on are you going to Wales or to the Wales, right?
Two responses to God's call in honor of our missions
trip team to Wales. And today the response we're
gonna look at is following God's call. So last
week we looked at Jonah's initial response to
God's call. Jonah, his initial response wasn't
great, right? God called Jonah to preach to Nineveh
and Jonah ran. He rejected God's call. He thought
he bought a one -way ticket away from God's call,
but it ended up being a round -trip ticket, right?
And he ended up getting called right back to
his calling. God brought him right back to his
calling, saved him from his foolish decisions
and brought him right where he needed him to
be and gave him a second chance. Who's thankful
for second chances? Some of us are thankful for
third, fourth, Yeah, fifth, sixth, seventh chances.
And I know that's the case with me. I'm sure
some of you guys know this. Maybe I told you
this. Maybe you just inferred this. But in my
youth, I was a delinquent. Growing up, I was
not a good kid. I got into a lot of trouble.
And in the eyes of many, I was hopeless. And
for some time, I proved those people right. But
then, God got a hold of my heart, gave me a second
chance at life. And honestly, I failed again.
And again, and again. But God gave me chance
after chance. Simultaneously, He's calling me
back, He's drawing me to Himself, helping me
to live out my calling. his calling on my life
more and more each day. And I didn't deserve
any one of those chances. And as I look around
the room, I see you guys and I can't help but
think I'm not alone in that boat, right? We're
just a bunch of sinners saved by grace, right?
If you know the Lord, you're just a sinner saved
by grace. We're all hopeless outside of God's
grace. Lamentations 22 and 23 says, It is of
the Lord's mercy that we're not consumed. In
simple terms, that means we should all be dead,
right? There's no reason that we're here right
now. None of us deserve to be here. None of us
deserve the privilege of gathering with one another
tonight to worship God. None of us deserve to
be enlisted in God's mission and his calling
to reach the world, right? None of us deserve
that. But we're here because our God is merciful.
That verse continues to say, because his compassions
fail not, they're new every morning, great is
thy faithfulness, right? And so we just sang
about it. God is so faithful and so merciful.
And I am so thankful for second chances. Listen
church, our God is a God of second chances. Jonah.
we're gonna see he needed a second chance. We
read about that last week, right? Nineveh, they
needed a second chance. And every person in here
has needed a second chance at least once today,
right? We all need God's grace, His mercy. And
that leads us to what we're gonna talk about
today. Jonah was a prophet of God and he rejected
God's call, but he got a second chance. Tonight
we're gonna study what he did with his second
chance and hopefully we can leave here knowing
what we should do with ours. So let's pray and
we'll get into the lesson. Lord, thank you for
allowing us to come together, for being so faithful,
for being so merciful to us. And I just pray
that as we go through tonight's lesson, that
we could apply it to our lives, that we could
use every breath that we have to honor you, to
glorify you and to do your mission in the world,
Lord. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So last
week, we looked at the part of Jonah's story
where Jonah teaches us what not to do, right?
Jonah rejected God's call and the kind of the
point of that sermon was, man, when God calls,
the right response is always to obey his call.
Jonah ran the other way though because he hated
the people of Assyria and he went against God
just so that they didn't get to be rescued by
God so that they didn't get to experience that
same faithfulness, that same mercy, that same
grace. He rejected God until he was at the bottom
of the sea. And then when the water filled his
lungs, he called out to God and God was faithful.
He showed him that mercy, that grace, pulled
him out from the water and brought him right
back to his calling, spit him out on the sea
or on the shore rather. He brought him right
back to his calling. And so tonight we're gonna
talk about the less popular part of Jonah's story,
right? The part where we get to see what happens
when Jonah actually does what God called him
to do. Even though Jonah was still wrestling
with God's heart on this and wrestling with his
own heart and his own obedience, Jonah did what
God called him to do, technically, and God used
him in a massive way. He also grew Jonah as a
result of that obedience. And so the story, of
Jonah's second chance isn't perfect, but it's
powerful because we learn both what God accomplishes
when we follow God's call and the heart that
God wants us to have when we have, or in our
obedience to him. And so you might not be perfect.
