From Deep Despair to Unexpected Deliverance

Good morning, 121, will you stand if you're able to worship with us this morning? Souls look into the living God I'm ready for a real revival Oh Holy Spirit Go like a flood, like a fire Holy Spirit, walk in this place, fill our hearts Holy Spirit Go like a flood, like a fire Holy Spirit Go Oh Holy Spirit Go From the edge of a new beginning God, we know you have so much more We're looking to a new horizon We're praying for your grace to pour Overflowing of true redemption Overflowing of your kingdom We're ready for a real revival Oh Holy Spirit Go like a flood, like a fire Holy Spirit, walk in this place, fill our hearts Holy Spirit, go Like a flood, like a fire Holy Spirit Go Oh Holy Spirit Go Oh can you feel it? Heaven is reaching

Oh can you hear it? Our God is speaking Oh can you see it? He's got your healing Oh just receive it Receive your freedom Oh can you feel it? Heaven is reaching Oh can you hear it? Our God is speaking Oh can you see it? He's got your healing Oh just receive it Receive your freedom Go like a flood, like a fire Holy Spirit, walk in this place, fill our hearts Holy Spirit Go like a flood, like a fire Holy Spirit Go Oh Holy Spirit Go Oh Holy Spirit Go Celebrate the families this morning We celebrate what Christ did on that cross for us this morning Say Hallelujah for the cross this morning I would be hopeless without your goodness I would be desperate without your love Slave to the darkness if it wasn't for the cross

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Then Jesus' blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but only trust in Jesus' name. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but only trust in Jesus' name.

Christ the Lord, cornerstone, weak made strong, in the Saviour's love, through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all. When darkness seems to hide its face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every heart and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil, my anchor holds within the veil. Christ the Lord, cornerstone, weak made strong, in the Saviour's love, through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all. Christ the Lord, cornerstone, weak made strong, in the Saviour's love, through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all. When night shall come, when trumpets sound, O may I then in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness alone. Faultless stand before the throne. Christ the Lord, cornerstone, weak made strong, in the Saviour's love, through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all. Christ the Lord, cornerstone, weak made strong, in the Saviour's love, through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all. Christ the Lord, cornerstone, weak made strong, in the Saviour's love, through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all. Christ the Lord, cornerstone, weak made strong, in the Saviour's love, through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all. Amen. It's always a beautiful time on Sundays together and just worship God together to praise the Lord together, to fellowship, to celebrate families, dedicating their children to the Lord, to dive into where God's word together is always a beautiful thing. The other reason we gather together on Sundays, it's that time of the week we get to sing over each other together. We get to pray over each other. As we dive into Jonah 2, we'll see that sometimes God puts us in a desperate place in order for him to use us. So the other thing that we do, we gather on Sundays is we have a time together to confess and to repent the Lord and sing over each other. So that's what we're going to do this next song. In whatever way you're comfortable, if you want to sit, if you want to get on your knees, whatever the spirit leads you to do, we just want to sing part of a song over you in the time, just to get things right with the Lord. Whenever we walked in with, we pray every morning that whatever we walk in with, we all look out different. So as we get ready to sing this next song, whatever position or stance God has you in to get things right with the Lord, so he can use you before we dive into God's word. We just want to invite you to do that. We'll sing this song together. He wants her, the Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Leave behind your regrets and sins. Come today, there's no reason to wait. Jesus is calling. Bring your sorrows and trade them for joy. From the ashes a new life is born. Jesus is calling.

Come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. What a Savior. Isn't he wonderful? Sing hallelujah. Christ is risen. Bow down before him. For he is Lord of all. Sing hallelujah. Christ is risen. Oh what a Saviour, isn't He wonderful. Sing Hallelujah, Christ is risen. Bow down before Him, for He is Lord of Lords. Oh what a Saviour, isn't He wonderful. Sing Hallelujah, Christ is risen. We bow down before Him, for He is Lord of Lords. Sing Hallelujah, Christ is risen. Oh what a Saviour, isn't He wonderful. Sing Hallelujah, Christ is risen. Bow down before Him, for He is Lord of Lords. Sing Hallelujah, Christ is risen. Father we praise You this morning God, that You are risen. God we praise You for the glory in all that You are God. You are a good God, You are a holy God, You are a worthy God and You are greatly to be praised God. We thank You for the cross. We thank You that You are our cornerstone, that we can lay all things before You Father. What a beautiful Saviour You are. So God we love You. Father will You be with us this morning as we dive into Your Word. God would You open our ears to hear Your Word and would You open our hearts to receive it. God would You open our eyes to see where You are leading us. God would You use our hands and feet to do the work You called us to do Father. God we love You and we ask all this only in the name of Christ. Amen. You can have a seat. Good morning. Whether it's your first time here or whether you've been coming for years, we're glad that you're here this morning. Today at 12.30 we have a Connections Lunch. So if you have been coming for a while and you're looking for a way to get more involved, please come today at 12.30 to our Connections Lunch. Lunch is provided and we'd love to see you there. Next, on July 24th we have a Women's Solitude Event. So this is going to be for our women to just get away for a little bit and just experience God's goodness in Grapevine Botanical Garden. So I invite all of the women here to that on July 24th at 9.15.

