WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.379 I don't know if you ever play those kind of word association games. So you say a word and 00:00:05.379 --> 00:00:10.040 ! you have to say what comes into your mind. So if I said to you Scotland, I wonder what 00:00:10.040 --> 00:00:16.820 ! come into your mind. Rain? Possibly. Cold weather? Possibly. A rugby team who fought valiantly 00:00:16.820 --> 00:00:24.780 on Saturday but still lost. Try another word. God. What comes into your mind when you hear 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:31.720 the word God? Many people have different reactions. I was chatting to my neighbour a couple of 00:00:31.720 --> 00:00:37.120 weeks, or last week. In fact it was this day last week. And for him, religion is just unnecessary. 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:44.380 Why do I want to have religion? God is irrelevant. And he then said, well doesn't God say things 00:00:44.380 --> 00:00:50.579 like, if you obey me, then you can have eternal life? Well that just sounds selfish and petty. 00:00:50.579 --> 00:00:57.159 So words like selfish and petty come into Paul's mind when he thinks of God. Others of course 00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:04.079 go further. Richard Dawkins and the New Atheists, they describe God as fictional for a start, but 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:10.879 as a capricious, mean, malevolent bully. Some people do have that idea, don't they? Or for 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:16.200 others, maybe people think of God as a kind of cuddly grandfather, giving you little sweets 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:20.519 every now and again to keep you happy and generally being nice. Mum and Dad do the tough discipline, 00:01:20.979 --> 00:01:27.280 Grandad, he's the softie you can look to. Or others perhaps have a view of God as a kind 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:32.319 of stern headmaster. All right if you're on the right side of him, but if you step out 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:36.620 of line you could be in trouble. I think that's perhaps the idea I had growing up. I don't 00:01:36.620 --> 00:01:41.039 know where I got it from, because it's certainly not what my parents taught me, but something 00:01:41.039 --> 00:01:48.979 about life seemed to give me that impression. But as we look at this story in Jonah chapter 00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:55.180 three, this real story, something that happened, I want us to think, what does it tell me about 00:01:55.180 --> 00:02:00.340 God? What is this God of the Bible like? As we walk through the story, we're going to see 00:02:00.340 --> 00:02:06.460 four things about this God in all. The first one of them is there in verse one. The word 00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:13.120 of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:18.979 time. He is a God who gives second chances. He's a God who gives second chances. When you 00:02:18.979 --> 00:02:24.879 think about this, what had Jonah done to possibly deserve a second chance? God had said, go to 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:30.639 Nineveh, he'd gone in the opposite direction to Tarshish. All through chapter one, he'd been 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:35.699 completely hopeless and useless. The pagan sailors were calling out to God. Jonah had hidden 00:02:35.699 --> 00:02:40.279 himself down below the depths. The pagan sailors had been concerned about Jonah's life. Jonah 00:02:40.279 --> 00:02:44.399 hadn't been concerned about himself. He didn't even seem terribly worried about the sailors' 00:02:44.559 --> 00:02:54.519 lives. Yet despite Jonah's defiance and disobedience, God gives him a second chance. Yeah, when my 00:02:54.520 --> 00:03:01.160 children do things that deliberately defy mummy and daddy, they know they're in trouble. It's 00:03:01.160 --> 00:03:05.160 a firm boundary there. If you do exactly the opposite of what I've just told you, there 00:03:05.160 --> 00:03:11.920 will be big consequences. Now, we love them, so they do get more chances as well. But notice, 00:03:12.160 --> 00:03:19.020 what does God say to Jonah? All he says is, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call 00:03:19.020 --> 00:03:27.200 out to it, it should be, the message that I tell you. No recriminations. No, Jonah, don't 00:03:27.200 --> 00:03:31.260 want you to do what you did last time. No, Jonah, if you do that again, I'm not going to send 00:03:31.260 --> 00:03:37.340 away all next time. No, Jonah, I want to make sure you're really sorry before I use you again. 