Good morning friends! What a great privilege it is to be here with you this morning. For those of you who don’t know me….I am the Pastor of the Edelstein Congregational Church. My name is Chris Duncan….and I’m not right! I was thinking this past week….well….it was obvious early in my life that I wasn’t right….I remember staying at my Grandpa’s farm on the weekends. The nearest neighbor was about 6 miles away….and at this time I was going through a period of rebellion…well…actually if you ask my wife….she’ll probably say that I am still going through a period of rebellion….I remember going to school and all of my friends would talk about sneaking out at night…sounded like the coolest thing I ever heard…so one night….I waited till my grandparents had gone to bed…they had been in bed about two hours….I could hear my granddad snoring…so I slowly opened the window…my heart was beating….and I was a good kid at this age…I was pretty compliant….but my heart was just racing man…100 miles per hour….I opened the window….I crawled outside….I shut the window….and then it hit me….I’m on a farm! There isn’t anyone around for 30 miles! I snuck out into nothing! So I went out and milked the cows….and uh….so….I’m not right…I’m an idiot….I love fish…and I was given this incredible smoked salmon a few years ago…smoked salmon packed in it’s own oil…and I sat down at my kitchen table with some crackers…some cream cheese…some capers…onions….and before you know it….I had eaten the entire salmon…..you’ve never done that? It was the strangest thing……I wanted to get up and go outside……but I couldn’t…move…..I thought….well….I’m just going to lay here on the floor for a little while….and then I had this strange desire to swim upstream…and lay eggs….none of you have ever had that huh?
I am so glad to be here with you this morning….so glad to be apart of worship with you this morning. It is so great to come together as a body of believers under the banner of Jesus Christ…as one body…and worship together….amen?
This morning we are going to be talking about second chances…our text is going to come from the book of Jonah…..You know…during our times of worship we talk about our God being a God of Majesty….we easily talk about our God being a God of wonders….we easily talk about our God being an awesome God….I guess my question this morning is….what do we do when our God moves us…when he speaks to us…when he calls us….what do we do when our God asks us to take action of some kind? The God who created the earth…the God who put the mountains in place….he whispers to us….what should we do? I have a good idea! Let’s run! Let’s run! Not a real good idea…is it? But that’s what Jonah did! Today’s message isn’t about running from God….it’s not about running….that’s the scene that takes place….The book of Jonah itself isn’t really about running from God. It is a book that teaches us about this marvelous God who can do anything he wants….and chooses to give us a second chance….There is a story of an Amish couple that had just been married….The Amish are a peace loving wonderful people…and many of them don’t believe in driving vehicles…so they were riding in a little buggy….it was their little honeymoon buggy and they were driving along…..and on their way home….their horse reared up…kicked it’s hind legs up and then stopped…right in the middle of the road…and the young Amish man said…. “Horse….that would be one!” And he finally got the horse moving again….and a little while later the horse took off running…..without being encouraged…went around a corner and almost crashed the buggy and he finally got the horse under control…he said… “Horse….that would be two.” As they turned into the little driveway of their home the horse stopped all together…the horse wouldn’t move….nothing the young man could do would get the horse to move along…and the young man said… “Horse…that would be three.” He pulled a rifle out of the buggy, even though he was a peace loving man…he shot the horse….after that…he went over to help his young bride out of the buggy….and his young bride faced him and said… “Husband…dear husband….why didst thou shoot the horse?” And he said… “That’s one.”
