Jonah - The Revival - Jonah 3

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Heat.

Heat.

Well, good morning. Hey, did you catch when Scarlet was doing her little video her favorite Bible story was Jonah and the blue whale? So, if you want to argue that as a whale or a fish what it is, you can talk to Scarlet after this service. Okay? Listen, if you're just now joining us, um we've been in this series over the book of Jonah. And for most of us, Jonah is that story from the Old Testament that we remember learning about and reading about and being told about when we're little kids, but somehow as we get older, we forget about it. We know it's tucked away over there somewhere, but we forget all the details. And so, we are in a four-week series that we are rediscovering this whole story of Jonah. And one of the reasons, one of the purposes that we're doing this particular study is we said this, we want to rediscover the wideeyed wonder of the story of Jonah, that we don't want to get so grown up. We don't want to become so mature in our faith that those stories no longer just have the bigness that they did when we were kids. And so the wideeyed wonder and some of our church members have taken this literally. And I had got a photo from a couple this past week that they're on a trip to um Iowa and they stopped by to um take their picture. Stephen Vicky Kyle right there. So they're really trying to discover the wideeyed wonder of the whale. Okay. But you know what? Um in case that doesn't really do it for you there, we've got some other photographs that might take you back to your childhood. And I'll review the story so if you're joining us here today, you'll know where we came from. But here's what the Bible tells us in the very first chapter of Jonah is that God went to Jonah and he told him to go to Nineveh. Nineveh Nineveh was this city of the Assyrians and they were just mean, brutal, ungodly people. And so he sent him. He said, "I need you to go there." But Jonah didn't want to go there. So he ran the opposite way to Tarsus that he just said, "God, I don't want to go to those people. They're too mean. They're too far away. I don't like them." And so he completely disobeyed God. And so that he ran to the city called Tarsus. But he did it by boarding a boat. And this boat hit this enormous storm, just started tossing it every which way could go. And so the sailors that were were taking care of this boat, they began to panic. And they believed back in those days that if there was a big storm, it wasn't just some happen stance of nature. It was because somebody on the ship, God was mad at that person. And so they began looking around, casting lots, trying to decide who was God mad at. And they went to Jonah. And so Jonah said, "Listen, it's me. I'm running from God and and the only way that you're going to calm the storm because God is upset at me because I'm disobeying him. He said, "You just need to throw me over the side of the boat." And if you throw me over the side of the boat, that will allow you to live and the storm will will calm. And you know what happens when it gets thrown over to the side of the boat. The Bible lets us know this that the big fish swallowed him. Whether it's a whale or big blue whale, we don't know what kind of fish it was, but the big fish swallowed him. And while it was in the belly of the whale, Jonah prayed and he said, "God, would you please rescue me? I will do whatever you want me to do. God, just rescue me." And at that point, at the end of chapter 2, this is what the Bible says that the whale spit Jonah out onto the shore. And so Jonah gets a second chance to do what God wants him to. And so, if you've been following along with us, that's where we pick up the story today that Jonah is probably bleached white from all the acid inside the whale's body. He is just just weary from just being tossed and turned. This this this fish just sailing and swimming for these three days, but he's on the dry land. And so, if you have your Bibles, we'll have it up here on the screen. That's where we're going to pick it up. And it really leads us to our second purpose of why we're studying this story. And that is to understand the truth. whether you're 8 years old or you're 80 years old that God will pursue us because he loves us. No matter where we're running to, no matter how far we run away to, no matter where we run away to, no matter who we might run to, God will always pursue us because he loves us that much. And so it says this in Jonah 3 verse 1. Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time. You know, he told him the first first time he spoke to him was when they said go to Nineveh and Jonah ran the wrong way. He ran the opposite way. And so once he spit back up, God comes to Jonah and he speaks to him a second time. And this is what he tells Jonah. You can go home and read the whole story yourself there in chapter 3, but God looks at Jonah, says, "Jonah, I want you to go to the Ninevites just like I told you in the very beginning. I need you to go to them, and here's what you need to tell them. they need to repent because remember the whole city of Nineveh was a very ungodly um brutal type people that they had no no desire to follow the God the God Yahweh God that Jonah was preaching about the God that we love the God that we follow in our lives they had their own just idols of gods and he said I want you to go to those people so the Bible says in Jonah chapter 3 that Jonah went to Nineveh and it says this that before he ever preached a word out of his mouth he walked around the city for three days the city was so large in fact historians say that there might have been anywhere from 150 to 200,000 people living in that city and we don't think of that as such a large city today but back in those days that was like a metropolitan area and so for three days Jonah walked around the city getting a lay of the land and finally he began preaching and he looked at everybody and his was one of the best sermons ever because it was one of the shortest sermons ever. He goes, "If you don't turn to God in 40 days, he's going to destroy you." And wherever he walked, if you don't turn to God in 40 days, he's going to destroy you. If you don't turn to God in 40 days, he's going to destroy you. And that was the message he preached wherever he went. And it got the people's attention. And the Bible says this in Jonah chapter 3 that the people not only not only heard what he said, they responded what he to what he said also. And they went and they took their clothes off, their regular clothes. they would wear every day. And the Bible says they put on birdlap or what we might call sackcloth. And that was a tradition, a co part of their