Actually, I'm sure you're not perfect. I'm not
perfect. Jonah was not perfect, but Jonah said
yes to God. And so I wanna ask you guys tonight,
what could happen? if we were all to say yes
to God, if you were to say yes to God, what if
you left behind your bitterness, your fear, your
pride, whatever's holding you back from faithfully
responding to God's call, and you actually followed
God's call in your life to be stewards of the
gospel? That's what I wanna talk about tonight.
So, I know that following God's call, it can
be intimidating, right? It can be uncomfortable,
it can be uncertain, even scary at times. Has
anybody ever felt that? I had a friend tell me
two weeks ago, I think, that following God's
call is like being a kid at the pool and you're
standing on the edge and your father's in the
pool and he's calling for you, hey, jump in the
pool, jump in the pool, I got you, it's gonna
be a great time, right? Jump in the pool. But
you can't swim, right? The water's deep. You
don't know what's gonna happen. There's uncertainty
there, it's scary. Even though you trust your
dad, you have to overcome that fear and take
that leap of faith to discover that he really
is there to catch you, that he really is gonna
be with you as you go through it. And it's actually
gonna be amazing. Similarly, when we follow God,
the result of our faithfulness and his faithfulness
in our lives and the lives around us is amazing.
When we actually obey God and we follow his calling
in that sense. And so when we follow God's When
we faithfully respond to God's call, God's with
us. When we faithfully respond to God's call,
God works in us and around us. That brings us
to our objective. Every believer can faithfully
respond to God's calling by understanding this
three stage process seen in Jonah's second response
to God's call. You can learn to faithfully answer
God's call by understanding Jonah's second response.
And so, The first stage that we're gonna look
at is receive God's call. This might sound familiar.
This was the same kind of idea as last week.
Okay, so we're gonna pick up in chapter three,
verse one and two. Verse one says, and the word
of the Lord came unto Jonah a second time, saying,
arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and
preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
God has a calling on every believer's life. For
Jonah, it was specifically to preach to Nineveh.
And even though Jonah rejected God's call initially,
God didn't change his call. He brought him right
back to it. I love how God here, he doesn't rehash
the whole conversation. He doesn't go back and
rehash everything that happened in the last two
chapters. He doesn't scold Jonah. He doesn't
say, Jonah, you blew it. Here's what I want you
to do and give him more instructions. And obviously
Jonah blew it, but when he rejected God's call,
right? But God comes back to Jonah and says,
okay, now that we've been through all of this,
go do what I bid thee, right? Go do what I already
told you to do. That's grace, that's mercy. God
had every right to just delete, to get rid of
Jonah, right? But he didn't. Jonah got a second
chance to tell the people of Nineveh. What God
had to say if they repent or if they don't repent
if they didn't turn from their witness that God
of Israel was gonna wipe them from the from the
face of the planet even though Jonah messed up.
He still was used by God to give him that message
in in Romans 11 29 Paul's is writing about the
Jews Who were definitely definitely messed up
you guys read the Old Testament you'd see they
messed up a lot right and the Gentiles who were
were rejected by the Jews because of their wickedness.
And he says in Romans 11, 29, for the gifts and
the calling of God are without repentance. In
context, Paul's speaking about God's covenant
faithfulness to Israel and his promises to them.
He's not gonna revoke his promises. God is faithful.
He's gonna keep those promises. And he's not
gonna revoke, in context, he's saying just as
he didn't revoke those promises, those gifts,
those callings. He's not gonna revoke the promises
to the New Testament believer as well. God is
faithful to us. And the same truth that you can
draw right there extends to God's calling. God
doesn't cancel our salvation when we mess up,
and God doesn't cancel our calling when we mess
up. He's merciful. In the New Testament, we see
God calls in two main forms, okay? So the first,
we talked about this pretty extensively last
week, but the first two, or the two forms that
he calls in, the first one is the call to salvation.
