God Of Second Chances
Tom Shrader examines Jonah's story as it continues in chapter 4, emphasizing that God is a God of second chances who extends grace and mercy to His people. He explores how God's call comes to Jonah a second time despite his disobedience, and applies this truth to believers today who have failed or fallen short. Shrader encourages listeners that God continues to use His people despite their failures, calling them to embrace their mission as ambassadors for Christ.
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time - He's a God of a second chance.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Jonah (2004)
Recorded: 2004 at Cannon Beach Conference Center
Duration: 48 min
Themes: grace, mercy, second chances, failure, redemption, forgiveness, calling, mission, feeling like a failure, recovering from mistakes, struggling with past sins, new believer, discouraged minister, parent who failed, leader who stumbled, missionary
Scripture: Jonah 3:1-2, Jonah 4, Romans 8:28, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Hebrews 11, Psalm 51:12, Romans 3:10, 2 Timothy 4, Acts 7:27, Ephesians 2
Theological Themes: divine grace, unmerited favor, providence, God's sovereignty, missiology, great commission, restoration, spiritual renewal
Full Transcript
Good morning! Glad that you're here, made it through the day. Last night I realized the only thing standing between you and Johnny Ray was me. This morning I realized really the only thing between you and a late lunch is me. So that really has me nervous. I can hear stomachs growling. I feel a little nervous. I feel a little pressure.
We're going to press on in this. I want to invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Jonah, as we've done the last three times that we've gathered together. Again, as Jeff mentioned, if you're here for the very first time this week, we are thrilled to have you with us. We are looking at this book that was written probably about 760 B.C. Jonah's the author, and he tells a magnificent story.
Again, if you're unfamiliar with Scripture, you're familiar with at least the idea of this guy who was swallowed by this great fish. What we're going to try to do is fill in some of the details around that for you. Hopefully this story of Jonah will come to life, because as we've said all through this, there is a little bit of Jonah in every one of us.
Jonah's Disobedience and the Storm
We've seen the sailors who were part of this story. Jonah comes. God calls him to go to Nineveh. Jonah heads in exactly the opposite direction. God essentially calls him to go kind of east, maybe a little northeast. Jonah goes down, catches a ship in Joppa, and heads exactly west.
Immediately his sin has its effect on the sailors that are on board this small vessel. They are influenced by Jonah's sin. There's this great storm. Verse 4 says, "The Lord hurled a great wind in the sea." There's this great storm that comes. The sailors in verse 5 were afraid. There's a progression there, because in verse 10, all of a sudden they are extremely frightened.
What's happened is all of a sudden, they have pinpointed the cause of the storm. Supernatural in its genesis, meaning God caused it. One reason for this is this guy named Jonah. In fact, they're saying, "Who are you, Jonah? What's the deal, Jonah? What country are you from?" In verse 8 and then verse 9, he said, "I'm a Hebrew. I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."
This caused them to be extremely afraid, because they'd heard stories about the Hebrews and the God that they worshipped. They'd heard these magnificent stories about the God who delivered the plagues on Egypt and the nation of Israel from Egypt and part of the Red Sea. So they knew this God. Now they're very much afraid.
The Sailors' Transformation
So they decide, what are we supposed to do? And Jonah says, throw me overboard. They try desperately to avoid that. Verse 14, they begin to cry out to the Lord themselves. "We call upon the Lord. We pray, O Lord, the Lord has done as He pleases." Three times we see that phrase, "the Lord," there in verse 14.
And finally, they've reached their end. They're hopeless. They're helpless. They don't know what to do. They pick up Jonah. They throw him into the sea. And immediately, the sea stops in terms of its waves and its rage. They were afraid when the sea started. They were afraid when they heard of Jonah as being a Hebrew. Now in verse 16, they feared the Lord greatly. There's a magnificent progression there.
And then God continues to move. He uses a storm. We saw that back in verse 4. Verse 17 of chapter 1, "the Lord appointed a great fish to follow, to swallow Jonah." And this fish is ordained by God. He swallows him.
Jonah's Prayer from the Fish
And now, chapter 2, and it's what we looked at last night. Chapter 2 is essentially a prayer. It begins that Jonah then turned and prayed from the stomach of the fish. And we spent some time last night demonstrating to you historically, while it's not a very common fact, there are times throughout history when there have been animals or humans who have been swallowed by great fishes, and they've survived at least a period of 48 hours, maybe longer. Jonah, three days, three nights.
