Chapter 3

Well, good morning to everybody at all of our campuses. So glad to see you this morning. Let me add my voice to the already extended voices that have wished all of our dads and granddads a Happy Father's Day. Just out of curiosity, and you can do this, just pretend like I can see you on every campus, all right? But if, how many Italian dads or granddads are in the house? Like just everywhere, you know, just fantastic. That's awesome. Let me tell you why I ask. I'm curious if any of you Italian granddads or dads ever for Father's Day got a block of wood? No? Okay. Well, there is one fictional Italian dad who did have some wood. It wasn't for Father's Day necessarily, but he got as a gift, a block of wood. And his name was Geppetto. Geppetto was a poor woodworker, he was Italian, was a poor woodworker, and he built for himself a marionette that he named Pinocchio. See, Geppetto always wanted a son, so he crafted one out of wood and made this marionette that he could control named Pinocchio. But this wood was not any ordinary wood. It was apparently some enchanted magical wood. And as a result, Pinocchio could talk and kind of came to life, and all of that, which was remarkable. We probably know the story best because of Pinocchio's nose, right? If he tells a lie it grows and all of those things. But maybe you don't remember, but Geppetto was like treating Pinocchio like a son, and he sent him off to school. He wanted him to be educated. And then Pinocchio, as some kids do, fell into the wrong crowd, and he started hanging out with some hoodlums, and as a result of that, he ended up getting carted away and kind of, he was in captivity, so to speak, in a place called Pleasure Island. Well, Geppetto finds out that, he can't find Pinocchio anywhere, goes around looking for him, and eventually realizes that he's on Pleasure Island. So he decides to take on the Angry Sea and he goes to look for Pinocchio. But what happens to Geppetto is there's a big whale in the sea named Monstro, that ends up swallowing Geppetto. Pinocchio eventually finds out after coming back looking for his dad, where's my dad? His dad went looking for you because you were gone and now you know, you ran away and so to speak. And now he went looking for you and you can't find him. So Pinocchio goes now into the sea to try and find his father, and he gets swallowed by Monstro the whale. And so Pinocchio and his dad are in the belly of a whale and eventually Pinocchio has a great idea. They do, you know, they kind of build a fire and do whatever they do in the belly of a whale, and they decide they're gonna make the whale sneeze. It worked. Whale sneezed. They come out and then Geppetto and Pinocchio are together running away from Monstro, trying to get away. Now there's more to the story there, but does that story sound a little bit familiar? I found it interesting because as I was thinking about, reminiscing about the story of Jonah, and we've had two messages so far from Pastor Leroy and Pastor Dan Davis. I mean, they both did a tremendous job. Great messages, both counts. And I started thinking about chapter one because chapter one was Jonah running from God. Chapter two, Jonah ran into God in the belly of a whale, big fish, right? And chapter three where we're picking up today, Jonah is running with God, so he is running from God, he ran into God, so to speak, in the belly of the great fish, and now he's running with God. But I wanna remind you something that you've heard already is that this book that we're talking about is not a book about Jonah, even though it's titled Jonah, right? It's not a book about Jonah, it's a book about God. And if I were summarizing the nature of this book, thematically, I might say it pretty simply this way, it's about the sovereign mercy of God, acting for the sovereign purpose of God. That this is what the book of Jonah is about. It's about the sovereign mercy of God, acting for the sovereign purposes of God. Now, I want us to be able to look into the book and into this chapter, chapter number three. And you already learned where the book of Jonah was last week. Remember? You know, if you just need to be in the book of Obadiah and just, you know, take a right, huh? Some of you're going, "That didn't help me any." Great, well then just go to Micah and take a left, right? Very simple, just tucked in there between Obadiah and Micah, is the book of Jonah super simple. Now, if you can't find it, use a table of contents, but get to Jonah chapter three because I wanna show us how the sovereign mercy of God can be seen in this chapter. I want us to be able to look and see the sovereign mercy of God on display because the book is a book about God. The book of Jonah, it includes Jonah, Jonah's involved in this, but it's about God and it's about the sovereign mercy of God that's acting on behalf of the sovereign purposes of God. Now, when we look in Jonah chapter three, we can see the sovereign mercy of God in a few different ways and here's the first, a sovereign mercy of God can be seen in second chances. Second chances. That's right when we begin Jonah chapter three, that's what we are kind of face-to-face with at this point. Listen to what the scripture records for us in Jonah chapter three, it says verse number one, "Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." I found this interesting because I'm reading it and thinking to myself, a second time, because I remember exactly what was, how the book of Jonah began in Jonah chapter one, beginning in verse number one, it says this, "The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me." But what happened? Jonah didn't do that. Jonah turned and ran. Jonah wanted