Our
God is a God of second chances! We see this clearly portrayed in the life of
Peter, who was given a second chance after he denied the Name of Jesus.
ILLUSTRATION- I was given a second chance
after I denied the Name of Jesus.
Jonah
was given a second chance as well. He was given a second chance inside the
whale and he took that second chance and went to Nineveh to preach repentance.
The
people of Nineveh heard the message of the second chance. The people of Nineveh
heard what Jonah was saying, and as a result, lives were changed.
When
the king heard what was taking place in his city, he issued a decree telling
people that they were to “…turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence.” (Jonah 3:8b, NLT2)
The
king instructed his people to put an end to their wicked ways. The people obeyed
their king and Jonah 3:10 says:
“When God saw what they had done and how they
had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out
the destruction he had threatened.” (NLT2)
Did
you catch that? God offered the people a chance to be free, and they took that
chance. God offered the people of Nineveh a second chance and they reached out
and received that second chance.
When we move in
the direction that God wants us to move in, we will be right where God wants us
to be.
God
wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh; because God wanted Nineveh to be delivered.
God
wants you to go to Nineveh because he wants you to be delivered. Life isn’t found on the road to
Tarshish; life is only found as we move to Nineveh.
Are
you on the road to Tarshishà
going in a direction that God doesn’t want you to go in, or are you walking
with God on the right path? One of these ways will lead you to destruction; the
other way will lead you to find a second chance.
I
wish I could tell you that our study on Jonah ends right here. I wish I could
pray our closing prayer and dismiss you to your Sunday afternoon slumber, but I
can’t…. I can’t end the story of Jonah here, because God didn’t end the story
of Jonah here. We must deal with chapter 4.
PRAY
This
chapter is interesting. It’s interesting because it shows us the reason
Jonah ran to Tarshish and it shows
us the compassion of God, which oddly enough, is the reason Jonah ran to
Tarshish.
After
God gave the people of Nineveh a second chance, Jonah became frustrated.
The Bible says: “This change of
plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry.
2 So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before
I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I
knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and
filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.
3 Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if
what I predicted will not happen.” (Jonah 4:1-3, NLT2)
Jonah was
cheesed off at God because God acted in accordance with His character. Jonah
was mad at God because God IS compassionate, loving, kind and just.
Jonah was angry
at God because He gave the people of Nineveh a second chance.
My how we have a
short memory! We are quick to ask God to ask God to “bless us”; but when He
“blesses others” instead of “blessing us”, we turn heal.
We are quick to
ask God for a second chance, but don’t give Jon a second chance, because He
doesn’t deserve it!
This world is full
of Jonah’s.
We are quick to
ask God for a blessing, but when He blesses someone else, we go all Jonah.
We forgot that
we work for God, God doesn’t work for us. We forget that God is a God of
compassion, that God is a God of grace, that God is a God of second chances.
The Bible says: “O Lord, you are so
good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your
help.” (Psalm 86:5, NLT2)
Friends, God wants all people to receive
His grace, mercy and forgiveness.
God wanted Jonah
to go to Nineveh because He loved them and wanted to spare their lives.
This is the
heart of our God. His heart breaks for people. This is why God wanted Jonah to
go and share the message.
This is why God
wants us to share the message. This is why we are taking the step of faith and
hiring a full time assistant pastor.
There are men,
women, boys and girls who do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and
this church is committed to doing whatever it takes to
reach one more for Jesus.
It’s not enough
for us to say “us for and no more”—as Jonah did. Because
God is a God of second chances; because God is a God of
4,756 chances, we must take Him into our community. We must introduce people to
Jesus Christ.
ILLUSTRATION- If my figures are correct, from
one tip of the Ridge Hill, to the next tip of the Ridge Hill, there are at
least 50 people who don’t go to church, there are at least 50 families who are
at home at this very hour, there are at least 50 lost people.
This
tells me that we’ve got work to do. This tells me that we’ve got to take the 2nd
chance that we’ve received from God and take it to our community.
Chances
are pretty good that where you live there is at least one person who doesn’t
know God.
Chances are that people need to
hear the message that the God of the Bible is the God of the second chance.
And
you are the person who will tell them this message. Jesus is the message, but you are the messenger.
