The God of the Second Chance

Father, I'm a little tired here today, but that can happen.

So I prayed, Dear Father for clarity. I thank you

for the story of Jonah, which isn't just a story,

It's a life changing lesson. It's meant for us because

how easy it is to feel exalted and be arrogant

in the church and think we're all indispensable when we

are the problem. Thank you Father for the Cross of

Christ that meets us in our need for Jesus the

way out of the woods. Help us Lord to learn

the lessons of it and find ourselves on the right

side of things.

In Jesus' name. Amen. There it is.

The story of the Prophet Jonah. The title of the

message is the God of the Second Chance. Have you

ever messed up bad in your life where you blew

it and you think there's no way God would let

me start over again? Look what I did, Look at

the sin I committed. But friends, I say without apology

today that we worshiped the God of the second Chance,

the God who will put you back in a right

position with him if you are broken and humble enough

to be restored.

And the story of the Prophet Jonah.

God could have let him go to the land of

peacocks and apes when he ran away from God to Joppa,

but he.

Didn't do that.

When the storm arose, God could have let the ship

sink into the sea with Joana and the belly of

the boat. When the sailors threw him overboard, God could

have let Jonah and that religious bigot and bragger drown

at the bottom of the brine, never.

To be seen again.

When the fish swallowed Jonah alive, God could have let

the digestive juices from within that fish finish him off

so he'd be digested away. When Jonah refused to pray

for three days and three nights in the belly of

the fish, God could have let him suffocate inside the

fish to never pray again. And when Jodah finally prayed

his self righteous belly ate prayer at the end of

the three days and three nights, which is, by the way,

one of the most awful prayers in the entire Bible,

some people say, oh, what a great prayer.

Uh uh arrogant all about self.

With the theme of eye me and min God could

have left him in the belly of the fish for

all eternity.

But God is not like that.

God is not a get even kind of God who

is only concerned with disturbing, distributing justice to balance the books,

you know, to hold people over the fire till he

gets all the punishment out of them. In the Book

of Jonah, God is grace and kindness in the person

of the pre existent Christ, the living word of God

that came to Jonah two times, not once.

Two.

You see, friend, Grace is not an offer only with God.

Grace is a second chance to discover God. Grace is

not an attitude only. Grace is the reality of God's

action in God's character, so that when we come to Grace,

we come to God. Grace is not what you do

for God to become better at being good in front

of God.

Grace is what God has.

Already done for you so that you can come to

God and bathe in the river of His kindness. Grace

is more than forgiveness that comes at the end of

a moral failure in a midlife crisis. Frans, Grace is

a second chance to overcome the failure and the crash

in life. Because grace is the gift of a second

chance kind of God that shapes the life and takes away.

The loneliness in your life.

In the Book of Jonah, God saves the prophet who

had blown it bad the first time. And when he

has finally failed beyond belief, what does God do? God

visits him the second time, because we worship the God

who is the God of the second chance. Turn to

Jonah three, verse one, and let's begin the scripture together.

The Bible says, then the word of the Lord Lord

came to Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go to Ninevah,

that great city, and proclaim to the message that I

tell you, boy. This is loaded language lots here in

these two verses. Verse two is very revealing. It is

it's almost identical to what God said at the beginning

of the book that became the basis for Jonah's flight

from faith to the land of Tarsish Jonah one to two.

God said to Jonah, arise, go to Ninevah, that great city,

and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up

before me. Now compare this with Jonah three to one,

after the fish spat him out on the shore. Look

what it says, though, then the word of the Lord

came to Jonah. What does it say the second time,

say arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and here

is the difference, and proclaim to it the message that

I tell you.

That's pretty important.

There was something about this message of God's grace that

Jonah didn't want to preach. There was something about this

message of God's goodness that Jonah didn't like.

There was something at risk here.

If God didn't control the content, because the prophet would

mess up the sermon. God said, arise and go to

nineve that great city, and proclaim to it the message

that I tell you, not your message, my message. Now

there are two reasons for this command number one. Reason

number one Jonah ran from God, so he couldn't altogether

be trusted with the content of his message. That means

Jonah didn't like what God had to say. When he

called him the first time.