culture back in those days. Anytime that you were feeling distressed on the inside that you were in a season of mourning, a season of hurting, you would put on this burlap to signify what was going on inside of you would signify on the outside how you felt. But more than important than the clothes they put on, the Bible says this, that they repented. The entire city turned from their wicked ways and they turned to God. Word got of what they were doing up to the king of all of Nineveh. And the king of Nineveh listened to the same message. And the Bible says this, that he stepped off of his throne. And not only did he put the same burlap on, the Bible says this, that he sat in ashes. And ashes represented him humbling himself. That he stepped off his throne. He no longer put himself above the people. He says, "I am one of you. And if you're repenting, I'm repenting because we all need to turn to God." And the whole entire country, the whole entire city just repented and they turned to God. And here's what the Bible says. because of their repentance rather than destroying the city that God said he would do if they didn't repent. The Bible says this in chapter 3 that God relented because he had pursued them and they had responded. He relented and did not destroy the city. If I was walking downstairs to our kids and I was telling that story and they're all sitting there wideeyed wondering and they're listening to every bit of it and I looked at the kids and I said, "Could you tell me one word what this whole chapter would be about?" You know what word they would come up? Repent, turning back to God. Even in a childlike faith, they can understand that if we're to follow God, we have to quit following ourselves. And that's exactly what this entire chapter was about. The people turning and following God and this idea of repentance. Now repentance is not exactly the the vogue word that we might use today, right? It's not exactly the conversation you're going to go to work tomorrow going, "Hey, let's talk about repentance." It's not the conversation that people want to be about. But we have no faith in our own relationship with God if we don't repent of the sins, the ways that we're going currently. And so I want to do this for the next few minutes. I want us to dive a little bit deeper into this third chapter. And I want us to look at this idea of repentance because so many people mistake and they think it's a synonym that repentance is the same thing as saying I'm sorry. If you ever raised teenagers, you know that's not the same thing. How many times has your teenager come to you going, "I'm so sorry for doing this or I'm so sorry for not doing that." But their behavior didn't change. So simply expressing you're sorry is not the same thing as repentance. And so let's dive in together and let's see if we can walk away from here today and all of us understand what God really has in mind when he says repent. If you're taking notes, you can write the first one down. And the first one simply is this. Repentance begins with recognizing God's authority. Repentance begins with recognizing God's authority. You ever had a job that you love? One of those jobs that you love going to work because you enjoy the people you're going with. You you enjoy the work and you really appreciate the boss that's leading you, your media supervisor. You ever had a job like that? But then one day that boss leaves. Maybe the boss gets a promotion. Maybe that boss goes to another job and you're left with not a boss anymore until the company president comes in goes, "Oh, we have a new boss for your department." And the new boss walks in. And that new boss has ways of doing things. They want the spreadsheets to look different. They don't really believe in working for remote as much as your old boss did. So now you got to start coming into the office. The new boss definitely doesn't believe that Thursday is the new Friday because everybody gets off at 3:00 on Thursday, you go to happy hour, then you get to work remote on Friday. The new boss comes in going, I am the new sheriff. It doesn't work that way. And so all of a sudden, this job that you loved, you no longer love this job. Really, you might say, you don't really like the boss and the boss is now making you not like the job. And so one day a few weeks later after this new boss comes on and one of your old co-workers someone had gone to a different department called and said hey let's go grab lunch and you go to lunch and the new co or the old co-workers says well how are how are things at the office now that you've got this new boss and you are waiting for a moment to unload going oh my gosh this person is ridiculous and you just start listing all the things that have changed and all the things this new person wants different and all the reason you don't like it and you're just going this person is horrible and I don't no longer like my job. Can I pause there and tell you there's something in the story that you may be missing? The problem may not be with the new boss. The problem may be with the current employee. You see, it happens to all of us, right? A new boss comes in and you still want to be in charge and things run like they used to, but the new person comes in with a different authority and changes things. Now, the story I'm telling now may not be about where you work. It may be about your relationship with God because so many times we fall into that same trap. God, I I want to follow you. So I want, as you said in scripture, the keys to the kingdom of heaven. I just don't want to give you the keys to my own house. I want you to be the savior of my life. I'm just not sure I'm ready to for you to be the Lord of my everyday living. And here's what it takes in repentance that we have to recognize in this idea of repentance of God's authority. When he steps into your life, he doesn't just take a position called Lord. He takes a place called being in charge. And true repentance says, "God, here is the keys to my house. Here's the keys to my life. I am putting you in charge of everything that I do and everything that I am. You see the repentance of the Ninevites when Jonah came in that second time and said, "Turn to God or who's going to destroy this place." It began with them giving authority to God. Let me read for you a verse here. Verse verse two. After God came to Jonah, he said this, "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and deliver the message." Watch this. The message I have given. Jonah didn't go tell the Nineveites what he thought about them. Jonah didn't go talk to Ninevites and preach the words that he wanted them to hear. when he went to Nineveh, he preached the words that God wanted them to hear. Goes on in