If you hear of someone being swallowed by a large sea creature, It's natural to assume they've met their end. But for Jonah it meant a new beginning. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah explains how Jonah's encounter with the Great Fish Reflects God's gracious commitment to second chances. From his series on Jonah, here's David with the conclusion of his message hitting rock bottom.
Well, if you've been following me along and you're reading this part of the story, you probably figure this is the end. This is the end of Jonah. Jonah has come to the end of his life. But not so. God is not finished with Jonah, and as we shall see, he will live to do some great things for Jehovah God, and we'll get to that part a little bit later in this series.
Today is part two of hitting rock bottom from the first chapter of Jonah. During this month, we are making available to you a beautiful calendar. You can't find this anyplace. It's not available at any bookstores or any big box stores. It's only available from Turning Point.
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It will hang on your wall and grace your home and remind you of the light that God brings into a darkness that is seeming to gather around us these days. The photography in this calendar is absolutely gorgeous.
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Ask for your copy when you send your gift to Turning Point during this month. And by the way, those of you who live in Canada, when you give to Turning Point, your money stays in Canada. It goes to the Canadian Turning Point Office and is used to buy airtime in Canada. It doesn't come to the United States, never has. We support Canada.
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So we want you to know we love you, and we're so grateful that you who love God and live in Canada listen to Turning Point. And we want you to know we're there for you and your resources come right straight home to your country and to your people. Here now is part two. of hitting rock bottom from the book of Jonah, the runaway prophet. William Bacchus.
has written a book called The Paranoid Prophet. It's a very interesting book. It's an imagination. of Jonas speaking to a therapist about his ordeal. If you ever get that book, you'll find it fun to read.
At one point, Jonah says to the therapist, I turned just in time to see it coming. A sea creature the size of a ship was racing toward me, its mouth open. Screaming in terror, I was swallowed whole. The darkness was total. The noise around me was like a huge machine.
I knew nothing but terror. It was awful. It was terrible. But God was getting Jonah's attention. The belly of that fish became God's classroom.
where Jonah finally had no voice to hear but the Lord's. I wonder if you've ever been in a place like that. A place where God finally had your full attention. I mean, God sometimes puts his children in places of seclusion so they can see what is really going on in their hearts. His purpose in discipline is never destruction, but always restoration.
The Lord desires to bring His children back to Himself even when they have run far away. Notice just how far Jonah's heart was from God at this point. In chapter one, The pagan sailors prayed while Jonah was sleeping. And they begged Jonah to call on his God, but there is no record in the text that Jonah ever prayed until he was in the water. God shut every other door, and finally, Jonah had nowhere to go but to pray.
Have you ever been there? Have you ever heard anybody say, well, I've tried everything else, I guess all I can do is pray.
Sometimes We take what should be the first alternative and we make it the last alternative. We try everything under the sun except the one thing for which we are perfectly prepared. The Bible says in Jonah 2.1, that Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly. Finally, Jonah prays. After God had shut every other door.
He had no other opportunities, no other alternatives. All through chapter one, the pagans are praying, and the prophet is not praying. We can be just as hard-hearted as Jonah if we're honest. We often try every option first, and only when everything fails do we finally pray. One of my friends is the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York City.
His name is Jim Simbler, and he's written about some of these things. Here's one thing he said about prayer, to which I raised my hand in agreement. He said, prayer cannot be taught by principals and seminars. Prayer has to be born out of felt need. If I say I ought to pray, I will soon quit.
The flesh is too strong, I have to be driven to pray. Jonah didn't pray because he had learned that prayer was a good thing. He prayed because he didn't have any other option. He was driven to pray.
Sometimes we just have to be in a mess before we really pray. Jonah did not want to talk to God, even in the storm and the terror of that ship. He still would not pray. Even though the storm was raging around him, the sailors were praying. Jonah wouldn't pray.