Go preach. I'm going away. He ran as far and

as fast as he could get out of there.

And he didn't want to preach the message that God

gave him to preach because he knew what God is like,

He knew the character of God. He knew that God

had revealed himself at Sinai as a god gracious and

merciful forgiving transgression and sin, and care carrying God's people

and eagles wings, and caring about all the nations of

the earth. He could stand that facet of it. Jonah

was ashamed of the message of mercy that is God's

character and Nukem. Jonah didn't want to give Nineveh a

single chance to be saved. The man who had received

a second chance from God didn't want to give the

people a second chance with God. Nukem Jonah wanted God

to nuke them with divine fire like Sodom and Gomorrah

and be done with it.

Get rid of those people now, Jenners.

Jonah liked the part of Moses's message that excuse me,

moses message that said vengeance is mine and I will repay,

says the Lord.

Have you ever looked up that verse and claimed it?

Someone hurt me? Lord? Get them? You ever do that? Oh?

Sure you have?

Yeah, Lord gives these people a dose of divine justice

for my sake.

Jonah wanted vengeance and nothing else for the Nina. Reason

number two.

Jonah's prayer in the belly of the Fish was mixed

with self righteous elements of condescension that gummed up the

message of God's grace to be effective. God's message of

mercy cannot be mixed with ie, me and my I

mean Jonah was all about Jonah, but he wasn't about God.

Jonah had sure enough fixed this in his mind that

he would proclaim a message with Jonah in the mix

and to reach the hearts that need to hear. God's

message cannot be fiddled with. God's message cannot be manipulated. Pride,

self and personal aggrandizement has no place in his message.

So the word of the Lord must not become the

word of a man, but the word of God for

men and women. In his prayer, Jonah had the sequence

all wrong with the pray and pay and then God

saves formula. The prey part was right, but the pay

part in the middle was all wrong. He said, I've

paid my vowels, I pray to you. I've paid my

vows now save. No, God doesn't do that that way.

Jonah's prayer revealed a tremendous lack of appreciation for the

grace of God based on the goodness of God's character.

The man who believed in pray and pay and then

God saves had a hard time pray it at all.

So God came to Jonah the second time, and he said,

proclaim to the city of Nineveh the message that.

I tell you to do.

You know, we live in a time where people want

sermons in many parts of the land that will make

them feel good.

Do you ever hear to feel good preaching? Feel good preaching?

Oh? You know, we want to hear what we want

to hear. Friends, do you realize that from the Bible

we need to hear what we don't want to hear

At times, we need to hear that which cuts to

the heart and calls us back to God. We need

to hear God's clear Thus set the Lord and not

the suppositions and philosophy of men. And so Jonah here

had mixed Jonah's up so much in the message that

God couldn't use him until he surrendered up, and even

then he couldn't depend on him to really be dependable. Here,

the man who believed in pray and pay had his

own ideas. So God came to Jonah the second time

and he said, here's how I want you to say it.

Proclaim to the city of Nina the message that I

tell you. Like Jonah, there was another prophet with a

bad attitude where God had to speak to him directly in.

The same way.

Can you think of a prophet where God said, you

don't say what you say, you say what I say.

Can you think of a prophet like that in the Bible?

Be the prophet Balem exactly? Jonah is one is the one,

and Prophet Balem was the other. And so the Lord

came to Balem twice, just like he did to Jonah. First, remember,

the evil king Bayleik came to Balim to persuade him

to curse Israel, and.

God told him directly not to go with him and

not to curse them.

They wanted to pay Baalim to do this, and then

they tried again with a hint of reward to get

Baylim to give in, And just like Jonah, God came

to Balim a second time to get it right.

Turned to numbers twenty two.

Verse twenty and and God came to Baalim at night

and said to him, if the men have come to

call you, rise and go with them.

But only would I bid you that shall you do? Now?

Balem wanted to curse Israel and get the money for

nuking them. But God told Balim that he could only

speak the message that came from God. In the story,

Jonah is another Balam. He's a prophet gone rogue. He's

a prophet that's not doing what the Lord.