verse 5, "And the people of Nineveh believed God's message." The people of Nineveh believed God's message. If you're circling words in your Bible or on the outline there, circle that word believe. That believe, if you go back the original language, it has this idea of a deep wholehearted trust. When he preached, when Jonah preached these words, the Ninevites wasn't trusting Jonah. They were trusting in the words of the God that he was delivering the words from. And when it comes to repentance, the reason I can give the keys to my life to God, the reason I can hand over my the lordship to him is because I believe and I trust his words. You may be sitting there going, "Well, Keith, that'd be a lot easier." If some dude lived in the belly of a whale for three days and came and preached to us, we'd probably listen to him more than we listen to you, right? I mean, like, you've got to live. But we don't have somebody that just gets spit up from a whale like that. How do you know? What do you know? Who do you know that you should listen to when it comes to God's words? We have something better than a man who lived in the belly of a whale for three days. We have a man who lived in the grave for three days. His name is Jesus. But the problem is we sit around going, "Oh, Jesus, what do you want me to do? What should I do? I don't hear from Jesus, so I guess I got to figure out what I need to do on my own." No, no. You know, re the reason Jesus doesn't talk to us verbally as much now as maybe is the word of the Lord back in the Old Testament. He doesn't have to speak it out loud when he's written it in a book. But so many times we don't take the time to read God's word and we don't know what God wants out of our lives. Just let me give you an encouragement, maybe more of a challenge. Every Sunday when you come inside your handout, there's a little another sheet like this. And we take the words, the scriptures that we're studying today, and we've made five devotions out of them that you can continue to study, read, and think about throughout the week. You don't need to wait till next Sunday to come hear what I have to say about it. You can read and study, and know what God has to say about it every day of the week. You have to be willing. You have to be able to give God's authority in your life. And that authority is made clear in his word. Here's the second thing when it comes to repentance. Repentance requires a response in both attitude and action. Repentance requires a response in both your attitude internally in what you're thinking and processing but also in your actions externally and how you're living your life. Simply repenting on the inside but nobody sees the difference in repentance is not true repentance. Likewise, simply changing what you do but never changing the heart and mind behind why you do it is not true repentance. That's just called behavior modification. So true repentance requires a response both on the inside and the outside. Look at verse 5 with me. Says, "The people of Nineveh believed God's message and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and they put on this burlap to show their response." There was not this magical dress they put on made out of burlap. But they knew if they made a change on the inside, then it needs to be seen on the outside. And so there was a physical response to their internal emotional response to God. But like I told you in the story, didn't just stop with the people. Look in verse six. And when the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and he took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and he sat on the heap of ashes. Sitting on these ashes was a way back in the the near eastern culture back in those days that he would symbolize his personal unworthiness. Him stepping off the throne was his way of saying, "I'm letting go of my status and not my pride and I'm coming down and I'm repenting along with everybody else." And so many times in our repentance, God may be working and changing our hearts. And he may be nudging us and pushing us to change something on the outside. But you know why we don't? What might others think? If I do this, it may catch their attention too much. If I do this, it may catch their attention another way. And so we try to keep our repentance a little quiet. Just me and you, God. There was nothing quiet about putting burlap on and sitting in ashes because their hearts were truly turned to God. And if their hearts were truly turned to God, then their lives are truly turned to God and people would see a difference. You know, back then, one of the ways to show repentance was the ashes and the burlap sacks wearing. today. You know, one of the ways that God gives us to display our inward change on an outward way, you saw it earlier today, baptism. There was nothing magical about the water that Scarlet was in. There was nothing special about being dunked down that made it into like super spiritual powers when she got dunked down and brought under. But it was her outward expression so you and I can see the inward repentance that had taken place in her lives in her life. That's the reason, watch this, coming out and you're not too special with no pride. You know who in the New Testament was baptized that you would never think of? Jesus was baptized. Jesus didn't need to be baptized. Jesus never had sin to turn from, but he did it in a way to say, "I am modeling for everybody what it means for an outward expression of what God is doing on the inside." It was a joy to watch Scarlet get baptized. A few weeks ago, I got a text. My friend Rose is sitting right back there on the back. Many of you knows Rose Sanders. She was off in Arizona, her and her husband Mike, and they were on vacation. Rose may be one of the most godly, God-loving, faith-living persons I know. There's like Jesus, Mary, and Rose. Okay, at least as far in my book goes. And she sent me a picture and she said, "Look what I did today." You know what the picture was of? Her being baptized. And she shared with me that she had never been immersed in baptism after a faith. She's been a believer for a long time. It would have been really easy for Rose to go, "If I get baptized now that I'm 21 years old, what are people going to really think about me, 21 plus, but we won't talk about that today." She goes, "Well, you know, people think," No, no. She put her pride down. She stepped off the throne of her own life and she said, "I am going to follow Jesus and allow people to see my outward expression of what Jesus has done on the inside." And so baptism is just this amazing concrete way. Not that God just didn't offer it. He actually commanded to us and believers baptism to show people what's on the inside.

