The Fresh Air of Restoration

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#333366" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>The Fresh Air of Restoration</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=165 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="132" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 35 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id177.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Does Running From God Make Sense?"><U><B><IMG SRC="007151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id180.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gods Mercy Take Some and Pass it Along"><U><B><IMG SRC="008151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="35" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="20" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="13"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="27"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> Previous/Next Sermon</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="www.stanbaker.org"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Biblical and Theological Studies"><U><B>Biblical and Theological Studies</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church Ministry"><U><B>Ministry Studies</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermon Notes"><U>Sermon Notes</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Personal"><U><B>Personal</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:stan@stanbaker.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:stan@stanbaker.org"><U>stan@stanbaker.org</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>“The Fresh Air of Restoration,” Jonah 2, March 4, 2001am, Berean Bible Church</B></div> <bR> <div> <I>     </I>Have you been feeling kept down and defeated by some sin or wrongdoing that you haven’t confessed to God? Are you in need of forgiveness? If you realize that you have run from God by refusing to do his will, be encouraged: Jonah’s story tells us that there is hope for us after our failures.</div> <bR> <div> <B>I. Although we face consequences for our poor choices, we have hope for restoration.</B></div> <div>      A. Jonah 1.17: God gave Jonah a chance to be restored, by allowing him to live in a fish rather than die by drowning. God wanted to bring Jonah back to himself and to his service.</div> <div>      B. Jonah 2.1-7: Jonah was in danger of drowning and his life is spared. Verse 2 is a summary statement of Jonah’s call for help and God’s answer. Verses 3-6 detail Jonah’s distress. He was as good as dead. He had one foot in the grave. Verse 4 tells us he felt banished from God’s sight. Remember that Jonah was trying to run from the presence of the Lord (Jonah 1.3). But the experience of feeling banished from God’s sight was not what he had in mind. So he turned back to God. God heard him, and rescued him.</div> <div>      C. Jonah 2.8-9: Jonah was restored spiritually. He affirmed his loyalty to God rather than to anything else, including worthless idols. Verse 8 tells us that you cannot be loyal to God and to idols at the same time. Loyalty to God takes precedence over everything else. When God forgives us, he expects us to respond by renewing our loyalty to him.</div> <div>      D. Jonah 2.10: God put Jonah back to work. Jonah now had the opportunity to go do what he initially refused to do. Can you imagine Jonah breathing in the fresh air after being in the fish for a few days? It was more than physical fresh air – it was the fresh air of being forgiven and restored to God and his service. We have the same hope when we have failed God.</div> <bR> <div> <B>II. No matter how far you have gone, you can always turn around, so let God restore you.</B></div> <div>      A. God can put it behind us. A friend once reminded Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, of a cruel thing that someone had been done to her many years before. Clara did not seem to recall it. “Don't you remember it?” her friend asked. “No,” Barton replied, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.” In the same way, God chooses to forget our sins because Jesus paid for them when he died on the grace in our place.</div> <div>      B. But we must also let it go, recognizing that we are forgiven. Sparky Anderson, baseball manager, once said, “I've got my faults, but living in the past isn't one of them. There just isn’t any future in it.” That is true spiritually. Don’t continue to hold things against yourself that God does not hold against you. Accept his forgiveness, learn from your sins and mistakes, and move on, being loyal to him alone. And the next time you fall, get back up and go on. There’s hope for being restored to him.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> copyright, 2001, Stanley Baker</div> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> </tr></table></body>