Third, today at 12.30 we have a Disaster Relief Meeting upstairs. So if God has stirred your heart in any way to serve in disaster relief, please come today. Learn more about it. No matter your gifting, no matter your ability or whatever it is, we would love for you to join us at 12.30 upstairs just to hear a little bit more about what disaster relief looks like. We partner with Texans on Mission and they do an incredible job going where the need is. And then they also do an incredible job of leaving whenever they need to. But whatever that looks like for you to get involved in disaster relief, we'd love for you to come today and hear a little bit more about it. Last, we have the opportunity to start a 4 p.m. service here on August 9th. And so this could be a great opportunity to invite friends or maybe you make that your primary service and you invite people Sunday morning whenever you go to breakfast or lunch to this service to join you. So this is going to be a great opportunity. If you're looking to serve in any way during the 4 p.m., come talk to us at the Mission and Serve kiosk. We would love to talk to you a little bit more about what serving at the 4 p.m. can look like. All right, before we jump into the worship through the message today, we're going to have a mission moment. This is going to be on August 9th. on the SALT Network. And so if y'all remember Zach Cunningham from the King's Church, he gave the message a while back in April. He is with the SALT Network, King's Church is with the SALT Network, and they are one of our two main organizations that we partner with on the church planting side. So please turn your attention to the screen for this week's Mission Moment. In 1987, the SALT Company was created with a singular purpose, to reach the next generation of college students with the gospel of Jesus Christ to the local church. That small college ministry based in Ames, Iowa, soon saw hundreds, then thousands of students finding life and joy in Jesus.

As the college ministry and church grew, so did the possibilities. We asked ourselves, what if this happened on every college campus? What if every university center in America had a vibrant local church and college ministry that was committed to reaching students with the gospel? Through prayer and faithful people willing to take the next step, God blessed this desire, and the vision became a reality. What started as a few church plants in Iowa spread across the nation. Church plants became sending churches. Tens of thousands of college students were reached with the gospel, fueling further church planting. Today, the SALT Network is a family of churches committed to reaching college students and planting churches and university centers across the country. The need has never been greater. Less than 5% of college students are engaged with college ministries, and that number continues to decline each year. Currently, there are 30 churches in the SALT Network, and several upcoming church plants preparing to launch over the next few years. Our vision is to see thriving churches reaching college students through the SALT Company

in 403 university centers in America. As the SALT Network grows, our prayer remains the same, that God would raise up laborers to send into the harvest. Our story began with the SALT Company. It became the SALT Network, and it continues with you. Thank you. So excited to be part of a church that is about sending and being on the mission that God has for each of us and that he has for us as a church. It's a privilege when we're away to talk about 121 and all that God does in and through our church body, and just grateful today for who we are at 121. A few weeks ago on sabbatical, I was at a particular church, and I was sitting there by myself in worship, and I thought, I am ready to get back to my church. I am done being in everybody else's. I'm grateful for what God does in multiple places, all kinds of sizes, all kinds of ways that God gathers people up. So it's a beautiful thing that happens. Years ago, I would go, when we were off, I would look for places that were a little bit wild, a little bit off doctrinally. I just wanted to see what's going on. I like experiencing it probably more than I do reading it, and Lisa would do that with me,