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:44.540 He says, the God who gives second chances. He forgets Jonah's rebellion. How good are we 00:03:44.539 --> 00:03:49.539 at forgiving and forgetting? Sometimes we can forgive, can't we, but we're often not 00:03:49.539 --> 00:03:54.159 very good at forgetting. Somewhere in our minds, we always remember what he did to me, what 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:59.239 she said to me. Here is this God who gives second chances. He doesn't bring anything back 00:03:59.239 --> 00:04:05.439 again. And this is not just the way he treats Jonah. It's the way he acts consistently through 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:10.139 the Bible. Some of you may know the story of Samson, a man who God has supremely gifted, 00:04:10.139 --> 00:04:16.539 and yet a man who had thrown it all back in God's face, just as Jonah did. And yet as 00:04:16.539 --> 00:04:23.719 Samson is imprisoned, ready to die, he prays. And God hears his prayer. He gives Samson's 00:04:23.719 --> 00:04:30.860 second chance. And Samson does more to fulfill the mission God gave him in his dying act, pushing 00:04:30.860 --> 00:04:36.360 down a temple that he did in the rest of his life. Or think about Peter. And Peter had 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:43.139 denied knowing Jesus. Denied knowing Jesus three times. Yet what does Jesus do after the 00:04:43.139 --> 00:04:50.400 resurrection? Goes for a walk with Peter, especially reinstates him and recommissions him. The God 00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:56.740 of the Bible, the one true God, is a God who gives second chances. I don't know about you, 00:04:56.920 --> 00:05:00.980 but I know I need those second chances. Not just second or third or fourth, but thousands 00:05:00.980 --> 00:05:07.340 and thousands of chances. But he's a God who gives them. There's also a second chance 00:05:07.340 --> 00:05:12.920 for Jonah. There's a second chance for Nineveh as well. God wants this message to get to Nineveh. 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:18.480 So the fact that Jonah had gone in the wrong direction last time does not stop God's determination 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:24.920 to get his message to Nineveh. They have a second chance to hear it as well. And we can see 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:30.879 a little echo of God's compassion for Nineveh. Compare chapter 1 verse 2 to chapter 3 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:34.600 verse 2. These are the two commands Jonah's given. So chapter 1 verse 2, he's told, 00:05:35.180 --> 00:05:40.899 Call out against Nineveh, for their evil has come before me. Whereas in chapter 3 verse 00:05:40.899 --> 00:05:47.439 2, it says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out, it says against it in our 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:52.360 versions, in the original it actually says to it, rather than against it. Subtly different. 00:05:53.540 --> 00:05:58.879 Call out to it the message that I tell you. The emphasis now is on Jonah to just obey what 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:06.139 he's heard. There isn't mention at this point of Nineveh's evil. So this is a God who gives 00:06:06.139 --> 00:06:10.339 second chances. A second chance to Jonah, a second chance to Nineveh. He's also a God 00:06:10.339 --> 00:06:14.060 who gives severe warnings though. Look at the message he gives Jonah in verse 3. 00:06:14.740 --> 00:06:19.759 Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:24.860 great city, three days journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's 00:06:24.860 --> 00:06:31.740 journey, and he called out, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. See, God 00:06:31.740 --> 00:06:36.180 who gives severe warnings. There is judgment coming, Nineveh. There is judgment coming. 00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:42.120 Now of course that's exactly why many people today hate the idea of God. It's why my neighbour 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:49.400 Paul didn't like the idea. It's why Richard Dawkins calls God a malevolent bully. But think 00:06:49.399 --> 00:06:56.500 for a moment, who do we give severe warnings to? Is it to people we don't really know and 00:06:56.500 --> 00:07:03.419 don't care about? Or is it to those we really love? When we get out of our car in a car park, 00:07:04.039 --> 00:07:09.339 I say to my three-year-old son, Joel, hold my hand. This is a car park and it's dangerous. 