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Navigating High Seas: Trusting God in Adversity 0:01 Hey, everybody. Welcome to the men's global livestream. If you have a Bible, I want you to hold 1 spot in Jonah chapter 1. Now if you haven't turned to Jonah recently as you've been reading your Bible, it's the0:12 fifth book of the minor prophets. So go to the end of the Old Testament, and it's sandwiched between Obadiah and Micah. There is Jonah. We are in a series called High0:24 Seas, No Way Around, But Through. And in this series, we're just talking about the unexpected storms of life. Right? High seas that that that catch us off guard. They're unwelcome. They're0:36 unplanned. They're interruptions into our regular life, and these storms, these high seas have the potential to sink our confidence in God. And what0:48 we've been talking about is that we we go through really difficult test, trial, circumstances, and then we know that God is,1:00 a, he sees it all. What's going on? B, he's good. C, we know he's in control. D, he has our best interest in mind. Right? And, e, we know he's1:12 good. And when you juxtapose those 2 things, that we're going through a really rough time and we know who God is and all that, involves, it leads to1:24 the question, like, why? Why is it if if you see me and you know and you're good and you love me and you're in control and you're sovereign and you have my best interest in mind and wise, why1:36 are you allowing this to happen? Or now that it's happening because of a choice I made, how do I make it to the other side? How do I come back?1:47 So today, you might be fine you might find yourself in 1 of those 2 situations, circumstances that you didn't ask for, or a choice you made that put you into some high seas, or1:59 maybe your seas are calm. But guess what? Jesus said, in this life, you will experience high seas. You will have many trials and sorrows. So you're either in 1 of of of 3 buckets. Right? And2:11 that's why we need to address this. Right? God's word is full of examples of men who had to navigate all 3 of these situations. They went from calm to making2:23 a choice to high seas or just high seas happen to them, and we've been having a good time looking at how they negotiate and navigate in those times as a man of God. Right? So for2:35 session 4, we are going to see a man who finds himself literally on the high seas where there's no way around but through, but he doesn't make2:47 it to the other side. In fact, he gets put into the belly of the beast, and we're talking about Jonah. Jonah is literally on the high seas in a2:59 storm because of a choice that he made, and God intervenes with a storm to have a experience with him, and he ends up literally3:11 in the belly of the beast. Right? And we use that term. Right? And it comes from the story of Jonah to describe when a man is in a very, let's say, unfriendly3:23 or dangerous place. I mean, if you're a Lord of the Rings fan, think of Frodo and Sam in disguise going into Mordor. If you're a Star Wars fan, like, think of Hans Han Solo and Luke3:35 Skywalker, right, disguising themselves as stormtrooper and going into the Death Star. Right? Or maybe a real life, guy who goes into the belly of the beast, my friend Victor Marx. Right?3:46 Imagine him going into an ISIS stronghold with a team of men to rescue sexually trafficked and trapped women. That is the belly of the beast,3:58 and you get the picture. Right? Now that's where we get the term from. It's the story of Jonah. And if you're saying to yourself, well, that's a nice mystical allegory. No. It's not. This literally happened. In fact,4:10 Jesus validated the story of Jonah, you know, by saying just as Jonah was in the belly of, the fish for 3 nights and 3 days, so the son of4:22 man will be in the heart of earth for 3 days and 3 nights. And so this is a literal story, not some mystical allegory, not some nice metaphor, which makes4:34 it even more intriguing. So let's talk about where we're going today in session 4 of high seas. Let's just, as we've done every session, just kinda get God's mind4:46 on when circumstances are dark. Right? And we'll just make some observations. And then, we're gonna look at when the light literally went out in Jonah's world4:58 and then unpack some truths you can put to work right now that will get you through to the other side, which for the man of God is God's5:10 purpose. The other side of the storm is God's purpose. So let's just get God's mind on when things get dark. Look at your message notes. Make sure that you download those every time we meet because5:22 then we could follow along. But we'll put the the verses on the screen. Psalm 1 12 verse 4 says this, even in darkness, light dawns for the upright,5:34 for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. And so when we read that in God's word, we sense the contrast. Right? Well, anytime you say, well, even in5:46 anything, right, you're setting up a contrasting point. So he says, even in darkness, right, light dawns for who? People who know God, the upright. Right? Those5:58 who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. And what I love about this, this truth from scripture is that it affirms something that we know, and that is that6:10 God is at work in everything. There's nothing he's not at work in. Whether things are going awesome, right, and you're flying