Now it’s obvious here…that this husband had chosen to give his new bride….a second chance….this is a story about second chances…and I’m not sure even in the beginning that Jonah even understood that….Read Jonah 1.1-2….Friends if your note takers….I would encourage you to take notes this morning because there are some great lessons to learn from the book of Jonah….1….When this awesome God speaks….listen….We need to listen for God speaking to us…..It’s the very first part of this story…that this God who created everything…that this God who is so amazing would even take the time to speak to us….we need to listen for God….We don’t listen for many reasons…and sometimes our response to God is affected by our image of who he is. I’m not sure that we are always convinced that God has our best interests in mind. We are willing to give him Sunday…were willing to pray about those things that we trust him with…but how about the things that are really important to us? I was willing to talk to God about going to church on Sunday…and little non important things…but I was unwilling to give up those really important matters of the heart…like matters of love….I’m just leveling with you here….As a teenager…and I see some teenagers here this morning…it easy to give God…Sunday school and stuff…but how about trusting him with finding you a life mate…a person to love and adore…I had this image that surely God wouldn’t want me to have someone that I would desire…you know I grew up with this whole idea in mind that God was not about Joy or fulfillment…God was about rules! And if it was fun…or if there was joy or fulfillment in it…then surely it couldn’t be God….I used to think God’s whole job was to stand up in heaven and God… “Behold….Chris Duncan haveth fun…. No! (Stomp foot) I was afraid that if I trusted him….if I trusted him with finding me a mate that somehow he would trick me…I’m just being level honest with you here…surely he wouldn’t want me to have someone I truly cared about and desired….he would say…come here….I’ll show you what I’ve found…and there would be Jabba the Condominium…just waiting….as opposed to Jabba the Hut…bigger…go ahead…share that with each other….I’ve never had to explain that before….I didn’t want to listen to him in matters of life calling…how many of you would be honest enough to admit that you might have been a little afraid to talk to God and say to God you can send me anywhere you want to….for fear of where he might send you…anyone…show of hands? Because we have in our minds this idea that God is going to send us someplace undesirable and we’ll be miserable there! You know where you’ll be miserable? Where God didn’t call you…that’s where you’ll be miserable…
There was a missionary by the name of Virgil Adams that spoke at a retreat I was attending and this man had so much joy…and he spoke with a great amount of Passion….he was so funny…he wasn’t a comedian…but because he was where God wanted him to be…he had so much joy…and he tells a story about his time in New Guinea….he told how there was a tendency to believe that he was somehow smarter and superior to the people he was ministering to….and he had to fight that…one day….God showed him why he shouldn’t believe that at all…he told us how these particular natives…when they blew their nose…they would grab their nose like this and blow out the entire contents of their nose onto their hand and they would then rub it against their bare legs….the contents would eventually get hard and they would just flick it off….and Virgil thought… “How disgusting is that!” How much more socially sophisticated am I! And one day he was out with some of the proudest warriors of the tribe and they were walking along the trail…and he had the urge to blow his nose…so he took out his handkerchief and he blew his nose….and when he finished blowing his nose…he looked and the men walking with him were astonished…disgusted really…they had stopped walking and were huddled in a small group…whispering…and so he went back to them and said….why have you stopped? Why are you not walking with me? And they pointed to his hanky and said… “Are you going to keep that?”
Some of the people who have impacted my life most are people who have listened for God’s voice…and they have responded…when God has called them…listen friends…when this awesome…marvelous God whispers in your ear…it is not to lead you to destruction….it is to lead you to salvation…teenager…it is not to lead you away from coolness…and what your heart so desires….it’s to lead you to what your heart so desires….our culture has it backwards….God is on your side….God doesn’t want to take thrill out of your life…he wants to give you joy and fulfillment…listen for God..
Read Jonah verse 1-3
If you were to look at a map and see where God was sending Jonah, and see where Jonah went….you would see that it is an exact straight line away from where God was sending him….He ran away!! Oh and we so quickly go….O…that nasty Jonah…why would he do that? Run away from God….we don’t do that…do we?? Read 3-5
If the first step or lesson we can learn from Jonah is to listen for God’s voice…then the second is ….don’t run….Lesson number two….don’t run from God!! Here are some reasons why…
1. You will miss out on the blessings he has prepared for you
Money calls to us…power calls to us…temptation whispers to us…and God says come to me…I have a blessing for you beyond anything you can imagine
2. You will bring calamity on yourself and the people around you!
The place exploded with danger! Jonah didn’t just endanger himself….he endangered all of his shipmates as well!