Jonah then prays. And it opened up that discussion. We didn't give you an answer last night. It's for you to formulate your own answer, whether he was dead or alive in the belly of the fish. My sense is that he prayed right away. And he offers this magnificent prayer.
He does not shrink at all in any way, shape, or form from his responsibility in all this. He acknowledges his sin. He acknowledges that God is just. He acknowledges that God has indeed judged his sin. And then he says, you know what, however, I think I'll go to that temple again. He seems to give us a sense that he believes that there is this thing called resurrection or this life again or this opportunity will take place. And he said, "I think I'll go to the temple again," verse 4 of chapter 2.
The Warning About False Idols
And we closed last night in verse 9. There's a warning. He said, "Those who pursue vain idols will forsake for their faithfulness." In other words, a promise is only as good as the person, the entity, the source that makes it. And if you're trusting an object to do something that it doesn't have the capacity to do, it can't do that. So you trust the Lord, the false God that you've made, but you forfeit this idea of faithfulness.
And then there is sacrifice and thanksgiving. And there is a vow because, verse 9 of chapter 2, "salvation is from the Lord."
Thanksgiving in All Circumstances
We had a guy on our staff at church who had some severe headaches. And one day, in fact, on a Sunday driving to church, it was so severe that his wife took him to the hospital. He went and did some tests and discovered tumors and it was a brain cancer. And it was a period of about three years there, and then ultimately he died. His favored verse was 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 18, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus."
We want to make clear here that we are to give thanks in all circumstances. Even in the midst of this, he is giving thanks. Romans chapter 8, verse 28. A powerful verse. It's a verse that we go back to again and again and again. You know that verse? What's it say? "All things work together for good. Those who love God are..."
called according to His purpose. Is that what it says? All things work together? Is that what it says? Once we ask you that question, then you begin to say, "Oh, maybe it doesn't say that." It does say that, but there's actually something that precedes that in the verse. It says this: "And we know God causes all things to work together for good." It's a subtle difference, isn't it?
If I start with this idea that all things work together for good, all of a sudden, that verse is kind of about me. If I read it in its entirety, that verse is all about God. "And we know God causes all things to work together for good." To everyone? No. To those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. It's a source of great comfort to you and to me.
What We Know Trumps What We Feel
I've touched on this little phrase a couple of times. I want to go back to it again. It's important for you and I, in our life as followers of Christ, to capture this truth: What we know trumps what we feel.
I'm sitting home on a Thursday night, phone rings. Susan gets the phone, and she's pretty good at keeping stuff from kind of just drifting in. I hear her, and I can understand it's something, but for whatever reason, they got by her, and she said, "Let me get Tom." So I came to the phone. I heard this hysterical voice crying. The phone dropped. Somebody picked it up, identified who the original speaker was, and said, "Listen, she just got a call. It was 7 o'clock on a Thursday night. Just got a call. Her husband was just killed in a helicopter wreck."
She had talked to him an hour or two before, and there were plans of him coming home. He was over in California, and he was doing some test piloting. He was training, and what had happened is, his helicopter and another helicopter had crashed. Just an hour or two before, she had talked to him about, "You're going to be home tomorrow. We're planning this. We're going to do it with the kids. This is the weekend." All that goes with it.
So I get over to the house. When I get over to the house, I'm sure you've been in situations like this before. But as you get over to the house, you've got just now an outpouring of sympathy and concern, and people are coming. It's just a great time. But when somebody comes in, every time when they come in, you regurgitate the entire episode. You go through this whole process again and again and again.
She's sitting there, and I'm sitting here, and we're getting nowhere. So I said, "We're going to go out in the back, or we're going to go for a walk, or we're going to go talk." So we're walking along, and she's saying to me, "Tom, I want to know it's going to be all right."
We're walking along, and we've been talking for about a half hour, and I said, "Tell me what you're feeling." I said, "Just let her fly." She said, "I'm angry. I'm hurt. I'm confused. I'm afraid. What's going to happen to me? What's going to happen to the kids? What's going to happen here? What's going to take place?" And she just goes, "Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam."
I said, "Are you done?" She said, "No. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam." She let it all out. We're all at the end. I said, "Now you're finished?" "Yes." I said, "Now, here's the deal. Tell me what you know."
"Well, I know God will never leave me or forsake me. I know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose—that's me. I know that if I seek first His kingdom, He will take care of all these other things." And she just started with a litany of these things.