You are to go and share the God of the second chance with them.
You
see, found people find
people.
Once you have
given your life over to Jesus Christ, you are to devote that
life to helping other people find
Jesus.
The
Bible says: “…if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
(2 Cor. 5:17, NIV)
A
few verses down, we read that: “…we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal
through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
(2 Cor. 5:20, NLT2)
God
wants us to go to Nineveh and share the news of His love and compassion and
grace with anyone who will listen, because found people find people.
Jonah
never got that memo. What he did get was an unhealthy dose of bitterness.
The
Bible tells us that after Jonah exchanged words with God, he went to the edge
of town to see what would happen to the city.
As
Jonah was resting, a “leafy plant” (Jonah 4:6, NLT2) began to grow and
provided him much needed shade, and lowered his internal temperature.
Jonah
was enjoying life under this plant, that is until God caused a worm to come and
eat the plant.
Again,
Jonah expressed his frustration, and God came to Jonah with a life lesson:
“You
feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came
quickly and died quickly.
11 But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual
darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for
such a great city?” (Jonah 4:10-11, NLT2)
Jonah
was frustrated that this plant—that he had no hand in creating—was destroyed,
but was indifferent to the fact that 120,000 people would have died without God’s
intervention in their life.
Jonah missed the point of God’s
calling. He missed the deliverance that God wanted to bring.
Let’s
not miss the deliverance that God wants to bring to our community, to our
family and to our friends.
Unless we take specific steps to
reach the unsaved people in our community they will go to a Christ-less
eternity.
You
see dear friends, God cares for all people, and He wants found people to find
people.
In Ezekiel 18, God asked a question: “Do you think that
I like to see wicked people die?….Of course not! I want them to turn from their
wicked ways and live.” (NLT2)
God
doesn’t want people to spend eternity separated from Him. He wants people to
take the second chance that He longs to give them.
This
is why Jesus came to earth. Our sin separated us from Almighty God, so the God-Man
took our sin upon Himself and His resurrection makes it possible for us to find
life.
“God made him who
had no sin to be a sin offering for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21,
NIV)
You
see dear church it’s our job to go to Nineveh. It’s our job to ask God for
changed lives. It’s our job to share the Good News with the people of Nineveh.
It’s not our job to go all Jonah
on God when He acts in accordance with His character—God is a gentleman,
and He will not force Himself on anyone, but He does want us to share the
message of the 2nd chance with everyone.
God
wants us to go to Nineveh; God wants us to proclaim His love, mercy and forgiveness.
The story of Jonah teaches us
that God uses messed up people to reach messed up people.
So
who are you praying for, hoping that they will come to faith in Jesus? Who are
you asking God to change?
The
message of Jonah chapter 4 is that God’s heart breaks for people. The
Bible reminds us that God does not
want “anyone to
perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9b, NIV)
People might not
change, but it’s not because God doesn’t want them to. God has given us free
will; it’s up to us to choose whether we come to God or not, but if we don’t, it’s
not because He didn’t want it to happen.
You see church,
God’s heart breaks for people. Jonah’s heart should have broken for people,
instead of a silly leaf.
I wonder what
breaks your heart? Are you crying out to God for lost people? Are you asking
God to change lives?
Jonah was upset
that 120,000 people received a second chance from God. Don’t fall into the same
boat.
The God of the
Bible is a God who loves people, a God who wants people to spend eternity with
Him.
God wants us to
take the second chance that we’ve been given and share it with the people who
don’t know Him.
So, who will you
share the message of the 2nd chance with?
Who will you
show Jesus to?
Who will you
invite to church?
“At the end of
the day, we do not have a program, plan, platform, or
product to help the world. We have a
Savior. We do not point to success, knowledge, pleasure or power. We point to
the cross.” (Ortberg, 2010, 253)
Those
of us, who have received a second chance from God, have a responsibility to
take that second chance into the world.
As
the band comes and prepares to lead us in our closing song, I want you to know
that God is sending you to Nineveh. If people are going to find Jesus, it will
be because of us.
Begin crying out
to God for lost people. God wants you to share the message of the second chance
with the people he has placed in your life.
If you have
never accepted Jesus into your heart, this is the time and this is the placeà
God wants you to receive a second chance.
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