Has asked him to do.

So God tells Jonah to only preach the messages that

comes from God, because Jonah would love to curse none

of it and be done with it. Now, friends, God

has given our movement a message. The Three Angels Messages

of Revelation fourteen are the last messages to this world

before Jesus returns, and there is a global movement raised

up by God. It's our movement, our church here to

proclaim those Three Angels messages local to our children, to

our community, and.

To the world. And to deviate from our.

Prophetic mandate and calling is to be just like Jonah.

God has given us a clear message. Jonah liked the

fire and brimstone and the hell fire kind of preaching

without God's love and grace and kindness.

Now the Third Angel's message is like that, it says.

It talks about if anyone worships the beast in his

image receives a mark in his forehead, in his hand

he'll be tor him in with fire and brimstone and

the presence of the Lamb and the holy angels, and

they have no rest day or night, those worshipers, the

beast and so on.

But they fail.

Sometimes we can fail to realize that before we get

to the third angel's message, we have the first angel's message.

And the first angel's message says with a loud voice,

fear God, which means to love him. And then he

goes on to say, for the hour of his judgment

has come, and it says with an everlasting gospel that

goes to the world.

So you can't.

Preach judgment unless you have the gospel. The tone is wrong,

there's no concern for others. And so Jonah didn't put

the two together. He was all about judgment. In this story,

God gave the same mercy to that great city of

Nineveh that he gave to Israel, and Balem wanted to

curse God's people on the borders of the Promised Land.

God had saved Israel because of the promise he made

to Abraham. So when you look at that promise very closely,

you cannot miss the point that the promise to Abraham

is also for the whole world. In you, all the

nations of the earth will be blessed. And the only

nation Jonah's cared about was his nation, his church, his temple,

his community. Genesis twelve three. God says, and I will

bless those who bless you, he tells Abraham. And the

one who curses you, I will curse. And in you,

all the families of the earth will be blessed. How

many of you, like only the church members here, to

be blessed?

Put your hand down.

How many of you, like everybody in your association, be blessed.

I got a telephone call a couple of weeks ago

from a dear friend at the local pawnshop who purchased

gave us this here really this piano that we use

in church, this or the one or the other, but

one of the two that we have, among some other things.

And I didn't get back to them. I was getting

ready for the camp out, the Pathfinder camp out this yesterday,

and I felt impressed before the Sabbath to go down

there and just have a prayer for the people at

that shop. When I got there, Tom who was kind

of you know, leading out, was there, and I didn't

see Brad or Beth, his wife, and I often go

and I just go to pray.

I just stop in to pray at these places.

I stop with my mechanic as well, even if I'm

not have no mechanic work. And he called me earlier

in the week he was in White Oak Hospital, so

I went to pray for him in the hospital.

But I just felt impressed to go there.

And I learned from Tom that Brad is in the

hospital with a serious illness a month to get over

the treatment that he got for his illness. And so

this morning, well I told Thomas, says, Tom, give me

his information. Saturday, I'm an go whip to see And

I got to text this morning before I came to

church that he doesn't need want visitors, but he wants

you to call and pray. But I called yesterday couldn't

get through. And I texted him today and I talked

about the mercy and love and forgiveness of God in

our lives.

She texted me back, Now, neither of these people have

ever been to our church.

Is the love of God for them, is the grace

of God for them. I told them that we would

pray for them right here in our church today. So

I want to bow our heads and pray for people

who've never been to our church.

Is that okay? Let's pray. Father. I lift up Brad

right now to you and pray in.

Jesus' name that you will heal him, you'll restore him.

May his wife also feel your presence us, and may

they come to know Bible truth more deeply but more profoundly.

May they know you as the kind and merciful God

of the Covenant in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Friends, there are people all around us in life that

God is put there so that we can affect. And

the most important people in your life are the ones

that God brings into your life. Genesis twelve three. God

through Abraham had blessed all the nations of the earth.

