Into the Deep: God's Unexpected Rescue | Jonah 1:17-2:10

God's gracious activity often arrives in unexpected ways, and the story of Jonah demonstrates how divine rescue can come through the most unlikely means. The fish that swallowed Jonah wasn't just punishment—it was God's sovereign provision of salvation when Jonah deserved death.

• God's sovereign rule extends beyond cosmic forces to even the digestive system of a fish
• The most unexpected aspect of Jonah's story isn't the fish but that God saved him at all
• Jonah finally acts like a prophet in chapter 2 when he prays from inside the fish
• God's unexpected grace deserves our worshipful response, as we see in Jonah's beautiful prayer
• True worship acknowledges that "salvation belongs to the Lord," not to our efforts
• God gives second chances, shown when "the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time"
• The Christian life follows this pattern: unexpected grace → worshipful response → daily obedience
• When we understand our freedom in Christ, obedience transforms from duty to delight

Join us next week as we continue exploring the book of Jonah and discover how God works through reluctant servants to accomplish His purposes.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:23):
1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado.
Will you join me now inlistening to our sermon from
this week?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Amen, open with me to the book of Jonah as we
continue in our series.
Today will be the very end ofchapter 1, jonah, 1.17 through
chapter 2.
I want to read 1.17 for us.
And the Lord appointed a greatfish to swallow up Jonah, and

(00:54):
Jonah was in the belly of thefish three days and three nights
.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, thank you for yourword.
Would you teach us through yourword, transform us through your
word and, lord, by your spirit,would we leave change?
Today, lord, we need you and weneed to hear from you.

(01:16):
We ask this in Christ's name,amen.
Have you ever asked in anysituation, what are the chances
that something happens in yourown life?
That seems like animpossibility and you just have
to ask what in the world are thechances here?
My favorite novel of all timeand second place isn't even

(01:39):
remotely close is Harper Lee'sTo Kill a Mockingbird.
It's the first time I read it.
I loved it and I think everyword and every line is
perfection.
But Harper Lee, as she'swriting this book, in many ways
it's very autobiographical.
In many ways she's writingabout her own life and
upbringing in Monroeville,alabama.
As you read To Kill aMockingbird, you hear about a

(02:02):
friend named Dill who would comedown and hang out with Scout
and Jim every summer.
Every summer, dill would comedown and they would play games
All hours of the day.
They were together.
That was based on one of HarperLee's friends in Monroeville,
alabama.
That would come down everysummer, a young man named Truman
Persons.

(02:22):
Truman Persons would come everysummer and they'd play for
those three months.
Truman would later live in NewYork City where he would move
with his mother and his mother'snew husband.
Truman would take on the nameof that new husband and he would
become, instead of TrumanPersons, truman Capote.

(02:43):
Now what are the chances?
Chances, when you look at thetop 10 American authors American
novels you see number one, toKill a Mockingbird.
Number eight is Truman Capote'sIn Cold Blood.
What are the chances that twoof the top 10 American authors
spent all their summers togetherin nowhere else but Monroeville

(03:03):
, alabama?
How is this possible?
As a side note, what are thechances?
In Harper Lee's life when shelived in New York City, she
lived on the first floor of anapartment building and just down
the hall, one of her firstfloor neighbors, two young men
that were just strugglingartists at the time, named John
and Daryl.
You may know what their lastnames were and what they came to

(03:26):
be known by Hall and Oates.
So what are the chances?
With Harper Lee in her life isunbelievable.
But as we turn to Jonah thismorning, we can't help but ask
this what are the chances?
How in the world could this bethat Jonah seems to be in the

(03:47):
middle of the Mediterranean Sea,just the right storm brings
just the right moment, that hegets thrown overboard at just
the right time, that just theright fish at just the right
moment is where that fish needsto be to provide Jonah with the

(04:08):
saving he desperately needs anddoesn't even know he's looking
for.
What are the chances?
Well, when you think of HarperLee and Truman Capote, the
chances they can't be none, butthey can be slim.
When you think about Jonah inthe middle of the ocean but
you're dealing with thesovereignty of God the chances
are absolute.
And that's what we'll see thismorning.