To repent, to believe in Jesus Christ, that's
eternal, that's about your soul. God knows everything
about you, every single one of us. He knows how
many hair you have on your head and he knows
the worst thing that you've ever done, right?
He knows everything about us. Still, he offers
life in his son. Jesus Christ is Lord, He came
down from heaven, He died on the cross, lived
a perfect life, died on the cross for the sins
of the world so that people like you and me,
people who need a lot of chances, who need a
lot of grace, a lot of mercy, could have a chance
and not just a chance, but have this irrevocable
opportunity to know God personally, to be forgiven
for our sins and to spend eternity in heaven.
And you can reject that call. That's your choice.
Or you can put your faith in Jesus and receive
salvation. That's the first call. The second
call is the call to purpose, to walk in obedience
to what God is doing in and through your life,
which is our focus in Jonah, in this series in
Jonah. This means participating in the ministry
of the gospel through the local church, through
your family, through your community. For some,
it means full -time vocational ministry, right?
But you can't walk in your purpose that God has
for you. You can't walk in that calling without
first receiving salvation, without first responding
to that call to salvation. But like Jonah, some
of us who have been called, who do know Jesus
says Lord and Savior, have been running from
God's call. Some of us have flat out rejected
God's call. We don't wanna do what God has for
us. We don't want any part of it. Jonah gave,
or God gave Jonah a second chance. God is giving
us a second chance. Every breath that we have
is an opportunity to live out God's call in our
life. While our sin, our sin has real consequences,
right? Even as believers, our sin still has consequences.
No believer can be disqualified from being used
by God. Some sins can disqualify us from certain
roles, certain opportunities, right? Who's ever
heard of a pastor stepping down or a missionary?
resigning. You can mess up so bad that there's
certain things that you can't do. There might
be places you can't serve in the church. You
may never legally be able to go to Wales, right?
There's that. But no matter who you are, where
you've been, what you've done, if you know Christ
as your Lord and Savior, you can't lose your
salvation and you can't lose your calling to
follow Christ. in the work of the ministry, in
reaching the world with the gospel. God wants
to use you, and he's calling you. And the right
response to God's call is always to follow God's
call. It's always to obey God's call. And you
can do that today. You can put your trust in
Christ. You can walk in obedience. And maybe
this isn't the first time you've heard this,
right? Maybe you've heard this before. You've
heard what I'm saying, but you're not doing it.
You can learn from Jonah's second chance. Learn
from God's word. God used all kinds of messed
up people in the Bible. He used Samson. Samson,
he used him after he followed his lust instead
of the Lord, right? He used David. David messed
up a few times, right? He used him even after
he killed a man. He used Peter who denied him
three times, right? And tonight through Jonah's
story, through Jonah's second chance, I hope
that you can see God wants to know people like
you and me and to use us to accomplish his purpose
in the world. God is calling. and we can receive
that calling tonight, but I want you to know
that this calling isn't like when your best friend
calls you, you know, at like 10 o 'clock at night
and you talk for two hours and then you hang
up the phone and it's like it never happened,
right? You just chit -chatted, you just had a
good time. That's not necessarily what's happening
here. When God calls, he has a mission, he has
a purpose, and he wants us to accomplish it.
He's giving us something to do and we should
do it. We should obey that calling. which brings
us to the next stage in Jonah's response to God's
call, which is stage two, and that's obey God's
call. This part isn't in your notes, but if you
know the story, you can kinda, or you can put
in the, right next to obey God's call, in the
little four parentheses, you can put kinda, because
Jonah obeyed God's call, kinda, right? Like he
did, but we're gonna see what I'm talking about
in just a second. Jonah. 3 verse 3 says, so Jonah
arose and went unto Nineveh according to the
word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding
great city of three days journey. And Jonah began
to enter the city a day's journey. And he cried
and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
So with Jonah's second chance, he obeyed God's
call, but his heart was not in it. He did the
right thing. but only because he felt that he
had to, and God knew that. How many of you guys
have been there before? You were supposed to
do something, but your heart wasn't in it, right?
