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[Silence] [MUSIC PLAYING] [Music] (gentle music)

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(upbeat music) (gentle music) ♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ In the beauty of holiness ♪

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♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ In the beauty of holiness ♪ ♪ Give him the honor ♪ ♪ Give him the praise ♪

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♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Let's give Him the praise ♪ ♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ In the beauty of holiness ♪

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♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ In the beauty of holiness ♪ ♪ Give him the honor ♪ ♪ Give him the praise ♪

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♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Yes give him the praise ♪ ♪ Worship him ♪ ♪ Worship him ♪

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♪ I want to give my God the glory ♪ ♪ I want to give my God the praise ♪ ♪ Worship Him ♪ ♪ Oh, worship Him ♪

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♪ Come, let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Let's give Him the praise ♪ ♪ Oh, worship Him, worship Him ♪ ♪ Worship Him, oh Lord ♪

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♪ Give mankind the glory ♪ ♪ Give mankind the praise ♪ ♪ Worship Him, worship Him ♪ ♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪

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♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Come let us worship the Lord ♪ ♪ Let's give him the praise ♪ (upbeat music)

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[ Music ] God is a good God. God won't ever change. God is a good God.

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That's why I never praise his name. I keep on telling you that God is a good God. ♪ Your world never changed ♪ ♪ Oh, it's a good God ♪

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♪ That's why I'll ever praise His name ♪ ♪ God is captain of the ocean ♪ ♪ He's captain of the sea ♪ He rides on every windstorm, and he moves in every breeze.

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I keep on telling you that God, he's a good God, and he won't ever change. He's a good God. ♪ That's why I'll ever praise His name ♪

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♪ Mm, He's Alpha ♪ ♪ Yes, He is ♪ ♪ And He's Omega ♪ ♪ Yes, He is ♪

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♪ He's the beginning and He's the end ♪ ♪ He'll save your soul from a burning hell ♪ ♪ And He will wash away all of your sins ♪ I keep on telling you that God, He's a good God.

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God won't ever change. God, He's a good God. That's why I never, ever praise His name. ♪ My God led the children of Israel ♪

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♪ He led them across the Red Sea ♪ ♪ He led them to a promised land ♪ ♪ And He'll do the same for you and me ♪ ♪ I keep on telling you that God is a good God ♪

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God won't ever change. God, he's a good God. His power never brazes me. Oh, there's nothing too hard for God.

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There's nothing that my God can't do. And if you are looking for a miracle, he will work one just for you. I keep on telling you that God, he's a good, he's a good God.

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God won't ever change. My God, he's a good God. I'll ever praise his name. And he will tell you, God is a good God.

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God won't ever change. He won't ever change. God is a good God. That's why I'll ever praise his name.

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That's why I'll ever praise His name. Ooh. I'll ever praise His name. Amen.

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Amen. We are continuing our consideration of Jonah. we began last Sunday with the first sermon, and this is a continuation. I invite your prayerful attention to the Book of the Prophet Jonah, the 3rd chapter and the 5th verse.

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This is after Jonah has received the command to go to Nineveh and preach. So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast, put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them. And then the first verse of the fourth chapter, Jonah 4 and 1, it reads, "But it displeased

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Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." Verse 10, "Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night. And shall I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand

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persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle. The subject is God's amazing grace, God's amazing grace. After Jonah heard the Word of the Lord the second time, he arose and went to Nineveh. He declared the gospel

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that he had been sent to proclaim. These words were his as the servant of God to tell the people. The people heard the the Word, they believed and repented. They changed from their wicked ways. Jonah's message is, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed." This was the prophet's message as he went

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from place to place, proclaiming the Word of God. Then he emphasized the fact that there was a time set of 40 days, yet 40 days, and God would act on punishing the city for her sins. We all have a certain time frame in which to do our work.

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40 days, this is the historical period allotted the Ninevites. The eminent English historian Arnold Toenbe says that history is made of two forces,

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challenge and response. Challenge and response. So they face the challenge to change. The response is in repentance.