God didn't send Jonah to Nineveh to curse it and

be done with it. God sent Jonah to Ninevah to

warn the people so they could receive God's grace. God

gave Jonah a second chance to reach him and the

people with the importance of God's goodness. A message without grace, friends,

is no message at all. Nukem Jonah had a lot

to learn about God's character. Look at Jonah three verse three.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh. According to the

word of the Lord. Now Ninevah was an exceedingly great city,

three days journey in breadth. Now what does that mean?

What does that mean? Let's have a prayer. I feel

impressed to pray. Lord God, I lift up this church

to you right now, Father, we need Jesus give us

focus here today. The message is for us all in

Jesus' name.

Amen.

That country preacher had never been to a city like Nineveh.

And so the Hebrew lily reads that Nineveh was a

great city to God. God was predisposed to care about

the great city. God noticed the city of Nineveh, and

his heart was moved with compassion to save its ignorant people.

Great cities require great methods and great means to save them,

and so we have a great God who's in.

The saving business for others.

Jonah was sent on a mission of great mercy, but

Holy bent on giving none of it where it was

greatly needed. The Hebrew reads literally that the city was

three days in walking.

Now.

Excavations of the ancient city of ninev revealed that the

city was enclosed by gates with seven square kilometers or

about one thousand, seven hundred and thirty acres. That's a lot.

Our church is on eighteen acres. So what does three

days journey mean?

Here?

The three days journey probably means it was a three

days journey walking throughout the city.

That would make better sense in light of the size

of the city.

So Jonah would have gone to every single house, every

single street, where they could hear him say the message

that God had given him. He went into the city

Jonah three four. Jonah began to go into the city,

going a day's journey, and he cried out, yet, forty

days and what does the Bible say? And Nineveh shall

be overthrown. Now, literally, he went into the city a

day's journey, so he took him a whole day to

say that as he was moving through the city. Now,

it's very clear in the story that Jonah was noticed

on the very first day of his preaching.

First of all, it's very unlikely.

Jonah knew how to speak the Assyrian language. God could

probably have told him what to speak in the simplest

terms possible for the sake of the simple people, and

he had done so. But Jonah naturally want to gum

it up, but God had simplified it, and I imagine

God helped Jonah practice the message with the exact dialect

in mind, and to keep the words to the exact

nature that he had shared. It was a one sentence

message for the people, and nothing more to it. The

great theologian Jonah had to put it into one sentence.

Here it is, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Now,

how many of you read this verse and have paraphrased

it like this, Yet forty days and Ninevah shall be destroyed?

You ever thought of it like that? But that's not what

the Hebrew says. Very carefully selected word here. Now, the

Greek Old Testament translated it as yet forty days and

nine of it will have a catastrophe. But the Hebrew

word haifak, the verb translated overthrown here can also mean

to turn around, or to have a change of heart,

or to repent.

It can go either way.

And so if you're a pessimist, you would think, oh,

it's over, it's going to be destroyed.

But if you are.

Relying on the character of God and his kindness, you

can think, ah, maybe there's a chance and Jonah three five.

The people of Meneneva believe God.

They proclaimed a fast, they put on sacloth from the

greatest of them to the least of them. In Verse

five of the Bible says that people believe God. Now,

notice what it does not say. It does not say

that they believe Jonah. It doesn't say they believed in

his preaching as such. It simply reads they believed God,

which is what sound preaching should bring about. Jonah wasn't

allowed to preach about Jonah or Jonah's ideas. Jonah wasn't

allowed to tell the people about the temple in his

own land. God didn't let Jonah give them a long

speech bragging about his homeland like he did at the

sailor at sea. He said, I am a Hebrew, he boasted,

Now we could say I'm a seventh day Avitus.

Can we say the same thing, right right?

Or I'm a Christian? He said, I worship the True

God and made heaven and earth. He pontificated those ignorant

sailors who didn't know that. No. God allowed none of

this kind of talk into Jonah's message. God didn't let

him go on and on and on about how good

he was, how good his church was, how good his

message was, or.

How important he was.

God didn't let him repeat his belly ate prayer that

he had prayed in the belly of the fish.

I pay my vows.

