Repentance Multiplies Repentance - Jonah 3

Jonah 3 ESV

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 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. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 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. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 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, 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. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” 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.

We are in this series that I’ve called Messed Up Messengers… we are studying the prophet Jonah… who was a prophet of God… a messenger of God… who had some things kind of messed up in the way he related to God and the people God called him to reach…

Our goal... our vision in this series is to allow God to work on the messes that we are through the mission he has given us…

That’s a pretty blunt goal… to say that our lives are sometimes pretty messed up because of our sin… and that God wants to do a work in our hearts to root out that mess and to deal with it…

I have to admit… that can be EASY to say in a general way… almost tongue in cheek… “I’m a mess...”

But then to have God open our eyes to really see that mess so that we can turn from it… that’s a pretty painful reality...

I don’t know about you, but God’s been showing ME some specific things… some patterns of thinking… some ways of reacting to the circumstances in my life that are pretty messed up in me…

I know that’s SOOO surprising… that God would still have a work to do in someone who’s a pastor… but it’s true!

And he’s been dealing with me on those things… he’s been getting after my heart…

In particular, that second point from last week, that we can hope in our God who disciplines us… I’ve been holding on to that truth.

And just like Jonah... he’s been USING the mission that he’s given… to do that work in me...

it’s through the ways that he has called me to make disciples that he’s showing me things that are wrong in MY OWN heart...

And so if you are like, “Man, God is just really working on me lately… it’s hard and sometimes painful… but good…”

Just know that you aren’t alone…

The same work that he did in Jonah’s life he wants to do in my life and he wants to do in your life...

And at the same time, if you are like, “Yeah, I don’t know what you are talking about… I don’t see any mess in my life…”

OR if you are like, “Yeah, there’s a mess there, but there’s just no changing that mess… I’m a lost cause...”

Then the chances are that you don’t understand the mission of God in your life at all.

Chances are that you have not stepped out into the walk of faith that God has called you to...

Because God has called you to be a disciple who makes disciples of Jesus…

That’s the mission of God for every follower of Jesus… to walk by faith in Jesus (that’s being a disciple) and to call and teach others walk by faith in him as well…

That’s your mission as a parent… as a neighbor… as a coworker… as a church member… as a spouse… as someone who is playing meeting other parents at the park...

You are called to be a disciple-making disciple...

And God wants to use THAT mission… to work not only on the people around you… but to work on YOU!!!

Do any of you parents out there see your own need for repentance as you deal with the sinful hearts of your kids?

And God is CONSTANTLY using THAT mission… being a disciple who makes disciples... to purify his people and to clean them up...

Or do you ever see your own marriage weaknesses when you have to help someone else work on their marriage?

And if you wait until you follow Jesus PERFECTLY to obey the mission of making disciples, you will never get after the mission…

And guess what? You’ll stunt your growth as a disciple.

You see, God doesn’t wait for you to clean yourself up before he calls you on mission...

And he’s not waiting for you to clean yourself up so that he can use you...

He’s does his own miraculous work in YOUR heart THROUGH calling you on mission…

and then he wants to use the repentance he produces in your heart to MULTIPLY repentance in the hearts of other people...

That’s what we see happen in the chapter we are studying today… here’s the big idea:

Big Idea: YOUR miraculous repentance exists to multiply miraculous repentance in the people God called you to reach.

You’ll remember that Jonah was a prophet of the Lord… and he got the assignment that no prophet wants to get...

Jonah was a prophet of the Lord… and he got the assignment that no prophet wants to get...

God called him to preach to a VIOLENT, WICKED foreign people that judgment was coming upon them soon…

Naturally, Jonah didn’t want to… for him, it was the issue that he knew that if he warned them, he was giving them the opportunity to repent…

He knew God was just gracious like that... and he didn’t think they deserved that...

So he ran the opposite way from God… God used the mission to reveal that there was still a ton of REPENTANCE that needed to happen in his own heart.

So God sent a massive storm against the ship he was using to escape, and instead of crying out to God and turning back to him, Jonah was like, “Just kill me… just throw me overboard… I can’t imagine turning to God’s way on this...”