Now when she was all done, I said, "You all done?" She said, "I'm all done." I said, "Now let me tell you something. Everything's going to be OK."
Storms Will Come for Different Reasons
Very, very important to grab this in your life. Because you know what? Just like there's storms in this story, there are going to be storms in your life. Some of them are going to be caused by your own sin. Some of them are going to be caused by the sin of the people around you. Some of them are going to have nothing to do with your sin, but it's just simply going to be God either causing or allowing you to be tested and tried. Why? For a reason, for a purpose.
"Count it all joy," James says, "when you encounter various trials." Why is that? Why would I count it joy? "Praise God I have cancer." Why would I say that? "Praise God there's a wreck. Praise God." Why would I count it all joy? "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials" because what? "The testing of your faith produces endurance."
The Testing That Produces Endurance
If you've been around for a while as a Christian—and I don't mean whether you're young or old, I just mean in the Lord for a while—you start to pray for a strong finish. Bob Craning is kind of a temporary permanent fixture here at Cannon Beach, isn't he? Craning's up here all the time. I don't know, two or three years ago, Bob's in Phoenix. So he calls and we're having dinner. I said, "What are you working on? What's the deal?" He said, "Tom, here's what I want: I want to finish strong."
That's what we want. We want endurance as a Christian. We want to break the tape in our Christian life. We keep saying this isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. We're in here and we want to finish strong. We want to cross that finish line. We want to be doing something for God's glory all the way through, right through the end. Isn't that right? Yes, it is.
So we begin to pray: "God, I want perseverance. God, I want to hang in there to the end. God, I want endurance spiritually." Well, let's go back to the verse. It's the testing of your faith that produces endurance. So you pray, "God, I want endurance," and He hears, "God, let me suffer." That's what He hears. "Bring it on." Because that's how we grow.
The same thing is true physically. It's hard for you to look at this and imagine this, but about two years ago, I started working out. It really makes you wonder how fat was he when he started this process. So the first time I go to the gym, I don't know anything.
God's Training Program
They asked me, "Do you want a trainer or something?" I said, "I don't need a trainer. I'm going to just get on one of these machines." So I get on the machine and they give you choices. "What do you want?" I thought, "Well, I'll just take a manual workout." "How long do you want to be on the machine?" I said, "30 minutes." "What kind of level do you want?" "So what are the choices?" "One to 20." I said, "17."
So I get on this thing and I'm cruising along. Then I see the clock's counting down, like from 30 to 29:50. So I put my towel over the thing so I don't have to look at it. Now I'm going and I'm going. My knees and legs are starting to quiver a little, and I'm starting to shake. Your mouth starts to water just a little bit. I'm thinking, "I've got to be about done." I lift up the towel and it says 27:01. So I've got less than three minutes in, and there's a big red button that says "stop." When you hit that, it stops. So I hit that.
I got off feeling very good, and there are weight circuits there. I thought, "Well, I'm going to do some weights now." There's a girl - a little girl about this size, maybe just a little bit smaller - and she's working out, lifting weights. She's going through the machines. The first machine, I figured, "You know what? I don't want to mess around. I'm just going to leave the weights right where she's got them." This little girl moves from that to the next machine, and I sit down. I can't even move the weights. That's a little embarrassing, but there are only about two more plates. The long story short: I spend another 10 or 15 minutes following her down there, and I can't do her routine.
I drive home - it's about a mile and a half - and I stop three times because I'm not feeling good. That's what they call aerobics. Now when I go, I can just punch in 30 or 45 minutes and just do it. I don't start at 17, though. I start at 14 and go to 12 and then 10 as I increase my time. My weights are higher and higher and higher. I could beat her now if I got her on one of those machines.
Spiritual Aerobics
Here's what I want you to see. That's aerobic activity. Grab this now - this is really important. Suffering, trial, tribulation are spiritual aerobics. Suffering, trial, or tribulation test you. They pull you. You find yourself sometimes saying, "I don't know if I can take any more. I don't know if I can handle this anymore."
It's as though - the phrase that one author uses - God knows the maximum elasticity of our faith. In other words, He knows how much He can pull us. So He'll take us like a band and He'll pull us. We'll say, "I can't take anymore." He'll say, "Really?" "I can't take anymore." "Oh, really?" "I can't take anymore." Finally He backs off. We go, "Oh, wow, we're done. We're done with this suffering."
