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Welcome to the Southside Church Podcast. Weekly content that inspires all of us to follow Jesus. Join us each week for a message from one of our fantastic communicators that provide practical ways to grow our faith, challenge ourselves, and to love others more. And now, this week's message.

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Well, good morning, everybody. It's so good to be with all of you today. Look, I want to ask you a question as we begin. Have you ever had a moment in your life where uh something happened? At the time it felt catastrophic. It felt like it was this devastating blow. You weren't expecting it, you didn't see it coming. Only to find out maybe a few days later, maybe a few months later, maybe even years later, it was actually the best thing that could have happened to you. Yeah, at the time it looked like the end was near. How would I ever recover from this? Only to realize on the other side it was actually a really healthy thing. I'm talking about things like that job loss, or maybe the job transition or the job transfer, the thing that you didn't want to happen, and you wondered how you would actually recover, what was gonna come next, where am I gonna go from here? Only to realize a little bit later it was actually the best thing that could have happened, and the position that you're in now is actually much better. You're in a far better place than you were previously. Or maybe that relationship that ended, maybe it was a bad breakup, maybe it was a relationship that ended for any number of reasons. Maybe you ended the relationship, maybe somebody ended the relationship for you, but either way, you wondered how am I ever gonna live without this person? How am I gonna live going forward? What am I gonna do? I didn't see this coming, only to realize, no, it's actually incredibly healthy that that ended. It needed to end. You see, oftentimes when we find ourselves in devastating circumstances like that, we wonder how we're actually going to move forward. But ultimately, a little bit later, we often realize that it wasn't just a devastating circumstance. It actually was rescue. It was actually a rescue that was happening. With that in mind, I want you to hold that thought for a moment. We're gonna dive right into our message today. We're gonna be continuing a series that we began last week on uh a guy named Jonah, this prophet in the Old Testament. Uh, when you think about the name Jonah, we hear the name Jonah, what comes to mind? The whale, exactly. We talked about this last week. I kind of teased it out a little bit last week, and I told you that if you come back today, we're gonna be talking about this big fish, this whale. Well, that's exactly where we're going today. But first, I want to catch those of you who were with us up a little bit, just to remind you, a quick refresher. Those of you who weren't able to join us last week, I want to kind of set the stage for where we're gonna be going today. And ultimately what we found last week was that the story at its core is a story about a guy who tries to run from what God has called him to do. And on its face, that really is the summary of what Jonah is. It's a story about a guy who tries to run from what God has called him to do. But there's so much more to the story than that. There's so much more nuance in all of that. There's so much more depth for all of us because what Jonah is also a story about is the story about God's inconceivable compassion for all of us, not just those of us who follow Jesus, but for every one of us. His inconceivable compassion, his gracious second chances that so many of us have benefited from. Second, third, sometimes even fourth, and fifth chances. God is a God of second chances. The story of Jonah shows us that. The story of Jonah is also a story about God going to great lengths, really to any lengths necessary to accomplish his mission in our lives and through our lives. You see, the story of Jonah intersects with all of our lives at some level. This thousands-year-old story about a prophet of God intersects with our lives today, here in 2026. So to get us started, I want to catch us up a little bit on chapter one. We're gonna be spending a lot of time in chapter two today, but first we're gonna get back to kind of the beginning of where we started to get us up to speed. If you've got a Bible, I'd love for you to follow along. If you've got one with you, maybe you've got a device that has a Bible app, feel free to open it up. We'll be in the book of Jonah. If you need a Bible, as always, we have Bibles in the back of the room. Feel free to grab one and follow along. And if you need a Bible, please take it. It is our gift to you. But I'm gonna be in the book of Jonah, chapter one, verses one and two, to begin with. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amitai, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me. So, kind of right out of the gate, we've got this prophet Jonah. Jonah was a prophet, and in those days, uh, prophets were essentially spokespeople for God. These were people that God would use to give messages to others on his behalf. So God is commanding this prophet Jonah, go to the city of Nineveh. Well, what is the city of Nineveh? Well, one of the books of the Old Testament, the book of Nahum, refers to it as the city of blood. So it's got a pretty bad reputation. Uh, the city of Nineveh was a sworn enemy of Israel. They were part of the Assyrian Empire. In that day, they were notorious for their brutality and the way that they treated uh their enemies when they were captured. So if there was any place that Jonah didn't want to go, it was Nineveh. Not just to avoid the brutality, but in this instance, Jonah essentially is treating himself as judge and jury. He doesn't feel, doesn't believe that they deserve to hear the message of God. The very last thing that Jonah wanted to do was go to these horrible people in his mind and tell them about the grace of God. So what does he do? He runs in the opposite direction. God says, Hey, I need you to go east to Nineveh. Jonah's like, Yeah, I'm not doing that. I'm gonna go west. Not only am I gonna go west, I'm gonna go far as far west as I know possible, according to their maps. This is as far as I can go, all the way to a town called Tarshish. So what he does, he goes down to, scripture tells us in verse 3, he goes down to uh a place called Joppa. There's this port that he had to go to to find a boat. It tells us he goes down into this boat and he gets on with some sailors, some sailors who were also pagans, similar to some of the people he thought he might encounter in Nineveh. That's important to the story, but he decides, hey, I'm gonna get on this boat and I'm gonna go. You're going to Tarshish, I'm gonna head with you and go in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, as he's on this boat, a great storm comes upon them. Scripture calls it a violent storm, a great wind comes upon them. And what we now know and what we see in this moment is this God allowing this storm to happen because he wanted to bring Jonah back. Jonah was being disobedient. So this great storm comes up in an effort to get Jonah to turn around, to kind of curb where he's going. And come on, Jonah, come on back. Let's stop being disobedient. And we'll pick up, we're gonna jump ahead a little bit to chapter one, verse 11. The sea was getting rougher and rougher. They're in the middle of this storm now. So they asked him, these are the the these pagan sailors, what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us? They know that Jonah's running, they know that his God is allowing this to happen. So, what do they need to do? Jonah says this says, Pick me up and throw me into the sea, and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you. So Jonah is admitting fault. He's recognizing that his sin, his avoidance has a price tag. It's now got ripple effects, and these sailors are now affected by this. So these sailors push back, they don't want to throw him overboard. They actually begin praying to the God of Jonah and saying, God, please don't punish us for being obedient. We're trying to do what you've asked us, what your prophet has asked us to do. So reluctantly, after trying everything that they know to try, they throw him into the sea. And so we left off with our story last week in verse 17, which says, Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. You see, what we find in this story, in this narrative, is yes, it ties in to our stories as well often. Jonah's not merely just an unfortunate victim here. He's not just a victim of bad circumstances. Jonah ends up inside this fish because ultimately his will collided with God's will. And I'd be willing to bet for a lot of us in this room, we've had moments like this. Maybe you're in a moment like this right now where your will and what you want is going directly in contrast with what God has commanded. No matter where you are in your journey of faith, the story of Jonah is a story for all of us, as we'll see today. So here's what I want to do I want us to dive in to chapter two. And what we're gonna see in chapter two is that it really is just Jonah's prayer. Chapter two is very short, it's only ten verses. The first nine verses are the prayer that Jonah offers to God during this time, and then we'll we'll touch on verse 10 as well. So, what I like to do is kind of read through the prayer. But before we do that, before we go further reading that prayer, I want to address what might be kind of an elephant in the room, or in this case, maybe a whale in the room. There's a question that often comes up. Anytime we talk about this story, anytime we hear this story, and the question is this did did God did God really allow a fish to swallow Jonah? Like, did that really happen? Is that literal or is that just kind of a figurative thing? Is this just sort of an illustration or did a fish really swallow Jonah? And look, there we could debate all day. There's a lot of theological debate around this, whether it's literal or figurative. Um, I'll just go ahead and tip my hand. I believe this actually happened. I read it as I believe it as the text has written it. And here's what I would say if you have that question. I think, first of all, it's a very normal question to have, but here's what I would say. If you believe that things in life can happen somewhat outside of the natural order of things, right? In other words, if you believe that miracles can happen, then that's what I would classify this story as. I believe it's a miracle. I believe that this is something that God allowed to happen that was a miraculous event. And the reason that it seems so hard for us to understand is because it seems so far-fetched, right? Like this seems kind of crazy. Like at least some of the other miracles in scripture we can kind of understand in the narrative. This one just seems crazy, but I would argue that it's not any crazier than the idea of God parting the Red Sea. It's not any crazier than Peter walking on water. It's not any crazier than Jesus