Survivor Series

Pastor Phillips' Sermon

  Lenten Service, Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, when we read the bible, we know it is your holy and inspired word. It is living and active. And even though a story might seem unusual and different than our own experience, we know somehow you have a message for us, fresh for us today. We pray you bless us now with your Holy Spirit, that you will speak to our hearts and strengthen our faith in you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Where is Jonah? Earlier we read about how God had sent him to Nineveh and, instead of obeying God, he ran away and he headed for Tarshish. And he got on a ship, then a storm rose up, the ship was about to be destroyed, and all the sailors are calling out to their own gods and they found Jonah sleeping down below. And they said, “Call on your God, too.” And then they tried to figure out why the storm had come up on them and whose fault it might be. So they cast lots, as was their custom, and the lot fell on Jonah indicating that, according to their way of thinking, Jonah had done something to cause this calamity. And Jonah said, “Throw me overboard and the sea will be calm and you'll be saved.” And they said, “No, that can't be right.” So they tried to row for shore and it said the sea grew even wilder than before threatening to break up the ship. So finally, in desperation, they obeyed the prophet of God and they threw Jonah overboard and the sea became calm. And the sailors, who had formerly been unbelievers in the true God, now made sacrifices to Him and made vows to Him and they worshiped Him.

But what about Jonah? Where is Jonah? It says in the scripture the Lord provided a great fish for Jonah and it swallowed him and he was inside of this fish. Not a very pleasant place to be. I can't even imagine what it would be like. The only thing I can compare it to is did you ever see those sleeping bags, those mummy sleeping bags that you're really wrapped up tight in and there's barely room for your face when you're all inside it? I can't stand those. I have to move around when I'm sleeping, so I can't stand those. And I think that would be similar to what Jonah was feeling at this time, all closed in, trapped in. But what was the alternative? He would have drowned. God provided the fish to save even His disobedient servant, Jonah. But where is Jonah? A pretty awful place.

One time, I was talking to my neighbor in New Jersey and he told me about his daughter who had gone through a lot and he said, “You know, she says she doesn't even know if there is a God.” And I thought about that. And, of course, I had all kinds of theological answers to that point, bible verses I could quote, but what I wasn't thinking about was where that woman was, where she was speaking from when she said “I don't even know if I believe in a God.” The story behind the story was she had lost her husband. He had died. And she was in incredible pain in her grief. So she was speaking from a place of pain. I think you know what I'm talking about. Most of us, in our lifetime, go through those places of pain. Right now, in our text, Jonah is in a place of pain. How do you act when you're in that place? How do you act when you're afraid, when you feel threatened, when you feel the walls closing in around you?

Let's look and see how Jonah handled it. He says, “In my distress, in my place of pain, I called to the Lord and He answered me. From the depths of the grave, I called for help and you listened to my cry.” Listen how he describes this place. “You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, the currents swirled about me, and all your waves and breakers swept over me.” He has to be in complete despair, thinking about waves washing over a person. That sounds like a horrible place, fighting for breath, fighting to survive, feeling threatened by your circumstances. “I have been banished from your sight.” He's feeling cut off from God. Can you imagine? We who walk by faith in this world living day by day, going through the struggles, the valleys, and the mountaintops, we need God with us in those difficult times. Can you imagine being cut off from God? Can you imagine what that must feel like, to be completely isolated with your problem? No help and no hope.

Jonah is in a place of pain. Who does he blame for his pain? Well, how do we typically react when we feel pain? Do we say, “You know, I shouldn't have done that. I got myself into this situation.” No, typically, we're just like Jonah who says, “You hurled me into the sea.” That's what Jonah said. “You, God Almighty, hurled me into the deep. Your waves and breakers washed over me. I am banished from your sight.” Who is he blaming? He's blaming God, isn't he? You're right. He's blaming God for the storm, for being thrown in, for almost drowning, for being inside that fish, for being in that place of pain, Jonah is blaming God.