No, no. All we've done is loosen up the band so that we can just start out here next time. Why? Because God doesn't like you? No. Because God doesn't love you? No. Because God loves you and He's going to use you. But He's got to get you prepared for life. Part of being prepared for life is suffering, trials, tribulations, difficulties.
Storms in Life
So just like there are storms coming in Jonah's life, there will be those storms in your life. You should not grow weary or tired. But you will. But your strength is in the Lord. The harder you row, just like these sailors - they're rowing and rowing and rowing and rowing - they're going to do it on their own. Finally they say, "We can't do it. We're going to do what God says. We're going to throw this guy overboard." Now comes the response.
God calls you to be obedient. We know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Is that you? If that's you, there's great comfort. If that's not you, if you're here and you're not a Christian, please don't derive one ounce of comfort from this. Don't be satisfied one bit, because this doesn't apply to you. Exactly the opposite. Things are not going to all work out together for good for you.
The Gospel Call
God has offered His son Jesus Christ. We sang about it beautifully. John talked about it, sang about it, Jeremy sang about it. We sang about the crucifixion and Christ coming. Jesus has been here. He died so that you and I can have eternal life. He's come that you might have life and have it abundantly. You'll have it abundantly - life here if you come in repentance and faith. If you don't come to Him, you won't.
Jonah cries out from the belly of the fish. Jonah acknowledges what you and I know is true: Salvation is from the Lord.
God's Deliverance
Look at verse 10 now of chapter 2: "Then God commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land."
One author writes this: "Jonah's experience came to symbolize the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, but the symbolism may be extended further. The death and resurrection of Christ have meaning to the believer in that in death we die to sin, and in the new life we receive Jesus. You're dead to sin. You have broken the bonds of sin." When Jesus died on the cross, and you...
and I come to understand that as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, and we see this truth, when that moment takes place, and we come and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, we confess that God raised Him from the dead, believe in our heart that He is raised, and that He is Lord, at that moment we're a child of the King, we're a Christian, and we've been freed. We're free. We're no longer enslaved to sin.
We're so free, because we live in a country that kind of says I want to be free, and it translates it this way, meaning I want to do whatever I want to do. I'm free. Nobody can tell me what to do. I still do it. I did it about a month ago. I'm walking through the mall, and there's a rail. I'm going upstairs, and there's a sign that says wet paint, and I walked right over and went, yep, there's the wet paint. I don't know how I'm going to get it off my hand, and I got a mark on that rail. How stupid am I? The minute we see it, we see it all over.
Aren't we like that? You're driving around, and you get back into some of these wooded areas, and you'll see these magnificent yellow pristine signs that say gentle turn up ahead, or S turn, or bumps, and there are these signs like they hung them yesterday. There's these brand new beautiful signs, and then there will be a sign that says no shooting, and it's filled full of bullet holes. Nobody's going to tell me what to do.
True Freedom in Christ
We're not free to do whatever we want to do. Paul says I'm free from the bondage of sin, and therefore I'm a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're free. A couple of things. Three things. Number one, that means you don't have to sin anymore. You're no longer in that bondage of sin.
I love TV. I don't know. I kind of get the feeling that in the Northwest, TV isn't that big. You got a lot of other stuff like fishing, and hunting, and hiking, and biking, and all these kind of things they did when they didn't have TV really because now you have TV, so you don't have to hunt, and fish, and bike, and hike. You can watch TV. We get TV land. On TV land, whenever they introduce a new show like Andy Griffith or they bring in, they'll have a whole marathon. Well, a couple of months ago, they had a whole marathon of the Flip Wilson shows. I forgot how funny Flip Wilson was. This guy was really funny. When he does Geraldine, it is really good.
But Flip Wilson popularized one phrase, didn't he? His phrase was this. The devil made me do it. You can't say that anymore as a Christian. You're free from the bondage of sin. You're free from the destruction of sin. Here's another thing, and you're free to be the person that God created you to be and made you to be.
Jeff alluded to it, and he was teasing, but I'll tell you, when I talk, it's serious. When I hear something like Johnny sing, I want to sing like that. Or when I'm watching Evan lead, he isn't a happy guy. He's just a happy little guy. He's just a happy guy. I want to be like that. I'm not. I don't know why he's so happy. He mustn't understand the complicated world we live in, but he's happy. He's just a happy guy, and I'm thinking, I wish I could be like that. And he's a happy guy, and he's a downbeat. He's got the downbeat. And Jeremy, I mean, I look at that, and I want to be that, but here's the deal. God didn't make you that way. God made you to be you, and you're free to be you. You're free to be the person that God created you to be.