healing a blind man or healing a leper. It's not any crazier than the apostles being able to speak in languages that they've never learned so that they could preach the gospel. Not any crazier than God, than Jesus essentially uh regenerating the ear of a soldier who had it cut off while they were trying to arrest Jesus. Certainly not any crazier than God raising Lazarus from the dead or his own resurrection. This is just yet another miracle in my mind that we see in Scripture. The fish, as we learn, is God's provision. It's God extending grace and mercy to Jonah. It was a rescue. It was a rescue. Who is God in our lowest moments? Where is God in our lowest moments? Well, Jonah's prayer tells us. So what I'd like to do is I'd like to read the prayer in full, and then I want to dive into a couple of these verses specifically to look at what we can maybe take from Jonah's prayer when we find ourselves in our very own version of the fish, when we find ourselves in the pit. So if you want to follow along again, we'll be continuing in the book of Jonah. We'll be in chapter two now, verses one through nine. This is the prayer of Jonah. From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said, In my distress 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. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me, all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me, seaweed was wrapped around my head, to the roots of the mountains. I sank down, the earth beneath me barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I 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 grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed, I will make good. And I will say, Salvation comes from the Lord. You see, in this moment, God is rescuing Jonah. He's rescuing Jonah from certain death. Jonah assumed he would die when he was thrown overboard. He certainly figured he would die, as would most of us when he was swallowed up by this fish. But how does Jonah respond? He responds by saying, Okay, I surrender. I believe in who you are. And I will declare that salvation comes from the Lord. I can no longer save myself. He's done everything he can to run away from what God has called him to do. He's done everything he can to save himself in this process and realizes in the depths salvation comes from the Lord. And see what's so unique about this prayer is that he is beginning to kind of piece together that this fish is God's mercy. It's God's grace, it's God's deliverance. While he's in the belly of this fish, he's finally putting it together. Everything that has happened to this point has not been God punishing him for running away. It's actually been God pursuing him, wanting to rescue him. That's what the fish is in this story. I want to piece together some of this prayer. I want to look at some of these verses individually in verse 2, kind of at the beginning of this prayer. He says this. He says, In my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered me. I called to the Lord and he answered me. You'll notice this is the very first time that Jonah is actually praying. I mean, think about this. We get this scripture that tells us that God speaks to his prophet and says, I need you to go to a certain city and preach against it. Jonah doesn't decide to have a conversation with the Lord about it at that time. He just decides, I'm not doing that and I'm going to go in the opposite direction. When Jonah's on this boat, he doesn't have a conversation with the Lord. Meanwhile, the sailors on this boat are having a conversation there, praying to every God they can think of, every God they've ever heard of, every God imaginable. Please get us out of this mess. Jonah doesn't pray then. He takes matters into his own hands. He says, just throw me overboard. I would rather be dead. I'd rather just take my chances in the sea than to be obedient to what God has called me to do. No, when does Jonah finally begin to pray? He begins to pray when he's finally helpless and he's drowning and he's unable to save himself. When he finally realizes essentially when it becomes real. Many of us have found ourselves in situations like that. Maybe you find yourself in a situation like that as we speak this morning. There's something so incredibly relatable and human about this, right? I think somehow often we we hear these stories in scripture, especially ones in the Old Testament, and we begin to think like, no, that's on another world. Like that, that didn't really, you know, did that really happen or did it happen that way? Or we just don't think that that's the same world that we live in. But these are very human stories, these are very human interactions. There's something so relatable about being in the pit and crying out to our heavenly father the way that Jonah did. And how does God respond to Jonah? Well, he responded the same way that he would respond to you and me when we find ourselves in our lowest moments. He doesn't look at him and say, Well, it's about time. Been waiting on you. Where you been? Gosh, well, it took you so long. No. He doesn't chastise him, he hears him. Jonah says, You heard me. He hears him. And not only does he hear him, he pursues him. Verse three. From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help and you listened to my cry. He listened to Jonah. Think about that. I would imagine that some of us today would say, I'm not sure that God listens to me. Maybe you wonder, does God listen to me? Does God hear me? Does God care? Is God there? Does He does He care about what I'm dealing with? Does