So they threw him overboard… and the storm ceased… and the sailors learned to fear God… God saved them despite his messed up messenger...

But he also saved Jonah despite himself.

He was SO gracious to Jonah and sent a great fish to rescue him...

Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of that fish… and he cried out to the Lord… and he hoped in the God who disciplined him… and the belly of the fish became a place of worship for him...

And three days later, it was time for him to come out restored... God commanded the fish and it vomited him out on dry land.

And that’s where we pick up the story this morning…

Read

YOUR miraculous repentance exists to multiply miraculous repentance in the people God called you to reach.

Repentance is an amazing miracle, isn’t it?

When God gets a hold of our hearts and changes our rebellious minds to understand that HE is God and WE are NOT… We don’t come to that conclusion on our own… it’s the work of his Spirit that brings us there.

and it is by his GRACE that we are saved through faith… repentance is not a WORK for salvation, but a change of mind and heart unto salvation…

We

But it’s so important that we understand that our repentance is NOT just a personal matter… it’s not just about us...

God uses individual repentance in a greater plan to save a whole people for himself from every tribe and tongue and people and language.

Here in Jonah, we find one of the greatest stories of repentance of all time… this is one of the LARGEST singl-moment revivals in all of world history...

Which means that God used the repentance of one of the most messed-up, backwards thinking prophets in the Old Testament as his tool to multiply repentance in the lives of thousands of others...

If THAT doesn’t give you hope as a disciple-making disciple, I don’t know what does.

I don’t have to be PERFECT… but I do need to be repentant.

Repentance multiplies repentance.

In , we see two parallel realities that we need to understand, and the first is this:

God wants to USE the miracle of your repentance (v. 1-5)

Read Jonah 3:1-3

God wants to use the miracle of your repentance (v. 1-5)

Explain: In verses 1-3, we are vividly reminded of the way Jonah messed up in the first place.

These verses are a mirror of chapter 1… except when Jonah goes the wrong way in chapter 1:3, he goes God’s way in chapter 3:3. [show diagram]

God took him right back to the place of his original calling as the proof of his restoration and repentance.

I want you to notice that...

Because I think sometimes we disobey God, realize our wrong, say we are sorry, but then expect God to have changed his mind about his original command...

“Oh, you’re sorry, well then, don’t worry about that thing I said before… I changed my mind about what I want you to do… go ahead and do your own thing.”

Or “I’m glad you’re sorry, but now I don’t really want to use you because of how bad you messed this up...”

But that’s not God. God took Jonah right back to the place of his original calling.

And as he repeats the command, we are reminded of four elements to God’s calling…

He called him to a place - Arise and go to Nineveh...

And you’ll remember that Nineveh was the capital of Assyria…

It was 500 miles away… which would have taken about a month to get there, traveling across the deserts of modern-day Syria and Iraq… [show map]

What God was asking him to do was NOT easy.

He had to move a good distance… uproot his life… sweat out the journey… and GO TO the people who needed to hear.

If we think that God will never ask us to do something that is physically uncomfortable or inconvenient, we are mistaken.

Maybe God’s not calling you to cross deserts, but is he calling you to cross your yard to talk to your neighbor about Jesus?

Is he calling you to cross the coffee shop to talk to the barista about Jesus?

Is he calling you to cross the splash pad to talk to that other mom about Jesus?

Is he calling you to cross your insecurities or introverted preferences to talk to ANYONE about Jesus?

God moved Jonah to an uncomfortable place...

Now in that far off place, God also called him to a People...

Remember, this is still a city full of ruthless idol-worshiping war criminals who bragged about how many crimes against humanity they had committed...

One pastor friend of mine said that this is like you walking into the heart of Iran doing street evangelism in a Taliban stronghold to the Taliban soldiers...

These were no-no people for a good religious Jew to talk to...

We talked a couple weeks ago about the “no-no” people and places for good religious people in Solanco to reach…

Have you thought any more about where you will GO and who God has put in front of you to reach who you wouldn’t naturally want to reach?

