Title: The God of the Second Chance
Scripture Reading: Psalm 85:1-7; Jonah 1:1-4; 3:1
1-3 God, you smiled on your good earth!
You brought good times back to Jacob!
You lifted the cloud of guilt from your people,
you put their sins far out of sight.
You took back your sin-provoked threats,
you cooled your hot, righteous anger.
4-7 Help us again, God of our help;
don’t hold a grudge against us forever.
You aren’t going to keep this up, are you?
scowling and angry, year after year?
Why not help us make a fresh start—a resurrection life?
Then your people will laugh and sing!
Show us how much you love us, God!
Give us the salvation we need!
Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
A few bible characters came to mind and what the Second Chance had given them in life:
- John Mark
- Elijah
- Peter
Andrew Grant says, ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression’. What he meant is that first impressions count.
If you look at social media, online communities and even the virtual gaming world; they were seen as an opportunity to seek a second chance in life. They called it a ‘second life’ in a virtual world. ‘Second life’ describes itself as a place to ‘connect, to change yourself, to change your mind, change your look, to be different.’
In reality, God is the God of the second chance and the third and many, many more.
So how does the God of the second chance operate?
- He gives us a chance to Make a fresh start
Psalm 85:1-7
Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
2 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
3 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.
4 Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.
5 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
6 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?
7 Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation.
In verse 6, the message bible translates the psalmist cries out to God as, ‘help us to make a fresh start’.
There is such a thing as righteous anger. That is found in verse 5: ‘wilt thou be angry with us forever?’ The message bible translates ‘angry’ as ‘righteous anger’
- God can cause a great turnaround
God loves you. He wants the very best for your life. He does not want you to mess up your life. Sin takes us ‘on a dark spiral downwards.’
Notice how God operates in our lives.
First, he begins with the ‘riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience’.
Second if we continue to be stubborn, his anger comes in.
Third, in kindness he takes us firmly by the hands and leads us into a radical life change.
The Christian faith is not simply a set of believes and a list of doctrines. it is an encounter with the living God and this experience will bring with it a new way to see life, a new perspective, and a new set of values and priorities. Life cannot and will not be the same when we encounter the love and forgiveness of the Living God as found only through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
John 10:10 says, ‘the enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy what God came to heal, find, and restore.’
We cannot allow our circumstances to compromise what Christ paid the highest price to attain. We must awaken our hearts, stir up our faith, and begin to look again at the places God has positioned us in.
We need to see with new eyes the possibilities that our turnaround God can create in the places where no one else sees potential. We must seek to be the ones who bring answers where others only see problems.
- Seize your second chance
Jonah 3:1 ‘the word of the LORD came unto Jonah a second time.’
I will say that the best example when you want to talk about second chance is found in the book of Jonah. Because Jonah was not only given a second chance but the people of Nineveh were also given a second chance.
A poem by an unnamed author entitled, “The God of One More Chance.” It says…
A man named Peter stumbled bad. Lost all the love he ever had
Fouled his own soul’s spring. Cursed and swore and all that sort of thing.
He got another chance and then … He preached the gospel to many men.
A boy goes wrong the same as he … Who fed swine in a far country.
He seems beyond the utmost reach … Of hearts that pray, of lips that preach.
Give him another chance and see … How beautiful his life may be.
Paul cast the young man Mark aside … But Barnabas his metal tried
Called out his courage, roused his vim … And made a splendid man of him
Then Paul, near death, longed for a glance … Of Mark who’d had another chance.
King David one dark day fell down … Lost every jewel from his crown
He had another chance and found … His kingly self, redeemed, recrowned
Now lonely souls and countless throngs … Are lifted by his timeless songs.
For fallen souls – arise, advance … Ours is the God of one more chance.
Why should you seize your second chance? Because the book of Jonah tells us so.
Each of these four short chapters tells us something about God’s love:
- God’s love will never let you go
- You cannot successfully run away from God or from His call.
- You can run from God, but you cannot hide. Sometimes the storms we face in life are the result of our own disobedience. A storm rages, and Jonah knows it is his fault. He is prepared to die and demands to be thrown into the sea, but ‘the Lord provided a great fish.’ God’s love would not let him go.
- God’s love can reach you no matter how far you’ve fallen.
- No matter how desperate or hopeless your situation may seen, it is never too late.
- Jonah recognized what we miss out when he does not follow the Lord.
- There is not situation that God cannot rescue you from it if you cry out to him.
- God’s love means you get another chance
- God was persistent in giving Jonah a second chance and when Jonah took him up on it, the result was an eternal impact on many people’s lives.
- Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’ The first time he messed up, the second time God used him powerfully.
- Not only did God gave the Jonah a second chance, he also gave the city of Nineveh a second chance.
- God’s love extends to all his creation
- God loves everyone and wants to be merciful to every person, city and nation on earth.