to escape. Jonah went down to Joppa. And just in time there was a ship that was making its way far, far away from where he was supposed to go. He was supposed to head to Nineveh, but instead he's going in the direction of Spain. So now we see in Jonah chapter three, "The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time." Do you know what God's doing here? Listen carefully. God is recycling the opportunity for Jonah to obey. He's recycling this opportunity for Jonah to now obey him in what he's called. But do you notice what God did not do? God did not skip his first ask of Jonah. God didn't just go, "Oh yeah, I remember that. That's fine, you didn't do it, whatever." He didn't do that. He's actually recycling it to give Jonah a second chance at obedience. See, I think maybe Jonah wanted to skip over that step of obedience, and just kind of go, "Okay, God, we've been through a lot, like I ran, you know, I was on a ship, they tossed me. I got swallowed by a great fish, been in the belly of the fish, now I got spit out. It's been a long, woo. We have been through a lot. How about we just move forward? How about we just move ahead, Lord?" You see, I'm not saying that because I'm just reading into the text. I think it's actually what was hinted at when Jonah was praying the prayer that he was praying in Jonah chapter two. In fact, listen to what he was praying. As we looked at last week, Jonah said, "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed, I will make good. I will say salvation comes from the Lord. And the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land." I wonder if, just for a moment, if Jonah was thinking to himself, "Lord, wooo, here I am, I trust you, salvation is from you and when I get out of here, if you would be so kind and merciful to let me outta the belly of this great fish, I'm gonna head back to Jerusalem, and I'm gonna offer some sacrifices to you. And then Lord, we'll just move on." And the Lord says, after the fish vomited Jonah to the dry land, it says, "The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I gave you." He doesn't skip over what he initially asked Jonah to do that Jonah did not do. He recycled it so that Jonah now had a second chance to obey. Do you know what that is? God's mercy to us, it's God's mercy to us. You see, God is quite serious about our obedience, no question about that, and he's serious about shaping us into his image. He's so serious in fact that when we choose not to obey him, and then a little bit later on when we think we have moved on, God says, "You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna recycle this for you so that you actually get the chance to obey me because I didn't ask you just because I was bored." You see, sometimes we think that maybe God's asking things of us for our obedience because maybe it's just, these are God things that he does just do this randomly. God is sovereign and he's shaping you into who he desires you to be. So when God calls you to obedience, God is serious about that. And if you don't respond, he's gonna recycle it. He's not gonna move on from it, which means just obey him in the first place. Just obey him in the first place 'cause he's gonna recycle it anyway, if you don't. I have a friend and it doesn't matter what profession he's in, whether it was ministry or whether it was corporate world, or whatever, but about every three to four years this friend would move, just leave where he was and go somewhere else. And then three years later or whatever, he'd move and go somewhere else. Not because of a church moving him or a company moving him. Every single time when he ran into adversity and hardship, he bailed and he started just, you know, and then he'd go somewhere, and it was like the honeymoon for a while, and everything was great and you know, and they love you and you love them, and then hardship or adversity comes and they bailed. And I said to him, I said, "Do you think maybe that God is trying to teach you something? Because what God is doing is that every time you leave from hardship and adversity, he just recycles it in a different place. You're literally selling your house and moving every single time. And God is recycling the same thing in your life because he wants you to learn how to endure. He wants you to learn perseverance. Perseverance builds character and character gives hope." This is what the scripture says. So God is recycling this in the life of Jonah, but he's doing it mercifully. God is a God of second chances and the sovereign mercy of God can be seen in second chances. Aren't you grateful by the way that God gives us that opportunity, that God just doesn't toss us to the side when we have disobeyed and says, "I'm done with you", but he'll recycle it for us in his mercy and in his grace, to say, "I don't know if you're catching this, but I really want you to do this, and I know you're trying to avoid it, you're trying to run from it, but I just, I wanna let you know whether it's tomorrow, or whether it's next month, or whether it's next year, or whether it's three years from now, I'm just gonna recycle this again because I didn't just ask you this because I was bored. I know that this is what is in your best interest. I know that this is what is good for you. I know this is what you need to be shaped into who I designed you to be." That's why we want to be a people who just obey out of the gate when we hear God speak. So we see the sovereign mercy of God can be seen in second chances, but the sovereign mercy of God can also be seen in flawed messengers. Watch what we see in Jonah 3:3. It says, "Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh." "Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh." Now