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They mourn for their sins. They are truly sorry. It is not a false repentance, it's real. They repent from the highest to the lowest in the kingdom,

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from the palace to the most humble dwelling. they repent. And after declaring the message, Jonah waits for the results. The time, I said, is 40 days. But the Ninevites act decisively for their redemption in three days. That's a miracle of grace. God has given them 40 days, and the Ninevites respond in three.

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respond in three. It's not only remarkable, it's wonderful that the Ninevites respond so positively by doing in three days what God has given them 40 days to do. So often it's the other way around. We want more time, and we run out of time

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before we complete our assignments. We want God to put more time on the clock. Dr. Leslie tells the story of a man who was dying

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and he was called to visit him. And when he went to his bedside and talked with him, in the course of his conversation, he asked him, "Have you any connection with the church?"

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He said, "No." "Did you go to church?" "No." He answered no to both of those questions.

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He said, "Well, why?" He said, "I never had time." A man 80 years of age and then some said he never had time to go to church.

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So the Ninevites made the best of their opportunity positively, by responding quickly. They seized their opportunity. They maximized the moment. And by the grace of God, the Ninevites are provided more time than they need, and they

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make the best of the time allotted to them. What God gave them to do in 40. They do it in 30. So let us not make excuses in response to the demands of God concerning the use of time. So often we hear the word, "I don't have time. I don't have

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time." But the message here through the prophet Jonah is for us to take time to be holy. Speak off with thy Lord, abide in him always, and feed on his word. Make friends of God's children, help those who are weak, for getting in nothing his

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blessing to seek." Take time. Take time to be holy. Imagine What the newspapers, had they had them in those days, may have said about it. Imagine the Nineveh Daily Times

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writing about this spectacular event. The entire nation repents as a result of Jonah's preaching. This was the kind of word that was circulated through the media.

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Now, here is this prophet from Palestine, the mouthpiece of Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, has come to Nineveh to urge them to change their ways and give their allegiance to God. So this is the authentic response to the Gospel,

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repentance. True repentance. To have true repentance is to manifest godly sorrow. David says in Psalm 51, "A humble and contrite heart God will not despise." So we would like to think that when the gospel is preached and the people respond

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as they did in Nineveh, that the preacher and the people are happy because the will of God has been done. The preacher has declared the demands of God, the people have responded to the demands of God, and so why shouldn't both of them be happy? But that is not the the case in this story. The truth of the matter is that Jonah

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didn't like it because the people had repented. Jonah is angry. The Scripture says that the prophet Jonah was exceedingly displeased. He was very, very angry. He's angry with God. He's because God did not do what he said he would do. So Jonah

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talks with God. He prays. In his prayer, he lets God know just how he feels. It's the connection that all of us have in prayer, that the prophet begins to pray. And I suppose that with certain freedom here, as far as human imagination is

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concerned, that God calls Jonah, and then now we have in prayer Jonah is calling on God. "Lord?" "Yes, Jonah." "This is your servant, Jonah?" "Yes." "You sent me to tell the Ninevites that in 40 days, they would be destroyed because of their sins. I did

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what you told me to do, and you said they would be destroyed in 40 days. You didn't do what you said you would do. And so you've embarrassed me. My word has not been kept. You've let me down, Lord, and of all people, why would you do it with these

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Ninevites. And God listened. He listened to what Jonah had to say, and then he made his response. Jonah is reminding him of all the things that he's done. Can't you think of him as having been called and sent to proclaim the gospel to the

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Ninevites? And here he is, after much turmoil, doing what God told him, and yet being displeased because God doesn't do what he thinks God should have done. So he's unhappy. But you see, God does not follow human expectation. The

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expectation that Jonah had that the city was to be destroyed left no room for God's mercy, no room for his grace. God is not bound by our way. He's not bound by what we think. In fact, what God thinks is much higher than we can ever think. His grace is

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much wider than we could ever imagine. This is the nature of God. So Jonah responds, "By going out on the outskirts of city and sitting underneath a broom tree. He makes a booth and he sits in the shadows of that booth and he waits for God to destroy the city. And when God doesn't destroy the

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city, that makes him very unhappy. And so then, in the meantime, God prepares a gourd. It's interesting how God prepares certain things, permits them in our lives. First of all, God--when Jonah went in the wrong direction and disobeyed

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God, God prepared a great fish. And now that we've overcome that situation and Jonah is waiting for God to destroy the city, God prepares a gourd that grows up in the night and provides seed Jonah. And Jonah is well pleased now with the gourd, but then

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comes a worm, and the worm destroys the gourd. It perishes in a matter of hours. He had been basking under the shadows of the gourd, but now that gourd is destroyed." So Jonah, again, is exceedingly displeased because of the fate of the gourd.