Kids, have you ever been told by your parents,
hey, go apologize to your sibling? You guys ever
been there? And you do it, but did you really
do it? Did you mean it? Have you guys ever been
there? This happens to believers all the time.
You apologize to somebody, even though you're
still angry with them? You didn't really forgive
them, but you said you did, that kind of thing.
You serve wherever, in nursery, but you'd rather
be in service. You share the gospel with a coworker,
even though you didn't really want to talk to
them in the first place. Maybe you pay your tithe,
because that's just what you were raised to do.
You're doing the right thing, but your heart's
not in it. Sometimes... Faithful obedience means
doing the right thing while God's still working
on us. We're not perfect. None of us are perfect.
And so sometimes that's the case for us. That
happens to us. The Bible teaches that faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the word of God, right?
So sometimes our heart has to catch up with our
actions. The Bible says, draw near to God and
he'll draw near to you. So we see that obedience
steps help our heart to actually change, to develop
into what God wants it to be. And when our hearts
aren't aligned with God's will, with God's purpose
and his calling, our efforts and our understanding
of that mission then are subpar. And we're gonna
see that Jonah's obedience here is subpar. But
here's the thing, and this is a great thing.
If God didn't use subpar people, who would he
use? Right? God. doesn't wait for our hearts
to be completely perfect, for our hands to be
completely clean, for him to put us to work.
The first time God called Jonah, he ran away,
and he obeys this time. He does what God calls
him to do, despite his hate. He still was harboring
hate for Nineveh, but he did what God wanted
him to do. And the thing is that God not only
wants, our outward obedience. God wants us to
have obedient hearts. God wants us to not only
do what he says is right, but to agree with him
that it's right. And Jonah, he obeyed half -heartedly.
He did what God said was right, but he didn't
necessarily like it. He didn't really care for
Nineveh that much at this point still. And it
says in chapter three, verse three and four that
when he went there, Nineveh was an exceeding
great city. It tells us in chapter four that
there were 120 ,000 children in that city, meaning
a lot of scholars say that the population could
have been well over 600 ,000 people. That's the
population of Toledo Metro, okay? So Toledo Metro
is not like the city of Toledo. That is Lucas
County, Fulton County, Wood County, and Ottawa
counties combined. That's how many people. Scholars
believe we're in Nineveh, right? But Jonah, the
Bible says that it was three days journey to
get from one side of Nineveh to the other. And
Jonah, it says went one day's journey in. Pastor,
just for some perspective, that's like, you were
called to Toledo, but you went to North Baltimore,
right? Like that's technically it's Toledo Metro,
it's in there, right? He didn't really go to
the heart. of the city, he went kind of to the
outskirts. But still when he went there, he gave
them God's message. He said, Nineveh will be
overthrown in 40 days, right? Repent. And that's
a really simple message. The Bible, he only says
eight words in his message to Nineveh. So simple.
And Jesus, when he came, he came with a similar
message, a simple message. And he said, repent
for the kingdom of heaven. is at hand when he
first came on the scene. The thing is that most
people that spoke with Jesus in his day rejected
his message. In Matthew 12 41, it says, Jesus
declared the men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment
with the generation and condemn it for they repented
at the preaching of Jonah. And indeed a greater
than Jonah is here. And so he came with a similar
message, repent God's judgment. is gonna be coming.
Turn away from your sins, turn to God. Everyone
in Nineveh, we're gonna see heeded Jonah's message,
but few in Jesus' day listened to what he had
to say. And I think we can all agree that Jesus
is greater than Jonah, right? Jesus, as a believer,
we know that Jesus is greater than Jonah and...
And as a believer, we have a similar message
to what Jesus did. He came and He gave us that
message and He calls us to spread that message
to the world. In Romans 13, 11 and 12, Paul says,
the night is far gone and the day is at hand.
Meaning that God's judgment is nearer than ever.
