Crossing Family, I am so glad that you are here today because
our preacher is none other than our very own Chuck Hetzler.
Chuck and Karen have been a part of our church for a while, been
in ministry for a really long time, and you'd be hard pressed
to find a better man of God, a better marriage, and a better
family in our entire region. Chuck and Karen recently came on
staff and they've been the key drivers behind the Discovery
Bible studies, behind the outlet and what you experience at the
New Here booth in all of our lobbies.
God has used both of them not just to encourage me, but to
challenge me and to raise the spiritual awareness of our staff
and hopefully of our church. So would you put your hands
together and welcome our very own Chuck Hetzler?
1600 years ago, Ireland was a lawless land of tribal kingdoms
and Celtic paganism. These kingdoms would feud with
one another. Sometimes they would even.
Cross the sea to Britain to raid villages there.
On one particular occasion, an Irish clan took a Christian boy
captive a 16 year old, from his Christian family back to Pagan
Ireland. There the boy was made a slave.
To be a shepherd. Living out in the fields day and
night. He would say later that he would
pray. Over 100 times every day, one
night. God spoke to the boy.
And God said go. To the shore.
There's a ship there ready. To take you home to Britain.
The boy obeyed the voice of God, and he fled for the coast.
And there he found it. Just.
As God had said, a ship to carry him.
Back to Britain, he reunited with his family and he was eager
to enter himself into full time Christian ministry.
In light of God's. Miraculous work in his life as
he was in the. Course of his studies.
The young man heard the. Voice of God A.
Second time, this time the. Voice of God said.
To him I want. You to go back to.
Ireland. Back to those.
Who made you slaves and preach to them the good news.
Of Jesus Christ, Patrick obeyed the voice.
And he went to Ireland and there he ministered to the Irish.
People for over 30 years. Starting over 300 churches,
leading thousands upon thousands of pagans to faith in Jesus
Christ and transforming the future of Ireland.
And you may not know it. But a few weeks ago, you
celebrated. Patrick's obedience to.
The call of God. And the conversion of the Irish
people on Saint Patrick's Day. It is my honor to be a.
Part of this church to get to. Bring this message to you today
and to welcome all. Twelve of our.
Locations, those joining online and inside.
God is doing some incredible things around here and we praise
Him for that. And if you're new around here,
we would. Love for you to.
Stop by the new Here booth at the the conclusion.
Of this service at your. Location There's somebody
waiting for you to get to know you and to get to journey
alongside of you and what God's doing in your life and in a
couple. Of weeks.
It's going to be Easter. We are going to have an
incredible time and there are going to be tons of people here.
So I want to make sure that you're planning ahead #1 pray #2
make sure you know your service times at your location.
Arrive early. Park far away.
And bring somebody with you. And I just want to say a quick
word in light of Clayton's. Video Any praise goes.
To God, and I could say it 100 times back in his direction and
all of the people that I've been able to work.
Here with at the. Crossing, it's been a blessing
for me to be a part of it for my wife or our family.
So I just. Got to tell you guys though, I
got a confession. Before I get into the rest of my
message, I'm not as funny as Clayton and.
It just grieves. Me that I'm not, and you know, I
wrote. A joke and I.
Gave it to my family and they my kids are like dad don't force it
just. Just.
Just let it happen naturally. So we'll see what?
Happens in that regard. But guys, I'm so excited.
To be able to give this word. From the book of Jonah, we have
been going through this series and as was mentioned before,
it's an incredible. Book We subtitled this series.
The unusual path of grace. Because of all the crazy.
Almost incredible and unbelievable things that God
does and that Jonah does and that we're about to see happens
in. Chapter 3 so let's.
Get into it, Jonah. Chapter 3 Verses.
One and two say this, 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. Now, if you haven't been with.
Us, I got to give you the recap, the word of.
God came to him the second time. Well, what happens is at the
very beginning of the book, God speaks to him the first time.
God speaks to his servant. Jonah, Jonah, it's a prophet.
He's supposed to go and do. The will of God.
He's supposed to go. And speak the message.
Of God, right? That's his.
Job, well, the assignment is. This God says to.
Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh and preach against that
wicked city. Jonah doesn't like the calling
because first of all, Nineveh. Is a big.