(04:29):
And I want us to see a fewthings, and the first is this
that God's gracious activity maynot come in the way that we
expected.
God's gracious activity may notcome in the way that we
expected.
Verse 17 again.
And the Lord appointed a greatfish to swallow up Jonah, and
Jonah was in the belly of thefish three days and three nights

(04:54):
.
Now, in verse 17 of chapter 1,I want to start right here those
first words that and the Lordappointed a great fish.
The Lord appointed when we thinkabout the sovereign rule of God
, the sovereign rule and reignof God over all of creation, we

(05:14):
usually think of that in termsof really big, dramatic things.
We think of the sovereign ruleof God in things like his
ability to put the universe inplace, his ability to rule over
the stars and the galaxy, hisability to rule over the earth
in such a way that he keeps itspinning on an axis.

(05:36):
And if, for even a second, helooked away and caused us to get
a fraction of an inch off lifeas we know, it would be over.
But God's sovereign rule andreign keeps all of these things
moving and in place.
We think of God's sovereigntyin really big ways, but I also
want to do this.
I want you to think of God'ssovereign rule also in very

(05:57):
small ways, that God's sovereignrule even reigns over the
digestive system of a fish.
That's just how mighty God is,that he doesn't just deal with
the big, but he deals with thesmall.
And so when we read that, andthe Lord appointed a great fish

(06:19):
that in this moment God calledupon a fish, gave that fish a
duty to carry out, and that fishjust said yes, sir, that fish
did it.
He went where he was supposedto go, where God told him to be.
But God's gracious activitymight not look like we expect.

(06:41):
This moment where the Lordappoints this great fish look at
this to swallow up Jonah, thisis a moment of God's grace.
This is a moment of absolutegracious activity on the part of
God.
Is there God's judgment mixedin with this?
Absolutely, jonah rightfullydeserves.

(07:02):
He's a rebel running from God.
He deserves the judgment of Godand God's judgment is mixed in
in this moment.
God did not put a Hilton GardenInn at the bottom of the sea.
He appointed a fish to swallowJonah in this moment.
I imagine these three days werea little uncomfortable, not the
most desirable, and yet this isGod's salvation for him.

(07:26):
This is Jonah, as we'll see injust a moment through his prayer
.
That has no hope that whenJonah gets overboard, he knows
that he is as good as dead.
He knows that him being thrownoverboard is a death sentence.
He knows he's not coming backfrom this, and yet, as he's
floating down to the bottom ofthe ocean, god provides his

(07:48):
salvation in this unexpectedform of a really big fish to
swallow him up.
And so this is God's graciousactivity.
And I just wonder who couldhave seen this coming?
Nobody, jonah didn't know.
Again, as we talked about thesailors didn't even know.
When the fish woke up thatmorning, he didn't even know.

(08:12):
And yet, in God's mercy, godknew.
And I just wonder have you seenGod's unexpected gracious
activity in your life?
Have you known in your own mindthat you needed God to move in

(08:32):
your own thinking in a certainway, and it had to be a certain
way.
It needed to be this way, whichlines up perfectly with my way,
the way I dreamed and desired.
And then you've seen God movein your life in a totally
unexpected way.
And yet on the other side of it, you see that all the while,

(08:55):
god was orchestrating what onlyhe could do to get you right
where you needed to be at thetime you needed to get there,
that what you saw in your lifeas an absolute closed door that
you wanted to be open.
You saw instead that all thewhile God had opened another and
that one made all thedifference.
You saw a relationship come toa close and yet you see later

(09:17):
that God was just preparing youfor something else.
You saw the career move thatyou didn't get the promotion.
You didn't get the promotionyou didn't get.
You thought that will be theend of me and my career going
forward and you saw in God'ssovereignty that was just the
beginning, because God moves inunexpected ways in our lives and
does things we could not seecoming, so that on the other

(09:38):
side of it, we'll see in aminute.
We will give him, and him alone, worship, but have you seen God
move in unexpected ways in yourlife?
We will give him and him aloneworship, but have you seen God
move in unexpected ways in yourlife?
I wonder if, even in these daysnow, you even walk into this
room in a moment in your ownlife where you wonder what in
the world has God up to?
What in the world is God doing?

(09:58):
Why have I been praying forthis thing and God hadn't moved
in this way yet?
Or why is God not moving meforward or calling me back?
I don't know.
We got this devastating news,we got this difficult diagnosis
and we wonder what in the worldGod is up to.

(10:18):
It may be, I would argue, thatGod is moving in some unexpected
ways, or, on the other side ofit, we can look back and see
God's faithfulness all the while.
If you want to know the mostunexpected way we see God's
sovereign activity in our lives,and any lives, we only have to
look to our own salvation, don'twe?

(10:39):
We only have to look to thecross.
I love the moment.
In Matthew 12, 38 through 40,the religious leaders come to
Jesus and they say this Jesus,we want you to give us a sign,
we want you to show us something.
Basically this we want to see aspectacle.
It can be a hocus pocus,abracadabra.

(11:00):
We just need to see somethingamazing.
And if you do that, if youcreate this spectacle, then
maybe we'll all believe that youare who you say you are.
Just show us something, jesus.
And Jesus says this I'm notgoing to give you a sign, except
for one.
I will give you the sign ofJonah.
That's his words, the sign ofJonah.
He says this for three days,jonah spent in the belly of the

(11:24):
fish.
So too will the Son of manspend in the heart of the earth.
Jesus says this if you want toknow the sign that I give, look
no further than where I'm going.
We know he's talking about hisvery death, where he will go
into the tomb and on the thirdday rise again.
But you talk about theunexpected grace that comes to

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us in the person of Jesus Christ.
We couldn't have drawn up thefact that our Savior would be
the suffering Savior, thatliterally the moment that we
consider and celebrate and lookback to as believers would be
the moment when the Lord ofglory is put on the cross, faces
Roman execution beside twocriminals, and certainly on that

(12:11):
Friday afternoon we couldn'timagine that Sunday morning he's
going to get up from the grave.
This is unexpected gracethrough and through that God
would move in a way that wecouldn't even imagine.
And yet I think for Jonah and Ithink for me as well, we can
take it a step further to sayit's not just the fact that the

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way Jonah was saved wasunexpected.
It certainly was.
But another thing that was sounexpected is this that Jonah
was saved at all.
It doesn't just blow me awaythat it was a fish, as if it had
just been some other boat thatpulled up, it would make more
sense.

(12:54):
It might, in my rational mind,make a little more sense.
But the reality is this Jonahis one can we just be honest
doesn't deserve saving.
He is a prophet of God, so hesays, but he's a prophet on the
run who every step of the way,wants to get as far away from
the will of God and the plan ofGod over his life as he possibly

(13:16):
can.
And yet, whether it be a fish,whether it be anything else,
jonah saved.
What may be so unexpected inthis moment is just the gracious
activity of God at all, is justthe gracious activity of God at

(13:37):
all that God would be willingto find someone like Jonah.
We could take it a step furthersomeone like me, someone like
you, in the middle of the oceanand provide salvation.
Whether it be a great fish orthe cross of Jesus Christ,
provide salvation for us.
So number one is this God'sgracious activity may not come
in the way that we expected, butI also want to see this.

(13:59):
God's gracious activity alwaysdeserves our worshipful response
.
God's gracious activity alwaysdeserves our worshipful response
.

(14:21):
Response Chapter 2, we see thisverse 1, then Jonah prayed to
the Lord, his God, from thebelly of the fish.
Again, then Jonah prayed to theLord, his God, from the belly
of the fish.
Finally, it takes us all theway to chapter 2, but we finally
see the prophet of God actingas if he were a prophet of God.
Think about in this moment,throughout this book, who we

(14:44):
have seen praying to Yahweh,praying to the Lord.
So far we have seen theseformerly unbelieving sailors who
, again 15 minutes ago, werecalling out to every God
lowercase g they could think of,and then they're praying to
Yahweh himself.
And finally, in chapter 2, weactually see the prophet of God

(15:08):
pray to Yahweh.
But I will say this he doesmake up for lost time because we
see a beautiful prayer in thismoment.
But I will say this he doesmake up for lost time because we
see a beautiful prayer in thismoment.
I want to walk through it inits entirety.
Verse 2, he says this I calledout to the Lord out of my
distress and he answered me.
Out of the belly of Sheol, thatmeans the place of the deep, I

(15:33):
cried and look at this, and youheard my voice.
I like verse three, for youcast me into the deep we might
be tempted to say, jonah no, hedidn't, jonah.
The sailors cast you into thedeep.
Or we could even say, jonah,actually that was your idea for
the sailors to cast you into thedeep.
Yet Jonah has an even deeperunderstanding of what is going

(15:55):
on here, that this is God'sdivine judgment.
God threw him into the sea.
Met with God's divine grace, aswe see.
For you cast me into the deep,into the heart of the seas, and
the flood surrounded me.
All your waves and your billowspassed over me Verse 4,.
Then I said I am driven awayfrom your sight.

(16:19):
Yet I shall again look uponyour holy temple.
The waters closed in over me totake my life.
The deep surrounded me.
Weeds were wrapped around myhead At the roots of the
mountains.
I went down to the land, whosebars closed upon me forever.
Yet you brought up my life fromthe pit.