If it was near when Jesus was here, it's a lot
closer now, right? And so we've been called,
by Jesus to warn people of that judgment and
to call them to put their faith in Christ. Jude
describes it in a really awesome way. He describes
it as pulling some out of the fire. That's what
we're called to do, to pull people out of the
fire. And our obedience to God's call then is
more needful than it's ever been. God doesn't
need us to be perfect. He just needs us to be
faithful to that call, to be. faithfully obedient
to that call. Even in this story, God knew Jonah's
heart, right? God knew Jonah wasn't obeying full
-heartedly. He was doing it just because he felt
like he had to, and God still used him. God did
an amazing work in Nineveh, and through the process,
I believe that God reshaped Jonah's heart, that
God even changed his mind and even changed his
theology on what God really wanted from him.
That's how God works, isn't it? God wants to
develop us. He wants us to grow in Christ's likeness.
He wants our will to start to align with his
will in our heart for things to be like his heart.
And most of all, he wants us to love people like
he loves people. He wants us to obey out of our
love for God and our love for people, not just
out of obligation. And that's what Jonah needs
to learn. But through this process, he's patiently
developing Jonah and he's patiently developing
us as he as he convicts us as he chastens us
like he did Jonah and in Jonah 4 to Jonah tells
us exactly why Jonah behaved the way he did exactly
why it was hard for him to have this true heartfelt
obedience and Jonah 4 to We see that Jonah only
had a heart for himself and his people In verse
two, it says, oh Lord, was not this my saying
when I was yet in my country, therefore I fled
before unto Tarshish for I knew that thou art
a gracious God and merciful and slow to anger
and of great kindness and repentously of evil.
So Jonah's basically saying, I knew that you
were a good God. I knew that you would forgive
these guys and I didn't want you to, right? And
I don't wanna be too hard on Jonah, because I
do believe Jonah's growing, but we see it even
here. He went from pure hate for Nineveh, blatant
disobedience to God, right, to hate and obedience.
He's growing a little bit, he's moving along,
but here's what made it so hard for Jonah to
obey God. It's that Jonah knew God's loving character,
and that knowledge made that obedience harder
for him. rather than easier. Sometimes we struggle
with that same thing. We know that we should
love difficult people, that we should share the
gospel with people we don't like, that we should
serve those who even hurt us, right? But obedience
to this is hard when we're holding bad feelings
like Jonah was holding. Jonah hated Nineveh.
So that's why we're called to lay down those
feelings and to pick up love, to love our neighbor
like Christ loved us. And this love, it has to
stem from our love for God. Wearsby said, we
obey even when we do not feel like it because
obedience is an expression of love and trust
and feelings often follow faithfulness. And that's
exactly what Jonah is learning in this process.
Our obedience often comes before our feeling
and sometimes we just have to move. our feet
and our heart catch up, right? And so Jonah's
kind of going through this process right in front
of our eyes. Jonah took these reluctant steps
into Nineveh, right? He took this eight word
message, this kind of bad attitude, right, into
Nineveh, preached God's word and God moved as
a result. And sometimes that's what we have to
do. We have to take a faithful response, meaning
that we just have to take the steps that we know
are right. wherever our heart is, we have to
trust God and trust that he's working on us as
he's working through us. Which brings us to stage
three where we see Jonah experience God's work
in the city of Nineveh and in his own heart.
So stage three is experience God's work. And
that's verse five through 10 and we're gonna
get into chapter four as well. Verse five says,
so the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed
fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of
them, even to the least of them. For the word
came unto the king of Nineveh and he arose from
his throne and he laid his robe from him and
covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes.
And he caused it to be proclaimed and published
through Nineveh. by decree of the king and his
noble, saying, let neither man nor beast, herd
nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed
nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered
with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea,
let them turn everyone from his evil way and
from the violence that is in their hands. Who
can tell if God will turn and repent? and turn
away from the fierce anger that we perish not.