The Second Chance
Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah's now vomited onto dry land, and we are going to spend about twenty, twenty-five minutes. We're going to take two points. We are not going to get through necessarily both of them this afternoon. We'll finish up tonight. Two points. You want to get this. Look at verse 1 of chapter 3 because there's a phrase in there that jumps right off the page that ought to bring a big old fat smile to your face. You see it? The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.
He's a God of a second chance. So that's one point. The second point is this. Just like Jonah had a call on his life, you have a call on your life to be a missionary. If you want to camp on this, we'll just spend a little bit of time here as we start chapter 3.
James Boyce writes this: "The third chapter of Jonah contains the high point of this remarkable story. For however remarkable the preceding action had been, however the great miracles, the most remarkable action, the greatest miracles, are the results of Jonah's preaching. The result was the greatest and most thorough revival that has ever taken place." Now I'm blowing the story. Jonah's going to go to Nineveh, and there's going to be this magnificent revival that takes place. But I want to camp on this. The word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time.
God's Grace and Mercy
We see God's grace and mercy here. God would have been greatly justified. He's clearly declared to Jonah, here's what I want you to do. Jonah goes the other way. God was perfectly justified in saying, Jonah, that's enough. Or maybe even after Jonah had come out of the belly of that fish, we, if we were God, God forbid, might have said, you know what? That was really pretty interesting, Jonah. And I'm glad you came to your senses. But you know what, Jonah? I'm not interested in a guy like you. I gave you a shot. I couldn't have made it more plain that you come around a little bit later. That's good. But Jonah, you've blown it.
Humanly, I find, and I run in, I think, some pretty narrow circles, the way we think. Maybe too narrow. I find us long on doctrine but a little short on love and grace. And I've certainly been like that in my life. Somebody blows it in our scheme, that's it. I gave you a chance. I gave you the opportunity. You screwed it up. And that's it. We're done.
But the Word of the Lord comes a second time to Jonah. The Word comes to Him, and He says, here's what I want you to do. Look at verse 2. Arise and
Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation which I'm going to tell you. That is remarkably similar to chapter 1, verse 2: "Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city." In that case, cry out against its wickedness. But now the message, apparently, has changed just a bit. Proclaim the thing that I'm going to give to you. He's a God of the second chance.
Now I want to take this and just apply it. We see it through the Old Testament. We see it through the New Testament. We see it in your life. We see it in my life.
Second Chances in the Old Testament
Look at the Old Testament. You see a guy like Jacob. Jacob is just kind of this guy that's an interesting guy, but he's kind of a trickster. He's always playing the angle. It's as though he's always looking for the shortest route or the thing that benefits him. And yet, when I flip to Hebrews 11 in the Hall of Fame of Faith, there he is. God shows great patience with Jacob.
How about Moses? Moses decides that being an Israelite, it's time for him to lead the people out of Egypt. So he goes and he kills an Egyptian. In Acts chapter 7, verse 27, Stephen said that his own people—he's talking about why Moses killed this Egyptian—that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them. And God says, that's not how we're going to do it, Moses. He takes Moses and puts him on the shelf. He puts Moses in time out for four decades.
Now he comes back to Moses and Moses said, "I stutter, I stammer, I can't even speak. I'm not the guy." And now God says, "Oh, my man, now you're exactly the guy. Because when you thought you were slick and had the plan and you had the strategic plan and the five-year plan and it was all on your PowerPoint and everything was ready to go, you weren't the guy then because you were trusting in your plan. You were trusting in your own expertise. But Moses, I got you right where I want you. You're right up against it, Moses. Now you've given up on your own gifts and talents, on your own expertise and your own power, and now you're ready to do it my way."
How about our buddy David? Nobody blows it bigger than David, really. David should be out with his guys and he's not. He's up on the roof. He spots Bathsheba and says, "Bring her." Now they sin and he doesn't know what to do, so he says, "I'm going to bring her husband home." This is an interesting part of the story that gets lost. David brings her husband home who's a warrior, and he arranges it that he can meet him that night and sends word, "Go be with your wife." The idea was they would be intimate after a period of time and then say, "Well, that's what happened here." But the warrior says, "I couldn't do that. My men are out there. I'm going to sleep right here on the porch." So David ultimately has him killed.