(16:40):
O Lord, my God, when my lifewas fainting away, I remembered
the Lord and my prayer came toyou and to your holy temple.
Those who pay regard to vainidols Forsake their hope of
steadfast love.
But I, with the voice ofthanksgiving, will sacrifice to
you what I have vowed.

(17:00):
I will pay.
Here it is Salvation belongs tothe Lord.
We see such a beautiful prayerin this moment that moves from
hopelessness to hope.
That moves from hopelessness tohope.
Jonah is not shy to describethe hopelessness he was facing.
I mean, you see the language?

(17:20):
He's thrust down into the deep.
You see the seaweed wrappingaround him, the bars of the deep
closing over him, this poeticlanguage to describe exactly
what has happened.
As Jonah is sinking down and aswe say again, this being thrown
overboard was an absolute deathsentence, jonah's life will be

(17:41):
over, should be over.
There's no way out unless Godintervenes.
And in this moment, as Jonahsees, I look to the Lord.
I remember the Lord, but longbefore that the Lord looked to
me and appointed this fish andhe saved me in this moment.
What we see here is that God'sgracious activity leads to a

(18:03):
worshipful response by Jonah.
I think of Luke 17, 11 through19, that these 10 individuals
come to Jesus.
Each one of them has leprosy,this skin disease that would
cause them to be absoluteoutcasts in town.
There's really no way back fromthis diagnosis.

(18:26):
And they all come to Jesus.
They know he's passing throughtheir village and they come, beg
him for healing.
Jesus tells them go and see thepriest.
And as all 10 of them are ontheir way to the priest, all 10
of them are healed just asthey're walking that way.
Leprosy is gone.

(18:47):
They have, in so many ways, newlife.
Now Leprosy is healed.
Nine of them go about theirbusiness.
One of them stops, runs back toJesus, falls on his knees, on
his face before Jesus and saysnothing but thank you and gives
him nothing but worship andJesus says your faith has made

(19:10):
you well, your faith has madeyou well.
I imagine that these nineindividuals are very content
with the healing and justcontent to get back to what they
did before their diagnosis.
But this one knew exactly wherehis healing had come from and
would not go about his businessuntil he worshiped the one who

(19:34):
gave it.
Do we return in worship as wesee God's gracious activity In
our own lives, in the lives ofothers, in the life of this
church, in the life of thisworld?
Do we return our worship to theLord when we see his gracious
activity?
Imagine and it might not behard to imagine, because seeing

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Jonah's character in the otherthree chapters of this book,
it's not far-fetched but imaginein this moment if Jonah had
instead just taken all thecredit.
When I had the great idea todive over the side of the boat
when I pinpointed the exact fishthat could give me a ride right
back to where I needed to be,wasn't I wise to do that?

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It sounds ridiculous to say outloud.
And yet, when you and I areunwilling or simply forgetful to
give God the glory he deservesfor his gracious activity in our
lives, if we're not careful, wecan sound exactly like that, at
least in our actions, takingcredit for what only God can do.

(20:41):
I hope that we will be a peoplethat, as we see the movement of
God in our lives, in this church, in our families, in this world
, that we would have nowhere tolook but up and be a worshiping
people that say Lord Jesus, allglory to you.

(21:03):
You are the one who has made away, you are the one that has
made this possible.
As we talk about the unexpectedways God moves, you were the
only one that could do this, andso in my life I want to return
and I simply want to say thankyou.
Now we do have to talk aboutthis and many have talked about

(21:24):
it through the years thatJonah's words are beautiful, yet
they're not quite perfect.
We do see in this moment thatat no point does he come to the
Lord with some kind ofrepentance.
It would have been a greatmoment for Jonah to look back at
the Lord in his prayer and saythis I have done wrong, I have

(21:47):
messed up in some really bigways.
We don't get that.
But we also see this, that inchapters 3 and 4 Jonah is going
to go right back To his sinfulways of wanting mercy for
himself but for absolutely noone else.

(22:07):
And this prayer is beautiful,but in some ways it's not
perfect.
I'm not sure how well it sticksonce Jonah is removed from the
fish, and that's why I see pointnumber three, which is this
God's gracious activity shouldlead us to further obedience.

