. Because in verse two, He tells us, tonight, as we look at a motivated rebel, and we see a miserable reward, that he tells us, here, we get into the petition of that prayer. They acknowledge God's punishment in verses two through six. They appropriated God's promise, and an accredited of God's power in verse six. From the petition of this prayer, that begins to start and do things. He tells us, he says, for thou hast cast me in the deep, in the midst of the sea, and the floods come past me about, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me." Boy, I thank God. Here we need to pour out our heart to God. And when you come to the place that you know God has your attention, listen, and you know that you must return, listen, I'm going to tell you something. There's four responses that Jonah made concerning God's correction on his life. First of all, he said, I recognize your hand at work here, amen. He says, for thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the sea, and the floods come past me about. All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Thy billows, thy waves, thy floods, he said, God, You were the one that did the work here. You threw me into the depths. I've been banished from your sight. And you and your Jonah makes the connection between the disobedience and God's correction. And furthermore, he holds God blameless and himself guilty. And so we got to turn our eyes, hallelujah, that he tells us, amen. We need to listen to God's voice. I thank God. Jonah, as he quoted the Psalms, and I said this a while ago, and I told you the reference, but I'm going to show you because as pastoring for as long as I have, I can, I can, you know, there's a lot of folks that they're good at listening, but there's some folks they need a visual. And yeah, that's right, that's why I do what I do. Man, I preach the message, I come in the next, oh my God, I have some of my folks, they keep trying to tell me something I preached last Sunday, and they didn't even get it because some people are audio, they're good at listening, and some people need a visual. And that's why I do this, praise God, because I preach a million messages. Come in, some of my folks try to tell me, and I say, I just preached that last Sunday, you didn't listen? God help us, but I thank God. Here, he says, your billows swept over me, in verse 3, compared with Psalms 42. I've been banished, in verse 4, compared with Psalms 31-22. Engulfed me, in verse 5, compared with Psalms 69-1. My life was fading away, in verse 7, compared to Psalms 147-3. Jonah knew the Psalms. to your holy temple, in verse 7, compared to Psalms 18, 6. Jonah, chapter 2, verse 8, literally means empty nothings. Empty nothings. Salvation is from the Lord, in verse 9, compared to Psalms 3, 8. He goes on, why was the word of God so critical to Jonah's spiritual recovery? God speaks through his word to the heart. Amen. I thank God. God guides our thoughts by his thoughts. God's word has a cleansing effect on us, amen. But I thank God he said, then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. Hear the prayer of Jonah. I thank God. The prayer of Jonah. Let me back up just for a minute on that. Praise God. Because each and every one of us, as we turn our eyes, back to the Lord. He said, yet I will look once more toward your holy temple. Here's a good definition of backsliding, taking your eyes off of God. A good definition of repentance is turning your eyes back to God. Amen. Well, I thank God that he tells us. And so as he's speaking about these other things, it is very, very important to listen to the voice of God calling you. Amen. And so I thank God, let's move on to five. The waters could pass me about, even to the soul. The depth closed me round and about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. Here, boy, Jonah's doing some mighty praying, brother. Sister, hallelujah. He's doing the best praying he's ever done in his life, man, because he's on the lifeboat of the whale. He's in the lifeboat of the fish, praise God. And so here, we begin to realize that he tells us, he said, it could pass me about. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains, the earth, where the bars was about me forever, yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord, my God. What does he say, sir? I thank you, Father, for your compassion. Boy, you raised my life from the pit, Lord, my God. He confessed. In case you missed it, Jonah offers his thanks in faith because he had not experienced deliverance yet. He believes that God has left him alive for a purpose. And so I thank God as we look and realize the thing, the affliction-driven principles that is taking place, amen. Daniel was a consistent man of God, but as a result, his enemies conspired against him and got the king to sign a petition making it illegal to pray. But boy, I thank God old Daniel went down over there to that window like he always does. And he got down on that by that window and he prayed three times a day. Praise God, you need to get down on your knees and keep that prayer going, amen. I thank God Daniel was a motivated rebel in verse two. But I thank God with his eyes out and of all the things he couldn't see nothing but the depths. It was a miserable reward. Boy, I thank God. You know what? There's pleasure in sin for a season. or the path of disobedience may be smooth sailing for just a little while, but the season of sin is always short. And whatever price Jonah was unwilling to pay when God asked him to preach to Nineveh, now that seems pretty good in comparison to the cost of his disobedience. Hallelujah, man. He said, hear me, Lord. Well, I thank God each and every one of us, as we realize here tonight. He says, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. And my prayer came in unto thee, into thy holy temple, praise God. Boy, Jonah's doing some, he's doing some praying. And so here's the adversity-driven prayer, amen, that he sees, amen, in verse seven, hallelujah. He's telling us a little bit here, because in this, he says, he's crying from the foxhole, from the lifeboat of that fish, praise God. And I'm gonna tell you, if there was ever a foxhole prayer, this was it. Amen. Boy, as David prayed that prayer, he said, Save me, O God, for the waters are come in under my soul. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I've come into deep waters where the floods overflow me, and I'm weary of my crying, and my throat is dried. I'm weary of my crying, and my throat is dried. My eyes fail while I wait for my God. They hate me without a cause, are more than the hairs of my head, and they that would destroy me, being my enemies, wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that which I took not away, O God, that thou knowest my foolish and my sins are not hid from thee. Amen, I thank God. That's Psalms 69 verses one through five. And so we see the cries from the foxhole, but also the concern from a heavenly father, because as he said, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee, into thy holy temple. Man, the father of the prodigal is disappointed to say the least, but he always waits for his son to return home. God sometimes puts us in the dark to prove to us that he's the light. The old mountain preacher Vance Havner said, hallelujah, I quote him, he said, sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, shake well before using. And that is what God has to do with some of his people. He goes