My temple is better than pagan temples. I pray, I pay,

and then God saves aye me and my No. God

made Jonah keep all that stuff out of his message

for the people's sake. The message that came from God

was meant for them and no one else. And they

knew it when they heard it, and when they heard it,

they knew that God was behind it. It was the

word of God. It was shaped for their knees. It

was simple in terms, in the words, and it was clear.

Now we know from archaeology that the walls of the

city were filled with artwork of battle scenes and soldiers

impaling people, so they would stick people on these poles,

and the whole city was like Vlad the Impaler. You

ever hear of Vlad the Impaler who lived in Transylvania.

That's where the idea of Dracula came from. It was

Vlad the Impaler. Ninevah knew the language of war and

nothing else. So God spoke to this vampire like Dracula

culture the language that they knew, with a one clear

sentence message for them all.

In forty days, Nineveh.

Will be overthrown or repent, depending on how you take

the word haifacta me nukem. Jonah had a message, he

delivered it. Imagine Jonah walking through the city with this

unique message for the people of Ninevah bleached white from

his three days and three nights in the belly of

the well. He looked white, smelling like an oozy mass

of digested fish and squid, with his clothes eroded by

powerful gastric juices, the skin of his body bleeding with

ulcers and full of puss because of his stubborn bout

and pout in the belly of the fish, with seaweeds

stuck in his hair, and bloodshot eyes hot with anger.

Frustrated to God, Jonah didn't have to say much at

all to get these people's attention. Jonah looked terrible as

he gave the message, and Luke eleven thirty Jesus said

that Jonah was a signed to the people of Nineveh.

He didn't look good. He looked awful.

As he was going from house to house, saying in

forty days Nineveh will be overthrown. And they all had

All they had to do was look at Jonah, and

they got the message loud and clear that God meant

what he said. Jonah didn't have to say a thing

but that one sentence, and they understood, in forty days Nineveh.

Will be overthrown.

It was the mushroom cloud message, the nuclear message, the

message of the coming catastrophe that was proclaimed by a

walking catastrophe. Jesus said that Jonah was assigned to the

people of Ninevegh Verse five says, the people believe God.

That's a neat thing, isn't it? When God says something,

we believe it. What happened to Abraham when he believed God?

What does the Bible say in Genesis fifteen six? And

he believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to

him as what righteousness. Now, I didn't say he believed

about Jesus. He didn't believe about baptism. He just believed God.

And the minute you believe.

God, you're righteous in God's eyes ever after, whoever believes

God is accounted righteous, just like Abraham was account of righteous.

He is justified by God's verdict through faith in God.

John three sixteen is not for the few who sit

in the pew. John three sixteen is for the world

who hear and believe. For God so loved just me.

Does the Bible say that, for God so love just

our church, for God so love just the elders.

For God so loved the world.

That he gave his only son, that whoever believes in

him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jonah didn't

have to finish preaching before the message took cold and

went like wildfire into the city. Just one day in

it happened. Look at verse six of Jonah. Three.

Then tidings reached.

The King of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne

and removed his robe and covered himself with sackloth and

set down in ashes.

Have you ever covered yourself with sacloth and set down

in ashes? I don't recommend it, but he did.

The message spread by word of mouth all the way

to the seat of power. The king got the message,

and the king, now it had been a long speech,

he probably would never figured it out, but it wasn't.

It was a clear, concise message, and the king took

his standing for truth that day, and he believed. When

a leader believes, people follow the message. Went to the

White House, and the commander in chief believed and repented.

In verse six, the king reveals a quality of character

that Jonah does not have. It's called humility. The king

removed his royal robe. He set down in sackcloth and

ashes and repentance before God, and he recognized that God

is the true king. Jonah was full of pride and

able to humble himself. But that bad old king did

what Jonah wouldn't do. God couldn't trust Jonah with anything

but a one sentence message carefully rehearsed, so he.

Get it right without deviation. But the king became a

messenger in contrast of God's grace, and he called for

his people to repent.

Jonah didn't call. The king called for them to repent.

In the story, Jonah is nothing more than a catalyst

that starts a chain reaction the lives of others that

is a greater force than his preaching ever can nukem.