(22:28):
God's gracious activity notonly deserves a worshipful
response, but should lead us tofurther obedience.
Verse 10 of chapter 2, and theLord spoke to the fish and it
vomited Jonah out upon the dryland.
I'm sorry for that word vomitedthat's just what the ESV gave

(22:49):
me.
The Lord appointed or spoke tothe fish and it vomited Jonah
out on to dry land.
So once again we see thesovereignty of God even over the
digestive system of a fish,where he can speak to that fish
and in that moment that fishresponds to God's command and

(23:11):
spits Jonah out onto dry land.
Now the text doesn't actuallytell us where Jonah is, where
that fish gets Jonah, but Iwould imagine it's much closer
to Joppa and Nineveh than it isto Tarshish.
Many assume that it's rightback at Joppa, right back to
where Jonah started.

(23:31):
But wherever it is, this fishand really the Lord working
through this fish gets Jonahback to dry land Again.
His death sentence becomes asecond opportunity to serve the
Lord and be faithful to the Lordand, as we've seen his
worshipful response now he willhave an opportunity to be led

(23:52):
towards further obedience.
And in 3, verse 1, we see thisthen the word of the Lord came
to Jonah the second time.
Now we're going to break downchapter 3 another day, but just
that verse 1, that the word ofthe Lord would come a second

(24:14):
time.
Verse 1, that the word of theLord would come a second time.
Does that not blow you away?
That the word of the Lord cameto Jonah the first time and
Jonah did nothing but run away,nothing but get as far away as
he could.
But in God's mercy, the word ofthe Lord comes a second time

(24:40):
Reminds me of Genesis, chapter15, 16, and 17.
Genesis 15, god makes a covenantwith Abraham that I'm going to
give you a nation and a peopleand a land.
You'll be as numerous as thestars in the sky.
This beautiful covenant that isgiven.
You are going to have a child,abraham, and from him will come

(25:01):
this mighty nation that willbless all the nations through
this nation.
This beautiful covenant thatGod makes.
That's chapter 15.
Chapter 16, what happens?
Abraham messes every singlepart of that up.
He and Sarah have an idea.
You know we're not able to havea child.
There's Hagar, my servant.

(25:23):
A child is born with Hagar,outside of what God had just
told them to do.
They're disobedient, seeminglyat every stop.
And then we see that's 15, then16.
What's going to happen in 17?
I would imagine God would bedone with Abraham.
Genesis, chapter 17,.
What does God do?
He comes to Abraham and in hisgrace he doubles down on that

(25:45):
covenant promise as numerous asthe stars in the sky, so your
descendants will be.
We serve a God of secondchances, and that's good news
for folks like you and me whosure need second chances.
But in this moment God's wordcomes again to Jonah, and Jonah

(26:08):
has the opportunity now, thesecond time around, to obey God.
Now Jonah doesn't do itperfectly.
We're going to see Jonah getsto Nineveh, but he does so
pretty reluctantly.
He preaches to Nineveh and I'mgoing to be honest, it's not the
most exciting sermon he'sprobably ever preached.

(26:29):
He doesn't even sound thatexcited about giving it, and yet
Nineveh is going to repent,nineveh is going to be saved.
So Jonah is reluctant.
But I wonder this in our ownlives, jonah is reluctant.
But I wonder this in our ownlives, as we've seen God move in
unexpected ways, as I hopewe've returned to worship
accordingly.
Has, then, that led us tofurther obedience?

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I want to return to Harper Leefor just a second.
I'm reading a book, or justfinished a book this week on
Harper Lee, and unfortunatelyy'all have to be the beneficiary
of this.
But the year was 1956, andHarper Lee just couldn't get any

(27:16):
words on the page.
To Kill a Mockingbird would notcome out until 60, and here she
is in 56.
She knows she's got a book inher soul, but she just cannot
get it on the page.
What makes matters worse isthat at this time she's not the
accomplished author that shewould be.
And so she's got a day job andit's hard to even find time to

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write when you've got a nine tofive and you're living in New
York City and there's a lot ofhustle and bustle and there's a
lot going on and you just need afew quiet hours to write.
And she absolutely can't findit.
But at Christmas of 1956, shehas two dear friends, michael
and Joy Brown.
They give her a Christmas giftthat changed everything.

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For Christmas they gave her acheck.
That check equated to a year'sworth of her wages and they told
her you have a year, go writeyour book.
They said you have a year.
Go get those words on the page,don't worry about the day job,

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don't worry about the day job,don't worry about the
distractions.
You now have the freedom towork.
And with that new freedom,harper Lee did not need a year
because within 10 months she hadthe finished manuscript handed
over of what, through someediting phases, would become To
Kill a Mockingbird.

