The Calling, Part II

Introduction

Well it is thanksgiving and like most pastors around the world, we struggle with the concept of diverting from your sermon plan to deliver a sermon that is date specific or seasonal.

I hope this weekend you have or will be taking time to celebrate the many things you are thankful for.

For me, one of the many things I am thankful for is that we can come together today to celebrate the blessings God pours out in our lives as we walk as disciples learning more about God.

But this week’s sermon is not about thanksgiving.

It’s about a calling.

In fact I have labeled the sermon, The Calling Part II

How many of you have recieved a second chance.

A do over,

A mulligan

I remember the time I had to create a second chance with an individual.

We were moving to Calgary and on the search for a new home. We had signed up with a good friend who is a realtor to help us find our next lodging.

Things seemed to be going along smoothly until, she needed to held of for a break to attend to a personal matter.

So in her place to walk us through homes, was her second in command, her associate in the office.

It was his job that Saturday morning to take us around the the various homes had been chosen to view.

Now if you haven’t moved in a while, these are stressful times especially when you are searching for a home in a small price range and it’s a seller’s market.

Needless to say, that morning was not successful and very discouraging.

The next day, Sunday after church, we sent a text asking if we could connect again to go over a few other homes.

On Saturday, he had said, just text me your list and I will set them up.

But, the response from the text was silent.

The longer I waited, the more stressful the situation unfolded.

I finally reached out by email, and recieved an immediate response.

He hadn’t recieved the text, but would be happy on Monday to go over the homes.

Folks, I checked the text and found out I had switched two numbers around and it was my fault.

Monday was a do over, a second chance, a Mulligan.

We meet and I said,

“Hi, I’m sorry for the tension I have created, it’s been stressful, can we start over, My name is Paris, nice to meet you!”

Have you had your own do over in your life?

Have you wished you could have a do over in your life.

I mean something you said or did, something someone did to you.

Would you like to have a do over?

Today’s text is a story of a do over in the life of Jonah.

Open your Bible, follow along as we read today’s text

Jonah 3 ESV

1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a 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, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

The Do Over

In my research for this sermon, I read this description

A Second Chance

Jonah is alive! Who would have thought that a man could find his purpose and calling at the bottom of the sea? God met Jonah when he was as far from God as he could possibly be: although the physical distance in the depths of the sea is nothing to God, it is a good picture of the spiritual distance that Jonah tried to put between himself and God. At death's door, Jonah recognized his own idolatry that had led him astray, and he experienced God's grace, emerging as a new man.

-Youversion Devotional

I guess this really is a thanksgiving sermon. God is a God of grace.

This is a great picture of God’s grace in action.

A defiant prophet who was running from God has now made a turn around to follow God and to

go Boldly where no man has gone before.

Where?

To the land of the Bullies.

To the city that was so large, that it took three days to traverse across its place.

Armed with a new passion, and a message directly from God, Jonah travels a day before setting up his corner spot on the street to proclaim the message of God.

So here is a question for you

Has God given you a message for you to speak to others?

As a follower of Christ, charged to go into the world and make disciples of Jesus Christ, what message do you have.

Peter Reminds us to

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Do you wake up each morning with this verse on your mind.

Do you have a message ready,

Do you have a defense?

Maybe the journey of faith that the Lord has lead you through is your message. To tell your story to others of God’s Faithfulness in your life no matter what has happened.

Can you truly say to others, the hope I have in me is because of the God that both lives in me and is written in this Word

That’s the reason for my hope.

May I challenge you to have a message ready to give.

Sometime this next week, ask yourself, what would I say if someone asks me for the hope that is within me.

For some of us this might be scary, so write it out, practice in front of the mirror. Do whatever it takes to be ready to give that message.

What Message did Jonah give to the people?

Jonah was to give to the people of Niniveh.

40 Days

Now the text doesn’t go into all the details, I could imagine the sermon to be longer, but Here is the tagline of the sermon.

The main point of the sermon.

God will destroy the sin in this city.

Not today, but in 40 days.

There is a deadline. It’s coming.

Thinking of second chances and do overs,

how much time elapses from the moment you hear your error or the message from someone and the time it takes to respond?

In my story, it was short, others it can take some time, but there is always time involved.

40 days.

Folks, the time is drawing when Christ will return to this world to usher in His bride,

Those who have chosen to follow Him

There is coming a day when wrongs will be made right.

Judgement will come,

in this world we live in today, a world of tolerance,

we don’t like to share this message, a time is coming.

It’s a reality when you read through the Bible.

In the Old Testament it pointed to a time Christ will come.

Christ Came and died on a cross and rose again for us.

Scripture also gives us a picture of Christ will once again come.

A time is coming

If you are sitting here this morning and you had heard the Gospel for salvation.

The Good News that Christ came to this world, died on the Cross, was buried, and rose again,

He conquered death and provided a way for us for life everlasting.

This gift of Grace, the Gospel is free for all who receive it.

It requires us to act, to accept this truth, Believe it, and confess it.

A time is coming where those who accept this will be granted eternal life.