You see, for the Ninevites, the repentance was more than something they felt. It was something they did. Let me let that sink in again because it's not just a Nvite thing, is it? Repentance is more than something you feel. Repentance is something that you do. Sometimes today it does look like baptism. Other times it's confessing our sins to somebody rather than hiding it. Sometimes our repentance is reconciling a broken relationship. Sometimes repentance looks like choosing obedience where we once resisted obedience. Repentance can be laying down pride and asking for help. But there's an outward expression of the inner change that Jesus has done inside of you. Let me give you the third thing as we think about repentance. Here's just another just truth that we can learn about repentance as we look at chapter 3 and the Nvites and their their actions. Repentance means stopping sinful behavior and turning to God. Repentance means stopping sinful behavior and turning to God. Fact, look with me verse eight. Everyone must pray earnestly to God. And look what it says next. They must stop from their evil ways and they or they must turn from their evil ways and they must stop all their violence. that the idea of stop. It's stopping those things that have like a vice grip on your life. In in the life of the Ninevites, you know what had a vice grip on their life? Their violence. I mean, they were one of the most violent people that the world has ever known. Their brutality is not just recorded in scripture. Their brutality is recorded in archaeological digs. It is historically known. That is what everybody knew them of and that's how they lived their lives. And so when they repented, it was more than just putting on sackcloth. It was more than just sitting on ashes. They had to stop their violent way of life. As we think about repentance in our lives, for some in this room, it might mean stopping patterns of anger. It might mean stopping the need to always control things. It might mean stopping sexual sin. It might mean stopping hidden habits. It might be stopping and getting rid of bitterness, unforgiveness, always seeking approval from somebody. And the list can go on and on and on. But it is stopping the behavior. And what's the second word that that was used there in Jonah? stopping the behavior and turning and going the opposite way. The most visual way that you can think of repentance is I'm walking this way, my way, my way. And repentance says, I do a U-turn and now I'm walking God's way. You know what most of our repentance looks like? I'm going my way, my way, my way. God doesn't want me to go this way. And I just make a little side step. But re repentance is a U-turn. It's reorienting the direction of your life. It's making that active choice going God not my way but God now your way. It's identifying the sins in our life and redirecting our lives away from those sins. That's what repentance is. had had the Ninevites put on the sackcloth and they sat in the ashes with the king and they're like, "Oh, we're so sorry, God. Don't kill us. We're so sorry." And then the next day they they got up and they dusted off the a the ashes and they put on their other clothes and they drew their swords going, "Let's go fight somebody." Would that been repentance? That would have been emotional stirring, but not repentance. And too many times in our relationship with God, we are emotionally stirred to do something, but we never repent from what we were doing. So repentance, stopping sinful behavior and turning to God. Here's the last one for drawing some truths from chapter 3 about what is repentance. Here's the last one. Repentance is the catalyst for fully experiencing God's love. Repentance is the catalyst for fully experiencing God's love. Now, don't misunderstand me. Repentance doesn't make God love us more. It allows us to be put in a position to receive what he's already offered. We have to go back. What were the What were the Nvites? What were they doing before Nona ever showed up? They were violent, evil people that had no regard for the living God that Jonah came and preached about. They weren't loving God. They weren't even liking God. They were living their life their own way. But God loved them so much that he pursued them even before they were turning to look at God. And so there was nothing they could have done to get God's attention. There was nothing they could have done to get God to love them more than he already did. But when they repented, it became the repentance became the catalyst not to get God's love but to open up their li their lives and receive the love that God was already offering them. Verse 10 says this. When God saw what they had done, meaning the repentance, when God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop, remember stop and turn. They had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction that he had threatened. Their repentance didn't manipulate God. It simply aligned them to his mercy. Let me say that again. Their repentance didn't manipulate God. Hey God, I'm not out there beating up my neighbor anymore. So now you're you're kind of obligated to me, God. No. God is never obligated to us. But God is open-handed going, I'm ready to give it to you. There's nothing our children, there's nothing our teenagers, there's nothing our grandkids can do to ever get us to love them more. But when they're living a life that they're designed to live and that you want them to make the choices that you're leading them to make, you don't love them more. They're just opening up themselves to get all the love that you have for them.

