Beyond the Fish: Embracing God's Second Chances

Jonah should not have survived that fish, but grace was in the fish. Jonah should not have made it back to dry land, but grace was on the shore. Jonah should not have received another word from the Lord, but grace spoke a second time. And if we are honest, some of us have a Jonah testimony too. We should not have survived everything we've been through. We should not have survived that storm. We should not have survived that mistake. We should not have survived that season. We should not have survived that moment, but grace found us. [00:56:18] (39 seconds)  #GraceFoundUs

And here's the part of the story that changes everything. When Jonah was in the darkest, tightest, most uncomfortable place he had ever been, Jonah didn't just sit there and feel sorry for himself. He prayed, and he praised, and he surrendered. Verse nine, which was the memory verse for the children yesterday, was, but I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed, I will make good. I will say salvation comes from the Lord. This is a prayer and a praise in the belly of a fish. [00:41:39] (37 seconds)  #PraiseInThePit

And I want you to notice the difference between comfortable prayers and belly of the fish prayers. When the bills are paid, we say, thank you, Lord. When the family's healthy, we say, thank you, Lord. When life is comfortable, we say, God, you did that. But there's a different kind of prayer that comes from the belly of a fish. A different kind of prayer that comes from a hospital room, from a broken heart, from disappointment. A different kind of prayer that comes when you realize all your plans have failed, and the only person who can help you is God. [00:42:26] (33 seconds)  #PrayersFromThePit

We all have had belly of the fish moments. Nobody volunteers to live in the fish. Nobody asks for the fish. Nobody puts three days in a fish on their vision board. Yet sometimes God uses difficult seasons to get our attention. Sometimes the place we call punishment, though, becomes a place of preparation. The place we call a setback becomes the place of transformation. Sometimes the place we call a problem becomes the place where we finally hear God clearly. [00:41:07] (32 seconds)  #SeasonsOfPreparation

And so the fish had completed its assignment. The fish had carried Jonah as far as it was supposed to carry him. The fish was never Jonah's destination. It was simply Jonah's transportation. And once Jonah surrendered to God's will, there was no reason for him to stay there anymore. Jonah's promise unlocked his exit, and somebody needs to hear this. There are seasons in life that are only meant to hold us temporarily. The grief is real, but you're not meant to live there forever. [00:48:23] (28 seconds)  #SeasonsDontDefineYou

Young people hear me. One bad grade does not cancel God's purpose. It's just a hurdle. One mistake does not cancel God's purpose. It's just a hurdle. One poor decision does not cancel God's purpose. It's just a hurdle. One hard chapter in your story does not cancel God's purpose. One detour won't cancel God's purpose. Those are just hurdles. And once you get through them, God is still able to speak again. God is still able to call you again. God is still able to use you again. God is able to send you again. And verse three says, Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. [00:54:44] (44 seconds)  #HurdlesDontCancelPurpose

Have you ever been given another chance? Maybe it was a second chance on a test you didn't study for. Maybe it was a friendship you thought was gone. Maybe it was a moment when life went sideways, when you made a choice you wished you could take back, and somehow, someway, God opened a door you did not deserve to walk through. You don't have to say amen, but I am 99% sure that every person in this room and online, from children to the elders, know what it feels like to need another chance. [00:33:14] (34 seconds)  #GivenAnotherChance

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, Not because Jonah deserved it, earned it, or had been perfect, but the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Why I love this verse so much is because it reminds me that our failure does not have the final word. Our mistakes don't get to tell us how the end is going to happen. Our disappointments do not have the final word. The word of the lord came to Jonah a second time. Now, truthfully, some of us would not have given Jonah another chance. [00:51:01] (36 seconds)  #FailureIsNotFinal

You entered fearful and came out fearless. You entered bitter and came out better. You entered doubting and came out with faith. You entered focused on yourself and came out focused on God. The fish changed Jonah. Now some of our greatest growth has happened in places we never would have chosen for ourselves. Nobody signs up for hardship or heartbreak or disappointment, but sometimes the places we would have never gone on our own becomes the places where God uses to teach us our greatest lessons. [00:46:39] (32 seconds)  #TransformedByTrials

Jonah is in the belly of a big fish, still alive, still praying, still praising, still talking to God, and maybe that's because God was doing more than preserving his life. God was shaping Jonah's heart. Jonah could change Nineveh. Before Jonah could change Nineveh, God had to change Jonah. Jonah couldn't preach that message until Jonah had become the message, and he couldn't help anybody else until he surrendered himself. So this is not just prayer. It's surrender. It's the moment Jonah stopped negotiating with God and started submitting to God. [00:47:11] (37 seconds)  #BecomeTheMessage