and then finally, we were at a church several years ago, and we were in the aisle about two hours in, never made it to a sermon, and we're stomping the devil. I mean, we got all kinds of things going on, and she said, I'm done. You can do that by yourself from now on. So I've tried to accommodate and go to the places she wants to go. She picked two or three, and I said, you know what? I think I'm done, and we'll just kinda wait and hurry, get back to 121 so we can be a part of something we both love. And so we're grateful to be back. Our sabbatical, it was a fantastic time, rest, refreshment, just as intended to be it was, and we're grateful for that space. Grateful for times with my wife, to be able to worship with her through a whole service where I'm not getting up and leaving her, or I'm thinking about a number of other things. So just a gift to have that kind of space to worship together. And then I love sharing the gospel with people, with my wife, and having the extra time allowed those kind of opportunities for God to give us those moments to be able to share together with people. She does a fantastic job in sharing her faith, and I love being with her. So we're grateful for those moments.

I was told this week that some people were wondering if I still worked here or not, so I did wanna introduce you to our family for those of you that wonder if we work here or not. I love waterfalls. That was one place in the mountains where we found ourselves. I'm grateful our family could be a part of what was going on there. And then I'm especially grateful for our elders at 121 that have led so well in these last three months. Our staff, a number of you have let me know how incredible our staff is and they've done a great job. And then I was really excited about the lineup of guys that was coming through to preach and work through First Thessalonians with you. And I'm equally excited on the back end to have heard, I know they just did a great job leading our church. And so I hope you're encouraged by them. Someone told me earlier today, I thought it was a great word. It was a beautiful picture of when people are actually sent and they go out and how much more rapidly the gospel spreads. And we know that anytime we start something new, whether that's a new life group, whether that's a new mission point, whether that's a new church, whenever something new starts, the opportunity is there for the gospel to spread even more rapidly. I'd like for you to turn your Bibles to Jonah.

He's in the midst of what we call the minor prophets. Go about the middle of your Bible. Evan Sandman did a great job last week in taking us through Jonah chapter one. And we find ourselves in chapter two. So I express all of that gratitude genuinely. And in Jonah chapter two, it's actually a psalm of gratitude, interestingly enough. And so that's where we'll spend our time in the Word for the next few minutes. We've been thinking this whole year about what it is to be sent and trying to give you the opportunity to see all those different ways that we can be a part and that we partner in as a church, whether that's globally, it's being a part of a church plant. This next back half of the year, we'll talk about opportunities in our cities, our neighborhoods, the neighborhood around 121, the actual building where we gather. And at the end of the year, we should have this whole wide exposure of opportunities where we can be sent and be a part of what it is that God is doing. In Jonah chapter one, quick summary. Jonah is a prophet of God. God has an assignment for him. He doesn't like the assignment. He doesn't like the people that he's to go to.

He flees. It ends up causing consequences for all of those who are on the ship with him. He finds himself thrown overboard in order for the sea to calm. That's where we find ourselves as we pick up in chapter one, verse 17. I listened to several podcasts while I was gone. And one of them, I was doing an interview of a lady and she just had such a intimacy with the Lord. As you just listen to the whole thing, it's just a beautiful relationship with Christ. But she was talking about a hard assignment that God had for her. And she just said, you know what God, I don't wanna talk to you right now. Now, I don't know how that strikes you, but I think it's a really beautiful picture of an intimate relationship. That she is in it. She is expecting certain things. She's been faithful. God has this assignment for her. And she's like, no, I don't wanna talk to you about that right now. Now, she did. That's kind of a Jonah moment. You know, God, I don't really wanna talk to you about this right now. I've got other things in mind I would rather be doing

and that I would like to be about rather than what your assignment is for me right now. That's what we wanna think about in Jonah. Is there anything that we're running from that God has sent us, he's made it clear this way he'd like for us to do, but we're running from it. And it might be you're exactly where you need to be. And that's a great place just to be grateful today. So let's take a look at Jonah's three things I'd like to make as observations underneath this big idea of going from deep despair to unexpected deliverance. The first idea is prayer from anywhere to God himself. And every word in that phrase, I want you to lock onto. Prayer from anywhere to God himself. Let's look at chapter one, verse 17. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. We see the sovereignty of God all over scripture. That means God is in control. We see that all throughout scripture. We see that in this specific story in scripture. We see that in human history. We see that in our personal stories that God is sovereign overall. He is in control. He's in control of creation. and he appoints a great fish to swallow Jonah.