He know what I'm dealing with? At times maybe we feel like a bit of a broken record. Like, you know, God, I just keep praying the same thing over and over. At some point, I feel like you're probably just tired of it. Or we begin to think, you know what? Maybe something's wrong with me. Maybe I've got to get this done. Maybe I've got to get this cleaned up. Maybe I'm just I'm doing something wrong. There's a problem in here, and maybe God's just not listening to me. Jonah disproves all of that because Jonah, look at this. Jonah is not praying after he cleaned up his life. He's praying in the middle of the mess. He is literally in the mess. It could not get any more messy than what Jonah is dealing with right now. There's something so relatable about that. God listens to us, no matter where we are, no matter where we've been, no matter where we find ourselves, God hears us and he listens. In verse 6, second part of verse 6, but you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. You brought me up from the pit. In verse 10, this is when we get the narrator, the storyteller, the writer in this. The first nine verses were Jonah's prayer, and now the writer includes something incredibly important in this story. Verse 10 says, And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. It's pretty gross. But there's something so significant here, and I don't want you to miss it. You see, the reason that this was included is because it's pointing to the miraculous nature of this story. I believe that the writer included this to show us that there's not one, but actually two miracles in this story. The first miracle being that God appointed the fish. At the end of chapter one, what do we see? We see God appoint this fish to swallow Jonah. Now, look, I have no idea if God makes it a habit of speaking to animals. I don't know if that's a thing that he does on a regular basis. We have documentation of that happening here. I don't know what that conversation would have looked like. I have no idea. I would imagine something along the lines of, hello, uh, excuse me, Mr. Fish. I don't know if he had a name. Uh, Mr. Fish, here's what is about to happen. Uh the seas are rough, as you can see. Uh, there's a human, don't know if you know what that is, but there's a human that's gonna come into the ocean. And what I need you to do, it's gonna look really tasty. I know you're hungry. I need you to actually swallow this guy up, but I don't want you to enjoy him, I don't want you to chew him up, I don't want you to digest him. I just need you to hold him like a big fish suitcase for a few days. Like I'm sure for the fish, that was incredibly distressful and confusing, but God appoints this fish. That's the first miracle. And then the second miracle is that God commanded the fish. We see this at the end of chapter two. What does God do? He commands the fish. Okay, your time with Jonah is done. I need you to let him go. I need you to release him, I need you to vomit him out. I know you're hungry, so go, I'll provide a lot of food for you. Just go find that. But I need you to let Jonah go because I'm not done with him yet. I've got more plans for him. You see, the inclusion of this, the reason this is so significant, is that this inclusion signals to us as readers that the chapter, while we think it's just about Jonah's prayer, the primary subject of this chapter is not just Jonah's prayer. It's the character of God. It's the character of God, it's the person of God. Which means that when we find ourselves in situations the same way that Jonah found himself in the pit, in the depths, our question needs to shift from what should I do in the depths? How do I get myself out of this? What should I do? Where should I go? And it should instead become, where is God in the depths? Because what we know and what Jonah reminds us is that God is there with us. That's who God is. That's what God does. He joins us in the mess. He doesn't stand on high looking down at the mess, wishing us good luck. He climbs down into the pit with us. So instead of trying to figure out how to negotiate your way out, how to climb your way out, start looking around and going, okay, where is God? Because I know he's here. What does God want me to do? The fish in our story is a rescue. The fish is a picture of God's grace. The fish is a picture of God's provision. It's a picture of his protection for all of us. You see, in the story of Jonah, we get so caught up in the story of the fish and what looks like punishment. The fish wasn't evidence that God had abandoned Jonah. The fish was evidence that God hadn't abandoned Jonah. It's so easy to look at and imagine from Jonah's perspective. You go into the sea and you think, I'm just going to take my chances, I may die. You get swallowed up by a fish. You assume you have no chance. It would have been very easy for Jonah. It's very easy for us when we find ourselves in situations like that to look around and go, well, I guess God's abandoned me. It's not at all what happened. The fish was proof that God hadn't abandoned him. You see, when we find ourselves in messes like this, in pits like this, we can begin to what we you know go into what we call a downward spiral. You ever been in a downward spiral before? Where one bad thing happens and then another bad thing on top of it, another, another bad thing on top. And you keep thinking, how much further can I go down? But it's like you're circling the drain, and it just seems to keep getting worse and worse and worse. And you begin to disqualify yourself, you almost kind of