Jonah #2

Here is the message from Sunday, November 13.. I really enjoyed speaking this one,and being reminded that God is a God of second chances... enjoy!

            Last Sunday, we began looking at the book of Jonah. We said that the main theme of this book is deliverance. God wanted to deliver Jonah, and God wants to deliver each of us.

One main principle that the book of Jonah teaches us is that: When we move in the direction that God wants us to move in, we will be right where God wants to be. This is a phenomenal life principle; one that bears repeating again and again. (REPEAT)

You know that the opposite of this life lesson is also true, too. When we move in the direction that God doesn’t want us to move in, we won’t be where God wants us to be.

Both of these statements were true in Jonah’s life; both of these statements are true in my life, and chances are pretty good that both of these statements are true for your life as well.

When we obey God, we end up right where He wants us to be; but when we fail to obey God, we end up sleeping with the fishes.

Fortunately, our God is a God of Second chances.

ILLUSTRATION- Have you ever received a second chance? I have.

In fact, I think I have received 4,576 second chances. (Not that I’m keeping track…)

            With the exception of a handful of people, no one has ever heard what I am about to tell you now. This illustrates second chances.

            The first time I went to Elizabeth’s house, it was a disaster. Her younger brother, Andrew, had asked if I wanted to go 4-wheeling with him in the gravel pit just below their house.

            Always wanting to do something fun, I agreed, and the two of us went zipping up and down plies and plies of rock.

            As we were coming home, something happened. As we approached the garage door, and I firmly believe, even to this day, that I hit the break—but it turned out to be the gas; and I smashed into the garage door and crumpled it up like a tin can.

            Did I mention this was the first time that I was at Beth’s house?

            After Andrew peeled me out of the wreck, we went inside and the first words out of my mouth were: “we’re all saved in this room, right?” which was immediately followed by: “why.”

            I no doubt left an impression on her folks that day, but thankfully, I was given a second chance to make a first impression.

            Everyone loves second chances! I have been on the receiving end of 2^nd chances my entire life, not only with my family, but also with my God.

            The story of Jonah is all about second chances.

            The Bible says: “The Lord gave this message to Jonah…

            ² “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” (Jonah 1:1-2, NLT2)

            Jonah often received words from God, because he was in the business of hearing from God; he was a prophet.

            God would speak to Jonah; Jonah would relay the message and life would be grand. But not this time.

Verse 3 says: “…Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.”(Jonah 1:3, NLT2)

Jonah ran in the opposite direction. He wasn’t planning on being gone for a day or two. His plan was to never come back!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hau6xWg8pUQ)

            He boarded a ship that was going in the complete opposite direction of where God had wanted Him to go. He had no plans to go to Nineveh. Ever.

            The Bible says: “…he went aboard (the ship) and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.” (Jonah 3:3b, NIV)

            Jonah’s plan was to get as far away from God as possible. Tarshish was in the opposite direction of where God wanted Jonah to go.

              But why? Why would a man who regularly received messages from God, turn his back on God?

            Because Jonah had received his copy of the Nineveh Times and Transcript and he didn’t like what he read.

            According to the OT book of Nahum, Nineveh was a wicked city.

            Nahum chapter 3 tells us that Nineveh was a “…city of murder and lies…” (Nahum 3:1m NLT2)

In verse 3 we read: “…There are countless casualties, heaps of bodies—so many bodies that people stumble over them.” (Nahum 3:3b, NLT2)

            God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh because she was a wicked city.

God wanted to deliver Nineveh, but Jonah didn’t want to go, so he boarded a ship that was going in the complete opposite direction.

            You know the storyà Jonah runs from God; gets into a raw deal with some sailors, ends up walking the plank in a violent storm; becomes fish food; meets God inside the fish, the fish gets indigestion and spits Jonah out on dry ground

and then God speaks to Jonah one more time.

            ² “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.” (Jonah 3:2, NLT2)

            God told Jonah the same thing He told him just a few days earlier. God didn’t bring up the past; He didn’t say “I told you so”.

He didn’t remind Jonah of his past failures, He simply asked Jonah to go and preach repentance to the Ninevehites. 

            ^“This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh….” (Jonah 3:3a, NLT2)

            God gave Jonah a second chance, and Jonah took that second chance and made it count.

He went to the city of Nineveh and proclaimed God’s message, and the people of Nineveh turned to God.

            Jonah received a second chance to make things right. The Good News of Jesus Christ is that we can receive a second chance to make things right.