Who doesn’t look like you… who you have little in common with… who maybe is even HOSTILE to you?

Have you made any movement in that direction? God doesn’t forget that he’s called us to GO and make disciples… he comes right back to that same command that makes us uncomfortable.

And as he calls him to the same place and a people… He calls him to the same activity: PROCLAIM

Or “Call out against...” the city…

Two different words are used in chapter 1 and chapter 3, but they mean essentially the same thing…

Lift up your voice and proclaim.

I recently read an article on Christianity Today by author Elliot Clark... he was challenging the way we normally describe evangelism: “sharing the gospel...”

He observed that nowhere in the scriptures are we called to “share the gospel...”

Sharing implies that the other person wants what we are giving them...

But that is not the state of people first hearing the gospel.

Instead of share, the words the Bible uses are proclaim, and call out, and declare, and preach...

The Bible calls us to get the message out… not wait for people to want it...

It’s the message itself that God uses to pierce hearts and awaken them to sin…

As the message goes out, God softens hearts to receive it.

That requires so much more faith… doesn’t it?

To proclaim a message without really knowing how it is going to be received...

Or even expecting that it may be rejected...

Unless you’re Jonah who actually wanted the message to be rejected, but that’s a sermon for next week…

That’s

So with the call to proclaim comes the same call to a...

Message

“Call out against it, for their evil has come up before me...”

“Call out against it the message I will tell you…”

We see in verse 4 the message God told him: “Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

8 words in English… 5 words in Hebrew...

Now you will hear tons of preachers and commentators saying, “A 5 word message… that’s all it took for revival to happen!!!”

And while I love those preachers, I just don’t think that’s quite accurate…

many times in the Bible, messages are summarized when that will serve the purpose of the author...

I believe these 5 words serve like his “Big Idea”…

Because the text says that Nineveh was a 3 days journey across… and that Jonah went one day in and proclaimed the message...

Now Nineveh was only 7.75 miles around the outside wall…

That’s not 3 days journey...

God says in chapter 4 that there are 120,000 people living there… that’s a little smaller than Lancaster City...

But even still, God says in chapter 4 that there are 120,000 people living there… that’s a little smaller than Lancaster City...

I believe it’s 3 days journey when you are stopping and preaching in every neighborhood...

So imagine going to Lancaster City… and stopping on South Ann Street and preaching a message

It was a message of warning… and with the warning came the opportunity for grace.

According to commentator James Bruckner, there is actually a wordplay on the word translated in the ESV as “overthrown.”

According to James Bruckner, there is a wordplay on the word translated in the ESV as “overthrown.”

The word can mean “turn over” as in “destroy” or “turn around” as in repentance.” (Bruckner, 94)

So either way, the city is going to get overthrown…

They will either be wrecked in judgment or wrecked in heart-level repentance.

That’s the choice for every person confronted with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Turn to God as the one who can save...

Or face just eternal destruction for your sin...

So God calls Jonah right back to the same place, people, activity and message that he ran from in chapter 1…

Jonah was severely messed up in his heart… and God used the calling on his life to reveal that...

He took him to some pretty dark places...

And he worked on Jonah’s heart to bring about a new degree of obedience.

And now he’s positioned to be God’s tool…

Here’s what I want you to see: God didn’t restore Jonah only to set him aside. He restored him to full use.

Illustrate: So I have this mug here that I bought in Gatlinburg, TN on my honeymoon…

And I used this mug for a long time… but then I noticed that it was corroding on the inside… the glaze was coming off… and I didn’t think that it was wise to drink out of that anymore...

But I also didn’t want to get rid of it… I love this mug.

It reminds me of a very special moment in my life...

And it is big and strong and has a cool shape...

“what good is keeping someone around if I’m not actually restored to my full and intended purpose.”

But as much as I love it, it just sits in the back of my cupboard… behind all the other mugs that I actually use.

And I think a lot of Christians think of themselves like that mug...

Sure, God loves me.

Sure, God is willing to keep me around.

