Creekside Church, Sunday, June 11, 2023
Second Chances
Locations & Times
Creekside Church
660 Conservation Dr, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z4, Canada
Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:30 AM
Jonah Chapter 3
Jonah Goes to Nineveh
3 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
41 “The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.
Matthew 12:39b-41 NLT
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
2 Corinthians 7:10
GODLY REPENTANCE INCLUDES SIX ACTIONS:
I genuinely repent when I . . .
NAME IT – Call it what it is . . . sin. You need to name it. I lied. I stole. I lost my anger. I gossiped about you. I committed adultery. I did not do what I promised. Name it. Let’s not play around. If you want to know the beauty of repentance you have to name it.
OWN IT – Take responsibility for it . . . no excuses. No playing the blame game. There are lots of reasons why you did what you did but there are no excuses for what you did. Don’t get stuck in the pothole of blame. Be a grown up and own it. It was my fault. I chose to act that way. I am taking responsibility for this.
GRIEVE IT – Be saddened by what was done. This is the sorrow piece. This is where we realize that what we did was hurtful and in many ways we cannot take it back. We need to be sorry for what we have done. You may cry. You may not cry. But is there a sadness that you feel for what you did. Do you get the pain and hurt it caused you and God and another or others? We are not looking for a sorrow that stagnates us but one that motivates us to action.
CONFESS IT - Admit it to those affected . . . including God. State what you have done and how sorry you are that you have done it. To confess is to agree. It is to agree that what you have done is wrong. It is to say the same thing about what you did that God would say about what you did. This is the admission piece. It is to go to the one you offended and admit, disclose, concede, acknowledge what it is you did wrong.
QUIT IT – You may find this hard to believe but part of the repentance piece is to desire and direct my life to do what is right. It is the action that includes going in a different direction than what I did to hurt the one I hurt. Now, you may not be perfect in terms of never doing it again but you better have a desire and take the direction needed to move away from that behavior. If you continue to follow the same pattern of behavior without any attempt to change the direction of your life then you have not repented. Again, no one is perfect but don’t let that be an excuse for staying on the same path.
MEND IT – Repair the damage . . . as I am able. Sometimes, a lot of times, there is nothing you can do to make it right. There is nothing you can do to amend for what you did.
Many people know the relief of repentance.
Believers know the joy of repentance.
“our Lord and Master Jesus Christ . . . willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” – Martin Luther
Martin Luther is really saying that repentance is the way we make progress in the Christian life. It is through repentance that we change. In fact, without repentance it is impossible to change. It is through repentance that we grow. It is through repentance that we become more and more like Jesus. This is the road believers live on.
Pervasive, all-of-life-repentance is the best sign that we are growing deeply and rapidly into the character of Jesus. – Timothy Keller
*See the Repentance Chart below.
Jonah Goes to Nineveh
3 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
41 “The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.
Matthew 12:39b-41 NLT
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
2 Corinthians 7:10
GODLY REPENTANCE INCLUDES SIX ACTIONS:
I genuinely repent when I . . .
NAME IT – Call it what it is . . . sin. You need to name it. I lied. I stole. I lost my anger. I gossiped about you. I committed adultery. I did not do what I promised. Name it. Let’s not play around. If you want to know the beauty of repentance you have to name it.
OWN IT – Take responsibility for it . . . no excuses. No playing the blame game. There are lots of reasons why you did what you did but there are no excuses for what you did. Don’t get stuck in the pothole of blame. Be a grown up and own it. It was my fault. I chose to act that way. I am taking responsibility for this.
GRIEVE IT – Be saddened by what was done. This is the sorrow piece. This is where we realize that what we did was hurtful and in many ways we cannot take it back. We need to be sorry for what we have done. You may cry. You may not cry. But is there a sadness that you feel for what you did. Do you get the pain and hurt it caused you and God and another or others? We are not looking for a sorrow that stagnates us but one that motivates us to action.
CONFESS IT - Admit it to those affected . . . including God. State what you have done and how sorry you are that you have done it. To confess is to agree. It is to agree that what you have done is wrong. It is to say the same thing about what you did that God would say about what you did. This is the admission piece. It is to go to the one you offended and admit, disclose, concede, acknowledge what it is you did wrong.
QUIT IT – You may find this hard to believe but part of the repentance piece is to desire and direct my life to do what is right. It is the action that includes going in a different direction than what I did to hurt the one I hurt. Now, you may not be perfect in terms of never doing it again but you better have a desire and take the direction needed to move away from that behavior. If you continue to follow the same pattern of behavior without any attempt to change the direction of your life then you have not repented. Again, no one is perfect but don’t let that be an excuse for staying on the same path.
MEND IT – Repair the damage . . . as I am able. Sometimes, a lot of times, there is nothing you can do to make it right. There is nothing you can do to amend for what you did.
Many people know the relief of repentance.
Believers know the joy of repentance.
“our Lord and Master Jesus Christ . . . willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” – Martin Luther
Martin Luther is really saying that repentance is the way we make progress in the Christian life. It is through repentance that we change. In fact, without repentance it is impossible to change. It is through repentance that we grow. It is through repentance that we become more and more like Jesus. This is the road believers live on.
Pervasive, all-of-life-repentance is the best sign that we are growing deeply and rapidly into the character of Jesus. – Timothy Keller
*See the Repentance Chart below.
*Repentance Chart
Please click on the link below to view a chart demonstrating the difference between religious repentance and Gospel repentance.
http://www.creeksidechurch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Kens-chart-3.pdf