David cries out in Psalm 51:12, "Restore unto me the joy of my salvation," and God does. In fact, in God's word, He describes David as a man after His own heart.
Second Chances in the New Testament
Fast forward to the New Testament. Think of second chances. I think of two guys right off the bat. One of them is a no-brainer. Who's the first one you think of? Peter. Don't you think of Peter?
Poor Peter needs a public relations guy so bad to help him out because every time we think of Peter, we think of the rooster. Every time we think of Peter, that's what we think of. Every time. We think of a big old dumb fisherman, Peter and the rooster. And that was the story.
You know the story. There's Peter and he has just said to Jesus, "These other guys, I don't know if they can cut it, but I can cut it. I'll be here till the end. You couldn't get rid of me. There's nowhere else for me to go. I'll die with you." Just a short period of time later, here he is following Jesus at a distance. He's been arrested and now the trial is going to take place and there are people who come up to him. Three instances. Little servant girl. Little person. "You're one of His." "I am not." "You're one of His." "I am not." "You were with Him, weren't you?" And he curses and says no. And the rooster crows. All the scriptures say he went away and wept bitterly.
But when Jesus is raised from the dead, the first old boy in there is Peter. It's Peter that Jesus appears to. I don't want to read too much into it, but if you get to the end of John's Gospel, it's Peter that Jesus addresses when He says, "Do you love me?" And then He says it a second time, "Do you love me?" And then He says it a third time, "Do you love me?" Almost as always, He's modeling that same process.
This Peter, big old dumb fisherman Peter, when you get to the book of Acts, Peter's now preaching messages and thousands of people are responding. But something in us kind of keeps Peter in the Gospels and doesn't let him get to the book of Acts.
Let me give you one more illustration. It's a great one. The guy's name is John Mark. Perhaps, probably, maybe even likely, the Last Supper was celebrated at John Mark's house. John Mark is kin to Barnabas. Paul's heading out on this first missionary journey and Barnabas says, "I got this guy, he's a young guy, we're going to need somebody to carry everything and do the work. Let's bring John Mark." And so they say fine.
Early on in this trip, and we never really know why, John Mark blows out. He fails. They're getting ready for the second missionary trip. Barnabas comes to Paul and says, "Paul, I want to bring somebody." And Paul says—
Says, who? And he said, I want to bring Mark. And Paul said, did you say the dog barks? And he said, no, I want to bring Mark. Mark? We're not bringing him. L-L-O-O-S-S-E-E-R-R, loser, loser, loser. He ain't going with us, my friend. We took him, we tried him, we tested him, he failed. Isn't that the story?
And these two giants of the faith, Paul and Barnabas, separate over this. Paul heads out with Silas. Barnabas heads out with Mark. Whatever happens to Mark? Well, he wrote a gospel. Luke. No, he wrote Mark.
At the end of his life, here's to me the great thing. At the end of his life, in 2 Timothy, last chapter, last recorded words we have from the pen of the apostle Paul. He says to Timothy, hurry up and come, will you? Only Luke is with me. The others have deserted. And then he says this, and pick up Mark, for he's useful for service.
God Gives Second Chances
See, that's what I want you to get out of this, is that God is a God of a second chance. And you might be sitting here today, and you've blown it, and you've screwed up, and there's no denying it. You know what you need to do? Confess it. Go to those that you've hurt. Do the best you can to try to make it right. And then rock on, my friend. Then press on.
Because I'll take some pressure off. You're going to screw it up again. And you're going to screw it up again, and you're going to screw it up again, because that's the way we are. It's this thing called sin. And we start doing these things we don't want to do. And we don't do the things we want to do. And there's this whole process in there. And God's a God of a second chance.
That does not become an excuse for license. Don't go trotting out of here and saying, well, I guess I can sin, because God's going to forgive me and forgive me and forgive me and forgive me. God's a God of a second chance, and He's faithful. And He'll use you.
Your Value in God's Eyes
That's what I want you to see. You have great value right here, right now. Not necessarily intrinsic value, but value that's placed in you as the Holy Spirit indwells you. God will use you in mighty, mighty, mighty ways.
And the minute I say that, you think of these great big things. Here's what I mean. It may be something so powerful and mighty as you influence in the life of a three-year-old. That's an extraordinary thing.
Some of you in this room, and I don't mean to break this to you in a harsh way, but you're old. You're old. I mean, you just are. And you're teeing off on the 18th hole of life. But you know what? God's not done with you. God's going to use you all the way through to the end.
