JONAH (pt. 3)

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Today's message is from Pastor David Port.

Week three, Jonah.

We're in Jonah chapter three.

So if you want to open your Bibles, I want you to think of this phrase for a second before we get started.

Think of the phrase the weight of grace.

Just hold on to that a second.

What might that mean to you?

Think about a time where you did something, you knew you blew it.

Whether it was a kid or an adult, you know, at school and sports, at your job, with your spouse, with a best friend.

You know you did something, you said something, you knew you blew it.

And you know that there was this anticipation that something was coming because of it.

Anybody ever been there?

I think we've all been there a few times.

And I remember growing up, uh, mom, you might remember these questions that you used to ask me.

There's three questions when I messed up.

Well, when I got caught messing up.

Amen.

Do you know?

Do you have any idea what you've done?

Anybody heard that one?

How about this one?

Have you learned your lesson yet?

Anybody hear that one?

Now, will you ever do that again?

Anybody hear that one?

I hear it at home every week yet.

Tracy, I just it's like having a two-year-old with me in the house.

Yeah, see?

Amen.

And with those questions, though, when you think about those questions, even in the anticipation that there's going to be a discipline, um, there comes this great feeling of a second chance, right?

Uh it's a second chance of relief.

But but weight of grace is greater than a relief of consequences, right?

When we talk about relief, when we talk about grace, when we talk about another chance, there's a relief of weight, the weight of what we've done long.

We realize what we almost lost.

When we say something to our spouse or to a friend or do something at a job or whatever, once that consequence comes, we realize what we almost lost.

And so it isn't the weight, it isn't that the weight wasn't there before.

We just refuse to acknowledge it or even accept that there is a weight attached to that.

But there's a new weight that we experience through Jesus Christ, and that's the weight of grace.

And it's a different type of weight.

I I it's it's not the greatest word, I think, with the weight of grace, because it's not what holds us down.

I see it as when you when you have something that that that level and and you're balancing it, you have a balance.

Well, usually sin will pull us down, but the way that Jesus gets rid of that anticipation of what comes because we're sinners.

And so the weight of grace.

Jonah has realized in our first two weeks that we can see the weight of grace.

He experienced it in the storm, he experienced in the belly of a fish, where he went deeper and deeper and deeper.

And then last week we heard that word, those three letters, one word.

What was it?

Do you remember?

Yet.

One of you paid attention last week.

Yet, right?

In all that he said, he said, yet.

In fact, he this is what he wrote in his prayer, yet you have brought up my life from the pit, oh Lord my God, grace, the weight of grace is greater than the weight of sin.

And so we left Jonah on the beach last week.

He was spit out by a whale or a fish, whatever you want to call it.

Uh, and it would be a great ending if it was a Grimm's fairy tale telling us a lesson that we should learn.

But God has more in store for us in this in this story, if you will.

God's storms are not punishments, right?

Isn't that what we said the first two weeks?

God's storms are not punishments, but acts of grace.

And so this week, God's grace doesn't just rescue Jonah, it recommissions Jonah.

And what I hope we'll see is God's grace doesn't just rescue us, but God's grace commissions us or recommissions us, as we talked earlier with Matthew 28.

And so the first uh three verses is the word of the Lord comes again.

Let's let's read.

That's still Corinthians there.

That ain't gonna work.

Jonah chapter 3, verses 1 through 3 here.

Jonah 3:1–3

Listen, listen to some key phrases here, specifically the word, right?

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.

Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.

Now Nineveh was a very large city, it took three days to go through it.

I want you to notice God's approach to Jonah.

Because where's Jonah?

Jonah's on the beach, right?

After all that he's all that's happened, he's on the beach covered with seaweed, smelling like fish.

You could say it's symbolic of a messy, stinky life.

Amen?

And so that's where Jonah is.

He's on the beach, messy, stinky life.

If you were in charge of Jonah and his mission, how would you respond to him?

Think about it a minute.

Would you respond to him with the same questions that we said earlier?

Jonah, do you know what you've done?

Jonah, have you learned your lesson?

Jonah, will you ever do that again?

Maybe that's how we would respond, but I want us to notice the text.

What does the text say?

It says this the word of God came to Jonah a second time, right?

The word of God came to Jonah a second time.

Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim it, the message I gave to you or I give to you.

Get up, go, preach.

The same thing, the same message God had given Jonah in Jonah chapter one for our um reading experience, if you will.

No lecture, at least we don't see it in here.

No questionings of him, there's no probation.

He didn't even ask Jonah to go to some rehabilitation uh prophet class because he disobeyed God.

Just grace.

God with a call to a mess of a man named Jonah.

God doesn't treat Jonah like a failure.

It doesn't mean that Jonah didn't fail.

We all fail, but God doesn't treat Jonah like a failure.

He treats him like the prophet that God created him to be, the job that he wants him to do, that he equipped him to do, and he called him to do.

And so he sends a storm and a fish and now a recommissioning.

This is all grace, re-establishing a relationship with God.

When have you said no to God?

I'm not talking about, you know, oh, I don't want to do that, God.

