Priss of the Pruitt Baptist Church in Van Texas with Brother Mike Calhoun. You know. You're. You're. Normal. Form. Now it would get you into you were father and as we look into your work prayed you would look into our hearts just morning. Father we pray for the families that were affected just this last evening the tragic car accident took place father we know that there are hearts in our communities are grieving this father not only the hearts of family members of these that were lost but then also Lord just the friends of these children who were classmates. Father God I just ask you today for a special portion of your grace and your mercy not only in this worship service this morning as we look at your word but father in this coming week we're going to be a lot of people asking questions about what this is all mean and I pray that you will help us and your believe that your children is your fall. Father to give them thoughtful prayerful. Precious and you. Give them hope thank you for your sins in Jesus' name we pray in all of God's people so both of you will open your Bible to the Book of Jonah chapter 3 Jonah chapter 3 and as you turn over there I just want to emphasize this morning. This is one that this is and that I love the character of God the nature of God who He is one of the things about my father in heaven and my Savior Jesus is he is a God of 2nd chances he gives a 2nd chance and we think in our foolishness we're all just made me i'm I need one chance no no no you're going to need a lot of chances if you're like you're like Adam you're like me in the rest of humanity you're going to have different times in your life are going to come back to the cross you're going to have to let the Lord know you know rededicate yourself sometimes or had a bad way you know and you've even messed up you sin I do this we all do this but we have to come to a place in our understanding of the relationship you'll never not be one of his children you're always going to be one of God's children when you ask him to come into your heart and that that child needs to have the kind of relationship with the Father in heaven wants to learn I need anything can stand on even though that I need to start anew start over again with you and he will allow that to happen we're seeing that happen in the life of Jonah in chapter 3 read me what it says there in chapter 3 verse one it says now the word of Ward came to Jonah a 2nd time saying Arise go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I'm going to tell you so Jonah arose and he went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord now as we read begin to read through this text here together this morning we're going to discover some different things one of the things is this unique I think it's a characteristic of God that he is willing to recommission again and so the last couple of Sundays one of the things I've talked about is maybe something God his issues in your life a call that he's issued something he you knew that he wanted you to do and how important it is for you to discover that call in to know what it is but you know there may be some that are here this morning you've never been you've never said or even my state of mind I know that I'm a Christian but Lord I don't know what it is that you know he's got I can tell you for a fact if you're a believer you're a Christian God has a special plan for you not only in your life and in your marriage with your children your career but listen in the church he has a special plan you have a Special Gift of The Holy Spirit he's uniquely uniquely equipped. To serve in some way and there is a 1000000 different ways to serve a New Testament church a man of my same in a 1000000 different ways and so you may not you may have to have really embrace that calling that God God in your life and in regards to serving the church for Jonah for a lot of reasons we're going to discover he knew he was in the Lord as far as a prophet and so of course we remember that in our 1st couple messages back that he got issued a call to him and we went over the various reasons why Jonah may have said no he just he got into a ship in a spiral down down down down of the ship went to the into the fish one of the bottom of the sea and and then prayed from the belly of that fish and got answered that the fish brought him back to dry land and deposit him there on the shore and now the word of the Lord comes to him a 2nd and so just on the introduction of this message just more on say something you may have been on a journey you may have been in a stinking fish and you and your family may be now on dry land trying to get your legs back underneath you don't chase something God has a plan for your life everybody say Man Ok I want to wake up when we say Everybody stay with me God has a plan for my life rather that registered as a good news for you. So it came to him a 2nd time and let's take a look at these words here that he uses arise go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to the proclamation which I am going to tell you so this phrase that he uses here go to that great city he leaves out there wickedness the rim of that was in the 1st call it's almost a word for word paraphrase what he used in chapter one but the word he uses there for great city is actually is actually a phrase that means it's a way for God to say to Jonah this city is a great city it's an important city it's important to me and I'll tell you what I've read and read several different commentators and read several different scholars that passage right there more correctly interpreted is saying he basically made me give you a Calvin paraphrase what he's saying Jonah I want you to go to the city and tell them what I had told you to told you to tell them in the 1st place this city bet is important to me now this is a very important point here because whatever else Jonah was and whoever else he was or why he didn't do what he did one of the things that he missed is that this same may not have been important to him but it was important to God And so this is it this is incumbent upon us as Christians to ever be discovering forever in this life to be sensitive to what God's will is because it might not be something may cross your path and they may not be important to you but you've got to remember it may be important to God and that could be an individual that could be a community that could be an opportunity to he's provided you and you might look at is Jonah look and then we're going to do that and I believe Christians do that I think they can be born again Christians had a true salvation experience but they reach a certain place in