And God saw their works and they turned from
their evil way, that they turned from their evil
way and God repented from the evil that he had
said he would do unto them and he did it not.
So here we see that the people of Nineveh heard
Jonah's eight word sermon and repented and they
didn't just like kind of repent, they repented
in. dramatic fashion, right? It says that God
convicted their hearts to turn from wickedness
and that really transformed the trajectory of
the city. They were gonna be destroyed, right?
But God decided not to do that because they repented.
And as a result in chapter four, God changes
Jonah's heart as well. But I wanna look at two
areas that God worked in. God worked in Nineveh,
first of all. So through Jonah's obedience, Jonah
got to experience God's work in Nineveh, right?
Jonah, he simply went, he planted the seeds,
right? Half -hearted obedience, but God gave
the increase. The Ninevites heard the word of
God, they were convicted and they responded in
faith. It says from the cows to the king, they
repented, right? in sackcloths and ashes with
fasting. They were hoping that God would show
them mercy and He did. And He did show them mercy,
right? God loves people. We talked about this
last week. God called Jonah to Nineveh because
He loved the people of Nineveh. God loves people
and He wants to know people. He wants to be known
by people. And He uses people to make those introductions.
We see multiple times. in Jonah's story, how
God used him and people came to know the Lord.
But in this instance, look at what God did with
specifically Jonah's obedience. Even when his
obedience was half -hearted, God changed the
landscape of Nineveh. When you obey God's call
in your life, what could God do through you?
Could he show you how to apply God's word? and
not only live a better life, but show you how
to lead other people to do that. Could he, through
your obedience, lead people to salvation? Could
he pull people out of sinful lifestyles? I believe
that God can do that in and through us, right?
Through the work of the Holy Spirit, God can
do all of those things. And we don't have to
be perfect for that to happen. We see that with
Jonah. Jonah was not perfect. When God works
through you, He also works on you, right? He
works in you, through you, and He's changing
Jonah's life here. While the people of Nineveh
turned from their evil ways, Jonah was still
wrestling with God and with his heart for what
God wanted him to do with God's mercy. And that
brings us to the second area that Jonah gets
to experience God work. God works in Jonah. As
Jonah worked in Nineveh, God... also worked on
Jonah. So in verse one of chapter four, it says,
regarding God's work in Nineveh, but it displeased
Jonah exceedingly and he was angry. So Jonah
became angry. We already read it, but saying,
man, this is why I didn't wanna come here in
the first place. I knew that you would show them
mercy. How did Jonah know that he would show
mercy? He'd seen it before, right? He saw that
with Israel. He saw that with David, with Abraham,
even with Adam and Eve, and in his own life.
He saw, man, God has this track record for being
a merciful God. And he did not want Nineveh to
receive that mercy. And so when they did, he
resented it. And it's easy to look at Jonah and
think, man, this guy's a knucklehead. How could
he be so stubborn? This is how he was raised.
He was raised with this Israel versus the world
mindset. But I think what God is teaching him
is that God is for the world, right? God is for
his creation, for his people. That's exactly
what Christ showed us on the cross, right? He
didn't come to condemn the world. He came to
give his life. He gave to give himself rather
for the world. All of us were enemies of God
at one point, but Romans 5, 10 says, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son and
saved by his life. And so in light of that reconciliation,
God's calling us to love the world as well. Jesus
calls believers to love our enemies, right? Jonah
needed to learn that lesson. And he calls us
to pray for those who persecute us. Matthew says
in Matthew five, be perfect as your father in
heaven is perfect. Right after Jesus says that,
right after he. calls believers to love their
enemies and pray for those who persecute it.
He says, be perfect as your father in heaven
is perfect. And he's speaking of that love that
pastor was telling us about, man, how should
we love people, right? And Matthew's calling
us to have this perfect love like our father
in heaven is perfect. Jonah's love was not perfect.
God sent Jonah to Nineveh because God loved the
people of Nineveh. And when they experienced
this amazing revival, 600 ,000 people repented,
you would think, man, Jonah should be ecstatic,
right? Instead Jonah's mad about their repentance
and he asked God to kill him. Jonah blew his
second chance. Good thing God is a God of second
chances, right? He did the... He did the thing.
