A SECOND CHANCE
Jonah 3

Jonah 3.4 (NLT) On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”

Back in chapter 2, Jonah cried out to God from the belly of a fish. God heard. God rescued. God put Jonah back on task.

God doesn’t just save us from something; he saves us for something. A purpose.

Jonah 3.1-2 (NIV) 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.”

God is a God of second chances. Abraham lied twice. Moses murdered a guy. Rahab ran a brothel. Paul persecuted churches.

God specializes in comeback stories. Second chances.

• Jonah ran, God chased.

• Jonah sank, God saved.

• Jonah quit, God re-enlisted him.

Your story is not over. If you’re still breathing, He’s still writing.

Jonah 3.5 (ESV) And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

God knew exactly how to get through to Nineveh.

He keeps showing up: in the storm, in the fish, and in revival.

The book of Jonah isn’t about a great preacher. It’s about a great God.

Paul was self-aware enough to understand this:
1 Corinthians 2.1-5 (ESV) And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
No matter how clever a sermon is, it’s just noise without the Spirit. We don’t need the wisdom of men. We need the power of God.

In Jonah’s story, God did the heavy lifting. Jonah just opened his mouth.

Because when God shows up… everything changes.

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