A pattern for prayer

A pattern for prayer
Jonah 2

Intro…"Life is work, play and prayer. Prayer, once you get past the crying, asking and begging... is listening." Jock Southerland
• Prayer is an important part of our lives…even for those who don’t pray… “Man, I really hope this works out…”
• This Bible gives us some great examples of what the pattern should be for our prayer life.
• Today we’ll look at the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, the 23rd Psalm and Jonah 2.

Big Pic: Prayer is all of who we are and is an elevation of the soul that can dispense with speech.

Text: Jonah 2

The Lord’s prayer, Matthew 6:9-13 (read together)
Hallowed be your name.
• (Holy, consecrated, sacred, revered) Giving God his due, his rightful place.

Your kingdom come, your will be done.
• Trusting God for his outcome

Give us this day, our daily bread.
• Asking God for the basics, after we’ve revered him and trusting him for the outcome.
• We usually get this backwards… ”God I need ___________!”

Forgive us our debts…
• Asking God to forgive us as we learn to forgive others.

Lead us not into temptation…
• Keep us out of Satan’s path.

The 23rd Psalm (read together)
• (actually a song, sung or quoted in times of need)
• This song/prayer is a reminder of God’s goodness and provision.
1-2 God is our shepherd, leading, guiding providing, “green pastures and quiet waters.”
3 He will restores our souls and lead us in the paths of righteousness…if we let him.
4 We know that the hard times will come, yet God is with us.
5 God provides all we need.
6 As we continue to trust God, goodness, love and mercy will follow us

Back to our prayer for today, Jonah 2 (there is good theology in this prayer)
2 In our distress we want to call out to God, not doubt his presence
3 Recognizing God’s involvement in this process of learning. Yes, God can hurl us wherever he wants to. “Your waves and breakers swept over me.”
4 At times we feel like we’ve been banished from God’s site because of our sin, yet that’s exactly when we need to look towards him.
5 The engulfing waters of life do often feel threatening. At times it does feel like we’re sinking to the roots of the mountains, barred in forever.
6-7 When we can recognize our helpless state and call on God, that’s when we get rescued. “You brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.”
8 “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”
9 Instead, with a song of thanksgiving, a sacrifice to God, making good on your vows to God…salvation comes from the Lord.

And finally Jonah’s ordeal inside the big fish ends…v. 10

What to learn from these prayers?
• It’s not about us, it’s about listening and trusting God.
• Prayer is about spilling your guts before God, being honest.
• There is so much more to recognize than our need.
• God is to be revered, we want his will to be done, he will supply our basic needs, we need forgiveness.
• God is our shepherd leading and guiding every step of the way, through all of life’s journeys.

When we pray, remember:
The love of God that wants the best for us
The wisdom of God that knows what is best for us.
The power of God that can accomplish it.
William Barclay

The ideal prayer is asking for God’s will to be done. “Oh God, please show me your plan…”

Daniel 9:3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and supplications with fasting.

Conclusion:
The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. C.S. Lewis

Summer fun

We are officially breaking all the rules that came with this pool. And yes, that's me throwing my four year old into the pool from the roof. I wanted to make sure he made it all the way in, safety first!

Wresting with God, Jonah 1:1-3

Wrestling with God, a study of Jonah

Intro…Jonah and the “whale” What thoughts go through your mind when you hear this story?
• It is a fantastic story, one that takes faith to believe.
• Today I’m going to introduce this book/story of the bible
• I’m going to call this study of Jonah, “Wrestling with God, a study of Jonah.”
• I believe there is some of Jonah in all of us.
• We tend to run from God at different times in our lives.
• Jonah ran from God, was saved by God, and then got angry at God, a pattern many of us tend to repeat over and over…
• I believe there are lots of great life lessons in this OT book.
• The bigger picture in this story of Jonah is God’s love for all people, even those people we despise and don’t want to be around.

Text: Jonah 1:1-2 Prayer
Big Picture: When God tells us things we don’t want to hear, we need to fight the urge to run from Him.

