Second Chances
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
When I was little Kevin watched the same movie over and over again
“Brave Little Toaster”
Loved it so much its tattooed on his arm!
The story is that some appliances (which are alive) sit in a cabin untouched for 5 years
When the cabin goes up for sale, the appliances go off in search of their master
After a harrowing adventure, they end up at the boys upscale home
It is full of “better” appliances
But the master who was once a boy is now a young adult ready for college
Now he wants all his old stuff and can’t find it because his modern appliances tossed them in the trash
Later, the boy finds his old stuff at the junkyard
After risking his life to save them from the crusher, they’re all taken to his new dorm
What’s cool about this movie (aside from the fact that appliances are alive)...
Is that even the most useless junk can find a second chance when someone’s going to college!
It really is a movie of second chances
YouVersion: Second Chances
In Jonah 3
We’re talking about second chances because chapter 3 is all about second chances
Because the story of Jonah is all about second chances
Because our God is all about second chances!
Think about this:
Moses murdered an Egyptian
Gideon hid in a wine press
David slept with Bathsheba and murdered her husband
Peter denied Jesus
Paul persecuted Christians
What do these have in common?
They ALL got second chances!
We’re going to see another example of second chances today
Recap Jonah
Told to take a message to Nineveh
Went other direction on boat to Tarshish
God sent a storm and sailors learned it was Jonah
He was tossed in the sea and swallowed
Jonah gave into to God’s instruction and he was vomited
Today he heads into the city of Nineveh
Here, we’re learning about 2 examples of 2nd chances
Compare two verses:
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
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.”
Jonah had a storm, and execution, a near drowning, preservation in a fish and 3 days of isolation
He’s finally willing to listen - sort of
1. People are stubborn!
1. People are stubborn!
Ronnie was a stubborn child
Wouldn’t pull up zipper
Maybe we’re evil and he really can’t
*Zip* okay let’s go...
But fortunately, eve though he was stubborn, he’s grown into a fine young man
One I’m very proud of
We see this in Jonah, but it’s also in us!
Would you believe if I gave evidence beyond reasonable doubt?
Frank Turek: “If your honest answer is no, then your resistance to Christianity is emotional or volitional, not merely intellectual. No amount of evidence will convince you because evidence is not what’s in your way—you are.”
Happens all the time!
Some reasons atheists give:
God is morally corrupt
Christianity exists because of force
Hypocrites in church
Religion is impersonal
I don’t want to have to believe in something
All of those are subjective
Essentially, if God isn’t who I want Him to be, doesn’t meet expectations, I won’t believe
Many people cling so tight, even evidence won’t change them
Why? Stubborn!
Friedrich Nietzche: “Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.”
I’ve learned God knows how to deal with stubborn people...
I’m speaking with first-hand knowledge
Fortunately, as was the case with Ronnie, people aren’t stuck in their youthful mistakes
God is a lot more patient He knows exactly what to do
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.
She goes and there’s a lot of work to do
Takes 3 days to walk across the city!
Nineveh has about 120,000 people
About 4x larger than Israel’s capital (Samaria)
A little larger than Judah’s capital (Jerusalem)
The language could mean 3 days across or 3 days around
Either way, Jonah had to spend a lot of time in Nineveh
He doesn’t like what he sees
I think his hatred is building as he sees their sin
Now look at Jonah’s message:
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!”
Interesting message!
Those words are 100% true!
Jonah just doesn’t know it...
Do the math
Why is Jonah there? Message from God...
What is the subject? “Evil has come up before ME”
What is the purpose? Warning!
Why do we warn? To change a behavior!
When a warning siren goes off, we change our behavior from whatever to seeking shelter
When a sign says dip, we change our behavior from speed to slowing down
Jonah’s not giving much of a warning!
He just says, “Hey, you’re all gonna die!”
If that were true, God wouldn’t send Jonah!
Jonah doesn’t say:
It’s from God
It because of their sin
Or they can repent!
Jonah has determined for himself they are hopeless
2. Never forget God’s grace!
2. Never forget God’s grace!
Spend 10 minutes on FB or YouTube
We constantly doom people in are minds
That kids gonna go to jail someday
That lady would make a horrible parent
That person will never get clean from drugs
That person will never get saved
To believe people can’t be changed is to cheapen God’s power
We are called to love people, live as examples and share the gospel
You don’t get to choose who you do that for!
Jesus says we’re supposed to do that even for our enemies!
Yeah, but they’re gay! They’re black! They’re Muslim! So?!
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
If you want to do well, it takes grace in you!
And we respond to His grace pouring in by pouring out grace to others!
Tullian Tchividjian: “Even those of us who have tasted the radical saving grace of God find it intuitively difficult not to put conditions on grace.”
Before we worry about condemning the sin in others...
Let’s worry about encouraging holiness in others
Now let’s see what God does with that:
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.
Wow, God took the impossibly lost people of Nineveh and changed them!
Jonah didn’t bother calling them to repentance, but they did it anyway!
Jonah did not see this coming!
These people are super sinful! They’ll never turn!
That’s the problem, he’s looking at it through human eyes
It’s hard not to - we live by our own senses...
But that doesn’t mean they’re always correct
British Airways flight had a major problem in June 1990
After taking off from Birmingham, cabin pressure blew out windscreen
The pilot was sucked out of the plane, but crew grabbed his legs
Copilot managed to land the plane, and pilot actually survived 20 minutes outside plane!