But when the Lord put him in a place with no distractions and no escape, His stubborn heart finally cried out to God. I don't know if you have noticed that in your own life. I have, and I have seen that story repeated over and over. as a pastor.
Some of us are just doggone hard-headed. And God has to work a little harder to get our attention. You see, Jonah was under God's tutelage, learning what it meant to get things right. And I want to tell you something that I've learned. God never does this.
In a vacuum, he has a purpose in mind. Here are three passages of scriptures from Psalm 119. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now I'd keep your word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted.
that I may learn your statutes. I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. God disciplines his servants. to reach their hearts. It is the only way some people will open up to him.
If you've noticed, Quite often people tell you Here's where I was, and this is what happened to me, and this is what God used to bring me to Himself. He often takes the methodology that we think is from the world. and incorporates it into his plan.
So The fish came to rescue Jonah, to return Jonah to Nineveh. to reach Jonah's heart. and the recommissioned Jonah for service. Here's the thing I like the most. This is one of the great thoughts of this whole story.
God's purpose in all of this was to bring Jonah back to the place. where he could be used again. Think about everything that happened. The boat ride. The whale ride.
They were not random events. The whole purpose was to get Jonah back to where he had been at the beginning of the story. Where was he at the beginning of the story? Remember Jonah 1.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, great city, crowd against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. Everything between those first two verses And where we are now. was God's effort to return Jonah to the place of obedience. What a detour this was. I mean, all of that pain and fear.
could have been avoided with one simple yes to God. But instead of walking straight to Nineveh, he chose a long and costly road. and disobedience always adds chapters to your story. It always adds chapters to your story, chapters that never had to be written at all. I want to say something to you.
kind of on a personal basis if I can. If you're fighting with God, And you are in a contest with him. You can't win. You cannot win. Why don't you just do what he tells you to do the first time and spare yourself all those extra verses?
And really is a good idea. Just do what he says. If God says to go to Nineveh, Go to Nineveh. You may not understand it. It may not be something you're excited about.
But obedience is always better than resistance. When God speaks, the safest place in the world is in the wake of His command. Because if you refuse, listen to me, you're going on a boat ride. Yeah. And you are not going to like it.
God loves you too much to let you run forever. And he will do whatever it takes to bring you back to the place where he can use you again. And his goal, and all of it, is not punishment. But restoration and recommissioning. Remember what the New Testament says about the stubborn love of God?
He who has begun a good work in you. will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. These all are the purposes of God's correction. But I want to finish up this discussion today. with a few moments of discussion on the promise of God's correction.
We saw the purpose of it. What is the promise of it? Let me close with some thoughts about the promise of God's discipline. This touches everyone because none of us are exempt. From these principles.
I don't care who you are, how long you've been a Christian, how close you may be walking to the Lord at this moment in time. you have been through some experiences. And maybe you've been through a train wreck or a shipwreck. Why do we run into walls and crash? Many times, it's our own self-will because we have chosen to do our own thing and not what God tells us to do.
Not every storm is for that reason. Please don't judge everybody who's in a storm that they're out of fellowship with God. It may be true, it may not be true. But when it is true, God is not trying to destroy us. He's trying to restore us.
Why does God discipline us when we are running away from Him? First of all, to prove His love for us. Hebrews 12, 6 says, For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and he scourges every son whom he receives. By every human standard, Jonah was rebellious. and running in the opposite direction from God.
the easy thing would have been to let the sea swallow him up and be finished with the whole story and get on to the next book. But God rescued Jonah out of that mess. because in his heart there was an incredible love for that prophet. The reason God goes to such lengths with us is because He loves us. The very proof of his love Is his discipline in our lives.
Now I understand. This doesn't sound logical. We tried this line on our kids when they were growing up. We would say this is the classic line. This hurts me more than it hurts you.
I never believed that when I was young, and I'm not sure it was always true. But when we talk about the fatherhood of God and the way he deals with his children. This is really true. God proves His love when He goes to extreme measures to recover us. from our own foolishness.