And oftentimes, in those last years, the most powerful years, there's something about listening to a person. And I'm telling you, those of you who are old and you think, nobody cares anymore, these young people are dying to be around people like you. They love to hear the stories. They love to hear you talk about what's going on in your life. They love to hear you talk about all the things you've seen. They love to hear about how God's faithfully provided in your life.
And oftentimes, you are going to become more influential in their life than either mom and dad because of that little bit of time in there where they say, mom and dad, I'm not sure we'll be back. And we'll come and check in with you when we're 21, okay? But not right now. And you can have a great life and a great influence on your grandkids.
I'm walking across campus one day. There's this probably kid about 12, 13. And I mean, he's happy as a master. What's the deal? Why are you so happy? He said, I just got an email from my grandpa.
God is Also a God of First Chances
He's a God of a second chance. Now, I want to make this point because I think that's amazing. Would you agree? I think it's amazing that He's a God of a second chance. I'll tell you something that amazes me just as much is that He's a God of a first chance.
Romans chapter 3, verse 10, Paul gives us God's assessment of man. And here's how God sees you and me. Natural man. So when we talk about man, we're talking about natural man. Man, woman, boy, girl, how we come into this world, a person apart from Christ. Here's what he says: There's none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they've become useless. There's none who does good, not even one.
Now, don't you kind of go, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Come on. Nobody does good. Nobody seeks after God. Come on. This town is filled with crystals and everything else with all sorts of people seeking God. No, they're not seeking the one true God. They're running away from the one true God. They're seeking gods that they create in their own image and their own likeness. I think it was Voltaire that said, God made man in His image, and man has been returning the favor ever since. That we create God.
Creating God in Our Own Image
And I can tell you, I can prove this. This is so simple. See, I think this stuff is really simple. And it's all around you when you just start to connect dots. You'll know that there's people around you who are making God in their own image because here's what will happen. You'll talk to them. There was this guy at the conference center and he was talking about David. And David took a census and 70,000 people were killed. And then they'll say something like this: My God would never. And that's true. Your God would never. That's the point. You've created your own God.
And so our God has kind of a lighthearted view of sin. You know, I wish they wouldn't do it. It'd be my preference that man didn't act this way. But they do. And, you know, that's just kind of the way they are. Crack the mold a little and didn't get... Took those human cookies out of the oven a little too soon and never quite got done. Never quite got cooked. But God says no one's that way. What's the difference? You and I, very important
Now, you and I look at the action. God looks at the heart. Watch this. We're a couple months away from Thanksgiving. I don't know about up here, but I can tell you what's going to happen down in Phoenix. All of a sudden, Thanksgiving week, all the disc jockeys who play this junk all year long will start collecting turkeys. They're going to take turkeys to the homeless shelter and feed the poor, which is a good thing. Even people will go down and start to work in the food bank.
The local radio station, local news, which essentially provides no service that I can see of any value, will then go down seeking something to cover. So they will cover this guy at the food bank and they will say, "Bob, is that your name?" "Yes." "Bob, do you have a family?" "I have a family." "Bob, how come you're not home with your family?" "I wanted to be here and I wanted to do this." "Bob, why do you do this?" The answer is important. Bob will say, "It makes me feel good."
He doesn't even feed hungry people because they're hungry. He feeds them because it makes him feel good. Because that's our heart. That's what God's revealing right here.
The Truth About Human Motivation
He's saying even when you see somebody out there and they're doing this great work and these great things, but they don't know Jesus, they don't know Christ, their motivation is truly human. If in no other way to try to somehow appease the Holy God, which they know they can't do because no one is good. No, not one. None. Zero. No exceptions. They've become useless. It's like a piece of fruit that has gone beyond ripe and into rotten. It is of no value anymore.
They don't do good. They may do good by your standards and by my standards. We may look around and say, there's something really incredible about that person. They've given their life and they've sacrificed and they've done all this. We may look at it and say, they're a good person. We'll even say that sometimes, won't we? "He's a good guy." But that's our limited view. God says there's no one good.
Here's what I want you to see. He's describing, very important now, you. We're going to read this and go, "Yeah, boy, those people are lousy." Yes, they are. There's no question about it. They're bad. And so are you. And so am I. See, that's what He's saying there.