think, okay, I've kind of disqualified myself from God's attention at this point. He's not listening, he's not there. I created this mess. I should know better. I do know better. God's disappointed in me at this point. I've just I've run too far, I've gone too far, I'm too far gone. You get in that downward spiral. Imagine the downward spiral that Jonah is feeling in this moment. Not just mentally, not just figuratively, but a literal downward spiral. In chapter 1, verse 3, it tells us that he goes down to Joppa. It uses the word down. It goes down to Joppa. He's trying to run from God. God's called him to do this thing. He doesn't want to do it. He goes down to Joppa to get on this boat. The scripture also says he goes down into the boat. So it goes down to Joppa, then down into the boat. And meanwhile, what did we see in chapter 1? While the storm was raging, while the ripple effects of his disobedience and sin are raging around him, what is he doing? He's down under the boat, asleep. He's asleep. They had to go wake him up just to ask him what was going on. What have you done? What have you gotten us into? And his solution? Just throw me overboard. So he goes down to Joppa, down into the boat, down under the boat, down into the sea. And then when he thinks I can't go down any further, he's down into the belly of the fish. It is the ultimate downward spiral. And the irony in all of this is that the farther Jonah runs, the farther he goes down into the depths, the greater the lengths God goes to to follow him, to pursue him. That's what God does. That's who God is. Nothing is too far gone. Nothing is too far deep. He will pursue us. He will follow us. What the story of Jonah tells us, what the prayer of Jonah reminds us, is that you can run from God, but you cannot outrun the grace of God. You can run from God. And in many cases, many of us have, but you cannot outrun the grace of God. As I was reading through this text again this week and preparing for this message, I was reminded of several psalms. If you've ever been kind of down in the pit before, or if you find yourself down in the pit, I can encourage you to read the Psalms. What David writes in so many of the Psalms, there's Psalms of praise, yes, but there's also Psalms of lament of God, where are you? Oh God, oh God, my God, where are you? What are you doing? Woe is me. But then it's matched with praise. The sentiments in so many of the psalms match the echo, they echo what we see in the prayer of Jonah. I want to read one specifically. It's Psalm 139, uh, excuse me, Psalm 139, verses uh seven through ten. It says this is David uh writing now, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there, if I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. You see, at every turn, God met David. And what we see in the story of Jonah is that every turn, every moment, every step he took, trying to run from what God had called him to do, God is right there with him. He's right there with him. He wasn't done with Jonah, and he's not done with you. You see, what seemed to Jonah and probably to everyone else, like the place of sure death was actually the place of God's deliverance. Can you imagine how Jonah felt in the belly of this fish? No way I'm gonna survive this. What seemed like certain death was actually the place of deliverance. What looked like Jonah's end was actually Jonah's salvation. And what did he declare? Salvation comes from the Lord. Some of you feel like you've gone too far down, that you're too far gone. There is no amount of distance that you can put between yourself and God that he will not chase you. Jonah's story proves this. Jonah doesn't climb out, he doesn't negotiate his way out, he doesn't save his way out of this. The rescue by way of the fish was appointed by God. It was a miracle that was initiated by God and it was accomplished by God. You see, when we find ourselves in the depths, we often think that God's not with us. Maybe it changes our view of God, maybe it changes how we think about him, how we approach him. The depths don't change who God is or where God is. They tend to magnify, they tend to magnify who he is and what he wants to do in us and through us. So when we find ourselves in those moments, in light of what we've heard, in light of what we've seen with Jonah's prayer and how he responded in the pit, what do we do? We can follow the model of Jonah. The first thing we can do is cry out to him. We can cry out to him. God wants to hear from us. He is our heavenly Father. He created you with a purpose for a purpose. He's not finished with you yet. And you say, Jake, you don't know what I'm dealing with right now. I'm so far down, I'm not even sure I know what to say. That's okay. Because even partial and messy and incomplete prayers, they're good enough. They reach him. He hears you. He knows what you're thinking before it even comes out of your mouth. Cry out to your heavenly father. The other thing that you can do is just trust him. It does us no good to cry out to our heavenly father if we don't trust that he hears us, that he listens to us. Look, I believe that it is the kindness of God to move us to a place where we have no choice but to trust him. If you're in the pit right now and you're wondering where God is, I want to say that again. I believe it is the kindness of God to move us to a place where we have no choice but to trust him. There is no other way out, other than to trust him. Cry out to him, trust him. And then he would say, Turn back to me, just turn back to him. Turn back to him, run back to him