Sermon Title: A Second Chance With God
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. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites 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 himself 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.” 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.
“Boy, did I mess up!” I’ve heard that many times from people throughout my years of ministry, and I have said it a few times, especially when I look back at the events of my own life. The honest hard truth: we all “mess up.” We do things we should not do, we say things that should not be said and we live with the regrets and consequences of those poor decisions that we have made. Thankfully, we have a God Who is in the business of forgiving, restoring and blessing those who have made mistakes or just down-right rebelled against God. Dr. David Jeremiah writes the following concerning God’s ability to restore those who have “messed up”:
“Sometimes when I talk with Christian people I get the impression that they believe if you ever make a mistake, it is over—that God can never use you again. Now if anyone should have thought in his own heart that God was through with him, it ought to have been the man Jonah. And yet, “… the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time …” (Jonah 3:1). Not only was Jonah restored to fellowship with God, but he went on to preach perhaps the greatest revival that the world has ever known. God specializes in reaching out to us in the midst of our failure, for He knows that we are dust, and He knows that we are frail. And while He never condones our disobedience and rebellion, throughout the Bible we see God giving His saints a second chance.”
Have you ever received a “second chance” from God? Or do you need one now? This coming Sunday we will discuss how and when God gives people “second chances” as we continue our sermon series, “Returning to God: Lessons from Jonah.” Hope you will join us!