God's Response to Our Sin
Now, when we get to the second chance, we'll get there in a minute. But I'm talking about the first chance. There's this moment in time. Man sins. God had every right to punish and send every man who's ever lived to hell. But He decides not to do that. He provides His Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus comes and lives and dies. Why? Because He had to become the perfect sacrifice. He is the substitutionary atonement for you. In other words, He took your place. When Jesus is hanging on the cross, Jesus, who all through His earthly ministry has referred to God as Father, Father, my Father, on the cross He says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
At that moment, Jesus was punished as though He were guilty of every sin that every believer would ever commit. It's thrust upon Him. This God who hates sin takes on sin itself. What an extraordinary moment that had to be. I don't think we can even begin to get our arms around that. I'll never know how much it cost. Isn't that what we sang? "To see my sin upon that cross."
A Personal Transformation
See, if you're here today and you're a Christian, this was your autobiographical description here in Romans 3. Just like God does as He's writing in His words, just like He does in Ephesians, He lays out you were dead, and your sins and trespasses, and then that marvelous two-word phrase, "but God," "but God," in spite of you, not because of you.
Somebody and I, because I can go on down this road for a while, and I start to identify myself as pond scum is the term that I use. So I one day get this letter from this lady, and she said, "You're way too hard on yourself. You're way too hard. You have low self-esteem." Well, I have friends who say my self-esteem is too high. So the two of you ought to get together, figure out where my esteem is.
But I don't have low self-esteem. I don't have high self-esteem. In fact, that's what Adolph Tozer says. If we're filled with self-aggrandizement, that's wrong. If we're filled with self-deprecation, that's wrong, because in either end, we're thinking about ourself. Jesus' message to you and me is to deny ourself and to take over Christ and to follow Him.
That lady wrote me, and she said, "You've got low self-esteem. You refer to yourself as pond scum." I emailed her back and said, "I had to elevate my position to get it to pond scum. I just didn't know what was under that." But do you see that? I mean, I like to joke about that, but do you see that? That's you.
The Heart of Worship
Now, all of a sudden, when it's time tonight to sing worship and praise, now you can sing with a whole new heart, because you weren't righteous. You didn't understand. You didn't seek after God. But God sought after you, and God saved you, not because of you. He saved you in spite of you.
He didn't look at you and say, "Boy, if I can just get a hold of her, if I can just get a hold of him and take off some of the rough edges, that's a real trophy for me." No, God looks at you. He sees in you and me no redeeming quality. He doesn't look at us and say, "There's really something. Deep down inside, that's a good..." Isn't that what you hear all the time?
We've got to close. A friend of mine and I, we've got this mutual friend. One day he said, "So-and-so, deep, deep, deep down inside, he's really a good guy." I said, "Look it. Deep, deep down really inside, this guy is a jerk. I don't see anything. I don't know how deep you could go to find something in there."
It's like an onion. That's what I've heard of people. People are like onions. You have to peel away the skin then you get to the core. Let's stay on that. You and I are like an onion. As we peel it away, we go, that's...
God's View of Our Condition
That's worse than I ever dreamed it was going to be in there. That's really bad. That's God's view of man.
Our Purpose as God's Ambassadors
So here's the point today. God's a God of second chances. God gave you and me the first chance when He saved us from our sin and now He'll use you. That's what I want you to see. You have a purpose, a mission, a reason for being here. The reason for being here, among other things, is exactly the same job description that Jonah has. You are an ambassador for Christ. You are a missionary.
Moving Forward Together
So we're going to talk about tonight and we're going to head in, close out chapter 3, chapter 4, and we're going to go on our way. We're going to go on our way, I hope, with our life transformed.
This is about the time in a weekend when things start to kick in. You've been away a while. Some of the other things you've forgotten. And now all of a sudden, a lot of times right about in here is where God starts to touch a lot of hearts. Don't push that away. Cry out and ask Him to open your eyes, to touch your heart, see what He'll do for you. I'm going to pick up right there tonight.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for this truth. Thank You for this Christian conference center where we can come and just look around and we just see this magnificent place that You've brought together for us. And then we can enjoy it. Thanks for Evan and his team and Johnny and his music and the way that You use those to touch our hearts and open our eyes. For Jeff and the staff, the way they're here just to serve us. God, so that You can touch our hearts so that we can be refreshed as Your servants and now we can go and do likewise. God, we pray for this afternoon. We pray for this day. Pray for the kids that they would be not just safe, but they too would be refreshed and restored. God, thank You for Jesus. We pray to You this afternoon in His name. Amen.
You are dismissed. Dinner in 25 minutes.