He did what God called him to do, but he missed
God's heart for the matter. Thankfully, God is
so patient, so faithful with his people. In his
sovereignty, God allows us to make choices, even
bad choices. And he lovingly uses the consequences
of them to shape us into Christ's likeness. And
that's what we see happen in Jonah's life. As
he's having this pity party, God rebukes him
in the form of a question. He says, Do a style
well to be angry, Jonah. Jonah, do you think
that you have the right attitude toward my mercy?
And here's how you know that Jonah was convicted
by that question, because Jonah didn't even respond.
Jonah just walked away, right? But God wasn't
done teaching Jonah. Jonah goes and he finds
a seat in the sand to see what happens with Nineveh.
And it's here that God gives Jonah this object
lesson. On day one, God provided this big plant,
right? And the plant gave Jonah shade and Jonah
was like, oh, this is amazing. I get shade, they're
in Assyria, it's hot, right? And he gets this
shade. The next day, God sends a worm and the
worm destroys the plant. And then God sends a
vehement east wind. And this isn't the kind of
wind that you like when it's hot out, this is
the kind of wind that you like hide from. when
it's hot out, like the kind that you cover your
face, you block your eyes, you don't want any
part of this wind. And this made Jonah even more
angry, right? First God sends me to Nineveh,
he saves Nineveh, now he's torturing me. He got
rid of my gourd, right? And Jonah tells God that
he wants to die again. He says that he wants
to die again and God asks him, A second time,
doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? Jonah,
do you think it's right for you to be mad about
the plant? And Jonah's response is so crazy to
me. He goes, I do well to be angry, even unto
death. That's a bold response to God. Listen
to God's response. Then said the Lord, thou hast
had pity on the gourd for, the witch thou hast
not labored, neither madest it grow, which came
up in a night, and perished in a night. And should
I not spare Nineveh, that great city wherein
are more than six -square thousand persons that
cannot discern between their right hand and their
left hand, and also much cattle? And so the book
ends with this seemingly rhetorical question,
God asking Jonah the seemingly rhetorical question.
And I feel like it ends there because when that
question was asked, it was like a bomb dropped
on Jonah, right? Suddenly all of his anger, his
self -righteousness, it crumbled in the face
of God's question. And this one question changed
everything. God cares for his creation, especially
people. And Jonah needed to learn to do the same.
Like Jonah, a lot of us, sometimes we're more
concerned with temporary things. We're more concerned
with self -serving things than we are about souls.
But God's number one priority is always souls.
Souls trump plants. Souls trump cattle, right?
God is teaching Jonah that he loves his creation.
God loves people and he wants his people to love
people. even their enemies. And it took a lot
of preparation to get Jonah to this point so
he could give him this one question that changes
the way that he sees things. This lesson took,
God prepared a great fish, right? God prepared
a plant, God prepared a worm, God prepared a
wind. But I think most importantly, what God
was doing throughout this whole story was preparing
a prophet. He was preparing Jonah to faithfully
fulfill his calling. Spurgeon says, some of us,
Some believers bear double trouble that they
may be or that God rather may be preparing you
for double usefulness. God works in mysterious
ways to prepare us for the work he has for us,
for the calling that he has on our life, but
he is calling us and Jonah was called by God
and he went through a lot to get to this point.
But I believe Jonah learned his lesson. Some
scholars say that Jonah was written in a chiastic
structure, meaning that the center verses carry
the main emphasis of the text. And right at the
heart of Jonah, we find Jonah 2, eight, nine,
and it says, salvation is of the Lord. I think
the whole book drives home this lesson. God is
the one who saves. God is relentlessly pursuing
people, even when they run from him. And throughout
this story, Jonah is experiencing the God of
salvation work. in the world around him and in
his own heart. And if he can do that in Jonah's
life, even with his bad attitude, what could
he do with your faithful obedience? What if you
actually love people and pursued them for the
Lord, right? Could he not do those things in
our lives? You don't have to be perfect, you
just have to be willing and God can use you to
make a difference in the lives of others, to
save souls, because salvation is the Lord's.