Three days and three nights. That would carry with it the idea of death. It would seem that there is no chance for Jonah at this point. We actually find if you follow in the gospels, when Jesus healed Lazarus, he did not go to Lazarus until four days after he had died. Part of what that was about is there would have been no way for there to be a resurrection at that point in that length of time. We find ourselves at that same length of time with Jonah, three days and three nights. It would certainly not be expected that he would survive. And yet, as the story unfolds, we see what God does with him. When I was on sabbatic, I'll share a few thoughts with you along the way of what God shared with me. And really what he did mostly with me is built onto things that God is already leading us towards but as we think about sent, one of the phrases that he gave me to just kind of for us to think about to maybe ease this a little bit is we're sent to serve and save. And that's every person that is a follower of Jesus. There's not exemptions from this. So when we think about being sent, what are we sent to do? Sometimes people love to serve

and that's exactly what we're sent to do. In Mark 10, 45, Jesus said, I came not to be served but to serve. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus came to serve. So absolutely, we're sent to serve. In Luke 19, 10, it says, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. So we're also, if we're walking in the footsteps of Jesus, sent to be a part of the salvation of other people. So we're sent to serve and to save. It's not some people just share the gospel with other people and some people just serve. All of us are sent, wherever it is, to serve and save. That's walking in the steps of Jesus. Now, when we choose to go against that, then there's consequences. There's consequences for people around us and there's consequences for ourselves. And when we think about the despair in this particular part of Jonah, it's brought about because of his own doing. Israel was to be a light to the nations, even the nations they hated and disliked. And Jonah did not want anything to do with that idea. So when we think about despair, it can come out of our own disobedience to God. Despair can also come and it's not our fault. We're reaping the consequences of what someone else has done

in their disobedience to God and that can cause despair. So when we think about this particular part of the scripture, context is the kind of despair that comes out of disobedience to following where it is that God has intended for a particular person. Now, what we see in the outset of this is that God is so gracious because he actually meets Jonah in his mess and he meets us in the same place. We don't have to get all cleaned up in order for God to meet us. God will meet us in the most despairing of places. Chapter two, verse one. So after three days and three nights and being inside the stomach of the fish, Jonah then prayed to the Lord as God from the stomach of the fish. So that's where the idea, anywhere. We can come to God and pray from anywhere. Here he is in the stomach of a fish. It's by his own doing because of his disobedience to following after what God had for him. Here he is and after contemplating this for some days and nights, now he comes and he prays to God. And I say that, that we pray anywhere to God himself. We're not just praying to some generic power. We're not just praying to something out there. Jonah, in his rebellion and sin, is still praying to his God. He hasn't left his God.

He's been rebellious in this moment. But when it comes down to it, he is coming back to his God and he's praying directly to God himself. Now that's from the stomach of a fish. What might be some of those places that are despairing places? The irony, by the way, is the. Fish turns out to be the safe place for Jonah to get back right with God. It's oftentimes God meets us in the most vile and despairing of places, and that actually becomes the safe place for him to bring us through to where he wants us to be. What might some of those places be for us today? It could be your bedroom. And there's a despair today because of the immorality, sexually, that's gone on in your life. And your bedroom has become a place of despair as you consider the things that you've done. It could be the prison cell that is that place of despair. But can actually become the place where God meets a person. It could be a rehab center. It could be a dorm room for a college student that went wild partying and has just found themselves in despair in their bedroom, in their dorm. It could, by the way, be in the big house that you live in and the nice car that you drive and the nice office that you have

because you've run from God's call and where he wants you to be in the name of getting money to have the things that you want in this culture. And that actually becomes a despairing place, not a beautiful place to be. I'm not saying that's what it is for everyone. I'm just suggesting these are places where this can happen. But God meets us in those places. Jonah prayed from the despairing place. We can come to God from anywhere, from the worst mess we've found ourselves in, and he will descend to meet us in that space. He then begins this Psalm of Thanksgiving. Next spring, we'll be doing an all-church study of the Psalms. We've had a team that's been working on that. It might be done as far as I haven't asked yet, but they've done a phenomenal job already in preparing for us. But this Psalm is taken. Jonah is speaking the Psalm, and a lot of the phrases in the Psalm are from other Psalms. So we often talk about praying God's word. When we move through the Psalms, it's a great way to borrow language to help us pray in moments. So this is a Psalm of gratitude in this moment that Jonah is about to pray. And this is what he said in verse two. I called out of my distress to the Lord,