I'll remember the story. about a little boy who had a toy boat floating on a pond. And the boat drifted away from the shore. And the boy couldn't reach it. A man was passing by, saw what was happening, and began to throw stones into the water on the far side of the boat.
The boy was very upset and said, what are you doing to my boat? And then something very interesting happened. The stones created ripples that slowly pushed the boat back toward the boy. The water was disturbed and no longer smooth. but the disturbance achieved the desired result.
That is exactly how God's discipline works. If we allow it, it will drive us toward him. If we don't allow it, it will drive us away from him. But when we drift away from him on the sea of sin or on the pond of unrighteousness, He throws the disturbing stones of loving discipline to push us back. toward himself.
Some of you have been in stormy weather recently. The waves have been rough. And the stones have been heavy. I want to remind you that this is not a sign God has abandoned you. It is proof that he loves you.
If he did not love you, he would simply let you go. But you mean too much. For him. to do that. Why does that happen to us?
Why do we experience the discipline? to prove his love for us, and then secondly to present a realistic picture of us. Hebrews says, exhort one another daily while it is called today. lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3 warns us that sin lies to us.
Sin does not tell us the truth. And the more we listen, the harder our hearts become. That is what happened to Jonah, and it can happen to us. We can invent the most creative explanations for why we are not doing what we know we ought to do. I mean, some of those stories deserve an award.
There ought to be a ribbon handed out every year for the best excuse given in the face of clear scripture. I've heard a bunch of them, and they're overwhelming. I'm not talking about gray areas. Where the Bible is hard to understand. I'm talking about the plainly revealed Word of God.
The simple and clear, thus says the Lord. I have watched people stand in direct opposition to it and then tell you how their disobedience is somehow part of God's plan. When you listen to it, you can hardly believe what you're hearing. The mind is capable. of making up its own story to support attitudes which are not favorable toward the Lord.
Here's something I've noticed over the years. Many people do not face the truth about their lives until the pain of disobedience finally catches up with them. In one way or another, that has been true of all of us. We tell ourselves it is not that bad, we convince ourselves everything will work out. we whisper that it is really all right.
And then without warning, Reality shows up, and in the middle of that hard experience, our eyes finally begin to open.
Sometimes God allows that moment so we can see what has been all along. His discipline is meant to strip away our excuses. Wake us up and bring us back to what is real and what is right.
So he sends the storms. and the big fish. To prove his love for us and to present a realistic picture of us. and to produce a greater maturity in us. Gaunt's correction produces a greater maturity in us.
It grows us up. That's one of the clearest teachings in the New Testament. Without discipline, we simply don't grow in the Lord. The Bible is very honest. Hebrews 12:10 says that God disciplines us for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
And James says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. but let patience have its perfect work. that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. And the word complete means finished, fully developed.
God doesn't want to have half-formed believers. He is shaping men and women who resemble his son, and discipline is part of that shaping process. When you go through tough times, God is making you stronger and better, more capable of dealing with the issues of life. And then This is the part I like the best. He does all of this in our lives, he allows this pain that we feel.
to provide a new start for us. And this is the thought I want you to remember if you don't remember anything else. God's discipline provides a new start for us. It allows us to begin again.
Some of you feel overwhelmed by what has happened in your life, and you've stumbled and failed, and you're embarrassed by it, and you think God must surely be finished with you. But I want to tell you something with all my heart. He is not. God has gone to great lengths to recover you so he can restore you to usefulness and joy. And this is the story of the whole Bible.
Noah stepped off the ark. into a brand new world. Jacob was given a new name and a new future after wrestling with the Lord. Ruth found a new family and a new purpose when she was taken to Bethlehem. David was restored with a clean heart after his biggest failure.
The prodigal son was welcomed home with a robe and a feast instead of rejection. Peter was recommissioned on the shore after denying the Savior three times. Paul was transformed from a persecutor into a preacher of grace. And Jonah was sent back to finish the work God had given him. You see, the fish was not the end of Jonah's story.