if you remember chapter number one, here's what you remember. Literally everything else obeyed God except for Jonah. That's what you see in chapter number one, right? Everything else obeyed God except for Jonah. Remember the wind obeyed God. "Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up." The Lord sent that, the wind obeyed God, the sea obeyed God. Look in verse 15. "Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard and the raging sea grew calm." God stilled the waters. The great fish, it also obeyed God. "Now the Lord provided a huge fish. The Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." And then chapter two says, "And the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land." So here's what we see, everywhere at the beginning of the story, everything is being obedient to God except for Jonah. And now in verse number three, "Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh." Now Jonah's ready to obey. I told you God is serious about our obedience, but I want you to understand something as well. While God is serious about our obedience, he's not dependent on it. God is not dependent on your obedience and my obedience for his purposes. In fact, you see it pretty clearly, right? Jonah doesn't obey and God still does what he wants. Jonah doesn't obey, but God still does what he wants to do. Jonah is an imperfect ambassador. Is that a fair way to say it? Jonah is an imperfect messenger of God. And I read that and I think to myself, "God, thank you for your mercy in my life that you would use an imperfect ambassador, an imperfect messenger like me." I'm grateful to God for his sovereign mercy that uses flawed messengers. Because what God does is, he takes the weak, and he takes those who feel a bit helpless, and he takes the dependent upon him, and he uses them for his glory. God's mercy and God's greatness are put on display in our weakness, in our flawedness. Do you remember what Paul said to the Corinthian church in First Corinthians chapter number one? He said, "Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential, not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong, God chose the lowly things of this world, and the despised things, and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him." You see what God is doing even with his sovereign mercy is he's bringing to pass his sovereign purposes in the world. And so God calls us to a place of obedience. Here's why. Because in his mercy, God uses us to forward his agenda in the world. What a joy, what a privilege that God will use us to forward his agenda in the world even though we are flawed messengers. So even though God chooses to use us, God is not dependent upon us because God is sovereign, And God is going to accomplish his purposes in the world. He's just giving us the chance to obediently join him in the blessing of seeing his purposes fulfilled. What a great God he is. And God uses Jonah to move his purposes forward. He's not dependent upon Jonah's obedience 'cause Jonah disobeys and God says, "Okay, we're gonna do this anyway. We're just gonna do it a different way", right? "I'm going to do what I'm going to do even though you disobeyed me, I'm going to see to it that my purpose is, so he's not dependent upon Jonah, but he gives Jonah the opportunity to join him. And what is it that he wanted Jonah to do? What is it he was asking him to do? To preach to the Ninevites, right? This is what he wanted from the very inception. So we see that the sovereign mercy of God can be seen in second chances, in flawed messengers, but you can also see the sovereign mercy of God in mercy's limits. Let me see if I can explain what I mean by this in verse, the second part of verse number three says, "Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh was a very large city and it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city", watch this, "proclaiming 40 more days, and then Nineveh will be" what? "Overthrown." Do you see it? "40 more days and then Nineveh will be overthrown." I want you to make sure that you understand what I'm also seeing in this passage of scripture, and that's this, that God in his sovereign mercy is sending a messenger to Nineveh, but that he has put boundaries on his mercy, that there are limits to his mercy. "40 more days", he says, "and then", what? "Nineveh will be overthrown." "40 more days and then Nineveh will be overthrown." This is where we have to emphasize the sovereign in sovereign mercy. In other words, God is demonstrating how merciful he is, but he's sovereignly merciful, which means that he is in charge. Sovereign meaning God is in total control. He is King over everything. And because that's the case, that means that the sovereign God gets to put boundaries on his mercy. God gets to determine the limits of his mercy. Whether it is a narrow limit or whether it is a broad limit, God gets to determine that because God is sovereign. Now, normally when God would call an Israelite prophet to prophesy against another nation, it meant pretty much impending doom and immediate doom. Not every single time. Sometimes he would say "It's gonna be in a bunch of years from now, but it was like this is happening." There's no real, there's no way to back out of it. This is going to happen. Here's what's going to happen to you particular city. Here's what's going to happen to you particular nation. And God just says it through the prophet and that's what happens. But what's interesting here is that even though this is a statement of judgment, and by the way the early readers of that text of scripture where it says 40 more days and Nineveh will be