Intro to the book (good stuff to know)
• It’s tempting to look at this story as an allegory (a symbolic representation) because it’s so crazy.
• …that this book was written about 430 B.C. to counter the exclusivism of Ezra and Nehemiah…
• In this view, Jonah represents disobedient Israel; the sea represents the Gentiles, the great fish, Babylon; and the three days in the fish’s belly, the Babylonian captivity of the Jews.

HOWEVER…according to 2 Kings 14:23-25, Jonah was not only a real person, but an accredited prophet from a town near Nazareth.
• During the reign of Adad-nirari III, there was a swing towards monotheism, which may have been a result of Jonah’s preaching.
• The plague of 765, the eclipse of the sun in 763 and a second plague in 759 were events regarded as evidence of divine judgment and could have prepared the people to receive Jonah’s message.
• The story of Jonah is one big miracle, a story of God’s calling, man’s running, God’s provision and man’s rebellion/complaining/anger.
• It’s a pattern we’ve seen repeated throughout history.
• This book was written about 760 B.C.

Jesus mentions Jonah in Matthew 12:38-41, 16:4, Luke 11:29-32

Jonah was a proud, self-centered egotist, willful, pouting, jealous, a good patriot and lover of Israel, but without proper respect for God or love for his enemies (the Assyrians in Nineveh).
• He’s the kind of guy who needed a big wake-up call from God and got one in this fantastic story.
• God asked Jonah to take the gospel to his worst enemies and his initial reaction was to flee.

The purpose of this book is primarily to teach us that God’s gracious purposes are not limited to Israel, but extended to the Gentile world.
• Jonah was prejudice towards the Ninevites (he favored his own people, the Israelites).
• He balked at God when God asked him to love these “heathen” Assyrians.
• Nineveh was a large important city in Assyria and posed a grave military threat to tiny Israel.
• Why did Jonah hate the Ninevites in Assyria?
• The book of Nahum gives us a clue. It describes the Ninevites as a ruthless and bloodthirsty people.
• The Assyrians themselves left monuments to their cruelty, long, boastful inscriptions describing their torture and slaughter of people who opposed them.
• The Israelites had reasons to fear and hate Nineveh…but God love Nineveh.
• He wanted to save the city, not destroy it. He knew it was ripe for change.
• God had a great love for the Ninevites, as he does for all people on the planet.
• The ready response of the Ninevites shows that “heathens” are capable of genuine repentance.
• Even through Jonah’s weak preaching, the people of Nineveh responded to God’s call and were spared.
• In the end, God confronts Jonah about his self-centered values and lack of compassion: 4:11…
• I know it’s a crazy story that is hard to believe…(esp. the whale part)
• but to discredit it does not do justice to the fact that Jesus held to its historicity….
• and that our God is capable of pulling something off as big as this.

So, getting back to our text: Jonah 1:1-2
• When we run from God, we are running from his greater purposes which we can’t always see.
• God always has a bigger plan than our limited view offers.
• God will do whatever it takes to get our attention.
• The bigger story in Jonah is about obeying God and loving our enemies.
• God loves every single person on this planet regardless of race.
• The story of Jonah is the story of God’s profound mercy and grace for us humans that tend to run away and disobey Him.
• This is the story of God’s love and compassion and that no one is beyond redemption.
• The gospel is for all who repent and believe.
• God is asking you and I to pray for those we don’t like, people we don’t want to talk to.

Wrestling with God, Jonah 1:4-11

Wrestling with God, a study of Jonah
Jonah 1: 4-11

Intro…Friday’s wedding…told Groom to be a leader, bride cries…
• Why it’s so devastating when our spiritual leaders fall…
• How our running from God can affect others…those close to us, in our family, even strangers in Jonah’s case.
• Jonah was called by God for a specific task…
• He ran from God and it affected others.
• We are all called by God for specific tasks too…

Big Picture: Jonah’s disobedience to God endangered the lives of the ship’s crew. Our sin and disobedience can affect others too.