But I’m too messed up to be used in his plan.

I’m just set on the shelf…

But here’s the difference between you and this mug… I don’t have the ability to make this mug usable again… I don’t know how to keep the glaze from coming off and poisoning me...

But you have a God who has the ability to restore you to full use.

And he’s using your circumstances and the mission he has set before you to get your attention...

So that you would repent… and then he wants to USE your repentance to multiply repentance in the lives of others.

so that you would start thinking differently about who God is and what he has done… so that you can start thinking differently about who you are and what he has called you to do.

Apply: Messed-up messenger, God wants to restore you to your full purpose. He’s not setting you on the shelf!!!

He doesn’t want you to stay in your mess, but he’s also not sitting you the bench because of it!

He doesn’t want you to stay in your mess, but he’s also not sitting you the bench because of it!

He deals with it… and then puts you back in the game.

So here’s what that means (this is SOO SOO important for you to understand): Your repentance is not just about you… it’s also about the people God has called you to reach...

Your repentance is your testimony to the saving power of God in your life. It’s your platform for ministry.

You may think that your wrong thinking is only affecting you… you may think that you can get around to obeying God later because it’s just affecting your life...

But it’s affecting the lives of the people around you.

It’s affecting your kids… it’s affecting your spouse… it’s affecting the other people in your church...

But the good news is that God is ABLE to restore you from that place… you only need to turn to him.

May you think that you are unusable by God… that God has set you on a shelf in judgment...

You are like Jonah sitting in the bottom of that ship thinking that the only way out of this is to be thrown overboard...

But in reality, God simply wants you to think differently… he wants you to stop relying on your own ability and perfection and rely on his....

Or maybe you think that even though you’ve turned from your past, God could never get you back to a place where God would call you to make disciples…

You have too much to learn… too far yet to go!!!

But we are going to see next week that Jonah is not completely transformed in his thinking… his repentance is still far from over.

And still God used him. He used him as a walking testimony his powerful grace.

God is not waiting for you to be perfect… He’s calling you to be repentant.

So what does this mean for us?

He’s calling you to be repentant.

First, don’t put off repentance. Get after repenting of sin in your life the MOMENT God shows it to you.

Don’t be Jonah in chapter 1… running hard against the Lord… be Jonah in chapter 2 and 3…

Don’t put off repentance.

Don’t put off repentance.

Soften your heart to the call of God on your life...

That God wants to use you… in HIS power… to call others to be his disciples.

That God wants to use you… in HIS power… to call others to be his disciples as well.

Don’t put off repentance… that’s the first application…

Secondly, Don’t hide the marks of your repentance. Instead, show people how God delivered you.

It’s interesting how Jesus talks about Jonah’s ministry in and … it’s not something that we would immediately see in Jonah, but Jesus said it, so we should see it…

Jesus said to his own generation, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.” (, ESV)

“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (, ESV)

“Jonah became a sign...” in other words, Jonah was HIMSELF the sign to the people of Nineveh that his message was true...

If you look at the same incident in Matthew, we see that Jonah was a sign because he spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish...

It was the story of his repentance and God’s deliverance that was the sign to the people that they should listen to his message.

I wonder how they knew hew as in the fish… Did he tell them about that?

Had he just not had a bath in a month and he still smelled like a fish?

Was his hair still caked with the slime of the fish’s gut?

We don’t know how they knew… but Jesus said that it was Jonah’s time in the fish that got the Ninevites attention even as he preached the message...

The fish was the mark of Jonah’s repentance… that he was running far from God… but God had gotten his heart.

And that validated his preaching.

It was the mark that he was running from God… BUT GOD rescued him.

And that validated his preaching.

He wasn’t just preaching a message about a God who judges… he was living, walking proof of a God who also has mercy and saves and transforms.

And for us, we must not hide the marks of our repentance...

We must be wisely vulnerable about how the Lord has delivered us...

The whole, “I was always a Christian and never dealt with really bad sin...” thing is a lie… if you give your testimony that way, you are LYING...