I'm talking about in the idea of commissioning.

I'm talking about in the context of Matthew chapter 28, where we are told to go and make disciples of all nations, to baptize them, to teach them.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

When have you said no to God about that?

When maybe, maybe it was last month, maybe it was last year, maybe it was a decade, maybe it was yesterday where maybe you were nudged or you had the opportunity to tell somebody about Jesus, and we passed it up.

We use phrases like, I used to do that, or I'm not good enough now, or man, I just mess up way too much for God to use me.

And let me tell you, the father of lies will whisper lies to us in different avenues to make us think things like that.

And we need to name that lie.

One of the greatest lies the devil will tell you is this God's done with you.

One of the greatest lies is the devil will say that he's through with you, you blew it, you don't have fill in the blank to continue to build the kingdom.

That's a lie.

The truth is this is God is not done with you.

God is not done with you spiritually, God is not done with you relationally, and God is not done with you through his commissioning.

God is not done with you.

And just as the word came to Jonah again, his word comes to us time after time after time after time, and maybe we just need to be still more and listen.

And listen to what God says.

Sure, we could call it a second chance.

God gave me a second chance, but I think when we're in the in the context of commissioning, it's more than a second chance.

It's, I think saying second chance is simplifying it too much.

Because God's grace isn't a limited resource that goes away after one, two, three failures.

It's not, it doesn't just go away.

God's grace doesn't get used up.

It's like your propane tank.

Because we almost ran out of propane yesterday.

And you look at that meter, you go, oh, almost out of propane.

There's times we can't think that God's grace is like, oh, I really got to start being better because my grace meter's almost out.

I think our own grace meter's out for people, but God's grace meter for you never runs dry.

And he proves this with Jonah.

And this same God that offers the same grace and recommissioning to all of us as he does with Jonah.

So, what is Jonah's response to this?

What does it say?

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.

He obeyed and he went.

No arguments, no negotiations.

I think we've had this discussion.

I negotiate with God.

I think we all negotiate with God a little bit.

I'll do this if.

I'll do this if.

God says, no, no, I just want you to do it.

There may not be anything in for you, in it for you, but this is what I've called you to do.

No arguments, no negotiations, no running.

He just goes and he obeys.

And last week Jonah prayed in the dark, in the belly of a fish, thanking God in that prayer, even before the answer to his prayer came.

This week, looking back on that, we can see this that faith that prays in the dark also obeys in the light.

Also, and here's what I mean by that is I know in my life personally, it's easier to pray when we have no options.

When we're at the bottom, when it's dark, when things aren't going like it was.

This past week has been a crazy week.

Things have not gone as it was.

And I probably prayed more because things weren't going as they should.

It's easier for us to pray when we have no options.

But when we have options, when life is going well, we tend not to pray.

We're more tempted to not pray.

We're more tempted to do what we want to do and not obey God because life's going good.

Life's going good.

I'm good.

Jonah's obedience, though, is now taking him to Nineveh, where we will hear the results of his obedience, of not running, not negotiating, but going and doing.

Let's read verses four through nine.

Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city, proclaiming, Forty more days in Nineveh will be overthrown.

The Ninevehes believed God.

A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered him with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust.

This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh.

By the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let people or animals, herds or flocks taste anything.

Do not let them eat or drink, but let people and animals be covered with sackcloth.

Let everyone call urgently on God.

Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

Who knows?

God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger, so that we will not perish.

But they're a notoriously bad city, but even greater in the context of Jonah is what?

He's the enemy.

They're part of Assyria.

They're part of a country that Israel has gone to war with numerous times.

They are the a thorn in Israel's side.

So God is telling Jonah to go into enemy territory and declare that they're going to be overthrown.

Are you nuts, God?

Seriously, this is what God did do.

Can we see why maybe Jonah ran and tried to get away from this?

But Jonah, he obeys.

He walks into Nineveh and he cries out, 40 days more, and Nineveh will be overthrown.

Now, this is a hard part for a pastor to say.

There's no three-point sermon, there's no media slides, there's no excellent worship that's involved with it.

Just a countdown and an altar call.

And look how God's grace works through that.

Look how God's grace works through Jonah's obedience.

We don't know for sure exactly what Jonah said.

All we have is what the text says.

Some writers say he may have said more than that, but I don't want to say maybe.

What I know is what the text says is this is the line that that that is going to be remembered.

This is the line that that they wanted us, the readers, and the people who read this first time to know.

And how does God's grace work through this obedience?

It says the Ninevites believed God.

The Ninevehes believed God.

They didn't follow me here.

They didn't believe Jonah.

They believed God.

They believed the words that Jonah gave them from the lips of God.

That's the power of grace.

As imperfect as Jonah is, Jonah didn't make them turn.

The word of God, the heart of God, the grace of God helped them turn.

Not just the good people, the greatest to the least, all put on sackcloths, everybody saved, turning to God.

And Jonah finally does what God tells them to, and they believe.

Now what's interesting is like the sailors, Nineveh obeyed pretty quickly.

They didn't run.

They responded right away.

They've responded again.

This is something we can look at, is they responded better than Jonah did.