high or whether you're in the valley6:22 or in the slimy pit and it's dark, God is at work. And what I like about this passage too is that it's hard to be and6:33 act graciously and compassionately and righteously when you're in a stressful circumstance or under a lot of pressure. But6:45 it shows that God's purpose and God's man, even when it's dark, right, light can dawn. There can be a redemptive6:58 supernatural purpose. Right? When we continue to have faith, when we continue to live for God, when we continue to love him and love people, even when our circumstances7:10 aren't optimal or even painful. Right? We continue to be gracious. We continue to be compassionate. We continue to be righteous. Alright? The the next passage7:22 where it kind of gives us God's mind when circumstances go dark is from the New Testament. It's from James chapter 1, very familiar passage, and it says this, consider it pure joy, my brothers and7:34 sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance finish its7:45 work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Again, there is this juxtaposition of7:57 trials of many kinds, and then this contrast where the man of God can actually consider it joy. Why?8:09 Because he knows that God is using it to develop him. Satan might wanna use that circumstance to destroy him. God's using it to develop him. That gives him joy.8:21 Satan might wanna lie to us and tell us that, man, this is a really this is a stumbling block in your faith with God. Why is God doing this? God's saying, nope. It's a8:33 stepping stone to greater maturity and greater completion. God is using this trial like a refiner's fire, and he's he's he's skimming the8:44 dross off the top so that the pureness of the gold, which is your faith, can be proved genuine. Alright? Here's a few observations just on the 2 passages, the 1 from the8:56 Old Testament and the 1 from the New. So what do we see? Alright? We see a, life's adversity. Write that down. That's right. Adversity is baked in to our experience in9:08 this life. That's why Jesus said, in this world, you'll have tribulation. But take courage, I've overcome the world. So we see life's adversity. We should9:20 expect it. We don't have to like it, but when it comes, we shouldn't be shocked that that in a broken planet, in a broken world with broken people, that that injustice and pain and9:32 difficulty and trial comes along. Second, we see God's sovereignty. Right? In these adversities, the scripture makes it very clear that God is over9:44 and transcends and is in command over what's happening, that God and his purposes transcend the adversity. Why? Because of God's sovereignty.9:56 He's in control. You might be shocked. He's not shocked. You might be confused. He has perfect clarity on what's going on, and what he wants to accomplish, and10:08 he's just looking for us to look to him because he is sovereign. Third, we see man's dependency. Right? When you read the Bible,10:20 adversity is synonymously, you know, married up with dependency whenever you see that. So, you know, if we read Psalms and we see David, he's in adversity, there's10:31 this theme of dependency. When we see Elijah and he's on the run, we see this this theme of dependency. Right? When Jonah, as we'll see, is in the belly of the beast. Right? We're10:43 gonna see percolate out of this this dependency. Alright? So life life's adversity is there. God's sovereignty is present. And then we see it calls out man's dependency.10:56 Fourth, we see God's intentionality. Right? Especially in the James passage. Right? It says consider it joy when you face trials. You know, faith produces11:07 testing of your faith produces perseverance and perseverance finishes at work and here's the intentionality prepositional phrase, so that, Right? So that you may11:19 be mature and complete, not lacking in anything. So we can always say God's up to something. I don't know what God's up to. I may not like the process, but I know11:31 he's up to something. He's using these high seas that I find myself in. He's using this space I'm in, which is the belly of the beast. Feels dangerous, looks dangerous, but11:43 he's using it to accomplish his purposes. Okay? So now let's move from here. Just some thoughts about adversity, God's sovereignty, how it calls out11:55 dependency, and how God's purpose is always at work. He's always up to something. Let's now look at this little vignette of Jonah in Jonah chapter 1. And we're gonna see, interestingly, all of those things we12:07 just talked about in play in the life of God's servant, Jonah. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna kinda set up a context and see what the12:18 backdrop is from chapter 1, and then we're gonna see some principles about personal adversity that are modeled in the story of Jonah. Alright? So let's get some12:30 context. Jonah chapter 1. Let's let's read the Bible together. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai. Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness12:42 has come up before me. But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed to Tarshish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the12:54 fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. The sea was getting rougher and rougher, so they asked him, what should we do to you to make the sea calm down13:06 for us? Right? Pick me up and throw me into the sea, he replied, and it will become calm. I know that it's my fault that this great storm has come upon you.13:18 Instead, the men did their best to row back to the land, but they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out, please, Lord, do13:30 not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you please. Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard,13:43 And the raging sea grew calm. At this, the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. Now the Lord provided a huge13:55 fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish 3 days and nights. So there's our backdrop. Alright? Here's the backstory. God14:06 asks his servant to go talk to the Ninevites. And just to kind of put it in context, just think of people who terrorize your14:18 people. Alright? That's who God was asking Jonah to go talk to. Alright? He was going to talk to people who terrorized his people.14:30 So not only is there a human factor of fear, like, you want me to go preach to terrorists? But there's also, you know, a14:41 emotional factor, and it's a super hard ask. Alright? Has God ever asked you to do something just emotionally where it just14:53 everything inside you is just like, nope. Right? And you you do what Joan does. Like, I'm not gonna have any part of that just because of the backdrop, just because of15:05 the history, because of all that's involved in that ask. Man, this is a a nuclear size step of faith and ask from God on his servant,15:17 Jonah. So what does he do, man? He's just like, I'm running. Okay? God's asked me. I gotta get out of Dodge. And so he hops on the ship. Right,15:29 pays the fare. And as they're out there, you know, these calm seas turn into raging high seas. Right? And they wanna know, like, hey.15:41 Listen. We'll try to row back, but and get you off this boat because somebody's mad at you or somebody you know, God is is moving. And then, you know, Jonah, like, owns it. He's15:53 like, okay. Don't worry about it. Flip me overboard. And then the men are like, okay, Lord. We're gonna kill this guy, but just don't hold it against us. Right? And16:04 so they do that, and the seas die down. Right? So God affirms, like, hey. This isn't about you guys. This is about this guy right here. Right? I made the high seas16:16 happen because of a choice he made to try to run away from me. And even if we could just pause for a second in the narrative, right there, I I sense that God is revealing to many of16:28 you, perhaps hundreds, that there's there's a hard ask. I don't know what it is. It could be a relational thing. It could be a marriage thing. It could be a16:40 forgiveness thing. I I I really sense God just like there's some forgiveness and anger and bitterness, that you're harboring. A lot of guys are harboring out there right now, right this16:52 second. And God is is asking you to do what he's done with you, which is forgive. Not like, you know,17:03 you're you're gonna, join lives together with the person who maybe hurt you, but you are gonna forgive them. And God's asking you to do a hard thing, and you've been running away. Or maybe it's a responsibility17:15 that you have, or maybe it's a calling that you have to serve like like Jonah, and you're running away. Hey. We've all done it probably17:27 in our lives. Every guy. God's asked us to do a hard thing, and we've either said no by delay or trying to stay ignorant or putting our our body in motion, trying to get17:39 away from our calling from God. And I just have a word for you. God's bigger than your fear, and God's at work even as he is at work here. But the consequence17:51 of that choice that Jonah makes now starts to involve other people. Right? And so that gets handled. Right? Reluctantly, they throw him overboard. He's calmed down. Their decision is18:03 affirmed. And, and then now God moves to phase 2 with Jonah. Right? He's an open ocean, and God sends a massive fish18:16 to just swallow him up. Right? For 3 days and 3 nights. Alright. Now okay. Now we're in the belly of the beast. Now let's look at now we're in it. Doesn't18:28 look good. Let's look at how God is there and how he's at work and what Jonah's response is in the midst of huge personal adversity. First observation, personal adversity18:39 changes our behavior. Right? You cannot respond to circumstances that befall you, whether you you made a choice and18:51 that put you there or whether it happens unexpectedly. As a human being, you're not a robot. You will respond. Right? And you'll respond either in pride and self sufficiency. I'm gonna take matters into19:03 my own hands. Right? Kinda like what what Jonah did. Or I will respond in in healthy and humble dependency because I know19:15 who god is. Right? The ask is hard, but I know who's asking. Right? Isn't that a great point? The ask is hard, but I know who's asking, and because I know who's asking, that gives me19:27 confidence and comfort to humbly, right, and, depend on God and move forward, in obedience.19:40 But this adversity changes his behavior. The storm, the overboard, the fish. Listen to how Jonah's behavior19:52 changed. Jonah chapter 2 verses 1 and 2. From inside the fish, Jonah prayed. To the lord his god, he said, in my distress,20:04 I called to the lord and he answered me from deep in the realm of the dead. I called for help and you listened to my cry. So you see the 3 