if you must. Turn from whatever it is you are doing, wherever you are, whatever you're trying, in other words, however you're working to get yourself out of the pit, stop trying to do it on your own. Cry out to him, trust him, and turn back to him. God provided the fish. He appointed it, he commanded the fish. Everything in between is the story of a God whose love reaches into the depths. It's not to condemn us, it's not to punish us, it's not to harm us. The beauty of the story of Jonah is that we're reminded of a God who brings life into impossible places. That's what God does. That's the God that we serve. God has this extraordinary, miraculous way of taking the things in our lives that we just get so messy. Us humans are so good at making messes. And he has this incredible, extraordinary, miraculous way of straightening all of that out and turning it into something beautiful. Look, I would imagine that some of us in the room today are in the depths. Some of us are in it. Some of us feel like we're in our very own version of this whale, of this fish. And we're wondering where God is. Does God care? Does he hear me? Is he with me? Does he know? Has he forgotten me? Has he abandoned me? You need to know that God enters the depths with us so that he can pull us up from them. Yes, he is with you. Yes, he is for you. Yes, he has a plan for your life. When you're in the depths, you can trust that you have a very real, very tangible, very loving Heavenly Father who is not just looking at you and watching you struggle. He is in there with you. He is reaching in to pull you out. What if, what if the very thing that you've been asking God to remove is actually the place where God is meeting you this morning? What if the thing that you've been begging God, not just asking, begging God, would you take this away? Would you remove this? What if that's the place where God is meeting you today? What if you have your own version of the fish? What if that counseling appointment or that series of counseling appointments you've been going to? You never wanted to have to raise your hand and say you needed help? You never wanted to find yourself there. What if that's the fish? What if that addiction that you've been trying to break and you finally have decided, I'm gonna get some help, I'm gonna go to rehab? What if rehab? What if that's the fish? You lost your job. What if unemployment? What if the job search is the fish? What if that financial setback, you didn't see it coming, certainly weren't prepared for it, you don't have the resources available? What if that's the fish? What if that diagnosis that you just received, you never wanted to hear those words? You sat in that doctor's office and that became your fish? What if that season of loneliness is the fish? What if the season of waiting, God, how much longer? How much longer, God? What if that's the fish? What if that is your fish? Not because those things are good, they're not. But because God often meets us in those moments. What if the very thing that you've been begging God to remove, to take away, to change is actually the place where he is meeting you right now. Cry out to him. Cry out to him, trust him. Trust that he has a plan for your life. And then turn back to him. The story of Jonah is far from over. Your story is far from over. Trust him. If you find yourself in the pit this morning, trust that he is right there with you. And that pit that you find yourself in may just be the rescue that you need. I'm going to invite the band to come out in just a moment, and we're going to sing one more song to wrap up our time. It's a familiar song. I surrender all. Many of us know it. I don't know where this message lands with you today. I don't know what you're dealing with, what maybe you've just come out of, what you may unknowingly be walking into. But what I believe the message of Jonah tells us today is that God can be trusted, but we've got to surrender our lives to him. No longer can our will butt up against his will. Whatever he's asked you to do, whatever this season is you find yourself in, it starts with surrender. It starts with declaring, just as Jonah did, that salvation comes from the Lord. From nowhere else, not myself, not my own efforts, not what I've done, not what I can do. Salvation comes from the Lord. I'm going to open my hands and I'm going to surrender that to him today. So I'd love to pray for us. And then I'd invite you to stand and we'll sing together. Heavenly Father, God, we just say thank you that a story from thousands of years ago still rings true in our lives today. God, thank you for the story of Jonah. Thank you for the pursuit of his life that we get to watch from afar and know that you pursue us in the same way. Father, wherever this lands, wherever we're feeling this today in our hearts, in our minds, may we know that you are with us wherever we are. We're not too far gone. We're not too deep. There's no depth that you won't pursue us. There's no distance you won't find us. Because you love us, because we're your children. You call us sons and daughters. Father, for the men and women students here today who find themselves in the pit, I pray that they would feel your presence in a way that they've never felt before. That they would know that you're with them. They would know that you love them. And they would know that you are there to rescue them. As we sing now, God, I pray that our posture, our heart would be to surrender our lives to you. Not our will, but yours. May it be so. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.