Preaching

[00:00:00] Foreign Chuck Allen here with another weekday podcast. And I'm on session number three on Jonah. So I'm going to jump into the third chapter of Jonah. The first one ran on Wednesday 27th August, and the second one ran on Friday 29th August. And today is September 1st. We're talking about Jonah preaches. We went from Jonah running to Jonah praying, and now Jonah preaching. And chapter three opens with this second chance. It says in chapter three, verse one, then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time. Now, remember the first time the Lord said, go to Nineveh. And Jonah's like, nope, not going to do it. But the second time he says, get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and deliver the message I have given you. Now, I love this because literally, God has not given up on the guy who gave up on God. [00:00:57] And so the Lord is like graciously, kindly reminding him, bro, go where I told you do and you'll experience his blessing. But trust me, I got this. So a second time, don't miss the mercy here. God circles back. Jonah tried to quit, but God doesn't cancel Jonah's calling. So Jonah finally goes. He preaches one of the shortest sermons ever. 40 days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed. Like, bam, mic drop. Just, no, this is not going to be good people. Here's what I've been through. Here's what's coming. You don't want that. No eloquence, no compassion, just doom. And yet the people believe. [00:01:37] You know, truth is not always what you want to hear, but truth is always something that we need. [00:01:44] And so the scripture offers us truth. It says in verse five, the people of Nineveh believed God's message. And from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap, burlap to show their sorrow. [00:01:57] So from king to commoner, every single person humbles themselves, covering themselves in sackcloth and ashes. The King even orders, perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us. [00:02:13] That's what the King says in verse nine. And guess what? God does exactly that thing it says in verse 10. When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil way, he changes his mind and doesn't carry out the destruction. He had threatened one half hearted prophet who had messed his life up, gone the wrong way, destroyed a bunch of other people's life along the way in the storm. [00:02:43] And in one short sermon, an entire city is saved. [00:02:47] That, friend, is the power of God's mercy. He doesn't need polished. He doesn't need perfect. [00:02:54] He needs presence. [00:02:56] I wonder what might happen if we would go from the person that's running to the person that's praying, and in our own unique and wondrous space, become the person that's preaching. [00:03:09] What if God's called you to preach his gospel? [00:03:13] And the way that your life, your DNA, the way your creator wired you, you did it your way, but it was God's way. [00:03:23] I think you might see the power of God's mercy as well. [00:03:26] Maybe not always polished, certainly not ever perfect, but yet in the presence of God, when you are fully present, that's powerful. [00:03:36] Maybe you feel like Jonah reluctant, imperfect, messy, disobedient friend today. [00:03:45] Take a lot of heart here. [00:03:47] God delights in using ordinary, even resistant, messed up people like us to unleash extraordinary grace. [00:03:55] I think that's one of the coolest things ever. Why on earth would we not want to experience it? So if you've been running, now's a great time to stop. [00:04:05] If you started praying, don't stop. [00:04:10] If you've gotten to that point where you're preaching and you see God, do something special, start praising. [00:04:17] Because this is the beauty of how God's mercy and grace works in our life and today. Allow obedience to be what you mimic in God's calling on your life. God bless you, friend. Thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast.