- Ramp unto interstate has signs that
warn wrong way
- If you do not stop you find yourself in
a heap of trouble
- Only escape is to go back
Examples this month
- 3:00 am Arkansas I-30
- Sleepy man traveling wrong way
crashes into grove of trees
- 12:00 am Idaho I-84 17 yr. Girl
- 2 crashes - one swerved to miss and
rolled his vehicle
- She continued on and ended up
crashing in the construction area on the Interstate
- 11:45 pm Louisiana I-12 69 yr,.
Women
- Killed crashing into 18 wheeler going
wrong way
- They say that recognizing your
problem is the first step in solving it.
- Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the LORD:
Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it..."
Ezekiel 18:30-32 KJV
30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
Bible Definition On Repentance
Psalm 119:59KJV
I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
Psalm 119:59The Living Bible
I thought about the wrong direction in which I was headed, and turned around and came running back to you.
Malachi 3:7 KJV
Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. ....
Repentance involves
— Returning to the Lord
— Forsaking sin
— Obedience to the Lord
— John preached it
Matthew 3:2KJV
And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
- Jesus preached it
Matthew 4:17KJV
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Jim Elliff of Christian Communicators Worldwide
The believer in Christ is a life long repenter. He begins with repentance and ends with repentance
Jonah
- Instructed by the Lord
- Disobeyed the Lord
- Conviction from the Lord - Regret from within
Nineveh
- Capital of Assyria
- The queen city of the earth
- Mighty & brutal beyond imagination
- Limitless wealth from the ends of the earth
- Larger than Babylon
20 miles long — 12 miles wide
60 miles in compass
Walls 100 ft. high
3 chariots could drive abrest
Defended by 1500 towers 200’ high
- Jonah 4:11 Nineveh had 120,000
children under 3 or 4
- If 1/5 of PoP that would be over 600,000- 1 million
- Nineveh’s name is connected to Nina
- A river goddess whose image was a fish
Opportunity for Repentance
Nahum 1:3KJV
The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Exodus 34:7NIV
Maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
- Jonah & Nahum both spoke to Nineveh 150 yr. apart
- Slow to anger
- Nineveh lost forever - Finally location found in 1845
THE “U” TURN WITH NINEVEH
❶ Warned - 3:4
- Joshua lost at Ai
- Joshua 7:12KJV
Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
Ecclesiastes 9:18KJV
Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.
❷ Believed - 3:5a
- Jonah conquered their fish God
❸ Remorse
— (Sackcloth & ashes)- 3:5b-7
Esther 4:3KJV
And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Joel 2:13KJV
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
❹ Repented - 8a
❺ Converted - 8b
- Will you now listen to Jesus as he speaks to the women caught in adultary
John 8:10-11NIrV
“Woman, where are they? Hasn’t anyone found you guilty?” 11“No one, sir,” she said. “Then I don’t find you guilty either,” Jesus said. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