Global powerhouse. Second of all, they're the enemy
of Jonah and the people of God. And thirdly, they're incredibly
wicked, cruel and lawless people.
This is not the place Jonah wants to go.
And so Jonah says, you know what, this is a nice time for me
to take a nice long vacation in the South of Spain.
And so he books a. Ship headed westward to go to
Tarshish. 2500 miles in the opposite direction, and there
God says, Not so fast, Jonah, he sends.
Us a storm to the ship where he. Is on the sea and Jonah says
guys, it's my fault, the only way.
You're getting out of this. Is if you throw me overboard
because God's after me and that's what the storm's about.
This the sailors that he's with, they.
Reluctantly say OK. We'll do it.
Jonah's sinking down and he's about to drown, and God sends a
great fish. Not to.
Kill him. But to preserve his.
Life and while he's in the belly of this.
Fish. Believe it or not, for three
days and three nights he finally repents, finally says God, I was
wrong, you're right. And God speaks to the fish and
says, all right, vomit him up on dry land.
We're starting over. And that's where we find
ourselves in Jonah chapter 3. Now look at what God.
Does he comes to him and he says a second time, I'm giving you a
second chance. Because God is a.
God of second chances, how many of you need a second chance, a
third chance, a fourth chance, 100th chance?
I'm telling you tonight that God.
Is a God of. Second chances.
The way that the devil. Tries to undermine us and keep
us away from God and our purpose and God the most is by trying
to. Lie to us about who God really
is. And some of you have been under
that. Lie to believe that God.
Won't give you a second chance. And the other way that the devil
tries to lie to us is for us to believe lies about our self.
And he? Says to us, Oh, you're too.
Far gone. You're too this.
You're too. That for God to want you, he
doesn't want you. But I'm here to tell you tonight
that God is a God of second chances and the Bible.
Is full of people just like. You and me who needed second
chances. For the rich, there's Zacchaeus.
For the poor, there's the. Widow in the temple.
For the blue collars. There's the fisherman, James and
John. For the white collars, there's
Doctor Luke for the. Sexually immoral?
There's the woman caught in. Adultery.
For the sexually pure, there's Joseph.
For the political radicals, there's.
Simon the Zealot. For the sick.
There's the woman with the. Issue of blood for the.
Demonized, there's the Gathering.
Demoniac. For the heartbroken, there's
Mary. For the outsiders, there's the.
Samaritan woman at the well. For the insiders, there's.
Paul for the old. There's Abraham for the young.
There's David for the timid. There's Moses.
For the bold, there's Peter. It doesn't matter who you are.
God is for you, and He is. Giving you a second chance?
Don't. Rule yourself out if God.
Has not and I'm. Here to say he.
Is not ruling. You out, he could.
Have come to Jonah and chastised him.
He could have come to Jonah and said look at all the things you
just did wrong. But he comes and he says a
second time go to Nineveh. And preach there what I tell you
to. Say, here's the other thing
about God's second call. Is that?
Even though God gave him another chance, he didn't give him
another assignment. Sometimes we know that God's
calling us to do something. We feel that tug.
And that pull on our hearts. You might have already been
feeling it. Today as you're.
Here in this service, but you don't like what he's asking you
to do and you're stalling and you're avoiding in hopes that
he's going to give you something that is more desirable in your
eyes. And so you put.
It off but. God, even though he is.
Full of. Grace and He gives us time and
opportunity to respond. He is still a God of truth.
And he's still calling you to the same thing.
And sometimes the reason that we don't want to do that thing that
God has been calling us to. Do is because we.
Can't see on the. Other side of it.
We can't see what God's going to do when we make the choice to
obey Him, but tonight we're going to see what happened when
Jonah obeyed God in verse. Three, we pick back up.
And it says this Jonah. Obeyed the word of the.
Lord and went to Nineveh. Give it up for Jonah.
I mean, how many of us are like Jonah, though?
We've been running from God, We've been going as far as we
can, and we finally like, OK, God, I.
Give. I'll do it.
Jonas still had a big. Journey ahead of him.
You know, the fish didn't vomit him up on the doorstep of
Nineveh. Remember Nineveh you saw earlier
on the graphic, It's inland. The Mediterranean coast is at
least 500 miles away, depending on where the fish vomited him
up. And so he's still got 500 mile
journey, probably on foot to this enemy, people who are
wicked and cruel. And he wonders if he's going to
escape with his life. Obedience is hard.