00:07:10.699 --> 00:07:17.939 Is that because I'm restricting him? Is that because I'm a bully? No, of course not. It's a 00:07:17.939 --> 00:07:24.079 loving warning. Because it's dangerous. And so here God gives the people of Nineveh a 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:30.540 severe warning, but it comes out of love. That judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. 00:07:31.339 --> 00:07:35.959 And you can sense that love if you look at verse three again. Jonah arose and went to 00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:40.079 Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city. 00:07:40.199 --> 00:07:43.899 Now if you look down at the footnotes in your Bibles, I'll mention this as I read it. 00:07:43.899 --> 00:07:50.339 It says the Hebrew, the original language, literally says a great city to God. And scholars 00:07:50.339 --> 00:07:55.620 debate whether that means, just a way of saying it's a really big city, or whether it means 00:07:55.620 --> 00:08:01.139 it was a great city to God. Whether it means what it says, that to God this was an important 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:06.259 place. And I think it's probably the latter for a whole host of reasons. Not least that's 00:08:06.259 --> 00:08:09.899 the way God speaks about Nineveh when we get to chapter four, as we'll notice next week. 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:14.759 It is also quite a big city. It takes Jonah three days journey to go in and out of the 00:08:14.759 --> 00:08:19.899 city. Now that may mean the whole surrounding area, sort of 30 miles wide, including all 00:08:19.899 --> 00:08:25.259 the villages. Or it may mean going through all the neighbourhoods and speaking clearly there 00:08:25.259 --> 00:08:30.259 the message God has given him. Or it could mean going like an ambassador through a sort of 00:08:30.259 --> 00:08:34.340 formal protocol of greeting people on the first day, delivering his message on the second 00:08:34.340 --> 00:08:38.679 day and saying goodbye on the third day. It doesn't really matter. The point is it was 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:46.959 a sizable place. And Jonah goes giving the severe warning that God had said. But think 00:08:46.959 --> 00:08:54.039 about what Jonah had just experienced. What would he have discovered about the messages 00:08:54.039 --> 00:09:00.759 God gives? Jonah after all had run away from God and God had brought him back, sent a big 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:06.019 fish to swallow him up and rescue him and bring him back on course. Jonah was someone who had 00:09:06.019 --> 00:09:10.439 discovered in his own life that yes, God brings judgment. That's what the storm of chapter 00:09:10.439 --> 00:09:16.299 one was about. Yet God also brings rescue and gives grace. Doesn't treat us as we deserve. 00:09:17.439 --> 00:09:24.600 So Jonah must have known that this message announcing judgment was actually an invitation to change, 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:26.600 an invitation to repent. 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:32.879 But there is a need for judgment, isn't there? I mean some people will say, I don't believe 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:37.960 in a God who judges. I believe in a God of love. But actually surely if God is loving, he 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:44.180 must judge. We want judgment to fall at least on some people, don't we? I'm sure you remember 00:09:44.180 --> 00:09:49.500 last week in the news, a doctor, Michael Salmon, who worked at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital 00:09:49.500 --> 00:09:56.299 for many years and was found guilty of terrible charges of child abuse and molestation. He's 00:09:56.299 --> 00:10:01.539 awaiting his sentence this week to find out what he'll get. But doesn't everything in us 00:10:01.539 --> 00:10:06.820 call out for justice in a situation like that, where lives have been scarred and marred by 00:10:06.820 --> 00:10:12.340 evil deeds by one man? Well think of the villages in Nigeria being destroyed by Boko Haram. 00:10:12.419 --> 00:10:19.480 Don't we cry out for justice for those people slaughtered by this evil group? 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:26.620 If God loves those children, if God loves those Nigerian villagers, there must be judgment. 00:10:27.659 --> 00:10:33.899 There must be judgment. If God loves you, he must want judgment for those people who have 00:10:33.899 --> 00:10:39.620 hurt you. But of course the sting in the tail is, if God wants judgment for the people who 00:10:39.620 --> 00:10:48.120 have hurt me, he also needs to judge me for the people I've hurt. Well here we have a God 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:52.500 who gives second chances, but also God who gives severe warnings. Because he's compassionate, 00:10:53.019 --> 00:10:58.560 because he is loving, judgment will come. But as we go on, we also see he's a God who gives 00:10:58.560 --> 00:11:04.879 spiritual encounters, spiritual experiences. Many people today talk about spirituality, don't they? 