TALKING POINTS / WALKING POINTS
Dig deeper into the message during the sermon, in your personal Bible study, or with your family or Community Group in application-driven discussion.
COMMUNITY GROUP LEADER’S GUIDE
SERMON SUMMARY
Today we study a man at prayer. If you want to learn to pray, saturate your heart and mind with the prayers in the Bible—and you’ll become instructed by the Spirit of God in the art of powerful praying. Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2 breaks neatly into three parts:
[1] The setting of Jonah’s prayer (v. 1). Jonah prayed from the stomach of the fish. Strange? Not really—you can pray anywhere! Now, some are asking, “Could this really happen? Is there a fish large enough to swallow a man?” Actually, it’s not the size of the fish that matters so much, as the size of its throat. The Blue Whale is very big, but its throat can only accommodate a few fish at a time. The smaller Sperm Whale has an expandable throat. An intact 16 foot shark has been found there. Others will ask, “Could a person survive in the belly of a fish?” That very thing happened in 1891 on the whale ship “Star of the East”. Boats were lowered to harpoon a whale, but a lash of the whale’s tail crushed one of the boats and a seaman named James Bartley was lost. The whale was killed, hauled onto the deck, and when the stomach was removed, inside was found the missing sailor, doubled up and unconscious. Three weeks later he was fully recovered and resumed his duties. (There was one lasting effect: Barley’s skin was bleached to a stark whiteness and took on the appearance of parchment.) One other question is much more important than those two: “Is there a big enough God to pull this whole thing off?” Truth is, the size of your God determines the size of your faith. When God says something, the believing heart accepts it. The “where” was the belly of the fish; the “when” is during Jonah’s three-day incarceration in the fish (1:17—2:2). Jonah was desperate. God brings problems to get our attention (James 1:2–4). If you knew that for the next year you wouldn’t have a single problem—how much would you pray? Do you pray “just as a last resort”?
[2] The substance of Jonah’s prayer (v. 2-9). First, Jonah confessed and repented (v. 2-4). He recognized his sinful defiance of God which led to broken fellowship (4a), but he turned toward God (“Your holy temple”) in repentance (4b; cf. 1 John 1:9). Jonah owned up to his sin. And in this prayer I want you to note that Jonah is confessing his sins and not someone else’s. Oh, we love to confess other people’s sins, don’t we? God requires that we come clean on our sins. We can’t be in fellowship with God if we are unwilling to try and reconcile a broken relationship. (cf. Matthew 5:23–24 and 6:14-15). There is nothing that will cripple and shrivel your soul like an unforgiving spirit—but in v. 6-8 we see Jonah full of praise. Jonah was exercising “the therapy of thanksgiving”, and his depression lifted (v. 9). Repentance refers to a change of mind and a change of behavior. It involves a 180 degree turn, and that’s just what Jonah did: God told him to go to Nineveh but he went in the exact opposite direction. Then he repented and moved in the right direction.
[3] The sequel to Jonah’s prayer (v. 10). How considerate—back where he started! Oh the grace of God. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever learned, by your experience, the power of believing prayer (Mark 11:24)? One of my favorite passages on prayer is Acts 12:1-16. Sometimes we pray—but don’t really expect God to answer. Of course, we shouldn’t expect God to answer selfish prayers (James 4:3). But when we enroll in Christ’s school of prayer, we learn how to pray, including confession, repentance, and forgive and praise. Theologian J. I. Packer says that repentance means:
- turning from as much as you know of your sin
- to give as much as you know of yourself
- to as much as you know of your God.
As our knowledge grows at these three points, so our practice of repentance will be enlarged.
APPLICATION / CHALLENGE
- “Salvation is from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). Have you turned from self to God? If you would like to trust Christ as Savior, contact us here. After providing your contact information, scroll down to the Ministry Information Request section and mark the first or second checkbox. You can also email us at: Counseling@TCC.org. We look forward to helping!
- Are you continuing to turn from as much as you know of your sin, to give as much as you know of yourself, to as much as you know of your God?
TAKE ONE STEP
Each week, write down one doable concrete step of obedience, small or large, that you will put into practice this week. (James 1:22: “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”)