The blame game just doesn't work. When we feel pain and we play the blame game, it doesn't work. Take, for instance, Hurricane Katrina. That's something we all know a little bit about. When Katrina hit the Gulf Coast , the blame game began. First, we blamed the President. Then we blamed the Governor of Louisiana or the Mayor of New Orleans or the corrupt politics that allowed things to go in the direction they went or the political philosophy which endorsed problems or FEMA, the federal organization that was supposed to save those people from that disaster, or the relief efforts. Americans aren't charitable enough. They don't care enough about each other. That's why the problems still exist. Or the city planners who built the city in such a place. Or the sinful people of New Orleans who deserve it. Or God. Isn't that what we did as a nation? We blamed everyone and everything and pointed fingers. And that fixed everything, didn't it? No, not at all. The blame game doesn't work. It didn't work for Jonah. It hasn't worked for Katrina. It doesn't work for me, and it doesn't work for you.

What does work? Where does Jonah find help? Where does Jonah find hope? Finally, after three days and three nights in that awful place of pain, he starts to come to his senses and he puts things in the right places. He says, “But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord, my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you to your holy temple.” “Your holy temple.” “You brought me up.” “I remembered you.” “My prayer rose to you.” “To your holy temple.”

Psalm 121, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forever more.” Jonah found help in the Lord. You and I find help in the Lord. When we're in pain, we have a choice. We can blame God and others and that can go on forever, or we can turn to God for help and healing.

My own mother-in-law, who is a wonderful, beautiful person, went through a very painful time when her own mother died of cancer, a very terrible and painful death. And, as my wife describes it, her mom blamed God, didn't want anything to do with God, didn't want to go to church, in fact, just kind of went the opposite direction for awhile. We can go in that direction forever, angry at God, blaming God, but all it will do is prolong the pain. But when we turn to Him for comfort, for healing, for help, then He lifts us up, dusts us off, and helps us to walk again.

Psalm 50:15 says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.” God delivered Jonah. God has delivered you. 1 John says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Think about this when you're in that place of pain. Because Jesus went to the place of pain, the cross, we are delivered from an eternal place of pain. Because Jesus walked those steps and gave up His life in that place of pain, we know He loves each one of us so much He considers us worth dying for. And, if He's willing to pay the price for our salvation, He's also willing to help us with the smaller things, the temporary places of pain that we experience in this world.

Listen to Revelation 21:3-4, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them and they will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” In heaven, there are no places of pain, none. And that means you and I can look forward to that place with hope. We will experience pain here on this earth. But in the whole scheme of things, in the eternal perspective, our pain on earth is temporary. But the joy and peace of heaven is eternal.

How does this passage conclude? Well, it says after Jonah came around and he understood things in proper perspective and stopped blaming God and blaming others and he got right with God, he confessed his sins to God, God re-commissioned him. It says, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time and He told Jonah, ‘Go and proclaim the message that I give you.'” Until Jonah was right with God, he could not be used by God. But when he repented, when he turned to God for healing and comfort, God re-commissioned him. And it's the same with us. As we humble ourselves before our Lord, He lifts us up and blesses us and strengthens us and commissions us to go and do great things for Him.

We cannot avoid the places of pain in this world. It's just going to come. But we can avoid the blame game, and we can go directly to the Lord for comfort.

One more story. When my dog was little, just a little puppy, he was just the most wonderful little puppy, a little beagle, and I took him out fishing with me in the boat and he was curious. He was looking at shore. He was looking at ducks. He was looking at everything. And I caught a fish and I brought it into the boat, and it's flopping all around. And he went to smell it and he got the hooks. That dog instantly came to me for help because I was his master and I took the hook out and he was fine. He was in a place of pain, and he went to the person who could help. What a great example for us. When we are in a place of pain, don't waste time with the blame. Just go directly to your Lord and master, Jesus. Amen? Amen.