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And why did this happen?
How did this happen?
Why, because through such afreedom comes such an obedience.
The gift of such a freedomleads us to further obedience as

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we realize the freedom we have.
As Harper Lee realized thefreedom she now had to write.
She was obedient to that callof you've got a year.
As in our lives, we realize whowe are in Christ Jesus and the
freedom we have, as we realizewhat he's done for us, the
unexpected way he has moved,first in our salvation, but then

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in every single facet of ourlives, how he continually moves
and works all things togetherfor our good and for his glory.
Our response is worship.
And then that leads us.
What so great a freedom that hehas given us now leads us to
greater obedience.
That now, because of my freedom, I don't have to use the

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language of I better obey, Ihave to obey.
Here it is, I get to obey, Ihave to obey.
Here it is, I get to obey Fromduty to delight.
We've talked about that before.
That I get to look at God'sword and see the man or the

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woman that he has called me tobe, and I get to live that life.
And I imagine I won't do itperfect, I imagine I'll miss the
mark a time or two, or 10,000,but the privilege he's given me,
the freedom I have, hisunexpected gracious activity, my
worshipful response, my furtherobedience.

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I was reading 1 Peter this weekand saw this formula so clear in
chapter 2, starting in verse 9.
But you are a chosen race, aroyal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for his own possessionthat you may proclaim the

(31:02):
excellencies of him who calledyou out of darkness into
marvelous light.
Here's the formula.
He calls us who we are.
He shows us who we are inChrist Jesus, the life we've
been given.
Why that you may proclaim theexcellencies?
That leads us to worship.
Then you jump down to verse 11.
Beloved that we know who we areand we've worshiped him
accordingly.
Beloved.
I urge you, as sojourners andexiles, to abstain from the

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passions of the flesh which wagewar against your soul.
There's the formula Unexpectedgrace, worshipful response that
fuels daily obedience.
If that formula we've talkedbefore, if that formula gets out
of order, you will spend yourlife striving to attain what you

(31:49):
already have.
You will spend your lifethinking obedience is my
constant hamster wheel of thislife to try to earn the favor of
God.
When, all the while, god'sfavor has been placed upon you
in the person of Christ Jesus,we worship in response to that

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and we get to live the life ofobedience for him accordingly.
That's the Christian life.
In just a moment, I'm going topray and we're going to worship
together and I'll be honest, I'mnot picking on you, I'm picking
on me, I'm picking on all of us.

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There's sometimes probably atemptation in the final song,
what we call the invitation song, and I'll just call it like I
see it, because I've beentempted to.
You're thinking about lunch,okay, you're thinking about it.
You're thinking about what'sahead.
You've got responsibilitiesthis afternoon.

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Monday's coming.
There's a lot on your mind inthat last song.
But in this moment, I wonder ifwe can just hang on for a
little while and just do exactlywhat this text calls us to do.
As we sing this song that talksabout our gratitude to our

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heavenly father, if we couldjust for a moment recall in our
own lives, through our salvation, through every time in between
of our lives where god has beenfaithful to us, if we can bring
those things to mind and, justfor a few moments in this room,
worship him accordingly, in theway that he deserves, in

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downright gratitude for all thathe has done for us, completely
undeserved, yet he delights todo it and he is faithful.
And as we sing, if you'd liketo respond in any way, I'll be
down front.
I'd love to pray with you.
I'd love to talk to you about arelationship with Jesus.

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I'd love to talk to you aboutjoining this church.
However, you need to beresponding, I'll be here to
handle it.
You come on down and see me.
For the rest of us, let'sworship and let's show our
gratitude.
Let me pray and then we'llworship together.
Lord Jesus, I thank you forwhat you've done for us.
I thank you for your mercy.

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I thank you for what you'vedone for us.
I thank you for your mercy.
I thank you for your grace andLord, with so great a freedom,
so great a salvation, lord, letus respond with our worship,
respond with gratitude andthankfulness for who you are and

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what you've done.
Lord, you are worthy of ourpraise.
Each one of us in this room thatknow Jesus Christ personally,
we know what it is to be likeJonah sinking to the bottom of
the ocean.
Yet we also know, in ChristJesus, what it is to be saved by

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the cross and by hisresurrection.
And, lord, if there is any inthis room that doesn't know that
that is still in the ocean oftheir own lives.
Would today be the day thatthey find the Savior.
Lord, we have nothing to giveyou except for our heartfelt

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worship and gratitude.
So, Lord, let us give that now.
In Christ's name, amen.
Would you stand now as weworship?
I'll be down front if you come.