what? Overthrown, that language is the same language that's used when Sodom and Gomorrah in the book of Genesis are talked about. Watch, here's what it says in Genesis 19. "By the time lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. Then he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities, and also the vegetation in the land, but Lot's wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt. Early the next morning, Abraham got up, and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord and he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived." You see, there was no question that there was an air of judgment because the wickedness of Nineveh, we read it in chapter one, "The wickedness of Nineveh had risen up to God." It's almost like the stench of the wickedness had gotten so high that it entered the nostrils of God, and God was going to do something about it. And clearly Jonah is going to be speaking a message that is of impending doom, "40 more days and Nineveh will be", what? "Overthrown." So that very same language relative to Sodom and Gomorrah, and we know what the outcome of Sodom and Gomorrah was, right? Yet it says "40 more days and you'll be overthrown." What is that an indication of? It's an indication of the mercy of God that even though Nineveh's great wickedness had made its way all the way to God, God in his mercy said "40 more days." 40 more days. It's amazing because for us, we have to remember that God in his sovereignty, gets to establish the limits of his mercy. God gets to determine that. And here he said, "40 more days." It was an act of mercy for Nineveh. It was an act of grace for Nineveh. You see what we're reading in Jonah chapter three is we're reading about the sovereign merciful God, and the sovereign mercy of God can be seen not only in second chances and flawed messengers, and mercies limits because we see God's sovereignty. But it can also be seen in repentance. In repentance. And that word repentance means to do an about face. It means you're headed in a particular direction and you turn 180 degrees, and you head in a different direction. And what we see here is this picture of repentance. In verse number five, "The Ninevites believed God, a fast was proclaimed, and all of them from the greatest to the least put on sackcloth, and when Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne and took off his royal robes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink, but let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows God may yet relent and with compassion, turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish." It's a remarkable thing as I read about the citywide repentance that happens in a city that is captured by so much wickedness in the middle of an empire Assyria, that is known for its great wickedness, but you have this huge scope of repentance happening in Nineveh. It was from the greatest to the least, from the king to the peasant and it included animals. They dressed their animals in sackcloth, sackcloth, by the way, not a comfortable garb. It was meant to kind of grate on you, right? What this was, was a picture you read about in the Old Testament sackcloth and ashes. It's a reminder of taking seriously the nature of our sin and what we have done. And that's what was going on in Nineveh. And that opening line there, verse number five that says, "The Ninevites believed God", that is a startling, startling thing to read about a city as wicked as it was, this wicked place that was full of violence toward one another and toward any outsider, this place that was full of so much immorality, all of a sudden repents, believed God and repented why?

This wicked place that was full of violence toward one another and toward any outsider, this place that was full of so much immorality, all of a sudden repents, believed God and repented. Why? Why? Well, God is sovereign and God's the one who grants repentance. So let's just keep that in mind. But I think there's something even more pragmatic that God used in the midst of this. You're like, well, was it because of Jonah's great preaching? Please. You think Jonah's eight word message is what did it? Here it was, "40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." He wasn't that fired up about being in Nineveh. Do you remember that part? It seems to me Jonah probably would've been walking around going, "40 more days. This place is going down, 40 more days, and you're getting overthrown. Did you guys hear that over there? 40 more days, getting overthrown." I'm not sure how fired up he was about being there, right? So do we think it was his great preaching that did this? This eight word message, it's eight words in English, it's five in the Hebrew. I don't think so. Let me tell you what, given it was certainly the sovereign work of God, right? God's gracious mercy to grant repentance to a place that was the work that was being done here. But you know what else happened here? A sign, there was a sign. Lemme back up for a second so that we can understand the context here and get what's being, what's happening. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria. Assyria was a nation that worshiped all kinds of pagan deities. Thankfully, through the work of people like British archeologists, Sir Austen Henry Layard, we found Nineveh. If you're wondering where it is, it would be modern day Mosul, Iraq, right around that area, right next to that area. So if you're trying to place this in a place in the world, think about Mosul, Iraq, it was right next to that. That's where Nineveh is. And the remains, the archeological ruins of Nineveh have been discovered. And so not only were they able to see a bunch of the places where people lived and the civilization there, but they also were able to find a temple that was devoted to the pagan deity, Dagon. Now Dagon was a false god, a false deity that was actually referenced in the Bible a few different times. You might remember some of the places where this was referenced when it talked about Samson, when he got captured in Judges chapter 16, they felt like, oh, Dagon won, right? Or maybe when the Ark was in Ashdod in First Samuel chapter five, and it actually talked about the pagan deity Dagon falling, kept falling on its face in front of the Ark. Or it might have been in First Chronicles chapter 10 after Saul, King Saul had been killed, and decapitated and they brought his head into the temple of Dagon. Why do I even bring this up? Because Dagon was a fish God, half man, half fish. And what God chose to do to reach the Ninevites is to put his messenger in the belly of a great fish, and have him spit out, wherever that may have been, probably on the shores of the Mediterranean. It would've been really hard to get to Nineveh. They're kind of there in the Tigris, Euphrates area, but it doesn't necessarily connect to the Mediterranean. But whatever that looked like, probably on the shores of the Mediterranean, and people find out now that's Jonah who was in the belly of the whale. He looks kind of pale and he's going to Nineveh to deliver a message. Do you think that word of that went ahead of him? I bet it did. I bet that his reputation preceded him. This is Jonah who's the mouthpiece of God. He's the prophet of God. He was in the belly of the great fish for three days. The fish vomited him on water and now he's coming and bringing a message to all these people who worship a fish god, to remind them that there is only one God and this God is the one who's calling them to stop their wickedness and to repent from their ways, and now to turn to the living God, and the whole city, from the greatest to the least, including the animals, went into a great fast and repented. Now, as we read this story, brothers and sisters, my guess is is that we start being awed at the sovereign mercy of God. And maybe what we're thinking is that was incredible for then but here's what I think, Jerry, here's what I think. We need a sign in the United States, right? That's what I think, Jerry. We need a sign in the United States because like Nineveh, we are living in a place of great darkness and great immorality. Like Nineveh, we're strong in our armies, we're strong with our money, and feel like we can now do whatever we want. Like Nineveh, we are being violent toward one another. There's a million things that I could say related to that, whether it's gun violence on our streets, violence against children in the womb, violence against confused kids as we mutilate their bodies, demonic agendas that happen through social media that call us to make idols of ourself, our worship that happens at the altar of lust, and fame, and glory. We need a sign, God, we need a sign. But hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. We already have one. We already have one. And it is the greatest sign of the sovereign mercy of God. Let me give it to you in one word. Jesus. Jesus. And let me tell you why. Let me tell you exactly why. Because in the time of Jesus, the Pharisees also wanted a sign. Listen, "Some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to Jesus, Teacher, we wanna see a sign from you. And he answered, A wicked and adulterous generation asked for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here." Jesus is the much greater Jonah. Can you imagine the people of Nineveh standing up at the judgment and testifying against us? Yet Jonah came and he got spit out of the fish and he came and preached repentance and we repented. That was a flawed messenger and we repented, the Son of Almighty God came to you, and demonstrated his resurrection from the grave, and you still will not repent. They will stand up at the judgment and testify. See, Jesus is the greater Jonah. He's the one who was sent to the world of darkness and wickedness and unlike Jonah, Jesus didn't run from it. He embraced it. Jesus took the preaching of repentance and preached that the new kingdom was among us. And he preached that there is only one way into this kingdom and it is through him. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me." Jesus came to extend to us the sovereign mercy of God because just like Jonah got tossed into the sea, and swallowed by the fish so that the sailors on that boat could be saved, and ultimately the Ninevites could be saved, Jesus came to offer himself for the sake of others because of the sovereign mercy of God, because mercy has limits, and God in his sovereignty gets to determine what those limits are. And the wickedness of the world had risen sufficiently in the nostrils of God, and God sent his one and only Son and his Son, the very Son of God, the spotless perfect blemishless Son of God, drank down to the drags, the wrath of God against sin. And God commanded death to swallow up Jesus. And on that cross, he gave his life for our sins, but death could not hold him and the grave had to spit him out. The sign of Jonah is the resurrection of the Son of God. And through his resurrection, he has conquered sin and hell and death on our behalf. Do you need more to repent than that? You shouldn't. We have the sign that we needed from God and his name is Jesus. Now what will you do with that? You see for us, maybe you're here, and you've never responded to the mercy of God. Friends, listen, it is the mercy of God that you're still alive. It is the mercy of God that you're under