and he answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol. You heard my voice. So I called out of my distress. That word distress is a Hebrew word that is also a word for a woman who is giving birth and just the travails and difficulties and hardships of being in the womb and of a child just being tightly inside of there and the discomfort in coming out. And Jonah says, that's exactly what this is like right now. I feel so engulfed, so tight here. And yet with that idea of the womb is the idea that there might be a birth here, that this isn't actually death that's going to occur, but birth is about to occur for him and life will be renewed for him. So he called out of his distress. That's the place he was in. It was in a distressful place. And that's when he called on God. And he cried for help. And God heard his voice. A few years ago, someone in our church gave me a book by a Norwegian man named Ols Halsby. And Norway has been a lot of fun to watch in the World Cup. But this theologian, also awesome to read. But in his book called Prayer, this is one of the things that he says. This is one of the essentials for prayer

is that we have faith and that we ask God for help. He says, we too often try to help God out. And I thought, I don't do that. So I was reading the book and I was thinking, I hear what he's saying and I do that. I just ask for help. I don't help him. And then I listened to myself for a while, pray. After several days and I thought, I'm trying to help God out all the time. I pray, I ask God if you'll do this and this is how you ought to do it. But you know what, it so simplified my prayer life. In the same time, deepened my trust in God. So often now, all I just do is say, God, help. I don't know how you wanna do it. I don't know what you're doing in everything around me to pull this together because this is affecting all kinds of people. So I help. That's what Jonah did. He just called out for help and then God meets him in that place. There's two things I want us to see as we move from that first part. And it's the verses three through six is the downward spiral of deep despair. We see Jonah writing in a poetic way. And some of you are, you're wired that way. Like you could, if you wrote to God something like this,

you could write it in a very poetic way. I'm completely incapable of that. Some of us just need to say it. So Jonah says it in a way that you see this downward spiral of deep despair that for many of us, we can relate. So for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas and the current engulfed me, all your breakers and billows passed over me. Now notice it was the sailors who threw Jonah off the ship into the water. But Jonah knows that the consequences are there for his disobedience and running from God. And he knows it was God who did that. So God is the one he said, cast him into the deep, into the heart of the seas. And then he was engulfed by the current, the breakers in the billows, the waves they passed over him. And then in verse four, so he said, I've been expelled from your sight. That word expelled has the idea of no option of return. So he's in a place of despair. He believes he's done something so awful here. And the situation that he's in is so bad that there's no option to return to God. So he says that to him. I've been expelled from your sight. Nevertheless, we see a little glimmer of hope. And sometimes when we find ourselves in despair, we can still find some glimmer of hope.

And we start to see that in him. Nevertheless, I will look again toward your holy temple. I'll look, I feel like I'm expelled, but I can see. Verse five, water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me. Weeds were wrapped around my head. The seaweed wrapped around him. He's slowly descending from being overtaken and surrounded by the water to now sinking into it. Finally, in verse six, I descended to the roots of the mountains. He's saying, now I'm at the very bottom of the sea. And it's the weight of his sin that has brought him to that place. The earth with its bars was around me forever. He sees this as a watery grave at the bottom of the sea from which he'll never be able to escape. That's what happens to us when we have this downward spiral. We're in despair. We often find ourselves in depression and we feel like forever, I'm just trapped and imprisoned in this watery grave would be Jonah's descriptor. For us, it might be something different. Sometimes we find ourselves in that spot, again, because we've refused to follow and trust God in his ways. In Hebrews 12, it says he disciplines those who are his children. He will do that.

And we don't need to be afraid to say God is doing this. Again, there are also times where because of things we've done, we create chaos for other people around us. And we cause despair that way. Again, that's not your fault. So there are times it is, there are times it is not. And some of those are just circumstances that are not of our doing. So we see this downward spiral. When we read the Psalms, the psalmist as a norm, is describing things that he's lamenting, things that are difficult. And there's a point where it turns. You just see this despair, you see this sadness, you see this hardship, and there's a turning point. And the last piece of this, I would say, we can call the upward hope of unexpected deliverance. Because when we're in despair, or we're depressed, or in those places, we can't see. We can't see how we can get out. And yet, God meets him in this space. And in verse six, the second. part, here's the word we lock onto, but. So this is that downward descent, but now we're gonna change that trajectory. But you've brought up my life from the pit, oh Lord, my God. You're the one that brought me down here, and there are things you're obviously doing in me,