their life and for what reasons that we can or to exhaust him to explore here this morning we say for whatever I'm going to do that. And that's what's wrong with a lot of that that's the struggle that a lot of Christianity is having today because God will deal with you he loves you too much not give you a with you on this person particular subject it was the God of 2nd chances calling to Jonah about a city that was important to him and we see 3 things immediately right here we see the persistence of God to produce this plan and I'm just I'm encouraging you to have your heart open and sensitive not to my Calhoun not even to prove Baptist church but I'm telling you to the Lord God Almighty because he is going to be persistently moving you in a place in a direction at a speed an economy that is pleasing to him and makes a man the persistence of God Secondly to the pressure of God Do not underestimate the amount of pressure that God is willing to bring to bear in your life he can go a long way he has all he's got the Universe b. If he's holding if he's holding Pluto in its orbit this around the Sun This very morning I promise you he can hold you right where he needs to hold you in your life and he can bring pressure to bear as a father was did your father love you did your father discipline you did your father and your parents direct you will so does your Heavenly Father and he can bring pressure to bear and thirdly we see the persistence the pressure and thirdly we see the preciousness of things to God and God forgive me for this in this area of my life because I tell you I have missed many times and probably will many kinds before I go to meet my lord things that were important to God but I missed it for a lot of different reasons but I just missed it and this opportunity comes to the prophet. This opportunity comes the prophet again and the 3rd point we see here is where he's going to settle it's a settled time of doom that is coming verse 3 again so Jonah rose he went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord now minute it was an exceedingly great city a 3 day walk and Jonah began to go through the city a day's walk and he cried out and said get 40 days and Nineveh will be over 'd. Very very simple message that you would believe how this Pat this little phrase or here's been dissected was he being flippant because he just has a few words there or 5 words if you look at it in Hebrew it's a very concise it's not a it's not any it's not an expansive explanation of God the Creator it's not it's not an expansive explanation of the ology are what could happen or are there God he doesn't attack near God he just goes ahead a judgment is coming listen we worry too much I don't want to say the wrong thing I don't want to push too hard that's not the problem we're having in the church today that's not the problem we're having in the world today oh we know who the radicals we know who the true radicals are but that's not the problem we're having in the world today we're having a problem among Southern Baptists and other denominations because there is no sense of urgency to go and say doom is coming and that is a that is a true message that's a factual message even if you didn't believe that mess not cave to the message of the end of a person's life is coming that message is true for every British soul in this room this morning. Judgment is coming and he gives a simple concise message in a state settled time of doom the word he uses when he says 40 days is a Hebrew word not a Greek word with a Hebrew word and it literally means to turn over a plate it means to turn over a plate it's think the exact same wording that used in Genesis 19 in 25 were that the Scriptures record the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon the morra brimstone and far from the Lord out of heaven and he overthrew turned over like a turning over a plate those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the city which grew on the ground but his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt and Abraham got up early that morning to the place where he stood and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorra and toward all the land of the plain and beheld and lo the smoke of the country when as the smoke of a furnace it was a settled time of Doom one of the reason I think the Church is struggling with this concept is because we don't have that concept settled in our own heart is something we don't want to think about this is a part of you know people that we do think we need to preach the whole counsel in the whole character of God God is a loving God a gracious God a merciful God but he is also a jealous God a raffle God a vengeful God a judge he is going to be a one point of judging God He poured out his judgment he didn't just forget about his judgment he poured out his judgment he poured out on God that's right Jesus everything that the world deserved it was and had come into it he took all of that anger all that revenue poured out on his Son Jesus who was innocent a settled time of day and we struggled with this concept because we have a set of in our heart great things very quickly about this point it is a promise number one it is a promise of something to come Number 2 it's problematic because we have not embraced this aspect of God's character and his nature and historical fact that he is going to take place it's going to take place and that should motivate us in some different way. But guys the potential benefits the potential benefits you know what do we tell our kids don't take drugs don't we and I say man listen watch how you drive put your seatbelt on and we say that what or some other thing to say don't eat that if you eat too much of that it's going to get we say all kinds of things because we care about the people that we love and the New Testament church we have got to arrive back in a place where we again we recapture the certainty the urgency to persistency of what it is that God is doing because of the potential benefit of what is going to happen yet 40 days and then of a will be overthrown look what it says in verse 5 when the people a minute believe in God and they call a fast and they put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them they believe there's a lot of different words that could have been used here phrases could be used here to know a particular thing but if it's a hit in the Hebrew stance in the deepest into it means they believe in they trusted in Hebrew since you could say you believe all you want but until you begin to do with the Torah called you to do they said you had but you hadn't heard and you had to