And so it's worth celebrating. Obedience is hard, but you need
people in your corner. Who are you rooting you on?
One of the things I. Love about this church is
celebrating all the. Wind stories all the steps of
obedience, all the baptisms, all the.
Ways that people are. Reaching out.
I, I, I love coming to this place because.
Every time I get to talk to somebody.
Like I got to talk. To somebody tonight as I'm
coming in here and they're saying I just started my DBS my.
Discovery Bible study this week. I'm starting mine on Sunday and
I told somebody else my workplace they should start one.
Because it's a way for us to make disciples.
It's a way for us to reach. Out and make.
This place, the hardest place. On planet Earth, to get to hell
from obedience is hard. And here's the thing about
Jonah's story is that obedience is better late than never.
You know, Jonah messed up the first time and he could have
said, you know what? I just missed this and I screwed
up and he could have beat himself down and just not
obeyed. I wonder how many people who are
feeling that way tonight. You feel like.
I just keep struggling with the same sin.
I keep finding myself in the same spot.
I can't break this addiction. It's too hard, it's too heavy.
It's impossible. This is just who I am.
But you can obey. God can give you the power to
obey, and it's. Better to obey late.
Than never and I'm praying as we go through this message that
you're going to see what the Ninevites do and you're going to
see yourself in them and you're going to say in your heart and
really. Believe it what we.
Sang, which was I was made for more than where I am right now.
God has. More for you, but it's.
Only on the other side of your obedience.
It's better to obey. Late than never if you're saying
man, I wish. That I was a good.
Dad, when my kids were little and I could have raised them up
to know God, I could have not been so angry with them.
I could have. Could have, could have, could
have. And you just beat yourself down
and you stay in that spot and you feel like that's where I'm
stuck. But you're not.
You can obey now and it's better.
To obey late as a as a dad who's got kids who are. 20 than to
never obey God and never be that dad.
Who is a spiritual? Leader in your household.
It's better. To obey late than never, and
tonight's your night. To say yes.
To what God's been calling you to do.
And it's better, it's best so if it's better to obey.
Late than never, it's best. To obey the first.
Time we got to. Say that as well.
Look at all that Jonah could have avoided in his.
Life, all the heartache. That he went through that other
people went through if. He just would have obeyed.
The first time and So what I want to say.
Is to those of you. Who are young here?
Those of you. Who are young watching online?
I just encourage you. My mom would tell me this.
As AI was the third of three. Boys and she would say, Chuck,
learn from the mistakes. Of your older brother so you
don't repeat those. And I can't.
Say that I always did. And I made my own set of
mistakes. But.
I became a Christian when I was 16.
What happened in my life was I grew up here in Quincy and when
we were 14 we moved from Quincy to Charlotte, NC and I, I thank
God so much that he intervened in my life that we moved.
It was the the worst. Thing in the world that happened
to me at the time and I did not want to leave Quincy.
And go to this. Foreign place.
It's like none of it to me and. Yet that's what God did.
And I hated it. But as I look back.
I so many times thank God that he intervened in my life in the
way that he did at that time, because at 14 and Quincy, I was
looking down a path of doing all the wrong things, making all the
wrong choices, and I saved myself a lot of regret.
God saved me a lot of. Regret.
Regret because not perfectly, but a lot of.
Times I was. Able to obey the.
First time. And so if you're in that boat,
if you're younger, obey the first time.
All right, Jonah finally gets to Nineveh.
This. Is what we've been waiting for,
right? This whole book, it's like.
Jonah, go to Nineveh. Jonah, go to Nineveh.
Stop running away. Go to Nineveh.
Here's what happens now. Nineveh.
Was a very large city. It took three days to go through
it. Jonah began by doing, going a
day's journey into the city, proclaiming 40 more days and
Nineveh will be overthrown. The Ninevites believed God a.
Fast was proclaimed and all of them from the greatest.
To the least put. On sackcloth this is.
Absolutely historic. What just happened?
It's incredible and the. Thing that gets me.
About what just happened. Is there's only two verses?
About what Jonas said and did, and it doesn't even sound very
good. I mean, this is what it says he
did. He goes about a day's.
Journey through the city proclaims 40 more days and
Nineveh will be overthrown. So Can you imagine this?