designations20:16 of where he was. He's just trying to describe the belly of the beast from inside the fish, that's in the belly of the beast, in my distress, that's in the belly of the beast, from deep in the realm of the dead. Like,20:27 he's just like, okay. It's over. But even in that situation, he's like, I'm gonna pray to the Lord. Pretty simple. When you are in high20:38 seas, when there's no way around but through, You can rely on yourself or you can rely on God. That's it. You can rely on yourself20:50 or you can rely on God. And there's some of you watching right now, you've been relying on yourself in a tough circumstances. You you might even be a resourceful and successful dude. Or you might be good at kinda21:01 slipping out of circumstances but you're not getting out of this 1. God has sent you into the belly of the beast and there is no escape except21:12 to call for help from God. Right? Adversity always redirects our energy, but that can go 1 way or another. We can move into pride and self sufficiency21:24 or healthy and humble dependency on God. And Jonah makes the right choice. Right? I mean, you talk about your back against the wall. His back is up against an intestine. Right?21:36 And so we're gonna respond, but the question is just how? Well, look where he is and look at what he does and look at god's response. The Bible says, I called for help21:48 and you listened to my cry. This isn't a fancy prayer. This is a a signal flyer. Right? When the boat's going down or you're going22:00 down and you're sinking to the depths, you don't mess around. You grab that flare gun and you hit that in the air and you hope somebody nearby sees it, but that's the kind of prayer that perhaps many of us need to pray22:12 right now. And God will listen. God's God sees it. You're not gonna be surprising him. In fact, he's he might be even using the belly of the beast and the high seas you22:24 find yourself in to get you to this point where you have to surrender the whole enchilada to god. All that's going on, all the relationships, you22:36 just need to cease striving and know that he is God and call out to God in your distress. You see,22:47 adversity, 1 of God's purposes of adversity is to change our behavior. Now in this this situation with Jonah, he prays. For the Psalmist, in the next passage of scripture we're going to look at,22:59 there's another change of behavior. Look at what he says. My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees. Wow. Okay. So23:11 Jonah prays. The psalmist goes to God's word. He goes back to the truth. Man, I I gotta pay attention to this. And you know what? This is a prophetic word for so many of you out there. This right23:23 here, right, this is this is not this is a weapon and it's not being used in your life. And you're wondering, gosh, why do I why are things going on in my life? Why are why am23:35 I experiencing some of the things that I'm experiencing? Why do I have more anxiety? Why are my relationships fragmenting? Because you're not paying attention to this. This is this is oxygen23:48 for faith. This is oxygen for blessing. This is what you breathe in. This is what you take in. You just you gulp it like air. Right? Like a24:00 newborn takes in a gulp of air to start its life. We start our life, our spiritual life every day with this essential oxygen that gives life24:12 to to us and to our spirits and to God's purposes. And it it clarifies things, and it makes things less confusing, and it sends us in the right direction, and it gives us power over the devil in the24:24 flesh. But there are many of you just right now, it's just like, man, I have let my phone, my schedule, my work get in the way of my time with24:36 God. Listen, you can't make a breakfast appointment with me. Wanna know why? Because I need to breathe my time and God's word in. I have to take it24:47 in to my body. I have to be here, and my my discipline isn't perfect, but I can't say my disciplines are consistent.24:59 Not because I'm a great dude or a good believer. It's because I know I will die literally and spiritually without25:11 oxygen. The oxygen, the life giving power of god's word. So personal adversity changes our behavior. 2 behaviors. You start praying and you start coming back to God's word, and you set25:22 aside time to be with him, and that's what he's after. He just wants he just wants you to get back with him. Right? Back talking and back dialoguing and sharing,25:35 talking, more talking, more wisdom, more talking. Right? Personal adversity changes our behavior. Secondly, personal adversity is from God. Look at how Jonah follows that up. He starts to25:47 pray, and then he he kinda diagnoses the situation, and he says, you hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the current swirled all about me. All your waves25:59 and breakers swept over me. I said, I've been banished from your sight. Yet, I will look again toward your holy temple. The engulfing waters threatened me. The deep26:10 surrounded me. Seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains, I sank down. The earth beneath barred me in forever. And so Jonah's26:22 trying to really paint a picture in this conversation with God that he's having because he started to pray. His personal adversity changed his, changed his behavior. But now he starts kinda diagnosing this. He was like,26:34 this is Remuel. Now it's making