It was God's way of helping him start over. He didn't put Jonah in that fish to ruin him. He put him there to rescue him and turn him around. and the same Lord who made a way for that stubborn prophet, makes a way for us. Whatever you are facing today, I hope you will learn.
That God is teaching you, and say, Lord, whatever you want, I got it, I got the message. I realize You're trying to get through to me, and I want to listen. I remember when I had cancer years ago, I used to pray, Lord, help me to understand what you're doing because I don't want any refresher courses. And that's the way we should pray when we go through difficulty. Johnny Cash.
was an incredible singer. but he was also a tormented man. He lived between two worlds: bright stages and cheering crowds on one side. pills, arrests and brokenness on the other. By 1967, nearly 10 years of addiction had emptied him out.
He felt finished and beyond repair. One night he went to Nickerjack Cave in Tennessee. later saying he planned to crawl inside the cave and die. In that black silence, he began to pray, telling God he had no strength left. In his autobiography he wrote, Quote, in the darkness I felt the presence of God.
He believed a faint breath of air guided him back toward the entrance and back toward life. That became his Turning Point. He rebuilt his life with June Carter. sang with new honesty, and began walking with a humble faith. though he admitted the struggle was never completely over.
Chuck Coulson learned the same lesson. He was once one of the most powerful men in America, serving in the White House under President Nixon. Then Watergate exploded and everything collapsed. He was convicted and sent to federal prison. Overnight, he went from a coroner office to inmate number 22326.
Prison took away his power. But prison gave him a new perspective. On a metal bunk in a noisy cell block, he read the Bible every day. and prayed with a small group of inmates. Colson later said, for the first time in my life, I could hear God speaking without the noise of power and position.
After his release, he founded Prison Fellowship. bringing hope to prisoners and their families around the world. Looking back, Coulson said. I thank God for Watergate. That would be like Jonah saying, I thank God for the whale.
The stories of Cash and Coulson.
Sounded a lot like Jonah's story. They bottomed out, but the bottom wasn't the end. Because God has a way of meeting us there and giving us a new beginning. When we come to the end of ourselves, When we've tried all of our stuff and we know it doesn't work and we just keep getting further and further away from him. Finally, one day we wake up and say, okay, God, whatever it is you want.
I'm here. I will do it. I hope that maybe someone here today is like that. You were wondering what in the world is God doing in my life? And perhaps Through the life of Jonah.
Through the life of Johnny Cash and Chuck Coulson. You see that God has never done with us. If we're His, He loves us and He will pursue us. And he will take us from the bottom and take us back to where we belong. If we will just be honest enough to ask him.
Amen. Amen. And thank you for joining us today. You know, I don't know about you, but when I have a story like this that I get to teach, I can't wait from Sunday to Sunday. And I know the people come in.
And actually, when the story's over, there's kind of a sadness in our church because we've involved ourselves in the life of this man and what God was doing in his life. And I hope you get involved as well, listening every day.
So many of you are regular participators at Turning Points Study Program. Thank you for being a part of us. During this month, we're making available to all of our listeners the opportunity to get our beautiful calendar for 27. You say, Dr. Jeremiah, isn't September a little bit early for a new calendar?
Well, here's why we do that: it's a 14-month calendar that begins in November. And if we don't offer it in September, you can't get the calendar usually in time to get everything ready and get started.
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Now, don't forget to ask for the calendar when you send your gift. You'll be glad you did. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. We'll see you next time. Today's message originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr.
David Jeremiah. Drop us a note to let us know how God is using this ministry in your life. Right to Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Visit our website at davidjeremiah.org/slash radio or call 800-947-1993.
Ask for your copy of our 14-month 2027 calendar, The Light of the World. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app to instantly access our content. Search the app store for the keywords Turning Point Ministries. Visit davidjeremiah.org slash radio.
That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series, Jonah the Runaway Prophet, on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
