God of the second chances
Jonah chanter 3”1-3:10
Introduction-
Last week we looked at the prophet Jonah and his disobedience to what God had told him to do.
God told him to go to Nineveh and Jonah headed to Joppa which is in the opposite direction.
He went as far away from God as he could to avoid doing what God had told him to do.
That did not go well for Jonah, it never works out well when you are disobedient to God because He does not stop trying to build a relationship with us.
We can run but we cannot hide.
There is absolutely no place to hide that God cannot find you. He will always try to draw you close to Himself.
“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him who we must give account.”
The reason Jonah ran from God is he did not life what God wanted him to do.
He wanted this prophet of God to go to Nineveh and tell that awful, sinful, ungrateful people that they needed to repent and God would forgive them.
Jonah, instead of God showing compassion on the people, wanted God to show judgment on them.
He wanted those awful people to pay for their sins.
At the end of chapter one and where we left off last week Jonah in running is on a ship far from God and he has a time of repentance, a time of remorse for his disobedience.
He allows the crew to throw him overboard in a rough seas and hard storm because he is the problem for all their problems.
He was willing to pay for his sins.
Hence, the great children’s story of all time, Jonah and the large fish as Jonah is thrown overboard, the fish swallows him and he spends 3 days and 3 nights in his belly before he is thrown up on dry land and spared.
A lot happens during that time he was fish food.
Chapter 2:1- “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.”
Jonah’s prayer had become a prayer of thanksgiving for deliverance from death. He calls for help as he was sinking into the depths of the sea. His gratitude is heightened because he knows that he deserves death but God has shown him extraordinary mercy.
“In my distress I called to the Lord and He answered me.”
What an example of the love of Christ reaching out to each one of us so he can deliver us from death unto life. Each one of us dying in our sins needs a savior to redeem us.
Jonah did not throw himself in the water, he told the crew to “throw him in and live”
The sailors refuse to hear the message at first and try to save themselves from the storm. (Sound familiar?)
The lost often try to atone for their sins or work their way to heaven.
Jonah was guilty of everything he was accused of, the parallel is Jesus was innocent and became our sacrifice by choice.
Many have questioned the authenticity of the book of Jonah, especially Jonah and the big fish. They range from fictional short story to allegories.
I want you to know that this preacher believes in a big God who can use a talking donkey, a fish with a coin in his mouth, animals that go two by two into a boat and don’t eat each other or other people- because my God is bigger than my way of thinking.
That does not usually work well for me to do things against God.
I picture this prophet maybe even with slime and seaweed stuck to him going to the people of Nineveh to tell them to repent and turn their lives over to God.
I picture my savior Jesus Christ is not in a grave, no longer crucified, but resurrected and alive for evermore! Amen.
The text this morning is a God of second chances.
A God who not only saves, but delivers us, a God who cares what happens in our lives and responds and wants a relationship with us.
Jonah chapter 3:1-3:10
(1) “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.”
The first time he disobeyed, had selective hearing, but this time, a second time, he takes the same message and (3) Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh.
Scripture doesn’t say for sure that he was totally on board with it, but he was going to be obedient. In fact, chapter 4 we see Jonah angry again and displeased telling God that is why he did the opposite of what God wanted was because he knows that God is a gracious , compassionate, slow to anger, and filled with love.
Maybe Jonah was thinking I never thought I’d be in the belly of a ship running from God, and when they threw me overboard I never thought that I would be rescued from death by being swallowed by a fish.
Maybe, just maybe, God is in this and I need to be obedient to what he is telling me.
God sent the storm to get Jonahs attention, we don’t like that, but while he was in the midst of the storm he had an encounter with God that changed his attitude and his heart, at least that he was going to be obedient.
Jonah was disobedient to God, he did a complete turn and went in the opposite direction that God told him. In his rebellion he encountered God, repents, and again makes a u-turn and now heads toward Nineveh, the city that God had originally set out for him to go too.
Jonah was given a second chance
How many of us have been given a second chance by God? 3rd, 4th, 5th chance?
I am so happy that God gives us more chances than we deserve and never gives up on us.
You think being tossed in the ocean is bad, but he gets swallowed whole by a fish.
Greatest fish story ever told.
All of us fishermen have stretched the truth of the size fish we caught.
Try explaining how big the fish was that swallowed you up and spit you out.
The fish swallowing Jonah up was not God’s punishment. Even though it could of went that way, it was absolutely God’s provision to save Jonah from drowning.
God showed mercy and compassion and gave him another chance.
The marvelous grace of God made that possible- Jonah turns to the one he offended and disobeyed and looked to him to help! And he did it!
“In my distress, I called to the Lord”
“But God demonstrated his love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jonah discovered and we need to discover for ourselves that the road to God brings 2nd chances.
So if you sitting here this morning and thinking that God does not give second chances, rethink that! God graciously gives 2, 3rd, 10th chances.
In fact, as often as you are sincere when you come, He will not turn you away.
You cannot exhaust the love of God and the mercy of God.
You can only refuse to accept it.
Some of life’s failures can leave us thinking that God won’t give us another chance, or he can never use us again, that we are useless, but Jonah found out that God does do overs.
Jonah discovered that God still had a plan for his life.
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you , declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
His failure began when he disobeyed God. His redemption began when God told him “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and he went!
Failure is only final when you stop at your failure, and you don’t get up.
There is a big difference between failing at something and being a failure.
Failures quit on themselves even when God has not given up on you.
Jonah decided that given a second chance, he was going to accomplish what God had called on him to do, he was not going to give up because God had not given up on him.
As we wind this down,
Jonah went to a place he did not want to go, talked to people that he did not like and God used him to make a big impact on them. (5) “Ninevites believed God.”
Listen, By Jonah being obedient and listening to the Lord, many lives were changed and outcomes changed. Some say that we cannot change the mind of God, but here is an example that by his actions and their repentance, the Ninevites did not receive what they deserved. The same as believers in Christ, we will not receive what we deserve but will enjoy the grace and mercy of God for eternity.
God is a God of second chances and it is up to us to take advantage of His mercy and Grace. We have a choice of acceptance or our choice to reject. Both have eternal benefits and consequences. Ask him this morning to speak to your heart and make the necessary changes He directs. Don’t leave here this morning without hearing what He is saying to you this morning.