sense. Right? At least he's letting letting himself hear the truth of probably what he already knew. But, like, I you asked me to26:46 do a hard thing. I said no. I ran. I couldn't outrun you. You stopped me, and you hurled me into the depths. Right? It's year26:58 waves that came and stopped that boat, and we couldn't row back to shore. Year breakers swept over me, so I started to sink, and then you sent the fish. And I love the the27:10 the the pivot point. Yet, right, yet, I will look again towards your holy temple. Just I will look again to where you are.27:22 Right? In the midst of listen. The engulfing waters, the deep surrounding me, the seaweed wrapped around my head. Right? So low. Right? I can't27:34 get any lower than this low. And that's what many of you need to hear today. You're like, I've never been lower. And you can't27:46 go too low where God cannot reach into that place. God is right with you. Right? You can feel like you're low and like God's not there, but God's right there. And27:58 like Jonah, you need to yet again, in the midst of the low, right, the deep surrounding you, the engulfing waters threatening you, right, threatening your very28:09 life, right, you need to yet again look toward God. Because this circumstance that you're in, either the storm of consequences that come28:21 from a choice you've made or the unplanned, right, squall line that's hit your life that you would have never scripted, Doesn't matter. However28:33 you find yourself in the high seas, right, engulfed, surrounded, threatened, that's all from the Lord. Right? He's allowed. He28:46 it's from God because in a broad sense, he made you a free moral creature. You're not a robot. You make choices that create consequences, some good,28:57 sometimes really bad consequences. Right? But in a specific sense, God's over what he allows into your life. Right? So if you're not on a, hey. This isn't a29:09 consequence of a choice I made. I didn't plan for this. Well, God's over your life and God's allowing it. Right? And he's at work in both cases. Okay? Now29:21 when trials extend over time, wouldn't you agree? It gets a little little tougher. It's like, okay, God. I prayed. I called out. Okay. I'm trusting you.29:34 Day 1, day 2, days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months. I'm trusting you. I'm trusting you. And, they don't resolve, you know, and that can be hard to hang on.29:45 And I love this passage from Joe because he was 1 of those guys who had an extended long term deal, and he's getting pressure to give up his faith.29:57 And Satan will use people to try to pressure you to give up your faith. Satan will directly lie to you to try to pressure you to put put away your faith and and and belief in God. He'll use30:09 the the timing of everything and how long it's going without deliverance to sabotage your faith in god but I love when a man of god knows his god and Job is 1 of30:21 those guys. Listen to this. His wife said, still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse god and be done with it. He30:32 told her, you're talking like an empty headed fool. We take the good days from not. Why not also the bad days? Not once through all this did Job30:44 sin. He said nothing against God. Right? Job had an accurate view of life.30:57 Right? He had an accurate view of the brokenness, the sin, the good and the bad, that there'd be good days and there'd be bad days. Right? There'd be lots of wealth and31:08 maybe sometimes of scarcity in life. The ups and downs. Right? And they're all from God. Right? And and so I love that he said, no.31:20 Not going there. God's still good. The same God who who brings, you know, the the good the good parts, the successes, the the provision, the supply,31:32 the the joy of feeling supported and sustained. Same God also allows the bad days, and he that doesn't change his character. That's what I31:44 love about Job. He realizes that my circumstances don't change God's character, and some of you needed to hear that. Because your circumstances change, does that mean God loves you less? No.31:56 Because when Jesus went to the cross, does that mean that God loved his son less? No. Just meant that God was working on his purpose. You God's good. Job would say, though he slay me, yet I will32:08 praise him. Right? He didn't let the immediate change his view of the ultimate. Right? That this is a temporary thing, Whether32:20 I succumb to it and go to God or whether this resolves now, my circumstance and things change, I win. I love Job's attitude. So personal adversity32:33 changes our behavior. We can go prideful or we can go humble. We can trust ourselves or we can turn to God, start praying, start coming back to his word. Personal adversity is from32:45 God in a broad sense. Right? And that he made us free moral beings. We can make a choice, create consequences, or in a specific sense where this is unscripted stuff that came into our life that we would32:57 never write in, right? He's at work in both cases. Third, personal adversity is never fatal or final for the man of God, and some of you needed to hear that just as33:08 directly as I said it. Personal adversity that you're in right now is not fatal, and it's not final. But there is someone who wants you to believe that it is fatal and final, and that's the devil.33:21 And the and he'll say, you know what? There's no way out. You should