the sound of the gospel of Jesus this day. It is the mercy of God that has been extended to you this day so that you could know him, that you could turn from your sins, that you could be made new, that you could be forgiven, that you could be transformed, that you could have an eternal home with him. This is the very mercy of God that's been demonstrated to the world in and through his Son, the Lord Jesus. And if you've never responded to that, then I would encourage you to do that on this day. Here's why. Because God's mercy has limits. But do you know what Paul says to the Corinthians in his second letter? He said, "As God's co-workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain, for he says, in the time of my favor, I heard you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation." Friends, mercy has limits. But right now we live in the day of salvation. That God, in his mercy and grace to us in Christ Jesus has given us an opportunity to respond while we are yet living. And if you've never turned from your sin and put your faith in Jesus, and allowed him to be Lord of your life, take his rightful place in your heart, then today can be your day for that. But secondly, I'd remind you of this is that we've all been now commissioned as Jonah's ourself, that we are people who respond in obedience to the call of God on our lives, and we bring the beautiful message of the gospel to the world that's around us, even in places that we may be not real thrilled to be in, even with people that we think, "Yeah, but you don't know them, they're bad. These people are bad." God's called us to be an obedient Jonah as opposed to a disobedient one because he's using us for his purposes in the world. And so will you do, will you take up your part in listen, responding to the mercy of God by allowing him to use you for his purposes in the world? Let's bow our heads together. In a moment we'll be dismissed. But I just want to make sure that you understand that if you're here and you've never turned from sin, and put your faith and trust in Jesus that you've never repented of sin, and put faith in Jesus, then that means that you stand in opposition to God. You stand as an enemy of God. You think to yourself, "I'm not an enemy of God." We all are enemies of God before we are regenerated. We all stand in opposition to God before we are regenerated by God's own Spirit. And that's why we must repent and put our faith and trust in Jesus. And so in just a moment, there'll be some men and women that'll be right down here, down front. And as they're down here, as I extend this invitation to you in this place, if you need to come and put a hand in one of their hands, and say, "I want to receive Jesus, I want to respond in faith." And they'd love to take a moment and pray with you that you might receive Christ, and they wanna send you home with something that's gonna help you in your faith journey. So they're gonna be right down here when we dismiss and I say amen in just a moment, please take a moment, and take one of these men or women by the hand and just say, "I want to receive Jesus", and let them walk you through what it means by faith to receive him. But maybe you're here and you'd say, "You know what? There's some areas of my life where I've just chosen not to obey God", listen carefully to me. He's gonna recycle that. See, you might as well just get on with the business of obedience. You might as well because he's recycling it for your good and for his glory. And it's in his mercy that he does that. And maybe you need to take some time to pray, to reflect. Well, that's okay. You can stay in your seats and take a moment to pray if you'd like to, when we dismiss everybody, you can come this way and take one of these friends down here by the hand and say, "I'd just like somebody to pray with here for a moment." We'd be glad to do that as well. Whatever it is that God may be speaking to you, maybe it's you just haven't taken up your place of saying, "God, I wanna be a ready and willing, obedient messenger of yours to demonstrate and to speak the truth of Jesus in the places where I am." Whatever it is, whatever that area of obedience may be for you as somebody who's already been regenerated, but you've let obedience kind of move to the side, understand the mercy of God. In God's mercy, he keeps giving you opportunity to obey, but he's not gonna move beyond it. He's gonna keep calling us to that place of obedience. So why don't we just humble ourselves and allow God to use us obediently. Father, I pray for each of us that you would do your good work in and through us. We thank you for this book that just teaches us about your sovereign compassion, your sovereign mercy that leads to and acts on behalf of your sovereign purpose. Father, I pray that we as a people would be cooperative with your purposes in the world that we would want to join you in what you're doing, that we wouldn't be begrudging in doing that, but we would willingly join you in what you're doing, whatever that looks like. Lord, I know that in times past you've called prophets like Isaiah, to preach the gospel and you've told him in advance, nobody's gonna listen. I want you to preach and nobody's going to listen. But he was faithful to do it. And that's what you require of us faithfulness, because you're faithful. So Father, I pray that for those who need to respond in faith to receive you, that they would do that this day, for those who need to do business with you around some arenas of obedience in their life, that they would just respond to whatever it is you're leading them to respond to. We trust you to do that now, in Jesus name, and all God's people said, amen.