He's going around the city, this foreigner, this guy who doesn't
know anybody and I don't know how he's doing it.
Is he like shouting? Is he like 40 more days Nineveh
is going to be overthrown or is he like kind of like 40 more
days none of us going to be overthrown?
Like just having side conversations with people.
I, I don't know, like. I wish God would have.
Given us a lot more. Detail, especially as a
preacher. I'm like, how did this guy
convert a whole city? But it gives me a lot of hope
that if he could just say this. Pretty sour message and 120,000
people repent and come to God. That.
He can do something with my message and he can do something
with your message. I think that the.
Way that God tells the story is very purposeful.
For us to know. That what was right about.
This and what was. Powerful about this.
Was that Jonah obeyed and told him what?
Told the people. God told.
Him to tell him it's not so much the powers, not so much in the
messenger. The power is in the message.
And that's true for you and me. The power is not just.
How you say it, but it's that you say it.
Jesus told a story on a parable to teach this lesson.
It's called the Parable of the Sower.
Maybe you've heard of it. He says that a farmer, a sower
goes. Out to sow his seeds he's got
this bag of seed he's. He's sowing it like this, you
know, It's not planting in the ground.
It's like sowing it like this and so is he sowing the seed it
the seed lands on. Four different types of soil.
The first one, it lands on the path, The Walking path.
The second one, it lands on the rocky soil where there's some,
you know, there's some soil, but there's rock, a lot of rocks in
it there. It's the third one, it lands
among thorns and weeds. And then the 4th one, it finally
lands on the good soil. The well tilled soil.
And Jesus says as what you would imagine that only the. 4th Soil.
Only the soil that was. Ready to receive the?
Word and that didn't have any other things going on in it.
Was able to produce the. Crop and bring it to maturity,
and even multiply 3060 a hundredfold as much.
But what happened to the seed that fell on the three other
soils? They didn't make it on the path,
it can't even penetrate the ground so.
The birds just. Eat it up among the.
Rocks the root Can't really. Can't get deep because there's
not enough room for it to take. And then among the weeds.
The. Plant starts to spring up, but
the weeds and the thorns, they choke it out, so it can't reach
maturity and it can't produce what it's intended to produce
and. Jesus says this is the.
Point the seed. Is the word of God.
The seed is the message. The seed.
Is the. Good news about Jesus Christ,
the soil. That's how people respond.
That's the hearts of the people who hear.
And what we see God doing through Jonah is that Jonah
finally goes and he. Gives the seed he gives.
The message and the Ninevites. They happen to be the 4th soil.
And what does this mean? For you and for me, it means
that we need. To sow the seed.
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you've got a better
story, a far better sermon to give.
Than 40 more days and Nineveh. 'S overthrown.
You've got a story of. Life and hope and purpose and
power and change. We've got a story where.
You can say to somebody, even though you're not good enough.
God loves you and. None of us are good enough.
God. Loves you and he loves you so
much He sent his own son to earth.
To. Show us how much he loved us.
To prove that he was God and that he's the.
Only person who could save us from our sins and in fact.
He went to the cross. Willingly and died in our.
Place so that we could. Experience a great exchange we
could give him our crappy life and we.
Could take his perfect life. And we could have abundant life
on this earth and experience everything that God wants for us
now and. For all of.
Eternity and escape the judgement that our sins deserve.
In hell, we've got a. Great story, but are we?
Giving it out? Or are we being like Jonah and
being silent? If Jonah think about this, if
Jonah would not have gone and given the message 120,000.
People would have perished. How many people in our.
Lives are perishing. Or don't.
Have the hope or the opportunity because we're not giving them
the seed. Maybe your Easter invites?
For a couple weeks. From now are to Nineveh, maybe
you don't only just ask your best friends and your family
members that you love. Maybe you ask your enemies,
Maybe you. Ask the people that.
Seem farthest from God. I want you to think about who
are the family members? Who are the people you work
with? Who are the people that you do
life with that? Go to the same places.
That you go. And I want you to target them
and say these are my Nineveh and I'm inviting them.
To Easter. And some of you might be saying,
man, this sounds great and I'd like to be sowing the.
Seed, but I have absolutely. No idea what to say.
I can't preach like you can't. I don't know the Bible like you
can. Can I just say you need to come
to the? Outlet at the outlet.