Because your heart was just as dark and just as evil and just as dead as the worst criminal… it just didn’t surface itself in the same way.

And if you don’t believe that, you are still dead in your sin, because you don’t know the mercy of God.

Every person’s testimony (I don’t care if you were saved when you were 4 years old or 80 years old)… every person’s testimony is, “I once thought my own way… I was dead in my sin... I was headed down a path of destruction… but God got hold of my heart… now I trust in Christ for my salvation and I’m following his way...

Jesus bears the scars of my sin… he bears the wounded hands and feet… he rose from the grave on the third day… and I have died with him and I’m raised with him!

I don’t live a perfect life, but I’m living a repentant life…

That change of heart gives us the ability to declare the true gospel message that says, “You need to turn to him too… he will overthrow you one way or another...

And the true gospel message is “You need to turn to him too… he will overthrow you one way or another...

Either he will judge you and destroy you for your sin and pride that you stood against him…

Or he will get a hold of your heart so that you turn to him in repentance…

That’s what happened to me. And that’s what needs to happen to every person…

Learn to be open about how God has and is changing you...

Has he delivered you from anger? Lust? Perversion? Laziness? Selfishness?

Learn to talk about that in appropriate ways.

Did you mess up and sin in front of your kids as you were supposed to be disciplining them and pointing them to Jesus? Repent to them!

Let them see that Daddy or Mommy doesn’t have it all together, but Jesus is a great savior!

Don’t hide the marks of your repentance.

Don’t hide the marks of your repentance.

Don’t hide the scars...

Don’t cover over the smell of fish that lingers in your hair.

But most importantly, don’t hide the wonder of getting to turn back to God.

YOUR miraculous repentance exists to multiply miraculous repentance in the people God called you to reach.

That’s what happened in Jonah’s life.

He starts preaching to 1/3 of the city… one day’s journey out of three…

Look at verse 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.

Here’s God’s heart:

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

God wants to multiply the miracle of repentance to others. (v. 5-10)

Your repentance is not just about you… it has profound affects on the people around you.

Your spouse is watching how you relate to God.

Your kids are watching how you relate to God.

Your neighbors are watching how you relate to God.

Your fellow church members are watching how you relate to God.

Your co-workers are watching how you relate to God.

You… as you repent… and as God delivers you… are the sign to the people around you of the saving power and mercy of God that you proclaim.

Jonah was the sign that his preaching was true.

Explain: And the repentance of Nineveh “the greatest mass conversion in history,” to borrow the words of Commentator Frank Gaebelein...

120,000 people… one day… turning their hearts to the Lord.

Can you imagine???

From the greatest to the least… old, young, rich, poor, healthy, sick… all saying, “WE NEED TO HUMBLE OURSELVES BEFORE GOD!!!”

As I read verse 5, I imagine this wave… this tsunami of repentance that’s rippling throughout the city…

Jonah gets 1/3 of the way through the city proclaiming his message… and it just starts to spread...

One person tells another, who tells another… until the message reaches the king with urgency.

Their repentance had every mark of genuine revival… let’s look at three…

First, their repentance was faith-driven.

Verse 5 says, “They believed God.”

That’s so important: repentance that is not rooted in faith is not genuine repentance.

The message of warning is the same message we proclaim today:

There is ONE God who is HOLY and RIGHTEOUS and who CANNOT TOLERATE OUR IDOLATRY and sin...

And that God is calling you to turn to him...

Now about 800 years after Jonah, we learned the whole story…

That God sent his son in the flesh… to pay for our sin so that he could show us mercy...

But the call is the same: we must turn to HIM as the only one who can save.

As Jonah said at the end of chapter 2, “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Jesus IS the SAVIOR AND LORD who rescues us as we repent… as we turn to him.

True revival starts with believing God. It is faith-driven.

Secondly, it is humble.

They call for a fast… they deprive themselves of food so that they can seek God more carefully...

This was a repentance that was humble.

They are saying, “MY appetites are NOT the most important thing.”

The emptiness of their bellies became a reminder of their emptiness before God due to their sin...