Why the problem, mechanic took old bolts and held them up to new ones
Looks right to me! They weren’t… They were 0.7mm too small
We do that same thing when judging others
Look like sin to me! Looks hopeless to me!
And then God goes to work and changes everything
Turns out our own opinions aren’t always right...
Let’s see just how wrong Jonah was:
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.”
From top to bottom, Nineveh changed!
They took God’s message seriously!
Can you think of anyone in this story who didn’t take it seriously?
Maybe the guy who brought the message in the first place?!
They fasted and put on sackcloth and sat in ashes
This was a sign of mourning!
They went hungry, they went uncomfortable and they got dirty!
They cried out and pleaded with God!
They were so struck that they made their animals mourn!
Repentance is NOT business as usual
You can’t “repent” and then keep on doing the same things!
Repentance requires a change of behavior
And the Ninevites changed theirs!
Extra crazy, because Jonah excluded repentance from his message
But the king says, “Hey, maybe if we repent God will let us live!”
The evil Ninevites had a better idea of God’s mercy than the guy who was just saved by a fish!
It’s not that Jonah didn’t recognize God’s mercy
He just didn’t want to recognize it as it applied to other people
We’re good with God’s grace when it’s our forgiveness, aren’t we?!
But when it’s someone else we’re a lot more comfortable criticizing them!
There’s something we need to realize here:
3. Your past is not more powerful than your present
3. Your past is not more powerful than your present
Some of us get hung up on what we’ve done
But God doesn’t!
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
When you remember the past before the present, you’re listening to the wrong voice!
You’re listening to the accuser! To Satan!
You think God wants you hung up on your sin?
If you knew half the stuff I’ve done, I’d have “Ninevite” tattooed on my forehead
But God is transformative!
Every person in this room either is or can be transformed
There is NO EXCEPTION!
Jonah couldn’t accept that...
And that’s why in this story the lesson is this:
Be like a Ninevite, don’t be like Jonah!
If he were alive today he’d be so mad at that…!
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.
4. God always honors repentance...
4. God always honors repentance...
God isn’t interested in fake repentance
Remember what John said to the Pharisees
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
True repentance comes from an honest look at ourselves
The Pharisees were coming to “repent,” but it wasn’t genuine
They thought because they were Law-following jews they were safe
They never bothered to actually acknowledge their sin
They felt safe because of Abraham
Some Christians feel safe because of Jesus
I’m forgiven, I’m good, I’ll keep on sinning, don’t judge me!
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
Repentance requires us to turn away from sin and towards God
Of course, we can NEVER do that perfectly while we’re in our flesh
Although it’s about progress and not perfection, we should still make progress!
That progress begins with repentance
But there’s something we need to understand about that though:
Let’s go back to Jonah’s message:
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!”
“Overthrown” is Hebrew word Hapak (Hapick)
Means overthrow, or to “turn over” or “to change”
While Jonah is yelling “you’re going to be overturned!”
He was right, God fulfilled His prophecy
Nineveh was overturned, but not by destruction
They were overturned by repentance!
Remember today’s message is “Second Chances”
There are two parties that are receiving God’s grace
1. Ninevites who responded immediately with repentance
2. Jonah who did not
You might say Jonah deserved a second chance as a God worshipper
You might say Nineveh did not
You might say Nineveh deserved a second chance because they responded well
You might say Jonah did not
But there’s a lesson here:
4 was “God always honors repentance...”
4 1/2 . But God’s grace is not dependent on us
4 1/2 . But God’s grace is not dependent on us
Oftentimes humans sure don’t like this about God
We see God as unfair, unjust and hypocritical
If we can’t pass God through our standards, we reject Him
All the while we forget our position with God
18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
To recap, we are puffed up, self-righteous, and we have NO IDEA what we’re talking about!
Herman Mankiewicz: “There, but for the grace of God, goes God.”
God does what He does BECAUSE HE’S GOD!
Who are we to question the creator, the righteous One?
The problem with “smart people” is they forget they have the capacity to be wrong!
Illustration: Health has become a family issue
My dad had stents
Caused me to learn my BP
Caused me to find fatty liver
It has served as a wake up call for me!
I’ve had to take responsibility for bad eating choices
I’ve become almost vegan as a result - mentioned last week
This week Tash make egg salad, but with tofu!
I was totally grossed out!
I guess I did it to myself...
But then I ate it - holy moly it’s better than real egg salad!
I was shocked!
Unless you’re vegan, you probably don’t believe me!
I understand, I wouldn’t have either!
But it truly is better and it doesn’t stink...
With no experience or knowledge, I judges vegan egg salad...
When I was finally exposed I learned I was WRONG!
So ask yourself a question: What if you’re wrong about more than just egg salad?
What if how you think about yourself is wrong?
What if your political views are wrong?
What if your beliefs about God are wrong?
What if you opinion of others is wrong?
You want to know how to find truth? Open the Scriptures...
You won’t find truth on CNN
You won’t find truth on Fox News
You won’t find truth on social media
You’re going to find sinners trying to figure it out!
You want truth? Go to the guy who IS truth!Go to God
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes we get it right
But we only know when we measure it against what the bible says
If it’s coming from a human, we have to assume it’s flawed...
What Jonah got wrong, is he was caught up in himself
What do we learn from that?
Seek God
Seek His grace
Seek His wisdom
Seek His instruction
Seek a relationship with Him
Prayer
Prayer