You're going to learn. How to give a?
15 second testimony that everybody in this room.
Could give if. You learn what it is, but here's
the other thing. Not only is.
The word of God powerful as that seed.
But you've got to ask yourself. And I've got to ask myself, what
soil am I? Some of you might be saying, you
know, I come here every week and I'm seeing.
God do lots. Of things in other people.
I'm seeing powerful life change. I'm seeing people come to the
steps. Some people seeing people pray
together, I'm seeing people get baptized, I'm seeing.
People get involved, I'm seeing. People start their own Bible.
Studies so that they can reach their friends.
I'm seeing all these things happen with the people around me
but it's not happening to me. And maybe at the same time
you're saying and I just don't know about this church.
I don't know if I don't really like that one worship song and
it's kind of loud and the worst. I mean the messages are on point
usually, but not all the time. And I didn't mean it that way
but maybe it's not a seed problem.
Maybe it's a soil problem. What's the condition of your
heart? And I say.
That to those of. Us who've been walking with
Jesus for a long time, and those.
Of us who are just here for the 1st.
Time and thinking about it. Think about those three types of
soil. Are you the path that's so just?
Your heart is so hard that you can't receive.
You're just you're. Stubborn.
You're prideful, you're right, and nobody else is.
I want you to repent of that tonight.
So that you can receive what God has for you.
So that. You can experience the.
Power of the word of. God are you the rocky soil and
you're you start to. Get excited about what God.
'S doing, but you got a lot of other things going on in your
life. You can't.
I'm like, I don't have time. I can't.
I can't make time to go to. Adbs.
Group, I can't make time to read my Bible and pray.
I can't make time to invest in other people.
I can't be I can't make time to serve around here.
Maybe you got to. Get rid of some.
Rocks in your life? Maybe works taking up too much
time Maybe. Other relationship, whatever
that hobbies. Maybe.
Maybe you're the third soil. And.
I see a lot of this sadly that. And in it, and we all have to
watch out for myself included, but.
God's work starts to. Happen in your life, the plant
starts to grow but things choke it out.
And Jesus said some of those things are desire for worldly
things. The cares of life like.
I got to pay my bills and I'm really worried about it and I
can't, you know, I got to work extra because I can't and I
can't make time for the Lord and all this sort of stuff.
Things are choking out. What do you need to?
Root out of your life. What do you need to?
Root out of the soil of your life today.
God's given you a second chance. I want to look more at Nineveh's
conversion. This is absolutely incredible.
It goes on. The story says this and in.
Chapter 3, verse 6 it. Says when Jonah's warning
reached the king of Nineveh. He rose from his throne.
He. Took off his royal robes he
covered. Himself in 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?
Who knows? God may yet relent, and with
compassion turn from his fierce anger, so that we will not
perish. The Ninevites repented.
I mean they repented. They fasted, They didn't eat.
They put on sackcloth. Which is a really rough.
Material and they did that. Because have you ever hurt
somebody so bad? And you've been so grieved.
About it that you just. Feel like you can't go on with
life. You just feel like I can't eat.
I can't even get up and do my normal.
Activities because I just feel so bad about.
What I've done to that person, that's how they.
Felt about God, they realized that God was a offended by.
What they were doing and they cared enough about him to say
God. Please.
Forgive us and we're trying to do everything we can do to.
Show you that we're serious. About our repentance.
Not only that, but they called urgently.
On God, they they started. Praying and they took prayer
urgently and they started. You just call urgently upon God.
They're just like God hear us. Oh God spare us.
Oh God, have mercy. On us, Oh God, we need.
You. Oh God, we're sorry.
These kinds of prayers. And I think those are the best.
Kinds of prayers to pray. Sometimes it's not the litany of
things that you say, it's not how you say it.
How eloquent it. Is it's that if you pray to.
God from a heart of desperation. The Bible says you will find God
when you seek Him and when you seek him with all your heart.
And they did. And then it also says that they
changed their lives. They didn't.
Just do religious, spiritual. Things they said, we got to.
We got to reform what we're doing.
We got to stop doing the violence.
We got to stop doing the evil. You got to actually.
Change what you're doing if they're.
Areas of your life that are outside of God's will.
If you want to repent, it means you need to change those things.
And I'm not saying you got to become perfect overnight because
nobody will, but the things that you're seeing.
You got to. Bring that into alignment with
God and this is the kind of faith that.
They had it says this. Who knows, God may relent.
I love that you don't have to have this.
Perfect. Pure.
Pristine. Faith where you're like, hey, I
know that God. 'S going to save me when you
know. You just.
Have to have a who knows kind of faith.
Who knows? Like if I come up.
Here tonight and I respond. Maybe some of you've been here
for 20 years and you've been sitting in the same seat and
you've never responded. If you respond tonight, who
knows? What God will do?
Who knows? I remember feeling that way when
I was contemplating following Jesus I.
Remember. And I felt.
Bad about this at the time but this verse really helps me to
feel like hey this is right. I just felt like nothing.
Else is working in life. I'm going to try Jesus.
That's a who knows? Kind of.
Faith and Jesus said all you need.
Is. Faith the size.
Of a mustard seed. And it will move mountains.
A mountain was moved in Nineveh, and God moves mountains like
that. And I want to tell.
You a few stories because. Some of you might say.
This is another tall tale from Nineveh that I just can't
believe that a whole city. A whole huge global city that
was against God. Is all of a sudden for God?
Yeah, right. It's happened hundreds.
Of times in world history. It's happened.
Dozens of times in our. Nation's history.
There's an Oxford educated historian named J Edwin Orr who
tells dozens of these stories, and I want to share some with
you. In 18. 56 and 1857 more than
1,000,000 people in the US came to faith in Jesus Christ out of
a population of 30 million. Whole.
Cities New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Portland and others.
Would come to a halt at noon so that people could go and pray
from noon to 1:00 PM in New York City, a newspaper reporter.
Went to go. Find out how many people were
actually praying. He only made it to 12 churches.
Within the hour from. 12:00 to 1:00 because he couldn't make it
to all the others and he counted 6100 people in prayer.
Pastors in New York. City were saying that during
that time period 10,000 people were coming to faith in Jesus
Christ each week in Atlantic City NJ Yes that Atlantic City
NJ known for its gambling and casino and lawlessness, this
city had a 50. 1000 people at the time.
Them Christian ministers were working together to share the
gospel, and they had documented that only 50 adults were.
Left who had not. Yet put their faith in Jesus
Christ. Nothing is.
Too hard for God, God saved. Nineveh through Jonah, God saved
Ireland through Patrick, and God wants to save our region through
you and through me. We want to make this.
Place the hardest. Place on planet Earth to.
Get to hell from and it takes us getting the seed out of the bag
and sharing the powerful message of Jesus Christ.
We've been seeing this. Story through Jonah's lens and
through the people of Nineveh's lens God gave Jonah a second
chance and we saw how he responded God gave the.
Ninevites a second. Chance we saw, they responded.
What was God thinking through all of this?
The final verse says this when God saw.
What they did, how they. Turned from their evil ways, he
relented and did not bring on them the disaster, the
destruction he had threatened. God saw what they did.
If you've been around here. Recently you've been hearing
Clayton talk about how our faith and our obedience work together.
You can't have one without the other it.
Says in verse. Five they believed God, but
they. Put that faith into practice.
And obedience, as we saw a few moments ago.
And God looked and he saw what they did.
God. Is looking to see.
What you're going to do about what you've.
Heard and about the. Second chance he's given you.
But here's the other thing that I want to say is that God saw.
God is a God who sees, and he's not the.
One who sees and is. Looking to.
Pounce on you when you do evil or when you do.
Bad, he's the one who's. Looking to give you mercy?
When you choose him. This is what Second Chronicles
chapter 16, verse 9 says. For the eyes of the Lord range
throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts
are fully committed to Him. You can just see it as it were,
God. Sitting on the.
Edge of his throne in heaven, looking out.
And he's scanning the continents, He's scanning the
countries, he's scanning the cities, he's scanning the rules,
he's scanning this room, he's scanning the rooms of all of our
locations. He's scanning.
Those who are online and he's just looking and he's saying is
this one going to choose me? Is this one going to give me his
heart? Is this one going to give me her
life? And he's just.
Ready to pour out his strength and his presence.
And His love and His grace in your life, more than you can
possibly imagine. God's given us second.
Chances and the last thing that I want to say.
