Drop Everything and Pray Jonah 2:1–6 | Sermon Recap

Drop Everything and Pray

Jonah 2:1–6 | Sermon Recap

Sometimes God calls us to drop everything and pray.

In Jonah 2, Jonah finds himself in a place he never expected to be: inside a great fish, after running from God's call to go to Nineveh. Jonah had chosen his own way instead of God's way, and his disobedience brought him into a storm he could not control. Yet even there, God had not abandoned him. Jonah finally cried out to the Lord from the depths, and God heard him.

Jonah's story reminds us that there are moments when we need to stop, surrender our plans, and pray. We cannot always see what God sees, and we cannot possibly understand every circumstance or every person's situation. We may have reasons that seem right to us, especially when we are carrying resentment or believing we know what someone deserves. But God is God, and we are not. Prayer helps us remember that His perspective is greater than ours and that His ways are higher than our ways.

The question for us is simple: What is God calling you to drop? Maybe it is an agenda, resentment, fear, control, or a plan that you have been holding onto. Jonah eventually turned his attention back toward God, and his prayer became an expression of dependence and trust. Even in the darkest place, God was still working. The same is true for us. We may not understand the pit we are in, but we can call out to God in the middle of it and trust that He is not finished with our story.

One Thing to Remember

Drop everything and pray.

When you don't know what to do, pray.

When you are frustrated, pray.

When you are holding onto resentment, pray.

When God's calling feels difficult, pray.

When you find yourself in a place you never expected to be, pray.

God hears us in the depths.

A Question to Take With You

What is God calling me to drop so that I can follow Him?

Take some time this week to bring that question before the Lord. Open His Word, slow down, and pray.

Ask God to show you where you are trusting your own understanding instead of His.

Read Jonah 2

As we continue our journey through Jonah, take some time to read Jonah 2:1–6 for yourself.

Notice Jonah's words.

Notice what he remembers.

Notice where his attention turns.

And most importantly, look for what God is showing you about His character.

The book of Jonah is not ultimately about Jonah.

It is about the mighty mercy of God.

Join Us at Hope Chapel North Shore

We'd love to have you join us as we continue studying God's Word together.

Saturdays at 9:00 AM
Haiku Bible Church
1121 Kokomo Road, Haiku, HI

Hope Chapel North Shore
Loving God | Loving People

Come worship with us, open God's Word, and grow together as we seek to follow Jesus.

Drop everything and pray.

God Wants You On HIs Mission | Coach Kyle Power | Sermon Recap / Discussion Questions / Audio

God Wants You On His Mission:
When You’re in the Pit, Call Out to God

Jonah 1:17–2:2

Sometimes life doesn’t go the way we planned.

We make our plans, do our research, and think we’ve found the right path—only to discover that the “perfect” plan has problems we never saw coming.

That’s what happened to Kyle and Kayla. A travel trailer they thought would become an exciting new adventure turned out to have serious problems. The vehicle they bought to tow it couldn’t handle the trailer. They had no place to live and no clear idea what to do next.

They felt stuck.

So they prayed.

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, someone they hadn’t spoken to in years reached out after seeing their prayer request. They offered them a home to live in for six months! This was a surprise that was completely free.

God provided in a way they never could have planned.

Their story gives us a picture of what we see happening in Jonah.

Jonah had run from God. He found himself in the middle of a storm, thrown into the sea, and eventually swallowed by a great fish.

And then we read:

“Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish.”
Jonah 2:1

Jonah was in a pit he could not escape on his own.

But God was there.

God Hears Us in the Pit

Jonah couldn’t work his way out. He couldn’t swim his way out. He couldn’t fix his circumstances.

So he called out to God.

And that is one of the great encouragements of Jonah: there is no place we can go where God cannot hear us.

Maybe your “pit” looks different.

It might be fear, failure, sickness, disappointment, addiction, loneliness, financial pressure, a broken relationship, or simply a season of waiting that seems to have no end.