Text: Jonah 1: 4-11

How God gets our attention
• v. 4 The Lord sent a great wind…a violent storm.
• Jonah’s flight to Tarshish (the opposite direction of Nineveh) marked the beginning of a serious theological argument with God.
• God had clearly commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against the wickedness there.
• Jonah may have believed that God could save the archenemy of the Israelites, but deep down, he couldn’t fully agree.
• God is sovereign, in control of life, nature and circumstances.
• God will use whatever he needs to in order to get our attention.
• If we don’t listen to God, we may end up taking others down with us (initially).


v. 5 The sailors reacted in typical human fashion, the each cried out to their own god.
• What are some of the “gods” people cry out today before they find the one true God? (things that offer security)
• These poor sailors weren’t looking for trouble. They had set out for a routine trip.
• Yet their lives were imminently threatened. These were sailors, used to storms and even they were afraid.
• Although they may have initially turned to their gods, they eventually turned to the one true God (1:16).
• This is a great example of how God can turn our mistakes into good. God used Jonah on that boat to bring those sailors to him.
• This story reminds us that in spite of our sinfulness and disobedience to God, God still brings people to himself.
• God doesn’t need us to save people, however when we are not sinful and obedient, sometimes we have the privilege of being part of the process when someone comes to Jesus.

v. 5 Jonah is in denial, sleeping below deck.
• Even as he ran from God, apparently his actions didn’t bother his conscience. (this is a dangerous place to be)
• The absence of guilt is not a good indicator as to whether we are doing right or wrong.
• Because we can so easily deny reality, we cannot measure obedience by our feelings. (the train diagram)
• Jonah evidently doesn’t even realize the effect his disobedience to God is having on others.
• Sin is a selfish act and when we are selfish, we aren’t thinking of others.

v. 7 God orchestrates Jonah’s next move.
• Lots were cast, they fell on Jonah.
• Casting lots was a common form of divination used by pagans and Hebrews alike.
• They would mix small stones in a container and then pull one out. (Lev. 16:8, Joshua 18:6, 1 Sam. 14:42, Neh. 10:34, Acts 1:23-26)
• The crew thought they were relying on chance and superstition to give them the answer. In reality, God directly intervened.
• “Coincidences’ are situations in which God chose to remain anonymous.”
• God is always working his ways even when we are messing up.
Jonah finally fesses up as to his real identity and invites God into the situation.
• “I am a “Hebrew,” the name Israelites used among Gentiles.
• These sailors were most likely from Phoenicia, the center of Baal worship.
• The title “Hebrew” bears significant weight, especially when coupled with the phrase, “He who made the sea and dry land.”
• Since these pagan sailors didn’t have scripture, this was an appropriate identification for Jonah.
• This terrifying storm led these Sailors to recognize that there had to be a creator. Rom. 1:18-20
• Beginning with creation is a always a good starting point when talking to skeptics….”OK, how did we all get here?”
• That is such a wise move for Jonah and all of us. We need to come back to what we know is right.
• v. 10 They were terrified at his answer because they now recognized exactly what they were dealing with.

Today is a wake-up call for all of us. We may think our sinful habits are only between ourselves and God, but in reality, those sins affect many more people than we realize.

So even though Jonah tried to mess up God’s plan, God used him to bring the other sailors to Himself.
Jonah and the Sailors
Jonah
He was a Hebrew with a rich history of God’s faithfulness
Sailors
They were gentiles with no history of God
Jonah
He was monotheistic, believing in the one true God
Sailors
They were polytheistic, worshipping many false gods.
Jonah
He was rightly related to the true God
Sailors
They had no relationship with the true God
Jonah
He was spiritually insensitive, running in the wrong direction from God
Sailors
They were spiritually sensitive, moving in the right direction toward God.
Jonah
He was indifferent towards God’s will in spite of knowing Him.
Sailors
They were concerned before God in spite of little or no knowledge of Him.
Jonah
He was uncompassionate towards Nineveh.
Sailors
They were compassionate towards Jonah
Jonah
He was rebellious and therefore disciple, but not destroyed.
Sailors
They were brought to worship and commitment.
(Nelson’s complete book of the Bible, 1993 Thomas Nelson)

Conclusion: Lives ruined by disobedience to God