and you're going to bring me up out of the pit. It reminded me of Psalm chapter 40, verses one through three. I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and he set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, the song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear it and will trust the Lord. The psalmist said, hey, I was in a bad spot. I was in the pit of destruction. Miry clay, I couldn't get out, but you raised me up. And now there's a new song in my heart. It's a song of praise and a song of gratitude for what you've done to bring me out of it. So we see that starting to happen here with Jonah, verse seven. While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. Remember, he is in a dire spot of his own doing. And he's praying, but he said, I remembered. That word is prominent throughout scripture, the word remembered, because we forget really easily. If you follow the Lord long enough and you read stuff and you're kind of in the flow of things for a while, you'll start to hear phrases at times and you're thinking, what is that? So several years ago, I started hearing the phrase,

remind yourself of the gospel. I'd never heard that in decades of following Jesus. I thought, what does that mean? Do I do that? Do I not do that? Do I just not know what to call it? What is that? But it actually is a really beautiful phrase. Remind yourself of the gospel. What Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, dying and raising for us, was not just for a one-time salvation. That's our motivation for everything that we do. It's what carries us through everything. So I remind myself often of Jesus dying for me and God raising me from the dead, because I can easily forget what he did for me. Jonah said, I remembered the Lord. Can you remember those times, not only did Jesus reach down and rescued and saved you, can you remember a time when you were in a really hard spot, you were in a dark spot, you were in that place that was a dire spot, and God brought you out of it? He can do it again. I remembered God did that once. He can do that again. I remembered. In verse eight, he says, those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness.

Now he's thinking about perhaps the sailors that were on the boat, and they were chasing after other gods, but interesting part here. In chapter one, the sailors, once they throw Jonah overboard and the seas calm, they actually give a praise and a thanksgiving to God, their God. They turned back to God quicker than Jonah did. Who knew him? When we think about these idols, idol, that word is just a word for empty and vain. When we chase after those things that do not have substance or value, they're not helpful to us. So there's a contrast here of the idols and then of worshiping God. Now we just finished working through 1 Thessalonians, all five chapters. Maybe you remember, maybe you don't, but in the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians, Paul was raving about the Thessalonians, this new church. And one of the things he said is that you turned from following idols to the living and true God, and Jesus who will rescue you from the wrath to come. We wanna turn from the idols. I'm in a group text with, I'm in several group texts with different men, and somebody sent this out.

There was a quote from a devotional. It said this, most men don't wake up one morning and decide to abandon God. The greater danger is addition. We don't reject God, we simply give him competition. So that's what. That's idolatry. It's not it's not that you just bailed on God. It's just I want to love God I kind of like what he did and I want to do this over here And I want to follow this and follow that and I think I have a better idea about it than God So I'm going to do this We just add that's what Israel kept doing They just kept adding other people's gods But in verse 9 I will sacrifice to you with the voice of Thanksgiving that which I vowed I will pay salvation is from the Lord That's what the sailors already did They sacrificed and paid a vow to God of grateful to him Jonah's catching up God in his mercy is allowing him back towards himself With the voice of Thanksgiving our culture is all about gratitude People tell you to do gratitude journals or you know, write three things you're thankful for at the end of the day And I think that's awesome But I want to make a note on that Our gratitude is not just a generic gratefulness Our gratitude is to God himself So when I'm grateful, I'm acknowledging that God you're the one from whom all things come and I'm grateful to you today God One of the books that I read it took me my whole sabbatical to do it is about that thin but it was a little bit I don't know. It's a little hard to slog through but it was so rich. I just kept at it And it's called the rare jewel of Christian contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs. He's a Puritan

but he talks about gratitude and The way he talks about contentment is that our heart is even with our circumstances That phrase has just captured me So whether things are good bad, whatever they are that my heart would be even with those circumstances in the moment And later he would say one of the ways we know we're content in Christ is When we are just as grateful for the abundant mercies of God in our lives as we are for the afflictions that God brings on us and God's hand will never allow that affliction to go further than he attend he intends He is sovereign Over those moments. He has things he's working out in us to bring us to a place of where he wants us to be I Showed you that picture in the mountains and my youngest grandson. He's a little over a year old and He could say three words about four weeks ago Amen, and thank you And I thought what if that was all I could say Amen means I agree. Yes. I'm with you. Thank you means. Thank you What if that's all we could say to God? Amen yes, I'm in Thank you We would be the most joyful people on the planet if that's all we could say Amen, and thank you We also say salvation is from the Lord and then verse 10 the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land Salvation is from the Lord. I want to draw this distinction if I can to bring us to a close The word salvation is a Hebrew word that is also the word that gives us the name Joshua and the name Jesus It's salvation. It's deliverance. We're talking about unexpected deliverance Unexpected way for Jonah to be delivered was to be vomited up out of that fish onto dry land That would be a pretty rough way to come out But in conversations I've had over the years