            Perhaps God has been asking you to address a Nineveh in your life for years, but you’ve been running from it. “This time” you can address it.

            Perhaps you’ve been dealing with a burden too great for you to deal with; “this time” you can come to God and receive His healing touch.

            The story of Jonah reminds us that our God is a God of second chances.

            ^“This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command….” (Jonah 3:3a, NLT2)

ILLUSTRATION- If I could summarize God’s involvement in my life, it would have to be “second chances”.

I’ve been on the receiving end of a “2^nd chance” from God for most of my life. God has bailed me out of some messed up situations—all of my own making.

I wanted to go my own way and do my own thing. God allowed me to go to Tarshish.

            On one of these occasions, I was this close to losing it all. By “it all”, I mean “it all”

My education; my life with Elizabeth; my career in the ministry. I was going to lose it all, all because I wanted to go to Tarshish.

            It was after a violent storm in my life, that I finally obeyed God and got serious about doing what God had asked me to do…

            ‘This time Pastor Nick obeyed the Lord’s command….’

            I wonder today, how many of you need to see God as the God of second chances?

            While it’s true that it’s always better to follow God first, the reality is that

we are all like Jonah, and we all need a second—or a 5000^th--- chance. 

            Peter did. He sold out Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times.

            Three times he swore that he didn’t know Jesus. Three times he said that he wasn’t one of Jesus’ followers. Three times Peter traveled to Tarshish.

            After Jesus’s death on the cross, after His burial and resurrection, an angel of the Lord appeared to the 3 women at the tomb and said:  

            “Don't be alarmed…You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.

7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'"(Mark 16:6-7, NIV)

I’m fascinated by the words: “…and Peter…” (Mark 16:7b, NIV)

Do you know what those words are? A second chance!

God gave Peter a 2^nd chance, and the course of human history was changed forever.

Peter, because of his second chance, was able to preach boldly and clearly, about the resurrected Christ, and what He can do in a life fully devoted to God.

Peter’s life was altered because of a second chance.

ILLUSTRATION- My life has been altered because of a second chance.

            Your life can be altered because of a 2^nd chance.

            But first, you must stop running. You can’t run to Tarshish and expect God to bless you. If you want a second chance from God, you’ve got to go to Nineveh.

            You’ve got to do whatever it is that God is asking you to do. You’ve got to give up whatever it is that God is asking you to give up.

God is a God of second chances, but you must stop running from Him.

Jesus said these words in John 14: "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15, NIV)

“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” (John 14:21a, NIV)

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching….” (John 14:23a, NIV)

Love for God is expressed best through obedience: doing what God asks us to do.

While it’s always better to obey God first, I want you to know that the God of the Bible is the God of second chances. He invites you to come to Him and receive grace, mercy and pardon.

“…Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28, NLT2)

Jesus invites us to come to Him and receive a second chance. He invites us to come to Him to receive a 100^th chance.

It matters not how many times you come to Jesus, it only matters that you come.

Have you been running from God? Has God been asking you to go to Nineveh but you are on the first ship to Tarshish? God doesn’t want you to run from Him, He wants you to run to Him.

 Please don’t think for a minute that church folk are immune to running from God.  Jonah was a prophet… he was in the God business.

There isn’t a soul on this earth that doesn’t need a second chance from God.

            The Bible tells us about a man, sent to earth by God to perform a task—to tell people about God.

But something happened to that man, a sort of death, and he’s down and out for 3 days, and then miraculously he’s back to life and walking around and the people he comes in contact with have their lives changed because of the grace of God.

            This is the story of Jesus, but it’s also the story of Jonah. It’s the story of deliverance, obedience, and repentance. And this message is for us today. (Rev. Mark Brewer)

            Repentance, you know, literally means turn around.  To go in the opposite

direction.

            It is no coincidence that Tarshish and Nineveh were in the complete opposite direction. For Jonah to receive a second chance, he had to turn around and go to Nineveh.

            In order for us to find a second chance, we are going to have to turn around. We are going to have to turn from Tarshish—whatever it might be in your life—and head toward Nineveh.

            God can and wants to meet you in Nineveh. You will find your second chance there.

            If God has been speaking to you today, this is your opportunity to turn around, this is your “this time.”

            You can turn around and find the God of the second chance.

            If you need to do business with God today, if you need to address a Tarshish in your life, I want to invite you to come to the front and kneel, stand where you are, or sit in your seat and talk to God as the Band comes and plays an invitation song.