You see, repentance is not transactional. Hey God, I did this. Now it's your turn. You got to do this. That's a transaction. Repentance is not transactional. Repentance is relational. It's relational because this, hey God, I do this as a response to everything you've already done for me. Repentance is relational, not transactional.

Here's a quote that I read this past week and it says this, "God's love is constant, but our experience of it often isn't. Repentance is what brings those two back together. Let me say it again. God's love is constant, but our experience of God's love isn't as constant because of our own sin and turning our own way. But our repentance bring those brings those two together that we can experience the love that he's ready to give us.

So repentance is the catalyst to allow us to fully experience all that God has for us.

I thought about this this week as I was studying it. The scripture doesn't say this, but can you imagine what Nineveh was like the week after all this took place? The week after the king got out of the ashes. the week after the people took all their sackcloth and burlap off. But they've truly repented. It wasn't just this act they did. It was truly a different town, right? C can you imagine this? That that town that week, can you imagine what family relationships were like when violence and animosity wasn't the thing that ruled the day? Can you imagine what relationships between neighbors were like? Can you imagine after the king repented? Can you imagine what leadership was like when it was no longer there for his own benefit, but he was there for the people? Here's what I'm getting at. The repentance changed the entire community. And that's what repentance does. Repentance does more than just change you. It can change the people around you. And so the question is, well, when did all that change begin to take place? Was it when the people repented? Was it when they first kind of put the burlap on and said, "Okay, here I am, God." Or or did the change of community, the change of all society happen when the king came off his throne and he sat in the ashes and he kind of led from on top. When did this whole change of society take place? It wasn't those two times. Do you know where it began? the moment that Jonah was spit out of the the mouth of the whale. And the Bible says this, "And God gave him a second chance." See, the Ninevites weren't the only ones that were having to repent. Jonah was on his own way to Tarsus, the opposite way of where God had sent him. the the the repentance, the change of society began. Not when all of this people over here, not when the Nvites, not when the king, but when one man said, "God, I'm turning and I'm going your direction."

Can I be honest with you? Sometimes I look at our country going, "We are a mess and it will never change. There's too many top dogs and too many top places that are just in it for themselves. Sometimes I look at our city and our state and just going, "Nobody's following God."

Sometimes I can look at my family

and think I can't get them back to where they need to. It won't do any good. There's I've tried to raise them. I can't raise them any better than I have.

God has never called us to change a country. He's never called us to change a city. He's never even called us to change our family. You know he's called us to change right here. It always begins with one person and that person is me. That person is you. But the repentance of one can change a whole nation. The repentance of one can change a whole city. The repentance of one can change a whole church. The repentance of one can change an entire family.

So the question we end up today is are you that one? What is God calling you? What is God nudging you? What is God pursuing you? That you may turn and follow him. Will you pray with me? Father,

thank you for your love. Oh Jesus, thank you that

sitting in my college dorm,

knowing I had some choices to make in life, you pursued me.

Thank you, Jesus. Just this past week when I wanted my way, you pursued me.

God, thank you that sometimes next week I'll still want my way and you'll still pursue me. In your pursuance, Jesus, I repent

that I may experience all that you have to offer.

Jesus, I want to do more than just say I'm sorry. I want to redirect my life and align it with you.

And Jesus, here we are. And on behalf of all of us, may I just simply say and shout, thank you for our second chances.

And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.