Jonah wanted the chain reaction to blow them all up,

but instead God used his words for a different kind

of chain reaction to save them. That day, the king

made a decree like an altar call for national repentance.

Look at verse seven of Jonah three. And he made

proclamation and published through Nineveh. By the decree of the

King and his nobles, Let neither man, nor beast, herd,

nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water.

But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and

let them cry mightily the God. So it's not just

people who are crying mightily to God. Who's crying mightily God?

In the storyline, animals are Now what salm would a

dog make? Oh, it's a wolfy dog like avalanche?

Are dog? What salmon a cow make? Okay? You could

go through a.

Cat or it could be you know, it could be

like that. About what about a gerbil?

I don't know. Gerbils are tough.

But he's calling on man and beast to repent and

to make cry to God. But let man and beast

be covered with sacloth, and let them cry mighty to God.

Yay.

Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the

violence which is in his hands. Who knows God may

yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that

we perish, not the king started preaching to his people

the simplest message of repenting and turning. The Hebrew word

fact for overthrown can mean repent if you believe it.

Overthrown can mean in the Hebrew language, to turn around

to repent. God can overthrow your bad and evil heart

when you repent and turn around. In the call of grace,

the king gave an altar call for the people. He

called on man and beast to repent and humble up

before God Almighty. He didn't want to take a chance

with a catastrophe coming on them.

He wanted the right meaning of the verb. He called

for a fast for everyone's small and great where everyone

could call on God and get it right.

The king's cat put on sackcloth and ashes that day.

The cow was covered with sackcloth and ashes too. The

dog was covered with the same. Now, based on archaeology,

we know that in Nineveh.

They had a zoo. They had a zoo, so all

the animals in the zoo they covered them with sackcloth

and ashes.

Underneath them, the lie on the draft, the peacock, the ape,

the polar bear, and whatever else was in the zoo

had sackcloth and ashes. That day, and the people did

the same as the animals. And when God destroyed the

earth of the flood, he told Noah that all flesh

had corrupted itself before God.

Men and animal.

The Nineva had a version of the flood story that

was found in their ancient library, and they did exactly

the opposite of the rebels who lived before the flood.

Man and Beast got it right that day. Now, have

you ever had a dog that wouldn't repent? I'm serious.

Do you ever have a dog that wouldn't repent? I

had Avalanche.

She was a dog that would not repent. He was

as guilty as sin. He had a conscience, He knew

he was in the wrong. He just wouldn't look you

in the eye when he's supposed to. Kind of lick

you and get over it. He would not repent. These

animals repented in a way. The King let Man and

Beast cry out to God. They didn't have a choir,

but they had a bunch of noises going on that day.

They were a military culture bent on impaling people with poles.

Torture was a pastime and a means of conquest and entertainment.

But that day they organized the people of the land

the beasts of the field to do the same thing,

to seek the Living God. Both man and beast alike

started crying out to God. The king was crying out loud.

The dog was howling right along with the king. The

women of the city were wailing, along with the cats,

and the mice and the roosters.

The zoo was.

Full of strained sounds as the voice of anguish filled

the city with sorrow and sadness. It was a national

day of prayer long me and no one was left

out of the holy fast of seeking God's mercy. The

King said, yea, let everyone turn from his evil way

and from the violence which is in his hands. Friends,

sorrow for sin and repentance occurred that day as God

heard their cry. Now, what God wants from us as

Christians in the church is to take the time to

get on our knees and to seek God.

This way.

God is not impressed with how good we look. God

is impressed when we have a poor, broken spirit, so

that His Holy Spirit can come into our lives. Jonah three,

verse ten. When God saw what they did, how they

turn from their evil way?

What did say? What does the text say?

God repented of the evil which he had said he

would do to them, and.

He did not do it.

Dear heart, we worship a kind God who is able

to change his mind, who's able to say, no, I'm

not gonna do it, because I get it, you've turned.

I'm going to save you because of your repentance. We

worship a good God who is just God, who will

destroy evil in the end. But when he sees a

man or woman taking positive steps and getting on their

knees and repenting, he's able to say, I am holding

it off.