Jonah #1

Last week, we began a new series on Jonah. this is part one in a three part series. Enjoy

            We have just come through a season of intense spiritual growth. For 6 weeks, most of us have asked and answered the most important question of life: “what on earth am I here for?”

            We’ve read, discussed, studied and prayed about our life’s purpose, and now that we have come to the end of the campaign, we stand at a crossroad.

            Will we remain how we are; will we remain where we are; or will we move forward?

We learnt what our purpose is, but will we fulfill that purpose? Will we continue asking God for the great things that He has in store for our church and people?

            The book of James gives us a warning: “…don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. ²⁴ You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

²⁵ But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it” (James 1:22-25, NLT2)

Life comes to us, not only when we hear the word of God, but when we live the Word of God.  

            I want to encourage you not to put the last 6 weeks of your life on the shelf, and forget about it.

I want to encourage you to keep trusting God for the greater things that are happening in our church; to keep trusting God for changed lives, for we’ve got a job to do, and that is to reach one more for Jesus.

Now as we move on from our 40 Days of Purpose, and I would like for us to spend the next few weeks looking at an Old Testament story.

This story speaks to God’s plan and purpose, and what can go wrong if we fail to obey God’s plan and purpose.

-PRAY-

            For the next few weeks, we will be looking at the really big book of Jonah. Actually, it’s a “Whaley-Whaley” short book. 

            Jonah is a story that mostly everyone has heard about. It is just as popular as Noah and the ark, and David and Goliath.

(God tells Jonah to go; Jonah says no; the fish swallows him ho.)

Jonah is a small book jam packed with huge themes:

·      The calling of God;

·      God’s mercy on a wicked city.

·      Jonah’s running from God’s direction.

·      There is also disobedience, forgiveness and mercy.

At the end of the book, Jonah goes all Whaley on God because God kept His word and saved the people Jonah didn’t really care for.

If I could pull one major theme from the book of Jonah it would be deliverance. The reason God spoke to Jonah in the first place was because Jonah needed deliverance.

Sure, Nineveh was messed up, but Jonah had issues of his own.

Besides his personal issues, he needed to be delivered from the storm; he needed to be delivered from the whale, and he needed to speak deliverance to the people of Nineveh.  

Jonah didn’t want to deal with his personal issues, nor did he want to give the people of Nineveh a chance, so he took offà he ran from God.

You know, when you or I run from things, they often become big things and they will eventually consume us.

When you run away from the issues and problems and the things that God wants you to deal with, those issues get bigger and bigger until you can’t see anything but those issues.

When we’ve had enough, we jump ship: we bail on God, we bail on our spouses and we bail on other important relationships. 

If we would simply stop and listen to God and deal with the small things and live in obedience to God, we could save ourselves from looking like we were spit out of a fish.

The Bible says in Jonah 2: “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish.

² He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me! (2:1-2, NLT2)

            Jonah’s life at this point stinks. He’s in way over his head. He ran from God, and now he has to face the consequences of running from God.

            Sometimes God will go to great lengths to get our attention. Sometimes He will allow us to endure circumstances that leave us in deep water, to help us realize our need for God.

            Jonah was, at that moment, praying a “break-glass-in-case-of-emergency” prayer. He came to his senses and realized that going his own way probably wasn’t the best thing for him to do.

            A little later on in this chapter he says: “When my life was ebbing away, I

remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

8 "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” (Jonah 2:7-8, NIV)

            When we find ourselves in over our heads, it’s good to take stock of what we know to be true; as Jonah does here.

He’s got no place to go; so he remembers how God had a purpose and a plan for his life, and those who cling to worthless idols, miss God’s grace.

            Jonah remembered what we have been studying these last 6 weeks.

We are not an accident. We were created for a purpose. God loves each one of us and has a plan for our lives.

We were not created to take up space, just to live our 70 or 80 years and then have some preacher lie at our funeral telling everyone what a great person we were.

God has created us for a reason, and that reason is for us to become just like Jesus.

You see, we exist to Glorify God and to bring others into His family. And when we live in obedience to God; He will use our lives to bring other people to Him. 

Before his fishy situation, Jonah had issues. There was a Nineveh in his life

that had to be dealt with.

God wanted to redeem Nineveh; God wanted to open it up and bless it, but Jonah wasn’t ready to go, so he ran the other way.