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:09.919 Sometimes he's psychic affairs at times. People talk about, you know, I'm not religious but I am 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:15.680 spiritual. I want to be in touch with God. I've watched a couple of television programs in the last 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:21.759 few months. One was Sue Perkins going up the Mekong River, if you saw it. Very interesting, she's very 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:25.620 entertaining, had lots of interesting things to say. But there were a number of points where she'd be 00:11:25.620 --> 00:11:32.120 meeting with Buddhists or Hindus or out in a beautiful countryside. And she described it as being really 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:38.239 spiritual. At one point in Tibet with a man with his sheep, she turned around and said, oh no wonder you 00:11:38.239 --> 00:11:41.979 believe in God, this is your office, looking at the mountains around. It was beautiful. 00:11:41.980 --> 00:11:48.539 But is that what a spiritual experience is? A beautiful view of mountains? Meditating? 00:11:48.800 --> 00:11:53.779 Saying a chant? As we look at what happens to the people of Nineveh, we see what a true 00:11:53.779 --> 00:11:59.800 spiritual experience is. And look how it begins. Verse 5. The people of Nineveh believed 00:11:59.800 --> 00:12:07.800 God. The people of Nineveh believed God. Do you hear that? They heard Jonah and they believed 00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:14.039 God. A spiritual experience begins with an encounter with God's word. It begins with illumination. 00:12:14.459 --> 00:12:18.899 The old-fashioned word for it. It's like the light bulb comes on. We hear God's message and go, 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:27.240 that is God speaking. That is God's truth. And suddenly that is where a spiritual experience 00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:31.500 begins. And you see what a radical experience it was for them. If you look at verse 4, it was 00:12:31.500 --> 00:12:36.500 immediate. So in verse 3 we hear Nineveh of the Greatest to see three days journey in breadth. 00:12:36.500 --> 00:12:42.320 How far had Jonah gone in his preaching mission? Jonah began to go into the city going a day's 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:48.559 journey. And he called out. So this is the immediate response from some people. Day one, 00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:53.740 as they hear it, it's like, whoa! God switches the light bulbs on. So it's immediate. It's 00:12:53.740 --> 00:13:01.500 also extensive. Verse 5. The people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast to put on 00:13:01.500 --> 00:13:06.620 sackcloth. From the greatest of them to the least of them. All of them. It wasn't one particular 00:13:06.620 --> 00:13:10.860 target group. They all had the light bulbs switched on. This is God giving them a spiritual 00:13:10.860 --> 00:13:15.240 experience. And you can see it's really of God because it led them to action. Verse 5. 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:20.299 They put on, they called for a fast. They put on sackcloth. They were deeply troubled. 00:13:20.299 --> 00:13:25.599 They were deeply sorry. They were deeply humbled by the message they heard. It's a sign of a 00:13:25.599 --> 00:13:31.639 true encounter with God. So that's the first stage, illumination. As God opens their eyes 00:13:31.639 --> 00:13:36.259 to the truth. The second stage, we started to touch on it there, was conviction. If you 00:13:36.259 --> 00:13:40.759 look at verse 6, you can see how this worked out in the life of one particular person, the 00:13:40.759 --> 00:13:41.059 king. 00:13:41.059 --> 00:13:48.039 The word reached the king of Nineveh. And he arose from his throne, removed his robe, 00:13:48.579 --> 00:13:55.719 covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. Jonah's whole journey for a whole 00:13:55.719 --> 00:14:00.719 day through Nineveh has reported in just a few words. Now the camera zooms in on the throne 00:14:00.719 --> 00:14:06.559 room of the king. And it's like it goes in slow motion to make the point for us. He hears it. 