believe but this is a phrase that he uses that means that they truly believe and they began to change their actions and not only a lot of time there was something I'll tell you there's something about sackcloth and ashes that are that it's good there's something about sackcloth and ashes that are good these people if you notice he didn't say the leadership insight inside the 1st Baptist Church down at Nineveh It's the ones who believe I'm being facetious there was no 1st church then I don't think your what. It just said that the people believe the King's going to believe in a minute in a moment that takes the people who believe if you look at the great awakening to 3 great awakenings we've had in this country and the other awakenings that have happened on the other commie in Europe you'll find that it wasn't not necessary the leadership they helped fostered after it got started it was through after some tragic accident it was after some some at some university where the Spirit of God go on people just the people in the people began to repent and they began to believe in turn their lives over to God and it swept across the nation to change the course of a nation America has been forever changed by the awakenings that have taken place revivalism and it was no leaders who did it it was God doing what the people believe what did they do here's the proof of their belief they call the fast they put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least just a very a mock teaching on fasting is when you deny yourself fasting is missing a meal you're worried about one of your children so you start missing a meal maybe your lunch and dedicating that time to praying for a child that you're worried about your your family's going through a financial or physical problem and so you dedicate a certain time of the week where you're going to fast on Fridays and you're not going to eat something you're going to eat right then you dedicate that time it's a denying of one so people these men about you all remember weeks back we talked about the cruelty of this this group at the very end of this chapter is going to talk about turning away from the violence of their hands but this was a rough rough historically vicious group of people. It wasn't Jonah's preaching either anybody in the room could preach that message he preached yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown I wonder preacher It was this flower to illustrate it was the Spirit of God moving in the moving in people that he wanted to redeem he wanted to save the people believe God and they called it fast that is not of themselves sackcloth was an illustrated it was to deny yourself a comfort it was a heavy course wool black wool and they would put this sack cloth on and they sat in that sack cloth and a set of ashes and it was a type of denial of oneself This is why America is struggling and revival This is why America is struggling revival right now can we don't want to deny ourselves any pleasure we don't want to ourselves any time we don't want to give up our time we don't want it we don't want to give up anything and you've got to give up the closer you get to God You've got to give up yourself what did John the Baptist say he said I'm becoming less but he's becoming greater I must decrease and he might increase and that's why you can't have a lot of God you've got too much of yourself we have too much of ourselves in our lives and it separates us from God and what we've got to do is poor souls out that I do ourselves and be open to what it is God wants to do in Iraq and he'll move and prevent be sure he'll move in his church to the people who believe God they call the fast put on sect law from the greatest of the least of them because there's a verse 6 in the word reached the king of Nineveh and heroes for Mr own he laid he rose from his throne laid aside his robes from him covered himself with sackcloth sad sad and ashes and a proclamation it's and he made a proclamation issued a proclamation and he said in Minerva about a creed of the king nobles do not let man or beast or her flock taste a thing do not let them eat or drink water but both man and beast must be covered in sackcloth and let men call of God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from violence which is in his hand. Do you remember that great that great part portion of chapter one when we talked about Jonah spiral he began to run from God He wanted what he wanted to begin to run from abroad in your member we say he went down topographically he went down from Joplin and he spiraled down to the shore he found a ship he went down to the docks he went down to a boat he went down to the belly of the boat eventually in that scenario he was cast into this down into the sea and then down into the fish and then down into the depths of even the sea you remember a spiral spiral spiral and you know what it just lead to destruction but here here we see a completely different response but there's still a spiraling down here the people in the King especially to illustrate in the life of the King what does he do he stepped down from his throne he stepped down from a stone he took off of his road he set down on the upon the ground he covered himself in ash and ashes and in sackcloth and then he issued a decree he got down from himself and he said let the host of everything that I have control over let let him even put on ash ashes and sackcloth and repin And there's another spiraling going on here but if within the man it's the right kind of spiraling it's the right kind of downward descent where we get past ourselves and over ourselves and we allow God to become real every real and a true king you know how much pride I had when I got to say not one stupid thinking did you could have told me to do anything I did not need to get Jesus because I was on my way to hell and miserable and my life and my family my whole world was I can't say for the pulpit what it was everybody laughing in not a joke it wasn't good it was dark dark dark and what I had to do was in my heart rides that it might kill his king I had to spiral down from there down and down and I had issued to Korea and my family say Brenda from this day forward if it kills us we're going to we're going to be we're going to be church people we're going to go to church. We're going to be baptized we're going to make new friends we're going to have good friends and you know what we're going to learn about I didn't even know there was an old or new testament That's how much of the Bible I knew I had to spiral down down I had to go to my friends my my tough friends I had to go to those guys at the ware