They put on sackcloth… sackloth was made of goats hair and used for making rugs and bags...

It was very itchy, and it was common in the middle east to put on sackcloth as a sign of repentance...

They were saying, “Our sin has torn away our honor and left us in shame… we need mercy.”

And as the message rushes throughout the city like a tsunami, it reaches the King… and he is even more thorough...

Verse 6 says that he tore his royal robes to put on sackloth and sat in ashes...

He is undone… he is overthrown as God had promised…

He removes from himself the status of royalty and takes up the status of poverty.

Look at verse 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, 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. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”” (, ESV)

That’s incredible.

The king is like, “We are not leaving ANYONE out here… we have ALL offended the holy God...

Everyone needs to get serious about this.

Don’t just fast from food… fast from water too...

I don’t just want PEOPLE fasting and mourning… the ANIMALS are going to feel it too...

Everyone needs to get focused on PRAYER… call out mightily to God! (does that sound familiar from chapter 1 with the sailors and chapter 2 with Jonah?)

And then he says that incredible phrase at the end, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

“Who knows...” in other words, “He doesn’t OWE us anything because of our repentance!”

They aren’t trying to manipulate God… they realize they are entirely at his mercy.

Their repentance was genuine because their repentance was humble.

But I want you to see this third thing: their repentance that was specific.

This was a repentance that was specific.

The King says, “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.”

That’s what Nineveh was known for: They were a people marked by RUTHLESS violence.

And that is the exact thing they turn from.

Just like Jonah had to turn and God brought him right back to that specific place he had disobeyed...

So too Nineveh had to repent in specific ways they had turned against God’s way...

These people were SERIOUS about their repentance… it was faith-driven, humble, and specific...

And consistent with God’s character, he relented.

And that is the exact thing they turn from.

Look at verse 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.”

Now remember… God was not manipulated into this… he was not OBLIGATED by them to change his mind…

But out of his compassion, his heart was stirred to show mercy.

That word relented is translated by the KJV as “Repented,” which is not a good translation when it refers to God...

The word itself means that his heart was moved… he had pity… he felt sorrow on their behalf...

These were people God had created in his image… and they were moving toward his purposes for them… and he had compassion on them.

Ultimately he could do this because he knew he was sending Jesus to pay for the sins of those who embrace him by faith across all time.

tells us that “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (, ESV)

That’s what God wants… deep-rooted, heart level, ever-multiplying repentance.

Apply: We must not lose sight of the depth of work God needs to do in our hearts.

He wants it for you… and he wants it for the people around you.

Ultimately, the people of Nineveh repent at an even deeper level than Jonah, as we are going to see next week in chapter 4...

Apply: But as we close our study today, we must not lose sight of the depth of work God needs to do and wants to do in our own hearts.

Has your repentance ever looked like the Ninevites?

Food depriving, clothes tearing, sackloth wearing, sin-forsaking repentance?

You don’t stay there forever… God lifts you from the ashes because Jesus went to that place for you...

But have you ever been that broken over your sin that you could ONLY throw yourself on the mercy of God?

Maybe there is some specific thing that God just keeps bringing you back to… like God brought Jonah back to the place of HIS original calling… but you still haven’t obeyed...

Some way that you’ve been running from his calling on your life...

Something that you’ve been turning to for comfort instead of him?

Something that you’ve been turning to for identity instead of him?

Something that you’ve been refusing to do… maybe refusing to forgive… or refusing to humble yourself and apologize…

and God wants to change that part of you… and he wants to use that repentance as a tool of discipleship in that other person’s life?

Maybe there is some excuse that you’ve been using to avoid the people he has called you to reach?

And God is saying, we aren’t moving on until you rend your heart about that thing!

God is not sitting you on a shelf… he wants to work on that thing… and he wants to use your repentance in that area to call others to repentance as well.

Let’s get on our knees and ask the Lord what he wants to do in our hearts…

He has already shown us in Jesus Christ that he is merciful.... and he will forgive and restore if we turn to Jesus for our salvation.

Let’s pray…