You may not know how God is going to rescue you.

But you can call out to Him.

You don't have to wait until everything is fixed. You don't have to get yourself out of the pit before you pray. You can cry out to God right in the middle of it.

God Doesn't Waste the Pit

The fish wasn't the end of Jonah's story.

God was using that difficult place to turn Jonah's heart back toward Him.

The same God who pursued Jonah in his rebellion was still pursuing him in his distress.

And Jonah's story ultimately points us to Jesus.

Jesus Himself used Jonah's three days in the fish as a picture of what was to come. Jonah went into the depths and was brought out. Jesus went into death and rose again on the third day.

Friday wasn't the end. Sunday was coming.

And because of Jesus, our greatest hope isn't simply that God will make every difficult circumstance disappear. Our hope is that Jesus has already defeated sin and death and that He will never leave us.

So What Do We Do?

Call out to God.

Don't wait until tomorrow.

Don't wait until you have everything figured out.

Don't wait until you are out of the fish.

Call out to Him today.

And then ask another question:

“God, what are You inviting me to join You in?”

God didn't need Jonah. He chose Jonah.

And God doesn't need us, but He invites us to join His mission because He wants to transform us as we follow Him.

Whatever God has already asked you to do, take the next step of obedience.

Coach Kyle invited us to read Jonah this week. It’s a great book of the Bible to learn how to study the Bible. Pay attention to the names, places, repeated words, patterns, and connections to the rest of Scripture.

Most importantly, look for Jesus. Saturday, we talked about “3 Days Later” and how “Sunday is coming.”

Even in the belly of the fish, God was at work.

Even in your pit, God is not finished with your story.

We hope you enjoy the ‘ohana group discussion questions this week, and the sermon is online if you’d like to listen or share with a friend.

Thanks again Coach Kyle Power for your great work with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and thanks for coming to preach the Word for us this past weekend! Thanks for the way you model 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 as an ambassador for God

My Way or the Highway? | Jonah 1:1–3 | Saturday Sermon Notes & Audio

My Way Or The Highway (Jonah1.1-3)

Pastor Josh Marburger

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Yahweh, Not My Way: Following God’s Way Instead of Our Own

The book of Jonah is much more than a story about a man and a great fish.

It is a story about God’s mercy, our hearts, and the struggle we all face when God’s ways don’t line up with our own.

As we begin our new series through Jonah at Hope Chapel North Shore, we are invited to look at this familiar story in a new way. Jonah is not simply a prophet who ran from God. He is a mirror that helps us see our own hearts.

“Arise, Go…”

Jonah 1:1–3 begins with a clear command from God:

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

God tells Jonah to go east to Nineveh.

Instead, Jonah goes west.

He finds a ship heading toward Tarshish, pays the fare, and attempts to get as far away from God’s assignment as possible.

Nineveh was not an easy place to go. The Assyrians were known for their brutality and violence. They were enemies of Israel, and Jonah had every reason to dislike them.

But Jonah’s biggest problem wasn't simply that Nineveh was dangerous.

Jonah didn’t want God to show mercy to them.

Jonah knew what God was like. He knew that God was gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abundant in mercy. Jonah was afraid that if he preached to Nineveh, they might actually repent—and God might forgive them.

Jonah wanted God’s mercy for himself and his people.

He just didn't want God’s mercy for his enemies.

And if we're honest, we can be a lot like Jonah.

The Book of Jonah Is a Mirror

Jonah exposes some of the tendencies that can exist in our own hearts:

Pride.
Hard-heartedness.
Judgmentalism.
Tribalism.
Self-righteousness.
Small-mindedness.
Resistance to change.

The book asks us to honestly consider:

Where am I choosing my way instead of God’s way?

Sometimes running from God doesn't look like rejecting God or becoming an atheist.

Sometimes it sounds like:

“God, I believe in You, but I want to run my own life.”