Verse 5 says that all of the sailors were afraid and each of them cried out to his own God….that’s the first thing you do when you get in trouble right? I am halfway clever….that means…well …I may be an idiot but I am halfway clever….that means I will always try and figure it out on my own….when in reality what we ought to do is go to the source…go to the one who has all the answers…right away! But these sailors each called to their own God….and then you see…they tried to solve the situation themselves…they threw the cargo into the sea….We gotta figure this out man…we gotta get this ship lighter! Friend we are in trouble the first thing we must do is turn to the source of power….to the source of hope…and that power and hope rests in Jesus Christ alone!
Reason number 3: Now Jonah had gone down below deck and had fallen into a deep sleep…can you imagine this? I was on a cruise ship and the waves were so rough that they were literally breaking over the bow of the ship….I was in my room and I couldn’t sleep….actually…I remember being in the bathroom….making promises to God…but if you run from God long enough….you can be in the middle of mortal danger and not even know it! You can be sound asleep! You can reach a place where you can’t even hear his voice! One of the scariest verses in the Bible is found in Romans and it’s a really simple statement….it says so God gave them over to their own desires….they stopped hearing his voice….Read verse 6-10
What terrified them? Because they understood which God he was running from…because intuitively they knew this was the true God! Read 10-13…oh this is so me friends
“oh god how can I get out of this?” Repent…come back to me…say your sorry to your wife…uuuu…is there any other way I can get out of this? Read 14-15
It’s fascinating how our society works…how many of you remember September 11, 2001??? Of course you remember….anybody remember the Sunday after September 11th? Let me tell you that churches were filled to capacity!! Why do we wait until we are in big trouble to acknowledge God? Why do we do it our way? Why do we not respond to the first chance that God gives us? This next portion of scripture describes a place where I have been in my life….I’m going to read the entire portion…and it describes a place where we have turned our back to God….there are people here today…in this place right now…
Read chapter 2
I was speaking at a convention….and during an intermission I was resting backstage and I was given a note….and I was speaking on God’s grace…and how God’s grace was prepared to forgive us of anything that we have done….the note began like this….I came into the door tonight planning how I would kill myself….a long long time ago…I decided that I would…it wasn’t a matter of when…it was just a matter of how…and I starting laughing….and in the midst of the laughter this note said….you told me that God would love me no matter what I have done…this person said….I have betrayed my family…I have betrayed God…I have broken every moral value that exists…but tonight….I knew that if I prayed to God he would hear my prayer…she said thank you…you saved my life….what she really meant was thank god…he saved my life….she didn’t sign her name….she just signed….your 13 yo friend….13 years old….Friends….here’s the third point….When God gives you a second chance….please take it….take it!! We have an entire generation of young people who feel this sense of hopelessness. We have an entire generation of older folks who wonder does God still have any use for me…We have a generation of younger folks who are young, and fun, and vibrant, who feel as if they have turned their back on God so long that he can’t hear them anymore….doesn’t want them anymore….I am here to tell you this morning that this is a God of Salvation….salvation comes from the Lord…..and this is a God of second chances! Aren’t you glad God is a God of second chances….God gave Jonah a second chance….he ran…….Almighty God said….Go to Nineveh…..and cry against it….doesn’t matter what his motivations were….he disobeyed God…and God gave him a second chance….now the man is sitting on a beach….his clothes eaten away by the acid in the whales stomach….he smells like whale barf! And as he lays on the beach in an all time low….God speaks to him the greatest words….I think in the bible….Chapter 3 verse 1….then the word of the Lord came to Jonah…..a second time….he was about to give Nineveh…one of the most evil cities to ever exist on the face of the earth…a second chance….this story is about second chances….and this morning is about your second chance….what is God asking you to do? I could give another list for you but you know….Your heart is beating with it this very moment….a neighbor you should share with…something he wants you to do? Or he’s calling you to relationship with Him….He’s giving you a second chance….Won’t you take it? God Bless you…..Let’s pray