I've been challenged to try to figure out how to draw this distinction for people And it became more clear to me in an art gallery Or Lisa and I were looking at all these paintings of bears they were fantastic And we started talking to the owner and the primary one who did the artwork And he told us his story. He's an alcoholic He quit drinking when he was 31 Alcoholics anonymous was a big deal for him still is And we talked about and that's helped him overcome come as alcohol addiction. We talked about faith, and he believes that anything goes. It's just whatever is gonna work for you and with God, great, Jesus is not the only way, it's, you pick a way, whatever's good. And Lisa did an amazing job sharing the gospel with him very graciously, but that's just not where he is. But I left there thinking about my own dad. And when my dad was 44 years old, he pulled over on his way to work in Tyler, Texas, and vomited blood all over the side of the road. And he never had another drink of alcohol after that day. He was an alcoholic, he was sober for 20 years. He was a big part of AA, it was very helpful for him. He helped, I don't know how many people. But Jonah, the salvation he experienced was the salvation that he was about to have of being dead in the water and in the fish. It's not an eternal salvation that leads to life in God himself. He already is a prophet of God, he already knew God. He was just rebelling.

So oftentimes I'll hear people say that when they were delivered from being an addict of some sort, like alcohol, or there might've been some big life event where it seems like there was a miracle, they'll describe that as their salvation. And I try so hard, because I'm listening, I'm thinking, that's awesome God did that, and that is not salvation. And what I realized after this time with the guy in the mountains, is what a gift that common grace of God is, that things can be used to deliver people from hard stuff. Because that changed the trajectory of our family, my dad no longer drinking for those next 20 years, it changed everything. But that did not save him from his sin and eternity in hell. The only thing that can do that is what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. So we're dead in our sin, we need something to happen and change, and actually believe that we need rescue from death in our sin, and that comes through Christ and Christ alone. That's two different kinds of salvation. There is that deliverance from hard things, but that's not salvation in the sense of knowing God. Two different things. I just did not want us to miss that.

In Romans 6.23, it says the wage of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What was verse six? The turning point was but. Eternally, I'm dead in my sin, the wage of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. The other day I ran into a friend of mine and he was sitting like this. You're thinking, what's the big deal? A lot of people sit like that. Well, he was wearing a hat that said but God. He has a tattoo of John 3.16 running this way, and but God here. And I just laughed. I thought, all right, there's no question what he thinks. And I know he's faithful and he's bold in his faith. That's a good news in salvation too, but God. We're dead in our sin, but God makes us alive in Jesus Christ. We may need to turn from being rebellious in our sin today. We know Christ, we've just been rebellious and running. We may not have ever really met Christ and seen something as a false salvation that looked like a deliverance, but it really wasn't deliverance from sin. It was from a circumstance that made things better, which is awesome. But there's a greater salvation

that's in Christ and Christ alone. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for our time today and so grateful for 121 and for our church and love what you're doing in the midst of our church. And thank you, Father, just for your goodness towards us. And Lord, so many of us have been in places of despair and you've been so gracious to reach down and meet us in those spaces, whether we got ourselves in that mess or whether we ended up in it and we didn't want to be in that. And so God, I pray today that there's be gratitude for that. And then Father, for those who are in something that is despairing, that they might see hope today and that they'd not be alone. I'd be afraid to reach out to you and then to reach out to those in community that can be a help to walk with them. Father, I pray all of us would just walk in obedience to where you have us, where you want us to serve and where you want us to be a part of salvation of other people. And so thank you for the faithfulness of so many. And I pray, God, we just continue to walk in the paths you have for us. And I pray in Jesus' name. If we could, let's be quiet and still before the Lord. And if there's any work he's doing in your heart,

this can be the beginning of it. And then I hope you would find somebody which to continue. If you're part of the prayer team today, if you don't mind, if you'll go ahead and come to the front and then just a moment, I'll dismiss this.