Sometimes you do not get the grades you wanted. Sometimes things don't go your way. Adults, we know life can get hard too. Been there. Sometimes the diagnosis comes. Sometimes the job ends when we didn't expect it to. Sometimes relationships and sometimes unexpected grief shows up at our doorstep. But Jonah teaches us that even in difficult places, we can still pray, we can still praise, and we can still trust God. Because the same God who meets us on the mountain is the same God who meets us in the fish. [00:43:33] (38 seconds)  #TrustGodInTheDark

He was not the fish wasn't Jonah's destination. God used the fish to be Jonah's transportation. The fish was not evidence that God had abandoned Jonah like some of us would like to think. The fish was evidence that God was not through with Jonah yet. And I need somebody to understand this today. Praise is not just for the good times. Praise is not just for Sunday mornings in the sanctuary. Praise is how we survive in the valley. Praise is what we do when we don't know how we're gonna get out, but we trust the God who can command the situation to change. [00:44:47] (35 seconds)  #PraiseThroughTheValley

And if God can hear Jonah in the belly of a great fish, then surely God can hear us wherever we are. And somebody ought to thank God for being a God who hears prayers in strange places. Thank God for being a God who hears prayers in dark places. Thank God for being a God who hears prayers from fish seasons. Thank God that the place that should have destroyed Jonah became the place where Jonah learned to pray powerfully. And this is what I love. The fish wasn't trying to eat Jonah. The fish was carrying Jonah. [00:44:11] (36 seconds)  #GodHearsWhereverYouAre

And when that finally happened, verse 10 says, and the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. And I know that's not the prettiest verse in the Bible. It's probably the messiest verse. The the fish did not gently escort Jonah to shore, did not politely release him. The text says the fish vomited him out. On one song, the solo describes it as the whale got sick. What happens when somebody vomits? They're getting rid of something that doesn't belong there anymore. [00:47:48] (35 seconds)  #UnexpectedDeliverance

Picture being inside of this. It's dark, tight. The small the smell alone would send most of us into full panic. No light. No windows. No way to see what is ahead of around you but the consequences of the choices that led you there. Have you ever had a belly of the fish moment in your life? Not literally, but those seasons when life closed in around you, when a decision you made landed you somewhere dark and uncomfortable, when the weight of your own choices had you completely surrounded. [00:39:49] (39 seconds)  #BellyOfTheFishMoment

Jonah finally said, God, I'll do what you've asked me to do. Being in the fish changed his perspective and his attitude, but the fish did not change God's mind. God had already spoken, already assigned the prophet to go to speak to Nineveh, and being in the belly of the fish changed Jonah, and that may be the greatest miracle in the story. Not simply that Jonah survived, but that Jonah came out different than when he went in. Some of us have been through seasons that changed us, entered one way and came out the other, went in immature and came out wiser. [00:46:02] (36 seconds)  #ChangedOnTheInside

Still called, still chosen, still useful, still loved, still capable of fulfilling God's purpose, and that's good news. Because the God who brought Jonah out is still bringing us out. The God who commanded the fish is still speaking today, and the God who changed Jonah is still changing us. But this is where I wanna be honest with us because some of us know exactly what it feels like to make a promise to God in a desperate situation. We say, Lord, if you bring me through this, I will do that. [00:48:51] (32 seconds)  #CalledDespiteFailure

Our text picks up after Jonah has run and has reached the lowest point of his life, and yet even there, god is still at work. Because when god has a purpose for your life, failure is never the end of the story. The fish is never the end of the story. Your worst moment is never the end of the story, and that's good news for every child, every teenager, every parent, every grandparent, every believer in the room. Because if God could work through Jonah after everything Jonah had done or not done, then maybe there's hope for us too. [00:38:01] (33 seconds)  #HopeAfterFailure

You've seen the felt board. You have colored the pictures. You may even have done a little craft where Jonah is a clothespin inside a paper fish. But set aside all that you think you know because today, we're not stopping at the fish. We are going deeper. We're gonna go to the part of the story that we never quite got to. We're gonna talk about grace, but also about accountability, about second chances, about a God who is so relentlessly in love with us that even when we run, even when we make a mess, god will use whatever it takes, even a great big fish, to bring us back. [00:34:55] (38 seconds)  #BeyondTheFish

So just a quick recap to make sure we understand how Jonah ended up there. God gave Jonah an assignment. Go to Nineveh. It was a great and powerful city. Deliver a message. But Jonah didn't wanna go, so he ran. Went down to a Port Of Joppa, bought a ticket because it'll cost you something to run from the lord, and got on a boat headed in the complete opposite direction. But the lord sent a storm. The sailors panicked, and, ultimately, Jonah was thrown overboard and swallowed by this great fish, which is where we find him in chapter two. [00:38:45] (31 seconds)  #YouCantRunFromGod