As God worked in Nineveh, God also worked on
Jonah. And when God works through you, I believe
that he's also working in you, or working on
you rather. God saves others while he shapes
us so we don't resist his work, or so we ought
not to resist his work because as we obey God's
call, we're gonna see him do that even more,
right? As we obey God's call, we're gonna see
him grow us more. We're gonna see the fruits.
that he can produce in the lives of other people,
right, more. So every believer can faithfully
respond to God's calling by understanding this
three -stage process seen in Jonah's second response
to God's call. Jonah's response was receive God's
call, obey God's call, kinda, and experience
God's call, right? And I said this last week
and I'll say it again, clearly this is not a
step -by -step process to follow Jonah. If Jonah
was preaching this message, I think this would
be like one of those do as I say and not as I
do kind of sermons, right? Jonah made a bonehead
of himself a bunch. But that's why the application
here is understanding, right? It's not following
Jonah's footsteps. It's understanding his story.
By the end of the story, we learned a couple
of things that God is calling people. The faithful
response to God's calling is always to follow
it. is to obey God's call, not just in taking
the right actions, but agreeing with God that
they're right. For Jonah, that would have meant
things like rejoicing when his enemies receive
grace, right? Or serving people that he didn't
naturally love, prioritizing souls over his own
comfort. That's what God's showing Jonah. And
as you faithfully respond to God and God's call,
however imperfectly it may be, you're gonna see
God. work in your life, you're gonna see him
moving, growing you and in the lives of those
around us, as he draws you and others closer
to him. And so Jonah's story is not just a Sunday
school tale, it's a mirror for us to look into
and to adjust. He ran from God, he resisted God,
he obeyed God half -heartedly, and if we're honest,
we're not very different. Here's the good news
if he could use Jonah he can absolutely use people
like you and me We don't need to be perfect.
We just need to be willing and so You guys remember
the analogy about following God in the pool in
the beginning of the sermon some of us are Standing
there on that diving board tonight, and we've
been there for months Been there for years God's
calling us to follow him right till to jump to
trust in him And we're scared, we're scared to
take steps of faithfulness. When we finally do
take that leap of faith, when we finally do obey
that call and jump, we'll discover, like Jonah
discovered, that God is really there with us
all along and that, and we'll see God's work
in amazing ways, just like Jonah did. And so,
in application, man, if you're here and you haven't,
receive God's call, you're unsaved. It's possible
you're hearing this for the first time. God is
calling you to salvation. Don't ignore that tug
in your heart. Tonight, admit you're a sinner,
put your faith in Jesus, ask him to save you,
don't put it off. Maybe you're here and you've
received God's call, you know Jesus is Lord,
but you're running from his calling in your life,
from obeying him, from doing what that work.
that ministry of the gospel. You're saved, but
you're avoiding it. Tonight, name it, face it,
and ask a mentor to help you follow through with
God's calling, with doing what God has called
you to do. I think godly counsel could have went
a long way in Jonah's walk, right? Follow God's
call, commit to one step of obedience, and do
it. God is calling you to participate in the
ministry of the gospel. And obedience is how
we respond faithfully to that, both in our actions
and our heart. And if you're obeying, maybe you
are doing what God called you to do, right? You're
doing it, but your heart's not aligned. You're
serving, you're witnessing, you're ministering,
but you're not really invested in it. You're
just taking those actions, your heart's not there.
Maybe you're bitter, you're tired, or you're
resentful deep down inside. Tonight. Don't stop
obeying God, but get honest with God. Ask him
to realign your heart, pray for compassion, pray
for love to people. And I believe that God will
grow you in that area if you follow him obediently.
So pastor's gonna come and I'm gonna ask everybody
to stand. Heads bowed, eyes closed.