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"Then God prepared a behemoth east wind, so that the heat appeared unbearable. It beat upon Jonah, and Jonah prayed that he might die." So the Lord speaks to Jonah, admonishing him of his misplaced concreteness. Jonah is not looking at life in its proper perspective. Jonah is more concerned about the God that grows up in the night,

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up in the night, for which he did not labor, and a gourd from which he reaped certain benefits, how much more important are the Ninevites than a gourd that grows up in the night. They matter much more. God's grace operates

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everywhere. There is no dimension of human existence where God's grace is not present. So by the grace of God, Jonah is sent to preach to the Ninevites.

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When Jonah is disobedient and goes in the wrong direction, it's the grace of God that tracks him down. It's the grace of God that rescues him when he has been swallowed by a great fish.

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grace of God that never, never leaves him alone. So it's by the grace of God that Nineveh is spared. It is by the grace of God that the gourd grows in the night. It's by the grace of God that the gourd perishes. It's by the grace of God that the wind

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wind comes and discomforts Jonah, it's by the grace of God that Jonah is able to build this house, this booth. It's by the grace of God that he's able to live in the face of all of the changing circumstances of human existence. It's by the grace of

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God that Jonah survives. And so it's by the grace of God that we live and have our being. It's by the grace of God. Oh, there was a man by the name of John Bradford, and he looked at a group of men that were to be executed. And as he looked upon them, he said to those that were around him. He said, "There but for the grace of God

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goes John Bradford." And we can say, each one of us, "By the grace of God, I would be in this condition that we see in some people and in some places." Not because of our goodness, but by the grace of God. So it's the grace of God that is showered

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upon Nineveh. Paul talks about this in his experience, the grace of God. He said, "The Lord gave me a thorn in the flesh, and I besought the Lord three times. And each time he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you. My grace is strength in

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weakness. My grace will support you in the storms of life. My grace is sufficient for you." And so God's grace is the great experience that we have, that when we commit ourselves to Him that no matter what may happen, that the grace of God will be

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there to strengthen us, to raise us up, the grace of God. "So but for the grace of God, where would it be? Grace, as the song says, "Grace woke me up this morning. Grace started me on my way. Grace has kept me all along life's way." It's the grace of

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God. And that's why I think this hymn, "Amazing Grace," means so much to us. It's said that John Henry Newton was a pirate, so to speak. He engaged in taking slaves from Africa and bringing them here to this country and other places. That was his business. And his mother talked to him about accepting Jesus Christ, but he had no

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part of it. He would have no part of it. He just wanted to continue his life the way it was. He was making money. He was prospering, setting slaves. No matter how wrong it was, he really didn't care. It was his will over against the will of

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God. But one voyage, one voyage was a voyage where there was a great storm and it seemed like the ship would be destroyed and life would be taken. And out of that experience, he wrote "Amazing Grace." How sweet the sound. And even though he is

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one who was a slave trader and we are descendants of slaves, that somehow all of us can find refuge and support, we can find strength in this song. "Amazing Grace." How sweet the sound. found, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am

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found, was blind, but now I see." And I like that verse, it says, "Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come, for grace brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me on." And so it's by grace that Jonah goes to

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It's by grace that the Ninevites hear the Word of God and repent. It's by grace that Jonah survives after having declared God's Word by that gourd and by that booth that he built. And it's by grace that we get to live our lives each day.

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As we sing the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. who ask you to come. (piano music)

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No other church is open, invite you to come. This is an invitation to Christian discipleship. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]