God's Relentless Mercy: Second Chances for the Lost

Devotional

Sermon Summary

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

``Jonah gets a second chance from God. You realize not all, I know pastors like to say, God is the God of the second chance. He's the God of the second chance. But if you read scripture, that's not always true. That's not always true. But one thing I do know is God always welcomes the prodigal. Doesn't he? The light is always on in the father's house. But when Jonah was in the belly of that great fish, he did not know that. He did not know that he was going to get a second chance. And the really encouraging thing to me is that Jonah's disobedience hasn't canceled God's call. And that's a wonderful truth. [00:39:08] (70 seconds)  #GodWelcomesTheProdigal

Here's another important truth here, I think. Small obedience always beats great intentions. Right? Small obedience always beats great intentions. Sometimes we put aside the small things in our lives because we intend to do great things someday. We dream about what we're going to do when we have more time and when we have more money and when we aren't so busy and when the kids are out of school and out of the home or we get a promotion or we're called to a different church or we get a better job, we all have big plans that we dream about. We do. There's nothing wrong with that. What's wrong with that is when we neglect the small things, the day -to -day things, the responsible things that we need to do every day. [00:42:37] (79 seconds)  #SmallObedienceMatters

When God changes his mind, basically what he is doing is keeping his promises to sinful man. God's mind is always the same against sin. He hates it. He abhors it. That will never change. And God's mind is that he loves everyone. He's not willing that any should perish, but all should come to the saving faith in Christ. [01:00:08] (42 seconds)  #GodKeepsHisPromises

What’s the sign of Jonah that we are to understand and this is it: that God can bring good out of evil, that God can bring righteousness out of sinfulness, that when God comes in judgment if a man repents judgment is set aside and that's what Jonah proved through God's work in Nineveh. [01:03:02] (38 seconds)  #GoodFromEvil

What do we understand about this? That the messenger isn't that significant. The messenger doesn't have to be brilliant but the messenger has to be faithful. [01:05:01] (22 seconds)  #FaithfulMessenger

That's what the messenger is to do. Right? It's not about me. It's not about you. Right? I look at 2 Corinthians 5, 20, and 21. This is for you and me, for all believers. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God for our sake. He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And there you go, folks. That's our message. And it has to point to Jesus. We're his ambassadors. We tell people what he wants us to tell them. [01:08:56] (71 seconds)  #PrayForYourNineveh

Can you think of individuals in your life who seem to have gone too far, who live in ungodliness, but you rub shoulders with them? That's your Nineveh. Do you realize that? Do you pray for them? Do you take the message to them? Do you show them acts of selfless love that might soften their hearts to listen to the message that you want to share about Jesus Christ? [01:11:04] (48 seconds)  #GodsMessageNotMine

You see, it wasn't Jonah's message to be proclaimed. It was God's message. And every preacher, every evangelist, every missionary, every musician, every believer who delivers the message of God must remember it is God's message. It is his message to proclaim, not mine, not yours. [01:13:19] (36 seconds)

Ask a question about this sermon