Sermon Tone Analysis

SHOW VEGGIE TALES CLIP

 

Introduction

Don’t you love second chances?

I love second chances.

I remember many times in my life when I got second chances.

One time was during the year of my 16th birthday.

I got my grandfather’s Isuzu truck and I was off to the races.

I was free.

Well, for about two months, I was free until one day as I was heading home from school; I was driving too close to a friend of mine in front of me named Layla.

She slammed on her brakes because of an accident in front of her and I slammed my truck in the back of her car.

My dead went through the windshield and my truck was totaled.

I thought I would never drive again.

But my parents were patient with me and they bought me another car.

It was a Nissan Sentra XE.

It was a good car.

A couple months later, I was taking a girl home that went with me to this party and as we were driving down Gtown road, a drunk driver pulled in front of me, hit me, spun me around, and my car flipped upside down in a ditch.

There went my second chance.

But this time, since it was not my fault, I got another car- a Toyota corolla ST coupe.

It had DOHC which meant it was faster than a typical corolla and do you want to guess what happened?

Yes, I was heading to work one day and as I came around this sharp curve on the country roads where I lived, this other car was in my lane, so I swerved and hit a brick mailbox.

The funny thing was this brick mailbox belonged to a double wide trailer that had no bricks on it.

But the bricks destroyed my car.

They flew through the front windshield and out the back.

The top of the mailbox flew into the air and landed on top of my car.

I was actually transported to the hospital with minor neck pain but I was OK.  Do you think my parents wanted to kill me?

I totaled three cars in one year.

They were patient and loving.

I am still alive.

Review

God was patient with Jonah.

Even after Jonah ran from the call of God, we see God gave Jonah a second chance and that is a piece of God’s patience and mercy with his creation.

So tonight we need to see from this continuing story of Jonah how God’s patience with mankind allows everyone the opportunity to repent and give their life over to God.

So tonight, I want us to focus our attention on the Patience of God.

We as Christians must see that God is patient with our sin so that none will perish but all will come to repentance.

In the Story of Jonah, God’s patience allowed 3 things:

 

God’s Patience allows:

*1.      **God’s Message to be Delivered vs. 1-3*

 

*/Jonah 3:1-3 (ESV)1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth./*

*/Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey.

And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!/*

/ /

We see reading through the book of Jonah, God’s patience with his servants.

We can see through reading through the bible that God’s patience with his servants is part of his nature.

God had patience when Moses argued with the God.

God had patience with King David when he committed adultery.

God had patience with Solomon.

God had patience with Peter.

God had patience with Paul.

All these people have been used of God but they were not perfect.

They made mistake, God gave them second chances because of his holy patience.

Jonah was a model of this.

Jonah had run from God and now he had reconciled himself with God.

So Jonah again had the opportunity to go and deliver this message to Nineveh.

As we look at the text we can see some questions we can ask when called:

·         *How the Messenger should respond:* God uses powerful words of immediacy as he tells Jonah for the second time to “arise and go.”

These words almost repeat showing us that God expected Jonah to act quickly.

God wants us to act quickly when he calls, whether the first or second time.

Satan may try and convince us that we have plenty of time but God expects quick action.

Like the director of an orchestra, God has set many different events in motion to create of symphony of his work.

Quick action is expected.

·         *Where the Messenger must go:* twice in these verses, God uses the word greatness to describe the city of Nineveh.

The second use in verse 3 stands out because it should literally read, “Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city to God.”

It was large and well populated, but more importantly, it meant a lot to God.

He desired for those people to repent and believe in Him.

I think it shows how much God cared for Nineveh since he did not give up on them even after their sinful ways and even after the rebellion of his prophet.

God cares for the world, and when he tells us to go and preach a message to the world is shows his love for them.

o   /2 Peter 3:9 tells us, “9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance./

o   /John 3:16-17 (ESV)16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him./

o   /Mark 16:15 (ESV)15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation./

Who does God love?

The world

How many does God want to repent?

All

Where should each one of us take the gospel?

The world

To whom should we take the gospel?

The whole creation

 

·         *What is the message?

*Jonah’s message was simple and complex in the same sense.

It was simple with just 6 Hebrew words that translate, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overturned.”

Now the simplicity of the message is “repent or perish” which was a common phrase used by our Lord and Savior.

In 1818, General Andrew Jackson traveled from his home, the Hermitage, into downtown Nashville to attend a Methodist Conference.

The famous circuit-riding preacher, Peter Cartwright, was to speak that day.

The pastor of the church had invited Cartwright with misgivings, for the evangelist was unpredictable.

He had been known to knock a sinner down and literally drag him to the throne of grace.

But interest had been high, and it seemed that everyone in Nashville had come to church that Sunday to see the eccentric Cartwright.

His text was: “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?”

Cartwright had just read his text and had paused to let the words sink in when General Jackson entered the church and slowly walked down the aisle.

Every seat was taken, and he stood for a moment, leaning against a pillar.

Peter Cartwright felt a tug at the tail of his coat.

“General Jackson has come in!” the Nashville pastor whispered excitedly.

“General Jackson has come in.”

The whisper was audible to most of the church.

Peter Cartwright’s jaw tightened, and he gave the minister a look of scorn.

“Who is General Jackson?” shouted Cartwright.

“If he doesn’t repent and get his soul converted,” he continued, saying in effect, “God will damn his soul to hell as quick as an unconverted pagan.”

After the sermon, Rev. Cartwright was advised to leave town immediately, for Jackson was known for his fiery temper and his deadly duels.

Instead, the evangelist accepted an invitation to preach at a church right next to the Hermitage.

Jackson invited him to dinner.