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:14.000 He arises. He tears his robe. He covers himself in sackcloth. He sits down. This is deeply personal, 00:14:14.599 --> 00:14:20.599 his response to God's word. The sackcloth and ashes, the fasting, they're all signs of self-denial, 00:14:20.779 --> 00:14:28.599 of helplessness, of humiliation. And you can see how deep the conviction was, how deep the 00:14:28.599 --> 00:14:33.599 sense of needing to do business with the living God was. If you look on at verse 8. So the 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:38.139 king gives this proclamation, the king and the navels. Let man and beast be covered with 00:14:38.139 --> 00:14:45.480 sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God. Just as the sailors in chapter 1 urged 00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:51.120 each other to call out to their God. So the king does now. It's deep conviction. They know 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:56.800 they need to do business with this God who is doing business with them. So there's illumination, 00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:02.959 conviction. And that conviction, do you notice, it's specific. Look at the end of verse 8. 00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:09.139 Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. They knew 00:15:09.139 --> 00:15:14.019 they were doing bad things. There were violence that almost certainly included oppression of 00:15:14.019 --> 00:15:19.939 the weak and the poor in the city. But here they're specific about it. They're convicted 00:15:19.939 --> 00:15:24.139 that these are things that need to change. These are things in their lives that they need 00:15:24.139 --> 00:15:31.100 to turn away from. So illumination, conviction. And the third part of this spiritual encounter 00:15:31.100 --> 00:15:38.019 that God gives is faith and repentance. We see that there in verses 8 and 9. Let everyone 00:15:38.019 --> 00:15:44.139 turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. And who knows, God may 00:15:44.139 --> 00:15:51.039 turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. You see, they don't 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:56.579 have great faith because they don't know much about this God. But they know they need to 00:15:56.579 --> 00:16:02.659 change. They know life needs to be different. And so they turn from their sin to look to 00:16:02.659 --> 00:16:08.539 God for help. That's faith and repentance. They come together as a package in true spiritual 00:16:08.539 --> 00:16:15.079 encounters as God gives them to us. Think for a moment. If I told you to turn away from 00:16:15.080 --> 00:16:19.820 these windows, well I get upset and you're looking at me then, but where would you turn 00:16:19.820 --> 00:16:26.240 to? You'd turn to that wall there, wouldn't you? It's the same action. You turn from one 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:32.800 thing to the other. So turning from their sin, from their rebellion, from their evil ways, 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:40.640 they look to God. Maybe he'll hear us. Maybe he'll forgive us. So this is a sign of a true 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:46.519 spiritual encounter. Doesn't begin with meditation. Doesn't begin with beautiful views. Doesn't 00:16:46.519 --> 00:16:51.819 begin with thinking fluffy thoughts. It begins with the word of God. Illumination. As God 00:16:51.819 --> 00:16:57.840 opens our eyes to his truth. It goes to conviction. As we realise this is real, this is true, something 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:05.660 needs to change. And it results in faith and repentance. God grants us faith and helps us 00:17:05.660 --> 00:17:11.060 to turn away. Enables us to turn away from our rebellion against him. You know, she always 00:17:11.060 --> 00:17:17.180 has that sense of helplessness. Verse 9. Who knows if God will forgive? I'm in his hands 00:17:17.180 --> 00:17:23.600 now. That's what faith is. So that's the mark of a true spiritual experience. Have you had 00:17:23.600 --> 00:17:32.480 one of those experiences? Is that the story of your life? The word of God striking you profoundly, 00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:41.759 turning you around. My prayer is that would be something that is true for all of us. So 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:47.059 he's a God who gives second chances. He's a God who gives severe warnings because he's 00:17:47.059 --> 00:17:53.559 loving. He's a God who gives spiritual encounters. But also he's a God of saving compassion. 