It may not be 40 Days, but a time is coming. And for some of us, it looks like it is sooner than later, but it will come.

If you haven’t accepted God’s plan of salvation for your life, the time is now. Don’t delay.

If you have accepted this truth for your life,

Let me ask you this, are you sharing this message with others around us.

A time is coming for them, what are we dong about that.

You see we have two ways of living. Jonah shows us two ways. In a fish or on the corner.

Are we living the life of Jonah in the fish or the Jonah on the street corner.

A time is coming where we will be asked what we did for God, how are we going to answer?

Someone wrote,

What makes Jonah obedient? Having experienced God as both his Judge and Savior, Jonah now knows both brokenness and grace. He is still a work in progress, as the story will later reveal. For the moment, however, we get a clear picture of what happens when we are broken, and we experience God's grace: our stubborn hearts are softened, we become more obedient, and we move outward in service to God and others.

Youversion- ibid

Why does God use Jonah? Why not raise up another, more reliable missionary? The calling still stands for Jonah because God loves mercy. Jonah's personal experience is a living sermon of hope that says: "I ran from God, but He graciously pursued me! This same God is pursuing you. Stop running from Him and repent!"

Our challenge this morning is to be a people who love to share the message of hope with all those around us.

The People’s Response

I said earlier that this is the greatest sermon ever preached, why?

Look at the response of the people.

Jonah 3:5 (ESV)

5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. .......

The sermon was great, because it was fully from God.

If you notice in the beginning of the passage that God said to go and give the message I will give you.

God didn’t say to Jonah, I think you should mention a few things, or talk about a certain subject,

No.

I will tell you exactly what to say.

When God speaks, people will respond.

The people’s response was they believed God.

Right now, I have asked Norman to come and share his testimony. We have been looking for the right place to share this and both last week and this week seem to be the best as a testimony of turning to God.

Testimony- Norman Abrahams

Thank you Norman,

It is one thing to read in scripture, stories of people turning to God it is quite different to see it live in front of you.

This whole service has been a service of turning to you whether by giving testimony or a public display of your witness through baptism, God has been on display.

When the people of Nineveh heard the message, they too responded.

And in their response, they believed a couple of things.

That God was mighty and could overthrow their great power.

Remember these people were powerful. They conquered many lands and in the past were feared by the very name of Nineveh.

To admit to one another that this proclamation from God would indeed overthrow them came with a belief in a powerful God.

What is your view of God.

Is He all powerful that can work out all the details of your life.

Do you daily come to Him and give all to Him because He is powerful?

The God would do what He said if they stay in this state of rebellion

The second part of the message that they believed is that God would respond.

God would respond if they continued in their evil ways.

There are a few ways to interpret this text.

One way is that the writer of this story outlines the result first, then details how it happened.

They all went into a period of fasting and mourning, then the reason they did is that the King had issued a decree throughout the land when he had heard the message.

The second way to read this text is that the people who first heard the message were so profoundly moved by God that they began to fast.

The news of this widespread fasting and the message from God reached the king that it became a national event.

May I remind you not to get caught up in the style and miss the point, rather the message.

God was not pleased with them and He was about to act.

They Hoped God would be merciful

The last thing they realized about God is that they hoped he would be merciful.

They turned from their ways of wrong doing.

Tim Keller wrote in his Book,

Even though Jonah let than Ninavites know that forgiveness was possible, that wasn't the main thrust of his preaching. The summary that the text gives us of his sermon was not “ in 40 days, Nineveh might be overthrown “ but “ in 40 days, Nineveh shall be overthrown !”that was what Jonah enthusiastically wanted an predicted he enjoyed preaching wrath. He did it with Glee, not tears, because he couldn't wait for the God hammer to fall on them.

But God responded with mercy “ when God examine their deeds how they forsook their evil ways, he re announced the disaster he had said he would do to them, and he did not carried out “.

Keller pg 96

Jonah 3:9 ESV

9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

They responded to God’s message out of fear of the powerful God acting, there response was fear based.

They responded hoping that the wrath would turn to grace.

Folks,

They truly hadn’t grasped the full extent of God’s Love and grace, but did it to appease God.

God’s true nature is full of Grace no matter what we have done.

We can’t outrun God’s Love

We can’t hid from His presence, Jonah found that out.

We can’t comprehend the depth of His love, but we can know it.

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God showed His grace to the people when He turned and relented from His wrath.

That is called Grace.

God turned from doing what He said, not because He changed His mind or was impressed by the action of the people, but because of His grace for them.

God’s Grace is even greater for us.

He showed up, before we turned to Him

He did it for us.

This morning, as you reflect upon the story of Jonah and the people’s response to God’s message,

God’s Grace is far greater than all that we could do or say,

Let’s Pray

In Summary

As the worship team come forward,

Let me leave you with this,

Jonah had a second chance, a do over, A second calling to go,

What has God called you to do,

As you spend time together with friends and family, celebrating with a thankful heart,

let us stand together and sing a blessing to one another.

Response to Worship

Benediction