I am going to save that man or woman.

As the people were turning to God, Jonah's response was

different from theirs. Jonah didn't want to get right with

God that day. He had a stiff lip, he had

a stout persona.

He was pouting.

He was so sure he was in the right, but

no humbling up on his part. He wanted to hang

on to the religion of eye, me and mine and

let God knew him. He liked the catastrophe part of

the message. He was really a very manipulative kind of prophet,

and he didn't like being wrong. When overthrown can mean

turn away and repent. He didn't care for that meaning

of the word, and Jonah fore won. The text reads,

but it displeased Jonah exceedingly.

And he was angry. Now I have seen this.

I've seen when people come to the church and people

are baptized. Sometimes members who are in the church for

many years can get upset because maybe they're helping out

in an area that they wanted to do. Maybe they

feel the church has been overtaken by new people. And

Jonah was just like that. He wanted to guard his

turf instead of opening up for others to work and

serve God and to be affected by God. So the

text says, it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. Now,

if you're exceedingly angry, what are you doing? Kind of

the incredible Hulk thing?

You know you're stewing.

It's possible to be a missionary to the world and

not realize that you're more lost than the lost you're

supposed to reach. It's possible to preach a message of

the Gospel and really don't even know what the good

news is yourself. It's possible to see people turn to

God and yet curl up your arms and get angry

about the people who come to church who mess up

the church that you don't like. The Book of Jonah

is about a prophet who was more lost than the

lost people God sent him to save. Jonah had a

message of mercy from God and he turned.

It into gloom and doom.

God had given Jonah a second chance to experience God's

mercy that he could give to the people of that

great city. So what happened to the king who turned

to God?

What happened? What happened?

God forgave him and he saved him. Secular human scholars

believe that Jonah's a fictional story that is meant for

a mora or lesson and nothing more. But history bears

record that in the eighth century BC, the king of Assyria,

added Narai the Third, championed a religious revolution that transformed

the entire Assyrian Empire.

For a generation. This thing really happened.

He persuades people to turn away from worshiping a pantheon

of God's to the only one true God, Nabbed as

he called him. Nabu was the name assigned to the

God of wisdom who had the tablets of Destiny in

his hand. That was the best name that this king

could give to a god he didn't know. He called

him Nabu. The king searched for a name, and he

assigned it. And this king became a monotheist who found

the one true God in saclothe and ashes on his knees.

A temple was erected in seven eighty seven BC to

the only God, Nabu. An ancient inscription has been found

in that temple that reads the following. It bears record

to a king who humbled himself before a God whose

name he did not even know. This king Adin Nari

the Third found grace in the face of a God

who was willing to forgive him and reach out to

him in his kingdom. The inscription has been found in

this temple. Trust in Nabu. Do not trust in any

other God. Nabu, for him was the one true God,

no other gods. The apostle Paul said this, I'm not

ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God

into salvation. What to everyone who believes?

Now? Who is that? Everyone? Is it you?

How many think it's you? Raise your hand, it's me

and you? But what about the person you don't like

by nature? What about the person that makes you raw

and feel irritable. What about the person that you feel

should not receive God's mercy?

Is it for them too? It is?

And so we worship a God with a big heart

who wants to save the whole world. You know, when

Jesus died on the cross, his arms went this way.

Didn't they?

And as when they kneeled those hands to the tree,

he embraced the east and west, the entire globe, and

he wrapped his arms of love around the planet and

wouldn't let it go. In Christ, we are saved. So

Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Jonah was

ashamed of the gospel. Dear hearts, May we never be

so here, dear heart, believe, believe.

And be saved.

Why because we worship the God of the second Chance,

who cares about you too. Where the number two is you,

not just the person you're reaching out to effect, but

you in Jesus' name. Believe, Father God, thank you this

day for Jesus. Thank you for the decisions of these

dear people. You lead them to Bible baptism. Lord, help

us to finish the work for them, and for you

to finish God's work in them. And Father we pray

to all stand together on the sea of glass in

Jesus' name.

Amen.