And I think there's something for us to read into that that we don't have to get into today, but something for you to chew on a little bit.

And on top of that, grace affected the king.

It went all the way up to the top.

It flowed all the way to the king.

And what's the king do?

He does what a king never does is he takes off all of his royalty.

He takes off all of his royal garments and he sits in dust.

Other translations will say ash.

And what this symbolizes is giving up comforts, earthly comforts, comforts of this life, comforts of where he is.

Here is hard again.

Because he goes from the throne to the ground.

Do not let people or animals, herds or flock, taste anything.

Do not let them earn.

Everybody's fasting.

We're all in this together.

But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth, let them call urgently on God.

Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

Who knows?

God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.

Do you hear his heart?

You know it's interesting.

Again, we don't know what Jonatoli said, but shouldn't those words come from a prophet?

And not from a pagan king?

A person who what?

Who probably never read the Torah, first five books of the Bible, who's never been to Sunday school or in the small group, who's probably never been on a mission trip.

This is the king of a people that Jonah can't stand.

And this king hears it and he responds.

And he asks the question: who knows?

God may yet relent.

God may still have compassion on us.

Maybe, just maybe it's not too late for us.

It's a question that I wonder, or at least that I can see, that Jonah never asked.

When God called him, he ran.

He didn't say, Well, who knows?

Maybe God will relent on them.

Who knows?

Maybe God will have compassion on them.

I wonder if Jonah wanted judgment.

I wonder if Jonah ran because he knew God might be good to his enemies.

And we'll see that next week.

So hold on to that thought.

Hold on to that thought for a week.

But this enemy king wonders if God might be more merciful than he imagined any other God he ever served being.

That's the God we serve.

Merciful, grace-filled, forgiving.

And we see God's unrelenting grace.

Unrelenting grace in this final verse.

Hold on to that word, unrelenting grace, as we read uh Jonah 3, verse 10.

Jonah 3:10

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

Last week our key word was yet.

This week it's relent.

Relent.

God did not or did relent.

He relented his judgment.

What did he not relent?

His grace.

I think the only thing, or or at least the greatest thing God is unrelenting in is his grace.

It is always there, it is always available.

And in his grace, God's storms are his grace designed to redirect our course back to him.

Right back to him.

To repent.

Repentance is turning from being off course.

Repentance is changing our course in life.

Repentance is not just saying I'm sorry.

It's saying, God, I will change.

It's God's grace that redirects us.

The storm and the fish redirected Jonah.

And now God's word is redirecting a whole city.

Mercy for Israel's enemy.

A city that was evil, but now a whole city and their king, not because they were good, but because God is good.

And God does relent, but his grace is unrelenting.

A bunch of religious symbolic acts didn't spare them.

But here's what putting the sackcloths on and sitting in the dust did.

It told the truth about what was happening in their hearts.

God knew their hearts.

In our text, it says, God saw they turned from their evil ways.

Now, God saw they put on sackcloths and it looked pretty neat.

No, turned from their evil ways.

So what does turning from ways in our life look like?

Well, I I cursing.

You have an issue with cursing, turn.

If you have an issue with greed, turn.

If you have an issue with grudges, turn.

If you have uh issues with control, turn.

Bitterness, turn.

Gossip, turn.

Turn from the things that don't reflect Jesus.

We turn from the things that don't show Jesus in our lives, that don't mirror Jesus.

And the promise is that when we do turn, God and his and his mercy and grace will relent.

God's mercy and grace are on display for all to see and for everyone to experience.

Do you believe God speaks yet?

He speaks in different ways.

I think he still speaks in dreams and when we're silent, and through his word and through songs and hymns and um, you know, praise songs, anything that reflects God.

If God is a God who speaks, then we must become a people who listen and obey.

If God is a God who speaks, if we truly think that, then we've got to block out what we think, what our biases are, how we think things should go, and we need to become a people who listen and obey what God has called us to do.

Jonah learned this lesson in Jonah 1.

He listened, got up, and ran.

This week Jonah listened, got up, went up and obeyed.

No fanfare, no parade, no selfie social media posts saying, Look at me.

No, what did he do?

He went.

He listened and obeyed, and an entire city, an enemy of the children of Israel, turned.

Turned to God.

God bringing us out of the deep is always God bringing us back.

Back into relationship with Him and back into the call, the commissioning He has called us to be in before we ran to avoid it.

We can use every excuse to get out of it.

I know I have.

I'm retired.

I'm too busy.

I got kids.

I'm uncomfortable.

I'm angry at the world.

Amen.

It's not my thing.

I doubt it will do any good.

All these excuses to run and not listen to God, but we need to remember that the grace of Jesus has pulled you out of the pit and onto the beach, and you may be the vehicle of grace that helps pull someone else out of the pit and onto the beach.

Don't believe the lie that God is done with you.

Don't believe the lie the devil gives you that God is done with you, because he never gives up on you.

He's never done with you.

The only thing God is unrelenting in is his grace, and grace brings the word of the Lord again.

And so the question probably is for all of us today is how will you respond and why not?

Yes.

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