We can believe in God while still trying to remain on the throne of our own lives.

We can say, “My way or the highway,” even while claiming to follow Jesus.

But God's invitation is different:

“Yahweh, not my way.”

God’s Ways Are Higher

Isaiah 55:6–9 gives us the perfect backdrop for Jonah:

“Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD…”

Then God reminds us:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways…”

God's ways are higher than ours.

That means following Jesus will sometimes require us to surrender our preferences, our comfort, our plans, and even our understanding of what seems fair.

God may ask us to forgive someone we don't want to forgive.

He may ask us to love someone who has hurt us.

He may call us to serve when we would rather be comfortable.

He may ask us to go somewhere we don't want to go.

He may ask us to show mercy to someone we don't think deserves it.

And when He does, we have a choice:

My way—or His way?

Who Is Really at the Center?

Jonah's story ultimately forces us to ask a deeper question:

Who is sitting on the throne of my life?

We can make ministry, money, family, success, comfort, relationships, reputation, or the approval of others into functional gods.

But Jesus invites us into something better.

Instead of grabbing the steering paddle and deciding where our lives should go, we surrender the direction to Him.

Jesus said:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

Jesus isn't simply showing us a better way.

Jesus is the Way.

Four Kinds of Obedience

One practical question from this message is worth carrying with us this week:

What does my obedience to God look like right now?

Sometimes our obedience is delayed.

“Eventually, I'll do what God asked.”

But delayed obedience is still disobedience.

Sometimes our obedience is complaining obedience.

“I'll do it, but I want everyone to know how difficult this is.”

Sometimes our obedience is joyful obedience.

“God, I trust You. I don't understand everything, but I believe Your way is better.”

And sometimes God calls us into radical obedience.

“Everything I have belongs to You. My plans, my future, my relationships, my resources, my dreams. I'm Yours.”

Where are you today?

God’s Mercy Is Bigger Than Us

The central message of Jonah isn't ultimately about Jonah.

It's about God.

The Lord is a God of boundless compassion—not only for “us,” but also for “them.”

His mercy reaches beyond our preferences, our tribes, our comfort zones, and the people we think deserve it.

That's why Jonah can be such an uncomfortable book.

It reminds us that God's grace is bigger than our categories.

The people we would write off may be the very people God is pursuing.

The people we don't want to forgive may be people God wants us to love.

The people we don't think deserve mercy are still people made in God's image.

And if God can work through Jonah, He can work through us.

Jesus Is the Ultimate Example

Jonah ran from God's will.

Jesus surrendered Himself to God's will.

In the garden, Jesus prayed:

“Not my will, but yours, be done.”

That is the heart of Christian discipleship.

Not:

“My way.”

But:

“Your way, Lord.”

Not:

“What makes me most comfortable?”

But:

“What brings You the most glory?”

Not:

“Who deserves mercy?”

But:

“How can I love the people You have placed around me?”

Jesus is the ultimate example of trusting the Father completely.

So, What Is God Asking You to Do?

As we begin our journey through Jonah, take some time to ask yourself:

• Where am I running from God?

• Where have I chosen my preferences over God's commands?

• Is there someone I am struggling to forgive or show mercy toward?

• Who or what is really at the center of my life?

• Is my obedience delayed, complaining, joyful, or radical?

• What would it look like for me to say, “Yahweh, not my way”?

The good news is that God's confrontation is not condemnation.

It is an invitation.

An invitation to come home.

An invitation to surrender.

An invitation to trust that His ways really are higher than ours.

And an invitation to discover that even when we don't understand what God is doing, He is still working.

As we sang together, He is our Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, and Light in the Darkness.

That is who He is.

So as we begin Jonah, may our prayer be simple:

“Yahweh, not my way.”

May we follow His way, trust His heart, receive His mercy, and extend that same mercy to the people around us.

Because God's vision for our lives is always greater than our own.

To God be the glory.