on, he says, old Vance Havner, he said, he that has to shake them, well before they're ever usable, unquote. I tell you, who is a godlike unto thee that pardons iniquity, as Micah said in Micah 7, 18, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of its heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. Oh, thank you, Jesus. God never tires of true repentance, amen. And so I thank God, what do we see here? We begin to see that in verse eight of chapter two, that they observed lying vanities forsake their own mercy. And what does it say in the English version? Those who worship worthless idols have abandoned their loyalty to you. That's what he's telling us. Every one of us in life today, we begin to realize This is the thing but as we get on a little bit further We see the praise of that prayer because here in verse 8 dealt with the sins But now we see the sacrifice. We see the surrender. We see the salvation We see the service that'll be next time in verse 10, but I thank God notice the sacrifice the surrender and the salvation all of it that is a part of of verse 9 that we get into. He says, but I will sacrifice, I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed salvation is of the Lord. I tell you, I thank God as we look at this and we begin to see the avoidance driven promises. When we make promises to God, we must make sure that we have every intent to keep them. Promises made to simply escape punishment are not pleasing to the Lord. There ought to be a very careful voice that should be there. I thank God, he said, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving in verse nine. He tells us, hey, you think that Jonah was really thankful? He wasn't thankful in chapter one. And he won't be thankful in chapter four. So what is is motivating all of a sudden you see James reminds every one of us Let your yay be yay and your nay nay lest you fall into condemnation We must be careful with the words that we speak and the promises that we make Because I thank God there ought to be a continued vow. He says I will pay that I have vowed, he says in verse nine. God takes our vows very seriously. Bible tells us in Numbers chapter 30, he says in verse two, if a man vow unto the Lord or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeded out of his mouth. And so I thank God. I believe that we should see a revival in every one of our churches. If every member would make just one decision, I don't know if we'd ever need to make another decision after this one. Just one more decision would change everything. You know what that decision would be? To keep every decision that we've already made. That's right. And so we see the careful voice, we see the continued vow, and we also see a certain victory. Salvation is of the Lord, we read in verse 9. This may be the only really true phrase uttered in this entire prayer. Amen. What was that? Huh? Because I thank God he says, salvation is of the Lord. That is powerful. That is a certain victory because I thank God if victory comes, it can come to no other way but through the Lord. Now, I tell you, here he says, Jonah, I renew my commitment. He promised I will fulfill my vows. Repentance without obedience results in failure. And true repentance requires a change. I thank God every one of us, we need to be able to do that. You ever saw anybody, a couple people that they've got a certain time, they'll try to go rededicate their life. They'll keep on going down to the altar. I saw it, I saw it over and over through the many years. Well, they'd always, they'd get down there, they'd pray that same old prayer. Lord, remove the cobwebs from my life. Remove the cobwebs from my life. And all of a sudden there was another prayer meeting going on and the pastor overheard and it was the same old thing going on, it was a repeat. They were gonna rededicate their life at such and such time they kept and so all of a sudden the pastor He heard it again. Lord remove the cobwebs from my life. He heard him praying it well the pastor got down there a little bit closer to him and he whispered over there and He said and Lord kill the spider webs Lord kill the spiders Well, I thank God, you know It's said that the eastern shepherd, as he brings his sheep back to the fold each night, he stands at the door. I thank God. This'll be next time we'll pick up in verse 10. And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. That's gonna be next time. What did we learn? What did we learn? I thank God. We need to pour our hearts out to God. And when we come to the place that you know God has your attention, and you know that you must return, what might you say to our Lord and Savior?" There's four responses that Jonah made concerning God's correction and drawing of him. I thank God that he made. I recognize your hand at work. That's what it was. He said, also, I turn my eyes back to you. I thank God. The third thing that we recognize of what we learn, When you come to the place that you know God has your attention, I thank you for your compassion that he said in verse six. And then lastly, in verse nine, I renew my commitment to you. He promised I will fulfill my vows. And so I thank God each and every one of us. One purpose of the book of Jonah is to show us tonight the importance of prayer. Prayer is something that we should simply do. We shouldn't simply do when we are in trouble. Prayer should be a normal as breathing is for us. It should be a part of our lives, no matter what situation that we're in. Amen. And so as we conclude, God, he doesn't play favoritism. No, no, he doesn't. A man in a certain church, this is one I said a while ago, and all of a sudden he said, the Lord killed the spiders. Tonight, as I close out, that eastern shepherd as he brings his sheep back to the fold. Each night he stands at the door and he counts each one. Now, this is on your outline at the close of Facebook. It's there. You can follow along with me. And as he does, he puts his hand on the head of each one of them animals. He makes a habit of touching each one of them sheep as if they were to grow careless and neglect. And if he didn't touch them, it would soon turn its head away when it heard his voice. And so he wanted to make a habit of that, that it was very serious for him that they understood the voice of the shepherd. Such a habit that would follow the animal, that that animal would not ignore the warning from the shepherd, because if he did, it would be disastrous. If you are experiencing the shepherd's touch daily in your life, then you're going to recognize his voice when he warns you of impending danger. If we don't practice the presence daily, of our Lord. If we don't practice his presence, then we're probably going to be practicing the presence of our enemy. And our Lord awaits the moment to touch our day with his presence. Father, thank you tonight for the lessons on obedience. We need to listen to your voice. We need to find ourselves a place where we can get alone and have confession and repent and come back to you. Get back into our prayer life regular. Father, we want to thank you for speaking to those tonight that heard the word of God, teached from the word and the Bible, and Lord, the lesson of obedience from the book of Jonah, in Jesus' marvelous mighty name, amen. Don't forget tonight, this is Pastor Derby saying, hey, you can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips. God bless you tonight, and thank you for tuning us in.