00:17:53.559 --> 00:17:59.659 Far from being a capricious malevolent bully. He is the Lord God Almighty, the God of the 00:17:59.659 --> 00:18:04.859 Bible who has orchestrated this whole series of events that Jonah's preaching in order to 00:18:04.859 --> 00:18:11.819 rescue the city. We can see that there in verse 10. When the Lord saw what they did, how 00:18:11.819 --> 00:18:16.339 they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to 00:18:16.339 --> 00:18:23.039 them. And he did not do it. See the warning is given so that people will change, will turn, 00:18:23.139 --> 00:18:27.819 will trust in God and avoid the judgment. In fact later on in the Bible through the prophet 00:18:27.819 --> 00:18:32.279 Jeremiah, that's exactly what God said his prophecies were about. So Jeremiah chapter 18 00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:37.740 verse 7. The Lord says this, if at any time I declare concerning a nation or kingdom that 00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:42.759 I will plug it up and break down and destroy it. And if that nation concerning which I've 00:18:42.759 --> 00:18:49.559 spoken, transphobic evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do. Of course 00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:54.940 Jonah had experienced that in his own life. He experienced God's saving compassion. Bringing 00:18:54.940 --> 00:19:00.619 him up out of the water through the whale. Putting him back on firm ground. Giving him a mission 00:19:00.619 --> 00:19:10.660 to declare. And Jonah's experience, three days and nights in the belly of a big fish, was 00:19:10.660 --> 00:19:18.240 just a little sketch, a little illustration. A little foretaste of what would happen one 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:24.500 day to another messenger, greater messenger that God would send. When a whole bunch of 00:19:24.500 --> 00:19:28.380 religious leaders came to the Lord Jesus and said, give us a sign, let us see that you really 00:19:28.380 --> 00:19:33.540 are from God. Jesus said this to them, Matthew 12. Jesus answered them, an evil and adulterous 00:19:33.539 --> 00:19:39.039 generation looks for a sign. But no sign will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 00:19:39.779 --> 00:19:44.059 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so the Son 00:19:44.059 --> 00:19:48.339 of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh 00:19:48.339 --> 00:19:53.240 will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching 00:19:53.240 --> 00:20:03.559 of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Jonah, after his three days of experiencing 00:20:03.559 --> 00:20:11.359 death, as it were, in that fish, was sent out to preach a message of forgiveness. The Lord 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:16.319 Jesus, after he rose from the dead, sent his apostles out into all the world, and all believers 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:21.880 now into all the world, to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins. Yes, there is a severe 00:20:21.880 --> 00:20:29.640 warning. This same Jesus will come back. But there is also the opportunity to receive God's 00:20:29.640 --> 00:20:35.340 forgiveness, because he is a God of saving compassion. So I guess in this room today there are three 00:20:35.340 --> 00:20:40.820 types of people. Some of us have heard this message about Jesus before, and we've believed 00:20:40.820 --> 00:20:47.740 it, we've had a spiritual encounter. The question for us is, are we telling other people that good 00:20:47.740 --> 00:20:52.380 needs? Are we telling other people this is the way to have a spiritual encounter? It's through 00:20:52.380 --> 00:20:56.960 the living God, through the Lord Jesus Christ. I guess some of us here have heard this message, 00:20:57.059 --> 00:21:03.079 but don't yet know what to make of it. Can I urge you not to sit on the fence, not to put 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:11.259 it off, but to look into this, to take it seriously. Think, could this be a severe warning that I need 00:21:11.259 --> 00:21:16.700 to look out for? Please don't delay. The people of Nineveh didn't, did they? They responded straight 00:21:16.700 --> 00:21:22.140 away. Now some others have perhaps heard this message and believe it intellectually in our 00:21:22.140 --> 00:21:29.119 heads, but it hasn't yet impacted our hearts the way it did the people of Nineveh. If that's 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:33.180 you, then why not pray that this great God of compassion, this God who gives second chances 00:21:33.180 --> 00:21:38.059 as well as severe warnings, this God who gives spiritual encounters as well as showing great 00:21:38.059 --> 00:21:43.740 compassion. We are working your heart to give you that encounter that will lead you to faith 00:21:43.740 --> 00:21:50.019 and repentance and turn you from the judgment that is coming to the grace and forgiveness 00:21:50.019 --> 00:21:54.339 that can be ours in Jesus. Let me pray.