just give up right now. There's this and this and this and this and this. It's like a like a like a lawyer. He's making his case, you33:32 know, for you to just give up or bail out. Right? And I know from where I talk, I've had 2 brothers commit suicide.33:45 I've been in multiple situations where people believed the lie that something was fatal or final, a circumstance. Right? A situation.33:58 Their the loss that they've suffered, the rejection that they've suffered, the the trauma, quite frankly, that that they've suffered. And when you are34:10 hit with something that is painful, that means that there's gonna be some negative emotions and man that's when the devil comes in and says, see? See, I told you. You know,34:21 where are you gonna go from here? Right? I mean, it's over. Right? So I mean, if it's over, I mean, shouldn't it be over? Why don't you just go all the way? Suicide is epidemic, and34:33 you know who is an epidemic among? Men. Right? 7 out of 10 people who take their lives are men. We're the majority. Right? Because we get into a34:45 situation, we're in an adversity, it doesn't feel good, so we want to feel better, and then maybe we try a few things to try to make us feel better. We try to get out of it on our own. Right? It doesn't work. Right? We34:57 try to medicate it. We try to solve it. We try to use our own and then in comes the liar and just like, just just give up. Jesus said that Satan is a liar and a murderer.35:09 And I just wanna tell some of my brothers right now that who have thought about this. You're in a situation right now. You're out there. You know who you are right now, and you've thought about this. You're just like,35:20 you know what? It'd be easier. You know? It'd be easier if I just, you know, did something. That's a lie from the devil and don't believe it. Okay? God says he's with you. God says this is not fatal35:32 or final. God has a purpose. God can do it. Just need to surrender to that truth and start moving toward him, calling him out, renewing your faith, giving it all to35:44 God, and let the chips fall where they may. Right? Never sacrifice. Right? The immediate for the ultimate. And the ultimate is you win. Either way,35:56 God's at work and God can use the situation, or he can deliver you through the situation. Right? Either way, he's gonna deliver you. Okay? Listen to what Jonah36:07 says in verses 6 through 10. But you, Lord, my God, brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, look at what he did. I36:19 remembered you, Lord. And my prayer rose to you to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from god's love for them, but I with shouts of grateful36:31 praise will sacrifice. Let's get that. Sacrifice to you. What I have vowed, I will make good. I will say, salvation comes from the lord.36:43 So he punctuates his prayer. Looks what happens next. And the lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. You know what Jonah came to to believe? He36:55 came to believe in his mind and in his heart and his soul and in his attitude, I win either way. You know what? You brought my life up from the pit. Right? When my37:07 life was ebbing away, I remembered you, and all of a sudden, he turns to god and he starts worshiping god, and his circumstance has not changed. You know what that's called? It's called a sacrifice37:20 of praise. A sacrifice of praise, which he says, right, but I, with shouts of grateful praise in the belly, will sacrifice to you in the belly what I have vowed or committed to37:31 in the belly, I will make good. So he makes a commitment in the belly. I will say salvation comes from the Lord in the belly. It's all in the belly. In the midst of nothing's changed. Right?37:43 And so Jonah offers this sacrifice of praise which is where he affirms what he knows is true, which is God is good. My37:55 circumstances don't change God's goodness. And Jonah comes to that that realization. And in the midst of the belly of the beast, right, after the high seas getting thrown into the38:07 water, getting put into the belly of the beast, what does this man do? He praises the lord. I mean, he affirms god good god's goodness. He makes a new commitment.38:19 Can you say that right now? Especially those of you who are are really in it, and you're ready to say, this doesn't own me. And you38:31 can agree with Jonah. Right? Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from god's love for them, but I. Can you say, but I. Just say it, but38:42 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. Can you start affirming38:54 God's good God's goodness? Some of you are in a horrible circumstance. I'm gonna coach you up right now. You're gonna affirm God's goodness in the middle of it. Right? You're gonna start39:06 praising the Lord in the fire, in the belly of the beast. You need to get out that phone, get on that worship playlist, and just start worshiping the39:18 lord, not because your circumstances have changed. It's because a good god doesn't change with your circumstances, and you start worshiping that good god right now.39:30 Do it. Don't wait. Because look at how God responded. Jonah offers God a sacrifice of praise without his circumstance changing inShow more In this video 0:00 Navigating High Seas: Trusting God in AdversityComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
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