Is I don't want you to leave. Here and say this is great,
God's got a second. Chances.
You know what? I.
Think I'll take my chance tomorrow.
I. Think I'll take my next.
Year, You don't want to have a little bit of fun.
Tell Jonah. Ask Jonah how that fun goes in
chapter 1. It's not so fun.
God's given you a. 2nd. Chance today.
I can't promise you. What tomorrow holds, and I don't
say that to be threatening or to be morbid, but just because I
don't. Know.
I don't know what tomorrow brings.
Jonah's message to the Ninevites was 40 days I.
Don't know why it was. 40 days, but that's what God.
Told him to say. They had 40.
Days, the Book of James. Says don't boast about tomorrow
because you don't know what tomorrow's going to bring.
Do what you. Know you?
Need to do today. God is a God of second chances.
And I'm praying that you're going to take his chance today.
As we move to this. Time of decision.
I want to take a. Moment and speak directly to the
people. Who have not chosen Jesus?
Christ as your Lord and Savior. Yet I've been there.
We've all been there. I want.
To let you. Know I have 100% confidence that
God. Has called you to this place.
Tonight to hear this message. God, if you've been.
Hearing. The story of Jonah, he's not a
God of accidents. You might think that storm was
an accident. It was God chasing Nona Nineveh,
or I mean Jonah. You might think no big deal,
that I'm here tonight. I just came with my friend.
I just came because this is what I normally do.
This is a divine appointment. And God has a plan.
For the world. In second Peter. 39 says before.
He sends. Jesus back that day's.
Coming but. Before he.
Sends him back he's. Waiting.
It's like God is just saying not yet Jesus.
The father's saying not. Yet Jesus, Not yet Jesus, not
yet Jesus. Because I am wanting everyone to
come to repentance. I'm wanting everybody to choose
me. Today is.
Your chance to choose Jesus Christ and if God.
Is pulling on your heart, even just a little bit?
That's just. More of him drawing you in.
I don't want you to mistake that still small voice for just like
I. Wonder if I should do?
It I'm just like, I'm not sure is this like you're rationing
and you're rationalizing in your mind, but if you're feeling
that, that's the voice of. God speaking to you.
Jump on it. I have a friend, a pastor
friend, who says God really puts.
Things in your. Lap, but he puts.
Them in your. Reach.
God's calling you. And he's given you these signs,
these these words, these feelings you got to reach.
For it and So what? I'm asking you to do today if
you want to reach for it, if you want to find out all the God is
and all that He has for you. In just a moment.
We're going to sing another song, people.
Who comes forward to the steps to?
Pray there'll be somebody. A pastor right over.
Here under. This screen by the Baptistry.
I want to ask. You to go and talk to them and
let them know what God's doing in your life.
You can talk to the person. Who brought you if?
You'd rather do that? But talk to.
Somebody make a move today. Don't let this day escape.
Without you responding to God. For those of us who.
Are followers of Jesus Christ. Man, we have a powerful message.
We have an awesome message. And even myself, I got to
repent. God, I keep the seed in the.
Bag too much, I pre decide. Oh, is this person interested?
Or that person interested? No, we're supposed to cast the.
Seed. We're not.
Supposed to judge soil. So stop judging.
Soil and say God during this time, God give me the strength
and decide who it is that you're going to invite to Easter.
And maybe again it's. That nine of a person, that
person you wouldn't have thought, but God's.
Calling you to go to. Those that you would.
Have never thought about. Who are?
Close to you, but far from him. So during this time of response,
pray for that person. Pray that God would.
Set up the appointment the. Time when you run into that
person and talk to them and that you would be prepared.
And ready. To share an invite with them.
God's calling us and man, we don't have to be afraid of what
he's calling us. Into.
We have to be excited because he's ready to do.
Incredible things on the. Other side of our obedience
would you stand and pray? Would you just look?
Jesus in the face. In your mind.
Did you look at him? What's he calling you to do and
would you respond? God.
Thank you for all you're. Doing and we just say more Lord,
please God. We want our friends and.
Family to know you we want people who aren't our friends
and family to know you God because you're an incredible God
so we just. Say, have your way tonight.
God and do something here through us in this place that
would. Move.
The needle in our Nineveh God we.
Love you moving us right? Now in Jesus name, Amen.