I wonder how many of us are running away. God has been trying to get us to deal with our Nineveh for years, God has been trying to get our attention, but we are running from Him, refusing to deal with the issue.

An entire city would have been changed if Jonah was willing to go and share. An entire life can be changed if you are willing to stop running.

Any issue that is keeping you from becoming like Jesus is a big issue and it deserves immediate attention.

Disobedience blocks God from working and moving in your life. If you are settling for less than God’s best, then you are selling yourself—and God—short.

I believe with all my heart that God wants to move in on us in ways that we’ve never experienced before.

But before God does this, we’ve got to stop running. We’ve got to let go of the past, and let go of the things that are keeping us from moving forward, and we’ve got to turn to Jesus.

I just don’t understand why we—believers and churches—settle for less

than God’s best. God is calling us to move forward in faith, but we can’t do that if we are constantly on the run; so we’ve got to stop running.

From Jonah’s darkest moment—inside the belly of the whale--- he decides to call out to the Lord.

The Bible says: “...Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish.” (Jonah 2:1, NLT2)

It is interesting to me that we all know what to do when things go wrong. We all know where to turn to when we are in deep water.

Jonah was in a dark spot, so he looked up: “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me!” (Jonah 2:2, NLT2)

ILLUSTRATION- I’m going to use this cup as an illustration, (not because they won last night…..)

            Let’s say that this (excellent) cup represents God’s will for my life; this cup is what God is asking me—or in your case, you—to do.

            This cup represents something you know you need to do and you are not doing it.

Or this cup represents something that needs to be addressed in your life and you are holding out on doing what needs to be done.

            The further I walk away from this cup, the further I get from God. Our relationship will not be the same.

            If I keep walking away from the cup, I will eventually be in no man’s land, a dark place where there is no light. I will feel very much alone.

            This is where Jonah found himself.  He had walked out on God and he was alone. He realized that his running from God had alienated him.

            You realize church, that your running from God is alienating you, right? Your running from God will leave you alone, in the dark.

When we move in the direction that God wants us to move in, we will be right where God wants to be.

When we listen and obey and give God every area of our life, and surrender to His plan and purpose, we will be walking in the light.

The Bible says: “…if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7, NIV)

David reminds us in Psalm 119: “Your word (God) is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105, NIV)

Following God’s plan and purpose for your life will keep you from going all Jonah. Walking in God’s ways will keep you from sin.

David prayed: “Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.” (Psalm 119:133, NIV)

When we get away from where God wants us to be, when we try to block

Him out of our lives, when we don’t deal with issues that are messing us up, we end up in great trouble and in the land of the dead.

Fortunately, you don’t have to stay there. If you are in a heap of trouble today, I want you to know that God hears your cry.

Maybe you feel completely overwhelmed by your situations or surroundings; I want you to know that God hears you!

How do I know this? Jonah was inside of a whale, and God heard him, so no matter where you may find yourself today, God can rescue you. 

I wonder if today is the day that you will turn and run to God. I wonder if you will stop running from God and start running to God?

I want you to know that God hears your cry, God sees your junk and He wants to remove it. He wants to redeem your life.

The story of Jonah is all about deliverance. It’s a story about God’s desire for people to live in freedom.

The Bible says: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free….” (Gal. 5:1a,

NIV)

Know, church, that God can handle anything that you bring to Him. God wants you to come to Him and experience the freedom and joy that you will only find from running to God, not running from God.

Remember Jonah’s words from inside the fish: “As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord.” (Jonah 2:7a, NLT2)

Do you feel like your life is slipping away? God wants you to experience freedom. He wants you to experience mercy. You don’t have to sleep with the fishes any longer.

If you need to experience the freedom that only comes from God, the same freedom that Jonah needed, I want to encourage you to slip out from where you are and come to the front and talk to Jesus.

If you are carrying a burden or pain, this is the time and this is the place for you to give it to God.

If you have a sin, or habit that you can’t seem to break, you can find freedom at the feet of Jesus.

No one is going to judge you for coming; they will simply pray that you will find the grace of Jesus that we all so desperately need.

By coming to the front, you are admitting that you are in need of God’s great light to shine in your darkness.

Don’t run from God one second longer. Run to God instead.

Play-“What have you got to lose” by Third Day

            Church, the question that was asked was “what have you got to lose?” What might God asking you to give up?

Whatever it might be, I want to assure you that what God has to offer you is a million times better than what you want to hang on to.

            If you need the freedom that only Jesus offers, you will only find it at the Savior’s feet.